Wasting my vote

This is probably more disjointed than it should be...sorry, written in bursts when I should've been doing something else, and I'm probably a bit more angry/annoyed than I should be before I put pen to paper/fingers to keyboard. But, meh...take it for what it is.

According to several people--including some I'd call friends--I wasted my vote for President of these United States today. Because I didn't vote for a Republican or Democrat (or, more and more commonly, I didn't vote against a Democrat or Republican--btw, I enjoyed Nathan Eshelman's post "A Vote Is Affirmation, Not Against Someone You Do Not Like"--even if it could've used an edit or five for length). See, your vote is wasted, we're told, if you don't vote for a major party candidate--'cuz the other guys can't win. Not sure why a vote for a losing candidate isn't considered wasting it--in Idaho for example, Sen. Obama doesn't stand a proverbial snowball's proverbial chance of winning our electoral votes. Did all those who voted for him waste their votes?

Thankfully, I was able to vote for some people who have a chance of winning (and some others who don't), so I guess I redeemed parts of my ballot.

Here's the thing--I know I didn't waste a single vote. I cast my vote for a Presidential candidate who shares most of my political beliefs, who would do what he said he would do if he got into office. Not a lesser of two evils, but someone I can believe in. That's the job of the voter, right? Not to vote for the guy you think has the best chance of winning--not once you get past voting for Student Body Presidents anyway. If the man I voted for shocked the world and was elected, I wouldn't have to worry about what he was going to do now--which campaign promise would he renege on first? How many more troops would he send into harm's way unnecessarily? What further damage would he do to civil liberties? What new taxes would he suggest/sign into law? How would he sell out his own party again? What socialistic impulse would he give into first--universal education, health care, something else?

I don't think any vote is wasted except the one not cast. But if I were to consider one a waste, it'd be vote cast for maintaining the status quo (unless you really like the status quo). Oh yeah, I should add, the status is not quo. A wasted vote is one cast that will simply perpetuate a system that the voter finds distasteful/immoral. One cast out of fear of the other guy. A vote you have to "hold your nose" to cast (metaphorically or not).


In short, no matter what--for the next four years I can look at myself in the mirror while listening to the news. My conscience is clean. How many people who voted for whoever wins tonight will be able to say the same thing in 2012? How many people who voted for the "conservative" in the White House right now can say that? Sure you won...but at what cost?

NaNoWriMo

Over to your right, you'll notice some new graphics (Micah had nothing to do with them, excuse the blandness). What're they about? Well, it's November, which for thousands means, National Novel Writing Month. Some of you may recall that I gave it a shot. Sadly, energy, enthusiasm, homeschooling, and life in general got in the way, and I just didn't get that far. But I've been gearing up for this year's for a bit, and think I have a better game plan going in.

I was poking around their website last week, and out of curiosity, checked out their Young Writer's Program. Inspiration struck, and we've now canceled about 1/3 of our normal school stuff for November for an exercise in Applied Language Arts. I've always admired (and wanted to be) one of those homeschool parents who throws their gameplan out the window because their kids were interested enough in something that they just focus on it for a few weeks. Just couldn't find anything to do like that.

The people over at NaNoWriMo have really done a great job with their Young Writer's Program, they have some age-appropriate workbooks to give guidance through the process; they allow parents/teachers and the writers to set their target goal instead of having something set; and there's enough fun stuff on the site (when traffic's low enough) to keep the writer's amused when they need a break from their work.

The kids are really into the idea--which I love, because they typically approach a writing exercise like a series of inoculations. Frodo and the Princess are both a few words ahead of their daily quota, Samwise is at about 50% (his brain works like mine, I expect great strides in Week 4). Arnold's annoyed because I'm not involving him--call me cruel, but if the kid can't read, I don't think he should be trying to author a book (I'm sure even Dan Brown could work his way through a Boxcar Children novel).

We've got a 4 day vacation this week that's gonna louse up our schedule a bit, but on the whole, I'm thinking that having the kids do it with me--and having to keep their enthusiasm up, is really going to help me. Not to mention, really don't like the idea of hearing "Frodo, you've met your writing targets for 2 weeks now, your Father's still trying to catch up to Week 1."

So in addition to my official NaNoWriMo widget down below, we've got the little graphics for the three kids and our collective word goal, to advertise our progress (nothing inspires like the pressure of many, many people seeing your fail).

