But I wanted you to know that I think about it daily, I really do.

Maybe next semester I’ll get back to posting 3-4 posts a week.  Those were the good old days.

In other news, I’m really worried that these carved pumpkins are going to start rotting before we can show them off this weekend.  Any tips on pumpkin preservation?

There are only a handful of women who read sockparade so I’ll keep this brief.  It’s really important that all women who are sexually active get their annual well-woman exam.  There are so many things that can go wrong with the female anatomy and most of those things are better handled with early detection.  Most health insurance plans cover one well-woman exam a year (you just have to pay the co-pay) so you might as well take advantage of what you’re paying for with your premiums.

I won’t lie, it’s awkward and uncomfortable but it’s important for your health and good for your peace of mind.

Guys, please remind the females in your life.

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While I was at the doctor’s office today, a woman went on an extended tirade because she had to wait thirty minutes to see the doctor.  I personally think a thirty minute wait at the doctor’s office is acceptable.  Especially later in the afternoon.  The receptionist handled it really well but the woman refused to let it go.

“Is this how it usually works?  If so, I’ll just show up 30 minutes late next time so I get seen right away!  That way I won’t waste my time!  Is that what you’re suggesting?”

Everyone quietly looked up from their magazines to watch the confrontation.

It kind of reminded me of that Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry David goes nuts in the waiting room about the appointment vs. sign-in policy.  In both scenarios, the angry, outspoken patient just seems even crazier because all the other patients in the waiting room are so quiet and docile– no one is usually willing to support the angry patient even though they are most likely also upset for having to wait an unpredictable amount of time.

You’ve gotta love waiting room dynamics.

As I mentioned in my last post, the national Social Welfare Action Alliance conference took place this past weekend and I attended several talks. I wasn’t going to write about this but I feel compelled to write this post in light of current events and the way I would feel about myself if I didn’t write about it.

There were several talks about the child welfare system and there were two talks in particular that specifically addressed the problems with child protective services.

The presenters in the first talk spoke about the fine line between poverty and neglect. They expressed that they felt too often, Child Protective Services (CPS) took children away from their parents, not because the parents were neglectful, but because they were poor. While I do believe that this is sometimes a problem with our system and that the government needs to do a better job of helping parents keep their children, most of the people that I have heard criticize CPS are largely ignorant about how CPS operates and base all of their opinions on snippets from the evening news or from personal testimonies of parents who have had their children taken away. I am not opposed to criticizing CPS and pointing out flaws in the system because they do exist. Things don’t improve unless there is honest criticism. I am probably one of CPS’s biggest critics myself.

What upset me was that the presenters portrayed CPS as an agency that takes children away because of too many dirty dishes in the sink or because of a pile of dirty laundry on the floor. I know when you are making a persuasive argument, there tends to be an exaggeration to drive the point home. I get that. But I think it is irresponsible in a professional setting to suggest that CPS would take children away from their parents on the basis of an untidy home.

The neglect cases that I have read have made my skin crawl. We are not talking about dirty dishes in the sink or a pile of laundry on the floor. We are talking about rotting food, curdled milk in babies bottles, severe roach and rodent infestations, animal and human feces scattered or smeared throughout the home, untreated ringworm, painful diaper rashes, failure to dispense prescribed medication, toddlers wandering in the street at night, children who have not bathed in weeks, and in a case I read recently, there were bugs crawling in and out of the children’s noses and ears as they slept. No one ever talks about when CPS rightfully and thanklessly picks children up from those terrible situations.

It’s really a lousy position for CPS to be in. They are criticized for picking children up and tearing apart families and on the other end of the spectrum, they are criticized for not picking up children and allowing children to die on their watch. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

There are a lot of things that people don’t know about CPS. I’d like to list a few of those things so that you can be better informed the next time a coworker or friend shares a shame-on-CPS story.

• There has to be a formal intake report in order for a child to be picked up by CPS. The intake report is screened by trained personnel who determine whether there is reason enough to investigate and what priority each case should take.
• There is an investigations unit that is responsible for following up on cases that the screeners identify and these investigative workers often enter homes bravely without law enforcement, not knowing what to expect.
• When investigative workers pick up a child, they must present their case in front of a judge and show enough cause to remove the child of the home and the judge will either grant CPS temporary custody or he will instruct CPS to place the child back in the home. Judges have more power over this entire process than you can imagine.
• A large number of investigative workers try not to take custody of the children. Instead, depending on the severity of the case, they try to transition their cases to the Family Based Safety Services (FBSS) unit where caseworkers work with families on a regular (sometimes weekly!) basis so that they can provide safe and stable environments in which their children can be returned to them. This process can involve parenting classes, education about hygiene and cleaning, searching for employment, money management– the whole nine. Investigative workers try so hard to help parents keep their children that in more severe cases, they even allow parents to voluntarily place their children with relatives or friends to avoid placing their children in foster care.
• CPS caseworkers are almost always overworked and underpaid. While I’ve met some caseworkers who drop the ball, I’ve met just as many dedicated caseworkers who really care about the children on their caseload and go beyond the call of duty to protect those children. When no emergency shelter or foster home is willing to take in a “troubled” child, the CPS worker is responsible for the child. The CPS worker becomes, for all intents and purposes, the parent of that child.
• CPS also participates in the miracle of adoption. This is an amazing arm of CPS that is not often talked about but does amazing work to find homes for children.

