Here's a new, fun game to play I invented a couple of minutes ago, still in its preliminary development, called When States Decide. This game allows you to guess, which crimes against penalties yield more time in prison, all depending upon (a) the nature of the crime and (b) the State in which the infraction is committed.

I'll tell you what, why don't we just roll the dice today and pick a couple news items hot off the presses. Then you will decide: when it comes to prison time, which do think would win?

Well, lets have a look at the crawl at the bottom of your particular 24-hour news screen or RSS feed, and choose our combatants.

Lets see what we have here today: "Imus settles with CBS."

No.

"Apologizing Rapist freed after 6 months, " and "Pedophile arrested near day care." 

Hmm, interesting. But, still, no and no.

Ah, here we go. Pay dirt.

Smithfield, Va.—Michael Vick's attorneys are negotiating a plea deal over pending dogfighting charges he faces in November. The Atlanta Falcons star quarterback and two others could face up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised probation.

Ouch. Perhaps you should have gone with cockfighting instead. Even Virginia native George Washington once revered cockfighting in this country. In fact, in Virginia cockfighting is only a Class 3 misdemeanor, not a felony. Tough break kid, but your plea bargain should keep you from behind bars for too long.

Alright, let's see. Oh here's another one:

Wife who killed preacher set free

Selmer, Ten.—33-year-old Mary Winkler, the confessed slayer of her preacher husband, is released after seven months in prison. Wait, what?

The woman shot her husband in the back with a shotgun while he was laying in bed, fleed the scene with their three kids to Alabama, and also may have been involved in an alleged check kiting scam, is now released from prison in a stint that lasted not even three trimesters long?

OK. If you'll excuse me, I would like to drop the façade and have a candid tête-à-tête with you for enduring this. Believe me, this is not as much an indictment on States application of the law as much as it is a casual review of justice, law, accountability and plain knowledge. This should not happen in a free society.

I've actually read up quite a bit in the Mary Winkler case, so I do have an idea as to what went on between the she and the deceased Rev. Matthew Winkler. There very well may have been abuse in the relationship, both physical and verbal. She was allegedly made to wear "slutty" outfits to bed, watch porn with him, etc. Additionally, it should be stated that being a preacher's wife is stress enough on a marriage. Unfortunately it is a case of she said, he's dead that we may never know the answer to, in regards to the abuse.

Nevertheless, as grim a reality as that may be, the fact remains that she murdered her husband. That is a fact. Somewhere in a Texas prison cell, even Clara Harris knows the penalty of that. And you can be sure that, in light of this case, she will be requesting an appeal to her case tout de suite. And that should not happen.

While as heinous a practice dogfighting is, it doesn't hold a flint striker to the inferno that is murder. I'm no lawmaker, but I think five years in prison maximum sounds reasonable for dogfighting. Hell, you can get a year in jail for a "pump-and-run." As such, the punishment for voluntary manslaughter, should also fit the crime. In other words, not to be Bill "New Rules" Maher, but, while this is no real revelation, YOU CANNOT KILL SOMEONE AND GET OUT IN SEVEN MONTHS.