Ewag

Wow, lynn - I'm so sorry you and your son had to go through that. I hope he's doing ok now? Experiences like this underscore for me the importance of curbing this kind of bullying behavior. I am a huge advocate for freedom of speech, but it has to be balanced with "your rights end at the beginning of my nose," y'know? And IMO, no kid should have to fear for his or her life for being themselves.

I'm not saying it's not good for some. But if Adlow is PhD in this field, he knows much more on the subject than the many biased people with an agenda trying to redefine definitions in our society to gain acceptance to something. Just because some LGBT website has a board of PhDs who take a stance on an issue doesn't mean that's the end of the discussion. I'm not claiming one way or the other. Simply that's it's up for debate and each case is unqiue. It's not the great solution to everyone's problem.

Bono isn't a bad person, at least I have no reason to think she/he is. I don't know him. What I do know is that sexual reassignment surgery doesn't make someone a member of the opposite sex. If anything, it can do a mediocre job of changing the outward appearance. But by the definiton of science, they're still a member of their original gender.

Re: Ablow's credentials - the thing is, the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association are comprised of entirely PhDs and MDs, some of whom actually specialize in the treatment of Gender Identity Disorder/Gender Dysphoria (which Ablow does not), and the stance of these two professional organizations are diametrically opposed to what Ablow is saying. While Ablow is certainly within his rights to hold his own opinions and to dissent from the recognized state of the art of the field, it is disingenuous for him to present his views as an expert representing the consensus of the field. I would respect his views more (though still disagree on a personal level) if he accurately described the stance of the field and then pointed out where and why he disagrees.
Re: your earlier post about psychology and objectivity - yes, you are right to some extent that the psychiatric sciences are not as "hard science" as something like Physics. There is no blood test you can take that will corroborate diagnosis. However, to go to the opposite extreme and make psychology/psychiatry completely relativistic, where Joe Schmoe on the street's opinion is as factually valid as the opinions of peer-reviewed research is erroneous (and IMO dangerous) as well. There are limits on the knowledge base of psychology/psychiatry - anyone in the field will tell you that. However, there are plenty of substantiated facts as well that aren't particularly open to debate. I'd be happy to discuss the role of art vs. science in psychology/psychiatry, although I fear that will take us a bit far afield of the original topic.

Megyn Kelly rocks! Ablow is still a fucking hatemonger.

http://www.autostrad...ox-news-110858/

I'm so not a Megyn Kelly fan, but she did a great job here!
Ablow is a fucking blow-hard pseudo-professional who needs to cop to the fact that he's spouting his own warped beliefs and not anything even remotely close to psychological/psychiatric data or research. It pisses me off beyond belief when these media-whore "docs" not only fail to accurately represent the field but seem to go out of their way to spread misinformation. And the worst part is, a bunch of uninformed dipshits who saw this will now be running around saying "but Dr. Ablow said....," never mind that the recognized psych associations have all spoken out against his unsubstantiated vitriol. Bah.

An oldie but a goodie...I was reminded of it on shitty data today and thought I'd share.

Howdy-
Just wanted to stop in and say hi. I'm another shitty data refugee and friend o' Zim. I'm looking forward to hanging out in the politics area without the barrage of batshit insane conspiracy theorists who populate shitty data! And it's always nice to be able to post "batshit insane" without it being asterisked out.

aloha

aloha! How was your foray off island?