When Formula One racer Michael Schumacher broke his crown on a French ski slope last week, Meribel resort spokesmen went into damage control mode by declaring the speed champion was skiing "off-piste". That's Anglo-French for off-the-trail or out-of-bounds. Initial reports mentioned the specific slope on which Schumacher crashed, but subsequent press releases amended the account to reassure tourists that this downhill interruptus occurred outside of the permitted area. Isn't that always the official line of resort operators and their insurers --ski accidents result when patrons stray where they're not allowed? This theme puzzles regular skiers who know the back country is usually thoroughly demarcated and sealed. It was no surprise then when a bystander video emerged which showed Schumacher's accident happening exactly where originally stated, on the Grand Couloir (trans: Big Corridor) between Mauduit and La Biche. Thus we discover the disingenuous definition of "off-piste". It means the piste's edge! Be it trees, rocks or cliff, it's the most probable thing with which a skier can collide: the border of a groomed slope. Saying Schumacher crashed off-piste is like saying his Ferrarir didn't crash at a racetrack, but rather against the track's wall; or like saying a person didn't fall from a building but rather died on the sidewalk. Now we know how so many ski accident victims got past barriers, substantial enough to deter most reckless impulses: They didn't, they crashed into them.
Tag: Lies
Pentagon-loving corporate media says to pay no attention to real details about the Sgt. Bales led USA war crime
The news report yesterday, hidden away for the most part, was that Child witnesses to Afghan massacre say Robert Bales was not alone and read that the Afghan reporter who was reporting for the Australian press had also reported being impeded by the US military in her access to the war crime witnesses who were children. Here is what the child witnesses to the slaughter by Bales and his squad said to her... 'In the video, the children told Hakim that other Americans were present during the rampage, holding flashlights in the yard. Noorbinak, 8, told Hakim that the shooter first shot her father’s dog. Then, Noorbinak said in the video, he shot her father in the foot and dragged her mother by the hair. When her father started screaming, he shot her father, the child says. Then he turned the gun on Noorbinak and shot her in the leg. “One man entered the room and the others were standing in the yard, holding lights,” Noorbinak said in the video.' Now who are you dumb shit, American soldier uniform lovers going to believe here? Why the Pentagon, for sure, who calls the children liars! Right? So no need for the American media to even much discuss this event any more, you Flag waving dips have your minds made up already... and it's all that Bales and the other soldier troopers are great heroes and what not, though no doubt it's a shame that so many perhaps have been traumatized by their killing of foreigners who got in their way of career advancement through the vet Welfare Establishment.... blah, blah, blah. 10% off that hamburger and fries, Soldier Dear. Take this job right now, Mr. Vet Preference Dude. Got a back ache? Take some dope and here's some disability right away no questions much asked... for life. We love you, Soldiers! But Sgt Robert Bales and his squad seemed to have some anger control issues so they might be slapped on the wrist in the days ahead, and Bales might even have to serve a year or two in jail as Hero Man, while his comrades get the free walk, all thanks to the Big P of northern Virginia...Insurance Company for trailer trash heads who Uncle Sam recruits and turns into even worse criminals than the petty hoods they were in civilian life before. ('Now, Tony, you are being a tad bit disrespectful to our heroes who kill kids, so that you might have that nasty thing we all vet- soldier Right Wingers hate called Free Speech. Go live in Red China, Commie a-hole!') Oh, and that Black and White picture at the start of my bad? That was the American soldier men in uniform defending 'free speech' during the Vietnam War 'error'.... at Kent State. If I only had a nickel for every dumb ass Right Winger vet,
Remember the Maine, the Alamo, Pearl Harbor or the day they found WMDs in Iraq?
