Ooooh.

Normally, I don't really like big lawsuits, especially not ones that involve emotional distress and freedom of speech issues. In fact, with most freedom of speech issues, I'm pretty likely to come down on the side of the accused.

But man, Westboro Baptist losing a nearly 11-million dollar lawsuit? I'm having a really hard time mustering any outrage whatsoever about that.

Speaking of excess...

You really can't make stuff like this up.

"Boss, I think the government spends too much time writing reports."

"Really? Well, write that up in a report and see what we can figure out."

He'd fit right in here in NM...

A guy gets pulled over for driving the wrong way down a highway.

He's drunk and has an open can of beer in the car.

Also, his two-year-old is in the backseat, no carseat, no seatbelt. Nor is the driver wearing a seatbelt.

Also, the car was uninsured.

Also, the inspection tag was expired.

Also, the license plates belong to a different car.

Sweet lord, it must have felt like Christmas came a couple months early for that cop.

Exactly what this country needs!

Ladies and gentlemen, the idiotically-named Mitt Romney and his brilliant new ideas!

“I like the idea of linking the level of support that we’re able to provide to young people going to college to the contributions they’re going to make to our society,” Romney said.

What? Seriously, what does this mean? Has he developed a magical way of predicting for sure that someone who gets a degree in, say, philosophy or English will contribute less to society than someone who gets a degree in engineering? Who contributes more, the mechanics who keep a city's public transportation system running or the guy with a business degree who oversees the finances of said system?

I joke about my major* being useless, yes. But one: it's really not. Studying things like logic and rhetoric actually do have practical applications (critical thinking? decision making? communicating with people?). And two, how the hell does he propose we preemptively quantify how much someone is going to contribute to society based on what they study in school? That's so flawed on so many levels it burns the brain.

I can't find it yet online, but I'd be rather interested in finding out what Romney got his undergrad degree in. All I can find is that he got a BA from BYU, but nothing saying what.

*or lack thereof, but that just confuses people when I phrase it that way.

The Countdown Begins

Turkey's going to attack northern Iraq.

That's not good, but am I truly a terrible person for getting the slightest smug satisfaction from Turkey saying that they don't need anyone else's approval to attack Iraq? Because...we did the same thing a while ago? And maybe now we'll start to learn why that's not a precedent we should have set?

Locke me up

I have the biggest crush on John Locke. Seminar was pretty empty - lots of people decided to kick off their long weekend a bit early, I guess - but pretty good. The type of seminar where I left with my head just spinning with ideas (including paper ideas).

Also, the Founding Fathers totally cribbed from Locke. It's worked out pretty well, sure, but at one point I was just like, hmm, that sounds markedly familiar...

Oh

I think it's important for everyone, everywhere to know that the first president of Zimbabwe was Canaan Banana.

President Banana. Hee.

Good Grief

Bush has just appointed Susan Orr the head of family planning within the Department of Health and Human Services. She's a "culture of death" spewer who believes that birth control shouldn't be covered under health insurance plans because "fertility is not a disease".

She also has this to say about child welfare (pdf):

Narrowing the scope in which the government can interfere will mean that some behavior. which is bad for children. will not be responded to by state authorities. But a parent whose skills and knowledge of child development are deficient may be better aided by someone unassociated with a state authority. Help from a charitable or civic association that holds no threat of harm to the family may be better received. For example, emotionally abusive behavior. such as screaming invectives at a child. may be poor parenting, but does not rise to the level of serious maltreatment. A mother who screams, however, may benefit from someone offering her the possibility of a day out of the house on her own by baby-sitting for her.

Great! Let's replace the child welfare system with having neighbors babysit. I admit my qualifications on the issue are non-existent, but seriously? Sure, a parent who loses their temper every so often is...a typical parent. But if it's a consistent problem, and the kid's getting screamed at relentlessly every day, then someone needs to step in. Otherwise, you may or may not end up with a seriously whacked-out kid. Also:

Poverty is not a crime either. No one should be persecuted for simply being unable to clothe or house a child adequately. Injuries to children, on the other hand, should be treated as criminal assaults. In fact, most poor parents do not harm their children. Reasonable people can distinguish between shabbily dressed, but well-cared for children and those who are chronically neglected: one may require private, charitable help, the other state intervention.

