

The vast majority of kidnappings are custody disputes between parents. For instance, one parent has custody, the other has visitation. And the parent with visitation takes the child out of town to see their grandparents, without asking permission first. Under the rules of their custody agreement, that is kidnapping.
Is that worth life in prison? Or even 5 years? Minimum sentences are the “zero tolerance policy for fighting in school” of the legal world. They remove any nuance or discretion, just so some lawmaker can say they are tough on crime.




I’m Native American, and my tribe’s word for “white person” is translated literally as “lister”. Because that’s what the white people did when they encountered the tribe. They listed everything. They made lists of the tribe’s people, their possessions, how everyone was related, where everything was, what religion everyone was, etc… Wanted to trade? They’d make a list of what was traded. They wanted to build a house? They started with a list of everything they’d need. They showed up in a covered wagon? They’d have a list of everything on the wagon. Everything got written down on a list somewhere. So the tribe called them listers.
Funnily enough, the word for “black person” is “black lister”, because the slaves were only ever around when the listers were. As far as my ancestors were concerned, they were just black listers.