ON PEOPLE, AND WHY SOME OF THEM SHOULD BE PUNCHED IN THE FACE

Another day, another dollar, and another lurid set of headlines about women being held in sexual captivity for more than a decade.  I hope what we all hope, of course: that the three young women in Cleveland receive all the time, help, space, understanding, and love they need to do whatever the hell they want to do with the rest of their lives.  But I think of all of the similar cases which are no doubt unfolding RIGHT NOW, all over the world, and I sit here grinding my teeth to powder.  You too?  Good, good.

If you upturned a city, any city, and whacked it on the backside, an appalling number of hideous secrets would tumble out of basements and rental apartments.  

I am not speculating here.  My day job (which is Lawyering, in case you missed my previous rants on the subject) involves a lot of snooping around into other people's business to prevent them from getting away with horrible things.  I can't go into details because of confidentiality and blood oaths and the fact that I'm secretly a member of an elite cadre of lawyer-ninjas sworn to eradicate the jerks of the world, but Jupiter, Vishnu, Mohammed, and Christ, do I ever see a lot of casual cruelty worked into the fabric of everyday life.

The worst things I see are usually directed at the old and the mentally ill.  If children were treated the way my colleagues and I see the mentally ill treated on a daily basis, there would be such a hue and cry that the seas would boil.

The unfortunate thing about Lawyering, besides the necessity of spending fourteen hours in a swivel chair at a stretch trying to decipher account statements from 1987, is that you are sworn to do things like uphold public order and keep the Queen's peace, instead of punching people in the face.  Sometimes the temptation is very, very strong.