Fuck Off and Die

The Bush Administration's war on science has been well documented, and I won't rehash all the incredibly sad stories about how politics trumps facts in the Republican party.

But here's one little blurb that I came across in the March 13 issue of the New Yorker. It's not online, so I can't link it.

It begins by recounting the story of the development of a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is spread by sexual contact; there are a hundred strains of this virus; two cause cervical cancer and two others gential warts. Merck came up with a vaccine that successfully protected people against the four nasty strains. Good news, right? We wipe out a nasty bug and big pharma gets some ka-ching. Everyone's happy.

Wrong.

Bushco decided that we would rather have people die of cancer than "encourage" kids to have sex. That's not a joke; I swear that was their argument.

That part I knew about, but I had no idea how deeply these sickos' hatred of their fellow human beings ran. If there is any doubt how deeply un-Christian these people are, this paragraph should show you the light.

Here's the last paragraph on page 60. It's my transcription, so I apologize for any misspellings, grammatical errors, etc.:

Religious conservatives are unapologetic; not only do they believe that mass use of an HPV vaccine or the availability of emergency contraception will encourage adolescents to engage in unacceptable sexual behavior; some have even stated that they would feel similarly about an H.I.V. vaccine, if one became available. "We would have to look at that closely," Reginald Finger, an evangelical Christian and former medical adviser to the conservative political organization Focus on the Family, said. "With any new vaccine for H.I.V., disinhibition" - a medical term for the absence of fear - "would certainly be a factor, and it is something we will have to pay attention to with a great deal of care." Finger sits on the Centers for Disease Control's Immunization Committee, which makes those recommendations.

Did you get that? If an effective vaccine for H.I.V. was invented tomorrow, there would be a debate on whether or not to release it to Americans because the citizens of this country cannot exhibit any self-control. Thank you Government! You're saving me from myself; Lord knows the only thing keeping me from sodomizing prostitutes while sharing heroin needles is the threat of AIDS. Now we just have to get rid of the hepatitis vaccine...

What a bunch of sick fucks.

I'd also like to point out this wasn't a yahoo on the street talking through a crystal meth haze. This man was appointed by the President of the United States of America to a committee that oversees this very issue!

Truth, Justice, and the American Way just ain't what it used to be.