1) This Just In...

...50 minutes ago, one of the women who live across the hall is jumping rope on a trampolene. In the middle of the hall way, which is about a little shorter than the length from fingertip-to-fingertip if I stretched out my arms.

****

2) The US Supreme Court kind of sucks for saying the death penalty doesn't apply to child rapists.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=07-343

(Kennedy v. Louisiana. Kennedy being a stepfather convicted of raping his stepdaughter.)

Now, the death penalty itself opens up a slew of philosophical, and moral problems. But it you're going to have it, child rapists seem like a wonderful group of people to use it on. At least the stereotypical, greasy, van-driving, sandal wearing, playground-stalking rapist.

The Court declared that to execute these men would violate the 8th Amendment, since rape fails to reach homicide's level of damage to the victims and to society.

I disagree. Rape places psychological hurdles in front of the victim. Indeed, mild sexual harassment produces much greater levels of mental stress than similar types of assault.

The pleasure centers are prominent features our lives, and rape literally perverts these centers.

The act of rape spills vile on sexual feelings. Rape of underaged children can cause serious injury, extensive mental trauma, and warps the child's view of society as a whole, and hinders the child's ability to become a member of society who can both give and take from the society in a responsible manner. Rape is a strong spark of depression, and to myraid of issues that result from depression itself (Read Robin Warshaw's "I Never Called It Rape"). Even the possibility that the victim will grow to one day participate in the rape of another, if only as a casual bystander. Eg. A mother, raped as a child, will ignore signs that the grandfather is molesting her daughter.

But...

In a press release, The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault highlights the limits of the law in protecting children.

"Most child sexual abuse victims are abused by a family member or close family friend...The reality is that child victims and their families don't want to be responsible for sending a grandparent, cousin or long time family friend to death row. addition, capital punishment trials are notoriously stressful for the witnesses involved, and typically face a lengthy appeals process.

This forces the child witness to relive these painful events over and over again, severely disrupting their healing process." The Court echoed a similar worry.
Sheeyit. And if you disbelieve that most victims are victimized by family, then you have yet to gain the trust of someone who has been molested in this fasion.

****

3) Yay to the US Supreme Court of knocking down a DC gun-control ban.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=07-290

District of Columbia V. Heller

Unless you outright ban the construction of these weapons (for both private and military puposes), then a regional ban on them seems outright ridiculous. The problem with the DC was hardly flexible enough to allow the ownership of firearms to trust-worthy individuals. Firearm purchases, if not banned, still be to be regulated so that any purchase . The mentally ill and formerly convicted should be restricted from purchasing firearms, and even using them, except in some sort of extraordinary circumstance when the use is justified.

"Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court's opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller's holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those "in common use at the time" finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons. Pp. 54-56" (from the introduction)