Quote:

They aren't. Real tourettes isn't "wah wah he doesn't listen to me! He must need medication!" Real tourettes is an actual problem that makes one of my very dear friends unable to keep from yelling every minute or so. If you get a child declared ADD/special needs, the support money lasts until age 23 instead of 18, and the amount of the money is adjusted accordingly. This is a huge amount.

I claim that a majority of mothers that do this are doing it for the support money.


In part I've felt sometimes that gays not being able to get married (and thus divorce each other out of all their money) was probably a favor to them...

@fish: A claim that highly resembles your 'I've met a few bad atheist and that means all atheist are bad' claim.

Exactly how many mothers do you know does this before coming to this conclusion? And I mean, explicitly know they do this as in you have evidence.

Not baseless accusations like "she's a mother with a kid that's *not* my friend and gets psychodrugs for their problems so they must be lying greedy suckers".

What was your sample size?

And is it big enough to generalize about 5.3 million kids affected with ADHD, 60% of whom are getting treatment.

That means (60%) * 5300000 = 3180000 kids are getting medicated.

Which would mean your sample size, with a 5% margin of error, 95% confidence level, and a 50% response distribution has to be around 385 women.

Can you honestly say that you questioned 385 women randomly and have explicit evidence they were cheating the system?

If so, than you have a case and its a very troubling prospect to see the government trick so easily. If not, it is another baseless accusation.

@KTC

How did you statistically link the number of children being treated with using their mothers as the sample?

Did you run an average number of ADHD kids per mother o.O?

@kleptin:
"Did you run an average number of ADHD kids per mother o.O?"

Oops, I overlooked that tidbit. Looks like I need to find more data. Will go searching more hmm tomorrow after my lab report XD

Edit: oh whatever, I'll do some math first.

Let's see if I get it right:
the average american family has 1.83 kids per couple. (stats from 2000 but I can't find anything better)

As of 2000, there are 64,494,637 couples with children under the age of 18.

64494637 couples *1.83 kids per couple=118,025,186 kids

There's a 1 in 10 kids develop ADHD.

118,025,186 kids * 1/10 of developing ADHD= 11 802 518.6 kids with ADHD

11802518.6 kids with ADHD /1.83Average kids/couple = 6449463.72 couples with ADHD kids

Annd plug into the calculator i mentioned earlier: well what do you know, 385 sample size lol!

Regardless, I'm impressed. You're pretty hardcore. I think you should consider joining the website I mentioned in the Debate Club thread.

@kleptin: only when its something stats related. Easier to prove or see where you mess up in.

I'll think bout it after passing my human phys course. it's kicking my rear end.

math's up though I'm a bit unsure on the couples with adhd kids number. Something doesn't look right with it. I think its because it assume that the each of the 6.5million couples have 1.83 adhd kids. However, this would give the smallest number of couples with adhd kids so it could be taken as a conservative number I think.

The extreme would be 11802518.6 couples with 1 adhd kid each which would still require a sample size of roughly 385.

So overall, you got anywhere from 6449463.72-11802518.6 couples with at least 1 adhd kids and it still requires a sample size of 385.

Checked a bunch of other sample size calculators that still claims 385 is a good sample size so I believe my math is correct.

Edit: no wait, only 60% of those kids get treatment though. So I would get a lower total population.

*calculates*

11802518.6 kids with adhd *60% = 7081511.16 adhd kids who actually get treatment

Now if we get the extremes of that:
High = 7081511.16 adhd kids/ 1kid per couple =7081511.16 couples with 1 adhd kid who get medical care

7081511.16 adhd kids/1.83 avg kids per couple= 3869678.23 couples with 1.83 adhd kids and treats them

NUTSHELL (unless you wanna check my math XD):
So the number of couples who have at least 1 adhd kid and gets medical care is somewhere between 3869678.23-7081511.16.

The sample size required would be: 384-385 still.

Annd i believe that's correct now lol! XD

Guys. Like Argoyle said, this is off topic. Please return to the topic at hand.

Some recommendations for those who want to broaden their horizons:
The book Transgender warriors by Leslie Feinberg - I liked this book a lot. It covers a much wider topic than just transsexuality as it could seem from the title; I think anyone interested in the topic of gender can find something there.
And the site genderfork.com that will show you perspectives you may never have thought about before. ^_^

And to really mess with your brains, try reading anything from Judith Butler.

