Babies are not for flushing down toilets, okay?

not for babies...

This story about a 24-year-old medical student named Amandeep Mann from India who gave birth in a plane lavatory, and subsequently tried to flush the baby down the toilet, is just too weird to ignore.

What would push a new mother to do this to her baby?  Did she honestly think she could get away with this? Why carry a child to term just to get rid of him in this way when he was born? Dude, this woman is definitely messed up.

She's a medical student, eh? She can't plead ignorance in this case then, because medical students are supposed to be smart and informed about these things.

What the h*ll. If you can't keep your knees together--get a condom, go on the pill--there are a lot of choices. There's absolutely no excuse to try to kill your baby, idiot!

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the baby's head got stuck in the toilet bowl and was brought to the hospital with the toilet still attached and surgeons had to use a saw cutter to release the poor newborn out of it.

He's still in critical condition, and I hope if he survives this, he won't ever have to be around his pathetic jail-bound mother. What a way to enter the world little guy, but life is crazy... Good luck!

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9.4 million Pinoys voted for Erap?!?

Erap pa rin...

So the canvassing of votes in Congress is done and Senator Noynoy Aquino is expected to be officially proclaimed President. No surprise there, really. We've pretty much known Noynoy has it in the bag as early as 2 days after the election... the result of the Vice Presidential race between Binay and Roxas was what everyone was interested in because it was so close.

What really surprised me was how well Erap Estrada did in this election. Garnering over 9.4 million votes was nothing to sneeze at... seriously, he beat Manny Villar's vaunted billions?! He won the 1998 election with 11 million votes so it appears he didn't lose much support even after being convicted and imprisoned for plunder.

This of course befuddle many people... one of whom is my ex sis-in-law in Australia who I talked to yesterday, she wanted to know how Erap got so many votes and what the heck were those people thinking/smoking?

I share her confusion but I've talked to some of these Erap voters (the SkyCable guy who installed my Digibox before the election, the security guards in my building etc.) and they say the same thing "All politicians steal, Erap was just unlucky to get caught and anyway at least di sya nagnakaw sa gobyerno--sa jueteng lang".

I am not kidding, those were really their sentiments. It's really sad that people just readily accept the "fact" that majority of our politicians are crooks. That since almost everyone in government is out for themselves, it's okay to vote for a populist ex-president who was once imprisoned for corruption.

Their reasons for voting might be wrong-headed but we can't deny that most elected officials are corrupt little ba$t@#ds... let's hope our new President would remember his campaign promise to go after these conscienceless creeps. It could help win back our people's trust in government and hopefully, would keep them from voting for a convicted felon for president next time around.

Update: Erap is retiring from politics and showbiz.

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Strip clubs and babies don't mix, okay?

not the sharpest knife in the drawer

Wayne Ricardo Schwamm, a clueless dad from New Zealand, left his sick baby alone in his car outside a strip club. He was just supposed to pick up a friend working at the club but the friend had to work overtime so he "stayed longer and longer". Hmm, maybe he enjoyed the view too much? Whatever the reason, this is incredibly stupid.

from stuff.co.nz:

A father has admitted leaving a baby with a heart condition outside a Wellington strip club in the middle of the night. Wayne Ricardo Schwamm, 42, of Feilding, left the 18-month-old boy in the back of a car while he was in Splash Club - which is attached to The Mermaid strip club - on Courtenay Pl on April 13. 

In Wellington District Court this morning he pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving a child under 14 without reasonable supervision. ...He left the boy on the back seat in a basket with the windows up for 40 minutes before a passerby noticed and called police about 3am.

More here.

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Good Friday Crucifixions etc.

so messed up

I think this yearly whippings and crucifixions in Pampanga is totally pointless. Salvation is free. Jesus died once for all. The bible says that you only have to ask for forgiveness of your sins and believe the truth of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection and you're saved. It's that simple. You don't have to nail yourself to a cross or flog yourself until you bleed to be forgiven.

I guess it's natural for people to make things complicated, so some do these reenactments to assuage their guilt over things they did in the past or to provide "protection" for their families against evil or even ill health. People who do this have to know that Jesus already died for our sins and conquered death. We've been made worthy through his blood shed on the cross... making this sort of "penance" completely unnecessary.

 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ~ 1John 1:9 (NIV)

***(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

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Baby boys, nannies and serial womanizing

This is a troubling story from the UK Telegraph: Baby boys who have a nanny 'turn into womanisers'.

