Island Med Student

This is absolutely hilarious. My favorite part is the man climbing the tree to feed the birds. Classy.

Share This

New York Governor Spitzer, why would you ever think of getting a prostitute in the District of Columbia? This being my former home, I’m all too aware of the number of high-profile cases of politicians hiring prostitutes in the District. Did you not learn your lesson from the DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey? Was DC’s former mayor, Marion Barry’s prosecution for smoking crack with a prostitute not memorable enough for you?

Here’s a tip for all politicians out there. If you have to hire a prostitute, avoid the nation’s capital!

Oh yeah, and if you’re a politician in a bathroom stall, you might want to avoid tapping your foot no matter where you are.

Note: To be clear, I am not against prostitution in the least. I actually think it should be legalized for many reasons. And I have no problem with politicians hiring prostitutes. But they should let their families know. And of course, they have to deal with the media and public opinion more than us regular folks…

Share This

Please do check out this article on Wired’s blog about Mike Huckabee’s endorsement of GodTube, a Christian version of YouTube. I really didn’t think much of it until I watched one of the videos (below), which pretty much made me want to vomit. Here’s a recommendation though, don’t watch this video first thing in the morning like I did. It might just ruin your day.

PS: I could write a lengthy rant about why this video disturbs me, but I have too much studying to do today. In summary, I’ll say this: I am certainly not “against” any religion. In fact, I think religion serves an important purpose in many peoples’ lives. I am, however, against scare tactics in general. And especially scare tactics used to get people to believe in a certain religion, or anything else, for that matter. Using fear to make people believe in your cause is a form of propaganda. Naziism anyone?

“Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”

– Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell, Propaganda And Persuasion

“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.”

- Adolf Hitler

Share This

I have admittedly not been keeping up with the news until recently. I barely knew who was even running in the upcoming presidential election. So, I’ve been trying to catch up in the past few days.

There’s one thing I know for sure: I hate Huckabee. I have to admit up front that I’ve barely skimmed the surface of his position on issues. It only took listening to these two answers about evolution and medical marijuana, however, for me to have a pretty good hunch that I don’t like this guy. Also, am I the only one who thinks he looks like Richard Nixon?

Here’s his first response on evolution:

Okay, I’ll admit that he did a great job answering the question. However, he represents what pisses me off about many people who don’t believe in evolution–he obviously does not even understand what it is. He said that we’re not “descended from primates.” Well, that’s absolutely correct. But no one is claiming that we descended from primates. We are, in fact, primates. Also, some anti-evolutionists will say “humans didn’t descend from monkeys.” Well, that’s correct as well. We did, however, share a common ancestor. I could rant on this for a while, but I shall not.

My second favorite Huckabee response of the day is this answer he gave to a woman who wanted to know if he was for legalizing marijuana.

There are a million reasons why this video upsets me, but I’ll stick to the main one. Bascially, Huckabee suggested that narcotics could be a viable alternative to marijuana for relieving chronic pain. I could write a book on why this is a terrible argument, and he never actually said “legal” narcotics, but let’s assume that’s what he meant. Okay, so he’s saying that morphine, for example, is an alternative to marijuana. Well, that’s great because morphine is legal, and marijuana is not. That works out so well! And everyone knows that legal drugs like alcohol and cigarettes are way better for you and less addictive than the scary illegal ones like marijuana. And everyone knows that morphine is way less addictive than marijuana. And that people rob banks all the time to get more marijuana. And that…..okay, I’ll stop now.

On another note, I’m sick as hell. I don’t know if it was the travelling, or change of climate, or stress of the season, but I have a pretty bad cold. I have gotten up only to go to the bathroom for the past 3 days. I hope I start feeling better soon. Googling Huckabee is certainly not making me want to stay for very long in this country.

Share This

Tina Alexander from Lifeline Ministries here in Dominica just shared with me the story of Stanley, a five year old accident victim who is currently in the ICU at Princess Margaret Hospital.

“He desperately needs to be moved to Martinique, because no one can underwrite the EC$68,000 needed to provide a bank draft, which must be presented in advance. This only covers 8 days in the ICU. They hope that the man who hit him on Sunday will be able to get the money reimbursed from his insurance (they only pay after they see how much it is going to cost in total!) but there are no guarantees.”

If you can help in any way, please contact Tina Alexander at lifeline@cwdom.dm.

Share This

I just read an article about a company making treadmill desktops. All I can say is IT’S ABOUT TIME!! Probably the WORST thing about my last job was that I had to sit at a desk the entire day. It was absolute torture! Ask anyone who knew me. I was constantly complaining about having restless legs (no, not the syndrome), and I had to go on frequent walks just to maintain my sanity. It’s NOT NATURAL! I’d go as far to say that the two largest influences causing obesity and sedentary lifestyles in the US are television and desk jobs. (Of course the Internet is up there as well.) I had talked about inventing little stand alone bicycle pedals that you cut put under your desk, but of course I never did. I’m so glad someone finally invented something that might work. I expect that they won’t sell all that well, but I’d like to think they will. If I were still at a desk job, you can bet I’d get one of them suckers. Obviously I don’t care how stupid they look, but other people might. But what looks more stupid? Walking on a treadmill and working at the same time? Or sitting on your big ass everyday until it ultimately kills you? (Pardon my hostility, but I really do loathe desk jobs.)

Share This

…maker of poisoning son

I read this abbreviated news article title on my RSS feed.

I read the article. It wasn’t as good as the title.

Share This

I recently read about a controversial exhibit opening up at a gallery here in DC. It’s called Bodies…The Exhibition, and it promises to provide a unique glimpse into the beauty of the human body. They have taken a collection of cadavers, immersed them in acetone, and then replaced all the liquid in the bodies with silicone. This is a fascinating method of preservation that allows the bodies to stay perfectly intact so that they can display them in the exhibit.

After seeing a few of the images, and reading the website, I was immediately sold. I’m going to catch the exhibit within the next few days, so I’ll let everyone know how much fun it turns out to be. Please do check out their site, and hopefully you live close enough to one of the cities where it’s being shown to see it for yourself.

Share This

Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter Mary recently announced that she’s having a baby with her partner. Many conservatives are very concerned about how these two people who are living in sin will end up harming their poor child. An article that just appeared in Slate Magazine really hit the nail on the head with its comparison of the search for evidence that gay parents are destructive with the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I mean, aren’t lesbian parents just as destructive as WMDs? How could having two loving mothers ever be good for a child? You can look at examples such as Micheal Jackson’s loving heterosexual parents, or perhaps Charles Manson’s supportive parents, (Manson had an alcoholic prostitute mother who allegedly sold Charlie for a pitcher of beer) to see that it takes both a man and a woman to raise children. Having two loving fathers or mothers is simply not enough. Even though the American Psychological Association has compiled abstracts of 67 studies, which all seem to find that gay parents are just as effective, and even potentially more so than heterosexual parents, they must have been poorly designed studies. Gay people are inherently evil, and there is no way they could ever love a child as fully as holy heterosexuals. I’m sure that the proof that gay and lesbian couples make horrible parents is out there somewhere waiting to be discovered, just like the WMDs.

Share This