Tuesday, September 5, 2006 (late night)
I'll be working in the office at the Maritime Museum tomorrow. When the coordinator called and asked if I could come in, I said that if there's no rain, I have a lot of work to do outside. She said good, it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I said fine, then I can come in.
All the weather reports now say it will be nice tomorrow.
I'm annoyed.
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There was a program on TV yesterday about a woman who has been in prison in California for 26 years, having been convicted of 2nd degree murder because she didn't stop her boyfriend from beating her baby daughter to death. He also regularly beat her. She has been approved for parole something like seven times, but every time, her parole is vetoed by the state governor.
A complication is that the man wouldn't allow her to take the baby to the hospital until she promised she'd tell the authorities that she herself had beaten the baby. She was initially charged with 1st degree murder. I think part of the reason she was charged with 2nd was that the state was pissed at her for lying.
When this all happened with her, "spousal abuse" was not even a term. The general attitude was that a man had a God-given right to beat his women and children. I speak from experience. No one would help a battered woman or child. I don't see where she can be blamed for not calling the police, because I can testify that they would not have come. I've fought that battle in my own head as regards my mother, whether she was to blame, and I forgave her (for her inaction, but not yet for her inattention). My bigger problem with this case is that people say that prison is not for punishment or vengeance - that it is to protect society.
Bull poopy.
By keeping that woman in prison, who are they protecting? Does the governor really think she will go out and find another batterer, somehow acquire another baby, and then arrange things so that he will beat the baby? Duh? Protecting? Or punishing? Run that by me again?
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I was looking at a mug shot today, and the subject looked a little walleyed. I thought "He must be looking very far away", and then realized that even with the farthest gaze, the pupils should still be centered. They get closer together when you focus on something close, and farther apart when you look far, but not outside center.
That led me to think about how fine that determination is, and how sensitive we are to it. Someone can be on the other side of a large room, but if you can see their eyes at all you know when their eyes are focused on you, and when they're looking past you, and the difference is a mere few millimeters change in position of the pupils. But you can detect that difference. Over all that distance. That's pretty remarkable.
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We-all gonna have some fun soon. In an attempt to be efficient, I packed up all my warm clothes when summer came. Shoes and boots, too. I put them somewhere. I haven't the faintest idea where. Basement? Attic? One of the extra closets? Buried under the stack of storage containers in the bedroom?
It would help if I could remember what I packed the stuff in.... Boxes? Plastic containers? Sigh. I may be forced to move to Hawaii, where I need only one season's clothes.
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