Backwards kids up in the air

Just heard that Txas may have to give back the scads of kids they took from the polygamist compound under suspicion of "child abuse". I have complicated feelings about that whole situation. Do I think it's right to marry off pre-teen girls in this day and age? No, of course not. And I am vehemently against any form of child abuse, for sure. But removing all the children from a community, regardless of age, risk of danger and trauma caused the kids who haven't been victimized is a strange call to have made. The government response struck me as a modern Pied Piper. Remember, he was that vindictive creepy guy who didn't get paid for his services so marched all the kids away instead. I feel like the state of Texas decided to take all those kids because that community flagrantly bent the law by being "married" to more than one woman.

And speaking of marriage. I am confused. I thought marriage was all about being legal. That's what gays are fighting for, after all, a legitimate, legally-protective, LEGAL union called "marriage". So, these polygamists who marry one wife and either never legally marry the subsequent wives, or divorce the previous wife before marrying the next (and staying with both) aren't actually breaking the law, then, right? It's more like having more than one baby-mama, and everyone just getting along. If that's not legal, I know a few neighborhoods that should be on the list of targets...

But back to the kids thing. I was a foster parent for 2 years of my early 20s. I made a difference, I was the best foster mom I could be. There was not a moment I didn't realize the pain of the kids in my care. After all, they didn't belong with me. They belonged somewhere else. Potentially screwing up some 4 year old's life by injecting fear of abandonment is not protecting that child. Many kids of divorce live that life every day and it's a tough monkey to get off your back. What does a kid have if they can't trust that there will be a continuing thread through their childhood: parental love, a place they belong. These Texas kids probably felt like they'd been dropped onto another planet.

I'm glad the supreme court is making the local government justify what they did. Any child in danger should be removed. But we should be careful that we aren't condoning removal of kids because they're parents value things different from us. That borders on criminal in itself. More on this later.

Meat 2.0

Someone at lunch today reminded me that someone in the world is engineering meat and concepted a product sure to impact the hunger rate in some societies -- the Meat Sheet. Other names include Pseudoflesh, which has an appetizing ring to it.

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=414

First of all, let me say that my stomach flinches a tad whenever I hear this referred to. It is nice and humane and protects animals from being butchered, but I just can''t get my mind around it. Culturing cells to create muscle we can consume? All without the benefit of actual "life"? I cant decide if that is good, bad or scary. Maybe all three. Will I eat it? HELL no. Will this change vegetarians' mind set? I have absolutely no idea.

Slugging it out

Wow. I heard the coolest story on NPR this morning. In at least a few US cities, people have taken a creative but oh so simple approach to mass-ish transit. Apparently, people line up in parking lots and decks and wait for solo drivers dying to angle into the HOV lane to come by. There's a person in the front who calls out the driver's destination, then the willing passengers queue up and climb in. It's like impromptu carpooling. It's called Slugging. The passengers are the Slugs.

The funniest aspect of this whole thing is that there are rules of Slug etiquette. You're not supposed to talk. Names are not exchanged. You can't use your cellphone except for the briefest of exchanges. One guy interviewed said he hadn't given as much as his name in over five years of Slugging it out. Another Slug shared that his commute is longer, but it's free -- since another rule is the Driver does not get gas money.

There is a lot right about this. It's definitely interesting, along the lines of hiring people out of the Home Depot parking lot to help with your yard on a Saturday.

More rules here: http://www.slug-lines.com/Slugging/Etiquette.asp

adidas

So, I was showing off to an online friend last night by mentioning that adidas was actually the founder's name and he replied "Nazi". For a second I was chalking the remark up to the fact that he was german, but imagine my surprise when I googled and found out Adolf Dassler was in fact a Nazi. He may have made up for it by making shoes for Olympian Jesse Owens, but still. Wow. Remember when you thought adidas stood for All Day I Dream About Sex?

god's gate

Saw a license plate that read "GODISG8". Wouldn't it have been better to try "GODSGR8", or if that was taken to just try something else? Maybe "WWGD" or "GR8GOD"? As it is, it may be interpreted as Goddess Gate, which makes absolutely no sense to me.

I also always see a license plate at the office deck that says "6FTBEWTY" or something like that, since we only get 7 characters. I still haven't seen the driver.