Australia: Vaccines (once again) proven safe and effective

It’s more restating the obvious, but that doesn’t make it less worthwhile:

Some good vaccine news for a change: A vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) appears to be working. HPV causes genital warts, and can lead to cervical cancer in women. In Australia, which began use of the HPV vaccine in 2007, cases of genital warts in young women aged 12 - 26 dropped 59 percent, and 39 percent for men. Not only that, but cervical abnormalities dropped as well—a glimmer of hope that for these vaccinated women, their chance of getting cervical cancer is dropping as well.

Meanwhile, US scientists and medical workers are still struggling to get the American populace to understand that Gardasil will not turn teenaged girls into sex-crazed nymphos by demonic possession or something. Then again, this is the same country that’s facing more and more outbreaks of easily preventable diseases (some of them deadly) because of baseless and endlessly disproven fears that shots turn children into Rain Man, so you can only expect so much in the end.

Daily Blend: Friday, February 22, 2013

Diana Medley

Ontario top appeals court rules it just fine if police want to snoop around a suspect’s cellphone – so long as there’s no password, or then they have to ask permission.

Indiana Republicans agree: One government-sanctioned rape by medically pointless transvaginal ultrasound just isn’t enough for women seeking an abortion.
(via @jennifurret)

I’m not sure what’s remotely surprising about a study that links childhood bullying to psychological disorders in adults (except to those “it’s normal/harmless for kids to pick on each other” assholes).
(via RT: @jennifurret)

Sullivan, Indiana teacher ^[pictured] suspended over anti-gay remarks, universally suspected of being special educator Dianne “gays have no purpose in life and I don’t understand it” Medley.
(via Friendly Atheist)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Sunday, February 03, 2013

Jenny McCarthy

Canada’s Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation: “We invited Jenny McCarthy ^[pictured] to headline our fundraiser!” Internet: “WTF?” ORCF: “Um, whoops, sorry, never mind.”

President Obama: LGBT folk should be allowed in the Boy Scouts. Absolutely schadenfreudelicious Right-wing freak-out in 3 … 2 …

John Scalzi has a beautiful plan for dealing with Vox “Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit” Day’s endearing little obsession with him.
(via @BadAstronomer)

And finally, please, Slymepitters, do tell me all about how your wretched hive of scum and bigotry is actually a venue for enlightened discourse?
(via Pharyngula)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, January 29, 2013

[full size (584×764)]

Good: Federal judge stops DEA’s attempt to seize a rural Massachusetts motel after a few guests there committed crimes without the motel owner’s knowledge. ^[pictured]
(via Uzza)

PZ Myers handily dismantles the tired anti-abortionist claim that science proves that personhood begins at conception.

Meanwhile, the anti-abortion fetal “heartbeat bill” makes it to Arkansas.

Creeping Creationism in Missouri.

Ray Comfort: Surgeons can’t reconstruct chimp attack victim’s face, ergo, Evolution is dummy-dumb-dumb.

I’m 96% humanist! Take that, 2009 Humanist of the Year PZ Myers and your paltry 90%!

And finally, here’s a bunch of Christians I could have a drink with (if I drank):
(via Joe. My. God.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Friday, January 11, 2013

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg

The War on (certain people who use certain kinds of) Drugs gets even worse, thanks to NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s ^[pictured] nanny-statist bullshit. Only politicians have ego to think they can dictate medical policy better than actual doctors.

The fact that he actually said something like, “[S]upposing it is really true so you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit. The other side of the coin is people are dying and there’s nothing perfect,” really tells you all you need to know about the man.
(via @radleybalko)

At least some Republicans still haven’t learned to STFU about rape.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald effectively destroys the Right’s myth that gun-toting commoners somehow prevent militarized takeovers.
(via RT: @mmfa)

And finally, here’s today’s edition of “I want a dog, dammit”:
(via @MelanieKV; RT: @ggreenwald)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

2012 saw largest vaccine-preventable outbreak in 60 years

Here’s a headline to surely make antivaccination cranks everywhere proud:

The details are chilling:

The nation just suffered its worst year for whooping cough in nearly six decades, according to preliminary government figures.

Whooping cough ebbs and flows in multi-year cycles, and experts say 2012 appears to have reached a peak with 41,880 cases. Another factor: A vaccine used since the 1990s doesn't last as long as the old one.

[…]

Last year, cases were up in 48 states and outbreaks were particularly bad in Colorado, Minnesota, Washington state, Wisconsin and Vermont.

I’m sure it’s a coincidence that these states have also been seeing declining vaccination rates for years, which is also giving rise to other easily preventable epidemics.

