Nebraska

A little too late to help this man out, but yesterday, Nebraska's Unicameral (the only one body legislature around) voted to repeal the death penalty.

Had they done so some 47 years ago, perhaps this fellow would still be hanging around.

Charlie Starkweather, accompanied by his 14 year old girlfriend, killed eleven people, including his girlfriend's mother, stepfather and little sister, in a spree that ended when they were finally caught in Wyoming. Charlie gave up after he was cut by glass and convinced himself that he would bleed out if he didn't get help.

A little over a year later, he was executed by the electric chair in Nebraska.

On a side note, Charlie's girlfriend,  Caril Ann Fugate, went to school with my mother. My mom remembers Caril and I think she knew her family too. We will have to ask her.

For more information about the tallest Capitol building in the U.S and the country's only unicameral government, head over here: Nebraska's Capitol

 For more info about Charlie and Caril, and their gruesome killing spree, head over to the Wyoming history page here: Charles Starkweather

Freedom?

We were recently shocked to learn that Aaron Hernandez, the football celebrity, would be receiving life imprisonment without possibility of parole after a conviction on a murder charge.

In addition to his personal freedom, Hernandez sacrificed millions in contracts, endorsements and salaries.

How could a guy that, literally, had it all, throw it away for a stupid angry act?

Indeed, this sort of stupidity seems epidemic in our country. We have about 4.4% of the world's population, and 22% of the world's prison population, giving us the highest incarceration rate in the world.

How is it that our country, whose citizens enjoy freedoms unprecedented in world history, can find themselves so often incarcerated. Are our laws out of control? Do we punish far too many people? Do we create a system of recividism?

Maybe, but I think this speaks more to our foundational framework than it does to our justice system. Our framework does give us freedom to do, quite literally, nearly anything we want to. It is designed to let us get away with whatever our own moral compass does not forbid. And, the justice sytem is there to pick up the pieces when human nature takes over and a person's moral compass lets them delve into areas of behavior that society has decided are detrimental to us all.

In short, our system is designed so that the vast majority would follow the dictates of decency, while the laws were designed to bring consequences to those that exploited their freedoms.

But, with more and more people losing an understanding and a sense of morality, more and more are in need of the correction that the law brings. Without an understanding of right and wrong, the real freedoms we have can lead someone to start to think they can do whatever they want without consequence.

Therefore, I think someone who "has it all" might find it even easier than those of us that don't to think they really can do whatever they want and do it without consequence. After all, they've been able to do whatever they want before. Why wouldn't they be able to keep doing whatever they want?

There seems to be a fine line between the freedom to do whatever we want and the consequence of a life in prison.

Story Inside

http://www.karenbaobooks.com/

http://www.craigallenjohnson.com/

http://smekday.com/

We attended Tucson's Festival of Books and were pleased to get a chance to interact with numerous authors. We were also able to get these books autographed and talk to them personally about their work.

Check them out.

Ruby Red Goodbye

So many things are lost...

Among them, and more recently, one of our favorite teas.

Diane's recent shopping trip to Trader Joe's led her to discover that their Spiced Rooibos Ruby Red Chai had been discontinued. The staff was very kind about it. They offered her a box of their other Rooibos Tea, which is not a spicy tea at all, or their other Chai Tea, which is a black Tea with the Caffeine that she was trying to avoid.

I did check around online and I have discovered that, like Twinkies in the zombie apocalypse, the last of these boxes is becoming a hot commodity.

I have also found that when you are already feeling a sense of loss, losing something familiar, however small and inconsequential it might seem, causes extra amplified feelings of loss.

Goodby, Ruby Red, goodbye.

Wasteland

"Nothing good comes out of that place. It's a wasteland, as far as I'm concerned."

This is what my neighbor told me, after I shared with him that I just got back from spending a few days in Phoenix.

While the Phoenix area has never been my favorite place, and I think it has nowhere near the natural beauty of the area where I live, I do recall people asking if anything good could come out of another wasteland, a town called Nazareth (You know, hometown of Jesus).

