Repost: The Death Penalty

There is no easy answer. There's not supposed to be.

I oppose the death penalty almost all of the time, but there have been a few men (it's almost always men) who I might have made an entirely emotion-based exception for, despite firm convictions that it's not a deterrent, that it's an abuse of the power of the state.  Typically, those crimes are crimes of mass murder, like Timothy McVeigh, when one person took the lives of so many others that it's impossible not to think he deserves something terrible to balance out what he did.

But the problem is that there's no balancing a crime of the scope that crosses the threshold for me. Once you've killed enough people that I think you might not deserve to live, your death would never be enough to balance the scales. There's no justice and no reparations.

So watching Rick Perry talk about the death penalty in Texas, and hearing the crowd at the Reagan library cheer his dubious record as the killingest-governor of modern times, I felt cold. Chilled. A little disgusted by my fellow citizens. I don't believe that Christians, as the audience would surely identify themselves (though to be fair I do not claim Christianity), are to rejoice at the death of another person.

I've been thinking a lot about this clip from the West Wing episode "Take this Sabbath Day."  In it, the President meets with his boyhood priest on the evening of the first federal execution to take place while he's been in office. The President, a Catholic, didn't believe in the death penalty, but politically there was no real cover for staying the execution. This scene was the last time Karl Malden would appear on film, and it's so powerful. I learned recently that it's based on the first execution that Ronald Reagan presided over, as governor of California.

The contrast is telling, to me. I imagine Ronald Reagan, kneeling with a minister in the governor's office, seeking guidance or forgiveness. Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of the modern Republican party, was ambivalent about the death penalty, but now the people who profess to admire him would likely kick him out of the party for this view and others.

It's not supposed to be easy, though.  Whatever else I believe, I know it's not ever supposed to be easy to end the life of another person.

ETA:  This family leaves me speechless with their grace and their compassion.

First posted to a previous blog, 9/14/2011.

Roasting Chicken on the Grill

Even though tonight was a night we had agreed on quick and easy takeout dinner, there was going to be a loaf of fresh bread from Flour Water Salt Yeast. That seemed like a tragic oversight, but it's hot here.

The oven was already going to be taken up with bread, and leaving it on for more than an hour would heat the house to unacceptable levels. We had to make something on the grill to go with the fresh bread.

So I did some quick Googling and pretty quickly settled on roasting a chicken on the grill. The recipe seemed simple enough, and though it included a step that chilled me a little, I knew that the payoff would likely be worth it.

So, the spine of the chicken was cut out with kitchen shears:

God, the noises this made as it happened. It's almost enough to make a girl go back to being a vegetarian. But only almost.

It was still raw at this point, but it smelled delicious!

So, not long after I took this picture, we discovered that the tank was out of propane, so we had to finish ALL of dinner in the oven after all.  Not ideal, but better than wasting a free-range chicken and running to Panda Express for an emergency dinner.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how this chicken turned out, and I will definitely try it again as soon as I get the propane tank swapped out.

Also, the bread was amazing. If you've got a chance to pick up that book, you should.

Sharp Things by Gillian Flynn

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Here is a book that left me a little conflicted, if only because the last 40 pages or so felt a little underdeveloped. I cared a lot about that loosely sketched ending because I had enjoyed the book SO MUCH up to that point that even a hint of rushing to the conclusion was frustrating. That said? I still can't bring myself to deduct a full star for that.

Gillian Flynn is a better writer as of her third book, but even her first book is head and shoulders above most of what is being published right now.

This will be the last of the Gillian Flynn for me, until she publishes something new. I have enjoyed every last one of them as dark and twisty as they all can be, in their individual ways. They have the same sort of edge to them that a lot of Stephen King does, but without even a hint of the supernatural element that King cannot resist including, most of the time. These are just small town Midwesterners acting badly, and it feels really true, even when the plot takes a dark or even shocking turn.



View all my reviews

Ira Glass on Being Creative

Important words for creative people. I love Ira Glass.

Fandom and Misogyny 2013--The Glimmer of Hope Edition

So, it's summer, and the Sci Fi/Fantasy and Comic conventions are in full swing around the country. Every summer, I hold my breath and wait for the inevitable news about a woman being harassed or groped or publicly disrespected at some convention or another. It always happens at least once. The particulars may be different from incident to incident, but you can practically set your watch to some insecure or predatory asshole reminding us all, through a chosen woman, that those spaces, that the assorted geek fandoms, don't belong to us. We're just visitors. Ornamentation. A punchline. An object of both desire and then, of course, ridicule.

