All Or Nothing

It's All About The Money! I Mean, The Health Care!

I'll be the first to admit it.  I keep my head planted firmly in the sand most of the time when it comes to playing politics.  Even when I'm only partially sand castled-in, I'm usually not going to write about it here.  There are so many other sites, so many other writers who have so much more knowledge and have done so much more research than I ever would have.

Also?  I'm kinda dumb.  I like clothes.  And Us Weekly.

Today, however, marks the second time I have (on this site) ventured into the wild jungle of - sigh - politics.  I'm going to try and avoid the branches of evasiveness and stay out of the swamplands of insidiousness, and just state my opinion on a particular issue.  However, and I am stating this up front, since this is MY opinion, it will probably be expressed every bit as strongly as I feel it should be.  It being my opinion and all.  So, with that, here we go.

Have you ever heard of this state, Texas?  It's kinda at the bottom of the US, that big giant state, where everyone has horses and wears cowboy hats and says howdy before they lasso you into their Southern Baptist Church, make you repent of all your sins, proclaim your undying love for George W. Bush, get real stupid-like, and then go out back for the church potluck barbecue?  Well, that's where I live.  Minus the horses, and the cowboy hats.  Oh, and all of the rest of that stuff, too.  But I digress.

Rick Perry is what, or rather who, I want to talk about.  He is the governor of Texas, and apparently the man really has a heart for health care.  Or, reelection campaign donations.  What?  Did I let that slip?  Of course I meant health care.  Obviously.

Because Governor Perry, in February, made a ground-breaking decision.  Governor Rick Perry decided that the vaccine Gardasil, manufactured by pharmaceuticals giant Merck and Co., should be a mandatory requirement for all 11 and 12 year old girls before entering the 6th grade.  This vaccination is supposed to help guard against HPV, a common sexually transmitted disease that can, if untreated, lead to cervical cancer. 

This mandate would take place in 2008, making Texas the first state to require the vaccine for school admission.  For girls.  I'm not sure why Merck didn't come up with something for the boys as well.  I'm sure they're in the labs right now, working on that.  But for now, it's just for the girls.  If anyone knows someone high up in a plastics or scrap metal company, I would suggest that they start work now on a prototype to lock up little boys penises.  Because if they can't stick 'em in the girls, then hey!  No more HPV!  And that's just the tip of that iceberg.  I mean, think of the possibilities.  No more pregnancies, no more sexually transmitted diseases at all, no more broken-hearted little girls....oh but seriously, I'm getting off the subject of HEALTH CARE and SAVING LIVES and OTHER BUZZ WORDS, so let me return.

Merck and Co. has donated a lot of money to Governor Rick Perry's reelection campaign.  Oh, and Perry's former chief of staff is now a lobbyist for the drug company.  Weird.  I'm sure the decision was about HEALTH CARE, though, and nothing else.  Just looking out for the girls!  Those sex-having, HPV contracting girls!  Silly things, they better ALL GET VACCINATED OR NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENROLL IN THE 6TH GRADE, because obviously they can't think for themselves.  Long-term effects be damned!  Cervical cancer must be prevented!

Governor Rick Perry, he felt so strongly about Health Care, he had to circumvent the normal routes to get this requirement signed into law form, and issued an executive order instead.   When can I expect the bank transfer to take place, Merck?  As soon as I sign this paper here?  Alrighty then! 

Handily, our government does have a system in place, a system that Perry overstepped with his executive order, a system that has since convened and voted 118-23 in support of squashing Merck's Perry's brilliant Health Care Scheme Greedy Plan Order.

Oh also, Governor Rick Perry is getting sued.  By several parents of preteen girls who, I suppose, don't want to be required to subject their daughters to expensive and largely untested vaccines that might help prevent against one type of STD if the girls start having wildly unprotected sex.  Weird!    Obviously they don't care about their children, because Governor Rick Perry CARES ABOUT HEALTH CARE.  And they're suing him!

Recently, Merck & Co. made the tough decision to suspend its lobbying campaign aimed at getting states to require the vaccine for middle-school-aged girls. "It distracted from the real issue, the importance of the vaccine and the ability to save lives," spokesman Chris Loder said.1  Is that right, Chris Loder?  Or was it just too uncomfortable, too weird, for you guys back at Merck, when every single governor in the nation rejected your ridiculous vaccine?  Well, every governor except for our very own Rick Perry.  And then the lawsuits?  Well, that was just awkward.  I mean, LET'S FOCUS ON THE HEALTH CARE, SERIOUSLY, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY.

