Why Is It ...

… that as I get older I no longer dislike Mondays … I dislike the whole week.

… that I used to fall asleep and lay in one position the entire night. Now I rotate like a rotisserie chicken every fifteen minutes or a hip hurts.

… that when people say, ‘Bob you are out of fucking control,’ I hear ‘Bob, you are such a free spirit.’

… that more often than not I find out without even getting the chance to fuck around.

… that people need constant reminding that no matter how they feel about me, there’s nothing they can do.

… that after work I was so excited to get that raise. I mean, it was in medication dosage, but I’ll take any win I can get.

… that some people think I have no self control. I have actually cooked meals for men I should have poisoned but didn’t.

… that people need to learn that I may not put the sparkle in their eyes, but I will put the WTF wrinkles in your forehead.

… that I think the best way to get over somebody is with your car.

… that people don’t realize my social media posts are not targeted at anyone in particular, but if you feel offended I’m glad I could reach one person.

The Lyrica Made Him Gay

Sometimes it’s just too obvious….

Over there to England, Scott Purdy, a 23-year-old man, claimed that he was turned gay after his doctor prescribed the painkiller Pregbalin, also known as Lyrica.

Purdy appeared on the British TV show This Morning and told the hosts the story of how he began taking the drug after an injury and lost all attraction to his girlfriend and found himself attracted to men; when he stopped taking the drug, his attraction came back.

The show invited Dr. Ranj Singh on to discuss Purdy’s story, and when asked if painkillers can turn someone gay, Singh, who is gay himself, said what we all already know:

“In very simple terms, I’m going to say no.”

But Singh wasn’t quite done:

“I’m going to be as pragmatic about this as I can. First and foremost, I think it’s great that you’re happy. I think that’s the most important thing here. For a small proportion of people, you can get alteration in your sexual function,” he explained. “And that could be your desire or your ability to achieve an erection or have an orgasm. Most people tend to get loss of libido but some people tend to get the opposite where they have heightened sexual desire.”

And then he dropped the bomb:

“Either way, what it probably does, is allow you to be able to express what is already there. All it has done is allow you to be your true self, which is okay, because these feelings were probably already there…If you’re happy that’s a good thing.”

In other words, you’re queer, dear.

PS Interestingly enough, Purdy’s own parents say they always believed he was bisexual and know that he’d had a sexual relationship with another man long before taking Lyrica.

Oh, Scott, come on out already.

Daily Mail UK

photo credit Tom Maddick

Huckabee Outdoes Mama Grizzly Bore™ In Stupidity

It used to be that the Mama Grizzly Bore™ was the go-to-gal for GOP idiocy — like when she stood strong over Phil Robertson’s racist and homophobic GQ interview while admitting she actually hadn’t read it; I guess that’s one of the newspapers and magazines that doesn’t cross her desk as she so famously told Katie Couric back in her Ott-Seven failed Veep bid.

But now the MGB™ has a new foe in the Stupidity Department and his name is Mike Huckleberry Huckabee.

Here’s the back story: Y’all remember the case of Terri Schiavo, who was pronounced brain dead and whose husband wanted to ‘let her go’ by removing her from life support, but whose parents wanted to keep her around. The "pro-life" movement got involved in that case making it national news, and now they’re in on the case of Jahi McMath, a teenager who is now brain dead after a tonsillectomy.

As the wingnuts did with Schiavo — and without any actual medic al knowledge — they are now disputing the diagnoses of McMath’s doctor’s and calling anyone who thinks McMath should be allowed to die gracefully and peacefully “murderers.”

Enter Mike Huckabee: on his FoxNews show last week, Huckabee continued to dispense medical advice — of which he has none — and then compared the notion of taking Jahi McMath off life support to abortions. Oh, yeah, and to the Holocaust, too.

Huckabee talked about the judge who extended the period of time for McMath to remain on support by calling it more time for the family to prove that Jahi is "worth attempting to save." And then he continued to call McMath’s tonsillectomy "botched" though there is no suggestion by anyone with medical knowledge or experience that that is the case; still, Huckabee, in his infinite, though uncredentialed, medical opinion, maintains that assertion.

Then, tugging at the heartstrings of his Fox minions, he emotionally told the story of how McMaths’ doctors wanted to take her off life support "just a couple of days before Christmas" and then played a video of Sam Singer, the hospital spokesman, talking about the case, and asked that his audience “listen closely” as Springer told reporters that the family hadn't been able to find another long term care facility to "accept the deceased body on the ventilator".

Now, while that sounds harsh, what Singer said is the correct medical and legal terminology in cases like that of Jahi McMath. And while Huckabee made great mention of that part of the statement he seemed to downplay the fact that Singer also called the case a "sad tragedy," and said that if a facility was found, the hospital would do all it could, medically and legally, to help the family."

