And she totally recognized the pill, was able to recite the writing on it. That part I think is part of the "it was 1970s Hollywood," and clearly there was some really poor parenting going on in general. But, you know, not the child's fault.

She said she knew what the writing was because she'd seen pictures of it on t-shirts.

WOO HOO, DANA!

My feelings on the Roman Polanski issue are represented fairly well by a post at Shakesville: Her Reasons Are Not Yours

Because EM is both horrified and fascinated by tsunamis I just had to call her up and tell her we're under a tsunami advisory.

"Stay away from the water!"

I'm looking at the COBRA faq. So small companies (fewer than 20 regular employees) aren't included?

Plan Coverage - Group health plans for employers with 20 or more employees on more than 50 percent of its typical business days in the previous calendar year are subject to COBRA. Both full and part-time employees are counted to determine whether a plan is subject to COBRA. Each part-time employee counts as a fraction of an employee, with the fraction equal to the number of hours that the part-time employee worked divided by the hours an employee must work to be considered full time.

I just got an offer to extend my current coverage by another month for $400+ and I have to answer by tomorrow. I'm thinking I might be better off looking for part-time work at Starbucks.

Thanks for linking that, shrift.

This is a great point:

"...interviews of convicted/admitted child rapists in prisons suggest that the rapist who only rapes once and never again has about as much supporting evidence for his existence as does the unicorn. (To wit: Roman Polanski's ensuing relationship with then-15-year-old Nastassja Kinski.)"

Here's another great post on the vile subject. After I stumbled on this one, I spent (refuse to say wasted) the last two hours of my workday reading through the guy's archives, he's just that good.

Prosecuting Polanski may be the right thing to do by the letter of the law, but is it the right thing to do for the victim.

He's already been prosecuted, convicted, found guilty, all that jazz. That ship has sailed. It's the penalty that he hasn't paid--and any extra penalty for fleeing, which has nothing to do with the victim.

Separate post to say: Congrats, Dana! Hand me some jobma, will you?

NorCal Tsunami Advisory after Somoa [sic] Earthquake

I thought that the [sic] meant that it was a Sonoma earthquake, not a Samoa earthquake.

From JZ's link:

I understand the victim’s feelings on this. And I sympathize, I do. But for good or ill, the justice system doesn’t work on behalf of victims; it works on behalf of justice. And while the victim is no doubt hurt by Polanski’s drawing this out for decades, ultimately more women would be hurt by a justice system that allowed convicted rapists to avoid punishment simply because they were rich and could afford to flee jail. Ultimately, the victim’s feelings must be considered, but they can not be the determining factor in whether a prosecution goes forward.

Okay, I give. I get it and y'all were right and I was blinded by empathy on the victim's part. The good of the whole has to outweigh the good of the individual and I can see that and I suppose, make an uneasy peace with it.