Medication recall

You read this:

The McNeil Consumer Healthcare Unit of Johnson & Johnson has voluntarily begun a recall of certain children's over-the-c0unter liquid medicines because of manufacturing deficiencies, the Food and Drug Administration said Saturday.

The deficiencies may affect the potency, purity or quality of products, the agency said in a statement.

Consumers should stop using certain lots of infants' and childrens' Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl products because some of them may contain too much of the active ingredient, McNeil said in a statement late Friday. Other products may contain tiny particles or inactive ingredients that may not meet testing requirements, the company said.

... and you have questions swirling around in your mind.

1. What standards are in place to ensure quality control?
2. Why couldn't they have discovered these deficiencies before the medications hit the stores?
3. What exactly are these "tiny particles or inactive ingredients that may not meet testing requirements?"
4. What medications are we taking today that will be recalled tomorrow?

(don't) bring your problem children to Nebraska

I met with countless children during my years as a crisis therapist for a hospital. More often than not, I thought that the kid I saw had a lot of internal struggles and problems, but would behave much better if the mother and father knew how to "parent" better. If the kid was in a better environment (i.e., if he had different parents), the problematic behaviors would be greatly diminished.

Apparently, that was thinking of the folks in the great state of Nebraska when they designed a "safe-haven" law. I mean, why else would parents leave their 16-year-old boy at a hospital designed as a "safe-haven" zone, if there weren't some behavior problems? All that will soon change, however, when Nebraska switches to only accepting children younger than 4 days old.

The new law won't take effect until January, so you can still threaten to drive your incorrigible teen to Nebraska if she doesn't shape up.

Childhood is calling

My youngest daughter indulges in one of her favorite activities when she visits Grammy's house.

swing
Originally uploaded by Good Brownie

Is he being too sensitive?

No, my blogging friend, you are not.

a "Brokeback" education

I guess this is what happens when you confuse a classroom with Las Vegas. An eighth-grade substitute teacher decided to show the film Brokeback Mountain to her students, setting off a controversial firestorm. She told her students, "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class," but some of them thought otherwise.

A girl and her grandparents have sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging that a substitute teacher showed the R-rated film "Brokeback Mountain" in class. The lawsuit claims that Jessica Turner, 12, suffered psychological distress after viewing the movie in her class at Ashburn Community Elementary School last year.

While films certainly have a place in the education of students, there is no reason to show a sexually explicit, R-rated film to a class of kids who are many years under the age limit of 17, whether it focuses on a homosexual relationship or not. Students' family members have every right to be upset by this.

And, really, what was the psychological distress the grandparents are talking about here? Did she wake up at night, screaming? Did she start having anxiety attacks whenever she saw a man wearing a cowboy hat? I'm not being frivilous here. These are important questions to ask in order to assess the level of trauma experienced.

"It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this," said Kenneth Richardson, Turner's guardian. "The teacher knew she was not supposed to do this."

What shouldn't the children be exposed to? R-rated movies? Movies centered around a homosexual relationship? Movies with curse words? What does Richardson mean?

Another curious thing that isn't mentioned in the article is the reason behind showing this particular movie. Did the teacher have some kind of agenda, desiring to preach the virtues of tolerance and understanding? Did she want to teach the belief that love doesn't hold to any particular gender? Did she just have a crush on Jake Gyllenhall? The article doesn't say.

in honor of the recent Mother's Day...

I'll point you to an example of the complete opposite of a good mother.