This is a case that makes you thankful you live in the United States where the innocent are defended–not victimized all over again.

It’s usually cat people vs. dog people, but in one courtroom drama that’s too funny for television and too good to be true, it’s cat people vs. bird people.  That’s because one of the bird people shot a cat who, apparently, was stalking the very birds he likes to watch. 

In earlier times, public shaming was an accepted — and effective — deterrent for unsociable behavior. People caught stealing or in adultery, for example, were clapped in stocks in the public square.

Recently, I read where a Texas judge is sentencing convicted criminals to stand on street corners holding signs confessing their crimes. Now, in El Cajon, Calif., the police department is posting on its website the names, photographs, and case details of women arrested for prostitution. (more…)

Vigilante justice in Alabama.  Another good reason to have a gun in the home.

Villanova Law School may think twice before inviting Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to speak on “the role of Catholic faith in the work of a judge.” He was only three minutes into his keynote lecture yesterday when he insisted that “there is no such thing as a ‘Catholic judge.’” He continued: ”The bottom line is that the Catholic faith seems to me to have little effect on my work as a judge.”

“Just as there is no ‘Catholic’ way to cook a hamburger,” he said to a murmur of laughter, “I am hard-pressed to tell you of a single opinion of mine that would have come out differently if I were not Catholic.”

Nonetheless, he continued, his Catholic faith obliges him to abide by two “commands” in his life and his work as a judge.

“‘Be thou perfect as thy heavenly Father is perfect.’ And ‘Thou shalt not lie,’” he said.

Those principles, he said, call him to be a strict constructionist of the law, one who does not “distort prior cases” or the Constitution in order to assert that certain rights are guaranteed under law.

Scalia’s comments present the perfect lead-in to a discussion on the role of faith in the workplace. I personally believe one’s faith is like a bias that is impossible to completely separate from how we perform in the workplace. What do you think–do you agree with Scalia or me, and why?

“To me belongeth vengeance and recompense,” says the Lord, yet victim-turned-vigilante Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) metes out her own brand of justice in The Brave One, joining the ranks of amateur avengers from Dirty Harry to Batman.

Director Neil Jordan’s psychological thriller (rated R for strong violence, language, and some sexuality) takes a hard look at vengeance and probes the justice system’s limitations. The film opens with Erica ending her shift as host of a public radio program. After work, Erica and her fiancé David (Lost’s Naveen Andrews) playfully banter over plans for their upcoming wedding.

But later that night, on a walk through Central Park, three thugs pounce on the couple and brutally attack them. Erica survives the beating, but David does not. Her recovery is tortuously slow, and she finds herself gripped by fear of the city she once loved, afraid even to leave her apartment building. This fear prompts Erica to buy a gun. She soon finds herself killing a would-be attacker in self-defense. A later incident on the subway, reminiscent of New York’s actual 1984 subway vigilante killings, leads to another shooting.

The Brave One grapples with the pragmatics of justice and mercy. Brutal realism in the depiction of both violence and loss serve to make The Brave One no light viewing. In the end, the resolution reneges on promises made earlier in the film. But viewers will find an excellent springboard here for discussing who is ultimately responsible for settling the score.