In the book The Unsolicited Gift, Dr Dennis Friedman said delegating child-rearing responsibilities too soon risks equipping your son with life-long double standards when it comes to women. This means that even though he could go on to be married he will always have the feeling that another women could cater for all his basic needs. "It introduces him to the concept of The Other Woman," said Dr Friedman who is 85.

"It creates a division in his mind between the woman he knows to be his natural mother and the woman with whom he has real hands-on relationship: the woman who bathes him and takes him to the park, and with whom he feels completely at one.

More here.

Just another thing to make working moms feel guilty, huh? I think this is bogus. I came from generations(grandpa, uncles, cousins) of proud--and stupid--womanizers and believe me, there weren't any nannies in my late grandpa's day and he still cheated on his wife and managed to father dozens of children from different women outside his marriage. Some in the family believed his serial infidelity drove my poor grandma to an early grave.

But anyway, I believe cheating on your spouse is the lowest of the low no matter who does it... having a nanny while young doesn't cut it because each of us have the power to choose between right and wrong. I saw firsthand the effects of womanizing (abandoned wives and kids, poverty etc.) and anecdotal though this is, I know nannies/caregivers weren't the cause.

My much loved but exasperatingly good-time loving grandpa, uncles, brother,cousins etc. just did not say "no"... and their families suffered for it. And for those Lotharios I'm related to who read this, I love you guys but saying "it runs in the family or "lahi kasi" doesn't cut it either.

*** photo by Getty

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Weirdest wake-up call

happy to see me? Not.

I woke up with these three guys gawking at me through my window. You know there's something about living in a high-rise building that makes one believe one is safe from peeping toms but as you can see, window washers are another matter. All part of their jobs I know, but this was just freaky...

work it!

I should have closed the curtains, but I was too tired when I arrived home from work this morning (I've been keeping weird hours at the hospital these past few days because someone on my team got sick)--I went to sleep still wearing my scrub suit--it was just as well, it would have been creepier if they caught me in my underwear, eeek!

working on a scaffolding must be fun...

So as "punishment" for these guys for startling me out of my slumber, I took their pictures (they were posing!)... and since I could not get back to sleep--I thought what the heck, might as well post this here.

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Valentine's day party poopers

I've always thought Valentine's day is the least likely holiday to attract any kind of protest... I mean who would want to be against celebrating love? It's just one day when one must go nuts trying to please one's significant other, where flowers are double or triple their usual price and chocolates and red hearts are everywhere.

It's not an overtly religious holiday--harmless enough when you think about it, but apparently some people are so threatened by this that they are marching in protests, utilizing the religious police and even banning the color red in stores and in the streets. Are you kidding me? These people should seriously get a life.

***photo from http://www.graphicshunt.com/

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Definitely not love at first sight

This is so not in line with Valentine's day prep but this story is just too weird...a groom in the United Arab Emirates was so weirded out by his unexpectedly bearded and cross-eyed bride, he had his marriage annulled pronto.

from the UK Telegraph:

An Arab ambassador has called off his wedding after discovering his wife-to-be who wears a face-covering veil is bearded and cross-eyed. The envoy had only met the woman a few times, during which she had hidden her face behind a niqab, the Gulf News reported. 

After the marriage contract was signed, the ambassador attempted to kiss his bride-to-be. It was only then that he discovered her facial hair and eyes. The ambassador told an Islamic Sharia court in the United Arab Emirates he was tricked into the marriage as the woman's mother had shown his own mother pictures of her sister instead of his bride-to-be. 

My heart goes out to the poor unfortunate bride... but hasn't she heard of a razor, though? Maybe she couldn't do anything about her eyes but she should have shaved the beard at least.

*** blogger is acting up so the "quote" thing is not working--will fix it later.

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"My Way" killings go global

And now, the end is near,
and so I face the final curtain...

The international media have finally caught up with this very Filipino phenomenon that has been around for as long as I can remember.

from The New York Times:

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?

Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks. And the country’s many Sinatra lovers, like Mr. Gregorio here in this city in the southernmost Philippines, are practicing self-censorship out of perceived self-preservation.

I could attest to the veracity of this story--I remember my college friend Carlo nearly got into fisticuffs with some guy badly singing "My Way" over and over and over (he pronounced it "My Weeeee" too, LOL). Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and violence was averted but this song is just too hot to handle for some people here.

