Thursday, March 23, 2006

Justice on Spring Break

Today, news from the world of Justice: one of the dog-handler torturers of Abu Ghraib was sentenced today to prison. For six months.

Yep. Six months.

Same as what Martha got for insider stock trading. But hey, it's twice as long as what Judy Miller got. Jesus, you can get one to five (years, that is) for smoking a joint...this guy tortures actual human beings and gets six months. He'll be home by Xmas, and if he plays his cards right, with a book deal and an advertising contract with Alpo.

No word on what sentence the dog involved will be facing. No Scooby Snax for a month, I suppose.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the country that our soldiers fought and died to make free, justice has a new life. A man there is facing a death sentence for converting from Islam to Christianity. I couldn't help but wonder what Yann Martel's fictional character Pi would get—but he was a Hindu who decided to convert to all three religions at once. Well, I guess he got his, after all: hard labor in a boat with Richard Parker (I won't tell you who Richard Parker is—if you haven't read the book, check it out).

Sliding over to India, we find that the old blind virgin Justice is alive and well there: a six year old girl is being charged with assault on not-one-not-two-but-three grown police officers. And proving once again that children are wiser than adults, the little girl had this comment on her predicament: "I am scared to go to school. I fear the police and the courts."

Meanwhile, back in good old Washington, where Justice hangs that sleek, sexy robe of hers, in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal(s), Congress is forging ahead with ethics reform. Well, sort of. All right, they'll get around to it—right now they're on spring break until next week.

Yep. Spring break. Hey, you're fifty or sixty-something, you don't get any at home from the old lady (or old man), and those hormones start jumping around this time of year for everybody. OK kids, have fun—but Ted, best leave the car in the garage.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I share your outrage that the punishment doesn't fit the crime with yesterday's sentencing of the dog-handler at Abu Ghraib, the real travesty is that this soldier was following orders from his superiors. Calls to torture and ignore the human rights of "enemey combatants" have come from the highest offices in our government.

Let us remember who the real villians are.

Brian Donohue said...

Absolutely agreed--an excellent point. These guys were acting under orders in state-sponsored terrorism; and the orders came, I suspect, from the Oval Office on down.