"With Aaron's death, we can wait no longer."

"This time there will be change or there will be chaos."

Anders Behring Breivik — who killed 77 and injured 242 others — is sentenced to 21 years max and maybe only 10 years.

He admitted the murders and claimed he was sane. The court — in Norway — found him. But the sentence — for all of that — is 10 to 21 years. Is Norway sane?

ADDED: It's Norway's "restorative" justice approach:

A comfortable cell, clean and relaxing environment, and nice daily activities such as cooking classes are all meant to prepare the criminal for potentially difficult or painful internal reformation. Incarceration, in this thinking, is the treatment for whatever social or psychological disease led them to transgress. The criminals are not primarily wrongdoers to be punished, but broken people to be fixed....

Despite the lighter sentences, restorative justice systems seem to reduce crime, reduce the cost of imprisoning criminals, and reduce recidivism....

"[O]ur Eighth Amend­ment cases are no longer tied to any objective indicia of society’s standards."

"Our Eighth Amendment case law is now entirely inward looking," writes Justice Alito, dissenting today in Miller v. Alabama — PDF — which declared it mandatory life imprisonment to be "cruel and unusual" punishment when imposed on a juvenile.

Unless our cases change course, we will continue to march toward some vision of evolutionary culmination that the Court has not yet disclosed.

Do you think the Court has a "vision of evolutionary culmination"?

"Handless man throws volleyball-size rock through KFC window...:

"The 46-year-old also allegedly chucked a brick through KFC’s drive-through window..."

ADDED: An element of this mystery — why did he do it? why doesn't he have hands? — is that he was (allegedly) brought into this country by the United Nations. Could it be that in his home country, he had a penchant for throwing things through windows and he was punished by having his hands cut off?

"This is Obama chortling with Jimmy Fallon about lower-class people."

"Do we believe, even for a second... that if Obama had been busted for marijuana, under the laws that he condones, would his life have been better? If Obama had been caught with the marijuana that he says he uses, and maybe a little blow — blow, cocaine, blow — this casual attitude toward drugs — a casual attitude toward drugs — that makes him really cool on Jimmy Fallon, makes him the hip President. I'm the cool President! I'm the happenin'est President! I say "weed." I say "blow." It's all a big deal. Ha ha ha. Huge laugh from the college students. And if he had been busted, under his laws, he would have done hard, fucking time, and if he had done time in prison, time in federal prison, time for his weed and a little blow, he would not be President of the United States of America, and he would not have gone to his fancy-ass college, he would not have sold books that sold millions and millions of copies and made millions and millions of dollars, he would not have a beautiful, smart wife, he would not have a great job. He would have been in prison. And it's not a goddamn joke."



Says Penn Jillette, who has never used any drugs (or had any alcohol) and doesn't generally have a problem with hypocrisy.

ADDED: The last sentence of this post isn't sarcasm. Penn states at the beginning of the video that he  doesn't generally have a problem with hypocrisy. He's not a stickler about mere hypocrisy. It's this particular hypocrisy by Obama that bothers him deeply. He states at the end of the video that he himself has never used any substances, which is useful to know: He's not speaking from a position of self-interest.

"In the two months since he was found guilty of using a webcam to spy on his roommate, Dharun Ravi has gone from being a symbol of antigay bias..."

"... to being something of a folk hero, with rallies of his supporters urging the court to 'free Dharun.'"

The link goes to a front-page NYT story about how prominent gay rights advocates are championing Ravi (as he faces sentencing tomorrow).

Mr. Ravi could face deportation to his native India if he is given a prison sentence. Many Indians have been among his biggest supporters. At a rally on the State House steps in Trenton last week, some waved signs with the headline on [former New Jersey Governor Jim] McGreevey’s article: “Don’t Make Dharun Ravi Our Antigay Scapegoat.”

It's just an analogy: The EPA's approach to enforcement is like the way the Romans used crucifixion.

