Here's my anecdotal two bits worth. There is a condition called phimosis (abnormally tight foreskin) which runs in my family. It can lead to chronic infections of the foreskin, urinary tract infections, kidney infections and ultimately lead to loss of kidney function. None of these are guaranteed to happen but they can't be predicted. My father was not circumcised at birth but required the procedure at the age of 15. He swore then that no son of his would go through the same thing so me and 3 brothers were circumcised. When my son was born we decided against it after much research but again he had to be circumcised at 9. Bottom line if a parent opts for circumcision for family medical reasons they shouldn't be condemned or criticized, but lacking a family history like mine I see no compelling reason for it.

Other than aesthetics, of course, uncut dicks are ugly.

Schizophrenia runs in my family. So....I've known and loved and lived with lots of schizophrenics. Pot definitely helped manage the symptoms of those who chose to use it. One was even told by his shrink to continue smoking it as it worked really well for him provided he didn't combine it with alcohol or other drugs. For an exboyfriend, self medicating with pot prevented him from self medicated with harder substances.

It also doesn't cause nasty side effects like tardive dyskensia, which is a worry with traditionally prescribed anti-psychotics. I'm not suggesting anyone stop taking their anti psychotics and rely on marijuana, I'm just saying, I've got a load of anecdotal evidence that tells me pot is often helpful to schiozphrenics.

When my schizophrenic cousin joey (a regular pot smoker since age 14) killed himself, he hadn't smoked in 4 months.... he was keeping his urine clean while on probation.... if he had failed one more drug test, they would've sent him to jail. he was 24 years old, his crime? possession of marijuana. My aunt says those last 4 months were the most terrifying of either of their lives. joey's symptoms were so terrifying that he threw himself in front of a train.

fuck prohibition.

>> ^vaire2ube:

Yes, yes he can.
http://blog.norml.org/2010/05
/26/latest-research-on-pot-and-schizophrenia-runs-contrary-to-mainstream-media-hype/

Age Of Onset Of Schizophrenia Not Associated With Marijuana Use, Study Says
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=8213
In fact, it may even help people with the disease cope with their symptoms.
Or they rapin e'rebody. Probably 50/50, so lets outlaw a plant.
I think pot use led to the purchase of a large capacity magazine to increase his killing power. Therefore we should outlaw pot and make weapons more powerful.

That won't happen to me. Alzheimers runs in the family, I'll be blissfully a walking vegetable in my latter years and forget everything that happened.

I was a fiend before I became a teen
I melted microphone instead of cones of ice cream
Music orientated so when hip-hop was originated
Fitted like pieces of puzzles, complicated
cause I grabbed the mic and try to say, yes y'all!
They tried to take it, and say that I'm too small
Cool, cause I don't get upset
I kick a hole in the speaker, pull the plug, then I jet
Back to the lab ...without a mic to grab
So then I add all the rhymes I had
One after the other one, then I make another one
To dis the opposite then ask if the brothers done
I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine
But I don't need a cigarette, know what I mean?
I'm raging, ripping up the stage and
Don't it sound amazing cause every rhyme is made and
Thought of, cuz its sort of...an addiction,
Magnatized by the mixing
Vocals, vocabulary, your verses, you're stuck in
The mic is a drano, volcanoes erupting,
Rhymes overflowing, gradually growing
Everything is written in the cold, so it can coin-
Cide, my thoughts to guide,
48 tracks to slide
The invincible, microphone fiend rakim
Spread the word, cause I'm in
E-f-f-e-c-t
A smooth operator operating correctly,
But back to the problem, I gotta habit,
You cant solve it, silly rabbit
The prescription is a hypertone thats thorough when
I fiend for a microphone like heroin
Soon as the bass kicks, I need a fix
Gimme a stage and a mic and a mix
And Ill put you in a mood or is it a state of
Unawareness? beware, its the reanamator!
A menace to a microphone, a lethal weapon
An assasinator, if the people ain't stepping
You see a part of me that you never seen
When I'm fiending for a microphone, Im the microphone fiend...

After 12, I'm worse that a gremlin
Feed me hip-hop and I start trembling
The thrill of suspense is intense, your horrified
But this ain't the cinemas of tales from the darkside,
By any means neccesary, this is what has to be done
Make way cause here I come....
My dj cuts material....
Grand imperial.
It's a must that I bust any mic youre hand to me,
Its inherited, its runs in the family
I wrote the rhyme that broke the bulls back,
If that dont slow em up, I carry a full pack.
Now I dont want to have to let off, you should of kept off
You didnt keep the stage warm, step off!
Ladies and gentleman, youre about to see
A pasttime hobby about to be
Take it to the maximum, I cant relax see, im
Hype as a hyperchrondriac cause the rap be one-
Hell of a antidote, something you cant smoke
More than dope, you're trying to move away but you cant, you're broke
More than cracked up, you should have backed up
For those who act up need to be more than smacked up
Any entertainer, I got a torture chamber
One on one and Im the remainder!
So close your eyes and hold your breath,
And I'm a hitcha wit the blow of death
Before you go, you'll remember you seen
The fiend of a microphone, I'm the microphone fiend

