What's for lunch?

Our semi-homemade dinner, Saturday, April 26: Chicken alfredo (chicken was rotisserie from Kroger's and sauce was Ragu and the pasta was made by Barilla; fresh green beans, baked butternut squash; Romaine lettuce salad with sliced tomatoes, peas, olives, cukes, Betty's dressing; fresh pineapple with white grapes. So far so good. Cheryl's cookies, yummy; buttercream-frosted cutout cookie, wow, you should read the label on those! Red 3, Yellow 5, Yellow 5 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, blue 1, blue 1 Lake, blue 2, blue 2 Lake, Red 40, Red 40 Lake.

 
FYI: "Dyes are water-soluble colorants, whereas lakes are formed from the combination of water-soluble dyes and insoluble materials. While both are used for coloring food, dyes are more suitable for products with high water content, while lakes are more suitable for products with fat or oil."
Finding out what "Lake" is and what is the insoluble material is difficult. It's not a dye. Lakes are produced by coloring an aluminum salt (this is not elemental aluminum) substrate using FD&C dyes. They are oil-dispersible and can be mixed with oils and fats. Maybe you know what that means, but I don't. Must be a super duper secret recipe.

The FD&C Act has a provision for some substances within the definition of a food additive if they are GRAS for their intended uses. Such a provision does not apply to color additives. . . During fiscal year 2022, FDA certified batches representing a total of 28.1 million pounds of color additives, much of it for food uses.

What's on your plate?

What's the future for Trump supporters now?

We attended a small gathering of shell shocked but jubilant voters last evening--pizza, wine, spice cake, and a lot of discussion about the future. I heard many fantastical but hopeful ideas--woke is dead, education department will disappear, border will be safe, the wars will wind down, Musk will be amazing, etc. etc. I'm happy Trump won, but he's just a man full of common sense and old fashioned American idealism. (This was called fascism by his opponents and set him up for assassination attempts.) He's not the return of Jesus.

And for all of us who were ridiculed or cancelled (in job, in family, in friendships or in church) for speaking the truth about the 2020 election, the vaccine or George Floyd, let's hope there can be the purifying effect of sunlight on those issues too. Have you seen the graph of the 20,000,000 Democrats who were in the 2020 data, but not in the 2016 or 2024? Did Biden really get more votes than Obama? When and if Trump gets some of the "cancelled" science professors--biology, medicine, virology, etc.--back on the job and in the CDC and FDA, let's hope we never again let "public health departments and politicians" take away our freedom of religion and right to speak or have opinions.

The new meme that even Don Jr. is espousing is that losing in 2020 was a good thing because he would have been continually harassed and blocked, and now he will have a much stronger team, more knowledge about who he can trust, the backing of his party (which has also been changed) and the Senate (and we hope the House) to get his appointments through to make substantive changes. Of course, he'll never have the media, academe or Hollywood, but that's not a bad thing as the new media is drawing millions away to new sources.

We'll see. Most of us won't be here for the next one, or will be too befuddled to care.

And I'm still a one-issue voter--still voting for the babies. Join me!

No wonder they didn't work--Covid boosters

Judicial Watch through a FOIA request learned that only 23 people were used in the 2021 vaccine booster study by Pfizer before asking FDA to approve it. Three weeks after its approval, 8.9 million boosters were administered.

 
Pet food gets closer scrutiny than that.

From Verdict, vol 29, iss. 11, November 2023 p. 1, 6-7 Judicial Watch: Pfizer Records Reveal 23-Person Study of COVID Vaccine Booster Safety and Effectiveness before Approval | Judicial Watch

Pro-life pediatricians attacked

Although I don't like politics and social issues preached from the pulpit, I do believe churches need to support inquiries into movements and political agendas that go against the teachings of Christ and Christians trying to follow his justice, truth and mercy. Churches preach about friendship, brotherhood and family yet ignore the divisions in their own congregations on life issues, whether that is abortion, euthanasia, trans abuse of children, war or the growing racial divides encouraged by the Marxists among us.

"Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, pro-life institutions and individuals have faced sustained attacks. The militant group Jane’s Revenge vandalized pregnancy resource centers, the FBI arrested pro-life father Mark Houck in Pennsylvania, and a deranged pro-abortion man plotted an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh. These unrelenting attacks show no sign of abating. Look no further than the latest assault on the American College of Pediatricians, also known as ACPeds."
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/05/05/hackers-target-pro-life-pediatricians-in-unrelenting-cyberattack/

Dr. Robert Califf, FDA and misinformation

"I strongly believe that misinformation is a leading cause of preventable death in America now." Robert Califf, FDA

I believe that too, but I believe it is the result of government misinformation and not the victims' fault.

I strongly believe that misinformation, fear, and confusing messaging begins and ends with the government. Masks don't help; masks do help; masks are mandatory; or maybe not, just kidding. Not enough ventilators; President Trump's fault; ventilators found; ventilators turned out by millions; not enough people need ventilators; President Trump's fault. The virus can live 3 days on surface; wrong, lives 15 days; wrong again, I'll get back to you on that. Pets can't get covid 19; pets can get covid 19. We need temporary hospitals and hospital ships; tent hospitals standing empty; President Trump's fault--he should have known better. Remember Biden and Harris told Americans in 2020 not to trust the vaccine because Trump had advocated for it and it was his "win". 

The lockdown of people who weren't in danger (power hungry bureaucrats at the local level), and totalitarian ideology are the primary reason for the deaths; and the vaccination itself has caused great harm to younger people. Airline pilots have been fired, athletes are refusing it, doctors aren't allowed to prescribe safe and trusted medications, and just about everyone I know who's had Covid has also had the shot and boosters. Remember what we were told in Jan-Feb 2021? Protection and efficacy--off the charts! Then we discovered protection dissipated after a few months, but even that truth was squelched and ridiculed as a conspiracy theory, then later revised to "it will be less severe but can't protect us from infection.

I said in summer 2020 (see links below) there was no peer reviewed literature on masks offering either protection for the user or the exposed, and I kept checking for months. Zip, nada, zero. Yet children have probably lost 2 years of education, especially low income who didn't have parents to fill in the gaps. Churches were closed as being "non-essential." Now Cochrane Reviews has just come out with the same information as a retired medical librarian found 2.5 years ago. No evidence that masks or distancing stopped the spread. Handwashing possibly, but even that's inconclusive.

CDC, FDA and especially Fauci became the new Lysenkoism (caused millions of deaths in the USSR in early 20th century), where only they knew the science and not the many researchers/scientists who disagreed. One had to believe the science of the day, and if not obeyed tenured, published professors were under threat of having their careers destroyed by Big Tech fact-checkers.

By far the majority of deaths from Covid were the elderly, pre-existing conditions and obesity, yet I never saw jazzy ads about weight loss from athletes and movie stars, only the necessity of getting the shot. Instead, sick people (non-covid) couldn't get in to see their doctors. I don't know Califf or his record for research or teaching, but I do know of the work and talent of many of those he's calling snake oil salesmen. Like Bret Weinstein, certainly no Trump supporter and not a Republican or Conservative by any stretch, yet the leftist media refer to him as "right wing." This is government CYA as the non-Covid deaths continue to increase. It makes no difference if one is a tenured faculty in biology, a billionaire who was on board at the beginning, or a researcher who helped develop the mRNA technology, they will be silenced by smears, threats to their income and reputation, or firing.

The strategy that the government is using is to fund their own "misinformation" campaigns with our tax dollars to silence any news agency, blog, website or platform that disagrees with the party line, and that is not only Covid, but the GreenNew Deal, CRT, the border, or billions for Ukraine. If they are successful in silencing all who disagree with them on Covid, they will silence/censor on everything else, too.
1) Hamilton 68 Saga Illustrates Scope Of America’s Institutional Rot (thefederalist.com)

2) State Department Funded Foreign Think Tank Working To Censor Americans | The Daily Caller

3) Disinformation Inc: Meet the groups hauling in cash to secretly blacklist conservative news (washingtonexaminer.com)

4) Matt Taibbi: "Twitter Files" Reveal The Structure Of The Relationship Between Social Media Companies And FBI Requests For Censorship | Video | RealClearPolitics


Collecting My Thoughts: Finding research on medical masks for the public

Collecting My Thoughts: To mask or not to mask

Collecting My Thoughts: The battle of the masks.

