conuly

Thousands Sterilized, a State Weighs Restitution

2011-12-11T22:59:02Z

Do NOT read the comments. You can't leave a reply anyway, as they're closed.

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And one on a potential drug to help Down Syndrome

2011-08-06T19:16:02Z

Clicky! Be warned, it's kinda long.

Comments are a mixed bag, but thanks to screening they're at least all literate and readable.

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An article on a set of conjoined twins

2011-05-27T14:49:21Z

Could Conjoined Twins Share a Mind?
There are pictures here
And a little blog post on how raising children with special needs can be so damaging to their typical sibllings.

The comments to the article are *mostly* okay, but there are several that are just as bad as you expect. My replies to these, in order are:

1. Four year old children are not inspirational simply because they exist
2. You are in no place to judge the quality of their life
3. Human lives are not valued according to how costly they are
4. It's not morally wrong to have an abortion, but it's ALSO not morally wrong to NOT have an abortion, have you ever heard of "choice"? Either of you?
4a. Yes, even if you're poor!
5. Yes, given the dentist's concerns, the juice in the sippy at bedtime is a bit distressing. Not actually abusive, but probably not the wisest decision. I'm glad to know that there's always a chance to rag on people who give their kids juice. Keeps my world steady!

Comments aren't closed, so you can still get in there and make a general comment to the point that disability and difference don't make your life not worth living!

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And here we have some articles!

2010-11-24T15:44:02Z

(Quite a lot of them have to do with the TSA situation, I'll try to group them together.)

Placards, kilts part of plans for scanner protests
Oversecured America
AP Exclusive: Color-coded terror alerts may end
Schneir on Security's recent update about it all
And an LJ link
An update from the ACLU saying the TSA isn't training its scanners
Why Cavity Bombs Would Make the TSA Irrelevant
TSA chief: Resisting scanners just means delays
For the First Time, the TSA Meets Resistance
TSA Chief: US Will Never Ease Screening Policy
You, apparently, can't just say "Screw it, I don't need to fly today"
Shirtless 8-Year-Old Boy Gets TSA Pat Down
A Pat's Papers article on flying dead bodies
And he happens to think the TSA blog is "actually sort of fun"

Whew! That's a lot!

Bizarre squidworm discovered

Behavior change causes changes in beliefs, not vice versa

On turkeys. Hey, could I raise my own heritage turkey for the holiday next year? You *can* keep poultry in the city if they aren't noisy. And we already have wild or feral turkeys in Staten Island, among other places.

On stuffing your turkey with White Castle burgers.

Coyotes have been released in Chicago to help keep down the rodent population. I suppose that's not very much different than encouraging peregrine* falcons in NYC.

*Peregrine means wandering, of course, and is related to the word pilgrim in the obvious way.

A fluffy little article on Yiddish.
And for that matter, you can check out a nifty language map to see where Yiddish is spoken in the US!

It's time to sign up for SantaThing. This also makes a good gift. However, I will get you nothing in return, so bear that in mind.

University Kicks Student With Down Syndrome Out Of Classroom; Other Students Protest And Are Ignored

On tattoos to improve/monitor your health

Our Disappearing Apples

On taxes

Some graphs on race and the death penalty

Obama, S. Korea leader agree to hold joint military exercise. If somebody manages to start the Korean war up again, I'll be very irked. I'm already irked, frankly, because I see the likelihood of this.

Allergic Teen Seeks High School Perfume Ban

Conservatives at odds with Vatican over condoms

Children Born 'Late Pre-Term' More Prone to Low IQ
Minnesota is using paperwork to deter induced labor

The use of braces for younger kids is increasing

And one from Motortrend.com that's... just well-worth reading for the fun of it.

And FINALLY (I think) one on a school which banned... wait for it... wait for it...

PENCILS!

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I didn't realize this, but Wendy Portillo was in the news again

2010-11-20T02:20:09Z

I am beginning to believe she is simply a terrible human being.

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A few articles (with possible commentary!)

2010-02-27T16:44:03Z

First, this one isn't really related to the others, but I'll link to it now anyway. Apparently the president gave a speech where he mispronounced one word out of many, he said "aks" or possibly "aksk" instead of "ask". Normally I'd give the "aks is a historically valid pronunciation of ask" lecture, but no worries, Rush Limbaugh gave it for me, saying:

“Obama can turn on that black dialect when he wants to and turn it off.”

This is because Limbaugh is one classy dude.

Now, the link above (and Language Log's second post on the subject here) take the view that this is the sort of speech error that people make all the time and that nothing more should be said on it.

I didn't see the original speech, so I'll just go with their interpretation but also add: Even if he was saying "aks" as his normal mode of speech (in the same way that Bush said "nucular" all the time), who cares? There's nothing wrong with it and we all understand it. And if he sometimes speaks in one dialect and sometimes in another, this is a bad thing? Since when? Having more than one way to speak can only help you in this world, how could it harm you in any way?

Of course, I'm missing the point, which was no doubt just a chance to go "Look, he's STILL BLACK, and I don't like that but if I say that outright people will think I'm an ass, because I am, so I'll pretend there's some reason for not liking him."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, we've got two... well, interesting links.

