TV: What’s your guilty pleasure?

Posted on March 2, 2011
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I think it’s safe to say there’s a little “Waverly Place” in all of us — that one show that we want to watch, even if on rare occasion, but don’t want to admit we enjoy. So, what’s your Waverly Place? What do you secretly watch with the hopes that no one will ever find out? Please note, this is a Judgement-Free Zone so your TV-show choice(s) are safe here. Unless of course you say Barney or Porn. In which case, you’re on your own.

Murderer registry proposed in Illinois

Posted on January 28, 2011
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I read this article earlier this week about a proposed murderer registry in Illinois. It’s a bill being proposed by Rep. Dennis Reboletti called “Andrea’s Law” named for Andrea Will who was strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend Justin Boulay in 1998. Boulay was convicted of the murder, and sentenced to 24 years in prison. But after serving half of his sentence, Boulay was released in November 2010, and now lives in Hawaii with his new girlfriend.

New girlfriend? What is she, living under a rock?

Shortly after Boulay’s release, the state of Illinois passed a “truth in sentencing” law, which required anyone convicted of a violent crime to serve at least 85 percent of their sentencing, while anyone convicted of murder would be required to serve 100 percent of their time. But because the law took affect after 1998, and was not applied retroactively (meaning, anyone who was convicted of murder before 1998 would not be effected by the new law) many convicted murderers have been released in Illinois, which brings us to the proposed murderer registry. Andrea’s Law would require that anyone convicted of murder prior to 1998 register into a database for 10 years after their release.

The proposal makes sense to me, but the amount of information divulged in the database seemed a bit much. Like the sex offender registry, the murderer registry would provide information such as the person’s name, their photo, place of residence, home address, and workplace, which all sound like valuable and important information to keep the public safe, but also sounds like a state-wide calling for Vigilantes. What are your thoughts? Do you think this bill should be passed in Illinois, and possibly other states in the future? If you had a murderer’s registry where you live, would you tap into it as a resource to keep you and your family safe?

Terrorists: Who are we really referring to?

Posted on January 20, 2011
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Jared Lee Loughner is the alleged shooter responsible for the senseless act of terror on Jan. 8 in Arizona where 13 people were wounded, and six were fatally shot when Loughner allegedly opened fire at a Safeway in Tucson where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was meeting publicly with constituents. Giffords was shot in the head, but survived. So, why isn’t Loughner being labled as a “terrorist” in the news media? Why haven’t I seen a single piece of news footage, or read a single article where Loughner is referred to as the only word used to best describe a criminal who fills people’s hearts with terror? Maybe if Loughner’s name sounded a little more foreign…a little more Muslim we’d be reading different headlines.

When members of the news media in this country claim that anyone who commits an act of violence is going to be labeled a terrorist, then why are all those same media outlets describing Loughner as a young, white male, instead of a young, white, male homegrown political terrorist? It’s a horrific double standard. Muslims have become directly linked to the T-word because it’s exclusively, purposely used for them. And when Muslims commit heinous crimes domestically or internationally, well-intentioned, and up-standing Muslim citizens in this country brace themselves for the aftermath of stereotypes that will follow. Yet somehow I imagine that every young, white male in this country has not once feared that he’d be typecast, or stigmatized because of the actions of Jared Loughner. Where is the justice? The equality? The reality is, it doesn’t exist.

A terrorist is a person who commits an act of terror irrespective of their skin color, religious beliefs, or nationality. So all I’m saying is if it looks like a duck — ABC, CNN, FOX, NBC, and editors of all the major newspapers around the country, why aren’t you guys calling it a duck?