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.

And So Progress is Made

The House has passed a health care reform bill. Wonderful!

I notice there was all sorts of late-hour wrangling to make sure that abortion wouldn’t be covered by the public option. Well, of course not. No reason why a completely legal medical procedure should be covered, especially since the people who can’t afford it are the same ones least likely to be able to afford a baby.

I really, really hope any sort of health care reform includes free birth control for them as wants it. If you won’t cover termination of pregnancy, you better do everything you can to prevent that pregnancy to begin with.

A Bit of Good, a Bit of Bad

So the great 2009 election chaos is over. Yes, for those who hadn’t noticed there were five important elections last night. These were governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, Question One in Maine, a Congressional race in NY 23, and Referendum 71 in Washington State.

Now the two governor’s races and the Congressional race were about local issues so it was, of course, all about Obama. Well, at least according to the MSM and the GOP. I noticed the GOP crowing long and loud last night about their crowning achievement in unseating two incumbent governors who just happened to be Democrats. This is, to them, proof that the GOP is back and on the rise and about to destroy the hated, unpopular Obama, etc.

Oddly I notice that they’re ignoring NY 23 where, at least in part due to the GOP turning on its own, the conservative candidate lost. Clearly that was a referendum on the GOP’s policies and, obviously, it means that the GOP is on the decline and the Democrats are about to destroy them, etc.

The lesson here is that all three of those elections were local elections about local issues and have no real national significance.

Meantime, a little bit of bad and a little bit of good for gay rights issues. The voters in Maine choose to outlaw gay marriage after their legislature and government passed it and this despite my personal plea for them not to be a state of dicks. I am very disappointed in you, Maine! I expected better than for you to prove that direct democracy is a bad idea.

Over in Washington state we see how wonderful direct democracy is as a gay rights bill there pass, showing public support for civil unions. Knowing what I know about Washington and how the courts have ruled, I’m guessing that within two years we’ll have a court ruling there saying that giving all the rights of marriage but calling it a “civil union” is discrimination illegal.

So five races. Two went the way I wanted. Three didn’t. I don’t view any of these as having any real national significance beyond, say, next week. By this time in 2010 we’ll have all forgotten about them.

More on the Marijuana

From the Times of London comes an article by Andrew Sullivan about legalizing marijuana and how, basically, in some areas of the USA, it’s already happened. It’s a good article, and one I highly recommend reading.

I really hope the laws on this do change. Keeping pot illegal is very, very stupid (as are the laws keeping other drugs illegal). People are going to use it, in large numbers, and without paying taxes on it. They’ll also continue to fund a lot of the very evil behavior by drug lords around the world.

Make it legal, make it safer, make some money off it.

Question One Time

To all my readers in Maine: please get out there and vote against Question One. This odious little bit of attempted legislation would remove the right of same-sex couples to marry in your state. You don’t want to follow in the footsteps of California and remove people’s right to marry, do you? I certainly hope not! Fivethirtyeight.com shows that probably the ballot measure will be defeated, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need all the help we can get! Please vote. Thank you!

Defining Our Goals

There’s a lot of bru-ha-ha going on over Obama’s apparent indecision over what to do next in Afghanistan. The right is pointing out that the general in charge wants more troops, so he should be given them (ignoring the fact that all generals always want more troops), and the left is tapping their feet impatiently, waiting for Obama to bring all the troops home.

I don’t know what our next step in Afghanistan should be, but to be fair, I have a good reason not to know: I’m not sure why we’re there.

See, we went in initially eight years ago looking for bin Laden and to break up the Taliban. Well, bin Laden has probably been hiding in Pakistan since then and the Taliban are no longer officially in charge of the country.

So why are we still there, exactly? What’s our long-term goal in the country? If we’re there to bring democracy, we already have done and it’s up to the people there to make it work. We can’t do that for them.

If it’s to get rid of the Taliban, again, we already have done, sort of. They still control large portions of the country, but surely that’s an internal problem the Afghanis need to deal with?

If it’s to break up Al Qaeda, well, that’s long since been accomplished. They haven’t managed to do anything really huge since 9/11 and probably never will again. Anyhow, at this point they’re broken up into a few scattered cells and that’s going to require police, not the military.

I don’t particularly object to us remaining in Afghanistan, and yes, if we’re going to stay, a lot more troops wouldn’t hurt. But if we’re going to stay there, we need a clear reason why and clear long term goals and currently we don’t have either.

Ending the HIV Bans

At long, long last, after several presidents and a couple decades, America’s repressive laws regarding HIV positive foreigners living in and visiting the USA is finally being lifted.

Hooray and about time! Now Sully can go get his citizenship and avoid voting, jury duty and paying taxes, just like most Americans.

A Fascinating Drawing

Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan, I found this picture:

Click to embiggen!

Explanation here. I do think it does a better job of what people think Left and Right believe, but reality, as often, is complex.

Gay in Guam

Guam, America’s overseas territory that most people don’t know exists, is debating Bill 185, which would extend domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples. Naturally the Catholic Church, you know, the greatest force of evil in the world, feels the need to intrude their nose into this.

Sadly, it turns out that the major sponsor of this bill, BJ Cruz, who is openly gay, was himself molested at the age of thirteen by a priest. I really wish that surprised me more.

Even better is the stance of the Archdiocese who felt the need to put out a letter on the subject. Read it closely, especially the part where they talk in admiration about Islamic funamentalists executing people for being gay. Fun times!

The Catholic Church needs to shut the fuck up and stay out of politics! Good luck, everyone in Guam! Make it happen!

Another Reason to Detest Beck and Limbaugh

Yep, turns out they’re both anti-vaxers, or at least something close to it. Sad, but not surprising.

Hey, anti-vaxers! You like having these guys on your side?