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id="header"><h1></h1></div> <div class="date"> Thursday, December 02, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/food_safety_band_aids_vs_real_solutions/">Food safety: band-aids vs. real solutions</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C73/">Food</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PJHZHxXwMzM/TMribhElbUI/AAAAAAAAAuA/_83DuIkWPWw/s1600/eggs.JPG" width="300" align="right"/>A number of people have asked me to blog about the food safety bill that passed through the Senate and is fixing to pass through the House, if they <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/01/AR2010120108366.html" title="can hammer out some procedural issues">can hammer out some procedural issues</a>.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/senate-could-make-your-food-safer-today-or-not" title="KJ at XX">KJ at XX</a> put some useful links together, if you want to read up on it.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-30-historic-food-safety-bill-passes-senate-awaits-house" title="Grist has been blogging the hell out of it">Grist has been blogging the hell out of it</a>, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/opinion/29schlosser.html" title="Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser endorsed it in a NY Times op-ed">Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser endorsed it in a NY Times op-ed</a>. The reason that a lot of people are skeptical of this bill is that it’s widely supported by Big Agra, which doesn’t bode well.  The fact that it passed with wide margins in the Senate also makes me nervous---if it didn’t meet widespread Republican opposition, that’s a good sign that it’s toothless.  </p> <p> Yes, the Tea Partiers are up in arms about it, but that’s because they believe not regulating our food system will piss off the liberals.  They’ve gotten to the point where they’ll take a bunch of dead people from food poisoning if it’ll piss off the liberals.  And it’s true!  When children die for no good reason, that pisses me off way more than when Bristol Palin did better than she ought to have on “Dancing With The Stars”.  Anyway, their squawking is irrelevant, and at best a demonstration of how the problem with teabaggers is they’re committed to this idea that nothing bad could happen to them because they’re god’s chosen assholes.  But food poisoning strikes the rich and poor alike.  </p> <p> Doing some reading on this, my feeling on the bill is that I, like most environmentalists and people deeply interested in food issues, tacitly endorse the bill while being clear that it’s a band-aid.  The amount of lobbying money spent by Big Agra on this is troubling, but as Pollan and Schlosser point out, industrial agricultural trade groups are coming out against it.  Part of the reason might be that an amendment was added to give protections to small farmers, and perhaps Big Agra was hoping to stomp out their teeny-tiny competitors with this bill and now they can’t.  Or maybe, as Pollan and Schlosser argue, they never liked the bill in the first place, and all the interest in it was a matter of trying to make it less bad than the alternative. </p> <p> The problem is that they did succeed in making the bill way weaker than it needs to be.  The good news is that it gives FDA regulators some power---they have more testing authority and they can force a recall.  It’s too little testing authority, but it should help.  Basically, this is one of those rare situations where Congress is actually accountable to voters, in no small part because the issues at hand aren’t so complicated that they can be wildly distorted by the news media.  But Congress did as little as they could get away with. </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-23-risk-bacteria-and-the-tragedy-of-food-safety-reform" title="Tom Philpott laid out the major issue with the bill">Tom Philpott laid out the major issue with the bill</a>, and why it’s a band-aid solution: it’s outcome-oriented instead of tackling root causes.  All the focus has shifted to testing and recalls, but the real problem is that our animal-based food systems are unhygienic in their practices, but wide in their scope.  Let’s tackle these two problems in order. </p> <p> First is the lack of hygiene at industrial farms that raise animals for either meat or secondary products like milk or eggs.  The problem is that animals are crammed together and stressed out for their short lives, both of which mean that disease can spread rapidly.  Animals are also the main reason for the massive produce recalls---when you cram that many animals together, they shit.  A lot.  And that has to go somewhere.  On smaller farms, the amount of shit animals produce is reasonable and can be used as fertilizer.  But it’s so much shit in the industrial farms that it turns to toxic sludge.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18dairy.html?pagewanted=all" title="Tom refers to this NY Times piece">Tom refers to this NY Times piece</a> about how a dairy farm that had 41,000 cows managed to put off so much shit that there wasn’t enough land to spread it on, and it seeped into the water, causing widespread health problems in the area.  Tom contrasts this with a story about a small farm that produced raw milk and had some of it test positive for listeria.  Now, I’m generally skeptical of the raw milk aficionados, who remind me of anti-vaxxers and every other group of people whose education hasn’t shielded them from falling for woo---it’s easy to forget how many lives innovations like pasteurization has saved.  But while I don’t drink raw milk, it’s also true that raw milk cheese is by and large a minimal threat, especially when compared to the larger threats we tolerate from industrial dairy and egg producers, even, as Tom points out, to people who aren’t their customers. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/food_safety_band_aids_vs_real_solutions/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 07:57 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/food_safety_band_aids_vs_real_solutions/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, November 10, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/repubs_give_up_all_pretense_of_being_sticklers_for_process_the_second_they_/">Repubs give up all pretense of being sticklers for process the second they get power</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C6/">Republicans</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://i.huffpost.com/gen/217525/thumbs/s-HEALTH-CARE-INVESTIGATIONS-large.jpg" align="left"/>A lot of Republicans ran on the promise of repealing health care reform, which only worked, of course, after telling their base that “health care reform” is basically code for “giving people you moved out of the city to get away from money so they can sit in the doctor’s waiting room <i>right next to you</i> like it was some subway or something”.  Of course, repealing the law was a farcically empty promise, though I suppose the hope is they could beat Obama down enough he’d actually sign that bill.  He did hang his head and claim that the public somehow rejected him, even though what actually happened is most of the public rejected going out in the cold to walk down to the polls for a midterm they were barely paying attention to, if at all.  They didn’t reject access to health care, which the Republicans already know, which is why they’re pretending that they’re going to rewrite the law to make it better.  What they don’t tell the public is “better” means “whatever it takes to keep you the undesirables from walking into a doctor’s office and getting a check-up like you’re one of the privileged like me”.  </p> <p> Well, even I’m not cynical enough to think that Obama could be bipartisan shamed enough into repealing health care reform, and neither are the Republicans, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/09/republican-investigators-health-care-law_n_781342.html" title="since their plan is to harass it to death">since their plan is to harass it to death</a>. </p> <blockquote><p>Republicans can call hearings and compel testimony, and Obama has no veto power to stop them. In the House, they’ll control three major committees with a mandate to poke around on health care, subpoenas available if needed. In the Senate, they’ll have added leverage on two key panels, so their demands can’t be easily ignored. </p> <p> Republicans say they’ll focus on what the new health care law will mean for Medicare and employer health plans, mainstays of the middle class. </p> <p> “Oversight will play a crucial role in Republican efforts,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. “We may not be able to bring about straight repeal in the next two years ... but we can compel administration officials to attempt to defend this indefensible health spending bill.”</p></blockquote> <p> In other words, they’re going to take a page from the book of people who protest, vandalize, block, and bomb abortion clinics---if they can’t change the law, they’re going to try to make it too difficult for you to use your rights.  Except they’re going to try to do it with hearings.  </p> <p> This is, of course, making a mockery of the powers that have been given to Congress.  