The World Around You

Eugene Volokh does an effective job of picking apart the argument that the ACLU and others are just “hostile to Christianity” and that Christians are actually more tolerant of minority religions than the reverse.

This is a good summation of the power struggle within the administration from Paul Krugman this morning,

In short, this week’s diplomatic debacle probably reflects an internal power struggle, with hawks using the contracts issue as a way to prevent Republican grown-ups from regaining control of U.S. foreign policy. And initial indications are that the ploy is working — that the hawks have, once again, managed to tap into Mr. Bush’s fondness for moralistic, good-versus-evil formulations. “It’s very simple,” Mr. Bush said yesterday. “Our people risk their lives. . . . Friendly coalition folks risk their lives. . . . The contracting is going to reflect that.”

In the end the Bush doctrine — based on delusions of grandeur about America’s ability to dominate the world through force — will collapse. What we’ve just learned is how hard and dirty the doctrine’s proponents will fight against the inevitable.

Amen!

Here we go again,

A twice-convicted sex offender who was required to register his address with authorities has been accused of molesting two young boys.

Law enforcement officials and child advocates said the arrest of Charles Cleveland Malec underscores limitations of registration lists mandated by Alabama’s Community Notification Act.

“I think we have a tall order to keep our children safe. I think it’s something we need to address,” said Blakely Davis, director of CARE House, Baldwin’s child advocacy center.

Deputies arrested Malec, 42, three days after receiving a complaint from the father of one of the boys. Authorities said Malec sodomized the boys — both younger than 12 — between Saturday and Monday. They would not reveal the exact ages of the alleged victims.

Malec, charged with first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sodomy, was held Thursday night at the Baldwin County Corrections Center pending a bond hearing Friday.

He was convicted of sexual abuse in 1982 and 1995 and had been living in a trailer in the Elsanor community east of Robertsdale since 2001, according to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department.

We have to stop pretending these laws are really reducing the risk to children in the community. Sex offenders are continuing to slip through the cracks to offend again. There is no excuse for someone being given multiple opportunities to abuse children. Maybe there needs to be a two strikes law for sexual abuse. I don’t know the answer, but these stories simply cannot continue.

This practice has been going on at DHR for three years, and no one said a thing, certainly not our previous Governor, but Governor Riley put a halt to it immediately.

Gov. Bob Riley has put a halt to giving 4,400 welfare workers a half-day off for shopping and other “holiday preparation,” determining that the 13 annual paid holidays they receive is enough.