payoff

the treasurer of lake county indiana has sent me a check for time and srevices renderd in the pursuit of justice in lake county superior court on the eleventh and twelfth of this month...i am still not convinced that i was a good choice for this...it was a case about someone killing a dog...i'm not overly fond of dogs and there is such a divergence in cultural norms about them that it's a tough call...there are people who eat dogs rather than keep them as pets...and people here who keep pigs a pets...and doubtlessly more who view breakfast sausage as cruelty...so who's correct? damned if i know...it's all releative and having a "big picture" overview is no help in specific, localized decisions...so i tried to stay inside the framework the judge set out since i figure she knows more about how the law is structured...but law is made by people who are the products of their cultures with all the strengths and weaknesses those cultures contain...ours is no more perfect...so i tried, uncharacteristically, to find the middle ground...an unusual outburst of aristoteliean moderation...an abberition from my usual on the bus/off the bus, no bullshit moderation stance...i tried to tell them this...it makes me unsuitable for deliberation...my downfall was an insistence on providing a cogent definition of reasonable doubt when the rookie prosecutor asked me what it was...i tried to give a reasonable answer instead of playing dumb...suddenly the long hair, ripped jeans, and sloganizing tee shirt were invisible...i had become a juror...well...the cash will go into the perennial garden project's budget...some good will come of it