Tuesday, May 24, 2005

The Evils of Caffiene

http://www.medpagetoday.com/tbindex.cfm?tbid=1091&topicid=43

According to this article: First-graders have more behavior problems on the days that they are exposed to caffeinated colas than on the days that they have caffeine-free drinks.

Exposure to caffeinated cola drinks impaired children's learning ability by causing restlessness, hyperactivity, and inattention. On the days that the children were drinking caffeinated drinks, their Connors scores increased an average of 5.5 points compared to the days that they were only drinking caffeine-free drinks.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Those poor persecuted perverts

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/family/4511059/detail.html

Six flags is now advising guests that it reserves the right to eject guests who are convicted sex offenders. I suspect this is more of a public relations ploy to attract more guests, than an actual attempt to keep deviants out of their parks.

The key here is that they will only subject park attendees to background checks if they are caught behaving inappropriately. I wonder exactly how they will accomplish this, since it would require the suspect to volunteer his identity, and so far as I know you don't have to provide identification to buy a ticket. I haven't been to six flags in years, being as I'm not a child anymore, so I could be wrong about the park requiring I.D. for entrance.

In short, although this sounds good, and the mainstream media loves this kind of P.R. B.S., I really don't see how this will solve any problems. Hopefully, these parks also have a policy of not hiring convicted sex offenders.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Dead Sea is Dying

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7902962/

According to this article the Dead Sea and Jordan River are drying up? This seems significant, it sounds like something that might be prophesied about in the bible. I'll have to look and see.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Kidney Transplants

Okay, so last night on Law & Order SVU the episode was about black market kidney transplants.

I was curious, so I looked up some statistics on ustransplant.org.

According to their reports there were 50,855 people on the kidney transplant waiting list at the end of 2002. It is also reported that there were 3396 people who died that year waiting for a kidney.

Obviously, with a US estimated population of about 288 million people, it would be safe to assume that there were at least 50,855 healthy people with kidneys out there that they could donate. The problem is, what is a person's motivation for donating a kidney?

The argument on LAOSVU last night was that if it were legal to sell kidneys then there would be a lot of people willing to sell their kidneys and lives could be saved. The other side of the argument is that if organs were for sale to the highest bidder, then only the richest people would get transplants.

I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. Obviously, it's against the law to sell organs here in the U.S., but should it be? In this country a lot of people argue about the right to do whatever we want to our own bodies, this argument is heard most often for abortion rights. I don't agree with this argument when it comes to murdering babies, but it could sway me when you're talking about saving other peoples lives. It is within our rights to donate organs voluntarily, it just isn't legal to benefit from it financially.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Newsweek

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7864705/

I feel like suing the editors and writers of Newsweek for lible. Their irresponsible "reporting" has further sullied the image of the American People. Don't Muslims have a bad enough opinion of us without making more crap up?

I know I'm mostly alone in this opinion but this is yet another example of why complete and total freedom of speech and of the press is a bad idea.

From the bill of rights -
Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

How did we get from these simple words the right to lie, the right to say and publish offensive material, the right to incite hatred and riots? Okay, so we don't abridge the freedom of speech, but does that mean we can't punish people who use their "free speech" to hurt others?

Unfortunately, the more pressure our governing officials puts on Newsweek to apologize or retract the original article, the more it appears to outsiders that the story is true and is being covered up. Keep in mind that a lot of other countries don't have the freedom of speech and of the press that we do. They may not understand that articles in Newsweek are written by individuals who are trying to sell advertising space in their magazine.

I don't believe that the Qu'ran was ever disgraced in the way described by Newsweek, but the thought of such a thing happening disgusts me, and I'm not even Muslim.

Ward Churchill

http://www.aimovement.org/moipr/cherokee.html

By the way, this honorary associate membership was given in the early 90's. Ward Churchill claim indian status when he was hired by C.U. as part of their affirmitive action program in 1980, 11 - 14 years prior to his supposed enrollment in the Keetoowah tribe.

Along with everything else, this man is clearly a pathological liar.

Ward Churchill

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3783579,00.html

What an idiot! How does a person like this get a tenured teaching position at a major university? According to Churchill all it takes to be a Native American, or American Indian, is to say "I'm an Indian," have a couple of other people say "He's an Indian," and carry a membership card.

I wonder if I can use that same logic to become a cat. "Meow."
"Everybody wants to be a cat. 'Cause being a cat is where it's at."

I blame the University of Colorado for hiring this moron just as much as I blame the moron. "Who is more foolish, the fool, or the fool who hired him?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi (paraphrased)

Where to start?

Where does a person start when logging all the things that he or she sees wrong with the world? Orwell's 1984 seems utopian at times compared to the world we live in.