Woo Hoo!

http://wcco.com/education/sex.education.bill.2.710994.html

I know I rarely say this, but let's hear it for the Minnesota House of Representatives!

Here's hoping it replaces abstinence-only sex ed.

This is "Best Judgement?"

Expelling kids for buying decorative swords on a school trip to England? I have never been and will never be for "zero tolerance" policies, but that's not even what they're claiming! They're claiming they used their "best judgment!"

Here's a tip: if your best judgment finds you expelling kids completely for non-threatening behavior, you need to find a new judge. You don't just throw kids away like that. Suspend them, confiscate the swords, put them on probation for exhibiting poor judgment, but recognize that there's a difference between their behavior and an actual physical threat.

Because if the consequences are all going to be the same, what reason do then have not to use them?*

Aside from the fact that they'd probably break. Three swords for $60? Definitely decorative.

The E Makes All the Difference

Poor googlers. All these years, and the reason most people get my blog via google is still because they're too fried to spell heroin correctly. Fewer drugs, more school, people!

Able Bodied

At what point do we get to call the IAAF a bunch of bigoted losers? The guy uses the same prosthetics as multitudes of other amputees, and uses them better than any others. It's not the tools, it's the user. Sure, the prosthetics return 3% more energy to the limb than the average ankle does. (Note: when that study was quoted in the televised story, the numbers were 88% return for the ankle verses 91% for the prosthetic. I am not sure how that translated into a 30% difference.) And yet, Oscar Pistorius is the only amputee anywhere near his level of competition. Further studies have confirmed that it is his use of the limbs, not their very existence, that makes him so fast. The IAAF? Refuses to accept these studies, and relies solely on the energy return study. I'm ready to make the call, y'all: bigoted losers. Studies show they're wrong, but why should science get in the way of small-mindedness.

Also? At which point do we stop calling the other athletes "able-bodied" in comparison?

Twitter

I appear to be tweeting in the sidebar. I have no clue why. But! You should join me. Bafflement loves company.

Hillary’s Nasty Pastorate - CommonDreams.org

So, Hillary just got a little scarier.

EDIT: Confirmed with Jon, it's the same creepy group he crossed paths with.

Son of EDIT: Jon brings the linkage. Click through for more and better information.