No dope; no hope

It's part of apocryphal neighborhood lore here in El Barrio that the so-called organic juice store on our block was just a little too shifty-looking and customer-free to really be up to any good. We'd joke about it; we'd pass it warily, perhaps; we'd overhear the odd nervously humorous conversation about it here and there on the street. Anyway, the cops raided it on Friday night, while I looked on in amusement puffing my evening cigarette after being chased out of the immediate vicinity by a policewoman yelling, "Clear the area! Clear the area!" Six or seven coppers stormed in with semi-riot-gear getups and came out a bit later with a few occupants in cuffs. It was all pretty exciting, in that sort of well-that's-different way. According to the notices posted up on the premises the next day, the action was drug enforcement related, which made me sad, in its way, since I bore witness first-hand to The Man comin' in to fuck shit up. So you go, The Man; keep makin' trouble. Your time will come.

Not too long after the invasion, I struck out for Loc's place for some poker. (The five-oh were cleaning the juice store out a crateload at a time.) It was a pretty fun night; Loc fired up the grill and I broke taboo with a nice, fat burger, which was quite yummy. I also put away a lot of beer that night, I feel. Not a lot, but more than I usually do. Anyway, poker was eventually gotten around to, which was great fun, of course. I started the evening off by crashing and burning in an uncomfortably short period of time, but I bought back in and pulled off the Phase Two rally, which I'm thinking I tend to lean on a little too much these days. It'd be nice to do well without first going a little too deep in the hole. :) At any rate, a lot of the usual suspects were there, but also Inf and Kathy showed up, which was nice. I don't tend to see a lot of Inf these days. I also, randomly, learned that night that the Libyan flag consists solely of a green rectangle. I didn't believe it at the time, but it's true. Wild.

Saturday was quite chill. I passed the late morning and early afternoon with the Saturday NPR Ritual, as I am wont to do. (The ritual now spans both morning and afternoon, having expanded to include This American Life.) James (kawaiiryuko) eventually woke up and we got some chess in. I think we pretty much played until Janie (aplacental) got back from her trip. I'm feeling a bit better about chess; I think I'm catching up a bit to James. I feel my endgame is getting a little better, anyway, which is nice, because it's something I know really needed improvement. I'm sure Francois (lepicurien) could still hand me my ass, but maybe next time we meet on that particular field of battle I'll have a few more tricks up my sleeve. We shall see. :)

Today, Sunday, was also quite relaxed. It was a generally relaxed weekend. :) James and I got more chess-playing in while Janie slept much of the day away. This evening we went out to get Thai food for dinner with kthrin. I don't eat nearly as much Thai these days as I did out west, but it was quite tasty and I probably ate more than was necessary. :) A conversation about dinosaur evolution brought me a new potential band name: Meaty Cheeks! (I believe this surpasses the thought I had the other day of Denver Tsunamis. Maybe that could be a sports franchise, instead.) Anyway, dinner broke up and Jay-Jay and I headed back for some family game night Scrabble.

System of a Down once said, "We don't need to nullify/We don't need to nullify/We don't need to nullify/We don't need to nullify/No need to nullify/No need to nullify/No need to nullify/We don't need to nullify." I have to say, I couldn't disagree more. I got the bug in my head recently to do some more reading on jury nullification, and I found this pretty cool paper on it, which I recommend, if you've got the time and inclination. If not, allow me to summarize and opine: When you're on a jury, you are the conscience of the community, not a tool of the State; judge the facts and the law, and don't let nobody tell ya different! In any case, an informed citizen is an empowered citizen. Learn shit and take back the country. Or something.

Speaking (roughly) of the justice system, here's an interesting tidbit. A (former) grocery store employee with Down syndrome was fired for eating half a donut and then putting the uneaten portion back in the box to be sold. The ex-employee then sued the grocery store company for violating his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A federal jury decided against the grocery store, and then the case was settled out of court. (And just a special note to fellow ex-CMUers or ex-Pittsburghers or whatever...Giant Eagle, yo.) According to the fellow's lawyers, the argument was that he didn't understand the consequences of his action. I know we're not talking about a legal principle, really, as it's more like a violation of store policy or something, but something's not quite gelling here for me.

As I undersand the ADA, it's meant to prohibit discrimination against someone on the basis of a disability. I would, I think, reasonably expect any employee to get fired who ate half a donut and put the other half back in the box on the shelf. It is not discriminatory to fire someone for violating store policy, but is it discriminatory to fire someone for violating store policy if they don't understand the consequences of doing so? Should someone's ignorance of the consequences cause us to forbear imposing said consequences on that person? I know a die-hard old-school legal tenet is that ignorance of the law is no excuse for lawbreaking. Can this be analogized? I'm not sure.

The reason all this is sticking in my head is because it hearkens back to a recent discussion between myself, James, and Kthrin about designing ideal governments and the question came up about capital punishment for retarded people. (Retarded people who committed capital crimes...not capital punishment just for being retarded. Just in case there was any confusion. :) ) I was for it, but I've been tossing it around in my head for a bit. I've long been of the opinion that my utopia, as hell-bent on personal freedom as it is, rests incredibly heavily on personal responsibility. The idea is that an educated people of generally good moral stock would more or less be able to do the right thing when left to their own devices, but key to this is a clear idea of responsibility for one's actions. An understanding of consequences, if you will. But here, perhaps, is someone who does not understand consequences...who, again perhaps, can not be responsible for their actions. And if they can't, then it doesn't seem just for the State to hold them so. Lack of intent does not reduce harm done, and yet neither does punishment. Dicey. Anyway, that's still pretty unresolved in my head. Thoughts always welcome.

I spent way too much time going over that. :) It's a big part of my patterns these days, that I'll get sucked into thinking about some issue or other, and things generally always come back to trying to figure out how I'd try and cope with things if I were in charge. Or if, at the very least, I had some input into the system. And then once in a while I'll be reminded that things go on that I'll probably never understand, and I'm left wondering why I bother at all. :) The world's a pretty big place, and it basically remains the same whether I spent the day trying to cook up the ideal government or if I just stayed in bed and beat off. Such is life. :)

So, yeah, that was a bit much. How about a restaurant review? Two thumbs up! Well, okay...one.

And just to wrap things up on a completely unrelated note, I have GOTTA get me one of these.

Peace, everybody.