The Desert of the Real

So, more has come out about this vaccine itself that I wanted to comment on beyond Rick Perry’s unbelievable bypass of the legislative process.

First, the diseases which it is supposed to prevent has a gestation period of at least 8-12 years, and some say as many as 20 years, but the longest study subject was only followed for four years. They tested fewer than 2000 girls 9-15 and only by testing for a development of antibodies – there is no actual evidence that it prevents anything. There have been reports of loss of consciousness, seizures, arthritis, and other neurological problems in girls who have received the shot. 82 reports in the last 6 months alone from 21 states. All but 3 were for events that occurred within one week of vaccination and more than 60% occurred within 24 hours. Consider too that the median age of women diagnosed with cervical cancer is 48, leaving no evidence that cervical cancer can be prevented by vaccinating pre-teen girls.

Update:
This is from Merck’s own information that comes with the vaccine, on the bottom of page 8:
“GARDASIL has not been evaluated for the potential to cause carcinogenicity or genotoxicity.”
and on page9
“However, it is not known whether GARDASIL can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or if it can affect reproductive capacity.”

Wow. Yet they expect us to line up our daughters to be injected with it? Rick Perry thinks it is a good idea to MANDATE that we all do it?
Merck itself admits it doesn’t know how long it protects you, (if it protects at all). The CDC statest hat there are more than 100 strains of HPV and over 30 are sexually transmitted. Yet the vaccine mandated now covers only four of them. At least 30% of cervical cancers can’t be prevented by this vaccine.

Worse yet, statistically the duration of being positive for HPV is shorter and has a much higher likelihood of clearing among younger women. 70% of women clear the virus on their own after 18 months, and 90% clear it after 2 years. By vaccinating young girls against HPV with a vaccine whose efficiency and duration is completely unknown might only postpone their exposure to it until an age when they can no longer fight it effectively and unable to clear it on their own.

So why would we do this? Because Merck stands to make a killing. The retail cost is $360 for the series. According to the bill’s author there are 162,000 6th grade girls, which means 58 million dollars in revenue before even adding in the doctor’s fees—all for a vaccine that is not even proven to prevent cervical cancer. For a cancer that kills less than 400 people/year thanks to regular screenings. This is not about what is good for Texas or about the children, it’s about what is good for Merck, what’s good for Doctors, and what is good for Rick Perry.

I have seen others post that it can’t be that bad, you can file an affidavit to get an exemption. However, that is a vast oversimplification. Private and parochial schools don’t have to accept it. Physicians don’t have to accept it, and will often refuse you treatment if you don’t have all state mandated vaccines. Some insurance companies discriminate against you if you don’t have them all. And of course the process itself is a nightmare which requires written requests to the health dept with full disclosure of your children’s personal information, which you then have to get a confirmation back from. This can cause disruptions in school attendance while waiting for the government to get off their rear. Then, you have to do it again and again, every 2 years.

Often when I talk about the importance of not having superfluous laws, and particularly speak against potential abuses of laws I get back that police and prosecutors would never do something like that. There is a presumption that seems automatic with most people that that the people we place in authority would never abuse their power—despite the fact that history shouts at the top of her lungs that this is not so.

In today’s Dallas Morning News we have yet another example. Four years ago Texas was having trouble with people avoiding paying tickets for alleged red-light running by covering their plates with reflective surfaces that prevented the cameras from being able to read their plate. Normal viewing was fine, but the cameras at red lights and toll plazas didn’t work.

So the state legislature passed a law. It was a horrible law. It has been through the courts, but sadly was upheld as constitutional despite the fact that the judges lamented how poorly it was written and how wide open it was. After upholding such stupid ideas as seat belt laws though I am not sure how they could’ve done any different.

The law states that a driver commits a misdemeanor offense punishable by a fine of up to $200 and up to six months in jail if his license plate letters numbers or other identification marks that are not plainly visible at all times during daylight because of blurring or other reflective matter. That seems fairly easy to accept—but the law goes further.

If the plate has an attached illuminated device or sticker, decal, emblem or other insignia that is not authorized by law and that interferes with the readability of the letters or numbers on the plate, or the name of the state in which the vehicle is registered.

And last but not least, has a coating, covering or protective material that distorts angular visibility or detectability o r”alters or obscures the letters or numbers on the plate, the color of the plate, or another original design feature of the plate.”

This last is the big one. See, this means that if you have any sticker of any kind, if you have the dealer plateholder still on your car, if you have a tow hitch, then you are in violation of this law. I should say, if you have a plateholder that obscures even one star, cowboy, oil rig, or any part of the word Texas, any amount of the blue border on the plate, etc then you are in violation of this law. This is most people in Texas.

