On Friday, September 21, 2007, and Monday, September 24, 2007, Davis suspended eleven students, including Gillman’s cousin, for five school days each as punishment for their involvement in the “Gay Pride” movement. As grounds for the suspensions, Davis explained that the students belonged to a “secret society” or “illegal organization” forbidden by school board policy; had threatened to walk out of an assembly; and had disrupted the school. Davis told the mother of a student whom he had suspended that he could secretly “send her [daughter] off to a private Christian school down in Tallahassee” or to the juvenile detention center and that “if there was a man in your house, your children were in church, you wouldn’t be having any of these gay issues.”

Holy, fucking, shit.

This is happening? In public fucking schools? Where does this guy get off saying that to anyone? Seriously, I don’t care what your moral compass points to, this is NOT his job. Oh, and it gets better.  They have some “gay issues” at the school, right? So what better to do than bring in a preacher to conduct a ‘morality assembly’. Seriously? What happened to good-old fashioned “Don’t Smoke” assmeblies?  I’m farily certain that our public schools are not supposed to be preaching radical Christianity, are they? And then, when the students begin to gain support for their own gay pride movement. What does this asshole decide to do?

Davis embarked on what can only be characterized as a “witch hunt” to identify students
who were homosexual and their supporters, further adding fuel to the fire.  He went
so far as to lift the shirts of female students to insure that the letters “GP” or the
words “Gay Pride” were not written on their bodies

Uh, excuse me. So we have a principal who: 1.) berates students for living differently than he himself does, 2.) brings in preachers to spew hatred against a certain group of students and 3.) lifts up girls shirts to make sure that “gay pride” isn’t written on their bodies?
I am fairly certain all of those things are wrong. Luckily, the court’s ruling seems to agree with me.  Still, this man has serious problems. None of this should ever happen in public schools, but when you let dimwitted local school boards control almost everything, you get crap like this. How did the board let this go either unnoticed or unpunished for so long? Oh, wait, they didn’t let the students form an organization, they said it would “disrupt the educational process” and that such a group was an “illegal organization” prohibited by School Board policy. Uhm, no.

I think the author of Dispatches puts it best: “Apparently the school board attorney got his degree from Billy Bob’s Law School and Bait Shop. They could sue that idiot for malpractice for being that utterly clueless of the law. There’s no point in quoting the court’s legal conclusions; if ever there was an open and shut case, this was it. The plaintiff’s brief could have just said “DUH” in big letters on it and they would have won.”

And yet these are the people in charge of educating our (future) children? We’re fucked.

Full ruling here.

And yet we are the “crazies”.

Source

I really hope I’m not the only one who feels this way, but I am in some ways happy that gas prices are so high, and am in some ways hoping they continue to rise. Sure, it’s not exactly fun to pay $4+ per gallon for anyone, but maybe, just maybe this will spur some sort of change in this country.  There are pretty much three things that I hope will come from a continual rise in gas prices. Sadly, I would say almost all of them seem unlikely to happen in this culture.

The first is an increase in funding towards alternative forms of energy, both for vehicles and for buildings.  Perhaps if gas prices rise high enough and stay there (which, once they are there, they seem to remain) the public will begin demanding that our government look into cleaner, more efficient, technologies.  This is unlikely though, because conservatives will paint it as wasting tax-payers money when we could just be drilling for gas off-shore or in ANWR, despite the fact that neither of these solutions offer what people want: lower gas prices(1). That said, I don’t imagine many people fighting for increasing government funding of cleaner technologies like wind-generated electricity when what we “need” are lower gas prices. I imagine an outcry of “FEDERAL GOVERNMENT – FUNDING “WIND” ELECTRICITY WITH GAS PRICES AT $4.00 PLUS – WHERE ARE THEIR PRIORITIES”. I guess a guy can dream though.

