“Eat a bagel, lose your baby” [Jacob Sullum, Reason] For more on the problematic legal status of the classic bagel and European-bread enhancement, see Michael Pollan’s classic 1997 Harper’s article.
“Eat a bagel, lose your baby” [Jacob Sullum, Reason] For more on the problematic legal status of the classic bagel and European-bread enhancement, see Michael Pollan’s classic 1997 Harper’s article.
7 Comments
I guess the new rule is, “Never see a physician or alow your children to see a physician or other medical provider unless their life is in danger. They are not your friend. They will denounce you to the Secret police.
Liberty and Justice for All.
How about naming every Tuesday ‘Eat a Poppy Seed Bagel Day’?
Everyone being administered a random drug test on Tuesdays (and likely Wednesdays) is going to get flagged by over-sensitive instruments.
This will lead to a) mass firings, b) mass arrests, c) massive litigation. There is an outside chance, minuscule, really that common sense might take rein.
Make the Machine eat what it produces.
More likely ‘Eat a Poppy Seed Bagel Day’ would just lead to Congress outlawing poppy seeds. Actually, I’m surprised no one in government has suggested this yet.
GregS,
That comes right after the ban on Dihydrogen Oxide. I live near where this happend. The local paper stated that they were using a detection threshold way below the standard for this type of test. When my great-niece was born last year, her Mother had to attend a class before she was allowed to take her baby home. The class was on drug and child abuse. The threats made during that class scared the hell out of her. It made her afraid that someone was going to show up and take her baby for numerous bullshit reasons.
If you look deeper into the facts of this case, the malevolence is clear. First, the local common pleas judge, in defiance of statute, refused to hear the case within 72 hours. She should be disbarred and tossed off the bench. Second, even after the mistake was admitted, the Child Protective Services people wouldn’t let the parents take the child. Now can someone explain how physical violence would not be an appropriate response right then and there? If the Child Protective Services people admit that they made a mistake, why isn’t there an immediate interference with lawful custody which would trigger, you know, the parents right to resist that with force? Moreover, why isn’t the DA pressing criminal charges? Once they admitted the error, then they had no right to keep the child from the parents, and they were, ipso facto, acting ultra vires. The social worker who refused to hand over the kid once she admitted that a mistake had been made should be charged with kidnapping a minor and should have the full force of the law brought down on her. And if it results in LWOP, so be it.
Kidnapping children “for their own good” is practiced by government agencies more than you would expect in America.
Anyone besides me remember when parents went to pick up their children at child care and were met by armed IRS agents who wouldn’t let them have their children until they signed agreements to accept responsibility (??? word????, ???concept????, whatever????) for the child care center’s tax debt?
The data for raising the age for annual mammograms from 40 to 50 was clear and compelling. The main problem was the fifty to one ratio of false positives to true positives. (By the way, it is not the case that the true positives all signal imminent problems. My sister went through surgery and chemotherapy for months for one breast only to have a find a few months later for her other breast. I suspect that patient watching would have served her better.) We know that most men with prostate cancer die from old age.
The question in the case cited above is not just the injustice to the mother. False positives are part of life. The problem is that the false positives are not properly regarded. There is corruption in our agencies by Naderites and other witless activists who have mastered scientific patina, and are truly evil. Pediatricians are closer to witch doctors that scientists.