It's about time...

Okay, I'm a little late to the party, I know. But I want to pontificate on Roman Polanski for a moment. Be not alarmed, gentle reader- I shall not make apologies for the man. "Brilliant director," I keep hearing. Alas, I've seen a grand total of three of his films- Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, and Tess. Mind you, I loved Tess, but then I love Hardy, so I would've seen it regardless. Anywhoo... it occurred to me today that in all three of these movies, there is a recurrent theme. Some innocent young girl is always being taken advantage of by some wicked man. So I got to wondering, just how many of this man's movies involve rape?

So Hollyweird wants his sin expiated. Or at least some of the louder and less sane parts of it do. Sorry, for that he needs apply to his priest, not fellow perv Woody Allen. Never has the divide between middle America and the entertainment elite seemed so vast. I rather want to grab some of these folks and shake them. "Have you daughters?" I wonder, "Would you trust this man with your child?" Or is there some sort of karmic sliding scale these "compassionate" people would employ? One murdered wife and child exchanges for one rape of an underage girl?

Yes, he's old, yes, she forgave him, yes, the judge was an imbecile and the case was wonky. But it was wonky from the get-go; he should've gone to trial. What sort of people craft a plea bargain for drugging and sodomizing a thirteen year old girl? And yes, Ms. Goldberg, it WAS "rape-rape." What is described in the victim's statement is not just statutory rape, it's rape by coercion and force.

I told you this was coming...

Law of unintended consequences and all that. Damn CPSIA law strikes again. They're coming for the craigslisters, and the ebayers, and the thrift-shops, and your yardsale is next, bub. Nobody sells kiddie crap without first crossing federal palm with the requisite silver. Walmart's already prepaid for the right to sell cheap shit to the public; you haven't. And you can't afford to.

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Cash for Clunkers... the ugly truth.

Let me preface this post with my own car-owning history. My mother bought a brand newDodge Omni in 1985; this is the only new car I ever remember our family owning. When I started driving in 1992, it passed to me, and was my first car. It was followed by an 87 toyota corolla (bought in 94), and a 95 corolla (bought in 97.) This year, I reluctantly parted with the 95, replacing it with a 2000 Mazda MPV (which lived less than a month) and finally, my current car... I've gone oldschool; she's a 92 Toyota Corolla, with 25000 less miles on her than my old 95. The point to this is: I buy used cars. I am the used-car market, and until this year, I bought cars that were slightly used- a couple of years old when they came to me. New enough to be reliable, and used enough to be affordable.

I'm the market that will be adversely affected by Cash for Clunkers, a program which rightly should be called Handouts for Rich People; as it helps buy cars for the wealthy, at the expense of the poor. Poor people don't buy new cars, they don't get new cars every couple of years. No, my fellow struggling students, single mamas, etc; we buy a car for cash, and we drive it until pieces start falling off in traffic. Or even after; the 95 hadn't had left windshield wiper in a year when I said my goodbyes.

So I'm more than a little put out over this. Have a look-see at what becomes of the "clunker" after Obama buys it. I must say, I was a little sick looking at such colossal waste. If he HAD to buy these things in order to prop up the new car market, why not at least make the clunker available to the used car market? or if it can't be sold as a driveable car, why not part it out to keep other cars running? Why this need to destroy perfectly good, drivable cars?

These are not "clunkers" in any sense of the traditional understanding of the word. Every one of these cars has to have had insurance on it for the previous year; clearly, that means most of them were driving until they went in to be killed. Let's make this very clear: public tax money, spent to destroy saleable merchandise, during an economic recession/depression. Who on EARTH thought this was a good idea?

The brilliant minds who thought up this swindle are right now hard at work overhauling our healthcare. Feeling under the weather yet?

Completely Non-political genealogy post

This will be a completely non-political post. I'm putting it here because Googlebots can pick this up and make it searchable, whereas they miss a good bit on the various genealogy boards. Besides, I'm not sure where I'd put a post like this on those anyway...

I have been researching the family history since 1997. Over the years, I've made contact with dozens of cousins all over the country. I've also lost contact with them the same way. People switch providers, people get divorced, people lose contact. Life happens, and we lose each other. 

My phone number has changed, but my name's the same and so's my physical address. And my nonphysical one.  I'm Nmissi at aol dot com. If you write me there, I will get it.  I've had various other addresses through the years, but that one has never gone away. I still get feedback there on really bad fanfic stories I wrote more than ten years ago; I KNOW y'all can find me! 

Here's the thing... I'd like to try to arrange a get together at some point for all the various cousins. A meet and greet, swap recipes and photographs, kind of thing. Nothing massive that needs advertising- we'd meet at my home, and by way of hospitality I might be persuaded to make lunch. I can cough up a few local relations, but for the distant cousins, I'm gonna need some help. So... I know they're out there somewhere: Leslie Shover, Karen Collier, Bobbette Givens, Ruth Prewitt... drop me an email? Let me know how to find you! 

This message has been brought to you by the DEVER/LAMBERT/HARNESS/DIAL/JONES/TINGLE/TERRELL/FORD/BRADEN

/ATHERTON/BETHUREM/HALL/WRIGHT/WARNER commission to put names on all my photographs.

Emergency post- Blood Donors Needed

If you're in Texas, and eligible to donate blood, please consider making a donation for my friend Aaron. He is in the hospital recovering from a heart bypass. Click for more details.
Please keep Aaron and his loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.

Obama, translated