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It's been way too long since I posted here.

But I still think about Laci and Scott.

Especially in my kitchen. Part of what reeled me into this case was that Laci was just another California girl trying to keep the house clean---and I can so relate.

The other part was discovering the truth about the Modesto police and how they handled this case.

My company has changed location and work has --again-- gotten busier. The more people get laid off, the more work for the rest of us. I'm happy to have a job, and one that I like. I miss my colleagues. Life goes on and things change. But it's shut me down for the most part when it comes to writing.

Lately I've been listening to music that never crossed my desk before. It's music by people who've had lives so radically different than mine that I can never stand in their shoes. But I sure do hear them.

Being a newswriter, I see evidence every day that we do need law enforcement. There are scumbags out there running amok. Funnily enough, many of those scumbags only run amok on their own nearest and dearest, and that's why people think Scott did it. So I don't agree with the statement by Omali Yeshitela at the beginning of the song I posted below. Not completely, anyway--there's truth in it also.

But now that I've seen --with my own eyes-- the violent repression of peaceful protesters, including 80-year-old ladies, my feelings about the police are a lot more complicated.

A LOT more complicated.

I had a sort-of conversation online with the LAPD's press guy, Commander Smith. He replied anonymously, if it was him---the author of the alternative-journalism site I posted on seemed to think it was Smith. Smith, if it was him commenting back, ignored my concerns and replied that no one in L.A. supported "Occupy L.A."

Doesn't make a difference. Not to me. The right to protest is what drives policy in this country. It is one of our great traditions. Without protest, women would not be voting. We women can thank our predecessors for fighting the hard and sometimes violent fight to get the vote.

So, I've been listening to artists like Paris and Dead Prez lately. It's angry music. And somehow it feels good to feel the music that goes with that anger. It's a kind of strength of expression that cuts through the words. How can a person feel towards the society he or she lives in when the behavior of the state becomes more, and more, and more and more oppressive? When elections are stolen and "Justices" who should be impeached, aren't?

And that's just on the grand, national level. But you can't ignore it. Not when police departments around the country are acquiring heavy military equipment like tanks, from the military, for very little money if any. Check it out, Fargo, North Dakota, has a tank.

Washington, D.C. is very far away from a lot of us. But what goes down there, comes right home to us.

This is our country. What's happening there is happening to us here, for real, right now. It's not a movie, it's not a fiction. It's all around us, comes right on home, right on into our homes, with the demise of the 4th Amendment. Scott's situation is just one more window into the things that have been going horribly wrong. The fewer ordinary people get involved in saving the dignity and freedom in our communities, in our towns and our homes, the worse off we will be. I've said it before and I'll say it again--that some people were and are able to see beyond the entertainment-driven media spin and hatemongering about the Petersons gives me hope.

Just one more thing. There's a lot of violence in this video. I am personally against all violent acts. Just for the record. But who's the violence coming from? Who did it come from in the recent demonstrations in this country over economic injustice?

Not the people.

Well, anyway, here's Dead Prez.