Copacabana

Having a hard time finding that silver lining on this one

Before I post an incredible video I shamelessly stole from a Facebook friend (you know who you are Mr. Human Resources), let's talk about jury duty, shall we? Um, I came home exhausted yesterday after deliberating for 6 hours a misdemeanor case where the guy was 100 percent guilty (trust me. no denying it. the judge declared it a mistrial because we were going to come back in today and listen to 2 1/2 hours of witness testimony again and I think he felt sorry for us. I really do.) because one of the jurors was motivated by something other than getting at the truth. And that's as diplomatic as I can be about it. I mean the lawyer for the defense actually gave us his case during closing -- big softball-sized holes he pointed out for us to consider because even defense lawyers have to be able to look at themselves in the mirror every day. But my fellow juror would not budge. I don't want to go into it except to say that I felt like I was being held hostage for pretty dark reasons and it seriously pissed me off. It depressed the hell out of me and I went home and cried and got very angry and yelled at people on the phone. Serving your civic duty shouldn't feel like that, should it? Thank you nice judge and lawyers who agreed to call a mistrial. Feeling caged and trapped is the worst feeling in the world to me -- I actually start to panic if I think about it -- and you gave me my freedom from endless circular discussions and a stifling degree of bias that -- seriously -- I'm still trying not to be angry about. Reaffirmed my belief that justice really should be blind and really isn't. I suspect this is not how I should be feeling about the experience and that makes me very sad.

So, enough of that. Everyone should read this article. It's not only incredibly well-written, the subject is fascinating and I totally want to have a beer with him. I think we could hatch ideas that could fix the world. Because I have to believe that. Did I mention I'm still grieving a loss of innocence from yesterday? Still raw...Here's a juicy quote from the piece:

"So given all that, what does Breitbart want from the perennial debate? 'All I want is a fair game,' he insists. 'I’m positive our ideas beat their ideas when the game isn’t rigged. That’s why I helped get the Huffington Post off the ground: I want everyone to hear what the Left has to say. Also, I want those of us on the Right to tell people what we believe—not to have those on the Left to do it for us.'"

And here's the video. Ah, the old hometown. I'll miss ya.



And also this video because I see signs. I may have mentioned that. Also it's just a great song.

posted by Lola @ 11:22 AM