"Don't have sex"

There's been a bit in the news lately about abstinance-only sex-ed programs. It's becoming more and more apparent that they don't work. Granted, this is something that pretty much anyone in the target age group could have told you from the start ("You, there, 16-year-old! Is the idea of having sex appealing to you?" "Uh...yes." "Will my telling you not to have sex make you not have sex?" "...No..."), but it's nice to hear that it's finally getting some press. Most of it is based off this report (.pdf).

My problem with the programs (beyond it's a useless waste of money, of course), is twofold. For one, it assumes a moral viewpoint that, while it is the norm in this country, is not universal. Not everyone sees the value of abstaining until marriage (hell, not everyone sees the value of marriage). It's a norm, yes, but the opposite of the norm does not necessarily lead to direct harm. It can, but that's not a given, and I'm sort of uncomfortable with requiring schools to teach things like that.

The second issue is that the federal government's idea of abstinence-only means you can't speak in favor of using contraceptives of any sort, and that's just a thousand types of stupid. If you're in a private Catholic school? It's still stupid, but knock yourselves out. If you're in a public school, then we have a problem, because there is no non-religious way in which you can justify that. It's an indisputable fact that condoms prevent disease and pregnancy. No, they're not perfect, and yes, you can still get sick/pregnant even using them properly. But the chance is drastically reduced, making it a rather common-sense issue.

If we must be puritanical, what's wrong with saying "You probably don't want to have sex until you're married, because there are a lot of risks both physical and emotional that go with it, so maybe it's best to just wait. But, if you can't wait, USE A CONDOM YOU STUPID IDIOTS."

I mean, other than the part where teachers are generally discouraged from calling their students stupid idiots.

The ground's a-movin!

Unexpected news stories: Earthquake in Kent, England.

Not big earthquake territory, England.

Feel-good story of the week

Stephen Hawking goes into space!

Sorta. Microgravity, at least.

Animals that I am oddly fond of

The Great Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is, genetically speaking, a bear. They have the digestive system of a bear, that is, best suited to a carnivorous diet. However the panda is not deterred by this and instead greatly prefers bamboo. This means that the panda almost entirely exists on a plant which it cannot digest well.

The Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) or, to those of us who can bring the Greek, the River Horse, is really neat. I don't know why on this one, but it has something to do with being so very big and awkward. I think I like animals whose evolutionary protection against predators mostly comes down to "stomp on it". Bonus points for uncertain plurals.

The Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). If I were a creationist I would have no choice but to assume that God had some spare bits left over, so he put them in a box, shook them up, and beheld the might platypus. The name is silly. It's a mammal, but it's got a venomous stinger and lays eggs. The females have two ovaries, but only the left one works. They can sense electrical fields with their brain. They look like you took one part duck, one part beaver, and one part rat, and taped them together. Early white colonists called them Duckmoles. Plus, uncertain plurals.

Red Pandas (Ailurus fulgens), because oh god so cute!

Snails. No particular type, but they have an odd, slimy elegance to them.

Spiders. Two legs bad, four legs good, eight legs awesome.

Blah blah blah

Once again, The Onion manages to slice through all the crap:

Middle East Conflict Intensifies As Blah Blah Blah, Etc. Etc.

April 26, 2007 | Issue 43•17

MIDDLE EAST—With the Iraq war in its fifth year, the war in Afghanistan in its sixth, and conflict between Israel and the rest of the region continuing unabated for more than half a century, intelligence sources are warning that a new wave of violence in the Middle East may soon blah blah blah, etc. etc., you know the rest.

This is why satire should always, always be protected.

As I sit here twitching

1) BBC News: STOP DOING THIS. Whether or not some spoiled brat who wants to play army goes to Iraq or not is not news. It's celebrity gossip. Once he has actually done something, anything with his life (meaning: earned fame and attention through something he knowingly and willfully did, rather than the momentous act of being born), then you can consider him news. Until then, I (and I hope to god the majority of your readers) don't give a flying monkey poo. Report on it, fine, but keep it tucked away in some obscure corner. It's insulting to your readers that you give an idiotic story such prominence.

2) My don rag is in two hours. *twitch twitch*

Cold!

Dear New Mexico:

It is almost May.

Why are you 36 degrees outside? That's far too cold.

Note to all aspiring terrorists:

These kind Australians (YouTube) have pointed out that you will likely have more success if you don't dress like caricatures of your ethnicity. Dress like a confused American instead!

