a99kitten's Musings

To say I am disgusted by the show of support for a child rapist would be an understatement. And it’s quite possible I am now more disgusted by the Hollywood “elite”,  foreign film societies AND governments than I am the actual rapist.

Look, Roman Polanski has had some awful things happen in his life. This is absolutely true. No denying. But I don’t recall that being a justification for being a drugging, raping, creepy letch.

And yes, it was 32 years ago and that is a long time ago. But that’s because he FLED the country when it was his time to go to jail and pay for his crime. I don’t care that he thought the judge was going to renege on some plea agreement that he should have NEVER been given in the first place (he was offered the deal to spare the victim anymore testifying not because he deserved leniency.) Too damn bad. That does not excuse running away. The judge was likely sickened by the fact that Polanski was getting away with rape and wasn’t going to allow it.  But yeah – it’s probably really because the judge was just a jerk for wanting to lock this scumbag up. Right…

This was a 13 year old girl (the parents judgment for leaving her alone with a 43-year old Hollywood perv is along the same lines as the parents who handed over their kids to Michael Jackson.)

He gave her alcohol. Then he gave her drugs. And then had sex with her (in multiple ways) AFTER she said no. Let’s ask Whoopi Goldberg, Harvey Weinstein or Martin Scorcese to hand over their kids (do they have any-I have no clue) to some random Joe Smith, a raping pedophile locked up in jail for this exact same thing. And then let’s see how they react when Joe Blow asks to get off with 2 months in jail. They’d be screaming their little whiny heads off. Woody Allen signed it – that alone should indicate the ethics of it…

Oh, but it’s a talented (this can be called into question if you ask me) director. “Oh. One of us?”  they say. Well then obviously it’s the big bad prosecutor gunning for this poor man who simply wants to be left alone.

When I saw this quote “His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals.” in the petition these wonderful artists have prepared: http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/39618660.html I wanted to strangle these idiots. “Case of Morals”??? Really????? WHERE is it not immoral to ply some little girl with drugs and alcohol and then force yourself on her – in numerous ways??? WTF is wrong with these idiots???

How many news stories have we read about the teacher (both male and female nowadays) being suspended, fired, sent to jail because he/she had a “consensual” relationship with a student? The reason consensual is shot down in court is because he/she is the adult.  The child cannot make these decisions and the teacher is in the position of authority. Etc, etc, etc. And this is in the cases where the student “wanted” to have sex with the teacher. And wasn’t drugged. But the adult is found guilty and sent to jail.

What about Mary Kay Letourneau? Who went to jail for having a relationship with a 13-year old boy. Crucified by the press and public (rightfully so) and yet – the boy didn’t claim rape.  They are still together last I ever read (and had a baby.)  It was wrong. And gross. And correct for all us to be shocked and sickened. He was 13!  But clearly – she needed to be a director, or actor or something, and not a high school teacher, if she wanted to get away with this type of shenanigans.

And then Whoopi Goldberg, on a “WOMEN’S” TV show, starts defending Polanski and saying “I know it wasn’t rape-rape.” WHAT??? W..T..F??? http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/09/28/whoopi-defends-polanski-it-wasnt-rape-rape/

It’s not like I have EVER watched this stupid show, but you can be sure I never will now.

I GUARANTEE that if we were discussing these same actions but perpetrated by a Republican Senator or some Wall Street CEO, they’d be wheeling out the guillotine! “50 years in jail at a minimum because he not only ruined this poor young girl’s life, but he also fled our great justice system and laughed in our faces!!!” blah, blah….Let’s think back to the Duke lacrosse players who were crucified in the press as guilty of rape…only then to find out they were, in fact, not.

This is what this wonderfully talented man deserving of our forgiveness did:

The girl testified that she left the Jacuzzi and entered a bedroom in Nicholson’s home, where Polanski sat down beside her and kissed the teen, despite her demands that he “keep away.” According to Gailey, Polanski then performed a sex act on her and later “started to have intercourse with me.” At one point, according to Gailey’s testimony, Polanski asked the 13-year-old if she was “on the pill,” and “When did you last have your period?” Polanski then asked her, Gailey recalled, “Would you want me to go in through your back?” before he “put his penis in my butt.” Asked why she did not more forcefully resist Polanski, the teenager told Deputy D.A. Roger Gunson, “Because I was afraid of him.”

