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All over the world innocent people occasionally end up in jail; even in the USA. That has to be so because most states in the US (about 29) have set guidelines on how to compensate those who did time for being innocent. It reminds me of a movie by Steven Seagal where he rather wants his life back in stead of being compensated financially.

Please note that I’m wading into unknown waters here because I am not a legal expert and what I know about legal procedures is basically what we see in American movies & TV series, and what we read in novels. I don’t know if things are the way that they are portrayed in these fictional and dramatized works.

But back to ‘Beyond Reasonable Doubt’; exactly how does it work?

Can a person be found guilty ‘Beyond Reasonable Doubt’ on circumstantial evidence alone or does it require some tangible proof that he actually committed the crime?

Can the combination of a motive, an opportunity, and the means to commit a crime, coupled with no alibi, be enough to convict a person?

Surely he cannot be found guilty just because he could have done it; or can he? I’m sure if you look hard enough you will find several people who could have done it while there is no guarantee that any of them did it.

Sending an innocent man to jail will ultimately destroy his life. His career will be ruined; he will lose his house, his family, his car, his friends and everything else he had accumulated in his life. Then I did not even talk about the loss of future promotions in his now ruined career, the emotional strain, the loss of his dignity, the breach of his privacy, the defamation of his character, and the restraints on his freedom. Can a bit of money ever redress the actual damage that he had suffered? The US$ 50,000 per year compensation just seems a bit flimsy.

Even when finding an innocent man guilty of a petty crime, for a very short stint in jail or perhaps just a fine or a suspended sentence, it will ruin his future prospects for proper jobs or promotion opportunities. The stigma of a criminal record will endure for the rest of his life.

I don’t even want think about a man getting executed before it is discovered that somebody else committed that crime. And what about being found guilty because of ‘evidence’ planted or ignored by a vindictive law enforcer? Don’t tell me it does not happen; there are too many over-worked cops who are only interested in closing the docket; to hell with justice.

I find this rather disturbing for I’d rather see a hundred criminals go free for lack of evidence regardless of what crimes they have committed before I see one person being convicted for something he or she did not do.

Insanity is not a disgrace or a crime. The only reason why the insane (and not we) are locked up in asylums is that we are more than them. See, that is how democracy works. The majority rules and to hell with minorities. That’s right! The winner takes it all.

It is not a requirement for CS members to be insane but it is a definite recommendation. Be kind to insane members; they will soon be the majority and then they will treat you the way you treated them in the past. You know that story about ‘do to others’… I think it is called Karma. Here on the blogs, you can be driven to insanity without a vehicle; 100% free of charge. Remember that later when you want to become part of the majority.

If you’re not born that way, don’t despair. It is inheritable; you can get it from your children. Another way to become insane is to spend prolonged periods in the company of the insane. Don’t take them too seriously or you will be driven insane before your time.

Not everybody can be insane. If you cannot get it in the normal ways don’t try to bash your head into a wall. That causes brain damage and is not to be confused with insanity. The insane are not retarded, brain-damaged or stupid. In fact, some of them may have very high IQs.

The insane are masters of manipulation and perfectly capable of impersonating sane people… until they comment. If you’re not sure, tread carefully. Put a tame comment on his/her blog and see how it pans out. If the OP insults you without reason, you found one. Run for the hills. A more subtle approach will be to wait for a comment on your blog. If it is an insult, you found one. Run for the hills.


The moral of the story?
Sane, level minded people know how to behave towards other people. That is why they are not in asylums.

For all my blog friends that live somewhere where the climate is hot and sunny, do you wish it was cold and lots of snow for Xmas instead as thats what its tradionally known for?..............

Wow! This looks great. How long has it been like this? For a moment I thought I got the wrong site.

Anyway, hi to to all you ol' geezers out there (and the new ones too). I've been away for so long that I forgot how to blog. I'll have to polish up a bit. Is there anywhere around where one can do a short course in the art of blogging?

Have a great time out there - will ya!!

Are we that caught up in our own need to be right that we just cannot be humble anymore?...Does your need to nourish your ego make you intolerable to others?...bruised ego aside...it is truly a great attribute to be humble...whether it be to allow/listen to others' opinions or to admit fault and/or bad behaviour...

A friend can be anybody who is not an enemy, therefore even an unknown person in another country, whom you have never heard of can be deemed a friend, simply because he belongs to a certain nation or a group of people. This is only for lack of a better word because the word ‘friend’ has another deeper meaning.

