People absolutely get married without verifying whether or not they want kids. It’s dumb (Real dumb. For sooo many reasons), but it does happen surprisingly often. I, too, wish pop culture would recognize that some people just don’t want kids; it’s infuriating. I almost had a rage stroke when How I Met Your Mother…

On the one hand, if people eat offal it’s good for the planet. On the other, it will eventually become more expensive, and there goes my cheap protein.

I’m still not over NBC cancelling original “Law & Order”, the only good “Law & Order”. Then Dick Wolf tried to remake it in Chicago as one of his terrible Chicago shows. Then that failed, so he brought a character from that show onto SVU. And that character is Ben Stones heretofore-unmentioned son, and at least on the…

Doesn’t anyone steam vegetables in the microwave? Way faster than the stove and the Instant Pot, hands-off.

Everything in moderation, my kids love these muffins. It’s fine. It’s all fine. 

??? That’s a weird thing to write without context, but I stopped eating junk food in my mid-twenties; not because it’s unhealthy (in and of itself), but because it tastes like shit relative to the caloric load. I’d prefer to spend my cash on food that tastes good when it’s bad for you

Am I supposed to have sympathy for these people. At any time they could have thrown their considerable political weight into getting rid of Trump but they never did. I don’t care about their hand-wringing. 

That’s my point. The prosecutor held all the cards. Smollett was convicted on 16 separate counts and everyone in the media, even on the left, believes he committed a hoax. I’m sure Smollett didn’t want a long, public, expensive trial. He had no leverage and a plea deal with a fine greater than the $10000 bond forfeit…

I’ve never:

Am I understanding correctly that Smollett basically gave the City of Chicago $100,000 (by forfeiting his bond) and they dropped the charges?

LOL. When you can get brussels sprouts to taste like Shark Bites, you’ll get kids making those healthy choices

Almost like we should arm the children with nutritional knowledge that will serve them throughout adulthood rather than dangling shiny objects in from of them. Kids aren’t idiots, just impulsive. Give them the knowledge and limit their access to harmful things until the knowledge informs their impulse control.

This is not what everyone else is reporting. There is no deal for Smollett to do any community service. There’s only a vague statement from the prosecutor that Smollett has done community service at some point in his past (like literally everyone on earth, especially famous people), and they took that into account…

I bet you wouldn’t be posting this if the headline was ‘all sexual assault charges against Jussie Smollett have been dropped’. Just a feeling I have. 

Important facts:

A deferred deal generally means the person must not commit any other crimes for a period of time before the charge is expunged. His lawyer is spinning this as an exoneration, which it is not.

Cook County dropped the charges against Smollett because he agreed to take a plea. Buried in the news coverage is the fact that Smollett has, in addition to community service, agreed to forfeit his $100,000 bail bond to the court.

The simplest explanation is often the correct one: someone realized that continuing with this case is a huge waste of time, money, and puts too much spotlight on Cook County and CPD.

That and the PR for both the Police and Smollett probably wouldn’t have been pretty during the trial. I’m there’s a record of at least one cop saying something terrible that would’ve created media buzz, and without a conviction on his record, there’s a chance this will become a footnote in Smollett’s career.

Sounds like they agreed to drop the charges in exchange for keeping his bond money. My hunch as a lawyer is that it probably would have cost the city a fortune in resources to prosecute this case and it was a strategic decision.