Before Kaia was born, there was a standing joke around here that we were going to start a 'fund' for him. Instead of a college fund, his was going to go toward paying for the massive amounts of therapy he would undoubtedly need after enduring my sister, my self and the rest of the family for 18 years. We are, to put it mildly, kind of like Dharma... without a strong Greg force.
There are many theories as to what causes deviance to exist. Theorists come from a multitude of backgrounds, anywhere from biological to psychological to sociological. What many do not address, however, is any possible origin of deviance.
The war on drugs in America is an outdated idea that is wasting billions of taxpayer dollars every year. According to the world drug clock America has spent over $12,500,000,000 so far this year combating drugs and it is estimated that the total will be nineteen billion for all of 2008. There have been nearly 460,000 arrests made so far this year and estimates exceed 1.8 million this year.
Last night, 60 Minutes aired an investigation that they did on the conviction of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman on charges of bribery. The video can be found here: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3870545n.
The criminal justice system can be a funny thing sometimes. Not funny in the "ha-ha" sense, but funny in the strange way. It works well in theory, but outside influences (mostly the mass media) morph the process quite a bit in many cases. The old adage "innocent until proven guilty" seems to have been rewritten in recent years- "guilty until proven innocent."
Last night the President of Eastern Michigan University, John Fallon, was fired by a unanimous vote. No reason was given in his firing, but many suspect it was because of his role in the cover-up of the rape and murder of EMU student, Laura Dickinson, in December.
For those unfamiliar with the story; in December, Laura Dickinson was found dead in her dorm room. College officials told her family, students and the general public that she died of asphyxiation and that there was no indication of foul play. Only after Orange Taylor III was charged with the rape and murder of Laura Dickinson in February did the family, students and the rest of the world learn that she had been raped and murdered and that school officials new about it the entire time.
On July 4, 2007 in Tacoma, WA, a little girl, 12 years old, was abducted from behind her home. Her father heard a scream, saw a white van, and got a partial license plate number. Yesterday, Zina Linnik's body was found, and a person of interest who had been arrested on an immigration violation was the one who directed law enforcement to her body. This illegal immigrant was also an unregistered sex offender living in a town outside of Tacoma.
Ma'am, I know this is difficult for you, but do you recognize any of these panties?
Pair six, you say?
Can pair six please step forward?
Okay... so perhaps not quite how it is going to happen, but after reading the following article, thoughts of a panty filled police lineup went traipsing through my mind and gave me a serious case of the giggle.
