Monday, October 18, 2010

Monday news and notes

1. The jury in Judge Lenard's case dealing with the Chinese ammo resulted in a hung jury; the jury deliberated for over a week.

2. Justice Sotomayor really likes "12 Angry Men".

3. New York Times raises "age-old question" of jury service in the context of blogging: "Mr. Slutsky’s posts raised the age-old question of what jurors may or may not reveal about their jury service. They also highlighted a 21st-century nuance of dealing with jurors who use blogs and other forms of social media to share their existence with the world."

4. We're on a NYTimes roll this morning. Here's an editorial saying that states shouldn't block DNA tests. Duh.

5. And in a case close to my heart, the South Carolina Supreme Court will determine whether poker is a game of skill or luck:

Hold 'em, Dennis said, is determined more by "the relative skill of the player" than anything else. "A more skilled player will consistently beat a less skilled player, and a player's skill can be improved over time through study and practice," he added.
Because of that skill factor, Dennis said he expected his ruling would survive the court's "dominate factor test" that the justices have relied on when evaluating whether players' ability matters -- versus chance -- in determining the legality of games. Dennis also called the state's anti- gambling laws as applied to the case "unconstitutionally vague and overbroad."
Dennis' opinion tossed out the convictions of five players who had been arrested in the police raid but opted to fight the charges.
McMaster appealed, saying the judge went too far by declaring one gambling game to be more skill-oriented than another.
"In the General Assembly's view, the ills resulting from games played for money does not depend upon the particular game or the nature in which it was played," he said.


Of course there is skill involved in the game. The defense has the better of this argument by a long shot. And why are the police arresting card players? Sheesh.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you see that awesome debate tonight in the race for attorney general? ________

Really?

The reason why this somehow missed your radar is because Republican/Tea Party candidate Pam Bondi would only agree to one debate, and this one debate could only be aired by the Tampa Bay local television station tonight at the same time as Monday Night Football was on one station and the Major League baseball game was being aired on the other station.

Bondi's demand to keep this debate limited to the 7 people that actually saw this is a bad sign and one that should not go unpunished.

This is my categorical statement: the electorate is not educated enough to be trusted anymore. Today, I stood at the Coral Galbes Library with my handy Dan Gelber sign. As voters approached the area I would offer the name and race he was running for. The responses were only two: I am voting for Republicans all the way down the ticket, or, thank you, I already made my choices.

No one, not a single person could distinguish Dan Gelber from Pam Bondi, no one could ask me a single intelligent question about the race. These voters, (God bless them for even voting), are now driven by the party ticket. The top of the ticket carries their votes and they abdicate their civic responsibility on the rest of the races to the letter symbol behind the name. Voters are not enlightened enough anymore to choose one candidate from one party and another candidate from the other party in the different races.

Democracy depends on an enlightened electorate. We do not have this anymore.

We are now too poor (financially) a people to have the time to investigate races and candidates, we are either FOX TV guys and gals or MSNBC people. The world has changed, we can no longer trust the people to vote intellegently.

Sadly, I predict Dan Gelber will lose. I am calling the race tonight (you heard it here first). This year anyone, any Republican pretty face with a Juris Doctorate, could have beat Dan Gelber.

And this, this is a sad statement about where we are as a people.

With this last, sad statement, I place my sign in the corner of my room and go to bed.

Good Luck America!

Anonymous said...

The Miami Heral dreports that the State Attorney will not file charges against Sean Cronin for indecent exposure citing "insufficient evidence." Ouch!! How embarassing!.