We don't need to take rights away from defendants, the accused or criminals. They have remained untouched for hundreds of years. Leave them alone. But victims' rights? As a separate category of rights? Yes. Victims definitely need more rights in this country.

I don't know. Women sometimes claim they don't like men looking at them, IOW, checking them out, in public. But I wonder about people not wanting others to look at them sexually in public. Because I've noticed women love having attractive men look at them. Or ugly rich men for that matter. And they claim they don't want men looking at their legs. Legs aren't even that sexual in our culture. And they certainly are not private or to be covered. If you don't want me looking at your legs, why do you reveal them, we tell them. To walk around in shorts, especially short shorts, implies that you don't mind people looking at your legs. Sometimes looking at a women can be intended to be obnoxious though, I guess. During the Murder trial of O. J. Simpson, 1994-1995, Kim Goldman, of the Goldman family, whose son Ron was murdered by Simpson, claimed O. J. was eying her up sexually, in a boorish manner during the trial. But Simpson was trying to be obnoxious then. And that had nothing to do with sex or attraction. So that was totally different.

Just to be clear, in a place like Israel, I really don't think it's important who the land belongs to. And they can call it whatever they want. But Arabs who live in Israel have far more rights than they do even in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. And I'm not a communist, ready to abandon all property. I'm actually more of a moderate democratic socialist. Or a pragmatic capitalist, in this country. But notice I'm always a pragmatist first.

We all have the same rights and abilities. But not always the same abilities on an individual level. Some groups with a history of unequal treatment deserve to be in the front of the line. Not treated better or differently, just at the front of the line. Minority groups like African Americans, Hispanics and perhaps other groups too. Followed by women. But the severely oppressed and disadvantaged, historically and perhaps now, like the handicapped. They should always be at the very front of the line. And only given as much help as they ask for. I have no problem with any of this and don't think I ever did. (I considered the very poor to be in the last group, BTW.)

When you cook, and even when you just eat, dishes, i.e., food, are divided into two groups. Dishes that are sweet and dishes that are savory. Every food is one or the other Savory sounds fancy. But Potato chips are savory. Ice cream sundaes are sweet. See how that works? I read that in an old cook book. So people may not know what you mean when you say that. Maybe we should start using those words again. They are useful words. Sweet v. savory.

British people often ask us Americans why we pronounce that word "schedule" instead of "shedule" like they do. Well, as we like to tell them. They just don't teach us that type of thing in shool.

Whether sitting stately on her “burnished throne” (II.ii.197) or hopping “forty paces,” Cleopatra never loses her ability to quicken the breath of her onlookers or persuade the “holy priests” to bless what they would certainly, in others, condemn. -SparkNotes.

I think this is probably the last thing I'll post here till tomorrow :) .

The US Supreme Court ruled in 2003, 6–3, to strike down the state of Texas' 1973 statute against homosexual acts in private. In Justice Clarence Thomas' dissent he wrote that although the thought the law was "uncommonly silly" (a phrase drawn from Justice Stewart's original dissent in Griswold v. Connecticut), he saw nothing in the Constitution to forbid it. This seems very different, and nicer, than what Chief Warren Burger said in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986). That the Georgia statute that the Court at the time upheld was all right. Because homosexual acts were a "crime against nature", worse than rape. But actually it was not better or even nicer. Actually Warren Burger agreed, or allowed, that there was a general right to privacy in the US Constitution. He just didn't think it extended to homosexual relations. This allowed in the future for Lawrence, by letting homosexuals be added as a new protected class. By saying there was no general right to privacy in the Constitution, Justice Thomas was saying much more. That means there is no right to an unrestricted abortion, even in the first trimester of pregnancy. And this applies to other rights too. Like those concerning family planning, marriage, child rearing, education...

You know, my mother was probably an average cook. It's surprising because she was so exceptional in other ways as a mother. But I think she was very adventurous in cooking, much like me. When I was about 5 or 6 she and I came up with this recipe. Chile con carne with raisins. Her Chile recipe was already pretty good. But raisins taste very good with Chile. You'd be surprised. They plump in the Chile you know. Try it. And she made my father and I this Chinese Chicken nugget dish. The Chicken nuggets were good. But the Sweet and Sour dipping sauce was exceptional. One part Apricot Jelly and one part Ketchup. Make sure the Apricot jelly has no chunks of fruit in it though. Again try it. It's very good. And around 1995 she was making us this Polish dish Bigos or Hunters' Stew. Bigos is usually Kielbasa, Sauer Kraut and Beef, often in Beef Stock. She used Cabbage instead of Sauer Kraut. And then simmered it in Campbell's Consommé. It wasn't really part of the original recipe. But it tasted much better. It was really very good. Try it.

Why do people compliment us for being beautiful? And why do we thank them when they do? In the 80's, models used to thank them. And then they'd add, but of course I owe that to my parents. IOW, their DNA. But that still doesn't make sense. Why we thank people at all, when they say that, to us.

Well, maybe one more real quick: Sometimes you can't take abusers seriously. My aunt's husband did horrible things to my cousin. And he got angry when I thought he was a bad man. And then my cousin supported him. Whatever. But you know, he was so immature, I just ignored him. And I don't believe in revenge, but if you want to make an abuser angry, laugh in their face. You may not know it then. But that actually makes them very angry. Especially in the long run.