Should we let drug offenders avoid prison?

More and more drug offenders are ending up in our prisons. More and more people are saying that allowing offenders to avoid prison would be a good way for us to solve the problem of escalating costs for more and more prisoners.

My experience in a career as a child protection worker is that at least one adult in families where there is child abuse or neglect abuses alcohol or is involved in the illegal drug trade in ninety per cent of child welfare cases. Usually no one in these families is immune from the effects of choices being made by these adults. Families are better off when the offending adult is removed after being caught committing a crime. Maybe the adult is convicted of child abuse, maybe he or she is convicted of drug involvement, maybe it is something else. These are persons who are completely self-centered and regard other people only as objects to be used to satisfy whatever whim they are seeking to satisfy. They are prone to constant self pity when things do not go their way. Feeling sorry for themselves, they justify their next crime.

Prison at least allows the family the safety of putting together attempts to rebuild. Until we see substantial results from alternative programs, we should not take away prison as a possible consequence.

A Columnist's Cheap Trick

Today in the Denver Post left-wing columnist Diane Carmen writes about the funeral of a police officer named Donnie Young who was killed recently. The suspect in the murder is an illegal immigrant, who may have already fled back to safety across our porous border with Mexico.

Does Carmen address the issue of illegal immigration? No. She chooses to feature the fact that Detective Young had a seven-year-old son he had met only once. We do not know Young's side of this story, because he is dead, and cannot tell us. But feminist columnists like Carmen never miss the chance to besmirch the reputation of a cop, or, for that matter, any man.

Power to the People!

The people of America have elected a Republican president and a Republican Congress. Yet, a small group from the party not in power, just as they did in the 1950s against freedom for African Americans, are using the filibuster to thwart the will of the majority. Today John Aloysius Farrell, Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief, argues that this is not the time to "cast away, for political expediency, a precious and hard-won check on power," the filibuster. He admits that the people who used it against civil rights for African Americans, were led by Democrats like Mendel Rivers of South Carolina, a "thoroughly despicable man." The only positive use of the filibuster that Farrel cites is the fictitous movie "Mr. Smith goes to Washington."

I have an idea for the Democrats. Elect people whose views are in line with those of the majority of Americans. Then you may be able to capture the House of Representatives, Senate, or the White House, or all three, as have the Republicans. Until then, avoid fiction, endorse reality: accept the consequences of your actions!

The Denver Nuggets Have a Problem

Why can't the Denver Nuggets advance past the first round of the playoffs? Not getting the answers I need from the local sports columnists, I turned to my wife, an astute judge of people. She knew the answer immediately: the Nuggets have too many players who are "cute." What about the San Antonio Spurs, the team who beat the Nuggets in the first round? They have no "cute" players, and some (Ginobili) are downright scary! Who are the Nuggets' cuties? She names names: Carmelo Anthony, Andre MIller, Marcus Camby, and, of course, Earl Boykins. These guys have got to go!

Bill Owens Knows What He Has To Do

Today's Rocky Mountain News has a story about Governor Bill Owens reuniting with his wife. Will he now run for President in 2008?

You're Just a Grown-up

"Daddy, how does the moon stay up there in the sky," asked my three-year-old son Greg last night during our tucking in ceremonies. Because I took too long to come up with an answer, he followed that query with another. "Does it have sticky stuff on it?" Before I could answer that one, five-year-old Jonathan asked me, "Daddy, do you miss being a kid?" I told Jonathan that in some ways I still am a kid. Greg was having none of that. "Dad, you're just a grown up."

The Anti-business Business Editor

Al Lewis, Business Editor of the Denver Post, ironically makes his living incessantly finding ways to portray businesses in the worst light possible! So it was only natural that he would journey to New York City to be granted a twenty minute interview with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has built a political career using the press to convict CEOs of large American businesses before they are ever tried in a court of law. Read the interview in today's Denver Post, if you want to learn how to lob softball questions to powerful politicians. Then, read yesterday's article in the Wall Street Journal by William J. Holstein, which suggests that Mr. Spitzer himself may have some serious ethical problems.

Who Can We Turn To Now?

Above is the title of a Denver Post story today http://www.thedenverpost.com by its media critic, Joanne Ostrow. The subtitle is, "As trusted anchors depart, who will be the next voice of God?" The latter reference is to Walter Cronkite, who has, since his retirement, revealed his extreme left bias on subject after subject. Media people like Ostrow, perhaps because they shared his biases, fell for the myth that Cronkite was objective.

Ostrow slams Bill O'Reilly as "the anti-Cronkite, famous for his abrasiveness and subjectivity." Abrasive and subjective? Yes, but what Ostrow misses is the fact that people find O'Reilly credible precisely because he openly uses commentary to takes stands, clearly labeling his statements as commentary, while allowing the other side to present its views. Cronkite, on the other hand, pretended to be objective, while actually slanting the news to fit his biases. If we had had world-wide blogging then, as we do now, perhaps the media would not have gotten away with their slanted coverage of the Viet Nam war, and perhaps the Vietnamese would not now be living enslaved in a totalitarian state.

The Colorado Economic Recovery Act

On Easter Sunday The Denver Post published some columns about the Colorado Economic Recovery Act recently agreed to by the Democrat leaders and Governor Owens. Fred Brown uses a fictional character named "Mr. Smarty Pants," whom Mr. Brown admits is "smug and ill-informed." Mr. Pants says, "If you paid too much tax, you'll still get a refund."

On the other hand, Jon Caldera, in the same Perspective section of the Post, says we will be forfeiting all of our tax refunds for the next five years.

I need to know who is telling the truth. I surely do not need smug, ill-informed writers taking my time while I try to figure out who is telling the truth.

Thinking Right has a take on the leftword spin in the New York Times.