It Boils, My Blood Just Boils

I did warn you. I did say that I'm opinionated. Even then, I managed to be calm for the first two days of my blog. I suppose I could have managed longer, if only I didn't read. So, here are three things I have read in the last hour (Lordy, Lordy, all at once! All at once!) that have brought out the real me.

The first is here . So, now we have a vaccine for cervical cancer, and the religious right doesn't approve of it because the cause of cervical cancer is an STD. And I quote:

"I would be opposed to making it mandatory. They need to give people the choice to do it or not, not force it on us,"

****

Prestwich said. "I don't live my life in such a way that I am concerned about STDs. And I don't worry about it for my daughters."

How can anyone believe that her daughters are immune to STDs? Never heard of rape? Never heard of straying husbands? This -- oh, Gawd, there is no word for what this woman is -- this Maxine Prestwich person would rather take the chance that her daughters could die of cervical cancer than have them immunized for an STD. Because, we know, that if they are immunized, they might just not be afraid of sex and they might just have some. Apparently, anything to protect the virginity of young girls and women. It's ok to lie to them about condoms, to not give them information about birth control and sexuality, to risk their exposure to cervical cancer!

And the second is here, where we discover that the same religious right are angry at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates for making charitable contributions to Planned Parenthood. And, again, I quote:

Warren Buffett's new philanthropic alliance with fellow billionaire Bill Gates won widespread praise this week, but anti-abortion activists did not join in, instead assailing the two donors for their longtime support of Planned Parenthood and international birth-control programs.

***

"The merger of Gates and Buffett may spell doom for the families of the developing world," said the Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, a Roman Catholic priest who is president of Human Life International.

***

Referring to Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi death camp doctor, Euteneuer said Buffett "will be known as the Dr. Mengele of philanthropy unless he repents."

Yes, God forbid that women in third world countries be given reproductive freedom! Just because being able to control the number and spacing of pregnancies is the single most important thing in empowering women, it must be opposed. Pro-life they call themselves. More like enforced birth if you ask me. What next? Take away the vote? Return to chastity belts? In my never humble opinion, on this one, if you don't got a uterus, you don't got anything to say!

And finally, on a related (in that it's about a woman's health) but separate (in that it isn't to do with sex) note. A story about a woman with a 32 pound cyst being given diet pills. Because, we all know that fat is the issue and the only issue! This reminds me of when my friend Robert (like me 64 years old and therefore, no longer adolescent thin like when we were in high school, but who, unlike me, has never been overweight a day in his life) went to the doctor because he had dropped 30 pounds without changing his eating or exercise habits and he was worried. When he got on the scale, the nurse congratulated him for the loss! So did the doctor. Here is a man without a weight problem who suddenly and without discernable cause drops 30 pounds and they congratulate him! Finally, he insisted so vehemently that they test him to find out what was wrong, and what do you know! Diabetes! We are so fatphobic in this country that a very serious condition would have been missed if the patient hadn't had better sense than the doctor. Are we nuts?