They’re basically admitting up front they don’t actually care about truth or good government, but are willing to use the powers given to them to get at these things in order to stop good government and to hopefully distract from the truth.  Clearly, their biggest concern is once the public starts actually experiencing the effects of health care reform, the enthusiasm for repeal will evaporate.  </p> <p> What’s so hilarious about this is Republicans are always playing like they’re just sticklers for process.  They’re not bigots!  They just argue that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over state governments.....and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/process-oriented-bad-faith" title="now apparently they have no jurisdiction over federal law">now apparently they have no jurisdiction over federal law</a>, either.  But let’s be clear---just because they don’t actually understand the law doesn’t mean they aren’t sticklers for it, in ways that precisely mirror their prejudices.  This has nothing to do with anything but their thorough enthusiasm for sticking to the process. </p> <p> Oh wait, that argument only matters if they’re on the losing side of it.  When they’re on the winning side, then actually it’s opposite day, and they object strongly to the childish notion that the powers given should only be used in the spirit they were given in.  There’s no hiding from the fact that you’re a grade A hypocrite if you complain out one side of your mouth about “judicial activism” and then applaud Congress for calling hearings where they have <b>no</b> intention of gathering information to govern better, but in fact every intention of just confusing and stalling the issue.  Wearing the mantle of original intent and process-orientation---but only when things are going your way---is basically wearing a “I’m a big fat lying liar piece of shit” sign. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:49 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/repubs_give_up_all_pretense_of_being_sticklers_for_process_the_second_they_/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Tuesday, November 09, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/adding_is_great_but_only_if_done_in_conjunction_with_subtracting/">Adding is great, but only if done in conjunction with subtracting</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C73/">Food</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2010/11/04/grocery_12_wide.jpg?t=1288904963&s=4" width="300" align="right"/>As much as I’m generally supportive of Michelle Obama’s initiatives to get Americans, especially kids, to eat better and exercise more, I have to blog some more about why her program is bound to fail.  It’s because it’s all about <i>adding</i>, but there’s not enough about <i>subtracting</i>, and without the latter, not much is really going to happen in terms of getting Americans, especially children, to a place where they’re eating healthier food.  Adding is great, of course.  More programs focusing on physical fitness, more programs addressing the problem of food deserts, more education, etc.  Adding especially has the potential to help people living in poverty, whose greater rates of obesity are the result of lack of access to better food.  Adding is great.  I’m not dissing adding. </p> <p> The problem with adding is that it’s way more politically feasible and it’s easy to focus on it at the expense of subtracting.  Everyone can feel they’re doing something without actually crossing anyone who would resist them.  Fast food companies are happy to tack a salad no one eats to their menu and call it a day.  A lot of subtracting efforts are punitive, which automatically sets off a lot of liberals, sometimes with good reason---when regressive tax structures are put into place on certain foods without increasing access to other foods, that’s a major problem.  Everyone loves to applaud adding sidewalks, but if you actually try to subtract environmental cues that encourage driving over walking---like reducing the amount of available parking---people flip out.  Food producers, junk food companies, and the voters all prefer the message, “Eat an apple” over “Don’t eat piles of cheese.” We like to applaud having someone ask the food industry politely not to serve so much crap, but any effort to actually get them to stop serving so much crap is received as punitive and resisted. </p> <p> People like to talk about adding, because the people who are helped the most with this focus are those living in poverty and who don’t have regular access to good food.  But Americans of every class eat poorly and don’t exercise enough.  Getting the poor up to middle class levels will help, but it will still result in a nation of epic heart disease and diabetes.  The problem isn’t just that some people don’t have access to healthy food.  It’s also that people who have that access don’t use it. </p> <p> If you could fix our problems only with adding, that would be fine, but you can’t.  You just can’t.  Unless we start depriving the food industry of money and an unrestricted landscape, for instance, the First Lady can leap around with children until she collapses from exhaustion, and not a damn thing will change. </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07fat.html?_r=1" title="Example #1">Example #1</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>And Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause, is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting. </p></blockquote> <p> That’s right.  The government runs an agency whose entire purpose is to move Americans away from ingrained cultural tendencies not to suck down rubbery-tasting cheese by the gallon, and instead get us to coat everything we eat with cheese.  They do this for the sole purpose of improving profits for companies that are, bit by bit, destroying the health of Americans. For example: </p> <blockquote><p>Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies. </p> <p> Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign. </p> <p> Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits. </p></blockquote> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/adding_is_great_but_only_if_done_in_conjunction_with_subtracting/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:52 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/adding_is_great_but_only_if_done_in_conjunction_with_subtracting/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Tuesday, October 19, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/sex_work_isnt_immune_to_urban_legends/">Sex work isn’t immune to urban legends</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://blog.syracuse.com/healthfitness/2007/08/large_condoms.jpg" width="300" align="left"/>Lindsay Beyerstein has been doing a kick ass job as of late researching and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6560/positive_hiv_test_puts_porn_valley_on_ice/" title="reporting on the battle over mandated condom use">reporting on the battle over mandated condom use</a> in straight porn in California (it’s already standard in gay porn).  It’s a story that has gotten some attention as yet another <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9IRNK4O0.htm" title="actor has tested positive for HIV">actor has tested positive for HIV</a> and has likely exposed many women---often you can expose dozens---in the time since he became positive and turned up a positive test.  It’s hard to get people to care about this issue in more than a cursory way, in part because sex workers are still treated like they’re not worthy of full human rights and in part because the public has become somewhat blase about HIV in general.  It’s an old story by now.  The fact that there is a drug cocktail that is effective in allowing people who would have perished in short order back in the day to live long, productive lives has put the public in a place where they forget how deadly AIDS really is.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/aids-hiv.htm" title="But 11,000 people die of AIDS in the U.S. alone every year">But 11,000 people die of AIDS in the U.S. alone every year</a>, and let’s face it, having to take that drug cocktail for the rest of your life is no picnic and not that easy to do.  Availability is also dependent on many factors.  Despite the title “porn star”, most porn actors don’t make a lot of money and they are pushed out of the business at a relatively young age, and subsequently their access to regular health care is limited, to say the least.  If you believe, as I do, that sex workers are full human beings deserving of the same consideration as everyone else, this is nothing to be blase about. </p> <p> I recommend reading Lindsay’s coverage of this.  The basic theme is that California OSHA already has regulations that should require universal condom use in porn (basically the same ones that require nurses to wear gloves), and the straight porn industry aggressively flouts the law.  Their excuse is that they do regular testing.  But as this recent example shows, you can take a test, get infected, and expose dozens of people before your next test.  There is more than a little wishful thinking going on here.  