The Great Candy Extortion Caper '08

Friday being what it was, the Offspring, like so many others went door to door extorting candy (as bluewoad calls it) from the neighbors.

While on the whole, they're the same as last week's pics, here's what I captured on film, er, memory card:

The SWAT costume was a hit again--particularly with a neighbor who turns out to be a police officer. He was impressed enough he gave Arnold a movie-sized Juji Fruits box. When I was a kid I couldn't have dreamed of scoring that much from one house.

I couldn't get a decent pic of Frodo all night--kept coming out looking more like a hobo than an adventure-prone archeologist.

.jpg withheld to protect his reputation.

The Princess...well, what can you say about this?

Skulduggery Pleasant was back, this time with some gloves and fire to complete the look. TLomL spent a little time on google and improved the makeup job, too.

and a closer look at the improved details.

In a little less than 2 hours, our team of 4 collected this much booty. Just about 7 gallons here! That amount was just unthinkable back in my day--way back when we had to walk to school uphill both ways to school in the snow, only 3 TV networks, and a Michael Jackson who dated in his age group.

Thought for the Lord's Day #27

saw this as a .sig file on an email the other day, struck me as one of those things worth thinking about for awhile:

As the suffering of Christ is the principal part of the ransom paid for us by him and the special foundation of our confidence and consolation, it should also be the primary object of our faith and the theme of meditation, that with Paul we may count all things for loss but the knowledge of the crucified Jesus. We should attend to it more diligently as Satan the more impotently rages to obscure the truth of those sufferings and to deprive us of their saving fruit.

- Francis Turretin

Trudeau Calls the Election

from FOXNews:'Doonesbury' Strip Predicts Obama Win on Tuesday

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It's not exactly "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN," but some newspaper editors are pondering how to deal with a "Doonesbury" comic strip to be published the day after the election that assumes Barack Obama will win the presidency.

Comic creator Garry Trudeau delivered a series of strips for next week's papers showing his characters reacting to an Obama victory. But he offered no such option in the event of a comeback by John McCain, who's trailing Obama in the polls.

Trudeau's syndicator is offering papers a series of rerun strips from August. But the Obama story line is forcing some editors to question whether "Doonesbury" could put them in a spot -- albeit in the funny pages -- similar to 1948, when the Chicago Daily Tribune infamously declared in huge, front-page type that Republican Thomas Dewey had beaten Democrat Harry Truman for the presidency.

Honestly, there's probably no need for Trudeau to do 'McCain Wins' strips--even if McCain pulls off the upset, Trudeau can just write them off as another of Mike's Summer Dream Sequences--just later in the year than normal or something. Frankly, it's probably better if he doesn't do 'McCain Wins'--they'd be too full of vitriol to be worth reading.

Tim Bannon, editor of the Chicago Tribune's Live! section, where the paper's comics usually run, said the strip won't appear in the comics section because of deadline issues but might end up on another page.

"If McCain wins, we would never run it," he said. "If Obama were to win, we would try to see if we can get it in somehow in some other place. ... It strikes us as being a little strange to have that strip if that's not how it ends up. It's not like he hedged it so it works either way."

Kathie Kerr, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City-based Universal Press Syndicate, said about a dozen calls have come in from newspaper editors.

"They're still coming in," Kerr said Friday. "After we got the initial inquiries, we asked Garry to pick substitutes for the editors who were not comfortable with running the strips."

Trudeau, who lives in New York, said he might have provided papers with a McCain option if the election were a toss-up. But, he said, at the time he drew the strip, poll analysts were giving McCain less than a 4 percent chance of winning.

"From a risk-assessment viewpoint, I felt comfortable with the odds," Trudeau said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "The way I see it, if Obama wins, I'm in the flow and commenting on an extraordinary phenomenon.

"If he loses, there'll be such a national uproar that a blown call in a comic strip won't be much noticed. Besides, I'll be the one with the egg on my face -- not the editors."

He's absolutely right about that--as popular as the strip is, particularly with left-leaning journalists, politicians and journalists seem to love to dogpile on anything semi-controversial he writes.

Naedine Hazell, assistant managing editor of features and business for The Hartford Courant in Connecticut, dismissed the fuss over the Obama strips. The Courant plans to run the series.

"It's a comic. I don't think people necessarily expect accuracy in comics. There's all sorts of wack stuff in comics," Hazell said.