The second reason I (somewhat secretly) hope gas prices go up is that perhaps it will spur more people to use cleaner methods of transportation, whether public transport, walking, or bicycling.  Of course there are many rural areas where public transport isn’t prevalent. Still, even these rural areas have local stores that provide essentially the same products as big supermarkets and that are usually within walking or biking range. My hope is that high gas prices make people realize that they don’t have to go so far to get lettuce, especially now that a lot of small towns have local farm stands (my small town has at least two) where all sorts of fruits and vegetables are sold.   While there are obviously sometimes when you’ll need to drive, for a lot of daily necessities, there is no reason to drive when you can walk or bike. Sure, it might not be as easy or convenient as driving, but it’s both more money in your pocket, and less pollution.  Still, I don’t see much of this happening unless gas prices keep rising because a lot of habits are hard to break. If you ALWAYS drive to City X that’s 15 miles to buy your groceries, it’s probably not as easy to just start walking or biking somewhere closer. Of course, this wouldn’t be such an issue if we had clean electricity (ie. Wind power, and even nuclear if it’s done correctly) and more electric cars*.

The third reason is where the schadenfreude comes in. This may sound a bit petty, but honestly, I hope gas prices stay where they are or go up so all the assholes who flaunt their Hummers with license plates that say things like “5 MPG” get screwed over every single time they fill up to take the kids to soccer practice. Whatever happened to using a mini-van for that, seriously. Maybe that will make them realize how pointless their purchase of a Hummer was when all they use it for is to cart their kids around Suburbia. Maybe it will make them realize just how stupid they look next to a Honda Civic Hybrid, or a Prius, or a Tesla Roadster. Of course, this is the least likely to happen because the personality types that seem to be attracted to flaunting things like getting <10 MPG in their vehicle.

Stay tuned for Shadowing Part IV and Montréal Adventures

*For those who say electric cars are for girls, or not powerful enough, I suggest you take a look at the Tesla Roadster

From the Washington Post:

A CIA analyst warned the Bush administration in 2002 that up to a third of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have been imprisoned by mistake, but White House officials ignored the finding and insisted that all were “enemy combatants” subject to indefinite incarceration, according to a new book critical of the administration’s terrorism policies.

Well, isn’t that nice. Does this not demonstrate that Bush is in no way after justice?  How can we keep turning a blind eye to this, saying that this prison is legitimate, when even the CIA is saying that there are a lot of wrongful imprisonments occuring? This is anothers sick display of the Bush Administration’s arrogance. They just KNOW that all of the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay deserve to be their indefinitely, or else they wouldn’t be there in the first place. The logic is clearly impeccable.

Now, we all know that the President is a big fan of the line “listen to the commanders on the ground”. Well have I got news for you Mr. Bush.  The top military commander at Guantánamo Bay, when told by an analyst that up to one third of the detainees were wrongfully imprisoned stated that “even higher percentage of detentions — up to half — were in error”.  But alas, this administration is playing the role of monarch, not executive.  Cheney’s staff director, David Addington, makes this completely clear when he states that “We are not second-guessing the President’s decision. These are enemy combatants”.  No review of evidence necessary. The President and his staff just KNOW that these guys are the “worst of the worst”, despite all the evidence to the contrary, presented by the governments own agencies.

This mindset permeates neo-conservative thought. Whether it be their admant opposition to true sex education in favor of abstinence-only “education” (which has been proven to be very ineffective, at best), or their insistence that each prisoner at Guantánamo Bay is a terrorist ’cause Good Ol’ George says so. The arrogance of these people, to think that they can just close their eyes and wish the evidence away, is stunning.  It’s a dangerous mindset, but it’s one far too many Americans wish to embrace.

Welcome to the Kingdom.

Why?

Well, the first and most obvious is that he is not John McCain who wants to maintain troops in Iraq for a long period of time (whether or not there is violence occurring is not the issue, we should not be occupying Iraq at all). Not only that, but most of Obama’s positions (even those I disagree with) are FAR more sensible than John McCain. Here’s a short run-down of some basic positions that I think are important, and where both candidates stand:

Health Care – John McCain supports a free-market approach which will ultimately limit how many people are able to receive proper treatment for medical conditions. He seems to have no issue with insurance companies practices of using quote, “pre-existing conditions” as an excuse to deny coverage. Obama, on the other hand, while not giving us a true single-payor healthcare system, (which I would like to see happen), he is taking steps towards the goal of ‘universal coverage’ while McCain is at best going nowhere and at worst taking us backwards.  While Obama’s healthcare plan isn’t even close to what I would prefer (for the record, neither was Clinton’s, despite what she claimed), it is far better than McCains. Obama – .5 , McCain – 0.

