I've been fortunate enough to have a trustworthy and affordable handyman available since I moved to Montgomery 12 years ago. I have yet to find the project he or his staff can't or, even better, won't handle.
No, I won't share his name and number with you because I don't want to get him loaded down to the point that he can't get to my jobs! (OK, if you ask really nice...)
Up in North Alabama a kitchen counter contractor has been sentenced to prison for taking money for granite countertops, but never delivering or installing them. He blames the economy. Oddly enough, the jury found him guilty of some of the counts, but not all, even though the cases were more-or-less identical.
The contractor has been sentenced to twenty years. My initial reaction was YEA! Let that serve as a warning to the shady contracting tradesmen out there! But on reflection, it does seem extreme compared especially to some murderers who get less than that. We really do have an uneven system of deciding how to punish wrongdoers, no?
Yes we do have a terribly uneven system for punishing wrong doers. Every day there is a news story about some monster child molester with prior convictions who didn't register that has sexually assaulted another child and walks away with 2 years in prison. And every day there is a story about someone getting busted for pot getting 10-20 years. As a society, who are we really more afraid of? Why doesn't our criminal justice system reflect that?
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