Bad News Day

#1
I had not heard this story until today, but the thought of someone murdering his wife and daughter and trying to make it look like a murder-suicide is rather depressing. Perhaps he's telling the truth - that the mother was depressed and he had nothing to do with it. But apparently, a jury felt he was guilty enough to convict.

#2
The Supreme Court decided that the rape of a child does not merit the death penalty. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I think a lot about keeping Ari safe and wanting to prevent anything terrible (and particularly sexually violent) from happening to her. It's very difficult to imagine being able to forgive someone who might harm her in that way. It's also very difficult to imagine not wanting to hunt that person down and kill them myself. Not very enlightened or loving of me, but I do think the old "eye for an eye" adage is rooted in something very primal and limbic... something that is older than philosophy or religion and sits deep without our psyches and souls. Perhaps there is merit or justice or purpose in working against those vengeful feelings, but I can certainly have empathy for parents who find themselves filled with those feelings. And I can understand why this ruling is and will likely continue to be so controversial.

#3
The Supreme Court has been busy this week, and the second ruling which struck me as fraught with potential conflict and distress was their decision to cut the damages awarded to citizens (particularly fishermen) affected by the spill. It was stated by one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs that the punitive damages now amount to roughly a week's earnings for the ExxonMobile company, a statistic potentially slightly wiggled with spin... but probably not by very much.

#4
The ceasefire was broken today... five days after being established. It seems that the media is reporting it not officially broken, but it certainly must leave everyone feeling rather tenuous.

#5
Today both President Bush and Nelson Mandela spoke out against the violent and threatening tactics being used by Mugabe to manipulate the elections in Zimbabwe. I couldn't help but think how hypocritical it must seem to hear such condemnation coming from George W. Bush. I find it insulting, and I live in the US. Not that we had such violence or that he used the same type of tactics in his pursuit of the election in 2000... but hey. In any other country, it would have looked like cheating... like - dare I say it - a sham. The good news, however, is international opposition is increasingly being voiced and hopefully it will have some kind of constructive effect.