Miss Vanima's blog: "political and religious shit..."

I quite literally just finished watching this Kevin Bacon movie. It made me cry. I am very much anti-war.. but not anti-military like some people have tried to make anti-war out to mean. I am a military brat. My daddy was Air Force, step-father was Marine. My uncles and cousins and father-in-law are all military. My Aunt was military. My Grand-Father was Army Air Corp. "Taking Chance" is about a military escort named Lt. Col. Michael Strobl who volunteered to escort the body of Private First Class Chance Russell Phelps home to be buried. The movie shows how much care is taken to be sure that our fallen brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers return home, even after death. The movie is touching. The movie is about a real man. A man who died when he was 19 years old. A man, who if he was living today, would be two months YOUNGER than me. Remember that even if you are anti-war, please, honor your brothers, sister, fathers, and mothers. Be sure to thank our troops and show them that you care what happens to them. To all of our troops: I salute you and I thank you for your service. To all of the families of service men and women: Continue supporting your loved one and if they are gone, I hope that they come home safe. Chance Russel Phelps July 14, 1984(1984-07-14) – April 9, 2004 (aged 19)

Marijuana Linked To Aggressive Testicular Cancer MONDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Smoking marijuana over an extended period of time appears to greatly boost a young man's risk for developing a particularly aggressive form of testicular cancer, a new study reveals. In fact, researchers found that men who smoked marijuana once a week or began to use the substance on a long-term basis while adolescents incurred double the risk for developing the fastest-spreading version of testicular cancer -- nonseminoma, which accounts for about 40 percent of all cases. "Since we know that the incidence of testicular cancer has been rising in our country and in Europe over the last 40 years and that marijuana use has also risen over the same time, it seemed logical that there might be an association between the two," said study co-author Janet Daling, an epidemiologist and member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's public health sciences division in Seattle. "And when I analyzed the data, we found a fairly strong relationship with this aggressive type of testicular cancer." No link was found between the drug and a less aggressive and more prevalent form of the disease, known as seminoma, which strikes 60 percent of testicular cancer patients. The findings were published in the Feb. 9 online issue of Cancer. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, testicular cancer is very rare, accounting for just 1 percent of cancers among American men. Nevertheless, the disease is the most common type of cancer for American men between the ages of 15 and 34, the study noted. Across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, testicular cancer rates have increased by 3 percent to 6 percent in the past half-century. That has led some researchers to suggest that the upward trend might be the product of increased exposure among young men to one or more external factors, including a simultaneous and comparable rise in the use of marijuana. Along those lines, the researchers noted that the testes could be particularly vulnerable to the effects of marijuana, given that the organ -- along with the brain, heart, uterus and spleen -- carries specific receptors for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. As well, previous human and animal research has indicated that marijuana use might lead to reduced hormonal production (particularly testosterone), poorer semen quality and impotency in men. Daling and her team explored the notion of a marijuana-testicular cancer connection by analyzing data on 369 testicular cancer patients that had been collected by the Adult Testicular Cancer Lifestyle and Blood Specimen Study. Participants were between the ages of 18 and 44, most were white or Hispanic, and all were residents of the Seattle-Puget Sound region. All had been diagnosed with the disease between 1999 and 2006. The men reported any history of marijuana use, as well as alcohol and smoking habits, and the same information was collected from about 1,000 healthy men. The researchers found that current marijuana use was linked to a 70 percent increased risk for the disease. Independent of known risk factors, nonseminoma risk was particularly high among men who used the drug at least once a week and among those who had started using it before age 18. Though Daling emphasized that the findings are preliminary, she suggested that attention should be paid. "We know very little about the long-term health consequences of marijuana smoking," she cautioned. "So, although this is the first time this association has been studied and found -- and the finding does need to be replicated before we are really sure what's going on -- this does give some evidence that testicular cancer may be one result from the frequent use of marijuana. And that is something that young people should keep in mind." But the prospect of a causal relationship between marijuana use and testicular cancer raised a lot of unanswered questions for Gary Schwartz, an associate professor in both the department of cancer biology and the department of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "The consensus is that most testicular cancer is thought to originate with lesions in utero, and that the peak age for testicular cancer to actually occur begins, really, right after adolescence," he noted. "That's when hormones released during puberty appear to promote [full-blown] cancer by essentially throwing fuel on the lesion fire, following a relatively long latency. The point being that you don't suddenly wake up one morning with a tumor. So it's a little hard to understand how exposure to marijuana beginning at that point could somehow play an immediate causal role." "But certainly, the idea that cannabis may cause cancer cells to proliferate is interesting," Schwartz acknowledged. "It could, however, also be that recreational drug use is simply a marker for affluence, since we know that testicular cancer is traditionally a disease that is more common among the affluent. Or it could be a marker for some other event that comes along with it, that triggers lesions that lead to tumors. So, at this point, it's just not clear to me how exactly the association between marijuana and testicular cancer would work." -------------------------------------------- o'rly? i can't wait to see how this pans out...

