Yeah, I’ve heard some people say it’s “not even a real job” and they should be “grateful for what they get,” yet they have no problem with the millions of dollars paid to each player of football, baseball, or basketball.

Experience AND a chance to build their cheer leading portfolio, which they can use to show off their work when they finally enter the high paid world of professional cheer leading. Oh wait.

I also loved the argument that these women shouldn’t complain and should actually be grateful because they get to hang around rich guys who may bestow trinkets upon them, or — the ultimate cheerleader ambition — marry them (because why else would anyone be a cheerleader, right?).

Nono, you’re mistaken; it’s not that they should be paid in experience. It’s that they are supposed to be grateful to be in the presence of wealthy professional athletes who might deign to let them be glorified prostitutes if they’re especially good at cheerleading.

Uh oh, here come the assholes who think cheerleaders should only be paid in experience or some such right-wing twaddle.

That whole episode still pisses me off years later. I don’t know if there’s a better example of how the right’s commitment to “small government” and complaints about “government overreach” are complete nonsense. They’re quite happy to ignore all sorts of boundaries in pursuit of their sacred cows. The behavior of some…

Michael Schiavo was treated horribly and got the worst raw deal when the fucking congress intervened to collude with Terry’s parents’ denial and he was straight up demonized in the right wing press. It was monstrous how this whole thing was treated like a political football. I had to stop watching. There was something…

A foster care worker in another thread points out that these case workers and agencies don’t get to tell their side of the story publicly. I’m not saying this family wasn’t wronged, but it’s very possible that there were good reasons that the agency and the judge knew about that didn’t make it into the press due to…

Fifty years ago, a woman like Sara would have been institutionalized as a child, and, if she somehow became pregnant, any children she birthed would have immediately been put up for adoption. You must be thinking of a completely different universe where in the 1960s, people with mental disabilities were supported and…

Teachers are mandated reporters. As a teacher, I would never report a parent for being unable to help a child with their homework (now with Common Core this happens in math all the time! Haha ;) ). I sincerely think that there is more to this story than you might be privy to.

It was more than that she missed a feeding and had trouble with the diaper:

I feel for her and while I’m glad she got her daughter back, the state and the hospital were doing their job, which was to protect the child. I’m a pediatrician and see many parents who, to be completely honest, shouldn’t be taking care of their children without help. I’m not saying everyone with some developmental…