Oscar Pistorius

Let's imagine for a moment that Oscar Pistorius' version of events is completely accurate.

Here is a man who was so criminally negligent that he fired through a closed bathroom door at an unknown "target" without ever bothering to consider the "Occam's Razor" explanation that his girlfriend was the one in the bathroom. And apparently without any evidence to the contrary. The enormity of such foolishness is astounding. This wasn't just "an accident," this was a product of ignoring every basic rule of firearms safety and safe home defense. This was a chain of poor decision-making so long that someone who has done it has shown themselves to have utterly failed as a thinking being.

There's a quote from the movie Serenity that I like to throw out on occasions like this: "You know, in certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords."

Pistorius murdered the woman he was bound to defend. Whether it was through malice or stupidity is a legal issue, but as a matter of honor, Pistorius should throw himself on his sword.

If I killed my wife or one of my children like that, in an act of such deliberate stupidity, I don't know that I could bear to go on living. The guilt would be tremendous, and deserved. If I didn't kill myself, I don't think I could bear to defend myself from murder charges, because in my mind, I would be guilty.