The anonymous math teacher has no standing to credibly say what is allowed because (a) s/he does not do the allowing, and (b) s/he clearly has not studied the local practices enough to be competent at describing them.
In the same way, I don't have standing to say what is or is not allowed in that teacher's math class--I don't make the rules, nor have I been there to observe them.
Meanwhile, in today's Newsday was an article from a woman who got a potentially contaminated implant (bone, I think) last January. She got a letter from the hospital advising her to get HIV and hepatitis tests.
She's angry about the situation, and also angry that the hospital contacted her only by letter. Apparently they'd sent enough solicitations in the last several months that she almost didn't open the letter. The hospital claims to have tried to call her, and found that both numbers they had on file for her had been disconnected.
In her case, the transplant tissue had come via a Florida company that was supposed to have tested for contagious diseases, but the hospital felt it best to warn affected patients.
There are already lawsuits against the company that bought the tissue from the grave-robbers.
I would just like to note that Tropical Depression Epsilon Public Advisory 37 begins "...EPSILON WEAKENING RAPIDLY...THIS IS THE LAST ADVISORY...
...IT IS ABOUT TIME..."
Note that they had predicted it would turn into a remnant low by last weekend.
The Atlantic tropical hurricane season is officially over, which means (among other things) that they aren't issuing tropical weather outlooks, but I assume they will tell us if zeta turns up out there.
Speaking as a woman with long hair, I'd like to put in a bid for women's shirts with logos/designs/messages on the front. If a long-haired person wears shirts with messages on the back, either the messages are overlooked or polite people ask her (or him) to move her hair, and impolite ones move it, not always gently, without asking.
Kip--
Don't do it!
Geri Sullivan brought some durian cookies to a party at Wiscon once. It took me 20 minutes and the lily of the valley that someone walked in carrying to get the smell out of my nostrils sufficiently to even consider eating anything else.
Further to Joe Crow, though Teresa said most of what I would have, and said it well:
I suppose there is, in some sense, a threat of violence behind what government does. I don't see that "we will use force, if necessary, to prevent you from entering your neighbors' home without their consent and stealing their jewelry, destroying their furniture, or harming their children" is an evil statement.
Further to the traffic ticket example, if it takes an armed agent of the commonweal to prevent someone from driving while dangerously intoxicated, or at 100 kph the wrong way on a divided highway, well, it's a shame that someone's native sense didn't stop them first, but let's hear it for the police officers who are out there saving us all from J. Q. Random's stupidity.
No, not all actions of government officials are beneficial--they're human, like the rest of us, and thus flawed. But not everything that can be argued to involve a threat of force is thereby evil, nor is all nonviolent action virtuous.
Jeff Masters has posted a good summary of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season (to date, at least, though it's officially over) on his weblog:
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/archive.html?tstamp=200512
I can't find a link to the specific entry, but that's anchored to this month, at least. At the moment, it's the top entry.
A distressing number of records were set.
Daniel,
Having been exercising (weights mostly, with as much cardio as I can convince myself to do beforehand) for five years, I am now at the point where I feel better for doing it. Feel better as in, if I'm having a cranky day at work, I go to the gym, and somewhere in there, shoving pieces of metal around, I notice I'm feeling better.
But that's not why I started doing it--it took months, maybe a couple of years, before I reached that point. This doesn't mean you'll ever have that happen--people are different, as you say. (I started because it's good for me, in terms of endurance and other useful things.)
My advice, if you don't find it presumptuous of me to offer any, would be to suggest that you investigate some other form of exercise. I base this on having thought I disliked any exercise other than long walks for most of my life, then happening onto weight stuff because the gym had that and I really didn't like the group exercise "classes". So maybe there's something out there that, even if it doesn't delight you, won't be misery. And to not push yourself to the point of being able to move, in any form of exercise: that's suitable if you're trying to escape a lava flow or other immediate danger, it's not supposed to be part of everyday exercise.
I just want to thank you for that phrasing about "over the age of reason."
I was, in fact, born during the Kennedy administration, but only barely--the first presidency I remember is, *sigh*, Nixon.