Huckabee then added:

"Every life has value and worth. There is no such person who is disposable, one whose life has been deemed by others to be less than others and therefore expendable, I can't share that. The road that starts that way in deciding that some lives have less value and are unworthy of protection, that leads to a culture that tolerates the undeserved killing of over 55 million unborn children in this country. It leads to China's birth policy that limits the number of children for a family and enforces forced abortion if they deviate from the state-determined ideal."

Yes, he compared the saga of a young girl, left brain dead to abortions; but then, as his ilk in the GOP are apt to do, he trotted out the Nazis:

"It's also that culture that allowed the Nazis to hideously justify the savage slaughter of millions of Jews, disabled people, old people and those with mental illness. Let's hope and pray that the courts continue to do what every court should do, respect parents over government, family over hospitals and, above all, protect Jahi from them all."

Now, let’s see, while there is no evidence, nor any suggestion of evidence, that there was any incompetence on the part of the hospital, Huckabee, Not-A-Doctor-But-He-Plays-One-On-His-Dumbass-Fox-Show, supports the parent’s view that the operation was not done correctly. He then suggests that families be given preference over medical experts; this could actually lead to parents, medical laymen actually, who say their religion does not allow certain types of medical care, to withhold that care which is, as many courts have agreed, a form of child abuse. 

Huckabee then ALLEGED — because he has no proof or any medical degree — that the hospital was both uncaring and wrong when, in reality, they did their best to provide Jahi with proper care, until she met the legal requirement for declaration of death.

But the Nazis? Really Huck?As he lumped the gassing of Jews with a woman's legal right to abortion, and then tossed in his unproven theory that the medical experts who cared Jahi were comparable to Nazis, he sinks even lower on the humanity scale; he is beneath contempt.

This is a sad, sad case. My heart goes out to the family of Jahi McMath for all that they’ve gone through, and will continue to endure. But to have a politician take this and turn it into a campaign for the pro-life movement, to compare doctors to Nazis, is the lowest of the low.

And Mike Huckabee should be ashamed of himself. He has a right to his opinion that Jahi McMath should be kept on life support forever, if need be, if Jahi McMath was his child. But he is not related to her in any way, and only has an opinion because it gives him another opportunity to pander to his wingnut base.

Shame on him.

source

Doctor Refuses To Give Man His HIV Medications

The Hippocratic Oath is historically taken by physicians, physician assistants' and other healthcare professionals swearing to practice medicine ethically. It is widely believed to have been written by Hippocrates, often regarded as the father of western medicine. 

This is the widely used modern version of the oath, as written by Dr. Louis Lasagna in 1964:

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not", nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, be respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Keep that oath in mind......

Joao Simoes is a gay man; he is also HIV+. And he is suing the Trinitas Medical Center in New Jersey because, he says, the hospital denied him treatment and a visit from his sister, and that a doctor, upon learning that Simoes was HIV+, said, "This is what he gets for going against God's will."

Simoes says Dr. Susan Borga approached him while he was confined to the hospital's mental health wing. He watched as she spoke nonchalantly with one man who told her that he'd just gotten out of prison after serving time for murder, but her reaction to him was entirely different. Simoes told her of his HIV status, and Dr. Borga asked how he contracted HIV.

Simoes said, simply, "I got it from unprotected sex."

It was then, that Joao Simoes says Dr. Borga closed his file, put it down and looked at plaintiff with disgust on her face and asked, coldly, "Is that from sex with men?"

When he said 'Yes' Dr. Borga left the room.

After that, no nurse or doctor came to see Simoes, even though he needed to take his HIV medication. It wasn't until the third day of his stay that Simoes was allowed to call his personal physician, and it was then that he learned that Dr. Borga had already spoken to his doctor.

When Simoes' doctor told Borga about his HIV medications, she allegedly said: "You must be gay, too, if you're his doctor."

In court documents, Simoes' doctor says that, when Borga realized he had an accent, she said, "What, do you need a translator?"

He quietly responded, again, that Joao Simoes needed his HIV medications, and that's when Borga said, "This is what he gets for going against God's will" and hung up on him.
Let me say this: I don't smoke. Never have. I cannot stand the smell of cigarette smoke. But, if I were a doctor, would I tell a patient with lung cancer that they got what they deserve?

Would I tell an alcoholic with cirrhosis of the liver that the disease is all their fault?

Would I tell an obese man I couldn't help him with his heart problems or diabetes because he brought this on himself?

I get that Dr. Borga has a religious viewpoint, but she is also a doctor.

