Truly Equal

I was browsing the CNN.com website and find myself with the following article, Video apparently showing Hussein wounds emerges. Yes, ANOTHER Saddam Hussein snuff video! Just what the world needs - more violence.

(CNN) — A new video apparently showing Saddam Hussein after his execution with a gaping neck wound and facial bruising is posted on the Internet.

The footage, which appeared Monday, shows the former Iraqi dictator, apparently still wearing the white shirt and black coat he was hanged in, lying on a gurney covered with a white sheet.

The 27-second videotape, posted on www.liveleak.com, shows the camera approaching the gurney and someone pulling back the sheet to reveal the left side of Hussein’s head.

In an accompanying audio track, one man appears to be urging the other to take a quick look and then leave.

Visit the above link and read the exchange, it is beyond shameless. In other words, it seems Saddam’s execution was the hottest ticket of the year in Iraq.

I’m really tired of this Saddam video bullshit. Instead of letting him rot in a jail cell and fall into oblivion, he will now achieve martyrdom status. We have a bonafide war criminal and what do we do? We hang him like if it were a bad Wild West cowboy movie. Just because the prick deserved to die does not mean we have to reduce ourselves to the proverbial medieval mob.

The neocons and insane right-wingers that visit my site on occasion (thanks for visiting by the way!) think that because I wanted Saddam to be tried in a just and fair manner, in accordance to the same international law he broke, makes me a Saddam supporter. This is stupid. This does not make me a “traitor”. Just because I disagree with this madness does not mean I am on the other side. And now, people in the Middle East will look at the horrible way this has been handled and think, these people are not any better: new devil, meet the old devil.

When we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves, we screw it up. Which reminds me, the international community has not reacted favorably to Saddam’s execution:

BBC: Saddam Hanged: Reactions in quotes

Dar Al-Hayat, Lebanon: Saddam’s Death Will ‘Double the Pain’

Arab View, Saudi Arabia: U.S. Double Standards are Fueling Arab Hate

The Age, Australia: New Year, Same Old Bloody Results

Which also reminds me, this is another colossal screw up by Bush. I know I have mentioned this before, but instead of showing the world that we really are better - as in more noble - in demonstrating the power and dignity of the rule of law that fully democratic countries enjoy, we allow the execution of a war criminal to get completely out of control. Or maybe, just maybe, we never really had control over what happens in Iraq in the first place. Not even Prime Minister Maliki wants to control the chaos that is Iraq:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has made clear he dislikes being the country’s leader and would prefer to leave the job before his term ends.

In an extensive interview with a US newspaper, Mr Maliki said he would certainly not be seeking a second term.

A compromise choice, his tenure has been plagued by factional strife within both the country and government, and rumours the US has no faith in him.

“I wish I could be done with it even before the end of this term,” he said.

“I didn’t want to take this position,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I only agreed because I thought it would serve the national interest, and I will not accept it again.”

You may have heard in Greek mythology of the Midas touch - everything King Midas touched turned to gold. It seems president Bush also has a certain kind of Midas touch - everything he touches seems to turn into shit.

Are we really more “civilized” than people from the Middle Ages? I don’t think so:

This is from Matt Davies, an excellent cartoonist of NY Journal News. If you like his cartoons, go visit his site - I’m not affiliated with the guy, just giving him his dues for one of his excellent cartoons.

My wife is 4 months pregnant and we have been busy going to the doc and buying Christmas presents for all our relatives and such, so posting has been erratic. Trust me, I have a whole bunch of news to lined up, but my wife is always nagging at me, “what are you writing so much about in that computer of yours?”

In the mean time, go read the article Life Support for Feminist Health Care? by RH Reality Check, about the closing of Seattle’s Aradia Women’s Health Care Center (AWHC):

In its history, Aradia provided more than 54,000 women with abortion and gynecological health care services, trained more than 1,000 medical students in abortion care and served as a sort of public health prep-school for hundreds of staff women and volunteers. Aradia incorporated outreach, education and state-level legislative advocacy into its work, and became one of Washington State’s most energetic advocates for women’s health. Aradia helped pass the Washington State Reproductive Privacy Act (our state’s version of Roe v. Wade ), worked to advocate for the development of a viable microbicide for women worldwide, labored to keep Washington pharmacists from obtaining the right to refuse emergency contraception prescriptions, and all the while strove to destigmatize abortion for all women. AWHC was a remarkable force with which to be reckoned for more than three decades.

I know I’m not supposed to get on a pedestal, but when it comes to women’s health, at least my wife married a man who does not have the caveman, Bush-like type of mentality that seems to dominate the U.S. today. Of course, I’m a medical student that wants to be a pediatrician (with gynecologist a distant second place) so it’s easy, at least for myself, to worry about all this “women’s stuff”, because I strongly care about it. It’s going to be a part of my job, so if I want to be a good doctor I need to do more than just pretend that I care about the single mom that will come to my office asking for the professional, humane treatment that all patients deserve… unless you’re Dick Cheney, in which case you can go fuck yourself I would refer Mr. Cheney to a physician that’s glad to treat him.

Numerous postings coming very soon!

Of course, global warming as the end of life as we know it is not as dramatic as say, a nuclear mushroom cloud courtesy of Saddam Hussein, but we need to get our collective shit together or else a lot of people are going to suffer and die needlessly:

In 10 years time it will be too late to reverse the effects of global warming, a climate change expert warned yesterday.