Apparently I made people mad on newsrag... all over my views on abortion and planned parenthood...

MILWAUKEE – Jacqueline Sedlar and her 12-year-old daughter were walking home when the girl peered over a neighbor's fence and a pit bull took a chunk from her eyebrow. Outraged, Sedlar contacted her city councilman, who introduced an ordinance banning pit bulls. But the mayor vetoed the ban in favor of an alternative "dangerous dog" ordinance that some say will be less effective in preventing attacks. The controversy in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis exemplifies the struggle communities nationwide face in trying to address dog attacks. Some have banned pit bulls — a broad term that covers several breeds — and other breeds they consider most dangerous. But other communities are trying to "punish the deed, not the breed" with ordinances focusing on dogs with violent histories. American emergency rooms treated an estimated 310,000 people for dog bites in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The estimate has fallen fairly consistently since 2001, when an estimated 366,000 bite victims were treated. However, many dog bites do not result in hospital visits and are not reported, so no state or federal agency has a total count. There's also no reliable data on whether some dogs are more likely to bite than others. A 2000 study cited by the CDC and other health agencies reports pit bull-type dogs were responsible for more bite-related deaths than other breeds from 1979 to 1998, but it cautions that may mean pit bulls are just more common than other types of dogs. Still, that may help explain why pit bulls are the most frequent targets of proposals to ban or restrict specific breeds of dogs. The American Kennel Club reports 86 such proposals were introduced nationwide in the 2007-08 legislative season. Most were for municipal ordinances. It is not clear how many passed. While most dog laws are local, Ohio has a 1987 state law requiring owners to confine purebred pit bulls as "vicious dogs" and buy at least $100,000 in liability insurance. Twelve states prohibit breed specific restrictions and bans. Proposals for breed-specific laws often come in response to attacks, said Adam Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States. For example, a pit bull attack on an Omaha toddler in June resulted in proposals to restrict dogs there and in a number of other Nebraska cities. South Milwaukee banned new pit bulls from its community after several attacks in the early 1990s, Mayor Thomas Zepecki said. Since then, there have been only a few incidents involving other breeds, he said. They are punished under a different ordinance. "As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't change it," Zepecki said of the ban. Officials in Oshkosh, Wis., began considering restrictions on pit bulls and several other breeds after seeing the number of reported dog bites jump from 97 in 2007 to 125 last year. But pit bulls were responsible for only about 14 percent of last year's reported bites, and health director Paul Spiegel said comments from the public and those who work with dogs now have the city looking at strengthening an all-breed ordinance that punishes bites instead. Animal rights activists insist no breed is inherently vicious. Dogs' breeding and training determine their aggressiveness, said Gail Golab, director of the American Veterinary Medical Association's animal welfare division. For example, Doberman pinschers were once "a big macho kind of dog" but have become more gentle and docile with breeding in recent years, she said. The same could be done with pit bulls, which include American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Bull Terriers and mixes of those breeds. The dogs were once bred for fighting, Golab said, but "there are pit bulls that are being bred now by responsible breeders that are not necessarily being selected for that aggressive phenotype." In West Allis, the story of a pit bull attacking Melanie Sedlar touched Alderman Vincent Vitale, whose own daughter had been attacked by a bull terrier 15 years earlier. He proposed an ordinance banning new pit bulls in the community and requiring those already there to be penned or leashed and muzzled. "I thought maybe it was good we enforce some rules about that type of dog," Vitale said. "Maybe the owner doesn't always see the dog can be vicious." West Allis Mayor Dan Devine vetoed Vitale's ordinance last month, and the city is now considering a plan to fine the owners of dogs that chase or attack people and other animals. "I just think that the residents would be better served with a law that would encompass all breeds of dog, all bad dog behavior, and not a specific breed," said Devine. Jacqueline Sedlar, who owns a German shepherd mix, said she doesn't like to see any dog get a bad rap. But she fears the new plan will only punish, not prevent, future attacks. "That particular breed is problematic. They were bred to go into the pit and fight," she said. "It's like a little time bomb waiting to go off." ---------------------------------------------------- First thing I have to say is.. WHY THE HELL WAS THAT GIRL ALLOWED TO LOOK OVER HER NEIGHBOR'S FENCE?! ffs.. that dog was protecting his territory! second, bitches like that should not be allowed to breed.. (i am speaking of ms. sedlar) THIRD: Banning breeds is wrong. I have a friend with a border collie... she was planning a trip somewhere and found out THAT breed was banned... A FUCKING BORDER COLLIE?? Because of a few bad eggs, people want the WHOLE breed wiped out. nice and btw.. those "bad dogs that were breed to fight" yeah.. they were.. by gangster wanna be bastards that think it is cool to fight dogs, or chickens, or any OTHER animal.. and if you fuckers think that it is JUST pits, you are fucking stupid..

