Needs One of Those Caffeinated Donuts...

Here.

Caffeine with Sprinkles on Top

Can they make a green tea version?

When Good Censors Go Bad

Maybe the error is more comical to me because I'm appreciative of the intent behind it. A novice censor bleeped out all references to God during in-flight versions of "The Queen."

You know, I've actually done something like that, too. My DVD player has a sound censor option that enables me to block out average swearing, religious profanities, etc. Awhile ago, a friend and I began watching a movie and thought there was a problem with the player--no sound was coming out. For some reason, the censor had caught innocuous words at the start and interpreted them as "desirous to be blocked"--and did so.

Thanks, y'all, for trying. It's appreciated. And funny!

What Was That Tom Hanks Movie...?

I'm sorry, ma'am; you're not a Canadian anymore.

Yes, yes, I realize you were in Gambia at the time. I know that teaching English on another continent on your 24th birthday was one of the highlights of your life. Unfortunately, we have this rule, see, that you must be here at that moment if you'd like to retain your citizenship. We were weeding out the ranks, you see...

No, I don't really know what the logic was behind it...

Why 24? Well, perhaps it was decided that you should have finished your education and should be settled in your permanent job at that point. Stable, in-country and such.

People away on business? Hm...

Swedish grandmother's funeral? Well, those things need to be planned out in advance. Surely you could have avoided...

Don't raise your voice at me, ma'am. The question now is whether you'd like to apply for citizenship or not.

Yes, yes, rather ironic to apply for citizenship when you were born here and have lived in the country for the past 20-some years. Hopefully you see the humor in this situation...

No? Well, I may know of some people...who can get you into America...

Woah, Horsey...

A Texan town is considering banning the n-word? It certainly has horrid historical connotations. Humans being treated as property or a sub-species isn't something I endorse. But you'd like to ban a word...and fine people $500 for using it?

Perhaps the term "slave" should also be outlawed. The b-word is not particularly nice. "Planned Parenthood" makes me nauseous. "Failed" really isn't good for the ego.

Regardless of the chosen term, the significance is in the intent behind it. Why can a person of African descent use the n-word on another person of African descent? Intent. "You'd best not slam me, because you're no higher on the totem pole."

A word's usage can imply intent...but to legislate attitudinal intent? Aren't we the nation that got its start from 13 little colonies who didn't want their religious intent to be legislated?

Come back, baby; come back.

And Now for Something Completely Different

I'm a sucker for St. Bernard-type rescue stories. Here's one with Bambi on the receiving end.

Little Mosque on the Prairie

You'd think that, as a Norwegian, I'd take myself much less seriously. We make fun of ourselves. A lot. Perhaps this originated on those cold, snowy mountains of the homeland, when it was too cold or steep to go outside. Too isolated to see others doing stupid things, my people were fixated upon the stupid things those of their own kind did.

Anyway, it's nice to see that other people groups have caught on. With that, I bring you...Little Mosque on the Prairie...

A blurb:

The show follows a small group of Muslims in, of all places, a prairie town
in Saskatchewan where, in the first episode, the group was trying to establish a
mosque in the parish hall of a town church. A passer-by, seeing the group
praying, rushes to call a "terrorist hot line" to report Muslims praying "just
like on CNN", which touches off a local firestorm.

Another:

Later, a leader of the Muslim group is seen defending to a local person the
plan to turn the church parish hall to a mosque. "It's a pilot project," he
says, leading the man to exclaim wide-eyed, "You're training pilots?!"

A Handbasket

Funny how you can have a degree from a university, yet still not be able to make sense of the world, isn't it? Looking at my previous post, I'm feeling rather dumb. Here's another thing I don't understand.

Deaf woman 1 kidnaps, kills and hacks up the body of deaf woman 2 because DW2 was supposedly hitting on deaf woman 3, DW1's girlfriend.

In our age of non-discrimination policies and equal-access for all, DW1's lawyers are challenging the prosecution's death penalty recommendation. Because they disagree with the death penalty? Nope. Because

Wright's inability to hear and her limited verbal skills would make it
unfairly difficult for her to persuade a jury to spare her life.

A) Translators, facial expressions, and body language. Use them well.
B) If you didn't spare the life of someone who had an inability to hear and limited verbal skills, why should this be a reason to spare you?

Ethics classes...what are those about?

In Due Time

I don't get it. Boy at frat house drinks too much. Frat guys draw obscene things on boy. Boy dies from alcohol poisoning. Parents sue frat guys.

