Beautiful People With An Ugly Gene

I really didn't know if I would post today until I saw the article in Reuters about Angelina Jolie and her double  mastectomy. Her mother died of breast cancer, so she had gene testing for BRCA1, found out she carried the gene and elected to have life saving surgery. Brad was with her through the whole ordeal. Sigh.
 I don't want to know what it's like to have to make a decision like this. I hope I never find out. Because I can't afford it.
Angelina urges women to get tested, kudos to her. But you'd think with all her experience in the arena of social justice she would realize that a $3000 test and a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery costing upwards of $50,000, is not possible in the US, for millions of women, let alone for women  in the war torn countries she's visited.

Angelina's heart was probably in the right place, but it seems like the only people who can have an outcome like hers are the wealthy and celebrities. It's not going to be the middle aged woman down the street whose mother died of breast cancer. It's not going to be the cashier at Walmart or the pharmacist at Walgreens.  Raising awareness is a great thing, unless you are aware you are at risk and can't do anything about it.
When someone as beautiful and talented as Angelina Jolie has a fatal flaw like a gene marker for breast cancer, we all feel sympathy, we acknowledge her courage dealing with a life threatening disease. That someone like her, with everything going for her and every advantage could succumb to a cancer that kills almost 40,000 women a year, is frightening. The estimates for 2013 are about 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women* I think that looks like an epidemic. If that many people contracted SARS, I wonder what the response would be?
Last year, there was a huge scandal about the Susan Komen  Foundation, eliminating $680,000 in grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings, which they backpedaled after criticism and restored the grants. That was bad enough, but what really stuck with me were the bloated salaries for the people running this "non-profit." The  Komen Foundation spends a lot of money suing companies or people who use "the cure" in their advertising. A lot of money is spent on awareness, but like the Slate article I linked says, who's not aware of breast cancer? Couldn't they sink all that money into research? Just a thought. I think that's what we need more of, research. Breast cancer has been around for a very long time, as far back as 1600 BC, Egypt. It just seems kind of crazy to me that the most fortunate among us like Angelina Jolie's best option is to cut off her breasts to beat this disease. Shouldn't we be able to do better than that? I mean for every woman, not just Jolie.
I am happy for Angelina and her family that she may live a long life due to her radical and expensive treatment. But I feel kind of depressed about average women who also have families, that simply will not be able to have access to that kind of treatment. They will just be living a kind of quiet desperation of NOT being one of the beautiful people who have the breast cancer gene.
*How many women get breast cancer?

The Slippery Slope, To Less Abortions

Thank you, Judge Korman!

I am a single mother. People say that parenting is the hardest job in the world. They have no idea when it comes to being a single mother. You have everything going against you. Some women choose to be single mothers, for a variety of reasons, sometimes death comes to your door and you are thrust into the world of single parenting, it's not easy to say the least.
There's a whole lot of people who like to go off about women who have babies for all the free benefits the government hands out, like it's some get rich quick scheme. These are the same people who don't want abortion to be legal. I have seen these same people do a complete about face when their daughter gets pregnant. Things are different when your baby is not ready to have a baby.
There's been way to much controversy about Plan B emergency contraception. Finally, a judge had the guts to call the FDA's restrictions on Plan B "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."
Jezebel made a list of five drugs more dangerous than the Plan B pill, like Advil and Benedryl, any kid can buy these medications.The reasoning against Plan B becoming over the counter is politically and religiously motivated. There's nothing scientific about it.
 The notion of a young woman who finds herself at risk of an unplanned pregnancy, will go to her parents to make a doctors appointment and get a prescription, leaves out the very real possibility that her father could be the one who got her in that predicament. But no one wants to acknowledge that possibility. There are a whole lot of ugly scenarios as to why a woman would need a Plan B pill that aren't discussed. Then there's the "whoops" factor, whatever the reason is, access to emergency contraception shouldn't be denied because of religious or political reasons. Morality and common sense are at odds when it comes to a person making a decision about whether or not she wants to go through with an unplanned pregnancy. It is hard enough to become a parent when you have planned everything down to the last detail, things can still go horribly wrong. There are a lot of religious zealots that act as if giving birth is safer than taking Plan B.
Going to the drugstore, getting a box of Plan B and proceeding to the checkout counter should be an easy and logical choice. Instead you have to go to the pharmacist, in front of whomever is in line, explain yourself, show ID and listen to the pharmacist's instructions. (Already inside the box) Seems like a perfect recipe to embarrass and stress out a person who is already in a stressful situation. Make sense? Not really.
America has a problem when women make decisions about their reproductive health, there's always some moral or religious problem associated with women exercising their free will sexually or reproductively.
In a perfect world the decision to become a mother should be just that, a choice. Not something unplanned that is forced on you.
The best thing about Plan B is that it could make abortion a thing of the past. Republicans just can't have that, because they use abortion in every election and it would no longer be relevant. Not having to listen to conservative assholes get on their high horse about abortion anymore should be enough to welcome Plan B on every Walgreen's shelf everywhere. 
Happy Mother's Day!

