Two news clips - one sourced in this country and the other from Australia this week - lend weight to the argument that we indeed live in a crazy world.
The first emanated from figures supplied to TVNZ that showed costs relating to the release of one of the country's worst ever sexual predators, Stewart Murray Wilson, amounted to $200,000 in three months.
It was claimed the amount was twice as much as it would cost to have kept Wilson - a former Masterton man but better known as the Beast of Blenheim - behind bars for a year. From that it could be deduced that $100,000 a year is needed to lock up and keep prisoners like Wilson separated from other people.
That, in itself, is a not-too-pleasant revelation for taxpayers but the very thought that double that amount has been spent in just three months to make sure Wilson is housed is little short of scandalous.
This may sound harsh but when it comes to people like Wilson - a serial sex offender - my preferred option if it was really, really necessary to set him free would be to open the doors of the jail and let him take his chances.