The tyrannical criminal justice system

I recently learned of the "robocalls" being conducted by Rudolph Giuliani, on behalf of the McCain-Palin presidential campaign. In these unsolicited phone calls, Giuliani informs the called party that the Democrats are eager to put an end to the laws that establish Mandatory Minimum sentencing, and strongly implies that if such an effort succeeds, convicted criminals will be turned loose and serve no jail time at all. This is a gross, cynical tactic to play upon the ignorance of the general public.

If Republicans really were conservative and, therefore, true constitutionalists, they would have taken the lead, long ago, in wiping these atrocious laws off the books, instead of helping to multiply them around the country. These laws represent a perversion of the American court system. Congressman Ron Paul denounces Mandatory Minimum sentencing laws for "cluttering our courts and prisons with non-violent individuals," while undermining our liberties.

Over the years, I have written several articles on the subject of Mandatory Minimum sentencing, commending the tireless efforts of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), while citing reports by the major principals, legal and otherwise, involved in researching and documenting the field. Following are links to articles archived on Issues & Views-The Website, along with brief excerpts.
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When judges don't judge [2003]

Excerpt:

First came the system of mandatory minimum sentencing, imposed on states around the country. Under the restrictions of MM sentencing, judges must impose fixed sentences on defendants and are forbidden to exercise their own discretion. This means that we now live in an unconstitutional legal world where prosecutors determine not only which charges to bring against the accused, but also determine the final sentence, if said accused is found guilty.
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Good intentions, bad consequences [2003]

Excerpt:

Members of Congress and state legislators believed that harsher sentences would catch drug kingpins and deter others from entering the drug trade. Instead, thousands of low-level defendants and addicts now serve sentences designed for kingpins because judges no longer have the authority to make the punishment fit the crime. Mandatory sentencing laws prevent judges from considering the severity of the offense, and the offender’s role, or his or her potential for rehabilitation when determining the sentence.
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Mandatory Minimum Sentences or Does This Make Any Sense? [2000]

Excerpt:

Such mandatory sentences must be imposed, regardless of a person's role in the crime, or other mitigating factors. Prosecutors, not judges, have the discretion to decide what charges to bring, whether to accept or deny a plea bargain, and ultimately, to determine what the final sentence will be.
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Bringing down families [2002]

Excerpt:

The consequences of these immoral sentencing laws are horrendous – mothers of young children incarcerated for periods that span their children's youth; siblings separated from one another, never to be reunited in a family setting; families torn apart, often for good. All because a parent committed an act that is made foolish only because the laws are foolish. They are victims of zealous "drug warriors," who have succeeded in ratcheting up into felony crimes activities that once were misdemeanors.
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When did we get this mean? [2003]

Excerpt:

From the snares of determined prosecutors, "no one is safe," claims Paul Craig Roberts, author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice."> The cliché about the rich buying their way out of prosecution hasn't been holding up lately. In fact, it is easy and less messy to frame a white collar victim (such as Martha Stewart, Michael Milken or Leona Helmsley), since all a prosecutor has to do is "interpret an arcane regulation differently or with a new slant." The trend to criminalizing civil infractions makes prominent figures easy prey. Law becomes uncertain when ambitious prosecutors can create criminal offenses merely by interpretation.
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Cruel and irrational [2004]

Excerpt:

The appalling fact of mandatory minimum sentencing continues. This month, a Utah federal judge, like so many judges before him, was forced to impose a 55-year prison sentence on a first-time drug offender. As reported in the Deseret Morning News (11/7/04), Judge Paul Cassell appeared to be as upset about the sentence he imposed on Weldon Angelos as others in the courtroom.
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Trying to be tougher than the next guy [2004]

Excerpt:

On January 4, CBS's "60 Minutes" took on the horror that is called Mandatory Minimum sentencing, a subject frequented often on this website. Host Ed Bradley described these harsh sentencing laws and interviewed principals in law enforcement who object to them.