I remember the day they pretended to have found WMDs. On CNN and FOX there were were reports that an oil refinery outside Baghdad had been liberated by U.S. Marines with WMDs inside. So they brought cameras in... embedded and therefore non-truthful reporters. A dank, dirty place. Oil refineries are like that. A huge stack of bent, rusted and otherwise unsafe 55 gallon drums. They would have been stacked that way to make the trip to the recycling plant. Nobody in his right mind would use one to store even the NORMAL toxic petrochemicals. Then about 30 barrels, unstained by the pollution, the smoke or smog or haze of burnt or vaporized oils, the soot that was caked onto every OTHER surface. Powder Blue paint on them, looked just like they had come directly from wherever they were manufactured. Not like, say, they were a decade old, hidden and moved since 1991. You might ask, "Jonah, how the Hell would you be able to tell that?" to which Jonah might well reply, "Because I worked in steel mills, solvent and glue plants, and oil refineries". They were stacked, actually. Not on pallets and lifted up by crane or forklift. No, STACKED. Fairly neatly. Something you're not going to get any manual laborers to do if they've got anything in them. A full 55 gallon drum weighs almost a quarter of a ton. And then the camera lights glanced rapidly over some black and white letters written on the sides of the drums, not a complete view but you could see that they were in English and tagged for export. Produ of the Unite Oh my.Anything packaged for export from Iraq would have a lot of Arabic writing, maybe some Pharsi, and maybe some English but this was ALL english. Neither the U.S. nor Britain had shipped anything to Iraq in a decade.Why I remember this so clearly, because they yanked any further mention of it when a very small handful of internet users spotted it. And now, long after Bush and Blair and Brown finally said "Yeah, we faked the WMD story, so what?" an eerily similar cabal is forming to make war on Iran on reports of WMDs. And there are a lot of people willing to just throw out the ol' Hitler Salute and give the lying thieving murderous sons of whores license to lie to them some more. Maybe enough to justify the planned attack just long enough to start committing such attacks. For those whose religious reason for doing it would be to bring on the end of the world, you're really fucking stupid and you're definitely not prepared for Judgment Day.
Sarah Palin and the Republican Lie of “sacrifice”
Since she makes so much political hay over having sacrificed "her own" son to the Military Establishment, maybe she should have a short tutorial on the word Sacrifice. First, stolen goods, stolen money and humans aren't viewed as Clean for the Temple. Just like Caiphas couldn't spend the thirty shekels, because it was the price of blood. Sarah Palin could not in any way OWN her son. He's another separate human being. Not a possession. He might consider himself a sacrifice (he'd be wrong) but it would be HIS blood offering, not hers. Also he doesn't seem to be dying for the atonement of anybody's sin, if he DOES get his fascist face blown through the back of his skull it'll be because he's in a foreign country enslaving the people, taking their land and oil in the name of the corporations for whom Momma Grizzly does her whorin'. and one of them would get in a good shot while defending his country against Young Sgt Palin. Not anything similar to a sacrifice. A sacrifice is to make one Holy. Not to make one a simple grubby little cowardly murderer. But it goes right along with the Capitalist Theme, that the Captains of Industry should be allowed the full fruits of something other people built or did. Mrs Palin and the rest of them can say that they "sacrificed" their own kids to the Killing Machine, but they, like the Captains of Industry, who never put their own hand to the plough, never take up the sword to commit their own murders, and take whatever gain or sick emotional credit for the actions of others. They are a disgusting and slimy lot. No wonder the local business and civic and social "leaders" look up to them, especially those who pretend to be ministers of God. Her "sacrifice" of her son, or more truthfully the people murdered by her son, mirrors all their vainglorious actions.
Drone targeting data… is it as flawed as THIS?
It's not just in the middle east, it's what "we" do here too... The brutality is endemic to the system, every action of Cop Meets Citizen, here, or abroad, is taken under the assumption that the Citizen is the enemy, and must be subdued, brought under "our" control. Whether a citizen in his home or a whole nation. This from chat: 23:58listening to the scanner... Pigs are fixin' to jump into an apartment, armored up... 23:58The dispatcher said that "last time we had to tase him". 23:59 and that nobody in the house likes cops (the CSPD and EP Co Sheriff refer to that as a B.O.L.O "Be On the Look Out") 23:59 Imagine that, a gang of uniformed thugs holds somebody down, beating him and torturing him, in front of his family, and they wonder why nobody likes them. 00:00 Actually they DO know, but they think their guns and gang will keep anybody from doing any retaliation, just like their foreign policy. 00:01Oderint dum Metuant, let them hate us as long as they fear us. 00:02Caligula and Nero's motto. 00:02 What wonderful people they worship as heroes!! And they want to export that kind of "freedom" everywhere in the world. Freedom to obey. Then they get all weepy and wringing their hands when people fight back. Like the famous line from War and Peace: "why, they're shooting at me... ME, who everybody loves!" But wait... there's MORE... Here's an update on that police call... something extra special... You're gonna love this. The dispatcher was sending in the cavalry, armed and loaded for a massive fight..00:46 The person they had tasered and had the advisory about...00:46 was the man in Apartment B.00:47 And the call they were responding to was in Apartment A.00:47 Across the complex from each other. How many times have similar "oopsies" happened in Afghanistan and Iraq? Using similar techniques, technologies and the cops are recruited straight out of the military. What kind of odds does that make that Drone Strikes are even targeted at the right addresses, the right towns even? What proof or even evidence do we have that the Military Intelligence services, operating in foreign lands where, unlike their "para-civilian" stormtroopers here, they haven't had the "suspected" terrorists in custody, haven't interviewed them, and don't have any experience of having been physically at the address of the people they're killing? Wikileaks has answers, that's why Wikileaks is under attack from the piggoes.
