18 September 2011 The cow is giving kerosene, the kid can’t read at 17

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/opinion/sunday/dowd-egghead-and-blockheads.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Egghead and Blockheads

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: September 17, 2011

             “Sarah Palin, who got outraged at a “gotcha” question about what newspapers and magazines she read, is the mother of stupid conservatism. Another “Don’t Know Much About History” Tea Party heroine, Michele Bachmann, seems rather proud of not knowing anything, simply repeating nutty, inflammatory medical claims that somebody in the crowd tells her.

            “So we’re choosing between the overintellectualized professor and blockheads boasting about their vacuity?

            “The occupational hazard of democracy is know-nothing voters. It shouldn’t be know-nothing candidates.”

Cassi Creek:

            Another Hunter-Garcia anthem springs to mind.  Touch of Gray is about survival in adversity, about hope in the absence of cause, aging while the world goes to hell around you.   

This is one of the few music videos I’ve ever really found worthy of the time spent viewing it.  One reason for that is my belief that music associations should be formed by the listener, not by a marketing agency.  “Touch of Gray” was well known and enjoyed by Dead Heads long before the video was put together.  It really had nothing to say about the song that already been said at a hundred performances. 

            Elsewhere in the quoted article Ms Dowd, confess a bit of her past:

            “The Republicans are now the “How great is it to be stupid?” party. In perpetrating the idea that there’s no intellectual requirement for the office of the presidency, the right wing of the party offers a Farrelly Brothers “Dumb and Dumber” primary in which evolution is avant-garde.

“Having grown up with a crush on William F. Buckley Jr. for his sesquipedalian facility, it’s hard for me to watch the right wing of the G.O.P. revel in anti-intellectualism and anti-science cant.” 

          While I had no romantic interest in Buckley, I appreciated his intellect and ability to carry on a conversation or a discussion in words of more than two syllables. 

          The quality of candidate and voter, the quality of the party has changed so markedly in the years since the candidacy of Stevenson and the back channel engineering of Buckley.  We are now saddled with candidates who can’t recall, when asked, what they read.  More likely is that they do not read. 

“I see you've got your list out
Say your piece and get out
Yes I get the gist of it 
but it's all right
“Sorry that you feel that way
The only thing there is to say
Every silver lining's got a 
Touch of grey”

There is a list.  It’s written in the blood of the former middle class by the super wealthy financiers who fund the teavangelists, by the fundamentalist churches that want to repeal the 1^st Amendment and create a theocracy, and by the power brokers who intend to destroy any last vestiges of an informed and aware voter base. 

“Cows giving kerosene
Kid can't read at seventeen
The words he knows are all obscene
but it's all right

Maybe not kerosene flavored milk, but certainly sell water that explodes into flame at the presence of a spark. 

The kid can’t read, won’t learn to read.  He’ll punch buttons with pictographs on a fast-food counter register or scan barcodes at Wal-Mart while Indian and Chinese engineers write the software that replaces words and people in the once United States. 

Obscene words?  Coming from the mouth of an avowed progressive American boomer?  Condemning any words as obscene is just not in our character if we’ve freed ourselves from the talons of the fundamentalist Christian Taliban. 

          I listened to the cheers about the number of executions in Texas coming from the audience in Tampa at the teavangelist pseudo-debate.  I also heard them yelling to let the uninsured die.  Those are truly obscene words.  There’s no other way to describe them. 

          From the party of Buckley, Eisenhower, and Goldwater, a swift descent brings the GOP to being the party of the poorly educated, religious fanatic, lacking in literacy mob of peasants brandishing pitchforks and crosses, unable to spell either their fears or their demands.  I never supported the party of Buckley, but at least they could voice their own concerns, not relying entirely on “talking points” crafted by a graduate of the Goebbels Institute. 

The previous election said a lot about the hope still extant in the political left.

“Dawn is breaking everywhere
Light a candle, curse the glare 
Draw the curtains 
I don't care 'cause
It's all right”

Hunter pens in a journal:

“light a candle, curse the glare

Hunter notes, in Box of Rain, that this line was by Garcia.

