Tired just thinking about it

Too much is going on in the world.

Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether or not citizens have the right to bring suit against the government when they feel the separation of church and state is being ignored - such as in the case of President Bush's faith-based initiatives, which give preferential treatment to religious applicants over secular applicants. Perhaps it should just be called the "good works initiative". When applying, people can strip out any and all references to religion in their applications and get money based on the merit of their organization, not because they believe in the same God the president does. (Okay, I know that wasn't fair but come on!) The Supreme Court has previously held that taxpayers may challenge government assistance to religion but with a new court, who knows what will happen.

Issue 2 - The push to make it mandatory for all pre-teens to receive a vaccination to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV). Here's what I've learned so far - the drug companies recently had a drug, Gardasil, approved by the FDA and have been aggressively marketing to mandate vaccinations. Texas Governor Rick Perry has already signed an executive order for his state that requires all sixth grade girls to receive the vaccination. The drug must be given before a girl is sexually active to guarantee immunity from the most common causes. There are 40 types, the vaccination protects against four, two of which account for 70 percent of cervical cancer. The drug company recommends the vaccinations be given between the ages of 9 and 26. The push for early vaccination comes out of a study that showed trial subjects who were sexually active at the time of the vaccination had higher rates of cervical neoplasia (i.e., abnormal cancer cell precursors).
And here's some info on current cervical cancer rates in the U.S. Since 1955, cervical cancer rates in the U.S. are down 74 percent - thanks to the introduction of the pap smear. Fewer than one in 10,000 women over the age of 18 will get cervical cancer each year, and only about one in 30,000 will die from it. In the majority of these cases, the women did not get routine checkups and so did not discover the cancer until its later stages. Women who do contract HPV and are later diagnosed with cancer usually contract the virus in their 20s and 30s. The first reports regarding the pills efficacy came out in 2002. No long-term research has been done. Click here for more information. Oh, it should be noted that worldwide - worldwide, not the U.S. or other developed nations - cervical cancer is the second cancer-related cause of death for women. The regions with the highest risk include sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. You have to ask yourself, do we really need that vaccine here or would it actually help millions of women in developing nations? At $360, the drug company stands to make an estimated $3 billion if they are successful in getting a nationwide mandate.

And finally - Al Gore uses electricity even though he is fighting for folks to help stop global warming! Egads! Are you frickin' kidding me? Seriously, has the right-wing spin machine gotten so far off track it can't come up with anything better to hit this poor man with? Guess what? You can't claim global warming isn't happening anymore because everyone knows it is. Don't worry, though, as the polar caps melt and the water levels rise, you'll get the first hint you were dead wrong when you're standing knee-deep in water in what used to be your flood-free home. A .07 degree rise (or whatever it is) over the last 50-100 years might not seem significant to you but it seems a helluva lot warmer in the poles, at the tops of mountains, to the glaciers that are disappearing. And yeah, Gore uses electricity and drives cars and does all of those things we all do. You know what he does to offset that? He buys green energy - you might have heard of it, wind power, solar power, hydro-electric power. And the man buys offsets to reduce or negate his carbon footprint. Pardon my angry tirade but anyone who doesn't feel some sense of responsibility for what has happened to our planet is a yahoo. (Click here so you can understand the insult I just lobbed your way.)