Fascinating to read local court stories. The Berkeley Daily Planet of January 11 reported that a Berkeley man had been sentenced the day before to 56 years for attempted murder of a policeman. The lawyer for Howard Street, 39, said Street’s decision-making ability had been hampered by post-traumatic stress disorder “due to being involved in many shooting incidents during his long criminal career”. What about all those kids playing shoot-em-up games on their computers? Will they have similar rationalizations in the future? An attempt at humour on a rainy day.