Live-ish Thoughts on MSNBC's "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller"

Right out of the gate, let me say that I am pro choice.  I think that in a society that does a terrible job of being honest to children and teenagers about sex and child bearing and rearing, where rape is still a tool used to put women in their place (at a ridiculous rate, still), where a woman's likelihood to live her life in poverty can be easily determined by whether she has children and how many, abortion is necessary.  And I don't like the term that many other pro-choicers use - a necessary evil.  It's a legal medical procedure that can save the lives and/or futures of women.  Stop apologizing for it, it's not evil, but for a lot of women it is necessary.

That said, I've never been sure about late-term abortions.  I don't consider a fetus to be a "baby" until it can survive outside of the womb on it's own, which depending on the situation is generally somewhere after 6 months.  That's obviously not an optimal gestation period, but when I hear about premature births it seems like the infants are more likely to live if they're past the 6 month period.  So by my own personal definition, a 3rd trimester abortion is "killing a baby"... except, as I have learned in the past year plus of personally studying race, gender, and class issues, the issue of late-term abortion is not that simple.

Thoughts

• I did not know that he was shot and killed at his church.
• There are only 3 (now two, I guess) physicians who specialize in 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions?  I'm not surprised at 3rd trimester abortions, but I didn't realize that 2nd trimester abortions were also so contentious.
• "Abortion is a matter of survival for women." - Dr. George Tiller, summarizing what the women who were patients of his father, who also performed abortions, taught him.
• I love how determined, unafraid, and vehement he was that his services were necessary and he was not going to stop.
• One of his colleagues points out that women just to pick up from all over the country, and some the world, and fly to Wichita, Kansas on a whim for an abortion - all of their cases were catastrophes.
• Fetal Indications - late term abortions performed because something was wrong with the fetus.  More and more often I've heard stories of women who were having miscarriages and were turned away from their OB/GYNs or the local hospital because "they don't do abortions".  The fetus is literally dying or already dead inside of them.  If there is no chance that it will survive, then how the hell is aiding a woman in expelling her fetus to make sure that she doesn't become ill equal performing an abortion?  But this happens!  It's so illogical that doctors are allowed to say no to a woman in need of such desperate assistance.
• Maternal Indications - late term abortions performed because of issues that the mother was having, such as mental health issues, patients who were basically children themselves, etc.
• I fucking hate this guy, Randall Terry, from Operation Rescue.  "Don't let them murder your baby, mommy please don't kill me!  We'll help you!"  Really?  Like these women are just having a fun little lunchtime abortion?  Like they haven't thought of every option other than an abortion, especially in the case of the many women who were aborting because though they desperately wanted this child, but for whatever reason they cannot carry it to term.
• Also, how exactly would they help these women?  Does Operation Rescue have a fund set up to provide poor women with monetary support for their unwanted children, pay the medical bills or funeral costs of women who were going to abort because maintaining the pregnancy would be a danger to their health, pay for the funerals of babies born dead for women who were going to abort because their OB/GYN told them that their fetus would be unlikely to survive?  A search on their website shows that donations go towards "exposing the sin of abortion" around the country, so no, they do not have such funds.  Also, they apparently do not have 501c3 status.  They should shut the fuck up and have a seat.
• Oh O'Reilly.  "Tiller has killed thousands of late-term fetuses without explanation".  Explanation to who?  He doesn't need to give any explanation to the general public.  Or does he think that Tiller and his staff just let any woman who came in hop onto the table without asking them why they wanted to have an abortion?
• It's such a simple-minded point of view to call an abortion provider a "baby killer" without wondering why so many women would choose to "kill our babies".  35% of all women of reproductive age will have had an abortion before they are 45 years old.  Are more than a third of women just degenerate baby killers, too?  Or maybe they have valid reasons to have made this decision.
• "The ones who don't carry guns incite the ones who do carry guns."  Yep.  You can't spend years turning someone into a villain and then absolve yourself of responsibility when someone deems themselves the hero who will save all of the innocents from said villain.