The reason that they give for not wanting to use condoms is they think it’s bad for business, but I think that’s a fear that has gotten reaffirmed so much that it’s grown larger in people’s minds than it is in reality.  As Lindsay documents, some countries have mandated condom use in porn and it hasn’t hurt business, and gay porn uses condoms without seeing any loss in profit.  From her point of view---and I agree---good liberals don’t put the profit concerns of businesses above basic safety precautions for workers.  It dents profits on construction sites to require safety gear---owners have to buy the gear and enforce use of it, all of which costs money that they could otherwise pocket---but so what?  Remember, these are human lives.  Even if porn took a minor ding on the profits because of condoms, I can’t care.  I don’t see why they get special status to complain about the cost of doing business that liberals rightly criticize when it’s anyone not making porn. </p> <p> Anyway, all this is set-up to what is a strange phenomenon in all of this---an urban legend that trips off the lips of many of porn’s spokespeople with surprising regularity.  The idea is that condoms somehow make it <i>easier</i> to transmit HIV.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://bigthink.com/ideas/24566" title="Lindsay documents it">Lindsay documents it</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>As far as I can tell the notion that condoms are in any way counterproductive is pure conjecture based on anecdotes from people with a financial stake in the status quo. The argument seems to have originated with industry insider Ernest Greene and his wife, porn legend Nina Hartley. They claim that porn sex is so rough and prolonged that condoms cause more abrasions than unprotected sex. I couldn’t find any independent confirmation of that.</p></blockquote> <p> Lindsay explains a few reasons why this can’t be true.  I’ll add that if gay porn can go 100% condom without this complaint, something is up.  And why is the right to work someone’s body until they’re raw and bleeding sacrosanct?  Maybe OSHA needs to monitor porn sets for overtime abuses, too.  </p> <p> But what really struck me about this claim was that it immediately put me in mind of another urban legend that people rely on to avoid basic safety measures.  It was more common in the days when seat belt laws were still controversial, but you occasionally still hear it: That seat belts are actually <i>dangerous</i>, because they “trap” you in a car.  This myth is 100% bullshit, as <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/2010/09/traffic_deaths_at_lowest_level.html" title="traffic fatalities have been in a freefall ">traffic fatalities have been in a freefall </a>since seat belts became mandatory and cars even started to beep at you if you don’t use them.  The myth is a purely self-serving one that allows the person spouting it to feel like they’re smarter and more in control than they are, while also validating the bad behavior they wish to engage in. </p> <p> The “condoms make HIV worse” argument sounds the same to my ears---substituting an elaborate excuse that sounds plausible for scientific evidence.  I’d like to think smart feminist bloggers wouldn’t write articles arguing, “The research shows seat belts reduce traffic fatalities, but drivers themselves say that they are afraid seat belts will ‘trap’ them in their cars.  We should take this seriously, because drivers are the ones out there doing the driving.” If they did, you’d see the problem with their assertion, which leaves no room for the tendency of human beings to rationalize their choices, and instead treats human beings as what they’re not, which are purely rational decision-makers. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/sex_work_isnt_immune_to_urban_legends/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:29 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/sex_work_isnt_immune_to_urban_legends/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Monday, September 27, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/right_wing_propaganda_machine_adopts_anti_vaccination_stance/">Right wing propaganda machine adopts anti-vaccination stance</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><object width="320" height="260" align="right"><param name="movie" value="http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/flash/player.swf"></param><param name="flashvars" value="config=http://mediamatters.org/embed/cfg2?id=201009250006"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="allownetworking" value="all"></param><embed src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017oe_/http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/flash/player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="config=http://mediamatters.org/embed/cfg2?id=201009250006" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="260"></embed></object>Reality has a well-known liberal bias, of course, but few people talk about the corollary of that law: malarkey has a strong right wing bias.  Which isn’t to say that liberals aren’t capable of believing all sorts of malarkey.  Sadly, I have an email inbox that is visited regularly enough with conspiratorial thinking to disprove that hypothesis.  Still, there’s such a powerful machine for promoting paranoia on the right that even when conspiracy theories start off on the left, they often end up becoming more of a right wing thing.  Conspiracy theories fit in the same niche as right wing hysteria, mainly a need to keep people afraid at all times and worried that the world is going to hell in a hand basket.  Also, it suits right wing propaganda to promote irrationality, because if their followers get into the habit of never looking at anything with a critical eye, they can be sold pretty much any batch of lies.  This isn’t just a light observation---as <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception.html" title="Michael Shermer shows in his latest TED Talk">Michael Shermer shows in his latest TED Talk</a>, there’s actually research showing people who believe in irrational things like ESP are that much more likely to see patterns where none exist.  In other words, if you want people to believe Barack Obama is a secret Muslim who’s going to take your guns, it’s good to make sure they have a steady diet of conspiracy theories and irrational nonsense being fed to them, to keep their brains working in that way.  (Religion no doubt helps.) The people who run Fox News either have read this research, or just have a native feel for how to do this.  </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201009250006" title="Take the above video from Media Matters">Take the above video from Media Matters</a>.  The video is a Fox News segment that presents anti-vaccination conspiracy theories as if they were straight news.  The idea that the people suing drug companies over their children’s autism should have to present evidence overturning the overwhelming existing evidence that vaccines don’t cause autism is treated as appalling, even though presenting evidence for your case is not only how science works, it’s how the legal system works.  </p> <p> What’s interesting here is that the official conservative line is that there’s too many junk lawsuits against corporations or other rich people, particularly when it comes to medical malpractice.  But apparently, that complaint doesn’t count on those occasions when the lawsuits really are junk lawsuits.  In other words, they’re only against medical malpractice lawsuits that actually have some merit to them. </p> <p> This makes sense, if you think about it.  The need to keep their audience constantly paranoid and believing the government is out to get them trumps all other concerns.  You’ll notice that the government is vilified throughout this segment for insisting that the plaintiffs prove their case, a high burden when they are promoting a thoroughly discredited theory.  In fact, this impossibility is touched upon, but not because it’s evidence that the plaintiffs are wrong, but to drive up pity for them.  The hope is clearly that the burden of proof in a junk lawsuit can be conflated with ordinary frustrations with bureaucracy, as if these folks’ inability to win a lawsuit on false grounds is the same thing as your frustration when you go to the DMV and they want more forms of ID than you have on you to issue you a driver’s license.  (To name a recent frustration of mine.) </p> <p> We can probably expect to continue seeing an escalation of right wing paranoia around health issues, I’m afraid.  Passing health care reform after a retracted battle created the ground work for health care and even healthiness to be seen as liberal, and therefore evil and tainted values.  Prevention in particular seems to be getting the stink eye more and more often from right wing sources.  You have the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/red_food_vs_blue_food/" title="escalating rhetoric">escalating rhetoric</a> that has moved from merely joking about the supposed pussiness of eating healthy to straight up scare-mongering and shaming of healthy eating.  