Here are the indictments: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html

And no, it doesn’t change my opinion one iota because the victim of this crime has come out and said to drop it. Of course she has – she has had to live with it all of her life.  To stay sane, she probably came to terms with it the best she could and has tried to leave it behind. As any rape or abuse victim would. She stated as much in 1997. So I have no doubt, she wants it to just go away so that she can live her life. But that doesn’t mean it should.  It doesn’t mean because he managed to get away it for 30 years and the victim wants to forget all about it, that we should. It does mean everyone should definitely leave her and her family alone. Of course, the media will not do this. So she gets raped all over again.

These are gorgeous….I would like them :)

Made some very yummy fish last night. And ridiculously quick & easy too! I love those kind of recipes :)

Ingredients:
1 lb cod
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 limes – thinly sliced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon fresh thyme (may substitute 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry hot mustard
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
sea salt (to taste)

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Dry the fish by gently patting with paper towel. Place half the lime slices in the bottom of a baking dish and lightly salt.

Combine melted butter, ginger and spices and drizzle over the limes. Place the cod on top and cover with the remaining lime slices.

Bake for 11-13 minutes. Garnish with cilantro; salt to taste.

Now – this was the recipe I had. What I did to alter it slightly was used 3 tablespoons of butter. This little extra allowed me to have a small amount of sauce that could be spooned over the fish (placed on top of jasmine rice would be perfect but I skipped the carbs last night – next time!)

I also didn’t have sea salt (thought I had some when getting spices at the store) so I used some pure ocean salt that I did have. You’d think they’d be the same? Or similar enough? The ocean salt is a thicker, coarser grain so you can probably use less. I am a complete, unapologetic saltaholic so I used the same amount of it as required by the recipe. Husband thought it was too salty for him – wimp :) And I left off the cilantro as I am not a huge fan of cilantro and it was garnish only anyway.

The fish turned out very zesty! And spicy (although I’m the wimp when it comes to spice!) And I drizzled the sauce over the fish and the sauteed zucchini and mushrooms I made. YUM!

I am SOOOO making this again. I should have taken a picture of it – I was too hungry to think about it until after I started eating :) But with the drizzled sauce and baked lime slices, it makes a nice presentation too.

…I might have to accidentally buy these…

Miss Sixty 'Scarlett' Pump

Can see them with my cute black&white plaid skirt w/cute tights for fall/winter. Or a multitude of other cute fall & winter skirt/dress outfits :)

And seeing the need for a new little black dress that would work…

Oh look…going into the Colts/Cardinal game I seem to have already won :) I will revel in this relaxed win as a fluke. My opponent has no more players to play (plus left Westbrook in when he was out to due to injury!!!) and I have Dallas Clark and Tim Hightower in tonight’s game and I am 12 points ahead already. Whew…

This makes me 3-0 in our fantasy league. And #2 in our 10 person/team league. And so far (fingers AND toes crossed) the #1 is losing this week – darn…

BUT – I am praying for an ARI win so that I am tie for our pool picks going into MNF. I have 48 points. So it is a looooong shot that I win but I don’t give up :)

Won my Survivor pick. I chose BAL. And so did everyone else but 1 person (husband) who chose them last week. So we all survived. Darn. Only 1 person out in this league (the admin – hehe) since it started.

So a good NFL week for me…

I’m not “religious”. My parents both went to Catholic school and my father was very against forcing any religion on me. He viewed it as something I should find and believe for myself. I was baptized so that my grandparents wouldn’t worry about my eternal soul but that was it.

Now, it’s not to say I am not spiritual. I very much believe there is more to humans and life than the meat bodies we inhabit. But what is it? That I cannot tell you. Pretty sure you can’t tell me for sure either.

I’m a big believer in religious freedom. I figure you should be able to believe whatever you want as long as it is not causing harm to others (you want to harm yourself – that’s up to you.) And by this, I also mean you cannot suppress your people/believers (talking right at you Islamic countries and the way you treat women.)

