Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* TW: Abuse. "Nuns' behavior 'almost psychotic':" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25929866

* "The Text that Changed the World:" http://politicalviolenceataglance.org/2014/01/24/the-text-that-changed-the-world/

* "What’s Ikea for? Cultural Differences in Appropriate Behavior:" http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/01/27/whats-ikea-for-cultural-differences-in-appropriate-behavior/

* "The majority of people on food stamps have jobs:" http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-majority-of-people-on-food-stamps.html

* "Fighting homelessness in the streets:"

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* "MOUs whinng about dead people harshing their mellow:" http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/mous-whinng-about-dead-people-harshing.html

* "Please Let's Not Make Fun of the Poor:" http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/2014/01/please-lets-not-make-fun-of-the-poor/

* "Meet 330 anti-abortion lawmakers who made 2013 "a terrible year for women's health":" http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/state-legislators-sponsored-abortion-restriction-2014#method

* The terrorists are winning. "The Pawnshop Abortion Doctor:" http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/the-pawnshop-abortion-doctor/283420/

* It's looking more and more like the Christie Administration misappropriated Sandy Funds on top of abuse of power and corruption. "The flip side of Hoboken:"

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* "Open Letters From Wendy's Daughters:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2014/01/open-letters-from-wendys-daughters.html

* "Rand Paul's Mixed Inheritance:" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/us/politics/rand-pauls-mixed-inheritance.html

* "Republicans unveil Obamacare replacement plan: Everybody pays more:" http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/27/1272881/-Republicans-unveil-Obamacare-replacement-plan-Everybody-pays-nbsp-more#

* "My personal Fox News nightmare: Inside a month of self-induced torture:" http://www.salon.com/2014/01/28/my_personal_fox_news_nightmare_inside_a_month_of_self_induced_torture/

* It's rule of three time: Child Star Edition.

I'm going to get real about the Judio-Claudians for a minute, while putting Nero in context. ( TW from here on: ) To be clear, I'm not excusing Nero, just putting him in his context and drawing a parallel with modern people with smaller scale but similar backgrounds and resources. Teenagers can be incredibly destructive even with much less in the way of resources. Putting a teenager with that level of entitlement plus that level of exposure to real life violence as entertainment in charge of a whole government with a massive amount of wealth, and all the adoration and sex partners he could want, and little or no consequences for the violence he perpetrates.... The surprise would be if you got a decent human being and/or ruler, not that you'd created a monster, because it would take a whole lot of luck, and an unusually strong and ethical character for that teenager to turn out well.

Now smaller scale it again to look at child celebrities whether it's actors or rock stars. They often come from messed up backgrounds. (Not all of them, but you'll notice the ones with reasonable families who do things like keep them in school and set reasonable limits have a way better chance of being reasonable adults). They are surrounded in a bubble of amazing privilege and if they are really popular there is often a ridiculous amount of money waiting for them when they come of age. If they keep working through the teen years they are often forced by the nature of their work to maintain a publicly squeaky clean image that makes rebellion unsafe and their lives are subjected to the sort of constant scrutiny that quite frequently destroys adults. They are doing all this with little emotional cushion and often very little in the way of reasonable parenting or healthy adults around them, very few people to tell them a hard no, and plenty of temptation, all of it in a fish bowl surrounded by paparazzi. Now that kid comes of age and is completely free of all parental control with full access to all that wealth and plenty of connections that can get zim anything ze wants for a price and the adoring fans will cheer zim on.... Yeah. It may not be the whole wealth and power of the whole Roman Empire in one set of hands, but it's close enough to do serious damage to a whole lot of people who got famous as adults, let alone as children or teens. Again, the miracle really is the ones who make it out reasonably healthy and turn into decent and reasonably functional adult humans. I unironically applaud the ones who manage it, because decent and reasonably functional as adults is more than hard enough for the rest of us not dealing with all that extra pressure and temptation. Hell, I applaud anybody who manages it.

Again, this isn't an excuse for terrible behavior and particularly terrible behavior that harms or threatens to harm other innocent humans going about their business. I think both we and they would be better off if we started piling on the limits and consequences when they are younger instead of letting them get away with pretty much anything until the damage is so great to themselves and everyone around them that it's near impossible to make right. I think the children of the rich and celebrities in general should get harsher punishments for things like drunk/stoned driving because this might be their only limit they've ever experienced, because they could damned well have afforded a cab, and innocent people literally die because of this bull shit. Instead we do it the other way around and let them off with a slap on the wrist while the children of the poor get their lives ruined for stupid minor stuff that doesn't kill anybody. It seems to me the seventeen year old with a joint walking distance from his house who is no threat to anybody deserves the lecture and the second chance the child of privilege in the fast car who nearly kills, or hurts, or literally kills someone could maybe use some serious ass consequences. Better to draw them up short when it's only a handful of lives they are endangering than wait until they are in charge of a major corporation or a government and can do it repeatedly and possibly on the grand scale.

And yes, I'm not just thinking of one celebrity or child of privilege, but a whole lot of them, and yes, many of you have heard or read a version of this rant from m me before. I think it needs saying periodically.

* "Sloth'€™s Busy Inner Life:" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/science/the-sloths-busy-inner-life.html?_r=0

* On the vision of mantis shrimp. "One of the strangest animals on earth gets a little weirder:" http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/01/one-of-the-strangest-animals-on-earth-gets-a-little-weirder/

* "BAHFest 2013 - Stacy Farina: Fish Are Dumb:"

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* "Sense and sensorbility: the book that lets you feel your protagonist's pain:" http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/28/sensory-fiction-mit-technology-wearable-fiction-books

* "Kuwait in crackdown on transgender people:" http://www.arabianbusiness.com/kuwait-in-crackdown-on-transgender-people-536385.html

* This warms the hackles of cold and shriveled heart. Play groups for gender creative kids! "Friday Fodder: I See A Need Edition:" http://raisingmyrainbow.com/2014/01/24/friday-fodder-i-see-a-need-edition/

* Today was marked out for rest, housework, and prepping for furniture.