Rat's nest

So, this Harvard professor has a fling with a woman, who gets pregnant. The woman, the woman's partner, and the professor topple head-over-heels into an emotionally intense, heartfelt thing where they're constantly poring over each other's issues and marveling over their own depth and intensity. The baby is born. Eventually things go south. The woman and the partner file complaints at Harvard against the professor and extort money and generally act like he's done something egregiously wrong.

Then it turns out that the woman and her partner have ensnared men in this emotional web before, claiming paternity of a pregnancy, putting them through the wringer emotionally, and then going after them legally and financially in ways that maximize everyone's discomfort more than maximizing their potential financial windfall. They do seem to be walking destructive trainwrecks.

The professor's wife, Zacks, gets a super raw deal throughout the whole affair, and in the story itself. The story is far too sympathetic to this dumbass professor's version of everything.

MeFi gets ahold of the story here, and shreds it appropriately. Notably, LB and Frowner show up and make several good points.

Also, "Maria-pia" is a funny name. I can't imagine having a name that rhymes with itself.

Via Tia

Health Care Plans

I was asked recently what my ideal health care system would be, and came up with my list of nonnegotiables:
1. Humane level of medical care available to every person
2. Costs are not associated in any way with the delivery of health care - no bills whatsoever. (Aside from cosmetic or elective procedures that are above and beyond the standard set in 1).
3. Costs are borne in a way that correlates with wealth, in an acceptably progressive scale.
4. Meaningful consumer advocacy/consumer protection agency with ability to enforce corrective measures.

Again, I truly do not understand why candidates are being sucked into bullshitting as if there are substantial differences between health care plans, instead of saying, "The most important nonnegotiables are X, Y, and Z, which are common to several of our plans. My details are M and N, which I think will be slightly more efficient and/or easier to implement." The clearest, best public speakers are ones which stick to the essence of reality and do not get sucked into bullshitting.

Go Slower

And it wouldn't be so astonishing and maddening if it didn't keep fucking happening.

The last time a man actually told me to slow down, I was almost six months pregnant and we were in a swimming pool. I had passed him a few times and this appeared to make him very angry. He stopped me in the water and screamed at me, claiming I was "racing up and down!" and ruining his swim. I had literally never swum slower in my life. I was six months pregnant. I was tired and huge and uncomfortable. But I was too fast for him, a man, who wanted a pregnant woman to be slower than him.

I held the New Zealand 200m breaststroke national record for four years. Swimming paid for my education. No, nasty old man. I won't compromise my already slow, pregnant workout to make it even slower for you, to pad your ego, to make you feel less like a loser.

I'm trying to get into the mindframe of a man who tells a jogging or swimming woman to go slower. The best I can do is the kind of person who makes comments about the appearance of someone they're meeting, "you're so [tall]! You satisfy requirements for [this tired joke]!" But it's worse than that, and also I can't really understand the need to point out prominent physical traits to the person who exhibits them. Maybe it's "bros heckle each other and give each other a hard time, and she's so fast that she's gotta learn to take the heckling too."

Eh, I don't think it's either of those. It's just "that bitch with her snappy pace, who the fuck does she think she is."

Guest Post - So, No Deal?

Minivet writes:

The prime minister has made Mr Gove responsible for preparing for no-deal. ... Chancellor Sajid Javid said there would be "significant extra funding" for 500 new Border Force officers and "possible" improved infrastructure at British ports. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Mr Gove to chair no-deal meetings seven days a week until Brexit is delivered, according to the Sunday Times.

I feel like this hasn't sunk in for us overseas watchers.

Having a few months' notice is better than what it looked like in March, I suppose, but is Northern Ireland just in the oven door now?

Heebie's take: I should just listen.