“It is a clever play on the saying, coined by Adlai Stevenson in 1962 in reference to the death of Eleanor Roosevelt, that: "She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness..."

          That hearkens back to a time in my past, as well as Hunter’s and Garcia’s when we really expected the world to improve in quantum bounds, social concerns becoming as important as military concerns.  Two generations of elected rulers have come since the Camelot days and the moon landings.  Sadly, American students, and thus, American voters, have lost ground in comparison to the rest of the industrialized and on-line world with regard to reading, math, and science.  In short, we are now collectively dumber than a mud duck.  We are allowing the American version of the Taliban to call the shots. 

“The shoe is on the hand it fits
There's really nothing much to it
Whistle through your teeth and spit
cause it's all right.
“Oh well a Touch Of Grey
Kind of suits you anyway.
That was all I had to say 
It's all right.
“I will get by / I will get by
I will get by / I will survive
We will get by / We will get by
We will get by / We will survive”
Hunter ends optimistically.   Whether he’s right or not remains to be seen. 
The touch of gray and the other signs of aging are expected.  I’ll live with them; I have no choice but to do so.  The rise in stupidity and theocracy are highly unwelcome and I don’t plan to surrender to the teavangelists and American Taliban. 
          I have endless hours of Grateful Dead performances on tape and CD.  The band died with Garcia in 1995.  The music and the hope continue on. 
We will survive, if enough of us get off our asses and vote the teavangelist bastards out of office.

17 September 2011 Phil Roe, Act like a doctor rather than a politician

Beneath is a letter I sent to our Congressman David Phillip Roe, teavangelist, 1st TN.  I left the contact information intact in case someone who reads this may have the same misfortune as to be "represented" by a man who cares about subsidies to energy companies and unseating a POTUS far more than about the actual well-being of his constituents.

419 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
fax: (202) 225-5714

Kingsport Office:
Office Located in the Higher Education Building 
P.O. Box 1728
Kingsport, TN 37662
423-247-8161
fax: 423-247-0119

17 September 2011 

Mr. Roe

          Michelle Bachmann used the platform of a political campaign pseudo-debate to stir up anti-vaccination fervor by condemning the Texas policy of requiring middle school aged females to receive a vaccine to prevent HPV infection. 

          The vaccine in question is intended to prevent infection with a virus implicated in cervical cancer in female populations and in genital warts in males and females.  It is intended to be used at the most effective time, prior to children becoming sexually active.  While Ms. Bachmann may not have been sexually active at 12 years of age; many young people choose to be, and many more are forced into such activity.  The 12-year-old time frame may actually be too late for many children.

          Bachmann further complicated the situation by claiming it to be about parental rights to refuse vaccination rather than about disease prevention.  Then she added a claim that the vaccine had caused “mental retardation” in one recipient, citing an unsubstantiated claim by the child’s mother. 

          Bachmann has no medical background knowledge.  She acted in a highly irresponsible manner, raising absolutely unfounded fears commonly used by anti-vaccination groups to obscure the facts about public health and national vaccination recommendations and requirements.

          Among other physician members of Congress is David Phillip Roe, Republican 1^st Tennessee Congressional district.  Mr. Roe, a retired OB/Gyn physician, has repeatedly claimed that his education and practice made him particularly able to provide rational and accurate input concerning the practice of medicine to other members of Congress and to his constituents. 

          My concern is this:  Mr. Roe’s particular practice should have made him well acquainted with the results of HPV infection in women, including the many infected innocently by marital partners, and with the lethal effects of such infection.  Mr. Roe, if he is truly concerned for his constituents and for actions by Congress and candidates that are based upon blatant lies, should have been first in line to publically call for Ms. Bachmann to retract the lie she broadcast.

          Why, Mr. Roe, did you not use your official capacity to correct this misconception?  Why did you choose to parrot teavangelist party line talking points in your weekly on-line propaganda piece, while leaving the great lie spread by Bachmann to grow among the poorly educated and misinformed voters of the GOP/teavangelist base. 

