Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Scooter's Scattered Scribblings

1.) I hate the phrase "Scooter Mania" (courtesy of CNN Headline News this morning). There are those of us who are not Scooter Libby, but still Scooters, who resent it. By the way, I am also not named after a baseball player. My nickname is derived from my grandfather's observation that I rode my little, red metal scooter around the Montana plains far more frequently than was healthy as a boy. And not on the road - that would be a death wish by grain truck (or tanker) - but on the bumpy baked dirt of the wheat fields at a pace easily surpassed by anyone who wasn't dead. Scooter - you impugn this Scooter's reputation with your lack of integrity.

2.) Someone should create a nice little political cartoon showing a bus with the United Methodist logo on its side and Irene Stroud in the back behind a lavender line and Edward Johnson in the front. Appropriate? Considering Rosa Parks, a life long United Methodist member, just died - entirely so. I'm ashamed I was ever a member of the church, regardless of the fact I grew up in it.

3.) The American Girl boycott is still underway. "Money raised through ticket and raffle sales at the planned fashion show was to go toward a new playground and a refurbished library at St. Luke School.'It's a bargain we'll just have to pass up,' wrote Frank Malloy, St. Luke pastor. 'The cost is too high. Our integrity isn't for sale.'" Conservatives are indeed idiots. Their integrity is for sale as is evidenced every single day.

4.) Also via Power Liberal, no cervical cancer vaccine. And hey, an anti-choice judicial nominee. Of course conservatives love women, they're willing to take away all their choices and options just to protect them from themselves. And if they're dead, then they certainly can't make an inappropriate choice.

5.) Three Way News has a wonderful take on the Target pharmacy issue and actual links to Target responses that do indeed convince me Target is full of shit. If I hear a similar phrase in one more corporate letter or from one more corporate spokesperson regarding health care costs, religious intolerance and anti-gay bigotry, I think I'll heave: "Our policy is comparable to that of many other national retailers and the recommendations of the American Pharmacists Association". Fine, make it your new slogan if that's so important, "Target, We're Comparable." When I see it on a frickin' banner with red circles next to it, I'll believe you mean the crap that's emminating from your gob. Your corporate strategy should be to accomodate your customers, not your employees. I'm an employee and I provide services to all sorts of individuals I specifically know are conservative and religious wankers. I have never told my employer that this is a problem and I would never compromise my employer's ability to deliver quality service because of my beliefs about customer unfitness. If you are a pharmacist and you impose your beliefs on others rather than doing your job, you are not a professional and you should not be working in a position where you deny customers service.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re #4 - the cervial cancer immunization. I like to think that I was a fairly enlightened teenager and college student with regard to my body/health and I NEVER gave a thought or even knew, what the heck HPV was. The concern, then and now I'm assuming, was pregnancy and the more generally known STD's, like gonorrhea and HIV. The thought that this vaccination would increase sexuality is crap and only goes to show how dumb the conservatives think women are. If they looked at ANY statistics surrounding the teaching of birth control versus abstinence, they would see that THEIR versions don't work - they only take the information out of teens' hands, so they have no idea how to protect themselves.

LissyJo said...

Hmm...sounds like my field of work. Nurses can deny caring for patients coming in for an abortion, induction of a fetus that will result in fetal death or even an induction of a fetus that has a lethal condition.

Ok, now: i understand being able to deny service to a woman coming in for an abortion. Granted: I don't think it's right, but if i had to assist in, i don't know, giving guns to babies, i wouldn't be able to do it, even it it were part of my job. BUT, being able to not even give care to a patient who has already put up with her fetus being diagnosed with a lethal anomolie, then you punk-assed nurse is going to *not* care for her?? The patient will have to be scheduled at a time that the nurse manager can ensure she has appropriate staff?? Do you F-ing job! Who are you to be so high and mighty and judgemental? It happens all the time in OB units, and considering the majority of OB nurses tend to be right-winged religious conservatives, it's a major problem.

LissyJo said...

PS

I thought you were called "scooter" from that time you had worms and you kept scooting across the carpet.

Scooter said...

You know, if you're going to make jokes like that, you should really consider that most adoptees are temporarily quarantined for parasites and infectious diseases before they're allowed into the country: "...Intestinal
parasites are prevalent in most child-care institutions." (link)