I agree completely.

Yes!

In Victorian photographers' and photography consumers' defence, not all of these photos were actually intended for the parents' eyes.

Before leaving the studio, these photos were usually framed in such a way that most of the shot was cut out or covered, leaving only a close-up image of the baby's head and upper torso visible. The mother's silhouette wasn't normally visible in the final image, although the fabric of the covering might be (although it…

This is sadly true. I know a dozen single men in my age range (all very nice people, but I'm not in love with them and they aren't in love with me) and I'm not meeting any more at work, while volunteering, or during leisure activities. I'm in a smaller town, so dating websites are mostly out (few people participate)…

Warning: uncomfortable post.

I agree with all of the larger points that you make here. The sooner we start to treat suicide like a complication of mental illness, rather than like a poor but rational choice, the better the help available to survivors and at-risk people will be.

And under yours, a loving, devoted, hard-working parent who is distracted for a single moment and makes a horrible mistake (that could happen to anyone) has to be punished not only with their own feelings of guilt and loss, but also by being labelled a bad parent (and by extension, a bad person) and judged. We're…

Individual users who need antibiotics to survive, no.

Good for your friends then!

Maybe she is. Maybe, if she is, it has little effect on her. Maybe pot has huge effects on her memory and judgement. We don't know. I don't think that we can exclude the possibility that being high contributed to what happened.

Definitely. I have heard so many stories along these lines, either from ashamed relatives/friends who thought they were terrible parents (before realizing how common such mistakes are) or on the news (parents forgetting children in cars all day, etc.). Parents should obviously avoid putting themselves in positions…

Most parents of babies do at least a few idiotic things, whether because having a baby is so new and overwhelming, because they are sleep-deprived, or for some other reason. It happens.

I have only been stoned a few times (enough to confirm that pot doesn't agree with me), and found that it had hugely deleterious effects on my memory, intelligence, and emotions. This sounds exactly like the sort of thing that I would have done in that state. The stuff may not affect everyone, but it does have…

Maybe?

Scholarships are basically salaries awarded to students who bring a lot to a school, whether because of their research, their activism, or their involvement in sports or artistic endeavours. Sometimes they are also investments in new students who are expected to make such contributions within a few years. Scholarship…

I think that the easiest solution would be for Combs to accept the scholarship and the money (he earned it, and it's an important stop for someone moving on towards life as an adult independent of his parents), but for his father to donate an equal or superior amount to a needs-based scholarship program of his choice.

Or just having a good education system that helps children escape the assholery of their parents, since that stuff isn't genetic ;).

(Which isn't to deny that because of explicit and structural racism, people of colour were very disproportionately affected by forced sterilization, or that larger efforts to lower non-white birth rates weren't popular at the time. It's just that as far as forced sterilization goes, ableism was probably one of the…

They probably didn't recognize what happened to her as rape, for a host of horrible reason (no clear senses that very young people aren't mature enough to consent/refuse, idea that even forced sexual activity is a sign of promiscuity, racist ideas about black women's sexualities, etc.). At the time, nothing short of…