Defending Casey Anthony's Release

Defending Casey Anthony's Release

Ann Coulter acerbically endorsed the nomination of Casey Anthony as “Mother of the Year” and an unfortunate illustration of her view that single motherhood is “the leading cause of all social pathologies.” The bizarre Bill Maher bizarrely equated the Florida verdict with “Republican thinking.”

Coulter has a valid point. So, too, does Maher–between his skinny shoulders.

Keeping in mind that murderous mother Casey Anthony’s exoneration and imminent release do not constitute her jury’s or society’s conclusion she is innocent, there are some dulled silver linings. She was found, “Not guilty,” not “innocent,” based on the evidence submitted and it’s not all over for Ms. Anthony.

Let’s just face up, buck up, and face the reality that Ms. Anthony was acquitted of any serious charges by a jury of her peers in the death of two year old Caylee Anthony. In the steely, technical eyes of the law, she may be as innocent as a babe in the woods, much like the woods in which Caylee’s decomposed body was finally found, but most rational people know better.

In view of her acquittal, characterizing her as “murderous” is a tad unfair, although only a tad. Some jurors have now come forward and suggested she is being freed only because the prosecutors failed to prove either that a murder was committed or that Casey Anthony was guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the perfidious act of murdering her baby daughter.

I still say she’s murderous and that setting her loose is, if not the right and best recourse in the interests of long-term justice and societal retribution–the ultimate purposes of most criminal trials–and Anthony’s release serves larger purposes.

Predicated on personal observation, I’d guesstimate that ninety percent of those who followed Anthony’s trial believe she is as guilty as atrocious sin. Then, again, most people were absolutely convinced that OJ Simpson murdered Nicole Simpson yet he walked, temporarily. Jury nullification explained that skewed decision, prosecutorial ineptitude–not the complicity of Orlando jurors–explains Anthony’s.

True, it would also have been just had she been convicted of first degree murder, or, at the minimum, convicted on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child or aggravated child abuse in the matter of the State of Florida against Casey Marie Anthony. Regrettably, those convictions and a finding that she be executed were not to be.

Nevertheless, there are societal compensations in the verdict.

Casey Marie Anthony is to be pitied as much as legally condemned. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4985)

MLB and Barry Bonds' Bulging Bean

MLB and Barry Bonds' Bulging Bean

“There Can Be No Good Ending to the Bonds Perjury Trial” reads a headline on SportingNews.com.

The author, Rich Couch, then discusses said trial, debating whether it is in fact a perjury or a steroid trial, the testimony of Bonds’ long-time mistress, Kimberly Bell, the element of racism, Sammy Sosa’s feigned language challenges under oath, and the related matter of admitted steroid-user Mark Mcguire who “is slowly being forgiven” and now serves as the St. Louis batting coach.

Now in its second week, Bonds’ trial is indeed a sticky wicket and this week became a voyeuristic delight: Bell testified concerning Bonds’ mean and violent streaks, steroid side effects of impotency and, to put it delicately, shriveling of certain body parts. Bonds’ lawyers countered the latter by touting his multiple affairs as proof of his sexual potency and lack of shriveling at the same time they sleazily attempted to paint Bell as an ungrateful, money-grubbing slut.

It doesn’t get any better–or worse, depending on your point of view–on primetime TV!

The most pronounced and most publicly visible side effect of using illegal anabolic steroids, a synthetic hormone, is bulking up virtually every area of the body, virtually as Bell testified, including head size. Bonds’ head bulged by half an inch.

Coincidental with his alleged but denied steroid use, the son of Bobby Bonds and cousin of Reggie Jackson went from being a good ball player on the San Francisco Giants to a Hall of Fame-quality athlete who set records that may never be broken.

He and baseball fans saw his home run totals grow from an excellent output of 49 in 2000 to an astounding 73 the next year. His batting average climbed from .262, slugging average .617 in 1999, when Bell says he had a steroid-caused elbow injury, to .362 with a slugging average climbing to an even more astounding .863 in 2001. He ended his career breaking Mcguire’s single season homer record with 73 and Hank Aaron’s career total with 762.

Babe Ruth’s record of hitting the equivalent of a rolled up sock out of the park 714 times under the influence of just beer and hot dogs was long gone but either Barry had suddenly discovered an amazing groove in a short period of time or he’s a liar.

Kimberly Bell may have her own fish to fry and may still be annoyed at being dumped and being marooned in Houston by Bonds after 9/11 . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4014)

The Gay Battle against the Will of the People, Part Two

The Gay Battle against the Will of the People, Part Two

Part One of this series cited courtroom testimony of two “expert” plaintiff witnesses in the San Francisco civil action brought by two gay couples in federal court who were miffed that Californians had seen fit to amend the state’s constitution by adding the words, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

Shocking both the gay and normal worlds, voters in the very liberal Left Coast state approved Proposition 8 by a healthy margin of 52.5% to 47.5% in November 2008 and the matter should have been resolved, the people had spoken.

Not quite.

The next electoral quake of such magnitude wouldn’t occur until January 19th, 2010 when residents of liberal Massachusetts transferred the Ted Kennedy Memorial Senate Seat to a Republican in the person of Scott Brown.

The trial’s poster gays, lesbians Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier of Berkeley and homosexuals Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarillo of L.A., “were recruited to represent California couples who say they would get married were it not for Proposition 8 because they lead lives indistinguishable from those of other couples, gay or straight, who have jobs, children and a desire for the social stamp of approval that matrimony affords.”

That, of course, is a matter of opinion that the court must decide and may be the crux of the entire push for same-sex marriage.

The bestowal of “the social stamp of approval” effectively would mean society’s official approbation of homosexual relationships, the last rung on the ladder of normality for which gays have been striving for forty years.

Up until 1969 . . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1433)