Bible is Clear: A Fetus is NOT a Life

I came across Exodus 21:22-25 while performing research for my rebuttal to a reply by C_Andy_3. I would like to thank C_Andy_3 for the discussion that led to my discovery of this passage.

Old Testament quote, emphasis mine (thanks to Mechon Mamre for the RaMBaM translation):

22 And if men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow, he shall be surely fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23 But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

This clearly states that the fetus was not a life. In fact, it indicates that a miscarriage could be caused without causing harm. The loss of the fetus can be compensated by mere money. After that, if there is harm, it is life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, ….

Abstinence is a Sin!

First, let me be clear. I am not joking about this. I am being as serious as an atheist who believes that real sin lies only in harming others can be on the subject. For religious readers, if I have any, I hope this encourages thought and dialog. I welcome all serious responses regardless of whether we agree on the topic.

So, here are my points about why I believe abstinence is sinful from both a biblical standpoint and more importantly to me why abstinence only education and the encouragement of abstinence pledges and the like are inherently sinful.

UN Predicts: Global Food Crisis 2013

I’m sure many who read my blog have been convinced for a while that I’m somewhat of a fear monger with respect to climate change and overpopulation. Perhaps. Before you make up your mind, read this:

UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013

The figures come as one of the world’s leading environmentalists issued a warning that the global food supply system could collapse at any point, leaving hundreds of millions more people hungry, sparking widespread riots and bringing down governments. In a shocking new assessment of the prospects of meeting food needs, Lester Brown, president of the Earth policy research centre in Washington, says that the climate is no longer reliable and the demands for food are growing so fast that a breakdown is inevitable, unless urgent action is taken.

Good thing climate change is just a hoax. Dig hole in sand. Insert head. Fill in hole. Ignorance is bliss.

“Armed aggression is no longer the principal threat to our future. The overriding threats to this century are climate change, population growth, spreading water shortages and rising food prices,” Brown says.

A Vote For Obamacare

Obamacare gets my vote: Romney and Ryan’s alternative nearly killed me

Under the influence of the painkiller Dilaudid, and dog-tired after another day of fighting for my life with my private health insurance company, I glimpsed Mitt Romney and his running-mate, Paul Ryan, entering my Los Angeles hospital room dressed in surgical gowns with scalpels in their hands ready to fatally operate on me.

It was a drug-induced hallucination, of course. But the mirage made me sit bolt upright in bed and, fully awake, start to rethink my previous, bitterly dissenting view of Barack Obama.

Repugnican Anti-Choice Asshole is Pro-Choice When It’s His Bastard

Did I get enough shock value in that headline? I certainly hope so.

Scott DesJarlais, Pro-Life Republican Congressman And Doctor, Pressured Mistress Patient To Get Abortion

One could debate the ethics of a doctor having an affair with a patient. The answer is likely that it depends on the case. No one is suggesting that this case was anything but consensual. In this case though, it’s just a start. This shithead then went on to pressure the woman he impregnated to have an abortion. IMNSHO, women should be free to make that choice on their own without undue influence. But, that’s not bad enough. This Republican member of congress claims that abortion is murder. He fights against abortion rights. Well, he does unless it’s his illegitimate fetus.

Can one get any more hypocritical than this? Is it possible?

Open Letter to Politicians Re: Climate Change Urgency & Carbon Tax

250 million years ago, this planet suffered the greatest mass extinction of multicellular life in the long history of the planet. The ocean conveyor current stopped. The ocean became anoxic, meaning it had little or no oxygen. Fish died; sulfur producing bacteria thrived. As the anoxic layer of the ocean reached the surface, hydrogen sulfide gas was released into the atmosphere in toxic quantities. The sky turned green. The mass extinction was brought onto land.

95% of all species on the planet died. This was due to global warming.*

Impeach Congressman Paul Broun

Congressman Paul Broun has publicly stated that he is deliberately failing to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States of America. As such, he should be forcibly removed from office for the failure to follow his oath of office. Here is a direct quote from this idiot who has proclaimed that the earth is 9,000 years old, and that evolution, the big bang theory, and embryology are lies straight from the pit of hell.

As you congressman, I hold the holy bible as being the major directions to me for how I vote in Washington DC. And, I’ll continue to do that.

Paul Broun’s act of legislating based on his personal religious beliefs is in direct contradiction to this famous quote.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….

Monsanto Addresses Overpopulation!

Great news! Someone is dealing with the biggest environmental problem in the world. Most environmental groups won’t even say the word. But, Monsanto is actively addressing the real issue, the cause of climate change, ocean acidification, overfishing, deforestation, all forms of pollution, world hunger, and possibly even war.