Its especially annoying when I could hardly find a family gathering without groups of tipsy older relatives shrieking it, one after the other. So it's a good thing that karaoke bars are effectively banning the song... but I think my relatives would still sing it at our parties anyway, so no luck for me.

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No honor in "Honor Killings"

The hole where Medine Memi was buried alive

This article from the Inquirer is really sickening...

ANKARA—A 16-year-old girl was buried alive by relatives in southeast Turkey in a gruesome honor killing just because she reportedly befriended boys, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, police discovered Medine Memi's body in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-meter-deep hole in a chicken pen outside her house in Kahta town, Adiyaman province, 40 days after she went missing, the agency said.

A subsequent post mortem revealed that she had a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, meaning that she was buried alive, forensic experts told the agency.

What would possess a father to do something like this? Killing his own daughter just because he felt dishonored by her talking to boys? Isn't this the 21st century? It's unbelievable...

I can't even begin to imagine the sheer terror this poor girl must have felt before she died at the hands of men she loved. Apparently this barbaric practice is still alive and well in many parts of the world.

Human Rights Watch defines "honor killings" as follows:

Honor crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by (individuals within) her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or (allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.

Wow, even the mere perception of impropriety is enough to get a woman killed? Also some countries still think this is culturally/religiously acceptable? Absolutely outrageous and very very sad.





*** photo courtesy of Reuters

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The NBI throws out evidence in the trash?!?!

NBI meet CSI

This is unbelievable. The medico legal officer who performed the autopsies on the bodies of the Maguindanao Massacre victims, apparently admitted in court that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who's tasked by the President to investigate the killings, allowed the victims' clothes to be tossed out in the trash because they don't have a refrigerator to store them in. Excuse me?

As I said to my blogger friend Bluetooth who brought this to my attention--even idiots know you shouldn't destroy evidence. Don't these people watch TV (CSI, Law & Order etc.)? Hmmph! I know these crime shows are idealized versions of reality and there's no way in h*ll it could be duplicated in the Philippines but keeping the clothes worn by murder victims ought to be standard procedure, right?

from PhilStar:

During the cross examination by Ampatuan’s lawyer Sigfrid Fortun, Rodaje admitted that the clothes of Jenalyn were disposed of during the examination and were never preserved as evidence.

Rodaje said it is not a practice at the NBI to keep such items since the office has no refrigeration unit.

"The clothes were already stained with blood and they were already sticking to the corpse," Rodaje argued.

Huh? The NBI does not keep blood-stained clothes because they are sticky and smelly? I bet any of the victims' relatives would gladly lend the NBI their refrigerators if it would help catch/punish their kins' killers. This is so outrageously boneheaded... just imagine the implication of this--a killer could get away with murder because the government is too cheap to provide cooling units for our main crime lab. Ugh!

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Now it's "Global Cooling", huh?

'An Inconvenient Truth' for Al Gore et al.

So after all the "global warming" scaremongering we all have been subjected to for years, scientists are now saying we could be in for decades of cooler temperatures. Many parts of the world are experiencing its coldest weather in recent memory.

From the Daily Mail:

The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.

Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in
summer by 2013.

The "global warming" story is an example of science getting needlessly politicized. Even reputable scientists get tempted to manipulate data or conform to the status quo. It does not help that when you question the veracity of "global warming" some people would immediately jump and call you a "climate denier' as if that's a terrible crime. It's always good to ask questions and not follow anyone blindly.

I would not be surprised if with this cooling trend so-called "experts" would try to scare us again into believing that the sky is falling and we're going to freeze our butts off if we don't do what they recommend. It would do us good to just relax and continue to be mindful of the environment but not be panicky or scared. The earth has its own way of coping and chances are it will outlive us all.

Update: Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn't been verified

Update 2.0: Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995

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Brittany Murphy 1977-2009

Very sad news about Brittany Murphy. I've seen several of her movies--she had great comedic timing in "Clueless" and "Just Married". I feel sad for her family losing her at such a young age. There's never really a good time to lose someone you love but hearing about conjecture whilst grieving your loved one must be doubly hard.

The media's speculation about Brittany Murphy's cause of death is pathetic. Couldn't they just wait for the coroner's report and leave the family alone in their grief? Whatever happened to respecting the dead? Whether it's Michael Jackson or Heath Ledger though... people have come to expect these things to happen more and more. I just think it's unnecessarily cruel.

