Saturday, February 21, 2004

Well, here's two more kids who are gonna die thanks to the intervention of American surgeons who decided to do a little human experimentation. Haven't they learned yet? These poor kids don't live through these separation surgeries! What's the point? If they just left them alone they'd probably have a better chance. And if they died of their conjoined-ness, they're still no worse off than after their “treatments” with these Dr. Frankensteins who have God complexes.
Besides this, how many hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on the survival of the weakest, when this same money could be used for hundreds or even thousands of people who could actually benefit from its use? If they want to medically help people, how ‘bout giving a few thousand doses of vaccines or vitamins or antibiotics?
Wanna know why they don’t? Because you don’t get your name in medical journals and announced on the news when you give out vaccinations all day. When you try a high profile stunt like chopping apart conjoined twins, you get all the fame and accolades and tenureship at universities. And when the twins die? “Unavoidable complications.” Betcha the complications could have been avoided by not trying such a hopeless experiment to begin with!

Friday, February 20, 2004

According to this report, there is a problem with the government censoring information from scientific findings in the spirit of Cold War Soviet Russia. Now this isn't especially hard to believe, given the recent revelation that "misinformation" on WMD's in Iraq was all the CIA's fault and not the administration's doing at all whatsoever, honest to goodness.
The scary thing is: what information are we not hearing about?
There could be little green Martians crawling all over Spirit and Opportunity, but do we see any of those pictures? No way. Is there a simple cure for cancer, diabetes and warts? Maybe, but we don't have that data. Perhaps it's the government censoring of data that limits what meteorologists can tell us, resulting in the wildly inaccurate "forecasts" we get. And you just know we're not getting the full story on marijuana use.
So now anytime we see news of scientific breakthroughs we'll have to wonder, as Paul Harvey says, about the rest of the story.
No Big loss.

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

I know that this flu thing is a big huge deal, epidemiologically speaking. But please can someone come up with a better name than H5N1? Maybe the "sexy flu"? Or the "death fever"? "Melting eye syndrome"? Anything would be cooler than H5N1, which sounds like a math formula.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Presidential hopeful John Kerry poked fun at President George Bush's presence at the Daytona 500 race the other day. Now I don't have much opinion on politics, or John Kerry, or George Bush or even car racing for that matter. But I do know style when I see it. And let me say that Kerry's style was just plain poor. Was he really taking issue with Bush's efforts to stay in touch with the American people? Do the people really want someone who stays holed up in an office day and night pondering policies and economic strategies? What will Kerry have to say when Bush participates in the annual White House Easter egg hunt this year? If Kerry gains the Presidency, will he have the Easter tradition and all other public "fun" appearances banished so he can meditate on national issues? Will he decline to throw out the first ball of the season so he can discuss foreign policy? Will he just say no to lighting the White House Christmas tree because his presence is needed at a Cabinet meeting? I hardly think so.
Regardless of what the public thinks of the President's politics, it is still an office rooted in "by the people, for the people." The people like race cars and Easter and so on. A leader who loses touch with those whom he leads is no leader at all.