No, poverty is not a crime (though we still should try to stop it). And I absolutely agree that parents who are trying to but can't provide for their children (food, clothing, shelter, emotional needs) should not be punished for that; they should be helped. But if a parent isn't trying, if the kid is suffering while Pop feeds his drug addiction or Mom worships the slots, then yes, the parents should be punished. If you have a kid, that means that for the next eighteen years at least your absolute priority is taking care of that kid.

She goes on to decry mandatory reporting laws (suspect child abuse? nah, no reason to say anything), and also say that family services should be optional. I guess the church should just replace that all, right?

One could posit that increasing access to birth control and abortion could potentially help fix some of these problems, but what the hell do I know.

"It's my metabolism!"

Things like this make me angry:

Individuals can no longer be held responsible for obesity and government must act to stop Britain "sleepwalking" into a crisis, a report has concluded.

YES YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE! If you are fat, it is - with extremely few exceptions - your fault. It means you eat too much, or eat badly, or don't exercise enough, or some combination of the above. Some people might gain weight from medications they take (most of which are probably not necessary anyway), but no one gets obese from anything but their own idiocy.

Know how you stop being a disgusting bucket of useless lard? Get up off your oversize bottom, do some exercise, eat a salad instead of three Big Macs. You'll feel better for it, plus you eventually won't be one of those assholes who takes up more than one seat on public transportation.

The actual article goes on to say that obesity is an "inevitable" by-product of our modern culture. It does not explain why, you know, a lot of people aren't fat. Because that would require acknowledging personal responsibility, I guess.

BS of the day

Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005.

The company said it does not determine the requests' legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations. (Washington Post)

Right. Because the government is saving lives by systematically destroying our Constitutional rights to privacy. So many many lives are on the line when the government wants someone's phone records. Also, there's big famous bridge in the New York metro region that I'm looking to sell.

I'm not sure who's more disgusting here, the phone companies or the government. On one hand, the government is entirely overreaching their bounds. On the other hand....

Verizon and AT&T said it was not their role to second-guess the legitimacy of emergency government requests.

Look, part of being a responsible citizen, be it a huge corporation or a single guy, is knowing when to say "Look, I don't think this is right, so I'm going to talk to some other people about it." That's when, if you're feeling naive and stupid, you go to the police/other feds/etc, and if you're feeling like actually doing something, you go to the media, you deluge your congressional representatives with letters and faxes and phone calls, and you raise holy hell until the issue gets the attention it deserves. Afraid it's going to hurt business? Suck it up. That's the trade-off for living in a free society: the secret police aren't going to bust down your door and haul you away if you ask questions or complain, but that leaves it up to you to take charge when things are going wrong.

The most depressing thing is that the most prestigious new outlets in the world could scream this from the rooftops, we could drop leaflets on the streets, wage an all-out propaganda war...and still, nothing will happen. I'm pretty much convinced at this point that one of two things will happen: gross injustices will continue unabated and the authorities responsible will never, ever be brought to justice or be in any way called on their actions, or something violent is going to happen that will result in America's infrastructure taking a crazy beating.

Awww

The combination of school keeping me very busy and absolute disgust with The System has lead to me dreading reading the news every day. So this is not a blog entry about politics.

Instead, here's a link to a story about tiny pigs, apparently in pumpkins. The pictures are well worth clicking through. Now I kind of want to go buy a pumpkin to see if there's a teeny little piglet inside (and somewhere, my high school biology teacher cries out in pain...)

Mach Day

60 years ago today, a guy in a plane over a big empty desert went faster than anyone else ever had. Faster than they thought was possible. That's a hell of a thing to have on your resume.

And yet I still can't get from Albuquerque to Philly in fewer than six hours.

Oh dear

I'd forgotten how insanely sad the movie Dumbo is. Also, how downright creepy parts are.

And yes, I am watching Dumbo, and if you have a problem with that, I don't care. Hmph.

School. Thinking. Things.

