The courts as blood sport.

Casey Anthony has been found not guilty of the murder of her two year old daughter Caylee, but she was convicted of lying to the police. I paid very little attention to the trial or the run-up to it, except what I saw on the covers of the tabloids, and most of that I discounted as being sensationalistic claptrap.

The cops took a long time to get the evidence. Casey lied to them. She felt she couldn't trust the cops. Her dad was a cop. The previous sentence may be related to the sentence just before it.

That's how paragraphs work.

In any case, a cute little girl is dead and people clamor for justice, and now they feel it has been denied.

There's a lot of anger out there and it will take aim at anything and anyone.



Nancy Grace feels this is the worst thing that has ever happened. She feels that way a lot.

Her money quote is "the devil is dancing". Yes, if something goes this bad, it must be satanic, right?

Nancy Grace is a former prosecutor. It would be nice if every once in a while she would say that the prosecution or the police or the forensic team screwed up big time, and in this case it looks like all three, but no. Let's invoke Satan instead.

I am merely agnostic and not an atheist, but if Nancy Grace's view of the cosmos was the only other choice, I would be an atheist and a damn nasty one at that. Richard Dawkins would be writing me notes behind the scene saying, "Good lack of God, man, bring it down a notch, would you?"


Kim Kardashian tweeted.

Yes, I know, stop the presses.

Ms. Kardashian thinks a terrible miscarriage of justice has been done. Some people with long memories think she doesn't have the right to be offended because her dead father was Robert Kardashian, one of the lawyers who defended O.J. Simpson when he was found not guilty sixteen years ago.

Does it feel like sixteen years to you? Yeah, me neither. I guess we are old.

I'm not sure how many people who know who Kim Kardashian is know her first claim to fame is being her father's daughter. If Family Feud ever got around to asking 100 people "Why is Kim Kardashian famous?", I'm sure "Hell if I know" would be the #1 answer, followed by "She's on TV", "She's gotta big butt", and "Didn't she make a sex tape?". "Her dad defended O.J." would be way down the list, if it made the list at all.

But right now people are angry, so Kim Kardashian isn't allowed to join in the prevailing anger. The crowd wants blood right now, and nearly anyone's blood will do.

But please, not mine. I am Cinna the Poet, not Cinna the Conspirator.

Justice in Oakland.

Chauncey Bailey was a reporter for the Oakland Post, a local independent newspaper. He was killed in August of 2007. Nearly four years later, an Oakland jury has Yusuf Bey IV, a sociopath who ran Your Black Muslim Bakery, of ordering his death when Bailey was looking into improprieties in the business.

This case took a hell of a long time to get in front of a jury, but thank Odin, Vishnu and the li'l baby Jeebus that it got in front of an Oakland jury. The last big public murder in my hometown was Omar Grant being killed by an incompetent BART cop. The trial went to Los Angeles, where an incompetent judge in a deeply corrupt town told all cops everywhere there was no need for them to be competent, even if their bungling might cost a citizen his life, especially if that citizen had a less than optimal skin color.

I hope the judge here throws the book at Bey IV and I hope the book is a very heavy one.