She needs top pick one over the other.

And, from this story, I’d suggest she give up medicine and join a convent.

source

Johnson & Johnson Doesn't Care If People Die.......It's All About Profits

You gotta love Big Business. Tax breaks, bail outs, billions in profits.

People dying.

Oh, yeah, that last part may not be included in the quarterly report to shareholders, but it's true.

It seems that monster pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson,  is refusing to participate in the Medicines Patent Pool, which is designed to lower the prices of HIV medicines and increase access to them for people in the developing world.

Profits. It's all about profits.

From Doctor's Without Borders:
"Johnson & Johnson, which holds patents on three key new HIV drugs desperately needed throughout the developing world, has so far refused to license these patents to the Medicines Patent Pool. The Pool has been set up to increase access to more affordable versions of HIV drugs, including fixed-dose combinations that include multiple medicines in one pill, and to develop much-needed pediatric HIV drugs.The Pool would license patents on HIV drugs to other manufacturers and the resulting competition would dramatically reduce prices, making them much more affordable in the developing world. However, since the Pool is voluntary it will only work if patent holders like Johnson & Johnson choose to participate."

Johnson & Johnson holds the patents on the HIV medicines rilpivirine, darunavir, and etravirine. Rilpivirine is a promising antiretroviral, under development for use in first-line treatment regimens, while darunavir and etravirine are important for patients who have developed resistance to their existing treatment.

And, even though Johnson & Johnson offers "reduced access pricing," the cost of these drugs is out of reach of many in the world's least-developed countries--many of those in sub-Saharan Africa. The cost of darunavir and etravirine alone runs more than $2,000 a year in countries where $2000 is what one might earn in a lifetime. Developing countries pay even higher prices.

Last December, the National Institutes of Health, which holds the intellectual property rights for a manufacturing process for darunavir, put its patent for the AIDS drug in the patent pool. Johnson & Johnson holds the drug’s remaining patents, and is effectively blocking other companies from manufacturing and making darunavir available at prices affordable for patients in the developing world.

Blocking the manufacturing of a drug that could save some people's lives. For profit.

Please go HERE, to the Stop AIDS Campaign and sign the letter asking Johnson & Johnson to join the Patent Pool.

source

Oscar Gets New Feet

This just in, from Round-The-Way-Gay, and ISBL correspondent, Neal:


A cat named Oscar, whose back feet were severed by a combine harvester--I know........YEEOW!--has been given two prosthetic limbs in a pioneering operation by Noel Fitzpatrick, a British veterinarian. The new feet are custom-made implants that "peg" the ankle to the foot, and are bioengineered to mimic the way deer antler bone grows through the skin.
Oscar was referred to Fitzpatrick by his local vet in Jersey, following the accident last October when Oscar was struck by the combine harvester whilst dozing in the sun.
The prosthetic pegs, called intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics [ITAPS] were developed by a team from University College London led by Professor Gordon Blunn and his team, who worked in partnership with Fitzpatrick to develop these weight-bearing implants.
Mr Fitzpatrick explained: "The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone...[and]...We have managed to get the bone and skin to grow into the implant and we have developed an 'exoprosthesis' that allows this implant to work as a see-saw on the bottom of an animal's limbs to give him effectively normal gait."
You go Oscar!
And watch him go!
But stay away from naps in the fields and combines.

Breakthrough

Good news on the HIV/AIDS front.

Scientists in the North Carolina have decoded the overall structure of the HIV virus genome that causes AIDS in humans. This breakthrough should help develop strategies for combating the virus with new anti-viral drugs.

"We are beginning to understand tricks the genome uses to help the virus escape detection by the human host," said Kevin Weeks, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the study's main architect.

Like the viruses that cause influenza and hepatitis C, HIV carries its genetic information in single-strand RNA rather than the double strand DNA found in all living organisms and certain viruses. This make is more difficult to decode because, unlike DNA, RNA is able to fold itself into intricate, three-dimensional patterns. This new study should help scientists discover ways in which the RNA genome determines the lifecycle of the HIV virus.

"One approach is to change the RNA sequence and see if the virus notices," said Ronald Swanstrom, a microbiologist at UNC and a co-author of the study. "If it doesn't grow as well when you disrupt the virus with mutations, then you know you've mutated or affected something that was important to the virus."

Science fiction, science fact.

AIDS first came to public notice in 1981, when alert US doctors noted an unusual cluster of deaths among young homosexuals in California and New York. It has since killed at least 25 million people, and 33 million others are living with the disease or the HIV virus.

That's right.

Nearly 1 million people a year, worldwide, have died from complication of AIDS.

This is a big breakthrough.