The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

When I saw a Washington Post  article entitled "The unintended consequences of laws addressing sex between teachers and students," a WTF expression came across my face and I couldn't help but read it. The article was written by former attorney Betsy Karasik and prompted by a recent case where former Montana high school teacher Stacey Dean Rambold was sentenced to just 30 days in jail after he pled guilty to raping then 14-year old Cherice Morales, who committed suicide at the age of 16. After briefly going over the controversial ruling made by Judge G. Todd Baugh, Karasik said this: "...I don't believe that all sexual conduct between underage students and teachers should necessarily be classified as rape, and I believe that absent extenuating circumstances, consensual sexual activity between teachers and students should not be criminalized..." Later in the article, she wrote the following: "I've been a 14-year-old girl, and so have all of ...

About once a month I'm greeted with a lovely response to a blog of mine which includes so many right-wing talking points and bumper-sticker slogans, it presents me with the challenge of, "Can I think of any more?" Often times I give up after about two minutes of thinking over that very question. Just this morning I was greeted with such a comment - this in response to a pro-gun control blog I wrote in wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. This individual, who came across as a high school NRA member, responded to the blog with this: "liberal lackies know they are saying stupid comments but do so to take focus away from the real issues.... the fact is that no gun law will take guns away from criminals... we already have a law that says a criminal cannot own/possess/have-access-to firearms yet every day, in every state of the union, crime is being committed by criminals, many with stolen, smuggled, or otherwise illegally possessed weapons t...