in response to this article about mosquito spraying in our neighborhood tonight, i sent the following email to the reporter, looking for more info:
I live in that area and saw the sign outside our complex this morning.
We have a LOT of ducks in the area, including some baby ones. Do you know if they say anything about how harmful it is for them?
this was his response:
As I understand it, it’s not harmful to mammals.
i’m having one of those days where i’m kickin’ ass and takin’ names. just in case you were thinking about jacking with me today.
*whup-ass, that is
okay, that was a little snarky, i admit. i know it’s better for people to eat local, organic foods, no matter what their motivation, but it’s like all the people getting on the prius bandwagon just because of gas prices. i’m a bit of an idealist and want people to actually get it. which most of them never will. so, i suppose this is the next best thing. people see organic and local foods as a luxury (which they’re not), so it’s become the hawt new thing to get someone else to come grow a garden for you. i know, i know. it’s good for the farmers, good for the economy, and good for our bodies. but c’mon, people! get out there and mess around in your own dirt! it’s not that hard! even i, the queen of killing plants, have learned to grow at least a few herbs, and plan to do more when i can afford a house with a yard.
enough ranting, i guess. go read this. and then read this. decide which is more you and i’ll try to just be happy you’re eating better. >_<
in 1986, during his first Senate campaign, John McCain told the following hiLARious joke.
Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, “Where is that marvelous ape?”
yah, it’s really fucking funny to joke about rape and beating women mr. “i wanna be your next president”. no wonder you made such a roaring success of your first marriage.
okay, i get that this picture is related to the topic in general, but not so much to the article in specific.
Prostate Cancer Drug Can Prevent Bone Loss
what is it? i mean, i know what it is, but what exactly is it supposed to teach you? do they have equivalent models for ob/gyns to practice on?
as a follow up to part of my previous post, i will direct you elsewhere. to get an idea of just how isolated University Park/Highland Park is, take a gander at sh-n’s post on the mysteriously missing gays at our alma mater. (just fyi, the part i’m interested in is after a funny little ramble about her aunt’s old car.)
to give you a further idea, i will give you a personal anecdote. i was a very lower middle class kid when i matriculated at smu. very used to seeing the poor and lower-class daily. after 4 years there, i was honestly shocked at how many “ugly” people there were in the world. it took a good year or so to get used to it again. living in a bubble will do funny things to a person.
okay, i know that sounds snarky, but i mean it in a non-malicious way. we watched the first episode of “Hopkins” on ABC’s website last night. it truly is like a real-life grey’s anatomy, but that’s not actually what this is about. this post is about immigration and our xenophobic society.
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa came to the states illegally in the 80s. he jumped the fence and became a pretty standard field worker, doing the jobs that almost no natural born Americans are willing to do. 20 years later, he’s one of the top 4 brain surgeons in the nation. because of the liberal stance most colleges and universities take on citizenship, he was able to attend a local college first, gain admission to UC Berkeley, and go on to Harvard Medical School prior to earning his citizenship. Quiñones is the classic American dream come true.
now, i’m well aware that not every field hand is destined to become a brain surgeon. but neither is every person born by chance within our borders. what i’m also aware of is the damage done to us, as citizens, when we isolate ourselves from those who are different. there’s a high school in my city which is consistently ranked one of the best in the state, but, for the entire 4 years my friend went there, there were NO black students and only a small handful of asians (i don’t think there were any hispanics either). i don’t care how many AP exams those kids aced, they didn’t get a good education. they didn’t learn how to see others as anything but “Other”. they didn’t know my friend josh who, at the end of his Sr. year of high school, with the promise of several music scholarships in his hand, found out he was born in Mexico and would have to pay out-of-state tuition if he was allowed to attend any of those prestigious schools. and, if he couldn’t go to school, would be relegated to what work he could get without legal documents. this amazing kid who made music i could never even aspire to was going to be a field hand, or busboy, wasting the 12 years he’d worked his ass off because his parents were scared and our country unforgiving.
i’m sure Josh wasn’t an isolated incident either. the valedictorian and salutatorian of my class were both born in asian countries and came here as young children. i have a friend who works in a cancer lab and is a saudi citizen. one of my best friends, who is also an amazing musician, is the first generation of her father’s family to be born out of Italy. as someone who grew up, and still lives, in a very mixed community, i just don’t see how anyone can discount the contribution of immigrants, regardless of their legal status. to put it in pretty crass terms, who wants to give up their tacos and ravioli and just eat corn and potatoes all day? there’s so much more to it, but we Americans have a tendency to notice our food faster than our society as a whole. i know that was one of the first things i thought about when i was planning on moving to boston. i asked a couple of restaurant owners if they’d be willing to give me their super-special-secret recipes for certain ethnic dishes i knew i wouldn’t be able to find up there. and i seriously considered buying up all the salsa i could and just having a whole closet full to take with me. i also knew i’d miss hearing tejano music in the stores and seeing ballet folklorico troupes at public events.
the fact is, we have the space for way more people than are here. and we do have the resources if we would allocate them more evenly and stop subsidizing so much government waste. i know we’ll never have the open door policy of the 1800s, and i’m not sure we should. but building a wall and claiming that “these people” are only here to live off of our oh-so-generous welfare system is bullshit. it’s getting us nowhere fast and making it harder and harder for totally legitimate immigration to happen.
i’ve just never felt anything like this. how do people with real anger problems even function?
i’ve never wanted revenge, true revenge, to make someone hurt for the sake of the pain, until now. fuck you. you deserve no mercy.
