@ted: Short answer, yes. The best I can do is imagine myself as an ancient, dementia-addled soul who wants to be comfortable and cared for in my final years, and I see this as a Very viable alternative to the most common situation, which is being sort-of-cared-for in a crap place while my loved ones figure out how they can avoid visiting this week. Just because they didn't know their caretakers in their conscious life doesn't mean the level of care they're getting isn't great, and anyway a nursing home would be the same difference--except that certain cultures value the old more than others and so treat them much better.

Also: Hi! I moved to Mexico and am right now listening to the ocean do its thing in a beach front room with deck for ten dollars a night. The point being...do what works for you. And you're all invited to visit. Except for Evilbeagle. Kidding! Hasta...

Not to be worn with wolf shirt.

The defenders are using telling phrases like "I believe" [the doses were low] and "I'm sure" [they were careful].

This form of argument is about as effective as "believing" your child does not have an undiagnosed heart condition before you allow him a shock to the system.

If you insist on the power of blind supposition with regard to keeping children from harm, please allow me to direct you to the contraceptive aisle. I KNOW condoms can prevent bad parenting.

Memory Gardens: Forget it, we've lost the plot.

Where are my puns? I demand puns.

@Anthony vERBICK: It's Drawinism in the initial sketching phase.

Oh man these were so great! When I was five.

@JMM: Yes he'll be walking the streets, with her on his arm. She says she wants to be with him when he gets out. And that is your whack factoid for the day.

Gather round, children: You're all going to die.

Why would you want to hurt a hummingbird though?

@Woogie: I'm actually on your side about this issue, but to be fair, are you saying you didn't prepare or study or gather any information to get ready for the birth of your children? The analogy to an automatic bodily function like the one you mentioned isn't apt.

The big deal here is not, I don't think, about how craaaazy it is that a husband could effectively assist his wife in a delivery, but that he followed a youtube HowTo for it. It's funny and kind of great that he made it work.

And while helping to birth your children without any outside assistance may have worked for you, it's not the right thing for everybody, and people can certainly be forgiven for desiring guidance in any form they see fit.

Am I insane, or does that Van Gogh quote suggest EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of the researchers' claim? And don't answer the first part of my question.

This just in: Commenters go hogwild in ham-handed bid to win internet debate. As pigheaded assertions reach epidemic levels, CDC recommends afflicted herd themselves into bed, get plenty of flu-ids, take livestock of the uselessness of it all.

I don't understand whether I'm supposed to be angry at the DMV because it is evil or happy about one less pasty manchild behind the wheel. That guy looks like a fetus.

Porco Traditore!!!!!!!