"I don't think Snoopy actually flies his doghouse either."

Brilliant analysis, most of us don't think that cats love lasagna, advertising executives who are thin as rakes eat sandwiches that are 4' tall, and cavemen were Evangelical Christians. But fer cryin' out loud, lady--Schultz is writing a different kind of strip! I agree with your call to run them as Trudeau wrote them, I'm just insulted by that reasoning. If an editor can't tell the difference between Schultz's world of hyper-intelligent dogs and birds, and Trudeau's biting political satire--well, that might go a long way in demonstrating why American newspapers are in decline.

Contempt for the Constitution

Few months back I overheard a little snippet of a conversation between Frodo and Samwise and their 11 year-old cousin (hmmm, don't have a blog-specific nickname for her...let's go with Cousinette, for now). Cousinette was pretty disdainful of the Ron Paul bumper stickers on our van, which left my boys incredulous, "You don't like Ron Paul?"

"No, I like Obama."

Can't remember which one of the boys replied with, "But what about the Constitution?" (you know I swelled with pride)

"Pfft...Constitution," said Cousinette, leaving the boys speechless. Ahh, the wonders of a publik skewl edumacation.

Had a flashback to that convo this morning when I watched this disheartening video from Judge Andrew Napolitano:

We'll always have Cardiff . . .

Keening, weeping, moaning, gnashing of teeth at the Newton household (from all members, btw) today after getting the news that David Tennant, the 10th Doctor Who, has stated:

When Doctor Who returns in 2010 it won't be with me

Yeah, yeah, life will go on, it's just a show, we still have our health...yada yada yada. All that's true...just gonna mean it's all a little less brilliant.

Allons-y!

More Ironic than Ray-yain on Your Wedding Day

Good ol' Howard Dean...don't think I've told this story before, back in May '05 I was changing planes at the madhouse called Dulles International Airport and found myself standing next to Howard Dean. I noticed three things:

1. He's short!
   
2. He has this quality, this Howard Dean-ness that you can kind of sense on TV...it's real strong in Real Life (TM)...really makes a conservative want to punch the nearest source of Howard Dean-ness.
   
3. That I didn't punch the nearest source--further proof of progressive sanctification.

Anyway, author of Nanny State and blogger over at the Denver Post Editorial Page blog, David Harsanyi noted a couple of quotations from everyone's favorite former Vermont governor.

Howard Dean in 2005:

Someday, the Democrats will be back in charge again. Do we want a Democratic Party that’s in charge of everything? Well, you know, I suppose it’s my job to say yes. But the truth is, as an American, it’s better when parties share power....

[There] is a culture of corruption and abuse of power in Washington. This is what happens when one party is in charge of everything.

My inner-idealogue bristles at this notion, but my inner-pragmatist (when I let him speak) sees the wisdom in this--and it seems most Americans agree with this. But here's where it gets fun.

Howard Dean in 2008:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Monday that he’s looking forward to one party controlling all aspects of government, despite GOP charges that it would be a disastrous Nov. 4 outcome. "Republicans had a chance to rule. They failed miserably. I think it’s time to give the other party a chance," Dean said on MSNBC.

This is gonna be a really long four (eight?) years--unless the mid-term elections in '10 shake things up.

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

Back in '92 I read a review for a CD called A Man Called E by, well, E. I remember I didn't hear whatever the review heard, but I really liked it--still one of my 'go to' albums for pensive moments. But I lost track of E right away, and once I started using teh InterWeb thingy, never thought of trying to find him that way.

'Til the Shrek soundtrack came along, and I just knew I knew the voice on the track by The Eels, it was like bumping into someone I went to school with at the grocery store. Since then, I've picked up some of their music--mostly by accident on soundtracks. Quirky, witty, and sad. Best quick way I can think of to describe them.

That's more than I meant to say as introduction, sorry.

Anyway, quite by accident (again) I stumbled across this NOVA special last week--Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives--which focuses on E (aka Mark Oliver Everett) digging into his father's life, particularly his career as a quantum theorist. In 1957, Hugh Everett III published a work where he laid out the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. To say that his father was distant seems to be quite the understatement, so E learned a great deal about his father during filming--particularly personal details. At several times during the documentary I felt like I was intruding.