Now vaccines are getting the full scale Fox News propaganda treatment. The notion that contraception is important preventive care has been a target for right wing abuse for years now, even though it scientifically demonstrable that contraception use improves the health of women and children. I suppose soon we’ll be seeing exercise and getting regular check-ups being discredited as liberal elitism to be shunned or even seen as an assault on the wingnut tribe. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 03:33 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/right_wing_propaganda_machine_adopts_anti_vaccination_stance/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Thursday, September 02, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/sadistic_snack_waffles_on_parade/">Sadistic snack waffles on parade</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C63/">Body Issues</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C73/">Food</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://doclibrary.com/MFR26/PRD/Snack%27n-Waffles-Web-Image.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>So there’s been a dust-up between <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/09/01/fat-and-health/" title="a guest blogger named Monica at Feministe">a guest blogger named Monica at Feministe</a> and fat activists (mostly on Twitter that I’ve seen), with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/09/02/this-is-what-progress-looks-like/" title="Maia actually posting on it">Maia actually posting on it</a>.  I’m not interested in getting in the middle of it.  I think both sides make good points.  FAs are right that Monica is out of line suggesting their negative experiences with health care providers are figments of their imaginations, but Monica is right that the “but some highly muscular people are technically obese!” is a disingenuous argument.  I think people were too hard on Monica, but also that she was incredibly unfair in some ways.  I want to talk about the most glaring unfair assertion she made, one that was pulled out by Kate Harding on Twitter in particular. </p> <blockquote><p>Weight can signal a lack of activity or too many donuts, and that shouldn’t irk anyone. Yet, it does.</p></blockquote> <p> This was unfair, for the very simple reason that fat activists are 100% right that 95% of fat people are going to stay fat.  Drastic weight loss that stays off is incredibly rare, and is usually the result of weight loss surgery or a complete 180 in personal habits that is the sort of thing that is really not in human nature.  And when I say “180”, I mean 180---the <i>only</i> fat people I’ve ever known to get un-fat without WLS went from being people who didn’t get much exercise to people who turned into jocks.  Moderate exercise---which I still have no idea what that supposedly means anyway---just isn’t going to cut it.  Losing weight is really, really hard.  I put myself on a gym regime when we moved to New York, on top of all the extra walking you do here, and I’ve lost weight, sure, but it wasn’t the kind of weight loss rate that would turn a fat person thin.  I can’t imagine what it would take to lose 10 times as much weight as I’ve lost, much less the 20 times that some people would have to lose to go from being fat people to not-fat people.  I hear people make cracks about soda and donuts all the time, as if merely giving up overindulgence would magically turn a fat person thin.  If you sit down and calculate the calorie shortages someone would have to endure to lose a whole lot of weight, you should see the mathematical issues in play.  </p> <p> But it wasn’t just the “drop the donuts, lose 100 pounds” simplicity that was off here.  It was also the invocation of the concept of personal responsibility that makes me more than a little queasy.  Not to say that I think that people don’t have personal responsibilities to look after their own diets or exercise regimes, but to write it off to that and not look at the big picture is to miss the point.  Americans have been getting fatter in recent decades, and there have been rising rates of diabetes and heart disease to go with it.  To imply that the cause is simple lack of self-control is to suggest that Americans have magically become lazier or more impulsive.  I would argue that the culture has changed dramatically and puts immense amount of pressure on people to have habits that are simply counter-productive to their diet and exercise goals.  </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/sadistic_snack_waffles_on_parade/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 12:07 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/sadistic_snack_waffles_on_parade/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Friday, August 13, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/toxic_dieting_narratives/">Toxic dieting narratives</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C63/">Body Issues</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C73/">Food</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C31/">Sex</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/08/12/weight_or_sex/md_horiz.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>Well, this strikes me as the most irritating non-story I’ve read in a long fucking time.  I suppose I’m supposed to be shocked and mildly distressed at the release of a study (conducted by Nutrisystem) that shows <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/half_of_america.php" title="that half of American women would " give up sex" rather than gain 10 pounds">that half of American women would “give up sex” rather than gain 10 pounds</a>.  But I find the whole thing too suspect to take seriously.  And it’s not because, or at least just because, of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/08/12/weight_or_sex/index.html" title="what Tracy Clark-Flory pointed out">what Tracy Clark-Flory pointed out</a>, which is that 66% of survey respondents felt like they have to lose weight to feel sexy, which is a sad result of the widespread fat-shaming in our culture.  (The survey suggested the average amount that had to be lost to reach that goal was 23 pounds, which is such an abstract number as to be meaningless.  Is that a number that includes all the women that feel they’re 5 pounds away from getting into a size four averaged with people who want to lose 100 pounds, or is it just a lot of people who feel they need to lose 23 pounds?  No idea.) But it’s because they poisoned the well to make sure they got the results they wanted.  </p> <p> See, they didn’t ask if people would give up sex rather than gain weight.  They asked if you’d give up sex for the summer rather than gain weight.  Considering that’s only 3 months, I’m surprised more people didn’t say yes.  A lot of Americans go 3 month stretches without getting laid all the time, often even if they’re in relationships.  I’m sure people who’ve had 3 month dry spells outnumber people who haven’t many times over.  It’s not a super fun idea to go 3 months without sex, but most of us have plenty of assurance we’d survive.  (Unless they’re rolling masturbation into their definition of “sex”, which I’m almost positive they aren’t.) </p> <p> But what really pissed me off about this survey was that it’s indicative of the entire problem with the American diet industry, which is basically built to encourage yo-you dieting. You’ve heard the statistic that 95% of diets don’t work?  That’s because they’re <i>designed not to</i>.  The entire pitch of diet programs is, “Deprive yourself of pleasure for short periods of time, and then, when you reach a goal, go right back to your old habits.  In a few years, when you’ve gained it all back, come back and we’ll do it all over again.” There’s no natural reason to connect sexual deprivation with weight control---on the contrary, I’d guess frequent sex actually burns a fair number of calories---but the diet industry’s logic is just this.  The whole notion is that you “earn” pleasure by being skinny enough to deserve it, and the only way to earn it is to lose weight. </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/08/11/summer-of-body-image-problems/" title="Silvana has a really long, interesting post">Silvana has a really long, interesting post</a> on the way that getting married can provoke body anxiety in even the most stalwart opponents of that kind of crap, and she mentions something that has always bothered me, too. </p> <blockquote><p>As a fat chick, I am well aware of the MUSTLOSEWEIGHTBEFOREWEDDING cultural imperative. I was aware of this before I ever knew what Fat Acceptance was. And I knew before I ever got engaged that I would be doing no such thing. Frankly, I wasn’t even tempted. I know people who have gone on serious diets in the year or so before they get married, women who have attended “boot camp,” and companies who have made a lot of money off of fueling those anxieties. I wanted no part of it.