Laws and Logic (not super Katrina related)

A thought just occurred to me:

Take these three situations and think about them...

1. An animal kills a person. The consequence? The animal is killed and its owner may be charged (if it has an owner) with manslaughter

2. An ordinary person kills a person. The consequence? The perpetrator is charged with murder/manslaughter, and pays their consequence in full, possibly receiving the death penalty.

3. A person dubbed "insane" by the courts kills someone else. The consequence? The insane killer gets let off with a lesser punishment and is exempt from capital punishment.

The logic behind the insanity idea is that such people have "no concept of right or wrong." Neither do animals (if we approach this idea from a Biblical perspective--only humans ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). I'm not sure if certain humans lack a moral capacity (and somehow a sin nature, therefore?) But, if an animal deserves full punishment, then so does an insane person, if they both have no concept of good and evil.

Here is what I think #3 should be:

An insane person kills someone else and is charged with murder/manslaughter. They receive the punishment that anyone else would, and the society around them is made more aware of its shortcomings in mental healthcare. Those responsible for the person are held responsible (imagine that!)

The prompt for this thought was an encounter earlier with a young man from the neighborhood here in Avondale, next to the Church where we are staying. He is around 13 years old, but is mentally handicapped. Earlier today, he was helping us move our stuff in and tried to steal my video camera/ipod/camera (which were in one bag) two times. He also dropped my laptop and hard drive each from about 3 feet off the ground, and then threw the bag with the 3 items across the room. I've checked everything besides the hard drive. Everything works so far. Stephanie also had a rather unpleasant encounter with him, but she can talk about that and not me (if she wants to, which I doubt).

Had anything broken, it would be logical that he would be held accountable for his action. Those around him who were not caring for him aptly should also bear some of the burden. It's not that nice of an idea, but it makes sense. If I was starting a country/society those would be in the laws.

I had Quizno's tonight (finally!) and I am so happy. Laura doesn't like Quizno's so we haven't been able to eat there and I've been wanting to for over a month. Laura wasn't going to eat, but ended up getting a salad that she liked. Last week we got Taco Bell because Jenn and Laura like it a lot, and I really didn't want to go, but relented. I got sick for about 45 minutes.

I have turned into a health nut (kind of) as far as eating. I love Whole Foods. Larry and Krista took us there, and we hung out there one night. I'll probably spend a lot of time shopping there when I get home. I'm turning into my grandparents.

I am very strongly leaning toward returning to Redding in the fall and figuring out a job or just not working for awhile. I'll probably take some Master's classes at Simpson while I'm there, too. Goodnight from the Big Easy.