Random Thoughts Musing

Big Losers

The big hoopla this week was that the Atkins diet beat out other diets as far as its (female) participants' success in losing weight. And for the numb-minded masses who don't read any further than a headline, that's all they need to know.

It's scary to think how many important decisions are made by people who only read headlines. I write headlines -- you're missing a lot. We do that on purpose. You're supposed to read the rest of the story.

The "successful" women who lost weight on the Atkins Diet lost an average of 10 pounds over a year. I used Weight Watchers and lost 50 pounds in a year.

but .... (drum roll, please)

It would appear that those same successful women on Atkins tended to gain back more weight than people who lost weight with other programs and/or diets.

Huh. That didn't make it into the headline, somehow.

Why I Decided -- For Today, at Least -- That I'm Never Having Children

Some spoiled rotten, 15-year-old brat in Colorado decided she didn't like her mom. So she and her boyfriend killed her mom, and then the boyfriend's friend came over and helped wrap the body in a sheet and move it to the trunk of the mom's SUV in the garage.

And you'd think that would be the end of the story. Hold on -- it's just starting.

They tried to dump the body in a landfill, but almost got stuck in the mud, so they turned around. Then they dug a grave just outside their town, but they re-dug up the body because they thought the grave was too shallow. All this time, the three of them are partying it up at the house, maxing out the mom's debit card on "teen things" (what those "things" are is never really qualified), car-surfing up and down the street and littering the yard with cigarette butts.

While Mommy Dearest is still in the trunk of the car in the garage.

Now, a month later, as they were plotting to drive up here to Wyoming to dump the body, someone finally got suspicious and called the cops.

And that is why I decided today that I'm not having children.

Hurtful Hookups

An author has had the audacity to suggest that random hookups (kissing and everything subsequent) can be damaging to a girl's psyche, can damage her physically by exposing her to STDs and can hinder her ability to form a normal romantic relationship later on in life.

The nerve.

She's been accused of making sex “a bigger, scarier, and more dangerous thing than it already is."

And how dare she insinuate that sexual contact can expose someone to a sexually transmitted disease!

Last I checked, sex IS a big, scary, dangerous thing. It's why school officials feel some obligation to dedicate entire curricula to the topic. It's why there are 14-year-olds having babies. It's why The Maury Show is so busy trying to prove who a baby's daddy is. It's why people teach their high school- and college-aged daughters how to say "no." It's why, despite the casual aura that people try to attach to the whole "hooking up" culture, sex is one of the top reasons that relationships end -- because someone "hooked up," but not with their current significant other. So much for it not being big, scary and dangerous ...

It's pretty ridiculous that people are offended that someone is actually trying to preserve their daughters, sisters and friends from emotional scarring and depression and potential physical dangers.