Or that somehow, it's perfectly acceptable that people suffer and DIE because they can't afford medical treatment.

I know people who blink and say "Of course it is." Staunch creationists are some of the most stalwart Darwinists out there. If God loved you, you'd be successful, therefore you could afford insurance and basic needs. You're not successful, therefore God doesn't love you, and He must have a reason, and who am I to second-think God? Or you're just lazy and deserve any bad thing that might happen to you.

I sometimes want to punch the people around me.

If God loved you, you'd be successful, therefore you could afford insurance and basic needs. You're not successful, therefore God doesn't love you, and He must have a reason, and who am I to second-think God? Or you're just lazy and deserve any bad thing that might happen to you.

Yeah. This is why the religious right freaks me out. I guess it's just a part of our story, what with Manifest Destiny and all.

And I know several people who are outraged that they ahve to have car insurance, because they're terrific drivers. And car registration is just a way for the government to monitor you.

but my not going out for sports probably would have resulted in me not being valedictorian.

How would sports have anything to do with being valedictorian?

It's good to see you, Strix, I was wondering how you were doing. Hang in there.

How would sports have anything to do with being valedictorian?

In our school, it was well known that if you weren't on a sports team, you'd get no better than a B in phy-ed.

(Sports were a big deal--we had numerous state championships to our credit.)

Oh- our phys ed grade wasn't counted in our academic average. It was a letter grade and all the other grades were number grades/

sophia went to a commie hippe school, pass it on.

What is this? I am intrigued and also feel shortchanged by my education.

It was a variant of shop class. I also took mechanical drawing. But this was hydraulics, which was super fun, and meant building stuff that moved with tubes and cylinders and valves and whatnot. But required social interaction and cooperation. I got a C. The horror!

...And then I ended up working for five years at SMC Pneumatics. Hahaha.

Oh- our phys ed grade wasn't counted in our academic average. It was a letter grade and all the other grades were number grades/

Lucky ducks. A lot of us non-jocks thought we should have the same system.