Update: Death ruled accidental. LA Coroner: Anemia, Meds Left Murphy Vulnerable .
Update 2: Brittany's widower Simon Monjack dead of a possible heart attack.

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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to run for Congress!

Congresswoman?

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to run for Congress. There's something fundamentally wrong with this headline, don't you think? When you have been President of the Philippines, what do you have left to prove? Apparently running for Congress is up next for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Is she this power hungry, that being President for nine years is not enough for her? And I thought I've seen it all in Philippine politics. Can you believe the nerve of this woman?

From the Inquirer:

MANILA, Philippines-- President Macapagal-Arroyo ended on Monday, months of suspense over her political future by announcing that she would seek a seat in the next Congress representing the second district of Pampanga.

Ms Arroyo claimed her decision to run was the product of both her desire to pursue public service and heed what she called “clamor” by her province mates.

“After much contemplation, I realized I’m not ready to step down completely from public service,” she announced in a guided interview with the government-run “Radyo ng Bayan”.

...(As you all know, I have been asked by the citizens of my home district in Pampanga to stay on in public life), so after much soul-searching, I have decided to respond affirmatively to their call,” she said.

Oh come on, spare us the drama Madam President. None of this "I still desire to serve the people" crap. Admit it, you have just gotten so used to power, you are probably afraid you'll have withdrawal symptoms like a two-bit crackhead when your term ends. I could understand that. It's preferable than hearing these platitudes.

I was there, dude!

I have never been a Gloria hater, in fact I joined the mass protests at EDSA 2. I was in the crowd (with my cousin Majin) when she was sworn in as the second woman President of the Philippines . I think there was a lot to admire in her handling of the economy. And honestly I just did not pay that much attention to the shenanigans of politicians. Apathy is my middle name, you know.

So what should we make of this? The woman who became president due to a peaceful popular uprising turned out to be just as power-hungry as the rest of the men. I guess it was too much to hope that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would have even a little of the much beloved Cory Aquino's character and dignity. The first woman president knew when to relinquish power,the second clings to power like a desperate gecko (tuko!). I think when you are not secure about your presidential legacy, running for congress will do just fine.

Update: GMA is now congresswoman of Pampanga's 2nd district.

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Kelly Clarkson is amazing, Adam Lambert is just desperate

I was watching the American Music Awards on TV and I couldn't help but notice that almost every performer had elaborate sets, choreography, fireworks etc. that after a bit the performances started to look the same to me. How refreshing then that Kelly Clarkson just sang her song 'Already Gone' without any gimmickry. Not trying to be edgy, racy or raunchy like the others(hello, Lady Gaga!) but just using her voice as her instrument and it worked. She totally deserved the standing ovation after her performance.



I think we have gotten too used to the outrageous that we sometimes fail to appreciate the beauty in simplicity. It's really wonderful to be reminded that most of the time less is more. Compare Kelly Clarkson's classy, understated performance to Adam Lambert's and you'll see what I mean.



Adam Lambert might think this is sexy but it just looked weird, desperate, degrading and utterly banal. Haven't we all seen this before? How many wannabe pop stars have taken this road, trying too hard to shock and push the envelope to the detriment of our culture? The result being that almost nothing shocks us anymore. Shoving a dancer in your crotch while screeching a song is hardly new. Meh. Adam might have been better off being like Kelly this time. Nice save on the fall though.

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Britney Spears lip synchs. Quick, call the police!

This is ridiculous. Why does it matter if she is singing live? She's not Christina Aguilera or Kelly Clarkson. People are not looking for Britney Spears to give powerhouse vocals, she's never been about that. She's an entertainer, more of a performer than a singer. Watching this YouTube clip could be an education for the innocent little lambs who are shocked that she mimes her songs in her concerts.



Granted she's not the dancer she used to be in her "Toxic" days but she still moves around a lot. Anyway if you're a Britney fan, just be thankful she's performing again and not shucking her underwear or shaving her head.

Remember this?

People should give her a break. She puts on a spectacle in her performances - a circus if you will. I would pay to see her if she's ever in my neck of the woods. She is a pop culture phenomenon, if that is not a good enough reason for you then don't buy tickets to her concerts. Let's not push her into another nervous breakdown over this. Britney Spears lip synchs, deal with it!

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