
 |
|
May 20, 2013
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 9, 2008
/ 12 Kislev 5769
O.J.ustice
By
Cal Thomas
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"Justice: the administering of deserved punishment or reward." www.dictionary.com
In the matter or Orenthal James Simpson, justice was a little late, but last Friday 13 years after justice was delayed in a Los Angeles double murder trial it refused to be denied in a Las Vegas courtroom. Simpson was sentenced to between nine and 33 years behind bars for his role in last year's kidnapping and armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at Palace Station Hotel and Casino.
District Judge Jackie Glass said this trial had nothing to do with the previous murder trial at which Simpson was acquitted for murdering his wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Maybe not in her eyes, but in the eyes of virtually everyone else who believes the earlier verdict was a miscarriage of justice, this trial was just deserts.
| FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO INFLUENTIAL NEWSLETTER |
| Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here. |
|
In a statement before sentencing, Simpson said he didn't know he was "doing anything illegal." He must have been the only one. Simpson and his co-conspirators carried two guns, one of which was displayed, when they entered a room in hopes of retrieving property Simpson said was his. It apparently escaped the participants that stealing someone else's property is illegal and if Simpson had bothered to call the police, the law might have been on his side for a change.
Simpson had led a privileged life prior to the events that led to the "trial of the century." His athletic skills earned him millions. Acting and product endorsements earned him millions more. But all of that wasn't enough. Like some other celebrities and some politicians enablers surrounded Simpson and he came to believe he was entitled to whatever he desired. If he lusted after it, it seemed perfectly all right to O.J. Simpson that he should have it. If he was denied something, it appears, he saw nothing wrong with resorting to violence in order to get it.
Culture once frowned on such thinking, but no more. It doesn't matter why you're famous, only that you're famous. Celebrity, not character and worthy accomplishment, is now considered the highest goal. Many enablers helped O.J. avoid the possibility of coming to his senses.
Consider the definition of justice stated above. The concept of deserving anything deemed negative is now foreign in our contemporary culture. How do you punish anyone for anything if nothing can be judged right or wrong? This is the product of courts that have misread the First Amendment and a growing number who have abandoned an immutable standard in favor of moral relativity that is tailored, like a suit, to fit the individual.
There is a reason trials are still conducted. It is not only for the purpose of enforcing the law, but to reinforce social mores. One could hear repeated appeals to those mores in Judge Glass' remarks. It helped, as she said, that the entire crime and the post-crime party during which O.J. and his co-conspirators celebrated their "accomplishment" were recorded on audiotape. Many other norms, laws and standards have been recorded in a different sense from the Ten Commandments to the common law. As humanity progressed (or regressed), becoming more self-sufficient, we have felt it unnecessary to be constrained by anything, or to be held accountable to anyone.
Such thinking goes something like this: If you have a problem with anything I do, believe, or think, it's your problem, never mine. There is no overarching creator/authority, and so I am entitled to do as I wish. This life is all there is and so who are you to deprive me of anything I think will make me happy, happiness now being the highest and only goal of humanity? Good feelings, not well-doing are all that matter today. Who earns cover stories in popular magazines because of their virtue?
Even if he serves the minimum sentence, which is unlikely, life is effectively over for the 61-year-old Simpson. He received justice for what he did this time and retroactive justice for what a civil court concluded he did to his wife and Ron Goldman. Simpson got what he deserved. That should provide some satisfaction to the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, whose "stolen property" is beyond recovery.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY THE BOOK |
| Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.). |
|
Cal Thomas Archives JWR contributor Cal Thomas is co-author with Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic Party strategist, of "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America". Comment by clicking here.
© 2006, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|