…Panic on the Streets of Birmingham; I wonder to myself, could life ever be sane again? Neither The Smiths nor British authorities, at least those not yet felled by the Murdoch wiretapping scandal, managed to hang the DJ, though investigations into the Tweets, Facebook Postings and Blackberry Messages which fomented and directed three nights of civil unrest are assuredly under way. It is without dispute that rioting escalated after the shooting death of a crack dealer by police; it’s no longer a mystery, then, that crackheads get a bit tetchy when their supply gets kinked.  The coppers, moreover, claimed they were initially fired upon by the victim, though forensics, predictably, have since shown the gun in question was never discharged.  Nonetheless, it is social media taking the preponderance of blame for the depth and scope of the insurrection. Personally, I remain ambivalent about the locus of culpability; it was (presumably) sentient beings that burned double decker buses and looted jewelry stores. On the other hand, my neighbor , according to foursquare, has just replaced me as mayor of my wife’s vagina.

Over the last few decades, a posterori DNA evidence has paved the way for hundreds of the falsely convicted to be released from prison.  More chilling is the notion that in three-quarters of these cases, a guilty verdict was obtained, in large part, via mistaken eyewitness identification.  Add to that the myriad convicts who were coerced to confess or who were incarcerated on flimsy circumstantial evidence and you cannot help but be sickened by Casey Anthony’s acquittal.  Justice may well be blind, but she is also stupid.

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling prohibiting Jared Lee Loughner from being forcibly medicated.  A diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia means, in the eyes of the law, that Rep. Giffords’ assailant hasn’t the mental acuity to defend himself against the state, yet the same system deems him compos mentis when it comes to managing his neuropharmacology.  (That he could legally purchase a handgun is fodder for another missive altogether.) Assistant U.S. attorney Wallace Kleindienst is, as one would expect, counting on these meds to render Mr. Loughner competent enough to stand trial, but, for the nonce, is mired in a legal Catch 22.