Here’s what apparently counts as the silver lining:

The good news: Despite the high number of illnesses, deaths didn't increase. Eighteen people died, including 15 infants younger than 1.

The bad news: There’s no good reason for those deaths to happen at all.

Meanwhile, this is being blamed on the vaccines, themselves:

For about 25 years, fewer than 5,000 cases were reported annually in the U.S. But case counts started to climb again in the 1990s although not every year. Numbers jumped to more than 27,000 in 2010, the year California saw an especially bad epidemic.

Experts looking for an explanation have increasingly looked at a new vaccine introduced in the 1990s, and concluded its protection is not as long-lasting as was previously thought.

I propose an alternative hypothesis: A rising number of worried yet naive parents are avoiding proper vaccines under the deluge of persistent misinformation from discredited cranks parading around as a health movement.

(via The Words on What…)

Daily Blend: Thursday, January 03, 2013

Dr. Oz

House Republicans actually manage to kill the Violence Against Women Act because it was “too supportive of immigrants, the LGBT community, and Native Americans”. I’m seriously starting to wonder whether they just love playing the bad guys at this point.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Not unrelatedly: Welcome to Steubenville, Ohio, where the violent gang-rape of a drugged 16-year-old girl by football players is totally hilarious. (But remember: There is no such thing as rape culture! It’s just a myth from fugly fascist feminists who hate teh menz.)

Atheist organizer Michael Nugent dismantles Thunderf00t’s latest appallingly dishonest anti-feminist video. The man has devolved into a sad parody of himself.
(via @mikenugent; RT: @pzmyers)

Meanwhile, here are the 14 kinds of sexist commenters who invariably pop up under any remotely pro-women post. (#15: Slimeballs who think spewing semi-coherent vitriol is akin to presenting a rational argument that deserves to be addressed.)
(via Pharyngula)

And finally, in case you were wondering, yes, Dr. Oz ^[pictured] is still a ginormous quack, despite all his fancy credentials.
(via @BadAstronomer)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Court blocks California’s “gay-to-straight therapy” ban

Another irksome (albeit predictable) development: After California officially banned “gay-to-straight therapy” for minors back in September on the basis that it’s a fat load of mind-warping bullshit, Christian-Right groups have successfully petitioned an appellate court to temporarily block the law:

In a brief order, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to a block the law, scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, pending a decision on its constitutionality.

The law would subject psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to discipline by their licensing boards for providing minors therapy to change their sexual orientation.

The state says the therapy is ineffective and dangerous.

Therapists, minors and their parents, represented by a Christian-rights group, sued the state on the grounds the new law violates free speech rights.

Maybe the courts ought to ban Christianists from squealing about “free speech!” and “religious liberty!” every time they’re told to stop shoveling their dogmatic delusions down everyone else’s throats. It’s almost like they’re confusing the right to practice whatever brand of ritualized hocus-pocus they like with the right to force everyone else to abide by their regressive worldview. And if coercing impressionable and vulnerable youths into dangerous, self-repressing brainwashing doesn’t count as a textbook representation of the latter, then I don’t know what does.

On the other hand, I’m really quite curious to know which “minors”, exactly, are actually interested in preventing the ban from taking place? I expect the number of teenagers who claim to want to be deconverted from teh ghey without being pressured to do so by homophobic parents to be roughly equivalent to the number of people who’ve ever actually changed their sexual orientation. (None.)

(via @BreakingNews)

Daily Blend: Monday, December 03, 2012 – Sleepless edition

Rick Santorum

The fun thing about trying to forcibly rearrange your sleep schedule is that for a few days, you effectively have no sleep schedule. Oy.

Owners of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic go to court in hopes of preventing its demise.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Unbelievable: House Oversight Committee flacks lecture vaccine-advocating scientists about all the usual anti-vaccination myths and delusions. Where’s that basic science litmus test for elective office?
(via @BadAstronomer)

Meanwhile, climate change denialists lie their asses off in yet another garbage-packed opinion letter that gets just about every single thing wrong.

Wow: Freethought Blogs’ Ashley Miller was just disowned by her redneck father for dating a Black man. ’Scuse me while I go check my calender.
(via @jennifurret)

And finally, the only thing remotely surprising about Rick Santorum ^[pictured] joining the WorldNetDaily is that it took this long.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

APA’s DSM-V drops Asperger’s, adopts “gender dysphoria”

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the bible of mental and behavioral disorders, is currently being prepared for its fifth edition (to be released in May 2013), the first major revision in nearly 20 years, and there’s some buzz over a few of the changes that have been made. One that I found noteworthy is the noted exclusion of my own diagnosis, Asperger syndrome:

The term “Asperger’s disorder” will not appear in the DSM-5, the latest revision of the manual, and instead its symptoms will come under the newly added “autism spectrum disorder”, which is already used widely. That umbrella diagnosis will include children with severe autism, who often do not talk or interact, as well as those with milder forms.

