If a famous person and a not-famous person commit the same wrong, should the punishment be different for the famous person, as in not as severe, because the consequences in general will be worse for them? Hit to their career, bad publicity, etc. Shouldn’t the consequences be relative? If I am famous, the consequences are greater because I am famous. They are less if I am not, because I have less out there to be impacted. I just had a discussion/argument with someone who seems to think that the famous should receive less punishment from the law because the other consequences will be greater than for the not-famous person. Shouldn’t we all be treated the same? No, because we are not the same. Our circumstances are different. I am having trouble wrapping my head around this attitude, because consequences are just that, consequences. If yours are greater than mine, it’s because you had more to lose in the first place. Am I making sense at all? If you’re famous, you have more to lose, and losing some of it is part of the consequences of your action. You should not be treated differently because of it, should you? This is one of those arguments that just boggle my mind. If one murderer is old and debilitated, they should receive a lighter punishment because they will suffer more in prison than someone who is young and healthy. Well, maybe they should have thought of that before they did whatever it was that got them sent to prison in the first place. Right?

This came about because of a blog post about Oscar Pistorius, which I kind of didn’t understand the point that was trying to be made, so asked someone their opinion of the issue. It is, however, a really good blog.

THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

Would you cover for a friend who did something wrong? By covering for that person, allowing him/her to avoid the consequences of their actions, doesn’t that kind of make them think that they can avoid the consequences of more serious actions? Depending on the severity of whatever they did, I might not pick up the phone and turn them in, but if asked outright, would I lie for them?

I apply this principle to my children. I will love them no matter what, but if they do something wrong, I will not lie for them, and may possibly turn them in, because they need to learn that there are consequences, and if you do something wrong, you will suffer those consequences. Shouldn’t that apply to everyone, regardless of their station in life? Rich, poor, famous, unknown. If you have more to lose isn’t the problem of anyone but the person who committed the act. Or it shouldn’t be, I think. I’m really interested to hear what other people think about this issue, because I am truly stunned by the opinion of the person I discussed this with.

Kind of in the same frame, I think, someone said to me a while back that if the prisoners at Guantanamo want to go on a hunger strike, then they should just die from it. Because just the fact that they are there means they are guilty. This person also thinks that if you haven’t got anything to hide, it’s okay for the government to spy on you, and that most of the poor are just abusing the system, and are not really in need. This comes of listening to too much Doctor Laura, I think, although I’ve never listened to her myself, so can’t really say that this is the kind of thing she spouts. I just know this person listens to her all the time. Or did, anyway.

Is it just me? Am I the one with the backward way of looking at things? Is it true that people are poor and needy because they are just lazy, worthless gits? Are the rich and famous entitled to more and better purely because they are rich and famous, regardless of why or how they got to be those things? I wish I’d just stayed in bed today, actually.

Don’t mention evolution

This is the kind of thing that goes on in the United States.

American Family Radio guest host calls for left-wing academics to be taken out and shot?

My America gave up the ghost awhile back, I think. It is very depressing, so I try not to read too much about things that make me crazy anymore. I just keep hoping the tide will turn at some point, and people will get their brains back. Not looking good, however. Not looking good at all.

Two days ago I had the windows open. Yesterday it was almost 60 degrees. Today it is 18 degrees, windy, and snowing. Definitely been a winter. After a few years of less and less snow and cold, it’s kind of nice, but only because I don’t have to shovel or anything. Spring has sprung, in the sense that the trees are coloring, indicating that the sap is rising, but that has to be daylight-related, not temperature-related.

I had a couple of really good days this week, only to be followed by lots and lots of pain and odd-hours sleep. Me and the weather, we can’t seem to get any kind of normal going. At least we’re not boring. I think.

about language moving on.