I do also believe people need some form of religion. A sense of group belonging. People need to believe that there is something more than what they have. Always. Society also needs the group mores provided by religion. Man left on his own will devolve. It’s why society also needs the police and the army. Of course, organized religions that grow large also grow very powerful. This power can corrupt. Simple fact. Will you find bad apples? Of course you will. Statistically, the more people there are, the more bad ones there are too.

And zealots of any religious flavor are bad. Be able to accept other people’s beliefs. You don’t like mine? Well, I might not like yours either. But whatever.

I do not care what you believe (as long as not harmful) or what God you want to pray to. Or days you want to celebrate as holy or whatever. But do NOT mess with mine either. My cards say Merry Christmas. If I receive a card that says Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Kwanzaa or Happy Festivus – I don’t mind. Someone is sharing their well wishes with me. That’s nice. Why in the world do people get upset by this kind of stuff?? That’s stupid. Period.

I was emailed this Ben Stein write-up (from a Today Show appearance in 2008) and I agree with it. Not all of it is attributed to Ben Stein. But I believe what the rest of it is saying so I left it in. No mention of it on Snopes.com that I could find. And at the end of the day Google does not equal research (thank you Dan Brown and Dr. Langdon!) so even if/though no one famous said the bulk of this – I agree with the idea behind it :)

“The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

(Note: the source for the remainder of this article is not Ben Stein, I have kept it here because it is still food for thought. There seems to be no such thing as absolute truth as regards news information so take it for what it is, the writings of a fellow human trapped in relative dualistic reality.)

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’

In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?”

YAY! My Gentle Giant Jawas arrived today! They were released in 9/07 and sold out but Gentle Giant emailed their Collector’s Club with a small offering of them last week and I scooped 1 up (or in other words, they cleaned out/organized their warehouse and found some old stuff…)

Yes, I really do try and limit my collecting to a few characters but the Gentle Giant busts are a bit different. I do collect a lot of those. They are really well done. I like my standards (Han, Chewie, Leia) plus any of the female characters and the odd/fringe characters. And of course, the special editions (like the Christmas ones or Con exclusives.) Plus these little guys have light-up eyes – so really, had to get ’em :)

Gentle Giant Jawas

I still want the Gamorrean Guard but he sold out too fast :( So I will continue to troll eBay…

Gentle Giant Gamorrean Guard

Now I need to find room on my shelf this weekend!

Very cute…wish they had the white/gold combo in my size but I guess I can’t wear those now that it’s post-Labor Day anyway ;-)

Hmmm…decisions…

Week 2 of the NFL, and my fantasy season, was VERY stressful!!! I actually thought I lost for sure as of last night. Watching Brandon Jacobs get stuffed by the DAL defense was painful. I was playing someone with TEN’s Chris Johnson who got him 111 points! WTH????

Drew Brees was awesome as usual. Got me double what Yahoo projected. But my #1 rated defense? SUCK IT! Apparently Troy Polamalu is the #1 rated defense. And with him sidelined with an injury, they suck. 5 points I got from them….

All of my WRs and RBs got less than projected. I put in Jamal Lewis who was highly rated this week. Guess what? A good player on a suck team still doesn’t do much…I should have left Hightower in.

So my Fantasy Week 2 was riding on my tight end in MNF, Dallas Clark getting 50+ points. True, my opponent didn’t have any players in the IND/MIA game but still…over 50 points from a tight end? Right…so I basically gave up.

And then Peyton Manning to Dallas Clark for an 80 point TD pass!!! 30 points in the first drive of the game for me!!! All of a sudden – I was alive! Dallas ended up getting me 65.75 points. My highest point getter of the week was Brees at 65.85 points. Ho-le-mo-lee!

This is my 4th year with Dallas Clark as my TE.  He was injured most of (was it?) last year but I do always draft him. I never get a TE in time for Gonzalez or Gates but after those 2 – Dallas is the man. Total WR/TE.

