Flu Vaccine Worthless

This research is getting less press than one would expect given the hysteria over the Flu (and I’m not even talking about Avian Flu). Many people pin their hopes on the flu vaccine which is based on the previous year’s virus. It is next to worthless unless you’re a hermit and never interact with people who have been sick with the flu the year before, in which case it’s totally worthless, because, well, you’re a hermit. See here:

Each vaccine contains three influenza viruses-one A (H3N2) virus, one A (H1N1) virus, and one B virus. The viruses in the vaccine change each year based on international surveillance and scientists’ estimations about which types and strains of viruses will circulate in a given year.

I love estimations. They’re so like, totally accurate, ya know? Just like all those hurricanes we’ve had in 2006 that were estimated by scientists.

With the amount of money, pr, fear, and energy invested in the flu vaccine, one would investigate, thoroughly, the benefits, right? Right.

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Dude, Looks Like a Lady’s in the Loo-Updated

Gotta love New York! I sure do love the city, but this week, a more absurd (yet perfectly rational when you think about it) ruling was made in favor of dudes wearing dresses going to the girls bathroom.

Porn website owners everywhere rejoice. Now, there’s no need to sneak into a woman’s bathroom for the up-the-skirt and potty shots, they’ll just dress like women a waltz right in and take care of “business”.

Dan Collins guest posting, permanently I think, for Jeff Goldstein says:

It’s unclear just how the writer’s elision of transgender with “gender expression” is supposed to connect with the instance in question. I guess that in practical terms, one is welcome to use that lavatory that matches the clothing they’re wearing, which brings up a lot of questions, not least about security. And by forcing everyone to go to Transgender Sensitivity Training, I’m sure that the guy person’s made himself very popular with his co-workers.

He brings up a good point about bringing a daughter into the ladies room. The ladies’ room has been a under-appreciated haven, evidently. I still bring my son in there. Ain’t no way I’m letting him go into the men’s bathroom by himself. If women give me a dirty look (they never do, by the way) that can kiss my rear.

Maybe, in New York, all weirdness will happen in the women’s bathroom now and the men’s room will be the “safe” bathroom. Ugh. How far can we go in political correctness? Is it possible to go farther?

How about this delineation? I know, it’s archaic and simple, but hey, I really like simple solutions ala Occam: if you own a penis and you’re not attended by your mother, it’s the men’s room. If you own a vagina and you’re not attended by your father, it’s the lady’s room.

Update: After more thought, here is my big issue with issues like this: the United States is a remarkably tolerant place. Minority rights are protected. I’m just thinking off the top of my head here, but here are some instances of minority right protection:

• Amish
• Conscientious objector status
• Freedom of religion–Dearborn, Michigan now has public prayer calls for Muslims
• Americans with Disabilities

These are just three, there are many more. You know, though, our society survives on a certain amount of shared ethos. The majority indulges the minority because of a notion of freedom and fairness.

The majority might just push back when the indulgences of the minority become tyrannical to the majority. Ridiculous lawsuits like the above make people less inclined to bend for any minorities.

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Molestation: Stealing Someone’s Soul, Restoration: Recovering It–UPDATED

Update: Thank you Anchoress for your kind words. I’m glad you decided to write about your experience. One of the travesties of justice is that a woman or man cannot speak publicly about her or his experience for fear of being sued by the perpetrator for defamation of character. Many women remember molestation experiences as adults, especially when they go through pregnancy and childbirth. Other women stay silent to protect their current family from the spectacle of a court case.

If the truth does come out, people quite ignorantly ask, “How come you never said anything before.” These people obviously don’t understand the tyranny of molestation, the shame that binds the victim and the psychological defenses that cause a victim to “try to forget”. To understand more about that, doctors are trying to find ways to help the elderly who experienced the Holocaust and WWII deal with their formerly suppressed memories as they are causing these poor people untold grief as their defenses break down in old age. Far too many women and men must deal with their own personal war stories in private. The Anchoress’ post gives people the courage to share their stories, and hopefully, find a path to healing.

Also, dear visitors, you must be extraordinary people in your own right, if you’re reading The Anchoress every day. I hope you’ll enjoy what you see here. Please bookmark my page and visit again, often. You might like some other posts here from the past and present: this one is about Religion in Politics, this post is Gender Neuterization. Thank you again, for visiting.

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I’m not sure, but I think it was M. Scott Peck’s book People of the Lie, where he talked about the Native American (I forget which tribe) notion of “soul stealers”. Soul Stealers are people who were denied something in their childhood and rather than being filled up by God, seek other souls, often their child’s, to devour to try to find wholeness.