Bradley: In the wake of the cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, Congress passed harsh sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentencing laws requiring federal judges in most cases to impose long jail terms on anyone convicted of drug trafficking – no matter how small their crime. But now, objections to the drug laws are coming from an unexpected source – federal judges themselves. Normally reluctant to speak out on political matters, federal judges by the dozens have protested harsh drug laws, contending the laws force them to send some people to prison who don't belong there and others for many more years than they deserve.
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Related Articles:

The Overcriminalized Society: Jailing the innocent [2004]

By Paul Craig Roberts

Excerpt:

Americans are uninformed about the tyrannical nature of their criminal justice system. Until they become personally ensnared in the system, Americans believe that police and prosecutors would never convict an innocent person. Once they experience the system, Americans are terrified by the system's indifference to whether a defendant has committed a crime. ...

In a recent Cato Policy Report, Erik Luna says that "the sheer number of idiosyncratic laws and the scope of discretionary enforcement" are making criminals out of many Americans who had no intent to break a law or any knowledge that they had. A country that goes out of its way to imprison the innocent has no business preaching democracy to the world.
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The vanishing jury trial [2002]

Excerpt:

Craig Horowitz describes the vanishing jury trial in "The Defense Rests – Permanently," (New York magazine, 3/4/02), and claims that our criminal justice system no longer works to serve the truth. He concedes that no rational person would want a return to the permissiveness and lack of accountability of two decades ago, but that the current "overwhelming power of the criminal-justice system has raised a compelling question: Has the presumption of innocence and the constitutional guarantee of a trial by a jury of one's peers been compromised by measures designed to speed the accused through a system with fewer opportunities to escape?"
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A wholesale transfer of power [2003]

Excerpt:

American law, based as it was in Anglo-Saxon law, once required that before an individual is deemed a criminal he must have acted with an intent to do wrong. To commit a crime, the law required that an individual must both cause (or attempt to cause) a wrongful injury and do so with some form of malicious intent. Paul Rosenzweig, writing for the Heritage Foundation, joins his voice to others who declare that American law today has been contorted to criminalize acts of negligence and even actions that are accidental. In "The Over-Criminalization of Social and Economic Conduct," Rosenzweig describes how criminal law has strayed from its historical roots, even in terms of subject matter.

Paul Craig Roberts says of these "regulatory" crimes: "Prosecutors have been granted wide discretion by social welfare regulation, which criminalizes behavior that bears no relationship to moral wrongs (such as murder), which traditionally defined criminal acts. Today, Americans draw prison sentences for unknowingly violating vague regulations, the meanings of which are interpreted by the regulatory police who enforce the regulations." Read more!

The state's patriotic sheep

We're all familiar with those Bible verses that are so dear to a certain type of Christian, who claims special "patriot" status, that is, Mark's exhortation to "Render unto Caesar," etc., and, of course, Paul's call to be subject to the governing authorities. These are the people who wear Paul's words proudly on their sleeves, to excuse their compliant submission to the state. But, in a system of government like the U.S., who exactly are the people whom Paul refers to as the "governing authorities." Here are some reflections by Rev. Chuck Baldwin on Paul's words in Romans:

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It seems that every time someone such as myself attempts to encourage our Christian brothers and sisters to resist an unconstitutional or otherwise reprehensible government policy, we hear the retort, "What about Romans, Chapter 13? We Christians must submit to government. Any government. Read your Bible, and leave me alone." Or words to that effect. ...

Do our Christian friends who use these verses to teach that we should not oppose President Bush or any other political leader really believe that civil magistrates have unlimited authority to do anything they want without opposition? I doubt whether they truly believe that.

For example, what if our President decided to resurrect the old monarchal custom of Jus Primae Noctis (Law of First Night)? That was the old medieval custom when the king claimed the right to sleep with a subject's bride on the first night of their marriage. Would our sincere Christian brethren sheepishly say, "Romans, Chapter 13 says we must submit to the government?" I think not. And would any of us respect any man who would submit to such a law?

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Read entire article here for Rev. Baldwin's interpretation of Romans 13. Read more!

The death-or-glory boys

In reviewing Ron Suskind's book, The Way of the World, British journalist Simon Jenkins describes the outcome of a trial in England of eight possible terrorists, when the gung-ho Americans, led by Dick Cheney, intruded. In "This is what happens when a crime is redefined as war" (Guardian, 9/10/08), we learn about the sabotage of Operation Overt. Here are excerpts:

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It has been an open secret in police circles that Operation Overt, the most complex in counter-terror history, was sabotaged by the American vice president, Dick Cheney, desperate for a headline boost to the Republicans' 2006 mid-term elections. British intelligence was following trails and acquiring evidence against 20 suspects. They needed American surveillance help in Pakistan and shared their information, foolishly it now appears, with Washington. ...

