Let's end our day with a spoonful of Joe Biden, just to make us all feel a little better.

In emotional moment on @TheView, Joe Biden consoles Meghan McCain, whose father was diagnosed with same cancer Biden's late son Beau had. "There is hope. And if anybody can make it, your dad [can]." pic.twitter.com/tQUy11X5sV

— ABC News (@ABC) December 13, 2017

I am by no means a big fan of Meghan McCain, but she is a human being, and she is suffering.

Joe Biden demonstrates such abundant humanity in how he interacts with her, and his ability to even make her laugh while she is falling apart on national televisions speaks highly of the kind of heart our former Vice President possesses.

When Joe and Barack ran our country we were in many ways the best we have ever been.

They embodied the type of decency that we are sorely lacking these days. 

I miss them both, and know that whenever I share a story about what either one of them is up to these days that it will be both uplifting and hopeful.

John McCain has been diagnosed with brain cancer.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been diagnosed with brain cancer, the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix said Wednesday. 

The tumor was discovered after the senior Arizona senator underwent a minor procedure last week to remove a blood clot from above his left eye. 

"Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot," the hospital said in a statement. 

“The Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation." 

I just heard a doctor on MSNBC saying that this is very bad news, and that once you receive a diagnosis like this it is typically terminal with only between 14 months and three years left before it takes your life.

I have been a strong critic of John McCain's for years now, but right now my heart goes out him and his family.

P.S. I think this helps to explain why McCain was babbling during the Comey Senate hearings.

And still they'll keep on supporting him.

It really is like America has elected a comic book villain to their our president.

So where are the heroes to defeat him?

Paul Ryan lies right to the face of a former Republican cancer survivor.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

At Thursday’s event, which was sponsored by CNN and moderated by Jake Tapper, Jeff Jeans introduced himself as a lifelong Republican who once worked on the Reagan and Bush campaigns. “Just like you, I hated the Affordable Care Act,” he told Ryan. 

But then, at 49 years old, Jeans was diagnosed with a curable type of cancer. His doctors gave him just six weeks to live if he didn’t pursue treatment. 

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I’m standing here today alive,” he said. “I rely on the Affordable Care Act to be able to purchase my own insurance. Why would you repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement?”

In response Ryan literally lied to this man by telling him that the Republicans would never do that, even while the Republicans are actively working to do that. 

The Republicans do NOT have a plan for replacing Obamacare, and they know it.

If they take away the protections in the Affordable Care Act people like Jeff Jeans will be kicked off their health care plans by greedy insurance companies and they will surely die without adequate coverage.

I would urge every single family who loses a loved one due to the Republican lies, to blame them in their obituaries, and to send them a copy of the bill for the end of life care no longer covered by insurance.

Heartless POS!

Just a reminder that corruption is in the Trump family's DNA.

Here is the story in case you missed it.

Oh yeah, this is definitely the family to help "drain the swamp."

(H/T to Democratic Underground.)

Sarah Palin finds yet another opportunity to play the victim while falsely claiming she was right about "death panels."

So that tweet shows up on Twitter and of course is brought to the attention of the Wasilla Wendigo, who quickly takes to Facebook to post a kind of victory lap/pity party:

After I spoke of Obamacare's Death Panels, the President deceived the nation in his State of the Union address, claiming I was the liar. (Actually just about everybody concluded you were a liar.)

Barack (That's "Mr. President" to you lady): tell that to patients now being refused health care. 

The backlash from the President's continued attacks on my integrity remains immense (The President rarely spoke about you Sarah, the backlash came in response to your own stupidity.), but it's nothing compared to the tragic hopelessness that formerly disillusioned Americans now feel. Ironically, Obama and Congress could have proved me wrong. (Oh they did.) Granted, the President and media's obstinate clinging to the failed Obamacare boondoggle was a given, but an incalculable disappointment in this is knowing Congress held the purse strings for this disastrous government healthcare takeover, yet funded it anyway. 

Media: why no accountability on this? Why ignore Hillary's role in supporting Obamacare? 

 - Sarah Palin

What Palin is referencing here is the story of a  terminally ill California woman whose insurance company refuses to pay for a different chemotherapy drug that "might" buy her some more time.

