THIS one is EU-wide.
I can already hear the reasoning, "If you’re not breaking the law, why should you care."
I’d go slam my head against a wall for a bit, but I haven’t the energy.
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THIS one is EU-wide.
I can already hear the reasoning, "If you’re not breaking the law, why should you care."
I’d go slam my head against a wall for a bit, but I haven’t the energy.
As much as I try to remind myself that comment threads are not representitive of entire communities, sometimes it is just too difficult.
The Nebraska state legislature is trying to work out an agreement to compensate people wrongly convicted of a crime and sent to prison. This has come about due to a case where a number of people were found not guilty of a crime they spent twenty years in jail for. The state wants to cap the compensation at $500,000. AND force the exonerated person to prove they didn’t do the crime (I guess being found not guilty isn’t enough?). People who were wrongly convicted are upset (rightly) at this. You’d think, particularly in this case where confessions were cooerced that we’d want to try and make up for having robbed these people of twenty years of their lives, right? Actually, not if you read the comment thread at the bottom of THIS article.
From the comment thread:
"Why should he be any different than the rest of us, having to work the rest of your life in order to live? None of us will be able to retire either, and why aren’t they taking into consideration the $20K+ that it cost a year to house and maintain them in the prison system? They at least got free food, medical/dental care, clothing and an education, can’t say that for the rest of us. "
Or this comment:
"maybe he should be happy he is getting some restitution and is no longer in prison!!!!!!!
people are NEVER satisfied! "
Or:
"Welcome to the real world where you have to take care of yourself instead of an institution caring for you. Most of are going to end up not being able to retire either and will end up working the rest of our lives to make ends meet. What makes you any different than the rest? "
Unbelievable, eh?
I might well be the only person left in America that hasn’t taken the on-line RealAge quiz (I loathe that sort of thing)-but the rest of you have been unknowingly handing over detailed, personal information to Big Pharma.
Funny, a few years back when the state was looking for a new slogan I suggested:
"Welcome To Nebraska, Home Of The Last In-Use Electric Chair."
Now it seems, someone has expanded on that idea.
Bonus funny-they want to stick it in a museum dedicated to the man responsible for rural electrification in Nebraska.
I’ve spent days trying to figure out the best way to approach this story. It is so outrageous, that I was concerned my anger might come across as glib. For days, the only reactions I could summon sounded sarcastic, and probably still are.
If I were asked to define "chutzpah", THIS might be the perfect example. A child psychiatrist at Harvard who has been called as a witness in a lawsuit over the use of psychiatric medications in children has asked that the testimony be kept secret so that (wait for it) it does not damage his reputation. This is the man who failed to disclose the millions he was receiving from drug companies-but don’t worry, he promises it didn’t bias his research.
Certainly, he’s already damaged his reputation without the help of court testimony by not disclosing his drug manufacturer money. Letting the public hear accounts of people damaged, and in some instances killed by unsafe psychiatric drugs they may not have needed in the first place is incredibly important.
Who is telling your doctor what to prescribe? Who are the authorities writing the research? Who decides that psychiatric medications are so profitable that it results in two year olds being diagnosed as bi-polar? Who decides that 40% of the children who are wards of the State of Nebraska are on powerful psychiatric medications? Who? Who? Who?
No, the testimony should not be private and whatever facts come to light that damage his reputation will be solely his own doing. There’s a trail of damaged and dead children whose rights were so summarily dismissed as they were (force) fed the latest money-making miracle drug that would turn them into obedient zombies. To seal the testimony would only reinforce the idea that it is acceptable to use the vulnerable for experimentation and profits. Two decades ago it was foster children in New York being given experimental AIDS drugs without the consent of their guardians. The idea that there are children across this country being forcibly medicated because trusted authorities in the pay of pharmaceutical companies made such recommendations is horrific. Permitting it to go unreported, hidden in secret testimony and sealed court documents would only further declare that these children’s lives were simply the cost of doing business and that fundamental human rights do not apply to them. The testimony must be made public-and widely reported.
It looks like I will be attending the circus this weekend. Clowns, elephants, cotton candy, no alcohol. What the hell was I thinking?
I think what convinced me was the promise of a human cannonball. We don’t get that sort of excitement in Nebraska too often.
I sort of owed the kid a circus as we missed it last year because of the tornado, and he pretty much pestered me for hours today after hearing the ringmaster being interviewed on the radio. I thought about renting Freaks for Danny to watch before going, but then I decided to be a good less awful adequate parent and just let him develop his own healthy fear of circus performers.
I’d better get some damn good cotton candy out of this, or at the very least a Sno-Cone.
That’s a pretty cool way to resign a position.
Ever wanted to make your own marshmallow peeps? Here’s a recipe that sounds interesting (I haven’t tried it).
I can’t post anything about Peeps without linking to THIS classic page.
"Hey, be careful", I called after Danny as he climbed up on the rocking chair. "You know what will happen if you hurt your noggin."
"OK, Mama."
"No really Danny, tell me what happens if you bang your noggin being careless."
"It makes you a simple dullard, and when people ask, "what is two plus two?" a simple dullard says, "Duh, I dunno."
"That’s right. Then what?"
(pause)
"I don’t believe you. I don’t think that’s really the truth about moving to Kansas."
"Sure it is Danny, everyone knows that Kansas was set up as a colony for simple dullards. Ask anyone."
"I’m going to do that. I’ll ask a librarian."
"You do that."
"I don’t believe Swedish people eat cat, either."
"Fine. You ask your librarian friend about that one too-but you still can’t climb on the furniture."
"OK Mama."
…but it was easier to rent Battlestar Galactica.
Being the bad parent I am, I let him watch the old series* first on the retro TV station. Even worse, I let him stay up until 10 PM on Saturday nights to watch it. Worse still, I kind of enjoy watching it too. Then, we rented the first season of the new series.
I asked the man who owns the movie rental place if it would be OK for Danny to watch and he gave me kind of a "Well, what the hell do YOU think" look, and muttered something about it being, "intense." Then, he took my money and probably got right on the phone to the authorities reporting me as a bad parent.
Maybe it’s me, but I didn’t find it intense. Watchable, sure-pretty good actually, but not intense. Danny wasn’t too disturbed by it either.
When we watch programmes together, I try to help Danny understand what the point of the show is, what message or moral there is to take away from it. Danny has concluded that the moral of Battlestar Galactica is:
"Don’t get all kissy-face with Cylons."
(No, not THAT Cylon)
Got it?
*I really prefer the old school sparkly purple-headed Cylons-the new ones look like they have a cheap LED light shoved inside a wastebasket for a head.
Really, what could I possibly add to the outright stupidity of:
A lawmaker who wants to drug test the unemployed before they can get benefits? Did you guess Florida? Extra points for you.
From the same idiots that want to ban the resale of children’s books due to the (very, very minor) risk of lead contamination-the library is the next target. Christ on a bike, people. Don’t let your kids eat books, OK? Can you imagine what will happen if libraries have to pull every book prior to 1985 out of their collections to meet some insane lead standard? The risk is from crappy imported toys that DO end up in kids mouths, not clothes and books. But hey, it is easier than getting chemicals out of baby bottles and food containers which might pose a real, statistical risk. Feel free to send us your unwanted children’s books-Danny promises not to eat them.
Evil Bastards Alert-Employers firing people for trivial "misconduct" rather than laying them off-so they can avoid paying unemployment benefits.
For their own good, of course.
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