A lot of people have been ranting and raving about Casey Anthony being found not guilty this morning on the charges of murder and child abuse. I'm no law student, but I wanted to give my thoughts on the subject.

Is Casey Anthony a psycho? Yes. Is she a compulsive liar? Yes. Did she kill her daughter? Maybe.

"Maybe" is the best we can do at this point. Is that enough to end a suspect's life with the death penalty? Not. At. All.

I admire the jury assigned to this case and how they have represented the American justice system. Despite the freakshow, despite the circus of oblivious observers literally racing and pushing to get tickets to the courtroom each day, despite the defendant's overt selfishness and obvious instability, they stuck to the rules of our justice system:

You are innocent until proven guilty.

Guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

There was no injustice today. Circumstantial evidence, no matter how much of it there is, is not substantial. You can make inferences and draw logical inclusions with it, but it is NEVER enough to justify taking a human being's life, even if that person is psycho trash. The prosecution never produced solid evidence (witnesses, fingerprints, DNA) and the defense was able to exhibit reasonable doubt.

Like it or not, this is justice. As controversial as this may seem, it is better to let a criminal go free than it is to end the life an innocent person. Free criminals at least will have a chance at redemption. Death is final. Yes, the criminal may commit more crimes, but if no substantial evidence is brought forth, the jury was correct, even obligated, to let the person go.

The main concern I have with the verdict is that, unless they discover evidence was tampered, Casey will now be protected by double jeopardy. For those of you not familiar with the term, "double jeopardy" basically states that a person cannot be tried for a crime of which they've already been acquitted. If they eventually discover that Casey was, indeed, the killer, too bad. No one will be able to touch her after this, unless she pulls an OJ.

And you can't really say, "At least she'll have to live with the guilt." Casey is most likely a sociopath. Sociopaths think they are better than everyone else (resulting in extreme selfishness), lack appropriate emotional connections, and rarely ever exhibit true remorse. If Casey did murder her daughter, she likely saw her as an obstacle to her own lifestyle and, thus, will not feel bad for what she did. At most, she'll resent the further inconveniences of the trial and the time she'll be spending in jail for lying to the police.

Of course, this is all conjecture. I am neither a lawyer nor a psychologist. In the end, though, no matter who murdered the young girl, the jury deserves no blame. Instead, they deserve respect for upholding the law and not bending to public opinion.

I said goodbye to one of my oldest friends today. Lucky, my cat, was around 16-years old. To put that into perspective, I was 4 or 5 when my family got him. I’m 20 now.

He had a heart murmur, a bad kidney, tooth problems, and some other stuff we couldn’t afford to treat, but you could never tell by watching him. He was always energetic, fast, and noisy when he wanted food. Whenever my dad entered the room, Lucky would stand on his hind legs and scratch at Dad’s pants until he sat down so the cat could jump in his lap.

Unfortunately, old age seemed like it was catching up to him. For the past couple months, he had spent most of the day simply lying around and couldn’t seem to make it to the litterbox. We finally decided that it was time to put him down.

I didn’t think it was going to be this difficult. I thought I was just going to be able to let this sink in without a strong emotional response. But, now it seems otherwise.

Goodbye, Lucky. This may sound childish, but I hope cats get into heaven, because I want to see you again.

(I’ll post a picture of him sometime in the near future. Also, I apologize for such a depressing post)

If you told me that there is someone out there meant for me, the Jessie to my Buzz, I'd thank you for your romantic optimism and politely wait until you left the area to commence my fit of snickering.

When I think about my future, a Mrs. Quicksandbuddy rarely ever enters the picture. Sure, it would be fantastic if I fall head-over-heels for a lady who also falls head-over-heels for me, but if she doesn't exist, so be it.

I'm sorry if I depress some of the more romantic of you, but I don't think everyone needs another half to make a whole. Some people are simply whole already. That doesn't make me cynical or upset, just prepared. Prepared to surround myself with friends and family instead of creating a new family to spend my life with.

Of course, part of the reason I feel this way could be because most of the women who have played large roles in my life haven't exactly made me... excited about the prospect of spending the rest of my life with another person. Sure, I've loved nearly all the women in my life, but the silent treatments, constantly shifting moods, hidden messages I'm expected to pick up on, sense of entitlement, and so on have often over-whelmed and frustrated me to the point of screaming into pillows. Though I am not nearly chauvinistic or stupid enough to think that every single female is like this, I would be lying if I said I'm not jaded and often suspicious of what women mean by what they say.

Couple all this with the fact that the women I'm attracted to aren't attracted to me and vice-versa and the prospect of even a temporary romantic relationship aren't good. I have had only one girlfriend in my life (I'm 20 now. Just wanted to let you know because I don't think you're depressed enough) but I have yet to find out what love feels like.* It's sobering to think that I could die without ever experiencing romantic love, but you can't miss what you never knew.  

So, unless Beyonce or Jennifer Garner suddenly come knocking on my door to announce that they left their man for me, I'll have to wait and see what life has in store. If there's nobody out there, c'est la vie. If there is a second half out there, please find me quickly. I'm currently in a girl-crazy phase of crushing on nearly every girl I see, so now's the perfect time to strike.

What is your opinion on romantic love and "other halves"? If you don't  have an SO, do you think there's one out there custom-made just for you? If you do have an SO, do you feel that you were "destined" for each other? Do you find me attractive? Wanna go out sometime?**

*Just so we're clear, I'm not a bad-looking person. Ok, ladies? Ok.
**If you so much as dignified the last two questions, you really don't deserve to be on the internet.