The CrabAppleLane ruby-throated hummingbird flock is due back any day now (They may even be here already) and Buffy, our wintering buff-bellied hummingbird, is still here. Buffy has had uncontested access to our two feeders since October. I expect some squabbling to ensue but I hope he/she doesn't get chased off. Buffy is bigger and faster than the ruby-throats but will be severely outnumbered. Buffy has been a joy here and I'd miss him/her.
Buffy the nectar slayer - CrabAppleLane - February 8, 2009
About today's QOTD: I think abolition is inevitable and I'm OK with it.
Quote of the Day
Turns out, it is cheaper to imprison killers for life than to execute them, according to a series of recent surveys. Tens of millions of dollars cheaper, politicians are learning, during a tumbling recession when nearly every state faces job cuts and massive deficits.
Associated Press
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "This month, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority in Herring v. United States, a 5-to-4 decision, took a big step toward the goal he had discussed a quarter-century before. Taking aim at one of the towering legacies of the Warren Court, its landmark 1961 decision applying the exclusionary rule to the states, the chief justice's majority opinion established for the first time that unlawful police conduct should not require the suppression of evidence if all that was involved was isolated carelessness. That was a significant step in itself. More important yet, it suggested that the exclusionary rule itself might be at risk."
Wonderful shot of Buffy. :)
That's an interesting twist on the death penalty issue. I would have thought the opposite. I'm okay with abolition, too.
The statistics about life imprisonment versus death have been talked about here in California for a while. We currently have nearly 700 people on death row at San Quentin.
The death penalty is cheap if you do it the way China does it: a minimum of due process at any stage of the proceedings. Many executions happen within 12 months of when sentence is passed--some occur the same day.
Once you decide that appeals are mandatory because you want to make sure you don't execute someone who's innocent -- well, things get slow, messy and expensive. In California, both a state and federal appeal are mandated. One of the big holdups in the process is that there aren't nearly enough lawyers available to handle all the appeals--some prisoners wait several years before they even have an attorney.
I'm OK with abolition, too, though the last time this was on the ballot here, the death penalty got 75 percent support.