GM's message to Tim Blair

Tim Blair has been diagnosed with cancer and has a difficult battle ahead of him.

GM Roper urges him to fight on,

This coming February 6th will be the 2nd anniversary of my surgery and I count myself two years in full remission as the CT scan and P.E.T. scan following surgery were both clean. But I didn't do it by myself. I had God in my corner, my family, my friends, my readers and my medical staff. They all pulled me through and what ever comes for you (or for me for that matter) we can never overlook their kindnesses and generosity expressed through their love, their skill, their knowledge and their caring for another human being.

Hang in there, a good attitude and a determination to "Fight On" is more critical than you can ever imagine. We are all pulling for you and don't ever forget that.

You must go read the rest of GM's post.

GM Roper was my podcast guest last September. You can listen to the podcast here



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Female Genital Mutilation destroys lives in Britain

Warning: Post may not be suitable for workdue to graphic descriptions of FGM procedures

Let me make myself clear on this:

I do not care whether this is a tribal, religious, and/or cultural tradition at all, the practice of female genital mutilation is a barbaric custom that must be stopped.Again, I don't want the issue clouded by any kind of ethnic/religious bias. THE PRACTICE ITSELF must be condemned.

Additionally, I must stress again that FGM is a social custom, not a religious practice, which has been reiterated in this MEMRI video.

The UK's Daily Mail has a well-researched article on FGM that you should read,
The unspeakable practice of female circumcision that's destroying young women's lives in Britain

Most people will be unfamiliar with this practice, which involves removing part or all of the clitoris, the surrounding labia (the outer part of the vagina) and sometimes the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual blood.

It is carried out for a variety of cultural reasons. Such is the secrecy that surrounds the practice that even those aware that it occurs in large swathes of Africa and Asia will be shocked to learn that it is prevalent in Britain.

During a highly disturbing, four-month investigation, however, we uncovered evidence that thousands of British-African girls, in towns and cities throughout the country, have been forcibly "cut".

By conservative estimates, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. This figure, accepted by the Metropolitan Police, came in a report by a volunteer organisation funded by the Department of Health and carried out with academics from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and the City University.

The article states that political correctness rears its cowardly head, again:

The Met team also educates regional police forces about FGM, and speaks to mosques, community groups and local authorities.

Usually their visits are well-received, but we found that at least one London council declined to publish material highlighting the suffering and danger the practice causes - for fear of offending ethnic African residents.

This kind of attitude incenses Detective Inspector Hamilton. "We are all becoming very culturally sensitive," she says. "People are a bit frightened of saying 'You can't do this here' because people shoot back with 'But it's our culture'.

Among them,

Several leadings Imams have openly condemned the practice. This, though, does not deter its proponents, who maintain that it is their inalienable right to live according to their traditional beliefs and customs, rather than conform to British values. Indeed, some argue that the freedom to carry out FGM is a fundamental principle of our multi-cultural society.

Let's look at the dictionary definition of inalienable:

not alienable; not transferable to another or capable of being repudiated

FGM is worthy of repudiation, and as civilized people we must repudiate it. The "freedom" to carry out FGM is the "freedom" to carry out (and without the benefit of anesthesia) the following,

• Remove the clitoral hood with or without removal of part or all of the clitoris.


• Remove the clitoris together with part or all of the labia minora.


• Remove part or all of the external genitalia (clitoris, labia minora, and labia majora) and stitching and/or narrowing of the vaginal opening leaving a small hole for urine and menstrual flow


• Or,
  Pricking, piercing, stretching, or incision of the clitoris and/or labia;
  Cauterization by burning the clitoris and surrounding tissues;
  Incisions to the vaginal wall;
  Scraping (angurya cuts) or cutting (gishiri cuts) of the vagina and surrounding tissues; and
  Introduction of corrosive substances or herbs into the vagina to cause bleeding or for the purpose of tightening or narrowing it.

Now, read that again carefully.

The physical health consequences of FGM are horrendous. The psychosexual and psychological health are equally severe.

Ponder each one of those items and tell me WHO in their right minds would defend the inalienable right to perform any of these barbaric butcherings.

The FGM Education and Networking Project is making great strides in ending this barbaric practice.

