Are we experimenting on our young girls?

The cervical jab, a vaccination that saves lives, or just another chemical cocktail with adverse side-effects? That is the question.

There is no doubt, dying of cervical cancer seems like a horrible way to go.  And if there was a way to prevent it from happening, I’d be the first one to clap and cheer. But, is the Gardasil vaccine (cervarix in England) safe enough to administer to every adolescent girl? How much do we really know about the vaccine itself? Sure, those snappy ads chanting “One Less” filled with sporty, fresh-looking teenage girls and their dewey-eyed moms look very compelling, but do we really know enough about the side-effects this vaccine causes?

Today, in the Daily Mail of the UK, there is an article about a handful of girls and the reactions they’ve suffered since having the vaccine. One is in a wheelchair, another suffers almost daily epileptic attacks, yet another suffers from chronic fatigue. And these are just a selection of girls in that one country who have suffered side-effects from a sore arm, to paralysis. A number of deaths have been reported here in the USA. And yet, the medical professionals do whatever they can, except turning themselves inside out, to reject any claims that the sudden onset of illnesses following – sometimes within minutes, other times within days, of the vaccination – could have anything to do with the jab. It is just “coincidental” according to the professionals. But is it, really?

And, how true are the figures we are being presented, about the vaccines? 1300 adverse reactions out of 700,000 vaccinations. If, however, a lot of the adverse reactions being reported back to each medical professional who administered the drug, are being rejected as “coincidences”, how many are ACTUALLY reported as adverse reactions? Could it be that the number is actually double, triple or even quadruple that which the manufacturers of these drugs would like to have you believe? Maybe even more?

It was considered wrong to experiment on jews during the holocaust, or black soldiers in the Tuskeegee regiment, and it was, but why is it okay to experiment on our young girls? Is it because these shots supposedly save 700 lives a year? What if it destroys more than double that? A side-effect doesn’t have to be as severe as death, for it to destroy someone’s life, after all. How about we just lower the age when girls are given pap smears to screen for cervical cancer instead?

Or does that just not fill the wallets of those drug company executives?

The inappropriate and smallminded outrage of the catholic church

Imagine being 15 weeks pregnant with twins, you weigh 80 pounds yourself, and you’re 9 years old. This is not the product of a loving relationship, but rather the result of having been raped by a stepfather that should have protected you. This sounds bad enough, right? Wrong.

The catholic church then goes and gets its nose all bent out of shape, excommunicating everyone around you because they agreed that this pregnancy would kill you, as a tiny 9 year old, and they allowed you to have an abortion. When, according to the catholic church you should have been forced to carry this pregnancy to term, and then have a c-section. Just so the twins, the product of rape and betrayal, can live. Even if it means you, the 9 year old, would more than likely die carrying these fetuses to term. She is tiny! Her uterus cannot accommodate one, let alone TWO fetuses at this age. They would ALL die. Where is the common sense?????

http://news.aol.com/article/9-year-old-girl-abortion/369661

I’m disgusted. This is a CHILD, who has been violated in the worst way, young and innocent and probably incredibly conflicted about the whole thing, and the catholic church goes and villifies her and her family. NOT the stepfather who raped her. Priorities, right?

THIS is why I’m not religious.

Teen pregnancy rates – why are they higher in the US?

The United States of America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world. That’s a scary fact, don’t you think? Why do we have the highest teen pregnancy rate? I’ll tell you why. 

Puritanism. Republican religious fanaticism.

Pure and simple.  This can also explain why the United States has the highest rate of infant male circumcision in the developed world, for non-religious reasons. But I digress.

Our schools are not teaching kids about contraception. Why? Because it would “encourage sexual activity too early.” Other countries teach contraception, their teens are not sexually active any earlier than ours, and when they DO become active (for the majority of teens, there is no stopping this natural behavior, folks) they end up pregnant a LOT less often than American teens. So, the argument is false. As I’ve said before, teaching kids that abstinence is the way to go, the method favored by the current Republican, religiously fanatical government, simply is NOT working. Teenagers in the United States are more likely to have sexual intercourse before age 15 and have shorter and more sporadic sexual relationships than teenagers in Canada, France, Great Britain and Sweden. As a result, they are more likely to have more than one partner in a given year.