The word is often confused with ‘acquaintances’ who are not friends at all. Acquaintances include all the people you know who are not friends or family. They are normally brought to you by circumstances which are quite unlike friends who you carefully choose from those you are acquainted with.

Something else we like to call friends are pen pals. These are people who correspond with each other via snail mail, email, social sites, and so forth. Meeting once or twice does not make them friends; they are merely correspondents who happen to be acquainted with each other. If you want to call them your friends, try asking them to help when you are in a spot of bother.

And then there are your ‘work friends’. When you have a special relationship with one or more of your colleagues at work, you cannot call him or her as a friend if just because you ‘cover’ for each other, have lunch together, or have a few pints together after work. If you don’t spend time together outside of the work setup, you are just acquaintances, forced together by circumstances. Will you still keep up the ritual if one of you changes job? I think not. This is more of an alliance or a clique.

You also have casual friends, buddies; people you like and who you spend time with voluntary because you like them. Some of them are only your friends because there is something to gain by it. You too probably have a few ‘friends’ purely for what there is to gain, be that a promotion at work, influence, prestige or any other favors.

There are many other special relationships formed by circumstances, too many to mention here but the bottom line is that they are not your friends. While it is not impossible for a deeper friendship to develop from it, friends are not forced together by circumstances but rather drawn together by a mutual affection.

Then what are friends? A friend is a person who shares a mutual bond of affection with you, other than love or family ties. Somebody who earned your respect and who you have selected from those you are acquainted with. Somebody you would entrust with your house keys when you go on vacation.

The real test for a friend is when you are in need' not simply because he can help you but because he wants to; somebody who would do himself short to help his friend. A friend in need is a friend indeed.


Have a wonderful day

My plane, a light aircraft Piper like all light aircraft don't have a black box flight recorder which records a pilot and co pilots conversation for air crash investigators to determine the fault, any way the black box is indestructible, so why aren't all planes made out of the same material,..............

Being in the first stages of winter, the spiders that decorated the granadilla plant outside my window are seeking shelter in my home again. As they eat flies, I did not mind too much.

Following closely on their heels, came the geckos. At first they were quite welcome as they kept the spider population in check. They multiplied in numbers so rapidly that it became a problem. I don’t like using poison so I’m thinking about introducing a few rats to curb their numbers.

But rats are prolific breeders and they are not likely to stick to a diet of geckos. To keep their numbers within acceptable levels, I will have to keep a few pythons. They love rats. Then I thought about getting a few iguanas. They eat snake eggs and that should prevent an explosion of the snake population. But what to do about the iguanas when they breed? I cannot expand the food chain indefinitely; my place is too small and I’m not likely to enjoy eating iguanas.

But it should be nice to have such a lot of exotic pets without having to feed them. Almost like having my own private zoo.

On second thoughts, a private zoo will be a bad idea. Going to the zoo will become an everyday event and I will be no longer be enjoying my visits to a certain on-line dating site.

One should be careful when visiting a zoo. They may not allow you to leave. But have a great day.

I was brought up to believe that it is wrong to lie and wrong to steal. In fact, it was wrong to do anything that could classify as being dishonest. That was the general consensus for as far as my world stretched.

But times have changed. My own clan is less honest that what they used to be and I have come to realize that not all cultures have the same opinion about honesty. It seems that in some cultures honesty is seen as being downright stupid. A recent incident shook my foundations.

A man was knocked over by a car and unconscious on the ground. I watched as another man removed his expensive Nikes. At first I thought he was helping the man on the ground but then I realized that he was stealing his shoes. When I addressed the man he told me to mind my own business. I looked around and ask a woman why she allows her own people to be robbed like that. She pointed to the man on the ground and said that he won’t be needing shoes for a while and all his kinsmen nodded in agreement.

So it appears that stealing is okay if the owner does not need the item for a while.

In my life I have heard several blatant lies just to secure a loan. My gardener, still half drunk, once told me on a Monday morning that his wife, who also worked for me, died and that he needs money for the funeral. Yet a week later they both reported back for work. When I confronted them about it, they said they needed the money. And that was a lie as well, they wanted the money to get drunk for longer. In fact all I did was to finance a week-long party.

And so it appears that it is okay to lie if you need (or just want) something.

If the need for something became an acceptable excuse to lie and steal then I wonder if it still pays to be honest. There are a lot of things I need or want. How long before the ability to cheat somebody else out of his hard-earned money becomes something to be proud of?

Hey, look out! that is the weekend flashing up front.