UPDATE
Via SC&A, three links to those defending FGM:
Besotted multiculturalist anthropologists defend female genital mutilation
Cultural rights or human rights: the case of female genital mutilation
Healing the wound

Update 2
Genital Mutilation Practice Growing In Britain

(ht/ Pamela)
Previous posts on FGM and female genital mutilation.



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Today's bunch of hooey

Medieval diets 'far more healthy'

If they managed to survive plague and pestilence, medieval humans may have enjoyed healthier lifestyles than their descendants today, it has been claimed.

Survive the plague? Hardly. the plague was a death sentence - over 99% of people infected died from it. You didn't catch the plague and lived through it.

Their low-fat, vegetable-rich diet - washed down by weak ale - was far better for the heart than today's starchy, processed foods, one GP says.

And while they consumed more they burnt off calories in a workout of 12 hours' labour, Dr Roger Henderson concludes.

But the Shropshire GP accepts that life for even prosperous peasants was tough.

Tough?

Here's life in the anarco-syndicalist commune:


How tough was it?

"If you got to 30 in those days you were doing well, past 40 and you were distinctly long in the tooth," he concedes.

Maybe that would explain the low rates of heart disease, perhaps?


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Seymour

The Anchoress passed a kidney stone so large she named it Seymour. And then the trouble started: she had complication and ended up in the emergency room. We all prayed for her.

I've never had a kidney stone, and I'm glad I haven't. Yes, that is a selfish thought. Kidney stones scare the p*ss out of me.

In the mid-80s The Husband and I lived near where he worked, and since I used to commute to New York, I was out of the house well before it was time for him to get up to go to work. Imagine my alarm when one Spring morning I wake up really early because I was hearing groaning coming from the guest room, and when I called The Husband's name he didn't answer.

Now, I'm not the bravest blogger around (or should I say, pre-blogger since the web wasn't yet), but I jumped out of bed, put on a robe over my pajama as I gathered my courage, and rushed into the guest room. The Husband was grey-pale, bending over in agony over the twin-size bed, unable to speak.

I had never, ever seen him in such a horrible state. That's the only time when I've seen him in such pain. It was awful to see.

I immediately said I'd call an ambulance, but he Did.Not.Want.An.Ambulance. I said nothing, got dressed and told him I was taking him to the hospital. At this point he was so nauseous he was holding a small garbage can on his hands since he knew he wouldn't make it to the bathroom, so he couldn't argue.

While I got the car out of the garage and next to the nearest door, he managed to put on a pair of slacks over his pajama and a brand-new very nice pair of shoes. Big mistake, those shoes.

We get to the emergency room which was only 10 minutes away from our house, I stop the car exactly by the entrance, help him get out (while he put down the little garbage can) and walk with him leaning on my shoulder to the nurses' station. "Kidney stone", says the nurse just from looking at him.

I went and parked the car. After I found a parking spot and walked back to the building The Husband was lying on a stretcher in full view of anyone coming into the Emergency Room, wearing only an IV on his arm, a plastic ID bracelet, and one of those little hospital nightgowns with 2 strings that tie on your back. If it weren't for the sheet they (mercifully) draped over his naughty bits, it would have been a full-nudity situation. The Husband's 6'4" and on the hefty side, and those little nightgowns leave nothing to the imagination. I completed the hospital paperwork, and he looked glad to see me as they carted him away for lab tests. I told him I had to go home to call our respective employers so they knew we would be absent, and our parents. Back then in pre-cell phone days I had to go home and call.

When I got back to the Emergency Room I had some trouble finding The Husband, but sure enough, he was still there, heavily medicated. He was still grey but wasn't groaning. The doctor came over and told me that it was one small kidney stone, said we could go home, gave me a small sieve for when the stone passed, a list of instructions, and told me to call him back when The Husband passed the stone.

But where were his clothes, I asked? The doctor said, "They're in a bag right next to the bed." After a pause, he muttered, "There's no bag," and disappeared.

I would have left without the clothes - had the hospital been amenable to lending us a sheet for modesty - since the particular trousers were old. But the shoes were new, and The Husband hates shopping for shoes because he wears a size 13 wide and those aren't easy to find.

It took me over an hour and I canvassed every person - patients included - in the emergency room but found the shoes, along with the clothes.

On the way home, The Husband remembered that we were scheduled to travel to England with his mom and his sister the upcoming Saturday (it was Tuesday), and asked me to leave him home and go on the trip without him. "Out of the question!" I said, before he even finished his sentence.

