Thursday, September 16, 2004

The Peanut Nazi

We continue to cater to the ignorant.

The proof is in Pasadena, CA where Julia Jennings, the Principal of Arroyo Vista Elementary School, has officially banned peanuts and peanut products because 20 of the school's 550 students suffer from peanut allergies. Should they eat, come into contact with, or even look at a peanut for too long, they will die.

This allergy is by no means the fault of the students affected. They can't control what they are allergic to. However, as the article (link deleted 'cause it's dead) points out, the remainder of students may suffer from allergies caused by things such as strawberries, dairy products or wheat, yet nothing seems to be done to protect them. Hell, I'm lactose intolerant myself but I drank my milk like a good little soldier all throughout my grade school years.

Now here's some stats for you:

Americans suffering from peanut allergies: 1.5 million.
Americans suffering from lactose intolerance: 30 to 50 million.

While lactose intolerance won't kill you, it can still cause a reaction in people that is, well, not the best thing a human being can experience. And the best way to avoid a reaction? Don't consume milk. Not hard. Don't come into contact with peanuts. Not too hard, either.

Yet we continue to serve milk in schools.

This, my friends, is called "selective enforcement". Let's protect those 20 students whose parents aren't bright enough to educate their children on the dangers of consuming peanuts or peanut products, or to avoid said products at all costs. It's much easier to inconvenience the other 530 students and parents who now have to pack different sandwiches into their kid's Britney Spears lunchboxes.

But there's even more good news for LI students at Arroyo Vista Elementary! Check out the school's menu, albeit from May 2004:

(Image lost because PhotoIsland sucks ass.)

Just about all of the entrees include a dairy product, whether it be cheese or yogurt. Nice going, guys. I hope a good portion of your school budget is slated for purchasing cases of toilet paper because with that menu, you're going to need it.

And I don't know about you, but when I was in school nobody I knew of had an allergy to peanuts, nor did we ever see anybody having a reaction to them. Maybe it was because back then, our parents knew better than to serve us a heaping spoonful of death between two slices of bread with the crusts cut off.

But I guess times were different back then. We never wore helmets while skateboarding or biking (now required). We drank sodas with saccharin (now defunct). We got our asses whipped when we did something wrong (an action that could get you thrown in jail these days). But you know what? We turned out alright.

Let's not ban such things as scissors which, in the hands of anybody at any point in the history of mankind, can be a lethal weapon. Sharpened pencils? Nah. Kids never poke themselves with those or accidentally inject themselves with pencil lead.

Why not ban oatmeal cookies? I remember hearing a story of a food fight years ago where a kid took an oatmeal cookie to the eye and it caused him to go blind. Whether it's true or not is not the case. The point is that anything has the potential to cause bodily harm, or even death.

No, let's fight the real enemy - peanuts.

And it seems that Principal Jennings would rather protect the 20 little crusaders who will never know the joys of biting into a Goober Grape sandwich, while her school's diarrhea-enducing menu will continue to dehydrate those students whose digestive systems can't handle the diary content of the menu.

I think I hear a toilet flushing.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Updates...

1. Los Angeles, CA newscaster Kent Shocknek at CBS2 has mentioned me yet again in his blog for a link I sent to my brother. Note that despite what he says, I don't have that much free time on my hands...!

2. Oh, and Photodump is gone but has been replaced by FreePhotoHost.com. I have replaced the links but am not sure of how stable this new image host is, so don't be surprised if they don't show up.

3. Template changes with a few personal modifications.

4. Fleas have attacked my house. At last count I had over 100 bites on my ankles and feet. They are slowly making their way up, now biting my arms and back.

5. My buddy Tal Johnson's Yahoo! profile (see post on 9/8/04) has been disabled for whatever reason.

More ramblings later...

Friday, September 10, 2004

Another One Bites the Dust...

If you were wondering where all of my pictures went, all I can tell you is this: Hell if I know.

The image host I was using, photodump.com, has apparently changed hands as of this post. Therefore, any images hosted by them have now been deleted and I have no access to them. Also as of this post, the current website makes no mention of this so I don't know what's going on. Notice was never given, either.

That's what free gets ya I suppose.

The images will return once I find a new image host.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Help Tal Johnson Fight Spam!

Here is an unedited missive I got from a Tal Johnson, who can be contacted at taljohnson17@yahoo.com.

This email was, ironically, filtered by my Yahoo mail as spam, which I routinely check for newsletters that I actually subscribed to. Our buddy Tal signed up for Yahoo today, so I suppose he's really committed to this anti-spam fight.

At any rate, here's his message. I'd point out the grammatical errors but well...you can figure them out:

Hello,

My name is Tal Johnson. I have been against useless spam email for quite sometime now. Recently my yahoo account has been filled with numerous loads of spam. In fact that is how I got your email addresses, through the Carbon Copy (CC) header that was sent to you of spam sent to me.

I am writing a petion to send to yahoo to invest more man power into stopping this sick mail that I and you have been getting. Aol and Hotmail have brought legal suites against spammers. Lets work to get yahoo to do the same.

Im asking you to support my cause if you are like me and are sick and tired of getting junk email in our boxes!

Please reply to me if you are interested in signing my petion to yahoo to stop spam. Right now, I don't have much people, but hoping that you will help my cause, if I get enough people I will start writing out a petion that I will either send you in the mail to sign, or online. Just reply and I will keep you in the loop and send more information.

Let stop spam. You can forward this to any other yahoo friends that you know that may be interested in supporting my cause.

Thanks for your help in advance,
Tal Johnson

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So I called his bluff. Here's my reply:

Dear Tal,

As much as I'd like to applaud your valiant efforts in attempting to stop Yahoo from sending "useless spam", I'd like to point out a few things to you:

1. Suggesting that I send this email to other "Yahoo friends" constitutes spam, therefore you are not helping the cause by suggesting such an action.

2.The term "useless spam" is redundant. All spam is useless.

3. You repeatedly use the term "petion" in your manifesto. If you plan on creating a *petition* to help stop "useless spam", you might want to hire a writer to help you out.

4. Yahoo has already taken great strides in improving their email filtering system. Spam will always get through unless you choose to only accept mail from those on your address book - the only surefire way to avoid spam.

5. Can't you just delete the spam? It's a lot quicker than complaining to the world about it and rest assured, nobody is listening.

There is no immediate cure for spam, therefore I would suggest dealing with it until there is. If you let *any* email account sit long enough it will get spammed.

If you plan on proceeding with your "petion", by all means do so. But note that you are fighting something that cannot be defeated.

Regards,
David Moreno

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Tal's reply will be posted, should I ever get one.