Yes, the court has its own obligation but we are talking about a judge who has some questionable skills balancing his duties. I think (and it is based on very minimal information) that TX judges are elected- which I always find worrisome. I've just found that closing the court appears, the original decision, to often…

Courts are closed all the time. It is pretty discretionary and the reasoning to close the court can be pretty superficial. The real question is whether anyone actually asserted their right to be present during the hearing. If no one asserted, then its a moot question.

As far as I can see, the defense attorney is the only one who actually did his damn job. Unfortunately.

Ooh- Loretta Chase- The Lord of Scoundrels (I think it won a RITA award) and The Last Hellion. I re-read that book frequently.

I second the Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie. Surprisingly Hot.

Favorite romances- this could take pages but I'll be brief.

Another commenter reminded me- Shelly Laurenston or her alter ego GA Aiken. She's pretty irreverent and surprisingly enjoyable for books where everyone is fighting all the damn time.

OMG, I love Shelly Laurenston. She is one of the few authors who can make me laugh out loud and steal lines as if they were my own.

If you like Historical (or her contemporaries, for that matter), may I introduce you to Lisa Kleypas. I also love Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jennifer Crusie for great contemporaries. A supernatural twist- Kresley Cole. A more formal historical- Mary Balogh. Then there is Kelley Armstrong, Jayne Ann Krentz, Sarah…

I would add that fedora guys are only paying attention to girls they want to fuck. A middle aged broad like me wouldn't even get the door held for me to enter as he was leaving via the same door. It would literally hold him up 1.5 seconds and would be simple (not gender specific) courtesy. That's what I think of…

Absolutely no reason- politically and legally. They got the death penalty for McVeigh. Its hard to seek less for this kid.

It is exactly the same thing as an untreated kidney infection. Depression and anxiety are stigmatized by a lot of society- they just don't get it- the depth of it, the altered mental state. There is this ignorant belief that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps- that depression is a fleeting thing brought about…

One thing that helped me a lot was to begin viewing myself as a person who was depressed. I had a condition that needed treatment. It sucked but it turns out I wasn't so special to be able to avoid any health problems. I had a very real imbalance of neurochemicals. Medicine proved that to me- I went on these drugs and…

By the way, I'm on 40 mg of Paxil and 10 mg of Abilify to augment the anti-depressant. I find my side effects are really moderate and don't feel flattened. Another thing your boyfriend should know- there are a lot of medications out there. Some are brutal with really flattening side effects. Mine, for example, are…

That totally depends. If he is bi-polar then the highs will be smoothed out and not as high- that is true. But it is in a good way- a manic episode is only occasionally fun. They can get scary too. The highs you get on medication feel better because you are feeling sane and grounded- you are truly present in a…

Finding a therapist who fits your needs can be really hard. Think of all the crappy doctors who barely listened to your facts before moving into a diagnosis. There are bad therapists out there- I know, I've seen a couple. Don't be discouraged, though. There are better therapists out there! The problem is usually money…

Here is my therapist's idea (I was in exactly the same place- I kept one friend in my loop and just abandoned the rest because I couldn't deal with depression and too many people). Work with your therapist on how to negotiate rekindling friendships. You don't have to do anything stressful by yourself. Work up a script…

I read that as saying many personally feel it is murder- were they to practice it themselves. While, at the same time, they believe some other woman has the right to feel and believe differently.

Is it just me or is this story several shades of f'ed up? The one female politician's husband was a straight up criminal but there is no link that his criminality was practiced by his wife or supported by her position. But for the wives... Oh, the wives are greedy, demanding, impractical, and disregard the importance…

It just reminds me why I loved that band so damn much. That angry, angry young man (or angry young men if you want to include Liam) who were so f'ing pompous that you wanted to hate them but some of their music was just so good. They did some awesome pop while still reliably despising pop music and everything about…