1. I still really like Hobbes, as he fascinates me. I'm also in awe of how quickly Leviathan changes from 'interesting and fairly unique discussion on the nature of man' to 'completely insane political theories'. Seriously: the sovereign can do no wrong? Man cannot justly accuse the sovereign of wrong? Totalitarianism is the best idea? Revolution is (generally) unjust? Man. That's some seriously out-there stuff - but at the same time, his influence on the establishment of modern political theory is absolutely obvious.

2. Calculus. It's interesting, because I feel bits of high school math trickling back. Only this time...my gosh, I think I understand it! It's still hard, of course, but I get it. I can tell you what a derivative is, rather than just plunking away at a formula /calculator to find it. That makes it infinitely more enjoyable.

3. I had a dream last night that I was a police officer in Philadelphia. That was a bit strange, to say the least.

Oh, god, America.

Gut reaction: This encapsulates everything that is wrong with America.

More thought-out reaction: Also, everything that's right, because in places lacking such protections of free speech, there are probably fewer idiots to publicly mock.

And so it ends...

Well. That was...disappointing.

So what now, Phillies, another 14 years of "Hey, we really freaking SUCK"? If you were going to just throw it away, you know what? A lot of your fans probably would have preferred if you didn't even bother getting our hopes up that we might maybe get a third shot at, hell, the NLCS, let alone the World Series. Considering that you're a franchise that's been around for well over 100 years and have been there five times in 124 years. The guys you just got swept by haven't ever been there, but that's because they've only been in existence for 14 years. Note that their entire history as a franchise is the amount of time since you last were in the playoffs.

And now I'm going to have to hope that the Diamondbacks of all teams beat the Rockies, just because I sure as hell can't cheer for the Rockies after the way they just smeared you around.

*sigh* Philly.

Oh, Aramark

On my way out of the cafeteria today, I spied something potentially tasty on the dessert table. At first glance I thought it might have been some sort of eclair or creme puff, a notion which had me very excited. Perhaps some leftover goodies from some formal to-do?

Closer inspection revealed traces of artificial red fruity stuff. And that it was, like, a dinner roll.

*sigh*

Oh, Santa Fe

Apparently, there are to many old straight people in Santa Fe for the old gay people's liking.

My God this is a fantastic town.

Oh yeah.

Phillies. The game started well.

...

Middle of the sixth and the Rockies lead 10-3.

*sigh*

Yep, that's the Phils playing.

eta: goddamnit, chance of a comeback? Quit playing around with my emotions, Phillies! >:-(

Seriously man

3-2 Rockies, end of the sixth.

C'mon Phillies!

(Seriously: My mother sounded excited about baseball when I talked to her today. My mother is never excited about sports. Everyone in the city of Philly is happy. Because of the Phillies. This is so awesome it's weird.)

Tests and breasts

There's a Harvard medical student who has sued the organization that does medical board testing. She sued because they wouldn't give her extra break time. The standard is 45 minutes however you want (in one chunk or spread out) throughout nine hours of exams, plus whatever excess time from one of the exam 'blocks' if you finish early. For added fun she's already getting a private room and extra time on the exam due to learning disabilities. In my opinion, she's one of those types who just sets women back - bugging the 'establishment' with idiotic requests for special treatment doesn't do any good.

Now, my first question is what the hell someone with a still-breastfeeding infant is going to do when she starts working as a doctor, a career which is notoriously time consuming. A 'normal' job means, with few exceptions, you can excuse yourself or shut your office door and do whatever you need during your eight-hour day. A doctor, not so much.

Secondly: if you can't meet the requirements of the exam, take it later. Simple as that. You chose to spawn; deal with the consequences.

Thirdly, if she's taking nine hours of exams spread over two days, that's four and a half hours per day. That should be plenty of time to be able to control your bodily functions within a twenty minute break. And if it's going to take you longer than that or you can't summon up the determination to do it, then maybe medicine - where people's lives may depend on your judgment - isn't the field for you.

It's a simple thing. Either you put your career first and make sacrifices in your personal life (don't have kids, or since it's too late for that, don't breastfeed) until your career is established. Or, put your personal life first, and wait until you're no longer breastfeeding to take the exams. It's, what, six months at most? You can't have everything.