Compassion is for dirty fucking hippies... and Scots

This is incredible, the BBC video in which the Scottish justice explains his decision to release the Lockerbie bomber. Whether you agree with the decision or not, the man's statement is eloquent, courageous, and a testament to his people (tho they be criminals all of 'em! =p)

This commentary from Josh Marshall is sad but true:

While we share a common legal tradition with the UK, our own legal system increasingly seems like a moribund vestige of our common history, rather than a self-sustaining creation which we continue to ratify and renew. On a gloomy day, it's hard for me to envision the U.S. adopting the Anglo-American system today if we were starting from scratch. As it is, our legal system labors under enormous tension between who [we] are now and the values we once idealized. MacAskill's statement, regardless of how you view his decision, is a living, breathing example of those legal traditions being carried forward in practice, not merely as totems from another time.