Roper v. Simmons - No Execution for minors
Topic: Law
My first reaction to reading this decision syllabus
is wow- shades of emanations and penumbras. I agree with the result of the decision but I find myself marveling at the lack of credible logic involved. It's not completely consistent with stare decisis definition
since it overturns the decision of the court in Stanford v. Kentucky syllabus
which was decided in 1989 and allowed the execution of minors. It seems that the justices have again overstepped their role as interpretors of the law and have gone to their self appointed godlike roles of moral determiners of what ought to be.

I'm conflicted. I don't believe that the death penalty is right on any level. It shouldn't exist. It's existence in the United States is a point of shame and I'm glad that it's been narrowed even further. At last the US has left the company of Sudan in allowing executions of minors. Unfortunately we are still in the company of China, Sudan and Saudi Arabia in allowing executions at all.

Should the Court be looking to unratified International Treaties to help it decide? No. Should the Court be looking beyond the law itself to decide it's cases? I think that if you say no then you say that the court wasn't right in overturning Scott v. Sandford - which as you know decided that a black man was not a citizen of the US and showed that the only place in the constitution that the subject came up showed blacks as property. The fullness and fog of time has shown the first finding by the Supreme Court to be in error and the ones after that to be the right ones. But Scott v. Sandford was 'Constitutional' as the constitution was written at the time. We could look at this decision in the same vein, a moral and 'constitutional' decision that in the fullness of time will not be raved against and will be simply acknowledged as the right decision which causes some political heat and fury from those who disagree.

If sound and fury at the time of a Supreme Court decision were the criteria by which we judged the rightness of the decisions at hand then Brown v. Board of Education would have been wrong and should have resulted in impeachment of Supreme Court Judges. If the issue here is what level of moral decision making by the Supreme Court can be absorbed by the country it seems that past decisions have not brought revolution except perhaps where it was needed. (Civil War).

In this case the logic was tortured and it would have nice if there was more to pin the decision on. As it is, the ranting on talk radio and right wing outlets will give a weeks worth of airtime and ink. In reality, there were very few states that allowed this aspect of the death penalty, fewer still that carried it through. The end result is not much different than it would have been if they ruled the other way. One man who is now off of death row still is looking at a life behind bars. The case details show that he richly deserves every single day they keep him there. He has won no victories and will not be out to prey on innocent people again. His life, his celebrity if you will will die down and the circle of people around him who have provided him with support and celebrity will fade away and in the end he will still be in his cell. A fitting punishment.

Clinton goes to Taiwan
Topic: Politics
A surprise. I see that former President Clinton is in Taiwan at the invitation of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. You can imagine the teeth gnashing in Beijing over this one. China Trip
The link goes to the google list of news items about this. The Taiwan Headlines says that "Clinton Affirms Taiwan's Democracy and Prosperity" while the China Post (Taiwan News) speaks about how angered the trip made the Mainland Chinese. Clinton spoke about the need for Taiwan and Mainland China to work together economically and peacefully. In another victory for censorship, avoidance of issues and not actually standing beside avowed principles of freedom and self determination the other news bits from around the world will be as carefully neutral as possible so as not to anger the Mainland folk. It's always sad to see the double standards and double speak with respect to Taiwan and China. But it was good to see that Clinton went to Taiwan in the first place. Every bit helps.

New York Times again - NJ corruption followup
Topic: Politics
In Monmouth County, Desperate for Development and Its Bounty

Looks like the New York Times is all over this one, the second article, a follow up article, trying to get up close and personal about the endemic corruption in this particular area of New Jersey. State Senator Ellen Karcher was one who didn't want to play ball in the usual graft and corruption of the area and was threatened, offered $150,000 bribe money and had her property vandalized. She went to the FBI which brought the unblinking eye of the G-Men on the problem. Then the article goes on to identify the various social problems of the area to include it being 86% white, rich and with too many small local government entities. All very entertaining.

Oscar Hype - Oscar Blather
Now Playing: CSPAN
Oscars, Grammies, Spring Training, Super Bowl, Opening Day, Presidential Elections, all of these 'events' have campaigns that lead up to the event. Those campaigns get to be so deafening that you just can't wait for the event to get here. Not that you are interested in the event but that you just wish the noise would end. I'm hoping that the Oscars gets here quickly, please please let the noise stop. I don't care that Chris Rock is hosting. I don't care what art house movies are up for what awards or if this or that ancient director gets an award for the first time or if there are enough Hispanic nominees in the short animated documentary by a newcomer who lisps category. In the mass scope of human events it does not matter. In the tiny up close and personal scope of human events it matters not one whit either.