He passed the kidney stone two days later, recovered immediately and hasn't had any other occurrences. The trip to the UK was a success and we had a great time.

I'm praying that The Anchoress has as great an outcome.
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Dr. Sanity has the Carnival.




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Death on the sands! Call the nanny state!

Via Huber,
Reason on Line uncovers the scandal: Castles Made of Sand IV: The Revenge -- This Time It's Personal

Is this from The Onion?

Noooo....

The article's in the New England Journal of Medicine: Sudden Death from Collapsing Sand Holes. Where the NJEM goes, can CNN be far behind?

Or, as a commenter in the Reason post says,

Good thing the New England Journal of Medicine is covering this issue...nothing screams Medicine like people falling into holes...

Here, I've invented a cure: WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING
You can thank me later. Nominations to the Nobel Prize for Medicine are deeply appreciated.

(Later today I'll go to the beach and photograph one of these lurking dangers as a public service to my readers.)

Update, Saturday June 30:
I did go to the beach that day and photographed, but wasn't able to post the photos because I was too lazy until today. So here you have them:

Holes to China, or craters of death?

This one has a lethal weapon ready to chew your toes:


I post, you decide.

Welcome to the Garden Salad State

As if NJ didn't have enough bureaucrats:
Welcome to the Office of Nutrition and Fitness:

The new office will coordinate the department's existing obesity prevention programs. There are programs to promote breastfeeding, promote sports and physical activity at all ages, encourage fruit and vegetable consumption, and provide fresh fruits and vegetables to eligible women, children and seniors. The new Office of Nutrition and Fitness is expected to open this summer.

Of course the state's spending your money faster than you can burn calories:

The $15 million Safe Routes to School program helps communities create safer walkways, bikeways and street crossings near schools. It is part of Governor Jon Corzine’s $74 million initiative to improve pedestrian safety statewide.

but there's still plenty of opportunity to make a buck or two:

The Academy encourages healthy changes at the community level by training participants and offering mini-grants of up to $10,000 that can be used for such projects as starting walking clubs, creating walking maps, offering swimming lessons or water aerobics, or even starting a community or school garden, for example. So far, 20 communities have received mini-grants.

Garden (Salad) State Launches $2 Million Futile Fat Fight. That's $2 million just on the ads. Then there's the bureaucracy. And yes, it'll cost plenty.

But back to those mini-grants. I'm willing to apply for one and start The Principality Blogger's Walking, Mapping, Swimming and Gardening Club. I'll contact the other blogger in the township and see if he's willing to do the paperwork.

After all, all that walking, mapping, swimming and gardening will be taking up all my time.

Update: NJ resident and dear friend Maria sent me this, asking, "The fittest senior citizens of the world?"

Let's hope the Office of Nutrition and Fitness doesn't get any ideas and start promoting ice skaing.


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If you know anyone undergoing chemotherapy...

please insist that they read this article, Chemotherapy Fog Is No Longer Ignored as Illusion

Once, women complaining of a constellation of symptoms after undergoing chemotherapy - including short-term memory loss, an inability to concentrate, difficulty retrieving words, trouble with multitasking and an overarching sense that they had lost their mental edge - were often sent home with a patronizing "There, there."

But attitudes are changing as a result of a flurry of research and new attention to the after-effects of life-saving treatment. There is now widespread acknowledgment that patients with cognitive symptoms are not imagining things, and a growing number of oncologists are rushing to offer remedies, including stimulants commonly used for attention-deficit disorder and acupuncture.

"Until recently, oncologists would discount it, trivialize it, make patients feel it was all in their heads," said Dr. Daniel Silverman, a cancer researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies the cognitive side effects of chemotherapy. "Now there's enough literature, even if it's controversial, that not mentioning it as a possibility is either ignorant or an evasion of professional duty."

Read the rest.

And now for more propaganda from AP

Associated Press is back to shilling for the charismatic-leader-helping-the-poor-offering-free-health-care-education-adult-literacy-and-job-training-initiatives-that-help-millions-of-Cubans^tm through a lie, not that they ever stopped:

Castro, 80, is a leading example of Cuba's healthy life expectancy

Fidel Castro may be ailing, but he's a living example of something Cubans take pride in — an average life expectancy roughly similar to that of the United States.

Living?