Also, I don't like the assumption that women, their doctors, and abortion providers are all either so evil or so incompetent that they are all just eager to kill babies willy nilly, and it's the job of religious groups to show them the light.  And I name religious groups because I don't think that I've ever heard an anti-abortion opinion that was not based in religion.  I could not care less about what your religion says about abortion.  Your religion is not mine, and it should not be allowed to dictate the laws and lives that affect my life.  I'd love to hear a logical reason why abortion should be illegal that has nothing to do with religion.

Knowledge and empathy is what helped me decide that my support is completely pro-choice.  There are so many reasons why a woman and her partner may choose to have a late term abortion, and often these reasons have to be supported by an outside physician.  Rarely could someone have an abortion for "no reason" and really, is there such a thing as a frivolous reason to have an abortion?  In my opinion, no.  But if your's is yes, think up the most frivolous situation to have an abortion imaginable. Now would you want that woman and her partner to pass their genes on to, and raise, a child?  Probably not.

Parting Clouds

After three days of torrential downpours and an upstairs neighbor who leaves her doors open in order for her barking rodent to roam about freely, a chunk of my wet ceiling collapsed into my bedroom at 5 this morning.  Not near the bed, so I went back to sleep.  Thank goodness my landlord is awesome and quick to respond to the issues that always pop up in old houses like the one I live in.

The sun is now shining, though, as I write this from my outdoor table at the Esplanade CCs, and I'm looking forward to a weekend full of sunshine and warm weather.  I mentioned in my previous post that I might have sunken into an even deeper depth of depression over the past year.  I finally started seeing a therapist regularly at the beginning of March, and I sucked it up and got prescribed an anti-depressant.  The idea of being on prescription drugs has always made me very nervous because I don't like the idea of chemicals causing reactions in my body that I can't see and/or control, but I realized that saying "well I'm not suicidal, so it's not that bad" wasn't going to cut it anymore, since I was also:  Not motivated to do anything to make my future happen the way I want it to; too socially anxious to develop or maintain friendships; not capable of concentrating on anything longer than a few minutes at a time; tired all of the time; not capable of remembering what being happy feels like.  That's not living, so I might as well have been suicidal.

It's been about four weeks so far but I started seeing a difference in week two; the full difference won't be felt until weeks five or six.  I feel like I'm quicker to smile, I'm more talkative in social situations, I don't put myself down as much, and I'm not as self-conscious as I used to be.  I also find myself jittery with energy sometimes, which I thought was weird unti I remembered that when I was a kid I was always fidgety and full of energy and movement.  Things like this are why I needed to finally get some help - I've been clinically depressed for over ten years, and it had gotten to the point that I couldn't remember the last time I had been genuinely happy, or what my actual personality was like.  I don't even know if this is my full personality - when I went through puberty I was depressed and most of the knowledge I've gained and the experiences that I've had have been seen through the gray filter of depression.

I'm hoping that the next month or so will shed light on who I am and where I'm going, and I think that I'm excited to see what's ahead.

Oh, hi there!

So...it's been a while.  About two in a half months, in fact.  My posting had been waning for a while, but I don't think it's for lack of interest, but rather lack of time and motivation.  I think about stuff to post here all of the time, but instead of writing these ideas down I let them rotate in my head over and over again until I'm tired of them and push them out of my head, still unresolved.  I've also been experiencing varying levels of depression over the past few months, which is sort of an annoying situation.  I find my mood happier when I write regularly, but being depressed keeps me from writing.

