Kopi luwak, otherwise known as civet coffee, motit coffee, kape alamid, kafé laku, weasel coffee...call it what you will, it is one of the most expensive varieties of coffee in the world. Depending on where you buy it & what variety you choose, prices range from $100-$600 per pound & up to $3,000 per pound for the Vietnamese "weasel coffee." Kopi luwak is the shit in more ways than one & has an interesting history.

In the mid-1800s the Dutch forbade native farmers & workers in the Dutch East Indies colonies to pick coffee fruit from the plantations for their own use. The natives found a way around this prohibition though. Certain species of civet would eat the ripe coffee fruits, but did not digest the seeds, & so the natives would go around collecting these civet turds, would clean the beans, roast & grind them to make coffee.

Basically, when a civet eats the coffee fruit the beans ferment in its intestines & makes the resulting coffee milder, less bitter, with a more "aromatic" flavor. This is similar to how cocoa beans are left to ferment for up to eight days before they're processed. But if cocoa beans were harvested from cat turds, I seriously doubt that I'd eat any chocolate.

I want to see the generic brand of this come out. Something like Krappy Low-ACK! the low-cal version, or Cat Ass Coffee. Word is that Juan Valdez is hard at work (or his donkey is) on a new blend called Caca de Burro. The Home Shopping Network could even sell do-it-yourself kits. For just two easy payments of $19.95 you can have your own Kitty Coffee starter kit: includes one kitten, a five pound sack of coffee cherries & a litterbox. Get your coffee fresh from the source! (meow) There are chemically simulated versions like "Magic Cat" for $15.99 per pound.

A few other related facts: Early on, civet musk was used as the binding agent in perfumes. Lab manufactured chemicals serve the purpose now, but people used to rub civet booty juice on themselves to smell good. SARS has also been traced back to civets, which probably was passed to them by infected bats. Kopi muncak is coffee beans harvested from the crap of barking deer found throughout Southeast Asia. (The Indian muncak has the lowest number of chromosomes in any mammal.) And then there is argan oil used for massage, for cooking & for aphrodisiac effects -maybe in that order. Berbers encourage goats to climb these weird looking trees & eat the olive-like fruit, then they harvest the pits from the goat pellets & grind them for the oil.

As for the kopi luwak, it's supposed to taste really great. I'll have to take their word for it. Sewer rats might taste like sweet potato pie, but I'll never know that for certain, either. Not happening.

I was actually surprised at the feedback on the post and welcome it. What my detractors seemed to have lost sight of was the purpose of the post. The purpose wasn't to prove my innocence or go over the evidence or lack thereof. God could come down from heaven and tell you I'm innocent and it wouldn't make a difference to you.

GOD: THIS MAN IS INNOCENT. LET HIM GO.

Detractors: Just shut up, God! We know you're just some bleeding-heart-liberal, prisoner-loving-activist! Even your Son was a convicted criminal and was executed.

Go back and reread the title of the post. Good job. Know what that means? It is referring to Mr. John Harmon's motives for getting this case splashed in the media repeatedly, and the methods he used.

Casey Harmon's loved ones, as well as my loved ones, are looking to move beyond what happened in 1998. Hate me if you want. Write me and tell me what a terrible person I am, how I should never have been born, how I should have been executed, how you hope I'll die a slow and painful death...but address it to me. Bringing the case back up time and again and putting it out there publicly is leaving yourself open for public scrutiny. And as you can see, I have a voice as well.

Now to address specific comments...

Sherry Riley Barnett, at first I wanted to go through your comment & point out more of the inconsistencies. That wouldn't serve any purpose, however. You weren't mentioned by this name or any name in any of the documents related to the investigation, and no one that was at the Center that day says anything about seeing you. I'm not trying to cause you or anyone else any more pain than you've already been through. If you truly were there at some point that day & traded shifts with Casey, I'm sorry that you've been second-guessing that all these years. If it would have changed things for the better, I wish you had have been there that day.

Paul Harrison, thank you for your comment, and you are certainly entitled to your opinions. I agree with you that any [honorable] officer gunned down in the line of duty deserves more than 15 minutes of fame. I am not trying to change what you think of me, either. That's like arguing religion or politics; it does no good. As for being executed, it still wouldn't have happened. Check out Roper v. Simmons, 125 S.Ct. 1183 (2005). I'd gladly face the death penalty to get a chance in court though, I assure you.

Rogers, to be mall security I find it odd that you should be privy to any alleged statements besides your own. Those statements never were made by me. Why would I allegedly say I was going to shoot everyone & their grandma? When you probably heard this as gossip or rumor, did you even stop to think about it? The way accounts of the case stand, none of it makes sense. When the time is right, you'll have your answer.

As was stated in a comment on the previous post, if you don't like what is written on this blog- don't read it. I'll keep writing until I'm no longer able. I've told the blog administrators that comments aren't to be deleted. As long as the comments are somewhat on topic and aren't so much verbal diarrhea, I'll respond to them. I'll even communicate with you via snail mail, or you can send a message to the blog's email address and it will be printed and mailed to me. To my detractors, concerning spelling, grammatical or any other errors- mistakes are solely my own. I never made it to 10th grade. What's your excuse? On the subject of hellfire & damnation: I'll have plenty of company if I end up in hell, and if I get there first I'll save you a spot. ;-)