          I suspect, as do many others, that it is primarily about keeping up the myth that “abstinence only education policies” and using fairy tale religious indoctrination to deny the truth about when children become sexually active will keep the teavangelist base voting for the GOP.

          How can you, Mr. Roe, as a former physician,  not be alarmed at the use of fear mongering, intended to render ineffectual, public health campaigns to eliminate, or at least markedly decrease the incidence of potential lethal but largely preventable STDs.  Please don’t respond with arguments based upon religious prohibitions of sexual activity.  Your profession has provided you with far too many examples of how that brainwashing attempt has failed, as has mine.

          You’re quite willing to attack Mr. Obama and others who fail to provide accurate and honest information.  Should not Ms. Bachmann and the rest of the teavangelist caucus be held to the same standard they demand of Mr. Obama? 

          I look forward to reading your demand that Ms. Bachmann correct her lie and your education letter to your constituents concerning our chance to eradicate a public health risk by simple vaccination. 

           

          Unless we reject a political party and politicians who are making every effort to return the majority of the American populace to pre-20^th century economic and social conditions, the American middle class will vanish along with the working class American, fallen to the oligarchic and theocratic demagogues of the American Taliban.  Childhood diseases and STDs can be as much political weapons as biological.

16 September 2011 There’s an ugly mob being gathered…

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/krugman-free-to-die.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Free to Die

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: September 15, 2011

“Back in 1980, just as America was making its political turn to the right, Milton Friedman lent his voice to the change with the famous TV series “Free to Choose.” In episode after episode, the genial economist identified laissez-faire economics with personal choice and empowerment, an upbeat vision that would be echoed and amplified by Ronald Reagan.

But that was then. Today, “free to choose” has become “free to die…”

“…Now, however, compassion is out of fashion — indeed, lack of compassion has become a matter of principle, at least among the G.O.P.’s base.

“”And what this means is that modern conservatism is actually a deeply radical movement, one that is hostile to the kind of society we’ve had for the past three generations — that is, a society that, acting through the government, tries to mitigate some of the “common hazards of life” through such programs as Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.

“Are voters ready to embrace such a radical rejection of the kind of America we’ve all grown up in? I guess we’ll find out next year.”

Cassi Creek:

There’s an ugly mob being gathered by the GOP/teavangelists.  Who are the targets this time?

            In the past, it has been many of us.  The English, French, and Spanish colonized the continent.  They targeted the Native Americans.  Later, Germans, French-Canadian Protestants, and Irish arrived.  They were initially the new targets but found even newer immigrants to target.  Italians, Poles, Russian Jews, others fleeing the Balkans and Eastern Europe exited our port cities and entered the target zone. 

            Most recently, the decision of who to target has been made by the GOP/teavangelists.  They have had their propaganda arms wage war against “illegal immigrants.”  Unfortunately, they do not allow our enforcement agencies to go after the corporations that use illegal immigrant labor.  I fully support controlling immigration and our borders.  I do not support targeting laborers while ignoring those who profit from their labors. 

            Now they’re targeting the former middle class and the American working class.  Amusingly, as the jobs for citizens dry up and vanish, so do many illegal immigrants who can now find better jobs – exported by American corporations - in their native lands. 

            The current target is Muslim-Americans.  However, as the election campaign plays out, the target identity may change at any time.  Be careful.  It is nearly time for the teavangelists to hand out the pitchforks to the peasants!

15 September 2011 “There’s a metal flag beside me someone planted long ago..."

            Another Garcia/Hunter tune that came to fill the back half, second set, Garcia ballad as Grateful Dead shows become more patterned, “standing on the moon” has an anti-war message but can also be an emotionally rich little ballad of love. 

            There’s an anti-war resonance that I can’t overlook.  But the first trip Gloria and I took together was to San Francisco for the Chinese New Year shows in 1993.  So the love song components rate high in my appreciation of the song. 

            San Francisco is a wonderful city to visit and a fantastic place for a romance to take root and grow.  The presence of friends to show us around, and the excitement of the Chinese celebrations added spice and encouragement to the romance.  It was truly a great trip.  I’ve always looked back upon it one of the best trips of my life.  It was my third trip to San Francisco but the first one I actually enjoyed. 

