'Tis the season

You know...I think I meant to post this last year around the holidays, and I'm pretty sure I never got around to it. Thankfully, it keeps. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time, penned by one John Scalzi, Hugo Award-winning author who once commented on this here blog! Yay!

Ayn Rand's A Selfish Chrismas (1951)

In this hour-long radio drama, Santa struggles with the increasing demands of providing gifts for millions of spoiled, ungrateful brats across the world, until a single elf, in the engineering department of his workshop, convinces Santa to go on strike. The special ends with the entropic collapse of the civilization of takers and the spectacle of children trudging across the bitterly cold, dark tundra...

At any rate. This is just something for you guys to look at while I head back to SoJo today. Next post from the Homestead!

Made it

Just lettin' y'all know that I made to the Homestead safe and sound. The weather was less than ideal for the trip, however. With the ridiculous winds and storms and freezing rain, the trip took like twice as long as I expected. I told my sister that for me to have picked a worse day to make this trip, I probably would have needed meteors. She responded with the news that the Geminid meteor showers are actually peaking tonight, so...well, there ya go. :)

Anyway, I'm going to be at the Homestead for the next little while, anyway. At least until midweek, but probably through next weekend and possibly longer, depending on how things go over here. I imagine I'll be spending less time online, but...well, one never knows. I think I have enough to keep me occupied around here, even if I get stormed on or snowed in or whatever, but...well, we'll just have to see. :)

Hope everyone's having a smashing good time. Smell ya later!

Double standards

Just a final thought before I pack it in for the time being. I've caught up a bit more on this Peter Watts thing today. (My favorite new information: except for coming back to face charges, Watts is barred from the U.S. I just find that hilarious. It's like when some asshat yells, "...and STAY out!" :) Anyway, I feel like it's twice as ludicrous because Watts was on his way out of the country when all this went down.) Anyway, there seems to be a prevailing attitude with those unsympathetic to Watts' case that you just shouldn't get uppity with the po-po. FSM knows I feel the same way, but just in the sense that, at any given time, I like to minimize my chances of my getting harassed, beaten, or shot. I don't agree in the sense of it being the right thing to do. But is it actually the right thing to do?

Let's say I'm going about my normal daily life, even my job (hypothetically ;) ), and some dude comes up to me and is belligerent. Like really all-up-in-my-grill aggravating. I tell him to back up off me, bitch. He continues to harangue me. So I punch him in the face. I'm fairly sure that, at this point, I'm guilty of a crime, yes?

Now...take the same circumstances, except make me a cop on duty. I'm pretty sure I know where I stand on this morally. But legally, are things any different? [EDIT: I realize after some discussion that I'm being unclear here. What I'm actually asking is: am I still guilty of a crime?]