Instead, due to California's new End of Life Option Act, this woman learned that a drug that would let her die with dignity at a time of her choosing WAS covered by her health insurance.

The woman, a Roman Catholic, was of course horrified, and this has become the cause celebre among the Right to Lifers.

So what does this have to do with Sarah Palin's famous "death panels?" Not a damn thing.

What Palin was talking about back in 2009 was this: 

"As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we're saying not just no, but hell no!" Palin wrote. 

"The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's ‘death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Essentially what Palin was saying was that "death panels" would portion out health care to those deemed worthy, and that others would be left to die on their own.

THAT was the lie that she was called out for, and it has NOTHING to do with this California woman's case.

NOR does it have anything to do really with Obamacare.

Insurance companies have always made choices over which medicines and treatments they are willing to pay for, and that is typically based on it's positive impact and yes its cost.

And Obamacare has actually fixed some of that by forcing insurance companies to provide insurance for many who would not have qualified for it in the past, and by not allowing them to kick clients off of their insurance once they became ill.

In fact the argument could be made that without Obamacare this woman would likely have lost her insurance already. 

The medicine that this woman's insurance company is balking at "might" extend her life, but then again it might not.

So the insurance company on their own, with no "Death panels" involved, has decided that it is not worth the extra cost to spend the money on a drug that might have no effect whatsoever.

Remember this woman's cancer is terminal, there is no cure, only the possibility of a few more years or months.

It may seem harsh, and if it were your loved one you would almost certainly feel that it was, but it has nothing to do with Obamacare, "death panels," and certainly nothing to do with Sarah "Look at me, look at me, look at me now" Palin.

A little good news to start our week. This magnificent bastard is now cancer free!

Courtesy of BBC:  

"My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones," Mr Carter said in a statement. 

The 91-year-old first announced the news during a Sunday school class in Plains, Georgia. 

Mr Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981 and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, revealed his illness in August. 

Doctors have been treating four small melanoma lesions on his brain. 

Last month, Mr Carter said he was responding well to treatment and there were no signs of further cancer growth.

There are only a handful of people who I would get on a plane and fly just to have dinner with them. 

Th first, of course, is President Obama.

The second is Jon Stewart.

And the third is President Jimmy Carter.

And I would gladly pay for the meal and sit for hours after eating, just to listen to him talk, and pick his brain.

It would be a joy.

He is, probably not surprisingly, also one of only two Christians who I believe exemplify the very best that that religion represents.

The other is Fred Rogers, who I think may be one of the kindest, most gentle people ever to walk this earth

I am very glad that Jimmy Carter is going to remain with us a little longer. And I have little doubt that Jimmy Carter will spend the time that he has left making this world a better place to live.

Just like he has been doing for the vast majority of his life.

Sarah Palin interview with Christian news outlet. Career, cancer, and of course Christianity. Update!

This is a rather lengthy interview so let me provide the highlights.

On Fox News letting her go: 

"Some things happened that I haven't talked about publicly, things like getting canned from a job I really liked, sort of out of the blue, because I called somebody out," she said. 

Palin was let go from her job as a Fox News political analyst in June. 

"Next morning I got word, 'Oh, we no longer need you anymore,'" she recalled. "Yeah, it was a shock, but more power to Fox News." 

"They're a private enterprise," she continued. "They can fire someone for wearing the wrong color tie that day - that's their prerogative and I've been on both sides of the hiring and firing." 

"They (Fox) still interview you?" CBN News' Wendy Griffith asked the former governor. 

"Heck, yeah. I have a great relationship with them," she replied. "It was just kind of a little bit of a shocker of knowing that the 'haters' are going to love this one."

And we did love that one. And how nice to have it confirmed that she did not see it coming.

As for who she called out publicly, I think that was Bill O'Reilly.

Get this Palin is saying that Dakota Meyer IS the father of Bristol's baby: 

Then, the tabloids went into overdrive when the long-awaited marriage of her 25-year-old daughter Bristol didn't happen, even though she's pregnant with her ex-fiancé's baby.

There is no quote from her on this one, but how else would they have jumped to that conclusion?

Then there was a cancer scare?

"Bristol said, 'Mom, you need to go into the doctor and get that thing checked," Palin recalled. "She insisted and I resisted so I finally went in to a doctor and got something checked, came back, biopsy - a cancer." 

