Our Great National Shame

What is it? Our joke of a justice system that focuses far more on punishment, retribution and revenge than on prevention, rehabilitation and reintregation.

I found an article on the subject earlier today. It’s good and worth reading, if a tad depressing.

What’s really annoying is that this is a problem that any politician with half-a-brain can see and understand needs fixing. But they know that they daren’t call for reforms because that would make them “soft” on crime. As long as we have a situation where no one loses elections because they want to get tougher on crime, we’ll continue to have the horrible and unworkable situation we have now.

Even More Religious Evil!

It seems like nary a week goes by that I don’t have at least one chance to bitch about how basically evil religion is.

Take the case of two people in Somalia who had an affair. Sadly, it was adultry and now the man has been stoned to death. The woman is scheduled to be murdered by the crowds as well, but they’re going to wait until she gives birth.

Well, how kind.

Now it’s true that Somalia is a sad, messed-up, horribly backwards country. I place the blame for that squarely on religion. Yes, you can have countries where there’s a lot of religious belief and you don’t end up with crimes like these (America, for example), but you’d never get this sort of nonsense in a properly secular society.

What a fucking mess.

The All-Christian Prison

Make your own punchline.

This Level of Evil Requires Religion

Two weeks ago here in Arizona a twenty-year-old woman was hit by a car. She died from her injuries just the other day. Now her father is going to be charged with murdering her, and what was his motive? Apparently, religion.

Yes, the woman’s father had decided she’d become too “Westernized” (ie: insufficiently Islamic), to be allowed to live, so he had to murder her. I’m sure he viewed it basically as an honor killing.

People sometimes ask what harm religion is. Why not believe? It doesn’t hurt anyone. But clearly it does. This sort of killing wouldn’t have happened had both the man and his daughter been atheists, I can virtually gaurantee that. An atheist, seeing his daughter falling away from his personal beliefs and, say, under the sway of, oh, Scientology, would likely wring his hands in despair and try to talk with her and do any number of things. But he wouldn’t kill her.

That level of evil requires religion.

Even More on Willingham

Getting ever uglier in Texas over the Willingham case. Check this editiorial on the current situation.

More on Willingham

I wrote last month about Cameron Todd Willingham, a possibly innocent man executed in the state of Texas in 2004.

Well, now it sounds as though there’s some political fallout to this. Texas Governor Rick Perry replaced three members of an investigation team looking into the case. He tried to play it off all cool, but I think it’s clear he has a guilty conscience and wants to try and avoid finding out that he played a direct role in the death of an innocent man.

I have a little poll here. This is a poll only for people who favor capitol punishment. Enjoy!

More Moves to Legalize Marijuana

In California, a bill is working its way through the legislature that would legalize marijuana and treat it like other controlled substances (alcohol and tobacco).

About damn time.

Let me make it clear: I have no interest in smoking weed. I have no respect for stoners. I think if you’re spending your time getting high rather than doing other, better things in your life, you should reexamine your priorities. I also feel the same about alcohol. But that said, if you’re an adult and you want to smoke weed that should be your choice. It should not be something the government can stop you from doing.

More on Sex Offender Laws

From the blog Classically Liberal comes an article all about the damage sex offender laws (not sex offenders themselves), do to society… particularly when the offenders are under eighteen.

Our sex offender registration laws, as well as many laws governing sex in this country, are foolish, dangerous and wrong. They do nothing to help people and everything to hurt. They need to be changed. Hopefully with articles like that one, articles like the ones I’ve written on the topic, and ones by larger media outlets like The Economist will help to finally bring change.

Getting of Scott-Free

Remember a week or so ago when I wrote about the Hofstra “rape” case and the five men who had their names dragged through the mud by the media because one woman lied, repeatedly, to the police, making up accusations of rape when no rape occured, and recanted only when shown proof that she was lying? Remember that?

Well, she’s not going to be charged. She’s guilty of wrecking the reputations of five men who were innocent of any crime (and no matter how distasteful you might find a gang-bang, if it’s consenting, it’s not illegal), and she’s just going to have to get some counseling. Charming. Not that she doesn’t need the counseling, because clearly she does, but I’d have rather had a different legal outcome.

Oh, well. Hopefully the men whose lives she ruined can somehow get themselves back on track despite the horrible lies she told about them.

NIMBY to the Super-Max!

Elsie Cooper has written an article all about the problem of housing terror suspects herein the USA. The article is laughable on several levels.

First, she refers to them as “terrorists”. They aren’t, or at least they haven’t legally been proven to be terrorists. They are terror suspects. This is a vital and important distinction. These are people accused of a crime who haven’t yet been tried (which is part of the problem). They aren’t, at least in the legal sense, terrorists.

Second, she seems to think these people are a cross between Superman and vampire werewolves who will somehow escape into our great land! Consider this quote when she talks about holding them at Leavenworth:

Bob and Shirley Hemenway who live in Kansas and lost their son at the Pentagon on 9/11 were concerned that Americans do not understand the ramifications of bringing the terrorists to American territory. They pointed out that Leavenworth is not a maximum security prison and logistically it is unsafe because it is surrounded by an airport, military housing, and a lake. They anxiously stated that a terrorist cell could have “easy access to the prison and Americans need to understand this real threat.”

A prison that terrorists have easy access to!

This would be Fort Leavenworth. You know, where there’s a maximum security prison located in the middle of an army base surrounded by soldiers with guns and things. What the hell does this woman think our military is, a bunch of pussies? I strongly suspect they could keep these guys locked up quite well.

Next she tries to make an argument that terrorists will infect our prisoners with Terrorist Fever!

There is also the danger of mixing the terrorist population and the general criminal element. Senator James Inhofe feels that “the prisons holding them will become magnets for extremists.” LAPD Chief Bratton concurs and stated to NewMajority that “a significant number of prisoners have been recruited to become radical jihadists. It has become a frequent source of problems.”

Hmmm… so perhaps segregating them from the rest of the population would be wise? It’d be wise anyhow, since terrorists are likely to be even less popular than child molesters. Take it from me; most prisoners have blind patriotism like you wouldn’t believe.

Anyhow, we already do some segregation in prisons. Gang members are usually assigned very carefully so as to minimize the chances of riots. I’m sure something similar can be done here.

Cooper even tries to make a financial argument that doesn’t hold water.

By moving detainees to the United States a considerable cost will be incurred to restructure the existing detention facilities.

Er.. the prisons most people are talking about in these situations are already built. There’s no real extra expense involved.

All in all, this is a very stupid article written by someone who really hopes no one stops to think about what she’s saying.