The One Commandment (in just two words)

In response to my report on George Carlin's Two Commandments, the author of Jingle Jangle: The Perfect Crime Turned Inside Out goes a step further than Carlin. How about, he proposes, just one commandment—two words:

Be Decent

Some dictionary definitions of "decent" are:

• conforming to standards of propriety, good taste, or morality
• free from immodesty or obscenity
• conforming to current standards of living
• having praiseworthy qualities

Decency of course depends on which standards are considered to apply (and on who's doing the applying). This is the same as with Moses's "Thou shalt not kill," which depended on who or what was considered off-limits to kill (such as a fellow Jew, but not necessarily anyone else and, of course, not the "dumb" animals, who were subject to ritual sacrifice to flatter and placate the Jews' "jealous god").

Be that as it may, I should note that Jim Rix's book convincingly demonstrates that the police and prosecutor who put his innocent cousin away for ten years for murder (Ray Krone was finally released, in April 2002) were not behaving decently with respect to such publicly accepted standards of fairness and justice as discovery of evidence, presumption of innocence [until proven guilty], and reasonable doubt.

By the way, the publisher recently lowered the retail price of Jingle Jangle to $24.95 (from $39). It can currently be had with no charge for shipping or handling from Broken Bench Press. A growing number of discriminating, well-informed readers consider this one of those indispensable books that don't come along often.