"Melanoma?" Griffith asked. 

"Yeah, something like that," Palin said. "Anyway, a surgeon dug it out and everything was okay."

Okay, well I guess this is possible. But I am pretty shocked that if true, Palin did NOT immediately use it to garner sympathy.

Palin also says she will support whoever the Republicans choose.

She likes Donald Trump, thinks he's a "fighter."

Thinks defeating ISIS is easy with a better leader.

Then they asks about Trig:

"The world got to know Trig when he was 16 weeks old," Palin said. "There I was on the campaign trail with him, and he's 7 years old now." 

"He's reading," she added. "He's not verbal, so it's kind of hard to understand what he's reading, but we know he is. He understands it." 

"His big sister, Piper, we call her the 'Trig whisperer' because she can interpret everything that he's saying," Palin shared. 

"Sometimes it's like, 'Piper, what is it that he's wanting?' And it's like, 'Mom, he wants his stuffed something or another.' How does she know that? But she does," she said.

Boy that Piper is a girl of many talents isn't she?

Palin also says that Tripp and Trig are best friends, which I have heard as well.

Palin then wraps up the interview with a bunch of babbling about America, God, and George Washington carrying a flag.

So to sum up according to this interview, Palin had cancer, Sailor is Dakota's kid, and Bill O'Reilly got Palin fired from Fox News.

Update: Oh this is getting good!

https://t.co/w51uImFDeO - BREAKING @SarahPalinUSA Toughest Yr; @CBNNews -> @Dakota_Meyer father @BristolsBlog Baby pic.twitter.com/kHR3UQrEre

— Organize4Palin NY (@ny4palin) December 1, 2015

Okay so now either Sarah has to have a redaction printed taking back of this Dakota baby thing, have Nancy do it on Bristol's blog (Essentially making her look stupid,), or wait until Dakota responds to it publicly (Making all of them look stupid.)

Popcorn anyone?

Thanks to Obamacare more young women are being diagnosed with cervical cancer. And that's a good thing.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

More young women are getting screened and diagnosed with early-stage cervical cancer, potentially because Obamacare allows them to access insurance benefits through their parents’ plans, according to a new study from American Cancer Society researchers. 

The researchers examined a large database that tracks cancer cases in the United States. They compared the cancer diagnoses among women between the ages of 21 to 25 to the diagnoses among women between the ages of 26 to 34 — both before and after the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion took effect. 

An Obamacare provision that allows young adults to remain insured through their parents’ plans until the age of 26 appears to have affected the rates of cervical cancer diagnosis among that demographic. After the ACA, the diagnosis rates significantly rose for the women in their early twenties and remained fairly constant for older women. 

“It’s a very remarkable finding, actually,” researcher Dr. Ahmedin Jemal told the New York Times. “You see the effect of the ACA on the cancer outcomes.” 

It’s better to receive an early cancer diagnosis because the disease is easier to treat in its early stages and patients are more likely to survive. Even though it might not sound like a good thing that cervical cancer cases are on the rise, it’s actually reflective of the fact that more people are using their health insurance to get screened. Previous research has found that people with insurance are more likely to take advantage of preventative health services like screenings that can detect cancer as soon as possible.

Just another reminder of how President Obama has positively affected this country, and its citizens.

And don't forget that if the Republicans get their way, they will gladly take this away from us.

And in doing so condemn potentially hundreds of people to an easily avoidable death.

I still think Jimmy Carter could kick Donald Trump's ass in a street fight.

Source

And don't forget Hillary sat through an eleven hour Benghazi hearing without breaking a sweat.

Even when her voice started to crack she refused to stop slapping the Benghazi out of Trey Gowdy, and his crew of pinheads.

This woman has a special message for those trying to defund Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of US Uncut:

Like many women who rely on the services of Planned Parenthood for everything from cancer screenings, birth control, and in some cases yes — abortions — one young woman has a message to Republicans who would like to see these services grind to a halt, endangering those who need them. 

She’s flipping them all off, from her hospital bed — post surgery. 

