Alara J. Rogers, I usually agree with you, but you've got to be kidding me.

Whether this issue should be a concern of the state is debatable, but I think it is a really bad idea, and a bad start to parenting, to give your kid a name like this.

Step one in parenting is identifying your assumptions and expectations, and letting go of them, to let the kid develop into his or her own person. Who may or may not like Metallica.

I think it's a really different situation to allow an adult woman, who knows what she likes and how she wants to be perceived, to take the name Metallica (as a first or middle or even surname) than to give this name to a child.

I love my common name--I can blend in if I want to, or if I want to stand out, I can do so for a more impressive, legitimate reason.

You were posting as I was posting before...

Why doesn't one of the parents in this story change his or her name to Metallica? Then it becomes an adult civil rights issue.

And then they'd also really be throwing down about how great it would be to live with this name.

Karolina can become Metallica, and display her love for the band, and make her point. And little Metallica can become Karolina, and have a smooth course through school, and then change her name to Sequoia once she's 18. (Oh wait, that's here. I'm sure they have something else there.)

Several commentators are making the point that the Rutgers basketball players were the opposite of hos/whores: accomplished, educated, goal-oriented, etc.

Exactly why they need to be cut down, in the eyes of Imus and his ilk!

It's tall-poppy syndrome. (And as these are basketball players, they are probably very tall poppies.) The taller the poppy grows, the more people try to cut it down.

Near as I can tell, this is a human universal, although doubtless abetted by racism and sexism in this instance.

So to answer the question, posed here by a few commentators, how much do black women need to accomplish to be respected, and not get called "nappy-headed hos"?

Answer: not more than Don Imus.

Several commentators are making the point that the Rutgers basketball players were the opposite of hos/whores: accomplished, educated, goal-oriented, etc.

Exactly why they need to be cut down, in the eyes of Imus and his ilk!

It's tall-poppy syndrome. (And as these are basketball players, they are probably very tall poppies.) The taller the poppy grows, the more people try to cut it down.

Near as I can tell, this is a human universal, although doubtless abetted by racism and sexism in this instance.

So to answer the question, posed here by a few commentators, how much do black women need to accomplish to be respected, and not get called "nappy-headed hos"?

Answer: not more than Don Imus.

Christ almighty.

Kid with a brain tumor and husband away in the military?

Let her do whatever you want!!!!

As a health care provider myself, I get tired of this meme on this blog.

1) Scientific knowledge is constantly advancing, and sometimes new findings contradict old saws. This is good, but doesn't mean those who went before were BAD, evil actors. E.g. doctors who counseled patients to eat margarine instead of butter were not actually TRYING to harm people. It was based on the best knowledge at the time. We are not at the endpoint of human inquiry.

2) Patients need to own their part in this, or any, health care problem. It is a constant of my work that people want quick fixes, to pop a pill and have their symptoms go away. This is as true of menopausal symptoms as any other. Believe me, WE as health care providers are NOT the ones driving this mentality; it is endemic to American culture. I hate telling people that I can't help them in that way--I went into this line of work to help people--but it's also tiring when suggestions about, for instance, dietary changes that could help the symptoms, fall on deaf ears.

3) Health care providers are VERY different from any and all of the following entities, and in fact are fighting harder against them than anyone else: 1) pharmaceutical companies (that can profit from these drugs--I'm paid by the hour whether I prescribe them or not), 2) insurance companies (I don't choose what's covered), 3) corporations that control hospital chains.

So give me a break. "How are we supposed to trust doctors?" Well, how are we supposed to trust journalists who gin up outrage and direct it at the wrong people?

... is that the bullying takes place in schools.

Elephantman, I totally sympathize with the position that schools should be free of pretty much everything except the three R's. Teachers, who are at work, probably shouldn't take vows of silence, especially not related to a political stand of any sort.

But students, at least those under 16, are mandated to be there by law. Even if they are getting beaten up. Are you too young to remember "Smear the Queer"?

So the students not only have a right to protest, it seems the most germane location possible.

Basically, if job outsourcing, skyrocketing housing costs, and killer health insurance premiums necessitate a two-income family, those same factors are probably, indeed, not leaving a lot of free money and time to take flying lessons.

Correlation, not causation.

I've said it before in this forum, and I'll say it again.

SHE EARNED EVERY PENNY being married to my dad!

The guy was on the receiving end of a shooting spree by a madman and kept his cool enough to apply a tourniquet to his gushing wound and save his own life.

This guy's penis is indeed that large. His balls are even bigger.