litbitch

earn your damn job title

I'm getting tired of many of the NPR programs. At the moment, I refer to my local news updates, and Talk of the Nation.  Fortunately, I don't hear the latter very often, but the format seems to be have on a few experts, let them state their case, then take "listener comments" without addressing any of the issues broached by those listeners.  Why the fuck would I just want to listen to a bunch of people sounding off?  Oh, right, because I want validation.  Y'know what?  I can get validation at a bar, or next door.  I listen to the news for insight and information, and hopefully a more elevated discussion.  So when the religious pastor says that he was a leading, vocal proponent of Prop 8 because "children deserve to have one parent of each sex," why didn't you ask him if he was going to create a constitutional amendment banning parental divorce? Or encourage abortions for any fetus about to be born into a single parent home? Why didn't you ask him if it was okay for same sex couples who don't want children to tie the knot? When the listener called up and bitched that "those people" harping on that one word, marriage, are tying up the courts in California while there are more important issues that need to be addressed, why didn't you point out that those people are not the ones passing the propositions and amendments, that those people would be perfectly happy to get married just like everyone else with no more legal pain than you get signing a marriage certificate at city hall? Wtf, Neil Conan?
And you're not off the hook, Minnesota.  There have been on the street interviews on MPR for the last few weeks, asking whether the Hausers should get chemo for their son. That's not the damn question.  The question is whether the state has the right to force them to get chemo for their son.

I know there are a lot of journalists out of work right now.  Those who have jobs should earn their pay.  And I'm sick of softball.  People ought to be challenged.  It's the only way we're ever going to learn anything.  Or is education just too radical an idea for the media?

um, z? are you sure you're not a libertarian? (part 8)

File this under the same category as the "California Uber Alles" posts.

Minnesota is threatening to take custody of a 13 year old who is refusing traditional cancer treatment. Some time after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, he did go through one round of chemotherapy treatment.  With the side effects and their religious beliefs, they have decided to pursue alternative therapies ever since.  The parents have said that if the tumor grows, they will consider chemo and radiation again. The boy appeared in court last week, firm in his resolve, well-spoken, and looking healthy. 

I'm no fan of religion, but I do support religious freedom, to a point.  The fact that the Hausers are white people following a Native American religion doesn't make me any more sympathetic to their cause.  Neither does the evidence that Hodgkin's lymphoma is a highly treatable form of cancer.  That is, I find it easier to sympathize with someone seeking alternative treatment when the most likely outcome from chemo & radiation is increased sickness before an untimely death than I do someone who might fully recover with traditional medical treatment.  I am also no stranger to the powerful influence of parents' beliefs on their wards. And I don't think parents should have unrestricted authority over their children.  There are absolutely times when children should be taken out of the home. 

Nonetheless, I think the state should back the fuck off.  No one has attempted to argue that these parents don't care about their kid (kids, actually; they have many).  The state simply believes that their form of medicine is best, and that, since it is best, the Hausers have to use it.  Beyond the scientific ignorance and arrogance of that belief (what if every sick child had been ordered to have leech treatments?), is the apparently prevailing medical view that existence is the only part of life worth defending. I have similar feelings about the extremists in the pro-life movement.  

I don't doubt that the doctors and the judge are trying to do the right thing.  But it's not their job to make medical decisions for the citizens of this country.  Ironically, of course, our government does not financially support medical treatment for a huge portion of Americans, but they'll force unwanted treatment on others.

Back. The fuck. Off.

(I started writing this last week, and got distracted.  The boy has since been ordered to get chemo by the court.  Today the news reports that the boy and his mother have gone AWOL.  Yep. They're on the run.  Good idea? No. Inevitable? Nope.  Still not the state's fucking business? Check.