What was I doing up there? I tell you that later.

For now, let me just tell you where I was.

I spent the last few days at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.This hospital is just outside of the "wasteland" that is Phoenix. And I think something good is coming out of there.

If you get a chance, click on the patient services link on the webpage. I think you will get a taste of how this hospital is different.

At first glance, it may just look like a cancer hospital for rich folk, where you can be pampered as you live with the dread disease.

Yes, it is a very nice place, but it is that way for a reason. The purpose of all the amenities is to work to restore hope and dignity to those that have cancer.

The founder of the Centers had a mother who died of cancer. After being a firsthand witness to, not just her battle with the disease, but the battle over her care, he vowed to change the way cancer is treated.

And, they are working hard to do just that. They understand that care for the ill is not just about treating a physical problem, but helping the person with the problem find hope, peace and healing.

I am not intending to toot their horn too much, but I have come to a better understanding of the philosophy of care they promote, and I hope to apply that to the "care" that I give to those assigned to my life.

Flicks Full of Faith

 Here's a couple of movies I took in last week that had some common themes. Thought I'd share a little.

The first is not yet released to theaters. Every so often, I get invitations to go check out screenings for upcoming movies so I can let everyone know how much they need to go see it. So, Ethan and I went to see Do You Believe the other night.

I'll review it and remind you of it in more depth later on, so I can do my part in paying them back for the privilege of seeing it before all of you. But for now, I think it is sufficient to give you just a few words about it.

This movie, starring (among others) Lee Majors, Mira Sorvino, Cybil Shepherd, Brian Bosworth and Sean Astin, is made by Pureflix,  the same folks who made the surprise hit, God's Not Dead. Their latest offering is designed to promote the idea that if one truly believes in the Cross of Jesus, it should make a radical difference in one's life.  As I said, I'll do more of a review later, but for now you might want to know that it was surprisingly lacking in the "cheese" factor that is often so prevalent in the genre. If you at all believe, this one is worth watching.

The Other one, I had to pay Redbox $1.62 to watch. Starring Colin Firth and Emma Stone, Magic in the Moonlight is (as IMDB says) "A romantic comedy about an Englishman brought in to help unmask a possible swindle. Personal and professional complications ensue."

While I am not trying to toss you a spoiler, one interesting tidbit of note. When the 'Englishman" comes to believe in the reality of the psychic powers of Emma Stone's character, it also opens his mind to belief in and prayer to God. I suppose in Woody Allen's mind, belief in psychic powers and  believe in the Almighty are pretty much one in the same.

Putting that aside, this is a movie driven by witty dialogue, which I think is becoming harder and harder to find in modern cinema. Colin Firth is a master of witty dialog and I found this one altogether entertaining.

Seen anything worth noting on the screen lately?

Bone Cancer in Children!?!

Making the rounds in recent days is a clip of prominent atheist apologist Steven Fry giving what would be his response, were he to meet God at the pearly gates.

His response was to describe his angry diatribe towards a God that would create and allow bone cancer in children. He wonders aloud why he should respect a "....stupid ....God...who creates a world so full of injustice and pain."

A God that presents himself as an "...all seeing...all wise...all kind God...", but behaves like a total maniac.

It is easy to see his point.

Who wouldn't be unhappy at a personality that made the world like it is.

However, the God he is addressing is not the one we find in the biblical account of who God is. I know I am an oddball to still believe what an ancient scripture teaches about this kind of stuff, but I do.

In the Bible, God is portrayed as having lovingly crated a perfect world and having lovingly given mankind a chance to live in that perfect world, or to freely choose to walk away from perfection and introduce death, destruction, injustice, pain and even bone cancer in children into their lives. Looking around, I think we can see what we chose, thinking we knew what was best.

In my opinion, if we want to find the maniacs that made this world such a tough place, we certainly don't need to look to God. We just need to look at ourselves.

Check out Steven Fry's answer here, and go to a motel and read the first Chapter in the book you find there for the other version.