December 30, 2014

I never watched "The Wire" until this weekend, and I am bummed

I sure wish this show would come back, or had more episodes .


We got HBO a few seasons in, and I dismissed it..

What's so sad, is that it's even more relevant now than when it was aired..

December 19, 2014

With normalization, Cubans may lose their "special status".

This may be a factor to some die-hard embargo supporters. It's hard these days to get to the US, but once here, Cubans have a much easier time getting to stay here than most immigrants.


With normalization, they will be treated much like any other wannabee immigrant..

December 19, 2014

Finally, Male Birth Control Pills

http://magazine.good.is/articles/birth-control-pills-for-men



Finally, Male Birth Control Pills
by Caroline Pham

“Did you take your birth control pill?”

It’s a question that causes many women to bristle, a recurring reminder that the brunt of the responsibility falls on them to prevent pregnancy. It’s a lopsided arrangement, to be sure, but researchers in Indonesia are on a mission to level the field with birth control pills for men.

After word had spread about men from the island of Papua using a common Indonesian plant, Justica gendarussa, to prevent pregnancy—by boiling its leaves in a tea or regularly chewing them—scientists decided to tap into the useful foliage themselves. By synthesizing a chemical from the gendarussa leaf into pills, Indonesian researchers have seen success in several clinical trials with the plant’s effectiveness as a male contraceptive.

“It’s 99 percent effective,” Bambang Prajogo, the lead scientist on the study, told the Global Post. “The pill weakens enzymes in sperm that allow them to squirm into a woman’s ovum.” He and his team said that men would need to take the pill once daily, much like the female version, but that “unlike female birth control pills, it doesn’t tinker with hormones, which causes so many unpleasant side effects.” That’s not to say the male version hasn’t produced any unwanted results in subjects (weight gain and increased libido have been recorded as potential side effects), but “overall, researchers haven’t seen anything that remotely rivals the zits, nausea, sporadic bleeding and other effects many women endure on hormone-based birth control pills.”

Count yourself lucky, boys.

snip

December 4, 2014

4 black teens, 1 white kid, an Escalade & 1 highway patrolman (w/edit)

I AM EDITING AT THE TOP, BECAUSE I WAS WRONG ABOUT THE CAR-YEAR ..IT HAD TO HAVE BEEN A LINCOLN NAVIGATOR..

We are not car people, and obviously I remembered the exact vehicle incorrectly (it has been a few years) .. It was a brand new top of the line vehicle at the time..and old folks like me automatically assume "Cadillac"....mea culpa.. I'll not edit the title because the posts below make no sense if I do.. I'll happily take my lumps for my ,mistake. ....SCD
............................................................................................



When my son (the white kid) was a junior in high school (1997), he and 4 friends went on their merry way to a Laker's game.. They had only gone about 30 minutes down the road when the driver saw the lights & heard the "whoop".

The trooper approached the car, gun drawn, and asked the driver for his drivers' license & registration. He made him turn on the overhead light , and asked if there was a gun in the glove box. Of course there was no gun, but the officer took offense at the "tone" when the driver answered him.

He then told the others to get out of the car and put their hands on the vehicle. By this time, another trooper had shown up, and as my son started to exit the car, he was told to stay in the car. Being 17, and seeing his friends getting hassled, he mouthed off, and was told that he could wait in the Escalade Navigator or in the back seat of the cop car..

The cops asked them to empty their pockets, and the driver was questioned about why his name was not the same as on the registration.. It was his Dad & Mom's car (same last name)..

These kids were basically detained briefly for "driving erratically" (but mostly for DWB)

My son was pissed because if he stood up for his football teammates, he was likely to be put in a cop car and then what?..and it killed him to see them being rousted for nothing.

The second cop to arrive, left, and the original one told them to drive carefully, and did not ticket them..

The general consensus was that 4 black teens in a new Escalade Navigator, had to mean that they stole it..

December 4, 2014

A coup/junta is a brutal way to take over a country, BUT

one thing that's pretty much guaranteed is this..

The ones who WERE in charge must flee or perish.. They are usually never heard from again in any meaningful way.

In our current system, we have perpetual "hangovers", because the "formers" now never leave. They get un-elected, and then immediately recycle themselves into pundit, lobbyist, pollster, think tank essayist, talk radio host, etc. They simply MUST have us know their every thought about how awful the "new" people are doing.

The presidency has term limits,, many governorships have term limits. There's a reason for this.. WE ARE FED UP WITH THEM AND WANT THEM TO GO AWAY.. We do not want them to proffer their brothers, sons, wives, cousins, etc... and we do not want them on tv/radio.

We have 300+ million people in this nation, and surely there are plenty of new people with new ideas..

I want my ex presidents/senators/congress people planted on golf courses or back wherever the hell they came from, doing something else.. I do NOT want them on my tv, telling me how terrible things are because they are no longer there, and how awful the new person is.

I'm no anarchist and I do not advocate forceful removals, but I would surely love it if we could somehow be rid of these people permanently when they leave office..

I do not want Jeb
I do not want Hillary
I do not even want Joe Biden

I would love a younger person who grew up with technology and who understands nuance

Our world is changing at an alarming pace, and I think we need someone who can think outside the box, and who is willing and able to nimbly run the gauntlet we have ahead of us..

I know that older people (I am one) have things of value to offer, but.....

December 3, 2014

SCOTUS, pregnancy & UPS (and future employers looking for the escape hatch)

This is a scary case, all-round.
Why?

There is only one mother on the bench there

The men who are there, have always made enough money, and are from an era where pregnancy/motherhood meant that the "little lady" tended to the kiddies, played hostess, and did volunteer work/church work. A mother's paycheck was not an integral part of the family income.

UPS is the "perfect" company for this case , since its business often involves lifting heavy objects. Women had to really exert themselves to prove that they were equally capable as the men. At first, they were probably not all that welcome (see military academy, uniformed services/firefighters...and basically any job that is not sales, making up rooms, babysitting, nursing, teaching, secretary-ing, etc)

Laws changed in the 70's and employers now could not exclude childbearing-aged women from the workforce (without some fancy disqualifying footwork)..

but

Younger women often DO want children, and pregnancy is the usual route. These days, that job may be the ONLY job that supports a family and provides medical insurance.

Since our archaic, Dickensian workplace does not grant mandatrory PAID maternity leave (based on need, as directed by a doctor), women often do endanger their pregnancy as they continue their usual work load, because most of them know in their hearts that if they ask for "special treatment/light work load", their jobs are in jeopardy.

I have personally seen female grocery checkers slinging around 40lb bags of dogfood, or outside in blistering heat collecting carts.. why?, because they are afraid to ask for lenience...


The company will argue that the JOB requires heavy lifting, and that the woman CHOSE to become pregnant, so they (the company) should be within their rights to place her on unpaid leave....that eliminates their liability if she has a miscarriage or pre-term labor due to a workplace event. They will also argue that they now have to pay someone else to do "her" work while she cannot, and that they do not "need" her for another light duty job.

Whatever they decide, this will be very ugly..