>> ^RhesusMonk:
The average Chinese cannot pronounce many, many of the English morphemes. Anecdotal evidence is useless in the conversation. We're talking about a best-fit line situation including all the members of linguistic groups, most of whom don't have a Babelfish stuck in their ears. It's not broad-minded to think that changing your name or modifying it to make it easier for the target culture to say is stupid, racist, etc. Just because you sometimes care enough to practice and learn doesn't mean that it happens globally enough to make it worthwhile to keep a difficult-to-pronounce name.
And to those with linguistic ability: do you really think that an increased capacity for polyglot-ism is the norm? I think if you truly understood your talents, you would see that you are different.


The ability to learn and pronounce foreign languages runs in my family to an extent, most people in my immediate family have studied a foreign language or two to varying degrees of success, and there has been at least one person per generation to reach a fluent level of pronunciation and near-fluent speaking level of a foreign language for the past several generations. I'm aware that some people simply aren't able to learn new sounds.

That said, I would rather somebody use an adaptation of my name (for example, Raisu in Japanese instead of Rice in English) than assign me an entirely new foreign-language "name" that is not my own. I think that a person's name is very important to them for most people, beyond the strictly utilitarian definition of being a convenient way for them to be referred to.

>> ^imstellar28:
Education isn't a commodity like milk, because it has varying levels of quality. However, the analogy with milk is still valid. I can sustain myself in many ways--be it mcdonalds, frozen dinners, milk, vegetables, fruit, or gold-laced packages of caviar. To force an education on me which is more or less expensive, or of higher or lower quality than I would have chosen is economically inefficient.

Ahh, see, that's the problem. I don't want to force you to buy something more expensive, I want to force everyone to pay "their share", and get everyone something as close to gold-laced caviar as I can. People like Bill Gates will pay a lot, people like me will pay a moderate amount, and people who're scraping by pay nothing.

Bill Gates and I are both still capable of spending additional money, out of our after-tax income to buy fancier platinum-laced caviar from an exotic fish, but it doesn't excuse us from our responsibility to others.

You don't make everyone eat the same food, or live in the same size house, so why would you make everyone learn the same way?

I wouldn't, within reason. I'd do my best to make it impossible for people to choose diseased or spoiled food, indigestible items, toxins, and some forms of particularly unhealthy foods (trans-fats, say).

Dropping the metaphor, I think gifted children, children with mental disorders, children from broken homes and "average" children all need different environments -- and while I think parents should be driving that choice, I don't think the costs should be the determining factor.

If I can teach my children with online video lectures, .pdf class notes, and electronic text books--why would you deny me this cost-saving option?

...because they're only cost-saving if you already own a computer and internet connection. If the cost of providing that, plus the license fee for electronic books is cheaper than buying the printed book, I'd happily make it mandatory.

Bureaucracies get a bum rap, but there's no reason they can't be organized in such a way that they encourage cost-savings, or even decentralized cost-savings (e.g. only the "gifted" school uses them). Corporations are able to do this at least some of the time.

Likewise, if I aspire to be a manual laborer--say a carpenter--because it runs in my family--why would you force me to achieve a higher level of education than is economically relevant? If I want to be a doctor, why are you sending me through economics, calculus, and chemistry? Shouldn't I be free to learn these things on my own time--and focus on advancing the skills relevant to my career?

As a student, I often said "I know I want to be a programmer, why do I have to learn history?"

What do you think my teacher said to me? "Because the damned Department of Education forces us, at gunpoint, to teach you things we know will be irrelevant to your life?"

There's a value to educating people in a broad range of subjects, because it makes them more well-rounded individuals, and you never know what might come in handy in your life.

They might even change their mind about carpentry, and decide they want to be a doctor.

It is true you have less "dollar-votes" than Bill Gates, but do you think Bill Gates is going to be buying that much more milk than a typical family? Or that many more loaves of bread? He will be spending money--perhaps on luxury items which you wouldn't buy anyways--

That's why I'm happy to take a big share of his income in taxes...

but he will also be investing the largest portion of his income in small business--like the grocer, shoemaker, or car salesman who just opened business in your neighborhood. That is because all those millions of his dollars aren't just sitting in his closet--they are in a bank, which is giving out loans to business owners like your neighbor, or maybe even yourself.

Sure, but why should he get to choose not to help pay for the education of the people in his community/state/nation? He benefited from it, and benefits from the labors of those educated employees he hires, or those educated entrepreneurs he loans money to.

Doesn't he have a debt to society, since society has given him so much?

There is no such thing as a community. Can you go outside and touch the community? Can you tell me where it is, or what it is currently doing? The community is an illusion--the only thing that exists is the individual. It is individuals that make up the community, and to forsake the individual for the sake of the community is to lose all bearing of what really exists.

I can't touch happiness either...or libertarianism.

Here's the real separation of our beliefs: you hold the individual supreme, I hold the good of society supreme.