</p></blockquote> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/toxic_dieting_narratives/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 04:05 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/toxic_dieting_narratives/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, August 04, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_wingnut_plot_against_quad_development_and_regular_bowel_movements/">The wingnut plot against quad development and regular bowel movements</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C42/">Environment</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C73/">Food</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2010/0804/20100804_125951_cd04bikes.jpg" width="300" align="right"/><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.eschatonblog.com/2010/08/thats-exactly-attitude-they-want-you-to.html" title="Via Atrios">Via Atrios</a>, I see that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.denverpost.com/election2010/ci_15673894" title="full-blown brainless resentment as a campaign strategy">full-blown brainless resentment as a campaign strategy</a> is well under way in 2010. </p> <blockquote><p>Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are “converting Denver into a United Nations community.” </p> <p> “This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed,” Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial. </p> <p> Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor’s efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes “that’s exactly the attitude they want you to have.”</p></blockquote> <p> Yep, the argument is that programs that look like they’re about reducing emissions and reducing dependence on fossil fuels---as well as getting people to be healthier by getting more exercise---are in fact a liberal plot to have the UN take over our cities.  Apparently, starting with those out West, because what you want when you’re plotting a takeover of a country is to go after cities that are well-armed and spread out.  Though I suppose the paranoid right wingers could just say that’s why they have to take over the cities by stealthy hippyness, because warfare isn’t gonna get it done. </p> <p> There’s some jibber-jabber paranoid explanation for why bike programs are secret UN plots to destroy America. </p> <blockquote><p>Maes said in a later interview that he was referring to Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international association that promotes sustainable development and has attracted the membership of more than 1,200 communities, 600 of which are in the United States.</p></blockquote> <p> Whatever the bullshit explanation is basically irrelevant, of course.  The point is to stoke resentment against bicyclists, and then transfer that resentment to the Democrats.  Bicyclists and pedestrians are easy hate objects, because they make car-dependent people feel insecure, especially if those car-dependent people are using their car even in situations where they know they could walk it or bike it.  If you doubt this, I highly recommend actually getting a bike and trying to commute with it---even if you can’t go to work, try going to the store or to nearby occasions with it---and you’ll find that there are lot of mindlessly angry drivers out there who take your bicycle as an affront to their manhood or something.  Yes, even if you obey every traffic law and are scrupulous about staying out of the way (which I was when I lived where I biked everywhere---now I just walk). </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_wingnut_plot_against_quad_development_and_regular_bowel_movements/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:21 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_wingnut_plot_against_quad_development_and_regular_bowel_movements/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, June 23, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/when_moving_your_body_is_a_privilege_of_the_few/">When moving your body is a privilege of the few</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C52/">Education</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2010-06/54257553.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>I posted some on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/thinking-big-preventing-childhood-obesity" title="this at Double X">this at Double X</a>, but I thought it would be interesting to expand on here.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-quitting-20100611,0,4255222.story" title="This article in the LA Times">This article in the LA Times</a> is about when it’s okay to let your kids quit an activity, but what really jumped out at me about it was how much children’s sports are portrayed as this miserable hellhole of competition where only the toughest survive. </p> <blockquote><p>But the intensity of the conditioning was unlike anything Bob had experienced. The boys did up-downs until their faces turned purple. They were forced to run laps holding hands as a punishment. While there was an emphasis on teamwork — in theory, football is supposed to be the ultimate team sport — there was a profound absence of positive reinforcement. </p> <p> So after 13 weeks, and just before the season ended, my son did what his gut told him to do: He quit. </p> <p> “It’s not fun,” he said wearily. “And I’m tired of the coaches making me feel badly about myself.”</p></blockquote> <p> Awesome, I thought.  Bob’s chances just shot up of being allergic to athletic activity for the rest of his life because of these associations.  Maybe he’ll get lucky and this experience won’t sour him on his own image of his body as an athletic entity.  But if he’s like many to most Americans who had negative experiences with jock culture as young people, his insecurity about not being perfect out of the gate will hound him, and make all future attempts to pick up exercise feel futile and disheartening.  When his doctor tells him he better pick up some exercise routine or else, he’ll join a gym or try bicycling, but exposure to the jocks in that environment will dredge up the same negative associations and feelings of inadequacy, and he’s quite likely to give up.  Or, if he’s lucky, he’ll fall in with people who see working out as a competition only with yourself, and who see sports mainly as a way to relax and have fun, and he’ll be able to get into the groove.  But he’ll always be a little behind where he wished he’d be, where someone who’d spent his whole life doing athletic things would be. </p> <p> Sorry to sound so bleak, but few things can create mental blocks for people like being labeled as children---it often takes decades for adults to realize that they actually aren’t bad at math or incapable of being athletic, as they were told as children.  If they ever learn.  Which is exactly what the LA Times writer discovered. </p> <blockquote><p>The results of the study also send a strong message to coaches who humiliate children: The things they do and say can turn a child off from team sports for years. </p> <p> Although the study was designed to examine how instructors made sports fun for kids, the responses focused more on what coaches did wrong. Strean, in fact, says he was shocked by the emotional responses he received. </p> <p> “The so-called physical education that I received as a kid robbed me of the joy of physical activity for many years,” one participant wrote. “It did nothing whatever to establish habits of balance in life between the cerebral and the physical. Instead, the focus seemed to be on achieving excellence in a competitive setting. It destroyed my physical confidence.”</p></blockquote> <p> And these pee wee coaches acting like they’re coaching the fucking NFL isn’t doing anyone any favors. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/when_moving_your_body_is_a_privilege_of_the_few/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 04:57 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/when_moving_your_body_is_a_privilege_of_the_few/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Monday, May 24, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/more_news_in_the_vaccination_wars/">More news in the vaccination wars</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mMq3N81JlyY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017oe_/http://www.youtube.com/v/mMq3N81JlyY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> </p> <p> This is part one of Frontline’s coverage of the vaccine wars. </p> <p> Great news: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://bigthink.com/ideas/20232" title="Dr. Andrew Wakefield's tattered reputation takes another blow ">Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s tattered reputation takes another blow </a>in light of his increasingly-sleazy-seeming research that linked MMR vaccines with autism (and was subsequently disproved in every way).  </p> <blockquote><p>A doctor who touched off a worldwide panic over an alleged link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been barred from practicing medicine over unethical research practices. Britain’s General Medical Council struck Wakefield from the medical register on Monday, a sanction analogous to disbarring a lawyer.</p></blockquote> <p> This is after the Lancet, which originally published Dr. Wakefield’s highly questionable research, retracted the study.  It was an unusual move from the journal, but one that was necessary in light of all the damage that Wakefield has done to his profession’s ability to look after the health of children and the larger community.  It’s important that skeptics keep hammering at this.  