Are you kidding me?

I just read an online news article about a prison convict in Massachusetts, I believe it was, who has sued the state's Corrections Department because they won't allow him to have a sex change operation (this is/was a man who was convicted of murdering his wife--his explanation was it was self-defense, because she spilled boiling tea on his genitals...funny that he was so attached to them then, and now he wants to get rid of them...)

He's already undergoing medical treatment for a gender identity disorder...at taxpayer expense. The ongoing litigation has cost the state $50,000 or more (the surgery would have cost $20,000). Some would say that they should have taken the cheaper route and paid for the surgery.

That's the short-sighted option. The state keeps pointing out that the operation would make the convict a security problem. They couldn't keep him/her in a mens' prison at that point...or at a womens' prison, either. He/She would be a constant target for sexual assault in either location. And if you think the cost of litigation is costly, just imagine what it would cost the state to deal with a lawsuit for lack of proper protection because he/she was raped for being transgendered (don't even try and tell me you're not seeing that image in your mind already...if a JUDGE can file a civil suit for $50 million-plus because his pants got lost at the dry-cleaners, you KNOW that kind of a lawsuit would have lawyers drooling at the chance to get involved.)

The convict claims that the hormone replacement, laser hair removal, and other treatments have failed to alleviate his/her depression and anxiety. I hate to sound callous, but SO WHAT? You're in prison, bud...it's an inherently anxious and depressing environment (my brother spent four and a half years in prison, I've heard more than enough to make that assessment). Suck it up...

One of the prison officials pointed out that this argument is tantamount to trying to blackmail the prison system, by threatening to commit suicide if the surgery is not permitted. And their standard policy is that they don't negotiate for threats of suicide.

The Swift-esque pragmatist in me can't help but say, "Give him/her a sharp razor...we'll see just how serious he/she is about this surgery..."

Disclaimer: No, I don't actually feel that strongly about it. But I do find it asinine that the surgery is even being considered. Let all the legal groups that want to litigate these cases do the noble thing...instead of making the state pay for litigation, and pouring your own resources into each case, just pay for the damn surgery to be done. Frankly, at that point, I don't care...but I find myself more than a little infuriated that someone thinks the state should be forced to pay for a surgery like that. Taxpayers have better places for their money to be spent.

Uncommon Parallels...

I was at a horsemanship clinic today, and the guy running the clinic made some observations about riding a horse that I found to be intriguingly profound, if taken in the context of how you live your life (as opposed to simply being about horses)...

--You end up going where you're looking. In other words, in the context of the clinic, if your attention is on the ground at your horse's feet, you're probably not going to be staying on that horse very long.

--You've got to focus on where you're going, and not where you are right now. Yeah, I know, it's very closely related to the one above...but I've always been a big believer that what you have done in life is secondary to what you're going to do with your life. When I worked on the Olympics, it was tempting to say, "Y'know...I've just worked on a show with a WORLDWIDE audience. There's no way I can top that...I should quit now." But I try to keep my eyes on what I'm about to do, with the intent to put just as much effort and energy into that as I did into the Olympics.

--Your horse is expecting you to lead it...after all, you've taken it out of its world and made it part of yours, with the saddle and bridle and all. And who wants to work for a boss that doesn't know where he's going or what he wants to do? Actually being in a position where I AM the boss, to some extent, this one struck home. I realized that I've got people working for me that are in unfamiliar territory--they've never done this job before, and at least one of them has never done anything LIKE this job before (the other has worked with us before, but hasn't yet realized that each new show has a new set of challenges that need to be met). So, I need to let my people know that I DO know what's going on, I do have a plan for getting stuff accomplished, and I will do everything I can to make sure they succeed at what they're being asked to do.

The clinic itself was nothing new...a rehash of techniques I've already heard about, with a few different semantic twists to try and prove that the guy hosting the clinic was a better trainer than any of the other trainers out on the market. But it was intriguing to see how many little tidbits he discussed that could have been chapter headings from a self-help book. I'm going back tomorrow...looking forward to getting a little more.

Now THAT's tough...