Can there be a better description of a parent molesting a child and stealing her innocence? Rather than make his own light or allow God’s light to shine in him, the Soul Stealer tries to get it the easy way: by dominating and taking the light by force. Light stolen is light extinguished.

The Anchoress posted about her interaction with her soul stealing father:

Either way, his somnolent tears would induce my sympathy, and looking back on it, I am glad to realize I could – even then – feel sympathy for my father, even as I cringed in my corner. It tells me that despite all the things he took, he never fully had me, he never possessed me at my core, where grace did still abide.

It’s hard to imagine wanting someone’s soul. It’s harder still to imagine a parent taking it from their own child, but it happens far too often.

There have been so many abused people come through our practice, I had the impression early on, that child molestation at the hands of a deranged parent or step-parent or grand father or uncle, was an American pastime. I’m still not sure if it’s an American thing, our particular practice, or that people self-select to come to a health care worker to help them get rid of the somaticized pain. It could be all of the above or none of the above.

The people who really heal from these abuses, invariably turn to a Higher Power to fill the space by the fallen power who failed them. Siggy says this about The Anchoress’ walk:

In a way, her relationship with God is also substitute for the relationship with her biological father. That is not necessarily a bad thing. The Anchoress’ relationship with God is more intimate than the relationship with God has with most believers. Most believers relate to the majesty of God- The Anchoress also relates equally to an intimate God, the kind of relationship a child has with a parent. She has developed this relationship in it’s nuance, sublimity and boundaries. She is comfortable with God more than she is awed by God. She doesn’t see that of course. The Anchoress is ever the dutiful daughter of God, not realizing that His countenance radiates from her.

What a grand and fitting compliment to The Anchoress by Siggy. I agree. She is a testament to the power of God to transform a life and continues:

Creatures, behold your Creator: He doesn’t beckon with a kingly nod, with silence and guards and gravity. He comes as a child, lying in a manger – in the very thing the animals eat from – and He offers you Himself for your own food, your own nourishment and strength. We are loved into being by One who is All Good. Flickers from hell may singe and scar, but they will never consume us. Be not disconcerted.

A blogger who linked to The Anchoress who I have never read before, K-Dad, laments men who put lusts before God. He says this, first:

When you love something more than God, it’s idolatry. My passion for ideas is “idea-olatry.” I always said I “loved” ideas, but that was a mistake. It is lust that makes us do what God forbids, not love. That lust hurt my children, and messed up our homeschool. Throughout those years, I would have said that I was “teaching my children” when I talked to them about my latest thoughts—but now I can see that I was serving my idol, and dragging them into idol-worship with me.

He talks, from a very male perspective (duh, but I bring attention to this because I’m always fascinated when I talk to my husband or read pieces like this describing the hunger in a man, that drive. When applied correctly is awesome to behold, but when misapplied…..watch out) about lust:

A father’s lust is a terrible thing, whether it is a lust for ideas, sports, “success,” or sex. It scares me to think how many fathers think they are “loving” their children when they drag them to the idol that they serve. This gets scariest (and clearest) when the thing that makes us disobey God is sex.

“A father’s lust is a terrible thing…” I think of the word terrible in the context of dreadful or formidable. It is formidable. That is why when that energy is poured into love of God and family, a man is an equally constructive (rather than destructive) force of nature. This drive ensures survival of the species, protects hearth and home, is self-sacrificial and productive.

Just like a mother’s love reveals one aspect of God, a father’s love reveals another aspect of God. That is why when a parent abuses their position of authority in the home it is an utter abomination. Jesus said this about anyone who causes a child to sin (Matthew 18:1-14):

And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

Of course, Jesus isn’t just talking a literal child, but children in the faith. To see a child’s faith and belief ebb away in a sea of confusion and mistrust is heartbreaking. A child is built to believe. A child is born to faith.

Life’s trauma’s at the hands of “the one through whom they come”, steal the belief and faith. Only God can restore a person’s faith. Only through the Living Father of Life can we be born again.

Some people, I know some, who never had a faith crisis. They traveled safely from childhood to adulthood without having a significant part of their soul stolen. They are blessed. Others must travel through the valley of the shadow of death, come out the other side, and believe again. They must be restored. Still others must touch Christ’s wounds themselves to believe.