If Matt Drudge wants to worry that Chris Rock might say 'bum' (as in touch my) then all the power in the world to him. It's all one big hype machine. They want you to tune in and watch and see if Chris Rock implodes and provides us with a Janet Jackson moment. Don't think so, I'm pretty sure there will be a five second delay working and I'm almost certain that Rock doesn't have the Boob potential of Ms. Jackson. So why bother tuning in? The dude is not funny, I don't care how many critics and hype machine lackeys pronounce him to be the funniest thing since Richard Pryor. It's always good to remember the story of the Emperor's New Cloths - where everyone says the nude King looks simply wonderful because they think everyone else can see the wonderment of the magnificent livery but them and so they mouth the praises of these imaginary clothes. But really, your eyes do not deceive you, there are no clothes and Chris Rock is not funny. Not even close to being funny. He doesn't even cuss and say shocking and rude things with any style. That would be my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

The other thing that annoys me about all of the hype I tangentially have to suffer through is the overinflated value they put to themselves. Media, TV specifically. Now I took the liberty of checking the 'ratings' today. Some show called CSI was the most watched television show for the last week. Wow, that's impressive. Must mean everyone in the United States is watching the thing. Humm. Never seen it. I must be odd, living in a cave somewhere. Let's see the numbers. I see the listing tells me that 30 million people were watching. Now, that's probably a overly exaggerated number but whatever. Let's see, go the to the US Census site. Oh, about 300 million people in the United States of America. Quick math tells me that one in ten Americans -roughly speaking - was watching this show. Hardly overwhelming. That means 9 out of 10 people were not watching. Perhaps bowling, driving, cooking pasta, having sex, just any number of things possible. Seems hardly worth all the hype and noise about you might hear through the various media outlets we're subject to. And subject to the hype we are, taking their cues from the endless Presidential campaigns we get hit continually with this nonsense. Take a bit of notice, it's cutting down on actual news such as it is these days.

Good New York Times Story - Prison Medical Care
Private Health Care in Jails Can Be a Death Sentence
(New York Times, Registration Required).
A good article in the New York Times about the descending level of medical care in Prisons and Jails in the United States. Horror story upon horror story is detailed as the article traces tales of people dying in jail with little or no medical care at all. To save money governments are farming medical care out to the lowest bidder with the results you would expect. On top of that, the fact that people in jail are thought of and treated as subhuman and you will get the sort of deaths you can read about in this article. The people having heart attacks who are thought to be faking, the heroin attacks who die from withdrawl, the babies born in jail who die. Just a usual day in jail, go in for a week, month or year and face a possible death sentence. Better not get sick.

Welcome to your Serfdom - Kelo v. City of New London
Topic: Law
Kelo v. City of New London
This is a case about the government taking your property to give to another for their private use. The rationale behind taking your property and giving it to another private use is that the other person or corporation will improve the land, increase the tax base of the land and in a trickle down sort of way, provide for a larger tax base for the local government involved. So you and your little property taxes are not enough when Wal Mart comes a knocking. This simply means that your serfdom becomes more apparent. What you own is not your own. The right to property which our forefathers fought for and tore away from the English empire for and even enshrined in the Constitution mean nothing. It's more like the idea that all the lands belong to the King and you use them at his suffrage. Like I said, welcome to your serfdom.

Using eminent domain the government is allowed to seize your property for a public use. The Fifth Amendment : Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

In reading the various blogs and opinions Professor Bainbridge Volokh on this I see many lawyers dissecting the words and separating this section 'without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.' Some are arguing that the comma after public use means that 'private use' may then be allowed. Right.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Which means that it isn't there, so you can't make it up. Not to mention that original intent would be clear here. The Fifth Amendment speaks to curbing the power of the government, not giving power to the government. Of course, this doesn't really matter. What matters is what those 9 Justices do. Separated as they are from the world in many ways it is possible that they will see this as an extension of the opening given in the Fifth Amendment to the fight against urban blight. The somewhat successful efforts to condemn blighted properties and turning them into something useful. The key words are 'blighted properties' and the desire to take something dangerous and blighted and eliminate it. By simply eliminating the problems in these cases there is an improvement. In the Kelo case the government is taking perfectly good homes, condemning them and giving them over to a private developer. In addition, the actual use for this property isn't even known. It is along the slippery slope of takings by the government and a instance of the natural progression of taking more power and more power until the original use and meaning of the Fifth Amendment is so distorted as to be unrecognizable. It's a shame and if the buzz after the oral arguments are to be believed then your property rights aren't worth the deed they are written on.

