Jonathan Winters once made a movie called….”It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world”. As far as I’m concerned he was way ahead of his time. It appears that we are indeed living in such a period.
This week the Supremes up in DC announced their decision that illegal immigrants who procure and utilize false social security cards as a form of identification cannot be held responsible for their actions or construed to be identity theft. Their ruling says that the only way someone could be convicted of identity theft is for them to be aware that the ID number was not theirs.
Let’s see…..I go out to my local flea market this weekend and find a booth where some guy is selling social security cards and drivers licenses. I tell him I need both. He asks for my name and then prints up my cards and takes my money. In cash, no checks, no credit cards. Now when I am standing before this booth, do I really think it is a function of the state or federal government and that they are the legal representatives authorized to help me secure these documents’What do you think’
Those of us who have stood in lines at the drivers license office or tried to get a new social security card know that it ain’t easy, nor is it quick. So my question is how would you not know that these cards aren’t phony’
I’m not a Rhodes Scholar and am having a hard time understanding the thinking of the court. One of the justices explained their decision this way: Justice Stephen Breyer cited a few common examples. “If we say that someone knowingly ate a sandwich with cheese, we normally assume that the person knew both that he was eating a sandwich and that it contained cheese,” he said.
I’m certain this is very insightful, but I’m hard pressed to understand the logic of the court….that’s probably my fault, in thinking there was some form of logic.
In another turn of events the same court (The Supremes) says that it will soon rule on whether or not juveniles can be sentenced to life without parole. Here again, the court is basing its upcoming opinion on statements such as this:
“The sentence is cruel and inhumane, no matter the offense, especially for juveniles who don’t have the decision-making capacity and impulse-control [of adults] and shouldn’t be held to the same level of culpability,”
So it appears likely that the august body will rule that teenage offenders can make decisions which can kill, maim, rob , rape or otherwise cause any of us great grief and because they don’t have the ‘necessary impulse control’ as would an adult, then they can walk out of the slammer in a shorter period of time. Try getting some sympathy from the friends and family members of loved ones who have been affected by some juvenile with a diminished decision making capacity. In my opinion, if they had the capacity of pulling the trigger or pulling down their pants, then they should be held responsible for their actions. But then again, what do I know’
How long will it be before drug dealers start hiring juvenile hit men to do their bidding if they know they can’t receive a life sentence for their actions’I may be behind the times and I suspect this is already taking place.
Get thee behind me, Satan.