I've also been distracted by other social media formats.  I joined Tumblr a few months ago, and like the microblogging format, although I do a lot more reblogging then I do original posting.  I also joined Twitter maybe a month ago (see left sidebar), and I'm G+ing (also see left sidebar.  I don't know why it says that no one is following me - I have more people following me on G+ then I do friends on Facebook!).  I've been trying to figure out how to juggle all of these social media outlets, and doing a shitty job at all of them.  I've decided that I'm going to break it down like this:

Blogger - this baby.  I've disconnected the feed to my Facebook wall.  I want this blog to go back to being my personal blog, like a public diary, a place for me to spill all of the random debates and conversations that float through my brain with no outlet (because I only have a couple of friends).  I found myself more cautious about what I wrote once my posts were going to Facebook, and I still think I had a few unfriends because of it (oh well).  My longer posts are going to go here, the stuff that involves forming my thoughts and future beliefs on complicated subjects.  And stuff about New Orleans that doesn't fit into 140 characters, because I'm not impressed with the New Orleans showing on Tumblr.  I like that both friends and people who I've never met in person read this, but I really like that the readers I haven't met in person are actually people who I would like to meet someday, and I hope to keep it that way.

Tumblr & Twitter - My tumblog feeds into my Twitter account, so both will be about the short spurts from my brain - "Movies I'm Looking Forward To" will move to Tumblr, anything about music, entertainment, etc.  Basically, stuff meant for random people to discover via hashtags, retweets/reblogs, etc.  I guess these will contain the parts of me that I'm willing to share with a broad group of people, many of whom I may never want to meet outside of the internets.

Google + - I think a lot of people are trying to figure out what to do with google plus.  I think it's a little more ... grown up than Facebook, but that could be because most of my Facebook friends are people who I know from college and elementary/middle/high school classmates who hunted me down.  I wasn't grown then, and I know I'm a lot different then I was even 4.5 years ago in college, so I'm moving a lot of the political/racial/social issue comments to G+, especially since most of my G+ people are listeners of Blacking It Up!, which is all about those topics and the best podcast EVER IN LIFE.

Facebook - Fuck Facebook.  But seriously, I only use Facebook to interact with people who only interact via Facebook.  It's so unimportant to me that I'm not even going to link to it (but feel free to friend me!).  If there is ever a time when most of my friends are connected to me through some other (any other?) social media outlet, I WILL SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN.  No seriously, fuck Facebook.  I do like their events mechanism, though.  My tweets are going there so people know I'm still alive.

So, there's that.  I find that I'm better at doing things when I organize them into very neat piles.

Another thing that I'm doing?  Re-arranging my body clock.

So, for as long as I can remember whenever I have had the opportunity to go to bed and wake up at whatever time I wanted, I have gone to bed between 4 - 6am, and woken up between 12 - 2pm.  Obviously, I've had to force that inclination to fit my job, which means that I wake up at 7am and go to bed ... well, that's the problem.  I should go to bed at 10 or 11pm, but it' really really hard because my body wants to stay up until at least 2am.  As I write these words, it's 4:54am.  I'm tired of this.  But I can't really do what my body wants, which is to rule the night, so I'm going to try to force a compromise.

I'm going to sleep from between 7 - 9pm to 2 - 4am.  The time that I have between wakey wakey and 5:30am will be for reading, writing, and catching up on my DVR.  At 5:30am, I'll go jogging for about an hour and a half, then come back home to shower and get ready for work.  Work is from 8am to 4pm.  At 4, I'll go straight from work to the gym three times a week (the non-gym days will be for errands, or social stuff).  I'll be done by 5 or 5:30pm on gym days, and then I'll do whatever the hell I want until bedtime, which will vary depending on if there is some sort of event that I want to go to.  I don't do a lot of night events, though that may change since I'm getting a scooter very soon (Guys!  I'm not posting about it until it's in the driveway!).

I do have to consider my stomach issues.  I've managed, over the past year, to gain control over IBS by eating very small dinners (either a snack like peanut butter and honey at home, or an appetizer or soup at restaurants).  My main big meal is lunch now.  The only time I have an upset stomach is occasionally when I'm on my period, but my body is haywire anyway for those five days.  I'm thinking my eating schedule will be like this:

Breakfast = about an hour after waking up.  Toast + tea is the easiest thing for a sensitive stomach.
After the morning jog = fruit
work snack (around 9am) = oatmeal, quiche, bagel, something like that that I can make or heat up quick at work.
lunch (around 11am) = smaller.  This is forcing me to give up big meals, which I should have already done anyway.  I'm going to start making recipes again, so lunch will vary, but the portions will be much smaller.
work snack (around 2pm) = I've fallen in love with trail mix.  or more fruit.
dinner (around 4:30ish or 5:30ish pm) = something safe on the tummy, like peanut butter and honey, pumpkin bread, etc.

