So the election is heating up and there is only around 90 days left until we, the people, decide. Or at least until the electorate college decides. (insert Bush joke here) Most people have an idea by now of who they are voting for, perhaps. Those that hate Bush are voting for Kerry, and those that love Bush are voting for Bush, and those of us who don't care haven't decided. I think we are 11% of the population.
Right now I haven't seen much from Kerry to pursuade me to vote for him, mainly because I am not one of the group that hates Bush. If anybody has an articles that show who Kerry actually is and what he actually stands for could you please email them to me, or provide a comment. I did find one good article about what Kerry stands for in Iraq; though if he does want to open up contracts to countries who did not participate in the war then those countries should have to send troops now. This would help ease the strain on our own troops. I don't think we should let people who didn't help (cough*France*cough) into the country without shelling out something now.
Also, I am seriously tierd of hearing about Kerry's war record. So he won three purple hearts, my father one a whole crap-load of medals and ribbons which doesn't make him qualified to run the country. Kerry should be stressing what he's done to serve this country here at home, in his home state, in the senate, and what he plans to do in the White House. I don't care what he did in Vietnam, though I am sick of him saying he committed atrocities and so did everybody else there. He's slandering everybody else who served in Vietnam, which would probably be the reason that the Swiftboat Vets are striking back with their ad.
I think this article addresses it better than I can.
Though this popped up in the news today. Apparently vCJD, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow) in humans, has been transmitted through blood transfusions. And since there is no way to test for the prion in the blood yet it could continue to be transmitted. (Hence the reason I am not allowed to give blood or donate tissue.) Most people don't appear to be dying from the disease itself, but from other unrelated diseases, which is a least a little bit of good news. Notice one thing from the article that should scare you all crapless: you might be able to get through life without having to have a blood transfusion, but you probably won't be able to get through life without having one minor surgery. There are so many that almost everybody has, even the dentist is in danger.
Notice the small line what says 'In the meantime they [people with mad cow] represent a risk to others of transmitting the disease through blood transfusion ... or perhaps through contamination of surgical instruments'. That's right, once a prion (since BSE is neither bacteria or virus) is on something it doesn't come off. It cannot be steralized, since it cannot die, and can be transmitted that way. The question is: if it is just one prion, will it infect you? And that is something we just don't know yet.
Posted by 10lees at August 5, 2004 08:09 PM