I'm trying to understand...

...these reactions of teenagers to abusive relationships:

Teenage Girls Stand by Their Man

A lot of these girls seem to be defending Chris Brown's beating of Rihanna with the reasoning that men and women are equal and therefore equally responsible for anything that happens within a relationship. It's difficult to argue with a group who thinks its position is based in equality, but something just doesn't sit right here.

One girl's parents instruct her to strike back if she is ever hit by a man. What happens to this advice as the kids age and grow, and the men gain significant physical advantages over the women? I agree that a woman should "fight back" in that she should not put up with abuse, but to suggest that a woman should try to match a man physically could lead to more danger for the woman.

Abuse is an extremely complicated issue. People abuse others, and abusers stay with their abusers, for so many reasons. Most human behavior can be explained somehow. We can come up with psychological profiles to give us reasons for this or that action. But at a certain point, even if things are explicable, isn't there cause to intervene when the behavior is destructive? Who cares if we know why the abuse is happening, if it is clear that the abuse is harming someone?

Happiness!

I do believe I have a new love...and that love is the Yamaha CP33 stage piano.

I finally made the plunge and purchased my new love yesterday afternoon, after waiting several agonizing days for my local Yamaha retailer to replenish its CP33 stock. And tonight, well, tonight I set the bad boy up and played it for the first time.

I can't wipe the grin off my face. Uncontrollable smiles are my favorite kind.

My new love has graded hammer action (it feels like a real grand piano), a sweet sustain pedal, and (most importantly of all) the most realisitc piano voices I have ever heard on a digital piano.

My new love is probably the best roommate I've ever had (please, note to humans I've lived with: if you heard this baby, you would not take offense to that statement whatsoever). I hope we have a long and fruitful relationship together.