The morning presented behind 1.5 inches of snow. The current deposit was more granular than the powder from the last storm but not wet heavy cement such as we received in December. It took about 25 minutes to bring the paper in and clean the decks. There were sufficient residual coals from last night’s fire to start today’s easily. And wonder of wonder, the bedroom and bathroom were twenty degrees warmer than yesterday morning.
The heating and cooling tech turned up at the back edge of the promised window. His first stop was at the heat pump. Surprisingly, the heat pump was functioning well, needed no Freon, and was making appropriate sounds rather than the inappropriate noises we had supposed were issuing from the unit. The wall thermostat was functioning well other than having a bad led to indicate emergency heating in use. The emergency heat function works well. Measuring airflow temps at various vents pointed to a duct problem. The tech dove into the crawl space, found a crossover connection had been improperly installed and had worked loose over the years. He reattached it and the result was almost immediately apparent. A good end to a service call, indeed.
The air handler/electric furnace and heat pump both cycled much less frequently last night than on previous nights despite a low temperature of 10.4°F over night
Today’s hike with Mike took place in low teen’s weather. What breeze there was gave additional power to the cold. It was certainly a Gore-tex and down morning. The county had cindered the road, this time up past our drive, but had not scraped it. The snow was moderately wind-packed and there was a crunchy tonality to each foot step that only happens on dry snow. While the high today was 28°F it is already back down to 15°F, heading toward 10°F or lower. The filter shack still has three lamps lit to keep some semblance of war air around the filter. We’ll keep a faucet running tonight. Both of us find it hard to leave a faucet dripping. That is one of those lessons we both learned in near-infancy.
Tonight’s dinner is braised short ribs served over kasha fixed in the method of the Pale.
Both of us find it hard to justify trial expenses for the man arrested after trying to down a plane full of people. He was quite willing to admit culpability, eve brag of it, until he was Mirandized and handed an attorney to serve his interests. While I realize that our legal system is designed to, as far as possible, protect the innocent, there are sufficient eye-witnesses in this event to justify conviction and sentencing based upon his initial confession.
There is some real irony in our legal system offering a fair and open trial to someone who committed the crime of attempted murder as a direct attack upon our nation and its legal system. If he were being dealt with in the manner Sharia law dictates, he already be executed and buried. I don’t want to see people tried in star chambers or in courts that have no accountability to the Constitution and our civil and criminal laws. Nor do I want to see those protections we cherish come to be denied to our citizens. I can’t reason out a means of justifying a separate process for dealing with terrorists that doesn’t in some manner, subvert our Constitution. I also can’t justify allowing our thirst for revenge to provide captured terrorists with the martyrdom they crave. We’ve got some unused prisons and mental hospitals in this country that could be adapted to prisons in which every cell is an isolation cell, in which no prisoner ever sees another prisoner, in which no prisoner, once convicted of terrorism, ever receives mail, phone calls, or any contact with another human face for any reason. Eric Rudolph, our home-grown clinic bomber should reside in such a place. So should the detainees from Guantanamo who are deemed too dangerous to release to their home nations. The five U.S. citizens now in Pakistan and under arrest for attempting jihad are also good candidates for such imprisonment. We should insist upon their return and then jail them for life. No one tried and convicted of terrorism should be eligible for parole, pardon, commutation of sentence, for any reason once convicted by a jury or once they have willingly admitted their guilt. In cases of religious-driven terrorism, Miranda rights may bear some loosening. Self-admitted guilt by terrorists, in the absence of coercion, should be admissible even if Miranda rights were not explained and even if an attorney was not present at the self-incrimination.
I’m sure this is ethically, legally, and philosophically a quagmire that any attorney would love to dissect. So would I if it were merely an academic discussion. But we are and will remain at war with religious extremists of several faiths.
Shabbat Shalom.
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