So yay! I won my week 2!! With my opponent getting 111 points from 1 player!! That’s insane. And some Irish luck shined on me :) And boy – that was some stress. But ended up getting some good total points on the week after all. So for all of my previous complaining about tight ends being a worthless roster spot – I owe my week to mine :)

I of course love my Fantasy QB. Brees gave me a lot of points last year and is having a stellar year so far. Love him and drafted him as my 2nd pick. But I will always love Peyton.  He was my QB a couple of years ago and I think he is the best QB in the NFL right now (and my favorite QB of all time is Montana.) But besides that, he seems like a great guy. And really  – who cannot love him on SNL :)

OR

These make me cry from laughing every time I watch them :) And frankly, he was better than most actors/entertainers that I have seen appear on the show. I think as a highly competitive athlete, he made sure he knew his lines and was professional. And damn funny :)

Last night I woke up at around 1:30am to a banging noise. It was obvious to me it was one of my dogs banging on a door to be let in/let out of someplace. Since they were both asleep when I went to bed last night, this seemed odd.

I got up and out of bed immediately and checked for the dogs.  They both always sleep in the same spots – Angelus on his bed and Storm under our bed (it’s a tall bed.) Storm wasn’t there. So I checked the spare bedroom and office as their doors were closed. They aren’t usually closed but until Storm’s Cushing’s Disease medication kicks in, I have been making sure to give him less open areas in the house to have an “accident”.

But no Storm in those rooms. Checked the garage and then back downstairs to the master bedroom to check the closet. Now this was in a span of a minute or 2. I was flying around the house looking for him. Where could he be? Then I decide to look out the window of the front door. And I see his little head.

I let him in and he ran right downstairs to the bedroom and drank almost a whole bowl of water. And then scooted under the bed and just sat there, panting very hard. He was clearly very stressed out. I hung out with him, petting him for about 15 minutes and he fell asleep. This means he was off-leash, no collar or tags and free to roam the neighborhood and get lost. Or worse – get hit by a car. We have only a few streetlights on our street and some of the streets around us have none. Rural area.

Luckily Storm is a Momma’s boy and would not venture away unless his brother led his away (who was likely annoyed that he was stuck inside!)  Or if he saw a cat, raccoon, skunk, etc., then he would have taken off after it for sure.  Not entirely sure how he got OUT of the yard. Must investigate that. Thinking that he squeezed himself between the posts on the gate. But thankfully, his desire to always be by his people, kept him safely at the front door wanting to be let in. He is quite the creature of routine and he knew it was sleepy time (you tell them “sleepy time” and they go right to their beds.) It was very dark out (fog, no moonlight, no outside lights on) and he was stuck outside – which never happens. This stressed him out. Since he has Cushing’s Disease and just got over a too-many-doctor-visit-stress-induced tummy/GI issue, I really don’t want him stressed further.

Plus I had a weird accident the day before (car peeling out of parking lot and not seeing me crossing Highway 1 so had to run fast out of his way, tripped myself up, causing me to take a digger on the asphalt so that I could pull the dogs forward in front of me and out of the street.) This freaked me out a bit as I had been having these weird thoughts about something happening to the dogs. So…thinking about him being stressed and sad, wondering why he was alone and stuck outside in the dark, made *me* very sad and stressed out. All of this likely contributing to my bad dreams for the rest of the night.

Then as I was petting Storm and he was panting hard, my husband woke up and asked what all the commotion was. I told him Storm was stuck outside and I just let him in (knowing it was he who let him out into the front yard and then apparently forget to bring him inside before he went to bed.) Oh, he says. And goes back to sleep. Grrrr.

I went back to bed and had nightmares for the rest of the night about bad things happening to the dogs. I would fall asleep for a few minutes and then the same nightmare would wake me up.  All night long. I finally gave up trying to get any sleep around 5:30am. I don’t recall what the details of the nightmares were anymore, just the bad feeling of them.

This morning, husband told me he must have forgotten that he let Storm out to pee last night and then just went to bed.  Oops. Kind of funny really, right? No, notsomuch. He then asked if Storm scratched the front door when he wanted to be let in. I don’t know. And actually don’t care.

Nothing bad happened to Storm other than some unneeded stress on his little system.  But thinking of what could have happened stresses me out. I normally don’t think that way actually but when it comes to the safety of my doggies, I am very careful and probably a bit neurotic.  So a little more concern displayed this AM would have been nice but whatever. Storm is contently catching up on his sleep…

Sleepy puppy...

But today, I am very exhausted. And grumpy. Instead of eating lunch I am typing this in the hopes my venting will alleviate my stress/upset.  But I better eat something today at some point or someone could get stabbed…