Foreign Policy – This one is simple. Barack Obama has shown a willingness to engage in discussion even with those leaders who disagree with our policies in what can be best described as a mature manner. John McCain, following Bush’s lead, takes the childish approach of “with us or against us”. Whether or not Republicans want to believe it, there is a nuance to agreement and disagreement, and just because Israel and Palestine do not agree, that does not mean Israel is automatically right.  We need to find a solution that doesn’t just make one party (like Israel, for example) happy. That just breeds more distrust and anger towards our country. This is one of the few issues where I truly agree with Obama. Obama – 1.5, McCain – 0

Energy Policy – I am in disagreement with both candidates in different ways here. Barack Obama wants to implement a market-based approach called a “cap-and-trade” system. I don’t believe that this is the most effective way to deal with the need for cleaner energy such as wind and solar power. I personally think a higher tax on dirty energy and a lower tax on technologies such as wind or solar power would be the way to go.  However, I am even more opposed to the asinine ideas John McCain is proposing such as opening up our continental shelf to drilling as well as a gas-tax holiday. First of all, if you get rid of the gas-tax that increases demand, which reduces supply which will cause the prices to rise again anyway. Bad idea. Second of all, these solutions are like putting a band-aid on a severed limb that has already fallen off.  We need to innovate, not sit back and do more of the same. It’s not working. Obama 2, Mc Cain 0.

Homeland Security/Middle East Policy (separate from foreign policy as a whole) – Barack Obama’s original claim to the spotlight was the anti-war speech he delivered in which he stated that he did not support the War in Iraq. In the beginning of the campaign he stated when elected he would withdraw troops and has until recently maintained this plan. However, now it appears he is trying to weasel his way out of this by using phrases like “listening to the commanders on the ground”.  This phrase has been used by the Bush Administration as a code for “we’re not withdrawing troops” for quite some time, and Obama repeating that just doesn’t sound good to me.  We need to get out of Iraq. We never should have been there in the first place, and at this point our presence in the Middle East is really doing more harm than good. Al-Qaeda in Iraq did not exist until we invaded and our presence is easily used as propaganda to inspire young people in the Middle East to take up arms against a country who is (correctly) seen as an occupying force. John McCain of course thinks being in the Middle East for a century is no big deal as long as no Americans are being killed.  But the kicker is, if Americans are being killed he will claim we need to stay there to quell the violence. On this point, John McCain gets nothing, and Barack Obama gets half a point. Obama 2.5 McCain 0.

So it seems that Barack Obama, while showing the classic symptoms of Compulsive-Centrist Disorder, is the better choice than John McCain, but still not the best choice.  So does that mean I regret voting for him instead of Hillary?

Nope.

Her main goal always seemed to be winning the presidency, no matter what she had to do. Barack Obama, while he certainly did slip, never seemed to fall to the levels of dirty politics that Clinton and her surrogates did.  For me the choice between them had little to do with policy, as many of theirs were the almost identical. It was about personality. Who do I want representing the United States to the world? Someone who acts mature and calm in the face of stress, adversity, and negative attention? Or someone who lashes out at his or her opponent when he or she is in danger of losing.  Clearly the first. And Obama represents that more to me than Clinton ever could. It’s the same with John McCain. John McCain is known for his outbursts and anger issues.  Is this really what we want the world to see as the leader of the United States? Someone who lashes out when another person disagrees with them?
Barack Obama isn’t perfect, but he is sure as hell a better choice than McCain, and was a better choice than Clinton.