As far as the science stuff goes--like E, most of it was over my head (tho' some of it was incredibly simplistic--'course kletois probably thinks all of it was pretty simplistic), and I think the whole parallel world thing is good Science Fiction, lousy reality. But it was interesting, and gave a good narrative frame for the human stories: Hugh Everett's career, search for acceptance, excessive drinking, etc.; E's feeling of distance from his father, not understanding him, other family tragedy; and E's growing understanding of his father.

Obviously, the human stories were the crux of the film--and I think, given a little more time, could've been developed better by the filmmakers--a lot of the documentary felt rushed. All in all, a very interesting look at theoretical physics and the people behind it (if nothing else, a great soundtrack), try to catch it on a rerun.

Backup by Jim Butcher

Well, that was a fun, 45 minutes (give or take).

Just knocked off Jim Butcher's Backup: A Story of the Dresden Files. Weighing in at about 12K words, it's almost as meaty as the 4-issue mini-series comic book Welcome to the Jungle (recently collected and published in hardcover form).

This is a different way of telling a Harry Dresden story, coming at it from the POV of his brother, Thomas. Not only does this give us a new way of seeing Harry, it gives us a better appreciation for Thomas. (In many ways, it reminded me of Crais' The Watchman from last year.)

Quick read; decent story--resolution came a bit too soon, but given the length, such was unavoidable; probably paid too much for it, given my budget; hope some of the backstory spills over into the regular Dresden File novels. Something any fan should pick up.

Spooktacular 2008

Local Borders store had their Spooktacular party on Saturday for kids--games, costume contest, etc. Good way to kill an afternoon--made even better by Frodo and Sam winning a couple of books :)

Snapped a couple of photos on our way out the door:

We start off with a SWAT team member--as a bonus, the costume includes several toys :)

Frodo was, well, if you need an explanation here, you've got problems.

The Princess opted for, shockingly, a princess. (this is a hand-me-down from her cousin, making this cooler than humanly possible for her)

Flexing his (and his parents') creativity, Samwise decided to go all literary, here he is as Skulduggery Pleasant.

and a closer look at the bang-up job TLomL did on his makeup.

Thought for the Lord's Day #26

He doesn't post often enough, but when he does, Prof. Shaw typically hits the ball right out of the park. Friday's post "Mental Images of Jesus" does a nice succinct job of dealing with one of the more common objections to the the confessional (read: Biblical) position of applying the 2nd commandment to images of Christ.

Someone Was Looking Awfully Grown-Up Today

so we snapped a quick pic:

"Godspeed" - Anberlin

Just cuz I haven't done a Friday Music thing in awhile...

Who's the Socialist?

(H/T: Huckleberries Online)

Happy Birthday, Archie!

On Oct 23 in Chillicothe, Ohio, Archie Goodwin entered this world--no doubt with a smile for the pretty nurses--and American detective literature was never the same.

I'm toasting him in one of the ways I think he'd appreciate most--by raising a glass of milk in his honor.

Who was Archie? Archie summed up his life thusly:

Born in Ohio. Public high school, pretty good at geometry and football, graduated with honor but no honors. Went to college two weeks, decided it was childish, came to New York and got a job guarding a pier, shot and killed two men and was fired, was recommended to Nero Wolfe for a chore he wanted done, did it, was offered a full-time job by Mr. Wolfe, took it, still have it." (Fourth of July Picinic)

Long may he keep it. Just what was he employed by Wolfe to do? In The Black Mountain he answers the statement, "I thought you was a private eye" with:

I don't like the way you say it, but I am. Also I am an accountant, an amanuensis, and a cocklebur. Eight to five you never heard the word amanuensis and you never saw a cocklebur.

In The Red Box, he says

I know pretty well what my field is. Aside from my primary function as the thorn in the seat of Wolfe's chair to keep him from going to sleep and waking up only for meals, I'm chiefly cut out for two things: to jump and grab something before the other guy can get his paws on it, and to collect pieces of the puzzle for Wolfe to work on.

In case you're wondering if this post was simply an excuse to go through some collections of Archie Goodwin quotations, you wouldn't be totally wrong...he's one of the fictional characters I like spending time with most in this world--he's the literary equivalent of comfort food. So just one more great line I've quoted here before:

I would appreciate it if they would call a halt on all their devoted efforts to find a way to abolish war or eliminate disease or run trains with atoms or extend the span of human life to a couple of centuries, and everybody concentrate for a while on how to wake me up in the morning without my resenting it. It may be that a bevy of beautiful maidens in pure silk yellow very sheer gowns, barefooted, singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" and scattering rose petals over me would do the trick, but I'd have to try it.

