Get this out of your head.
Death Penalty News
New Jersey has banned the death penalty!
In signing the bill, Gov. Jon Corzine called it a “momentous day” and made the Garden State the first state to ban capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976.
Corzine on Sunday commuted the sentences of eight men sitting on the state’s death row. They will now serve life in prison without parole, according to the governor’s office.
“It’s a day of progress for the state of New Jersey and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder,” Corzine said.
Wonderful news. Can’t wait to see the zealots on the Right (to life?) side react!
U.S. Reversal in Bali
The Bali meeting approved a “roadmap” for two years of talks to adopt a new treaty to succeed Kyoto beyond 2012, widening it to the United States and developing nations such as China and India. Under the deal, a successor pact will be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen in late 2009.
The deal after two weeks of talks came when the United States dramatically dropped opposition to a proposal by the main developing-nation bloc, the G77, for rich nations to do more to help the developing world fight rising greenhouse emissions.
My feeling is that this comes as a result of one of two things:
1. Europe threatening to pull out of talks with the US on climate change
2. Somebody bound & gagged Bush in his office and told him to shut the fuck up
A Good Cause
There are thousands of readers here, so it is worth a shot. Can you help Michael?
**Update** Not that you need a holiday to do good for people, but I think this is a good time of year to get tested to see if you would be a suitable donor for someone who needs you. Michael is one case but, as you are aware, there are tens of thousands of Michaels. One of the coolest things I have ever done is to put myself on a bone marrow registry. I have a fairly rare blood type, and I figured it would be a great idea. No calls yet, but I’ll go wherever I need to go if that call comes. That would be the coolest gift I could ever give someone.
Open Thread
Yeesh.
***Update***
For your amusement, the best Huckabee campaign ad that doesn’t star Chuck Norris.
Open Thread
Rumors of my death are certainly NOT exaggerated. However, the afterlife feels almost exactly like regular life, except with less Evel Kinevel. Weak.
Open Thread
It seems like forever since we had one of these. Did anybody see the Golden Compass? Picket it?
One more question for discussion. Let’s say that you have a wee heavy fermenting for eight days (OG ~1.080) and the outgas smells a bit like hard cider. Is that a bad sign?
Chat about whatever.