Book Review "Imperfect Justice" by Jeff Ashton

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Sometimes, truth is a lot stranger than fiction. Do you remember where you were at 10 AM on October 3, 1995? I remember riding around with a co-worker awaiting the verdict of what was hailed as the "trial of the century"-the O.J. Simpson double-homicide murder trial. Had one been orbiting the planet when OJ was declared "not guilty," I am quite sure he would have seen the earth tremble a bit.

In spite of what seemed like obvious motive and plenty of culpable evidence - ultimately, OJ was acquitted of any criminality in the death of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman, an aspiring model who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. [As an aside, justice caught up to OJ Simpson in December 2008 when he was sentenced to 33 years in prison for armed robbery when he attempted to "reclaim" sports memorabilia at gunpoint.]

Jeff Ashton, who served as lead prosecutor against another famous murder suspect-Casey Anthony-has written a no-holds-barred account of the trial that shocked Florida in Imperfect Justice. In 2008, Casey Anthony was charged with the murder of her two-year-old daughter, Caylee. Although she had reported Caylee missing, Casey's lies and malfeasance depicted her as a mother who had grown tired of the responsibilities of raising a child. Instead, it appeared as if Casey Anthony wanted to be the consummate party girl...even emblazoning a tattoo on her back indicating "Bella Vita" (meaning "Beautiful Life") that she got weeks after Caylee died.

Ashton shares the prosecution's case in what should have been a slam-dunk conviction against Casey. In just under 24 hours of deliberation, however, the jury acquitted Casey of any criminal involvement in her daughter's death. The shock and outrage felt by the public was the fodder of all the news agencies covering the case. As Casey Anthony was whisked away under cover of darkness to a new life, there seemed to be very little justice for Caylee. Maybe the earth trembled once again as the verdict was announced in July 2011.

Imperfect Justice reminds the reader, in spite of not getting a guilty verdict, the greatest injustice was that a child was killed and discarded like common garbage. Ashton shares the journey made by investigators into the tremendous amounts of lies Casey told; the changing nature of Casey's parents, George and Cindy Anthony, and the problems their inconsistencies caused the prosecution; and his dissatisfaction of Jose Baez, lead defense attorney for Casey Anthony. A full color-spread in the middle of the book includes pictures of Casey partying, the car that smelled of death, and various shots of the Anthony's home.

Since Ashton postponed retirement for six months to finish this case, you have to put up with a little grandstanding and self-aggrandizement. Apparently, Ashton was one of the first attorneys to be involved with DNA forensics; and he styles himself as the quintessential science nerd. In spite of a little peacock press, after reading the details of the prosecution you will be shocked that Casey Anthony was found not guilty.

Rest in peace, Caylee Anthony, perhaps some day the balance of justice will ultimately vindicate your untimely death.

Review by Steven King, MBA, MEd

The Omnivores Dilemma

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Professor Hugh White Discusses Australia's Future Between Washington and Beijing

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The Quarterly Essays published by Black Inc. tend to vary in quality from the woeful to the brilliant. Mostly the writers of these essays are of a left-wing, progressive bent. The essays land themselves in trouble when they're written by authors who are opinionated but have little of real worth to say, or if the essayist is basically an intellectual lightweight. The best essays are informative and intellectually stimulating. My favourites have been Waleed Aly's What's Right? and Peter Hartcher's Bipolar Nation. I won't go into which ones which I think were the worst.

The 39th essay in the series is by Professor Hugh White, who specialises in defence and security issues. He's not a hot head, but rather a mild mannered analyst not motivated by political ideology. This makes his work refreshingly candid and devoid of dogma. You can trust his judgments to be based on a solid core of common sense.

Australia Caught Between China and the United States

Power Shift: Australia's Future Between Washington and Beijing examines where Australia stands in the Asian region with China nudging the United States for the position of global superpower. The Chinese economy has made massive leaps and bounds over the past decade. If it can keep up its current pace of economic growth, then it's only a matter of time before China overtakes the US as the world's largest economy. As White notes, once a nation becomes the richest in the world, they automatically have the money and command of resources to become the most powerful too. But where does this leave Australia?