Collecting My Thoughts: Evidence for cloth masks? Not much

Collecting My Thoughts: No published trial on the effects of masks in Covid-19 transmission

News about the new booster from OSU

I have received an Ohio State News Alert:

"Individuals can receive the new COVID-19 booster two months after completing any primary series or any previous COVID-19 booster dose. The Pfizer bivalent booster is APPROVED for people who are 12 or older."

Approved? So I looked that up. It hasn't been approved by any agency that I can find in the Pfizer notice. It clearly says it's a permit for an unapproved product. And it also says this product is to prevent Covid-19, which the previous 4 shots haven't done, nor does the CDC say it prevents Covid.

Is this misinformation or mixed messaging or carefully worded warning not to sue?

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to permit the emergency use of the UNAPPROVED PRODUCT, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5) for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 12 years of age and older."

So I continued browsing and on p. 19 (about which OSU doesn't warn it's 50,000 students and probably that many staff and faculty)

"Postmarketing data with authorized or approved monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines demonstrate increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly within the first week following receipt of the second primary series dose or first booster dose, with most booster doses likely administered at least 5 months after completing primary vaccination. For the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, the observed risk is higher among adolescent males and adult males under 40 years of age than among females and older males, and the observed risk is highest in males 12 through 17 years of age. Although some cases required intensive care support, available data from short-term follow-up suggest that most individuals have had resolution of symptoms with conservative management. Information is not yet available about potential long-term sequelae. The CDC has published considerations related to myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination, including for vaccination of individuals with a history of myocarditis or pericarditis (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical considerations/myocarditis.html).
Revised: 31 August 2022

Baby Formula mess

Biden to the rescue. He's having the military fly in 2 days worth of formula!

Women, Infants, Children (WIC): For the purpose of this program, about half the baby formulas produced in the United States are purchased by state governments with federal money.

“The production of baby formulas is a very regulated industry. In early 2022, the Food and Drug Administration forced the closure of a factory of Abbot Laboratories (producer of Similac) in Michigan. Abbot is the dominant American producer of baby formulas, partly because it is the monopolistic distributor chosen by most state governments. A germ had been discovered in the factory, but not in the products. Some 98% of all the baby formulas consumed in the United States are produced domestically, thanks to a customs tariff of 17.5%, not to mention the regulatory requirements. Industry concentration is a typical result of regulation and protectionism." https://www.econlib.org/how-londoners-survive-without-a-food-czar/

[In other words, it is completely government controlled and 50% is purchased by the government for WIC and it’s free for those families.]

This is called “central planning” and is a feature of Communist/Socialist countries with large bureaucracies that apparently have poor math skills. Women who usually got free formula through WIC are now having to buy it, making a shortage for those who always purchased formula. If you like central planning instead of free market and competition with minimal regulation and fewer monopolies, just keeping voting for Democrats.

A second opinion: video of Senator Ron Johnson's invited panel

On January 24, 2022, Senator Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) invited a group of world-renowned doctors and medical experts to the U.S. Senate to provide a different perspective on the global pandemic response, the current state of knowledge of early and hospital treatment, vaccine efficacy and safety, what went right, what went wrong, what should be done now, and what needs to be addressed long term. This 38 minute video highlights the 5-hour discussion. https://rumble.com/vt62y6-covid-19-a-...

(My paraphrase) https://youtu.be/9jMONZMuS2U

Foundational principles have been ignored, and possibly 500,000 needlessly died. Public health has been politicized. Dr. Aaron Kheriaty said he formerly supported both Obama and Biden, but the current events have changed that. We have strategies to treat this but have created enormous damage by our current treatment and the government has tried to destroy reputations and careers. 2 years in and we still don't know how many Americans have had it and recovered, which is a crime in itself. People with natural immunity are the safest people to be around--not one case reported where they have transmitted the virus. 

Zero evidence that masks stop it. It's peeing in a swimming pool. Early treatment WORKS, but you have to find a doctor. Pharmacists refuse to fill some of the safest medicines known because they have been brainwashed by the drug companies. The "adverse results" these doctors have experienced is not dying patients, but careers "cancelled" and being attacked for being a good doctor. First 72 hours are critical, and it is late start that causes failures. FDA and CDC should have never been the sponsor of the vaccine--it's been a terrible mistake.

