Unsolicited email
 

Same outside the Chinese consulate in Houston, which is not too far from my house. My dog once startled one of the meditating demonstrators by suddenly barking out of the car window, and the guy fell over. I'm ashamed to say I laughed.

Modest Hank
 

The Dog of Love post was cribbed from the radio talk show you hear on a boat in GTA.

Modest Hank
 

I remember something about PT Boats, but only because Hank has reminded me of it fairly regularly since I wrote it.

Modest Hank
 

A legacy is important.

Senate Vote to Approve Drilling
 

Nobody's willing to build one, despite the screaming lack of refining capacity, because of the horrendous guaranteed environmental exposure. Basically, the industry's willing to wait out a bye from congress in the national interest. Plus, they make so much fucking money on the upswings that it outweighs the lower, albeit more predicatble margins they'd earn on greater throughput.

Modest Hank
 

Or, it could just be that the post wasn't all that good to begin with.

Woo hoo!
 

Senate Kills All Medicaid Cuts From Budget

"By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer

"WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to strip all proposed Medicaid cuts from the $2.6 trillion budget for next year, killing the heart of the plan's deficit reduction and dealing an embarrassing setback to President Bush and Republican leaders."

AP's adjectives, not mine.

This should be fun.
 

link

The circus is coming to Florida.

• Former Green Beret Commander Bo Gritz is trying to conduct a citizen's arrest of Terri Schiavo's husband and the judge who ordered the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube removed so she can be legally starved.
  
  The 66-year-old retired Army Lt. Colonel with his wife, Judy, arrived in Florida from their home in Nevada yesterday with the intent of arresting anyone involved in removing the life-sustaining tube.
  
  Gritz came bearing a notarized "citizen's arrest warrant" addressed to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist.
  
  His intent is to "paper" state and federal law enforcement offices with his warrant today – one day before Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer's deadline to begin denial of food and water to Terri Schiavo.

Nice. I almost hope this guy decides to take the law into his own hands and apprehends Schiavo, or a nurse, or a judge. It'll give us something to watch besides the Jackson trial.

• Citing his officer's oath of allegiance to "defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic," Gritz says while he doesn't know Terri Schiavo personally, she nevertheless represents an American in danger of citizen-rights abuse, and he feels an obligation to act while she remains alive.

There are no similar cases between Nevada and Florida, with citizens whose rights are endangered? Odd, that.

• Besides a "Terri Bill" under consideration in the U.S. Congress, the Florida Legislature votes tomorrow on a modified measure to keep Schiavo's life support in place. A previous Florida bill allowing Gov. Bush to intervene was ruled unconstitutional.

This part I don't get. Why is this case different than any other number of similar cases around the country where relatives want to end life support for patients in a vegetative state? I mean, having the opportunity to be arrested by Rambo must be something special.

Woo hoo!
 

"Because it involves the halt, the lame, the poor, the blind, the needy, those who have no recourse."

The halt??

This should be fun.
 

Two days ago, Texas Children's Hospital in Houston removed a baby from life support contrary to the mom's wishes. The baby was born with a type of dwarfism where his lungs and heart weren't going to grow, and he was on artificial breathing for six months. According to the hospital, his death was only a matter of time, and there was nothing anyone could do for him. Everything was done in accordance with Texas law (finding that treatment is inappropriate by a physician, careful review and agreement by the facility ethics committee), and the mom had ten days to find alternate care for him. Apparently she contacted 40 neonatal units and no one would take him.

The case brought a lot of attention to local media, but I didn't really see any national coverage, which sort of surprised me in light of the Shavio case. Poor baby.

ETA: I always find an interesting dichotomy between the right-to-life and right-to-healthcare. No one ever talks about how much it costs to keep the life support systems going, and yet losing the cuts on Medicaid was a major hit to the Republicans today.

This Should be Fun
 

From my girl Ann:

• How many people have to die before the country stops humoring feminists? Last week, a defendant in a rape case, Brian Nichols, wrested a gun from a female deputy in an Atlanta courthouse and went on a murderous rampage. Liberals have proffered every possible explanation for this breakdown in security except the giant elephant in the room – who undoubtedly has an eating disorder and would appreciate a little support vis-à-vis her negative body image.
  
