My wife was a teacher at a middle school where several teachers were assaulted (pushed, punched, etc.) yearly and there were almost daily fights between students--no exaggeration. School policy is that teachers can't touch the kids for any reason, even to break up fights where one student is kicking another on the ground, due to threats of lawsuits in such cases. The police officer is there mostly to diffuse/stop such instances because they are allowed to get physically involved. They are also on hand to file charges against threats of assault, rape, or when drugs are found.

And this is all at a middle school where the kids range in size from pre-pubescent four footers to early-bloomer six foot plus and much larger than some of their female teachers.

The efficacy of this is obviously influenced by the individual cop, the school administration and how the students and their parents view police in general.

Push '4' and '7' to hear them argue about pronunciation.

My dream of an SCP Foundation game remains forever on the horizon.

http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/

Or *discard or whatever

*kill

I have pretty great insurance and was floored by the statement of benefits ("This is not a bill") I received after acute appendicitis. Everything had been covered 100% (including a pic line and once-a-week homecare nurse for a post-op infection), but they sent me the paperwork. It was insane; a doctor who stopped in my hospital room once for less than 5 minutes and merely asked me "How are you feeling" charged the insurance a ~$700 consulting fee. Next to that was the amount paid by the insurance: $0.

It was hilarious to see the charges and total submitted by the hospital in one column (tens of thousands) and the "fuck you, we're paying you this and you'll like it" from the insurance company in the second column (somewhere around 10-20% of that requested).

I'm not sure who was being the bigger dick in this situation, but I didn't pay for anything (except for my monthly $200 pre-tax deduction from my paycheck, which is still pretty crazy, but I ended up utilizing what most people end up just giving away to their insurance company).

Fellow at work told me he's comfortable around black people because he used to go to the YMCA, while we were walking about on a break. He walked right in front of a Hispanic woman who was carrying a box of stuff, while I stopped to let her cross.

Followed it up with, "...and I know this is going to sound terrible, but I just hate Mexicans." Unironically, not sarcastically, non-jokingly.

So I think I really can say, "I think you are racist" in this instance.

*beg

Random encoding garbage in there. Just ignore it.

*beg

caveat raptor

My moral code is somewhere between Felicific calculus (e.g. make the greatest number of people happy while harming the fewest number of people you can) and the simple edict: Don't be an asshole.

In ten short years, how many lives have I lived, how many dreams have I shared. Vicarious beauty within personal mediocrity.

Either someone put their Chihuahua in the taffy puller, or they accidentally shrank their baby in the dryer.

*beg