While the rest of the world celebrates Armistice Day…
We have Veterans Day, or, as I like to put it, "your recruiter lied to you and society used your entire childhood to condition you to accept that, so to make up for getting screwed like that we'll have a postal holiday and a parade for you". Just, you know, don't actually expect those benefits they promised you BEFORE you signed the enlistment or induction papers, and try to keep in mind as every politician with access to a microphone is praising your decision to "serve the country", that the renaming of the day as Veterans Day was a deliberate ploy to try to ease the sting of the use of United States soldiers, led by Doug McArthur, Dwight Eisenhower and Patton, to fire on an encampment, daily parade and daily petition to President Hoover to actually honor the promised benefits to Spanish War and World War 1 veterans. Instead Hoover gave their pensions to Investment Bankers, like his party and their TeaBag affiliates are promising to do AGAIN, only now they've got Social Security to give to the Investment Bankers along with them. They've also got enough RepubliFascists who ran under the false flag of Democracy selling your benefits to the Banksters under the equally false flag of "Bipartisanship". But, you're supposed, under the agenda set by these Thieving Murdering Bastards, to remember your fallen comrades... instead of remembering your LIVING Comrades, and yourselves, and your families, who are getting bent over the Proverbial Sink and preparing to be ass-raped by the Thieves once again.
Unexpurgated then and now.
Because of the massive amount of bigotry, jingoism and violent wishes expressed in reaction to one of our more popular Visitor Attractions showing just a minimal sample of war atrocity in the form of dead Soldiers. Like, what was expected, eh? The hate-speech brought forth from those who want to continue to generate such horrifying images but don't want the Children they're trying to recruit into the Army-Navy-Air Force-Marines to see the Glory of Warfare in its truest form, led me to think of other overt censorship from yet another war. Life Magazine had a picture of a wounded American or perhaps British soldier in the Pacific war, bandaged over the eyes and perhaps only temporarily blinded, definitely not seeing anything right then, being led by an island Native who was attached to the Medical Unit treating said soldier. Touching, eh, inter-racial inter-tribal inter-cultural compassion, yes? Not so, according to British censors. They were very indignant that a "wog" was shown in any position of power over a White Man. Even gently leading him by the arm. I looked for the picture just now, couldn't come up with it just yet. Got pictures of German and other WW One soldiers with their faces burned beyond recognition, and still alive, from "our" weapons of mass destruction and those of "our" allies. In case anybody's wondering, the British Empire and their related terrorist groups used Nerve Gas every bit as much as the "barbaric" Turks and Huns did. There's another picture of a Japanese soldier, what's left of him, in a "pillbox" fortification with his hands still on his machine gun, after being hit with napalm from a flamethrower. Wonderful imagery, that. And, conspicuously absent, any negative commentary from Our Heroes when their handiwork is displayed in all its glory. Just, you know, offers to beat us down in imaginary encounters with large numbers of Trained Killers for daring to expose what they, themselves, look like when dead. I guess their gander just doesn't taste quite as good with the goose sauce on it. Pictures of Arlington National Cemetery with the former Army recruitment slogan "Be All That You Can Be", guess that doesn't sell the Recruiter Lies very well. Of course they'd object. Not from any sense of the dignity of the dead. Not from any concern that the comrades and family of the dead would be offended. But the recruitment task becomes harder when people can see the reality. It interferes with the Recruiters and Chaplains and other Liars selling the souls of the next hundreds of thousands of Soldiers the same way they sold their own souls.
