Witchy Woman

"Eight years ago, a terrorist bomber's attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic airliner was thwarted by passengers and revealed gaping holes in airline security only months after the Sept. 11 attacks.

But President George W. Bush, then on vacation, made no public remarks for six days about the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, and there were virtually no complaints from the media or Democrats that Bush's response was sluggish or inadequate.

That stands in sharp contrast to the Republicans' withering criticism of President Obama — and some in the media — for his reaction to the Christmas Day incident on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight.

Obama commented publicly on Monday and ordered a full investigation of the incident."

And then when they're called on it, they got nothing.

Obama was smart enough to know better... Bush wasn't.

"Restaurant chains and beef processors defended their products' safety Thursday after a report that an ammonia treatment thought to kill harmful germs in meat isn't as effective as the industry and regulators believed.

The New York Times reported Thursday, citing government and industry records, that E. coli and salmonella were found dozens of times in testing for the federal school lunch program on ammonia-treated beef from Beef Products Inc. The meat was not served."

The ammonia disturbs me just as much as the e. coli and salmonella does. E. coli and salmonella have been around as long as bacteria has, and up until recently, we humans have dealt with it just fine. It's once we started screwing around with antibiotics and other fun stuff that we are getting the kind that are resistant to drugs and strains that can actually survive in the dirt itself.

"Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.

Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics...

In the U.S., cases have soared and MRSA cost $6 billion last year. Rates have gone up from 2 percent in 1974 to 63 percent in 2004...

Dr. Satoshi Hori, chief infection control doctor at Juntendo University Hospital in Tokyo, says doctors overprescribe antibiotics because they are given financial incentives to push drugs on patients."

My favourite part?

"And drug makers aren't allowed to advertise, reducing patient demands for prescription drugs."

"The mystery started the day farmer Russ Kremer got between a jealous boar and a sow in heat.

The boar gored Kremer in the knee with a razor-sharp tusk. The burly pig farmer shrugged it off, figuring: "You pour the blood out of your boot and go on."

But Kremer's red-hot leg ballooned to double its size. A strep infection spread, threatening his life and baffling doctors. Two months of multiple antibiotics did virtually nothing.

The answer was flowing in the veins of the boar. The animal had been fed low doses of penicillin, spawning a strain of strep that was resistant to other antibiotics. That drug-resistant germ passed to Kremer.

Like Kremer, more and more Americans - many of them living far from barns and pastures - are at risk from the widespread practice of feeding livestock antibiotics. These animals grow faster, but they can also develop drug-resistant infections that are passed on to people. The issue is now gaining attention because of interest from a new White House administration and a flurry of new research tying antibiotic use in animals to drug resistance in people."

Now before anyone goes off the deep end and says, "But it's for the health of the animal." No, it is not. Antibiotics are being fed to them en masse, which is the problem. There is a reason why you shouldn't take antibiotics without a doctor's supervision. Animals shouldn't either.

Sir, you are a vet. Not a doctor, and certainly not a biologist. Drug resistant strains of various diseases are becoming more of a problem than ever before. That's what the science is saying.

"Back in Missouri, farmer Kremer finally found an antibiotic that worked on his leg. After being released from the hospital, Kremer tested his pigs. The results showed they were resistant to all the same drugs he was.

Kremer tossed his hypodermic needles, sacked his buckets of antibiotic-laced feed, slaughtered his herd and started anew.

"I was wearing a syringe, like a holster, like a gun, because my pigs were all sick," he recalled. "I was really getting so sick and aggravated at what I was doing. I said, 'This isn't working.'""

Most companies/producers are betting that people don't know/won't care what goes into their food as long as it's cheap, especially in this economy. But when you weigh the cost of organic food against the cost of cancer, which is cheaper?

"The Bible says love thy neighbor as thyself. I would hope that we could debate the pressing issues in front of the American public on their own merits without appealing to the Almighty for obstruction, of which there seems to be no short supply in Washington. "

-Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., responding to accusations that Republicans were wishing ill health on the 92-year-old senator to thwart his crucial 60th Democratic vote for the health care reform bill.

"When you're the young owners of a Toronto sex shop specializing in eco-friendly vibrators and other adult toys, getting the ear of a Member of Parliament can be a challenge.
So, entrepreneurs Kim and Amy Sedgwick started off slow. The self-branded “eco-sisters” wrote a letter outlining their concerns of a “dangerous” problem hidden away in Canadian bedrooms everywhere – chemicals used in the majority of Canadian sex toys that pose a potential health risk for women...
So while bisphenol A can't be used in baby bottles, and phthalates can't be used in children's mouth toys, there's no rules preventing their use in a vibrator, Dr. Bennett says."

"Joining only seven countries and five U.S. states, Mexico City's legislative assembly voted overwhelmingly Monday to legalize gay marriage.

The vote changed the definition of marriage in the city's civil code from being between a man and a woman to the free uniting of two people. Assembly members also approved a resolution allowing married gay couples to legally adopt children."

Chron.com

Sadly enough, it took a 2-hour heated debate where the politicians "publicly questioned one another's sexual preferences and activities." Just because one supports marriage equality does not necessarily mean they they are automatically non-heteronormative, not to mention the fact that even appearing to be otherwise can often spell the end of a politician's career.

Sigh.* I know, I know, I shouldn't look a gift-horse in the mouth, but it still feels like a one step forward and another back situation.