Month: October 2010

bookmark_borderHouse Projects: Rose Room slash Office

Posted on by PaulaO

We’ve been slowly working on the Rose Room. And I do mean slowly. So slow, I’ve not bothered to put any posts here about it.

As I’ve mentioned before, our rooms are named because, well, some of them serve no particular purpose (living room, kitchen, dining room, etc) so we named them according to their most prominent feature. Guess what the Furnace Room has in it? So the Rose Room was so named because of the rose wall paper it had. And I mean ROSES. The big ones are bigger than my hand.

The roses are gone. Over the summer, Lorna slowly cleaned and primed the walls. As a side note, we will never use Zinsser B.I.N. primer again. It is shellac based, highly flammable, and the fumes are dangerous. It is also runny as water and nearly impossible to use on the ceiling. But Lorna did it, bless her heart. We next argued decided on the paint colors. We had a lot to choose from and our likes/dislikes changed from day to day. Benjamin Moore carries little sample cans of their paints or can make a sample can if they don’t have it.

We chose a dark green for the “accent” wall and a nice blueish purpleish blue for the other walls. I HIGHLY recommend Benjamin Moore’s Natura paints. No odor, no VOC’s (bad stuff), and great paint. We loved it. And, the best part, their paint sample paper thingies? Identical match to what is on the wall. Identical. Creepy.

The ceiling we made a basic white. We were going to tint it slightly with the same color as the blue wall but decided not to. We did decide, though, to put two coats on the walls. Two of the walls are rough cut, probably cut from right there on the property when the house was built. We debated covering them with paneling but decided not to for various reasons. Cost and ability being the top two.

Before we painted, we had an electrician come out and put in 5 outlets, a light switch, and a ceiling light/fan. Whoo Hoo! The Rose Room has more outlets than the entire house (minus the kitchen)! AND a light switch! What did the room have before? None of the above. It had a light socket with no string. The Rose Room’s dimensions were altered when they put in the bathroom so the light that used to be in the middle of the room was then just a foot away from the wall. We never used the room except as storage so we were never in a hurry to replace the socket with one that had a string or chain.

The room is painted for the most part. Tomorrow Lorna will put the 2nd coat on the top half (where I can’t reach) and will touch up the ceiling. We’re still arguing debating on how to do the moulding. I want to just slap some stuff up while she wants to miter/cope/whatever it. Once that is done, most likely tomorrow, I’ll finish making my desk and move everything in!

Yeah, not holding my breath on it being done tomorrow. Sunday. Maybe.

More pics later! I’m working on setting up a gallery again. Not that I don’t have anything else to do.

bookmark_borderFree Speech

Posted on by PaulaO

This is a case of not having enough hands as I ponder the points.

The US Supreme Court is faced with a decision concerning Free Speech. Free Speech is a right granted to Americans in the US Constitution. Basically, we have the right to say what we want. I agree with that. I may not agree with what you have to say but I will defend your right to do so.

The particular case is Albert Snyder vs Westboro Church. Snyder is the father of deceased Matthew Snyder and Westboro Church is where the Phelps are from. The church members picketed outside the funeral of Matthew (who died in Iraq). They held signs that said their usual acidic “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “You’re going to hell”. The Phelps and their followers believe the US is being punished because of tolerance toward homosexuality and abortion.

So on the one hand, Phelps and his idiot followers have every right to stand out there and protest.

On the other hand, this was a soldier killed in action. As his father said, “I had one chance to bury my son and they took it from me.”

On another hand, the Phelps are idiots who are wallowing in the media attention as they always do.

On still another hand, Matthew Snyder is still dead. The money awarded to the father via the lower courts will not bring him back but it will smack the Phelps down a peg. Maybe.

Yet, it goes back to that first hand. The idiots have every right to say whatever idiocy they want to say. Take away their right to do so and it will open up all sorts of issues. How can the Supreme Court word it so it has enough ‘howevers’ and ‘buts’ that it won’t happen otherwise? What if the situation was reversed? What if, when Phelps dies (the good die young so he’ll be around a long time) soldiers stand out there with signs that praise God that the vitriol from Phelps’ mouth is now stopped? That God Loves Fags? That God is Dancing with Joy that the Earth is now cleansed? What if Phelps’ family took those soldiers to court, saying they couldn’t do that? We would all be a lot more comfortable with that scenario, wouldn’t we? Would the case had even made it to the Supreme Court?

No matter how painful it was for the father to see that sign about God being happy his son is dead, the idiots had every right to hold it up. Just as he had every right to take them to court for it. There are groups now that block the view of the signs from funeral attendees just as the “angels” did for Matthew Shepherd trials and stuff. The Phelps had the right to hold up signs and the angels had the right to wear big huge wings to block their view.

I’m truly sorry, Mr. Snyder that your son is dead. He was a man of honor, I am sure. I am even sorrier that you had to bury him with that filth so close to you. I wish you didn’t have to experience that. God doesn’t hate your son and God didn’t have him killed in order to prove a point. That’s not how God works. At least not the God I know. Are you a homosexual? Was your son? Have either of you funded an abortion? If not, then why would God kill him and punish you?

But, I’m also sorry I have to agree that the Phelps have the constitutional right to stand out there with their signs.

The other issue, and perhaps the one the court will latch onto, is how “private” was the funeral? Were they the proper distance away, as set by the local laws? Did their follow up internet posts that were derogatory toward the Snyders cross the line? I don’t know if the court is ready to make a judgement on the internet aspect. But I think the privacy issue of the funeral will play a huge part. They want to shut Phelps up. That’s evident in the fact they are having problems with the case. No sane person truly believes what they (Phelps and Westboro) have to say. The problem though is whatever the Supreme Court decides will set a precedent for future cases. Just because a picket sign is painful and hateful and full of shit and it severely and permanently hurts someone, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to be there with the sign. Who decides what is painful enough to be wrong? Many many people believe gays shouldn’t marry and that we are all sinners and that for the governments to say we can marry is so very very wrong. If gays were picketing them, and the signs gays held were painful for the others (the truth hurts), then do the gays not have the right to picket?

As much as it hurts me to say this, the US Supreme Court has no choice but to say it was within their First Amendment Rights to be assholes with dumbass signs that severely hurt an already hurting family.

Linkages:
Justices struggle with funeral-protest case – First Amendment Center (good linkages at the bottom)
First Amendment – Wikipedia