Every time another anti-vaccine nut gets hit with a public disgracing like this, you get more fence sitters who might wake up to the fact that the fears that are being sown about vaccines are more fantasy than fact, and the diseases that vaccines protect against are quite real.  </p> <p> Of course, the one problem with this is that every time someone gets a public disgracing like this for their conspiracy theory mongering, their adherents double down.  We can expect that, too.  And that’s because this was never about science and really not much about children’s health, but has taken off because it appeals to certain individualistic and anti-modernist elements in society.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/view/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist" title="Frontline recently did an excellent piece on the vaccine wars">Frontline recently did an excellent piece on the vaccine wars</a>, and one thing that really stuck out was how much the reasoning of anti-vaxxers was less about reasoning and more about certain values that I frankly found kind of repulsive.  </p> <p> The first big one was the inability to accept win-win thinking.  Parents who didn’t vaccinate repeatedly cited herd immunity as a flaw in vaccinations, and angrily insisted that it wasn’t their job to look after the health of the community.  The emotional reasoning couldn’t be more evident---they seem to believe that anything that is good for your neighbor is by definition taking from you, that there is no such thing as a win-win solution.  For this, I blame decades of libertarian/conservative political propaganda that’s made even the ostensibly liberal yuppies that inculcate anti-vaccination sentiment start to think that doing right by their children must mean screwing over all other children.  (You also get this mentality in the competition for day care slots and tracking children as “gifted” at younger and younger ages.) The reality is that life isn’t all dog eat dog.  Sometimes by doing right by others, you do right by yourself.  Vaccines are a classic example of this---protecting yourself from disease means doing so for others.  </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/more_news_in_the_vaccination_wars/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 03:35 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/more_news_in_the_vaccination_wars/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Friday, May 07, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/im_anti_tradition_but/">I’m anti-tradition, but…..</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C8/">Feminism</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://weddingelegante.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/wedding-dress.jpg" width="250" align="left" title="another barbaric misogynist tradition"/>Wow, I rarely find myself disagreeing with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/05/whatever_happened_to_first_do.php" title="PZ">PZ</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/05/first-do-no-harm.html" title="Melissa">Melissa</a>, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.feministing.com/archives/021093.html" title="Samhita">Samhita</a>, but I have to say that I don’t really see the problem with the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-academy-of-pediatrics-aap-is-advocating-for-us-pediatricians-to-perform-certain-types-of-female-genital-mutilation-fgm-92871624.html" title="American Academy of Pediatrics advising doctors">American Academy of Pediatrics advising doctors</a> to offer a “ritual nick” <i>in lieu of</i> the more serious forms of female circumcision that are often on offer in some other parts of the world.  The practice is something that is done in modern places that want to have a link to tradition without actually doing any real harm to little girls, from what I understand.  All they do is prick your genitals, or make a small cut that heals over, but nothing is removed.  You’re basically scratching the girl.  It’s not <i>awesome</i>---and from what I understand, in some places they just wave the razor over the girl’s genitals but don’t touch her at all---but comparing it to more severe forms of female circumcision troubles me.  </p> <p> People do this sort of thing all the time, and usually they get applauded for it.  They realize a religious or cultural tradition is backwards---silly at best, oppressive at worst---and they’re faced with a choice.  Do they abandon their heritage, or do they compromise?  Obviously, being a big time atheist, I wish people abandoned their traditions more, but as someone who still gets a kick out of Christmas, I understand the urge to hang on to some stuff.  Doctors offering a relatively harmless, ritualistic alternative to more severe cutting could go a long way towards encouraging the view of it as merely a ritual, and not something that has to produce long-term damage to count.  </p> <p> PZ titles his post “Whatever happened to ‘first, do no harm’?” This is where I’m forced to jump in and point out that pediatricians mutilate genitals in a far more severe way all the time, and no one bats an eyelash.  Obviously, I’m referring to the more common form of circumcision performed in the U.S., where the foreskin of baby boys is removed.  This is far more dangerous and disfiguring than the little nick I suspect the AAP is talking about, and since it’s done on babies (I’m guessing the little girls involved in the ritual nicking will be a little older, which is usually tradition), the chances of botching it are way higher, since we’re talking very tiny penises.  Babies have had the heads of their penises cut off, or have lost the organ altogether.  Granted, botching is rare, but even one botched circumcision is too high a price to pay for what is a useless practice done in the name of tradition.  </p> <p> And yet, I don’t blame pediatricians for offering it.  Why?  Because of the reasons the AAP suggested they should offer ritual nicking of girls---it builds trust through cultural sensitivity.  And it’s safer than letting people take the practice underground.  Maybe doctors could try to eradicate the practice through refusing to offer it, but I suspect more than a few Jewish Americans would feel like they’re facing prejudice due to their religious traditions.  </p> <p> The argument against the ritual nicking is that mothers who’ve been defending their daughters against fathers who demand circumcision will now be forced to give in.  But that cuts both ways (pardon the pun).  I suspect in as many or more situations where there’s a struggle, this compromise will allow both spouses to back down, with no real damage to the little girl.  Again, part of me wants a feminist riot of women around the world, wherein we stop dealing with men altogether until they start acting right, but the realist in me knows that’s simply not the way that change happens.  Turning an actual mutilation into a ritual hinting is a strong step in the right direction, though.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.harpyness.com/2010/05/07/15276/" title="This is in fact part of the reasoning:">This is in fact part of the reasoning:</a> </p> <blockquote><p>In some countries in which FGC is common, some progress toward eradication or amelioration has been made by substituting ritual “nicks” for more severe forms..... </p> <p> Most forms of FGC are decidedly harmful, and pediatricians should decline to perform them, even in the absence of any legal constraints. However, the ritual nick suggested by some pediatricians is not physically harmful and is much less extensive than routine newborn male genital cutting. There is reason to believe that offering such a compromise may build trust between hospitals and immigrant communities, <b>save some girls from undergoing disfiguring and life-threatening procedures in their native countries</b>, and play a role in the eventual eradication of FGC. It might be more effective if federal and state laws enabled pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick as a possible compromise to avoid greater harm.</p></blockquote> <p> Emphasis mine. </p> <p> And it’s not like Western culture is so free of blatantly misogynist traditions, either.  Part of me wishes that we had a two minute nicking at the doctor instead of the entire painfully misogynist wedding tradition that persists in the name of tradition.  Everything from white gowns to bouquet tosses to the father “giving” the bride away---all about reducing women to objects that exist strictly to fuck and marry men, if not suggesting that we’re male property.  But people hang onto it, because it’s tradition.  And we applaud every nudge in the right direction, from refusing to be given away to keeping your name, instead of suggesting that anything but a marriage boycott for all is inadequate.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 01:46 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/im_anti_tradition_but/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Thursday, April 22, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/anti_vaxxers_and_anti_choicers_a_match_made_in_heaven/">Anti-vaxxers and anti-choicers: a match made in heaven</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C32/">Reproductive Justice</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C38/">Science for Choads</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5jdOBCf29U9Z5WjjPx9CE5a2LNOGQ?size=l" width="300" align="right"/>It was really just a matter of time before the anti-choice movement embraced anti-vaccination nonsense.  