2001.08.30
Salon on why zero tolerance in schools sucks. Typical anecdote: "An arbitrary search of his car by school officials in the spring revealed no drugs, but a scraper and pocketknife that his father had inadvertently left there the night before when he was fixing the rearview mirror. Despite anguished pleas of extenuating circumstances by the desperate father, the school system has so far adamantly insisted that automatic punishments for weapon possession in school are inviolate." Isn't that awesome? Once in third grade some guy gave me a moneyclip with a tiny little foldout pocketknife in it, and I was showing it to the other kids, and the dumbass bully (Tim Brown, I think) managed to cut himself with it. I was amazed at how seriously the principal took it... I'd hate to think what would've happened now. I mean jeez! Zero tolerance for guns, yes-- though even that would be problematic in some rural communities, but knives in any way shape or form? Maybe they can ban books as well, they're so big and hefty with those sharp corners, you could really do some damage.
Kittens
Heh. PETA is really ticked about a video
this site had, where a very small kitten
is shown slaughtered (in the clinical sense) and then fried up in a wok.
Now, PETA in general has a reasonably consistent stance on not eating animals, but I don't see what's so bad about a video, or a young cat. I think the fuss has more to do with this quote from the tick:"Eating kittens is just plain...plain wrong! And no one should do it, ever!"
then any real moral issue. But the fact is we as a culture eat some animals, and other cultures eat other animals. Having a videocamera on either doesn't seem like such a big deal to me.
Calories
Science, is there anything it can't do? The other day I bought
a bottle of CALORIE FREE BLUE CHEESE DRESSING! It's by
this company. And on their
Dressings Order Page,
you can even get Calorie-Free "Hot Bacon" or "Bacon Ranch"! That blows my mind! Almost as much as the lovely veggie woman to the left, lovingly stolen from their frontpage.
This is truly an age of miracles, I never would've guessed they could Diet Coke-ize the thing that make salads so bearable. They have zero calorie chocolate syrup as well.