late night random thoughts

First, in that last post, I totally forgot to include the many many lies I've told and the few I've confessed to in the past year.

Second, I have some opinions I gots to say.

I think that all current presidents ought to attend the funerals for all former presidents. It's just good manners. Plus, you'll be dead someday and you wouldn't want president obama to blow off your funeral because it was his vacation.

Also, a word on a couple of rape issues. First, the duke situation. I followed the story in the NY Times last spring. I have to say that I'm not surprised that the case unravelled. The accused clearly were committed to spending any amount of money and nothing was out of line for their defense. It has long been thought that one of the flaws of our system is that the wealthy can bank roll defenses and prosecutors have serious constraints of budget and personnel. But, the two thoughts I have on this particular case is a) a friend who is a defender of the downtrodden once told me "crimes born in hell rarely have angels for witnesses." I believe that totally applies in this situation. It would be easy to cut eyes towards the victim for making money off her body. But, I think humans should equally cut their eyes at young men who would spend their parent's money in such a way. Regardless of how the court case turns out, I believe that there was some rather bad behavior that no mother would want to think their child was engaged in going on in that house that night. B) Just as we saw in the fall out of the OJ Simpson case, I fear there will be a lasting effect on how prosecutors all over will regard rape cases. I believe that in the future, prosecutors will be more gun shy about believing victims because they don't wish to have their careers ruined as I think the guy in Durham is about to have his flushed.

Also, I find it interesting that human awareness about the crime of rape has shifted in an interesting way. There are many many school personnel on student sexual offenses a year. But, we hear mostly about the few that involve female predators from the media. Now, there is a serial rapist preying on men in Texas. I've seen a couple of media articles about it. Nothing as full blown as the duke case last spring - so it's nice to see that there is some perspective in the media. But still, it is interesting to see the common reaction at the realization that men can be vulnerable to a crime that generally is considered a crime against women.

I'll be curious to see how these two cases effect how sexual violence crimes are regarded as a whole.

Lastly, it would seem that Saddam is on the short list for those who will be existing outside the earthly plain. I think there was more than adequate evidence that the man terrorized, butchered his own citizens. But, I have to admit I find it interesting that humans will be executing a former head of state. When was the last time a head of state was executed? It's history folks. I'm not sure it's history to be proud of - but it's history.