OK, enough is enough. The world will not take the right-wing trash lying down any more. Froth at the mouth all you can but we’ve had enough of cold-blooded dictatorial mindsets and you’ll either have to get a heart (and a brain) or go back in time and live with them. OF COURSE Empathy is required in every human being and even though it might exclude you militant right-wingers it does include judges. The role of law, by the way, is not only to punish a criminal but ALSO to make the wrong-doer realize his mistake and the purpose of jail is also to try to reform the criminal and try to make him fit for society again. A ruthless person as a judge will be a nightmare to society and without any empathy a kid might actually be hauled away by police for throwing a ball in a condo premises (it's against the law to play ball in a residential area except in specified areas in my state) because the 'law is the law'. The reason why we have a human for a judge (and not a robot) is because the person will use his head and heart to come to the right conclusion. A tourist from England driving on the wrong side of the road in the US might either be prosecuted for reckless driving and endangerment of life or a judge with empathy would understand that it was a one off incident due to force of habit and let him off with a simple driving ticket for driving on the wrong side of the road. There is NO freaking 'the law is the law' for MOST cases and if you have a heart then you will be able to distinguish the good from the bad and arrive at the right decision. Kudos to Obama for having the guts to state this aloud. But let me advise the fox news crowd (including watchers) who have been frothing at the mouth since Obama became president and are having seizures at the Sotomayor nomination (hey, I'm not a very big fan of all her decisions) ... this time we will not take it lying down .. you will have the mother of all wars (of words!) ... and we will HIT BACK HARDER than we get!!