(Originally posted 02/10/14.)
Bookmarks: To get bail, money talks Polar bears aren’t all warm fuzzies. Private planes are nice, but won’t make you happy A Jewish view of charity
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Bottom line: all across the country, tens of thousands of men and women are behind bars who are not guilty of any crime.
They’re there because they couldn’t post bail.
Many of them are destined for acquittal, or to have the charges dropped before trial. This does not save them from being penalized in other ways that have no relation to the crimes alleged.
Inability to post bail can mean you lose your job, your home and your car — all before trial. It almost happened to me. I will surely detail that in later posts.
The best approach seems to me to be that in use in Kentucky, where an individual is either released without bail or held without bail based on a determination of the risk to public safety.
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This very “green” report about issues like environmentalism and global warming, focusing on this creature we probably would like most to think of as a big, cuddly ball of fur, left me with very much a sinking feeling.
The first photograph, of a bear feeding on a caribou carcass, blood spattered on its fur, set the tone.
Polar bears feed on, among other things, another one of human beings’ favorite creatures: seals.
Many decades of urban life have left most Americans, what with our political correctness and desire for humane treatment of animals, oblivious to some of the realities of nature. And they’re not pretty. We would, for example, very likely have a different view of the meat we eat, did Westerns and TV shows about frontier life (Daniel Boone, Bonanza, Gunsmoke) include depiction of an inevitable step that comes after game is shot and before it appears on the table: slaughter, that is, the actual butchering of the flesh.
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A psychology professor says that a sense of meaning is your best bet for real happiness. ( Sally Quinn, The Washington Post)
The above is exactly how the link to the article appeared in the e-mail the Post sends me with headlines. Notwithstanding my profound agreement with everything I’ve just quoted here — that happiness is finally a choice, that one can choose to be happy no matter what one’s circumstances — it irks me some that she seems to say “religion” is the answer. In other current posts I go into some detail about how the teachings of Saint Paul have hindered me.
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From what I’ve seen at Messiah Truth, religious Jews take charity very seriously. The view set forth here is notable for its emphasis on the “hand up” over the “hand out.” To my mind, this contrasts sharply with political correctness as I find represented, for example, in Dan Rodricks‘ expressions about panhandling.
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