Paying attention to the China Threat
Topic: Politics
During the trip to Europe by President Bush the subject of Europe's desire to end the ban on arms sales to China has come under scrutiny. I for one am glad that the Bush administration is stepping up to the big geopolitical plate and recognizing the true threat to security that China is becoming. A certain portion of the American political population has always been fond of ignoring the bellicose ragings of foreign dictators and potentates so the continuing rage of China against Taiwan has gone under the radar to that group of people. Unfortunately the Party that was the defender of liberty and freedom is also the party of big corporate business. The Republican Party has taken the side of business in regards to China.

When it was communists doing the raging the Republican Party for the most part stood up and recognized the enemy even when it wasn't popular. It was the danger of nuclear war against the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc. It was the rumbling danger of a mysterious and cultish China and it was the Communist conspiracy. The Soviet Union falls, the Eastern Bloc states revolt and transform themselves into European nations and China enters the world as a economic force. Heady times for those who fought the demons of past threats. Except for the fact that China has never actually changed. China has economically transformed itself but American and European politicians have made the mistake of assuming or hoping that the change has made them more like us. They have believed that the Chinese were willing to forget that annoying thing like the ideology of Communism in favor of the ideology of making money. To an extent that is what has happened. But, China is still China the same way that Russia was always Russia with or without the Communist veneer overlay. What that means is that China still reacts in nationalistic and culturally driven ways. If you've read any Chinese history you will know they have a deep seated superiority complex along side of a deep seated inferiority complex. They are very militaristic, they believe that parts of the world that may have been under their control years and centuries ago still belong to them (think Hitler and Alsace-Lorraine or Hitler and Poland) and they have an almost messianic zeal to recover those lost territories. This means that the saber rattling against Taiwan is very very real. They are very serious about 'getting back the renegade province' much the same way they've put their paws on Tibet and other outlying areas which don't even get the acknowledgment that Tibet gets.

What this has meant is that they have for years been building up their military with the goal of getting Taiwan back. They make the calculations about what it would take to win in a war against the United States over Taiwan. They have made calculations about how the United States would give up after a successful strike. This is in keeping with other false assumptions as made by the Soviet Union in their war plans. They also planned for a war where if they were to strike hard and fast enough that they could win, kick the United States off of the continent of Europe before reinforcements could be brought up. In both cases there is the assumptions that the United States would accept the fait accompli - a takeover of Europe or a takeover of Taiwan. The only difference is that the Chinese actually believe that they can eventually reach a point where that strategy would work. And a large portion of the politicians believe that such a action is not possible at all. After all, to their way of thinking, we've grown beyond using war for such a purpose. The world knows such wars are a waste of lives and of energy. Right. Except that isn't true at all.

China doesn't think that way. And China will also be facing other pressures - of a billion people, more men than women and eventually (because it always happens to every nation) a economic downturn. Such pressures throughout history have led leaders of nations to conclude that war is their best alternative. These are the lessons of history. No amount of wishing will make the situation go away and no amount of self delusion will make the path that China is on change.

The only way for the United States to react is to maintain it's military superiority in the region. To maintain Taiwan's military power (which causes China to rage with every F-16 or Patriot Missile Battery delivered). To enlist Japan as a full partner in the defense of Taiwan. (This is happening where Japan has recently said aloud that the security of Taiwan is important (listen to China rage about that). To not let our allies contribute to the military upgrading of the Chinese because those would be weapons that Americans will eventually face. And while any French weapon would be of dubious quality were it made simply by the French, the military technology that the Europeans would like to sell are built with American technology that we will not let them export. The Chinese would take that technology and backward engineer it and what they would learn would kill American soldiers, airmen and sailors. The Europeans are a crass bunch who having been saved from tyranny countless times by American blood and American power are now willing to sell our potential adversaries the weapons they would use against us. President Bush has finally stepped up to the plate and started to look at the whole geopolitical picture. From China to Iraq to Russia. It's good to see and I hope this new attention to the world is not too late.

Gotta Love NJ -
Topic: Politics
It's like saying that Florida is humid, or saying that Texas is big. When you think New Jersey you think corruption. You think big time government officials involved in corruption, you think FBI full employment. You think about something like this Monmouth sting story. (New York Times -registration required) Obviously the tip of the iceberg.

Microsoft Police
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Mysteries of Life
Wow. After complaining about how Windows has made it so my Pinnacle USB TV device would no longer work in no time at all the Microsoft Nazi's had found my rant. Ten minutes. tide517.microsoft.com right on my ass and presumably busy hammering a cease and desist letter for slandering them. Of course, the fact that it's true doesn't enter into it. They must have dedicated servers and employees trolling the web for any mention of themselves. Kinda like Drudge does.