Errors

I read a lot of fan fiction. A lot of it is written by Brits. They use words differently than we do here in the States. Some things drive me bananas. Toy boy instead of boy toy. A toy boy is a Ken doll, or G I Joe. A boy toy is a boy you mess around with, right? On instead of in. It started with ‘on line’. You are not standing ON a line, you are part of the line, therefore, you are standing IN line. Lately I’ve been seeing it in all kinds of sentences where ‘in’ is the word that’s always been used, but is somehow morphing into on. Just not knowing the proper tenses of some words is another nitpick for me. How many people say ‘he span around’. No, he may have spun around, but span is reach, not the past tense of spin. I have no room to talk, however. I have always read voraciously. In school, if I did not know what a word meant, I would try to figure it out based on the context of the sentence it was in. If I didn’t know how to pronounce it, I would sound it out. Phonetics works, people. Seriously. One word, however, remains to this day a sad indication of my not figuring it out correctly. Subtle. Sub – tel. No, it’s suttle. How am I supposed to know this? So all my life, I thought subtle was one word, and suttle was another. Until it was pointed out to me by a friend, who now likes to remind me of it continuously. It is like our own private little in-joke, only not private, cause every gets to know of my mistake. This makes me laugh. But why is there a silent ‘b’? Who thought this is a good idea? How do people even learn English if it’s not their first language? Read/read. Bow/bow. Bass/bass. Oh, why are you writing the same word twice here? Well, I’m not. They just LOOK the same, are spelled the same, but sound different, and mean different things. How would you know this? I even have to write notes to myself about it. I used to keep a list of books I wanted to read, and marked them ‘read’ after I read them. Then I lost it. When I found it again, I could remember if the ‘read’ was ‘red’ or ‘reed’, so I started to put ‘have read’ and ‘to read’. English IS my first language. It’s also my only language. It’s just not my best language.

Seriously, oh, wait, I have a picture for that:

Here’s what I am referring to, from Daily Kos:

“Ted Cruz says we ‘no longer have a president,’ apparently because Barack Obama is now our dictator”

They will say anything to make Obama look bad, because they just can’t stand that a black man is President. Homophobic, racist, bigoted morons. Why yes, I really don’t like them. Why do you ask?

Not a lot, I never get a lot done, but I searched around and found out how to add Quick Launch back to the Win7 taskbar, and did that, and then searched some more and found out how to actually add stuff to Quick Launch, and did that. Then I put together my new lift-top coffee table. I’ve been wanting one for a long time, and finally found one that suits me. From Home Depot. Free shipping and all. It is rubberwood. I was not aware things were made from rubber wood after the trees are too old to produce more latex. Sustainable resource. It’s a good thing. And it’s lovely wood, unfinished, and very well made. I only had to put the sides on to the top and the shelf at the bottom. Twelve bolts. The hardest part was not having a ratchet allen wrench. Do they make ratchet allen wrenches? Cause I want one if they do. Would have had it together in a fifth of the time, literally. Trying to get it into the notch and not being able to turn it far each time because stuff in the way really added to the put-together minutes. But it is done, and now I have to wait for enough strength or a helper to turn it right side up, because it’s a lot heavier together than the individual pieces were. Oh, and it came from Viet Nam. There’s a song for that.

Had a very not good night, tired and sleepy, but pain kept me awake. Had a bath, some Tylenol, then slept some this morning, not getting up til my homemaker showed up and rang the buzzer. 1pm. Very foggy and ick for the first hour or so, but much better later, and still. So turned out not a bad day at all. Getting stuff done is always a good thing. I had McD’s fish lunch with coffee, too. Yum. I like their fish sandwich, and have Traci pick one up for me every now and then. McD’s is right next to the grocery store. Handy. LOL They make really good coffee, too. Better than the donut place. You know the one I mean. We used to watch Briscoe County, Jr. There was a joke in every episode, and once, a boy gave Briscoe a bag of donuts. As he left, Briscoe said, “Thanks for the donuts, Duncan”. Made me laugh. Yes. Yes it did. Great cast, too.

