April 22

Sunny so far this morning it is sunny and I hope it will be warmer. Temps are in the low 40s right now. We are approaching the last week of April which looks like it will have a more normal series of daily temps and some rainy days.

We have made some progress with our furry problem children. About four years ago they were sitting at the windows which we had open when a neighbor's cat tried to attack them through the screen. They went into attack mode and, when they couldn't get at that other cat, went after each other. We developed a way to keep them separated which was a bit of a problem in a two-bedroom apartment. Every morning we shifted the cats around between the rooms without actually seeing each other but were used to the smell of each other. About ten days ago we finally allowed them both full run of the entire apartments. Well, besides a couple of aggressive incidents it has gone fairly well. And we were able to easily separate them on those occasions. I hope they will continue to be peaceable with each other.

Bill Astore has a good post this morning. I would make another observation: all too often the claim of "standing my ground" or "defending my castle" are accepted without any real examination. And these claims are given priority over another considerations. Rittenhouse actually placed himself in the situation where he was "threatened" by active choice. Texas governor Greg Abbot has promised to sign a pardon for a convicted murder who aggressively attacked peaceful protestors who did not threaten him. I also think police claims to feeling threatened are too often accepted without serious examination and cross-examination.

There is so much going on in Florida politics that is totally unsavory and that is a euphemism. This is just another example. If they really do want to do this they should mandate that the jury that decides a death penalty on an 8-4 vote must be present at the execution. Given how many prison sentences over the last few years have been overturned on various grounds (coerced confession, fraudulent witnesses, planted evidence, exclusion of evidence of innocence) to vote to kill a person (that is the meaning of the words "death penalty") on anything but a unanimous vote is a travesty of justice.