Inevitably, cases such as the Alabama Tenure Shooter raise the question of the difference between insanity and criminality. The fact is, most of us can’t tell the difference. I think to most people the idea of committing violence on another person looks like insanity, even in cases where there is a clear personal financial gain – the main exceptions being self-defense and military combat.

It is easy for us to believe some form of temporary insanity in such cases, and that implies a need for lenience. But there are other cases that sound crazy but indicate a more serious problem. Shortly after I moved to California in 1978 a man there kidnapped a 14 year old girl, raped her, and tried to kill her by cutting her arms off; she survived. You can say there that he was just trying to avoid punishment for the crime, a clear case of gain for murder. A few years after I moved to Florida the guy got out of prison and moved to Florida too. There were protests in the neighborhood where he moved. And shortly thereafter he raped and killed a woman and then committed suicide. Was he insane and if so did that equate to leniency?

Then there was the case of a man who raped a young girl but was acquitted in court. The mother of the girl walked up to him after his acquittal and shot him dead. Was the mother a victim of IED or rather of TESS – Temporary Extreme Sanity Syndrome? And how do you treat her in the court system?

By the way, trying to put your monitor on the copier is ridiculous! That’s why they make video camcorders. And don’t try to fax a floppy disk – doesn’t work.