Oil Company/TeaBag hypocrisy in Action
Just before ANOTHER Gulf coast oil rig explosion, and following the example of FOX News Demagogue Glenn Beck, the parent corporation of the Oil Rig in question bussed in employees of their company, Just Like Fox Did at Beck's Washing Tundy See lie-fest... to a "grass roots" political rally against making Oil Corporations actually use safety equipment and obey actual laws. It should be noted that this "grassroots" protest was coordinated by Fox News and their related Corporate Whores, to be an adjunct of Beck's Canned Nurnberg Rally. And in Typical Fox/Beck/TeaBag Hypocrite Fashion the ONLY industry and the ONLY people they give a Rat's Ass about are their Corporate Sponsors. The rest of the people in the region, whose livelihoods were devastated, and the people of the whole WORLD who are going to have to face the consequences of their Corporate Stupidity for decades, perhaps centuries, to come, well, we can all go fish. Oil Company Profits are supreme, Fox says so and we Peasants had better get used to it. The Story: ThinkProgress points out that both Mariner Energy and Apache Corp. were at a rally just yesterday to protest the Obama administration’s temporary moratorium on offshore drilling. ThinkProgress pulled the following from the Financial Times Companies ranging from Chevron to Apache bussed in up to 5,000 employees to the Houston convention centre to underline to Washington the industry’s contribution to the country. ... “I have been in the oil and gas industry for 40 years, and this administration is trying to break us,” said Barbara Dianne Hagood, senior landman for Mariner Energy, a small company. “The moratorium they imposed is going to be a financial disaster for the gulf coast, gulf coast employees and gulf coast residents.” and this administration is trying to break us, Yeah, right. Lying Bitch. By the way, I don't call most women "Bitch" and even have been known to call so-called Men "Bitches". Just, you know, throwing their stupidity back at them. They throw the grenade, I pick it up, pull the pin, and toss it back. But the Obama Administration extended their leases and granted them new leases, hardly the actions of somebody who is an Anti-Corporate Socialist as they paint him to be. When they break away from calling him other names they consider to be damning, like Black, African American, and Muslim. They have to break away from their Racist and Religious Bigotry to toss in the lie about him being Anti-Corporate. Which they're loath to do, as the Racist and Religious bigotry sells better to their intended audience. In case you didn't follow any of the links, what happened is right after this Pity Us For The Wealthy Are So Badly Victimized rally, another Oil Well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Something the Oil-Company controlled Media are reluctant to report.
Pentagon and State Dept Call leaked information Crimes
Just, you know, not the CRIMES committed by their agents and soldiers, it's the revelation of those Crimes that's 'criminal'. No word yet on any prosecution against the Rove-Bush Kartel for making false statements that have directly led to the deaths of thousands of United States servicemen (each one a capital offense, according the the Bush Doctrine) and a literally uncounted number of Afghan and Iraqi civilians. Although the Wikileaks reports did add a substantial number to that count. No, the people who told massive lies to support starting and continuing the Mass Murder Campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, they're not the subject of the Criminal Investigation, run in large part by Investigators who ARE Criminals. It's once again come down to prosecuting people for telling the Truth.
Amateurish Bomb fails to go off, DHS to the rescue…
So, let's see, A "Major Break" in terrorist infiltrators involving somebody with Pakistan ties "confessing" to buying large amounts of a solvent used as PVC cement that you can buy in 55 gallon drums without raising any suspicion, Methyl Ether Ketone, in a weaker formulation used for nail polish remover at a rough estimate of maybe 100 times as much price. That's enough to raise my ol' Suspicious Meter a hair. It's touted as "sharp eyed Citizen Detective Work" or some similar bullshit. Next there's the Panty Bomber... hummmm.... Now, a bomb that should have been, from the description thereof, a large smoking hole in the middle of Times Square with a few tons of Human-Burger spattered on the walls of adjacent buildings. It even started smoking. Had a great big timer made from a child's toy clock in the windshield. Yep, nothing says discrete like I mean, Dayumn, son, why not have the Keystone Kops parade a few of these in the Evidentiary Hearings at court? I tried to find a cartoon of a gun leaning up against a lamp-post smoking a cigarette, the pun is beautiful. Now, we're not talkin' a couple of guppies that died a few hours ago, we're talking about a whole boatload of dead fish that's been out in the sun for a few days. There's so much "setup" involved here, it has to be a joke, except the "Kill them all, then waterboard them" crowd takes it as Gospel. Each of these "GWOT