The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

24 March 2005

Judicial review

You remember this, I'm sure:

We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty-seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, sat down. Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty-seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing-eye dog, and he sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing-eye dog, and then at the twenty-seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing-eye dog. And then at twenty-seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry, 'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it, and the judge wasn't going to look at the twenty-seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow.

But that's not what I came to tell you about.

For this tale explains far more about Judge Greer than you probably imagined.

Actually, it's not like he can't see at all; it's just that his vision is not correctable to near 20/20. Still, a prediction: Once this gets around, your friendly neighborhood death-cultist will point and say, "See? They're trying to tear down a differently-abled judge!" Of course, anyone who actually says "differently-abled" with a straight face goes immediately to the top of the To Be Euthanized For The Common Good list.

Posted at 7:25 AM to Life and/or Death


The definition of "legally blind" in Florida means vision no better than 20/200 with correction, not 20/20. Otherwise, great post.

Posted by: Dawn Eden at 1:30 PM on 24 March 2005

I wasn't up on Florida law in this case, but I figured that "not correctable to near 20/20" was probably close enough. Thanks for the emendation.

Posted by: CGHill at 4:47 PM on 24 March 2005

In case anyone is interested, there is a picture of Bill Obenheim in this year's Norman Rockwell calender. He is the police officer sitting on the stool next to the young runaway with the bindlestaff.

Posted by: triticale at 10:06 PM on 24 March 2005

Officer Obie, living legend. I'll have to see that.

Posted by: CGHill at 7:05 AM on 25 March 2005