This is What Incompassionate Conservatism Looks Like

We do things continually to remove the consequences of poor behavior, unacceptable behavior, quite frankly. I'm not convinced that part of the role of government should be to protect individuals from the negative consequences of their actions.

This is a quote from Colorado state senator Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs). What might he be talking about? Food stamps? Welfare? Obama's plan to aid struggling homeowners who were "irresponsible?" No, the honorable Sen. Schultheis is arguing against a law requiring pregnant women to be tested for HIV so that if they are infected their babies can be treated to prevent the virus's transfer. Leaving aside the obvious lack of any knowledge about HIV transmission or concern for basic principles of public health to avoid disease epidemics, he actually wants to endanger the lives of children to make a (unsubstantiated and wildly off-base) point to their mothers! That's solid "pro-life" public policy if ever I've seen one. This comes two days after a different Colorado State senator, Scott Renfroe (R-Greeley), argued (on the floor of the state senate) that

Leviticus 20:13 says, 'If there is a man who lies with a male as though to lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act, and they shall surely be put to death. ... ' We are taking sins and making them to be legally OK, and that is wrong. ... And I'm not saying that this is the only sin that's out there. Obviously, we have sin, we have murder, we have all sorts of sin. We have adultery ... and we would never think to make murder legal.

This outburst of free speech (this is what Sen. Renfoe said in his defense - as if he has no responsibility that comes with that free speech being, I don't know, a state senator) led one Republican member of the Colorado House to say something that I finally agreed with:

"What are they doing over there?"

Good question.

Blacklisted for Being Anorexic and Innocent at University of Northern Colorado

The administration at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, CO has posted a list of "persona non-grata" at the University. These are people who are not allowed to step foot on campus and now have their faces thrown out on the web for violations such as being anorexic or not appearing for a campus disciplinary hearing at the advice of his lawyer for charges that were ultimately dropped.

Following the Virgina Tech tragedy, I am expect universities to be spending millions of dollars outfitting their campuses with expensive security devices, safe rooms, lockdown procedures -- and let us not forget security "consultants". Students are being blacklisted and publically humiliated by the same institutions that refuse to "reveal the identity" because of "privacy violations" for all sorts of other reasons" (from the Denver Post):

"This is a healthy discussion," [University President Kay] Norton wrote about reaction to the website. "However, we do not and will not talk about individuals who receive persona non grata orders."

While universities, including public universities, will spend millions of dollars each into the latest technology to assure that they are doing something. But, the most effective intervention would have been listening to his professors who notified authorities that they were concerned about his behavior and writings. But, that's not "sexy" or high-profile, so the impression of doing something is more important than actually doing something.