Seems like our greatest stories of tragedy also provide intriguing insights into just how irrepressible the human spirit can be. I was reading through a news article about the rains in North Texas...a frightening prospect, if for no other reason than there was no real way to prepare for it. I mean, Katrina was bad for New Orleans...but they had dikes and levees, measures taken to prevent flooding which failed. North Texas is not a place that comes to mind readily when you talk about flood-prone areas.

But in the midst of hearing about the wreckage, the lives lost, and the chaos that resulted (granted, on nowhere near the scale of Katrina, but if you compare the number of people affected versus the cost of the effects, I'd be willing to bet this one would actually be pretty close), I stumbled across a little tidbit that made me go back and re-read the single sentence mentioning the event.

A firefighter was struck by lightning...but rejoined rescue efforts.

What? A guy was hit by millions of volts of electricity that could potentially have been hotter than the surface of the sun. And he got back up (not immediately, I'm sure) and went back out to help rescue people stranded on their housetops or any other high ground they could find.

That's what I call tough...

I'm Baaaack...

So...it's been a chaotic few months. I'm not going to go into details, just give a summary. I've got wheels again--still haven't fixed my old car (the friend that was going to do the repairs for me has had his hands full with family issues--and you can't really pressure someone who's doing something for free to do it faster), but one of my co-workers had a Chevy Beretta that she was trying to sell (she and her husband had just bought a Trailblazer a few months earlier, so the Beretta was literally just sitting in their driveway and nobody had come to look at it, even when they listed it). I got it for a song, and only had to spend about $30 to get it to pass safety and emissions. I need to get in touch with Doug and see if he's finished cleaning out his jeep yet...because he was GIVING that to me, once he got his junk out of it (his schedule is crazier than mine!)

My foal is alive and well...mostly well, anyway, he keeps having minor catastrophes that don't really result in any injury or serious illness...they just keep us nervous. My mare is doing very well, though she's in dire need of a farrier's attention. And Edgar is still being a noisy slob...I've taken to covering his cage at night because he'll start beating his wings against the cage walls when it gets light enough...not an issue in March, but when it starts getting light at 6 am, he makes it difficult to get enough sleep.

Work is...well, work. I love the casts we have this year, though there are a couple of people who are slowly working on getting on my very last nerve. And, Lagoon being Lagoon, they decided it was more prudent to make me have to go to fabric stores and the like to figure out exactly which items I need to get for maintenance purposes, and then have someone else go to the same store to actually buy them. At first, I was annoyed...and then I was going to put together the purchasing list with all the item descriptions as 'color to match THIS COSTUME' and let them try and figure it out. And then I realized that I would get paid for doing the work to properly identify the items I needed, and I didn't have to go to the trouble of keeping track of the receipts. Plus, if I give them a good, complete list, and they STILL screw it up (and I'm pretty sure they will...they always do), then I can take the director, go to our Supervising Manager, and say, "Now, see...you've already paid TWICE for someone to go to this store, and now someone's got to go AGAIN because they didn't get it right...when you could have just paid once." Some things never change, and Lagoon's penchant for spending a dollar to save a dime is on that list.

I've had a few breaks from the monotony of my non-existant social life, but thus far nothing with any lasting potential. I'm actually rather envious of Nick...for the first time in my life, I feel like I'm at a point where I'd be able to share myself with someone...but the takers who show up don't stick around (worse, one of them keeps coming back to the park to introduce me to new boyfriends. At least she's broken the curse of me being the guy women date when they meet the man they're going to marry...) One decided that she was going to go back to being a pagan Priestess (I'm not sure which pagan religion she was following...another pagan friend I have who I mentioned this story to laughed aloud and pointed out that pretty much only the neo-Pagan religions have Priestesses...I don't know, I still haven't felt the incentive to research it much). Another was...well, let's just say that I was way too tame for her tastes, though we still email and IM from time to time. And everyone else at this point is so far away that they are merely intriguing diversions with no real potential to become a serious relationship.

So, yeah. Aside from being extremely quiet here, and being stuck behind the wheel of something other than a Chevy S-10 Blazer, not much has changed for me. We'll see if I manage to change that. Later, all!