• It’s tough being ten

    I was bouncing around the internet this evening and I came across a blog post discussing the problems with their child’s school. It reminded me of the trouble we had a couple years ago with Beth. (It’s two years later Beth still talks about that teacher every now and again.)

    The purpose of this entry is to share with you (yet again) how proud I am of my daughter, and how grateful I am for the wonderful teachers and staff at her new(ish) school. This year and last haven’t been perfect, but they never will be, so we shouldn’t expect it. I still think the amount of homework they give is a bit ridiculous (though I’m careful not to share this with Beth). I still think kids can be awfully cruel. A kid that’s a little different is like blood in the water, with a couple nearby sharks carrying around nothing but empty stomachs. But the results are undeniable. Beth’s latest progress report with all ‘A’s came home on Friday and I’m a proud papa.

    She’s been working me hard this week though. It started out with her declaration that she couldn’t be a good Lutheran because she believed in science, not Genesis; and led to a light discussion about allegories, and the possible purpose of some of the early books of the Bible.

    We weren’t done there though. Yesterday morning (when I was still struggling to wake up) she wanted to know why there was a war in Iraq, and if I thought there was still a possibility we’d attack Iran. I’d forgotten that Iraq has been in the news for most of her life (or more than half anyway).

    Beth is a curious kid, but her questions are usually a little easier to answer… like trying to explain what ‘red shift’ is (which she saw referenced in one of her astronomy books), or what the difference between ‘fission’ and ‘fusion’ is – and why one tends to produce radioactive waste, while the other doesn’t. That’s an awful lot to explain for a guy that studied the social sciences in school (with thoughts of going into counseling of some kind). It’s a good thing growing up with my dad gave me the equivalent of a minor in physics.

    By the way, I’m a lousy theologian. Faith doesn’t come easy to me, and I’m afraid the only thing I can teach her is that it’s something she’s ultimately going to have to decide for herself. I hope ten isn’t too early to learn that lesson.

  • Oh no.

    Is Ralph Nader running again?:

    Four years after he announced a presidential run on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Ralph Nader is poised to do it again.

    He’s scheduled to appear on the program Sunday, and longtime associates say they think the consumer advocate will announce his candidacy. Having abandoned the Green Party after being its nominee in 2000, he’s more likely to run as an independent again, those familiar with his thinking said.

  • I seem to have misplaced my sympathy

    washingtonpost.com:

    Employers would get more authority to check on the reasons workers give for excused absences, under proposed changes to the U.S. family and medical leave regulations, a rule-tightening sure to trigger a political firestorm…

    One major change would allow employers to contact health-care providers who authorize the leave, access they don’t have now…

    Some employers complain about the effect of sudden, unscheduled leaves. Honda North America said such absences disrupt job rotations on manufacturing lines, require the hiring of extra workers and cause lost productivity.

    So far as engineering goes, I think Honda is swell. But they lose productivity when workers get sick? Well boo friggin’ hoo. This kind of attitude by employers, along with a big imbalance in the employer-employee relationship, is precisely why a Family Medical Leave Act is necessary. In my humble opinion, the act is an extremely modest attempt to make employees more than a commodity.

    Then there’s this line they drop in:

    The Torrance, Calif., subsidiary of Honda said 20 percent of the 178,003 hours of short-term leave taken in 2006 was for headaches.

    It kinda sounds like they’re poo-pooing headaches, like it’s some frivolous complaint. Any sufferer of severe migraines can attest headaches can be more than just a “hang-nail.” One could just as easily turn their statement around, asking: “why are so many of your employees suffering from seemingly chronic headaches… in many cases so severe they have to miss work?”

    Now that I’ve got you all worked up into a lather, I should admit there’s probably some room to tweak the law; and the article makes a few reasonable points along those lines.

    Still, some of the requests are a bit chilling… like giving employers access to our doctors. What for? So they can cross-examine them? And just how much access do they want? Employees are already required to get documentation from their doctor, and companies are given leeway to ask for a TON of documentation. We’re not talking about a small note on a slip from a prescription pad that says, “John’s sick.” Just ask my doctor, who’s pretty sick of going through my department’s best efforts towards deforestation.

    “It’s not our intent to make it harder for people to take leave,” said Assistant Labor Secretary Victoria Lipnic, who administers the law.

    As someone who’s used “FMLA,” I can attest that it can already be difficult. I suspect that rules which are more favorable to employers aren’t going to make it any easier for me.

    And lets not forget, “FMLA” is not exactly all that generous by western standards. Sure, it gives someone the right to take 12 weeks of leave in the course of a year, but it doesn’t guarantee you’ll be PAID for those weeks. And twelve weeks isn’t all that long when you’re battling serious illness… and your only means of access to affordable healthcare is our asinine, employer benefits model of healthcare delivery.