June 30, 2004... Disabled Student Refused Pint at Pub

So I read Google News, and this caught my eye.

Coventry, UK

A disabled student says a city pub refused to serve him because he was on his own.

Andrew Bogle, 22, was told staff were worried he might have an accident on the way home.

And he alleges he was even told the police would be called if he didn’t leave the City Arms in Earlsdon.

Mr Bogle, 22, says he was told he wouldn’t be served unless a carer was with him. He is now demanding an apology, claiming he was discriminated against.

Mr Bogle, of Earlsdon Avenue South, Earlsdon, Coventry, has mild cerebal palsy and uses an electric wheelchair.

The pub is owned by Wetherspoons. Spokesman for the chain Andy Burnyeat said there may have been an ‘issue’ about Mr Bogle drinking alone, but said the chain was not prejudiced against disabled customers.

Mr Bogle, who is studying media, communications and culture, at Coventry University, said: “I did my normal thing of ordering my pint and the barman said ‘who are you with?’ I said ‘no one’.

“He said ‘I can’t serve you if you’re on your own’. So I asked why. He said ‘what if you have an accident on the way home’.

“So I repeated my order and he said ‘are you going to leave, or am I going to have to call the police’. It was ridiculous.

“I wanted to have a quiet pint on my own - something I know I’m perfectly capable of. It is the 21st century.”

Mr Bogle wrote a letter complaining about his experience, which happened last month, but has received no reply.

Wetherspoons says it has no record of the letter.

Mr Burnyeat, said: “I suspect there is an issue - that does not apply in all cases but might in his - that relates as to whether he has or does not have a carer with him. That is purely an individual thing.

“It might be that the manager has, on the basis of past experience, taken a view on that, which he is entitled to do.”

Disability charity Scope urged Mr Bogle to demand a full apology. Scope campaigns officer Andrew Crooks said: “We, as disabled people, come across many incidents like this.”

My two cents - I'm glad I live in the USA where the bartender would have been equally scared of being sued for discrimination for not serving the guy with CP as he was scared of being sued after the drunk gimp plows his wheelchair off the curb out front.  Either way, the wheelchair guy will eventually own the bar.  Eventually we will own everything, well us and our lawyers.

June 25, 2004... News on the Capital Punishment Front

The New York State Supreme Court has stricken down the death penalty, at least temporarily, and removed four inmates from death row.  Here's the story from USA Today.  Court Strikes down NY's Death Penalty.

June 24, 2004... Game of the Month

I'm an online games addict, mostly simple puzzle and strategy games.  I've decided to start featuring a new game on SunFyre each month, that's about how long I play most good games.  If the bandwidth doesn't get crazy, I'll leave them up indefinitely.

My first official SunFyre Game of the Month is called Topsy Turvy.  It's a fun little "collapse" style game, with a unique twist.  Try it one or a hundred times.  It requires Shockwave.

You'll also get to see the new SunFyre's Flaming Keyboard banner for the first time.  I'm going to slowly develop a new section of SunFyre dedicated to computer games, gadgets, hardware and software reviews.

The banner doesn't work yet, but it kind of looks cool, I think.

SunFyre

June 23, 2004... Father's Day Revisited

A loyal SunFyre reader (my wife, Kristen) sent me this article called Put Up the Hoop Sooner: 10 lessons of parenting from one wise guy who's done doing the dad thing.  It is about a reasonably good father who, looking back, could have done a few things better.  If you are a father, like me, particularly if your a father of young children, please check it out.

I'm also archiving my old movie reviews.  Each movie will have it's own page.  You can read the reviews, then maybe even click the "buy it at Amazon" link.  Anyhow, the first review page is posted, and it's an older one.  If you haven't seen my review of One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams, check it out.  And, don't forget SunFyre's Real Movie Ratings Scale.

SunFyre

June 21, 2004... Capital Punishment Revisited

Back in September, I wrote a reaction to the capital punishment existed conviction of the Washington Sniper, John Allen Muhammad.  It ended up being a short impromptu rant on the death penalty.  It got more emails than any other topic to that date, well, it got three emails, which was a lot back then.  So I published a stand alone page on SunFyre called Life and Death: My Opinion on Capital Punishment.  Since then it has remained one of the most popular pages.  Granted, it's not as popular as Janet Jackson nipple, but what is?

I decided this would be the first page to receive an update to the new SunFyre UI.  So I added a couple Reader responses, some new graphics, and this update... If you haven't read the original entry, read my Death Penalty Opinion.

I decided to investigate a little further.  As I was updating this page.  I found a few of the statistics I was craving about race and capital punishment as well as the monetary costs of capital cases versus the costs of life without parole.  Here's a little of what I found, mostly thanks to the Death Penalty Information Center.

First, some financial data:

• A 2003 study in Kansas determined that capital cases cost the state 70% more per case than comparable non-capital cases, including incarceration.

• A 2002 study in Indiana found that it was 38% more expensive for capital cases including incarceration, and 20% of death sentences were later resentenced to life.

• A comprehensive 1993 Duke University study found that a typical capital case cost the state $2.13 million dollars more than a typical non-death penalty murder case.

• A 2000 report of every execution in Florida after 1976 found that Florida spends $51 million additional dollars per year on death penalty cases compared to first-degree murder cases with life without parole.  The 44 executions have cost Florida approximately $24 million each.

• A 1992 Dallas Morning News article found that the average death penalty case costs $2.3 million more than incarceration in maximum for 40 years.  (SunFyre's Two Cents: Coincidentally, Texas executes by far the most people, you'd think they'd get a quantity discount.)

• A 1988 study found that California spends $90 million annually on death penalty cases, and $78 million of that is incurred in court costs.

