Aren't vaccines supposed to make us feel BETTER?

Why am I just NOW reading about this? Why was this not in every newspaper in the country? Even if you are not a Salon subscriber, you can read the article by choosing to view a quick ad. It is worth your time. Oh, and Bill Frist is now in the running for Most Evil Republican.

Based upon this newfound knowledge, you can bet that I will be double-checking with baby's pediatrician to ensure that Thimerosal is not being used in any more Hepatitis B / Haemophilus Influenzae B / Diptheria-Tetanus-Pertussis vaccinations.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of “vaccines,” you do know that Donald Rumsfeld holds a stake in Gilead, the company that devloped Tamiflu, that is valued at between $5 million and $25 million, don't you? And that the fears of a pandemic of avian flu has caused Gilead's stock to rise nearly 33%, making Rumsfeld another million dollars richer. And that Tamiflu is what Bush is saying we're going to spend billions of dollars on, even though it does not actually vaccinate people against contracting avian flu, right? And of course, it's old news to you that way back in APRIL, Bush signed an executive order “authorizing the government to impose a quarantine to deal with any outbreak of a particularly lethal variation of influenza now found in Southeast Asia,” even though a flu expert at Atlanta's CDC said in 2003 that “traditional efforts like quarantine would not work to control bird flu.”

(above source article published by Associated Press on April 1, 2005, begins:

    Associated Press Archive – April 1, 2005
    Bush order gives government quarantine authority if needed for bird flu
    President Bush signed an executive order Friday authorizing the government to impose a quarantine to deal with any outbreak of a particularly lethal variation of influenza now found in Southeast Asia. The order is intended to deal with a type of influenza commonly referred to as bird flu. Since January 2004, an estimated 69 people, primarily in Vietnam, have contracted the disease. But Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a flu expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said he suspects…

And you can buy it yourself by searching for April 1, 2005 and “bird flu executive order” here.)

This is why I am so unhappy with my previously much-beloved Republican party — they're all so maliciously insane that when I root to the bottom of their fetidness, their “putrescence” (thanks, honey, it is a word, and now I owe you a blow job), they make me look like I'M the crazy one.

And of course, that's how they mean it to go. The evil fucks.

39 weeks and six days

My due date is tomorrow. You should've seen my lawyer's eyes widen as I told him that during our 1:00 meeting today. Tomorrow is November 5th. Guy Fawkes Day. It would be very cool for my son to arrive tomorrow, as “Guy” was my grandpa's name, and the name I'd be known by, had I been born a boy. Of course, had I been born a boy, my father's first words to my infant self would not have been “where's the penis?” So I'd be missing out on that little bit of family history.

Actually, it seems that very few children are actually due on one's due date, which is OK, too, because My Favorite Mother ™ is arriving tomorrow evening. I've been let off the hook from picking her up — four hours in the car is just a little more than I can physically handle right now — so it'll be Brian traveling solo to Logan Airport, unless I actually *do* go into labor, in which case my friend Emily will make the trip.

I think we're all set for a houseguest, and all set for a baby (the most permanent of houseguests 🙂 — the only thing I still need to buy are some drinking straws, as apparently it is nigh impossible to drink from a cup while nursing a baby.

While shopping for last-minute houseguest items (foam egg-crate thing to render the futon more comfortable, as well as an extra pillow) this afternoon, I totally bumped my backside into a nice old man at Target's book aisle today. I apologized for my girth, which he admired, saying “Looking for a novel to help you forget your troubles?” I smiled at him and said I wasn't sure whether my troubles were just ending, or just beginning.

Guess we'll see…