Things noticed:

1) This is the first time I’ve not been treated like an idiot at a doctor’s office. I was a bit amazed until I realized what the profile of most people seeking an RE is. The change is nice.

2) WOW, there is a LOT of bloodwork, etc., that goes on before you can even think about starting treatment. We’re being given at least one test I’ve never even heard of.

3) I’ve never gotten such a dirty look as I did taking the Bear to the infertility clinic. The nurses cooed over him, and the doctor was impressed by his good behavior, but two patients who were leaving gave Looks That Could Kill. Funny thing is that a *good* proportion of infertility is secondary (after one successful birth) and that for all they know, he could have been adopted.

“Does your husband ejaculate into your vagina?”

You have NO idea how badly I wanted to give a smart-aleck answer to that one.

“Yeah, like there’s snow in Iraq!”

It depends on where you live, but YES, it snows in Iraq. It snows in Texas, too–the panhandle gets blizzards.

Northern Iraq and West Virginia are at about the same latitude. Last time I was through W. Va., it was Oct…and snowing.

I discovered that my ever lovin’ husband had renamed it…”Naughtybooks.”

*sighs*

CNN is featuring a very harmful article on their site right now, highlighting an author who believe that alcohol abuse will be curbed if kids can drink younger.

The rationale is this:

In mainstream US culture, alcohol is associated with partying, binging, etc. It is rarely drunk in moderation just as a part of social dinners, and it is treated as a “forbidden fruit” for children. If one introduces alcohol in a family setting just as a part of a meal without the “drunken frat party” trappings, kids will be less likely to grow up as abused as adults.

Now, I heard this argument some years ago, and it sounded quite plausible. Someone, however, decided to do an actual study in which the legal drinking age and alcoholism level was compared for a number of countries.

Result?

Countries that had low legal drinking ages had higher levels of alcoholism. PERIOD. Those with higher legal drinking ages had lower levels of alcoholism. PERIOD. All the European countries held up as shining examples of how to teach children moderate drinking habits? Yep. Each of them has worse alcoholism than the US. France. Italy. Greece. Britain. It is a European delusions that the US has a big problem and they don’t. Americans are just far more concerned about alcoholism and binge drinking than Europeans are, while Europeans, as a whole, have a much higher tolerance for binge-drinking and the like among minors simply because it is so prevalent.

The world’s highest average levels of pure alcohol consumption (1982-1991) were in France. Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain. Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Belgium followed in order with per capita consumption well above the rate in the US. Heavier drinking contributes significantly to higher death rates. In Italy in 1990, for instance, there were 26.8 deaths per 100,000 from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis compared to 10.8 in the US. (source)

In France, the death rate from cirrhosis is 31 per 100,000.

Raising the drinking age had similar results in the US.

Personally? I think the legal drinking age should be raised to 23. That would virtually eliminate binge drinking associated with college life, and by the time people are grown up enough to really be on their own, they’re usually old enough not to be *as* stupid and in environments less likely to lead to risky behavior. Young people, when it comes to risk-taking, are generally dumb people. There are some great studies showing brain development involved in decision-making of that type that quite clearly indicates that people aren’t capable of reliably making good decisions, on average, until their mid-20s. This is no news to auto insurance companies–the magical “age 25″ coincides quite nicely with male brain maturity, which lags behind that of women. Nope, it’s really not driving experience! *g*

Bill Maher announced that all women should be ashamed of Ellen Degeneres’ rather silly fit of tears on her talk show about a dog.

Actually, I’m more ashamed that Bill Maher and I are the same species than ashamed about anything Degeneres says or does.

That kind of grouping language, assuming that someone represents the whole of a group of people because of nothing more than being the same race or gender, is part of the language of marginalization and oppression. No person would say that white people should be ashamed of Britney Spears or men should be ashamed of Mark Foley. But people act like every notable woman is somehow representative of all women–like my ovaries will automatically make me vote for Hillary Clinton no matter what or would make me cringe in shame at some silly stunt of some news reporter who happens to use the bathroom marked with the little skirted figure. Good grief. Comments like that make me want to hurt someone. Am I supposed to be so stupid, because I am female, that I’m going to vote for a woman BECAUSE she’s a woman and for no other reason? Am I supposed to be so stupid that I can’t differentiate between my own actions and something someone with no relationship in the world to me does? Or so sexist or racist that I will immediately take the actions of any given individual of a traditionally marginalized group and ascribe credit or blame to every individual of that group? The last is what I really think it is in Maher’s case–repressed bigotry that makes people see someone and immediately categorize them by sex and race rather than as seeing them as individual human beings. I’d be ashamed to be Maher’s mother.

Speaking of women voting stupidly…I’ve heard some people say–in all seriousness and in the national media–that Obama would also be a good voter for attracting women because he’s good looking. Want to know where else I’ve heard comments about women voting on looks? Saudi Arabia–from someone defending the idea of excluding irrational and ignorant females from the voting process.

Earth to the media: I don’t care if someone has boobs or not, has my hair color or not, is good looking or not–whatever. Superficial similarities doesn’t mean that someone represents me or exists in relationship with me in any way that I should be proud of or embarrassed by them. Believe it or not, women are thinking human beings capable of doing an evaluation deeper than on looks and able to differentiating ourselves from others–without the need to pump someone up as a Great Symbol of our Gender.

Someone really should have slapped Bill Maher on the spot. Sure, he would have then accused the person, if female, of being “overemotional” and a “shame to her gender.” But man, I’d get HBO to see that.

The Bear was reading today and ran into a word he didn’t know.

The sentence:

“Drinking water helps keep you…” The next word started with H. My son guesses? “Hydrated.” The word was “healthy.” *rolls eyes*

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is one of them. I heard it remixed for samba the other week.

Ay-yi-yi.

Everyone who has even thought about exercising has heard the warnings about lactic acid. It builds up in your muscles. It is what makes your muscles burn. Its buildup is what makes your muscles tire and give out.

…

But that, it turns out, is all wrong. Lactic acid is actually a fuel, not a caustic waste product.

Read about it here.

It belongs to this map.

I love that. Green = London Boroughs. Because I never would have guessed it in a map labeled “London boroughs map” unless I had that legend there to tell me.