The rest of your day didn't exist to me. So.

Summation by juror 034.

The good: I got to read Assassination Vacation in one fell swoop. Finished 7 crosswords. Ate Ranier cherries. Didn't have to watch Monster in Law or Hitched. There was adequate a/c. I wasn't allergic to anything in the quiet assembly room.

The bad or dubious: Half my head threatened to explode in the main assembly room (but, see above.) I sat on my ass ALL DAY LONG and it hurts because jurybox chairs suck and are 100 million years old. And, duh, I got to jury a trial. Which isn't bad really, just.... Oh, and I spend all of it thinking I was bleeding all over the place, but I wasn't but sheesh.

Conclusions: PEOPLE ARE REALLY STUPID AND A POX ON ALL OF THEM.

Which is to say, we found the defendent not guilty, and there is probably a 95% chance there's gonna be a girlfight down on Hamburg Street tonight!

No one got called untill 3:30. At which point, thankfully, I'd just finished my book. And they select people by their juror #s. So I knew that unless the case involved something closely related to my person, I was probably going to be on a jury. I was right. I got to sit in painful seat #4.

Anyway, it was basically two women neighbors and their gangs (yes, they used that term) trying to say the defendent pulled the first punch. No one's stories really matched up. The only one remotely credible was one who testified for the defense who was friends with both. I think there were childhood vendettas, defendent getting victim's fiance arrested (um, never heard the why of that,) mediation...and it seems ...oh hell. None of it makes sense unless you decide they were all just stupid. Reasonable doubt, um yeah. About their senses especially. We all walked into the jury room at 6, looked around, started to snort (sober justice) and it was pretty clear we had a verdict. And then they had us wait another 20 minutes so we all talked about omg!stupid and how there's going to be a rumble tonight. And how we really wondered why anyone would even take this to court! It was all inconsistent she said-she saids.

POX ON ALL OF THEM FOR MAKING ME SIT IN THAT STUPID CHAIR.

All in all, interesting, but omg people!

Oh, another bad: parking cost more than the stipend because I couldn't find the special garage in traffic this morning.

And note to all prosecutors: When one of YOUR witnesses is on the stand testifying, seeing you mouth if she's telling the truth about YOUR witness when she's said something that obviously is news to you? Probably not a good idea.

[link]

Oh. My. Gawd.

All in all, interesting, but omg people!

Ah, Justice in the raw. Ain't it beautiful!

There's been what was a fascinating discussion of rationality and religion going on in the comments thread at Making Light, somewhat blighted by a pompous ass taking offense at Steven Brust being a Trotskyite, but otherwise interesting and workday-consumptive.

t pokes JS

Oh. My. God. (Like Aimee's post, this is also Mel-related.)

On his Fox News program, Bill O'Reilly called Mel Gibson's recent anti-Semitic comments "inexcusable," but said it is "more important" to discuss the "point where the media and individual Americans start to enjoy the suffering of rich and powerful people." Guest Geraldo Rivera later suggested that O'Reilly refer to "that schmuck from MSNBC," apparently MSNBC host Keith Olbermann; Rivera added that the "schmuck from MSNBC" is a "lowlife." Rivera also asserted that Comedy Central hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert "make a living putting on video of old ladies slipping on ice and people laughing" and that they "exist in a small little place where they count for nothing."

[link]

eta: more here: [link]

O'Reilly declared that media figures who have criticized Gibson's remarks are "smear merchants" who have "blood all over their mouth, these vampires," and also targeted the "corporate masters" behind them, who are "the truly evil people."

Howdy, Empress!

Mel's a choob, eh? But I think that's someone else's gag.

88°!!!

What is 98 degrees minus Nick Lachey?

Oh. My. Gawd.

Am I cynical to immediately assume that the "free pennies" are a veiled dig at stereotypical thriftiness? It may be that Mel can do no right in my view, but that's where my mind went the second I looked at that picture.