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Wilmer, Texas -- A registered sex offender, who was arrested after using the Internet to arrange sex with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl, is running for mayor of his small town...James Brian Sliter, 42, said he is sorry and needs to prove he can be an asset to his suburban Dallas community.
Should we give him a chance?
OKLAHOMA: People with specialized firearms training, such as military personnel, would be allowed to carry concealed weapons on Oklahoma's college campuses, under a bill that passed the state's House Thursday. The measure is opposed by college administrators...
Rep. Jason Murphey said his bill was a "commonsense step" to expand Oklahoma's concealed weapons law to combat campus violence. "The concealed carry law is about 12 years old. It worked out very well," Murphey said, "There are more than 60,000 Oklahomans licensed to carry concealed weapons, and there has been no widespread gun violence in the state, which opponents had warned of."
What do you think we should do to protect our campuses? Is this a good solution?
Download oklahoma_may_allow_guns_on_campus.pdf
UTAH: Students and staff with permits have been allowed to carry guns on campus since last fall when the Utah State Supreme Court struck down the U's gun ban. The new debate is whether those with concealed permit have an exception that would let them openly carry on a college campus. Once again is the school overstepping it's boundaries and trying to draft their own legislation or do they have a case?
Download google_image_result_for_http_.pdf
"Forms of child pornography that are banned in other countries but not in Japan...are still widely available on the Internet and on the street...If Japan, known worldwide as an IT and software contents giant, is left uncontrolled, hundreds of thousands of children... will continue to be sexually exploited," UNICEF said in a statement.
Who's going to police the Internet or should we?
Fear has permeated the ivy covered walls of America's serene campuses, following a recent string of campus shootings and the seemingly random murders of two college students this week...
Noted by Fox News was that both girls were shot in the head. Since I have just completed the series of Yello Dyno Memos, The Recipe for Making Kids Into Killers, Part IV: Violent Behavior is the Solution To Problems: The Video Game Tells Me So, I can't help but wonder why the media chose to focus on this. Certainly it is very disturbing. Had this been a pattern learned by the young men in violent video games where more points are earned for head shots? How much have we, as a society, inadvertently participated in the development of the two men who killed these girls? As we mourn two senseless deaths, we are sure to reap more tragedy because of the patterning of action in a crisis learned through these violent games.
On our campuses today: There were about 42,000 burglaries, 3,700 forcible sex offenses, 7,000 aggravated assaults and 48 murders reported in 2003, the most recent year for which data are available, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics... From Campus Law Enforcement
At least 5 million unique visitors go to the criminal history section of the Texas state's database each month, most to the sex offender portion. This year, www.toptenreviews.com, a Web site that reviews online registries, listed the Texas state agency's sex offender registry as the fourth-best in the nation.
The Texas Department of Public Safety plans to update its online sex offender registry this spring to let people know where offenders work or go to school. When the registry is revised, sex offender records will also show complete registration histories, former addresses and conviction information in Texas and out of state. People will be able to sign up for e-mail notification when a sex offender moves into their ZIP code and when that offender's information is updated or changed.
But Ruth Epstein, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Central Texas, said people's ability to find sex offenders in their workplaces or classrooms raises privacy concerns and could send offenders who are trying to get treatment into hiding. "What happens to a criminal who can't work because he is being harassed?" she asked. "He goes underground, and he commits more criminal activity."
What do you think of her concern?
Download revised_sex_offender_registry_coming_soon.pdf
Where's Daddy?
Even though only 16 percent of American families fit the "traditional" model of gender roles - with Dad as the breadwinner and Mom raising the kids - the father's role in parenting is largely missing from even modern parenting books. One study of 23 recently published parenting guides found that mothers were referenced three times as often as fathers. The researcher, who published the study in the journal, Psychology of Men and Masculinity, contend that even today, fathers' roles are portrayed as largely voluntary and negotiable.
- Willow Lawson, Psychology Today
Download Wheres_Daddy.pdf
March 10, 2008 in Commentary | Permalink | Comments (2)