Tuesday, July 19, 2011

“It’s a Wall Street government.”

Our criminal justice system has two extremes.  On one end of the spectrum, we imprison people for decades for using marijuana or having consensual sex with their fellow teenagers.  On the other end of the spectrum, we turn the other way for the really harmful stuff.  For example, despite the blatant fraud and the trillions of dollars in public losses, those responsible for the recent financial meltdown were never prosecuted and rarely even investigated; instead, some of them walked away with hundreds of millions in bonuses while we bailed out their companies.  And that’s what the documentary Inside Job is all about.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

An alternative to the jury system?

Criticism of the jury system is probably as old as the jury system itself.  But while criticizing is one thing, coming up with a better alternative is another.  And for years, I had thought that the jury system was pretty darn good as it is.  But then I got an idea: Why don’t we just let Nancy Grace decide?