Everybody Has One

The SC opinion on the death penalty for crimes committed by youthful perps. Some of the rightwing moral mob logic I've seen today:

1. They're chipping away at the death penalty.
2. The court is leaning heavily on the opinions of foreigners.
3. Ruling based on global treaties, foreign opinions.
4. Maybe next time they'll use teenage hitmen! (Referencing Lefkow murders).
5. SC is taking away states' rights (was this a problem in Election 2000?).
6. With all the teens carjacking, killing for a pair of Nikes, look for more "children" to be busting a cap in someone's ass.

The moral mob folks feel safe that most of the "child perps" killing for shoes and jacking cars are Black. The moral mob reserves their leniency for older white folks who drown a few kids in the tub or sever the arms from their infant and watch it bleed to death. The "postpartum depression" excuse-me-while-I-murder-my-children syndrome. Or when white upper class teens go on rampages (think Columbine) it's because the boys were "bullied." Or the two Arkansas white boys, both from two income middle class families, who ambushed and busted caps in their schoolmates, killing 5, wounding 10, neither convicted of murder or subject to a life sentence or death penalty. The boys felt "victimized by peers." Now if the young perps come from po' white trash, they're SOL for any sympathy from the moral mob. They refuse to dream up excuses for their lower class criminals. (Which is why the more liberal leaning excuse "abused as a child" hasn't worked well.)

The "society's standard of decency has evolved" is a full crock of it. We're as barbaric as ever, simply creating new terminology for much of the barbarism and hide the rest. Reminds me of smart bombs and daisy cutters, tralalalalalalalalala. And I'm real sick of everything these days being a "landmark" whatever. Will this "landmark" decision be a turning point or a new stage in the American way of life? How and why? Everyone will wake up tomorrow feeling more humane?

The warm fuzzy claim that adolescents "lack the judgment, the impulse control, the maturity and the character to resist harmful peer pressure" must come from people who never raised children or raised them poorly. Read my lips: Children do not become killers if they come from healthy, functional, somewhat sane parenting. Children with self-confidence and self-esteem do not succumb to "peer pressure" to murder and torture the old couple next door for a few dollars. Children by age 12 should know and understand judgment/consequences, impulse/consequences, shit/wipe, it's called teaching your children well.

While I might agree with the death penalty for certain heinous criminals who offended in their youth, I fail to agree with any of the memes on the SC decision coming from the pundits, who as usual, pull their talking points from Hugh Bigot and Stu Pid.