What do you tell a woman with two black eyes? Nothing you haven't told her twice before.

It's a shame, but it should come as no surprise that news stories generating moral outrage and reader response usually involve violence against animals, while violence against women and children, nada.  The Columbus Dispatch reports that, the story of the Columbus-area firefighter who shot his dogs to avoid arranging care for the pets while he vacationed,  generated thousands of letters and calls to local media, while the murder of Christine Lyles by the father of her two little babies engendered silence.

The video is of the sentencing of Kelly Juntunen who beat his wife, as the Judge said:  "like a rag doll" for interrupting his game of "guitar hero."  This smirking asshole is one of the few in Ohio to get the maximum sentence, 6 months beating someone half to death.  Domestic violence is the one crime of "attempted murder" that is still only a misdemeanor in Ohio.

I continue to be amazed  that (mostly) men can justify acting out rage in inexplicable acts of violence upon those they claim to love.  As a lawyer and a member of the human community that we value the plight of animals over the plight of our daughters, well I'm ashamed.

For the larger context, the Columbus Dispatch story is terrific:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/11/15/domestic1.html?sid=101