woah: noisy ibook cdr/dvd drive

Um. So I just popped a cd into the laptop for the first time in a long time, and it is being NOISY. I think something might be broken.

Anyone had this happen with their iBook?

It's still working; I'm successfully ripping the CD. It just seems very noisy about it.

In other news, there are stupid people on the int0rweb. Go figure.

Curves: Evil, or not?

Many of you have probably heard by now the rumors floating around about how Curves is anti-choice, a position which seems nigh-contradictory for a chain which seems to focus on empowering women.

I decided that it was time to look into this myself, rather than spreading it further.

Those of you also interested may find the following links interesting:
The San Francisco Chronicle's correction of its erroneous columns, which accused the chain of donating 10% of its profits to radical anti-choice groups
A Fast Facts listing on the Curvers for Choice website

From reading the above two documents, I feel I have a much better grasp on what is going on.
Heavins, the owner of Curves International donates the following money:

• $750,000/year for five years (3.75 million) to the Family Practice Center of McClennan County, which is neutral on abortion.
  
• 50,000/year for five years ($250,000) to the McLennan County Collaborative Abstinence Program, which funds abstinence education for students in grades 5-12; most of this initiatives funding comes from Texas and the federal government. Also, as it turns out, sex education in Texas MUST emphasize abstinence until marriage due to laws Bush passed when he was governor. So this funding doesn't change anything.
  
• 200,000/year for five years (1 million) to Care Net of Central Texas, which provides counseling to pregnant women which tries to convince them to consider adoption rather than abortion. Heavins' grant constitutes a major portion of their funding.

According to both Curves and the correction issued by the SF Chronicle, these donations come from Heavins' personal wealth, and not from Curves. All the same, isn't his wealth derived from Curves? Even if he had several million to begin with, if he didn't have the income from owning Curves, he couldn't possibly be making donations this large without destroying his fortune. Am I right, or do I not understand how finances of companies work?

Based on the correction, it appears that there is no evidence to indicate that Heavins or Curves are allied with radical anti-choice groups.

A pro-choice owner of a Curves gym estimates that about 50 cents of each membership goes to Curves International. The rest stays within the specific gym you've joined, according to her.

Still, we must all make our own choices as responsible consumers. By joining Curves, your money MAY be supporting a counselor in Texas who is offering counseling with an agenda to women in need, and sex educators who are not allowed to discuss abortions with students. There's a lot of uncertainty in that may, but it is something to consider. I'd be interested to hear what you-all think; my mind is not made up, but luckily, I'm not interested in joining Curves, so I don't have to make this decision. I'm a normal gym kinda gal.

(no subject)

Dear friends,

Wow. I don't follow lj-drama, but I wouldn't be surprised if I've been highlighted twice, yesterday, in it. It's amazing how you can make posts without the intention of sparking a controversy (although the response to the Curves post is less of a surprise than the response to the polyamory post).

For the record, for those who didn't see it in the comments section:
I apologize for using the term anti-choice to describe people who are pro-life. It was not a case of malicious forethought, but rather, a case of carelessness.

The abortion debate has been interesting, and I confess I've learned some interesting things which make me interested to learn more. I'm particularly interested in the current neuroscience associated with fetuses (is that the right word?).

As for the polyamory poll. Wow. I took the community off my default view a while back for a variety of reasons. I put out a poll because I was curious. I thought it would be amusing to see the answers. A number of people, strangers with one exception, took it as an opportunity to attack me.

To those people (some of which have decided to check out my journal), I say a few things:
(1) Get a life. If people want to take such a poll and be amused by it, great. If people want to look at the results, just like the results of any lj quiz or silly meme, great. Why do you care? (that's a rhetorical question; I'm not interested in your answer)
(2) Stop taking things so seriously. You act like this matters, but it doesn't.
(3) Take a page from the word polyamory and let a little more love into your life. Looking at the way you approached the situation, there seems to be a good dose of hostility and contempt in there. Would you respond with such vitriol in person? Or are you hiding behind the dehumanizing effect the internet can have to let loose, say what you really think, and assert your superiority in ways you wouldn't in normal social situations? (these are also rhetorical questions; I'm not interested in your answer)

I suggest that those of you who are looking to find a compassionate, intellectual method for approaching confrontation take a page from the velvety one, velvetpage, in the abortion debate. She was civil, polite, respectful, and yet disagreed without being dogmatic. I felt disappointed by humanity after all the crap I read in the polyamory community, but reading the abortion debate in my own journal at least somewhat helps restore that faith.

Comments will be screened; I'm not interested in seeing anymore venom in my journal today.