[…]

Some on the panel opposed the idea of dropping the specific diagnosis for Asperger’s. People with that disorder often have high intelligence and vast knowledge on narrow subjects but lack social skills. Some Asperger’s families opposed any change, fearing their children will lose a diagnosis and no longer be eligible for special services, but experts have said this will not be the case.

From what I’ve read, the idea is to eliminate the superfluous categories and subdivisions of autism and to combine those with ASD on a more general scale of severity, ranging from mild social handicaps (such as I) to those who are incapable of interacting with anyone else coherently. I suppose it’s for the best, though I now wonder how this revision might affect my own diagnosis, considering how widely influential the DSM is, even abroad.

Also interesting, and rather more positive, is a change that many in the trans community have been awaiting:

The term “gender identity disorder”, for children and adults who strongly believe they were born the wrong gender, is being replaced with “gender dysphoria” to remove the stigma attached to the word “disorder”. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual decades ago.

The fact that gender dysphoria is indicative of some ingrained atypicality is no reason to brand those who have it as “disordered” in any way, and it will be quite telling (albeit unsurprising) to see who will choose to double down on that particular term in the wake of this reclassification.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Donohue on World AIDS Day: “Promiscuity kills”

Our favorite Catholic League blowhard, Bill Donohue, has a message for World AIDS Day tomorrow:

Dec 1 is World AIDS Day. Pray for those who still refuse to use common sense and practice restraint. Promiscuity kills.

— Catholic League (@CatholicLeague) November 30, 2012

Of course, it’s not like Donohue’s fetishized Catholic Church has had anything to do with the continuing AIDS plague in the Third World, is it? Nope, it’s poor people’s fault because they just can’t stop rutting.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Pat Robertson

Fundamentalist coot Pat Robertson ^[pictured] denounces gays Evolution … Young-Earth Creationism? (Don’t worry, his sanity was only temporary.)

For some reason, Irish Catholic bishops seem to think anyone else gives the slightest shit about their benighted views on morality in medicine after the death of Savita Halappanavar.
(via Pharyngula)

And finally, Morgan Freeman still has some unanswered questions:
(via Bad Astronomy)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Random polar-bear-cub-in-a-basket pic of the day [source | full size (510×360)]

Another Catholic institution, this time a Montréal, Canada school for deaf boys, sued for repeated child molestation that lasted decades. Makes me prouder than ever of the Quiet Revolution.
(via My Secret Atheist Blog)

U.S. Supreme Court upholds the right to record on-duty police officers in Chicago, IL.

PZ Myers tears into an anti-Atheism Plus douchebag for misrepresenting scientific research to defend vaginal douching.

And finally, Ed Brayton takes apart that stupid Fox News column about a supposed “war on men” where “women aren’t women anymore”.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 21, 2012

John Fairfax

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists declares that birth control should be available over the counter. Not that such a sensible and provably effective measure has any chance of becoming reality in the foreseeable future, of course.

Nevada City proposes ordinance to make it illegal for homeless people to sleep outside without a permit.
(via @radleybalko)

New report: Only three developed countries (Mexico, Chile and Turkey) have a higher child poverty rate than the United States, and other disillusioning statistics.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Best obituary ever: “At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle. At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate. To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, he briefly managed a mink farm […]” ^[pictured]
(via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Ex-Rep. Allen West (R-FL)

Sober Transgender Day of Remembrance, everyone.

Alex Knapp at Forbes thoroughly decorticates Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for claiming the age of the Earth (which he doesn’t know) isn’t related to our economic and general welfare.
(via @BadAstronomer)

Now-former-Rep. Allen West (R-FL) ^[pictured] finally concedes.

PZ Myers shines some contextual light on the current kerfuffle over Sam Harris’s 2006-era comments about how “[i]f [he] could wave a magic wand to get rid of either rape or religion, [he] would not hesitate to get rid of religion”.

And finally, more awesomeness about the promise of stem cell research: Dogs with paralyzing spinal injuries learn to walk again.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, October 22, 2012

Anne Germain

Amnesty International: Secret US Drone Program Still Getting Away With Killing Children.
(via @AntDeRosa; RT: @radleybalko)

Federal judge blocks Arizona bill that would defund all Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

Yet another psychic, Britain’s Anne Germain ^[pictured], is exposed as a Peter Popoff-style con artist.

Meanwhile, guess what happened after this “facilitated communication” practitioner was proven wrong. (No, really. You’ll be surprised.)
(via Rob F)

Why isn’t the IRS doing anything about all the tax-exempt churches breaking the law by endorsing candidates?