• Source: Death Penalty Information Center FactSheet

Apparently Pete wasn't correct about extended life expectancy causing life sentences to be more expensive.  Two studies indicated it costs about $2 million extra per case, including the ones that are declared innocent or resentenced to life without parole.  If we took that $2 million (paid out to lawyers during trial) and put it in a money market account for the inmate, the interest alone (at today's horrible interest rates, about 2.0%), that would generate about $40,000 a year.  That should be enough to pay for the entire incarceration, and the principal could then be given to the victim's family after the inmate dies.  Sounds like a better use of funds than Attorney fees to me.

Pete's information about the racial makeup of death row was pretty accurate.  African Americans make up 42% of death row inmates, and 38% of people executed since 1976.  This is roughly the same proportions as the murder conviction rate, indicating that African Americans aren't given the death penalty more frequently per conviction.

But, I looked a little deeper and found that 80% of all death sentences had white victims.  While well over 50% of murder victims are non-white.  This indicates that a death sentence has more to do with the victim's skin color than the offender. A University of North Carolina study from 2001 found that murdering a white person creates a 350% greater chance of receiving a death sentence than murdering a non-white person.

Finally, in support of one of my original beliefs, that capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime, a 1995 poll of U.S. Chiefs of Police, only 1% believed that the death penalty is a deterrent.  Reducing drug abuse (31%), improving economic conditions (17%), simplifying court rules (16%), longer prison sentences (15%), more Police officers (10%), and reducing guns (3%) were all more important focuses for Police Chiefs.

Other interesting facts:

• Since 1976 over 84% of all executions carried out have been in the South, including 45% in Texas and Virginia alone.

• As of this writing, 10 women and 905 men have been executed since 1976.  There are currently 49 women on death row, approximately 1.4% of the death row population. There are currently 3500 inmates on death row.

• Juvenile defendants have been executed 22 times for crimes committed before their 18th birthday.

• Two people have been executed by firing squad, and three by hanging since 1976.  Three states still allow firing squad and two states allow hanging as options.

• Twelve states don't have the death penalty.  Six states have it, but have never used it since 1976.

• These Upcoming Executions are scheduled this year.

• As of today, 114 death row convicted inmates have been exonerated, 13 of those with DNA evidence of innocence.  Those 114 people spent an average of 9 years incarcerated.

If nothing I've written has convinced you that we should declare a moratorium on capital punishment, here is a page of Post-Furman Botched Executions that convinced me.  Warning, the descriptions on this previous link are graphic and, in my opinion, horrifying.  It's difficult to read, and many of them are similar, but I encourage you to read every one.

Convinced and convicted,

SunFyre

June 20, 2004... Happy Father's Day

This is my third father's day as a father.  The first one is like a faded memory.  My twins were six weeks old, Jason Andrew had only been out of the hospital about 4 weeks.  He was still on oxygen and an apnea monitor.  I was doing my sleep deprived best just to be supportive of Kristen as she finished healing from her C-section.  There were about a thousand people in and out of my house.

Father's day number two was a little less stressful, but I still didn't feel like I deserved a whole day of praise.  I'd given a few baths, read some bedtime stories, hugged and kissed my 13 month olds about five thousand times, but that was all selfish stuff.  I wasn't changing anyone's world, I was just having fun.

Well, Jason Andrew and Ainsley Grace are two years old, and I see the impact I have.  Papa, as they call me, is not only a term of endearment, a nickname, but it's a title and responsibility now.  They wake up after nap time and call for me.  They use words daily that I taught them.  Their favorite movies are ones I've hand picked for them.  They watch auto racing every Sunday.  They love animals, and are kind and generous.  They say they are sorry when they hurt someone else.  They love vegetables and milk and reading books, and if they continue to eat vegetables, drink milk, and digest books they will become great adults.  I did this.  Me, just me, Papa.

I've earned a Day.

Happy Papa's Day,

SunFyre

June 18, 2004... Hiatus

I've been away.  Busy.  I have a bunch of excuses, if you care.

There is another new look this month.  I guess is SunFyre version 4.0.  My web design skills are improving.  One of the things I was doing during my break was studying and re-designing my firm's website.  Take a look if you'd like.

Anyhow, rather than boring you to death with all the stuff I didn't bother writing about, let's get back to business.

My mom came to visit the kids for a couple days.  Our nanny was on vacation in Puerto Rico (I'm definitely paying her too much) so Mom stayed with me and the kids.

Mom is a teacher, a reading teacher specifically.  She kept them entertained with a small box of crayons, a handful of markers, a bunch of cardboard boxes, and a stack of white office paper for three days straight.  I'm not sure exactly why we ever buy toys.

Jason Andrew was particularly impressed with how she could fold a sheet of paper and instantly produce a "bare-plane".  Ainsley Grace loved coloring the planes.  Between folding, decorating, and flying she kept our two 25-month-olds entertained for about three hours.

Okay, slightly interesting story, but not SunFyre worthy.

What fascinated me wasn't how easily entertained our children are, it was the fact that this simple entertainment couldn't be replicated.  The day after Mom left, I asked Kristen to make them airplanes.  She didn't know how.  The day after that, our other babysitter told me she never learned to make paper airplanes either.  Finally, our nanny returned today. She's an elementary education/early childhood development major entering her senior year.  Apparently she hasn't taken Paper Folding 101 yet either.

What is this generation coming to?  How will we pass on Papyrus Aeronautics?  Thank God for inventing Google!  That's where I discovered Alex's Paper Airplanes. If you don't know how to fold, and fly airplanes, don't tell me about it.  I don't want to know.  Just visit Alex.  If you are an experienced folder and flier, you'll appreciate this site even more.

Lighter than Air,

SunFyre