If I were the parent in this case, I would (in due time)

• think through the past 18 years of my kid's life and analyze what I had taught him about self-esteem, identity, doing what a chanting hoarde of collegiates told him, and ingesting massive quantities of alcohol
• come to the realization that no matter what I taught him, this was his choice of environment and action
• join up with or begin a crusade to enable people to actually think about their choices (ie: consumption of alcohol en masse), and the effects those choices have on others (how intoxicated do you have to be to not realize that a) a person who's that unresponsive needs medical attention and b) you're drawing on someone who has not passed out, but passed away?)

But sue? On what grounds?

Anybody Got $977 Million to Spare?

I think I could handle having my own country. However, I believe I'd want one with more of a beach.

Secret Plans for All the World to See

I remember watching the news with friends a day or so after the 9/11 attacks. Donald Rumsfeld was asked what the strategy would be for finding the responsible parties. He looked witheringly at the media and responded that he certainly wasn't going to share information that would help the terrorists themselves...

Apparently, the media hasn't learned when to be quiet.

Israel has drawn up secret
plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment
facilities with tactical nuclear
weapons.

The Ashley Treatment

Fox article
The family blog

These people are scary.

Parents had doctors alter their daughter's chemistry so she would never physically grow up.

My horridly favorite line:

We learned that accelerating growth is feasible through high-dose estrogen
therapy. This treatment was performed on teenage girls starting in the 60’s and
70’s, when it wasn’t desirable for girls to be tall, with no negative or long
term side effects.

The fact that there is experience with administering high-dose estrogen to limit height in teen-age girls gave us the peace of mind that it was safe—no surprise side effects; furthermore, people found justification in applying this treatment for cosmetic reasons while we were seeking a much more important purpose, as will be detailed below.

It was done "in the 60's and 70's...?" That's a good reason to do something? Ever heard of thalidomide babies?

The general population has a 5% chance of getting appendicitis, so we decided to have her appendix taken out, as well? Hey--lots of people have heart attacks, too--may as well take that out. A large number of women get breast cancer. Take those out...oh, wait...

Furthermore, we’re fortunate to have access to one of the best surgical
facilities and teams at Seattle Children’s Hospital. If we were in a less
developed locale or country with higher risk of surgery, we would have looked at
this part of the analysis differently.

Thank goodness we're in a civilized nation!

At the same time we’re surprised at the volume and magnitude of the
critical comments. We went carefully through these comments; however, they
seemed to us as gut-feel reactions without much depth or true understanding of
the situation, the treatment, or the motivation behind it, which we hope this
article sheds more light on. It seems that people are thinking of a child who is
mostly normal or who might progress to approach normal.

Gut reaction, perhaps. But, no, I am not thinking of a child who may progress to being "normal." I am thinking of people I worked with at a camp for mentally and physically disabled people. Adults in wheelchairs. Billy, who couldn't talk and carried a rag to wipe drool away from his face. Betty, in her 50's with Down Syndrome and a mastectomy, who sat beside me and patted my head when I had a headache. Adult diapers I've changed. Feeding Grandma. Great-grandma in a nursing home for years with Alzheimers. Shrink any one of them to "improve their quality of life?" I'm surprised these people view their daughter as fit for life.

Furthermore, to put our decision process in perspective, it is not uncommon
for parents with children who have cancer or birth defects/scars to pursue
significantly more intrusive treatment (chemo or radiation therapy) or more
involved surgery (limb amputations or face reconstruction), than what the
“Ashley Treatment” entails.

We're not being as harsh as people who subject their children to chemo are? Their certain alternative is death!

If the concern has something to do with the girl’s dignity being violated,
then I have to protest by arguing that the girl lacks the cognitive capacity to
experience any sense of indignity.

Good logic. She wouldn't know she's being violated, so this is okay. What was that "sexual predator" part under the breast removal section about? And aren't we the nation who cried out in anguish and horror when bodies of our soldiers were mutilated and dragged through foreign streets? They, at that point, lacked the cognitive capacity to experience any sense of indignity. Why did we care? And do we feel the same about Ashley?

...the treatments will endow her with a body that more closely matches her
cognitive state...

Thank you. I'm 5'1". What are you saying about my cognitive state?

Who are these people--these parents, doctors, and ethics committee? They may argue that these measures are preventative--like being vaccinated against polio, measles and tetanus. It's 1:15 a.m. and I can't think of a description for the line--but something inside me is screaming that it's been crossed.


1/19/07 comment:

DR. NORMAN FOST, BIOETHICS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN:
They used treatments that were not experimental, as people claim. Estrogen
has been around for decades, using it to slow down growth has been done
before...

No kidding. Estrogen's been around for decades? It's good to have an expert opinion on this.