Miss Cleo’s psychic hot line agreed Thursday to cancel $500 million in customer bills. Read the CNN.com story. There’s irony in this quote: “The amount involved eclipses the record $215 million that Citigroup Inc. agreed to repay customers in September to settle deceptive lending charges involving mortgages and credit insurance.” Perhaps Wall Street insiders and…
Category: Crime
Crime, Definition and Punishment
Must juries adhere to the letter of the law? A referendum in South Dakota might mean the end of that standard Read the LA Times story. There are many times and places where the literal application of the law creates an injustice. That is undisputable. However, what would become of justice if each jury were…
Another School Shooting
A student flunking out of nursing school opened fire in a class at the University of Arizona, killing 4 people. Read the story on Yahoo news. Has this freakish behavior become part of the required curriculum for failing students? What ever happened to the good old days when losers like this went off to the…
Snipers Caught
Presumedly, the entire nation now knows that the D.C. area snipers have been captured. Read about it on MSNBC.com. Congratulations must go to the law enforcement task force for unravelling this mystery in a relatively quick timeframe. What if anything can we learn from this episode? Lesson 1: there are bad people out there who…
Cop Killer Gets Life
A convicted cop-killer got a life sentence today in Houston. Read the Houston Chronicle story. One should be glad to get a conviction and long sentence for any murderer. However, a jury unable to come to a decision represents a dereliction of responsibility on the part of its members.
Should Teen Murders Be Executed?
Should teen-aged murders be executed for their crimes? The Supreme Court doesn’t want to make a federal decision on this issue. Read the AP story on CNN.com. “The practice of executing such offenders is a relic of the past and is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in a civilized society,” wrote Justice John Paul…
Dallas Narc Busts Invalid
Dallas Police arrested a man on drug charges over a year ago. Too bad the cops’ informant was lying. He’s since recanted, so why is this man still in jail? Read the Dallas Morning News story. This story also got play on NPR this morning. Texas is looking pretty foolish right now what with Dallas…
Sniper Hypes Gun Control
By now, everyone in America knows about the D.C. area sniper. Read the CNN.com story. In a political slap, Democrats today said Republican movement on gun control was due to their physical cowardice overcoming political stakes in the ground. Meanwhile, interesting stories abound in regards to the issue. Read one story on CNN.com. In a…
Convicts Voting Rights
Should ex-cons be allowed to vote? On such Floridian thinks so. Read the Washington Post story. Those interested in law and order must necessarily shudder at what and whom this demographic would vote for. But do they have the right to vote? It seems that if they have indeed paid their debt to society, this…
Kids Murder Adult
A gang of children and teenagers beat a man to death in Milwaukee earlier this week. Read about it in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. As asked on NPR, where were these little monster’s parents? The MJS story is all sympathy for the killers. “He didn’t mean it,” sobs one culprit’s sister. That’s a lie. Ten…