Giving birth alone is child endangerment, unless you really are an expert in the birth process. I'm unaware of any time in history when women gave birth without experienced women surrounding them. It's arrogant to believe that you can control every aspect of life. The idea that midwives are simply extensions of the medical system is ridiculous. It's not that hard to find a midwife who is sympathetic and can guide you through the process, and who knows when to call 911 to get help. And there is just no excuse to not get prenatal care. A lot of things can go wrong during birth, with results ranging from minor injury to the baby to death or permanent disability. I believe that once a woman chooses to have a baby, she is obligated to bring it into this world in as good a condition as possible. What is an acceptable number of dead babies? 1 in 100? 1 in 50? 1 in 1000?

Psychiatrists often overprescribe drugs and they don't spend enough time with a patient to really diagnose them effectively. I blame Freud. He convinced the world that what we now know as "mental illness" was only "psychological". Even now, a lot of people don't understand that mental illnesses are REAL illnesses, not just conditions of the mind like love and hate. As a result of Freud derailing investigation into the physical causes of mental illness for many decades, exactly at the time that the study of physical illnesses was proceeding at breakneck speed, he has done society a great disservice. Scientists are only now beginning to understand the brain/body connection. The most advance psychiatrists prescribe a combination of minimal meds, therapy, lifestyle management, and tolerance for whatever remains. The more hurried doctors skip the education/therapy part and simply dope the patients into submission.

I wrote earlir about how bipolar people have to stay on their meds. Doctors could make this easier, if they carefully considered the necessity of each medication and kept the dosage to a bare minimum. But many health plans don't cover therapy, since there is a perception that only healthy people need therapy. As society recongized that mental illness is a real sickness, not unlike diabetes or thyroid illness, there will be more attention paid to ensuring that mentally ill people get a well-rounded treatment, not just druge.

On one hand, you have people who honestly believe that they support the troops best by protesting an unjust war and trying to keep them out of harm's way. On the othe hand we have a group of people who believe that the only way to support the troops is to support the way and trust the government to do what is best for the troops, and that anybody who does not do this is betraying the soldiers and their nation. I'm not sure there is any common ground.

Which leads to the question: Is it a moral good to take action you believe in, even if good people are offended by that action? I can't see how the answer to that can be anything other than a resounding "Yes". Is it the right thing, politically? I don't know, but I really hate that politicians tend to put evey action on a political scale. We've been telling policians for years to forget the polls and do the right thing. How can we say that the war is wrong, but we shouldn't protest on a day dedicated to remembering soldiers because it might offend some soldiers? Don't the soldiers who are going to die in Iraq over the next year count as much as those who have already died?

We will never convince soldiers that we value their sacrifice until we convince people that it's okay to protest the war and still respect the soldiers who are fighting. By backing off of protesting at military parades, we are implying that the right wingers who tell us we can't oppose the war while supporting the troops are right. I would suggest that protesting at Memorial Day parades should be encouraged, but anybody who is disrespectful of soldiers on this day should be shunned by their associates. We should wave flags, praise those who fight for us, and protest the war proudly.

National Geographic Channel. This show demonstrates the many factors that cause fatal disasters. They first describe how a disaster happened, then go into detail about all of the factors that resulted in that disaster. Plane crashes, train crashes, weather related deaths, explosions... they cover it all. It's quite fascinating to see how many different things contribute to seemingly incomprehensible disasters. I highly recommend it to anybody who has ever shaken their head while watching a news report and asked themselves "how could something like that happen?".

Most of the people on Daily Kos like Obama, and would happily vote for him if he won the primaries, but prefer Edwards at this point in the race. I don't know what this "raging here of the anti-war crowd" nonsense is all about.