I think that religion can be very dangerous when abused, and this case shows why.  Here we have a man who was sentenced to life in prison in 1979 for a crime that DNA testing just revealed he didn’t commit.

His response?  “I’m not angry.  I knew that God would reveal me.”

Come on!  YOU HAD 30 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE STOLEN.  BE ANGRY!

It is not okay for a person to be detained for 30 years when he did absolutely nothing to warrant it.  Casually brushing it off only makes it easier for those responsible to sweep this incident under the rug and keep quiet about it, and to keep letting it happen.

Granted, other people (even people like me who like to talk about things but not actually do anything about it) could take this and be more vocal about it.  But when those vocal people have to start pointing at examples, and the example is blushing and saying, “no, really, it’s okay, I’m not mad about it,” it kind of takes something away from the argument.

So.  That’s what I think.

The Six Ws… or, What Went Wrong, and What Went Write… ha!

I had planned to do the novel writing month for a while, but it wasn’t until October 31 that I really convinced myself that it was going to happen.  I was tempted to give up before I started, thinking it would be too hard–blah, blah, blah–but then I remembered how much I hyped myself up for it, and started thinking about how many other times I’ve said I was going to do something and then didn’t.

Then, I started to think about everyone else who says they are going to do something and then doesn’t.  It happens all the time.  Did I want to be one of those people?

I knew this was it.  I was going to use the month of November to prove to myself that I could actually write something decent of some significant length.  I want to be a writer — and if I chickened out before it started, well, it would become quite clear that a writer is just not what I am.  At that point, I made a deal with myself:  if I didn’t do it, no more writing, ever.  (This might seem harsh or unreasonable, but I was going to let myself off the hook.  It would mean I could allow myself to stop feeling guilty whenever an idea didn’t get written.)

So on November 1 I actually sat down and wrote, and it didn’t go well but I kept at it.  As the week went on I realized it wasn’t as hard as I thought and I managed to stay above the daily word count goals.

The second week was harder, and third was torture.  The fourth was sporadic, until it fizzled out over Thanksgiving weekend and I got stuck at the 40,000 word mark until yesterday, when the month ended and I was 10,000 words short of the goal.

So if the deal to myself was that zero words in November meant I could no longer pursue writing, and 50,000 meant I was on my way… once again, I’m left somewhere in the middle.  Which is hard for me to deal with.

Back when Chris Brown beat up Rhianna everyone got (rightfully) outraged.  Everyone was sympathetic, unquestionably on her side, etc.  I wondered on my blog if the roles were ever reversed whether or not public opinion would ever be in the man’s favor.

It may not be the same situation, and investigations are still ongoing so as of right now we don’t know anything beyond what’s being speculated and reported, but right now the situation with Tiger Woods looks pretty close.  And, as I suspected–even as he was running away from her coming at him with a golf club–it’s all Tiger’s fault.

Some comments:

Serves him right..[deleted] Shame on you Tiger and I’m glad Elin is good with a golf club too

Save your marriage Tiger, the grass is not greener on the other side. Mrs. woods needs some anger management, but that is not a dealbreaker.

Too back for Tiger though. He was such a role model and inspired a lot of people.

Go, Elin Woods, go! If he’s playing Hide the Salami elsewhere, let him have it.

Take the money and run, Elin. Tiger Woods is a major disappointment.

Go Erin Go girl. Shud have hit him in the groin.

And my personal favorite:

Team Elin all the way. She’s just showing him what happens when he gets out of line.