Dumbfounded

Can you believe this crap? At least they've stopped selling one of the shirts, but jesus christ on a triscuit, in this day and age?!

I cannot imagine the challenge of raising girls in this toxic environment. How the hell do you all do it?

Not Objective

Granted I can't be objective about this issue, but our local news last night had me steaming and yelling at the TV. Yesterday the archdiocese of Philadelphia suspended 21 priests, pending outcomes of investigations of inappropriate sexual contact with minors. The news coverage was focused on how shocked the parishioners were -- stand-up interviews with nuns and congregants expressing how dismayed they were that their priest was being treated so badly, and that anyone who knew him would know that he would never do anything wrong or less-than-holy.

Which, okay, they're entitled to their reactions and one should guard against a rush to judgment. BUT! The news coverage didn't even ALLUDE to the fact that there are REASONS these 21 priests were suspended. No discussion of the history of abuse by priests, the ongoing collusion of church higher-ups to adhere to a code of silence, and NO mention of the potential/alleged victims. Twenty-one priests potentially abusing kids? We're talking hundreds of victims, conservatively*. To omit that from the newscast is unspeakably irresponsible. Motherfuckers.





* For context around this guesstimate: Gerald Klever was a minister near my hometown for approximately 5 years. When the news of his abuses came to light, over a dozen additional women came forward to provide evidence that they, too, had been abused by him as children. That's close to twenty women -- that we know about -- for one predator in a VERY limited timeframe. You do the math; I can't. It makes me want to vomit.

Quibbles

I watched some of House last night and the patient du episode was receiving a kidney transplant. The donor's posture during the surgery had her appropriately propped so that her flank, or back, was accessible. HOWEVER, the recipient was similarly propped, and that's just not right. When receiving a kidney transplant, the new kidney is placed in the patient's lower abdomen, NOT back where the native kidneys live. That's really not a hard detail to get right, Hollywood Dopes.


***

This new laundry product I'm seeing ads for cracks me up. Do the detergent companies really think that we're stupid enough to spend money on a sheet of fabric to put in the wash, thinking that it will really prevent colors from running onto the rest of the laundry? If colors run in a load of wash, they're running all over that bitch. We're not as dumb as you think we are, Product Development Dopes.

***

Less of a quibble, more of a complaint: why is it that when I'm waiting on a train platform in the freezing cold and wind the train is invariably 3 minutes late, but when I'm 3 minutes late leaving my office and rushing for the last train that will get me home in time for dinner, THAT train is on time?

At least 30th Street Station has WiFi.