bucketful of gee bees

i thought it was time for my first topical subject line... gay blood, camp GB, and the great brainwash. my lack of blogging lately has not correlated with a lack of shit i have to blather on about.

first on the list is the brainwash -- the insanely pervasive myth about vaccines. an episode of frontline focused on the debate (info and episode here). i have several friends currently pregnant and wondered what their views on this are. it all started when one (now known to be suspicious) study found a possible link between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism. since that study, its claims have been debunked by over a dozen other studies, and it has been shown that it cannot be replicated - a sign of a poor study. there is no link between MMR and autism.

jenny mcarthy took her son in for vaccination, and within days he had autism. that is how she remembers it, and there is no denying how someone choses to remember things. when the argument becomes "i am his mother, i know that something changed after he got that shot" it becomes irrefutable. even oprah couldn't counter that. that single flimsy study is the entire backbone of mcarthy's argument. she has enough celebrity power to make her own ridiculous fears and delusions "true" for suburban moms everywhere. she and her army keep changing their hypothesis - first, it was MMR, then it was an additive (derived from mercury), and on and on. what we are left with is pockets of the country where too many children are not immunized, thus creating the possibility of an outbreak. the concept of herd immunity was fascinating to learn about; when we all get our shots, we all are safer.

second topic - gay blood. did you know that in the US gay men cannot donate blood? if a man has had winkwink relations with another man since 1974, he is disqualified. they don't want his/my blood. since 1983, the FDA has banned gay blood. even the red cross called the ban "medically and scientifically unwarranted". this may finally be changing...

finally -- the day after returning from san diego, i went to winona, mn, for the 8th annual camp GB, a gathering of some of the most beautiful souls i have ever been lucky enough to know. we had 5 days of hot summer fun.

we rented a pontoon and went on the river, watched a backyard movie projected on a garage, painted, released the kracken, rocked some small town karokee (and got the girls all riled up), floated in the lake, and lounged as much as possible. such a gorgeous way to wrap up the summer.

don't even get me started

just heard that scientists found an enormous underwater plume of oil in the gulf (surely just one of countless others) which measures one mile by 22 miles and is sitting 1/2 a mile below the surface, just waiting for a good time to lube the beach.

i'm deep in to the back swing of school, whatever that jumble of words means. i am instantly overwhelmed but not getting stressed about it. my mind flies to recent summer memories to escape. like the day i was flying back to mpls, got to my seat on the plane to find a fussy baby in exhausted mom's lap in the middle seat and a very crabby old lady on the other side of him. i had the aisle, but after only 3 minutes of the baby kicking my leg, i leapt from my seat and tackled the flight attendant so i could upgrade to first class. holy shit was it worth it. i have only flown first class a couple of other times, magical upgrades, but only on short flights. the nearly 4-hour flight was a dream. i had not even sat in my luxurious seat when i was offered a bailey's to go with my coffee. we got cheese & crackers, a full meal, warm cookies, endless booze, actual leg room, and NO babies.

another notable from the california trip was one night when we went to hillcrest and the hilarious bar, urban mo's. we went seeking a specific purple drink that b had discovered there, but we were foiled, no such purple joy was to be found. we enjoyed our replacement drinks, then wandered inside to watch the dance floor. there was a way too fabulous queen OWNing the dance floor, we would sashay to one side flip and snap and hip bang around then take another corner. he was amazing to watch. then - beyonce's single ladies came on, and i knew he was going to rip it up. holy crap -- he started doing the video dance, the floor cleared and within seconds, he magically had 2 backup dancers. the entire bar watched hypnotized by the camp. i tried to film it, but must have double-tapped because only 2 seconds recorded...

to make it up to you, here is my nephew performing the same song...

while sprawled out in first class, enjoying my complimentary everything, the USA Today taught me that the delightful "dr" laura is an ignorant bigot and that a man in massachusetts got good news when the biopsy from the mass in his lung came back; it turned out it wasn't cancer. he had a pea sprouting in his lung.

learning is delicious