Impeach The Comelec ::Pleasure and subversion: Psychiatric Association of the Taliban

Impeach the Comelec

Psychiatric Association of the Taliban
Dear Editor
Is there anyway to impeach the following Comelec Comisssioners: Nicodemo T. Ferrer, Lucinito N. Tagle and Elias R. Yusoph?
They must be impeached because they have openly decided to turn the country into a religious state instead of a secular one. I am referring of course to their decision to outlaw Ladlad on the basis of upholding religious beliefs. They quote the Bible and the Koran forgetting that they should consult the Philippine Constitution instead. Only in the Philippines would we have high government officials who state that obedience to religious beliefs trumps other more cogent legal provisions as a basis for policy.
If stupidity were a basis for impeachment, the proceedings would be quite short. Their display of ignorance of current scientific knowledge on sexuality is quite appalling. They should have taken the simple expedient of asking any psychiatrist or psychologist who upholds the standards of organizations like the World Health Organization or the American Psychiatric and Psychological Associations. They would have been told that homosexuality was delisted as a psychological pathology more than 30 years ago. They either did not bother to read for themselves or consulted the psychiatric association of the Taliban when they decided that homosexuality is an abnormality.
As a Filipino citizen who is neither Christian nor Muslim; as a practitioner and teacher in psychology and sexuality; as someone who cares that we do not look like backward bigots to the world community; I urge the impeachment of these men who have violated morals, scientific truths and our laws against discrimination.
I am so upset. I'm gay starting today and until Ladlad gets accredited.
Sylvia Estrada Claudio, M.D. PhD.
Director, University Center for Women’s Studies
Professor of Women and Development Studies
University of the Philippines
Posted by Sylvia Estrada Claudio at 4:08 AM
via Pleasure and subversion: Psychiatric Association of the Taliban.

rePost::RP’s Gorres in critical condition after boxing fight in Vegas

Gorres fought valiantly. I hope and pray you that you get well!

RP’s Gorres in critical condition after boxing fight in Vegas
November 14, 2009 16:02:54
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Just as the nation was preparing for the megabout between Manny Pacquiao and Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto, a nightmarish tragedy struck Filipino prospect Z “The Dream” Gorres after winning his fight Friday in Las Vegas (Saturday in Manila).
Gorres, one of the top bantamweight boxers from the Philippines, collapsed after hacking out a 10-round decision over Columbian Luis Melendez at the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay and was rushed to the UMC Hospital in Las Vegas.
via Pinoy Boxing Republic – GMANews.TV Sports.

Advice:: Three Retirement Questions for People in Their Twenties

If money were no object, what would you do with your time?
Some people would choose to be idle with their time, enjoying all of the freedom that comes with it. They’d party. They’d go on trips. They’d goof off. They’d play on their Xbox all day long.Other people would want to work for something or build something. They’d spend their time with a volunteer project – or maybe even start their own. They need to have a big productive project in their lives in order to feel fulfilled and happy.Most retirement advice is written for people in the first group. They’re the ones who, when they reach retirement age, will want to travel and spend their later years enjoying themselves with leisure as much as possible.The other group gets personal enjoyment out of working and being productive. With the many opportunities already available for people to work as late as they’d like in life, such people will probably work at something – whether it’s gainful employment or a big volunteer project or some mix of the two – until they drop dead with a tool in their hand.If you’re in the first group, you need to be saving as much for retirement as possible. While it’s fine to put money into riskier investments when you’re young, you should start moving into more conservative investments – like bonds or treasuries or cash – pretty early on, even as much as twenty years before retiring.If you’re in the second group, saving for “retirement” basically means saving for the last year or two of life when you’re unable to work and also saving for some supplemental income for the last few decades of your life. You likely don’t need to kick the savings into high gear and can afford risk a little later than the other group, sliding the money into conservative investments five or ten years before you begin to withdraw it.
via The Simple Dollar » Three Retirement Questions for People in Their Twenties.

This was a really important post for me, it said something that I connected with.  A lot, no the MAJORITY of the people I talk to dream of having a business , having some form of passive income, to have financial independence. There is nothing wrong with this.  The only thing wrong with this is that it is not right for everyone.  I believe I am a type two person, I really love working.  I love analyzing stuff , I love creating programs. I love that in a little space called the computer’s innards I rule supreme. I don’t know if I’ll forever be a type two person, the only assurance is that I’ll remain a type 2 person is that I understand Ernest Hemingway (hope you got what I mean),. Hope you read the whole article!

rePost::The long-term effects of day care

So did time spent in day-care affect school performance? We can't say for sure: remember, this study just measures correlations, and a correlation can't tell us if one factor causes another. But there are some interesting correlations. There is a small, but significant correlation between quality of care received in a child-care center and vocabulary scores. Interestingly, this correlation continues to be significant all the way through the fifth grade. There's also a significant correlation between number of hours spent in child care and “externalizing” behaviors such as misbehaving in school or hitting others, but this diminishes with age. Externalizing is significantly correlated with the proportion of child care provided by day-care centers, and this correlation does extend all the way through to the sixth grade.
But the factor that most strongly predicted both academic success and good social skills throughout the study period was quality of parenting. If the mother-child relationship in those short video assignments demonstrated good parenting skills, then the child was more likely to have good reading, math, and vocabulary scores and have healthier social skills. But even here, we must be careful not to assign parenting as the cause: It’s possible that parents simply get along better with kids who are naturally brighter and friendlier.
But let’s suppose the correlations are due to causation: good parenting makes good kids, and day-care makes for very slightly smarter, but also slightly less well-behaved kids. What does that tell us about whether or not to put kids in day care? On an individual basis, not much. A parent may be faced with a decision to put her child in day care or move to a cheaper house in a worse neighborhood. A small probability that the child will be slightly more aggressive in ten years probably doesn’t play into it much. But, the study authors suggest, it might make a difference on a larger, community-based scale. If ever-larger numbers of kids are placed in ever-more-inadequate day-care facilities, then schools and playgrounds could be adversely affected, which could mean a worse future for everyone.
One thing does seem clear from these results: both high-quality child-care centers and good parenting skills are associated with better results for kids. Perhaps future studies should focus more on how to make both of those things even better.
via The long-term effects of day care : Cognitive Daily.