No matter a person’s walk, faith is complex, soul-satisfying and renewing. It is also a burden–a light burden, mind you, but a burden none the less. Struggling to make sense of a stolen past, wrestling like Jacob to be blessed by God, wanting to believe and having moments of fearful faithless narcissism like Elijah, I’m reminded of the a passionate loving father’s words to Christ when he asked for his son to be healed of convulsions that left him deaf and mute: “I believe! help my unbelief!”

The only way to satisfy and fill a soul that has been robbed is to turn to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. And believe.

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For those who have experienced this particular soul stealing, please seek help. The unresolved emptiness in your life, left unhealed, can result in inadvertent soul-stealing. When a chasm that huge is left in a soul like is left from an abusive parent, people often have marriage problems or other relational problems. Why? The answer is quite simple really. We all hope to find the one person who will fill up the emptiness, but no person can do this for another no matter how hard he or she tries. Ultimately God heals and a person must choose happiness for him or herself.

Once on the path to healing, the energy shifts from taking from those around you to giving to those around you, and wonder of wonders, you receive more than you ever imagined before when you sought to fill that need by taking. So much of transcendence is a paradox.

Anyway, the Catholics have this right: confession is good for the soul. Find a trusted counselor, confess, and start again.

Another thing, those who have experienced molestation often walk into relationships clueless as to how to make them work. It is really a matter of learning the rules again. We absorb the rules for relationships through our parents, but when the learning has been so corrupted, it takes active training, practice and dedication to do things a different way.

Give yourself every chance to succeed in the life you live today.

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Now, In Contrast to the Dixie Chicks….

We have Beccy Cole who sings in honor of Australia’s diggers and the fighting men in uniform courtesy Black Five via Gaius via Siggy. Amazing! Please, please go listen to her song. It made me cry.

Where are the artists? Where is the gratitude for those fighting for the rights we enjoy. The true idealists wear uniforms. The poseurs mock the President. Gaius says:

Getting a rash from the endless screeching coming from the Dixie Chicks? Exhausted by their endless whining about being silenced? Which they deliver on television, in a new movie and in endless cover stories in magazines? Ready to puke at the stupidity of people who cannot understand the difference between free speech and the consequences of their own actions in alienating the people who they expect to buy their product?

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Pardon These Men

I haven’t seen much in the news about this, but two border patrol agents have been sentenced to over ten years in prison for shooting a drug smuggler in the butt who was trying to escape. They were convicted by a jury and the chief witness? The drug dealer granted immunity.

WASHINGTON – Congressmen concerned about the convictions and stiff prison sentences of two Border Patrol agents who injured a Mexican drug dealer they were pursuing say Homeland Security officials told them the pair were “out to shoot Mexicans.”

The White House and federal officials have been getting heat for offering the drug dealer immunity to testify against the two lawmen — Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean – both of whom are Mexican-Americans.

Former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos embraced his wife, Monica Ramos, two days before he was sentenced to 11 years in prison (Courtesy El Paso Times)

The agents were convicted in March of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks as he ran away from them near the Rio Grande River in February 2005. Ramos and Compean were sentenced last week to 11 and 12 years, respectively.

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Reproductive Determinism

The Anchoress discusses Mark Steyn’s book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It which sits next to me as I type this and can be found through linkage at right on my “bookshelf”. (This was one of the books I was supposed to receive before my cruising, but I digress.) The inside front flap blurb says in part, “The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident.”

Anyway, The Anchoress points to this Human Events interview with Steyn about the “Threat of Islam”. He says humorously:

Well, the publicist is a genius because that is the kind of endorsement you can’t get. I don’t know how he got a copy to President Ahmadinejad but I’m glad that the president of Iran has digested the main lesson, which is, if you don’t have people, you can’t have any influence in the world.

His idea is that population, reproduction determines destiny. Civilizations rise and fall on numbers. The Anchoress notes further:

The Brussels Journal piece ends thusly: “If faith collapses, civilization goes with it,” says [Tom] Bethell. That is the real cause of the closing of civilization in Europe. Islamization is simply the consequence. The very word Islam means “submission” and the secularists have submitted already. Many Europeans have already become Muslims, though they do not realize it or do not want to admit it.

People, particularly the hardline secularists, do not want to admit it but America is going to be forced to play things out on both a secular and supernatural stage, if she is going to stay alive, and not just alive but comprehensively American. Those, like Rosie O’ Donnell, who would lump the Taliban and American Christians into the same boat do not realize that in doing so they are consigning themselves to Europe’s fate. And Europe is dying. Europe will not fight.