I'm doing it like this because not only does this fit my 8 - 4 job better, but also if I'm successful at breaking into acting this coming year, I'm going to have to deal with a weird schedule like this anyway.  Nothing that I want to do with my future involves working these 9 to 5-like jobs anymore past the next 8 months, so I need to get my body used to this now.  I'll see how the trial period (the next two weeks) goes, and take it from there.

Whelp, I'm done for now.  This is going to be a long day, since I haven't slept since 1pm on Sunday, but it'll make it very easy for me to go to sleep at 7pm today.

Fwd: Breaking News: Cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to human's, agency says

Awesome.

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 11:51 AM, The Washington Post <newsletters@email.washingtonpost.com> wrote:

---------------------------------------- Breaking News Alert: Cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to human's, agency says May 31, 2011 12:50:24 PM ---------------------------------------- An international panel of experts says cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to humans after reviewing details from dozens of published studies. The statement was issued in Lyon, France, on Tuesday by the International Agency for Research on Cancer after a weeklong meeting of experts. They reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar. The agency is the cancer arm of the World Health Organization and the assessment now goes to WHO and national health agencies for possible guidance on cellphone use. The group classified cellphones in category 2B, meaning they are possibly carcinogenic to humans. Other substances in that category include the pesticide DDT and gasoline engine exhaust. http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/F490YD/V16G5T/RU2NNT/YI3P09/VYGOL/SN/h For more information, visit washingtonpost.com ---------------------------------------- © 2011The Washington Post Company Washington Post Digital E-mail Customer Care 1150 15th Street NW Washington, DC 20071

Do Something Reel Film Festival

Whole Foods is sponsoring a eco-focused travelling film festival in seventy cities, and New Orleans is one of them!  They're showing two films every Monday at the Theatres at Canal Place through the end of April (it started on the 11th).  I just read about it on Nola.com, and after checking out the trailers I think I'm going to see these two:


ON COAL RIVER trailer (runtime: 2:36) from On Coal River on Vimeo.


Vanishing of the Bees - Trailer from Bee The Change on Vimeo.

Tickets are on sale online for $10 at on the theatre's website. I'm not sure if they're sold at the door.

Thousands of Gulf Oil Spill Clean-up Crew Are Dying!

This is horrible.  Rich people will always take advantage of people who can't afford to turn down the dangerous work that they don't want to do themselves.

New Orleans gets an urban grove _ and renewal?

This sounds beautiful, I can't wait to see it.

 

 

Sent to you by Denise via Google Reader:

 

 

New Orleans gets an urban grove _ and renewal?

via Defend New Orleans / blog by admin on 2/22/11

NEW ORLEANS — A grove of trees and flowers that will soon be built is anchoring hopes of transforming a down-on-its-heels New Orleans neighborhood that's been plagued by crime and poverty.

Meet Ken Smith, a prominent New York City landscape architect who's put a roof garden atop the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, greened up Malcolm X Plaza in Harlem, designed a massive metropolitan park in Orange County, Calif., and made gardens flourish inside trash bins at Ohio State University.

He's taking the concept of urban oases to four cities in a public-corporate project that's won the blessing of the Obama administration. The first of the groves will be built over the next month in New Orleans.

"There is something beautiful about trees planted in a grove formation: It has a real strong sense of order and beauty," Smith said. "Planting trees is a sign of hope and optimism."

Similar groves will be planted in San Francisco, New York City and Washington, D.C.

The New Orleans grove is being planted in an empty trash-strewn lot in Central City, a neighborhood that's fallen on hard times.

Central City is rich with civil rights history, most prominently its role in founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, an organization of ministers led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. During segregation, Central City was a bustling shopping district for blacks excluded from Canal Street and home to many early jazz musicians, including Buddy Bolden.

