Tuesday, May 20, 2008

TRAVEL WARNING


I leave this afternoon for England and will not be posting my customary blather until I return in early June.

In stead, a new uncustomary kind of blather.

Starting on Friday, when I arrive in Edinburgh, or maybe Saturday, after I've had a full day of wandering about, I will add notes and photos to my new travel blog:

http://laughingintheisles.blogspot.com

On Friday, May 30th, I will fly to Dublin - mostly just to claim that I once flew Air Lingus.

Eight nights on the River Liffey should be fun.

Bookmark the travel blog address and check it from time to time.

Shlante!

Let's Hold the System to its own, useless Standards


When parents have to go to court and sue the government du jour for medical help, you know something is fundamentally wrong.

I chose the word, "fundamentally" for a reason.

The current benchmark for determining the eligibility of a child with certain mental or psychological disabilities for government support is the child's IQ.

Think about that.

Whether or not your child can be cared for has been encased in some bureaucratic rule book to be decided by NUMBERS.

But this is not about numbers, including the obvious numbers of cost.

As long as governments continue to disrespect their employees and hold no trust in the ability of case workers to make reasonable judgments, we will all be bound by "The Manual."

The particular code book in this case is called, ironically enough, Community Living British Columbia. Nice moniker. Too bad it doesn't know how to run its own affairs.

The dreadful minister in charge, Tim Christensen, opines that "more work needs to be done."

What the fool means by this, of course, is that they need to find a better encoding or better rule book methodology, when, in fact, what is needed is exactly the opposite. The system starts from exactly the wrong place.

Hire knowledgeable, skilled workers and let then make responsible decisions.

Under the current system, you could simply answer a web test.

"My child has an IQ over/under 70."

What's the IQ cut-off for Ministers?

The Money of Color


What's the distance between Johannesburg, South Africa and Prestonburg, Kentuky?

Not as much as you might think.

In the shanty towns that mark the dichotamies of South African society, "foreigners" are being burned alive, tortured and murdered in ubspeakably horrible ways in what is now a week long paroxism of hatred and xenophobia.

The NY Times story is hard to read, but read it anyway.

Last week I asked why five women who are card-carrying Democrats would vote for McCain if Hillary lost.

I'm not very bright.

Now, reading about the struggle for votes in Kentucky and Oregon, the light has finally come on.

Life long Democrats, rooting for Clinton, have sworn that they wull vote McCain rather than give their vote to Obama.

O.K. I get it.

Race.

Racism.

Color.

Hatred.

Make no mistake.

I am not calling you a racist because you may want to vote to other candidates. Not at all. You may have good reasoned, political arguments for choosing another candidate, and those ideas may be absolutely free of racism in any way, shape or form.

But when I see people who have been Democrats their entire voting lives, say they will choose the Republican rahter than Barak Obama, I can understand only one, sad thing.

Looks like we have some way to go.