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Or maybe it isn’t. Who the hell knows?

Sometime around last September there was a media query looking for parents whose teens had tried the cinnamon challenge. I responded that my kid had and a producer from the Dr. Oz show wanted to know if she had any bad experiences from it? I stated that she hadn’t and asked why they were looking for teens and the reply was: BECAUSE KIDS ARE DYING.

Well, no. They actually aren’t but that was a nice try.

Is the cinnamon challenge good for you? Probably not. Is it smart? Nothing that makes a mess on my kitchen counter is smart. Is every news outlet in America going to spend the week getting shrill with Oh My Gawd Collapsed Lung!? Yes. That will happen. We love to save the children, social media is bad for the children, memes are bad for the children, ingesting spices is bad for the children and while you’re at it stop saying The F Word so much the children have delicate ears.

This new breed of hysteria is obscene.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (the same folks who want your toddler to have zero screen time and think that you should engage your 0-2 year old every second of the day):

Videos of people attempting the Cinnamon Challenge have become an Internet sensation. Typically, a video reveals a group of adolescents watching as someone taking the challenge begins coughing and choking when the spice triggers a severe gag reflex in response to a caustic sensation in the mouth and throat. As of August 10, 2012, there were 51 100 YouTube clips depicting the Cinnamon Challenge. One video was viewed 19 million times, predominantly by 13- to 24- year-olds, ages similar to people taking the Cinnamon Challenge and associated with the greatest need for conformity. These videos have raised concerns of choking, aspiration, and pulmonary damage. In most cases, the effects are temporary, yet the Cinnamon Challenge has led to dozens of calls to poison centers, emergency department visits, and even hospitalizations for adolescents requiring ventilator support for collapsed lungs.

These “hospitalizations” are referenced in a footnote that links to this video which is hosted on the Akron Children’s Hospital website. Below the video it reads: Related to Conditions: Asthma

If you don’t feel like watching a local news channel (can’t really blame you) I’ll give you the highlights. People post the cinnamon challenge online, it’s funny, people do it at home, more than 100 people called poison control, 30 people sought medical attention one collapsed lung in an asthmatic child.

From the American Association of Pediatrics:

The temporary responses to cinnamon are common to several substances and probably do not increase the risk of long-term damage.

Thus, the Cinnamon Challenge may pose greater and unnecessary health risks for persons allergic to cinnamon or with bronchopulmonary diseases, including asthma.

I assure you that the three researchers who published this very preliminary study were careful in choosing their words. I was going to throw in some interesting statistics about how many kids break their arms on school yards or lose limbs crossing the street but then I remembered that some of y’all might completely lose it and wrap your precious kids in bubble wrap after hearing those numbers.

To be perfectly clear 100+ phone calls to poison control doesn’t matter and it’s important that smart people understand why it’s a meaningless number. What happens is that people call Poison Control and say that their child has done the cinnamon challenge and that they coughed. Then Poison Control tells them that their child will be fine. They hang up the phone and shortly thereafter the child is fine. That 100+ people called Poison Control only matters if there is actual poison involved.

If you read the whole study you’ll get this paragraph:

According to the Florida Poison Information Center–Miami, between July 2011 and June 2012, there were 26 calls regarding cinnamon exposure in individuals ranging from age 1.5 to 83 years. Most patients had only minor consequences that resolved after dilution, irrigation, and washing the affected area, and most did not require follow-up. Of the 5 cases that did involve follow-up, symptoms resolved in 1 to 2.5 hours. Of the overall 26 cases, 13 (all youths aged 8–18 years) involved the Cinnamon Challenge. Of these 13 cases, 2 had “potentially toxic” exposures. Common symptoms included coughing and burning of the mouth, nose, and throat. More serious symptoms included extensive coughing, vomiting, nosebleed, and chest tightness. With only 1 exception (emesis), possible aspiration and pulmonary symptoms were limited to adolescents, all of whom had ingested dry powder from the Cinnamon Challenge. Although the known health risks of the challenge are relatively low, they are unnecessary and avoidable.

Now I understand that if you’re a researcher your job is to recommend that children avoid anything painful or irritating but by their own words the health risks are low. I’d say they’re infinitesimal. We have one meaningful injury where an asthmatic child was injured and there are 763,000 results for cinnamon challenge on YouTube.

The moral of the story is that if your child has asthma the only thing that they should breathe in is air. Everyone else might have a sore throat or watery eyes, it’s dumb, but we have to let kids be a little dumb. If you tell your kid that the cinnamon challenge is going to kill them and 763 million videos show them that you’re wrong they will never believe you when you tell them about the things that really are dangerous. And I wouldn’t believe you either.

