The headline is just a little misleading — it’s only one justice in question who won’t see over interracial marriage.  The interesting thing is, he’s not a racist.  Apparently he has tons of black friends.  His only problem is interracial marriage, because he doesn’t believe the children will be accepted.  He also thinks they fail more often than not.  I don’t agree with him, but the way this article is written and the way he’s quoted leads you to believe that he’s a sincere human being whose just trying to do what he thinks is right, misguided though that may be.

America’s favorite past-time though it may be, they’re both Canadian.  As a Sum 41 fan and opposer of Lavigne, this makes me happy.  On the other hand, I’m not a huge fan of the divorce craze that never seems to end, and ultimately it shouldn’t matter who my favorite artists are married to, as long as it doesn’t effect the music.

I think it’s interesting that all of the news articles I’ve seen have focused on Lavigne, and the only mention of Whelbey is that he no longer lives in their ludicrously expensive home in Bel Air.  Good on him, I say.

Three out of four people between the ages of 16 and 24 are addicted to the internet.  They rely on it for information and problem solving.  They know how to use it, and they are unafraid of dangers because they “know what they are doing.”

Sad as it is to say, I fall under this same category.  When I moved to St. Louis with my boyfriend, it took us a long time to get the internet turned on.  In that time, we “borrowed” the neighbor’s unprotected wifi.  Not just for kicks, but to look up things we needed to do, recipes, things for school, job openings…we couldn’t go three weeks without it.  I also firmly believe the internet is not something dangerous or scary if you have a good idea of whats out there and how to identify problem sites.

This story is interesting because of a movie I saw at the Webster film screening, Food, Inc. Barbra Kowalyck was in it, talking about E. coli and her son Kevin who died from a hamburger contaminated with it.  The message was similar, but for different reasons.  This article displays a wide array of fairly balanced opinions, which is nice, but the choice of who to speak to is a little strange.  While Anthony Bourdain is an interesting character, his status as a chef does not quite rank up with medical researchers, and his opinion is just that — an opinion.

As far as the issue goes, I haven’t eaten a commercial hamburger in at least eight years (I had a homemade one in February, prepared by my boyfriend’s dad from fresh, locally-grown farm cow).  I don’t think I physically could — the idea of it makes me a little nauseous.  I think the best diet is a mostly vegetarian one, with occasional, non-daily, small portions of meat.  Maybe three times a week or only on the weekends.  I’ve experimented with these diets with my parents, and we’ve found ourselves feeling healthier with minimal amounts of meat, and almost all of it being seafood.  I don’t think meat should be completely banned, but the way the meat industry handles things is not proper in any moral or healthy way.

Whoo! Though I may not be gay myself, I certainly support equal rights for those who are.  I don’t quite understand the opposition, especially people who treat homosexuals as lesser beings, but everybody’s different.  I realize there are huge world issues going on right now, but human rights issues are a big deal too and should probably be given more consideration than they are.  Obama’s a good guy, I think.  Or I think he tries really, really hard.  Or his PR person leads me to believe so.  Anyway, he’s supposed to be the liberaly, CHANGE president, and I think this would be a good step in that direction.  It might show all those gay marriage naysayers that their marriage is perfectly “protected” regardless of who else decides to hop in and get married too.

Here’s a rule I never understood.

Both of my parents were in the military.  I grew up around it.  And you know what? There are a LOT of gay people.  And there are a lot of other people who know these people are gay.  Sure, there are homophobes, but you can’t get away from them (which is unfortunate).  Most people don’t CARE if someone’s a homosexual, as long as they do their job and don’t hit on anyone who doesn’t appreciate it.  Especially at a time we’re strapped for troops, sending people back far sooner than they should be, not allowing people to retire — why dismiss someone who is willing and able to contribute just because they happen not to be sexually attracted to the opposite gender?

I don’t have much of an opinion on the immigration problem (or “problem” as it may be), but this sounds like a good thing anyway.  I see no reason to throw them in jail and treat them as common criminals.  Sure, they may not use the nicest hotels and hospitals, but it would be much more comfortable and nice anyway.  AND it’s considerably cheaper? Everybody wins.  Lets hope they actually do this, and that it actually is more pleasant.

This one’s tough.  Obviously, it’s a sad thing their daughter died, and more-so that it was of a treatable illness.  Its pretty neglectful.  On the other hand, it’s their (misled) belief that prayer will fix everything, which reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw.

A car had been in a huge accident, most of Brentwood Blvd. was shut down.  I was riding my bike home that night, and was behind a tow truck, taking away one of the crunched cars.  It had a few bumper stickers on it — Jesus Will Fix It, and one alluding to praying instead of calling 911.  I wish I had had a camera on me at the time, and was able to take a picture.

Anyway, this IS America, and they DO have the right to practice what they believe in, in this case, prayer over medical attention.  But that freedom is limited to as long as it doesn’t harm others, and letting your child die on the floor is pretty harmful to others (or at least that one).  Their sentence is incredibly forgiving — they don’t even have to do an extended period of jail time in the same sitting, or do it together, so they can have at least one parent at home with the other children.  The military isn’t even that nice to families where both parents are serving.  I’m actually surprised they’re trying to appeal.  They should be glad they’re allowed to keep the rest of their children at all.

It’s quite the attention-grabbing headline.  Unfortunately, the story doesn’t quite deliver what it promises — it’s a story on suicides of French Telecom workers.

Well, at first.

It then suddenly goes to Japan’s problem of overworked employees getting heart attacks and mental illness and the like.  They even have a word for it, karoshi, which is a little more fitting for the headline.  The biggest part of suicide’s definition is that one does it to oneself, so apparently Telecom isn’t killing the French workers.  It may be driving them to kill themselves, but ultimately it’s of the person’s own accord.

I don’t really understand why France was mentioned in the first few grafs, and then the story jumps to Japan in a less-than-smooth transition, not mentioning France at all throughout the rest of the story.  There’s nothing tying these two problems together.  Is it because the reporter is in London that France is more important, so the picture is of French workers and the lede is entirely about France? Perhaps the reporter was so attached to his headline he had to scrounge something up after the Telecom workers didn’t deliver.  Whatever the reason, I’m not a fan.  It’s distracting.  And it’s hard to distract from stories about people dying.

Nobel Prize For Chromosome Find (BBC)

This is great! Three researchers discovered a new enzyme in the end of the chromosome that allows it to be copied.  This discovery is another step towards curing cancer.  In fact, vaccines have already been created and clinical trials are under way to see if they can’t get rid of/fix the cells that show extended activity of these new enzymes.  Certain forms of anemia  are also caused by defects related to this enzyme.  Since everything seems to cause cancer, it’s nice to know there’s still studies being done, actively, to cure it.