Regarding John Williams:  A good argument can be made that the original Star Wars, without his score, would have been ... well, perhaps nearly as bad as Plan Nine from Outer Space.

... "there is no deity and ... religion is untrue"  Would this stance be appropriately characterized as reductive materialism, or did you have something else in mind?

If the first:  Are natural law arguments compatible with reductive materialism?

(I'm not going to be very prompt in the give-and-take on this, not hiding, just offline)

Actually, what I've shared is the limit of my knowledge on that.  I bet there's another Ricochetti out there that knows more. :-)

No caption.  Just ... who stands like that?!?!?  I continue to be flabbergasted when I see it.

Actually, there are not-for-profits that almost everyone "likes."  Underwriters' Laboratories!

"Tax-exempt" is not necessarily "able to receive tax-deductible donations" (charitable).  Not-for-profit is not the same as non-profit. 

(The entire edifice of federal income tax is entirely too complex!)

It seems very difficult to come up with a consistent rule that should be applied in "such cases" given the rarity of such cases.  To make a good consistent rule, we'd need to know all the positive and negative results of any given action ... and I question whether we have "enough" information to generalize "this is always best," given the small sample size.

"Hard cases make bad law?"
If the goal of the parents is to make the various state Departments of Social Services (whatever they may be called) reluctant to have such surgeries performed on children in foster care ... that may be a step in the right direction, as such a large decision seems more appropriate for parents than for a bureaucracy.  

I wonder, did_DSS_judge_that_the_child_was_less_adoptable prior_to_the_surgery?  

That was also the first question that came to my mind (XX or XY?).

Although, as the story is presented, there seems to be an implication/suggestion/argument that gender is *not* fluid, in that the child is "stubbornly" masculine in spite of having been treated as a girl early in life (?).

It's certainly sad to think that this sort of infant gender assignment may result in difficulties like this.

I'm not certain what to think about the parents suing the state.

Why are these "sensitive, caring" liberals pushing a one-method-fits-all approach for educating the little snowflakes?

(Rhetorical question)

I hate grapefruit.

No, you need to hate us.  Hating us is a pure hate, it will cleanse and refresh you, so you have more to give on the *necessary* hate.

I feel an urge to wander on over the the Apathy thread ... but the urge isn't strong enough to get me to do it.  Sigh.

Keep the faith, all you H8ers.

That is a key point.  Thank you for that.

Popcorn!!

That, and most people are trying to think about loving their mothers.  It's difficult to maintain a good hate when thinking about your mother. 

Unless, of course, you have *issues.*  You don't have *issues,* do you FG?  The Dime does.  He's got *lots* of issues.  His issues have issues.  Not only did his mother need to tie a steak on his head to get the dog to play with him, but she threw out the baby while keeping the bathwater on multiple occasions.  When his Mama pinned his ears back, she *truly* pinned his ears back.  She tried to sell him to GM for use as a crash test dummy.  Then she offered to pay GM to use him as a crash test dummy.

Where most people have a heart I have a Brillo pad.