Defender 110 Quotes

Money bail is ruining the lives of literally millions of poor people and costing the country unnecessary billions of dollars in incarceration costs every year. Local jail populations grew by 19.8 percent just between 2000 and 2014, with pretrial detention accounting for 95 percent of that growth. Just as one example, but typical of big cities around the country, is Philadelphia, where the cost of running the jails is $110 to $120 per inmate per day. The single feature shared by almost every defendant in pretrial detention is that they are poor. Rich people make bail; poor people don't. Regardless of actual guilt or innocence, poor people are criminalized for their inability to buy their way out of jail.

Question 6 Why is it that in America, challenging the role of money in politics is by definition a revolutionary act? The principle behind buying influence is that money is power and power is, essentially, everything. It’s an idea that has come to pervade every aspect of our culture. Bribery has become, as a philosopher might put it, an ontological principle: it defines our most basic sense of reality. To challenge it is therefore to challenge everything. I use the word "bribery" quite self-consciously--and again, the language we use is extremely important. As George Orwell long ago reminded us, you know you are in the presence of a corrupt political system when those who defend it cannot call things by their proper names. By theses standards the contemporary United States is unusually corrupt. We maintain an empire that cannot be referred to as an empire, extracting tribute that cannot be referred to as tribute, justifying it in termes of an economic ideology (neoliberalism) we cannot refer to at all. Euphemisms and code words pervade every aspect of public debate. This is not only true of the right, with military terms like "collateral damage" (the military is a vast bureaucracy, so we expect them to use obfuscatory jargon), but on the left as well. Consider the phrase "human rights abuses." On the surface this doesn’t seem like it’s covering up very much: after all, who in their right mind would be in favor of human rights abuses? Obviously nobody; but ther are degrees of disapproval here, and in this case, they become apparent the moment one begins to contemplate any other words in the English language that might be used to describe the same phenomenon normally referred to by this term. Compare the following sentences: - "I would argue that it is sometimes necessary to have dealings with, or even to support, regimes with unsavory human rights records in order to further our vital strategic imperatives." - "I would argue that it is sometimes necessary to have dealings with, or even to support, regimes that commit acts of rape, torture, and murder in order to further out vital strategic imperatives." Certainly the second is going to be a harder case to make. Anyone hearing it will be much more likely to ask, "Are these strategic imperatives really that vital?" or even, "What exactly is a ’strategic imperative’ anyway?" There is even something slightly whiny-sounding about the term "rights." It sounds almost close to "entitlements"--as if those irritating torture victims are demanding something when they complain about their treatment. (p. 110-112)

God can strike straight strokes with crooked sticks and make Satan’s dross[109] burnish[110] His choice vessels. Christians are crucified by the world that they might be crucified to the world. God makes it their enemy that He might make them enemies to it. Christianity is like the “phoenix,” which has always flourished in its own ashes.[111] While reprobates attack the truth with their sword, martyrs defend it with their blood. The loss of their heads hastens the reception of their crowns.

anyone who didn’t want you to be able to defend yourself was not someone with your best interests at heart.

The Bible tells us that someone who has truly been born again will urgently desire to get rid of anything in his life that’s sinful or displeasing to God (1 Thess. 4:7, 1 John 3:9), he will obey Christ’s commands (John 14:15; 1 John 2:3), and he will pray for boldness to speak to others about Christ (Acts 4:29). The Bible says, “If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31). So judge yourself now, before you have to face God on Judgment Day. Don’t be like the religious man in Jesus’ story. Humble yourself before God today. Truly repent. Place your faith in Jesus Christ, and be genuinely born again. Take time now to “make your call and election sure” (2 Pet. 1:10). Don’t wait another minute; this breath may be the last one God grants you.