Anti-vaxxers hit on all sorts of anti-choice buttons: the loathing of people who know more than them, the suspicion of science and modernity, contamination fears, the obsession with allowing unnecessary human suffering because it’s “natural”, and of course the bundle of anxieties about motherhood and reproduction.  And of course, the second a vaccine that prevents a common STD was invented, the melding was inevitable,<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/against-nature/" title=" because anti-choicers are big fans of cervical cancer"> because anti-choicers are big fans of cervical cancer</a> and its ability to kill the bad girls.  I realize that most anti-vaxxers really don’t want the alliance, because anti-choicers are objectively pro-disease, and anti-vaxxers maintain that they’re not, but alas, some marriages were meant to be.  </p> <p> And so it wasn’t exactly a surprise to hear <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.lifenews.com/nat6272.html" title="that anti-choicers are running with a bullshit story that vaccines are made with aborted fetuses, and that's what causes autism">that anti-choicers are running with a bullshit story that vaccines are made with aborted fetuses, and that’s what causes autism</a>.  This article and the one it banks off of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.opposingviews.com/i/vaccines-made-with-fetal-cells-causing-autism" title="from Jill Stanek">from Jill Stanek</a>, are both amazing examples of what can be produced when a person has no respect for their audience’s intelligence or the truth.  The “evidence” that vaccines are made from aborted fetuses comes <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.lifenews.com/nat5490.html" title="from a story ">from a story </a>about how vaccines are <b>not</b> made from aborted fetuses, from Life News’ own site, no less. Both the Stanek story and the Life News story imply that the EPA report asserts a) that vaccines are made from aborted fetuses and b) that vaccines cause autism.  Life News was smart enough not to link to the report itself, because that would prove that they’re lying fucktards, but Stanek trusts her audience is stupid enough to take these assertions on faith and not check for themselves.  So she did like the report.  </p> <p> Sadly, while her intended audience is no doubt a bunch of morons who don’t care that she lies through her teeth to them, I’m smart enough to actually read the report.  Needless to say, there is no assertion that vaccines cause autism.  The opposite, in fact. </p> <blockquote><p>Some research has examined possible contributing environmental factors, including measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine (31), thimerosal-containing vaccines (32), tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and trihalomethanes in drinking water (33), and certain metals (e.g., mercury, cadmium, nickel) and chemicals (trichloroethylene and vinyl chloride) in the ambient air around birth sites (34). Subsequent studies on MMR vaccine (16, 18, 35, 36) and thimerosal-containing vaccines (see review (37), 13, 18, 20, 38, 39) <b>did not </b>support a relationship with autism. In a 2004 report, the Immunization Safety Committee of the Institute of Medicine determined that the body of epidemiological evidence favors<b> rejection</b> of a causal relationship between either MMR or thimerosal- containing vaccines and autism (40). </p></blockquote> <p> Emphasis mine, not that it will matter to the assholes who believe the crap that Stanek dishes out.  </p> <p> The claim that vaccines are made from aborted fetuses is farcical on its face.  But it shouldn’t be surprising.  I think your rank and file anti-choicers probably believe that stem cells are cultivated from aborted fetuses (they’re actually take from embryos created for IVF that were going to be thrown away if not used in research), and that they’re already being used in standard medical care like vaccines (they’re not).  But I thought I’d go ahead and do what the anti-choice audiences will not, and read this EPA report to see if they do in fact assert what Life News and Stanek imply, which is that vaccines are made from aborted fetuses. </p> <p> I can safely report that no such assertion is made.  In case I missed something after reading the very short report, I did a search for the words “fetus” and “fetal”, and found that the word “fetus” does come up.....when addressing the issue of whether or not in utero environment could be a factor in the development of autism.  Right now the working assumption is that autism is genetic, but that its expression varies enough to suggest that environmental factors could be in play.  And that if exposure to certain chemicals can increase the autism rate, it’s likely happening during pregnancy and early infancy.  </p> <p> If I were to summarize the report, I’d say that it’s basically, “More research is needed.” Which isn’t shocking in the least.  But while it doesn’t say much other than that, what is firmly stated is that some potential causes have been ruled out, with vaccines being at the top of the “not this” list.  And of course, the aborted fetuses thing is just pure wishful thinking.  The assertion that vaccines are made from aborted fetuses is such a weird idea that I don’t imagine the EPA even examined that assertion in the first place.  They certainly don’t mention it, even to discount it.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:11 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/anti_vaxxers_and_anti_choicers_a_match_made_in_heaven/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Friday, April 16, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/goddamn_these_socialist_rough_riders/">Goddamn These Socialist Rough Riders</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C16/">LGBT</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://slicedbreadtwo.com/images/uploads/gaydoctor.jpg" style="border: 0;" alt="image" width="200" height="300" align="right">Yesterday, Barack Obama extended gay rights to gays for use in hospitals, both gay and straight.  This unprecedented expansion of homosexuality into the personal lives of homosexuals has our right-leaning friends in a tizzy - and rightfully so! </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://hotair.com/archives/2010/04/15/obama-orders-hospitals-to-allow-visitation-rights-to-gay-couples/">Hot Air says</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>I also don’t see why discrimination policy (or stem-cell policy, for that matter) should be set unilaterally by the president via funding protocols instead of by Congress, especially given The One’s increasing habit of bypassing the legislature to get things done. Granted, they can overrule him by passing a statute, but doing it this way protects Blue Dogs from a vote they may not want to take ahead of the midterms. To which I say: If you can’t handle the tough votes, don’t run.</p></blockquote> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/12405">Don Surber</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>I am curious, when did he become in charge of who may or may not visit you in the hospital? </p> <p> Is this unnecessary federalization of hospital visitor lists part of that trillion-dollar fiasco known as Obamacare? </p> <p> If not, shouldn’t Congress at least pass a bill approving this new-found power of the president? </p> <p> Technically, he’s using Medicare to cram this through. I don’t think so, Beanie. Insurers are not supposed to dictate who may or may not visit you in the hospital.</p></blockquote> <p> Brilliant points all, which can only be answered one of two ways.  The first is that Congress’ statutory authorization for Medicare and Medicaid already allows the executive branch significant leeway in setting funding conditions (see, for instance, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_v._Sullivan"><i>Rust v. Sullivan</i></a>, which determined that Title X funds could be used to fund anti-choice doctors).  President Obama and HHS are using the same policy-setting mechanisms that have been in effect since the advent of Medicare/aid to make the same kinds of changes that prior administrations have made, and the only role Congress has is in <i>taking away</i> this power, not in authorizing (if it cares about it at all). </p> <p> The other option is that President Obama just went super gay last night and decided to give all of the gays and lesbians in the country the right to go gay it up in Catholic hospitals because he hates Congress.  </p> <p> <i>Picture courtesy of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.flickr.com/photos/feastoffools/">Feast of Fun.com’s photostream on Flickr</a>.