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Saturday, June 28, 2008

Schism Here, Schism There...

Rad Trads say "up yours" to Rome, as do conservatives in the Church of King Henry VIII.

Clarification: Conservative Anglicans are specifically saying "up yours" to the liberals within their own communion, although I suppose you could say that their very existence as Anglicans generally expresses the same sentiment to Rome.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Outstupiding Himself Again

That would be Justice Anthony Kennedy, who along with four other boneheads on the Supreme Court, believes that "evolving standards of decency" renders the execution of brutal child rapists unconstitutional.

The abject dumbassness of the Court majority opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana, which Justice Kennedy wrote, is nicely expressed by Justice Samuel Alito:
The Court today holds that the Eighth Amendment categorically prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for the crime of raping a child. This is so, according to the Court, no matter how young the child, no matter how many times the child is raped, no matter how many children the perpetrator rapes, no matter how sadistic the crime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be. The Court provides two reasons for this sweeping conclusion: First, the Court claims to have identified “a national consensus” that the death penalty is never acceptable for the rape of a child; second, the Court concludes, based on its “independent judgment,” that imposing the death penalty for child rape is inconsistent with “ ‘the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.’ ” Ante, at 8, 15, 16 (citation omitted). Because neither of these justifications is sound, I respectfully dissent.