Things, on and off the internet
1. Oh Em Gee whyyyyyyeeee does EDTA take so facking long to dissolve? I hate it. *adds more NaOH*
2. I am a subject in an H1N1 vaccine study! Not only do I not have to go wait in an epic line up at some church, I get to have cookies and increase learnings! And also measure the injection-site welt with a hilare homemade ruler thing on an acetate sheet. :D
3. In OMG ARGH, news, my cousin's husband posted this link on his Facebook: Selling sterilization to addicts. It is a six-year-old article, but it makes me D:.
So some guy says: "if a mother is an alcoholic there is a good chance a pregnancy will result in FAS, if the mother is a crack addict she won't be fit for a child either and the kid will have to be put up for adoption if the system can intervene in time, but the adoption agencies already have more kids then potential adoptive parents.
can we force someone to stop doing crack and drinking and act responsibly? no. can we prevent unwanted pregnancy? yes."
In my head: EW NO.
I say: "It is one thing, I think, to educate addicted people about birth control and encourage them to use it for their own benefit, but quite another to take advantage of their likely financial straits and offer them a persuasive amount of money for something like a *surgery* that they may not have chosen on its own merits. It's exploitative, and reads more like you want to eliminate the unfit for the benefit of hypothetical children than actually help the addicted people. Offering cash rather than services or food or housing suggests they don't actually give a crap what the person goes off and does as long as they're not contributing to the gene pool. Creepy."
Guy: "you gotta know your demographic. what appeals to them, what motivates them. this is targeting what they value. it's no more exploitative then any other ad out there."
In my head: Uh, who doesn't value money, Captain Wronghead?
Me: "One wouldn't consider the addicted population specially vulnerable to manipulation? Especially to people with greater social and financial capital? I just don't trust the altruism of a program that offers a crack-addicted woman $200 cash to get a tubal ligation -- a procedure, I note, that I as a "contributing member of society" would immediately be talked out of by any doctor because my ~*~potential~*~ can be seen from a closer distance. Whereas possibly permanently sterilizing a woman with a compromised decision-making capacity is a good idea. I mean, I hope they go for the implants, because geez..."
Guy: "that's it right there though "sterilizing a woman with a compromised decision capacity" - that's exactly why she shouldn't have a kid. there is no way she will be able to raise it. the child (if it's lucky) will have to end up in an adoption facility, either that or it will be abused, suffer health consequences etc. if your goal is to minimize human suffering, this procedure seems viable."
Guy again::"ok ok, lets do this ethically...
here is what you do:
you put the add out, 200 bucks for your uterus 1-800-crack-me
then anyone who shows up gets tranquilized, blindfolded and shipped off to betty ford for 3 to 5 years, mandatory. while there they will get clean. also they will have psychologists, a personal trainer, job training, parenting classes, nutritionists, a loving family, friends, hobbies and a pet to take care of. once the entire process is complete and this personal is finally released they can spend the rest of their lives working off the debt they incurred by such rendered services."
Me in my head: AGH.
Me, on the thread:"To the first reply: But that vulnerability may be an impermanent condition, maybe due to the addiction or due to untreated mental illness or just circumstance or lack of education. Who decides how compromised is compromised enough? Who does and does not have potential? And why is it okay to take advantage in the first place?
To the second: I think that just demonstrates that "simple solutions" are not what a varied group of individuals needs to help them."
Aaaaaand I think I have to give up, soon. Cousin's friend is some kind of social-Darwinist @$%^. The lurkers support me in email, though.
2. I am a subject in an H1N1 vaccine study! Not only do I not have to go wait in an epic line up at some church, I get to have cookies and increase learnings! And also measure the injection-site welt with a hilare homemade ruler thing on an acetate sheet. :D
3. In OMG ARGH, news, my cousin's husband posted this link on his Facebook: Selling sterilization to addicts. It is a six-year-old article, but it makes me D:.
So some guy says: "if a mother is an alcoholic there is a good chance a pregnancy will result in FAS, if the mother is a crack addict she won't be fit for a child either and the kid will have to be put up for adoption if the system can intervene in time, but the adoption agencies already have more kids then potential adoptive parents.
can we force someone to stop doing crack and drinking and act responsibly? no. can we prevent unwanted pregnancy? yes."
In my head: EW NO.
I say: "It is one thing, I think, to educate addicted people about birth control and encourage them to use it for their own benefit, but quite another to take advantage of their likely financial straits and offer them a persuasive amount of money for something like a *surgery* that they may not have chosen on its own merits. It's exploitative, and reads more like you want to eliminate the unfit for the benefit of hypothetical children than actually help the addicted people. Offering cash rather than services or food or housing suggests they don't actually give a crap what the person goes off and does as long as they're not contributing to the gene pool. Creepy."
Guy: "you gotta know your demographic. what appeals to them, what motivates them. this is targeting what they value. it's no more exploitative then any other ad out there."
In my head: Uh, who doesn't value money, Captain Wronghead?
Me: "One wouldn't consider the addicted population specially vulnerable to manipulation? Especially to people with greater social and financial capital? I just don't trust the altruism of a program that offers a crack-addicted woman $200 cash to get a tubal ligation -- a procedure, I note, that I as a "contributing member of society" would immediately be talked out of by any doctor because my ~*~potential~*~ can be seen from a closer distance. Whereas possibly permanently sterilizing a woman with a compromised decision-making capacity is a good idea. I mean, I hope they go for the implants, because geez..."
Guy: "that's it right there though "sterilizing a woman with a compromised decision capacity" - that's exactly why she shouldn't have a kid. there is no way she will be able to raise it. the child (if it's lucky) will have to end up in an adoption facility, either that or it will be abused, suffer health consequences etc. if your goal is to minimize human suffering, this procedure seems viable."
Guy again::"ok ok, lets do this ethically...
here is what you do:
you put the add out, 200 bucks for your uterus 1-800-crack-me
then anyone who shows up gets tranquilized, blindfolded and shipped off to betty ford for 3 to 5 years, mandatory. while there they will get clean. also they will have psychologists, a personal trainer, job training, parenting classes, nutritionists, a loving family, friends, hobbies and a pet to take care of. once the entire process is complete and this personal is finally released they can spend the rest of their lives working off the debt they incurred by such rendered services."
Me in my head: AGH.
Me, on the thread:"To the first reply: But that vulnerability may be an impermanent condition, maybe due to the addiction or due to untreated mental illness or just circumstance or lack of education. Who decides how compromised is compromised enough? Who does and does not have potential? And why is it okay to take advantage in the first place?
To the second: I think that just demonstrates that "simple solutions" are not what a varied group of individuals needs to help them."
Aaaaaand I think I have to give up, soon. Cousin's friend is some kind of social-Darwinist @$%^. The lurkers support me in email, though.