But the past few decades have been tough on Central City.

"We have a lot of blighted properties in the community, too many!" said Bertrand Butler, a leader of Mardi Gras Indians and a lifelong Central City resident.

Along with the blight has come brutal crime.

Since Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, several of the city's worst moments go back to Central City.

A few blocks from where the new grove is being built, five teenagers were shot dead inside an SUV in June 2006. The killings prompted the deployment of the Louisiana National Guard to patrol hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

And a few blocks in the other direction, a 24-year-old police officer was shot to death in January 2008 by a rape suspect with a long history of psychiatric problems. The murder exposed the damage done to the city's mental health system by Katrina.

The new grove is going to be a bold break from the blight.

It will rise up from an empty lot at an intersection on Simon Bolivar Boulevard, a sweeping oak-lined boulevard that's seen better days. Along it you find homes with roofs so overgrown they look like they've grown thick weed braids. Sidewalks along the boulevard are unkempt and broken.

Over the next month, the 80-foot-by-80-foot lot will be transformed.

It will be planted with 16, 18-foot bald cypress trees. And its new lease on life will come in the shape of a bog garden with irises and rushes, a jasmine vine, a circular enclosure — a "trellis," as Smith calls it — made from reclaimed window sashes from New Orleans salvage yards, a bamboo hedge and solar lights.

"It will serve as an anchor within the urban context," Smith said. "I don't think it has to be a big place to have a big impact."

Continue at WSJ

 

 

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Documentary: "Food Matters"

A "New" Approach to Health from Jamie Simko on Vimeo.

Some Updates on Me

I've been a bad blogger.  In 6 short months (man, this year is going by fast), I've gone from posting more than once a day to posting once every couple of weeks.  Boo.  And it's not that I'm not interested in blogging, I come up with ideas for posts all of the time...I just never write them, for many of the same reasons that caused me to start this blog in the first place.  Fear.  "Not having enough time", although I'm sure that the time that I spend at 1am playing my Monopoly app when I can't go to sleep would be better spent blogging.  Depression.  I've been, more than likely, clinically depressed since I was 14, but it tends to be very mild, with occasional dips, which I think is what I'm experiencing now.  I've excused the mildness as a reason to not get treatment, but now that I'm in the position to afford to do so (more on that later), I'm going to.  The depression makes my head feel very cloudy - I can't concentrate on doing any one thing well, not at work or in my personal life, which makes me frustrated and even more depressed.  Anyway, I'm going to try to jump back in the saddle and blog more often.

I've joined a gym.  The St. Charles Ave. Athletic Club, in fact.  A friend of mine and her husband go there, and for the past month I've been going 4 times a week for about 30 - 45 minutes.  Once I get a license and a scooter, I'd like to go for at least an hour, but for now, I have a bus to catch home.  More and more often I'm frustrated with the limitations to my access to transportation.  Even if I had a bike, I wouldn't want to ride it from the gym home, not with the drivers in the city.  I'm kind of afraid to weigh myself - I don't think that I've lost any weight, and my goal was 5 pounds per month until I'm down to 125lbs, which makes more sense for my small frame.  I'm eating healthier than I ever have, except for my weakness for sugar and chocolate.  I have some sort of chocolate snack at least once a day, and even though it's not processed junk, I'm thinking that I'd do better to limit things like that to once a week and substitute my chocolate pastry cravings for something better, like an ounce of semi-sweet chocolate, which I recently discovered that I like better than milk chocolate.

It's those eyes...

The New Orleans Film Festival is going on for the next week, and they're showing a lot of great movies.  One of them is Night Catches Us, starring Kerry Washington and Anthony Mackie.  Anthony Mackie is from here, and will be at the opening of his movie tomorrow night.  I've had such a crush on him since She Hate Me, which featured many scenes of him nekkid and screwing...if I was feeling prettier, I'd totally go for it, although Google won't tell me if he's single.  He's very talented, I hope he gets all of the kudos and work that he deserves in the future.  I've also developed a girl-crush on Kerry Washington, she reminds me very much of Angelina Jolie, super sexy (not just sexy looking, like most young actresses) and capable of playing cool and calm or completely unhinged with amazing ease...maybe someone needs to cast her in an action film for her to get recognition that she deserves, although I've noticed her bagging more and more movies lately.



