Something made me mad. What a shock.

So the Swiss have decided not to extradite Roman Polanski back to the US.  Now I'm not going to get into the legal aspect of their decision, I want to talk about him and the people that support him because they're both making me fucking sick.

For anyone who might not know, Roman Polanski, a famous movie director, drugged, raped and sodomized a 13 year old girl when he was 43.  He had a trial, admitted guilt, went to counseling and then when he was supposed to report for sentencing he fled the country and went to France and has since avoided going to countries that might catch and send him back.  What a great guy.  I've seen and heard people say things like "It was a lapse in judgement" and "He's suffered enough" and "It's just wrong that he couldn't accept his Oscar in person" and other assorted idiocy.

Firstly a lapse in judgement is you deciding to do something wrong one time that goes against your normal behavior.  How many child rapists do you know of that have only ever done it once and then decided to stop?  On top of that once he fled to France he started "dating" a 15 year old.  That's not a lapse, it's a pattern.  And he's suffered enough?  HE'S suffered enough?  A child molester can never suffer enough you useless brain dead fucking imbeciles.  Oh yeah it's a terrible burden to have people say you're a child rapist when you're an admitted child rapist.  How terrible.  And the 42 days of counseling had to have been awful and this last time when they had you under house arrest in a Swiss ski chalet must have been hellish.  If you think he's suffered at all let alone enough do us all a favor and lay your head down on a busy road and wait for it.

Apparently the lesson we're to learn here is that if you want to rape children you should first become wealthy and famous.  That way even if everyone finds out you did it you'll still never have to pay for it.

Now my head hurts so to sum up:

Roman Polanski, I hope you get ass raped by a gorilla then get cancer of the dick you fucking worthless piece of shit.

Polanski supporters and apologists:  Shut.  The fuck.  Up.  Liking someone's work doesn't give them a free pass to do whatever they want.  If Martin Scorsese came to your house and ass rapes you is it OK because I really like his movies?  No.  So if you support this guy go jump off a tall building you fucking retards.  Barring that keep your fucking ignorance to yourself.

Millenium hand and shrimp

To say that I like Terry Pratchett is something of an understatement. I own over 40 of his novels including the entire Discworld series, the Tiffany Aching young adult Discworld series, the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, the Bromeliad trilogy, the miscellany Once More* With Footnotes, Good Omens, the Art of Discworld book, an assortment of anthologies that he contributed short stories to, etcetera, etcetera. Pretty much anything with his name on the cover is something I will buy. He has brought me no end of joy with his work. He's made me laugh of course but he's also made me marvel at the enormity of his gift for writing.

I tell you this to give you some idea of how hard it hit me when I read this:

AN EMBUGGERANCE

Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early
onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom "stroke".

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I
expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet :o)

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should
be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as
will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell.
I know it's a very human thing to say "Is there anything I can do", but in this case I
would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

I wish I could have as positive an attitude about this as he seems to have. Mr Pratchett, you truly are amazing, sir. You say you want people to keep things cheerful but I don't think I can do that. At least not yet. Perhaps after the sadness and anger fade a little I can re-read your works and find some cheer.