(no subject)

http://www.karolduclos.com/audies (Edit: this is the new/working link.)

(Click on where it says Audies in the link.)

Reasons why I like older men, oh yes.

*is pervy for men in suits whot write*

I especially like the first one where Neil is sitting.

(no subject)

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_06/006447.php

Edit: Follow-up information here.

It looks like: 1) her family wanted her to get an abortion, his didn't; she agreed up until the 4-5 month mark.
2) He also beat her. (This still doesn't merit 40 years without parole, but it certainly casts him in a much worse light than I originally had him under.)

Please don't read the follow-up comments, it's just more people being idiots... but, here's the gist of the article:

---

In 2003, Texas passed an anti-abortion law that instituted a 24-hour waiting period; required doctors to show women pictures of fetuses, tell them about adoption procedures, and warn them that an abortion could lead to breast cancer; and forced abortion providers to keep the identities of all their patients in their records. Plus one more thing, as the Fort Worth Weekly reported at the time:

The bill as passed also includes another requirement that managed to escape the floodlights of controversy and debate: Abortions from 16 weeks onward now can be performed only in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.

The clause is a major Catch-22. Very few Texas hospitals perform elective abortions, and the few that do charge extremely high fees and require that the patients go through complicated ethics reviews. And of the state's hundreds of surgical centers, none performs abortions.

---

Which followed into this:

A 17-year-old girl got pregnant. She (for whatever reason) did not get her abortion within the 16 weeks, and (presumably) couldn't find a hospital to perform it.

So she tried to induce a miscarriage. Being unable to do so on her own, she asked her boyfriend to help her. He did so by stepping on her stomach. A week later, she miscarried.

Apparently, her family hauled him into court (she can't be held accountable; a factor in the laws so that women can't be accused of a crime for doing anything to their fetuses; presumably so they can't be taken to court for miscarrying)...

Where he was given a sentence of forty years.

To give you an idea, practicing without a medical license gets you something like five to ten, tops, plus a hefty fine (as far as I can find).

He nearly got the death penalty.

(no subject)

And now, for a light note:

Nope, no angst in the Mage demo. Not in the context you're thinking of anyway. Conflict? Hell yes. Tough choices, moral and otherwise? Yep. Mafia involvement? Cults? CHICKENS? Ain't sayin'.

-BlackHattMatt, on the forums.

See? There are good reasons to read it, too!