Is human papillomavirus a Bad Thing? That is inarguable. Should it be eliminated along with the likes of polio, smallpox, measles, mumps and rubella? With certainty. Should legislators be mandating the Gardasil vaccine which is the only FDA-approved HPV vaccine for all women while at the same time taking money from Merck? Merck, the makers of Gardasil, who stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars off of this legislature and who is actively campaigning to legislate that their drug (a $360, 3-shot regimen) be given to all girls by age 11 or 12. To say that I find their motives impure is probably an understatement.
That said, I find the arguments against the drug to be hallow and, quite frankly, idiotic. To those who dislike vaccines in general... that's great for you and all, but I think that you'd be hard-pressed to find a real doctor who feels that the country is worse off for vaccines against many of the major medical demons of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Not to mention that HPV causes cancer... and cancer is bad. Granted, HPV is an STD... but some parents act as if a vaccine against HPV is a blank check to go have sex with everyone in sight. As if there weren't still Herpes, Syphilis, AIDS, Chlamydia, Hepatitis, Gonorrhea, and more to contend with. As if the only way to get HPV was through unprotected sex and as if people who may screw up once down the road don't deserve to be protected.
Look... I'm not saying I have a corner on the answers... but I think that having a problem with the ethics of legislators in requiring Gardasil is a whole lot more sensible than any of the other objections that I've heard. I'd be more than happy to hear from opponents of Gardasil for other reasons though, or from people who actually know more about biology or about Rick Perry than I do.
This meme has been kicking around in some forums and places that I visit and now I pass it along to you. This is the chance of a lifetime... you get to make me work and pick a subject area... but it comes with a price... ;-P
The first 10 people to comment on this post get to request a drabble (real drabble: 100 words exactly) from you. In return, they have to post this on their blog and write a drabble for you.Your friends can pick a relationship, a story arc, a missing scene, or pretty much anything they want, unless the author has previously mentioned that they will not write it. They comment with what they want, and you write drabbles and post it in your blog.
I'm more or less up for writing anything... with the exception of slash and fanfic. Just remember, I write for you and you have to post this and write for others.
While I sit here cogitating on a real post, I have more signs of the coming apocalypse...
Using Too Much of Your Own Product
Apparently, some dealer thought it would be a good idea to ship some pot FedEx. And by "some" I mean SEVENTY POUNDS. 70 lbs of pot is enough to set off drug dogs in the next town... yeah, ship that FedEx from Arizona to New Jersey and see what happens.
Stealing Guard-Rails for Fun and Profit
With the advent of aluminum fetching $3 a pound for scrap metal, some Californians struck on a brilliant idea: there's tons of aluminum just lying on the side of the road. Well... it might be bolted down, but at roughly $30 a foot, the aluminum in the guard-rails is worth cutting a couple of bolts. And in one month, crooks enterprising entrepreneurs in California have stolen 3,000 feet of guard rails to the tune of ~$90,000 worth of aluminum.
Emergency 911
And lastly... the capstone of cleverness, a Salt Lake City man with a tooth-ache simply couldn't take it any more and called 911. 12 times. In 5 hours. Oh... and he was on the phone for 30 minutes several of those times. He refused an ambulance and police assistance, asserted that he wanted illegal drugs taken off the street and he wanted the phone number of someone who could help ease the pain. After police were dispatched twice to check on the man and he failed to stop calling while failing to communicate what help he needed, he was arrested for 911 abuse. When he was booked he was found to be intoxicated... with a dentist appointment scheduled for the next day.