In what is apparently my Salon night, I’m linking to this piece about our role in not stopping the ongoing AIDS explosion
President Bush claims he is leading the world in the fight against global AIDS. But he has been inexplicably stingy and slow to act — and by placing religion over science, he’s responsible for the loss of untold numbers of lives.
Not as many lives as those grassfuckers Reagan and JP2 are responsible for, but a huge, huge number. Also on the list: big pharma, the WTO, and anyone else who won’t release their patents for the manufacture of generic drugs in developing countries. You all have blood on your hands.
Sammy Sosa recently developed an abcess on his foot. This became infected (staph), badly enough to put him on the 15-day DL (there’s a rash of staph infections nationwide right now for some reason). Rumor is, that infection is MRSA, aka the “superbug” which is resistant to almost all known form of antibiotics. This is one of the most dangerous bugs out there today and is some scary, scary shit.
Of course, we have no evidence that it’s MRSA, but I wouldn’t be a blogger if I wasn’t irresponsibly speculating on wildly speculative fearmongering matters, now, would I?
A Bush-appointed prominent OB/GYN on the FDA’s appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs not only wrote a “minority report” that provided justification for the FDA to refuse to release emergency “morning after” contraception for over the counter use, but is also a sexual predator who forcibly sodomized his ex-wife on a regular basis.
This is the man with a large portion of control over women’s reproductive rights and the ear of the administration and our regulatory agencies.
With the autumn sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, Hager opened his Bible to the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel and looked out into the audience. “I want to share with you some information about how…God has called me to stand in the gap,” he declared. “Not only for others, but regarding ethical and moral issues in our country.”
…
Back at Asbury, Hager cast himself as a victim of religious persecution in his sermon. “You see…there is a war going on in this country,” he said gravely. “And I’m not speaking about the war in Iraq. It’s a war being waged against Christians, particularly evangelical Christians. It wasn’t my scientific record that came under scrutiny [at the FDA]. It was my faith…. By making myself available, God has used me to stand in the breach…. Just as he has used me, he can use you.”
Up on the dais, several men seated behind Hager nodded solemnly in agreement. But out in the audience, Linda Carruth Davis–co-author with Hager of Stress and the Woman’s Body, and, more saliently, his former wife of thirty-two years–was enraged. “It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard,” she recalled months later, through clenched teeth.
According to Davis, Hager’s public moralizing on sexual matters clashed with his deplorable treatment of her during their marriage. Davis alleges that between 1995 and their divorce in 2002, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent. Several sources on and off the record confirmed that she had told them it was the sexual and emotional abuse within their marriage that eventually forced her out. “I probably wouldn’t have objected so much, or felt it was so abusive if he had just wanted normal [vaginal] sex all the time,” she explained to me. “But it was the painful, invasive, totally nonconsensual nature of the [anal] sex that was so horrible.”
Think the “liberal” media will be all over this one? I wonder what the Bible says about sodomy and marital rape?
No, I am not making this up either.
A life-like prosthetic penis called the Whizzinator and other products promising to help illegal drug users pass urine tests provoked U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday to take legal action with subpoenas of manufacturers.
Lawmakers objected to attempts to circumvent drug tests with products such as The Whizzinator, a fake penis that can provide a flow of clean urine “again and again, anytime, anywhere you need it!”
The GOP is starting to give lip service to support of stem cell Research.
My prediction is that it goes nowhere because Bush vetos the bill, and then there aren’t enough votes to over ride the veto. Next election the GOP congressmen can hit the campaign trail and say, “See? No reason to vote for the Democrat, we tried to get it passed but we we got vetoed.”
Most of the Southern Congressmen can safely vote against stem cell research because the GOP in the south has shown that it can run anyone with a pulse and win. The GOP will be playing to the more moderate audiences in other states to show them they are reasonable.
Our government hasn’t gotten a bit smarter since the days when Medical Schools had to have a grave robber on staff to provide cadavers for their students to study.
Hi, mom! We lost $1.1B in the last quarter, and guess what? We’re going to blame *mumble*fallingsales*mumble* and a “healthcare cost crisis“!!! Did I mention the healthcare cost crisis part? Because it’s totally not about having shitty sales due to a shitty economy and shitty cars. It’s totally about the healthcare.
So… they could be toast. I think that nationalized healthcare will come from more of this. If the megacorps finally realize how grossly inefficient and expensive our healthcare is, they’ll push for socialized medicine. That would be a good thing via the back door. I’m OK with that.
It’s the new Ebola! Run! Run away!!!!!!
Sensationalist headlines, alarmist text like this:
“It’s becoming a huge problem,” said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, which has dispatched surveillance teams to the country’s northern provinces. “We clearly don’t know the dimensions of the outbreak.”
Let’s be clear – 178 people have died from the Marburg strain.
Meanwhile over 25 million people in Africa are infected with HIV. 25 million.
Medicare Law Hurts Cancer Patients
So it's more difficult for those with the greatest need to get chemotherapy now. That's great. What a well-designed medicare reform package that was.
First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim
It was only a matter of time. DU dust is some scary shit, man.
Study: Farmed Salmon Poses Risks
"Farm-raised salmon contain significantly more dioxins and other potentially cancer-causing pollutants than do salmon caught in the wild, says a major study that tested contaminants in fish bought around the world.
Salmon farmed in Northern Europe had the most contaminants, followed by North America and Chile, according to the study released Thursday. It blames the feed used on fish farms for concentrating the ocean pollutants.
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Eating more than a meal of farm-raised salmon per month, depending on its country of origin, could slightly increase the risk of getting cancer later in life, researchers conclude. They urge consumers to buy wild salmon and recommend that farmers change fish feed."
For Middle Class, Health Insurance Becomes a Luxury
Why are people so against national health care or some rational form thereof. This is ridiculous, and growing worse by the day. Not only are the haves getting more and more of the pie, they'll also be the only ones who can go see a doctor when they want to.
A national health care plan will come someday. I vote for sooner rather than later.
Scientologist's Treatments Lure Firefighters
I'm a believer in the power of the mind in re: healing the body. I'm also all for people believing what they want to believe, but I also think faith healing is largely a racket set to prey upon those who are most hopeless.
After breathing all those toxins, I can imagine they're having some significant medical problems.
Hope it works.
Non-human Molecule Is Absorbed By Eating Red Meat
Uh… I can't remember chartoo's commentary here, but basically there's something else you get from red meat besides saturated fats, steroids, and a wild desire to mount some heifers (that last one could just be me).