One doctor, Paul Marik, started to cry when telling about his dying patients because he wasn't allowed to use the drugs he knew would work. He's had 35 years experience.  When he sued, the hospital ended his career by using a sham peer review. One nurse who was fired said her unit had been using HCQ for 2 months with success early in the pandemic until the hospital disallowed it. Another nurse testified that doctors refused to even see vaccine injured patients.

Why are drug companies and government bureaucrats doing this? Dr. Pierre Kory says profits. 

In my opinion that's a good answer for Big Pharma, but for government it's power.

FLCCC Alliance member CV - Dr. Pierre Kory (covid19criticalcare.com)

Bio | Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Dr. Marik resigns from position at EVMS in midst of legal battle with Sentara over use of ivermectin (wtkr.com)

Full Hearing: COVID-19: A Second Opinion Hosted By Sen. Ron Johnson | Video | RealClearPolitics

Persistence of neutralizing antibodies a year after SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in humans (secureservercdn.net)

Biden’s Bounty on Your Life: Hospitals’ Incentive Payments for COVID-19 - AAPS | Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (aapsonline.org)

AAPS Sues the FDA to End Its Arbitrary Restrictions on Hydroxychloroquine - AAPS | Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (aapsonline.org)

Ivermectin--why are the media destroying its reputation as a miracle drug?

Our major media sources have denied the world knowledge of treatments that could have saved perhaps even the majority of the 641,450 people who died in the U.S. and the nearly 4 million who died elsewhere in the world.  Why?

"It was just another day in the most misleading, murderous coverage of a global issue in modern times, the attempted assassination of poor little ivermectin. Little Ivy, smaller and safer than aspirin and sometimes portrayed as a lovable little blue bird by its worldwide supporters, is the remarkably safe, affordable, FDA-approved, generic, Nobel-Prize winning drug known to doctors as one of the great “wonder drugs” in human history, rivaling penicillin, until it made the mistake of killing both COVID and big pharma profits like nothing known to science ." commenting on a New York Times article. . . 

The doctors’ treatment protocols of safe, FDA-approved drugs, including ivermectin, for COVID prevention, early and late-stage treatment, hospital care, long-haul symptoms and even post-vaccine symptoms, have saved more lives and relieved more misery in the pandemic than any human being can count, and would yet, many scientists believe, restore normal life everywhere if used universally. The rest of the mainstream media has known about these remarkable doctors and this remarkable generic drug that, in tandem with the vaccines already jabbed into billions of arms, and even without mass vaccination according to scientists like m-RNA vaccine technology inventor Dr. Robert Malone, could drive the coronavirus swiftly extinct. But they have simply ignored the story—and called some of the most renowned doctor-researchers on the planet scientific kooks and frauds."

Believe It: A Top Old School Journalist Stands Up for Ivermectin and Free Speech - by Michael Capuzzo - RESCUE with Michael Capuzzo (substack.com)

Ethics probe stopped by Biden

This week a mumbling, whispering confused Joe Biden referred to the Tuskegee Airmen as the men the federal government experimented on for decades--completely rewriting history. The media just smile. Good old Joe. Well, the government did actually experiment on black men right into the 1970s, and it is still protecting experiments with humans--and Biden is pushing child abuse by shutting down the investigation. This research was stopped by President Trump, but it's baaaaack. The ghouls of the Biden administration have given the “best and brightest” government researchers and agencies "license to use the skin, brains, liver, and eyeballs of aborted children for taxpayer-funded research."

 But Biden doesn't tweet, thank goodness.

Biden To Shut Down Fetal Harvesting Probe After Shocking Revelations About Brutalized Babies (thefederalist.com)

There have been many government commissions and ethics panels. List of former entities found in the Georgetown archives. https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcbe/reports/past_commissions/?  some of which include fetal and stem cell. Good intentions, no results. Looking through them in the index section, I see that most authors are "unknown," and the comments and summaries are gobbledegook of academics and bureaucrats, particularly this 1975 report on Research on the Fetus, Research on the Fetus (georgetown.edu)

FDA trafficking in aborted baby parts

"Last week, legal accountability group Judicial Watch dropped a bombshell: a nearly 600-page report proving the U.S. government has been buying and trafficking “fresh” aborted baby body parts. These body parts, purchased by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “humanize” mice and test biologic drugs in scientific experiments, came from babies up to 24-weeks-old gestation, just weeks from being born." 

