Today is the Fourth of July.

Yesterday a shipmate asked me when they were going to mail a parcel for me from the United Kingdom.

"Tomorrow", I replied.

"But it is a holiday," he replied. "It's the Fourth of July."

"It's not a holiday in the United Kingdom," I replied.

He looked at me. "Oh, yeah. I forgot. They don't have a fourth of July over there."

"Right," answered. "They skip that day."

I got a pretty sheepish look for that one. "OK, Mister Smarty Pants, they DO have a fourth of July over there, but it isn't a holiday."

"That's why they can send me my parcel tomorrow," I replied.




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That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My shipmate has been watching the Casey Anthony murder case in Florida as I have mentioned previously.

One of the my shipmate has pointed out to me is that the story keeps changing constantly and the defendants parents and yada yada yada.

From what little I have seen of the case because it is on the tube in the background for the past few days makes me think that the defense is playing the game of every time the prosecution pokes a hole or two in the defenses arguement, they change the story.

It sure does not make the defense look very strong in this case and it puts them on the ropes.

If I were on the jury and was watching the constantly changing story I would not think too highly of the defense.

Now, I have never claimed to be a candidate for sainthood, nor have I any plans on running for Pope, but over the years I have gotten off the hook once or twice by simply telling my story and sticking to it.

I have never had any serious charges brought up against me, but several years ago there were a few tiffs involving a previous employer and a jerk for a supervisor. We had an air conditioning unit replaced and a couple of weeks later, long after we had disposed of the broken unit, the company decided we ought to turn it in.

We hadn't ditched the unit in a dumpster, but had given it to a dockman to tinker with to use in the dock shack and stay comfortable with if he could fix the darned thing. He eventually did mend it and it was actually a win for our company from a public relations point of view. He was good to us from then on and probably saved us fifty times the cost of a brand new unit because he gave us great service from then on.

Anyway, the jerk supervisor came aboard and asked about it. I told him that it had been stolen by a short little man in a green shirt and blue pants and a pointy little beard and he had run off with it.

It was a ridiculous story and of course, he didn't believe it for a single second, and I didn't expect him to believe it. I got away with this silly tale simply because there was no way he could refute it. Of course, the supervisor was not a popular person and a couple of people came to my aid and substantiated my story, but still, I have to say that the reason I got away with is is because I simply stuck with my story.

For the next couple of weeks I was questioned, requestioned, hassled and pestered over this and I simply stuck to this ridiculous story and bided my time until he found something else a little more worthwhile to waste his time on and he finally went away.

Of course, we are not discussing a murder trial here, only a piece of broken equipment that was going to be thrown out anyway. Still, the constantly changing defense sure doesn't make things look good for the defendant.

She'd have been a whole lot better off simply sticking to her original story and passionately defending it even though the prosecution poked a couple of holes in it here and there.

After all, in a court case it is generally pretty simple. All the defendant has to do is poke one hole in the prosecutions case. The prosecution has to present an airtight case against the defense in order to secure a guilty verdict.

The prosecution can poke all the holes it wants to in the defense's case and unless their case is airtight they probably will not secure a conviction. The burden of proof is on the state.
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It is now a little later and I have been watching a little more of the case and the judge is an interesting part of this case. He is a serious, no nonesense type which seems to be hidden by his speech and manner.

He is not a polished speaker by any sense of the imagination. His speech is far from the articulate speech you tend to associate with a judge. His lack of articulation sort of hides the fact that he is as sharp as a tack.

He seems to keep things running on track which is good, of course and he makes sure that both sides present things to the jury in a way that they can easily understand and lets neither side hide behind a snow job or a bunch of ununderstandable gibberish.

The other day when he gave the misbehaving youngster 6 days for contempt of court it showed me that he was thoughtful and not just some guy sitting there awaiting retirement.

I guess this is a case of judging a book by its cover. The judge does not really carry himself as being the sharpest person I have ever seen on the bench, but when you watch him for a while you see that he's pretty damned good at what he does. There's a lot to be said about this guy.
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One of the things I see happening in high-profile court cases is a District Attorney that wants to win at any cost and it galls me to no end.

I am not being a bleeding heart for some mother accused of killing her kid. If she is in fact guilty, they sure as all hell ought to make her pay, and from what I see of her defense attorney and the way he is playing closing arguements I sure would not want to be in her shoes. It sure seems that the woman is going to get some serious time or even lose her life.

Her attorney acts like he is on the ropes and is just hemming and hawing and blowing up a big smoke screen. If he had any real fact she would be a lot more sure of himself. Instead all he appears to be doing is trying to blow a lot of smoke up the ass of 12 jurors.

The thing I happened to think earlier about is that the DA probably doesn't give a damn if the accused is guilty or innocent. He just wants to win the case.

It makes me wonder how many DAs over the years have either hidden or failed to disclose evidence that might make an acquital possible.

I look at a criminal case not as an opportunity to hang someone or let someone go based on the arguements of two adversarial attorneys. I look at it as a search for truth.

This is the reason I am against the death penalty. There are an awful lot of liars in this world.

At least if somewhere on down the line they find out that the DA was less than honorable you can at leat release the poor bastard and compensate him somehow for his time. You can't do that to someone if they are dead.

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One of my shipmates is a former police officer and he has seen a lot more time in court than I have and his opinion is interesting.

Had the woman simply drowned the little girl and called 911 and turned on the waterworks and stuck to her story this woud now likelly be behind her, she would have probably gotten probation and counseling and be free to party her life away.

Accidental drownings of children happen quite often in Floridian swimming pools and the system that would, of course, investigate the case probably would not have spent millions on theinvestigation and she probably would have gotten away with it.

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The Jury is now out on the Casey Anthony trial and now the media is scrambling to fill in air time and discuss what everyone is having for lunch and a bunch of other worthless crap.

Why don't they just show a Bugs Bunny cartoon or something worthwhile?




my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/