Scientist Jim Hansen - one of the first to start alarm bells ringing in 1988 - said that unless cuts in pollution started happening within the next decade we would reach the “tipping point” where the damage could not be undone.

He added: “Half the people in the world live within 15 miles of a coastline. A large fraction of the major cities are on coastlines.

“Once you get the process started and well on the way, it’s impossible to prevent it.

“That’s why we need to address the issue before it gets out of control. We just cannot burn all the fossil fuels in the ground.

“If we do, we will end up with a planet with no ice in the Arctic and where warming is so large that it’s going to have a large effect in terms of sea level rises and the extinction of species.”

Oh wait, Saddam just died, so I guess we can leave that climate change nonsense behind us and leave it to people like Al Gore.

No shit, no one had noticed:

WASHINGTON: Exxon Mobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in a coordinated effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday.

The report by the science-based nonprofit advocacy group mirrors similar claims by Britain’s leading scientific academy. Last September, The Royal Society wrote the oil company asking it to halt support for groups that “misrepresented the science of climate change.”

Just $16 million? That’s not a lot of money - when was the last time you gave away $16 million?

Exxon Mobil lists on its Web site nearly $133 million in 2005 contributions globally, including $6.8 million for “public information and policy research” distributed to more than 140 think-tanks, universities, foundations, associations and other groups. Some of those have publicly disputed the link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

But in September, the company said in response to the Royal Society that it funded groups which research “significant policy issues and promote informed discussion on issues of direct relevance to the company.” It said the groups do not speak for the company.

They just gave them $16 million, but think-thanks like the Heritage foundation (sorry, I’m not going to link to that piece of shit website) don’t speak for Exxon Mobile. Of course not. If you believe that, then I’m a pretty ballet dancer.

Because global warming does not exist:

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) — A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada’s Arctic, scientists said.

The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) south of the North Pole, but no one was present to see it in Canada’s remote north.

Scientists using satellite images later noticed that it became a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.

Of course global warming plays a large role here:

The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometers (155 miles) away picked up tremors from it.

The Ayles Ice Shelf, roughly 66 square kilometers (41 square miles) in area, was one of six major ice shelves remaining in Canada’s Arctic.

Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in Canada in 30 years and point their fingers at climate change as a major contributing factor.

“It is consistent with climate change,” Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 percent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906.

“We aren’t able to connect all of the dots … but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role.”

Here is another article about microbicide testing in Africa:

The Setshaba Research Centre is one of three sites in South Africa where a microbicide gel named Carraguard is being tested in phase 3 clinical trials, the last phase of drug testing on humans before approval for marketing.

More than 5,000 women are trying out the vaginal gel to determine if it really protects against HIV; most of them are from poor, neighboring areas.

“Studies done in the laboratory show that this agent might help in preventing HIV transmission,” Dr. Khatija Ahmed, principal investigator at the research center, told Women’s eNews. “It lines the vaginal mucosa so that the HIV virus cannot penetrate the mucosa and get into the human cell.”

If you want to learn more about microbicides, your best bet is to visit the Global Campaign for Microbicides webpage.

From the BBC:

A “molecular condom” to protect women against HIV is being developed by US scientists.

The liquid formulated by a University of Utah team turns into a gel-like coating when inserted into the vagina.

Then, when exposed to semen, it returns to liquid form and releases an anti-viral drug to attack HIV.

However, the technology, featured in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is still around five years away from being tested in humans.

[…]The Utah project is part of a worldwide research effort to develop “microbicides” - drug-delivery systems such as gels, rings, sponges or creams to prevent infection by HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.”

And in case you have never heard of microbicides before:

The word “microbicides” refers to a range of different products that share one common characteristic: the ability to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) when applied topically. A microbicide could be produced in many forms, including gels, creams, suppositories, films, or as a sponge or ring that releases the active ingredient over time.

Keep microbicides in mind, because you are going to hear a lot of them in the future.

Well this should already be in place, don’t you think?

There’s a big change coming for pregnant women: Down syndrome testing no longer hinges on age 35.

This week, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists begins recommending that every pregnant woman, regardless of age, be offered a choice of tests for this common birth defect.

The main reason: Tests far less invasive than the long-used amniocentesis are now widely available, some that can tell in the first trimester the risk of a fetus having Down syndrome or other chromosomal defects.

[…]The new guideline is published in the January issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Now we just need to do this with HIV/AIDS as well, and implement it worldwide now that we are at it.

And for some attention by the media as well. Given the gravity of the situation, it is beyond disgraceful that people in the U.S. completely ignore the situation in Lebanon:

The 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah has left Lebanon heavily damaged and politically destabilised, with hopes for a better future only dimming as the New Year approaches.

Before Jul. 12 this year when the war broke out, many people in this nation of four million situated north of Israel believed they were finally shaking away the last of the dust from the 15-year civil war 1975-90 which decimated the country. That civil war was fought between extreme Muslim and Christian groups. Lebanon is now believed to be about 60 percent Muslim.

In years of recovery from that civil war, tourism was up, business was finally improving, Syrian occupation troops had left - even though it was after the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri Feb. 14 last year — and hope for a united Lebanon seemed at least a possibility.