            Last night was a broken night, interrupted by pain, disease, and the knowledge that the alarm was going to sound off far too soon.  It did.  I had to be at VA by 1030.  I pulled into the parking lot at 0930 and joined the dance.   A slot opened up and I grabbed it, one element of the dance over. 

            At check in I learned my PCP had moved from Red service to Blue service.  The clerk sent me to lab check-in.  After a 15 minute wait I discovered that he had failed to notice that I’d had those labs drawn a week ago.  I declined another blood draw and left for the appropriate waiting room.  BP 132/84 Pulse 82 Temp 99.5  %PO2  97.  Weight down 10 pounds since January.  Pain level 7/10. 

            Meds renewed, labs discussed, physical exam normal, no flags.  Schedule next immunization, boosters, and invasive procedures.  Consult with regard to broken sleep and talking in my sleep. 

            Pill count, Urine drug screen at 1200 – I’d planned for it at 0930-1000.  I object to the repetitive collections but this one was somewhat welcome. 

            The whole facility seemed to be in somewhat of a slow mode today.  I’ve heard many horror stories and complaints about various VA facilities and providers over the years.  My early experience at Harry S Truman VA hospital left me hoping never to have to set foot inside another VA hospital.  Things have changed since then.  Things may not be perfect at VA or in the system.  But here, and at Bay Pines and the Ellenton satellite clinic, I’ve always had good quality care and the staff have made me believe that they were really there for the veterans. 

            Today after class, I’ll stop at Food City in Jonesborough and then try to sleep.  Dentist appointment at 0800 means rolling out at 0500. 

“A lovely view or Heaven, but I’d rather be with you, be with you!”

14 September 2011 She’s either dumber than Palin or an incurable liar.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/13/bachmann-gardasil-causes-mental-retardation/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPZn9mRQlq4&feature=player_embedded

“There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result of that vaccine.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/michele-bachmann-continues-perry-attack-claims-hpv-vaccine-might-cause-mental-retardation/2011/09/13/gIQAbJBcPK_blog.html

“Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann on Tuesday questioned the safety of a vaccine used to protect girls from a sexually transmitted infection that can cause cervical cancer.

During an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, the Minnesota congresswoman referred to the vaccine as “what potentially could be a very dangerous drug” and recounted an exchange she had Monday night with a woman after the debate among GOP presidential candidates in Tampa. The debate included a sharp exchange between Bachmann and Gov. Rick Perry (Texas), who tried to mandate the vaccine in his state.

 “I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Fla., after the debate and tell me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter,” Bachmann said.

“It can have very dangerous side effects. The mother was crying when she came up to me last night. I didn’t know who she was before the debate. This is a very real concern, and people have to draw their own conclusion,” she said.”

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/hpv/gardasil.html

“Deaths

As of June 22, 2011 there have been a total 68 VAERS reports of death among those who have received Gardasil^® . There were 54 reports among females, 3 were among males, and 11 were reports of unknown gender. Thirty two of the total death reports have been confirmed and 36 remain unconfirmed due to no identifiable patient information in the report such as a name and contact information to confirm the report. A death report is confirmed (verified) after a medical doctor reviews the report and any associated records. In the 32 reports confirmed, there was no unusual pattern or clustering to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine and some reports indicated a cause of death unrelated to vaccination.”

Cassi Creek:

          All politicians can be fed incorrect information.  Intelligent, rational politicians who have been informed that their information is incorrect act accordingly and admit that they were wrong. 

          Sarah Palin, caught peddling misinformation, digs in more deeply and piles misinformation around her like a barricade as in the Paul Revere affair. 

          Michelle Bachmann apparently believes that her voter base is unconcerned with reality and accuracy.  She may well be right about that.  She certainly is spinning misinformation about HPV immunization.  She used the vaccination recommendations to attack Rick Perry last Monday.  She appeared incensed that 12-year-old girls were being “forced to undergo government injections.” 

