Price of Jailing Criminals

OK, this is a quick one. I was getting angry as hell reading the Metro section of the oregonian (as usual). First, in their highlighted fugitive section (a good idea) is a man who did 3 years in prison for raping a woman at knifepoint. Now, he is wanted because he is not checking in with his probation officer. Shocking. Flip the next page and in the editorial section is an article basically saying we spend too much money keeping criminals in prison for too long. That we are spending too much money on our "tough on crime" mentality. Excuse me? Did I miss something? Multnomah judges are TERRIBLY soft in sentencing, as are most courts in Oregon. That was the whole reason we needed measure 11 because judges weren't doing their jobs. Now, we have a rapist with a knife doing three years and the oregonion upset because we are spending money keeping criminals in for TOO long? Huh? The scary part is that under measure 11 the rapist should have gotten much more time, so the DAs office must have plead it to a lesser included bringing it out of measure 11. Unbelievable.

Virgina Tech Shooting

I can't even imagine the horror these poor people went through. But when something so horrible happens, the natural tendancy must be to discuss how to prevent it from happening again. Along those lines, the standard blah-blah about gun control has emerged like clockwork. What gun law would have possibly avoided this tragedy? This kid had no criminal record. Total gun confiscation won't (and never has worked). Australia, as just one of many, has been documented as a complete failure of complete gun control to curb crime. It had the complete opposite effect. Additionally, criminals will always find a way to find guns. Felons do it every day. My thoughts obviously run to how badly I wish there was someone there to shoot back. When are people finally going to realize that there will always be guns and always crazy/evil people who can get them and use them. No place is immune. The only thing that combats evil and guns are other guns in the right hands. Not laws, not rules, not senators who cry gun control but have themselves armed body guards, not love hugs and counseling... shooting back. That's it. Can't believe one KID with a 9mm did so much damage to so many people. One cop, one armed citizen, one armed teacher, one armed student, one armed guard... ANYONE could have challenged this kid. Instead it was lambs to the slaughter. I can't even imagine. I can't imagine an intelligent group of people intentionally leaving themselves totally defenseless to this kind of attack. Completely tragic and unnecessary.

Opening Blog

In light of recent events and some very negative experiences on local blogs in the Portland area, I've decided to take a shot at just throwing up my own. The point? Hopefully, some meaningful dialog rather than pointless name calling by people that I never have nor probably never will understand their point of view. Thus, a Portland blog for people who lean towards the conservative. Not quite sure how well this free software from google will work, but it was the first place that popped up so here goes.