House of Representatives member Dennis Bonnen said parents should consult with doctors and decide whether their daughters should receive the Gardasil vaccine. He also argued that it would be unprecedented for the state to mandate a vaccine for girls only and that the state should wait to see the long-term effects of the vaccine, which has been on the market less than one year.2

Wow, now those are some heady thought processes.  Good thing we have Mr. Bonnen to reason all that out for us, because obviously it is a concept far above the normal person's capacity for understanding.  Or, at least, Rick Perry's.  Or, at least, we haven't all gotten enough money from Merck yet.

This whole thing infuriates me.  Oh, you noticed?  Huh.

I just cannot believe the audacity of Rick Perry.  How does one reach a place in life where you are so willing to sell out?  And I have no idea what Merck is offering to Perry, in terms of perks and actual monetary amounts.  All that has been officially reported is a well-timed $5000 campaign donation (the same day Perry's staff met to discuss the state's immunization program - weird!).  I'd like to think it would take more than a paltry five grand.   But however much the giant pharmaceutical company paid him, and however much blame they should (and they really, really should) receive, I can't get over Perry.

I would have had to get this vaccination.  An expensive, scary, untested vaccination, spread out in three rounds, and I would have had to have it before I could start the 6th grade.  Do you remember what you were like in the 6th grade?  Perhaps you have a 6th grader at home right now, or a daughter close to that age.  She's probably scared of needles, and of shots.  She's busy hanging out with her friends, dealing with puberty, trying to figure out whether or not she wants to be a cheerleader or play volleyball next fall.  She wonders if the boy she likes notices her.  She likes to go to the mall.  She would be horrified, embarrassed to know that her parents and school ASSUMED she was either already having or was going to have unprotected sex.  She might, if she were especially mature, wonder what those shots were going to do to her body.  She might get on the internet, and type in "Gardasil".  She might freak out at the possible side-effects.

Or, she might already be having unprotected sex.  She might be cynical, damaged, and hardened.  She might be on drugs.  She might need help.  Maybe she should consider doing something, anything, to protect herself against STD's and pregnancy.

Or, she might be somewhere in the middle.  The point is, all 6th grade girls are not alike.  And even if they were, even if somehow Governor Rick Perry could predict the behavior of that subset of society - 12 and 13 year old girls (ha!  haha!) - requiring them to have the Gardasil vaccination would STILL not be the right move.  The drug has been out for LESS THAN A YEAR.  For all we know, Merck might end up having to pull the drug altogether because it's CAUSING cancer.  Happens ALL. THE. TIME.

This is old news, really.  It all started on February 2, when Governor Rick Perry made his fabulous announcement and, I assume, simultaneously sold his soul to the devil.  The reason I bring it up now is because it was only yesterday that the bill to overturn Perry's decision passed.  Perry now has 10 days to sign, ignore, or veto the bill.  He has not yet said what he will do.  If he does issue a veto, two-thirds of the House and Senate will have to overrule him.  Considering the last vote was 118-23, I feel that it has a pretty decent chance of being squashed, at least for the time being.  But it's incredibly scary, nonetheless.

When did everyone become such sell-outs?

Source 1

Source 2

Dennis Prager: Why Democrats are

Dennis Prager: Why Democrats are tagged as the party without values

According to The New York Times, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, reflecting on her party's recent losses in the presidential, Senate and House elections, asked: "How did a party that is filled with people with values -- and I am a person with values -- get tagged as the party without values?"

As one who was raised a Democrat and became a Republican only 10 years ago, I would like to answer Gov. Napolitano's question as honestly as she posed it.

Gov. Napolitano, your party does indeed have very many people with values in it. But the Democratic Party is no more representative of the average Democrat's values than the National Council of Churches is of the average Protestant's values. Both are far to the left of their membership.

Here is the Democratic Party as most Americans, including this John F. Kennedy liberal -- a New York City born and raised, Jewish, Ivy League-educated intellectual who lives in Los Angeles -- see it.

To most Americans, Michael Moore is a Marxist who has utter contempt for most of his fellow Americans, who goes abroad and tells huge audiences how stupid and venal his country is, and in his dishonest propaganda film, portrays the American military as callous buffoons. Yet, this radical was given the most honored seat at the Democratic Party convention in Boston, next to former President Jimmy Carter.

To most Americans, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are race-baiting demagogues. Yet they are heroes to the Democratic Party. Most Americans do not see their country as the bigoted and racist nation regularly depicted by both black and white Democratic leaders.

To most Americans, a man who wears women's clothing to work is a pathetic person in need of psychotherapy. To the Democratic Party, he is a man whose cross-dressing is merely another expression of multiculturalism. The California legislature, which is entirely controlled by Democrats, passed a law prohibiting any employer from firing a man who shows up to work wearing women's clothing.