U.S. teenagers have higher STD rates than teenagers in other developed countries—for example, England, Canada, France and Sweden—because they have more sexual partners and lower levels of condom use. The problem is that kids are not only NOT taught about contraception during sex ed at school, but parents are also reluctant, in the US, to talk to their kids about it. 

Countries with low levels of adolescent pregnancy, childbearing and STDs are characterized by societal acceptance of adolescent sexual relationships, combined with comprehensive and balanced information about sexuality and clear expectations about commitment and prevention of pregnancy and STDs within these relationships. So, it really is quite straightforward.

We need to accept, and understand, that it is human nature to want to procreate. In teenagers, this urge is not understood as purely a species-survival method, and let’s face it.. sex feels good. So, they will experiment, they will take active part. The sooner we can all realize this, the better. Then we can act. TEACH your teens, in fact, teach your pre-teens, about sex, protection and STDs. By all means, let them know you’d rather they didn’t become sexually active before they are married or at least in a committed relationship. But you have to face the truth.. chances are they won’t always listen. So make sure they are safe instead.

This does NOT mean you are encouraging them to be sexually active, it means you are encouraging them to be responsible and careful.

Maternal death rates and the curse of senseless morality

For some reason there exists today a resistance towards openly discussing human sexuality and sexual and reproductive health in the world. Coming from a European country myself, and living in the United States since 1996, I am frequently stunned to see how taboo the subject is. The religious fanatics around the country have made sex a shameful subject. Yet, at the same time, there’s hardly a product advertised on tv without some half-naked woman gazing at you in an alluring way. It’s made all the more funny when she’s selling monistat or something. Nothing sexy about a yeast infection!!!

Some values and traditions hinder many organizations working on getting information out about sex, healthcare for mothers and mothers-to-be, advise on protection against STDs and pregnancy and the prevention of aids.  All this contributes to an encompassing and devastating discrimation of women and girls.

Millions of women around the world are denied the right to their own bodies and sexuality.  They are not given the right to decide if, how and when they will have sex, or how many children they are going to have. Case in point right here in the US with the polygamists in the west.  This inequality kills millions of women. Despite repeated promises, actions and goals on an international and national level, the mortality rate for mothers has only been marginally reduced in low income countries during the last 20 years. Every day, EVERY DAY, around 20,000 women and children die, from poor or non-existent healthcare for mothers. That’s about 7.5 million women and children every year.

The lack of political goodwill, resources and effective action, result in the majority of the women of the world being subjected to unacceptable risks where their lives are at stakes during each pregnancy. And yet, we know what needs to be done!

Today, there is an International forum in Stockholm, Sweden regarding this issue. They have 3 major goals with high priority that they want to accomplish:

Strengthen women’s positions. A great number of the women in the world today live in poverty and are at a social and economical disadvantage. Girls must have access to education. Women must be given the opportunities to own land and property, to earn money and participate in the business world and politics. Politicians, authorities, companies, organizations and religious groups must, to a much greater extent, pass on the message of womens’ rights.

Increase the availability of sexual and reproductive services. According to calculations done by the World Bank, the number of women who die during pregnancy and labor could be reduced by 74% through extended healthcare for mothers, and if women were given access to much needed birthing care, such as bloodpressure reducing medication, antibiotics, suction tools during birth, c-sections and blood transfusions. Abortions are of course never a preferred method of birth control, but those women who do not have access to other types of birth control or are victims of rape often see abortions as their only last resort. These abortions are often done under dangerous conditions. In some countries these dangerous abortions are responsible for about 40% of the maternal death rates.

Increase the availability of preventive birth control. Access to birth control could reduce the maternal dealth rates by 25-35%. Every woman must have access to, and decide for herself, which birth control method she is most comfortable with. Young women must also be given access to confidential information and advice.