Cheney then privately dispatched the CIA's operations director, Jose Rodriguez, to Islamabad to secure the arrest of one of the British suspects, Rashid Rauf, believed to be a possible link with al-Qaida. The British had been watching him and preparing his extradition. They did not want him rendered useless through CIA or Pakistani torture. Within days, news of Rauf's capture reached the British plotters. In a panic, the police had desperately to round up as many suspects as they could find overnight. According to Suskind, "top officials in British intelligence cursed, threw ashtrays and screamed bloody murder."

Months of work, which might have unpicked an entire al-Qaida network back to the Pakistani training camps, was ruined by "forced, foolish hastiness" -- and all for the mid-term elections. Bush was soon boasting of having "foiled a plot to blow up passenger planes headed for the United States."

Two years later, a British jury, having to decide on the basis of evidence whether it faced another 9/11 or just a bunch of crazies, gave the benefit of the doubt to the latter. It was clearly fed up with scare stories and the politics of fear and felt the police had not made a case. Today, many of the plotters are at large, and Rauf himself has mysteriously escaped custody.

This is what happens when criminal conspiracy is redefined as an act of war. It goes political. As a conspiracy to cause mayhem, the suspected airline plotters merited and were getting thorough detective work in what was clearly a superb operation. Because it was also a "war," the death-or-glory boys took over and wrecked it.

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Read complete article here. Read more!

Ignoring advice when it could have made a difference

Describing someone as having a "pre-9/11 mentality" is meant as a denigration. It suggests that such a person supposedly still harbors the same naïve attitude toward the threat from terrorism as they did before 9/11, with an implication that they are either benighted or, perhaps, even un-American. But was everyone naïve prior to 9/11?

Writer Paul Mulshine admits to possessing the pre-9/11 mentality, since his understanding of the terrorism threat is unchanged today from prior to the 9/11 devastations. Back in 1996, Mulshine warned about the gutting of the CIA then underway by the Clinton Administration. In "Why I'm proud of my pre-9/11 mentality" (9/11/08), Mulshine argues that even after the USS Cole was attacked, along with several US embassies in Africa, Clinton did not turn his attention to reforming or beefing up intelligence-gathering operations. And, he writes, "George W. Bush took over and paid even less attention to the al Qaeda threat than his predecessor did."

Along with others, Mulshine is in company with Pat Buchanan, who, for years, warned in his columns and books, that sooner or later a day of reckoning was on the horizon for a country as unnecessarily involved abroad as the United States.

Mulshine tells of a report issued in 2000, by the National Commission on Terrorism, warning of defects in intelligence-gathering, which was ignored first by Clinton, and then by Bush. He writes,

The term "pre-9/11 mentality" is used as an insult, of course. But if you think about it for even a second, you have to ask yourself why any intelligent person would have had a different attitude toward terrorism on Sept. 11, 2001, than he had on Sept. 10, 2001. The threat was exactly the same. So was the means of countering it.

But instead of following the eminently sensible recommendations in that report, the Bush administration went from ignoring the threat of terrorism to endorsing the idea of ending all terrorism on the planet. This is impossible. Terrorism is a tactic, one better described by the term "asymmetrical warfare." The idea of asymmetrical warfare is that a lightly armed force can employ rudimentary resources – box cutters being the most extreme example – to create havoc against a conventional military power.

If such a war were symmetrical, with one conventional army against another, the United States could win easily. But since it is asymmetrical, we were forced to employ vastly more resources than the enemy, which is exactly what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those who deride the "pre-9/11 mentality" deride the very position that they ignored back when it might have made a difference, the idea of fighting terrorism through police and intelligence actions.

Read more!

Pro-lifers bring underclass mores into the mainstream

If ever there were any doubt that there are pro-lifers who endorse promiscuous sexual behavior and illegitimate childbirth, R.R. Reno certainly removes it. Writing for First Things, a magazine edited by Father Richard John Neuhaus, whose mission claims to "advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society," Reno celebrates the news about those high school girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts, who, apparently, have purposely set out to become "Single Moms," with no husbands in sight.

