Wednesday News and links

What happened to the policy of shooting spies during wartime?

A military judge today sentenced Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann to 12 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge for espionage, desertion and other crimes.

Not enough. That is a firing squad offense.

The oldest Catholic priest passed away this week at 109 years old. Born in the age of candle light and horse drawn carts he lived to see a day when people travel to outer-space.

Here is another story of the horrific results we get from judicial misconduct.

Two decades before he allegedly murdered Mary Hutchison in a suburban Burger King, James Ealy was convicted of murdering a pregnant woman and three children on Chicago's West Side.

But an appellate court threw out his conviction -- and left prosecutors no evidence to try him again.

It is irresponsible for appeals courts to free dangerous criminals due to police not following approved investigative procedures. Administratively punish the police (loss of rank or one week suspension - whatever) if they don't remind a crook of their Miranda rights, but you should not release the crook to kill again.

Walt Williams pays tribute to the recently departed Milton Friedman and includes an especially timely exchange Friedman had with Gen. Westmoreland regarding the idea of a volunteer Army:

Friedman made a major intellectual contribution to the formation of a voluntary army. In testimony before President Nixon's commission on eliminating the draft, General William Westmoreland said he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. Mr. Friedman interrupted, "General, would you rather command an army of slaves?" Gen. Westmoreland replied, "I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves." Mr. Friedman then retorted, "I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher."

We need men of Friedman's intellect to respond to the Charlie Rangels who would act to restore the draft.

Man Accused Of Faking Retardation -- For 20 Years.

For nearly 20 years -- ever since Pete Costello was 8 -- his mother has collected disability benefits on his behalf. In meetings with Social Security officials and psychologists, he appeared mentally retarded and unable to communicate. His mother insisted he couldn't read or write, shower, take care of himself or drive a car. But now prosecutors said it was all a huge fraud, and they have video of Costello contesting a traffic ticket to prove it.

When we create a social welfare system that is based on how many kids you have and gives a larger amount of money if your kid has problems don't be too surprised that people pull scams like this.

Jay Tea of WIZBANG exposes the hypocrisy of how the Boston Globe chooses which political "scandal" to get outraged over. The same paper that said nary a word about Ted Kennedy abusing the system to have his mother declared a resident of Florida upon her death (since Florida, unlike Massachusetts, has no estate tax) even though she hadn't left Cape Cod for many years prior to dying is all up in arms because Governor Mitt Romney's lawn service hires illegal aliens. Jay has other examples of their selective reporting depending on a politician's political party.