I have a LiveJournal acquaintance who dances in what she calls a "titty bar"--that is, topless but no nudity. It's not work I could do.
No, not because of the nudity. Not even primarily because of the commoner-than-they-should-be customers who can't understand that she's a topless dancer, not a prostitute.
Because she has to do it in seven-inch heels.
But if I lived closer to her, I'd go in sometime, to see her and the other women dance (which, yes, I would expect to enjoy--that I can see breasts in the mirror anytime doesn't mean I don't enjoy seeing other women's, in appropriate circumstances), say hello to her, and be a decent customer, meaning I'd tip the dancers, not grope them. I'd do that partly because it sounds like fun, and partly because I've gotten to know her online.
Back to the original post, Jim mentioned Narcan as one of the things the paramedics use if someone is unconscious and they don't know why.
New York City has a relatively new program in which heroin users are being prescribed syringes of Narcan, to be carried in the same way as some people carry epinephrine or glucagon. The syringes are being handed out at the needle exchange programs.
They don't know how many of them are being used--not everyone who has them is comfortable coming back and saying "I think I saved so-and-so's life last week"--but they're confident that some lives are being saved. The next step they're considering is issuing them to city (as in, paid staff) EMS; I was startled, comparing to Jim's post, that our EMS don't already have them in their kits.
If I went to a topless club, I might or might not tell my mother about it.
But if I wasn't going to, I wouldn't post about it in my blog.
I realize that not everyone's mother reads their blogs or online journals, though mine does. But if there's something you don't want your mother--or your boss, or your ex-husband, or any other person--to know, don't post it to the Internet. They might find it, whether by looking for your name, or by accident, or because someone who knows you both offhandedly says "Did you know your daughter went to a strip club last week?"
Someone already mentioned Jo Walton: her The King's Peace and The King's Name are about soldiers, and war, and what is worth fighting for. Among other things--and I hope Jo will correct me if I'm getting it badly wrong.
If an elephant is a mouse designed by a committee, what does that make a hyrax?
One of the problems with people like Pat Robertson--though minor compared to the threat he and his supporters pose to my freedoms and my sanity--is that he leaves me trying to explain to strangers that, no, really, there are lots of Christians who aren't like that, and in fact there's real question whether people like Robertson are entitled to the name Christian. I'd like to be able to leave the defense of Christianity to the Christians, but while I'm happy to do that on theological points, I'm not prepared to see my decent Christian friends, like our hosts, misunderstood and even slandered.
Dave--
It's been a while since I was spending much time on Wikipedia, but I doubt anyone will object to your fixing clear factual errors in your entry (like updating the URL) or indeed in any entry. What we were wary of was the sudden descent of several new participants working on a single article, especially one that there was significant disagreement about.
Serge--
With regard to your unnamed sexist, I doubt I'd have been comforted by "oh, he's dismissive of all women, it's not just you" given that this person is still allowed on panels and such and treated as a respectable member of the community. (And yes, if I'm reading your pointing right, I suspect I know reasons for his being so treated.) But consider this for a moment: suppose a panelist were being rudely dismissive of another panelist's opinions because he or she was black, or Jewish. Would you have tried to reassure your friend with "It's not just you, he's a known racist" or would you have backed her (or him) in complaining to whoever ran con programming?
This morning, in response to questions (sincerely meant) over on LiveJournal, I have explained, briefly, the connection of poppies to Flanders and both to the war, and why World War I is much more important to Canada than to the United States.
I am glad people are asking, and glad to be able to explain. (The question about the poppies was from an 18-year-old in Georgia; I'm not surprised it wasn't in her high school curriculum.)
17. For reasons having to do with the summer I was 16.
(I was going to say other things, but have forgotten them in the lengthy discussions of Dumas, an author whom I have not actually read, Mr. Brust's related books notwithstanding.)
Since someone asked: Newsday is at www.newsday.com.
I don't live in New Jersey, nor is Newsday published there: it's a Long Island and New York City paper (HQ on the Island).
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2005 | 25 |
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