And my point is that, as far as I know, it does. A crime must occur. You can then sue for additional damages for mental suffering. You can't sue for mental damages if whatever you're upset by was completely legal.

Of course. Let me restate. The state doesn't refrain from defining as crimes, those acts with consequences that may only be emotional (e.g. stalking, harassment, assault [in the tort sense]).

If I understand, you're saying 1) it's illegal to have sex with corpses, and as a result 2) people can sue for mental anguish if it happens.

No, I wasn't saying that. I tried to explain the context, which lives in a conversation that started late Thursday night/early Friday. I don't want to revisit it today. I want to stop thinking about it.

Which is true as far as it goes, but you then seem to argue that 3) since people can sue for mental anguish if it happens, it should be illegal. That's circular.

No, that's not what I was trying to argue. Early on Friday, **[edit]one of ita's points [ita, I realize I'm taking liberties, here] was along these lines: if the only damage done by an act is emotional, she's not so sure the law should involve itself.** [end edit]

• *added in edit** ita made the following (separate) comments:

You've appealed to my emotional response. What I think is more important is my logical response. I don't see why I should care. Plenty of people already eat things I think are nasty and perform sex acts that make me wince and look away. I'm not about to start outlawing them because I think they are gross. I'd only want to outlaw them if I thought they were wrong.

...

Cindy, I'm leery of legislating to keep people's spirits up. There are plenty of legal ways to desecrate my mother's memory, hurt me deeply, and disgust me to the core. Where should the lawmakers start? [end edit]**

I disagree **[edit] with characterizing the discussion we'd had to that point as keeping "people's spirits up"**, [end edit] and was pointing out (with a poor example) that the law already involves itself in situations where the result is emotional. It was used as an (admittedly poor) illustration. It actually had nothing to do with suing in this particular situation.

** Everything marked was changed in edit.

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I am finally up and not supine on the bed, gratefully, and now that I've eaten something that little one-coffee maker is looking more and more attractive...Why don't people understand drip coffee here? It's very confusing.

What would you reccomend for inexpensive food that could get a girl through the next four or five days?

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Uhm, corned beef and cabbage?

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What would you reccomend for inexpensive food that could get a girl through the next four or five days?

I recommend a pot of chilli. Beans, ground meat, couple of cans of stewed tomatoes with some onions, garlic and chilli powder. It's hearty, relatively inexpensive and lasts for days.

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Chili like Cashmere said, or any kind of stew.

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Chilli is brilliant. thanks cash! It's perfect weather for that, too.

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PR fans: Remember the recyclable challenge? Well, Waste Management bought up all the dresses and is going to use them to raise money for the areas in which the designer's live.

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Timelies all!

Well, the housefilk host was contacted and directions were given, so we're heading north in a little while, to return tomorrow.

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sumi, that's cool! I'm listening to Tim Gunn's podcast about the episode now...it gives some really amusing behind the scenes anecdotes.

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I woke up cranky still, apologies for putting my crankiness up on the board last night.

I have done nothing on my to do list so far. But, what I have done:

opened a new 0% credit card, transferred some balances
went threw a box of business cards and threw out a ton
organized a desk drawer
cleaned up living room

now I am calling to cancel 2 Credit cards and hopefully get another 0% one online. I should probably pay down a balance while I am at it. I hate debt.

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