Cutting down the Prednisone is not going well.  Hobbling around with cane again, sleeping weird hours, just feeling like crap in general.  Doctor wanted me to cut a milligram, but last time I did that was not a happy time.  So I went down a half, just a week ago.  Hoping the body adjusts soon, because not loving this.  Oh, well.

A very nice post about primroses from a lovely blog I enjoy:
Growing Primroses

I always used to buy a couple in February from the grocery store. Brightened up a gray winter. Then I would plant them out in the garden when it warmed up and they would sometimes come up again next year. Lovely, cheery little plants. I like yellow ones. Yellow is good.

to stop being old.  I have been sick, and in pain, and so very, very tired for so very, very long, that ‘old’ has become who I am.  My body doesn’t work anymore.  I can’t do most of the things I used to do.  I sat on the floor a bit ago.  I can’t remember the last time I sat on the floor.  Then I lay down on the floor and read for a bit.  I used to sit and/or lay on the floor all the time.  I sorted papers on the floor.  I sat and read on the floor.  I was comfortable on the floor.  Then my life and my body went to hell and the floor didn’t even occur to me.  So I sat on it today.  I want to sit on the floor all the time.  I want to walk to the library.  I want to do my own shopping.  I want my life back.  Not sure how to make any of that happen, because pain, but I have decided.  I am going to stop being old and start living my life again.  There.  I have spoken. 

Not having the best day ever.  Feeling stuck.  Had a bright idea the other day, only to have to come to terms with the fact that I just can’t do it.  I need to change things around periodically, or I just get frozen.  But it gets harder every time.  April first I’ll be here fourteen years.  Fourteen years spent mostly here by myself in my little prison box.  I rarely go out, and if I have to go somewhere, forget just wanting to go somewhere, I have to impose on a friend to get there.  So I’m pretty much stuck. 

This has never been my home.  It’s the place I exist in limbo, because I seem to have no options.  I manage to tuck that into a dark spot in my mind, but now and then it emerges and I start feeling stuck and trapped and needing to escape, and I can’t.  All these years, and I haven’t been able to come up with a way out of this hell I am in.  Limbo, maybe hell is too harsh a word.  Or not.  Sometimes it feels like I am in hell.

The other day I was watching the weather and noticed where I used to live on the map.  I was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling that I want to go home.  I want to go home, back to my life, and my husband, and my family and my garden and MY LIFE.  Only it no longer exists.  There is no going home for me, ever.  It’s been years since I’ve felt that need to be back there.  Took me by surprise, and now I’m kind of having trouble letting it go again.  I have to pull myself out of this, but not today.  Today I am going to allow myself to feel the sadness and the longing for things that will never be.  I’ll be better tomorrow.

about the unintended ramifications of Arizona’s ‘Why yes, we are homophobic morons’ bill allowing people to refuse to do their jobs based on their homophobic beliefs. Haven’t read if the gov signed it into law or not. 

Arizona, never going there

Update:  Just read she vetoed it.

From an io9 post about the movie ‘Pompeii”:
“Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, whose intensity and self-awareness are both more than this movie really deserves, steals his scenes by giving every line his full weight while maintaining an air of mild bemusement that those are, in fact, his lines.”

Because I am all for gay rights, which as I always say, are human rights. Get over yourselves, homophobes.
Couple of things you may have seen before:

Oh, mom. You are so wrong

You, too, bad neighbors

You know how I always blame Ronald Reagan for things?  Do I do that here?  Anyway, he’s mentioned in this article, and in the comments, reinforcing my opinion.  I’m sure he did good as well, but overall, we have a few companies owning most of the media outlets of all types, we have fewer consumer protections…I could go on, but just read the parts about him.  The rest is interesting, too. Five Most Overrated Presidents

I always used to say to myself, “Please God, don’t let me get religion.”  I have to add, “Don’t let me ever even consider being a Republican.”,  too.

