Joseph Stalin and the USSR were hot on science. They actually did extremely well in several fields of science, and the superiority of Soviet science led to the Sputnik crisis in 1954.

But the Soviet adoration for science was not all harmless. The Soviet government saw religion as a threat to science, and openly ridiculed Christian belief and incarcerated and murdered tens of millions.

Fast forward to present day.

Richard Dawkins and the new atheists are again attempting to use the government as a tool to persecute Christians.

http://www.individualsovereigntist.com/2007/12/19/the-totalitarianism-of-atheists/

The lessons of the past have been unlearned. Are we doomed to another revolution?

Last week two Florida teenagers, age 16 and 17, were were prosecuted for producing, directing and promoting a photograph featuring the sexual conduct of children. The kicker of it all is that the individuals featured in the photos were each other. Under Florida law it was perfectly legal for the two teens to engage in sexual intercourse, but apparently documenting the act was just too much.

Confused? Let me explain. The two children were prosecuted on the basis of Florida’s child pornography laws, which are in existence to protect children from being exploited. In this case, neither of the two were exploited. They willingly engaged in a sexual act, and both willingly photographed the incident. The photos were never made public. The boy emailed a photo to the girl, and the girl emailed a photo to the boy. They didn’t do anything wrong in my opinion!

I’d be willing to bet that this whole ordeal was the result of an overprotected, somewhat crazy parent of one of the teens. Otherwise, how would anyone have found out? It’s time for parents to get realistic. Teenagers have sex, and that likely includes your own little angel. Publicly humilating and punishing them for something that is natural is sickening and wrong. And just as wrong as that is the state and the courts that actually try cases like this. The pornography laws are in effect to stop the 50-year-old perverts from exploiting children, not to stop teens from having consensual sex and taking photos of it.

I came across an interesting website today, The Innocence Project, which according to its website is a “national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.” The organization was founded in 1992 to help prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing.

One of the most startling facts presented on the website is this one:

To date, 194 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 14 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 12 years in prison before exoneration and release.

In other words, 194 people since 1992 have been cleared of all charges and were proven to be innocent through the help of DNA testing. These people were innocent and wrongfully convicted, and had their lives nearly destroyed. If 194 cases have thus far been caught, then how many other innocent people are rotting away in jail having been convicted of a crime they did not commit?

The Innocence Project goes even further than just tossing out a bunch of numbers. Available on their website is a national view of exonerations across the United States. By mousing over each state, you can find out how many people have been cleared. Clicking on the state will provide you access to even more information, including the nitty gritty details of each of the individuals cleared - including their full names, pictures, case info, and more.

It really makes you think about the whole justice system here in the United States, how things aren’t always fair or perfect, and how the system can be abused and manipulated. And for those who believe in the death penalty, I hope that these figures at least give you cause to think about how you feel about that issue again.

Julie Amero, a 40-year-old Connecticut substitute teacher, faces up to 40 years in prison after she was convicted in January of four counts of risk of injury to a minor. Amero was charged and convicted for exposing her students to pornography on a classroom computer.

Prosecutors insist that she intentionally was looking at lewd and pornographic images, while experts believe that it was more likely the fault of hidden spyware and adware, which can cause pop-up ads to take over a computer. Furthermore, Amero and her supports insist that the computer lacked a firewall and anti-spyware software that could have prevented the pop-up porn.

Amero was working as a substitute in October 2004 in a seventh-grade classroom. Some of the students were working on computers looking at hair styles, and then the pop-up ads began appearing on the one of the screens, featuring pornographic images. While the logical thing to do would have been to shut the computer off, Ms. Amero was under strict orders not to shut down any computer. So, she thus proceeded to shoo the students away, and shield the screen from their view.

Unfortunately for Julie Amero, her case seems to have been handled by a bunch of computer illiterate old men, who don’t understand not only is pornography readily accessible online whenever you want it, but it is also rampant in places and times when you don’t want it, such as in the form of pop-up ads.

Julie Amero was scheduled to be sentenced earlier this month, but it was delayed and will now occur on March 29. While we don’t yet know what kind of sentence she will be given, the fact that she has the potential to receive up to 40 years in prison for something that wasn’t her fault, is appalling. Rapists and child molesters get lesser punishments than this.

The people who should really be charged in this case are those working in the school district’s IT department who were too incompetent to protect the computers from today’s ever-present spam, spyware, and adware.