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captainsblogWhad'ya know? I got some:)
On the national front, there's this news:
Texas Governor Orders Anti-Cancer Vaccination of Schoolgirls.
Said governor would be Shrub's Republican replacement, Rick Perry. The man's no model of virtue in my eyes; he's anti-abortion and opposes stem cell research, and in most other respects is just as in bed with the Fundies as you're gonna find. Yet even he was able to see this one as a no-brainer. The opponents of the vaccination are those off-the-right-edge nutjobs who believe vaccinating for a disease spread by sexual contact will encourage teenage girls to have sex.
I can just see that romantic rendezvous now. "Oh, Ellie Mae, sprid those luscious legs of yers!" "Why sure, Bubba, and now I can do it safely, knowing I won't get deadly cancer from being did by allyall!"
Given the involvement of insurers and pharmaceutical companies, I can't say the story is any purer than the middle-school girls who will be protected by it; in fact, this CNN piece highlights some of the questionable tactics being engaged in by Merck and the insurance industry over reimbursement. And the action by Perry does include an opt-out for parents whose religious scruples are violently offended by the idea of preventing their daughters from dying.
Even so, it's something. And while I know he'd never go along with it, in my own way I'd like to think of Perry's action as honoring the loss this week, to another form of cancer, of one of his predecessor's brightest and most vitriolic critics.
I'm gonna call it Molly's Law.
----
The other nice bit is both closer to home and stretching far, far away.
If you were one of the millions like me who watched Katie Couric's debut broadcast on CBS (and probably, like me, went back to not watching the next night), you saw a piece about the Memory Project. It's the brainchild of a Wisconsin man who describes the "memory portraits" part of the project thusly:
highly skilled art students create original portraits for children living in orphanages around the world. Given that children who have been abandoned, neglected, abused or orphaned usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the portraits is to children who have been abandoned, neglected, abused, or orphaned usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the portraits is to provide them with a special memory of their youth and to help honor their heritage and identity.
One of those highly skilled art students is in the next room. She asked her Studio In Art teacher about the project the day after we watched the broadcast back in September, and Em is one of the select few freshmen who has been given a photo and will be putting her talent, her imagination and her love into making a child's life a little bit brighter.
I've come down with the family bug and am rattling round in casual clothes, but if my shirt had buttons they'd be bursting right about now. If it's permitted, when it's ready I'll link to the final product here.
On the national front, there's this news:
Texas Governor Orders Anti-Cancer Vaccination of Schoolgirls.
Said governor would be Shrub's Republican replacement, Rick Perry. The man's no model of virtue in my eyes; he's anti-abortion and opposes stem cell research, and in most other respects is just as in bed with the Fundies as you're gonna find. Yet even he was able to see this one as a no-brainer. The opponents of the vaccination are those off-the-right-edge nutjobs who believe vaccinating for a disease spread by sexual contact will encourage teenage girls to have sex.
I can just see that romantic rendezvous now. "Oh, Ellie Mae, sprid those luscious legs of yers!" "Why sure, Bubba, and now I can do it safely, knowing I won't get deadly cancer from being did by allyall!"
Given the involvement of insurers and pharmaceutical companies, I can't say the story is any purer than the middle-school girls who will be protected by it; in fact, this CNN piece highlights some of the questionable tactics being engaged in by Merck and the insurance industry over reimbursement. And the action by Perry does include an opt-out for parents whose religious scruples are violently offended by the idea of preventing their daughters from dying.
Even so, it's something. And while I know he'd never go along with it, in my own way I'd like to think of Perry's action as honoring the loss this week, to another form of cancer, of one of his predecessor's brightest and most vitriolic critics.
I'm gonna call it Molly's Law.
----
The other nice bit is both closer to home and stretching far, far away.
If you were one of the millions like me who watched Katie Couric's debut broadcast on CBS (and probably, like me, went back to not watching the next night), you saw a piece about the Memory Project. It's the brainchild of a Wisconsin man who describes the "memory portraits" part of the project thusly:
highly skilled art students create original portraits for children living in orphanages around the world. Given that children who have been abandoned, neglected, abused or orphaned usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the portraits is to children who have been abandoned, neglected, abused, or orphaned usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the portraits is to provide them with a special memory of their youth and to help honor their heritage and identity.
One of those highly skilled art students is in the next room. She asked her Studio In Art teacher about the project the day after we watched the broadcast back in September, and Em is one of the select few freshmen who has been given a photo and will be putting her talent, her imagination and her love into making a child's life a little bit brighter.
I've come down with the family bug and am rattling round in casual clothes, but if my shirt had buttons they'd be bursting right about now. If it's permitted, when it's ready I'll link to the final product here.