I have been giving these ideas some thought. In a world where one nut-job with nuclear rocket launcher (does such a beast exist?) can level a town, why do population numbers matter? Look at what Saddam and his minority minions did in Iraq. The oppressed the majority, easily, I might add.

Editor’s Note: Half-way through the post the Tigers game came on, then an Texas storm washed through and all important electronics got turned off (the beloved iMac is included in the “important electronics” category), so I’m just finishing this post today, this afternoon.

Back to the topic at hand. While the aforementioned storm raged, I read about 3/4′s of Steyn’s book. It’s a fast read. I’ll finish it tonight, if all goes as planned. Anyway, he has more to say about the fact that Europeans are converting to Islam. Europeans are pretending to be Islamic to be safe (women wearing hijabs–they do solve clothes choosing dilemmas). Europeans are old and philosophically fat and simply haven’t got the energy to fight the young, angry masses, says Steyn.

But here is, the most important quote of the book (the first half anyway):

“In a democratic age, you can’t buck demography–except through civil war. The Serbs figured that out–as other Continentals will in the years ahead: if you can’t out breed the enemy, cull them.”

That, friends, will be Europe’s choice. I’m not convinced that Steyn is right about which way Europe will go. The one thing about Europeans, is they are entitled and tend to externalize the blame. And why not? The government is usually the one screwing them because the government is the one controlling so many aspects of their lives. In the past, though, the government while causing the misery, wasn’t blamed. Remember who was?

Ah, yes. Europe knows how to get her groove back. She has done it before. The one thing Europeans agree on is this: they are superior in every way to every one. Their secularism, multi-culturalism makes them the smartest people on the globe. While Steyn believes that might be the death of ‘em, I think that it will be their rallying cry, ultimately.

Anti-Semitism grows among the discontented youth–and not just the Muslim youths. Far-right parties are making themselves known again. The elites might be fiddling, but should the plebes become frustrated enough and they find a leader who represents them…………

So will the barren wombs of “Eutopia” be suicidal? Time will tell. If Europe decides to stay a “Eutopia”, most definitely. Culling, though, has been used before. Will it be used to again?

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Betsy: The Anatomy of Race Mongering

Isn’t everyone tired of the race thing? Easy for you to say, Melissa, you’re a dumpy, white, augmented blond, true-blue eyed, American woman. Besides the occasional tune-up by your husband (all men abuse their wives) and being oppressed by the institution of marriage itself (marriage squelches all people and invites the government behind your doors) and birthing children (which is demeaning and undignified and a sell out of your talent and education) and even worse, breastfeeding (ewww, you wrote the words “breast” and “feed” in the same sentence), you are the majority. You don’t know from discrimination.

So, as you can see, I’m not qualified and/or equipped to be tired of the “race thing”. I don’t know Betsy’s persuasion, but she gives a nice anatomy of race mongering ala Jesse Jackson:

First you trump up a phony complaint of racism because of a gag in a Republican ad against Harold Ford. Then you get your friends in the media to have a meltdown over it alleging all sorts of racist attacks. Stephen Spruiell has some amazing excerpts from Chris Matthews going bozo over finding racist and ethnic attacks (now they are alleging a subliminal message because there are drums in one Bob Corker ad)in GOP ads, except for Michael Steele whom he praises for being unthreatening in his ads. Matthews likes the Steele ads for being so unthreatening that they’re almost “child-like.”

After you’ve softened up the ground with all your allegations of Republican racism then you can expand from politics to some of your other goals. So, Jesse Jackson has jumped in to extend the attack on the RNC anti-Ford ad into an attack on Wal-Mart because someone who works for the agency that created that ad also works on Wal-Mart ads.

Go to her post to read the whole sordid thing.

To be clear, I’m not saying discrimination doesn’t exist. It does. It is repugnant. It is close-minded. We diminish true racism, though, by going injustice hunting to try to scare up an issue so we can use the ax we like to grind.

I also believe that discrimination has diminished enough in most places against almost every minority you can name (hearing impaired, different-abled, special, woman, transgendered, gay, lesbian, of color, grayified, please add to the list in the comments), that the focus now should be on merit and performance and ideas.

I like the idea of a nation where children and adults, alike, are judged on “the content of their character.” We can’t get to that place if we’re always focused on the color of the skin, the gender, the age, the victim group we choose to identify with.

Enough, already!

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France Intifada

The suburbs of Paris are burning. Do you know about it? Paul Belian of the Brussels Journal shares with Pajama’s Media’s Washington Editor Richard Miniter possible civil war in France. (Why haven’t I bookmarked him yet? Oy!)

