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The Daily Dose/July 9, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around The Human Experience...
OH NO, NOT YOU, TOO? The indignation and anger expressed following the Casey Anthony verdicts are providing an interesting insight into the human animal.
Listen Up: Our system isn't perfect. People go free sometimes who shouldn't - Hi O.J.! - and anyone who thinks we haven't imprisoned - and even executed - people for stuff they didn't do is high, because we have.
Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here: Which is our point: very few people get too worked up whenever an innocent - usually black - man is freed after spending two or three decades in a Texas prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Honestly, this should outrage us as much as the guilty going free, but it doesn't because we're tough on crime in this country and if a few innocents - again, usually black males - are caught in the cross-hairs, tough noogies.
Stop Us If You've Heard This Before: We really should get worked up, though. The purpose of government is to provide for the liberty of its citizens and a government that imprisons people for crimes they did not commit is negligent in that duty.
Oh, Jesus H: Which brings us to a brief, almost interesting history of jury service.
We're Going To Get Some Dry, Technical Matter, Aren't We: Jury trials originated in the 13th century, though back then they were a collection of witnesses who were familiar with the case, as juries who weighed evidence didn't evolve until the 15th century.
Dry, Technical Matter: Throughout history the purpose of the jury was to prevent governments from trying and convicting whoever the hell they wanted for whatever charges happened to amuse them that particular day. It was, and still is, a vehicle for citizens to stand up to their government and ask "Hey…what's going on here?".
By The By: That principle works both ways, though, and the reverse didn't happen here.
Dry, Technical Matter: All right, you can take a very literal, letter-of-the-law view of the matter and say that perhaps the prosecution didn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey Anthony was guilty of the specific crimes she was charged with. We're not saying that, but anyone who has sat on a jury will yield that point.
OTOH: Still, though, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if your verdict makes you weep and feel sick, as one juror reported, then you have probably reached the wrong verdict.
You could have used your broad, unimpeachable power to sprinkle a bit of discretion into your proceedings. Because you do your job with impunity you could have asked yourself "Hey, were any of Casey Anthony's actions consistent with someone who didn't kill her daughter?" to which you would've answered "No, of course they weren't" and, perhaps, come to the conclusion she did kill her daughter.
The Bottom Line: If a unanimous not guilty verdict was unworkable, come back with a hung jury and make the state of Florida give it another shot. Anything would've been preferable to acquittal because this nation's need to be entertained is insatiable and it is not unreasonable to conclude Ms. Anthony will make some money off of this.
MORE GREAT MOMENTS IN AMERICA: This nation's once-proud space program filed its retirement papers this week, launching its final space flight, as the space shuttle Atlantis was lunched into orbit Friday morning.
Stop Me If You've Heard This Before: Come later this month the nation that first put men on the Moon will no longer have a space program. This is the last flight of the space shuttle and the United States - the only nation to put man on the Moon - does not have a follow-up space vehicle ready to go. This is kind of like descendants of Henry Ford no longer having a family car and riding the bus.
Oh, This Hurts: The current mission is scheduled to end on July 20, the date, in 1969, when man first landed on the Moon.
Yeah, Yeah, Whatever: This is NASA's 166th manned space mission since Alan Shepard flew into space aboard Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961. Using July 20, 2011 as an end date, that means American had a manned space program for 18,339 days, or a bit more than 50 years. Fifteen of those days were spent on the Moon.
FunFact: None of them were spent on Mars which, if we'd have had a mind to, we could have been on last century.
Great Moments In Presidential Succession: President Zachary Taylor dies on this date in 1850 of an illness that at the time wasn't completely known. Taylor's body was exhumed in 1991 and an examination by the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner showed Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis.
Taylor was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.
More 1850 Death: The Persian prophet the Bab is executed on this date in 1850 in Tabriz, Persia.
Maybe Texas Could Try This: Every account of the execution, be it sacred or secular, agrees the Bab, and another man named Anis, who had actually requested to be shot with the Bab, needed to be shot twice. The first time they were hung in the air, about nine feet off the ground. The shooters missed their targets, but did hit the ropes that were suspending the men, freeing them. When the smoke cleared Anis is standing by the wall (some accounts say he had taken a bullet), while the Bab was later found in his cell, dictating some instructions to a follower.
Members of the Baha'i Faith tend to regard this as a miracle, while non-believers mere regard it as an instance of bad marksmanship. The men were killed on the second attempt.
Bloody Good: The first Wimbledon tennis tournament begins on this day in 1877. Despite the fact their were only 22 entrants, the tournament wouldn't end until July 22,
Oh Yeah: It was won by Spencer Gore, who beat William Marshall 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
Thought For The Day: The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win. - Roger Bannister.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: A 12 ounce can of Spam lunch meat has about 1,060 calories.
Today's Stumper: When did women first play at Wimbledon? - Answer next time!
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