Virginia child rapists to get life in prison

MoonHowler

If all goes as planned and this bill passes, Virginia child rapists will get mandatory  life in prison.  According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

The Senate Courts of Justice committee Monday passed a bill that would eliminate judicial discretion in the sentencing of adults convicted of the rape of children and sentence anyone convicted of the crime to a mandatory life sentence in prison.

Current law allows a judge to impose a sentence ranging from five years to life for the crime committed against a child under the age of 13.

Senate Bill 436, sponsored by Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg passed the GOP-controlled committee on an 8-7 vote. Due to the need to assess its potential financial impact, it was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

I am trying to figure out why I should hate this bill.  An 8-7 split tells me that it’s controversial.  I am trying to find the controversy.  I cannot do it.  It sounds like a smart plan to me.  Child rapists are the lowest of all the low life.  We certainly don’t want them back out on the streets–EVER.

Aurora Borealis: Keep your fingers crossed

MoonHowler

We may get to see the aurora  Tuesday night, with clear skies and a little luck.  The northern lights are rare this far south and are generally seen only in the higher lattitudes.  Tomorrow night might just be the exception.  Last night the sun hurled another coronal mass ejection at the earth, just as it had done last week.  CME’s are energetic blasts of radiation and heavily charged plasma.  They can disrupt the earth’s magnetic field as well as radio and satellite communication.  They also cause spectacular light shows in the form of the Aurora Borealis.  According to the Washington Post:

The solar storm is the biggest since 2005, he added.

The storm will peak Tuesday when a speeding cloud of plasma and charged particles blasts past Earth, distorting the planet’s magnetic field with impacts possibly ranging as far south in latitude as Texas and Arizona.

“We expect moderate to potentially strong geomagnetic storming that can cause pipeline corrosion effects and power grid fluctuations,” Biesecker said.

NASA scientists predict that the storm will peak about 9 a.m. Tuesday, although it could peak up to seven hours earlier or later, said Michael Hesse of NASA’s Space Weather Laboratory, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. The storm is expected to continue through Wednesday.

“It’s not going to be a catastrophe, but there could be noticeable geomagnetic current induced on the electrical grid,” he said.

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Roe vs Wade: 39 years later

MoonHowler

Yesterday marked the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade.  It went quietly unnoticed by many.  For those of us who grew up in a pre-Roe era, it didn’t go quite as quietly.  Vintage women all knew someone or several someones with a horrible abortion story that happened before January 22, 1973.

There was Robin, the girl I went to high school with who got an illegal abortion  from  some butcher over in Elkton, of all places.  She ended up in the hospital with serious complications and the story made the local paper.  It didn’t give Robin’s name but somehow it leaked out.  It wasn’t hard to figure out who was missing and in the hospital either.  Arrests were made.

Then there were the 3-4 young professional women I knew who got abortions, testing the nearly legal procedure in Washington, D.C.  The procedure was expensive and multi-stepped.  It involved lawyers, psychiatrists and doctors.  As I recall the entire cost was around $1000 in the early 70’s.  Those were big bucks in those days.

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