Mongolian Spots and CPS

I just got a phone call from a friend who was upset to the verge of tears. She’d had Child Protective Services called on her by the daycare that she’s used for more than three years for her first child, and most recently for her six week old baby. Why did they call CPS? Because they mistook the Mongolian spots on her baby’s back for bruises.

I’m not expecting everyone who reads this to know what Mongolian spots are, so here’s a quick explanation. They are birthmarks that occur on almost every baby of East Asian decent and are common in other races as well. They look a lot like bruises, as the photo above demonstrates. (More on Mongolian spots at Wikipedia).

Mongolian spotBut Mongolian spots aren’t bruises. And while I’m pretty sure that the average person who hasn’t seen them before doesn’t know what they are, I would definitely expect the director of a child care facility to know exactly what they are, especially when this facility exists in a THE family fitness center (you can probably guess the one) that presumably services a variety of members from different ethnic backgrounds.

How embarrassing for her, not only to have CPS called on her because of someone else’s inexcusable ignorance at their job, but also because she is an instructor at this facility and was leaving her children with her co-workers while she taught her class.

WWE Does Something Really Classy

Ric Flair

I’ve pretty much stopped watching wrasslin’, mostly due to the great Hornswaggle debacle of 2007. But I tuned in tonight to find out what happened at Wrestlemania. I was surprised to find out that Ric Flair was retiring. Just an angle? I thought so, but now I don’t.

At the end of the show, Flair gave his retirement speech, which was basically a thank you to the fans. Then HHH came out and thanked Flair and introduced a bunch of other guys who wanted to say thanks as well–guys I haven’t seen in a long time–The Four Horsemen, including Arn Anderson, JJ Dillon, Dean Milenko, Tully Blanchard, and Barry Windham. Lots of other old school wrestlers too–Ricky Steamboat, Greg Valentine, and Harley Race. Then some prominent guys who are currently wrestling and are close to Flair personally came out, then the whole cast came out.

Flair was crying, and everyone in the arena was chanting, “Thank you Ric!” A very nice way to pay tribute to a guy who IS professional wrestling, at least to people of my generation.

Whooo!

By the way, noticeably absent? Vincent K. McMahon.

Was This Part Of The Dream?

I’ve wrestled for a couple of days on how to compose this post, and I’m still not sure I can do this idea justice.  I think the best way to frame it is to begin by quoting an email a friend sent to me on Saturday.  A little background–he has two small children who are enrolled in arguably the best pre-school in their city. 

When he picked up his kids last Friday and asked them what they’d learned, they told him about “Martin Luther The King”–very cute.  How sad it is that the lesson they learned about one of the greatest Americans in history is sprinkled with horrible ideas that totally contradict Dr. King’s message…

He helped black people. The white people weren’t nice to him. They put him in jail.  Yeah, and they killed him.
All black people are nice. White people are mean.
The white people hit him and wouldn’t go to school with him.

Those were direct quotes from the kids.   And as my friend pointed out:

By the way, before yesterday, they had absolutely no idea that
there were black people or white people.

There’s no better time than childhood to reinforce what kids already know to be true–that people should “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  I realize they are kids, and they obviously get some things mixed up.  And I also realize that they still don’t really grasp who Martin Luther King Jr. was.

But I don’t think “All _____ people are bad and all _____ people are good” is what Dr. King had in mind.  Fill in the blanks with any adjectives you want–black, white, red, yellow, Christian, Jewish, pretty, ugly, stupid, smart, rich, poor, Mexican, French, short, tall, fat, skinny, etc.–and that statement couldn’t be further from the truth.

It’s shameful when a great message like Dr. King’s is bastardized to further an agenda.  Knowing no other details that what I’ve shared here, I can’t say that’s what happened in their school.  I doubt the teacher(s) told these kids directly that “all white people are bad and all black people are good,” but if that’s the message that was received, they might as well have.

Chicago Marathon Controversy

Mark Draughn at Windypundit.com reports that some runners had no problem with water, while some did. If there was a shortage of water on the course, that is definitely a problem. The organizers may not have expected the temperatures in the 80s months ago, but they surely had a few extra days to prepare based on the forecast. Having said that…

I’ve run this race twice, so I can speak with a little experience. Most of what happens in a marathon is up to the runners themselves.

Too hot? Didn’t you train for 18-20 weeks for this race during the hottest months of the summer? If so, you should know your limitations in the heat, and if you push yourself beyond that, you are the one who made that decision. If you didn’t train in the heat, what were you doing the past five months that made you think you were prepared for a marathon?

