news
Utah
Amending Gay-Marriage Ban Problems
Bad news: Utah's ban on
Gay Marriages might cause trouble for custodial grandparents. Good news:
it causes problems for people who live together but do not marry. Bad
news: Utah thinks that's a problem.
Conn.
Execution Highlights 'Syndrome'
I don't know what to make of
this one. Death row is apparently depressing. So much so, that some
people sentenced to death are giving up on possible appeals because they
think they would rather die than face life on death row. Part of me
thinks this is horrid. How much of this atmosphere is because they are
facing execution? How much of it is because they are facing their
crimes? The former is unjust, the latter is just. I'd rather they not be
executed, I tend to think we could incarcerate them for life,
and, if so, that would be a morally preferable sentence. I think it
would be more just also; let them sit in jail, freedom and luxury
proscribed, and face the horror they brought into the world. Deny them
the escape they think death will give them. Let them have the chance to
purge their guilt here on earth than in the hereafter. Of course, if we
persist in saying that "life in prison" is 40 years, then we have a
problem. In that case, perhaps the death penalty is still needed. In
which case we have a different problem, this type of thing will be used
to release people who should not be released. All very complex. I don't
know what to make of it, other than there is precious little that is
good about it.
Fatherhood
faces stacked deck in family court
An insightful look into
the ways in which we deny fatherhood, its rights, and its
responsibilities. A look into the ways in which the Supreme Court
decisions affirming fatherhood are being evaded. Proof, if more were
needed, of the problems we introduce by allowing divorce, especially no
fault divorce. Proof, if more were needed, that for men, for certain
crimes, we are not "innocent until proven guilty," and that our
understandable, laudable, urge to protect the victimized has caused
great injustice. We need to remember that people are fallen, that
original sin is real. We need to remember that not every accusation of
abuse, sexual, physical, verbal, whatever, in a marriage or outside of
one, is true. That there are good men falsely accused, good teachers
falsely accused. Men, women, and children who will make any assertion,
however false, to get some petty revenge. That there are twisted people
who go into psychology and social work not out of love for their fellow
man, but to use their authority to enact their own revenge against the
human race. Which is not to say that such are the only people who go
into these fields. Maybe they aren't even the majority. But they do
great harm.
Focus
on Freedom of Information
Criminals have rights, that is a
given. Those rights must be protected. That is also a given. People have
rights whether they are citizens or not. That is yet still a given. They
also have responsibilities. That should be a given. But when
people fail to live up to their responsibilities, it is reasonable to
expect that their rights should then be curtailed, to protect those
around them. People who are not citizens here should not be allowed to
go free to continue their illegal presence here, especially not after
having committed further crimes. The failure of the Federal Government
to deport them is indeed a significant failure, and Mark Tapscott is, I
think, justly upset.