Linky

If I'm reading the wiki correctly, she says gender AND sex doesn't exist. They are artificial constructions that we designed. We've 'brainwashed' ourselves so much that we think of 2 sexes as 'natural' when they are only human constructs.

At least, I think that's what she's saying. I'm a (in training) biologist, not a gender theorist XD

No, this is an example of an idiot. I absolutely hate it when people take up these nonsensical stances that everything is a result of society.

Gender and sex very much do exist and they are ingrained in our DNA. It goes far beyond the firetruck vs doll argument of the 1960s. The very process by which we understand the universe differs between men and women.

@kleptin: I'll agree with you about the sex but not the gender part. Otherwise we wouldn't be getting transgender and other 'wrong gender' people.

In some cultures, there's a 'third' gender that, while most western societies will not recognize/understand, are valid still for that culture.

Lols, KTC, the people called hijras begging on the street are males wearing make-up on purpose. I'll give you the link where the gays of this country clearly said they do not do this. These hijra beggars are the reason gays are looked down here.

@theone: ?? I do not know what you are referring to.

The third gender thing you gave the link to. Third gender is mostly fake. As science shows, the two chromosomes XX or XY is responsible for Gender. The people exclusively mentioned in the link give gays a bad name.

@theone: no, science shows that XX/XY are responsible for sex NOT gender. The standard is that an XX = female human while an XY = a male human. (note I said human because in other animals like chickens its reverse. An XX is male while a XY is female)

And than it gets confusing when you have XXX/XXY/XO gene disorders. And course the ever popular "XY BUT is physically female" disorder. A default human will always be female physically if the gene works doesn't match. Generally a sterile female but still female.

Your gene work though will not tell you if the person in question is actually a woman or a man. That's where transgender comes in because its a mind attached to the wrong body.

And for the third gender, I was thinking more of the "faafafine" from the samoan culture. They are really considered a third gender.

Woah. Never knew that. And I thought college bio was hard

@theone: um, that's actually what I remember from my highschool bio course lol.

The chickens were from the college genetic course, but the rest? highschool

Well, if you still speak about the sex change, and the mind in the wrong body, it's not somehting unusual. Still people, no? No more eys than normal, neither arms nor legs, everything is alright, the difference being the preferences, that's normal, IMO, it has nothing to do with the genetics. And you miss one thing there, KTC, with the genetics, that there are also the so called genetic diseases, or disorders, where the cromozomes are messed up, and sindromes like cri-du-chat and many others are born.

@kenneth: yes, but those defects will not change your sex so I saw no point in mentioning them. The sex chromosomes (X and Y) are suppose to determine your sex. The rest are suppose to determine how the rest of you body works ie does your cerebellum develop properly, do you have enough hemoglobin in your blood, etc.

@Kleptin: do you have any documents on the DNA thing, the only thing I can find are documents saying the opposit.

@Kenneth: it could technically be be possible that a malfunctioning of hormone production (estrogen, testosteron,...), makes the hormones unbalanced and that could change something about sexuality, but I can't find anything about a recognised disabilty that has a problem with any hormones that could change sexuality.

The closest thing I can find is that people with autism have slightly (they didn't say how much, but they made it seem like it was a very small raise) more chance to be gay. They didn't explain why, but I believe that this is because of some aspects of autism that are more side-effects of the syndrome, than from autism itself.

EDIT: didn't see that you were talking about complete sex changes already.

certain disabilities change your sex chromosomes, but they don't affect the sex.

normal genotype of a male: XY (fenotypical male)
normal genotype of a female: XX (fenotypical female)

woman with triple X syndrome: XXX (or more) (fenotypical female)

woman with Turner syndrome: XO (no second X chromosome) (fenotypical female)

man with Klinefeltersyndrome: XXY (fenotypical male, with female traits)

man with XYY-syndrome: XYY (fenotypical male

These are syndromes I found in my papers for school, I didn't look for any on the internet, but I'm sure if there is a sex-changing syndrome of any importance, it would have been mentioned.