sexual slip-n-slide

A few years ago the issue of same-sex marriage hit front pages, prompting many to argue that expanding the definition of marriage would prove a slippery slope. Conservatives warned that there would be no reason to prevent threesomes, foursomes, or more from marrying legally. Liberals, after a Massachusetts court ruling that favored same-sex marriage, moved beyond homosexuality to discuss the plight of transgendered people.

The slope is slippery, yes — but it’s not moving greatly in the direction of either menage a troi or sex change. The very next sexual standard we’re hammering away at is that of age.

a little lesson about phishing

You’ve probably received emails like the one I got today. Since I actually have a Wachovia account, and since I just paid bills online last night, this seemed to be a legitimate warning:

—– Original Message —–

Wachovia Bank Update

We recently have discovered that multiple computers have attempted to log into your Wachovia Online Account, and multiple password failures were presented before the logons. We now require you to re-validate your account information to us.

mourning the vigilante

He’s 29, a patent lawyer, a young father, a good man without a blemish on his record. Then one day he hears finds out that his 2-year-old daughter was molested by their 58-year-old neighbor. That night he enters the neighbor’s house and stabs him to death.

It’s difficult not to sympathize with this guy:

not my hood

I've lived here six years. This is a quiet community.

You get to know a place. The skateboarding kids with their ramps. The serious landscapers. The derelict van that never moves. The favorite grazing area for the rabbits. The popular teen's friends. The house with all the cobalt bottles in the main window.

tough-as-bullets love

Is it possible to love your child too much?

Yes …

CNN: Cops: Couple ordered hit on grandkids

A couple tried to hire a hit man to kill their three grandchildren and daughter-in-law to stop them from testifying against their son in his rape trial, authorities said.

The couple, ages 60 and 59, were charged with four counts each of criminal conspiracy to commit murder. They were being held without bond.

Police said the pair initially offered $100 to an undercover sheriff's deputy to kill their son's wife, their 10-year-old granddaughter, two step-grandchildren, ages 14 and 16, and the family dog.

toward polar-free guilt

“But the affair wasn’t her fault,” she told me. “Her husband was neglecting her. It’s no surprise she sought comfort in the arms of another man.”

Um, no. Fault isn’t a seesaw, with one side’s guilt establishing the other’s innocence. Both parties can be at fault.

A wife sleeps with another man. She’s guilty, her husband innocent. Oh, but wait – the husband was neglecting her. He’s the guilty one; she’s only a victim. Oh, but wait – he was only neglecting her to escape her vicious and incessant verbal abuse. Now she’s … and so on. It feels like watching tennis.

attacking the victims

How dare you:

"We believe the whole pool has been contaminated," said defense team member Russell Neverdon. "Their whole lives were in fear. Now they have this perceived notion that it was Mr. Muhammad. I don't think they have the courage to listen to this evidence."

How dare you, Mr. Neverdon. I lived under that fear. I feared for the lives of my wife, my mother, my brother, my relatives, my many students. At any moment, any one of them could have been randomly shot dead in a parking lot by sniper John Allen Muhammed.

How dare you, sir. Courtroom tactics notwithstanding, how dare you malign our experience. How dare you brand our partiality cowardice.

Mr. Neverdon, you are venal. You have lost your way in an overzealous presumption of innocence, one that would denigrate all victims rather than proceed reasonably given the preponderance of evidence against the accused.

And so to my fears, Mr. Neverdon, I now add this one: I fear for you.

too old to die

The longer you live, the less your chances of dying — on death row, that is. So argues a taxpayer-funded appeal of one man’s death sentence:

farmers turned dealers

What are we to think about our fellow citizens, hearing that the drug meth has swept the American heartland?

LA Times: Meth's grip in Midwest strangles authorities

It's frightening to realize that U.S. presidential elections are decided by a nation of drug-induced voters.