news notes

i know, it's been all baby-baby-baby around here.  sorry about that, but this little guy has been a little all-consuming.  i'm sure you understand.

here are the headlines and stuff that caught my eye recently:

the nazis and thalidomide: the worst drug scandal of all time - ok, so i have to confess that the only thing i knew about thalidomide was that billy joel sang about it in "we didn't start the fire," so it must've been a big deal.  i had no idea until very recently (right before reading this article) that it caused such horrible birth defects.  and that the company failed to acknowledge these issues and pull it from shelves.  awful.  nice to see that the company has finally - 50 years later - issued an apology.  sad to see that the owner/ceo who ran the company at the time of the scandal still isn't speaking, though.

us adds cancer to list of illnesses linked to 9/11 terror attacks - my first reaction to this article was "duh."  i mean...how did it take them this long?

judge lectures sexual abuse victim, sparks outrage - as a sexual assault victim myself, nothing infuriates me more than blaming the victim in a sexual assault.  the first counselor i went to see did the same thing - asked me what i was wearing the night i was raped.  seriously??  i never went back after that first session.  anyway, this judge should be ashamed of herself and promptly fired.  what woman says this to another woman?  i pray she does not have children that she's teaching this warped way of thinking to.

white house beer recipe revealed - i cannot wait for matt to brew a batch of white house honey ale.  that could be his spring beer next year, just in time for me to be able to enjoy it!

6 things cheaper than the cost of child care - this makes me want to kill myself.  or at least wish that i was rich enough to stay home with our son, at least part time.

'sweet caroline' is no longer welcome at penn state football games - i mean, the whole thing is a bit silly.  but really, this song is terrible and should be banned at all sporting events.  pitt plays it, too, and i hate it.

advocacy organization aims to end 'gay conversion therapy'- so this counseling agency outside of phiadelphia is still practicing with the belief that being gay is something that can be cured.  not surprisingly, this is a "faith-based" counseling agency.  ugh.  it's things like this that make me so uninterested in finding a church for our family.