Do we really need the every major news outlet to pick up on this as a dramatic story?

Push back. Tell the media that you aren’t buying the mindless fear they’re selling.

And none of this would be complete without showing you my daughter’s cinnamon challenge video which is so 2012….

In 2007 when one of the men I loved more than the sun and the moon slowly succumbed to AIDS his partner and I spent long evenings getting papers filed and signed. When it was time to make decision about his treatment and ultimately the disposition of his body the man he’d shared a life with for seventeen years was entitled to nothing without contracts and lawyers. Had they been a man and a woman the amount of time spent together sharing homes, businesses, dogs and meals would have made them common law spouses but because they were same sex everything was complicated and the laws of our nation seemed cruel when doctors and nurses did their best to show us compassion.

This week in Missouri there was an event at a hospital wherein the blood family of a man had his same sex spouse forcibly removed from a hospital where the man was being treated.

Guess what kids? When I get stabbed with a bottle at a bar brawl and I’m admitted to the hospital Mr. G is the one who makes all the decisions about my care. If my mother shows up and tells hospital security to remove my husband because she didn’t approve of the marriage they’ll look at her and laugh. Why? That’s the protection that marriage offers people. According to this news report nurses at the hospital refused to look up Roger Gorley and Allen’s joint Power of Attorney.

This is why marriage matters.

Two men or two women shouldn’t have to worry about waving around pieces of paper when one of them is sick or injured. It’s inhumane that we’d treat the body of a person while simultaneously denying their personhood.

People are going to make the argument that Roger or Allen could be your son, your uncle, your brother or your cousin. Though familial relationships may bring a certain sentiment to the conversation I’m going to go a step further. Roger and Allen are two strangers. They are two men that I’ve never met and I’m unlikely to meet. They presumably love one another and have built a life together just as my husband and I have. I don’t have to meet them, like them or know about the quality of their relationship to honor it and to treat them with dignity.

We need to treat all of our citizens equally.

Sometimes at dinner my mother will tell the kids about the segregation of her youth and they sit in disbelief because it feels like ancient history. In 28 years I hope to be sitting at a dinner table with my own grandchildren, seeing faces that are stunned when I tell them about how we used to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans.

Marriage matters.

On the off chance that you’re unfamiliar with the Steubenville Rape Trial, let me bring you up to speed. According to court findings a 16 year old girl drank too much and was digitally penetrated by at least two boys who were also 16. Other allegations exist and a grand jury is quite likely. A number of boys who were present struck deals with prosecutors and will not be prosecuted. Unlike their friends they will not be registered sex offenders. They are, however, sex offenders and they are dangerous people.

The reason we all know that Ma’Lik Richmond and Trent Mays are now convicted rapists is because in addition to the sexual assault he was convicted of Mays took pictures of a naked victim and circulated them on the web. That’s actually called child pornography.

Oh, there was also this guy Michael Nordianos and his twitter feed...

The mother of the victim spoke at the sentencing and I think her words to her daughter’s rapists merit repeating:

“It did not matter what school you went to, what city you lived in, or what sport you’ve played, human compassion is not taught by a teacher, a coach or a parent.  It is a God-given gift instilled in all of us. You displayed not only a lack of this compassion but a lack of any moral code.”

She stops short of calling them evil. I don’t. When talking about her daughter the woman says:

“This does not define who my daughter is. She will perservere, grow, and move on.”

And with a mother like that I believe she will.

In the previous 250 words I have described to you two of the most detestable young men in America. They are convicted rapists who worked together to assault and humiliate a young woman. I’ve inserted almost no opinion.

On the other hand CNN (which is a network that’s typically above the fray) had two reporters on who did all they could revictimize the young girl. Candy Crowley starts her newscast by describing the boys as, “Two Star High School Football Players in Steubenville Ohio.” Well, before being remanded to prison they were football players so I suspect that is a fact.

Candy Crowley then asks Poppy Harlow to talk about the emotions in the courtroom. This is when I’m waiting for Ms. Harlow to talk about the victim’s mother and her statement or perhaps the anger of the bystanders, but no, Poppy Harlow talks about the ruined lives of Ma’Lik Richmond and Trent Mays. She also incorrectly reports their sentences as being 1 and 2 years when in fact those are minimum sentences. Juvenile court is structured differently.

