Ooops ....
From my homeland: Celebrating the 90th anniversary of Planned Parenthood with ... well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?
And yes, this story does come from the self-rightous prigs at Focus on the Family. So what?
(Hat-tip to Amy)
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June 20, 2006
June 19, 2006
New technique lets parents kill children at younger ages
OK, here's a fine example of bad journalism: the lede says:
A major new embryo screening advance could allow many more couples to avoid passing inherited disorders on to their children.
But that's not it. Instead, this test screens in-vitro embryos for cystic fibrosis or Duchenne MD. It doesn't allow one to avoid passing on these disorders at all. Instead, you identify the embryos that HAVE these disorders so you can kill them before they can be born and cramp your lifestyle. Quite a different thing altogether.
Facing it all, together
A great excerpt from Greg Palmer in the Seattle Times about raising his DS son into adulthood (great pictures, too!) This is what my book will be like when I get to writing it.
June 15, 2006
Yes sir! No sir!
A too-busy day. Didn't have a chance to write my usual missive this morning, because I spent two hours in line trying to get Dot and Henry into swimming lessons at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.
It opened just a few years ago, on the site of the old public pool. It's a very nice facility, and a tribute to one of their late board members, a Pasadena resident who contributed lots of money and time to the place. Hence, why my son takes swimming lessons in the shadow of the Dr. Gene Scott Diving Tower.
So I'm sitting here trying to scrape up money for our quarterly taxes, listening to a panel discussion on Coast to Coast about the Illuminati and Bilderbergers. Life is strange, no?
June 09, 2006
June 07, 2006
I'm in with the in-crowd
Life has changed so radically in the last few years. I remember hanging out with other young professionals like myself when I was single and careerist, going to bars, mixers, etc. I remember dating (and frequently getting rejected by!) women who were full of ambition. At work, we were all young pros on the upswing.
Well, here am I, careening into AARP range with three kids, two of them young toddlers. My peer group is now parents of kids with disabilities. I hang out with Down syndrome children, albinos, dwarves, autistics, and the parents who love these kids to death.
I'm always intrigued by parental love. Just this week, we saw the documentary "little man" on TV, and I'll have some words about this powerful film later. But today, I introduce you to a brave girl and her family: Juliana Wetmore's website
Horn sharks
When I was in my short-lived scuba diving phase in the late ‘80’s, I ran into horn sharks. “Shark” gives them more dignity than they deserve – they’re only a foot long and have rubbery lips and tiny teeth. Not ferocious at all, but plentiful, and if they’d attack you, they’d just gum you to death.
They’re at apt metaphor for all the little things I have to deal with that are keeping me from working on the big things. “Big Things” being my 2006 resolution to get ourselves in shape, economically and planning-wise. This includes:
- Writing a will
- Setting up a family trust
- Setting up special needs trusts for the little kids
- Getting our retirement plans into some kind of order
- Recording all our property for insurance purposes
- Making sure we set aside enough for quarterly taxes.
- Paying off our consumer debt.
Well, we’re working on these slowly. We in fact received a package from our attorney two weeks ago, loaded with documents to review that will insure everyone’s happiness after we die. (Note: our first attorney did nothing for two years, despite my increasingly-desperate pleas). This is a big jump in my 2006 resolutions, and I should attack it with brio.
Should. But ….
I’m under attack by horn sharks: little things that keep me from doing the bigger things.
June 06, 2006
Darius Now
An update on Darius Weems. Glad to see the movie's coming along.
"Joined Eale Earnhardt"
The usual heartwarming DMD death story I generally get in my Googlemail, but I loved his epitath.
Clinical Trials
This is the sort of thing we're looking at these days. So many questions, so many unknowns, and right now Henry is doing well. But I love the line where it says "here's a disease where a boy is going to die." Rather, the truth of it shocks me ...