With the help of well thought-through and goal oriented measures, the maternal death rates could even be almost irradicated.  Numbers and experiences from countries in Europe show this.

People must have the opportunity to have their voices heard. We cannot let morality and destructive cultural practices decide the fate of women and children. 

The maternal death rate of today is simply unacceptable. As women, we have to make our voices heard for our sisters in countries where their voices are silenced, and where their worth is lower than the animals on their farms. We need to educate the men in their societies and make them see sense.

Contact your state representatives today and ask them what they are doing to help the mothers of the world.

Elisabeth Fritzl and her children send message to their town

“We, the whole family, want to thank everyone for their interest in our fate. Your empathy has been a tremendous help to get through this difficult time, and shows us that – after all – there are good and honest people in this world. We hope that the time will come when we can return to living a normal life.”

This is the greeting that Elisabeth Fritzl and her children sent to the inhabitants of Amstetten today.

On a big poster mounted in the window of a store in the town square Elisabeth and the children have drawn pictures of their hands with messages to the general public.  On one hand, Elisabeth herself wrote, “My wish: that my daughter Kerstin will get better.”

Meanwhile, in Austria, another family tragedy has been unveiled. In one of the more affluent parts of Vienna a man yesterday murdered not only his parents and father-in-law, but also his wife and 7 year old daughter. His weapon of choice was an axe. His wife’s partially covered body was found in a bath, and his daughter’s body was found in the closet, where she was probably trying to hide from her monstruous father.

One can’t help but wonder what the hell is going on over there.

Daughter of incest monster “never wants to see his face again”

Understandable, don’t you agree?

While Josef Fritzl is now facing life in prison for the murder of his baby son (who died three days after being born and who did not get the medical attention he needed because Josef did not want to be near his daughter as she gave birth, and whom he burned in his furnace), Elisabeth is making tremendous progress every day, spending time with her children and her mom. One of the first things she said to her rescuers, however, was “I never want to see his face again.” For her sake, I hope he is locked up for the rest of his life, and in solitary confinement for that matter.

What is going through her mother, Rosemarie’s head at this point? How do you reconcile the fact that you have spent your entire adult life married to a monster? How does Rosemarie cope with the fact that the man she married raped and abused her own daughter, right below her feet, for 24 years without her knowing? Does she look back, realizing the signs were there all along, or can she truly say she was completely in the dark all those years?

These women, and the children, are going to need some serious help for many years to come. I just hope it’s not too late.

 

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier..

A paedophile who molested an 11-year-old girl escaped jail yesterday when a judge ruled the victim had “welcomed” his advances. I kid you not.

British Judge Robert Atherton triggered outrage when he told Manchester Crown Court the child had invited Jon Dixon’s attack as she had a “sexual awareness” that would make someone twice her age blush.

The judge rejected an assessment by the probation service that Dixon, 20, posed a “high risk of serious harm to children”.

The court heard that the pair met in an internet chatroom in February last year where the girl was posing as a 20-year-old.

Dixon and his victim exchanged 900 text graphic messages over a two-week period before the girl told Dixon she was actually aged 12 – although her real age was 11.

He continued to pursue her with more graphic sexual text messages, emails and a request for pornographic photos before they met.

‘It was clear the defendant’s attitude and intentions towards her had not changed despite her saying she was only 12,’ said the Prosecutor.

On March 15 last year Dixon met the girl during her school lunch break and sexually assaulted her. Two days later they met again when Dixon tried unsuccesfully to rape her in an alleyway.

Now, the Judge is basically saying the 11 year old girl brought it on herself, and that it was her own fault she was sexually assaulted. Oh, and the pedophile is free to go out there and do it again. In fact, he practically has a written invitation with his get-out-of-jail-free pass that he just handed in and which was so readily accepted.

Unbe-frickin-lievable.

Now Incest Monster says he “knew he did wrong”

Why am I not surprised? He has probably figured out, finally, that he is actually in deep trouble right now. So, what to do? Well.. make excuses of course!