Reno one-ups Sarah Palin as a negative role model for the young (see Thank you for nothing, Ms. Palin), as he praises these confused and wayward youngsters for recognizing the satisfaction of experiencing, through childbirth, a "primordial blessing."

Skipping over the Bible's injunctions on fornication as such, and re-tooling Christian doctrine to suit his own proclivities, Reno informs us of the biblical claim that the "single greatest disaster" for any woman is barrenness. "Be fruitful and multiply," he further proclaims. Hence, these Gloucester girls are to be commended for not being "captive" to their own "selfishness," in contrast to today's typical woman who is overly involved in taking control of her future.

He derides what he calls a "Miss Prudence" class for these girls, where they might be informed of the consequences of their actions and the challenges they will face as mothers on their own. Candidly informing them of future difficulties is just so much dramatizing, according to Reno.

He says he finds "something reassuring" about the idea of a band of teenagers making a "pregnancy pact," to produce children on their own. It's "so much brighter, so much more hopeful, than the alternative, which is the 'sterility pact' of those so committed to controlling their futures."

Wouldn't you like to have this guy as speaker at the next assembly meeting of your high school's 15-year-olds?

Reno is contemptuous of those "upper middle class parents," whom he disdains for their "upper middle class attitudes," and who he says "live in fear that their daughters will find themselves pregnant at age sixteen and 'throw their lives away.'" It's not just the upper middle class, Mr. Reno, but responsible parents lower down the economic ladder, as well, would like to see a better future than early motherhood for their 16-year-olds. Especially since they know better than anyone the mentality of their 16-year-olds.

On conservative, pro-lifer Lawrence Auster's site, Carol Iannone responds to Reno's reckless discourse by reminding us that "trying to exert some control over the future by finishing school and getting a job and establishing a home and getting married before having babies is exactly what society has been rightly exhorting teenagers to do." Up to now, the Church also taught that this was the better path to take.

In the world of the deranged pro-lifer, one must never bring up either the social costs to the young person herself or the long-term impact on society of widespread single motherhood. Such concerns are cavalierly waved away by Reno, who calls this kind of thinking just so much "blah, blah, blah."

Lawrence Auster observes:

R.R. Reno's article expresses in pure form the mentality that led "Christian conservatives" to gush over Bristol Palin's out of wedlock pregnancy. If there is to be a movement worthy of the name conservatism, it will have to be created or recreated, because the conservative movement is dead. The so-called conservative movement should change its name to the anti-abortion movement, or "the cult of natalism for the sake of natalism," or "Christians for illegitimacy."

In Does pro-life now mean pro-libertinism?, Selwin Duke tracks how government inevitably steps into the breach when there are large numbers of dependent women and children. The average pregnant single mother, writes Duke, is likely to be left alone. "Individually, this is often tragic, but collectively, when the number of single mothers becomes great enough, it is always so – for a civilization."

Duke maintains, "The less the individuals fulfill their roles – in other words, the greater the number of single mothers laboring singly – the greater the government's role will become." And, "When there is a large population of dysfunctional youths in society, there will be impetus for a trove of other programs as well. You can start with pre-kindergarten, after-school, nutritional, youth-intervention, drug and anti-violence programs, but the sky is the limit. Virtually anything a good family would do, Hillary's village will do."

No writer has done a better job of dissecting exactly the phenomenon described by Duke than George Gilder. In his book, Visible Man, through the lives of roaming underclass black men, Gilder showed how the welfare state made it possible for unwed mothers to support themselves and thereby substitute government for the fathers of their children. [See The Civilizing Power of Marriage and Family]

It is due to the more than benign treatment extended by government, granting additional monetary stipends with each additional illegitimate baby, that we now have what was an underclass problem moved into mainstream society. There is a line, even if indirect and crooked, from the open-ended, free-for-all welfare policies begun in the 1960s, to those Gloucester high school girls.

Recently, a woman called Laura Schlessinger's radio show, and told of a relative who had already given birth to two illegitimate children, both of whom were being taken care of by a reluctant grandmother, and there was one more on the way. Dr. Laura asked when in the world would someone tell this woman to get her tubes tied. (Even though a pro-lifer, Schlessinger tends to be a sensible one.) The response was something like, "But she's only 24 years old."