We all fall into flawed conclusions from time to time. I’m definitely guilty of this. I hear a snippet of a news story on a governmental institution and I immediately have an emotional response and I want to enact judgment on that institution. I believe it is perfectly fine to have a reaction– we would not be human if we did not react, but I do believe we have to try our hardest to reserve judgment until we have all the facts of the case. Only when we get a good grasp of the whole scope of the problem can we then make a judgment. And even then, it probably has to be qualified.

Now, give credit where credit is due, the presenters had taken a positive spin on the problem they presented. They have started an organization called Women in Transition in Kentucky that helps parents in poverty navigate through the legal system and the mess that comes along with having a CPS case opened on you. I think that is a wonderful and helpful reaction to the problems they have experienced and publicized. They are doing amazing work and they have helped countless families. I really applaud their efforts.

The second talk was what really set me off. The presenter was drawing parallels between CPS and slavery. I don’t really want to get into a race discussion here but I clearly want to say that I do believe racism is an indictment against the whole world. Anyone who thinks they live in a colorblind world is kidding themselves. With this being said, while racism definitely exists in our child welfare system, it is not appropriate to compare CPS with slavery. It’s almost not worth discussing his talk because his logic was so severely flawed. He made simple comparisons such as, slavery was an institution and CPS is an institution, and therefore, there’s a similarity. And he also made the connection that slave traders profited when families were torn apart and he suggested that foster parents and CPS profit when families are torn apart. Caseworkers are paid very little. If they were paid more, there wouldn’t be such a shortage of them. He then went as far as to read a paragraph out of a book that described the scene at the docks when the slaves were put on auction blocks. It really upset me.

I wanted to write a post about all the good that CPS does. I’m sure you’ve heard about the recent polygamist compound raid that took place (Houston Chronicle news article). CPS workers from Houston volunteered to drive to Fort Concho to help out with the massive situation. They aren’t getting paid extra for this and they certainly aren’t getting any positive media for it. They went because they were genuinely concerned about the well-being of the children.

When Katrina evacuees flooded Houston, CPS workers were on scene to help out. A lot of children had been separated from their parents and CPS worked to reunite families and supervise children who were still waiting to be reunited. It was a round the clock operation with some CPS workers staying up all night to supervise the children as they slept.

Somebody please write a positive article or book about Child Protective Services. And somebody please reform the system at the same time.

Anyway, I’ve had this NYTimes news story bookmarked in my favorites for awhile now and am just now getting the chance to write about it. It’s giving me reason to hesitate to become an organ donor.

“In what transplant experts believe is the first such case in the country, prosecutors have charged the surgeon, Dr. Hootan C. Roozrokh, with prescribing excessive and improper doses of drugs, apparently in an attempt to hasten Mr. Navarro’s death to retrieve his organs sooner.”

“Ms. Navarro has filed a civil suit against Dr. Roozrokh, the donor network and other doctors in the operating room, and has settled a lawsuit against the hospital. A spokesman for the hospital, Ron Yukelson, said a plan to correct the problems had been accepted by federal health officials.

Ms. Navarro said she remained angry about the way her son’s life ended.

‘He didn’t deserve to be like that, to go that way,” she said. “He died without dignity and sympathy and without respect.’ “

March 9, 2008

AIDS WALK HOUSTON

I’m walking in this bad boy. Haha, it’s not really a bad boy.  It’s only a 5K.

Walk with us or donate to support our team!

Anyone can join our team.  You do not have to be affiliated with our organization to walk with us! 

The 19th Annual AIDS Walk Houston will take place on Sunday, March 9. It is an exciting 5K walk event that raises money for HIV/AIDS initiatives throughout Houston, increases community awareness and educates Houstonians about HIV/AIDS.

The funds that participants raise supports education and pediatric programs, provides housing, food, medical care, counseling, and job training to more than 100,000 Houstonians each year.