The Secret Life Of Chemicals

Europe banned pesticides that are harmful to bees. Could that happen in the U.S.? The EPA'S. position blames Colony Collapse Disorder on mites. This way corporations can get away with bee murder. The EPA also gave us hormone enhanced milk and the use of antibiotics on animals and now mites are killing bees, but not GMO pollen or pesticides.
Lobbies are everywhere, including bee hives. The reason we don't do the same as Europe is because of the lobbies that represent Monsanto. Let me see, I think I read  something about the Farmer Protection Act, aka " The Monsanto Protection Act."Also known as the Roy Blunt R-Mo. Bill , he said he worked with Monsanto to craft this piece of legislation, which  is pretty much corporate welfare for Monsanto.
Neonicotinoids  are used for a lot of purposes, including flea control on domestic animals. Some of the research I have read indicates that the pesticides might not outright kill bees, but what it does do is affect their behavior. 
With a country as diverse as the U.S. it is confusing to me that we do not protect biodiversity. Maybe because it can't be monetized?
Chemical manufacturers obviously have more power here than in Europe, however Germany's Bayer CropScience calls the EU ban a "setback for technology." It looks to me like the bees are having a setback, but who cares if bees disappear and we can't pollinate plants anymore, yes, their are a lot of other non-hive dwelling insects that pollinate, but colony bees do a lot of the work. Apis Melliflera, what we know as the honey bee is not native to the U.S. but were brought to this country by Europeans. I think that killer bee's probably have a right to be pissed off the way we have been screwing up the environment.
Those that are empowered seek only their own selfish and damaging agenda's. I guess when all the bees have been eliminated then maybe the EPA will get on board with the EU but it will probably be too late.
As far as Monsanto goes, you can't patent a naturally occurring plant. So it benefits them financially to mess around with our food supply. These GMO's are allowed into our food supply without being tested because the FDA's Michel Taylor*, was in charge of FDA policy, he then became VP at Monsanto, he is a perfect example of the revolving door of our government and corporate jobs program. Not only have the bees been infected by corporate profit, also our government and our food supply.
It seems to me that bees have been around for millions of years without collapsing but now we have chemicals and GMO pollen and now they are dying. It's common sense to get the pesticides out of our food chain and GMO corn, wheat and whatever else. Europeans are obviously brighter than we are. They did give us Charles Darwin. But we are the ones who will probably win the "Darwin Award".
*Michael R. Taylor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miscarriage Of Justice

Ya Think?