At about 4 and a half minutes in Candy Crowley notes to Paul Callan (the CNN legal contributor) that a 16 year old was sobbing in court, her voice changes to an almost maternal tone while she shakes her head and seems to have a difficult time stating that the two convicted rapists are what the courts have deemed them to be. She says, “What’s the lasting effect though on two young men being found guilty in juvenile court of [pause] rape essentially.”

Forgive me Candy, did the judge say, “Rape essentially.”?

Well, for at least a year and up to five years no girls in Steubenville will be raped by these two young men. Hopefully they won’t assault anyone in detention but I think we all know that is a very real possibility. For the rest of their lives these two men will register as sex offenders and the towns they live in will be somewhat safer knowing the identities of the men who have raped before.

During sentencing Trent Mays said, “I would truly like to apologize. No pictures should have been sent around, let alone have been taken.”

Yes, we all know that if you’re a high school football player the lesson learned here is to never instagram your sexual assaults. Perhaps Candy and Poppy can teach a class on that for the next round of poor young boys who have their promising football careers cut short by a slutty girl who dares to drink to much.

Sadly there will always be rape.

I’m hopeful that one day there won’t be women like Candy and Poppy who seem to believe that rape victims ruin the lives of football stars.

Two Steubenville high school football players accused of raping an allegedly drunk 16-year-old girl were found guilty Sunday.#CNN

— Poppy Harlow (@PoppyHarlowCNN) March 17, 2013

Anonymous is hacking into social media again. This time a group of football players allegedy raped a 16 year old girl.

Their coach told the press that she was making it up… you know… because these boys would never do something so horrible. I haven’t watched this video in it’s entirety but Anonymous found it I suppose and it opens with a young man talking about “not getting foreplay with a dead girl”.

Much like the kid from Sandy Hook, the Rape Crew from Steubenville, Ohio seem to be young men without a diagnosis. We like to pretend that crimes like this can only be perpetrated by the mentally ill, but let’s face facts. These young men are simply evil. We don’t have a cure for evil, we just have prisons.

Convicted or not they are dangerous and should be treated as such.

Sue me Michael Nodianos. It isn’t libel when it’s true.

If you have a strong stomach check out Local Leaks. 

Update: Mainstream media has picked up the story and I think that Anonymous done a fantastic service to the child who was kidnapped and raped as well as to the community as a whole. It’s incredibly tragic that Jane Doe had to experience this (and it seems as though we will have several more in the coming days). If you are interested in the story and don’t want soundbites you can follow #knightsec on Twitter @KYAnonymous or Prinnie @prinniedidit or you can read up at prinniefied.com

It seems that the owner of the site rollredroll.com is a man named Jim Parks and on the Local Leaks website anyone can download his email files. They may or may not contain child pornography and may or may not demonstrate that he’s a part of this attack and others.

There’s interesting doxing over at http://www.anonpaste.me/anonpaste2/index.php?070961bcde7bf9d7#sObkWjsK+ZbV9PeupgZlNbJxqzROmyhDSNo2erqpU2M= I’m not going to hyperlink because I’m ambivalent about doxxing as a whole but the men Anonymous is after are: Michael Nodianos, Cody Saltsman, Jake Howarth, Jordan Banks, Ryan Vodich, Harold Malone, John Linn, Dashon Redman, Anthony Craig, Evan Westlake, Mark Cole, Malik Richmond, and Trent Mays. My understanding is that with a confession and an apology they will be left alone. I’m not sure that any of these young men are smart enough to take that very generous offer.

Again, the most complete way to follow the story would be to follow @KYAnonymous on twitter.

Oh, and here’s a twitter bio of one of the little darlings.

The second amendment reads:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Apparently Piers Morgan doesn’t like guns. I haven’t seen this show (yet) so I’m not sure what he’s done but in the small interviews I’ve heard on Howard Stern I’m sure that whatever is happening on his show is messy. I happen to be a big supporter of the second amendment (as it is written). I do have a dog in this race and I would not be happy to give up my handgun but I’m also not part of a militia, regulated or otherwise.

Let’s face it, Piers Morgan’s a dick. We don’t deport people for dickishness or general assholery otherwise I’d be living on a small island with a bunch of ill tempered women who were also deported sans weaponry.

So folks who agree with me (on the dickishness issue only) have created a petition to have Piers Morgan deported for “attacking the second amendment”.

Some punchlines just write themselves. We’ve all read the first amendment right?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

Maybe if they aren’t asking Congress to deport him it’s a safe bet?

I’m hoping in 2013 the AP wire won’t resemble The Onion.

