Monday, March 14, 2016

NEWS FROM FRANKFORT



Our new governor may not know when committees meet, but thankfully KET does.

I’ve been watching a lot of its excellent coverage, and recommend it to you.

From just 2 sessions last week:

An earnest lady lawyer-legislator extolled the virtues of her bill to teach the Bible as world literature (which it is, as is the Quran) in a high school elective course. She said her bill was drafted carefully to avoid any small problems with the U.S. Constitution, and said her experience guaranteed that. The state Civil Liberties Union issued a statement that such courses almost always involved problems with the Constitution  but the committee adopted it, nearly unanimously. 

Surprise.

A second committee hearing found a former prosecutor telling the members why he had changed his mind on the death penalty. Among other arguments was one that there is never any guarantee we will not convict, and put to death, an innocent person...and as long as that is true  (and it is) it is better we go with life in prison rather than have the state, on our behalf, kill someone. (There are lots of other compelling arguments against capital punishment, which I support, but his experience lent new credibility to this one.)  BTW, after years on the other side, the Herald-Leader editorialized in favor of ending the death penalty, too.  The committee disagreed, although the vote against the bill to end capital punishment failed by only one vote---the closest margin yet. 

Surprise....I'm  just sayin'...

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