Depends how badly:

Homes that were luxurious before Castro's 1959 revolution are now falling apart and many cramped apartments contain three generations of family members. Food, water and medicine shortages are chronic.

But most prescription drugs and visits to the doctor are free and physicians encourage preventive care.

Oh, yeah, I've heard of that. I also know that people who travel to Cuba to see their relatives (who are not allowed to leave Cuba) have to get them the most basic supplies, such as sanitary napkins, aspirin, Tylenol, band-aids, and first-aid ointments like Betadine and iodine. Ask my sister's next-door neighbor, who works at a pharmacy that provides ready-made "care packages" of first-aid items to take to Cuba.

Of course Will Weisert, the AP reporter, hasn't been told that Cubans treated in Cuban hospitals have to bring their own bed linens because the hospitals don't have any. The linens are available in Cuban hospitals only to foreigners paying in dollars.

The article continues,

Cuba's average life expectancy is 77.08 years — second in Latin America after Puerto Rico and more than 11 years above the world average, according to the 2007 CIA World Fact Book.

It says Cuban life expectancy averages 74.85 years for men and 79.43 years for women, compared with 75.15 and 80.97 respectively for Americans.

Here's the CIA Factbook info on Cuban life expectancy:

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.08 years
male: 74.85 years
female: 79.43 years (2007 est.)

For Puerto Rico

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78.54 years
male: 74.6 years
female: 82.67 years (2007 est.)

And the USA (by which they mean the 50 states, since Puerto Ricans are Americans from birth)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78 years
male: 75.15 years
female: 80.97 years (2007 est.)

But back to the AP article,

A relaxed lifestyle, which prizes time spent with family over careers, helps keep Cubans healthy, Tache said.

Just ask these Ladies about their relaxed lifestyle:


Just another day of Associated Press Deficit Disorder (APDD)

Update Via Irwin, The Big White Lie
Don't Worry, Be A Commie
Update 2: A Shredding, at Opinion Journal

If an old American lady told a reporter, "Sometimes you have all you want to eat and sometimes you don't," is there any doubt he would write a story bewailing our country's shocking neglect of the elderly, poor and hungry? Why are American journalists more favorably disposed toward an America-hating communist personality cult than their own country?

The dead cricket coach, and today's other stories

I don't really understand how cricket is played, but I loved watching part of a game at an English village green while enjoying some Faust lager years ago. The guys looked great, the weather was wonderful, and the beer was good. Now here's a cricket mystery: Bob Woolmer - foul play suspected by more people than Sarfraz Nawaz. My neighbor TigerHawk was wondering about this, too.
PS, Yoddha plays cricket at Princeton.
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Imagine if a Republican made a Democrat congress wait for half an hour, didn't bring his material for them to review until (literally) the last minute, and then showed up preaching about moral crusades.

Well, Algore did all that, and then compared himself to the 300. No Al, your weight may be approaching 300, but that's in pounds, not Spartans. You wouldn't know a Spartan if one fell on you and broke your nose.

And there's no such thing as "carbon neutral", and you can not do "an immediate freeze on CO2 emissions," either. But, as Jules said, Planet-saving low energy crap is for peasants like you and I, but not for Al. (h/t Larwyn).

Update That's the problem with moralistic, messianic crusading -- people expect you to live up to it. (click on the link - Glenn needs the traffic!)

Wretchard asks, Which is Greener: the Prius or the Hummer? but everyone knows the Hummer will keep you safer on the NJ Turnpike.

Maria sent this, Czech President Vaclav Klaus sent this letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee prior to former Vice President Al Gore's appearance before the panel today. From the letter:

The moral obligation of developed countries to the developing countries is to create such an environment which guarantees free exchange of goods, services, and capital flows, enables utilization of comparative advantages of individual countries and thus stimulates economic development of the less developed countries. Artificial administrative barriers, limits and regulations imposed by developed countries discriminate the developing world, affect its economic growth, and prolong poverty and underdevelopment. The environmentalist proposals are an exact example of such illiberal policies that are so harmful for the developing countries. They will not be able to cope with the limits and standards imposed on the world by irrational environmental policies, they will not be able to absorb new technological standards required by the anti-greenhouse religion, their products will have difficult access to the developed markets, and as a result the gap between them and the developed world will widen.

