Honor among thieves.

I was running errands and listening to the car radio on Friday when the Scott Peterson verdict was announced so I got to hear it live. I shop in a Blue KerryCountry area. A few minutes after the verdict was announced, I went into my favorite coffee bar and told the two young women working at the counter what had happened. Their faces broke out into smiles of glee. They asked, "what about the baby?" I said, "yep, guilty there, too." They started jumping up and down and high-fived each other. The only other customer in the store was a middle-aged woman with a stack of books on her table. She leaped up, too, and said, "oh my God, this gives me back my faith in humanity."

My next stop was the local academically-oriented used bookstore, right across the street from the coffee bar. I was enjoying my role of being the bearer of glad tidings, so I told the two young folks at that counter what had happened.

What a dramatically different reaction ensued. These two young people glowered at me, their lips curled downward with insufficiently disguised contempt, and they gave each other a sidelong glance to register their joint distaste. I don't suppose they had reason to believe that Scott Peterson was innocent, so I'm imagining that their sour displeasure is related to the fact that some people think this was a double murder, while other people fear that if some people continue to think it was a double murder, other people might end up not being able to get first-trimester abortions.