Archives for November 2009

A terrifying article about acid burning in Pakistan (and other countries in that area). Warning: It contains graphic pictures of women who were attacked in this most barbaric way.

I’m linking to it here because, as Nicholas Kristof wrote: “Acid attacks and wife burnings are common in parts of Asia because the victims are the most voiceless in these societies: they are poor and female. The first step is simply for the world to take note, to give voice to these women.”

Please, take note. At the very least, take note.

Hey, if you’re old and sick and hurting and tired of living, and would rather find a way to accelerate your departure from this planet, that is your business. So maybe you stop taking the countless pills various doctors prescribe and get a stiff drink or three instead. Maybe you take up heavy smoking again. Maybe you refuse treatment and only accept pain-killers (or pain-numbers). If the choice is between being dependent on machines or dying, many of us would choose to go. That’s a choice only you and the people who love you can make.

This is what I call your right to die by refusing treatment, getting disconnected from life support, or simply by living extremely dangerously. All adults have it, and provided your loved ones (and ideally your lawyer as well) are made aware of your preferences, you should be able to get your wish, even if you are not in possession of your faculties. I don’t believe this author has any reason to be worried about the current legal framework surrounding end-of-life issues. He currently has the right to choose not to be kept “alive well past what nature had intended”. And given how stretched medical resources are in this country, I’m willing to bet he won’t run into very strong protests on the part of his doctors should he find himself in such a situation.

Having the right to refuse treatment and die more or less your own way is not the same as instituting state-sanctioned euthanasia. It would help if people didn’t mix up the two so often.

Sounds a bit new-ageist at times (or is New Age passé now? I never know what’s cool), especially the bit about the “emotional identity attached to achieving your own menstrual cycle, and being able to read your body”, but whatever, I’m glad young women are reconsidering the Pill.

Why is criminalization the response to this problem? Why do the women always have to pay? Oh the injustice of it all.

Seriously, though, I say arresting those who imitate Jane Austen is not severe enough. I have tried and tried again to pull through just one Jane Austen novel and after the latest concerted effort, have vowed never to try again.

And unhealthy piles of cash. Attention, classic movie fans: items from Audrey Hepburn’s wardrobe will be for sale Dec. 8 in London. Doesn’t say anything about how mere mortals are supposed to manage to fit into those clothes…

Makes you think twice about pulling the plug too fast, doesn’t it:

A car crash victim has spoken of the horror he endured for 23 years after he was misdiagnosed as being in a coma when he was conscious the whole time.

Rom Houben, trapped in his paralysed body after a car crash, described his real-life nightmare as he screamed to doctors that he could hear them – but could make no sound.

‘I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,’ said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state.

The Burka Barbie!

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Tanya does a double take: Oh! I get it. At first glance, I thought it was an ad for the Snuggie. (And is it just me, or does the burgundy Snuggie cause one to resemble a Gregorian Monk?)

I’m not exactly surprised or shocked by this story, for it is not new. Hard-core “environmentalists” have, for the longest time, been more partial to the earth than to humans. See this, for instance. Or this.

Of course it’s silly. And in some cases, more than a little creepy. But hey, I’m not particularly worried. Besides, if the most hard-core activists choose not to reproduce, it will mean that many fewer hard-core activists born and raised, so how can we lose?

I usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but these guys are making it difficult.

A Danish non-governmental organization has created a simple online video game — colourfully titled Hit the Bitch — that allows players to slap a woman in the face, causing her to become bloody as bruised, as part of an advertising campaign designed to draw attention to domestic violence issues.

WARNING, the depictions of violence in the game are quite graphic.

The game was created by The NGO for Children exposed to Violence at Home as part of an online advocacy and awareness campaign.

The game starts with a video of a young woman walking towards the screen greeting the player in Danish. At a certain point, the video is paused and the name of the game is superimposed on the screen. Users can then choose to either use their mouse or a Webcam to control a realistic male hand.

By moving the mouse back and forth across the screen, the player can slap the woman in the face using the hand on the screen. With each smack the woman’s face becomes increasingly bruised and her tone of voice grows increasingly angry.

After each slap, a power meter along the top of the screen grows from “pussy” to “gangsta.” Once the game’s power meter reaches the “100% Gangsta” side of the screen — after roughly 8 or 10 slaps — the game fades out and shows the player a “100% Idiot” screen.

The game then displays a video of the woman lying on the ground and crying, with what appear to be stats on domestic violence and ways to share the video via Facebook superimposed over her frame in Danish.