Don Surber has more on Vaclav. (h/t Larwyn)

Listen to Vaclav, guys.
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Amanda Carpenter and Francis Porretto liked the 300. I guess I'll have to see it.
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Gustavo Coronel reports on Pres. Bush's trip to Latin America, and raises the issue of the value of good citizenry:

Listening to Tom Shannon I could not help thinking that there could exist a golden opportunity for the U.S. to take an initiative that, unless I am totally mistaken, would find enthusiastic reception in Latin America and more important, make a significant impact on our societies while generating much good will for the U.S. This initiative would be based on the close correlation that exists between good quality democracy and good quality of citizenship. A country without a critical mass of citizens cannot have a true democracy. Good citizenship is, therefore, the essential condition for democracy to take roots. Furthermore, good citizenship is a key ingredient of a progressive society. Absence of good citizenship has condemned Latin American societies to poverty, undue dependence on the State, ignorance and under-development. It is largely useless for more advanced countries to inject billions of dollars into societies that have no citizens able to put the money to good use. It would be like trying to build castles in the sand. Therefore, a long-term, systematic, perseverant program designed to form citizens would be a most valuable contribution to true Latin American development. This is a program for which both strategy and content can be easily defined and for which there is no need to "rediscover the wheel."

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Maria sent this article about Chemo alternatives for lymphoma -----------------------------------------------
I'll post more later. Right now I'm heading to the gym for an exercise class since Janet-my-personal-trainer's sick with a cold and my dentate gyrus needs a workout. I assure you it's not going to be aerobic yoga.

Yesterday afternoon at the gym they were giving back rubs, so I had one. I wonder if those guys/ladies are still around today...
Later
I'm back, no massage, just Pilates.
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Children of Men in out on video

I found it baffling and midlly exhausting, but others liked it.

Dentate gyrus yoga

Study shows why exercise boosts brainpower, so if that's true, Tom McGuire and I will be brainier than ever:

Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans.

Our dentate gyri must be gyrating.

Yesterday I went to the 9:30 AM yoga class. I hadn't been to a yoga class in nearly ten years, since the time a nice Indian lady nearly killed me while trying to make me stand on my head.

I went because Janet-my-personal-trainer and a few other people had said that the instructor was great. What they didn't tell me was that he does a great class of aerobic yoga. After a full hour of vigorous yet-not-quite-enjoyable contorting into a pulse-racing state, my sweat and I were lying on the mat (thank G-d I used a regular padded mat instead of a thin yoga mat or I'd be bruised, too) "relaxing" in the dark. The instructor tells us to "empty all thoughts from your mind" but the only thought in my mind was, "My *ss is grass".

However, about an hour after the class was done, I felt Well. I mean Well in the Gagdad Bob-kind of Well.

So the question is, Is it worth having to take 2 4 Tylenol today, or should I just stick to regular gym stuff and Pilates? (I do like Pilates a lot)

I'll ponder this and other cosmic questions while I research a post on an article Feisty sent yesterday.

Hard-selling Merc's HPV vaccine

Michael Fumento emails,

To hear the politicians say it, Merck's new HPV vaccine is the greatest health advance since penicillin. Hence, like Polio shots, it should be mandatory for all 11 to 12-year-old girls. Only those "nut cases" on the religious right could oppose a miracle like this, right? Wrong. Indeed, as I
write in The Weekly Standard some of those politicians and allegedly neutral groups lobbying them
are being paid off by Merck. The reality is that this vaccine provides protection 70% of the time against the HPV strains that causes about 1 in 75 U.S. female cancer deaths a year. Moreover the incidence and death rate of that cancer, that of the cervix, has been steadily dropping for decades. It also takes about 30 years on average for those few HPV infections that do cause cancer to reach the point where they are life-threatening, during which time all of those women should be receiving regular Pap smears that would catch the cancer from HPV - or other causes - in its tracks. Yet for this we're going to mandate a series of three injections costing $360 total? And we're in such a hurry to do it that we can't wait for the almost
inevitable approval of a competitor vaccine later this year? Hey, you can't
blame Merck for trying - but you can blame our elected officials.

In the article, Michael states,

a study just released by the CDC says about 27 percent of U.S. females aged 14 to 59 years have it. Importantly, only 2.2 percent of those women are carrying one of the two virus strains most likely to lead to cervical cancer

That means that fewer than six out of a thousand women aged 14-59 carries one of those two virus strains.

This article is a must-read, particularly if you have daughters.