first do no harm

A tragic story out of San Diego this weekend, a month old infant has died from whooping cough. You read right, whooping cough. A disease that was supposedly eradicated in the U.S decades ago. Now, health officials in San Diego county are reporting an alarming increase in cases of whooping cough in the area. What could possibly be the cause? Is there a vaccine resistant strain going around? Hardly. It’s mainly a result of parents refusing to immunize their kids due to religion or fear.

I’m not going to be the one to tell a parent how to take care of their child ( I’m really not), but can I ask that if a parent does decide to eschew vaccinations, please keep your diseased riddled ankle biters away from other children.  No matter what conspiracy you adhere to, Vaccinations cause autism or the government is placing ID chips in the shots, REAL, NON DISPUTABLE , scientific data is overwhelming. Vaccinating children saves lives. Preventing your children from catching a life threatening illness is the ultimate height of selfishness. Exposing non-vaccinated children to others is downright criminal.

So go ahead and follow Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaccination crusade if you want to. The result will always be the same. Refuse to or delay your child’s immunization will lead to sickness and death.

Story link: http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-baby-dies-from-whooping-cough,0,1588182.story

photoshopped and screwed

This month’s Self magazine cover girl is Season 1 American Idol Winner Kelly Clarkson. And doesn’t she look great? She looks all fresh faced and trim and everything. The problem is, that’s not her. Well I take that back. It’s her digitally created doppleganger.  How ironic that a magazine that has the words,  ”Total Body Confidence” on its cover feels the need to photoshop its cover model into some almost unrecognizable fantasy girl.

When this obvious point was brought up to the Editor in Chief of the magazine, Lucy Danzinger stated that it was a standard practice to digitally alter photos. According to her it’s art, not news. She is right in once aspect; digital alteration of photos is a standard practice. Every magazine cover from Vogue to Newsweek features subjects that have had crow’s feet, tummy bulges, and flyaway hair magically brushed away. Pale starlets are given tans and African Americans skin tones are made lighter and brighter. It’s all based on the notion that real people looking like they really do won’t sell magazines.

That’s where Ms. Danzinger has it wrong. As much as we all would like to have our own personal digital alteration program that allows us to wipe away all of our flaws , that just ain’t the way things are. One of the most important lessons all of us have to learn is that we have accept ourselves as we are, otherwise happiness is as much an illusion as that girl on the magazine cover. Hell, the name of the magazine is SELF. What are they trying to hawk? Self love obtained by Adobe? What’s the real message? You can be your best self–only if you’re skinny with no acne?

Kelly Clarkson has always stated how proud she is of her body, so she has to be extremely disappointed that her pride in herself was brushed away with a few keystrokes.

have gun will travel

So today, President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, NH to discuss health care and with all the craziness lined with astroturf that’s been highlighted during previous town hall meetings, everyone was on their toes to see what would stick today.

Lo and behold, the nut wing of The Right didn’t disappoint. A guy named William Kostric showed up with a gun strapped to his leg. No he wasn’t taken out by snipers, tased, or handcuffed and taken away because according to New Hampshire law, he was well within his rights to stand outside of an event featuring the President with a loaded gun. Gotta love America! A Harvard professor can be arrested inside his own home for giving the po po attitude, but Mr. Kostric can be in plain view of the police and Secret Service and remain unmolested.

If anyone can tell me how carrying a loaded weapon has anything to do with health care reform I’d like to know. I have an inkling that it further symbolizes the fear that more than a few in this country have about any change that will affect them economically, socially, or culturally. See, I think Mr. Kostric could care less about the details of public option and end of life decisions. He being the coward that he is (and yes, cowards carry guns. in fact there is a correlative effect: the less guts you have, the bigger the gun) wanted to show America that as a White Christian male, he was not content to stand idly on the sidelines and let this Black Man make any decisions that will change his way of life-even if it’s for the better. It was much easier for him to hold a sign misquoting Thomas Jefferson than to actually go inside the venue with an intelligent and well reasoned question or statement (and without a gun).

But that’s asking too much I know. Instead we were all treated to this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/chris-matthews-to-town-ha_n_256952.html