Odds on the lottery

When I say the Name Dan Young Jr., I'm guessing that 98% of you don't know who I'm reffering to. And with only 5 active readers, that means 4 of you don't know at all and one of you has a one-in-ten shot of knowing what's up. Memory jog: he was released from prison in January 2005 after having spent 13 years rotting away on false accusations. A DNA test showed that he had absolutely nothing to do with the murder he had been physically beaten into confessing to. And his recompense from the state? After those 13 years in prison, the state decided this poor soul should be "awarded" $150,000; a whopping 11.5 grand for each year he was penned up. That's less than a full-time, minimum wage job without any raises, ever. Yay for our legal system! Because in Fresno, California, a woman was awarded--and this time, awarded is quite right--$1.7 million. And what for? Years of imprisonment and beatings from the ever-friendly policemen? Nay, her torture fell just shy of dear Dan Young Jr.'s: Janet Orland was "spanked" in front of her colleagues at work for no more than 10 seconds, in a "camaraderie-building exercise." This probably wasn't even straight-up sexual harassment in that sense, and she walks away with a cool 1.7 mil, 40 grand of which was for "future medical costs." You know, for when her hip bones explode from the obvious hairline fractures that that severe beating must have caused. 450 grand was for emotional distress. Clearly, she suffered at least 39 years of false imprisonments' worth of distress from that spanking. If this were truly the case, than the spankings I got as a kid that acutally hurt should be bringin' me a nice clean... I dunno, ball-park it at 2.5 million. Give or take.

Man, I really hate our legal system sometimes. Not because it is flawed in itself, but because people take advantage of it so badly. 12 complete morons had to sit there and listen to some old bat whine about how some guy spanked her, and how clearly that was worth an entire life's work in cold, hard cash. And then these morons go and agree with her.

Just to make things worse, the Dan Young Jr. saga didn't end there. 15 months later, that poor gent still hasn't recieved his check for 150,000 yet. The governer hasn't signed off on it. Who knows how long he has even had it on his desk. Lucky for Illinois that Dan is just happy to be free again. He has a low IQ and had never learned to read or write before prison. After prison, he concentrated on learning to read the Bible and steadily performing at his assembly line job. He taught himself to be able to write enough so that he could send cards to friends and family on birthdays and holidays. Not that it really matters in the end, though. The state saved themselves that $150,000; Dan Young Jr. was killed by an SUV in a hit-and-run on Thursday. Gotta love SUV drivers.

Chances have got to be hundred's of times in favor of winning the Mega Millions as opposed to what happened to Dan. This whole ordeal makes me so mad I could vomit. But then, I would get sued for millions of dollars at the distress this could cause someone who might see it happen from down the street.