I Freaking Hate Microsoft
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Gilmore Girls
People complain and people say rude things because they are the 800 pound Gorilla in the room. They are the biggest and most ubiquitous presence in your computer world. The very operating system you are using is some version of Microsoft or the other. The word processing program you might use is from Microsoft. Eighty percent of you still use the Microsoft browser. Me, I don't hate them because they are the biggest, although there is reason for resentment for that on general principles. I began to dislike them when they pretty much killed Netscape. Now, my little Pinnacle PCTV is completely dead on my computer. Impossible to use and impossible in any way to make work. My little bit of TV on my computer, not hurting Microsoft in any way whatsoever. But no, the evil empire has it's evil minions busy at work to take anything that doesn't belong to Microsoft and making it impossible to use on your computer which has their operating system on it. One of the latest `updates' from Microsoft, probably one of their `critical' updates did the evil deed. I can't uninstall, reinstall, wipe and reinstall. They are good. Evil and good at it. See, my little tv usb devise isn't sold to me by Microsoft and was sold to me before the DRM crap has been mandated to be put into any recording device. So god help me if I perhaps wanted to record something off of the tv to watch later, you know, like we are allowed to do. Well, I will continue to try to figure a way around this crap that they have done to my computer, evil bastards. Damn you to hell Bill Gates.

Pentagon TV-
It was bound to happen sooner or later and now it is finally here. The Pentagon Cable Channel.

If you are interested in the nuts and bolts aspects of being in the military and you want to hear from the military exactly what the military is doing then this channel is for you. A word of warning though. Please do expect that you'll see reports of the good things the military is doing and you'll hear from people who don't necessarily wish to badmouth the US Military. If you just want to see that then you would need to stay watching CNN or reading the New York Times. Just in the brief amount of time I've seen the channel I've seen military medical personel in South America treating crowds of people, cheerleaders visiting the soldiers in Iraq and memorials for the dead marines who died in the helicopter accident.

A welcomed addition if you value a balanced look at things and aren't afraid of having more information at hand to make all those normally uneducated opinions loudly known to your beer mates.

Personal Attack against Kiefer Sutherland - How Sad
Now Playing: The Quiet Man - Movie
Surfing around and found myself looking at the lgf blog Little Green Footballs Blog. My eyes caught the item about the public service announcement Kiefer Sutherland did in the middle of one of the episodes of 24. I thought that was an appropriate thing to say and I'm glad he said it. What happened was that various groups objected to the portrayal of the murderous Muslim family in the show and said that Americans could think that 'all' Muslims are as murderous or as evil. Well, knowing the history of the world it's understandable that the network is sensitive to that fear and responded to the complaints with a public service announcement stating the obvious. I know and you know that it is impossible to stereotype a whole group of people as one thing or another. It's ridiculous. It's intellectually lazy. But some people need to be reminded of that. Hence the public service announcement. Which brings me back to the item at the lgf blog. A right wing commentator by the name of Debbie Schlussel Debbie's Blog took objection to the announcement that all Muslims are not terrorists.

To push her point across Miss Debbie belittled Kiefer Sutherland as a actor and a human being. I mean really, how very sad to be that way. And of course, factually in error on many accounts. She says that Kiefer is a failed actor whose only success has come with this show 24. And she also goes on the belittle his personal life by referring to him being jilted at the altar by Julia Roberts. The personal attack is an ad hominem attack and perfectly worthy of any brown shirted beer hall Nazi and the argument is just as valid as any other beer stained personal attack is. It reflects upon the attacker.

I would also take issue with her argument that Kiefer is a failed actor. I guess I wouldn't expect someone as uneducated and ignorant as her personal attack would indicate her to be would have any knowledge of what she was talking about on any other level. But really, all it would take would be a quick trip to www.imdb.com and look up Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer's work to educate herself. Without even looking at that page I can tell you a good number of really good movies he has starred in. There are the Young Gun movies, very successful at the box office. The cult favorite and one you'll see at Best Buy 'The Lost Boys' a really cool vampire movie. Flatliners of course, with Julia Roberts another really good one. A Few Good Men, which also starred that Tom Cruise fellow. Dark City, a Science Fiction classic. The Three Musketeers, a great and funny movie. I mean really, we could all wish to be as failing an actor as Kiefer is. I really like him as an actor. I'm pretty sure he hasn't killed anyone and I'm fairly sure I might have heard about it if he had. He is the son of actor Donald Sutherland who has had a good run himself.

