hello, caturday morning
Oct. 11th, 2008 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threeplusfireI woke up to clouds, which is unusual. I am hoping for more rain.
Something between 2am and now has caused all my fonts and text sizes in Firefox to go haywire and far too small. I think it is fixed now, but ergh.
Koshka seems to be gaining back some of the weight he lost and looks healthier. He is eating more lately.
Last night we saw Burn After Reading, which was pretty good. I don't think it was the best of the Coen brothers but it was funny. I don't think I've ever seen Tilda Swinton look quite so feminine. There's something about her face, the angle of her cheekbones and her mouth that gives her a somewhat otherworldly air. It's attractive and scary at the same time.
Unfortunately I once again ended up sitting next to some bimbo who felt the need to talk and talk and talk. When I politely asked her to stop talking, she was pretty rude. We did the Drafthouse thing, where you contact your server and they came by to ask her to hush. That's when she called me "a fucking third grader." Seriously? Seriously? That was the best insult she could come up with on the spot? Mike spoke to a manager who said whatever needed to be said to get them to shut the fuck up for the rest of the movie. Still, it really made the whole evening irritating.
I wanted to dump my drink in her lap. But I behaved. Sigh.
The Drafthouse runs very specific promos before the movies, before the trailers. They are often hilarious and creative. Ann Richards was in one! But they state in giant letters DO NOT TALK DURING THE MOVIE. How hard is it to shut the hell up for an hour and a half? I think if you are incapable of that then you shouldn't go to the theater. Stay at home.
I want to discuss something I read in the paper this morning. It's going into this LJ cut for length and discussion of sexual abuse.
GEORGETOWN — A Hutto man will spend at least 50 years in prison after a Williamson County jury found him guilty Friday night of continuous sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl.
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for nearly seven hours before finding Alfredo Soto Enriquez guilty of one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, eight counts of sexual abuse of a child and two counts of indecency with a child.
He was sentenced to 50 years on each sexual abuse charge. The maximum was life. He received the maximum 20 years on each indecency charge.
Enriquez, 36, was accused of sexually abusing the girl over a couple months last year. He was the first person in Texas to be charged under Jessica's Law, which was adopted last year. It carries a minimum penalty of 25 years in prison with no chance of parole, so Enriquez will be in prison until at least 2058.
After the sentences were announced, Assistant District Attorney Jane Starnes said, "I think we were able to provide the maximum protection for this child under the law.
"Is there such a thing as an adequate price for ruining a kid's life?"
Defense attorney Bristol Myers had asked the jury for leniency, saying, "There is no permanent physical injury. No violence was used, no sadism. There are a million ways more that could be worse."
He said after sentencing that he was considering an appeal. Formal sentencing is Oct. 29.
*****
Now I know perfectly well that defense attorneys have a job to do, that sometimes they don't get to pick the perfect client, and that they are bound by their profession to do the best possible job to as to serve the interests of the law. But this quote really staggered me:
Defense attorney Bristol Myers had asked the jury for leniency, saying, "There is no permanent physical injury. No violence was used, no sadism. There are a million ways more that could be worse."
It speaks volumes to me about how people don't take sexual abuse seriously. Because there are no physical signs in many cases, there's an attitude of 'well you're alright physically so you should get over it.' The 'could have been worse' argument seems insane. Sexual abuse is probably the most horrifying, destructive form of abuse. It can affect every aspect of a person's life. It is divisive and people will go to extraordinary lengths to remain in denial. Relatives may not be able to blame an 8 year old for broken arms or starvation or a rat infested home where they contracted a staph infection. But they will sure as hell turn around and blame an 8 year old for being sexually abused by a family member in many cases, saying the child brought it on his or herself. I saw this countless times while working at DFPS.
The argument that 'it could have been worse' is insulting. It was already bad enough.
Something between 2am and now has caused all my fonts and text sizes in Firefox to go haywire and far too small. I think it is fixed now, but ergh.
Koshka seems to be gaining back some of the weight he lost and looks healthier. He is eating more lately.
Last night we saw Burn After Reading, which was pretty good. I don't think it was the best of the Coen brothers but it was funny. I don't think I've ever seen Tilda Swinton look quite so feminine. There's something about her face, the angle of her cheekbones and her mouth that gives her a somewhat otherworldly air. It's attractive and scary at the same time.
Unfortunately I once again ended up sitting next to some bimbo who felt the need to talk and talk and talk. When I politely asked her to stop talking, she was pretty rude. We did the Drafthouse thing, where you contact your server and they came by to ask her to hush. That's when she called me "a fucking third grader." Seriously? Seriously? That was the best insult she could come up with on the spot? Mike spoke to a manager who said whatever needed to be said to get them to shut the fuck up for the rest of the movie. Still, it really made the whole evening irritating.
I wanted to dump my drink in her lap. But I behaved. Sigh.
The Drafthouse runs very specific promos before the movies, before the trailers. They are often hilarious and creative. Ann Richards was in one! But they state in giant letters DO NOT TALK DURING THE MOVIE. How hard is it to shut the hell up for an hour and a half? I think if you are incapable of that then you shouldn't go to the theater. Stay at home.
I want to discuss something I read in the paper this morning. It's going into this LJ cut for length and discussion of sexual abuse.
GEORGETOWN — A Hutto man will spend at least 50 years in prison after a Williamson County jury found him guilty Friday night of continuous sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl.
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for nearly seven hours before finding Alfredo Soto Enriquez guilty of one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, eight counts of sexual abuse of a child and two counts of indecency with a child.
He was sentenced to 50 years on each sexual abuse charge. The maximum was life. He received the maximum 20 years on each indecency charge.
Enriquez, 36, was accused of sexually abusing the girl over a couple months last year. He was the first person in Texas to be charged under Jessica's Law, which was adopted last year. It carries a minimum penalty of 25 years in prison with no chance of parole, so Enriquez will be in prison until at least 2058.
After the sentences were announced, Assistant District Attorney Jane Starnes said, "I think we were able to provide the maximum protection for this child under the law.
"Is there such a thing as an adequate price for ruining a kid's life?"
Defense attorney Bristol Myers had asked the jury for leniency, saying, "There is no permanent physical injury. No violence was used, no sadism. There are a million ways more that could be worse."
He said after sentencing that he was considering an appeal. Formal sentencing is Oct. 29.
*****
Now I know perfectly well that defense attorneys have a job to do, that sometimes they don't get to pick the perfect client, and that they are bound by their profession to do the best possible job to as to serve the interests of the law. But this quote really staggered me:
Defense attorney Bristol Myers had asked the jury for leniency, saying, "There is no permanent physical injury. No violence was used, no sadism. There are a million ways more that could be worse."
It speaks volumes to me about how people don't take sexual abuse seriously. Because there are no physical signs in many cases, there's an attitude of 'well you're alright physically so you should get over it.' The 'could have been worse' argument seems insane. Sexual abuse is probably the most horrifying, destructive form of abuse. It can affect every aspect of a person's life. It is divisive and people will go to extraordinary lengths to remain in denial. Relatives may not be able to blame an 8 year old for broken arms or starvation or a rat infested home where they contracted a staph infection. But they will sure as hell turn around and blame an 8 year old for being sexually abused by a family member in many cases, saying the child brought it on his or herself. I saw this countless times while working at DFPS.
The argument that 'it could have been worse' is insulting. It was already bad enough.