4th of July
Of to go Flag Counting now…
On the Ropes:
In its second major death penalty decision in less than a week, the Supreme Court, by a 7-2 vote, has overturned nearly 150 death sentences where a judge instead of jury sentences the accused to death. The ruling indicates that a judge passing a death sentence instead of a jury violates the spirit of the 6th amendment right to a trial by their peers.
More excitingly, yet another blow has been dealt to the crime against democracy that is the death penalty.
Some anti-death penalty resources.
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Farewell Ann.
So Ann Landers has died. She was 83. Born Ester Pauline Friedman, she was a nice Jewish girl from Iowa and the twin sister of Abigal Van Buren, the force behind Dear Abbey. Landers’s column began in 1955 and ran until the day of her death, making her one of the most widely read and influential women in America.
Who will advise us now?
The Slow Death Penalty:
In a stunning display of rationality, the Supreme Court has voted 6-3 to ban the dealth penalty for retarded defendants. I’m going to be a silly idealist here and say hopefully we’re on the road to it being challenged all together. Sadly, 38 states disagree and have not yet realized that the U.S. is both the only democratic country in the world with a dealth penalty and the one with the highest rates of crime and imprisionment.
Suit yourself:
No, I don’t have World Cup Fever. But my whole neighborhood does.
A New Class:
I was intrigued by an article found on Metafilter that spectulated that America’s cities owe much of their good and bad fortune to a new societal segment known as the Creative Class, educated upper-middle class young folks whom the post-dot com economy is eager to recruit. The author Richard Florida (who has a book out on the subject) posits that cities like Austin, Chicago and my very own San Francisco are thriving thanks to policies focused on social diversity, high quality of life and respect for the frenetic nature of urban space while cities like Memphis, Las Vegas, and Miami are slipping thanks to their reliance on office parks, strip malls and miles of freeways.
It’s a lovely theory and one I get behind with all my spirit. And yet I hope Mr. Florida addresses the difficulties of running a thriving, diverse city, much less living in one. I’d rank affordable housing at the top which is mentioned exactly nowhere in this piece.
The book’s called The Rise of the Creative Class: and How Its Transforming Work and I’m going to see if I can get ahold of it. I’m in to pop social phenomenon stuff like this, particularly when I dig the conclusion. Meantime, where do you live and how does it rank on the Creative Class scale?