Fitting punishment
Did you hear the one about the guy who tried to rape a prostitute?
In one corner - the convicted rapist, weighing in at 140 pounds, and in the other corner - the prostitute, weighing in at 275 pounds.

[S]he took his knife, stripped him naked and paraded him in front of other prostitutes, after asking how many of them had ever been forced into sex at knifepoint.

Then she hauled him on down to the police station.

The Father of Potty Parity...
has far more than just one 'baby'.

The New York City Council is currently considering a 'potty parity' bill, that would give women twice as many restrooms as men have. The Associated Press, as per usual, contains several fawning references to John Banzhaf III, who they refer to as "a public interest law professor at George Washington University Law School". Apparently, he's filed several court complaints, including the first federal-level complaint, suing to give women twice as many bathrooms as men. The AP dubs Banzhaf the "father of potty parity." I find it kind of deceptive that the AP makes no mention of Banzhaf's previous crusades, especially since they've garnered such a reputation for him.

Banzhaf might be more familiar to readers as the "father of 'it's McDonald's fault I'm Fat!'" obesity lawsuits. Perhaps you know him as the "father of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)", with DIY lawsuit kits, to help non-smokers have their smoking neighbors evicted. You might remember him as the "father of high-school soft-drink bans."

'Father of potty parity' my right buttock. He's the death knell of personal freedom and responsibility.

A Few Reasons I Won't Send My Kids To Public School
Zero Tolerance, which posits that intent, or even the facts of a case have nothing to do with wether or not a student should be arrested, expelled, and then sent to 'alternative school.'

Stratford High School, in Goose Creek, where the cops entered the school with guns drawn, K-9s, handcuffed and searched 107 students, but found no drugs and made no drug-related arrests.

Mepham High School, where the football team are such animals, they introduced new teammates to the group at football camp by sodomizing them ala Abner Louima, while the other teammates cheered the beasts on.

My own experiences in high school, which taught me that the only way to get assistance when I was being sexually assaulted was to make as big a disruption in class as possible. I will never forgive Frau Bloomberg for refusing my pleas for assistance when Coleman Price was trying to molest me. On a near-daily basis, I would find myself having to defend my virtue from that beast while he tried to jam his greasy paw between my legs. I told him to stop, multiple times. He didn't. I went to Frau Bloomberg, explained the situation, and how uncomfortable it was making me, and asked that she move me out of arms reach. She refused. Finally, I took my mother's advice, and the next time he tried it, I stood up in the middle of the classroom, and in my shrillest voice, screamed "Coleman Price, you take your filthy hands off me right NOW!" I was lectured for 'causing a disruption', but Frau Bloomberg moved him... for a whole two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, Coleman was right back in front of me, but at least this time, he knew I wasn't such an easy target. It's a crying shame that that's the biggest thing I learned in German... but then again, if Frau Bloomberg had made even the smallest attempt to protect me while I was in her classroom, I might have learned more.

Between the news, and my own experiences, is it any wonder I don't trust public school bureaucrats?

Customer Service Tip #1
When a customer walks into your store, and asks if you have a particular item in stock, the correct answer is not "I don't know," followed by a blank stare. The correct answer is, "Let me check for you."

Sheesh. I understand that some folks figure if they just play dumb enough, people with give up, go away, or order something else. On the other hand, playing dumb 1) makes you look dumb, and 2) makes some people (like me) get snotty and tell you to go look for it. This is something to bear in mind, especially if you work in a job that accepts tips.

Ohio Supreme Court Rules That Women Are Stupid And Helpless
...crazy bitches to get a free pass in the state
The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that a woman can't be held accountable for helping a man violate the protective order she has against him, thereby placing women a step down on the free-will and responsibility tier. This also opens up a fun new avenue for bitter women to harrass their exes with.

Justice Paul Pfeifer, writing for the court, said it is irrelevant even if Betty Lucas had violated the protective order by inviting her ex-husband into her home, as the lower court found.

"To find appellant guilty of complicity would be to criminalize an irrelevancy," Pfeifer wrote. "We hold that an individual who is the protected subject of a temporary protection order may not be prosecuted for aiding and abetting the restrainee under the protection order."

If someone is so dangerous to you that you have to get a protective order against them, it behooves you to stay the hell away from them, or face the consequences. If you appeal to the government for protection, deliberately circumventing the government's attempts to protect you should either a) be illegal, or b) nullify the government's responsibility towards you. In a just world, a protective order would work both ways.

Unfortunately, since the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that women are too dumb to be responsible for their actions, the only consequence Betty Lucas faces is people like me pointing out what a totally irresponsible embarrassment to the female of the species she is.

Taking a leap
AOL is beta testing a weblog system right now, and given that I'm an AOL employee, it only seems right that I should try it out. So for now, at least, any new entries to PermagrinGirl can be found at PermaGrinGirl.

It's got some nifty features. I'm particularly fond of their IMBot that will allow you to publish to your blog as easily as sending an IM. They still have some bugs to work out - in particular in formatting and html support - but the beta appears to be completely useable so far.

Cheers!
Celeste

Ta Ta For Now...
I'm deep in the middle of buying my first house. Cue stress, panic, uncertainty, confusion, fear, and hope... in that order.

So while I'm taking care of that, and trying to keep up with work, I'll be taking a break from blogging. We close August 27th, and I doubt I'll be rational again until it's all over. Once things have settled down I'll be back.

Cheers!
Celeste

It's all about the percentages
The Clintons have lost their request that the government reimburse them for the 3.58 million dollars in legal fees they racked up defending themselves during the Whitewater probe. The panel did say they should receive $85,312 to pay for the cost of responding to the Independent Counsel's report. The Post drags out the expected 'experts' who claim to be surprised that the Clintons lost:

The panel's decision appears to divert dramatically from past practice, according to a law professor who is a former Iran-contra prosecutor and an expert on the independent counsel law. John Q. Barrett, who was an associate counsel for independent counsel Lawrence Walsh, said federal courts have been generous in reimbursing legal bills and have avoided drawing conclusions about whether the subject otherwise would have been investigated.

"Before today, the court was generally generous and, for whatever reason, today took a dramatically different approach," Barrett said. "Many suspect a political motivation in this case. I don't necessarily subscribe to that, but it is very different."

And the Clintons are complaining about it too:

The Clintons complained through their attorney yesterday that two former Republican presidents fared much better in securing repayment of their legal bills in the Iran-contra investigation. George H.W. Bush was awarded $272,000, or 59 percent of the reimbursement he sought, and Ronald Reagan was awarded $562,000, or 72 percent of his request.

Okay, so the former presidents you're referring to received a combined $834,000 in repayments from the government. Since you're stressing the percentage of their legal bills that were repaid, here's a figure you could bring up as well: $834,000 is 23% of $3,580,000, which is the amount the Clintons are requesting from the government. The Clintons may be only getting 2% of what they asked for, but they're asking for more than four times the amount of money that was distributed to Reagan and Bush. Perhaps that has a lot more to do with the denial of their request than any shadowy political conspiracy.