I once thought the worst reason for reversing a sentence was to give some compassion to an aging convict, but once again I am proven that there is something lower than the bottom of the barrel. Susan Atkins, a member of the “Manson family”, and according to some, the murderer of Sharon Tate back in 1969, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008. There were people who felt that she should be let out of jail as to die with some dignity among family and friends. Other people felt that a life sentence clearly meant that the convicted criminal is to stay in jail until that convict’s death.

But the Supreme Court in the State of Connecticut has dug deeper, beyond what I thought was the bottom of the barrel.

Fairy tales, books, movies and history are full of wicked and malevolent stepmothers, women who forced untold hardships upon the children of their husbands. Even going way back, 2400 years or so, the Greek Euripides was quoted as saying, “Better a serpent than a stepmother!” And he hadn’t even met Marcia Dooley!

Marcia Dooley, in fact, outdid most wicked stepmothers of literature and history in the sheer pure unadulterated evil she exhibited to her stepchildren. And she had the good fortune to be married to Edward (Tony) Dooley who couldn’t give a flying rat’s ass how his kids were treated. And Randal Dooley had the worst fortune to be one of those kids.

They say that you should never discuss religion, politics or sex at a dinner party (although I never agreed with the sex one – that can really liven things up). I think that we should add another one to that list: disciplining your children.

There seem to be two camps where discipline is concerned; the spare the rod, spoil the child camp and the “I don’t ever discipline my precious little angel because I don’t want to stifle his creativity” camp. Right. Do you think they still say that after their house explodes?

I think there should be another camp, the middle of the road. That’s where I sit. I will freely admit that when my kids were toddlers, I smacked their hands and bottoms. Now that the boys are older, I tend to just bop them on the back of their heads. I call that my attention getter. It goes like this:

GREENSBURG MAN SENTENCED IN SEXUAL ASSAULT OF 5-MONTH-OLD GIRL
excerpts from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review article

A Greensburg man was sentenced Friday to serve up to 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 5-month-old girl.

Scott Wade Smith, 20, pleaded guilty in December to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

Prosecutors dropped a more serious charge of rape of a child because evidence did not link Smith to the victim.

The baby’s mother alerted police to the sexual assault on March 7 ,2008, after the child was taken to the hospital and treated for injuries consistent with a sexual assault.

Smith was interviewed by police and confessed to having sexual contact with the baby, police said.

In court yesterday, Westmoreland County Judge John Blahovec ordered Smith to serve 10 to 30 years in prison, not to have any contact with children and to undergo sex offender treatment. (View Scott Wade Smith’s Criminal Court Docket)

Father’s Day is right around the corner. It is the one day a year that we honor the men in our lives who gave us life, taught us how to be an adult and gave us our children. But let’s be frank – as far as holidays go, on Father’s Day, dads tend to get screwed.

Mothers get flowers, cards and warm sentiments. But in my house, it seems to be a competition as to who can find the most obnoxious gift to give their dad to tell him just how special he is. Like the fly swatter that screams, “Hasta la vista, Baby,” or the t-shirt that says, “I’m an old fart so pull my finger.”

Now as far as husbands and fathers go, I lucked out; I got a pretty good one. After years of marriage, he still sets my nose hair on fire. We are the odd couple with me being the perky blond former cheerleader and him the Harley riding, tattooed bad boy who, even though he had advanced degrees in mathematics and engineering, preferred his blue collar lifestyle. As he says, “where else will they let you work with shit that might blow up.”

Jeffrey Baldwin accomplished quite a lot after November 30, 2002. Thanks to Jeffrey, his three siblings got a shot at a good and decent life. Thanks to Jeffrey, amendments were made to the Ontario Child and Family Services Act. Thanks to Jeffrey, Toronto’s Catholic Children’s Aid Society requires background checks on all potential caregivers. Yes, Jeffrey Baldwin certainly made an impact in Ontario in particular, Canada in general.

But Jeffrey Baldwin is not remembered for the things he did. Instead he’s remembered for the things he didn’t. He didn’t live to see his sixth birthday. He didn’t survive years of deprivation and starvation, torture and abuse. He didn’t escape alive from the hellhole that was his home and from the hell beasts who were his grandparents. And tragically he didn’t inspire enough pity in the heartless humans who could have easily saved his life.