His excuse for forcing himself on his daughter, and locking her up in a smelly, dark basement for 24 years while fathering 7 children with her through rape? The answer will stun you:

Out of all his kids with his wife, she looked most like his mother…

His mother, you see, (and I’m rolling my eyes here) was a person he loved and (shudder) lusted after. She was a disciplinarian, a controlling matron, and the woman he admired and loved most in the whole world. And although she punished him by beating him, he felt she was amazing. While he was still fairly little, she through his father out for being a cheating scoundrel. From then on, Josef was the “man of the house”, while still very much under his mom’s control. According to him, she made him what he is. Excuses, excuses.

The reason he raped his daughter he credits to a “need, an addiction”. He did not use protection.

“The truth is, I wanted to have children with Elisabeth” he says. “I was very happy to have them. It was a wonderful thought, that I had a wife and kids in the basement.”

I just bet it was.

“Elisabeth was different from her siblings, he says. She liked to go out and spend time with friends, she drank alcohol and stayed out late.”  Josef wanted to keep her “safe” from that type of life, so he imprisoned her. You see how it makes sense, right? NOT!!!

Then, as the days and weeks went by, the thought of releasing her became harder and harder to contemplate. Partly because he had a cushy situation, but mostly because, as a narcissist of the highest order, he didn’t want to end up in trouble, didn’t want to make his own life miserable.

Well, guess what … his cushy days are over. And, of course, .. that “insanity plea”.. he just threw that one out. Admitting that he knew what he did was wrong, shows that his actions were those of a “sane man”. I put those two words in quotation marks, because while he is not insane, there is also nothing sane about him, and he is in no way a man.

Incest Monster defends himself – “I could have killed them you know”

Apparently, according to Josef Fritzl, a monster that defies description, he did the kids and Elisabeth a favor by keeping them in the basement. And we should not have any illusions about what COULD have happened to them, had he not been “kind enough” to take Kerstin, the 19 year old daughter who fell ill, to hospital.  “I could have killed them all. Nothing would have happened then. Nobody would have found out, and I wouldn’t be where I am today. Without me, Kerstin would be dead today. I was kind enough to take her to hospital.”

This man does NOT regret what he did. The narcissism this man must be dosing himself up on, on a daily basis, knows no bounds. He attacks the “onesided picture” the media is painting of him, and hails himself as the childrens’ saviour.

What’s telling though, is that nobody from Mr. Fritzl’s two families have shown ANY interest in visiting him in jail. Which is understandable considering they must be INCREDIBLY ashamed to be associated with this monster, this devil. The press in Europe are dubbing him “Europe’s most hated man”. I think that might begin to describe how people feel about the scum.

Will the children of the horror house ever recover?

Having spent their entire childhood in cramped quarters without EVER seeing the sun, can Elisabeth Fritzl’s two oldest children ever recover? Can they process the neglect that they have suffered, in such a way that they don’t feel full of hatred? Can they ever reconcile the fact that the first 18 and 19 years of their lives were wasted, lost forever? Some experts do not seem to think so.

“The wounds will more than likely never heal, not even after years of therapy” pediatrician Ulrich Fegeler says.

“These victims of incest will carry the scars with them for the rest of their lives” says psykologist Gerald Kral. He also thinks the process of working through the ordeal will take years. Dr. Fegeler expects the two oldest children might never recover.

In the meantime, Elisabeth is keeping strong for everyone, refusing to be a victim and amazing everyone who comes in contact with her. She is taking care of all her children, AND her mother, in the hospital ward they all share. Between her and her mom, they are cooking both breakfast and dinner every day. All the while, Kerstin, the 19 year old daughter who was brought to the hospital and unwittingly uncovered the travesty, is starting to get better, although she is still kept sedated.

The children are playing together, and they are taking each day as it comes. But at night, Felix, the youngest of the three who were held prisoners with their mom, and Stefan, the 18 year old son who has spent his entire life in the basement, wake up screaming in panic and find it hard to relax. What nightmares could be plaguing them? Dreams about monsters suddenly have a whole new meaning…

May they find peace, and soon. The world’s thoughts and prayers are with them.