When it comes to community health, community decisions should be the standard. The only exemptions should be for valid medical reasons, such as compromised immune systems, and verified by medical professionals. People have the right to make their own decisions, but they don’t have a right to be indemnified against the consequences of their decisions. Parents that enable their children to spread disease should be held accountable, in both civil and criminal court, when others are sickened or killed due to their decisions Schools should stop asking parents who refuse to vaccinate for “belief statements” and they should start asking these parents to submit liability waivers, something like:

“We are aware of the harmful and potentially lethal consequences of the refusal to vaccinate, that the consequences could be lethal for other children as well as my own, that refusal to vaccinate could therefore be potentially construed as a reckless disregard for life and could, in the event of an outbreak traced back to one’s refusal to vaccinate, entail both civil and criminal penalties including criminal negligence, reckless endangerment, and negligent homicide. I hereby declare that [school] has made me aware of these risks. I accept full responsibility for these risks and indemnify the school against for any harms or damages resulting from my decision”.

 

in a rare lack of failure…

by kara on February 3, 2015

 

The Cosmos Animation Team took home the Annie Award for Best Special Program at the 42nd Annual Annie Award at Royce Hall Saturday night, beating out powerhouses DreamWorks Animation, Universal Television and Pixar Animation Studios.

complete list of winners here

Kara Vallow, Brent Woods, Andrew Brandou and Lucas Gray

No. Just no.

by kara on January 29, 2015

from the bowels of Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog

 

TIKKUN SPA

goop
GOOP

Tikkun is the next level when it comes to Korean spas, combining high-tech far infrared heat with traditional Korean sauna therapies. So, if you want to lay down in a Himalayan salt brick tiled sauna, or sit in a Hwangto clay room, you get the added benefit of far infrared heat. And, in addition to the sauna rooms, there’s a long menu of massages and kick-ass body scrubs to complement the sauna time. We’re burying the lede though, because the real golden ticket here is the Mugworth V-Steam: You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al. It is an energetic release—not just a steam douche—that balances female hormone levels. If you’re in LA, you have to do it.

I am in LA and No. I will not steam my vagina. Do not steam your vaginas. Your uterus does not need steam cleaning, God does that for you.

The Paris Muslim/Kosher Supermarket Hero

by kara on January 10, 2015

reposted from guardian

A man who hid a group of shoppers, one with a baby, in a basement cold storage room at the Hyper Cacher supermarket to shield them from the gunman has been hailed a hero.

Lassana Bathily, 24, a Muslim shop assistant originally from Mali, in west Africa, was praised for risking his own life to save those led to safety.

“When they came running down I opened the door of the fridge,” he told French TV. “Several came in with me. I turned off the light and the fridge. When I turned off the cold, I put them in. I closed the door. I told them to stay calm and I said ‘you stay quiet there, I’m going back out’.”

Police originally thought Bathily was a conspirator when he managed to escape through a goods lift. “They told me, ‘get down on the ground, hands over your head’. They cuffed me and held me for an hour and a half as if I was with them,” he added. Once freed he was able to give them details of the layout of the store and where people were hiding.

After the shootout he said that many of the customers he had helped came out and shook his hand. “When they got out, they thanked me,” he said.

Several people took to social media to call for him to be officially recognised for his bravery as news of his actions spread. One tweet said: “A true hero of the hostage crisis in the kosher grocery store yesterday.’

Another read “Lassana Bathily, Muslim worker at Paris kosher shop, hid people, incl. baby.” A photograph of Bathily, labelled Malian Muslim, has been retweeted around the world as a symbol of the good of some people in the face of terrorism.

One of those trapped in the cold store Johan Dorre, 36, a father of four, was able to call his uncle and say he was trapped two floors below the ground floor. Another uncle, Jacob Katorza, said: “Johan and the others were terrified that they would be discovered by the terrorists and were forced to huddle together like frightened animals to avoid hypothermia.”

 

by kara on January 10, 2015

by kara on January 1, 2015

IN 2014, Barack Hussein Obama took literally ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND vacation days, on top of the Dome of the Rock, and in Mecca, where he whiled away his days in luau costume, making poi from the blood of the children of Republican donors. He signed 3500 bills into law using a secret magic pen and without reading any of them. As a result, abortion is now legal everywhere for everyone EXCEPT rape victims, who are forced to bear their doomchildren and use Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as doulas. Also, all the roads in Real Amurka must be paved with candy and Mountain Dew so that even your stupid bloated SUV gets Type II diabetes. Happy New Year, fuckfaces. Those of you unfortunate enough to live in places like Colorado, please enjoy being frozen in 17 degree below temps and buried by a blanket of poison snow. Remember, in the upcoming year, to take personal responsibility, and don’t expect government-paid union thugs to come fight your battles.

by kara on December 28, 2014


I always picture him sleeping upside down, like a bat.

by kara on December 24, 2014

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew. ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”
Fred Scrooge ― Charles DickensA Christmas Carol

Brotherly Love

by kara on December 23, 2014

 

Live from Post Racial Americam,  we have this delightful little holiday song about “Dead, dead Michael Brown, Baddest thug in the whole damn town,” which was performed at an Elks Lodge in Glendale, California, following a charity golf event on Dec. 15, according to TMZ. The dinner was organized by former LAPD officer Joe Myers, and was attended by between 50 and 60 people, roughly half of whom were retired law enforcement officers.

TMZ’s source for the recording is identified only as someone at the event who “videotaped it because they were offended by the song and upset no one was objecting.” You know, a thug (there’s your lede, Mr. O’Reilly). the song put lyrics for the Jim Croce classic, a model of satirical creativity:

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My life in a box.

by kara on December 23, 2014

In my mom’s basement I found a rubbermaid tub labeled “Kara/Phillies”. Here are the contents:

 

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