Beelzebrain

McCain's Economic Advisor Is Paid Agent of Foreign Holders of American Debt

( Phil Gramm worked for UBS Switzerland... )

McCain Does Not Know Current US Policy Toward Iran

( And yet he wants to be president... )

The Normalization of Oral Sex

( Like it's a bad thing... )

Prepare for cognitive enhancement drugs

( Score... )

Monkeys fling poo with bionic arms.

( Bow down to our primate borg overlords! )

Obama's First Hundred Days

( Worth a real smile! )

Rage Against Video Games

( Gamer girls are hawt! )

An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism.

( More... )

TSIB: Impressionable Kids and Homosexuality

( The Stupid It Burns! )

WND:Secret plans under way to tear down Christian symbols

( More Burning Stupid! )

The Jury: Afterword

I went home and immediately looked up everything I was now allowed to look up.

( Some definitions )

I know some people will be unhappy with the decision, and maybe with my part in it. The judge said something like "twelve minds are better than one at this sort of thing," and I don't know that I agree with her all the time, but we all did our best, argued for our positions, and held them. There were jurors who just wanted to go home, but who were will to speak up for their position even if, in the end, they voted with the jury as a whole. Juries are made up of people who don't mind being jurors. That's a virtuous position. I think, in the end, we did right.

Omaha says she finds the testimony of the EMT unremarkable. "Of course they called a critical care ambulance and took her to a level-1 trauma center! That's what they do." She points out that when she has an epileptic seziure, a grand mal, even though she needs no medical attention at all above and beyond minor first aid, they still want to ambulance her to the hospital.

I agree. But I don't think the issue was really with the hospital treatment, that was just a signal by Mr. Landry to let us know that Miss T was in a bad accident. But I think it worked against him because it led the jury to believe that his case was overstated, if she could walk out of there under her own power. There were just so many little details that didn't add up even in her own testimony. Having only one physician; having no friends, lovers, co-workers, gym mates willing to testify on her behalf; the conflict between her claim to be exercising two hours a day five days a week, following her doctor's diet and her own obvious weight. As much as we didn't like Doc McC., what we read in the report more or less corroborated the assessment that we had a thirty year old woman with "some aches and pains" but "full range of motion" in some cases better than those of your average healthy adult.

I've awakened daily since the case with doubt. Too much? Too little? Did I help ruin both lives, or only one, and if so which one?

I'm never going to know. This isn't an episode of Law & Order (or even Boston Legal), where everything is wrapped up in the last scene to the satisfaction of all concerned. Frank and Miss T's lives go on, separated now by everything but simple debt, or so we hope. I wish I could say there were better solutions to the whole problem, but there aren't. For real life, there is no fade to black.