So let that sink in and then read the rest of the article.

FDA Caught Buying 'Fresh' Aborted Baby Body Parts From Dealer (thefederalist.com)

"When an ABR employee reassured the FDA they were working with doctors who performed late-term abortions, he admitted some tissue was unusable from a procedure that injects a poison called digoxin into the baby, destroying its cells and tissues. Once the chemical has done its work, an intact, dead baby is delivered. This method makes fetal tissue specimens unusable in experiments; with digoxin off the table, the likelihood partial-birth abortions were used is sickeningly high."

The contracts between ABR and FDA which began in 2012 were stopped by the Trump administration out of concern for the legality. I suppose Biden will undo that Trump accomplishment too.

Vaccines on the market—when FDA says so

Operation warp speed, which worked well cutting years of red tape off development of new drugs, apparently didn't include FDA approval and distribution. Private industry moves in real time, with urgency, and government agencies work in swamp time. The vaccine is being slow walked and I and millions of others have this figured out.

FDA chief Hahn summoned as White House complains about timing of vaccine approval – MarketWatch

Pfizer applies for emergency FDA approval of COVID-19 vaccine (nypost.com)

Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Goes to FDA | Time

Some drugs get to market without FDA approval. First Alzheimer's blood test now on the market, without FDA approval - CBS News

Emergency authorization for Covid-19

“The US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization of Abbott’s newest coronavirus test, which can read out positive results within 5 minutes and negative results in 13 minutes. The portable ID NOW machine, which will run the SARS-CoV-2 test, can be used in doctor’s offices, expanding the availability of testing beyond hospital and laboratory settings, and the company aims to produce 50,000 tests daily starting next week.”  The Scientist

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/fda-gives-abbott-emergency-use-of-five-minute-coronavirus-test-67351?

What’s the hold up on a better sunscreen? The FDA.

“Since the 1990s, advanced sunscreens that counter the UV-A rays that contribute to carcinomas have been widely sold in Europe, Canada and Asia. Americans must rely on an older generation that merely prevents sunburn, because since 2002 the FDA has refused to provide up-or-down answers for eight pending applications to approve the superior compounds. . . ”

“The FDA is demanding more studies and safety data from manufacturers, despite decades of world-wide experience. The latest batch of rejections is particularly notable because one of the ingredients, ecamsule, has been approved by the FDA since 2006 as a prescription drug. Sunscreen makers simply want FDA permission to use it in over-the-counter products.”

Wall St. Journal story here.

Jam it through before the Republicans see it--Obama signs $1.4 billion food safety bill

"The Food Safety Modernization Act, is estimated to require $1.4 billion in new funds over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That cost was causing some Republicans, emboldened by GOP gains in November and increased public concern over deficit spending, to question whether the investment is worth the cost." The Packer

Usually I don't use a wiki to look for stats, but this one of foodborne illnesses will have to do because I seem to only be getting 1999 stats. For a country that won't raise the legal driving age which could save thousands of lives a year both of teen agers and their passengers, parents and siblings riding in the car, it seems like a lot of money for hospitalizations from food poisoning and almost no deaths. The CDC claims our food supply is 99.999% safe. Many people die from hospitalizations alone so I think it's a toss up, based on my food poisoning experience of several years ago (food purchased in Europe, but hospitalized in Columbus). This law doesn't cover meat, eggs or poultry and will just add reams of regulation and headaches for producers and raise the cost of our food. Will they add that to the $1.4 Billion? Probably not. And support from the industry? Well, why not? Like most government regulation, it knocks out the competition.

“While it’s a great re-election tool to terrify people into thinking that the food they’re eating is unsafe and unsanitary, and if not for the wonderful nanny-state politicians we’d be getting sick after every meal, the system we have is doing a darn good job,” Rep. Jack Kingston.

Obama signs bill boosting food inspections, oversight and allowing mandatory recalls - latimes.com

Senate passes food safety bill

"The Senate on Tuesday approved a vast overhaul of the nation’s nearly century-old food safety system, ending more than a year of political stalemate and boosting the Food and Drug Administration’s power to deal with contaminated products that have sickened thousands of Americans."

