May 17, 2010
GRAHAM v. FLORIDA
From the majority Supreme Court ruling on the legality (or lack there-of) of assigning life sentences to minors who have not killed someone.
While JUSTICE THOMAS would apparently not rule out a death sentence for a $50 theft by a 7-year-old, the Court wisely rejects his static approach to the law. Standards of decency have evolved since 1980. They will never stop doing so.
Zing!
(another pdf)
comments
Leave a Reply
I am so, so, so glad you posted this. This ruling made my morning.
on the other hand, did you see the new amendments proposed by the texas board of education?
This is all I see in the news about Texas and it terrifies me. What the hell is going on over there?
That proposed amendments pdf is a colorful shit-show of narrow minded, conservative thinking. It’s like an appalling fireworks spectacular I can’t look away from.
“The words of Godet and immigrants like him were, “I love America for
giving so many of us the right to dream a new dream”. Such words
were as lost on the muckrakers as they are on many modern
historians obsessed by oppression.”
Aaaah, I am frightened for our children. I’m glad a small majority had the sense to vote that McLeroy fucker out.
you’d have to live here to understand, and it would make me too tired to describe.
Daryl?
Cindy?
Amy?
Renner?
Barry?
Aaron?
Teresa?
Anyone?
Yes, Texas is like the set of a Mel Brooks film. The state has a long history of violent stupidity when it comes to power politics, and I shudder every time I see groups like this one, filled with people who smile as they squeeze all to fit into a very small thought process. It is a fucking Cartoon that is not the least bit funny. The state is run by people who have no need of democracy, and who long for the days of the old West, when lawmen were each equipped with a gun, a gavel, and a rope. And if the load got heavy, the gavel was the first thing to go.
Do some of those North Korean jokes work for Texas?
I might be losing my mind again, but the most recent displays of aggressive stupidity in Texas and Arizona actually give me a glimmer of hope. These right-wing zealots are becoming so comfortable with their outrageous views that they are coming right out and proposing what they’ve heretofore been afraid to actually articulate (or attempt to articulate, as it were). So maybe, just maybe, they are going too far and will be seen for what they are–ignorant, frightened, misguided, horrible people who are a direct threat to our country’s future.
Deron, do you ever want to just sit and drink a lot?
I have the same hope, although the polls that show something like 60% support for the Arizona law worries me.
yes.
ok
Cindy, I’ve had the same thought, but always stop short of being hopeful.
Well, that’s probably a lot smarter, Michael. I have to find hope in things like this or I’ll give in to despair.
Well, hope sometimes arrives at the bottom of the glass. Either that or sleep…so…
Let’s just drink.
wait. did you stop drinking?
Of course not. That’s the silliest thing anyone has ever said to me. I simply meant, let’s just drink more.
Cindy, it is my sincerest hope that you are right someday. I’ve always preferred celebratory drinks.
Thank you, Lauren. Celebratory drinks are the best.
I know Deron will know exactly what I mean when I say that, while I have a huge array of examples to illustrate my love for Texas, some days it’s all I can do to even speak the word.
I’ll drink to that.
What gets me is how stupid people have to put stupid things into actual practice before being able to say–well shit, that didn’t work. And even then they are as likely to blame the failure on those trying to clean up the mess. I tend to think we are doomed because of the long-term undermining of American education, coupled with a set of unexamined “values” that include no mention of charity and no recognition of the bankruptcy of the view that consumption is the road to happiness.
So–I’ll be right back. I’m off to the liquor store.
It’s real good and terrible. Anyplace with the diversity and horrors of Texas is going to produce a lot of fascinating stuff, monsters and geniuses. It’s an oversized microcosm of the rest of the country. I try to think of it more as the actual birthplace of DJ Premier than the fake birthplace of George W. Bush.
In any case, it’s a fucking travesty that we didn’t invent Gatorade.
Daryl, I share your concern about education in particular. Texas is a formidable influence in terms of national education because it’s such a giant consumer of textbooks. Every state sets its own educational standards that textbook publishers must adhere to if they want their books adopted (i.e. if the state doesn’t approve of your textbook, state money can’t be used to purchase it for public schools, which means significantly fewer sales opportunities). Most textbook publishers create a special version of K-12 textbooks tailored to the big states (CA, TX, FL), but those giants are always in the back minds of publishers when they create new textbooks that don’t feature individual state versions (the majority of textbooks). They actively censor content, good and bad, in the hopes of pleasing a multitude of state education boards. Sometimes that’s great– California is a prime example of why publishers push diversity in their textbooks in terms of writers, photos, whatever, because CA made that a priority and those choices reflect its population. Other times, information is simply kept out, maybe because it’s “too scary,” or in reality, too truthful– such as when a book is written about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, and it’s noted as a devastating hurricane, but the number of deaths isn’t mentioned. Ultimately, publishers have to make the decision whether they want to present meaningful facts or a barrage of bullshit in order to get business, and state education boards play a huge role in that final decision. If education boards are hijacked by a bunch of whackos, it impacts millions of school children (public or otherwise) for years to come.
Lauren–you nailed it. And I like your example of how the CA system actually helped in this regard, with respect to respect for diversity. My hope at the moment is that publishing technology changes will make it more and more possible for textbook production to be decentralized. Then at least dumbass states would get what they ask for, and populations (instate and out) would be able to see the result in various kinds of comparisons (most, sad to say, long term; cut the study of evolution and access to the best universities declines for yourstate).
In the ethnic literature class I teach, I see a lack of knowledge of American history that shocks me each time I encounter it. For instance, I often get students who have never heard of Executive Order 9066 that sent Americans of Japanese descent to “relocation centers” in the West. Some students even smirk when I mention it, as if I have uttered some leftist code word they have been warned of. But when that happens I go right over to the computer (each classroom has a computer hooked to a big projection screen) and call up images of the barracks in the sand, and of children waiting to board trains in San Francisco. A big percentage of students get to the university not knowing what the Vietnam war “was all about.” I could go on. But I don’t see any of it getting any better. In fact, I think the popular American anti-intellectualism–pressed forward mainly by religious authoritarianism–has meshed with empty consumerism in a way that has bred a view that hoarding, violence, locking out “losers,” and refusal of government by forming factional government entities is all part of God’s plan. Add to this mix the idea that if it all fails–that will just be a sign that the Rapture is near, and “we” (the initiates) can laugh and smile in glory as everybody below is cut to ribbons and burned. These are people who have been convinced that apocalypse is a happy occasion. And they can’t see why a person who is actually kind, thoughtful, and willing to sacrifice for others would NOT want to sit next to them on that ruthless bus to heaven.