Read more here. Watch the video below. I’m including this because this is news you will never see in the MSM.

Via Instapundit

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Salon Interview with Camille Paglia

For the life of me, I don’t get this woman’s devotion to the Democrat party. She must be an optimist, since her list of grievances (and it is long) will likely never change.

She articulates clearly the average American’s (who she identifies as small-business owners who dislike the “nanny state”) distrust of all things Democrat:

• No cohesive world-view–simple-mindedness on world geopolitical complexities
• Willingness to destroy their own ideology for power–Foley
• Elevating the profane as art
• Using pseudo-intellectual condescension in the Art realm leading people to believe art is for snobs and the superficial–Warhol PBS Documentary
• Clinton acting like the “shadow president” and making an ass of himself during the Fox interview with Chris Wallace
• Press collusion with Democrats over whatever suits them–in this case Foley
• Hollywood elite showing contempt for people–Barbra Streisand being Exhibit “A”

She paints a fairly accurate and miserable picture. She also rightly identifies the Bush constituency’s frustration with border patrol and illegal immigration, the Iraq war, etc. She worries that Bush’s locution reveals his inability to think in big ideas.

She sees Nixonian paranoia creeping into Bush’s style. This last observation, I must say, seems a stretch. If I were him, I might be paranoid. I’ve mentioned this before. I’d be paranoid because everyone does seem out to get me–from lies to damn lies to leaks to betrayal–this President has been on the receiving end of scorn and deceit not only from the usual subjects but from his own. It almost boggles the mind. If he’s getting a tad testy that would seem rational–not irrational. I do agree with Paglia that this defensive position is not good for America. And I wonder if Bush’s fatigue at being incessantly pummeled is why he’s going all rubbery on Iraq.

The whole interview is worth a read. I think she pretty well sums up America today. While America will survive non-funding of the arts because liberal elites refuse to involve the unwashed masses in the culture conversation, America won’t survive the relentless drive to destruction because of dithering and debating our value as a country.

Perhaps the most important thing that she doesn’t mention, is her own party’s self-loathing. How to be an intellectual on this world stage and love America? Evidently, holding those two notions simultaneously is too much for a progressive. The elite seem to be willing to trade their love of country for personal aggrandizement–to be loved by the “thinkers” of the world. They show utter ingratitude and a profound lack of perspective for what America is and has given them.

This contempt for America, epitomized by the deluded Dixie Chicks, plays poorly, to say the least. No one believes that America is above criticism. No one believes Bush is above criticism. Paglia herself cites the areas that conservatives differ with their representatives–especially Bush. This sort of anger and resentment is a whole different kettle of fish than artists humiliating the President, bad-mouthing our country on foreign ground, etc.

I would like to see the Democrats get their acts together, but that would mean a total change of perspective–putting the country first over petty personal desires. The Democrats need to “get” that if America ceases to exist, these silly slap-fights won’t matter anyway. It’s time for the Democrats to grow up and get serious.

Posted in America | 8 Comments »

Honeybee Genome Human-like

I am not surprised that the Honeybee’s genome is the insect that’s most like ours (only three insects have been analyzed so far). It is a mythological creature, almost miraculous in it’s impact on our lives. Without honeybees….well, we don’t want to even contemplate that world.

When compared to other insects, the honey bee genome contains fewer genes involved in innate immunity, detoxification enzymes, and gustatory (taste) receptors, while not surprisingly, it contains more genes for olfactory receptors and novel genes for nectar and pollen utilization. Interestingly, the honey bee genome shows greater similarities to vertebrates than insects for genes involved in circadian rhythm, as well as biological processes involved in turning genes on or off.

Excellent. Maybe this amazing creature will unlock more cures for humans.

From Wikipedia:

The honey bee’s primary commercial value is as a pollinator of crops. Orchards and fields have grown larger; at the same time wild pollinators have dwindled. In several areas of the world the pollination shortage is compensated by migratory beekeeping, with beekeepers supplying the hives during the crop bloom and moving them after bloom is complete. In many higher latitude locations it is difficult or impossible to winter over enough bees, or at least to have them ready for early blooming plants, so much of the migration is seasonal, with many hives wintering in warmer climates and moving to follow the bloom to higher latitudes.

As an example, in California, the pollination of almonds occurs in February, early in the growing season, before local hives have built up their populations. Almond orchards require two hives per acre (2,000 m² per hive) for maximum yield and so the pollination is highly dependent upon the importation of hives from warmer climates.

More on honeybees here.

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