Why Joe the Plumber Matters

I thoroughly enjoyed watching that initial clip of Joe asking Sen. Obama a question which gave him the opportunity to fly his socialism flag freely on camera. If only Joe knew what he was getting himself into!

All the attention, the repeated references to himself in the debate--the interviews, press conferences, and so on (and didn't he do a wonderful job dealing with Diane Sawyer?).

Oh, but then the magnifying lens got pulled out and every little secret of his was put on display for the world to see and dissect.

Just 'cuz he asked a question.

Tragic, really.

Thought the good people over at Oh, Prune Juice did a good job commenting on the whole story, pointing out why we should care about Joe the Plumber (no matter what we think of his politics)

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

Don't worry, won't be asking what you'd do if I sang out of tune (because the answer'd be "ask what was new?")...

Just wanted to take a moment to publicly thank Micah (as he's known here, other, more notable, blogs call him something else) for the great header graphic you see above you. When I asked him about a new one, I expected something like the last one--simple but catchy, and the d00d fills up my inbox with 7-8 dazzling graphics! And then he redoes one of them with some suggestions (and throws in another option for me to choose from as well...). Talk about an embarrassment of riches.

And really, it's not like he doesn't have better things to do--spending time with his wife and dog, providing for his wife and dog, cleaning up images of Erasmus' 3rd edition of his Novum Testamentum (1522), and so on.

Anyway, thanks, brother!

Thought for the Lord's Day #25

The insufficiency of nature to such a work as conversion is, shows that men may not fall down and idolize their own wit and power. A change from acts of sin to moral duties may be done by a natural strength and the power of natural conscience: for the very same motives which led to sin, as education, interest, profit, may, upon a change of circumstances, guide men to an outward morality; but a change to the contrary grace is supernatural.

Two things are certain in nature. (1.) Natural inclinations never change, but by some superior virtue. A loadstone will not cease to draw iron, while that attractive quality remains in it. The wolf can never love the lamb, nor the lamb the wolf; nothing but must act suitably to its nature. Water cannot but moisten, fire cannot but burn. So likewise the corrupt nature of man being possessed with an invincible contrariety and enmity to God, will never suffer him to comply with God. And the inclinations of a sinner to sin being more strengthened by the frequency of sinful acts, have as great a power over him, and as natural to him, as any qualities are to natural agents: and being stronger than any sympathies in the world, cannot by a man's own power, or the power of any other nature equal to it, be turned into a contrary channel.

(2.) Nothing can act beyond its own principle and nature. Nothing in the world can raise itself to a higher rank of being than that which nature has placed it in; a spark cannot make itself a star, though it mount a little up to heaven; nor a plant endue itself with sense, nor a beast adorn itself with reason; nor a man make himself an angel. Thorns cannot bring forth grapes, nor thistles produce figs because such fruits are above the nature of those plants. So neither can our corrupt nature bring forth grace, which is a fruit above it. Effectus non excedit virtutem suae causae [the effect cannot exceed the power of its cause]: grace is more excellent than nature, therefore cannot be the fruit of nature. It is Christ's conclusion, "How can you, being evil, speak good things?" Matt. 12:33, 34. Not so much as the buds and blossoms of words, much less the fruit of actions. They can no more change their natures, than a viper can do away with his poison. Now though this I have said be true, yet there is nothing man does more affect in the world than a self-sufficiency, and an independence from any other power but his own. This attitude is as much riveted in his nature, as any other false principle whatsoever. For man does derive it from his first parents, as the prime legacy bequeathed to his nature: for it was the first thing uncovered in man at his fall; he would be as God, independent from him. Now God, to cross this principle, allows his elect, like Lazarus, to lie in the grave till they stink, that there may be no excuse to ascribe their resurrection to their own power. If a putrefied rotten carcass should be brought to life, it could never be thought that it inspired itself with that active principle. God lets men run on so far in sin, that they do unman themselves, that he may proclaim to all the world, that we are unable to do anything of ourselves towards our recovery, without a superior principle....

God deals with men in this case as he did with Abraham. He would not give Isaac while Sarah's womb, in a natural probability, might have borne him; but when her womb was dead, and age had taken away all natural strength of conception, then God gives him; that it might appear that he was not a child of nature, but a child of promise.

