Because I know you've missed my political rants. And even if you haven't, here's one anyway.

[kellinator]

Michigan debates law requiring girls to get HPV vaccinations, Religious Right throws fit that this will encourage promiscuity

This makes me so ill that I just want to break something.

For one thing, this argument defies logic. A middle-schooler gets a shot, and it causes her to go out and fuck everything in sight? Yeah right. There are lots of things that could lead to a middle-schooler acting out through sex -- sexual abuse, crappy parenting -- but a simple vaccination is not one of them. Hell, most kids can't remember what all they're being vaccinated for. They're kids. They shouldn't have to worry about that stuff. Hey, why are all these anti-sex types so convinced that all anyone ever thinks about is sex anyway? Could it be that they're ...projecting?

And stuff like this makes their true agenda of sexism all the more apparent. HPV is a woman's problem -- at least 80 percent of women will have it by the time they're 50. Sure, men get it too -- how do they think the women get it? -- but since they don't have a cervix to develop cervical cancer, no harm, no foul. Even if you buy in to these wackos' reprehensible line that the only women who deserve to be safe are the ones who save it all for their husband -- well, they can get it too, as hubby was not held to the same standards of purity. These people are convinced that sex is something women do on their own; I don't know what they call their own peccadilloes. What gives? Do these men not realize that if they kill all us sluts, they'll have to do each other? OH NOES TEH GAY!!!!

Well, at least there's something to be happy about: the bipartisan group of female lawmakers who came up with this bill. Now that's what I call true American heroines.

Comments

[leopard-print.livejournal.com]

You know, sometimes its hard to tell who the conservatives hate more: gays or women?

[hotcoffeems.livejournal.com]

For starters, I've got so many free-floating hormones in my body from those stupid pills that I'm waaaay irritable.

Then it seems I keep seeing/hearing/experiencing little shit that just pisses me off further.

And then I see this.

Damn, you want me to go out and kill? Kill? KILLL?

[starline.livejournal.com]

Both! :D

[mfree.livejournal.com]

I'm against it. If the government wants to subsidize HPV vaccinations to ensure anyone who wants one gets it, that's fine. But daddy gov *requiring* a vaccination? No ma'am. It's a step away from requiring prophylactic drugs, mental medication, medical procedures, all to ensure the health of the cash cow.. er... taxpayer.

Government: Hands - off - the - body - corporeal.

HPV vaccination may be a very smart decision but it should remain a DECISION.

[revised-06.livejournal.com]

I'm very much inclined to agree with you here. It is an absolutely sound decision, but it should remain a decision for the parents to make for their child. The old slippery slope applies here, I believe. I'd have my daughters vaccinated in a heartbeat, but what about the conservatives who are dead-set against it? Should they be forced to vaccinate their daughters? I say no, they should not. Nor should I be *prevented* from vaccinating my daughters. It is a decision the parents must make.

[lonesomenumber1]

That was my first thought, too, but:

"As with other vaccines required for schoolchildren, the bills have a provision allowing parents to opt out of the HPV vaccine requirement for medical, moral or philosophical reasons."

[mfree.livejournal.com]

Ah, then it's not "required" and the writers involved need to brush up on their definitions.

[lonesomenumber1]

They need to brush up on the English language in general, unless vaccines and bills are the same thing, and are able to have provisions.

[mfree.livejournal.com]

A vaccine may not be able to have provisions, but it certainly is one :)

[sirinek.livejournal.com]

Following close behind are the poor and darker skinned people. :)

[heathrow.livejournal.com]

Hate hate hate. Grrrr.

[ariedana.livejournal.com]

What about the "good girls" who marry at 18 or so, are infected with the virus by their husbands and later develop cancer?

I guarantee that if there were a cancer that made a guy's dick fall off that was caused by such a virus and there were a vaccine developed for that, they'd be injecting their babies during the circumcision for that one.

[kth-dragon.livejournal.com]

Vaccination, yes. Recommended, yes. Absolutely required, no. I wouldn't want someone forcing me to do anything to my kids I didn't want done, so I don't really want to force them to do it either.