Parents are buying their children bulletproof backpacks. Military fathers are standing guard at their children’s schools.

A man went on the local news with a watch that looks like it’s from a Dick Tracy cartoon and had Marc Klass tell us that it would have saved his daughter’s life. I think that’s a stretch.

My friend won’t let her 10 year old son ride his bike around the neighborhood because she’s worried he’s going to be abducted. Another friend won’t let her 14 year old child have sleepovers because they are afraid of molestations. Still more won’t allow their 11 year olds to cross the street.

These actions make children vulnerable. Every time you tell a child they are incapable of crossing a street, riding a bike or trusting an adult you’ve primed them for predators real and imagined (though most likely imagined). Yes, we’ve recently had a sniper attack on young children. Yes, this is tragic and, yes, as predicted the news coverage was reckless and predatory and as a result of local news becoming national news we have endless copycats and temporarily heightened security.

My phone is ringing and two local security guard businesses have asked for coverage here. Apparently people hire armed guards for weddings, sleepover parties and when their husbands are out of town. If you’re a lesbian or a single mother you should probably just hire one full time I suppose.

No one is standing up and saying: This is crazy.

Not a single news anchor looks at these fear peddlers and says, “You’re out of your mind”.

I’m here to tell you that this is crazy. The media circus has spoon fed you fear and you’re dutifully passing it along to your children.

The NRA would like to go into the business of training armed guards for schools. Make no mistake this is the same money grab as the Kevlar Backpacks, Teflon GPS devices and track-a-kid iPhone apps. This is what it looks like when you use fear as a marketing tool.

The NRA says:

As brave, heroic and self-sacrificing as those teachers were in those classrooms, and as prompt, professional and well-trained as those police were when they responded, they were unable — through no fault of their own — to stop it.

Are we sure that’s true? Are we sure that a 27th person wasn’t saved? A 28th or even a 50th? Does no one recall the two armed guards that were unable to keep 13 children safe at Columbine High School?

You’re scaring your kids. You’re also scarring them.

The world isn’t a scary place, we have scary moments and Newtown will have a generation that’s rightfully scarred but there’s no reason for the whole country to be reactive.

When I look at the Leo Watch site I’m greeted with this message.

Every year 800,000 children are reported missing in the US. This includes runaways, non-custodial parent issues, kids who are simply late and acquaintance disappearances. Of the 800,000 missing children 115 of them are abducted by strangers.

You’re going to not let your child cross the street because in a country of of 314 million 115 children are abducted by strangers? We have more lottery winners than stranger abductions.

If you want to talk about the risk of homicide then statistically the most dangerous person in a child’s life appears to be their own parents with friends being the second most dangerous and strangers accounting for 3% or less of all infant and child homicide to age 5 in the last few decades.

Maybe we don’t need armed guards in schools? Maybe we need parents to stop killing their own kids?

My point is this. The news is over and we don’t need to be gawking at the folks in Newtown any longer. Yes we should support them and yes, we should be looking to reform gun control. Before anyone tells you that armed guards in schools are a good idea remind them that Columbine High School had not one but two armed guards on site.

Perhaps the NRA is having fantasies that we’re living in a spaghetti western and the good guys don’t bleed.

This is from 2009. I offer you this video without commentary. It says everything.

The title of CBS News’ story is Women Undergoing Foot Surgery to Fit into Heels Better. I saw it and thought, “Old news. Everyone gets those collagen injections into the balls of their feet so they can toddle around in sky high heels. Some women have collagen injections to make their feet look younger.” But I was wrong. It’s actually more invasive than some random injections.

Apparently the ladies of New York City are asking surgeons to shorten their toes so that they can fit into high heels.

I find this fascinating. Now keep in mind that I’m not in the shoe business so I don’t know everything there is to know about shoes, but I wear them and lord knows I buy them but… I’m pretty sure shoes come in sizes. Lots of sizes. Big sizes, small sizes, wide sizes, narrow sizes, medium sizes and Dr. Seuss Sizes. There are shoes to fit every foot.

I think (correct me if I’m wrong) that rather than lopping off the part of a foot that provides balance these women could [gasp] buy a larger shoe.

I’m also totally confused about how a toeless New Yorker would resolve the peep toe issue?

Of course I’m just a blogger and I’m not a physician.

There are some acceptable reasons that women would opt to get cosmetic surgery on their feet, including painful bunions or deformities, Dr. William Spielfogel, the head of podiatry at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York and a member of the New York State Podiatric Medical Association, said to CBSNews.com In Brenner’s patient’s case, the especially elongated toe cwas causing corns and ulcers that could get infected. Both doctors said when they decide to take on foot surgery patients it is because there is a medical need.