Monsanto has taken it upon themselves to address overpopulation.

This is great news folks. If we do not limit our population, nature will limit it for us … mercilessly. So, when I read this, I was thrilled.

GMO Technology: Glyphosate Toxicity Leaving Men Sterile

Excuse Me, I’m Looking for 144 Million Idiots …

… oh … never mind. I found them.

In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins

Remember folks, if you do not believe in evolution, you do not believe in modern medicine.

Contraception: Preventing Deaths Since 1850 BCE

Apparently, there are now people making the utterly ludicrous claim that contraception kills.

See: ‘Contraception Kills’

I should note that I am specifically responding to this quote from the FFRF blog post, not the one about the pill and cancer:

Midway through the rally, a glassy-eyed man with an infant came up to me, held up the baby, and solemnly told me: “Contraception would have killed her.”

In some cases, people really do seem to think that not conceiving a child is the same as killing one. Somewhat humorously, they do not seem to make the same claim about abstinence in general, or more specifically about the priests and nuns who disobey God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.” (Actually, this may be a mistaken translation. I believe the original quote was “be useful and multiplex.”)

However, pointing out hypocrisies like priests, nuns, and religious murderers who let their own children die rather than use modern medicine to treat obviously treatable conditions like diabetes will only be a sidebar to this discussion.

The real point will of this post is the obvious fact that every person ever born has died or will die. No one gets out alive. Therefore, 100% of all human deaths have as the root cause conception.

Contraception prevents death.

For the purposes of this post, I am going to assume that those who mistakenly claim that contraception rather than conception causes death are the same induhviduals who believe life begins at conception. It seems a fair assumption. So, for those folks, I would point out not only that about 80% of all fertilized eggs “die” without implanting in the womb, but all of the others die as well. Every fertilized egg is a death waiting to happen, some will merely take longer than others.

So, to you religiose wackos who believe that contraception kills, I say this. Contraception has been preventing deaths since 1850 BCE. Contraception is the only means humanity has ever found to prevent death. Fairy tales won’t do it. Prayer won’t do it. Contraception succeeds where prayer fails.

Prevent death. Get a vasectomy or tubal ligation today. Not ready to make a permanent commitment to preventing death? Try contraception. Many types are quite effective at staving off the grim reaper. Ask your doctor which method is right for you.

Christ Speaks Out Against Republican Budget

Well, not actually Christ. But, some who actually read the bible are finding little or no support for the Republican budget created by Paul Ryan. They’re claiming that, while he claims to be a Christian, he is instead a follower of Ayn Rand, a renowned atheist. In fact, Ryan also claims to be a Randroid. So, how can one reconcile his Ayn Randian politics with his stated Christian beliefs? One can’t.

I, for one, am not a Christian. But, as was Jesus Christ, I am a liberal. So, just as Jesus Christ would be, I am appalled by Republican politics. Anyway, here’s a couple of good clips from the Colbert Report about the Ryan budget.

Colbert Report — Paul Ryan Budget, Pt. 1

Colbert Report — Paul Ryan Budget, Pt. 2 (Father Reese)

Bike to Work in Your SUV? — Unfortunately, Not Really Humor

SUV with built-in stationary bike: It’s like biking to work, except stupid as hell

CVS Caremark — Hates Diabetics, Hates America

I hope that shocking title will grab everyone’s attention, or at least the attention of diabetic Americans. I’ve only been on Caremark since January and am already extremely dissatisfied with them for two reasons:

1) They will only cover Novolog insulin. I have nothing against Novo Nordisk or against Denmark. But, please understand that I am a U.S. citizen living in the U.S. with a U.S. based health insurance company. And, that company will not allow me to buy my insulin from a U.S. company, Ely Lilly. Instead, they require me to buy from a Danish company, Novo Nordisk. They should cover all brands of insulin as different people get different results from the minor differences in the insulin analogs we use today. Especially in difficult economic times for the U.S., U.S. based companies should not be explicitly disallowing patronage of U.S. companies for the few things we still actually do manufacture in the U.S.

2) I was just denied coverage for my continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensors. For anyone who is not a diabetic or does not use CGM, this technology allows for testing glucose levels every 5 minutes throughout the day. While there are a lot of issues with the current level of this technology, it has quite possibly saved my life several times. Low blood sugar, in particular, can be immediately dangerous. Diabetics can go into insulin shock and die. These sensors have alerted me to very low blood sugar before I felt the affects several times in the last 4+ years since I’ve been using them. Far more often, they alert me to high blood sugar. While high blood sugar is generally not immediately dangerous, the long term affects of high blood sugar are both devastating and costly. They include at a minimum blindness, loss of limb, kidney failure, heart disease, neurological damage and severe constant pain, and impotence.