Not enough water? That is definitely a problem with race organization, but again you should have trained enough to know that you can’t push yourself without hydration. I’m not sure what I would have done in that situation, but I hope it would involve slowing my pace or dropping out during the race and raising all kinds of hell afterwards. Can you say refund?

Don’t get me wrong, it is completely ridiculous to have water shortages for a race this size, and I’d be pretty upset about that if I’d paid the hefty fee to run this race, especially based on its reputation. But ultimately, you are responsible for your own health.

No Apartment For You!

A San Antonio man feels he’s been discriminated against because an apartment complex didn’t want to rent to him based on the fact that he has lots of tattoos.

Frankel e-mailed us a statement saying his apartment complexes do, in fact, “reject prospective tenants who have… tattoos exposed on the neck, head, hands and wrists, or large tattoos that cover over 40% of the lower or upper arm.”

Frankel says, “We do not discriminate. The above applies to persons of any race, color, gender, etc.”

I have to side with the apartment complex on this one. Dude, you CHOSE to get ink up and down your arm. That was a market decision. If you don’t like it, go buy your own apartment building and require all applicants to have a sleeve of tattoos before you’ll rent to them.

Think that will work? Probably not–the market won’t support it.

If they were denying people based on the fact that they have large birthmarks it would be different, but c’mon.

The Carrillos were also upset that the manager refused to refund their full $70 application fee. But mostly, they feel the policy is discriminatory.

So give them their money back and let them dry their tears with the check.

Democrat Has Some Great Advice For Republicans

Sharon Cobb offers some free advice that should be obvious to any thinking person, but obviously isn’t obvious to the GOP.

Y’all have got to get back to being Barry Goldwater Republicans and stay out of personal lives of consenting adults instead of trying to make what consenting adults do a political issue for you. It’s shortsighted.

Yep. You’d better believe that the GOP is missing out on a lot of folks in the late 20s and early 30s who would prefer to have the gov’ment out of our lives. Some are naive enough to opt for the liberal alternative to what is now being called conservative (although I don’t see the difference anymore) and giving up an equally important freedom by letting the gov’ment into their wallets. Big mistake.

Others, like me, are turned off by the whole situation and pushed into supporting third parties that have no chance of winning on principle.

Ron Paul has given me hope that the Republicans can actually turn this thing around and get back to basics. The longer he stays in the race, the more people will hear his message, and the further the Republicans will be pushed towards staying out of people’s lives. At the very least, they could finally have something to actually debate about when they face the Democrats. Hell, I may even finally vote for one.

Thanks to Michael Silence for pointing this one out.

** UPDATE **
A related comment in an unrelated post at TheLibertyPapers

They both believe in big government, they simply piss our money away on different issues. Both groups’ policies will eventually lead to economic disaster.

Well put by UCrawford

Latest from the Tour de Dope

For the second straight day the stage winner has been booted from the race, this time by his own team. Michael Rasmussen was sent home by Rabobank for violating team rules.

I know most people in the U.S. don’t care about the Tour now that Lance Armstrong has retired, but I can’t help it. I love to sit on the couch and watch these ‘roided out oxygen-doped-blood junkies pedal up the mountain as drunk Europeans run naked in front of them, basking in the glory of socialized health care and 35 hour work weeks.

This new twist puts American Levi Leipheimer only 2:49 seconds behind the new race leader, Alberto Contador. But time is not what matters the most here.

With four stages left, that means that four more leaders are likely to get hit with doping charges. If Leipheimer can position himself into 5th place at the end of tomorrow’s stage, he has a good chance of the winner of tomorrow’s stage being disqualified along with the three winners of the next three stages, and he will sneak away with a Tour victory.

Then we can get another year of European complaints about how the Tour is rigged for Americans to win.

Let’s just hope the rest of the world doesn’t catch up to us in our ability to beat drug tests by next July.

NASCAR and Pro Wrestling

I’ve been saying it for years. NASCAR is fixed. Professional Wrestling may have predetermined outcomes, but NASCAR is rigged. At least pro wrestling doesn’t claim to be real.

Finally I’m vindicated. One of NASCAR’s own has broken kayfabe and told the truth.

Two-time champion Tony Stewart likened NASCAR to professional wrestling and accused it of using bogus caution flags to shape races in biting comments made on his weekly radio show.

The day I apologize for dogging out NASCAR while defending pro wrestling is the day I have to watch John Cena chase Randy Orton around and around the ring for four hours straight.

How Did We Ever Get Along Without This?

NASCAR Romance

I saw these in Kroger the other night and could not believe it. I gave NASCAR one chance at the Bristol night race a few years ago. I can honestly say I don’t get it.

One thing I can say for sure is that I can do without books that bring to mind images of NASCAR drivers and/or fans being “romantic”.