"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

In memoriam

Nathaniel Burton Paradise, Second Lieutenant, US Army
302nd Infantry, 151st Infantry Brigade, 76th Division
American Expeditionary Force, 1917-1919

Kenneth Franklin Spoor, Master Sergeant, US Army
US Army Air Corps
China-Burma-India Theater, 1942-1945

And my thanks and respect to all my friends and colleagues and their comrades who serve and protect our country. It's been too often repeated as a political slogan or a facile declaration of jingoistic patriotism, but it's still true: freedom is not free, and ours is purchased, in part, by the toil and hardship, and too often of late, by the blood and bodies of our fellow citizens. God bless them, and God bless the United States of America.

Well, that was officially disappointing. I wait 27 years to do jury service and I don't get to serve on a jury.

The county had called up 200+ of us. I arrived about half an hour early, checked in, sat through the orientation, waited until they were beginning to start filling juries, and was sent off with the first batch. We got to the courtroom, the judge explained voir dire to us, told us about the case that was being tried, and then started asking questions of us. Two people were excused outright from their responses to the voir dire during the process. Then they brought forward the first 12 jurors, and the state's attorney and defense got to accept them one by one or ask to have then excused. They binned four more people during this process. Then they refilled the four seats, and the attorneys got to react tot the four new people; IIRC, two more were let go at this point. *Then*, with everyone seated, both sides got to go over their notes and release anyone *else* they wanted to have leave. I think two people were excused and replaced (with opportunity to excuse the replacements). Finally, they seated one alternate. I was the next in line (or next but one) to be seated, so I just missed out on that trial; all in all I think there were about ten of us that were not called up from the pool of about 30 sent up for that trial.

We went back down to the jury office, and they told us that they had enough remaining jurors for the rest of the day, so we were free to go and had fulfilled out entire obligation! I was so frustrated! By law I can't be called up again for at least three years, and they said the only repeat "customers" they've had in recent memory were people who had been called 10+ years before, some of them as much as 20 years before.

Nothing for it--I'll have to move to a new county! >:-(

My friend Justin and I were talking about the current tendency of our leaders (on both sides of the aisle) to "take responsibility" for actions without taking any further concerete action (like, say, resigning). J pointed me to this piece a friend of his wrote a few years ago.