All hail the mighty state
Internets, I want to share some good news with y'all today: My State of Origin, Texass, has become the first of fiddy to require that young girls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.
Yes, Texass, the state in which abstinence-only sex ed is the rule (not coincidentally leading to one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation [PDF]), the state in which the entire chapter on human sexuality was torn neatly out of the health books used by young Gleemonex's state-mandated Health Ed class in public high school. THAT Texass.
Governor Rick Perry has signed an executive order to this effect, and the requirement will kick in in the fall of 2008. Amen!
Now, the nationwide, state-by-state effort to enact legislation requiring this vaccine is bankrolled by Merck (the makers of the vaccine, called Gardasil) -- Big Pharma, yo -- which leaves Gov. Goodhair's motives less than pure. But the Gov is still going to take a whole lot of misogynist, unreasoned and unreasonable aggro bullshit from his wingnut constituents for it. And in Texass, that group is small neither in number nor in influence. It's a risk, so good on him for, well, staying bought (Merck contributed to his campaign and to PACs that lobby the TX lege).
I'm just so glad to see this happening that I'm not going to angst out over how it came to be. Now on to the other 49 ...
Yes, Texass, the state in which abstinence-only sex ed is the rule (not coincidentally leading to one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation [PDF]), the state in which the entire chapter on human sexuality was torn neatly out of the health books used by young Gleemonex's state-mandated Health Ed class in public high school. THAT Texass.
Governor Rick Perry has signed an executive order to this effect, and the requirement will kick in in the fall of 2008. Amen!
Now, the nationwide, state-by-state effort to enact legislation requiring this vaccine is bankrolled by Merck (the makers of the vaccine, called Gardasil) -- Big Pharma, yo -- which leaves Gov. Goodhair's motives less than pure. But the Gov is still going to take a whole lot of misogynist, unreasoned and unreasonable aggro bullshit from his wingnut constituents for it. And in Texass, that group is small neither in number nor in influence. It's a risk, so good on him for, well, staying bought (Merck contributed to his campaign and to PACs that lobby the TX lege).
I'm just so glad to see this happening that I'm not going to angst out over how it came to be. Now on to the other 49 ...
Labels: grudging admiration
posted by Gleemonex at 2:23 PM
4 Comments:
in the immortal words o Jay-Z: "...but even a broken clock is right at least two times a day"
And also...
Let's spread a little of the praise Merck's way, shall we?
Turns out maybe they do more than just fly around in their Gulfstreams, drink vintage port, and fleece old people out of their fixed incomes.
Hear, hear!
Blue Horseshoe Loves Merck.
Seriously, what better ad campaign is there than an executive order that requires people to use your product. Although, I've read that you can opt out for "personal or religious" reasons, so Perry isn't really forcing you to get the vaccinations with the threat of jailtime. But, if you somehow can't afford the $400 you must not love your daughter.
Pretty good marketing campaign in a pretty populated state.
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