DADvocate

In some places abortion is legal virtually up until the moment of birth.

States restrict abortions late in pregnancy, permitting them only in certain rare cases. Only four one-hundredths of one percent of legal abortions are performed during the third trimester. Most late-term procedures involve wanted pregnancies that go tragically wrong when the woman's life or health is endangered or the fetus develops abnormalities incompatible with life. These women deserve protection, even though their situations are rare.
 

Strange state of affairs that cultural warriors on both sides will use the Papacy to justify only half of their arguments.

I guess ideological consistency just isn't in the cards for some folks.

Regarding the Death Penalty, and I think we've already discussed this, I personally don't care if it is a deterrent or not. Some people's crimes warrant execution. Sometimes there is no amount of rehabilitation or good works that can be accomplished to make up for the heinous nature of a crime.

But we must be very careful, my father was a prosecutor - a very good one - but to do what he did requires a faith in the 'theory' of a crime rather than actually finding the truth. That does make me a little uncomfortable with states that hand out the death penalty like candy. (I've also always wondered why defense attorney's get the bad rap when the prosecutors screw up a case, but that's another conversation entirely.)

That doesn't mean I think we should abolish the death penalty altogether, but it does mean we should take a long and hard look at every death penalty case, and maybe it isn't a bad thing that this sort of debate goes on in this society.

In the case of Williams, this is a cause celebre for many reasons. First of all, the kids books Williams wrote and his part in orchestrating the truce between the Bloods and the Crips cannot be overstated. Until you've had to carry a 7 iron into a room because it increased your chances of walking out alive, you cannot know how important that truce actually was for this country's youth.

Does that mean he should be nominated for the peace prize? Maybe, maybe not. But anyone can be nominated for the Nobel. If all gang violence had ended with that truce, and the Bloods and the Crips had suddenly become burgeoning charitable civic organizations policing and building their communities, then maybe we could realistically talk about the Nobel Peace Prize.

Death penalty opponents are using this case to gain exposure.

Leftists are using this case to wag fingers and get back at the 'man.'

Rightwingers are using this case to say 'see what would happen if they were in charge?'

Liberal and Conservative America are having conversations like this one, very quietly, with the understanding that it will probably end badly for all of us.

Other alliances exist on the basis of class and race, and that's part of the pluralistic society we have to accept. You always tend to think the guy who looks like you is getting a bum rap while the guys who don't look like you are getting away with it.

The real error here came from either Gray Davis or Schwartzenegger. Maybe even before that. They could have looked at this before it really got this big - back when it was just a few activists - and said "wow, this could really cause some problems, both legally (the actual case does have some parts that smell) and cultrually (in the tinderbox that is Los Angeles). Maybe we ought to just make that stuff life in prison, so he can continue writing and doing good works and never, ever get out of prison."

Instead, it is a flashpoint in the culture war. Now Schwartzenegger has to decide whether to acede to demands of activism or give them a martyr. Neither result is beneficial to America, and now the stakes are much, much higher.