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You know when someone has a well-intentioned plan to help make something safer, and it all goes Stoopid? Follow me below the dingledoodlesquiggliedividerthingie fold...
It's once again time for my rant against the ill-conceived but well-intentioned Peanut Allergy Policies in my kids' school district. For the record, and to head off any sort of Flame War Cycle :-), I am NOT an AllergicPerson -phobe, or -ist, or whatever term we need to invent on the spot. Just sayin' so we can proceed...
While I don't remember it being a BFD when I was in school (yeah yeah, back in the dark ages when the blue-tinged copies were called mimeographs and we played on a blacktopped playground), peanut allergies seem to be fairly common these days. When K1 was in elementary school, there was one kid out of ~40 in her grade with a peanut allergy. Every other year, she ended up in Peanut Kid's classroom, and we got a letter on the first day of school letting us know what snacks were permissable. That was fine, and while it was a royal PITA when K1 only wanted to eat granola bars and pb&j, we dealt.
This year, however, brought a notice home with K2:
...due to students traveling amongst classrooms, we believe it is in the best interest of the students to make all classrooms nut-free. All food coming in for classroom snack must be nut-free.
I know what you're thinking. "So? How's that much different from when K1 was in school? Don't you want the kids to be safe? Don't you know how dangerous peanut allergies are??!" See, you have to have the next sentence for context:
There will be no added restrictions to the lunchroom, as we will continue to have a designated nut-free area. [emphasis mine]
There's the stoopid: the rationale for forbidding nuts in all classrooms regardless of whether or not there's a kid allergic to nuts present is because "the kids travel between classrooms". But with the exception of one special table, the ENTIRE freekin' lunchroom is a festival of peanut/tree-nut goodness. They SELL PB&J sandwiches as a lunch option! And unless every single kid who ate at a non-peanutfree table washes their hands before going back to class, K2 not eating a granola bar at snack doesn't mean jack in the War Against Anaphylaxis.
I haven't complained to the school or the school board yet. Consensus among my friends is if I do, they won't fix a boneheaded policy by teaching kids to wash their hands, not share food, and generally become responsible for themselves. No, they'll ban PB&J from the lunchroom. I've tried the Acceptable Substitute Sunflower Butter. My kids don't like it.
I am wondering, however, if I should have an Allergen Note on our front door, so people understand they are visiting an omnivoric nonkosher nonhalal dog-owning household where nuts, dairy, wheat, soy and shellfish are consumed regularly. Got tales of well-intentioned stoopid to share tonite?
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Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From sardonyx:
In Lefty Coaster's diary about Rumsfeld unsubscribing from the New York Times, two very different comments: magnetics writes a short, sweet one on when a war criminal finds you objectionable, and thatvisionthing presents us with the details of several encounters with Rumsfeld.
From Seneca Doane:
There's meta, and we all feel as we do about meta, and if you don't like meta, skip this one. I think that particularly thoughtful meta deserves to be recognized. In Anthony de Jesus's Restatement of Markos's comments on CSMAS, HoundDog offers his take on who Markos suspended and why and YucatanMan replies with some nifty insights from applied psychology.
From cskendrick:
from xxdr xombiexx on unimpressive police predictive algorithms.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
From the tipjar in Susan from 29's diary I learn we're supposed to politely ignore the audience death cheers. I like concernedamerican's idea better.
I'm sure cskendrick's Why I'm here: "we're needed here", is true for many
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Top Mojo for yesterday, 9/12/2011, with first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo wizardry!
1) He's just bitter because by Mogolori — 190
2) "Bridge Closed: Your Tax Cuts At Work." by G2geek — 181
3) When a war criminal finds you objectionable by magnetics — 173
4) I'd have... by BruinKid — 142
5) Most excellent! by revsue — 104
6) Markos is no racist by Ekaterin — 103
7) Awesome diary. by maxschell — 102
8) And in case anyone is wondering why Rummy.... by maxschell — 100
9) One of the boycotters, by Anak — 95
10) Disagree. by maxschell — 94
11) Agreed. by Purple Priestess — 94
12) Hmmm... that is a powerful slogan by bronte17 — 89
13) The key to the jobs bill by TomP — 89
14) I'm not an alcoholic, I just like to drink by Positronicus — 86
15) I have been visiting dailykos less and less by jhawklefty — 84
16) Just to get serious for a second. by RenaRF — 83
17) Raise your hand if you want Rumsfeld's by andgarden — 83
18) they shouldn't have closed it. by agent — 83
19) All my heroes by thatvisionthing — 79
20) Somehow I think the Times will survive. by zemblan — 78
21) more hugs by Debbie in ME — 74
22) No, it is not by Plubius — 74
23) What did I think? by James Allen — 72
24) I disagree about Adept2U by Sagebrush Bob — 71
25) New post on Judy yesterday by emptywheel by thatvisionthing — 69
26) Take It From A Texas Lawyer... by chuco35 — 66
27) The previously unknown known by ItsSimpleSimon — 65
28) Ironically one of the boycotters by Clarknt67 — 62
29) When he starts being wrong about economics by andgarden — 62
30) there are some other VERY ugly comments by Hopeful Skeptic — 59