"EPA’s 'philosophy of enforcement,' said EPA’s Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz, is 'kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean: they’d go into little Turkish towns somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they’d run into, and they’d crucify them.'"

Then everybody else complies.

What? Can't you handle analogies?

"I believe in working with the hearts of people, and not locking them up."

Says Pat Robertson, advocating the legalization of marijuana.

"I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol... I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded."...

Mr. Robertson said he enjoyed a glass of wine now and then — “When I was in college, I hit it pretty hard, but that was before Christ.” He added that he did not think marijuana appeared in the Bible, though he noted that “Jesus made water into wine.”

“I don’t think he was a teetotaler,” he said.

Now, of course, Pat Roberson has said a lot of hare-brained things over the years, — but that doesn't mean he's always wrong. I was going to look up and post about his worst opinions, but I got sidetracked into this question whether marijuana appears in the Bible. You just know there will be pages on the internet talking about marijuana in the Bible. For example:

God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth.…To you it will be for meat." … And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:29-31) The Bible predicts some herb's prohibition. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall … speak lies in hypocrisy … commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (Paul: 1 Timothy 4:1-3)

The Bible speaks of a special plant. "I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more." (Ezekiel 34:29) A healing plant. On either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare 12 manner of fruits, and yielding her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. (Revelations 22:1-2) A gift from God.

Wisconsin man faces 50 years in prison and a $90,000 fine on charges of forging signatures on recall petitions.

See, this is what you call the deterrent effect.

Why not the death penalty? Surely, the threat of execution would keep these cheating connivers in line.

"The cat is a living human animal and doesn't deserve to be basically murdered...."

So said Circuit Judge David Hansher, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The cat is a living human animal!?

Anyway, the judge sent a man to jail for 6 months for killing a stray cat who was damaging his property. When people kill feral animals on their property, it's inflammatory to call it "murder." The method of killing the cat sound horrible — swinging it by the tail and cracking its head — but the man discovered the cat living in his vacant rental property, where it had been "urinating and defecating all over and tearing up furniture":

He told Hansher that he opened the doors and windows and tried to chase the animal outside, but that it instead hid under the kitchen sink. He said he tried to grab it by the neck but could only reach the tail, and once he pulled it out, the cat began viciously clawing and biting at him.

The judge said: "It's abhorrent and repulsive what you did... I'd rather have an armed robber in front of me than someone like you."

Crazy!

"Hundreds of New Yorkers who have been caught with small amounts of marijuana, or who have simply admitted to using it, have become ensnared in civil child neglect cases in recent years..."

"... though they did not face even the least of criminal charges, according to city records and defense lawyers. A small number of parents in these cases have even lost custody of their children."

"A Mendocino County woman who transformed her home into a bear bohemia with wading pools and specially prepared banquets..."

"... of corn meal and peanut butter sandwiches will not do jail time for doting on her hairy friends, but she will remain exiled from her property."

[Lynne Gravier, 77], known to almost everyone as the "Bear Woman," has been feeding bruins and other animals for decades, but nobody realized the extent of her devotion until neighbors began complaining. Last Aug. 24, seven fish and game wardens raided Gravier's home. They stumbled on what was essentially an animal hippie commune and shack-out pad.

In all 15 loafing black bears hung out with Gravier inside the house and on her deck, and lumbered around the compound like kings at a feast. Gravier named her oafish friends things like Smiley, Goofy, Connie, Biggie and Wombat. She admitted setting up a kiddie pool for wallowing. She fixed peanut butter sandwiches for her guests, sometimes mixing in glucosamine to ease the arthritis pain in older bears.

Some 6,000 pounds of rolled and cracked corn was delivered every month from a ranch supply house. Gravier stored the food in a 40-foot-long shipping container that she used as an ursine food dispensary.

Knight-errantry was not in evidence among the hulking chowhounds, who turned Gravier's home into a reeking outhouse. The cabin-style home was piled high with filth by the time of the raid and immediately condemned by county authorities.