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A 13-year-old Arizona girl who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain reliever will have her case heard at the Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether school officials were right to strip-search a student over ibuprofen. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether school officials were right to strip-search a student over ibuprofen. The justices accepted the case Friday for review. They will decide whether a campus setting gives school administrators greater discretion to control students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed in cases involving adults in public spaces. Arguments are expected to be heard in April. At issue is whether school administrators are constitutionally barred from conducting searches of students investigated for possessing or dealing drugs that are banned on campus. A federal appeals court found the search "traumatizing" and illegal. Some parents say older children deserve the same constitutional rights as adults, but educators counter that a school setting always has been treated differently by the courts. They say a ruling against them could jeopardize campus safety. The case involves Savana Redding, who in 2003 was an eighth-grade honor student at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona. Earlier that day the vice principal had discovered prescription-strength ibuprofen pills in the possession of one of Redding's classmates. That student, facing punishment, accused Redding of providing her with the 400-milligram pills. The school has a zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission. Redding was pulled from class by a male vice principal, Kerry Wilson, escorted to an office and confronted with the evidence. She denied the accusations. A search of Redding's backpack found nothing. Then, although she had never had prior disciplinary problems, a strip-search was conducted with the help of a school nurse and Wilson's assistant, both females. According to court records, she was ordered to strip to her underwear and her bra was pulled out. Again, no drugs were found. In an affidavit, Redding said, "The strip-search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had. I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry." With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Redding and her family sued, and a federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, ruled against the school. The court wrote: "Common sense informs us that directing a 13-year-old girl to remove her clothes, partially revealing her breasts and pelvic area, for allegedly possessing ibuprofen ... was excessively intrusive." The court said the school went too far in its effort to create a drug- and crime-free classroom. "The overzealousness of school administrators in efforts to protect students has the tragic impact of traumatizing those they claim to serve. And all this to find prescription-strength ibuprofen." In its appeal to the high court, the school district said requiring a legal standard of "probable cause" to conduct student searches would cast a "roadblock to the kind of swift and effective response that is too often needed to protect the very safety of students, particularly from the threats posed by drugs and weapons." The high court has had a mixed record over the years on students' rights. The court could now be asked to clarify the extent of student rights involving searches, and the discretion of officials over those for whom they have responsibility --------------------------------------- I dare someone to try to do that to my 13 year old with out me there... I DARE them...

I actually LOVE this one....