From Seed Magazine

Maybe it's my cold medicined state, but this article just boggled my mind! Trying to separate ID from Deity.. LOL

Incompetent design theorist Don Wise. Courtesy of Don Wise

Don Wise, professor emeritus of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the nation's foremost proponent of ID. No, Wise isn't getting ready to testify on behalf of the school board in Dover, PA. Rather, he advocates for a different version of the acronym: "incompetent design."

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A sign of the times, I guess. From Seed Magazine

A 15-year-old British boy tracked down his anonymous, sperm-donor father, the BBC reported this week. The boy sent a swab of his DNA to FamilyTreeDNA.com, and found two men who share a last name and have similar Y chromosomes. The sperm bank would only tell the boy's mother the donor's birthday, place of birth and college degree. But with this information, the last name and a little help from OmniTrace.com, the boy found the one man who matched all the criteria. The boy has made contact with his father. Yesterday's anonymity is today's profitable website.

I just find this really amazing. And some people are worried about giving out too much personal information in their LJ. Is there any way to keep our anonymity anymore?

The story is here as a video, you have to click the link when you get there.

A Phoenix fourth grader was taken to school in handcuffs, and shackled to her desk, where she was forced to take pills to calm her down.

Yesterday I posted about a girl who's mother put her on the street corner with a "will work for food" sign, and it developed into a conversation about parenting and punishment.

Here's a far more extreme example of crime and punishment. Reportedly, this girl got into a fight with her mother that morning. She had been upset about the death of her grandfather, and from the sounds of it, was acting out. The mother called the police, and they took the girl to school in handcuffs - At the mother's request.

Once she arrived at school, kicking and screaming, she was shackled to her desk, where the school counselor force fed her a pill to help calm her down. The other children in class were told to not say anything about the incident, even to their parents!

This story is wrong on so many levels, that I hardly know where to begin.

For starters, I have a fourth grader, and she is 9. I have to wonder just how messed up his home is when a mother has to call the police on her fourth grader. And then, the answer presents itself! She then requested that her daughter be taken to school in handcuffs. Tasha Henderson is just steps away from this place, when she's at a point where public humiliation is her only option to get her daughter to school.

So, once the girl gets to school, she is kicking and screaming, and obviously very very upset, so the school counselor takes it upon herself to force her to take a pill to calm her down. How's that for a sign of the times? Why didn't she just give her a stiff drink?

The part that sent chills up my spine though, as if there wasn't enough already, was that the children who witnessed the awful event, were told not to talk about it, even to their parents! Could you imagine being 9, seeing something like that, and having to keep it inside?

I want to know:

What is going to happen to this mother?
What is going to happen to the police that carried out her insane wishes?
What is going to happen at the school?

LJ Interests meme results

1. belly dance:
   *Undulates*
2. children:
   I figure, I have 5 of them... I really should be interested.
3. dr. phil:
   Paging Dr Phil, Dr. Phil you're needed in the "Punish your children" camp!
4. e-commerce:
   I dunno why I put this here. www.eyecatchershome.com
5. goo goo dolls:
   I just really love "Iris".
6. laughter:
   It's beautiful, isn't it?
7. non-fiction:
   Well, my husband is into self help...
8. spirituality:
   I'm Pagan, and Athiestic, and very very Spiritual. You don't get it, do you? S'OK
9. walking:
   I need to do more of this.
10. writing:
    I love to write short stories, poetry, etc.

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

Woman sentenced to one night alone in the woods.

NOVEMBER 18--An Ohio woman convicted of leaving dozens of kittens in two parks has been ordered by a judge to herself spend a night alone outdoors so that she can experience what if feels like to be abandoned, albeit only for about a dozen hours. Michelle Murray, 25, last month pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for dumping the kittens in September. At a hearing yesterday in Painesville Municipal Court, Judge Michael Cicconetti sentenced Murray to 90 days in jail, though she will spend only 14 of those days in custody. Cicconetti ordered her to surrender to park rangers at 6 PM on November 23, when she will be brought to a "remote location" of a local park and left there until "the light of dawn on November, 24, 2005," according to a court judgment, a copy of which you can find below. Murray will not be allowed to carry and food or beverages other than water, nor will she be provided with shelter. However, she will be given a "means of communication for emergency purposes only." During the sentencing hearing, Cicconetti said that he wanted Murray to "listen to the coyotes, hear the raccoons in the dark of night."

Well, isn't that just dandy? I was just talking about cruel and unusual in another story this morning, and here comes Cicconetti to take that argument right away from me. It's certainly unusual, and the point of the sentence was to be equally cruel to what she did.

The end of November, in Ohio, he's sticking a woman out in the woods overnight? The ACLU had better come to her defense.

Many animals live outdoors; My mom has a cat that comes to the post office to be with her during the daytime, but then goes off into the wilderness at night. Point being, that a cat can and does live outdoors with the howling coyotes. Humans usually do not. One could argue whether her actions were cruel or not. I've had people tell me that *I* am cruel for not letting my cat outside. That's not to say that she wasn't irresponsible for allowing her cats to bread, and it's not to say that she wasn't lazy in not finding home for them, or paying to have the shelter do it, but cruel? I don't think so.

So, the price for irresponsibility, and laziness is getting sent out into the woods in the cold of winder, overnight, to be frightened, and hungry?

My brother came over as I was reading this story, and I showed it to him, and expressed how cruel I thought that it was, and he said he liked what the judge was doing there. He said some people never learn and the judge was trying to teach her a lesson. Not only is that sentiment wrong on too many levels to name, but it frightens the crap out of me. Teach her a lesson? What is she supposed to learn? That is cold in Ohio at night in November? That she doesn't have claws for defense, or instinctive hunting capabilities? What?

Dean sez: Ketchup doesn't belong on hot-dogs But, is there anywhere that Ketchup does belong, besides in the mouths of children with seriously unrefined palates, and terminal bad taste?

What about that nasty bright yellow semblance of mustard? How can they get away with calling it mustard? Let's get one thing straight, mustard seeds are brown.

"I can't believe it's not butter." I believe! Oh, honey, I believe it's not butter! Testify! Proper rye toast should not be ruined by adding some "spread" that is mostly water, and hence makes the bread soggy! What the hell did you toast it for in the first place, if you're just going to make it soggy?

Barbecue sauce = Dressed up ketchup. 'Nuff said. A-1 is where the action is.

Mayonnaise is disgusting, and besides, you can't take it on picnics. Think Miracle Whip!

Did I miss any?