- Stephen Charnock

Criminal Justice?

Last month, the Idaho Statesman ran this piece, which I started to comment on at the time: North Idaho woman faces hard time over spilt soda.

The U.S. attorney's office is making a federal case out of a spilt soda.

The Bush administration's top attorney in Idaho is bringing charges against a North Idaho woman for refusing to pay for a Diet Coke and then pouring it out on a counter at a cafeteria at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boise.

Natalie Walters, now facing two counts that each carry a maximum sentence of six months in federal prison, thinks the case is a waste of taxpayer money and plans to fight the charges.

You know there was a voice in the back of her head saying "Gitmo" once she heard "federal prison." And, yeah, the case is a waste of taxpayer money--but since when has that stopped this administration (or practically any other administration) from doing something?

U.S. Attorney Tom Moss's office wouldn't comment on the case until after Walters' arraignment, set for Oct. 8.

Roger Banks, listed on the court record as the investigating agent with the Department of Veterans Affairs, did not return the Statesman's phone call Wednesday.

Walters, though, told her side of the story:

The 39-year-old North Idaho resident periodically drives her father, a disabled Vietnam veteran, to Boise's VA Medical Center for doctor visits. She brings her own mug and fills it with soda in the hospital's cafeteria. The cafeteria does not have a posted price for refills, and typically the cashier charges her $1 or $1.50, Walters said.

But on Aug. 20, when Walters filled her mug with Diet Coke, the clerk charged $3.80.

"I told her that cannot be right and asked to talk to the manager," Walters said.

The manager told Walters the price is correct.

Walters decided she didn't want to pay that much and offered to return the soda, she said. But the manager told her there was no way to accept the returned soda and Walters had to pay. Walters refused, and she said she was angry by this point, and she poured the soda onto the counter.

I can absolutely see myself doing this. Will try to remember this as a reason to not take my father to a doctor appointment when asked.

The manager banned Walters from the cafeteria. Walters left but remained in the hospital for a couple of hours waiting for her father to finish his appointments. No one came to talk to her, so she assumed the soda ordeal was over.

What happened the next day upsets Walters most.Welcome to post-9/11 America, Ms. Walters."They did not know who I was. But they had the whole thing on videotape," she said.

The tapes also showed her with her father in other areas of the hospital.

The next day, while her father was at a dental appointment at the VA, an official came in, told him about the incident and asked him to have his daughter contact the hospital.

"They accessed my father's medical records to find out his next appointment to try and find me," she said. "I think that is a (federal health privacy law) violation. Medical records are private," she said. "They should not have used a veteran's medical records to find me. ... My dad was upset. He could not believe it."

Next time I have to sign a HIPAA form, I've got to check the part where your information can be used to track down my family members accused of heinous Federal offenses (like kidnapping, counterfeiting $100's or spilling soda).

Walters never contacted the VA, and that was the last she heard about the incident until a Statesman reporter contacted her Wednesday and informed her of the federal charges and her Oct. 8 arraignment.

She was shocked.

"My father is a veteran. It is a federal facility for veterans. This should have been handled differently," she said. "This is extreme. This is totally extreme. Well, if they have that much time on their hands go for it."

There was a sidebar describing the charges/penalties she faced

Count 1, misdemeanor larceny: " ... consuming a soft drink beverage belonging to the Department of Veterans Affairs without paying for it."

Maximum sentence: 6 months in prison and a $500 fine

Count 2, disturbance: " ... intentionally pouring soft drink beverage from a large mug over the cash register and onto the floor during a disagreement with the cashier over payment."

Maximum sentence: 6 months in prison and a $250 fine.

On the court documents, federal prosecutors estimated a trial on the case would last last two days.

Two days, months in prison and hundreds of dollars in fines. Plus the hundreds in lawyer fees, court costs, etc. Over , what? 64 oz. of flavored carbonated beerage?

Then today, er, yesterday, the Statesman ran this follow-up: Idaho woman agrees to fine in dumped soda case

BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge has dismissed a case against a northern Idaho woman who refused to pay for a $3.80 soft drink refill and then dumped it on a cafeteria counter at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boise.

Natalie Walters has agreed to pay a $200 fine - the equivalent of more than 50 soda refills at the medical center.

$200? I can see where she'd agree to that, just to get this stupid chapter of her life behind her. But $200? That's a crime.