My genes made me do it!

So in my BIO class this week we had to come up with a response to one of three different questions. The one I chose was picking either the defense or prosecution of a case where a defendant was claiming that his genetics were responsible for the crime. We were to consider things like heritability, environment, quantitative genes and polygenic traits. Most people chose other questions, only one or two people picked this one and they just analyzed things. I went a different route and decided to be creative. I wrote my piece as a prosecution attorney's closing argument in said trial. What do you guys think?

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as you listen to the closing arguments you will notice that the defense truly wants you to believe that the rape, mutilation and murder of these three college co-eds was because the defendant inherited "bad genes". They've taken you on a truly astounding genetic journey in their attempt to persuade you that because the defendant shared several unfortunate genetic traits with other famous serial killers - John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein, and Hannibal the Cannibal to name a few - that he had no *choice* but to brutally rape and torture these women before finally ending their lives so far before their time. But let me posit this to you if I may: if this were true, why didn't his identical twin brother do the same? Their genetics are identical, surely those same traits exist in both brothers. So why has the brother not been brought up on similar charges? I'll tell you why. Because genetics are not responsible for these heinous crimes.

During the course of this trial you have learned that the two brothers were given for adoption to different agencies in different parts of the country in an attempt to prevent them discovering each other. You have also learned that the defendant's brother was adopted by an affluent couple when he was just a baby and was raised as their own. He went to private schools, given the best social and academic opportunities, and is well respected in his community as a leader and citizen, without even so much as a parking ticket. The defendant was not so lucky; a ward of the state he bounced from foster home to foster home, sometimes two or three in a year when he was a teenager. He was constantly in trouble with the authorities with a laundry list of charges brought against him - from petty larceny as a child, to repeated problems with drugs, to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon when he beat his tenth grade biology teacher with a keyboard for suggesting he redo a plagiarized assignment. No, genetics are not to blame for these murders. True, his is a tragic story of a broken system that has failed him time and again, but it is still a story. One that unfortunately came to a sad climax when he decided to take the lives of these three promising young girls. Not because he was genetically predisposed to violence, but because his life was one violent episode after another. Violence begets violence.

In closing, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you not to look upon the defendant as a genetic mutation that needs to be studied and fixed, but rather as the monster he truly is. As you well know, the penalty if he is found guilty of these crimes is death by injection. I want you to look at the faces of the families of this man's victims, look long and hard, and make the correct decision.

Thank you."

Guns in restaurants

So there is a bill going around right now trying to be passed that will allow people with CCWs (Carry Concealed Weapon permit) to carry concealed into a restaurant that sells alcohol. There were several comments after the article with people saying how ludicrous this idea was because guns and alcohol don't mix (can we say "No shit, sherlock?") Normally I just let these go, but then there's THIS tool: "Do you HONESTLY feel threatened every time you go out in public? Do you think there's even a 0.1% chance that you will ever find yourself face to face with a threat to your or your family's life? Even the vast majority of police officers, who stick their noses in the face of dangerous encounters every day, never in their entire career need to draw their weapon. Yes, bad things happen - but most of you who feel like you need a gun on your person at all times, it seems like you are EXPECTING trouble, not just being prepared, and that you think a gun in your hand is the only solution. And that makes YOU scary because you are just a bit too trigger happy."

My rebuttal: Let me ask you this, how many times are police officers somewhere WHILE the crime is happening? Not many. Could it be because they don't show up until the crime has already occurred? Admittedly they are not receiving a lot of 911 calls from psychics telling them when and where the crime will happen so it isn't their fault. Talk about absurdity in logic.

When is a crime going to happen? When there are no cops around. Sure there are spectacular police shootouts during drug raids, but how often do those happen at the local Coco's? With more and more restaurants now serving alcohol it's damn tough to find even a halfway decent place to eat out if you are carrying.

***NEWSFLASH*** Not everyone drinks every time they go somewhere that sells alcohol. It's silly for me to have to disarm just because they are selling alcohol in the same facility that I choose to eat dinner. Now, I don't think people should carry into bars. There really isn't much else going on in a bar but boozin' and schmoozin'. But in a family restaurant? I mean PeiWei sells beer now. With violent crime skyrocketing in this economy, I'm not going to be caught with my pants down. Remember that guy a couple months ago that attacked those two girls sitting at the bus stop with a freakin' machete? Or how about the serial stabber on the East side that was just walking around randomly stabbing men? Saying we have to disarm to go into a restaurant just because they sell alcohol is about as ridiculous a law as I've ever heard. They need to bring this bill back. And pass it.

But honestly, if you are lawfully carrying concealed, make sure it is concealed and you won't have this problem. When that whacko decides to shoot up the local Denny's would you rather have a slap on the wrist for carrying concealed in an establishment selling alcohol, or be dead? The choice is yours my friend, make it wisely.

Damn Technomological Kids

As many of you know, I recently received an iPod Touch for Father's Day (yes, I talked them into giving it to me a month early, shaddup). If you have ever used one, you may know that in order to unlock it after waking you have to slide your thumb or finger from left to right along the bottom of the screen. Up to this point that has defeated Gavin. However, today while I was cooking dinner Aurora took my iPod from Gavin who had not only managed to unlock it, but had rearranged all the icons on my four screens and deleted one of the applications. ::Sigh:: I had just spent an hour two nights ago with a spreadsheet planning out my application layout so that the games were in type order and order of frequency of play and my utilities were organized by function and frequency. Did I save those spreadsheets? Nope. Didn't think I'd have to. Guess I will be recreating those and saving them.

So needless to say, my iPod now has a four-digit pin in addition to the slide lock which is going to be a pain in the ass when I need to change tracks in the car.

The funny thing is that I don't think Aurora had figured out the slide lock thing yet. I'm telling you that boy is going to be a hacker.