Now, the intent of the law was to further punish people abusing the tollway by getting to ride for free. At the time of the law I spoke out against it, and people said I was being too cynical. That it wouldn’t be abused. However, reality demonstrates quite the opposite. Because of this law, anyone who falls under it can be pulled over, be ticketed, arrested, and/or searched without any further probable cause. My belief was that this is exactly what would happen.

According to this news article, just DPS troopers (not including city and county officers) have issued 746 traffic tickets for this since it went into effect. But in that same period, they have made 196,569 total stops in connection with the law. So most people were not ticketed, but were still pulled over. I wonder, how many of them were searched? Most importantly, how many completely innocent people were searched, and otherwise harassed by police for nothing more serious than not realizing they needed to remove the dealer plateholder from their car? I’ll note that this doesn’t make those citizens stupid. The very lawmakers that passed this law have not complied after 4 years according to this article, including the speaker of the house, and the lt governor, and the governor’s chiefs of staff.

Does this mean officers are legal? No, it means that whatever means you give them they are going to use. Just like they use seat belt laws in similar fashion. If we decide we don’t care if people are innocent until proven guilty, and pass laws demonstrating our lack of concern—then we cannot be surprised when police officers and prosecutors likewise don’t care and use those laws in this fashion. We can’t take the “I have nothing to hide” attitude. There are thousands of laws on the books. You are almost guaranteed to be violating some of them. Since ignorance of the law is not an excuse, we have every reason to be emphatic about having our right against unreasonable search and seizure safeguarded.

It is ultimately our responsibility as citizens to ensure that good laws are passed, and bad laws are defeated and/or repealed. It is our responsibility to make sure the proper boundaries are set for our law enforcement personnel—so that they know what their roles, responsibilities, and limits are when enforcing the law.

No, in this case, not for suspected terrorism. Though I suspect the government might try to level that charge at some point. In this case it is people seeking asylum from Palestine. They came here in 2001 on valid Visas, and applied for political asylum due tot he violence they faced in their homeland. During their hearing in 2003, Mr. Ibrahim apparently detailed years of harassment, threats, and beatings from Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

Despite this, the government denied their request and they were ordered deported. Since then, their attorney has made repeated attempts to have the case reopened and reconsidered, but they have always been denied. Early November of last year, government agents took the entire family into custody (husband, wife, kids ranging 5-15) excepting their 3yo daughter who was born while they were here. (She is apparently staying with Mr Ibrahim’s brother).

A week ago, the board of immigration appeals ordered their case to be reheard. No date for this has been set. Yesterday they held a bond hearing for the family, where his attorney argued he was not a flight risk, and not a danger to the community so he should be released without bond.

This is where I start to get angry. The government lawyer (Margaret Price) argued that he posed a flight risk. Why? “A loaded weapon, thousands of dollars in cash, and passports were found in the apartment.” Ok. Lets just consider this. You have a family who is here trying to immigrate, and have so far been denied. They could be deported at any time. Do you think maybe they might have passports? What about cash? Given their status, they can’t get credit, and can’t open a bank account either. They’ve got no valid id, and no social security number. What other kind of money are they supposed to have? Beyond that, the judge questioned her about the money, and she really had no idea how much money they had, just that they had cash.

And the weapon was a handgun. Of course, when pressed by the judge on this, she had to admit no actual gun laws had been broken. Apparently just owning a gun is sufficient suspicion for the government. So there you have it. If you live in this country, and you have a gun, cash, and a passport the government considers you potentially dangerous and a flight risk.

Now you can dress that up in being hypersensitivity towards his arabic nationality, however we’ve seen the same types of attitudes towards American citizens in the past so that’s just not going to hold water. The government is pulling out its standard cards in this case. The terrorism angle hasn’t even been brought into it yet—but I’m sure it will on appeal should the government choose to take that option.

Rick Perry has demonstrated that Bush’s imperialism is apparently contagious, as this week he issued a decree (aka executive order) mandating the HPV Vaccine for schoolgirls.

Now, obviously, I have a problem with the subject of the matter on its very surface. This Vaccine is relatively untested. It was only released to the public last year, and has had very few studies. We don’t know how effective it is, we don’t know how long it lasts, and most importantly we can’t be sure of long term side effects—especially on young girls. Last but certainly not least, medical decisions for children should be made by their parents, not by the state.

Beyond this though, we have the actions themselves. Rick Perry was never an ideal candidate, but I never expected anything this blatant from him. He’s obviously been spending too much time watching George Bush operate. To sidestep the entire established legislative process to avoid the throngs of parents and concerned citizens who are opposed to this to impose his will on families in this state is simply unconscionable. It is a blatant defiance of the very principles on which our government was founded—specifically that he rules at the consent of the governed. He is not our overlord, he is our representative!