The American Civil Liberties Union again is wasting its time - and being stereotypically stupid in doing so.

Apparently, we all agree that raping and stabbing to death a 14-year-old girl is bad, but when it comes to trying to find a vein in a prisoner’s arm 18 times, that’s too much.

The ACLU, which opposes the death penalty, again is urging the governor to drop the death penalty. I hate to say this, but the group is doing the right thing (finally) in opposing the death penalty. Rather than its usual legal attempts, the group should urge lawmakers and the governor to change the law. Most people, even those of us who don’t favor capital punishment, see the legitimacy of using it against society’s worst offenders. That doesn’t mean we believe it should be used, only that we recognize it can be used. Not so the ACLU.

And, in unfortunate but tyypical ACLU fashion, the group makes having to poke a guy’s arm 18 times sound dreadful: Read the rest of this entry »

There are about 10 things wrong with this story from The Associated Press - and none of them on the part of the woman arrested. Perhaps the better course of action would be to tie other people’s tubes in public. Would that result in an assault charge rather than the award for responsible public behavior it should bring?

Ohio woman arrested for spanking

CINCINNATI (AP) - Police say a woman has been arrested for allegedly spanking another woman’s 2-year-old son in a store.

Gloria Ballard was due in a Hamilton County court later Wednesday to face an assault charge.

Cincinnati police say the toddler said something that apparently annoyed her inside a Salvation Army store on Tuesday. Police say she then told the boy’s mother she didn’t know how to take care of her son, put him over her knee, and spanked him three times.

Police say the two women didn’t know each other and that the 44-year-old Ballard wasn’t given permission to touch the child.

They say love is blind, but maybe not so much in this case. This guy allegedly stole from her, but her heart was not among what he is supposed to have gotten away with.

From The Associated Press:

Police: Ohio robbery suspect asked victim for date

COLUMBUS - Police say a suspect in a home robbery was arrested when he returned to the home about two hours later to ask the victim for a date.

Police say 20-year-old Stephfon Bennett of Columbus was among three men who robbed a couple late Sunday.

Columbus police Sgt. Sean Laird says the woman recognized Bennett as one of the robbers when he returned to asked her out. She had a relative call 911.

Police say Bennett was arrested in front of the home. He was arraigned Tuesday on a charge of aggravated robbery and was being held in the Franklin County jail on $100,000 bail.

A public defender had not yet been assigned to Bennett’s case.

From The Associated Press

Obama reduces 2010 pay increases to 2 percent

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama notified Congress on Monday he is reducing pay increases for federal workers from 2.4 percent to 2 percent.

Using powers employed by his two most recent predecessors, the president cited the national unemployment rate and the budget busting federal payroll.

Obama also said that he would decide by Nov. 30 on the need to take action on “locality pay,” wages over and above the base federal rates that are determined according to geographic living costs and comparable private-sector pay.

The locality pay set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2010, would have added an average of 16.5 percent to the wages of federal workers, meaning that the pay increase as outlined by statute would have totaled 18.9 percent throughout the federal system.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden, who serves as president of the Senate, Obama said he was taking action because the 2.4 percent increase mandated by statute would cost $22.6 billion in 2010. He said he had budgeted only for a 2 percent across-the-board increase at a cost of $19.9 billion.

Obama said he was invoking powers to put in place his own pay plan in times of a national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the nation. Former President George W. Bush used the authority previously, as did President Bill Clinton before him.

“With unemployment at 9.5 percent in June to cite just one economic indicator, few would disagree that our country is facing serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare,” Obama’s letter said.

Obama said he did not believe his order would affect the government’s ability to attract or keep employees.

“To the contrary,” his letter said, “since any pay raise above the amount proposed in this alternative plan would likely be unfunded, agencies would have to absorb the additional cost and could have to reduce hiring to pay the higher rates.”

Bush used similar language and arguments when he intervened in federal salaries in November 2007.

Hate to break it to the good (so-called) conservative Republicans from Northwest Ohio, but one of the things you champion is socialistic. Well, many things are, come to think of it, once you take in Social secutiry, Medicare, farm subsidies AND fire departments.

Someone has set up a Facebook page to challenge the FDs, anyway: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111256528714

From The Associated Press:

Police: Drunk Ohio student OK after hit by train

BOLWING GREEN, Ohio (AP) - Police in an Ohio college town say a student who was resting off a night of drinking near train tracks is OK after being hit by a train.

Police in Bowling Green say the 19-year-old was lying down near the tracks early Friday when he heard a train whistle blow. They say he jumped up and tried to get out of the way but was grazed by the engine.

Police have charged Michael Irwin of Waterville with trespassing and underage consumption of alcohol.

He was treated at a Bowling Green hospital and released.

If it weren’t for teachers, we wouldn’t have doctors and lawyers. So says Lima Middle School teacher Kelli Saine. Poor Kelli Saine apparently didn’t have to sit through any critical thinking classes in college as she studied self-esteem issues.

“With the amount of work they expect from us, 2 percent is not what I believe we are worthy of,” Saine told The Lima. “Look at what doctors make. If it wasn’t for teachers, you wouldn’t have doctors or lawyers.”

One wonders who is responsible, going on Saine’s logic, for murderers and lifelong welfare recipients. How about multi-generational poverty? Why, that also would be teachers.

Saine is unhappy Lima teachers will get only a 2 percent raise each of the two years in their new contract. So, going back to How to Whine Like a Teacher 101, Saine points out that teachers provide one of the building blocks any successful person needs. Saine just happens to overlook a lot, a whole lot.

• The 2 percent is one of two raises teachers will get. Teachers and their unions whine too much to remember they get an automatic yearly step increase in addition to the usual contractual increase. Must be rough to get two raises each of the next two years.

• Doctors get sued for screwing up. Teachers do not. Doctors end up on the front page when they screw up, and they could end up being out of their chosen profession. They pay an incredible amount in insurance to guard against lawsuits. Teachers blame parents, lack of school funding and pay.

• Oh, yes, there’s this: We’re in a recession. Unemployment is up everywhere. Those who still have jobs have seen their pay and hours cut, but poor teachers only get two raises this year and next. How will they ever survive?