SAUSAGES AND THE LAW

There's that old saying that laws and sausage are two things you don't want to see made. The latter, of course, is because we want to deny what sausage is. Or to put it another way, too much intimate knowledge about meat could leave consumers queasy about their meal, as a new study has just confirmed, adding that "care should also be taken when presenting information such as traceability and origin of meat." Another thing it's disgusting to watch is a Sausage King trying to weasel out of his responsibility in cold-bloodedly killing three food inspectors at his San Leandro linguisa plant. The only defense his team can muster is that it wasn't cold-blooded, it was hot-blooded, because, get this, one of the "meat cops" provoked him into a homocidal rage. "To blame Jean Hillery for what happened is beyond offensive," said prosecutor Jack Laettner, but I guess "beyond offensive" is your only legal gambit when the evidence against you is "a surveillance camera video tape showing Alexander gunning down the inspectors and finishing each off with shots to the head." After the defense made it clear that blaming the victim was going to be the strategy, "USDA spokesman Daniel Puzo said the defense attorney was victimizing the slain inspectors anew with a 'most vicious and vile type of slander.'"
UPDATE 5/3: In the midst of a shooting binge that left three meat inspectors dead and a fourth dodging gunfire, Stuart Alexander calmly told a neighbor he was being robbed. Read that again: Not right after his shooting binge - in the midst of it. He said this, then walked back to his plant and shot the wounded in the head. Not only is the hot-blood-sausage-king defense hideously offensive, it's also patently absurd. This loser deserves whatever can possiblly be doled out to him.

UPDATE 5/6: Interesting tidbit from today's testimony: Mary Evans had just bought sausage there moments earlier and was heading for her car when Alexander began shooting, and she "hurried to her car and drove home." Now get this: "Police later identified her by the check she used to purchase linguisa." Yeah, she just saw a homocidal maniac come running out of his plant after murdering three people, attempting to take down the fourth, and she drives home and doesn't call the police on her own accord. No doubt she was afraid of this guy, BUT: Do you suppose she ate the linguisa? I mean, couldn't be anything wrong with that, could there, just because this guy was willing to kill people who were trying to get him to comply with food safety rules? I'll give you ten to one she ate it; it's exactly the kind of warped-logic world meat-eaters live in, and of which these killings are just an extreme extrapolation.