But you are correct: the logic of their argument is faulty. The only reason I ever knew what the shots were for was because my parents told me. If you don't tell your child she's protected, she's not going to have that extra "reason" to have sex. Problem solved.

Then it all falls back to the teaching kids get from school/parents, and parents should really pick up the ball here, since school can't without losing government funding. My parents copped out entirely; I learned about everything from school/friends, and didn't know about STDs, etc. until I was in high school (and even then, just from the AIDS news). And until my human sexuality class in college, I didn't know about a lot of the ways people can protect themselves from pregnancy/disease. Ah well. Now I know, if I should ever need the knowledge.

Proper communication is good! More people should give children some credit for understanding things and talk to them.

[spikepage.livejournal.com]

I agree with mfree on the issue of leaving the decision in the hands of the guardian. While I cannot myself subscribe to the logic behind not choosing this vaccination for my daughter, I respect the rights of the parents who would object..just the same as I respect a guardian's right to opt their child out of taking sex education or having to dissect a frog.

HOWEVER the so-called rightists believing such a vaccination would cause girls to be loose..that's utter bullshit. If that logic held water, then it is fair to say that when my 7th grade gym teacher gave all the girls in the class that litle "goodie bag" (you remember the ones Tampax used to donate), that it was encouraging girls to be fertile, therefore reproductive, therefore tramps.

IN all honesty, if somebody wants to do this country a favour, try handing out pocket-pussies to a few thousand politicians so they don't go planting their seeds anywhere else.

[smibbo.livejournal.com]

I dunno, much as I HATE all the requirement hoops I must jump through in order to register my kids for school every year (and it wouldn't be different for private schools) I am inclined to agree with the whole vaccination requirements thing.

Why? because I've been to the "free" health clinics and I know the type of people who would just as soon opt out: lazy and/or ignorant parents. So many parents are like "Hep-eh-tittuss? Wot's dat? Why we gotta get dat? Why we get the shot for measles? Ain't nobody getting measles no more!"

Fact is, too many simple diseases are spread too quickly and what with the spectre of anti-biotic resistance, best to vaccinate. But vaccination doesn't do much good if EVERYONE doesn't do it.

Believe me, I hate it, it's a hassle-and-a-half but frankly I think this is one thing we NEED to "make" people do. Because the very people who couldn't be bothered to do it on their own are generally the same people who aren't exactly all that good at going to the doctor when they ARE sick and are quite likely to go to school/show up for work and spread their illness to everyone else. No thanks. I say people should be allowed to be idiots but not if their idiocy is going to put MY health in danger.

[mfree.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I think a little darwinism might be good for our society... A bit of chlorine in the gene pool, if you will.

LOL

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

normally, I'd agree with you... but communicable diseases is where I draw the line. I don't need a bunch of yahoos running around creating new strains of diseases for me and my kids to catch. That's just MORE vaccinations in the future (after some deaths)

I know we don't agree but I really really believe in National Health monitoring - because people get sick and give their sicknesses to other innocent people. I just don't like the idea of ignorant or lazy people coughing their crap on me when government health clinics can help prevent that sort of thing. Believe me, it's nothing "bleeding heart" at all: it's purely self-interest.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

.just the same as I respect a guardian's right to opt their child out of taking sex education or having to dissect a frog.

I respect those rights too, because they are about subjective things that parents by and large want the option to pass on to their children on their own.

Vaccinations are, however, a health issue that affects everyone. The sad fact is that many "parents" are too lazy or too ignorant to do protective measures on their own. But vaccinations protect more than their children, they protect the rest of society as well. On the same argument, why should military contracts be for years at a time? Because without a tour of duty that is long enough for training and deployment and such the entire point of the military service is lost! You can't have people opting in and out at will, it negates the effectiveness. Allowing school-going children to opt out of vaccinations at will endangers everyone they attend school with because it isn't as simple as catching the measles and staying home a few days, it's about resistant strains being born and being communicated. With mass participation, the effectiveness is diluted.

But I like your idea about helping the politicians.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

err that last sentance in the paragraph should read "without mass participation..."