Some people have more money than brains.

This was written on Saturday.

As I write this, I am at Zupan's Market, which I already knew was pricier than usual. Mainly because it's got a lot of gluten free stuff, vegan stuff, and so on. I only go there on rare occasion because a friend lives near there. Frankly, I think the prices on most of their stuff borders on the criminal. But I had no idea quite how bad it was until today.

I was walking along the aisles, and spotted something strange: a locked plexiglass case built into a small section of the aisle. It contained, if you can believe it, several small bottles of different kinds of balsamic vinegar and similar things. Prices ranged from $95 to almost $200. Can you believe that? Almost $200 for a (roughly) 12 ounce bottle of balsamic vinegar (or was it vinagrette?)? I find it hard to believe anyone has enough money and/or stupidity to spend that much on something so small and pointless. Apparently, the high prices are because these bottles are like 100 years old or something like that. Whoop dee frakking doo. I understand that some things get better with age, but surely there's a limit. Even knowing that, I don't grok why anyone would eat anything that small if it costs more than $20. Yes, I admit it, I am a cheapskate.

Hell, I think $26 for a pound of decaf English Breakfast loose leaf tea is absurdly high, and is the most expensive thing I ever purchase. The only reason I do that, is because it lasts me a long time.

Poll: Rape versus Murder

The other day, there was a post on Tumblr about a guy who was getting death row for seeking out and killing some people who had been sexually assaulting him for years. Some of the comments were implying or outright saying he shouldn't have any prison time at all. So I reblogged, commenting that while I didn't think he deserved the death penalty, I was frakking tired of people thinking that there is EVER an excuse for pre-meditated murder. That would have been the end of it, except someone shot back, calling me a rape apologist. I shot back again, making it quite clear (I hope) that while rape IS an evil act, that murder was the most evil act of all, the only possible exception being torture. I further explained that this was because, no matter what anyone else may believe, we only have one life to live and then we're gone for good and therefore anything less than taking away that life is inherently less evil than murder, again with the possible exception of torture.

I don't have a paid account, so I made my poll with SurveyMonkey. I would have embedded the poll, but their idea of an embed frankly bites.

This survey has two questions. Click to view the survey.

(For anyone curious, the two questions are:
"1. Do you consider unwanted sexual contact to be a worse crime than pre-meditated murder?"
"2. In your opinion, is there ever a reason for which someone should NOT go to prison for committing pre-meditated murder?")