1.12.06 Tidbits

IN the last two weeks, I received lots of emails regarding different issues throughout the world and on my blogsite as well. It is time to follow up on this.

Bitch Session? I got lots of emails complaining that they preferred me to resume the Bitch Session once a month to save its flavor and excitement. Any suggestions? 24/7 Bitch Session or Once-A-Month Bitch Session?

Jonathan Katz Is An Idiot! This fella, Jonathan Katz, should stick with Physics. He argued that two Deaf lifeguards who were dismissed at YMCA because they cannot hear the victim screaming for help.

Most of our self-deception occurs in softer fields, where its consequences are less immediate and less obviously catastrophic, and where the ideological pressures to enshrine fantasy as reality are stronger. For example, two deaf people sued YMCAs for enormous sums of money after losing jobs as lifeguards on account of their deafness. We all wish the disabled could do everything other people can do, but they cannot. That is why they are called disabled. The deaf cannot hear a call "HELP!''. Should people drown to maintain the lie that deaf people can do a lifeguard's job?

Nothing is far from the truth. Even I have First Aid and CPR certification and I personally knew many Deaf lifeguards -- it is all about visual image of one being in distress. Oh, by the way, I'd love to meet a guy who drowns without making a scene but resort only to shouts for help. Pathetic figure. Oh, by the way, you can harass him at katz@wuphys.wustl.edu. Hat tip to Shannon.

Dick Cheney Flip-flopper? I got this from a friend of mine who verified the source. Believe it or not, Dick Cheney spoke of this:

"I think the proposition of going to Baghdad is also fallacious. I think if we were going to remove Saddam Hussein we would have had to go all the way to Baghdad, we would have to commit a lot of force because I do not believe we would wait in the Presidential Palace for us to arrive. I think we'd have had to hunt him down. And once we'd done that and we'd gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his government, then we'd have had to put another government in its place. What kind of government? Should it be the Sunni government or the Shi'i government or a kuridsh government or Ba'athis regime? Or maybe we want to bring in some of the Islamic fundamentalist? How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once the U.S. forces withdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable? I think it is vitally important for a president to know when to use military force. I think it is also very important for him to know when not to commit U.S. military force. And it's my view that the President got it right both times, that it would have been a mistake for us to get bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq."
-Dick Cheney. The Washington Institute's Soref Symposium, April 29, 1991.

Wow. A true flip-flopper. Hat tip to McFly.

Another Fabulous UK Deaf Website: Another email urged me to check this website out and I did. I like it. Especially the ones in that category, Stories: The Truth. It reflects the reality of hearing society upon us all. Shameful. Hat tip to Carrie.

NYSD Finished: New York Society for the Deaf, founded in early 1900s has been merged with the FEGS organization in New York primarily because the NYSD Board (mostly hearing people) and Kathleen Cox, herself a hearing person who cannot sign worth a shit -- drove the organization into the grounds to a point where the offer by FEGS to take over was something that they cannot resist. So NYSD was virtually swallowed by the FEGS -- don't believe it? Check www.nysd.org. Oh, by the way, Kathleen Cox was finally phased out of its NYSD workforce -- now guess who runs the agency? Hearing people, of course.

Sarah Pack Would Love This: For a long time, she asked me to link something that might make her *ahem* horny. Since I'm gay and she was lesbian, I really did not care about posing women. But this one deserved the attention. I wonder if our cheerleaders in this country should start something like this? Will the attendance improve? You decide. Hat tip to Anonymous who feared that he'd be bashed by his girlfriend.

Speaking of Sarah Pack: There will be another memorial service for Sarah Pack, this time it will be facilitated by DIRC (Deaf-Interpreter Relations Committee) in New York. Check this link for further information. Sarah frequently attended this meetings and took me to the meeting when I was really, really antisocial at a particular time. I ended up enjoying the event. However, this event, I wish I could be there but cannot make it. Anyone that plans to go, please let me know about the outcomes of this nice gesture by the DIRC for Sarah Pack. Hat tip to Svetlana.

Who Is Jesse Conrad? I stumbled upon his blogsite. When I first saw him at Gallaudet, he was so effeminate. I mean, any gay person who is blind can identify him, period. He was a freshman from North Carolina. But he hung out with Adrean Clark and his Christian friends. He was quite homophobic and made it clear that he is not gay. Then one day, he vanished for about a couple of years. Then he re-surfaced back in Washington, DC area ... as a gay man.

