Truly Equal

While president Bush certainly has to deal with a lot of urgent matters (besides his screw-ups I mean), this is something he should not even get close to:

This administration is currently pushing a plan - the Complex 2030 plan - to ramp up activities at nuclear weapons sites around the country.

This is on the heels of North Korea claiming they have a nuclear bomb, and these assholes want to ramp up nuclear weapons? You have got to be kidding me, but that is the Bush administration for ya!

According to Physicians for Social Responsibility:

In the Complex 2030 plan this administration has proposed a new $5 billion facility to build the next generation of nuclear weapons. Some local leaders in your area are already arguing that this new plant will create jobs and spur economic development. But the U.S. can create jobs without building the next generation of nuclear weapons that would escalate the arms race and pose a greater threat to our planet.

Current and retired nuclear workers have suffered from cancers, beryllium disease and many others conditions. We all suffer psychological harm from living in the shadow of the mushroom cloud. If these dangerous weapons were ever used, it would be the ultimate medical catastrophe. The U.S. government has moral and legal obligations to eliminate its nuclear weapons, not build new ones.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is one kick-ass group, and they won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize just in case you doubt their credentials.

But pray tell, what can one do about the Complex 2030 plan? More from PSR:

The Department of Energy will soon begin preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for its Complex 2030 plan to revitalize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. This is the first step in a process established by the National Environmental Policy Act which requires the government to study the impacts of any new major project. As part of this process, DOE will be accepting public comments on the scope of its research on the impacts of the Complex 2030 plan.

[…]The Energy Department is currently accepting comments on the environmental impacts of its Complex 2030 plan. This gives us an opportunity to let our leaders know that this proposal is a step in the wrong direction. The deadline for public comment on this dangerous plan to revitalize the nuclear weapons complex is January 17th, 2006. Please use PSR’s sample comments to develop your own message to the DOE in the space provided. Tell this administration that we do not need new nuclear weapons!

(all emphasis is mine)

So there you have it - visit the “Stop the Bomblex” website and then take action!

Now, if you have access to condoms, I do not suggest you go ahead with a circumcision… all joking aside, this finding - that circumcision significantly reduces men’s chances of acquiring HIV - is remarkably important.

However, it is NOT a substitute for condoms, proper sexual education, and yes, abstinence. I know that everybody wants doctors and scientists to come up with a vaccine, or even better a “wonder drug”, but in most parts of the world, especially in the African continent, a circumcision may be the only chance of maybe escaping, albeit 50% of the time, being infected by HIV.

I am not a fan of circumcision, but if it works… I rather people have access to microbicides instead.

To say the least. According to the latest UNICEF report, The State of the World’s Children 2007: Women and Children - The double dividend of gender equality, “poverty, violence and discrimination assault women worldwide and undermine their children’s futures.”

“Where you see extreme discrimination against women, you see more problems for children,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said in an interview.

“When you empower women,” Veneman said, “you benefit children.”

This is no surprise. According to the World Development Report of 1993, by the World Bank, maternal education has a greater impact on the reduction of child mortality than parental education.

But don’t get your hopes up too much, there is still a lot of work to do:

The challenge faced by the medical and scientific community stems partly from the nature of the causative parasite which is unlike other organisms that cause infectious diseases. ‘’Until now, we don’t have a vaccine against parasites; only against bacteria and viruses,” Morel said. ‘’The malaria parasite is very smart.”

By the way, the blood parasite Plasmodium which is spread by mosquitoes, is very, very preventable & treatable…