So first we have Representative Trent Franks, who seems to think... well, let me let him speak

And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery.

Yes, he actually went there. And he's not just an isolated loon, no, let's look at this article from the Times:

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It's easy to try to brush off the promoted conspiracy theory as just that - a conspiracy theory. And you're probably right except that there were unethical and discriminatory practices not that long ago which did harm to black people (and poor people in general) and forced sterilizations did happen. This is no secret. So while I don't think there's any big conspiracy now, I can see why people can believe there might be.

Except, as always, the anti-abortion groups are taking this from the wrong angle. Look, I'm as happy as anybody to see a sweet little baby whose parents are glad to have him. But people don't have abortions just for fun, or just because they've been misled into thinking they can't take care of a child (when really they can). They have abortions because, hey, they can't take care of a kid. If they think they can't, they're probably right.

If there's a conspiracy here, it's not with the abortion providers. It's with the people who, time after time, enact laws which help the rich at the cost of the poor. It's with the people who set up and support the conditions which make it so that any one person will feel she cannot have a baby now, and needs an abortion (and chances are she's correct) and then go around insulting women for making this choice. People know this! They know this, but they fall for their lines anyway.

I don't see abortion as a moral issue at all. But if I did, and wanted to stop it, I'd go to the source. These same people who don't want you to have an abortion, you know they don't like you anyway. They're not going to help you when you need help, they won't help you keep your family together.

Incidentally, a special note about that OTHER guy, the one who made that comment about disabled babies being a punishment for abortion....

...

Actually, I have nothing to say to him. But I'm tempted now to start a poll asking which comment was really more offensive.

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Some articles

2010-02-10T06:44:24Z

One on an elementary school in the Bronx that focuses on foster kids

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One on gay marriage in Mexico

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One on Access-a-Ride in the city.

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So, I saw Avatar yesterday.

2010-01-10T22:01:18Z

Now, prior to seeing this movie, I'd read a bit about it, and truthfully, what I read wasn't all that complimentary. Even the language (or, at least, the process of making it) didn't really escape this scrutiny. (And on the subject of language, I'm impressed that they went through all the effort of conlanging up a whole language and making the actors learn it, but meanwhile, why did the Na'vi consistently pronounced "Sully" as "Sooly"? That's a mispronunciation I'd expect from somebody who had seen the word written, but not somebody whose first (and possibly only) association with the word was hearing it spoken. Those two phonemes aren't that similar, are they?)

Well, apparently the guy I went to see it with had not read all I'd read beforehand, and neither was he clued into the fact that "long braid down the back +/- sparse beads and/or asymmetrical feathers = ~~INJUNS!~~ Native Americans! So I was there the second he figured it out. "Wait - they're supposed to be Indians! That's not... that's not right!"

(If those braids had been a little more cornrow-y, they would clearly have been Africans, and if we'd heard a little more of that random didgeridoo that was in one of the background music bits I could've called them Australians... but (gratuitous, non-alien Western musical scales aside) I can't blame them for that one, the didgeridoo is a pretty awesome instrument.)

So, now, what did I think of the movie? Well, I took a day or so to think about it. And then I thought, before I posted, I'd head over to TVTropes and see what they have to say. (And that sucked up my entire day, yes, yes, when will I learn?) And boy, do they have a lot to say on the subject! Holy FUCK!

So I'm gonna take some parts and talk about them, but I'm not tackling the whole thing. That *is* what TVTropes is there for.

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So, basically? It's a so-so movie with great imagery. It has some troublesome aspects (seriously), but they're mostly troublesome in the context of... well, everything else that shares those aspects. This wouldn't be so bad if the story itself weren't largely formulaic. But it is.

So I saw it once, liked it well enough once I turned my brain off, and don't intend to see it again any time soon. If you aren't spending your life on TVTropes you might like it more.

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An article on mental illness, here and abroad, and how communication is changing it

2010-01-10T19:40:11Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html

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An article on Braille (or the lack thereof)

2010-01-03T07:17:22Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/magazine/03Braille-t.html

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A few quick articles

2009-06-14T18:20:07Z

One about nighttime care for patients with Alzheimer's, who are often more active at night. The idea seems like a good one, but the text of the article veers into condescension often - referring to your elders as being "like a kindergartener" is never a good thing.

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An article on the Amish, religious freedom, and septic codes. It seems to me that your religious freedom ends right about when other people have to drink the water too. Blech.

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An editorial on same-sex marriage. This politician was shocked - shocked, I say! - to find out that gay people don't want to force homophobic churches to marry them. Uh, duh?

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An article on girl's sports teams in cities.
It comes with a slideshow

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And finally, the Stray Shopping Cart Project. Wow.

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Well, this is depressing.

2009-05-19T23:50:06Z

The GAO (Government Accountability Office) has issued a report saying that there is widespread (alleged) abuse against disabled kids in schools.

Depressing, but not exactly surprising. Be sure to read the last sentence - they examined ten restraint and seclusion cases where the educator (and I use that term loosely) was found culpable in some way. Five out of ten of those cases? The staff is still employed.

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