Thoughts on a Parental Government

Stories such as the Hauser family's ordeal offend me in a number of respects.

The first time I heard about Daniel's flight to escape compulsory treatment I was struck by the evident venom in the reporter's voice as she related that the family, although white, believed in the alternative treatment methods of a Native American band. Then it occurred to me that I was hearing of a family being compelled to submit their child to treatment against their will which offended me on a whole other level.

I'm pretty okay with government - including the judiciary branch - constraining my behavior, but I'm of the opinion that compelling behavior is supposed to be the exception. We are compelled to pay taxes and to report for jury duty. Unfortunately we are no longer compelled to make ourselves available for a period of national service. Other examples of compulsory behavior under the law don't quickly come to mind.

I get that Daniel Hauser has Hodgkin's Lymphoma which usually (90%) responds well to chemotherapy and that there is no scientific data to support whatever alternative therapy the family comtemplated. I don't get that society - the government - had any business interfering with the Hausers, particularly with Daniel and Colleen since Anthony Hauser didn't seem up for the challenge.

Unless I learn that no Minnesota child with Hodgkin's Lymphoma is ever left to his or her fate without appropriate chemotherapy, I'm inclined to think that this comes down to an arbitrary abuse of power depriving Mrs. Hauser of her parental rights and responsibilities - probably because they have pretty good insurance - and of her right to give or refuse her informed consent to her son's treatment. (I know she 'consented' in court today but if you think that wasn't under any duress then I've got some 'confessions' from Gitmo for you to read.) There was no compelling interest in this case unless every case of Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Minnesota is handled the same way.

Thoughts on George W.

Doug Wead says now that he regrets sharing the conversations he had with then Governor Dubya.
I have considered teaching as a career. One sticking point I encountered was that the paperwork required a disclosure of any history of arrests and any history of drug or alcohol abuse... I have had two DUIs... the most recent in 1975. It had not been an issue with military security clearances and no one I spoke with in Sacramento even thought the record still existed... but I knew, and I felt obliged to provide a response. That's just me. That's why I was a little... put off?... that one of the Bush daughters is teaching in a D.C. area school despite a history of underage drinking.
Mr. Bush, on the other hand, in anticipation of his running for President, apparently felt that the voters had neither the right nor the need to be made aware of his... involvement?... experimentation?... with drugs and alcohol. Presumably there was not a concern that the voters were being asked to buy a pig in a poke. Do or say whatever it takes to get elected, and the necessary dissimulation and chicanery can be written of as the end justifying the means. This is the representation of American Values to the world.
Mr. President, I'm actually kind of sorry that this story even came out. I honestly did not want to know... and I'm not sure who is served by our knowing... what a grasping sleaze you are. There are times such as this... we're stuck with you for four more years regardless... when I think a little more ignorance might actually be better.

Thoughts on Personal Accountability

My wife is pretty sure that some of our Southern California neighbors are the most stupid people in the world.
She was sympathetic toward the families whose homes were buried in mud in La Conchita yesterday... until she learned that the families had refused evacuation the day before... and that the same thing had happened eight or ten years ago.
She was sympathetic toward the family trapped in a cabin up in San Dimas Canyon... especially when the rescue inflatable flipped the six-month old into the water... again until she learned that the parents had refused evacuation the day before... at which point we pretty much agreed that society's responsibility ended with saving the child.
The guy whose mobile home fell into the river... who was angry that the mobile home park hadn't been allowed to put up a retaining wall eight years before... and who was angry that he was uninsured for flood damage because he lived on the bank of a river expected to flood?
The Palmdale residents who drove around and through road closure signs and barricades because "that's the way we do things in Palmdale?"
The guy who disappeared while attempting to swim the flood channel on a dare?
By the way, the remaining homeowners in the La Conchita area... under the hillside with a great big crack in the earth at the top... are still refusing evacuation.
In fairness, my wife's family does have a small mobile home on the water on the Florida gulf coast... but they weren't actually in that mobile during any of the four hurricanes that came through last year.
Okay... she's right again. It would make a lot more sense to just have those people sign waivers that public safety personnel don't have to risk their lives to try to pull them out the next day and then give them their signs... you know Bill Engvall's signs?
Okay... having said all of that... we don't do what's right because of who they are. We do what's right because of who we are.