HPV, rather. Huma Papilloma Virus. Which is the chief culprit in cervical cancer, and a lot of infertility cases, and I don't know what else.

but there's this disease that condoms cannot prevent (I forget what). Anyway, scientists have developed a vaccine for it. Now some Christian groups are saying that the vaccine should not be released, because if it is then that's sending a message that it's OK to have sex....

The way this is phrased, of course, you could be talking about the flu. Of course, to some on this earth, they'd be happy to outlaw the flu vaccine too, on the off chance that being healthy and not sneezing might lead to sex.

One of the things I've always liked about formal public policy is that it is risk-factors and outcomes, that's all. Sex only matters to government because it is a risk-factor for a bunch of things that cost the government money and cause the government's boss (citizens) to suffer.

After that it becomes a question of Where in the relationship of risk factors to outcomes is it (a) realistic and (b) affordable to intervene? Intervening at the "human nature" stage strikes me as 100 kinds of silly, and is by the way a lot more ambitious than most government programs would ever attempt.

June 15 (AP) — An autopsy on Terri Schiavo backed her husband's contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding that she had massive and irreversible brain damage and was blind, the medical examiner's office said Wednesday. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.

Waits for the uproar over activist coroners.

Waits for the uproar over activist coroners.

Heh.

Stupid reality-based autopsies....

I know what people are going to say -- "they" are covering up the truth, that it's a consipracy and there will be implicatiosn that "they" paid off the officials to get the autopsy report that "they" wanted.

Stupid reality-based autopsies....

I swear, the neo-cons have taken Reagan's "Facts are stupid things" and really fucking ran with it.

I went to Focus on the Family to see their take on the Schiavo news, but it looks like it is too soon for a report. They did have a take on the Heritage report though:

[link]

soo... I have been untangeling a mess with the cable co. Some how old accounts and new accounts got all mixed up . and then putting the modem and the tv in one name and bill ( which is how they like it) caused confusion.

despite all the strangeness- It hasn't been too wierd or painful. I've got a bunch of people in Comcast that understand what happened and are on my side - so if I have any problems with things to day- i don't have to say anything other than call these people now. It is a pleasure dealing with people that know there jobs. Screw ups are no fun, but they happen. dealing with people that can really help fix things have made this fell like a screw up, but not a giant hassle.

I haven't read the autopsy but I was reading daily kos and they were saying that the autopsy showed Terri was blind. I'm not sure how that's going to play out among people who were pro life. I've seen her brain size being dismissed as a result of the dehydration and claiming it only happened in the last week or so of her life.

Well some people were claiming that Terri was looking at them, that she recognized people or somesuch....

I guess Jesus must have been her eyes.

She was blind because the part of her brain that controls vision was destroyed.

They also said that spoon feeding her food or liquid wouldn't have saved her because she couldn't eat or drink.