(For the record, I was a Kucinich supporter)

So before I got sick, this past Sunday, I went to the ED and shadowed for three hours. I would’ve liked to stay longer but I had other comittments (one of the few graduation parties i’ve actually had a really good time at so far). But despite only being there for a few hours I got to see a few interesting things, most medical, but one of the most interesting things was seeing the new residents in their (I think) second week.

So I was only there for a few hours, and it was a bit ‘slow’ but I did see some pretty cool things.

Shoulder dislocation – Oh man. The patient came in with a dislocated shoulder (his fourth or fifth) from playing basketball and you could see the pain on his face and hear it in his voice. This wasn’t made much better by the attempts to fix the shoulder while he was still awake. An older resident and one of the new residents attempted to move it back into place.  This didn’t work so they had to anesthetize him and then do the procedure.

Coxsackie Virus – Patient had been diagnosed with Coxsackie virus and came in generally just feeling sick. She was photophobic, tired, and generally felt unwell. The pt had symptoms of Coxsackie. There were sores on her mouth that were characteristic of coxsackie.  This patient was the last I saw before I had to leave, so I never got to find out whether she was admitted or discharged and with what treatment. But it was an interesting case, and the attending I was shadowing suspected viral meningitis.

It was a pretty good day, and even though I was only there for a little bit, I got to see some cool things. So  now I’m up to about 18 hours of shadowing in the ED and I’m really liking what I’ve seen, even the midnight – seven in the morning shift. It’s obviously too early to decide what specialty I eventually want to go into, I haven’t been exposed to enough to know for sure, but EM is definitely a possibility so far.
Peace out.

From the NYT:

The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

Are you kidding me? Please, someone explain to me how this administration or any of its true-believers can deny that the US Government tortures “enemy combatants” (a bs term if there ever was one, but that is another story).  Please explain how there is any difference between what the “evil commie chinamen” did in the Korean War and what the US is doing now. Hint: There is no difference.

Both regimes used torture to elicit whatever they wanted to hear out of their prisoners. The Chinese at the time wanted to hear American soldiers say that they were involved with insidious plots against China. This could be used for propaganda purproses, showing just how terrible the Americans truly were.

And now, America is doing the same. I am hardly convinced that our government even cares if they get accurate admissions anymore. As long as they get some story about how terrorists are going to blow up a strip-mall in Bumfuck, USA, they are happy. That story can be played on the news for 24 hours and be used to make sure we submit to not being able to take a bottle of water on an airplane.  And guess what, this torture HAS gotten us false information. From The Agitator (via Dispatches):

Ron Suskind notes in his book The One Percent Doctrine that many of the false alarms we’ve had over impending terrorist attacks in recent years came from the use of these techniques against low-level al-Qaeda member Abu Zubaydah (he was basically the organization’s travel agent), who told his interrogators whatever he thought they wanted to hear to stop them from torturing him. So we got all of those false warnings about pending terrorist attacks on “shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, nuclear plants, apartment buildings, and water systems.”

Well, I hope you feel safer. I am not proud of this, and I really don’t think any American should be.

Note: This Sunday should see another science/medicine-related post, finally. I’m shadowing again so I should have some cool things to write about.

He thanked John McCain! What the fuck? John McCain is on record as being against this bill, but now this soundbite can be repeated and John McCain now magically becomes instrumental in the passage of the new GI Bill the he opposed and Obama supported.

And I don’t really believe anyone is taking Bush to task over this.  We’ll see…

Via rosswashere

So celebrate!
And if you want to read more, here is an excellent summary of why today is significant: The Beagle Project

I’m fairly certain this whole article comes down to: Oh no, my precious art-form has evolved beyond the structure of the 16th – 19th century, therefore whoever takes part in modern/post-modern art-forms is untalented.

So Bob Dylan fans, what do you think?

Really?

This is what we’re talking about when a war funding bill was just passed? Holy shit. I am sure that these rich people are truly suffering because they can’t drive their Rolls-Royce every single day of the week…I’m actually a bit appalled.

Peace out

I love it.

A letter written by a Marine discussing torture in Iraq.

Not only is it well-written, but it demonstrates why torture fails to protect us as the Bush administration (as well as McCain, well at this point in time at least) claim it can.