To most Americans, Eminem is a vulgar nihilist who poisons young Americans' minds. To John Kerry he was a man whose anti-Bush hate video was worthy of endorsement.

To most Americans, obscenity-filled evenings should be restricted to R-rated films or a Las Vegas comedy act, not a major party's fund raiser attended by its candidates for president of the United States. To Democrats, those who object to such evenings are regarded as judgmental, hypocritical and narrow minded.

To most Americans, Hollywood stars are regarded as terrific to watch in films but also as narcissistic ingrates when, between private jet trips to Cuba and Cannes, they express their contempt for traditional America. That the Democrats have a veritable monopoly on support from folks like Sean Penn and Robert "Castro-is-a-great-leader" Redford may give Democrats a heady feeling, but for tens of millions of Americans it merely reinforces their belief that the Democratic Party shares Hollywood's values. Even The New York Times, in a post-election analysis, wrote of "the possibility that activist entertainers' fervent endorsements might have cost Mr. Kerry the election."

To most Americans, the American military is not only heroic; it is regarded as more important to safeguarding freedom than any other human institution, including the ACLU, the United Nations or the university, to cite three major Democratic Party affiliates. To virtually the entire Left, which includes the Democratic Party, the military is, at best, a necessary evil. Otherwise, the overriding doctrine is "Make love, not war." That is why Harvard still refuses to allow ROTC training -- and it is unlikely that either of the Massachusetts senators even finds that wrong, let alone as reprehensible as most Americans do.

To most Americans, gays are fellow Americans who happen to be homosexual and who should be accorded the same respect any fellow American is accorded. But most Americans also believe that America should retain the millennia-old definition of marriage as man-woman. They regard liberal judges who take it upon themselves to redefine marriage with contempt. And these judges are identified with the Democrats.

Whatever their views on abortion and abortion rights, the vast majority of Americans view the abortion of a viable fetus/baby (partial-birth abortion) as immoral. The Democratic candidate and his fellow Democrats repeatedly voted against a ban on this practice.

Gov. Napolitano, I hope that this short list answers your question about how it is that your party has gotten tagged as "the party without values." Indeed, the real question, as this observer sees it, is how has this party retained so many people who have traditional American values?

Aren't we better off?

Aren't we better off?

Political Stuff

Huh. Just when I thought I'd seen it all....

I'd like to present my thoughts on an issue that has just come about over at Thoughts From the 3rd Floor. It seems that while our good friend Hoover has been very faithful at providing both his viewpoints and his entertainment in interesting and intelligent ways, some of us have chosen to respond in somewhat ignorant, critical, and rude manners. While such responses are certainly inappropriate and discourteous, they even more so are confusing.

Speaking from the vantage point of being married to a man with VERY strong opinions on politics (Bush all the way, all the time) and being friends with a man with VERY strong and opposite opinions on politics (Pro-anyonebutBush), I feel that I have gained some tact and understanding in dealing with these intense convictions. The key, I believe, is recognizing that each of us is duly entitled to our OWN, individual views on nearly any given subject. As Christians (if we claim such membership), our views should line up with the views and guidelines presented in scripture, as an act of obedience to the Lord and as a display of His rule in our lives. These views will, of course, be the same at the bottom line and will be expressed differently as our own individual personalities allow. I feel that possibly the reason Adam's particular views, as displayed at Thoughts From the 3rd Floor, have been attacked in such a manner is because they can easily be confused as Christian/non-Christian issues. However, this is simply NOT the case. Any professed dislike of Bush and his politics should be seen as a response to what one has seen/read/heard during Bush's tenure as President (and the years preceeding, in some cases). Any distrust for Bush and his ethics should not be considered as an attempt to determine whether Bush is or is not a Christian. I feel very strongly that neither Adam nor anyone else who has agreed with his positions would claim to have any inside information on eternal soul destinations.

Consider a fight between children in Sunday School, or a discussion between Christian theologists from two different camps. Neither of these situations should ever end in suggestions of the other persons eternal destiny. We do not have to agree with every opinion we each have as brothers and sisters in Christ. The comparison of the body of Christ to an actual body paints a fairly clear picture of each member being different, and having different purposes. It has not ever made, and never will make any sense to attack each other over disputes. If we cannot understand that we are all created uniquely, with our own viewpoints, likes, and dislikes, in the ultimate purpose to bring the absolute most glory to the Lord by working together, then we are defeating the body of Christ completely.

Politics and religion are always the touchy issues. Knowing this, let's make an attempt, at least, at being intelligent human beings and allowing people to have different viewpoints than our own.