Republicans say: "More cancer for women!"

Texas Republicans roundly voiced their approval for more cervical cancer for women today. Texas legislators didn't like the fact that the governor had the temerity to want to protect young Texan women from cervical cancer, so they overturned his executive order that all sixth-grade girls in the state be vaccinated. So the GOP once again shows their true colors. They are the Party of Death.

Oh, sure, they try to claim that they're protecting women (by condemning some of them to a horrible death):

“We did not want to be the first in offering young girls for the experiment to see if this vaccine is effective or not,” said Representative Dennis H. Bonnen, a Republican from Angleton, who sponsored the ban in the House.

However, actual, you know, science doesn't agree:

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among other health authorities, describe Gardasil as safe and effective when given as approved to girls ages 9 to 26 in three shots over eight months.

Remember that name. Dennis H. Bonnen is a murderer. He uses legislation as his weapon. He bludgeons his victims to death with paper and pious pronouncements, and the deaths at his hand will not be revealed for many years. The other main killer is Republican Senator Glenn Hegar Jr., who sponsored the bill in the state Senate.

My scorn is not reserved only for Texas Republicans; the few Democrats left in the Texas legislature were sufficiently cowed that almost all of them voted for the death bill. A pox on all of them, the cowards. But this is mainly a Republican bill, and is pushed heavily by Republican allies, like the religious right.

I have a niece and great-niece who live in Texas. Texas Republicans think that it is more important to shore up support from rightwing religious nutcases than to protect my family, and all Texas families, from a kind of cancer that is now preventable. As usual with the GOP, they've placed politics before people.

(Not that much) Shakin' Going On

I was sitting here a couple of hours ago, working on a review for Macworld. All of a sudden, I felt the building begin to shake with an earthquake. What amused me was my instant reaction: I didn't jump up and get in a doorway. Nor did I head for the exit. No, I immediately pressed Command-S to save my document in Word. Now, that's a true writer's reflex.

It wasn't that big of a quake, and when I chatted up Dori in her office, she hadn't even felt it. I said, "It felt like about a 4." Not bad; it turned out to be a magnitude 4.4. Just call me the Human Seismograph.

Oh, and I made my deadline for the review.

Special Earthquake Tip Update: Via our old friend Jim Rea:

KCET recently had a show about earthquake preparedness. It turns out that doors and exits are the wrong places to go anyway. Best bet -- under a strong table where you'll be protected from falling objects. Doors are bad because they are weak spots in the building structure.

Now, I know. Thanks, Jim!