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The Wrongness of Killing

June 30, 2008 By 4 Comments

On June 27, 2008, a terrible tragedy occurred. Of that, there can be no doubt. Three people are dead.

According to reports, a father and his two sons were on their way home, when another car tried to get around them. Dad tried to back up and get out of the way of the other car, so as to let it pass. The people in the car, however, were so angry, so upset, so irritated that someone in the other car just opened fire, killing the father and his sons. A member of MS-13 was later arrested for the murders.

Mom wants the death penalty.

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Filed Under: Death Penalty, Gangs Tagged With: , , ,

No Expectation of Privacy on the Internet?

June 25, 2008 By 9 Comments

A concept near and dear to my heart for years now has re-surfaced in the news. For many years, I made my living working with computers. Prior to being an attorney, I worked with the first two Internet Service Provider companies in the Fresno area. This was immediately after the first Internet web browser (Mosaic) was developed and the Internet “went commercial.”

Being of a philosophical bent and also with a strong interest in Anthropology, I couldn’t help but ponder some the impact the Internet was having on our world. And, of course, privacy issues were quickly becoming paramount.

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Filed Under: Internet, Right to Privacy Tagged With: , , ,

The Limits of the United States Constitution

June 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The United States Supreme Court the other day decided that the United States Constitution should survive 9/11.

The Court ruled1 5-4 that detainees at “Gitmo” — the military base the U.S. military built in Cuba to try to avoid having to honor the Constitution — have rights under the Constitution. As one writer responded,

This is unbelievable! These people should have the same rights our victims of 911 had and all the soldiers who are trying to protect us from further attack! Just when you think this Court can’t get any more stupid, surprise!

I assume the second sentence was supposed to end in a question mark, because otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. I’m sure this writer did not believe that Gitmo detainees were supposed to have rights. And I have to agree. After all, who would have thought that the Founders of the United States of America would have wanted the Constitution to survive 9/11?

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Endnotes:
  1. Links in this story may have expired by the time you read this. I have no control over other websites. [↩]
Filed Under: United States Constitution Tagged With: , ,

Seek A Pleasant Peninsula in Michigan, Seek Free Speech Elsewhere

June 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The latest copy of the American Bar Association Journal (ABAJournal) just arrived in my office. I was planning to write about something I read in the Letters to the Editor there concerning prosecutors who attempt — and possibly succeed — at murder because of their single-minded dedication to winning at all costs, forgetting their alleged duty to seek only justice.1

Trying to find you a link to the ABAJournal website, though, I ran across this interesting article concerning a law school graduate, Frank J. Lawrence, Jr., who was denied a license to practice law because he said mean things to the people responsible for approving his application.

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Endnotes:
  1. I promise to get to that another day. [↩]
Filed Under: Freedom of Speech, U.S. Supreme Court Tagged With: , , ,