Breaking your wrist isn't an "emergency". Cutting it with a razorblade is.
Not so. A medical emergency does not have to be immediately life-threatening. When someone not getting medical attention promptly is a risk to their life, limb, long-term health OR long-term quality of life, it's legally a medical emergency. If you break your wrist and don't have it set right away, it might impair the wrist's function. Even a "cosmetic" issue can be emergent - if you tear up your face in an accident, you may not be at risk of death, but you need a dermatological surgeon right away or your face might scar badly.
Same for people who don't pull over when an ambulance/firetruck is trying to get by, except considerably higher fines ($500 for the first offense that is without an affirmative defense).
That I'll agree with. I'd love to see an ambulance with a cowcatcher.
I just had to delurk and suggest this: ask a civil rights entity to get involved and send a polite, scary letter to Blizzard. It worked for me once, thus:
Several years ago I played Ragnarok Online (don't bother now, it's 98% bots) and people naturally tested the boundaries of the language filters all the time. I noticed a small number of people using the word 'jew' as a pejorative.
I'm Jewish, so I would ignore them, block their speech, insult their masculinity, or whatever made me feel better. I don't want to minimize the impact or hurtfulness of racial slurs, but we've been dealing with this for a few millenia and I think I can speak for most Jews when I say we can deal with this kind of stupidity ourselves.
A few weeks later, any word containing "jew" was blacklisted, e.g. jew, Jewish, or jewel. In addition to irritating the general population by blocking some common names of dungeon loot, this angered me more than the previous idiots had. Imagine being unable to describe yourself with a term you use proudly - gay, Catholic, Australian, yiffy, AFOL, anything.
Now, International RO's greatest charm was that the GM had terrible English skills. I assumed she just didn't understand the nature of the word, so I emailed and explained with intense politeness that the word jew is not a dirty word, and that Jewish people - the ones who were affected by misuse of the word - would probably be happier if they were able to say "jew" in reference to themselves than if it were blocked as a protection. I got an auto-reply, which was more than most contacts to the GMs garnered, so I figured everything was resolved. A few months passed, and no change happened.
The next time, I posted publicly on Gravity's message board, again making sure to be as firmly polite as I could. I got a few responses from Jewish players who agreed with me. A GM replied again and said they'd look into it. A few more months of nothing.
Finally, I was fed up and emailed the Anti-Defamation League, the de facto Jewish civil rights advocate. I said, in essence, "These guys don't speak English very well, and maybe they don't understand, but..."
Two weeks later "jew" was unblocked. I'm certain ADL sent a letter to Gravity.
It's possible Blizzard just doesn't understand what they're doing, that their action hurts the GLBT community more than it protects it; if so, they need to be told they're not going about it the right way. It's also possible that they are trying to take the "easy way out" by stifling conversation about the topic; if that's true, they need to be told that this isn't acceptable. I'm sure any high-profile GLBT rights advocate would be happy to jump in.
Slashdot Mirror
There may be places where you need to speak apologetically about your use of LEGO. Slashdot is not one of them.
I just squealed to DC Comics. Although I don't expect anything to come of it, it will be hugely entertaining if something does.
Not so. A medical emergency does not have to be immediately life-threatening. When someone not getting medical attention promptly is a risk to their life, limb, long-term health OR long-term quality of life, it's legally a medical emergency. If you break your wrist and don't have it set right away, it might impair the wrist's function. Even a "cosmetic" issue can be emergent - if you tear up your face in an accident, you may not be at risk of death, but you need a dermatological surgeon right away or your face might scar badly.
Same for people who don't pull over when an ambulance/firetruck is trying to get by, except considerably higher fines ($500 for the first offense that is without an affirmative defense).
That I'll agree with. I'd love to see an ambulance with a cowcatcher.
I just had to delurk and suggest this: ask a civil rights entity to get involved and send a polite, scary letter to Blizzard. It worked for me once, thus:
Several years ago I played Ragnarok Online (don't bother now, it's 98% bots) and people naturally tested the boundaries of the language filters all the time. I noticed a small number of people using the word 'jew' as a pejorative.
I'm Jewish, so I would ignore them, block their speech, insult their masculinity, or whatever made me feel better. I don't want to minimize the impact or hurtfulness of racial slurs, but we've been dealing with this for a few millenia and I think I can speak for most Jews when I say we can deal with this kind of stupidity ourselves.
A few weeks later, any word containing "jew" was blacklisted, e.g. jew, Jewish, or jewel. In addition to irritating the general population by blocking some common names of dungeon loot, this angered me more than the previous idiots had. Imagine being unable to describe yourself with a term you use proudly - gay, Catholic, Australian, yiffy, AFOL, anything.
Now, International RO's greatest charm was that the GM had terrible English skills. I assumed she just didn't understand the nature of the word, so I emailed and explained with intense politeness that the word jew is not a dirty word, and that Jewish people - the ones who were affected by misuse of the word - would probably be happier if they were able to say "jew" in reference to themselves than if it were blocked as a protection. I got an auto-reply, which was more than most contacts to the GMs garnered, so I figured everything was resolved. A few months passed, and no change happened.
The next time, I posted publicly on Gravity's message board, again making sure to be as firmly polite as I could. I got a few responses from Jewish players who agreed with me. A GM replied again and said they'd look into it. A few more months of nothing.
Finally, I was fed up and emailed the Anti-Defamation League, the de facto Jewish civil rights advocate. I said, in essence, "These guys don't speak English very well, and maybe they don't understand, but..."
Two weeks later "jew" was unblocked. I'm certain ADL sent a letter to Gravity.
It's possible Blizzard just doesn't understand what they're doing, that their action hurts the GLBT community more than it protects it; if so, they need to be told they're not going about it the right way. It's also possible that they are trying to take the "easy way out" by stifling conversation about the topic; if that's true, they need to be told that this isn't acceptable. I'm sure any high-profile GLBT rights advocate would be happy to jump in.