Cons have been complicit, for a long time, of letting it happen. Or worse, of covering it up. Of apologizing or making excuses when the harassers have had more power than the women they were denigrating, which is almost always. Whether that cover-up took the form of "Well, that's just how Harlan ACTS" or "I'm sure that he's just social awkward" it's all bullshit.

This summer, safe spaces at cons have a champion, in the form of Sci Fi luminary John Scalzi. Scalzi recently posted the account of his friend Elise Matthesen, about her experience being sexually harassed by a prominent (in the genre, at least) man at WisCon.* She did not include the name of her harasser in her account, fearing that he would retaliate against her legally. The lawyer in me thinks that's wise, even as my inner reader really wants to know who it was so that I can refrain from ever lining his pocket with my own book money again.

And into this cesspool of constant disappointment comes John Scalzi. He announced on his blog that he would no longer accept invitations to attend/be the Guest of Honor at conventions unless those conventions met three conditions:

1. That the convention has a harassment policy, and that the harassment policy is clear on what is unacceptable behavior, as well as to whom those who feel harassed, or see others engaging in harassing behavior, can go for help and action. 

2. That the convention make this policy obvious by at least one and preferably more than one of the following: posting the policy on their Website, placing it in their written and electronic programs, putting up flyers in the common areas, discussing the policy at opening ceremonies or at other well-attended common events. 

3. In cases when I am invited as a Guest of Honor, personal affirmation from the convention chair that a harassment policy exists, that it will be adequately publicized to conventiongoers, and that all harassment complaints will be dealt with promptly and fairly, with no excuses or rationalizations for delaying action when such becomes necessary.

Scalzi has consistently used his fame and his power as SFWA president for the side of Good, and this is just another example that makes me glad he has the power and the voice in the genre that he does.  His weight can only improve con-going for everyone but the creepers, and they've had a free ride at most cons for far too long. He's also added a thread for all parties--congoers, artists, editors, writers, etc--to co-sign his policy and claim it as their own. The chorus of "Amens" might just make a difference at cons with wishy-washy or unenforced sexual harassment policies.

I've been to fancons, but none recently. On the whole, they were not positive, welcoming experiences.  My experiences at Gen Con were often extremely unpleasant as an apparently single woman, and I stopped going to the convention floor to look at merchandise booths by myself because doing so meant subjecting myself to repeated groping. I waited until my partner or his friends were available to come along, and when they were with me, I was safe from creepers. For the record, I wasn't particularly provocatively dressed, nor did I make any indication that I wanted anonymous strangers to grab my ass when my back was turned, whatever would invite said behavior.

In the end, this culture persists at cons because for too long, it was excused or ignored. It's an extension of the privilege and entitlement that is extended to men in our culture as a whole, but at conventions dedicated to creating worlds that mirror our own without precisely replicating it, we would seem to have a unique opportunity to do better.

This might just be a singular first step in that endeavor. You can find lots of really good stuff out there on how to be an ally, if this subject gets your back up like it does mine.


*Naively, I opined on my last blog that WisCon was a convention where one is likely to be "safe" from the kind of harassment that seems to be endemic at other conventions. Guess not.

A Google Fan Girl Says Goodbye to GReader

I have been using Google Reader from almost Day One, and I can hardly believe that it's gone. For me, it felt like one of the best, most successful of the myriad products that Google offered, and I have used MANY of them.

I've already tried two replacements. I started with Bloglovin, amd though it was reasonably similar to what I had left behind, the organizational tools felt clunkier than I felt was ideal. So I switched to Feedly, and while I am not quite satisfied yet, I'm willing to stick around for a while to see if they hammer out the irksome details.

It's possible that one of these days, one of the new offerings that have popped up to replace GReader will be as good, as familiar, as GReader. I suspect it's more of a learning curve issue, at this point, but I still find myself missing my old buttons, and the old ways of sharing great blogs with other friends who use Google products in the same obsessive way I do.

Anyone else find a replacement they really like? What's good about it?

Service Industry PSA

Dear parent-types--

When your kids are old enough to start handling money on their own, please be sure you teach them what "keep the change" really means. It is not a way to avoid getting three cents back from the barista: it's how you give a tip. To use it like a de facto penny jar is pretty damn rude.

Love, the next lady in line at the coffee shop.