Texas Continues to Execute the Developmentally Disabled Despite Supreme Court Ruling.

It is unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded prisoners in the United States. The state of Texas, however, appears to have found a loophole, according to a published report. In the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling on Atkins v. Virginia, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, "Because of their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment, and control of their impulses ... [the mentally retarded] do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct." Because of this, the justices found it "cruel and unusual" to put the metally deficient to death, leaving it to the states to establish a framework by which such individuals could be identified in capital cases. Psychologist George Denkowski, an expert witness oft-used by Texas prosecutors, has been utilizing "junk science" to elevate the intelligence evaluation scores of mentally deficient death row prisoners, according to a new report in The Texas Observer.

However, Texas Governor Rick Perry rejected a bill that would have established rules to determine who is mentally retarded. Left grasping, courts invented their own criteria, turning to psychologists for the complicated evaluations. Having played a key part in two-thirds of the state's Atkins appeals, Dr. George Denkowski has built a lucrative practice off ensuring the mentally retarded are executed, his critics say. Denkowski's reputation for declaring prisoners fit to die has earned him "almost Dr. Death status," attorney Robert Morrow told reporter Reneé Feltz.

Since complaints were lodged against Denkowski, the Texas Board of Examiners of Psychologists has found that at least three of his cases were littered with scoring errors. Now Denkowski is facing a review by the state licensing board on Feb. 16, when his career as a psychologist could end. Already, three of the Atkins appeals he testified on have been placed on hold pending the outcome of the hearing. Denkowski evaluated 29 men in total; some have already been executed.

James: No surprise it's in Texas. They should change their name from "The Lone Star State" to "The Death State." There is absolutely no reason why we should be executing mentally retarded people. In my view that is no different than executing a young child who accidentally killed their parents. The mentally retarded don't know what they did was wrong, so put them on medications and monitor them in a mental institution. The world isn't black and white but has many shades of gray and mentally retarded criminals fit into one of those shades of gray. So, being able to keep society safe doesn't necessarily mean we have to resort to killing these mentally retarded prisoners. We have in America, a "death cult" and it seems to be centered in Texas. We are a war-like people who also kill people (via the death penalty) to show other people that killing is wrong. Now, does that sound like a logical thing to do? I'm starting to wonder who the real mentally retarded ones are, the prisoners or the citizens?

Ram Bahadur Bamjan. The "Buddha Boy" Re-Emerges From Forest.

So the Buddha boy has re-emerged from the forest to greet his followers before returning back to the forest for more meditation. I have been skeptical from the beginning that he is the reincarnation of Buddha because from what I know Siddhartha Gautama had broken free of the cycle of birth and death by being transformed by mahaparinirvana:

"Being Buddha means the last birth and the highest level that can be achieved. There can be no reincarnation of Buddha, even though Buddhists believe in life after death," said Rakesh, a Buddhist scholar in Katmandu who goes by only one name.

James: I'm not saying that he isn't a very spiritual being but I am suspicious that this could all be a scam of some kind to take peoples' money in the form of "donations." I also wonder how he can even be compared to Buddha when he hasn't said much of anything in the form of teachings. I keep thinking that this sounds like the beginning of a cult headed by a charlatan wanting to be called a Buddha and followed and adored by people. That said, Buddhism at first was probably seen as a cult and Buddha seen by some as a charlatan but the revelations of Buddha have well stood the test of time and investigation over thousands of years.

I guess some see him as Maitreya (the "next Buddha") who will restore the "pure Dharma" to Earth but there are two requirements before Maitreya could arrive on Earth. First: 1). The Dharma will no longer be taught, which is clearly not evident now as Buddhism is growing faster than maybe since its arrival into greater Asia with converts in the west such as in America, Europe and Australia. And with the invention of the internet the teachings of ordained Dharma teachers are more widely available than perhaps at any time in the history of Buddhism.

The other requirement that needs to occur before Maitreya will arrive is that Buddhism must be completely forgotten, which is clearly not the case right now on Earth. There are also events that must take place such as oceans shrinking in size, which isn't happening. In fact, because of global warming the oceans are rising. Thus, I think it can be safe to assume that "Buddha boy" is not Maitreya.

There is something about this Buddha boy, his "handlers" and "followers" seems very suspicious to me. I'm also curious about the monks seen in the above picture. They seem to wear the robes of Tibetan Buddhist monks and so I'd be curious to hear what their teachers and senior monks think of Buddha boy. I'm curious and will continue to follow this story and see what happens next.