"My husband, Dale, was crying and mentioned taking Kara to the doctor, and I said the Lord's going to heal her and we continued to pray."

this is what's going to kill them. they made a conscious decision not to take her to the doctor.

Annie L. says, "I'd like to wrap her in this with her shoulders and back bare" the answer might be different.

I think that she's an amazing photographer, and I'm trying to think of what I would do if, say, I was managing my gorgeous niece and was in this situation.

I think that she's an amazing photographer, and I'm trying to think of what I would do if, say, I was managing my gorgeous niece and was in this situation.

I have also heard she is very controlling on set, and even big stars have been cowed by her. I wonder how difficult it would be if you were the parent of a child star to argue with her about a shot. Not that I'm saying is going on here.

That said, I think the picture in question is beautiful, but provocative. I don't really know if I have a problem with it. Which is probably why I'm not a parent.

I like bacon more than your average bear, but I draw the line at Bacon Crafts.

Well the crafting kind of defeats the main purpose of the bacon which is to be eaten, right?

I think that she's an amazing photographer, and I'm trying to think of what I would do if, say, I was managing my gorgeous niece and was in this situation.

I think I'd ask the kid in question how they felt about it and, if she was okay with it, have her take the picture and then reevaluate based on the outcome of the shot. It sounds like the Cyrus family okayed the picture and are now crying foul about it. Which seems to me like bullshit designed to generate publicity and doesn't have anything to do with protecting their child.

Not a celebrity taking off clothes:

http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/category/colossal-squid/

Colossal squid defrosting blog from Te Papa. You can watch them dissect it live!

I think I'd ask the kid in question how they felt about it and, if she was okay with it, have her take the picture and then reevaluate based on the outcome of the shot.

That's probably how I would deal with it. IF my niece was okay with it, I'd allow it to go forward, but only if I had veto rights.

Colossal squid defrosting blog from Te Papa. You can watch them dissect it live!

Billytea just experienced true happiness, though he knows not why.

And I'm not the expert because I don't have a daughter, but I'd probably okay a 12-year-old wearing a little makeup for a truly special occasion.

I was allowed to wear makeup when I turned 13. Since this coincided with my exposure to MTV, there were a lot of days I went to school looking like I escaped from an Adam Ant or Duran Duran video.

Zombies have invaded... some philosophy blog....

An Anti-Zombie-Argument Argument

I don't know why, but I just love this paragraph:

The zombie argument gets its plausibility not from anything about the argument itself but from a variety of positions pre-argument that give it an antecedent probability. The best thing to do is not to play the zombie game at all; where argument is needed, attack not the zombie argument but what makes it seem plausible that zombies are conceivable and therefore possible. Or, to put it in other words: the best strategy is simply to refuse to countenance Cartesian assumptions about the mind (the pretense that self-knowledge is easy, the pretense that we have a thorough understanding of the physical side of the equation, indeed, the pretense that the physical is all on one side of the equation and the mental all on the other, etc.) and let the argument fade on its own.

That was in response to this post o' zombies: Zombie Invasion, which contains a shitload of links to other philosophy/zombie stuff....

On Chalmers' view, wherein the 'psychophysical laws' are contingent, it seems that across possible worlds most brains like ours will be zombies or at least have 'associated' qualia that don't 'match' the information processing in the brain. So sophisticated brains proceeding according to ordinary standards of rationality should zombie-conclude that they probably are not conscious (as they don't have access to any non-material qualia), despite their zombie-perceptions of being conscious (shared by both zombie and non-zombie brains). Yet Chalmers thinks that in our actual world the psychophysical laws lead to conscious experience mirroring the information processing in the brain. So, upon hearing the argument, shouldn't Chalmers' brain zombie-conclude that it is probably a zombie brain, and 'phenomenal Chalmers' consciously think the same?

So FontShop just emailed, heralding a font called "Borges" and I was in seventh heaven waiting to see what that would be like, until I read:

the vibrant scripts of Charles Borges de Oliveira. Charles comes from a sign painting background, and you see evidence of that training in each stroke of his collection

bummer. I wanted a script from The Book of Sand

t / typeface dork

My sister, in fourth grade, once tried to go to school with blue eyeshadow that started at her eyelids and went down her cheeks, copied from something she'd seen in a magazine or on MTV. She was apparently under the impression that, if she came out of her room like that just as it was time to leave for school, then Mom wouldn't make her wash it off, because washing it off would make us late. Um, no.