PZ Myers writes brilliantly about the problems with dismissing responsibility for online trolling with excuses of “free speech!”.

And finally: Paul Ryan poses for fake photo op at soup kitchen against their wishes. Soup kitchen owner complains. Ryan supporters lash out … at soup kitchen.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Thursday, October 18, 2012

Alber Saber

Deceased parent, leg injury, financial difficulties, and now (treatable) cancer: Please consider helping Greta Christina any way you can.

Egyptian lawyer’s rationale for arresting, imprisoning and brutalizing atheist Alber Saber ^[pictured]: He hurt people’s feelings and insulted God on Facebook. Or, Why Secularism Matters.

Christianist hate group goes antivaccination, fear-mongers about HPV vaccine to try and scare underage girls into not having sex.

Douche-meister Bradlee Dean is still very, very sore over losing his bogus defamation suit against MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

California officially bans “gay-to-straight therapy”

It’s a slightly better day for gay youths in California today, as Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has just signed into law a bill introduced earlier this year to ban thoroughly discredited “ex-gay” therapy on minors:

The bill, SB1172 by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), bars mental health practitioners from performing so-called reparative therapy, which professional psychological organizations have said may cause harm. Gay rights groups have labeled them dangerous and abusive.

"This bill bans non-scientific 'therapies' that have driven young people to depression and suicide. These practices have no basis in science or medicine and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery," Brown said in a statement to The Chronicle.

[…]

Under the new law, which will take effect Jan. 1, no mental health provider will be able to provide therapy that seeks "to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."

Mental health professionals who violate the law, which applies to therapy for patients younger than 18, will be subject to discipline by whatever group licenses them.

Specifically, the bill bans this “treatment” from being inflicted on anyone under 18, while adults who choose it will be required to sign an informed consent form that includes a stern disclaimer explaining how every reputable mental health organization under the sun sees “gay deconversion therapy” as a harmful and repeatedly debunked exercise in futility.

This is exactly the right call to make. I don’t think even this quacktastic garbage ought to be banned outright, nor any other. People should be free to believe in whatever brand of pseudoscience they like and to act accordingly (so long as doing so doesn’t affect anyone else without their consent). What matters is education so people can make properly informed decisions, and restrictions from imposing these fake treatments to non-illnesses on those who are more vulnerable, such as children and teenagers who often aren’t able to disobey their regressive parents’ demands.

Consider the inevitably ensuing cry of outrage from homophobes everywhere as a fresh sign of victory.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: ex-gay • conversion therapy • California • Jerry Brown • sexual orientation • homosexuality

Daily Blend: Monday, September 10, 2012

James Yoakley

Guess what happened to a Tennessee high school teacher ^[pictured] who dared to defend atheist and LGBT students’ rights to free speech from their social-conservative administration? (Bittersweet ending.)

Oldie, but Dr. Rachael Dunlop has an awesome, all-in-one debunking of nine antivaccination lies and myths. (Includes bonus self-defeating antivaxxer attacks in the comments.)
(via Bad Astronomy)

And finally, give every U.S. President in history a combat knife, restore them to their peak physical condition, and throw them in an arena. Who would win? (Teddy FTW.)
(via @radleybalko)

@joemcken: I see him as the kind of guy who'd get revenge for nicking him by stabbing you in the eye twelve times with your own knife, and then call you a coward for not living to fight longer.

@VeritasKnight: No, he's more like...well, since we have to fight, then kills you, and laments the sad nature of human combat in a lusty voice.

(I just had to share that.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Lenoir City High School • Krystal Myers • Zac Mitchell • James Yoakley • student journalism • student newspapers • vaccination • antivaccine • antivaccination • antivaccinationists • antivax • antivaxxers • Rachael Dunlop • U.S. President • POTUS

Daily Blend: Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Andrew Wakefield

Predictably enraging, but Stephanie Zvan at Almost Diamonds showcases some of the sexist victory laps over Jen McCreight’s leave.

In the single most shocking development of all time, Democrats cave in and re-insert ‘God’ into their party platform, with sources saying President Obama himself was behind the move. Almost makes all their hype about inclusivity seem the tiniest bit disingenuous.

And finally, the always-useful Cracked.com provides a decent rundown of antivaccination hero Andrew Wakefield’s ^[pictured] disgrace (and four other lies that fooled the world).

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Jennifer McCreight • Blag Hag • Stephanie Zvan • sexists • misogyny • misogynists • atheists • atheist movement • Democratic Party • Democrats • God • Barack Obama • Cracked.com • Andrew Wakefield • antivaccination • antivaccinationists • antivaccine • antivax • antivaxxers • MMR vaccine