</i> </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/114/">Jesse Taylor</a> at 12:09 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/goddamn_these_socialist_rough_riders/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Friday, April 09, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/seamless_garment_wingnuttery/">Seamless garment wingnuttery</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/155983/thumbs/s-BART-STUPAK-RETIRES-large.jpg" align="right"/>Even though <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/09/bart-stupak-retiring-tea-_n_531460.html" title="Bart Stupak claims that the tea baggers dogging him">Bart Stupak claims that the tea baggers dogging him</a> had no influence on his decision to retire, it still matters that the tea baggers were dogging him.  Why?  Because Stupak is probably full of shit, as is his habit?  In part, sure.  It’s always fun to make fun of Stupak for being dumb as a brick.  It’s become increasingly obvious that Stupak is belligerently ignorant, and that made it easier for his Republican buddies to manipulate him.  </p> <p> But that’s not the real reason.  The real reason this is a noteworthy event is that it lays waste to the ridiculous media narrative that the teabaggers are some brand new movement, and not the same old right wing demagogues with a long list of people they hate, and that list includes women that try to exert some control over their lives and especially their fertility.  Stupak may have been dumb enough to think that taking a stand on abortion was some grave moral issue, but the teabaggers were well aware that the abortion strategy was about exploiting misogyny in order to stop health care reform.  And that he apparently doesn’t get that makes them hate him.  Hey, it’s hard not to understand why!  I found it implausible that he could be as stupid a tool as he turned out to be myself.  </p> <p> But it’s more than that.  I think they really did think ol’ Stupak was one of theirs.  Teabaggers are, and I wish the fucking media would see this, seamless garment assholes.  You do have to admire the consistency of their worldview, one where they deserve everything and everyone else can go suck a turd.  They saw that Stupak agree with them that sexually active young women who find themselves pregnant against their will don’t deserve a break, and figured that he must therefore agree with the full slate of people they think just just fucking die for all they care: people with pre-existing conditions, the unemployed, part time workers, anyone on the list of people who have problems getting and keeping and affording health insurance.  But Stupak broke with them, and basically said that only sexually active women who find themselves accidentally pregnant deserve to be shoved out in the snow, and everyone else was okay with him.  And they’re saying that’s not good enough. </p> <p> The point should be clear---you can’t separate the “economic” conservatism of the tea baggers from their overall investment in hierarchy, social control, and punishing people that break the arbitrary rules that they claim the right to write.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 04:41 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/seamless_garment_wingnuttery/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Monday, April 05, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/code_red_on_feminist_woo/">Code red on feminist woo</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C38/">Science for Choads</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017im_/http://www.ivgstores.com/prodimages-cdls/CRE/cre-30116-4-L.jpg" width="300" align="left"/>I don’t mean to keep hammering at Bitch Blogs for this, but it’s just irresponsible at this point.  Earlier today, I criticized an interview with anti-pill activist Laura Eldrige for engaging in unscientific fear-mongering.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://bitchmagazine.org/post/reproductive-writes-keep-talking-part-2-an-interview-with-laura-eldridge" title="Well, there's a part two up">Well, there’s a part two up</a>.  In the first part, there was the pretense that this is about “asking questions” and “broadening the discussion”, a cover story that skeptics like to call ”<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/JAQing_off" title="JAQing off">JAQing off</a>”.  </p> <blockquote><p>JAQing off is the act of spouting accusations while cowardly hiding behind the claim of “Just Asking Questions”.  The strategy is to keep asking leading questions in an attempt to influence listeners’ views; the term is derived from the frequent claim by the denialist that they are “just asking questions”, albeit in a manner much the same as political push polls. It is often associated with denialism in general.</p></blockquote> <p> In my experience, JAQers usually drop the pretense fairly quickly, and that’s exactly what happens in part two of this interview.  The pretense that this is about demanding more options and greater variety is dropped, and it’s full-blown demonizing of the birth control pill, complete with characterizing women on it as hapless victims who don’t have control over their lives.  If you think I’m overstating it, let me say this---Eldridge basically says that being on the pill makes you a junkie. </p> <blockquote><p>I went to a conference with Barbara in 2007 and a doctor was talking about HRT (which by the way, is made of the same chemicals that are in the Pill but at lower doses) - and I asked her about women coming off of hormone treatments and how they could get, perhaps, addicted to them and she was very adamant that women do not get addicted to these drugs. I couldn’t believe her contention. These are powerful chemicals, and people have the potential to get addicted to powerful chemicals. Many women describe experiences coming off the Pill that sound like addiction. That said, not all women find coming of the Pill or HRT tough – I didn’t have a problem with it.</p></blockquote> <p> Oh, good to know she doesn’t think we’re all junkies! </p> <p> The slim excuse for this hyperbolic language is that she’s talking about physical dependency, but let’s face it.  Calling the pill “addictive” is about aligning it with recreational drugs, which is something that I expect from sex-phobic anti-choicers who think we all have abortion parties, but not from a feminist.  Using that frame is sex-negative, whether Eldridge intends it to be or not.  </p> <p> That’s the weirdest part of the interview, but it’s far from the only weird part of it.  Eldridge mentioned a whole bunch of contraception alternatives in the last post, but in this one, she talks about how she settled on using a diaphragm.  Yes, the much-reviled method that was so popular in the anti-feminist 1950s!  The one that has fallen out of fashion because it has all the negatives of condoms without any of the positives (STD protection, getting men involved).  And as if daring me to call her a crank, Eldridge practically delights in the fact that the doctor thought she was loony for wanting a diaphragm.  </p> <p> In all seriousness, I’m sure the diaphragm is fine.  Like Eldridge says, it worked fine for a lot of women in its heyday.  According to Planned Parenthood, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/diaphragm-4244.htm" title="it has a 6% failure rate if used correctly">it has a 6% failure rate if used correctly</a>.  Not as good as the pill, but not so horrible, either.  And since I’m into vinyl collecting and vintage dresses, I can’t pick on someone who enjoys a little of that retro flair, though I can’t say that it seems very satisfying to have it hugging your cervix.  But it’s funny to me that someone who, in her JAQing off phase, bemoaned the lack of innovation in contraception is now applauding a method that hasn’t changed much, if at all, in the past 60 years.  And while she says it’s easy to use now, the fact that it took her three weeks to figure out how to use it properly doesn’t do much to dissuade me from feeling that Eldridge is working from the premise that sex should be a hassle. </p> <p> And then there’s the conflation of science and superstition. </p> <blockquote><p>There’s a certain amount of superstition that comes in to trying to avoid getting pregnant. You put your faith in one method or another. Being more in control of the process and taking responsibility for what happens can be scary. It’s amazing that we have this one size fits all Pill where someone who is 4’10’’ and 95 pounds takes the same one as someone who is 6’2’’ – that doesn’t seem right. </p></blockquote> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/code_red_on_feminist_woo/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 02:38 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/code_red_on_feminist_woo/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="paginate"> <span class="pagecount">Page 1 of 13 pages</span>  <b>1</b> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C37/P15/">2</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C37/P30/">3</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C37/P15/">></a>  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C37/P180/">Last »</a> </div> </div> <br class="spacer"/> </div> </div> <br class="spacer"/> </div> <script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217205017js_/http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-4601490-1"; urchinTracker(); </script> </body> </html>