What a lot of people still don't know was that she had a career as a stock broker before becoming the design maven that she is now. And she was an actual member of the NYSE. So if anyone on the planet should know the limits on insider trading it should have been her. No question she deserved the punishment.

That said, more power too her. I liked and used a lot of her stuff from K-Mart when I was equipping and remodeling my first house in Juneau. The way she did the paint color schemes was especially good. Unfortunately the Martha Stewart Living K-Mart paint wasn't. I actually ended up using her paint color combinations but had the actual paint custom-mixed at the local Benjamin Moore store. Too bad she can't dump K-Mart and start working with a sharper chain like Target.

She deserved every minute she got, and probably then some. People who think they are not subject to the same rules as the rest of us make me sick, no matter how much respect I might otherwise have for the talents that brought them their successes.

On a side note: My future brother-in-law claims to have taken a leak on the front lawn of one of Martha's homes. He's my hero.

I wasn't a Martha Stweart fan before she got into trouble and I am not a Martha Stewart fan now. She would scare me if I had to be around her. However, there is something to admire about anyone who went through the public shame and humiliation of getting caught doing something wrong, paying the price that society required, and rather than becoming bitter or self-indulgently self-pitying, goes forward with optimism and a certain air of humility, humor and acceptance. I would almost go so far as to refer to it as class, but I hesitate, as I am not sure exactly what we are seeing, and only time will tell. So far, I am impressed.

I'm a long-time fan of Martha. No doubt she isn't (or at least wasn't) a nice person, and it appears that she fell victim to her own conviction (nice choice of words, no?) that she had done nothing wrong and perhaps was slightly above the law. But she took her punishment like a man, and deserves to be admired for that. What I still find scary is that she could be prosecuted and convicted for lying, not under oath, with no other underlying crime. (Contrary to popular opinion, restated above, no insider trading was proven or even charged.) Makes you want to keep your mouth pretty much shut, especially when gummint types are in earshot.

Yeah but you could have at least found a better pic of the broad? Possibly showing that sexy anklet.