So, while the sensors may not technically be life-sustaining, they actually can prevent death and severe diabetic complications.

If you are a diabetic and have any choice in prescription drug plans, do not choose CVS Caremark.

Medco was far better. They all suck. But, Caremark is the worst I’ve encountered. If you are not a diabetic, I would still recommend against Caremark partially just to make the statement to them that if they want to remain in business, they should provide rather than deny health care. Also, since it’s probably impossible to really find out what will be covered in advance, I would suggest that it’s a good bet that if they treat diabetics so poorly, they probably aren’t singling us out. They probably treat all of their patients poorly.

I do plan to appeal this. However, I will be off of Caremark soon. So, really we’re talking about 3 orders. Still, at $420 per order, this is not an insignificant sum.

I should have moved to a civilized country years ago.

To Breed Or Not To Breed, That Is The Question

When Population Connection posted this on their official Facebook page, they warned of strong language. If 4 shits and a fuck are too much for you, you’ve come to the wrong blog. The cursing is neither particularly offensive nor in high enough quantity to detract from the content, IMNSHO.

We Have Enough Humans, Thanks.

The Last Taboo

The old elephant is still hanging around the room … has been getting bigger … and is getting seriously pissed off. But, can we mention the elephant yet? For most of us, the answer is no. As usual, Mother Jones created a great cover for this one.

Population: The Last Taboo

Spill Baby Spill

As I write this, a huge catastrophe is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. 5,000 barrels (200,000 gallons) of oil per day are spilling into the gulf and wreaking tremendous environmental devastation.

Rather than detailing this particular catastrophe that is so forefront in the news these days, I would like to point out something even more important. This is a catastrophe. This was an accident. No one meant for it to happen.

However, oil spills are not only foreseeable, they are an inevitable consequence of our horrifyingly devastating substance abuse and addiction.

Yes We Can’t

The following is an open letter to President Obama, which I also sent to his office via the interface on whitehouse.gov. Thanks to my friend Jan for the help editing the text.

Before reading the letter below, please understand that I am still very glad that we have Obama in office rather than McCain with Palin a heartless non-beat away from the presidency. I still think we’re better off without “bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran” McCain or worse, much much worse, his running mate Caribou Barbie. That said, I am still also very disappointed in results we’ve been getting from President Obama. I, for one, am feeling very short-changed.

So, without further preamble, here is the letter I sent to Mr. Obama.

Dear President Obama,

How sweet those words sounded just a bit over a year ago. During your campaign you promised change. We were thrilled that you won the election and eagerly anticipated a new era. A year later and with a Nobel Peace Prize behind you, alas there has been precious little change.

Artificial Pancreas with current CGM technology?

My doctor has lately been telling me that Minimed/Medtronic is going to close the loop very soon now in providing an artificial pancreas based on today’s CGM and pump technology. Given my own experience, as well as the responses I’ve gotten to my post Continuous Glucose Monitoring with Medtronic/MiniMed Updated, I find this rather difficult to believe. I’m curious whether anyone reading this blog would actually trust their lives to CGM technology telling your pump how much to pump, removing yourself from the loop. However, this peer reviewed article seems to confirm his comments.

Personally, even if I have a way to override this, I would be very uncomfortable with it. For starters, I find the device to accurately track my blood glucose about 80-90% of the time at most. Then, there’s the issue of the 15-20 minute lag. Further, I sometimes have issues with slow insulin absorption, especially during long drives. Unless they combine this with their old implantable pump technology that delivers insulin into the renal vein and unless they find a way to continuously monitor blood glucose rather than interstitial glucose, I think I’m going to have to pass on this.

MoJo gives away aluminum bottles to combat Fiji Water

Despite an intensely green image, Fiji water is among the least environmentally and socially conscious waters on the planet. All bottled water is bad, especially in areas like the U.S. that have potable and frequently tested tap water. Note that water brands that are actually pure spring water are not required to test their quality at all, though most do at far lower frequencies than public tap water is tested.

Still, Fiji water has remained immune to the outpouring (so to speak) of attention that at least the environmentalists are giving to the issue of bottled water with all of its plastic waste and CO2 emissions from trucking it around the country (or worse, shipping it halfway around the world).

Check out this great Mother Jones cover that really gets the point across.

Insulin Infusion Set First Day Blues?

I’m curious if anyone else is having trouble with high blood sugars on the first day of a new infusion set. I have noticed an issue with this, despite gradually increasing my fixed prime over time. I notice that on the first day of an infusion set it appears to take some time for the site to really begin to absorb the insulin.