Nascar

Ah, the sound of car engines running at Daytona, the signal for the new NASCAR season is about to begin.  Pictured above is the #3, last piloted at the Daytona 500 in 2001 by the late Dale Earnhardt.  This go around it will be piloted by Austin Dillon, grandson of Richard Childress, owner for the late Dale Earnhardt.  I mention this for several reasons...

Stand your Ground... Affluenza... Really?

In the past decade several laws and defenses have come into existence.  The first is the now called Stand Your Ground laws.  While this is not the case in all states, where it is in use, there have been some problems.  So everyone is on the same page, Stand Your Ground laws remove the duty of an individual to flee a situation, they have the right to use whatever force is required to end the threat.  The problem is, Stand Your Ground does not include using deadly force after you have left or have a good chance to leave the situation.  If someone were to break into my home, and I were to shoot them, I could attempt to invoke stand your ground, but if I ran past the front door to grab a gun, I cannot attempt to invoke stand your ground.  While the concept has been around since the late 1870's, it has recently become something of a trend.  Basically when it was initially recreated in the Indiana Court system, it was more or less a belief that a duty to retreat from a threat to self or property was inherently wrong (thanks Manifest Destiny).  This decision was reaffirmed in 1921 after a few notable cases.  Its not really a new trend, but its not something that we have seen a great deal of until recently.  The problem is people seem to forget that this law is pretty specific, if you cannot retreat you can use deadly force, if you forgo an opportunity to retreat, you are sunk trying to use it.