I'm not an AmeriCorps member any more.  I wasn't aware that I wasn't eligible for the education award this year - remaining with them would have meant loosing 1/3 of what isn't actually considered "income".  So I'm now a full on employee of PNOLA, which works out better for me.  I have a great health care plan now, and can afford the aforementioned treatment for the depression that's plagued me for so long.  I think 2011 is going to be the year that my life improves drastically, and I start achieving goals left and right.  It's been a slow build since 2007 - things are much better then they were then, or even just last year - but I can see things improving exponentially over the next year.  I can't wait.

Local News Briefs: NOPD Cover-Up Charges, Kristin Palmer stands up for non-profits, New LSU Clinic Open 24hrs, and the Greenway is on the Way!

Charges were filed in murder (and subsequent cover-up) of Henry Glover at the hands of several NOPD officers in the aftermath of the levee failures nearly 5 years ago.

Newly elected city councilwoman Kristin Palmer laid into the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) over all of the red tape and slow disbursement involved with the Non-Profit Rebuilding Pilot Program (NPRPP) grant.  I had the misfortune of being at one of the NPRPP meetings a few months ago, that the state holds to answer any questions and provide guidance to the non-profits that have been awarded this grant.  Many questions were asked, and I can't remember if any were answered to anyone's satisfaction.  It eventually devolved in frustrated yelling, since the money was "awarded" nearly a year ago, but as the article states, a minuscule amount has actually been disbursed.  I'm excited to see what Kristin Palmer will do as a city councilwoman.  I found her frightening when I worked at Rebuilding Together last summer, but scary people are the best ones to have on your side.

LSU opened a 24hr clinic at 2025 Gravier St. to treat minor injuries earlier this year, and they are now fully operational.

The City of New Orleans recently acquired the last parcel of land needed to turn the Lafitte Greenway from a dream to a reality.  I participated in the annual walk of the Lafitte Greenway back in May, and was so inspired and excited by all of the ideas that they presented that I became a member of Friends of Lafitte Corridor.  Check out their website at the link above, and help support the cause!  Check out the pictures that I took during the walk below.

Swine flu vaccines available - NOLA.com

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1257402611293940.xml&coll=1
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Child H1N1 Swine Flu Deaths Rising

Child H1N1 Swine Flu Deaths Rising

More H1N1 Swine Flu Than Reported

Goddamn. More H1N1 Swine Flu Than Reported. A lot more.

ISS - Two-thirds of child flu deaths in states in or near the South

ISS - Two-thirds of child flu deaths in states in or near the South

Free Flu Shot Day!

I got this from the United Non-Profits email list. __________________________________________________________________ From: Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 8:21 AM To: Subject: [Louisiana Events] NOLA: Nov. 13 is Free Flu Shot Day thanks to DHH No cost to you this day only! Flu shots will still be available after this date BUT. The no-cost-to-you shots are available to EVERYONE on November 13th ONLY. Friday November 13th, 2009 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Wear a shirt with short or loose-fitting sleeves. Mike Miley Playground 6716 West Metairie Avenue Metairie, LA 70003 Questions? call (504) 599-0100 St. Bernard Parish Health Unit 8201 West Judge Perez Drive, Suite B Chalmette, LA 70043 Questions? call (504) 278-7410 Orleans Women's Health Clinic 3308 Tulane Avenue New Orleans, LA 70119 Questions? call (504) 826-2560 Jefferson Parish Health Unit 1855 Ames Blvd. Marrero, LA 70072 Questions? call (504) 349-8802 More info: www.dhh.louisiana. gov LOUISIANA Department of HEALTH and HOSPITALS This is an exercise to test the State's ability to vaccinate large numbers of people during an emergency. cheron brylski the brylski company 3418 coliseum street new orleans, louisiana 70115 (504) 897-6110 cell (504) 460-1468 fax (504) 897-0778 www.brylskicompany. com

Obama declares swine flu a national emergency | Louisiana Politics & Government - - Louisiana Politics | State Legislature News - NOLA.com

Well this is timely...

