Justice - The Good, The Bad and The Stupid

The Good:

At a time when privacy and Constitutional rights have been hit hard, a small victory has been won.

GREELEY, Colo. – A Weld County judge has ordered the destruction of tax documents in an investigation the state Supreme Court said illegally probed suspected identity theft by illegal immigrants.

Regardless of what we may think the best way to deal with the issues of identity theft and illegal immigration, obtaining evidence illegally simply cannot lead to victory.  It is cashing in a one-time win for a loss that would haunt our judicial system forever.  Once you cross a line like this, there's no going back, and for now we are safe.

The Bad:

Dan Balsam, owner of danhatesspam.com, quit his job and went to law school, where he has spent his every waking moment since fighting spam.  He has over 40 victories in small claims court, and will never run out of targets.

Why is this bad?  Because this is the downside of what happens when you have freedom.  Some jerk just has to go mess it up, and some people have to be stupid enough to fall for promises of free money and bank account transfers.  Saddest of all, one man has dedicated his life to fighting a good fight and he's never even going to make a dent in the uncountable Viagra and breast enlargement ads.

The Stupid:

And then sometimes, while looking over the daily happenings, you stumble across something that takes you back a good 200 points on the Common Sense-o-meter:

DECEMBER 22--A 13-year-old boy was arrested Friday for using a permanent marker while in class at his Oklahoma City middle school, a violation of an obscure city ordinance.

In what must be a global WTF moment, a math teacher filed a citation against a boy who was using his marker in class.  The boy was transported to a juvenile detention center, and the marker was properly booked as evidence.