 Sandra Day O'Conner's confession that well, maybe, the Supreme Court shouldn't have decided the outcome of a presidential election. A decision that sent the United States into a war for profit, hundreds of thousands dead and an economic depression we call the "Great Recession." Trillions of dollars wasted, millions of lives ruined, so that a dynasty could endure and what amounts to throwing out at least 50,000 American votes. We have had a battle royale going on with the gun nuts and their second amendment rights. But there is no outrage over the fact that votes weren't counted. That the election of George W Bush did not occur and now Sandy wants to get rid of her guilt by saying, Whoops! That was a mistake? Are you f'ing kidding me? 
54,000 people were purged from the Florida voting rolls, under the leadership of Jeb Bush. Military ballots were thrown out. A" Volusia Error" occurred when 412 registered voters somehow voted for George Bush 2,813 times on Diebold machines and unbelievably Diebold is still in business, owned by Walden O'Dell, a top Bush fundraiser.
I don't know if Sandy is senile or WTF her problem is now, but she and her fellow Supreme's are responsible for the mess this country is STILL in, along with Bush.
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to stop the recount. A recount that should have been put before the House of Representatives as the Constitution mandates. But all that was thrown out the window. You can take away the right to vote. But what if the Supreme Court decided to take away over 50,000 peoples guns? That's what really gets me. There would be rioting in the streets and shoot outs galore (well, there are anyway) if a decision like that was made about guns.
There is so much wrong in this country to THIS DAY because of this old fart.
There is a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay that President Obama is finally giving some attention to, a situation that wouldn't have occurred if it wasn't for the installation of the Bush regime. That's right Sandy, that's part of your legacy too, along with torture. The families who lost their children, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers in the War On Terror, will never be the same because of you.
We know that "At an election night party, Sandra Day O'Conner became upset when the media initially announced that Gore had won Florida, her husband explaining that they would have to wait another four years before retiring to Arizona ." But that's not conflict of interest right?
Oh, the wonderful legacy of George Bush you gave us, I will fondly remember him rubbing Angela Merkel's shoulders and  the shoes being lobbed at him, "for all the widows, orphans and everyone who died in Iraq." Someone should throw their shoes at you. 
Like The Onion reported, thanks to you and your co-horts decision, "our long national nightmare of prosperity and peace is over."  
The wreckage you have left trailing behind you because of your supreme cooperation, in one of the darkest decisions in U.S. history, may only be surpassed by Citizens United. 
I would like to know why? Why now, is there this guilt? Why now, do you think that your decision added to the problem, are you trying to distance yourself from war criminals? 
Justice O'Conner, there's no such thing as justice, when you can't trust the decisions being made by the highest court in the country. 
The Supreme Courts decision in Bush vs Gore is the best reason why we should have a popular vote for a presidential election. No Supreme Court decisions, no electoral college, throw away and all the rigged voting machines. Maybe if that happened, it would make up for the hijacking of the U.S., by the Supreme Court, maybe.

Almost Oceania

If your reading this your probably a Prole

So much crazy went down this week, I still feel dizzy. The Boston bomber was moved to a prison hospital, after being cared for in the same hospital as all the people he maimed. Some guy in mississippi was arrested for sending ricin laced letters to President Obama. Unfortunately, the FBI was too busy going after an Elvis impersonator first.
In an attempt to look like some kind of intellectual, George W. opened a library ( otherwise known as the Bush lie-bury) and no one said anything about Iraq or torture, like it never happened. Oh and rich people were stuck in their luxury jets on the runway because of the sequester cuts. Congress shockingly, could pass a bill to pay air traffic controllers so they could get out of Dodge D.C.. Even more shocking, they only work 126* days of the year. But no pay cut or pink slips for them.
Hey whatever happened with North Korea? I guess maybe they gave up on nukes, now they have a tourist, hostage that they are going to give the death penalty to. Syria has sarin and uses it, stepping over a red line, while we draw another one.
As crises after crises captured America's attention some people were watching what was going on in congress when they passed the CISPA bill that will die in the senate. First it was SOPA, then PIPA, ACTA, for a potential police state and massive unchecked corporate, government abuse but don't worry, I am sure they will try again to sell out the American people. Corporate money wrote that bill and they will pay politicians to write another and another until it finally passes. Any law that undermines privacy, undermines personal cybersecurity because it makes more personal information available to more people. Cybersecurity is a pretext for monitoring and gathering private information on ordinary internet users.
Let's see, I think someone might benefit from this, someone like Mike Rogers, who introduced this bill, his wife Kristy, until recently, was CEO of the Aegis LLC who got them a $10 billion contract with the State Department. What a coincidence.
 Every day the NSA is engaged in "systemic overcollection of Americans domestic communications." Big Brother is alive and well.
The Iraq War never happened.
The sequester is fine as long as only the poor are affected because that is a moral weakness according to puritan ethic, Paul Ryan and the Ministry of Fox News.