  The New York Times said the problem was not enough government spending on courthouse security ("Budgets Can Affect Safety Inside Many Courthouses"). Yes, it was tax-cuts-for-the-rich that somehow enabled a 200-pound former linebacker to take a gun from a 5-foot-tall grandmother.
  
  Atlanta court officials dispensed with any spending issues the next time Nichols entered the courtroom when he was escorted by 17 guards and two police helicopters. He looked like P. Diddy showing up for a casual dinner party.
  
  I think I have an idea that would save money and lives: Have large men escort violent criminals. Admittedly, this approach would risk another wave of nausea and vomiting by female professors at Harvard. But there are also advantages to not pretending women are as strong as men, such as fewer dead people. Even a female math professor at Harvard should be able to run the numbers on this one.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/a...20050317.shtml

This should be fun.
 

Only real difference is that, in this case, you have some people who arguably have some standing in the case (parents) who don't want her turned off, and who have raised some (interesting? strange?) questions about the hubby's motivations for getting her turned off. Plus, the court is supposed to give her wishes great weight, and the only evidence of her wishes is hubby saying, she told me to unplug her if something like this happened.

This kind of case happens a lot. Messy, all. Go sign a Durable Health Care POA tomorrow.

This Should be Fun
 

I'm sure that the police in Atlanta developed their procedures with the goal of humoring feminists foremost in mind. That Coulter -- sharp as a tack.

This Should be Fun
 

Just last month, my b-i-l (a dep county sheriff) was complaining that he had been told to staff night jail rotations with a more gender-balanced mix than what he had been doing.

So, I don't know about "humoring feminists", but, maybe, "not getting sued"?

(ETA - So, I guess, yeah, sharp as a tack.)

This Should be Fun
 

Not that it will change anything Ann or any other antifeminist will say, but as I understand it, the Atlanta courthouse guards didn't carry guns for precisely the reason that prisoners could try to take them. The guard did have keys to a lock box which had a gun. What happened was that dude subdued the guard, took her keys, unlocked the box, took the gun, and then went on his rampage. All of these actions were observed by security cameras -- but no one was monitoring the cameras. That's more the problem, it seems to me, than the fact that the guard was a woman. If it was a guy, the same thing could have happened.

This Should be Fun
 

Hank fights like a girl.

This Should be Fun
 

Was he told that by the feminists? Never mind -- let's just assume it was Andrea Dworkin herself. Carry on.

This Should be Fun
 

Stop humoring the feminists, Not Bob.

This Should be Fun
 

Cheap response, Ty, but I suppose sarcasm helps in the absence of substance. He was told that by superiors who did not want to be accused of gender bias. He did not like it, because women in the jail unit at night get challenged much more frequently than men.

This Should be Fun
 

Um, now that we have been provided with more facts in the Atlanta situation that sparked this discussion, any comments?

And what if black male personnel were challenged more than white male personnel (or vice versa)? Same thing -- shouldn't assign them?

This Should be Fun
 

Well, you didn't say that, so I think my cheap response was appropriate.

As Not Bob said, it has sounded like there were all sorts of problems with security in the Atlanta courthouse, so it seems a little ridiculous to be pointing the finger at feminists. Unless, of course, you're Ann Coulter.

This Should be Fun
 

My comment was a response to Ty's cheap throw-away, no more. I knew the Atlanta situation - they had a reasonably good setup that just didn't work, as all solutions sometimes fail.

As to the black-v-white thing? Wc currently assign officers based on race to specific blocks in the jail - because smart jails segregate the prisoners by race. It keeps more people alive. (But See the dumb SC.)

It's an implerfect world.

This Should be Fun
 

All the facts? Ummm no. Did this guard have nice big titties? That would play into whether the boy guards would want her around, wouldn't it?

This Should be Fun
 

OK. I was just curious if you were okay with the racial stuff as well as the sex stuff. I'm sure you can see how it could also be a believable pretext too, though, and that people should be careful. Like, what if non-Lutherans got more crap than Lutherans, etc. etc.

This Should be Fun
 

Not Bob is correct, per usual.

And if it were Hank and Sidd, someone would have been tossing the salad.

