Stuff

A couple of points:

First, there's some news about a college student who desecrated a couple of Korans and is now facing felony charges. It seems that this young man snagged two copies of the Koran from Pace University's library and tossed them into toilets. Presumably he attempted to flush them, but they were too bulky. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is understandably upset. The student is being charged with two counts of criminal mischief (both misdemeanors) but with the added zing of New York state's hate crimes law, which makes both charges felonies, since they were crimes directed at a specific religious/cultural group. Personally, hate crimes legislation goes against my grain. It seems to me that if you beat the snot out of me because you don't like my color or you beat the snot out of me to take my wallet, that should be prosecuted the same way. Quite frankly, if you beat me up because you don't like my color, and then take my wallet, it would be pretty hard from the prosecutor to prove that it was a hate crime. I do think that, in America, where we have freedom of religion, that the freedom should include a responsibility to respect other religions. I don't buy into Scientology, but that doesn't give me the right to throw a copy of 'Dianetics' into the toilet--especially if it isn't my copy. Personally, I'm torn. I think this miscreant deserves to be punished, but I also think much more is being made of this than it really is.

Also, the US Senate has done some investigating into Global Warming, specifically, the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works. Their findings are very different from the findings of former Vice President Gore. Is this because it is convenient? Perhaps. One thing I can't get away from, though, is that we have created an awful lot of pollution (both air and water) and we've cut down a lot of trees. That can't be good for the environment, and we have to live here. Let's suppose for the moment that Global Warming is a grossly exaggerated threat. Maybe that's just the threat we need to do what we need to do, if only for the sake of our children and grandchildren. I'm not anxious for Global Warming to be proven wrong.

The FBI served a search warrant on a Senator from Alaska, to search his house for any evidence that he has been getting favors in exchange for advantageous considerations for Federal projects. In the meantime, the Senate is rewriting the law on 'earmarking,' to make it easier to do exactly what Senator Ted Stevens is accused of. Meanwhile, the House has approved a bill that would make it harder to earmark... I'm guessing neither one of those bills is going to become law anytime soon.

Also, a new study indicates that smoking marijuana is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes (at least, on an ounce-for-ounce basis--actually still less dangerous when you take into consideration that nobody chain-smokes pot). And another study indicates that working near an office printer poses similar risks to smoking (tobacco).