um, I had my appendix out without insurance and lived for years with a psychiatric disorder without insurance. The US system is ridiculous in so many ways, but it's shitty as hell for you to impugn the doctors and nurses who provide care in the ER by saying he was treated badly because that's just what they do. ER…

I'm not sure what you think happened here. He was assessed by a doctor. The doctor did not know about his travel history because of a miscommunication, and so there was a misdiagnosis—-the doctor diagnosed him with severe sinusitis, which also fits the symptoms he had, and gave him antibiotics. I agree that many…

do we have the same neighbor? My neighbor would probably just go to a chiropractor if her kids got Ebola (or the much more likely whooping cough, chicken pox, measles...)

look, you're describing a real and serious problem, but it has absolutely nothing to do with this case. This patient was in the country too short a time to have a primary doc, and a primary would've sent him to the ER anyway. The nurse infected was not an ER nurse, nor does it seem that any ER patients were…

I thought it was a joke?

Junie B. Jones and SkippyJon Jones can both fuck right off.

Green Eggs and Ham + D.A.R.E/Just Say No = Very confused children. That book is pretty much all about how awesome it is to finally give in to peer pressure.

Even worse: the companion series, Babysitter's Little Sister. That was some awful stuff

Little kids have hilarious fears. I apparently should not have watched the movie E.T. because I developed a terrible fear of astronauts from that movie (because for some reason the government agents wore space suits when they came to retrieve the alien). I also would hear my parents putting away dishes in the…

Nah. She wanted one experience and got a different one. It's totally okay to have a little pang about that and to sympathize.

Yeah, no. If you're having sex with human beings, you're at risk. The Bible is pretty clear on the fact that we all sin and are all vulnerable to temptation. Sex with your once-adulterous-now-repenting spouse is Biblical sex. Sex with a spouse who had sex before marriage and then changed his/her ways is Biblical…

no. If one of those virgins was molested—-even if there was no penetration—-then he or she could well have HPV or herpes and transmit it.

I should clarify that I don't mean legal, actual harassment like constant phone calls or anything like that. I think it's mostly just constantly checking a blogger's social media accounts (and those of her children, and her employer/clients, and her kid's school, and her siblings, and her spouse and ex-spouse and…

Ah! I have been known to find myself reading a site that does this to bloggers. It's bananas. There are like three or four that they are just awful about and I can't understand why. Now I'm dying to know if your friend is one of these women. But feeling guilty about it because we're talking about her again and…

Eeesh. Smack 'em both and send the kid to me. I've got an eight year old who desperately wants to be a big sister.

That's really sad when you think about it. He was severely traumatized when he was middle school age (his father died in his arms while he tried to perform CPR and before that he was abused by an addict mother) and his brain seems to have gotten stuck at that age in just about every way. I'm not saying that excuses…

after a divorce, you get to experience a second adolescence, so your aggravating factor is dismissed.

maybe. But if the choices are between "some educated people feel condescended to" and "some less-educated (read: less-privileged) people may not understand or may be intimidated and tune out" it makes sense to go ahead and let some privileged people feel condescended to. Err on the side of caution that way.

do they actually put "Mother Unknown" on birth certificates? I've seen a blank space under "Father's Name" but not "Unknown".

that would be amazing. I wish these weren't real people so I could just squeal about what an exciting plot twist that would be without feeling guilty.