toastykitten

In the midst of administering chest compressions to a dying woman several days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Dr. Mark N. Perlmutter was ordered to stop by a federal official because he wasn't registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Then, the Coast Guard official informed the group that he could not credential them or guarantee tort coverage and that they should return to Baton Rouge. "That shocked me, that those would be his concerns in a time of emergency," Gerhart said.

They most certainly could have credentialed him. BoardCertifiedDocs: "In support of the emergency response efforts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, Elsevier is working with the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) to provide free, urgent credentials verifications. As authorities respond to the emergency in the Gulf Area, there may be a need to access board certification information for disaster credentialing purposes.

For assistance with verifications, please email our team directly at abms.feedback@elsevier.com. You can also contact our editorial team at (866) 352-5001."

It takes less than a minute to check a physician's credentials, once you are given a username and password. FEMA is worse than useless.

Mice Infected With Bubonic Plague Missing

As if we didn't have enough things to freak out about.

But packing is no fun.

Irritations:

Xanga - For Chrissakes, people, stop it with the media. I like looking at pictures, but do not make the site start playing a song without a warning. Any song. Kill, kill, kill.

McAfee - First of all, I paid for your friggin product already. Second of all, your pricing is deliberately misleading, because I had to read the fine print in order to find out that my $25 rebate is contingent on me keeping the box, which I don't have because it was bought over a year ago. And third and worst of all, you made me use Internet Explorer to update the goddamn product. Ew, gross. Next time I'm buying Norton.

Traffic. When does traffic not irritate me? I reiterate, driving in San Francisco is like being stuck in a live-version of Grand Theft Auto with no gun. Driving in the rest of California is playing a game of "Who's gonna be the bigger asshole?"

The Observer book reviews suck.

A Cook's Tour, by Anthony Bourdain - finished maybe 2 weeks ago? I think I'm in a reading rut. I have plenty of unread books on my shelves, but I don't want to read them. Anyway, this book is awesome. Bourdain, a "rebel" hotshot chef in NYC, who also wrote Kitchen Confidential (behind-the-scenes look at four and five-star restaurant life), travels all over the world in search of the perfect meal. If that sounds like a gimmick, that's because it is. How else are you going to convince somebody else to pay for your trips around the world? A Cook's Tour is also a TV show for Food Network, which Bourdain is kinda ambivalent about.

Highlights of the TV show - Bourdain being forced to try the weird Asian foods, including, but not limited to durian, bird's nest soup, and balut. He should be happy he wasn't forced to try the stinky tofu. I think that stinks more than durian does, which he ended up liking a lot, describing it as similar to eating stinky cheese.

Highlights of the book - Bourdain eviscerating Berkeley vegans, beginning a rant with "And not one of them knew how to cook a fucking vegetable." His bitching about not being able to smoke in San Francisco restaurants is classic. I don't have much sympathy for him, though, because I hate cigarette smoke. Bourdain going to the Sahara and going crazy because he wants to eat a lamb but no one has any. So then he buys one himself. Bourdain snarking on other Food Network personalities, and an obvious hatred of anything having to do with Emeril and Bobby Flay.

I find Bourdain's melodramatic tone really funny, because he obviously watches way too many gangster movies. There's a lot of places where he's like, "And this reminds me of the scene in Goodfellas..." and then follows it up with, "Oh my God, we're going to die."

Now I am waiting for someone to lend me Kitchen Confidential.

The Christian-guy-living-as-a-Muslim episode terrified me and made me not want to leave California. I do not want to know that people are that fucking ignorant, and dumb enough to ask, "Have you observed any terrorist activity?" Also, dumbass radio host - Muslim is not a synonym for Arab, nor is it necessary for you to coddle dumb callers in that NPR voice by pretending they are legitimate questions.

Really, this episode broke my heart. I wish it had been two hours, and then we could have had more time to discuss David's struggle between the two religions, an explanation of why Islam is not the same thing as Arab and more on the Pakistani culture, the difference between condemning an act and apologizing for it, why no one in that entire hour seemed to understand that the Muslims ARE Americans, why certain people commit terrorist acts, etc. It frustrated me that as soon as the conversations went somewhere, we would move on to the next day.

According to a poster on the TwoP Forums:

Here's what I found sad: I could tell by the landmarks that that scene was actually shot in Brighton, where I grew up. I recognized the Asian man as one of my childhood Sunday School teachers. I happen to know that he was in an internment camp during WWII because he is Japanese-American. I was primed for him, of all people, to be the voice of reason against race-based discrimination. But no, you saw what he said.

Yeah - I'm disappointed, but not surprised. I've had to grow up with some ignorance (I remember people trying to "educate" me on why Rodney King had it coming to him) in my life, but wow. These people scare me. David, I liked up to a point. He gets stupid and obnoxious sometimes without realizing the things he's saying and implying, but overall I liked him. I liked that he went out on his own and tried to learn Arabic. I loved the family he stayed with; they were so devoted to their family and so damn American.

The Spanish government took a long-awaited step in combating domestic violence yesterday, opening 17 new courthouses in big cities to deal exclusively with the problem. A spokeswoman for the ruling Socialist party, Maribel Montaño, said the government was bringing the full force of the state to bear on eradicating what she called "criminal machismo".


Pakistani court backs rape victim.

Britain rebuffs US call to block anti-Aids needle exchanges.

The United States is planning its first production since the cold war of plutonium 238 - one of the most deadly forms of the element - for use in secret missions, possibly including spy satellites and undersea devices. (Say what?)

Fed up with the high cost of eating out, and the recent ban on smoking in restaurants, Italians have taken to organising illegal private meals, charging €15 (around £10) a head for parties of up to 40 people.

Under a reformed civil code, marriage contracts in Spain will include a pledge to share housework, child rearing and care for the elders.

Soon men such as Calvache may not be so rare. 'I know many couples in which the men have required a paradigm shift and they've risen to the occasion,' said couples' counsellor Claire Jasinski. Spanish men, she said, often expect to play a small role in child-rearing and are often 'cranky' when they discover they will not come home to 'bathed children, slippers and a Martini.' (I want to burn the word "paradigm" - what you mean is "things changed".)

The US Southern Baptist Convention, representing the country's largest Protestant denomination, has ended its eight-year-long boycott of the Walt Disney Corporation over its allegedly pro-gay policies, due to the realisation that it has had no effect. (Heh.)

Jailed baby killer fuels debate on abortion after rape. The case has fuelled the debate over abortion in Argentina, where terminations are only allowed in rape cases if the woman is deemed insane. Ms Tejerina did not report the rape and tried unsuccessfully to end the pregnancy herself.

The waitress fucked up 3 out of 4 of our orders, and we didn't even complain about 2 of them. I only bitched about mine because it was the completely wrong order, and they also messed up our appetizer, bringing us a half-order when we'd ordered a whole one. They also fucked up our bill and charged us full price for some of the items. The waitress seemed a little annoyed with us, too.

Also, our friend, having just gone through surgery, was in a wheelchair. Her leg is in a giant cast; as we were leaving, the waiters and waitresses were gathered by the bar, gabbing or whatever. They were also in the way. So our friend says, "Excuse me", and they get up out of their chairs. They did not, however, move out of the way, leaving our friend to bang into various chairs and tables as she tried to maneuver her way out.

Bleh. I hate it when people act stupid.