The danger of Democratic hypocrisy

In societies that are governed by laws, there are certain assumptions that we take for granted. It is supposed to be the case that a person is assumed to be innocent unless proven to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or by a preponderance of evidence (depending on the nature of the charge), with the verdict being arrived at as a result of processes that are carried out with transparency and proper respect for the rights of the accused. Another feature is that every effort must be made to bring the suspect to justice, with proportional force being used when the accused resists such attempts. Hence deadly force should be used only in cases where the accused uses deadly force to resisting arrest. [Read more…]

The servile White House press corps

There is perhaps no body of journalists in the US more useless than the White House press corps. These are the people who spend their days in the White House or follow the president on his travels, hoping for some morsel of news to be dropped or to overhear a gaffe or get a deliberate ‘leak’ from an important source. This seems like a soul-killing job to me but apparently these are much sought-after gigs by some reporters because they are high profile. [Read more…]

Mississippi is a slow learner

Negotiating the boundary between church and state to determine what is allowed by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment Clause of the US constitution can be tricky at times and the US Supreme Court has grappled with it on numerous occasions. But one thing is quite clear and that is that official school sponsored prayer in public schools is not allowed. [Read more…]

More evidence of who really runs things

The New York Times reports on yet another deal in which the government lets a big bank get off lightly with crimes and does not disclose the deal to the public. The deal between the New York Fed and Bank of America occurred in July but only came to light because of court filings last week. Not only did the government give the bank a mere slap on the wrist, it then maneuvered to release the bank from other massive legal claims against it totaling billions of dollars. [Read more…]

Sending women and doctors to jail for abortion

Anti-abortion activists who want to outlaw the procedure entirely have usually shied away from answering the question as to what punishment should be meted out to the women and doctors who get abortions anyway, since they know that there is not much support for putting such people in jail. Most people realize that people get abortions because they are desperate and should not be treated as criminals. [Read more…]

The plight of single women who desire to have children

There is a curious hypocrisy when it comes to unwed mothers. When those mothers are wealthy and/or celebrities, this is seen as a lifestyle choice on the part of the woman, courageous even, boldly taking charge of their own lives and changing society’s attitudes to traditional mores. But when the unwed mother is poor and/or black, it is deplored as if it were yet another sign of the lack of virtue that is presumed to be the cause that keeps them down. [Read more…]

“Too big to fail has become too big for trial”

Susie Madrak has been following new-elected US Senator Elizabeth Warren’s performance at the first meeting of the Senate Banking Committee and says she proved her worth by putting regulators on the spot about why they go aggressively after powerless defendants while allowing big banks to make deals with them by paying fines that are just included as the cost of doing business and do nothing to deter future wrongdoing. [Read more…]