news/strong

Utah Amending Gay-Marriage Ban Problems/a
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’/a
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/em 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/a
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/a
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/em 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.