I tried to make it simpler by adding an email contact and a site search button, along with moving the subscribe button up.  Just in case anyone cares.  I do, cause I was looking for something and couldn’t figure out how to search the entire blog til I came across sitelevel.com.  So then I found what I was looking for.  Yay, me. 

I hate them. I used to subscribe and my bill was a set thing every month. Then it started to vary. I ignored it at first, but after awhile, I was paying more and more for the same service. I called for an explanation, got the run-around, and cancelled everything. I had triple play. Went with Verizon, but no tv, cause seriously, commercials. Was fine til I got my Nexus 7, which I could not connect. I googled and read that Verizon blocked it. Back to comcast. Signed up in October. Bill has been steady every month until this one. Went up. Not much, but still. I signed up for a certain service at a certain price, and they arbitrarily decide to change the rules. How is that right? Got on the chat, after a long time back and forth, the guy credited me for the increase. Fine, what about NEXT month. No response to that. Going to call Verizon tomorrow (today, it’s after 2am) and see what they have to offer, and if I will be able to connect my Nexus. At least I have two choices. Some parts of the country have only one provider. They hold all the cards, and we are just pawns in their ‘how many ways can we rip off our customers?’ business model. Makes my blood boil, it does. Sheesh! Just needed to rant about that a little bit. I can live without cable tv, but not without the internet. There must be a better way. Mustn’t there?

After a really good day Monday, it’s been all downhill ever since. Why? I don’t know. Can’t sleep/can’t stay awake. Yesterday, I feel asleep twice on the couch, then slept most of the night. I can’t be THAT tired. My kitchen lights gave up the fight, which means I have to call maintenance. Do they still change fluorescent bulbs? Did I spell fluorescent wrong? Do I care? Last time, maintenance came and changed them, but that was I think three owners ago. At least they last a loooong time.

It’s snowing. That’s a good thing. I like snow.

Here’s the video. Well said, Dale Hansen.

It is a lovely, very cold, sunshiny day. There is an ad on tv for a New England company selling a four-foot stuffed teddy bear for Valentine’s Day. It is directed at men. No, men. A four foot stuffed bear? Where would I put it? How long would I be expected to keep it hanging around? How would I clean it when it got dirty because the cat thought it was great for sleeping and clawing on? Please, take me out for a lovely meal, and maybe a nice bunch of seasonal flowers, or some heart-shaped iced cookies (yum, cookies). But a four-foot stuffed bear? Thank you, no.

I found this picture on a blog I recently rediscovered. Here: A Year From Oak Cottage It has autoplay music, so be warned. Very homey, kind of religious (not my thing), but lovely pictures. Anyway, the picture. Look at the smiling woman. I would not be smiling in any of these. I am not Suzie Homemaker. I am good with dirt. As in gardening. Housework, not so much. Plotting ways to escape is what I’d be doing. Let me put on my pretty dress and my apron and mop the floor. I couldn’t be happier. Or more brainwashed. Oi. Sorry, women/men who love mopping the floors. I am not one of you. Also, I don’t do dresses.

I had a very good day yesterday. I cleaned out and reorganized the frig shelves and contents, and then I did the freezer. Yay, me. It is a slow process, organizing, and when I go through a not-so-good period, things get messed up again, because I just stash things in the first handy spot. It’s very satisfying to actually Get Things Done, though. I am trying to get the kitchen into a state where if I am able to cook, I can get at the things I need without having to move and replace other things first. Lots of open shelves where the pots and pans could be set out and easily accessible would be wonderful, but I have a tiny kitchen that is crowded with two people in it at the same time. Not a lot of storage or counter space. I’m working on getting it optimal, though. I have done before, but again, it gets messed up when I am not doing well. Then, a friend ‘reorganized it’ for me, and forgot to consider my limitations in placing things. I appreciate the help, though. Always. I have very good friends. I am fortunate in that.

Found this picture of a larder on the above-mentioned blog. I could live with it:

In my dreams.