There are many different "societies" or "communities" to choose from, families, neighborhoods, nations, book clubs, sports teams, political activist groups, armies, gangs, companies, online communities, etc., but I think people are most moral when they put the needs of the group above their own.

That's why I so happily support judicious trampling of "individual rights" when I think it's truly for the good of the whole (though I don't think "the right to never pay taxes" is really a "right"). I think certain individual rights are vital to the functioning society (e.g. freedom of speech, freedom of religion, habeas corpus, protection from illegal search & seizure, etc.), but I think certain restrictions of behavior, above and beyond the libertarian triumvirate of stealing life, stealing money, and breaking contracts are vital too.

In the case of schooling, I think it's a vital part of society, and we all have an obligation to provide for it, whether we "choose" to or not.

^NetRunner:
>> To quote Wikipedia on a commodity: A commodity is anything for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market.
Education isn't a commodity. It's a service, with a ton of "qualitative differentiation across the market".
Also, education is not elastic, like milk. If milk costs $8/gal, I'll probably cut back on it, or stop buying it. If sending my hypothetical kids to grade school cost me %50 or more of my income, I'd find a way to do it, but you can be damn sure I wouldn't be voting for a Libertarian in the next election.
There's probably some price elasticity in education, though I hope there aren't many parents telling their kids "sorry, even though I can afford to send you to MIT, your future isn't worth enough to me, how about a nice state school?" Student loans create a different situation, with kids having to decide how much individual debt they're willing to take on, but is that really superior to a system that places students in colleges based on desire & ability, with the costs spread amongst the society in the form of progressive taxes?


Education isn't a commodity like milk, because it has varying levels of quality. However, the analogy with milk is still valid. I can sustain myself in many ways--be it mcdonalds, frozen dinners, milk, vegetables, fruit, or gold-laced packages of caviar. To force an education on me which is more or less expensive, or of higher or lower quality than I would have chosen is economically inefficient. You don't make everyone eat the same food, or live in the same size house, so why would you make everyone learn the same way? If I can teach my children with online video lectures, .pdf class notes, and electronic text books--why would you deny me this cost-saving option? Likewise, if I aspire to be a manual laborer--say a carpenter--because it runs in my family--why would you force me to achieve a higher level of education than is economically relevant? If I want to be a doctor, why are you sending me through economics, calculus, and chemistry? Shouldn't I be free to learn these things on my own time--and focus on advancing the skills relevant to my career?

Also, a free market isn't a democracy. In any form of democracy I'm familiar with, everyone gets an equal number of votes (generally speaking, just 1). I'm pretty sure I have a smaller number of dollar-votes than Bill Gates.

It is true you have less "dollar-votes" than Bill Gates, but do you think Bill Gates is going to be buying that much more milk than a typical family? Or that many more loaves of bread? He will be spending money--perhaps on luxury items which you wouldn't buy anyways--but he will also be investing the largest portion of his income in small business--like the grocer, shoemaker, or car salesman who just opened business in your neighborhood. That is because all those millions of his dollars aren't just sitting in his closet--they are in a bank, which is giving out loans to business owners like your neighbor, or maybe even yourself.

As for taking a gun and forcing people to pay $8 for milk, it's more like taking a gun to people and saying "provide your share to the community or else," though usually they just send paperwork in the mail and say "we already took your share out of your paycheck, fill this out to make sure we got the right amount."
The "or else" is only implied to people who think of law as something imposed by a gang of thugs called "the government" or "the Police", forcing people to bow to their will through violence. Then it's "don't kill people, or else", "don't steal, or else", and all kinds of other democratically created circumscriptions on your freedom imposed artificially by others, tragic as that is.

There is no such thing as a community. Can you go outside and touch the community? Can you tell me where it is, or what it is currently doing? The community is an illusion--the only thing that exists is the individual. It is individuals that make up the community, and to forsake the individual for the sake of the community is to lose all bearing of what really exists.

WTF WAS McCAIN THINKING: part 2 in an ongoing 24 part series.

I agree that Barack Obama and his campaign should stay out of this, it'll only make them look like villains, even if they were just pointing out the truth and hypocrisy.

And I hate to say this, but this is one of those issues where the media and liberal attack dogs have a valid place. First of all the girl's pregnancy, age, and unwed status are all facts. This isn't some unsubstantiated rumor being propped up as fact by a few feeble bits of evidence.

Secondly, and this is the defining part of why this is an issue. McCain and Palin are running on a family values, (abstinence only, sex after marriage) platform. In fact Palin was brought in specifically to appeal to voters based on her values. And her daughter is off makin babies out of wedlock. She can't even control her own daughter with abstinence only, how the hell does she think its going to work with everyone else.

As for the abortion thing, they're making a big deal out of the fact she's choosing to carry the baby. So the fuck what, their whole position is there shouldn't be a choice in the first place.

I guess talent runs in the family.
Neil Finn of Split Enz and Crowded House is his dad.
Guess that makes Tim Finn his uncle as well.