Conservative Cancer

"A new vaccine that protects against cervical cancer has set up a clash between health advocates who want to use the shots aggressively to prevent thousands of malignancies and social conservatives who say immunizing teen-agers could encourage sexual activity.

Although the vaccine will not become available until next year at the earliest, activists on both sides have begun maneuvering to influence how widely the immunizations will be employed."

This is incredible... social conservatives are actually opposed to a vaccine which could save lives! According to the article, the vaccine would protect against the human papilloma virus, which is sexually transmitted and which can cause cancer. It's the primary cause of cancer in the US and affects 10,000 women each year, killing more than 3,700.

I wonder if social conservatives would feel differently about the vaccine if it saved the lives of men.

Click here for the full article

- Jean Chen

fuh2

We can't ignore the fact that global warming is actually happening. The arctic is melting and the US still refuses to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Sure, Toyota's hybrid car is selling like hotcakes, but it seems like for every hybrid car on the road, there's a Hummer burning gas at a rate of 10 miles per gallon.

So, for all of us who care about the environment, I found this site:

Fuck You and Your H2

- Jean Chen

Sheryl Swoopes Comes Out

WNBA superstar Sheryl Swoopes just came out, after being in a relationship with a woman for eight years. Lesbians have one more icon to look up to, which is really great. Too bad it took her so long:

Click here for the article

- Jean Chen

Gold Diggers

Yipes! Just when I think that we've done all we can to destroy the environment, I read this article in the NY Times on how gold mining is toxic and damaging:

"Consider a ring. For that one ounce of gold, miners dig up and haul away 30 tons of rock and sprinkle it with diluted cyanide, which separates the gold from the rock. Before they are through, miners at some of the largest mines move a half million tons of earth a day, pile it in mounds that can rival the Great Pyramids, and drizzle the ore with the poisonous solution for years.

"Some metal mines, including gold mines, have become the near-equivalent of nuclear waste dumps that must be tended in perpetuity. Hard-rock mining generates more toxic waste than any other industry in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency estimated last year that the cost of cleaning up metal mines could reach $54 billion."

Click here for the full article

- Jean Chen

McBill

"Makers and sellers of fast food won a weighty victory when the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to approve the so-called cheeseburger bill, which would bar lawsuits from obese Americans who accuse the industry of making them fat."

What do you think? Should people be able to sue McDonald's for making them fat? It seems silly to be able to do so, but then when you take into account all the advertising that makes fast food seem like it's a healthy choice, then I start to wonder.

The best part of the article is this:

"But the sponsor of the Personal Responsibility and Food Consumption Act, Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., a portly man who admits a passion for junk food, was not on the House floor for the vote. He was hospitalized Wednesday so doctors could install a heart-monitoring device.

Keller spokesman Bryan Malenius said that Keller has cardiac arrhythmia and that the congressman's medical condition is "not cheeseburger-related -- but I do see the irony."

Read the full article

- Jean Chen

100 million dollars!

That's how much Howard Stern is getting paid a year to host his radio show on satellite radio.

Check out the article

- Jean Chen

Mother Nature

What's going on with all the natural disasters? First there was that huge tsunami in South Asia, then Hurricane Katrina, and now mudslides in Guatemala and the earthquake in Pakistan. Some folks have been speculating that because of global warming, the weather and the earth are going nutty. I don't know if I agree with that, but well, maybe it's true?

Also, are there any relief agencies that could use donations for the earthquake?

- Jean Chen

Dropping All Pretenses

Ok, yes, so the Harriet Miers nomination is my new obsession... because something just doesn't seem right.

What's really bothering me about the whole circus surrounding the situation is that conservatives are complaining that she isn't conservative enough. Whatever happened to the notion that a judge is an unbiased civil servant, someone who makes decisions based on the law? In the past, it seems that there was some effort to make it look like people were nominating non-partisan judges. But when did politicians and leaders drop all those pretenses and start publicly screaming for a conservative or liberal judge?

- Jean Chen

Backlash

It's not just the conservative backlash against Harriet Miers or the public's disapproval of how Hurricane Katrina was handled. In a 90 - 9 vote, the Senate, going against the White House, voted to set new limits on interrogatin detainees in Iraq and elsewhere.

"Forty-six Republicans joined 43 Democrats and one independent in voting to define and limit interrogation techniques that U.S. troops may use against terrorism suspects, the latest sign that alarm over treatment of prisoners in the Middle East and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is widespread in both parties. The White House had fought to prevent the restrictions, with Vice President Cheney visiting key Republicans in July and a spokesman yesterday repeating President Bush's threat to veto the larger bill that the language is now attached to -- a $440 billion military spending measure."

Click here for the full article

- Jean Chen

Born Again

What's up with Harriet Miers? Or more specifically, what's up with the Dems and Repubs on Harriet Miers? The Dems seem unusually silent on her and some seem to approve her as a nominee, while on the other side, Repubs are split about her. A lot of conservatives are claiming that she's not right wing enough -- but it's now coming out that she's a born again Christian!

Check out article

She's obviously conservative, so why are there protests from the right and not from the left?

On another note, the transition from Democrat to Republican often coincides with becoming born again Christian. Check out this P&P article:

Read article

The thing is, you can be Christian and liberal:

Read article

-Jean Chen

No Experience

Once again, Bush is trying to appoint someone to a position, when that person has no prior job experience. First it was Michael Brown as head of FEMA, and now it's Harriet Meirs to the Supreme Court. As the Washington Post pointed out:

"If confirmed by the Senate, Miers would be a rare appointee with no experience as a judge at any level."

Yikes!

- Jean Chen

The Bad Old Days

I was crusing the mega Friends of the Library Book Sale today when I started leafing through this 1932 guide to comedy. Pages of tips on how to be funny, dissecting "Take my wife, please" and "Boy, are my arms tired" types of jokes. Somewhere 'round page 200 was this random lame joke about quarter tones that ended with he punchline "What is the definition of the word "octoroon?"

When I'm watching old media, I'm constantly shocked by the everyday prejudice that pops up in the unlikliest of sources, like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney putting on blackface in "Babes on Broadway." People may like to ridicule "political correctness," but...jeez, it beats having a world where casual racism is considered family fun.