Today's "Australians are badasses" story:

Link.
Teenager bothers electrician.

Electrician gets fed up and smacks teenager in the face with a chair.

Leg of chair goes into teenager's eye socket, downwards, into teenager's throat.

Teenager survives. Teenager recovers 95% of the vision in chair-impaled eye. Teenager "totally forgives" chair-thrower.

Australia, how I love you. And live in terror of you.

Dinner and a show, London Style

So did you hear the one about the Polish guy who walked into a restaurant and cut his penis off?

....

Yeah, there's actually no punchline. And people wonder why I like big cities...

It's not that hard

Or maybe it really is that hard, but believe me, having real, legitimate, fair elections is worth it. Really, when was the last time a legitimately, justly-elected official went on a massive genocidal rampage?

...

Okay, that's not so great of an example because it was a while ago but there certainly was a, uh, scale issue.

But, seriously. And it's not just Nigeria, it's "most of the world that's not Western Europe or North America." You have candidates. They campaign. People go to a designated polling place. They vote. You don't screw around with their votes. Easy.

Again, our gun laws fail

The Virginia Tech shooter should not have been able to purchase a gun, as he'd previously been ruled a danger to himself. He did anyway.

If America had stricter gun laws (eg, reminiscent of the UK, where unless it's a historical artifact, you cannot own a handgun), there wouldn't be shops selling pistols all over Virginia, so the issue of doing proper background checks would be pretty well irrelevant.

And again

Right, I've calmed down a bit since this morning. I'm still pissed off over the Supreme Court's ruling, but am no longer frothing at the mouth.

I can't contest that having an abortion may be extremely traumatic for some women. I'd like to first point out that for some it may not be, but regardless, some people will find it so. That's a fact. And I have the utmost sympathy for a woman who finds herself making that choice.

But that's not the issue. People do things that might cause them grief and anguish. Marriage and divorce come to mind: it might work out great for some people, while for others it can lead to all sorts of emotional trauma. You can't legislate against things because someone might get their feelings hurt. That's absurd, far beyond the scope of the government's role, and absolutely impossible to do.

Then there's another teeny, tiny little issue: this intense emotional duress is not a recognized syndrome in the medical community and apparently quite rare. So say a whole bunch of professionals who actually, I assume, know what they're talking about, as opposed to us armchair justices.

"Yes, but it also effects the embryo, thus worsening the situation," you may argue. To which I have a few choice responses.
1. I don't give a flying crap. One of the huge problems with the current ruling is this: there is no exception for the woman's health. I don't care if there are other options available. If your health is being threatened, the state should not be taking away options. I support legalizing medical marijuana, I support legalizing euthanasia, I support stem-cell research, and I support freedom of choice in all reproductive matters. This, I think, is most aggravating to me: it is explicitly saying that women are second-class citizens to lumps of cells that aren't even people, let alone citizens.
2. An embryo is not a person. Most aborted fetuses could not survive outside the uterus at the time of abortion. They are not capable of conscious thought as such. Neither their body nor mind are functional. They are, quite literally, parasites. We all begin as parasites. Some of us make it out of that stage. Some don't. Such is life. If you adopt a very young puppy, would you refuse to de-worm the pup because you don't want to take a life?
2a. Do you use snap-traps to catch mice in your kitchen? Do you kill mosquitoes and spiders? Do you hunt or fish? Best of all, do you support the death penalty, in any situation whatsoever? The shut your mouth and your hypocritical ranting about the "sanctity of life". If we're going to bring that into the argument you don't get to pick and choose what's life and what's not.
3. Now, I'll say that this is only a half-point:

The one woman on the Supreme Court voted against upholding the ban.

Now, think about that for a moment.

The one Supreme Court justice with a uterus, the one Supreme Court justice for whom abortion was/could be a possible decision voted against the ban.

I can already hear your argument about how men are touched by the issue as well, as the sperm comes from somewhere etc, to which I say: sure. They are effected. But nowhere near as much. It's a remote thing, and if a man wants, he can deliver his sperm and book it out of there. A woman, not so much.

The only woman on the Supreme Court voted against upholding the ban.

I think that's pretty damn telling.

Uh-huh.

Supreme court:

But never until Wednesday had the court held that an abortion procedure could be prohibited because the procedure itself, not the pregnancy, threatened a woman’s health — mental health, in this case, and moral health as well. In his majority opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy suggested that a pregnant woman who chooses abortion falls away from true womanhood.

“Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child,” he said.

Justice Kennedy conceded that “we find no reliable data” on whether abortion in general, or the procedure prohibited by the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, causes women emotional harm. But he said it was nonetheless “self-evident” and “unexceptional to conclude” that “some women” who choose to terminate their pregnancies suffer “regret,” “severe depression,” “loss of esteem” and other ills.

SHUT UP, you idiotic jackass. I'm sure plenty of men have regrets after vasectomies, should we outlaw them? What about boob jobs? Cosmetic dentistry?

It's a personal choice, and the Supreme Court (which, with one exception, is populated by men, all but one of them white, all of them no doubt rich) would do well to get it's hands the hell away from my uterus, thank you very much.

Christ, the elective eye surgery I had when I was a child probably left me with "emotional harm". Should we ban that?

Post-disaster news

Now that we have an idea of what happened, the news outlets get to spend the next week throwing crap at us. The shooter's personal history. The victims' histories. Maps, graphics, interviews with paid-for 'experts' on psychology and guns and violence and anger. Stupid stuff.

Stupid like this headline, courtesy of the Times: Gunman Showed Signs of Anger.

No shit he showed signs of anger. Generally people who are stable and content don't commit mass murder.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out which I think is a more despicable waste of media resources: the 24/7 coverage of "the aftermath" of the VT shootings, or the coverage of Britain's Prince Whatever dumping his girlfriend. Really a toss up, I think.

...

Over 20 dead in a shooting on the VA Tech campus.

Jesus Christ on a stick, what is wrong with people? or the world?

One for the anti-Islam crowd out there

There's been massive protests in Turkey over the creeping influence of Islam in their currently-secular government. Over 300,000 people peacefully staged a protest in Ankara, hoping to help keep Turkey secular.

Turkey, which is almost entirely Muslim. Wikipedia says 99.0%; the CIA says 99.8%.

Just another thing to point out whenever certain people (not that I have anyone in mind, especially not anyone who failed to engage in debate the other day in the cafeteria, cough cough) say that all Muslims favor extremism or you never hear the Muslim community denouncing terrorism/Sharia law/etc.

For future reference:

Leave the medicinal chemistry to those who know what their doing.

My thinking: They make Claritin with a decongestant in it as well. I only have the regular generic. I am having a problem with congestion as well, mostly at night. Therefore, I will buy some Sudefed, and just take that before I go to bed.

Technically my logic was correct and for several hours I did not suffer a stuffy nose. I did not sleep, either. The allergy pills alone have been making me sleep fitfully at best; the Sudefed did not improve that. I dozed off and woke up in a state of absolute panic and, for a few moments, was convinced I was having a heart attack. I just sat there, trying not to hyperventilate, for probably an hour. Eventually I started dozing back off, only to have some noise (neighbors or something) wake me and repeat the cycle. I'm also fairly certain I was having some aural hallucinations, which just made me feel even more paranoid. Whee.

So...no more pharmaceutical mix-and-matching for me. Fun experiment but I think I've learned a valuable lesson about oh god never again.

To: BBC News

This is not news.

It is, in fact, completely irrelevant. It is the anti-news.

You are one of the most famous, reputable, staid news sources in the world.

Please don't do this again.

If you must publish celebrity gossip, please don't put it as the lead story on your front page. It makes me think that your editorial staff now consists of middle-aged housewives.

Sometimes you feel like a nut....

Reason to hate Santa Fe: For the love of God it's APRIL! It should not be 40 degrees! And if you must snow in April, stop with this pansy-ass "snowing all day but not accumulating" crap!

Reasons to love Santa Fe: The public library has a Firefox search plugin. Somehow that's just awesome.

Eh?

Apparently women are discriminated against while traveling. According to the New York Times, the main problems seem to be flight attendants treating women like "second-class citizens" and hotel clerks tell you where your room is.

What?

Crap like this is why people are so hesitant to take feminism seriously. "Oh noes, the hotel clerk just said my room number out loud! He's not protecting me!" You're a grown woman old enough to get a hotel room. Carry mace and stop being such a freaking pansy.

Bunnes &c.

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Oh, allergies

Not so bad today, probably owing to the bit of snow we got overnight.

But I'm still getting nosebleeds. Out of curiosity I Googled the drug I'm taking (loratadine), and see this.