Schlessinger almost had a fit. Three children down, and the concern is that, if her tubes are tied, this irresponsible wench, who is not even mothering her offspring, might not be able to have more in the future! That is, children to turn over to someone else's care, and, perhaps, ultimately dumped in the state's foster care system. This woman's story would surely warm the heart of a pro-life zealot like R.R. Reno. There obviously is no "sterility pact" involved here, nor a woman overly caught up in taking control of her future.

Since so many pro-lifers condone promiscuity among the young, I wonder why they pretend to be fans of abstinence. Surely, practicing abstinence, which in this case means not engaging in pre-marital sex, would mess up the game plan of unlimited baby-making, wouldn't it? Or, perhaps, these cynical creatures are counting on the game plan to be fulfilled by their very call for abstinence.

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See related:

We didn't know this?
Thank you for nothing, Ms. Palin





Read more!

The good liberal Palin makes a mockery of conservatives

Did John McCain choose Sarah Palin as his running mate, to spite the party that would not let him appoint his alter ego Joseph Lieberman, as suggested by some? Or was he just determined to get even with a party that allowed for the outrageous vilification of him during the 2000 election campaign? Is it all about smoldering resentments? How could any serious person have bypassed Mitt Romney for this?

It's a pity that the grotesque role the party has given Palin as Attack Dog will probably do the Obama camp more good than they could do for themselves. The wild claims about his affiliations, all of which have been done to death by the media, show utter desperation. Hey, Miz Palin, our ears were filled with all this Wright/Ayers/Acorn stuff for over a year. Ever hear of burn-out?

Palin is making a wonderful mockery of the conservative cause and its supposed adherents. She is as liberal as the day is long, as we clearly see in her disregard of principles that used to be considered major among conservatives -- such as, her acceptance of the notion that mothers of minor children should take on full-time, all-consuming professional jobs; her refusal to express regret for the behavior of her wayward teenage daughter and for her own questionable parenting skills; her enthusiastic promotion of the public school system and the teachers unions, while disparaging vouchers; and her tolerant views on homosexual partnerships. Where's the conservative? On all these points, the lady shows herself to be a good and true liberal. Is she laughing up her sleeve?

Want to guess what the likes of Palin's faithful pro-life worshippers (her only base) would have done, if Chelsea Clinton had come up pregnant at age 17? Can you hear the filthy verbiage that would have spewed forth from them concerning Hillary's failure to pay attention to her mothering duties, instead of busying herself with that health care stuff? Who looks to be the better mother today?

If Palin came out in support of public fornication in the town square, these pro-lifers would begin spouting talking points in favor of the plan, as long as the fornication resulted in pregnancies, which resulted in babies. [See Thank you for nothing, Ms. Palin]

Columnist Paul Mulshine calls Palin a "liberal populist." Well, maybe.

Here are four terrific articles by Mulshine on Palin:

Darn right conservatives have a beef with Palin

Palin sells out conservatives by opposing vouchers

Am I the only one who noticed the other Palin heresy?

Darn right Palin's a loony left-winger Read more!

An awful mistake

The strong and harsh words of John LeBoutillier really sting, and they ought to. Not only should the Republicans not be in trouble with a weak Vice Presidential candidate, they should not be suffering the candidacy of John McCain himself. But this is what happens when a political party has been overtaken by people who do not share what used to be the party's declared principles, and, instead, bring their own obsessions to it.

LeBoutillier laments the loss of Mitt Romney as the VP candidate, while he should be regretting the loss of Romney in the Presidential spot.

Imagine your party falling under the control of driven "Evangelicals" and "pro-lifers," who have managed to acquire enough power to decide the outcome of the party's nominations – not on rational grounds, but on whether prospective candidates share the "correct" brand of religion, i.e., have the right take on Jesus.

In order to prevent the ascent to the White House of a "pagan" Mormon believer, these resolute party usurpers did all the conniving they could to nominate a totally non-religious type. At least, under McCain, there is no chance that people will be exposed to forming positive opinions about a Mormon family or the religion itself. Who knows? Such positive influences might have led to conversions – to the "wrong" religion!

What the heck would the Founders have made of all this? Here, they were worried about the government intruding on freedom of worship, and possibly establishing a state religion. It never occurred to them that a state religion could be imposed by other means.