Success Stories" comes right at a crucial juncture, like during a debate over whether the Gitmo Concentration Camp Detainees should be defined as Real Human Beings who actually deserve PROOF or at least more proof than "we said they're guilty, what more do you want?" Torture Freak Perverts who run the Illegal Prison. And once again, I'm going to remind the Torture Freaks of the fact that Torture is Rape, and the torturers are Unregistered Sexual Predators (Perverts of the worst order) and need to be imprisoned in solitary confinement for the rest of their unnatural lives. It doesn't help the case of the War On Terror propagandists that they actually promised to lie to us and told us bluntly that we were morally required to believe anything they tell us, no matter how stupid and obviously false it is. Oh, to continue, somehow, this fellow has confessed to not only attempted the Car Bomb That Looks Like A Car Toon but that he was a Highly Trained al Qa'eda Bombmaker. Uh... No. Propane or gasoline bombs are on the internet, the makings for them are simple. You need fuel, air and a spark. It's the basis of the Spudzooka, the motor on your lawnmower and the motor in your car. You don't need any kind of "special training" to make one. Things that go "Boom" in the night aren't a genius level implementation, the only thing that's required is you have to somehow be smart enough not to off yourself or your neighbors. You learn how to make
sweet lies of high fructose corn syrup
I'm sure you've seen the Sweet Surprise commercials. There are several to target different consumer groups, but all involve a person #1 expressing hesitation at the offer of a high fructose corn syrup-laden "treat" and a smug HFCS-pusher asking sneeringly, "Oh yeah? Well, what's so bad about HFCS?" In the ads, person #1 hems and haws and has trouble articulating a satisfactory reply. HFCS person pats person #1 on the head condescendingly and says, "I thought so. Don't worry, high fructose corn syrup is just like sugar. In moderation, it's part of a healthy diet." Person #1 quietly accepts the offered Frankenfood while DDB Chicago, the creator of the ads, and the Corn Refiners Association, creator of the poison, high five at their clever game, played to the grave detriment of the confused end-consumer. I'm going to enlist my fledgling filmmaker son to help me produce a commercial of my own. The script will look something like this: ---------- Corporate Shill Cornelia: High fructose corn syrup is just like sugar. In moderation, it's perfectly peachy for you. Vigilant Consumer Veronica: Oh, no, Cornelia. Fortunately for you, I have a PhD in molecular biology and can help you understand how terribly you've been duped. When an individual consumes sugar, the pancreas responds by increasing the production of insulin which enables the glucose in the bloodstream to be transported into cells and used as energy. The body also increases the production of leptin, a hormone that helps regulate the appetite and send a satiety signal to the body. This tells us that we've had enough to eat, a crucial component in the pursuit of "moderation." HFCS, in contrast, doesn't cause insulin or leptin production nor increased cellular energy. You see, every cell in the body can metabolize glucose, but HFCS is only processed in the liver, like fats and alcohol, where it's converted into triglycerides. The "energy" locked in HFCS stays largely inaccessible to the body, and most people know that elevated triglycerides -- which we commonly refer to as high cholesterol -- can lead to a whole host of health problems, including hardened arteries and heart attack. With HFCS, the moderation mechanism is never triggered; we never feel satisfied. Maybe this explains why 30% of American children are obese and sluggish, and why Lipitor, which is used to treat high cholesterol, is the best-selling drug in the country today. With approval by the American Academy of Pediatrics, doctors are now prescribing it to children as young as 8. Cornelia, I know this is a lot to digest and, believe me, I've only begun to scratch the surface. The dangerous way HFCS is made, the genetically-modifed corn and enzymes that are used in its production, the fatty deposits and liver cirrhosis that may result from its over-consumption, the criminal complicity of the FDA, even the tale of interference with free-market mechanisms that led to its prevalence in the food supply, are all feature-length films in themselves. Please, Cornelia, take my advice. Get educated about HFCS. Read labels. Protect yourself and
Mister Clean Coal
My favorite of the ads debunking "Clean Coal" features a coal industry executive telling TV viewers that coal is so clean, it even smells clean. Except that having held the lump of coal to his nose, the exec has left a large black smudge. Absolutely brilliant! I count four literary allusions. The image invokes: Pinocchio's duplicity undone by his growing nose; a lie as plain as the nose on his face, a thing so obvious as to lie right beneath his nose; and an embarrassing conceit staring at us like a big piece of spinach stuck between his lying teeth. Except that embarrassment is Clean Coal.
