"Sending a messgage??"

Some of the analogies in this post might not strike you as obvious and of the same principle but I do see this throughout our society.

I regard lying as one of the worst things you can do in society. While God looks at all sin as equal because its sin against him, us on earth do no such thing and should not do such. If businesses could break contracts (in essence lie to its customers) there would be no trust in our economy and thus a huge drop in investment will take place, less transactions in the marketplace and the economy will be hurt tremendously with our standard of living falling amidst it all.

However, this idea of using people at "examples" is getting on my nerves about as much as lying does. Bruce Pearl lied to the NCAA. Let me begin by saying that I can not read Pearl's heart and I'd say that he is more upset that he got CAUGHT than he is that he lied. But who am I to truly believe that and make that accusation. But I feel that the NCAA is about to make an "example" out of him and I hope they refrain from doing so.

There is no doubt that discrimination has taken place in our society. By the way there is proof that a true free market eliminates most discrimination in society. There is no doubt that violence is done to people due to them having serious "hatred" in hearts to these people. But should there be separate "hate crime" punishment because some court decided that in your heart you hated that person and we are now going to make "an example of you and punish you harder for being sexist or racist"? I think not. Crime is crime and violence is violence. Punish based on that not based on trying to rid someone of their hatred! This brings subjectivity into the law and that is wrong.

Today we always hear about trying to make an example out of someone to "send a message" to others about making the same mistakes. I can understand that to an extent. That is why they had public stoning and public crucifixions years ago. But this was done based on the writing law and consequences not some opinion of a court or body that decided to make this a "special" situation to send a "message". Bruce Pearl will probably be used as this "example". And don't get me wrong-he violated NCAA rules and then he lied about it. He also corrected that lie shortly after. But if the NCAA punishes Bruce Pearl more harshly than he has already been punished in an effort to "send a message"... then they are just as bad in my view.

I'm tired of our Congress wanting to punish those on Wall Street to "send a message" to other investors or future investors. Let the law be law and the rules be rules. Pearl lied. His integrity is now questioned. He cheated and should be punished. But the rules he broke were minor rules that if he had told the truth would have resulted in little punishment. He lied now should he be punished more? Sure, that is another rule. But lets not get caught up with this "sending a message" idea NCAA. Punish based on the wrong he has done. Take the subjectivity out of the question. I want our laws to be tougher and punishments to be harsher. That is after all what law is suppose to do. But I want it to be objective and each person punished equally for the laws they commit. Why? Because this is not a classroom where you treat everyone differently based on their past. This is law that we are talking about when it comes to our nation and her laws and rules and consequences. And all subjectivity should be taken out.

The NCAA can do as they want their a private enterprise and as a Libertarian I would never want them to be held to the same standard that government should be held to. But I hope they realize that Pearl should be punished based on his wrongdoings... not in a fashion to "send a message" to future rule breakers. The law and the rules and the punishments for such rules should already be written to do this objectively. No subjectivity is or needed nor should it be used.