I Am Wonder Woman!

I took my furfaced dog to the hiking park by our house and did I take the measley 1k, not quite a mile easy hike? Ha! I poo-poohed the wimpy walk and we went for the gusto baby...the full 5k hike through hill and dale (and the occasional mosquito, mud, and pond that of course he had to try to jump into).

and now I'm on the chair, fairly unable to move. But stretching and a sammich and I'll be good...because dammit, I DID IT.

I rock. I'm not afraid to admit it. Mwahahahahahaha.

Some Enchanted Evening...

My husband is at the shop for the evening. Therefore I get Steel Magnolias without bitching, surfing the net, eating brownies (well, that's not really something I should be doing, but mmm!), and generally being a girl.

I adore this movie. The way Weezer's such a cranky old bitch who grows tomatoes for the neighborhood because it's what Southern women are supposed to do. The way Clarie makes fun of Weezer all the time, and they're clearly best friends. The way Annelle goes from lost soul to tramp to bible-banger to at least having SOME humor. The way the friends stick together regardless of the time apart through the course of the movie. yes, it's ridiculous and sappy and I LOVE it. Mwahahahaha!

It does not, however, make Louisiana look any better to live in. The only Southern state on our list of possibilities is Florida, however I still want to check out the Carolinas and Georgia before we make the final decision.

Yup. Random girl today.

The Catholic Pope is an Idiot.

Yup. The current Pope is a backwards, bigoted, sexist, corrupt idiot. Let me elaborate.

The Pope, in yet another demonstration of his disconnect with people, has essentially said, publicly, that sex can be like a drug without the "consequences" of preganany. Then to top iot off he said that if your spouse doesn't fear pregnancy his desire for sex can be so overwhelming that he'll force himself on you.

Yes, the leader of the Christian population actually said in a live speech that BIRTH CONTROL CAN CAUSE YOUR HUSBAND TO RAPE YOU.

What a charming attempt to throw us back to pre-feminist thinking where all women need to be covered from head to toe because just the sight of a female could cause men to lose their minds and become raping criminals. Sound familar? Perhaps the Pope thinks his flock should wear Burqas?

And he wonders why people are leaving the Catholic church in droves. How can you preach to people about morality if you have none? How can you attempt empathy, counseling, understanding when you've never had a life? The man was a Nazi-youth, and then in the seminary. Has he even HAD a meaningful relationship with another person, male or female, in his pathetic life? Or has it always been about self-righteous power mongering?

I told two silly teenage Mormon missionary boys the other day (after being accosted by them in a local park while walking my dog) that I can't find spiritual fulfillment through a religion that so devalues women, intellegence, learning, and personal responsibility. Christianity may have valued all those tenents when it was created, but the Church has corrupted the Christian faith beyond all hope. And the Pope doesn't seem to see that everything he does is only pushing people further away. I for one can't say that's a bad thing.

It's 7:39pm on Wednesday night, and I find myself paying very close attention to this moment. A typical married-at-home-boring evening. Furface is sitting behind my chair as I write this, panting a little in his wild hope that I'll either throw the ball or let him outside to play with his Pomeranian puffball girlfriend next door.

Just so there's no confusion, my husband is lying on the couch watching some Discovery channel show about knives. I'm sure if he was a teenager in school right now that statement alone could get him kicked out of the local school district.

There's a remodeler somewhere in our complex using a circular saw on some chunk of wood. The off-and-on whine mixes with noisy birds, the chirping puppy next door (her face is about the size of a bird's, so chirp is more accurate than bark), and some neigbors having a move-in or move-out today.

Contedness hits at the oddest times. I'm happy just to be sitting here, surrounded by my family with the patio door OPEN without freezing and the setting sun shining into the living room. All is well at this moment. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

I can't think of a pithy title for this.

By this time I'm sure you've heard the story, as it's all over American news (as opposed to BBC, which is where I try to get most of my world news since they have a more balanced world view).

A man, if you can call him that, in Austria was recently caught after holding his own daughter hostage for 20 years in his basement. The psychological and physical horrors that woman endured at the hands of her own father are nearly beyond comprehension: living in a dark, underground box with the SIX children resulting from rape that began when she was 12, told the cell was rigged to gas her to death if she made noise, knowing her mother was above her head and either didn't know or wouldn't do anything to save her. And the kicker: this disgusting excuse for a person's lawyers have said he will be seeking an INSANITY DEFENSE.

Our current society has become so ridiculously politically correct that people actually want to believe mental illness can cause someone to do such heinous acts. What the hell happened to EVIL? I'm not a particularly religious person, and I don't consider myself to be a Christian for a multitude of reasons. However, I do seem to have enough common sense to see that a person who commits acts of evil cannot claim they were insane when they clearly demonstrated they knew it was wrong. Take "wrong" as religiously or morally or even just majority-ruled, and the man obviously still knew what he was doing was disgusting and reprehensible. Yet the ridiculous court system will allow him to try to prove he wasn't sane, and potentially he could get off. Explain that one to me. Mental illness, TRUE mental illness or insanity, is NOT THE SAME as evil for evil's sake.

Boiled down to the basic components, evil is the selfish disregard for anyone else around you in favor of your own immediate satisfaction. Ultimate selfishness. Empathy, sympathy, a general ability to see anyone else is missing. You want to blame that on childhood? Fine. But having a shitty childhood doens't give you the right to be an evil human being as an adult.

How is it that this can even be brought up as a defense? How can "I was beaten as a kid" be an excuse for violent behavior? Um, sorry: what percent of the population grew up with beatings, beltings, whippings, spankings, etc and turned out not only fine, but have gone on to NOT do it to their own children (much less attacking the general public)? How many rape victims have fought through their experiences to be able to lead a normal life afterward? How many WAR VETERANS, the people who see the worst atrocities, have been able to lead a life when the war is over without attacking their neighbors?

I'm a pretty firm believer that the capacity for good and evil is in us all, and it's a person's CHOICE to become either. Unfortunately, evil is easy. Evil is often the shortest path with the least resistance to your desire, because nothing and no one else matters.

Maybe instead of putting all moral responsibility in Church and the government oversight committees and the media, people should take responsiblity for their own morals. Maybe along with taking responsibility we can create a justice system that doesn't allow such bullshit as "I'm a serial killer/child molester/rapist/etc so obviously I'm crazy" stand as acceptable, because there shouldn't be any excuse for it.

Is there rehabilitation for the truly evil? I don't know. Maybe. I like to think, regardless of my cynicism about the world, that people can change if they have enough motivation. I hope so.