Those Nutty Brits

I always thought that the British were mad because of what they ate for breakfast. Kippers, bloaters and liver.

I know that not every person from England eats that stuff, but c’mon! “Bloaters”?

Back in the days when I worked for the police, we would have to fingerprint corpses to see if we could figure out who they were. Bloaters were what we called the ones who had been in the sun for awhile. You had to skin the finger tips and stretch the skin on wooden dowels to get a print.

No, I’m not saying that the English are cannibals that prefer food they don’t have to chew. I’m just not about to put anything in my mouth if the word “bloat” can be used as a descriptive.

But I have found a completely non-gastronomic reason to think the Brits are completely crazy. They are sending their juvenile delinquents to juvenile court. What I mean by that is not a court that specializes in hearing cases where the accused is a child, but a court where the judges are children themselves.

The idea behind this scheme, if the word “idea” is appropriate, seems to be that young punks don’t listen to adults anyway. If the judge is also a kid, then maybe a little peer pressure will get them to walk the straight and narrow.

I always wanted to visit England. You know, do some sightseeing, visit the points of interest, enjoy all that history. If this is any indication of where British society is headed, I better hurry up and get that done before the place starts to look like it does in 28 Days Later. Except that they won’t need any virus that turns people into mindless zombies to wreck the joint.

(Hat tip to Ace. This essay is cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket.)

Repetitive Lawsuit Syndrome

This article summarizes research pretty much putting the nail in the coffin of the entire idea that long-term computer use leads to Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), a variant of Repetitive Motion Syndrome in which the many-times repeated motions of working with computers lead to crippling pain in the ligament sheath of the wrist.

Why do we keep falling for these superstitions?

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Share Your Juror Narratives — A Bleg

My new site, Jury Experiences, is up and running. The main idea behind the site is to create a central forum for juror narratives and related discussions. The site needs more user-generated content!

If you’ve ever served as a trial juror and are at all interested in writing about your experiences, and have not yet done so, please consider contributing a post to the Jury Experiences discussion forum. (If you want to post to the forum you will have to register first, but this is quick and easy to do.)

Thanks.

UPDATE: A commenter points out that the Jury Experiences forum registration system is a hassle that discourages reader participation. I agree entirely. I think the forum paradigm is inappropriate for many potential contributors for this reason, and am considering easier alternatives. Suggestions are welcome.

Imagine Insanity

In reading Ginny’s post below as well as the posts and comments of the sites she links to, I note a strong presumption among most that in the case of mental illness we should err on the side of under-treating rather than risk over-treating someone. Dr. Jonathan Kellerman makes this observation:

Talk to anyone who’s tried to commit a dangerously violent child or parent for even a few days: A stranger with a law degree will show up at the hearing and paint you as a fascist. So it’s far too much to expect anything resembling a decisive approach to those whose level of threat remains at the verbal level.

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