AOTD:: Go the Wrong Way – NYTimes.com

Loved this advice. As the title suggest we sometimes need to “Go The Wrong way”. The thing is lives have a tendency to follow patterns, worst comes to worst you’re going to for an ordinary life. There is nothing wrong with an ordinary life, but some people would like a life less ordinary (I loved that movie, I’m just a sucker for a romantic comedy).

Go the Wrong Way
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By MARTHA NUSSBAUM
Published: September 5, 2009
It’s easy to think that college classes are mainly about preparing you for a job. But remember: this may be the one time in your life when you have a chance to think about the whole of your life, not just your job. Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger. You need resources to prevent your mind from becoming narrower and more routinized in later life. This is your chance to get them.
via Op-Ed Contributor – Go the Wrong Way – NYTimes.com.

rePost::In Defense of a Good Night's Sleep

This has been the 3rd week of having between 3 and 4 hours of sleep a day.
Yikes this is scary.

In Defense of a Good Night's Sleep
Disrupt your sleep, disrupt your body and brain.
It's so tempting to cut back on sleep when you can't figure out how to make it all fit. Many of us have an irregular sleep cycle, staying up and sleeping in some days, and trying to rise before the first respectable glimmer of dawn the next day.
But a new study presented at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience shows how disrupting your sleep cycle can interfere with your health and cognitive function. (1) Researchers from Rockefeller University disrupted the circadian rhythms of mice by exposing them to 10 hours of light followed by 10 hours of darkness. After two months of this, the mice were in need of more than a little nap. They had difficulty learning. They were more impulsive. And they got fat, thanks in part to changes in appetite hormones and metabolism.
via In Defense of a Good Night’s Sleep | Psychology Today.

QOTD:: In admiration of Iverson

But if they are what they do is the test, then Iverson passes it handsomely this year. In a nation where too many people have what is now called attitude without talent, or attitude without passion, he has, it seems to me, all three, and ironically the more passion he displays, miraculously the less attitude we see — as if he has forgotten that in addition to playing so hard he also has to stick his finger in the world’s eye.
via ESPN.com – Page2 – In admiration of Iverson.

Stupidity:: Gay Rights or the Homeless? You Choose DC.

Someone please explain to me how the hell does preventing people to unite in something marriage like is offensive enough to prevent people from helping other people? Please I really want to understand the thinking behind this.

Gay Rights or the Homeless? You Choose DC.
From The Los Angeles Times:
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it would be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District of Columbia if the city refused to change a proposed same-sex marriage law.
The threat could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and healthcare.
Under the legislation, which the City Council is expected to pass next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey laws prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians.
via Experimental Theology: Gay Rights or the Homeless? You Choose DC..

rePost::To the anonymous gay teen who asked for help in a Boing Boing comment thread – Boing Boing

The advice from xeni jardin can be read at boing boing! 5 years may be long but somethings you have to face and just be done with it!

A few weeks ago, I blogged a funny video created by a Canadian high-school student titled “Hiding Your Sexual Orientation From Your Parents 101.” One of the many people who commented on that post was an anonymous commenter who wrote:
Ok, my parents found out i was gay by myspace (which i regret for putting my sexual orientation) and my parents will never accept cause my parents are really realigous for our christianity. They are so realigous, that i'm now homeschooled and going to a private school. Also i have no internet unless for emergencies, no friends houses, no phone, no boy friends til i'm 18. The only times i can get out is to christian youth groups so i have no life for the next 5 years ( cause i'm 13). Oh and my parents think all the wrong things in the world about gays, they even use the gay f word. I need help and i'm typing this from my PS3 cause they don't know it has internet. HELP!!! =O
via To the anonymous gay teen who asked for help in a Boing Boing comment thread – Boing Boing.

Stupidity::Comelec says gay party 'immoral'

as I stated previously, as Abraham Lincoln said: If this isn’t wrong, nothing is wrong.
I refuse to discriminate anyone on the basis of who or what gender they choose to love. This is wrong.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/11/12/09/comelec-says-gay-party-immoral

Comelec says gay party ‘immoral’
________________________________
by Kristine Servando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 11/12/2009 8:56 PM
Comelec Rules that Ang Ladlad poses ‘risks’ to Pinoy youth
Ang Ladlad to appeal decision
Danton Remoto: Comelec’s ideas on homosexuals are ‘obsolete
MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday rejected Ang Ladlad for party-list accreditation on the grounds that the party advocates “sexual immorality” and “immoral doctrines.”
Ang Ladlad is an organization of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT).
In a ruling dated November 11, the Comelec said that although the party presented proper documents and evidence for their accreditation, their petition is “dismissable on moral grounds.”
Page 5 of the ruling states that Ang Ladlad’s definition of the LGBT sector as a marginalized sector who are disadvantaged because of their sexual orientation “makes it crystal clear that the petitioner tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs.”
The document quotes passages from both the Bible and the Koran (taken from internet site www.bible.org) that describe homosexuality as “unseemly” or “transgressive.”
The Comelec goes on to state that accrediting Ang Ladlad would pose risks for Filipino youth.