Not sure what's behind this (other than big-Food/agribiz lobbyists), but according to a chart I saw in the paper, 12 people have died in 2008-2010 from e-coli or Salmonella. Meanwhile in the same time period I think about 15,000 teenagers have died in auto accidents because we don't raise the legal driving age to 18. So it seems this is just a power move on the part of another government bureaucracy and/or the mega-food companies to drive out the little guy with higher costs, but it's not a safety measure. (There are some who think it is a deliberate move to raise food prices and level of panic among voters.) Even the problems they had with food safety in the last few years could be traced back to unsanitary conditions, often using illegal agricultural workers.

Senate passes food safety bill - Meredith Shiner and Scott Wong - POLITICO.com

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

HALE: Food-safety law raises prices, puts unreliable FDA in charge - Daily Nebraskan - Opinion


Lobbying Spending Database-Food Industry, 2010 | OpenSecrets

The Pelosi Pole Vault

Nancy Pelosi has promised (Jan. 28) that the health care bill written by lobbyists and leftists that Americans don't want will be snuck into other bills.

"We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their own personal health and economic security and for the important role that it will play in reducing the deficit."

This is not new--think of all the times social programs or other pork have been tacked onto troop funding. She's being honest about what she thinks of the American people for once in her life.

Recently we've seen the EPA just go right around our elected Congress to do their own pole vaulting for Cap and Trade, a boondoggle that will probably give us a higher tax bill than "health care reform." I have difficulty reading the research articles in JAMA, but the social and political stuff isn't too hard. In the January 13 issue (Vol. 303, no. 2) there is an interesting article on "Human, animal, ecosystem health all key to curbing emerging infectious diseases" (p. 117-118). Yes, the 2006 spinach e coli outbreak can be tied to global climate change (OSU researchers found E coli in domestic and wild animals linked to unusual weather conditions contaminating irrigation systems). So at a November conference hosted by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council it was recommended that we must have new strategies locally, nationally and globally because our surveillance system is inadequate.

Keep an eye on cross fertilization of your tax health dollars and regulations among US Department of Agriculture (USDA), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID, the National Institute on Environmental Health Services, wildlife management, all universities and research dealing with veterinary medicine, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and "global effort." Cha-Ching. Of course, compared to billions and trillions, an initial investment in this system of $800 million is a drop in the government bucket which has a hole in it. It's those 12 recommendations that came out of the conference that include the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Office International des Epizooties and the goal of creating a funding stream that worries me. That and Nancy's pole vaulting skill.

FDA, ReGen and Democrats

I heard this on the radio while returning from coffee.

“The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that four New Jersey congressmen and its own former commissioner unduly influenced the process that led to its decision last year to approve a patch for injured knees, an approval it is now revisiting.” (NYT)

Since the party wasn’t mentioned, and if they are Republicans, that is always noted, I came home and looked it up. Yup. Democrats. Although I suppose that is a given if the story is New Jersey, or corruption, you are to assume Democrats.

"All four members of Congress denied that ReGen’s political contributions had played any role in their efforts on its behalf with the F.D.A. and said they were merely doing their jobs by trying to help a constituent company."(NYT)

Really, is that the job of a Congressman--to help out a constituent's company? So what is the FDA's job?

17 year olds and the morning after pill

Will the pharmacy be in trouble if it doesn't report abuse (underage sex) of a minor and parental neglect or will only Wal-Mart be held accountable since it was open and nothing else was. Here's some comments on the side effects of the Plan B abortificant and the federal judge now says your child can get without your knowledge from About.com Women's Health. Don't you think these worried women/girls should be asking a doctor, or their mothers instead of a computer screen? This is 3rd world witch doctor stuff.

I took the morning after pills 2 weeks ago and since then having stomach discomfort, pain and backache every now and then. A week ago, I had my menstrual. Unfortunately still having the same discomfort and pain after 4 days. Is what I am going through normal? cami

I took the morning after pill 4 days ago and i am still suffering from abdominal pain i feel pressure on my abdomen giving me an urge to pass urine. I also have noticed some vaginal spotting ( little bit of blood). I don’t know if this is normal and how long it should go on for, everyone i know has never experienced these symptonms. JJ

i took the morning after pill 5 days ago was on my period the week before taking it have been bleeding for around 2 days discoloured blood sort of orangy coloured is this normal after taking this? Kayla

I’ve taken this pill once and I will never EVER taken it again. My body is SO screwed up!