Here are excerpts of LeBoutillier's insights, from "McCain's Chances Slipping Away" (Newsmax, 10/2/08):
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In a spate of new polls taken since Friday’s debate, including polls in the crucial states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, in some states, Obama has surged across that crucial 50 percent threshold while McCain is bleeding daily. ...

Panic has taken over the McCain campaign. They do not know what to do to reverse this downward trend. And there may be nothing McCain can do to reverse this trend. Any hope may lie in either an Obama mistake, or an outside event; neither of which is under the control now of McCain or his staff. ...

Gov. Palin reveals that she is an uneducated, unread, and untravelled woman who is not, and never will be, ready to be vice president. And her latest line — that "Joe Sixpack" is who we want in the vice presidency — is idiotic. We do not want Joe Sixpack making governmental decisions. We want someone who understands Joe Sixpack's views, but someone who knows more than Joe and has broader experience and knowledge.

The whole Palin line from her supporters that "she is just like me" is an awful mistake. We want someone in the Oval Office who indeed listens to "me" but who knows more and has better judgement. ...

Too bad McCain didn’t pick Mitt Romney as he is/was the one candidate this year who could have seemed credible on this financial mess. But, in the end, it is John McCain who is hemorrhaging in the polls, especially among over-50 voters who see their retirement money shrinking by the day as this Wall Street mess spreads. Read more!

Pro-lifers and their talking points

Needless to say, in response to my post on Sarah Palin, Thank you for nothing, Ms. Palin, I have been receiving the usual, typical talking points from pro-lifers about "cold-blooded murder." As if anyone over 12 years old hasn't heard their shtick endlessly. It's amazing how each person takes the stance that he/she is actually informing you of something you don't know and have never heard before. It's more than boring by now.

Don't we accept "cold-blooded murder" on other fronts? Don't these wonderful people, who are writing to me and identify themselves as "Christian," accept the murder of human beings for all sorts of reasons? (If they have their way, in fact, we will be seeing the death penalty applied to many more crimes than murder.)

These supposed lovers of life are among the most blood-thirsty, when it comes to following, like lemmings, the orders from above, to send their sons to die. It perturbs them not to send young men, in the bloom of their youth, to be blown apart in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan, and, perhaps, Russia -- for absolutely nothing! They willingly send their sons to their deaths, or to be mutilated beyond recognition, because they're sold government propaganda. Contrary to their insistence, there is nothing "life-affirming" about these people.

(See the views of two traditionalist, pro-life ministers in The Religious Right: "Heralds of truth" as political lackeys -- here.)

"If we fight them over there, we won't have to fight them over here," goes the refrain. How could anyone buy such preposterous reasoning? "There has not been an attack since 9/11." Who says another attack was ever planned, after all the years of planning that went into the 9/11 catastrophe?

Thugs pulled off an operation that took down buildings in New York. They should have been hunted down as thugs, the way the government hunted down Dillinger. There was no need to intrude our military into a sovereign nation, unless, of course, there were other reasons for doing so that have nothing to do with U.S. security. And we know there were other reasons. They have been delineated ad nauseam, by now, and began with Pat Buchanan's brilliant, and now classic Whose War?

If our security and intelligence had simply been doing their jobs, and had just paid attention to warnings given them by ordinary citizens, like the head of that flying instruction school, who informed the FBI of suspicious characters taking his courses, 9/11 would have been avoided. See Jim Bovard on this.

Back to our caring pro-lifers, who supposedly love "life" so much, and talk about the "innocent" fetus. Well, these young soldiers are innocent, too, as far as I'm concerned. Is the "innocent" tag applied, because I'm supposed to think of a 19-year-old boy, who never got to live out his life, as having been a "sinner?" Is that the idea? Is that why he's not considered "innocent" enough? Am I expected to buy their theological stuff?

Also, one of their favorite talking points is the fact that many doctors will not perform the procedure. Well, yes, because they do not want to be shot through their kitchen windows, or have a family member accidentally shot in their place. That's enough to put restrictions on any activity, as these pro-lifers well know.

So, pro-lifers, unless you have something unique and genuinely different to say, don't bother me with your staid, memorized talking points. When you cease sending your sons to die, I'll believe that you are truly pro-life. Read more!