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/obama_declares_swine_flu_a_nat.html
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

To Get the Shot, or to Not Get the Shot...

That's the question that I'm trying to answer tonight. I've talked about it with several people before deciding to do my own research because I kept hearing different things and I don't know if any of these people know what the hell they're talking about. Some background on my history with the flu: I have no history with the flu. For as long as I can remember, I've never had the flu (I'm knocking on my wooden headboard right now). And I've worked in retail since I was 16, and I lived in dorms half of my time in college, so I definitely had the opportunity to get it.

My boss told me that this could either give me a higher chance of getting the flu or make it worse for me if I get it since I have no immunities built up against it. Smokey and her brother, who I may start calling the know-it-all twins, have both told me that I shouldn't get it (and her pregnant ass isn't getting it) because it can have bad side effects, and the same number of people who get the regular flu have gotten the swine flu and everybody's making a big deal out of nothing. And their mama was a nurse and she not to get it so there.

My thinking was that I was going to get a flu shot this year anyway because I'm trying to go the rest of my life without ever having the flu, and the one that I got two years ago kept me from getting the flu even though I spent 5 days working behind a counter with my boss who had it. So, if I was going to get a regular one, why not get this one for the H1N1? But the side effect stuff does worry me, and I keep hearing that it wasn't tested nearly as well as most flu vaccines are, so I decided that I should research it myself and figure out what's the best action to take.

One thing that Smokey was telling me yesterday was that there haven't been any more deaths from the swine flu than there usually are from the regular flu.  Well, I don't know where that information came from, because according to the CDC;

Exact numbers of how many people died from flu this season cannot be determined. Flu-associated deaths are only a nationally notifiable condition among children, and states are not required to report flu cases or to report adult deaths from influenza to CDC. In addition, many people who die of complications from flu infection are not tested for flu, or they seek medical care later in their illness when influenza can no longer be detected from respiratory samples.

So, flu deaths were probably always under reported in previous years, and may be this year as well.  Either way, I can't accurately glean any comparative information from looking at adult deaths from this year (because they are being reported this year by most states).  But for child deaths from the flu, which are reported, the results are these for the past few flu seasons:

• During the 2003-04 Season, 153 flu-associated deaths in children were reported to CDC.
• During the 2004-05 Season, 47 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
• During the 2005-06 Season, 46 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
• During the 2006-07 season, 76 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
• As of June 14, 2008, 83 deaths in children occurring during the 2007-08 season have been reported to CDC.

There's no 2008-2009 info because we're technically still in that flu season, even though the 2009-2010 season appears to have already started.  The flu season usually lasts October through May.  The 08-09 season has lasted a full year at this point.  We're not getting a break.  Here's the CDC's information for two weeks ago:

2009-2010 Influenza Season Week 40 ending October 10, 2009

All data are preliminary and may change as more reports are received.

Synopsis:

During week 40 (October 4-10, 2009), influenza activity increased in the U.S.

• 4,093 (29.4%) specimens tested by U.S. World Health Organization (WHO) and National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) collaborating laboratories and reported to CDC/Influenza Division were positive for influenza.
• All subtyped influenza A viruses being reported to CDC were 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses.
• The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was above the epidemic threshold.
• Eleven influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported. Ten of these deaths were associated with 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection and one was associated with an influenza A virus, for which subtype is undetermined.
• The proportion of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) was above the national baseline. All 10 regions reported ILI above region-specific baseline levels.

 The emphasis is mine.  So, 11 children died in one week from the swine flu, and if you recall (or scroll up), the total child deaths from two flu seasons ago was 83 (in about a 5 month period of time).  11 may not seem like a lot compared to the number of children in this country, but it's a huge increase, and it's only going to increase more as we get deep into flu season.  Also, looking at the more detailed information on the same page, the majority of the child deaths between August 30th and October 10th have been teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17.

