By Gina Dalfonzo|Published Date: February 04, 2010
Jenny Sanford writes in her new book that her soon-to-be-ex-husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, didn't want to include a vow of fidelity in their wedding ceremony. (Article contains sexual themes/language.)
This sparked an interesting discussion on La Shawn Barber's Facebook page, with some commenters (though not La Shawn herself) suggesting that Mrs. Sanford brought her troubles on herself. That seems a little harsh to me. Clearly she made a mistake and it had serious consequences. On the other hand, as she says, she was "very young [and] . . . in love" and inclined to think of her groom as honest and transparent rather than prevaricating.
You can't be too careful whom you marry, that's for sure. Hopefully Mrs. Sanford's memories of the red flag that she missed will serve as a reminder of that for other young couples.
Daily roundup
By: Gina Dalfonzo|Published: March 18, 2010 5:12 PM
Many are working to bring the disparity in sentencing between cocaine and crack to an end. Pharmacologically they are almost the exact same substance. Personally, I think the disparity should be reduced a bit, but I also think that community-based treatment for non-violent offenders should be used on a much larger scale.
William Saletan of Slate observes that we're in a "war between the worlds": the world of reality and the world of virtual reality. The frightening thing is that some of the casualties in this war are not virtual casualties. They're real ones.
The compromise [Uganda] had accepted, which the president [Yoweri Museveni] presented as reconciliation, was actually something more complex and less sturdy. It was as if, having found themselves unable to forgive, his people had concentrated on forgetting, and when they’d failed at forgetting, they’d chosen to believe what they wanted to believe. So long as nothing disturbed their conception of the past or exposed them to scrutiny, the nation could continue its halting procession along Museveni’s chosen path. To the president’s way of thinking, therefore, justice was a threat to progress, not because it promised verdicts and punishments, but because it forced people to remember.