Few years ago, I saw him at Paramount Kings Dominion one time and attempted to say hi out of a nice gesture, this fool acted like he does not know who I am! And I told him that I distinctly remembered him being Xian homophobe -- he insisted that it was not him, but someone else. I asked if he was Jesse, he nodded. Then it was him all along. And he claimed that he was always gay, even at Gallaudet as a freshman.

C'mon and admit it up, Jesse, repent your sins. You used to hang out with Mark Wood's group or that Campus for Christian Crusade (or something like that!) at Gallaudet. Please do not bother to deny this because the damages you did to gay brethren was duly noted back then!

A Word from Yawar of iCandy Lounge: I was surprised to get an email from the public relations of iCandy Lounge, the new gay bar in West Hollywood, California. Last week, I wrote a tidbit about the TV series that I saw about the development of iCandy Lounge. Among the stars on the show was Yawar. He wrote:

I wanted to address your observations. I CANDY prides itself on including everyone. Our crowd ranges from 21+ over to 65 and over! Our customers are every shape, size and color, so I would encourage you to come in and check it out for yourself! Our staff is fun, professional and friendly, so I hope you will give us a chance.

Perhaps I will check this out eventually. Thanks for the email, Yawar.

Mrs. Alito, Thanks for the Show! Good try but no cigar. You're merely doing an act. Typical.

Is This For Real? According to Marty Nemko, the best jobs in 2006 also included Audiologist and Speech Therapist! I know the baby boomers and the excessive use of iPods may lead to hearing loss and all that. But if you step outside of the box itself, you will see that the hearing people are merely exploiting the system on our expenses. Hat tip to Carrie.

And This Is Good Example: A certain Deaf fellow in Philadelphia recenty took 4-months old Deaf son to her pediatricist for a typical check-up, her Pediatricist was relentless in pressuring the mother to implant the cochlear implant on her son. She felt it was abrasive and rude of her pediatricist to insist and repeat the whole thing again, again and again. In fact, the Pediatricist said that if her Deaf son would be implanted, it'd develop his brain better.

What the fuck? Naturally, the mother felt offended by that comment.

I do recall reading an article that the Pediatricists, in some states, have a certain point at children's development to test their hearing. And if the child is Deaf, it was the doctors' duty to inform them of options -- but many doctors are purely uninformed when it comes to deafness. They would say things like one that was being said to the mother of Deaf 4-months old son.

Alfred Mann, the guy behind the so-called "near-miraculous" device now known as the Cochlear Implant, is No. 203 on Forbes' List, his net worth is at $1.4 billion dollars. How nice is that? At our expense. And he is not going to stop at that. He founded his foundation to lobby, pressure the local, state and federal government to Medicaid, Medicare and other healthcare insurances as well as exploring the means to pass the laws, perhaps someday, to require all Deaf children to have the option of being BORGized? This will prompt Alfred to climb much higher in the future, like it or not.

Alfred Mann has made personal contributions to Senators and Representatives in 2002, 2004 and 2006. See? For an ordinary Deaf person, that is pretty a lot, I guess. Maybe the Deaf Community needs to stop fighting each other and start to do something proactive like contributing or something else. This is more of Sonny Wasilowski's line than I do!

On second thought, I attempted, along with few, to see if Dr. Irving K. Jordan has made any contributions -- so far, I could not find anything. A friend of mine found Dr. I. King Jordan's wife, Linda Jordan, donating a measly fifty dollars to Senator Tom Harkins (D-IA). And Linda is not even Deaf.

Then a colleague looked through the OpenSecrets.org and found this list. Only *one* Gallaudet student has donated $ to Congressmen -- guess who it is? Remember Nick Beck from Illinois? That's him. He is the lone figure that did this! AS much as he may annoy many, he did something that not many of us would have done as Gallaudet student. Only 12 associated with Gallaudet Community donated. 547 associated Georgetown University Community donated. I checked RIT's list -- it appears that Dr. Robert Davila donated $250 to Republican National Committee in 2002 -- what a dickwad.

James Sorenson did not surprise me at all -- the Head Honcho of so-called Sorenson Video Relay Services has donated $5,000 to the Republican State Committee of Massachusetts, probably trying to stop gay marriage in that state. Let's try for Benjamin Soukup! Ahh, Benjamin Soukup smooched more than $750,000 per year and donated nothing.

Anyway, I personally do not care if you want to be BORGized or not. But to provide the inaccurate information to the parents of Deaf children is something that I cannot really ignore. Like, telling the mother of deaf child that having an implant will improve its brain. Nothing is far from the truth.

Check this link -- this website is more of advocate for the use of Cochlear Implants. Be sure to check its Hall of Shame. It may surprise you of its choices. Ahh.

Next Entry: Why I Loved The LSH?

Cheers,