World of Suck

Who is Michael Heath? No one you should know. Basically he's some religious freak that has taken issue with the fact that King Middle School (also in Maine) can provide contraception for children who have parental permission to see a doctor. The dig is that because this school serves predominantly middle and lower-class kids, the health services is located in the school.

What the Idiot At Large fails to grasp is the "parental" part of all this. Kids cannot just get pills at random, they need permission from their parents first, to even see a doctor. As to why the school is offering contraception, the answer is because they had 17 pregnancies in the school (kids aged 11 to 13) in the previous year.

I fail to grasp why Christian conservatives get so angry when other adults decide what is right for their kids. It never is, or was about what the kids have access to - it's about what other parents can decide. And apparently the concept of being free to choose what can help your kid isn't an "American" ideal to this type of zealot. In their world only their values, including intolerance and bigotry is what is "right" for America.

54% of the school's children qualify for free lunch, meaning that 54% of the school is considered poor. Since clearly these kids are sexually active, and again quite clearly they don't have access to contraception why isn't it a reasonable alternative to offer counseling and medication at the school with parental consent?

These are kids, and if they're having sex they need help to prevent a pregnancy which would be physically and mentally harmful. In addition, according to their current policy a whole 5 kids out of 510 would have qualified for the program anyway.

So what's the big deal?

Ellen DeGeneres adopts a dog named Iggy. Iggy and the household's cats don't get along. Ellen's hairdresser takes Iggy in. Here's the rub, Mutts and Moms, the pet adoption agency Ellen got the dog from has an issue with Ellen giving little Iggy to her hairdresser. They take Iggy back.

Many pet adoption agencies have many rules that they wield with an iron fist. I chose to adopt my cats from the humane society rather than one of these adoption groups because of their rules and long list of questions. Ask anyone who knows me and they know my cats are my 4-legged, furry children. However, for example, I was not going to have someone tell me that I couldn't de-claw my cats if they became destructive. All of the adoption groups seem to have extensive "rules" to which adoptive human
mommies and daddies must adhere.

I am not disputing these groups rights to make rules. However, do any of the people running these places ever ask themselves whether finding a home that adheres strictly to their guidelines will make their furry charges happier than finding a home that might be a bit less than what they, the human operators of these groups , would find purrr-fect? I think it comes down to pure arrogance on the part of many of these people.

Lets use my de-claw example - If you were a cat, would you rather be de-clawed living in a warm home with ample food and clean water or stuck in a 3 ft by 3 ft cage hoping someone finds you cute? People like me, who would provide and nice safe home to an animal companion are turned away in favor of leaving the animals in cages or less than ideally "homelike" foster homes where people may be taxed to the brink with the number of foster animals they have. Doesn't make much sense to me and the reason I went elsewhere.

I hope Iggy winds up in a good, stable, home.

I went to the human society instead of one of these pet and I couldn't be happier with my furry companions. Oh, and by the way, everyone should do their part to limit the number of unwanted dogs and cats and spay and neuter you pets. There is nothing macho or cool about letting you pets procreate unless you are a professional breeder.