Gravier also fed 18 cats, three dogs, 40 peacocks and a steady stream of visiting turkeys and deer.

And yet it took decades for the neighbors to begin complaining? And then, in the end, she gets no real punishment, after animal lovers protest the prosecution on behalf of the well-meaning lady. According to the neighbors, her loving ministrations were turning bears into problem bears that break into houses, chase sheep, and end up needing to get killed.

Bothersome bears are a particularly volatile issue in this cattle- and pot-growing town of 1,300 near the South Fork of the Eel River, in the heart of redwood country.

Pot-growing, eh? Seems like you can get away with breaking all kinds of laws these days... at least if your criminality has enough of a hippie vibe.

"He made a big mistake, but really somewhere in his heart he (is) funny, lovable, caring and a great father."

"Everybody in my family ... is giving him a second chance... Will you?"

Said the 11-year old boy whose father tortured him:

He ripped the pre-teen's clothes off, beat him with a spatula and burned both his hands on a hot stove.

With the skin peeling from Christopher's hands, his father then punched the naked kid in the face and forced the screaming boy into the oven.

"I'm going to burn you alive!" he howled, according to law enforcement sources.

Moss eventually relented and let Christopher out of the oven - only to throw the nude child with the burned hands into the front yard.

When he let the injured boy inside, Christopher was ordered to sit on the floor "like a dog," court documents show.

But the boy cuddled with his father inside the courtroom before taking the witness stand to plead for his dad's release.

"Dear judge, I will fight so hard (for) my dad to live with me," the little boy began.

The judge gave the man "four months of weekends in jail and five years probation" instead of a 7-year sentence. 

Anders Behring Breivik says "the rest of the world doesn’t understand his point of view, but in 60 years time, they’ll understand him."

"He believes that he is in a war and in a war you can do things like that... He has a view of reality that is very difficult to explain... I cannot describe him because he is not like anyone... This was an attack on the Labor Party.”

Says the Norwegian terrorist's lawyer.

But speaking of views of reality that are very difficult to explain, for murdering 86 human beings, Breivik faces a prison sentence of merely 21 years. According to the linked article, prosecutors are considering charging Breivik with "crimes against humanity," and that would push the maximum sentence up to a big 30 years.

Is it unconstitutional to impose a 5-year sentence on a 19-year-old for distributing child pornography?

Judge Weinstein's 400-page opinion says it's too long.

"It would be impermissible for the court to base its decision of recidivism on its unsupported theory of genetics."

Oh, but maybe the poor judge was born with a tendency to believe that his gut instincts and stuff he's seen on the internet are scientific fact.

"Horrific video footage has emerged of Taliban insurgents stoning a couple to death for alleged adultery in northern Afghanistan."

"Hundreds of villagers can be seen on the video standing around as the woman, Siddqa, is buried up to her waist in a four foot hole in the ground. Two mullahs pass sentence before the crowd begins to throw rocks at her head and body as she desperately tries to crawl free...."

"State retribution for tiny thefts, such as stealing a potato, even by a child, would include being tied up and thrown into a pond..."

"... parents were forced to bury their children alive or were doused in excrement and urine, others were set alight, or had a nose or ear cut off. One record shows how a man was branded with hot metal. People were forced to work naked in the middle of winter; 80 per cent of all the villagers in one region of a quarter of a million Chinese were banned from the official canteen because they were too old or ill to be effective workers, so were deliberately starved to death."

New details from the Great Leap Forward, 1958-1962, in which 45 million people died.

"Despite protests from the West, her sentence will be carried out if the judiciary decides to carry it out..."

Iran relents in spite of/because of our objections.

"She will be buried up to her chest, deeper than a man would be..."

"... and the stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately..."

Death by stoning in Iran. The crime is adultery. The evidence was a confession obtained after 99 lashes.