There is bullshit, and then there is damned bullshit. When Bill O' Reilly claims he is not calling for a boycott on the state of Vermont, even though he puts forth on his show and web-site a poll question asking if "the folks" would support such a boycott, that falls into a third category all together-Goddamnd Motherfucking Bullshit.
Personally, I think Judge Cashman went way too overboard in exercising his judicial discretion by sentencing Mark Huelett, convicted of raping a ten year old girl over a four year period-beginning when she was six-to a sixty day jail sentence. His point was that, though Huelett was a level one offender, unlikely to reoffend (according to state mental examiners) he would not in prison be qualified to receive the treatment he needed, and so a long term prison sentence might cause him to become a repeat offender. This way, Cashman insists, he will get the treatment he needs, which in the long run will be better for society.
Personally, I think his reasoning is dubious at best, and might not even be a legal use of the judges discretion. If so, it is up to the appropriate officials of the state of Vermont to sort it all out, and it is up to the people of Vermont to, if they are displeased with the way it eventually turns out, express their displeasure at the ballot box.
But this knee jerk reaction from a wide variety of pundits and others strikes me as a little bit of grandstanding, the kind of thing where you damn well better not question their bombast on this issue,or your own morals will be called into question.
What the fuck ever. Personally, I'm wondering just exactly why there hasn't been an investigation into the degree of culpability by the parents, who seem to have been present at least physically during the four years during which all this went on for evidently at least a once weekly basis. I mean, I heard they are suppossed to be disabled, but can they really be that stupid? How could you not know something like this was going on for so long under your own roof with your own six, seven eight, nine, and finally ten year old daughter?
But there is more at play here, I fear, than mere righteous indignation. A good deal of this may have political ramifications. Coming on the heels of the recent Supreme Court nominations controversies, and the on-going struggle between left and right, "activist" versus "mainstream" judges, throughout the entire judicial system, in fact, I find it curious that the judges' detractors repeatedly infer that he might be of a libeal bent, though he is in fact a Republican.
In other words, this may be a salvo in the up-and-coming political year, in which judicial nominations and the status of the courts, especially the Supreme Court, will be a very important factor.
This is to be expected. But to threaten the economy of an entire state by hinting at the possibility of a boycott is really uncalled for, and is actually yet another attempt to bring all the states in line with the current popular witch hunt mentality. Once this is accomplished, it will be that much easier, the preedent having thus been set, to use other maneuvrs to bring them into line with the popular, and maniplated, sentiment of the day, whatever that might happen to be-by whoever might inadverdantly be calling the shots.
In the meantime, I'm going to stock up on good old made in Vermont maple syrup.