Incredible progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, but a cure has not been found. Individuals continue to contract HIV at an alarming rate right here in our city.

Now, more than ever, we need to join to fight this preventable disease that is affecting so many individuals in Houston and the world.

I bought my first pair of Pony shoes today for $20 at Mega Marshalls. I love Mega Marshalls.

I cannot believe the Greg Oden is out for the season. Here’s Bill Simmons’ take on it.

Here is one of my favorite parts:

“Anyway, when you see basketball players dressed in normal clothes, it’s mesmerizing to watch them walk for two reasons: They’re always much bigger in person, but they move so effortlessly that it’s always strangely discombobulating to watch them walk, like they belong to another species or something. For instance, we all know one or two exceptionally tall people who don’t play sports — they always move gingerly, and their posture usually isn’t that good, and everything about them says, “I wish I wasn’t this tall.” The best athletes in the NBA don’t carry themselves like this. They glide. Everything moves effortlessly as they walk, and it’s impossible to fully explain unless you’ve seen it. Even someone like Shaq glides across the room like he’s the size of Steve Nash. They don’t move like normal tall people.”

And here’s another one:

“Two months ago, I wrote Durant was “the surest thing to come into the league since Jordan. Barring injury, he’s going to be the league’s next dominant forward. That’s what the Portland Trail Blazers passed up June 28, 2007. I thought it would haunt them some day. … I just didn’t know it would haunt them so soon.”

*taken with my cameraphone out of the car window

Today is Roger Federer‘s 26th birthday and according to the husband, it is also Chinese Father’s Day (8/8 or ba/ba).  Easy way to remember it.

I like the picture of Roger shown above because you would never know he’s a tennis player from it.

But for good measure, here he is in his tennis glory:

Unless you don’t care about sports, you’ve heard about NBA’s ex-referee, Tim Donaghy, who has recently been publicly accused of gambling on games that he officiated as well as making calls to affect the point spread. This is one of those stories that has been so well covered and commented on that I don’t have much else to offer. But for those of you who are hearing about this for the first time, I’ll give you some juicy excerpts and links to help you read up on it.

“The FBI first contacted the NBA on June 20 to talk about a referee alleged to be gambling on games, and the two sides met on June 21, Stern said. Donaghy resigned July 9, though Stern said he would have fired him sooner but was told it might affect the investigation.” — Brian Mahony, “Stern Feels Betrayed by Betting Scandal,” CNBC

Commissioner David Stern gave a thorough press-conference (read the transcript here) yesterday that puts a pretty good framework around the case. Here are a few quotes from Stern during his press conference:

“The first thing that I would like to say is that our rules are crystal clear; that referees may not either gamble on our games; or, provide information to anyone about those games. We, you know, have a rule that says you’re subject to discipline, which would most likely be expulsion from the league and the job. We educate our referees intensely. We have training camp presentations, we have brochures we distribute work rules , they are visited by security, and we give them copies of compliance plans and the like that make it clear that not only aren’t they permitted to either gamble or provide information to people; they may not even provide other than to their immediate family the details of their travel schedules or the games they are going to work.”

“We understand that he is accused of betting on games in the NBA. We are not positive it’s games that he worked, although I understand that some of those are games specifically that he worked; I understand that it may be that he bet on other games in which he didn’t work. I understand that he is accused of, or likely to be accused of, providing information to others for the purpose of allowing them to profit on betting on NBA games.”

“I’m very clear that is my current understanding that this is one isolated referee, and that if that understanding changes tomorrow, I will so inform everybody.”

“Mr. Donaghy earned this past season, $260,000. I think that and with each year of additional experience that, gets raised and has a component of regular season and for playoffs, and he only has 13 years of experience. We have referees with 29 or 30 years of experience who are appropriately higher earners. So we do think that that is fair, and there are lots of people that keep the peace that earn a lot less.”

“Before I leave with a thank you, I just want to sum up to say to you that this is something that is the worst that could happen to a professional sports league. And I want to say on the other hand that we are going to make good on the covenant that we believe we have with our fans, and I pledge that my involvement will be as intense and complete as it can possibly be and what we do will be completely transparent.”

I was eager to hear Bill Simmons’s take on the whole situation. Here are some characteristically pointed quotes from Simmons:

“This was like finding out that your grandfather who smoked three packs a day for 50 years just came down with lung cancer. It was sad but inevitable. It was only a matter of time. These guys never made enough money (as we learned from the airplane ticket scandal) and struggled at their jobs consistently enough that there was no way to tell the difference between blowing a call and intentionally blowing a call.”