I took the pill back in the end of March of 07. I had a very heavy period with lots of clotting a couple of weeks later that lasted 2 1/2 weeks. I didn’t have any nausea or back pain like that has been mentioned here though. The period lasted from end of April through Mothers Day weekend (which is in MAY). I did not have another period until September of 07 that lasted for almost 2 weeks of heavy bleeding and passing clots. It’s now the middle of January of 08 and still have not had a cycle since Sept. All of my tests I’ve taken (home and at the health clinic) have been negative for pregnancy. I need to get an appt with my gynecologist, but have any of you experienced LACK of periods as a side effect with this pill? Mel

I took the day after pill on the 26 and now its ben 3 weeks. I been having spotting bleeding. though I notice it only when I wipe. I am expected to have my next pireod on the 21 or 24. Is it normal for wipe little dots of blood? Sandy

Hey. After having very drunken sex with not a regular partner nearly 3 week ago, i took the emergency pill as soon as the chemist open the morning after. Since then about a week later i had what i thought was a period, but it was only light and lasted 2 days. After only jus finishing my period the day before the incident i thought this was rather strange. My next period is due on saturday, and i’ve been having servere stomache cramps since monday? I’m now beginning to stress as i don’t really understand the whole light period thing. Being only 16, it was one stupid silly mistake, which i regret. I’ve decided that if i don’t come on by the weekend then i’m going to take a pregnancy test anyway. I’ll keep u posted. If anybody’s had any of the similar symptons, please feel free to let me know. Thanx. Loz

Reading through these I see a number who talk about "unprotected sex with my boyfriend" which seems to be the popular, but wordy phrase, or who stopped using their regular birth control. Is this what you liberals intended for children? It would be my guess, based on the correct grammar, spelling and use of apostrophes, some of these are from older women, or they are made up fantasies. It's likely that all age restrictions will be removed, so I guess 5 and 10 years olds will be able to buy them too--no questions asked.

In his ruling, Judge Edward Korman said that "FDA staffers were told the White House had been involved in the decision on Plan B. The government said in court papers that politics played no role." Well why not. The President supports infanticide for botched abortions; what's it to him if children get this drug? He's got the Secret Service to go on his daughters' dates.

The standard dose of the Levonelle 2 morning-after pill comprises two tablets each containing 750µg of levonorgestrel that are taken as a single dose. Girls or women taking Levonelle 2 therefore receive 1,500µg of levonorgestrel in the course of a day. By contrast, the Norgeston daily mini-pill contains just 30µg of levornogestrel. Levonelle 2 thus delivers 50 times the daily dose of the mini-pill.

The summary of product characteristics for Levonelle 2, a type of morning-after pill, states that patients who have used this type of pill and who nevertheless become pregnant should be evaluated for ectopic pregnancy. Other sources3 confirm this, and ectopic pregnancies are a significant cause of maternal deaths4.

Other side-effects include nausea, vomiting and tenderness of breasts5. Link

HT Gayle

Who bears the responsibility?

If the managers and owners of Peanut Corporation of America knew about the salmonella contamination, they are worse than pond scum and should go to jail. But what about all the workers, the ones who now say they saw the filth, the rats, the chipped paint above roasters?

Terry Jones, a janitor, remembered the peanut oil left to soak into the floor and the unrepaired roof that constantly leaked rain.

And James Griffin, a cook at the plant, recounted how his observations led to this simple rule. “I never ate the peanut butter, and I wouldn’t allow my kids to eat it.”

In interviews, these three men and another employee who worked at the now-closed plant, provided an inside glimpse into the day-to-day sanitation lapses there. AJC.com

There must have been employees up and down the line, managers, union members, illegals and legals, educated and no-so-much, who saw and didn't act because they wanted to keep their jobs. How is that different than the men testifying before Congressional leaders whose values and ethics are also screwed up?

So now a government that can't provide enough employees so the FDA can keep the plants inspected using regulations and laws long on the books is going to spend massive amounts of our money dabbling in less critical facets of our lives, like universal pre-school, light bulbs to save energy and dangerous to dispose, and rewriting marriage laws so gays don't feel left out.