Loratadine may cause side effects. Tell your doctor if any of these symptoms are severe or do not go away:

• headache
• dry mouth
• nosebleed
• sore throat
• mouth sores
• difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
• nervousness
• weakness
• stomach pain
• diarrhea
• red or itchy eyes

Oh. Fun fun.

A reminder

Never underestimate the tastiness of a good, veggie-laden sandwich.

Best. Easter Egg. Ever.

Apparently the White House has a State Egg Display every year. Each state nominates someone to decorate an egg, and they're displayed in the White House. The egg, presumably, will somehow be decorated in a way which represents the state. See them here. Texas' egg features Texas (of course). New Jersey's appears to feature some overwhelming awesome cut-out thing, revealing that underneath the hard shell of Jersey is, uh, a Vermont farmhouse or something. New Mexico's artist took a similar route, only New Mexico is apparently home to anthropomorphic bears or something. Pennsylvania, embarrassing enough, is representing themselves with an anthropomorphic groundhog named Phil from a funnily-named town. The artwork on some is better than others, but hell, it's all better than I could do on canvas, let alone an egg.

Other than Wyoming. Wyoming's egg bears a skiing...egg, I guess. Or possibly an albino bean. Or some sort of terrifying sea-creature, because it's hands look rather fin-like. And apparently the guy who did it is actually from Illinois.

In all it's glory:













Yeah...

NM's isn't as bad, but I don't know...

Thailand discovers YouTube; gets tired of being mocked

So, Thailand, the country known best for it's frequent but recently-boring political revolutions, has discovered YouTube. And that people on the internet are stupid. Because of this video, YouTube is now banned from Thailand.

Okay. So it's a video lightly poking fun at their king. It's a poorly done video but you can argue that it's the intent that matters. Someone doesn't like the king. Ooh, disrespect.

Come on, Thailand! You're a developing country. Once you get your latest coup sorted out maybe you'll be a step closer to, you know, democracy and freedom. Don't you want that? Well, you've got to take two steps to get there. First and by far most importantly, you've got to let people talk. I know, it can piss you off sometimes, but that doesn't matter. Just because you're in power doesn't make your opinion any more right or worthwhile.

The second thing, and this is mostly my opinion, is that you've got to ditch the monarchy thing. You throw people in jail for defacing your propaganda posters - obviously, you can't deal with it. "Freedom's not free" they say, so I guess one of the costs in your situation is getting rid of an institution which, by definition, is contrary to a truly free state.

Things that suck

Getting up at 7:30 so you can make it to your 9 AM class in time, showering, getting dressed and so on - then realizing way belatedly that your meeting at 10 instead of 9 today. *grumble*

Whoo

Today started with some rather bawdy Shakespeare (Twelfth Night) in Language class. Shakespeare comedies are never not fun, if only because the Bard himself was a dirty, dirty man with an incomprehensible talent for punning and wordplay. If I could reincarnate one Program author to study with, rather than to study the works of, it would without a doubt be him.

Then I discovered that my music tutor in fact liked my paper on Beethoven's Eroica, which makes me very happy and is something of a relief. Yay.

I enjoy days when things go well.

Alas, I believe

Thus far of all the candidates, I absolutely like Richardson best. Obama's OK and certainly has charisma, but is deeply lacking in experience. Edwards has more experience but he's been talking up security and defense too much for my liking; I predict parroting of our currently Dear Leader's rhetoric. Richardson, on the other hand, is liberal enough in his stances for me to stomach him, has an overwhelming amount of diplomatic experience, and is one of the only candidate with actual executive experience.

His latest thing here in NM is legalizing medical marijuana. I'm completely in favor of that and have a hard time seeing what the objections to it are (you're a terminal cancer patient but no you can't have this drug that will ease your excruciating pain because I think it's morally wrong?), but I'm sure there are lots of people who do oppose it. As good as it is for New Mexico, I think it's a bad move for his presidential aspirations. It looks too liberal, even though I don't think it particularly is.

And thus is the problem of Mr. Bill Richardson: he seems like a nice guy who honestly wants to do the right thing. Thus, he's not going to abandon his current constituency to run around campaigning, and I can't imagine him giving in and truly playing the political game of Talk but Don't Act.

Smuggle drugs, pay less tax!

The Netherlands? Strange place. A court ruled that a convicted drug smuggler could deduct the costs of buying and moving the drugs. Which are illegal.

Europe is weird.