OK, in the Mickey Wright case, the DA has drawn us a picture, and I have to say I'm not impressed.

It seems that Mardis had told county employees that they were not to send a black code enforcer to his place of business. The DA's office thought they had a hate crime. Then at the last minute couple of black people showed up and said they and Mardis were friends; so, no hate crime. The case wasn't so juicy now, I guess, so they lost interest and let him plead no contest to 2nd degree murder.

OK, we need to drop this nonsense that because a person has black friends, or white friends, or whatever, then that proves he is not a racist. I've known terrible racists who made an exception for So-and-so. Then again, whether a person is a racist or not isn't anybody else's business unless he acts on it. It's the acting that's the problem.

That's where I think the whole hate-crime thing is counterproductive. This case should have been approached like the earlier case I mentioned, with the black teenagers who killed the white woman: they were murderous thugs. Period. So is Mardis. Lock him up forever. What's so hard about that?

Thaddeus Matthews has more to say about this issue, including some very disturbing information about the judge. I vaguely remember that but didn't realize that he was still on the bench, and that he was the judge in this case. It's at times like this that I suspect I need to be on blood pressure medication.