The point is, this lady, Debbie Schlussel has no idea what she is talking about. And to personally attack Kiefer Sutherland is really uncalled for. The point of her poorly written and conceived article is that Fox television and the powers involved in the show 24 knuckled under to pressure from some Muslim groups who are connected to terrorists by way of monetary support. That would be an interesting article to read, unfortunately the personal attacks on a otherwise fine actor make it so I don't feel there is any value in reading any further. If I want to witness phony intellectual rantings that descent into personal name calling I'll watch Crossfire or FOX News.

Pizza and Meditation


This is a picture of Robert Paschell, a artist and writer who resides in Yellow Springs. Yellow Springs is one of the remaining bastions of free thought and free expression left in this franchised homogenized world we live in. I was standing in the back of Ha Ha Pizza, waiting for my unique and delicious pizza to be made and was silent witness to a conversation Mr Paschell was having with the manager/owner of the little pizza shop. A short story had been written over dinner, the story gave a history of the owner, a long haired, gilligan's looking fellow of good nature and gentle soul. It was like listening to those times on NPR when they have an author reading one of his or her stories. Only better. It was really a treat to stand there and listen to a story I of course could not relate adequately or give justice to. Two pretty young ladies -the waitress and the cashier/pizza maker with enough earrings to make a Suicide Girl proud and the owner/manager sported wide grins as the story was read. Myself in the background, taking it all in. A real Northern Exposure type moment. I struck up a converation with Robert and complimented him on his storytelling ability. A friendly fellow, he talked with me for a while and gave me the picture you see blended in the picture I took of him with my trusty camera phone. He draws and designs and sells his pictures on tee shirts and sells them on the web. Way cool.

Year of the Cock - Happy New Year
Now Playing: Gilmore Girls -
Yesterday was Happy Chinese New Year day and the Year of the Rooster has thusly begun. Happy Chinese New Year to one and all. Of course a Rooster, as any person with a bit of farm knowledge knows, is a Cock and so happy year of the Cock to you. Of side and related interest is the new indie type movie having to do with the making of "Deep Throat" (70's blurry porn with Linda Lovelace and Harry Ream - made famous because it was the first porn movie to have popular buzz surrounding it and 'normal' people knew about it and saw it because it was cool and hip which of course is a fine excuse to watch porn) Deep throating is the slang term for putting a rooster down a females throat. If it involved putting a rooster down a male persons throat that would be a gay porn movie and much less cool. Especially for the people of the 70's. I know the 70's has The Village People as one of it's cultural icons but in the 70's many of us did not know they were five gay guys. Some of us thought that they were like the Bay City Rollers but only with Ameican costumes instead of kilts. And if you don't know who the Bay City Rollers were then you never watched the Merv Griffin Show in the 70's either.

I know nothing about the indie style movie detailing the making of "Deep Throat" but as with many crappy indie movies the way they make money is by being smarter than you and thereby attracting the 'smart' crowd of people who need the validation that they are smarter than you and so watch 'smart' indie movies. See, smart people don't cotton to those major corporation movies because they are created for the unwashed masses. This opinion is of course validated by the movies usually being uncommonly crappy and of such crapitude that the fabric of time and space itself is ruptured. Therefore, to avoid death and destruction from whatever demons emerge near showing of Gigli, Glitter, Troy, Alexander or any of the other other more recently spewed forth crapfests just don't go near those movies. Smart people are not part of the unwashed masses and so they desperately need the validation of smartness that only comes with superior pursuits. Indie movies, Opera and knowing that it's the year of the Cock are just part of that knowledge and part of the pursuits necessary to be superior. Oh, and Arrugula. You would need to know about Arrugula. :-)

Crips Founder- Four Murders in 1979 - Eligible to be Executed
Crip the Light Fantastic

The lawyers for Stanley "Tookie" Williams argued that the exclusion of black people from his jury was enough to get him a new jury but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to see it that way. His lawyers will appeal and so it continues. A murder over 25 years ago, a conviction over 25 years ago is still wasting resources and manpower. A life without possibility of parole would have accomplished the same exact thing - namely a life behind bars. What is interesting about this case, and it's typical in many ways, is that the convicted murderer is afforded a elevated status. Indeed, this man has been nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize and four times for the Nobel Prize in Literature (children books- extolling the nonviolent life) and is a cause celeb. Liberal folks just can't get enough of the idea of the transformed man, the noble savage that man is but who can be redeemed given enough love and understanding. Those folks will say indeed it is horrible that Tookie killed four people but he's an oppressed man in a white mans world and reacted to that oppression. And besides he has seen the errors of his ways and now knows that violence is not the way. Humm.

Personally I don't believe in the death penalty. But I don't believe that we should make icons of those who have committed murder or in this case murders. It should be about justice not celebrity.