As China grows, and as its economic power threatens the United States, it is Australia that stands to get bruised in the charge for global preeminence. Australia, Hugh White notes, has had an easy run security wise for a long time, depending on the US and not having to think too deeply about defence strategy. If, as a nation, Australia doesn't keep its eye on this slowly but surely shifting balance of power, Australians could find themselves in an uncomfortable position.

White outlines various scenarios, all which demand careful study and attention, and all of which will cost Australia one way or another - whether it be by spending more on defence, exposing ourselves to a greater chance of war, or simply having to reduce our international standing. None of this makes for cheery reading, highlighting as it does the need for Australia to think carefully and make some very serious decisions. With the rise of China, Australia's hey days of easy security will be over.

This is fairly ironic, as China's rise has been a godsend for Australia's economy. China doing well and buying our resources has been great for the nation's coffers, but while we enjoy the money, it will mean making tough decisions in the future.

Hugh White wrote this essay in the hope of focusing the minds of politicians on this looming problem, but as the nation grapples with pressing and of the moment issues like the carbon tax and refugees, it seems that it's too easy for us to put this problem on the backburner. Reading Hugh White's brilliant essay focuses the mind wonderfully on these issues of defence and security. Anyone interested in serious public discussion should read this essay.

Power Shift: Australia's Future Between Washington and Beijing, by Hugh White. Published by Black Inc. ISBN: 9781863954884

Chris Saliba is a book reviewer from Melbourne, Australia.

More of his book reviews can be read at: http://chrissalibabookreviews.blogspot.com/

The Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam Part 1

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This book is subtitled: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wages Wars and Save Our Lives.

Unfortunately, the book's subtitle is far from describing its actual contents, which are more along the lines of "Why a Journalist Thinks Psychology Supports the Democratic Party."

That we have unconscious (or subconscious) minds that influence our behavior in ways we often don't recognize or acknowledge is nothing new. Freud wrote about it explicitly in modern times. Artists and marketers have long known how to push our internal buttons without us understanding how.

The first sections tell some interesting stories which help to make the author's case that we're far more influenced by our unconscious than we wish to believe. Again, nothing really new.

Then he moves into tests showing that North American preschoolers are unconsciously prejudiced against blacks and for whites, despite all efforts by parents and teachers to eliminate such bias. And the author makes the case that their hidden minds, despite everything adults tell them, pick up on the fact that in their communities white people are the majority.

This raises lots of questions. Is it true of black children growing up in black neighborhoods where nearly everybody they meet is black?

And how about some cross-cultural studies? The author comes from India which, as he knows better than he admits, has far more diversity and cultural, racial, ethnic, caste and religious divisions -- and corresponding bias -- than the United States.

And then he moves into really dangerous ground -- asserting that science shows that political conservatism is positively correlated with unconscious racial bias. And he goes into depth on this issue as it related to the presidential race of 2008.

He tries to be careful, but he doesn't consider all the factors. Perhaps he has his own unconscious biases?

For example, he claims that white male union members supported Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 because of innate racism. After all, he was against their economic interests.

Therefore, he assumes that the class warfare rhetoric of the Democratic Party is correct. He does not consider that Americans may prefer -- for rational reasons -- free enterprise to socialism.

While spending many pages on the racism of white people toward Barack Obama, he takes only one long paragraph to dismiss the argument that black people showed more racial bias in 2008 than whites, because they voted overwhelmingly for Obama, while whites split their votes between Obama and McCain. If millions of whites hadn't been willing -- despite what the author claims is their manifest unconscious racism -- to vote for Obama, he would have lost. The truth is, they considered the issues, and some decided Obama was the better candidate, not because or in spite of being black, but because of his stands.

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