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.