Precious is an adjective in this language, so it seems awkward. If it were an adjective in, say, another European or African language, nobody would notice.

Are some of you trying to say that there are no stupid names? Really? Aren't bully-magnets, double-entendres, and/or other hidden meanings rather cruel handles to apply to a child?

Right now I'm thinking of Denis Leary's complaint about people with names spelled differently than their pronunciation.

Zimbabwe was, and perhaps will be again, a noticeably well-educated country. It seems common for them to have names in English. Sometimes these are traditional English names (witness the power struggle between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe,) but others are a bit like the aforementioned "social climber" names. I knew a guy named Prosper and once met someone named Bright. Prosper mentioned to me that out in the rural areas you can allegedly find people named Factory and Internet. In this case, though, it these names strike me as humble and charming, not tacky.

I know a child with a name that everyone will mispronounce. Her parents didn't want to spell it "the stripper way." It's a rare spelling, though not invented. The problem is that this girl has a disability that will make it very difficult to correct the legions who will get it wrong.

Like it or not, names are evocative. It's not necessarily racist or even classist. Girls named Ashley and Madison are ditzes, men with the middle name Wayne will do time in jail, et cetera.

Bad names are like bad English. I don't like it whether it's Valley Girl blathering, Redneck mumbling, or Ebonic gibberish.

I saw a letter in The Economist recently in which someone described observing an Ivy League graduation. They didn't hear too many names like those in this article, but they also didn't hear any Krystals or Billy Bobs. Has anybody noticed the names Asian parents tend to give their kids?

I don't like stupid names, or more specifically I don't like it when parents give their children stupid names, particularly nouns and adjectives that really sound silly as names ("Precious?")

Here's that list from the Onion in 1999:

Popular Black Boy Names

Antwan

Dacron

Newport

LaPrell

Popular Black Girl Names

Shawanda

Tomiqua

Propecia

Sinutab

Popular White Boy Names

Cameron

Brandon

Austin

Dakota

Popular White Girl Names

Caitlin

Brianna

Ashleigh

Madison

Popular Asian Girl Names

Sue

Lisa

Michelle

Amy

Popular Asian Boy Names

Michael

Tim

Chris

Rick

What if it's somebody else's "natural" color, but not yours? Would they have a problem if brown became blonde?

The Nazis banned abortion. Nice try, dimwit.

I forget who claimed that women are smart enough to make the right decisions, and thus won't get fooled by the duplicity of the anti-abortion crowd. Whoever this poster was, she should consider that there are certain elements in this society that unfortunately aren't that bright. I could be mistaken, but I think this is what Marx called the "lumpen proletariat." They get pregnant constantly. See also "dysgenics."

Ah, Vasumurti, why do the anti-abortion types also oppose contraception, and in this case, sterilization, if they aren't out to control sexuality?

And Shazzer... you mention periodically that you can't get anyone to sterilize you. Nobody will do it? I know that some doctors will somewhere, because plenty of childfree people are able to do it. Do you think you might need to relocate for a while?

to become a burden on others, especially one's family or closest friends? Who would wish that on their children? It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

Lonewolfy, you aren't referring to the imperialist Obama, are you?

Obesity rates have increased sharply on the lower end of the age scale. It takes time for those health effects to truly impact life expectancy figures. I've seen the warnings that the age cohort of the kids in these camps might have a shorter life expectancy than their parents did.

Additionally, keep in mind that there are many factors that go into life expectancy, and that it's a widely misunderstood statistic. It's easy to forget that changes in infant mortality are largely responsible for changes in life expectancy. It doesn't dictate the age at which otherwise healthy adults drop dead; it takes into account all deaths. In ancient Rome, life expectancy was 40-something, but all the senators were in their 50s and 60s. Seventy was old and eighty was ancient. Throughout much of history, if one lived through a very vulnerable childhood, one would probably live well into adulthood. Type 2 diabetes changes that.

Georgia is not in Europe, and besides, the Georgian government are the agressors in the current conflict.

The same people/groups who oppose abortion also oppose all the measures that drastically reduce abortion. Ergo, they really just oppose sex without conception.

I think what you just did is called "begging the question." It's like circular reasoning. You assume that so-called Post Abortion Syndrome must exist because abortion-on-demand exists. That's a fallacy.

They want to stop sex for anyone who isn't married and trying to conceive. I'm not exaggerating, it sometimes seems like their overriding objective in life.

I should have said this long ago: your daughter seems so spunky. That's a considerable compliment, if you're wondering.

She was on the cover of a prominent magazine a week or two ago. Copies of the magazine were on display right in front of where I work. As people approached, nearly every group included somebody who would gawk at her photo, talk to their companions, about it, et cetera.

Many of them remarked on how male she looked.