“For anyone who loves the NBA, the officiating has always been the proverbial ‘elephant in the room.’ No league has endured more jokes along the lines of ‘I’m not sure where the NBA ends and the WWE begins.’ Whether it’s because of bad luck, poor training, measly pay or the thanklessness of the profession itself — maybe it’s all of those things — the NBA employs a handful of good referees and an astonishing number of bad ones.”

“What if an allegedly crooked referee hadn’t been working Game 3? What if the Suns won that game? What then? If you’re a diehard Suns fan, this now becomes the toughest playoff loss in NBA history. You have a legitimate case that you were screwed.”

And of course, whenever gambling is involved in a story, the statisticians come out of the woodwork to put in their two cents.

Let’s start with sports gambling expert, R.J. Bell’s discoveries:

“In the two seasons in which the FBI is investigating Donaghy for allegedly fixing games for gambling purposes, Bell found that NBA teams scored more points than Las Vegas expected (hitting the over) 57 percent of the time when Donaghy was part of the officiating crew. With a league average of 49 to 51 percent, the odds of such an occurrence are 19 to 1.

When Bell analyzed the numbers from the two seasons before the two in question, he discovered that in games Donaghy officiated NBA teams scored more points than Vegas expected just 44 percent of the time.

Although the 13 percent difference might not seem that jarring to the casual observer, it’s jaw-dropping in the world of sports gambling. Bell said the odds of a 44 percent probability happening 57 percent of the time are about 1 in 1,000.”

“At the start of the 2007 calendar year, Bell said, there were 10 straight games in which Donaghy was part of the officiating crew and the point spread moved a point and a half or more before tip-off, indicating big money had been wagered on the game. In those 10 contests, according to Bell, the big money won all 10 times.”

Here’s Donaghy’s Game Log if you want to calculate any statistics on your own.

And as expected, there are some opposing views when it comes to looking at certain referee stats. Take Jon Campbell at Covers, with this article. Here are a few good quotes:

“If you wanted to, if you really wanted to, you could make a case that Bavetta was fixing games based on the numbers alone.

For example, nobody saw more personal fouls in the games he reffed over the past two years (6714) and nobody’s crew had a higher personal foul-per-game average (48) than Bavetta.

Nobody saw more free-throw attempts in the games in which he officiated (7737) either, and nobody saw more foul-outs (78).

And if you want the most convincing evidence of all, just ask a Utah Jazz fan if they remember Game 6 of the NBA Finals back in 1998 — then run.

Bavetta disallowed a Howard Eisley three-pointer at the end of the first half that Bavetta mistakenly waved off because he thought time had expired. The image of Michael Jordan hitting the winning shot over Byron Russell to give the Bulls a one-point victory has now been branded into every NBA fan’s memory.

But does all that make Bavetta a game-fixer?

I doubt it.”

“— … if you’re looking for the magic trend that you can point to and say with 100 percent certainty this guy should be dragged out in shackles, bypass the courtroom and go straight to jail, you won’t find it.”

And here’s a quote from Mark Keszla of the Denver Post, representing the “make gambling legal everywhere!” camp:

“But if Stern wants to get serious about stopping organized crime from ever again rubbing dirty fingerprints on his tournament bracket, then the NBA needs to grow up and realize that sports gambling is not going away. The lone effective way to pry betting from the hands of crooks is to make betting legal far beyond Las Vegas, in cities across the nation, so our nationwide jones for action can be regulated, policed and taxed.”

To me, the missing story in all of this reporting is the mob. That’s the fascinating piece. The mob has become almost mythological in everyday American news reporting. We know it exists, we know it is powerful, but we don’t know much else. Oh, I’m sure the FBI has its tabs on the mob but the American public is left pretty clueless, taking notes from the Sopranos and possibly trying to modernize the Godfather trilogy into the world as we know it now. Does Britney Spears know someone who called in a favor to the mob? Hah, kidding.

It’s not clear who made the telephone threats to Donaghy’s house which prompted the police to stalk out his home. I’m pretty sure it was the mob calling. The Smoking Gun reports that the caller made death threats saying, “You’re done, you’re dead.”

I’d be scared shitless if I were Tim.

During lunch my coworker was talking about the Juneteenth riots and because I have a fascination with mob mentality tendencies, so I looked it up on CNN.com.

While I was at CNN.com,  I saw the following headline:  Teen who lost feet on Six Flags ride has surgery.

I am so disgusted.

“The girl’s feet were completely amputated just below the ankle Thursday afternoon while riding the Superman Tower of Power at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville.

Her feet were recovered by Six Flags staff and were sent to the hospital with her, McLean said.”

I will never ride one of those rides again.

And now I have annoyed myself with posting this.