Free The Animal

Consider this, in the context of the oft quoted Ben Franklin, that, and paraphrasing: “those who would would trade freedom for safety deserve neither.” Let’s suppose it’s true that the purpose of the legal standard of “reasonable doubt” in criminal matters is to protect the innocent. In other words, even if you think he’s probably guilty, if you have doubt/s that are reasonable, i.e., plausible, logical, then you acquit. Period. In this way, it’s far more likely that you’ll let the guilty go (to kill, rape, murder, steal again?) than it will be to convict an innocent. Of course, this all presumes competence on the part of the judge (courtroom referee), honesty and integrity on the part of the prosecution and its witnesses, and intelligence on the part of the jury, which, as we know from The Innocence Project and many other sources, is a shaky assumption at best. (Side note: I’m very often told that the essential justification and necessity for the state is to ensure and guarantee “objective justice.” Did you check that link?) But we’re talking principles and ideas, so let’s proceed. So, do you notice anything in that that’s apropos to the freedom/safety trade off? You…

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Yes. Absolutely. Christ, already. This is one of my pet peeves in the world (go check that photo at the NYT link). Yea, we’re “not being too careful” everywhere, now. It was just the other day I decided to forgo a normal dinner in lieu of a Nathan’s hot dog, a buttered popcorn, and a Coke while seeing what’s all the hubbub about Ben’s brother in Gone Baby Gone (good performance; I’d probably have just let Morgan, his wife, and the “adopted” girl be). It’s a weeknight, and the downtown cinema is uncharacteristically busy. Then the fat chick in front of me takes the last three (three!) hot dogs. So, anyway, it’s going to be 15-20 until they’ve got a new batch sufficiently warmed. Damn; now I’m gonna have to ditch a few minutes of the show — as I will not be denied my Nathan’s. So I pop out during a lull, there’s no line at the counter, and I command them to go, with all haste. Well, first they have to take the hot dog’s temperature (is it sick? do they not know that hot dogs are cured and pre-cooked?). Whew; passed the test. Are we a go,…

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