My feelings are not complex: I am not opposed to the death penalty as a concept. I believe that there are some crimes so heinous, that display such a complete disregard for your fellow humans, that it is not unreasonable to deprive the person who commits those crimes of his life.

That said, I am well aware that the American judicial system has massive systemic problems, and that as a result, the death penalty can be (and has been) imposed on people who were not guilty. And that is a terrible wrong. If we cannot prevent innocents from being put to death then we shouldn’t do it at all.

Or put more simply, the American justice system does not work perfectly, but I still think that some really evil bastards deserve to fry for what they did.

Here’s something I believe very strongly:

Governments exist to do those things which families, towns, even states cannot do for themselves. They exist to preserve, protect, and defend (and I use those words deliberately) the people within their boundaries. And “protect and defend” means more than just having a big, well-equipped army.

It means taking care of our own when they are in need.

Now, reasonable people can disagree on exactly where the boundaries are for the role of government. I have no problem with that idea. But to suggest that disaster aid for people whose lives have been overturned by a hurricane or a tornado or an earthquake is not part of the essential function of government, or that it should be held hostage to the political whims of one party — that’s just wrong.

So when I read today that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is saying that any disaster aid should be offset by additional spending cuts or it shouldn’t happen, I was beyond livid.

Again, THIS IS WRONG.

This is not who we are as Americans.

When something bad happens to your neighbor, you ask, “how can I help?”. You don’t ask him to write you a check for the casserole you bring over, or send her a bill for the hours you spent helping her pump out her basement. And if you think holding disaster aid hostage to your political beliefs is somehow the right thing to do, then you are a callous, selfish, and shallow person and I really don’t want to know you.

I don’t know if the shooter was inspired by the violent rhetoric coming from the Tea Party. I don’t know if he saw the gunsights on Palin’s map and it triggered a cascade of thoughts that led to his actions. I don’t know if the over the top statements about “watering the tree of liberty” and “second amendment remedies” made him think that shooting politicians is an acceptable way to resolve issues.

What I do know is that everyone who cheered or applauded or agreed with Tea Partier statements about second amendment remedies cannot say that they didn’t mean this. This *is* a second amendment remedy. It is a disgruntled citizen using a gun to bring about political change. If this is not what they meant, if they weren’t really calling for people to kill their political opponents, then they should not have couched the discussion in such violent terms. They should not have said that killing someone elected to office is an acceptable response to electoral loss.

Emphasis added. This is exactly the point. Words have meaning. People need to choose them carefully. Especially in a world where disturbed loners have access to guns.

This is a test of our commitment to American values. We have to have the courage of our convictions. We must do what is right, not what is easy. And we must put our faith in the freedoms that have sustained our great country for more than 200 years.

What I’m not so proud of, on the other hand, are idiots like this:

Michael Enright … was charged with felony attempted murder as a hate crime – among other crimes – after [he] slashed [NYC cabbie Ahmed] Sharif across the face, arm and hand after asking the Bangladesh-born cabbie if he was Muslim and then saying ‘As-salaam alaikum’ – which means ‘peace be unto you’ in Arabic

Luckily Enright was from upstate though.

So a Federal court has struck down CA Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, on the grounds that it’s unconstitutional.

At this point it’s obviously just a matter of time before Prop 8 winds it way to the US Supreme Court. So today’s ruling is just one more waypoint on that long journey and, thanks to the stay Judge Walker granted almost immediately after issuing his ruling, nothing has really changed.

What’s bugging me tonight are not so much the outright anti-gay bigots, but the ones who choose to wrap their bias in the cloak of their “activist judges are stepping on the voice of the PEOPLE!” outrage.

It’s really simple. The US Constitution sets the rules by which this country is run. If “the people” vote on something that’s against the tenets of the Constitution, it is completely appropriate to use the courts to deny “the people” their wish.

Don’t like it? You have options. Amend the Constitution. Or go live somewhere else. But this is America and these are the rules by which we operate. Getting upset when those rules go against you is, well, un-American.

I don’t know how this will all end. For all I know the Supreme Court will eventually decide that banning gay marriage does not violate the 14th Amendment and Prop 8 will stand. And I’ll be pretty unhappy if that does come to pass (G-d forbid!). But that’s how America works.

It would be nice if more Americans understood that.

Really? This is what America has come to?

Looking around the Internet you’ll find a lot of pixels spent decrying how terrible it is, wondering why people feel it’s OK to do this sort of thing today, and generally exuding an air of smug superiority that they are so much more enlightened than those awful racists.

Ohreallynow?

I wrote this a few years ago. Exactly how much has changed?

Racism exists even in the deep-blue zones of San Francisco. We do better than most, but even here we still struggle. Look around your friends, neighbors, and co-workers. You probably can point to a bunch of people whose families come from India, China, Japan, Europe, and similar parts of the planet. Blacks and Latinos though? Not so much.

And no, I am not naive enough to think that there’s a simple solution to the problem. Just saying that before you point a finger, think a bit abut how it could be pointed back at you.

We did not come here to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it’s hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history’s test.

Because that is who we are.

President Barack Obama
Address to Congress
September 9 2009

This rampant fear-mongering would be bad enough, but using the word “Socialist” as if it were the worst thing you could ever call a person makes me even more annoyed.

My late grandfather, Harold Luxemburg, was a Socialist. In fact, one of the earliest mentions of his name in the New York Times was June 2, 1934, when he and some of his fellow Socialists got arrested for forming a picket line in front of a Brooklyn bakery they were trying to unionize.

Scary stuff, right? Um, no.

Grandpa worked all his life for the rights of people who didn’t have many. He could have had an easier time of it had he chosen some less contentious profession, but instead he saw poverty and discrimination and unfairness all around him and decided to do something about it. He worked to improve the lives of milkmen and restaurant workers and janitors, and he always rooted for the underdog.

In his private life he was a kind, intelligent, and caring man with a strong work ethic who valued education and cultural literacy extremely highly, and loved spending time with his family. And sadly, he left us in 1990. To this day I miss him and am proud of him.

So to the Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh loving troglodytes who think that “Socialist” and “Socialism” are a slur and gleefully hurl those words around as if they actually had the power to hurt (if any of you should happen to find your way to this little corner of the Internet) — with all due respect I say, you don’t have a clue. My grandfather the Socialist was a better man than any of you.

Sad news of Ted Kennedy’s passing.

An imperfect man, whose life was marked by tragedy. And yet he managed to take it all in and transmute those flaws into the energy to drive a historic Senate career with a far-ranging legacy.

I like to think that finally he is reunited with his martyred brothers, and that they greeted him with a welcoming hug and told him, “well done”.

Photo Credit: jonathanpberger on Flickr.

Was he always this crazy or did it happen more recently?