And then I remember that there are also physcians who think that women’s labia need trimming. And just when I think that we’ve done ourselves in I get a text from the always insightful Jonathan Bell that reads:

Please tell your sisters that men don’t give a shit. To be honest, I don’t know if i’ve ever really looked at a woman’s feet. Even one I’ve dated for years. Sad? Maybe. But true.

And then the world felt normal again.

One of my readers contacted me and was disappointed that I hadn’t mentioned Superstorm Sandy. First of all he’s one of my favorite readers and when I get an email from him or a comment my heart soars and I believe that my little corner of the web is bringing people pleasure. His few words might be more important than mine, they keep me in check, they guide me.

There are a few of you like him, voices I’ve come to trust as we’ve journeyed together these last few years. Thank you for that.

I didn’t talk about the devastation of Superstorm Sandy because I didn’t know a respectful way to make it happen. I wrote a couple of articles about the need for FEMA for iVillage but they either got killed or my editors were without power. Those articles were never published. I wish they had been

We have family in the affected areas. They’re okay and they’re together but I don’t like to tell their stories. I didn’t want to go the tragiblogging route and post some bullshit about how we have to tell our kids we love them because people are having a terrible day/week/month/year. If I did that I’d have to rewrite the same post daily because in addition New York there’s Rwanda, Columbia and the Smoky Mountains that seem to be in semi-permanant states of catastrophe. I don’t break news, I react to it. I’m not sure that my reaction mattered those first few days.

My sense was also that no one in the affected areas would be on my blog. I was wrong.

I’ve given money to the Red Cross and later this week I’ll be giving blood. Giving blood is a monumental nightmare for me. No matter how well I prepare (no exercise for 24 hours ahead of time and plenty of fluids) I always get dehydrated and land in bed with a debilitating headache but I always give and I give fairly often. You see I’m a universal donor because I’m type O-Negative and a few years ago I rolled up my sleeves for Children’s Hospital and found that I’m CMV negative so I try to trek down there every so often as I know that kids with compromised immune systems really need that CMV negative blood.

I didn’t write about Superstorm Sandy because I didn’t know what to say. I still don’t know what to say. It seems that the folks from Occupy Wall Street have set up an Occupy Sandy relief center in Brooklyn. I’ve sent coolers and flashlights via their Amazon Gift Registry and feel confident that they will be distributed to folks who really need them. I’ve also orded tee shirts for our family. I know it does less than sending product directly to affected areas but it does something, including supporting a local artist.

I’m not comfortable with identifying a problem and not seeing solutions. Please, let me know what you’re doing in the comments.

At 4.30 this morning a car came to pick me up. Whenever I do TV appearances I decline the car service because typically I’m going on Prime News or Jane Velez Mitchell and I go straight from taping to the grocery store or to pick up kids. This morning I’d have cried or crashed (maybe both) if I was required to drive myself 10 minutes to the TV studio and back.

So I played princess.

And at 4.30 a lovely man pulled up in front of the house, cheerily greeted me and we pulled away. I felt compelled to make small chat so I did but I was beyond tired and managed only to chatter about traffic and the lack of it. After I’d filled the silence adequately my driver waited a few moments and kindly said, “I’m Geraldo. It’s nice to meet you.”

I hadn’t asked his name. I’m not that person. Of course none of us ever think we are that person but we are all that person, we just fight it and at some points in our lives or days we fight it better than others. Geraldo kept me company on the way to the studio and then waited for me. He is a kind and gentle man.

I did quick makeup and fortunately my hair was already fine from the night before so I took my seat, put in the earpiece and the producer had me do a count for him. Meanwhile I was in the booth with the LA producer and we were talking about the volume in my ear. The NY producer asked me if I was okay with all of this and I said, “Yes.” Thinking of course that he was talking about the volume in my ear and then he was like, “So you think it’s cool for everyone to take Adderall?” And I got a giggle because it’s obviously not okay and I’m easily amused at 5am when I’m wearing a blazer on top and pajama pants on the bottom.

We finished our segment and then I stripped out of my blazer and shell and returned to my cozy sweats so I could curl up into the backseat of the car that waited for me downstairs.

When we pulled up to the house I grabbed the only cash I had to tip sweet Geraldo and found six dollar. Six measly dollars. Before napping today I’m going to stuff a $20 in an envelope and send it off to Diva because that’s just embarrassing.