          Following the “debate,” she claims to have met a woman who stated her daughter became mentally disabled as the result of being vaccinated for HPV.  It is hard to understand how a birth defect can be attributed to a vaccination given a decade or more after birth.  One has to have absolutely no knowledge of genetics, biology, and other sciences; or one has to really want Tinker Bell to live.

          Bachmann just seems to be willing to insert lies as fact in any campaign speech or at any other appearance.  Unfortunately, for the nation, she appeals to a populace that lives in a monosyllabic universe where fairy tales and invisible cities in the sky still intrude into politics, where the enlightenment has yet to take place, and where truth is whatever someone heard a socio-politico-religious figure head last pronounce. 

          Given access to enough beer, football, and basketball, her voter base will flock between the stadia and the churches like good little middle schoolers.  They will never need STD vaccinations because the figureheads all maintain that their voter base doesn’t stray from Old Testament regulations.   CDC will not receive infection reports and the United States will continue to move in a retrograde manner back to the dark ages. 

Update:  found the bad neighbor at home this morning.  He claimed it was not his dog.  Then he agreed to pay the damages. 

He is convinced that we are trying to run him out of the valley. He is incensed that we called animal control.  There will be no peaceful resolution between him and us. 

As for me, this incident is over. 

13 September 2011 the wages of sin must be death. It says so in the Bible.

          The flaming teavangelists were loosed upon the nation last night in the supposed “debate”, that was actually a live commercial for the idiots who want to take over government and recast it as a blend of oligarchy and theocracy. CNN should hang its collective heads in shame for providing such a platform for the GOP/teavangelists without a disclaimer stating that it was a paid advertisement.

          Rick Perry took some hits over his mandate for HPV vaccination of young girls in Texas.  The loudest opponent was, of course, Rep. Bachmann, the voice of God’s punishment forces.  HPV is an STD that can lead to cervical cancer.  It is marketed by Merck, which would like to see it universally required by school districts and states.  This action of Perry’s is one of the few things he has done that I can support in any manner.  If we overlook the graft aspect, it was a positive action that could have saved many lives. 

          Comes Bachmann, the inquisitor enforcer:

““To have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just wrong,” Bachmann said. “Little girls who have a negative reaction to this potentially dangerous drug don’t get a mulligan.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63329.html#ixzz1XpdF4SoK

“I’m offended for all the little girls and parents who didn’t have a choice.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63329.html#ixzz1XpdSY1XK

          It’s not actually the money that bothers Bachmann and her audience.  It’s the belief that some little girl might be inspired to hop into bed because she has been vaccinated.  That “sin,” once punishable by a brutal death, is now less punishable.  The chokehold on behavior claimed by the “abstinence only” crowd has been loosened a bit by reality.  The promise of cancer visited upon the impure by a white-haired, sky-dweller is suddenly no longer as much of a control device to keep our “innocent little girls” in line.

          Bachmann may have been scared celibate by the churches she was taken to as a child.  Other young girls may have as well.  That, however, doesn’t apply to thousands of older boys who “date” younger girls and encourage them to respond to hormonal and societal urging to replicate and reproduce as their bodies were designed to do. 

          Even those young girls who are absolutely “pure as Ivory snow” are always at risk of sexual assault in various forms by various family, friends, and the random pedophile and opportunistic rapist.  Short of locking those young girls into convent cells and denying them all human contact, there is no way to avoid them facing risk of infection with HPV, now a mostly preventable infection.  The 12-year-old age gate for immunization is timed to catch as large a populace as possible while they are still “innocent.”

          We have to remember that Bachmann opposes abortion in almost every case and could probably support prohibiting abortion to victims of rape, incest, and maternal risk of death, the total ban demanded by the American Taliban. 

          During her performance last night, she managed to attack President Obama on another flight of fancy, accusing him of mandating by executive order the provision of morning after pills by insurers.  She gave birth to another lie last night over the public airwaves. 

  http://politicalcorrection.org/video/201109120020

          For rational people, there is a distinction between the provision of contraceptives to women as part of their health insurance, and the provision of “morning after pills.”  While the irrational, poorly educated teavangelist base may be unable to distinguish between contraception and abortion, there is a huge difference. 

