Astraea, the Goddess of Justice

Friday, May 26, 2006

public math



My new job is going to be a virtual well spring of blog entries. If only to vent all this pent-up frustration.

Overheard from a legislative committee. A government share of 65% is more than the government share of 100%. My goodness. My four-year-old godson could do better.

Given it takes some inference to come up with that simply brilliant deduction, I am beginning to rethink my stand on requiring at least a college dergee for our elected officials. After all, the Civil Service requires eligibility.

I know it may be interpreted as a form of discrimination but education has always been our priority as a culture. Why not formalize that tenet in our leaders? Perhaps when we have elected officials who can think more for themselves we would not be so behind the Asian tigers. Where, of late, most of our gifted professionals are being forced to flee from this travesty.

sins of the mother


The innocent are always the first to suffer.

I suppose you could consider this a continuation of my previous entry. There is a dilemma in filing charges of adultery against your wife. How will this affect your children?

Despite my work as lawyer, soldier and sometime teacher to police, I have never really gone to a prison. But if the detention cells in city hall or holding cells in the precinct are any indication, even grown men are wary of being within reach of the prisoners.

I cannot even imagine the stigma a child will bear that their mother is to be hailed as a criminal. Perhaps it is not as bad if you live in an environment that tolerated that. But adultery is a "white-collar" crime. The fact that ill reputation follows the charge exacerbates the situation.

Yet what is the alternative? Have your children share your worldly goods you worked sweat, blood and tears for with the embodiment of your wife's treachery? Certainly there are alternatives but in the meantime, each step taken is torture for the children.

There is no relief for the victims of these acts of selfishness. Children cannot choose their parents. They cannot even divorce them in this jurisdiction, much less disinherit them. After all, who will stand for them? Not even the State. These crimes are best left in the dark in this society. Sadly, that is where the children will have to stay for a huge part of their lives.