Also, we are above epidemic threshold.  If this were a zombie virus, I'd be registering for a gun and fortifying my doors and windows.  There's much more information on the CDC website, but this was enough for me to look at.  They have great weekly reports, I'll most definitely be checking back regularly.

Other depressing but informative tidbits that I learned about the H1N1 flu on this WebMD blog:

• 6% of H1N1 deaths have been pregnant women, which is not good, because pregnant women only make up 1% of our population at any given time.  They make up 7% of all H1N1 hospitalizations.  I will still have no luck convincing Smokey that it's time to stop acting like a stubborn teenager and start acting like Mom who has to make a tough decision for the sake of her kid.
• The H1N1 vaccine has been tested just as much as the vaccine for the regular flu.
• The side effects for the H1N1 vaccine are the same as for the regular flu vaccine.
• One or two people out of every million people who get a flu vaccine will develop "Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), a serious nerve condition that causes weakness and sometimes paralysis.  Most people recover fully".  So, the side effects of the flu or swine flu are less crappy (unless you end up with pneumonia or some other respiratory illness), but your chances of getting the flu or swine flu are much greater.
• In this article written earlier this week,  the CDC has confirmed that while seasonal flu deaths tend to be 90% elderly people, since September of this year swine flu deaths have been 90% people under 65, with a quarter of those people under 25 yrs old!
• Here's an article debunking various flu shot myths.
  

And on a podcast I was listening to they talked about women being more susceptible to having complications from the swine flu...well, why try to regurgitate what I learned when I can do this instead:



I love technology.  They also talk about who shouldn't take what type of vaccine depending on allergies and such things.

I'm not someone that believes everything that the government tells me, but I'm also not someone who thinks that everything is a big conspiracy and I should do the opposite of what "they" tell me to.  I ride the fence, as usual with me, but I think that makes me a more rational person.  While I do see that the media benefits in ratings (and therefore, money) by blowing the "swine flu" out of proportion, I've been ignoring most of that shit, and I don't see any benefit that anyone on top would get from the CDC lying or mis-reporting numbers or exaggerating by calling it an "epidemic", since these vaccines are free and costing the government an assload of money.  And since there doesn't seem to be a risk in getting the vaccine, I plan on doing so as soon as I can find out where to get one.

ISS - Speaking of 'Death Panels': GA hospital closes doors on poor and undocumented

ISS - Speaking of 'Death Panels': GA hospital closes doors on poor and undocumented

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Fw: Breaking News: Health-Care OverhaulPasses Key Hurdle in Senate

------Original Message------
From: The Washington Post
To: 
Subject: Breaking News: Health-Care Overhaul Passes Key Hurdle in Senate
Sent: Oct 13, 2009 2:02 PM

News Alert
02:52 PM EDT Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Health-Care Overhaul Passes Key Hurdle in Senate

Senate Finance Committee approves the $829 billion, 10-year health-care bill sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) with the support of a lone Republican, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/DME6KX/6HZM2/77S224/Z2G5B6/4ZC27/50/t

--------------------

Fw: Breaking News: Senate Panel Votes Down Second 'Public Option' Amendment

Doubly Douchey.

 

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: The Washington Post <newsletters@email.washingtonpost.com>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 3:01:36 PM
Subject: Breaking News: Senate Panel Votes Down Second 'Public Option' Amendment



News Alert - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/SFBD1U/DGHSZ/P3CRR1/KNMI8Z/X8JBR/T3/t

03:52 PM EDT Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Senate Panel Votes Down Second 'Public Option' Amendment - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/SFBD1U/DGHSZ/P3CRR1/KNMI8Z/DD0XV/T3/t

The Senate Finance Committee voted twice Tuesday against the creation of a new government-run health insurance plan. The panel rejected a proposal from Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) on a 15 to 8 vote, then voted down one sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)  on a 13 to 10 vote.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/SFBD1U/DGHSZ/P3CRR1/KNMI8Z/EYCKA/T3/t
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