Red Bull is dangerous
RED BULL contains: caffeine, ginseng and guarana (all legal stimulants) sugars, artificial sweeteners, taurine (an amino acid said to lower blood pressure). RED BULL promises: increased energy, better concentration, sharper cognitive performance, greater endurance, higher metabolism, faster reaction time. RED BULL delivers: increased heart rate, heightened blood pressure, anxiety, jitters, hyperactivity, insomnia, hypoglycemia, dehydration. A single can of Red Bull or any other "energy drink" increases your risk of heart attack or stroke. The caffeine-jacked soda pop causes blood to become sticky which is a pre-cursor to cardiovascular problems. One hour after drinking Red Bull, the blood system becomes abnormal, functioning as it would in a patient with heart disease. This effect is seen even in young people. Take a look at Red Bull's website. The company has aligned itself -- through high-dollar sponsorships, which are nothing more than manipulative ad campaigns -- with the sporting crowd. It started with rodeo; the Red Bull logo is tailor-made for a swaggering cowboy. The company's tentacles have reached into the racing circuit, BMX cycling, extreme skiing, even soapbox derby. You'll find athlete superstars wearing the Red Bull logo in arenas and venues across the globe. It would be one thing if Red Bull was marketing its product to coke heads and junkies, providing them with a legal daytime buzz. But to suggest that athletes will benefit from the "energy" Red Bull offers is wildly irresponsible and evil. Unlike the electrolyte-balanced rehydration found in Gatorade, Red Bull is chock full of stimulants which cause rapid DE-hydration, making energy drinks exceptionally dangerous when used in rigorous physical activity. Loss of consciousness, kidney failure, and death are a few of the more troubling outcomes of serious dehydration. Even mild dehydration makes you feel like crap -- foggy, sluggish, headachy -- which doesn't enhance physical or mental performance in anyone. Threatening the health and well-being of rednecks and jocks the world over wasn't quite enough for these bastards. Red Bull expanded its reach into the late night crowd. Barfare like "Vodka Bulls" and "Jaeger Bombs" combine Red Bull's powerful stimulants with a heavy depressant which can lead to heart failure and other health crises. Norway, France, Denmark, and even Uruguay have banned sales of Red Bull completely. History has shown us that we can't expect responsible behavior from corporations. They have an apparent duty to shareholders to make money, unfettered by ethical considerations. That's why the Food and Drug Administration has been appointed our trusty watchdog. As soon as they've finished banning every natural supplement found in any organic health food store, I know they'll muster the energy to take on Red Bull. That day can't come soon enough. Many of us are tired of running on empty promises.
Gardasil? Guard-a-shill.
Federal health officials are very disappointed with us. It seems we are not lining up in appropriately vast numbers to receive the vaccinations the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends. To nudge us along, the results of a study involving 838 teenage girls, disproportionately black, Hispanic and poor -- a survey completed nearly 5 years ago -- have been released with much hype and hysteria. 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease! They are teeming with the human papilloma virus (HPV)! Go get your 9-year-old the Gardasil vaccine to prevent cervical cancer! A few facts to mull over. First of all, HPV is actually 100 different viruses that live on the skin. They are transmitted by skin-to-skin contact and cause terrible things like the embarrassing wart you had on your thumb in third grade. 37 of HPVs can be sexually transmitted. As with most viruses, an HPV infection generally resolves on its own, usually with no symptoms or lasting effects. In the case that an HPV infection lasts for years and years, it may indeed lead to cervical cancer. However, it is easily detected with a routine Pap test and, if found, successfully treated. So exactly how will vaccinating our 9 to 14-year-old daughters benefit anyone? Well, it will benefit Merck and Company, the maker of Gardasil, to the tune of a billion dollars a year. It will benefit the doctors who provide the vaccination for $400 a pop, plus the cost of the three required office visits. It will benefit hospitals when the young girls become sick from the vaccine. In the 18 months since the vaccine was approved by the ever-vigilant FDA, there have been 1,981 emergency room visits and 143 hospitalizations directly attributable to Gardasil. It will also benefit funeral homes and morgues. So far Gardasil has caused 51 life-threatening events and the deaths of 11 girls. Lest you disbelieve me, you may check out the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System which is maintained by the CDC and the FDA. Okay, I'm convinced, you say. I won't vaccinate my daughter. Ah, not so fast. Merck representatives have been feverishly traversing the country encouraging state legislatures to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for young girls. That's right: mandatory. Leading the obeisance charge is Texas Governor Rick Perry, who recently issued an executive order mandating that all girls entering the sixth grade receive the vaccine. Read this again, an executive order. He completely bypassed the Texas legislature, parental authority, and normal political process. He ordered Gardasil into law. And, guess what? He has ties to Merck. Why does this shit not even surprise me anymore? Good at playing follow the leader, nearly every state legislature is going to mandate the HPV vaccine for girls between 12 and 14. This sickens me beyond belief. To recap: *The HPV encompasses more than