*Kenneth D. Ackerman: Congress' Calendar for 2013: 239 Days Off

American Exceptionalism

Did you know President Bush is making a comeback? According to what I read 47% of people approve of him and 50% don't. When he left office he had a 33% approval rating so now 47% is headline worthy. That is pretty surprising, what is more surprising is that he built a library. It doesn't seem to me that "W" spent a whole lot of time reading, especially when it came to the briefs he received on terrorism when he was in the White House. What really weirded me out during the research I was doing to find out if Bush actually read any of his briefs was this;

"That same day in Chechnya, according to intelligence I reviewed, Ibn Al-Khattab, an extremist who was known for his brutality and his links to Al Qaeda, told his followers that there would soon be very big news. Within 48 hours, an intelligence official told me, that information was conveyed to the White House, providing more data supporting the C.I.A.’s warnings. Still, the alarm bells didn’t sound".  Because "Shrub" didn't think Osama Bin Laden was a problem.
This was from July 9th 2001. 
Fast forward to April 2013, it looks like the FBI may have screwed up and that even Russia thought that the older brother who plotted the Boston Bombing was a problem. 
It's a good thing we have Bush's Patriot Act* to keep us more secure. " that stands for Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001." There was a re-authorization that President Obama signed which would "Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group." Yeah, how's that workin' out? I just feel really confused as to why we have this legislation that is supposed to keep us safe, that didn't keep us safe. We traded our rights for security. A security that just doesn't exist.
So now I guess there's going to be a big ole' committee and investigation that will end up going nowhere and doing nothing. Because these morons that represent us couldn't even pass a Gun Safety Act.  I don't know if a background check would have kept the two brothers who bombed Boston from carrying out their terrorist act or not. Could it keep future terrorists from carrying out future threats? I guess we'll never know.
The FBI and Homeland Security had all these tools that the Bush Administration bequeathed to them to no avail. 
When Bush decided to murder innocent people in his "War On Terror" he only succeeded in more terror being carried out. This is really Bush's legacy.  I wonder if there will be a copy of "My Pet Goat" in his library?
*Patriot Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

While the country tries to process the tragedies in Boston and Texas, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel is in Israel so he can broker a $10 million arms deal for Raytheon.
 General Dynamics, (they make the Fighting Falcons)  and Boeing's Osprey's and it's Stratotanker.
I am no authority on economics, but it seems to me we have lived in a war driven economy for a long time, long enough for us to have learned a lesson, but it seems not. We are arming a country that brought us the 9-11 terrorists. Now why are we doing that? Because they have oil.
Just a thought.
Instead of saying that, we are instead saying "we're sending a clear signal to Iran". How creative. Lets not forget these companies lobbies contributed heavily to President Obama's campaign and Romney's. (just in case)
These are the "job creators" our leaders are willing to invest in.
You would think after destabilizing the Middle East, we would have learned our lesson.

What I think is really telling when it comes to the money our government spends, that politicians are always crying about how we are broke and Social Security is our big problem, just look at the money we spend on defense, but you don't hear anyone crying about that.
Our country can't agree on gun control except that we can still act like we are living in  the wild west so lets just spread more violence world wide.
I can't wrap my head around the fact that we can't create a peace time jobs program for the unemployed in our own country. When are we going to invest in our own country other than making weapons?
 Can we agree that there are enough weapons of mass destruction all over the world?
Does Prince Bandar need more war toys to play with? Remember, this was one of "W"'s besties.
The Boston Marathon bombers we have found out, are from a war torn country called Chechnya. I wonder how much of what they witnessed in that country contributed to the violence they inflicted on Boston?
When are we going to understand the that violence and war should not be a way of life?
Maybe when we get the money out of politics?
Here's some Forrest Gump for you.