Sick, Sick, Sick in the head

I just wanted to chime in quickly about the Supreme Court rulings that have come down recently. I'm at work and very drowsy and not felling all that well, so this might sound kind of jumbled but I need to do something to stimulate my brain and keep me from falling asleep.

First there was the ruling from our high court that deemed executions for a felony conviction of child rape, I'm pretty sure it was just for child rape. Can't remember the exact details at the moment but for a guy like myself who is pretty adamant about being against Capitol Punishment I have to say I'm rather disappointed with this ruling. I do believe that capitol punishment is for the most part inherently wrong, from both a moral and civic standpoint. But I do also believe there are exceptions to every rule.

Now in the first place it's kind of bewildering to think that such an issue would even make it all the way to the Supreme Court. Most states currently have some sort of moratorium on executions for the time being since DNA testing has put so many cases from the past and present under even further scrutiny. And obviously a very large majority of those cases in which the death penalty is even being considered are murder cases. Other than murder and occasionally rape there are even more rare cases where capitol punishment is sought, such as treason and other felony charges of endangering public health or safety(drug trafficking falls under that umbrella).

It's difficult to make people understand why I don't agree with the death penalty in most cases except rape, or more specifically child rape. I just find it to be a far more grievous and evil act toward the victim than murder is. The taking of a life is tragic and I don't take that lightly at all but for some reason I can't equate it on the same level that goes into the emotional and physical toll that sexual assault/abuse/incest/molestation.

I guess my gut reaction to any case where someone is convicted of such a heinous crime and there's not even a hint of doubt is that they shouldn't be living on the same planet as their victim or the rest of society for that matter. Now I know that condemning someone to death like that won't be able to change what happened, but it's not an issue of "proportional response" for me. I just think we're wasting food, air, time and space on someone who is beyond redemption in my eyes. My stomach is curdling, better move on.

The Supreme Court also handed down a historic judgement on interpretation of the 2nd Amendment by overturning a ban on gun ownership in Washington D.C. This is another case where I'm quite baffled by the fact that our Supreme Court is ruling on this case. There are gun laws on the books. Some are bad, some are good. The point with keeping the 2nd Amendment intact is not a strict interpretation of law but rather identifying that gun laws should be enforced better from top to bottom and that they should be subject to local leadership and not lobbying groups like the N.R.A. You have be completely out of it if you think that there being a gun ownership ban in somewhere like D.C. or Chicago is ever going to have any effect on the gun laws in Rural Michigan or somewhere like that. Of course the N.R.A. would rather just have no gun laws whatsoever. I think they have a membership count of around 2 million. So 2 million people who are part of one fanatical political activist group should decide how gun laws are written and enforced for the other 298 million people in America, many of whom might happen to live in communities where stricter gun laws are necessary and might actually make a difference. If the people of D.C. or Chicago really wanted the N.R.A. or the Supreme Court sticking their noses in this business then I'm pretty sure they would just go ahead and elect their local officials to represent that point of view, but they don't because they agree with these laws. Instead of hiding behind the 2nd Amendment like it's some sort of infallible deity the gun lobby needs to own up to some responsibility and realize that common sense regulation is not a desecration of the constitution but merely an act of progress that was a basis of what a founding fathers had laid out for us to follow. Stomach still curdling, head is now pounding as well. Time to stop. Next post will be on a much brighter note.