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Where I’ve Been – Travel Brain
46 cities in 11 countriesAsiaSouth Korea: SeoulThailand: BangkokThailand: Chiang MaiEuropeBelgium: BrusselsFrance: Le HavreFrance: NiceFrance: ParisGermany: BerlinGermany: DresdenGermany: ErlangenGermany: Frankfurt am MainGermany: HardheimGermany: MarktheidenfeldGermany: MunichGermany: NurnbergGermany: TauberbischofsheimGermany: WertheimHoly See (Vatican City): Vatican CityItaly: RomeItaly: VeniceLuxembourg: LuxembourgNetherlands: AmsterdamUnited Kingdom: LondonNorth AmericaUnited States: Ann ArborUnited States: AnnistonUnited States: AustinUnited States: CelinaUnited States: CherokeeUnited States: ClevelandUnited States: ColumbusUnited States: GettysburgUnited States: JasperUnited States: MandanUnited States: MetairieUnited States: MiamiUnited States: NashvilleUnited States: New OrleansUnited States: Oil CityUnited States: PittsburghUnited States: RedmondUnited States: RestonUnited States: San FranciscoUnited States: San JoseUnited States: SeattleUnited States: ShermanUnited States: Washington
Gentle Honesty
“You know I’m having trouble with my muscles, right?” Aimee began, surprised at her own composure. Her son nodded.
“Well,” she said, slowly, “Daddy’s sad because the doctor told me they’re not going to be able to help me get better.”
Nicholas sat there for a moment, thinking about what his mom had said and then responded in his 7-year-old way. “You know mom, when I grow up, I’m going to be a paleontologist and a St. Louis Cardinals baseball player and a zoologist and a person who studies plants,” he said, breathlessly.
“Well, I’m also going to be a doctor,” he said. “So if you’re still alive, I can help them find out how to make you better.”
I can’t imagine ever having to have this conversation with my kids, but if I do, I hope I can do it as well as this family did.
More on ALS.
Followup: Unreasonable Search
Following up on this post, we read that prosecutors have ended their efforts to forcibly remove the slug form Mr. Bush, feeling that they can prove their case without the bullet.
It would have been interesting to hear more detailed arguments on both sides, and see that case wend its way through the court system.
Firearms and Politics
If you were a member of the FAP list hosted at world.std.com, and you’ve given up on it, or been shut out, or whatever, head over to firearmspolitics.info. CD Tavares and Henry Schaffer have set up that domain to host a new version of the list.
We’re here to protect you
It’s a good thing the airports are so safe now, and no one can break in, and bypass all that gate security, and maybe just plant a bomb on an aircraft. No, Mr. Scheuerman didn’t plant a bomb, or weapons for a hijacker to use. But he could have. Yes, he was caught. But not before he damaged a G-4, and rolled the tug he was driving.
It’s also a good thing Roy Brown and Willie O. “Pete” Williams weren’t charged with a capital crime, or The Innocence Project‘s findings that they were innocent wouldn’t mean much.
One man spent 15 years in prison, for a crime likely committed by the brother of the victim’s ex-boyfriend. The other spent almost half of his adult life in prison.
Is it enough to rely on eyewitness identification? That’s what convicted Williams. But eyewitness testimony is a lot less reliable than most people think. Think 50% error rate. And we’re executing people based on this in some cases.
The Innocence Project has freed almost 200 people since its inception. How many more are waiting?
DNA frees another
The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal clinic dedicated to bringing up appeals on cases where DNA can exonerate a convict. Since 1989, they have freed or cleared 191 people of the charges they were convicted of.
On January 17, they scored number 192. James Waller was the 12th person convicted in Dallas County, Texas who has been cleared by DNA testing.
Good thing there wasn’t a death penalty there. I’ve always felt that capital punishment is a good thing in that no criminal ever executed has ever been able to re-offend. But where there are so many chances for error in the system, with so many proven mistakes, I cringe at the possibility of an innocent person being executed.
Unintended Consequences #3
Have an affair; go to jail for life, in Michigan.
Interesting case, really. Lloyd Waltonen traded a waitress sexual favors for Oxycontin pills. That was a felony – giving her the drugs: “delivering a controlled substance”. But they also charged him with criminal sexual conduct, a major felony, under the section of law that says when “sexual penetration occurs under circumstances involving the commission of any other felony,” it’s a violation.
There were appeals back and forth about the CSC charge. Waltonen’s attorney got it dropped, but the prosecutor got it reinstated, based on the the drug transaction, arguing that any consent the waitress may have given was irrelevant due to the drugs being involved.
It made its way to the Court of Appeals, which reinstated the CSC charges, and also pointed out since adultery was still a felony in Michigan, anyone charged with adultery could also be charged with CSC, and thus marked as a felony sex offender.
Sounds like when the Michigan legislature made some changes to the sex crimes statutes, they didn’t do all the research they needed to do. I wonder, too, if there’s really a need for an adultery law on the books, even if it hasn’t been prosecuted for 35+ years.
Einstein once remarked that “For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.” I’d suggest that the same is true for laws that exist but aren’t enforced. Enforce them, or get them off the books, lest they be abused in some way.
Raven’s Beak on Flickr