          Bachmann and friends cling to the concept of divinely required punishment for sexual activity that does not lead directly to procreation at the demand of a dominant marital partner.   In the physical absence of the afore-mentioned deity, the requisite punishment may be administered by human males who hold ownership rights to the specified disobedient and therefore impure females.  Stoning is still the prescribed manner of meting out death for sin.  In other instances, the invisible but fully vengeful deity may deliver the wages of sin by means of disease or disorder.  Leprosy was once preferred but longer lifespan compared to the period when apostles with erectile dysfunction forbade any others partaking of physical pleasures they could no longer enjoy, require different “wages.”  Malignancies are highly preferred by the teavangelist leadership as they are slow, painful, tend to leave the afflicted physically denoted, and even the palliative treatments are extremely unpleasant. 

          Perry may have honestly been trying to prevent infection with HPV, or he may have been adding campaign cash.  Bachmann is guilty of making up lies to attract the poorly informed teavangelist base, and of condemning another generation of women who have none of her fairy tale religious constraints to infection and possible death by a virus that could have been blocked by vaccination. 

          I hope she can live with herself.  Because of her pseudo-morality, other women are very likely to die through no fault (or “sin”) of their own. 

Just a note in passing.  

While discussing Chlamydia STD screening with a physician, an OB/Gyn now retired who reminds me quite a lot of our current 1^St TN district Congressman, Phil Roe, the physician told me that he never had to screen white women and girls  who attended his church.  I’m quite certain that he would have seen no reason to vaccinate that population against HPV. 

          Bachmann is proving to be more of an incompetent every day.  Unfortunately her fan base is equally incompetent.

Sancte Leibowtiz ... -Saint Leibowitz, pray for me

Non cogitamus ... -We will not think, therefore we are nothing

12 September 2011 And the world still spins

          Despite the best efforts of the collective media outlets and thousands of interest groups to make certain that no sentient creature could forget that ten years ago America was attacked by Muslim fundamentalists, there were those of us who chose not to be re-immersed in the ceremonies, speeches, and memories. 

          We are all too aware of the tremendous impact the event had on our economy, our government, and our perception of the world around us.  The end results included am instantaneous inclusion into the way other nations deal with terrorism.  Also included, serious concerns about the application of our laws and privileges under law, and how those apply to foreign nationals suspected of terrorist activity.  Our elected leaders chose to return to barbaric means of interrogation and held that those suspects had no right to the protection of our laws. 

          We collectively became more anti-Muslim and our Muslim citizens have had their lives affected by the bigotry and stupidity of the poorly educated and uninformed who march under the GOP/teavangelist/anti-intellectual/anti-science flags.  While we supposedly are seeing fewer church attendees, the Christian fundamentalists are firmly entrenched into the teavangelist wing of the GOP, which will give them a theocracy in exchange for their financial and voter support.  

          The standard answer to the question, “Why do Muslims hate us?” has become. “They hate us for our freedoms.”  (So spoke G.W. Bush and Cheney)  While they handed this answer out at every press conference they were doing everything in their power to diminish those freedoms.  The GOP/teavangelists continue to attack those freedoms today. 

          In opposition to a minority populace of Muslims the teavangelists offer a gutted 1^st Amendment with an obligatory Christian membership little different from the law of Afghanistan under their Taliban leaders.  In fact, the Taliban are more honest in their nationalization of religion.  We’re being handed an election in which it is likely one candidate will happily insist that all “true Americans” must either already be or must convert to Christianity. 

          Sounds unlike the America I grew up in.  Well, not really.  The fundamentalists were always there, burning books and records, measuring hemlines, banning anything that offends them under the guise of “morality.”  They just never had the political power before.    The unintended result of the 9-11 attacks has been to bring about our loss of freedom from religion and to unleash the American version of the Taliban.  All it took was four airplanes, a few thousand lives, and a GOP/teavangelist alliance that should have never been allowed to exist.  Thank you, teavangelists for sowing the seeds of our decline. 

          Outside our borders, the world still attends its daily functions.  In the rise and fall of nations, they will watch our decline and understand why it is happening.  We, largely, will not.