I know I just wrote a blog last night about NOT being able to write a quick on the fly blog, but today I am livid with an article I read on CNN regarding two sisters in Mississippi who have been released after serving 16 years in prison.  Yes, you read that right, released….not paroled not pardoned but released, guess what their crime was?  They “lured” two men to an ambush area where the men were robbed by three teenagers who hit them with a shotgun and took $11.00.  Yes, $11.00.   The two sisters were convicted of armed robbery, while the three teenagers received lesser sentences and have already been released.  And guess what else?  The Governor of Mississippi is proud to have been able to “suspend their sentences indefinitely.”  REALLY?  PROUD?  I would be embarrassed and ashamed for not having PARDONED them sooner.  16 years in jail for $11.00, Michael Vick served less time than that and we all know what that Mo’Fo did!

But wait, it gets better…one of the conditions of the suspension is that one sister has to donate a kidney to the other sister who is on dialysis.  That’s what it really boils down to, is the money for the dialysis, if that woman did not have a kidney problem they would not be eligible for parole until 2014!  It sickens me to know that injustices like this continue to occur in this day and age.  Those women should probably have spent no more than six months in jail, then parole and then it’s over.  Instead 16 years later, they still sit in jail waiting for the paperwork to be processed. 

“We need more days like this in Mississippi,” NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said at a news conference Thursday at the State Capitol building in Jackson. “We need more days like this in our country.”

Really, I think not.  I don’t think there should be any pride in this debacle, instead the state of Mississippi, their governor, their parole board and the NAACP should be ashamed and embarrassed that this didn’t happen 15 years ago.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a notice yesterday regarding insulated beverage containers.  Apparently they “got wind” of a possible threat that would involve concealment of explosives in thermos. 

This got me thinking; a while back I remember hearing that Osama Bin Laden had said that his Al Qaeda organization didn’t have to continue to attack the United States, that his goal was to bankrupt us and I think he is on the right track.

Seriously,  have someone sneak some liquid explosives in a bottle onto a plane and viola we cannot bring anything larger than 3 ounces on board.  Get one person to stick a piece of plastic up this butt and now we have x-ray machines and body scans at the airport. The plan is simplistic but very effective, slowly but surely they will make our lives miserable.  Wait until they think of the next thing, you will have to submit yourself for a strip search, body cavity probe and GOD knows what else. 

Really there is no need for any large-scale attack, the simplest ideas appear to be the most effective.

Maybe you heard about a book that was available on Amazon last month called, “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct” a self-published book by a man named Philip Ray Greaves II.  It created quite a lot of noise and Amazon stopped selling it.  Well a sheriff in Polk County Florida  had arrested Mr. Greaves for violating Florida’s obscenity law.  Mr. Greaves is currently in Colorado, where he lives waiting to be extradited to Florida.  I’m ok with Mr. Greaves being extradited, in fact what currently has me incensed is that a Denver Attorney, David Lane who apparently has tried some very high-profile First Amendment Cases says, “The main question is whether what he’s accused of in Florida would be a crime in Colorado.  Obviously, it’s not a crime in Colorado because he hasn’t been arrested here.”  Really?  If it isn’t a crime in Colorado, it damn well should be!

If you haven’t read the article, here is a brief synopsis “Greaves has no criminal record, but his self-published book of advice on how to make sexual encounters with children safe caused a flap when it showed up on Amazon in November.”  YOU THINK?  Someone please tell me how you make sexual encounters safe for a child?  That has got to be one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever heard.  There is no way a sexual encounter of ANY kind is safe for a child.  The damage that is done every day to children is disgusting and the fact that the State of Colorado doesn’t find this to be against the law disgusts me.   The sheriff in Polk County, Grady Judd says “the book included first-person descriptions of sexual encounters, purportedly written from a child’s point of view.”  This tells me that Mr. Greaves either was molested himself as a child or has spoken to a child who has been molested.  I cannot, as a survivor myself imagine how a child would describe this vile and disgusting act in any way that would make it seem like it was ok.  

A guide that details sexual conduct with a child is child pornography in my book, and according to Sheriff Judd, the book is “clearly a manifesto on how to sexually batter children.”  I cannot even believe that Amazon would carry such a book and that here actually had to be some flap about it before they removed it!  I have to quote Sheriff Judd again, “What’s wrong with a society that has gotten to the point that we can’t arrest child pornographers and child molesters who write a book about how to rape a child?” 

I’m just glad I don’t live in Colorado.