A touch of sanity

Every once in a blue moon, I read some sanity on criminal justice policy.

The Economist, this week, has one those of those moments.

Lock up your sons and daughters

"The figures on the under-tens, unearthed by the BBC, have led some to call for the age of criminal responsibility to be lowered in order to let the little monsters feel the force of the law. In fact this age is already near the bottom in Britain. Most of Europe does not prosecute offenders younger than 14 to 16, and elsewhere in the world the watershed comes as late as 18. Scotland's limit is just eight years old, but its system means that few under-16s face court anyway.

For those whose houses have been daubed with graffiti, the age for prosecution cannot be too low. But hawks should beware. 'A court appearance can, in certain cases, confirm an adolescent's deviant identity both in their own eyes and those of others,' argues Rob Allen, a former member of the Youth Justice Board (YJB). Research from Edinburgh University found that children who had contact with a Children's Hearing—Scotland's version of a youth court—were three times more likely to be convicted as adults than young offenders who had not. 'The deeper you get pulled into the system, the worse the outcome,' says Lesley McAra, one of the study's directors. Solving problems informally is more effective, she says."

Makes me think that, perhaps, the world has not gone completely around the bend.

Love,
Ben

Who me? Couldn't be.

I have to say, the more Hillary and Obama pressure for withdrawal, the better Rudy looks as a candidate. When you run to your left during an election year, you better hope the electorate is running with you. But the most recent poll I just saw on the war - with stronger support for sticking it out - indicates that perhaps the Democrats are overreaching.

Either way, they don't deserve the power.

And I'd rather deserve the power and not get it then not deserve it and somehow get your grimy, power-hungry little hands on it anyway.

I am just going on record to say that once this poor, pathetic, small-minded, power-hungry little political period is over with - and I would be willing to put up a substantial amount of money with a 50-years-out D-Day on such a bet, for anyone willing to take me up on it, that this period will be looked back upon with wonder at what foolish and stupid ideas can animate our lives - that we will look back very much like imperialist nations of the West look back at their activities before and after World War I and before and after World War II and wonder how much senseless and destructive tragedy we must suffer before we face our failures, all of us, with no scapegoats or exceptions on that one, as political leaders and as people.

In the meantime, I have zero respect for the Democratic party, at this point. Anytime you bully on an important issue where you are wrong or where you cannot put up the arguments to convince others that you are right, you lose my respect and my vote. And, more importantly, you lose any reason to trust your ability to hold power.

This incredible race to the bottom of reasonable democratic discussion that has gone on in the last 6-7 years will:

1) Backfire on everyone who engages in it. Mark my words. Already happened to the President. Democrats are just waiting to fuck this one up to learn the lesson, apparently.

2) Regardless, it means that you don't deserve the power. And there is nothing more stomach-turning in the world, as far as I am concerned, than the arrogance attached to winning power at all costs when you have not earned it.

Democrats need a major humbling, right now. And I will do everything in my power to offer it to them.

In the meantime, my country's political leadership has gone horribly wrong. I can only hope that the tragedy will be as minimal as possible for our hubris.

When all those people die in Iraq once we pull out precipitously, I assume Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton will be taking responsibility. Just like Democrats have taken responsibility for failed public schools, failed poverty policy, failed policies of protectionism and government intervention in the economy, and every other failed liberal political, economic, and social policy of the 20th century that so many are now pretending still form the core of a coherent ideology.

It's the era of responsibility. Which literally translates, "Who me? Couldn't be."

Why would we ever imagine that our children would follow any other footsteps but our own?

Love,
Ben