S_A_M

This Should be Fun
 

That would only be natural.

This Should be Fun
 

And, I don't speak for Ty, but I think that his comment may have been in response to Ann Coulter's cheap and factually inaccurate throw-away charge laying fault at the feet of the feminists. She obviously didn't want any of those pesky facts (like the fact that the guard didn't carry a gun) to get in the way of her larger truths. Big shock.

This Should be Fun
 

Nice if it pushes you out of the job. "We can't have McFlint [getting overtime/time and a half for] working nights -- the prisoners don't like dirty micks."

I'm not saying women don't get more crap, I'm just pointing out that it can be a pretext. Presumably there are some kind of requirements as to a level of physical strength and ability to use whatever weapons/tools are necessary for the job, and no man OR woman who doesn't meet them can have the job.

This Should be Fun
 

And that is the issue -- "challenged more frequently" -- due to perceptions of vulnerability not necessarily connected to actual ability to take care of oneself. Still, that is a legitimate concern for employers who desire/need mainly to keep the peace and avoid trouble.

For example, I once saw an advertisement in the newspaper some years back (mid-1990s) in which a large, well-known, rowdy area "gentlemen's club" was seeking bouncers. The job advertisement not only specified gender, but minimum height and weight requirements.

I am a man who is well above the national average in size -- perhaps even larger than Sidd or Hank. Still, I barely cleared those minimums. It has been explained to me that, for such jobs, they want people so large and scary looking that even drunk and horny young guys will not _think_ to start trouble. A smaller man (or any woman), even one with two or three black belts who could kick ass, would not be suitable for the job because the drunk would think: "Yeah, I could take him" and give it a try. The goal is to minimize fights, not just to win them.

I can see the same argument applying to certain law enforcement jobs -- but the problem is that this camel's nose opens the door to a return to non-essential height/weight/strength requirements that caused all male police and fire depatrtments for decades.

S_A_M

This Should be Fun
 

Agreed. It's a tough line, but I think the line must still be determined. The idea of just not trying to figure out what's pretext and what's needed results in too much harm.

This Should be Fun
 

I think I know what you're saying, but I'm worried that someone will now read it as saying that the 4'9" woman can do the guard/prisoner-control job as well as the 6' guy, as long as we perceive her to be as able. 'Taint so. (Likewise for the 4'9" guy, of course.)

This Should be Fun
 

If there are already those strength/skill requirements in place, why should female guards (who have to have met the requirements in order to have the job) be excluded from guarding the jail (and, specifically, at night, but not during the day)?

This Should be Fun
 

Have all strength-type requirements been abolished and now the rule is "perceive"?

This Should be Fun
 

now you're just trolling for a "objective maximum weight" comment, aren't you? Well, the nice new hank won't go there.

This Should be Fun
 

Puh-leaze. I have no worries. I can just sit on them.

This Should be Fun
 

Answering both posts - best example is the firefighter situation. Strength and speed requirements were in place for years - which excluded almost all women. Court rulings started to say, requirements are thus invalid. Too much of an outcry, (because they were job-related requirements), so subsequent rulings began to change the scope and harshness of the requirements, to the point where a large percentage of the women taking the test could pass.

So, basically, there still are tests, but they pretty much just exclude the halt.

This Should be Fun
 

Quit with the fancy talk, Harvard-boy.

Are a lot of firefighters now incapable of doing their jobs? Or had the bars been set higher than they needed to be? I tend not to read the sad stuff in the paper, but I don't see a lot of stories about "people burned to death in building because firefighters [no matter which sex] not capable of rescuing them because too weak."

This Should be Fun
 

Depends on who you talk to. I don't think the job doesn't get done - but I have heard (second, third hand) that some of the guys resent having to do the bulk of the heavy lifting - which, of course, could simply be an attitude problem about women on "a guy's job", too.

I can tell you that the comp reports for the women in those jobs aren't good. Lots of strain injuries.

This Should be Fun
 

I've heard stories that if we didn't have so many chick soldiers we would have gotten to Baghdad BEFORE they moved the WMDs.

This Should be Fun
 

I never thought I'd see the day that Hank criticized Bush's Iraq war strategy.