To put it simply, I believe that George Ryan’s sentence should not be commuted, and that he should serve his prison sentence just like all of the non-politically-connected people who are in federal prison.  Ryan was sentenced to 6.5 years in Federal prison for a wide range of corruption-related crimes, including ones that led to innocent children’s death in the licenses-for-bribes scandal.  He has served about 1 year in prison so far.  Releasing him now, while leaving many other ordinary people in jail, would send the message that corrupt IL politicians are above the law.  It would be a slap in the face to the families of those who died due to Ryan’s corruption, and would generally be a miscarriage of justice.

First, some background information
When someone fails to pay their mortgage for a long enough time, the bank will foreclose and take the property.  In order to do so, the bank goes to court and begins a foreclosure proceeding.  One of the sheriff’s responsibilities is to serve process (notice that one is being sued) upon people being sued in the county, whether the suit relates to a mortgage, a car accident, etc.  In this case, the Cook County sheriff has unilaterally decided that he will stop serving mortgage eviction notices, because he feels that the foreclosures are unfair.

Why Tom Dart’s actions are wrong
As Sheriff, part of Tom Dart’s job is to serve process, so that our legal system can work fairly and properly, which requires that cases go to court rather than be stalled by a sheriff who doesn’t know the facts and is not a judge.  It is not Dart’s role to unilaterally and unlawfully decide that he will stop serving process, and he admits this fact, admitting that he “may be held in contempt of court over this.”  If the foreclosures are truly unfair and violate the law, then the residents will have a chance in court to prove so before they are evicted.  If the foreclosures are unfair but allowed by law, then the proper solution is a change to the law, which can only be made by the legislature.  What is improper is to have a Sheriff take it upon himself to decide that he will ignore the courts and ignore the laws – for when the county’s highest law enforcement officer ignores the law, one heck of a bad example is being set for the ordinary citizens.

Tamara K created a bumper sticker with a political message, opposed to the “change” offered by presidential candidate Barack Obama.  It read “No thanks, keep the change” with the “o” being replaced by the Obama campaign logo.  Zazzle, the online bumper sticker printing service removed the bumper sticker, claiming that it violated copyrigh.

First, it would seem that this is fair use, given the fact that the logo was used for political expression, which is the most highly protected type of free speech.  Also, it is difficult to express this political idea without use of the logo, given the constraints imposed by the bumper sticker format…

More importantly than the actual copyright analysis is the manner in which copyright law was used to suppress free speech.  There is often a tension between copyright and the 1st Amendment, and usually when the two come into conflict over a political issue, copyright law yeilds – at least on matters that make it to court.  However in situations like this, companies such as Zazzle will often just remove the political speech because it is an easy way to make the issue go away.  This is a problem.

Note: I am not endorsing Tamara K’s view on Obama, but rather discussing only the problem of copyright misusse.

I think this is one of the worst Ideas I’ve ever heard.  It instills in children the idea that they should be paid to go to school and study hard, instead of doing so to advance their career and life prospects.  I was never paid for grades – not in high school, not as an undergraduate, and not as a law student.  Instead, it was impressed upon me that I *must* do well in school, to the point where such goals became a part me.  That is how to motivate children, not with a few bucks.

I would also note that the top performing schools in Illinois and other states do not pay their student, as no such payment is necssary or desireable.  Instead, they stress parental involvement, along with a safe and well funded learning environment.   Perhaps Chicago Public Schools should take notice of these facts, and try to emulate the suburban school districts which generally have much more successful students.

A particularly outrageous example:

A WI man accused of hanging his dog from its choke chain has been convicted of felony mistreatment of animals. The criminal complaint says Eric Shattuck told a visitor on Sept. 26 he hung the dog after it refused to drink a fatal dose of antifreeze. Police found the animal’s body in a garbage bag in the garage. Shattuck told the woman he killed the dog because he didn’t want it anymore.

I’ve had a variety of pets throughout my life, including dogs, cats, rats, turtles, mice, fish, guinea pigs, hamsters, and more.  Each of those pets became a member of the family who was no more disposable than a human, and each lived out their natural lifespan in my care.  I could no more give up a pet then I could give up a human relative; inflicting harm on one is simply unthinkable.  I just don’t get how a person could harm their pets.

Note: I am not a vegetarian, or a member of PETA.  In fact, I disagree with vegetarians in principle, and find PETA to be reprehensible.  [Eating meat is natural, and is part of what allowed humans to develop our large brains.]