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The principles that rule this blog

Principles that will govern my thoughts as I express them here (from my opening statement):


  • Freedom of the individual should be as total as possible, limited only by the fact that nobody should be free to cause physical injury to another, or to deprive another person of his freedoms.
  • Government is necessary primarily to provide those services that private enterprise won't, or won't at a price that people can afford.
  • No person has a right to have his own beliefs on religious, moral, political, or other controversial issues imposed on others who do not share those beliefs.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well:

“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot
so well do, for themselves — in their separate, individual capacities.”


Comments will be invited, and I will attempt to reply to any comments that are offered in a serious and non-abusive manner. However, I will not tolerate abusive or profane language (my reasoning is that this is my blog, and so I can control it; I wouldn't interfere with your using such language on your own!)

If anyone finds an opinion that I express to be contrary to my principles, they are welcome to point this out. I hope that I can make a rational case for my comments. Because, in fact, one label I'll happily accept is rationalist.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Reliving the O. J. Simpson case

I notice that on another blog, there is a post by Marcia Clark, who was the prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson trial, in which she describes the Casey Anthony verdict as "Worse Than O.J.!" This, of course, implies that the O. J. Simpson verdict was wrong. Now I want to say this: I am definitely not a football fan, so in my mind O. J. Simpson was hardly the "American hero" that, to some people, he was. And I am absolutely convinced that Simpson murdered those two people. Yet, had I been on that jury, I would have had to vote to acquit. Why? Because in our legal system, the accused is presumed to be innocent, unless guilt can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. And the prosecution failed to make that kind of a case. With the possibility of evidence tampering by a racist policeman, the procesution's case was definitely one that could engender doubts.

I haven't followed the Casey Anthony case that closely. I don't know whether the not-guilty verdict there made sense — what I've seen implies she was, in fact, guilty, but read what I said about Simpson above. But I think Marcia Clark, who couldn't get a conviction herself in a case where the defendant was clearly guilty, because her side botched the case, is not the one to comment!

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