In 2013, Ambarie Stacey Schiefer was 23 years old and required surgery to have abnormal cells removed from her cervix to prevent them from becoming cancerous. From her hospital bed, she took a strong selfie flipping off those in the future who would stand against Planned Parenthood, the organization which helped make it possible for her to have the potentially life-saving surgery.

The article goes on to explain that cervical cancer is the 4th most common cause of cancer related death in women, but if caught early through pap smears can be treated quite effectively.

In the last 50 years cervical cancer deaths have decreased by 74% largely due to the availability of pap smears like those offered for free by Planned Parenthood. 

Of course none of that matters to the conservatives who would condemn these women to death for the opportunity to also dramatically decrease their access to legal abortion.

But remember, the war on women is merely a figment of the liberal's imagination.  

Perhaps the only Sunday school class I would attend voluntarily.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Larger-than-usual crowds of well-wishers meant former President Jimmy Carter had to teach an extra Bible class at his rural Georgia church and a local schoolhouse on Sunday, after he announced on Thursday cancer had spread to his brain. 

Carter, 90, a lifelong Baptist and church deacon, has taught Sunday school for decades, and the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, is used to a throng. 

The church’s website asks people to line up before 9:00 a.m. and attend an orientation before the 10 a.m. class. 

The theme of the lesson was love, Carter told the 300 people who filled the church’s sanctuary, after briefly alluding to his health. 

“We are studying the most important aspect of Christianity,” he said, and read from the Sermon on the Mount in the Book of Matthew: “I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

The article goes on to say that Carter taught a second Sunday school lesson so that those who could not attend the first were not left out. And then afterward he posed for pictures with well wishers for over half an hour.

You know along with the great Fred Rogers, Jimmy Carter is one of those people who literally embodies his Christian teachings.  Mr. Rogers was also a Sunday school teacher, and by EVERY account was as wonderful in private as we was on TV.

Jimmy Carter is also a great example of Christianity done right.

It really is too bad that there are so many out there using Christianity as an excuse to hate, or as camouflage to cover for their bad intent.

If there were more Jimmy Carters (And of course Mr. Rogers) serving as examples for their faith in the world, I bet there would also be fewer Christians leaving the fold.

And remember, this is an Atheist saying that.

Ted Cruz insults Jimmy Carter the day after his candid conversation with the press announcing that his cancer has spread to his brain.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz slammed Jimmy Carter's presidency just one day after Carter announced his cancer has spread to his brain. 

Speaking at the Iowa State Fair, Cruz recited a regular part of his stump speech in which the Texas senator says that "today is very, very much like the late 1970s." 

"I think the parallels between this administration and the Carter administration are uncanny: same failed domestic policies, same misery, stagnation and malaise, same feckless and naïve foreign policy," Cruz said. "In fact, the exact same countries -- Russia and Iran -- openly laughing and mocking at the president of the United States." 

On Thursday, Carter announced he is beginning radiation treatment for melanoma that spread to four spots on his brain.

Later Cruz tried to explain that he was only criticizing the Carter administration's public policy and not the man himself.

Which might have satisfied some of his critics if he had not said this right after Joe Biden's son died of cancer: 

"Vice President Joe Biden. You know the nice thing? You don't need a punch line."

Yeah fuck you Ted Cruz you vile POS!

Jimmy Carter was the first presidential candidate I ever voted for.

He lost to Ronald Reagan but I have still never regretted that vote. I think Jimmy Carter is a great man, and was also a great President.

And Joe Biden? Well he is Joe Biden, and that is pretty impressive all on its own.

On the other hand I think Ted Cruz looks like a sleazy used car salesman who is secretly jacking off to internet porn in between talking to customers.

Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, has died of brain cancer.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

Former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, died on Saturday after battling brain cancer, the vice president said. He was 46. 

"The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words," Vice President Biden said in a statement released by the White House. 

"We know that Beau's spirit will live on in all of us, especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter," he said. 

Beau Biden had announced last year he planned to run for governor of Delaware in 2016. 

He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. After getting a "a clean bill of health" in November of that year, his cancer recurred in the spring of 2015, the vice president's office said. 

He sought aggressive treatment and had been hospitalized this month at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington. 

His family was with him when he died. "Beau embodied my father's saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did," the vice president said. "In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known."

I had another post scheduled for this slot, but I simply could not let this unfortunate event pass without comment.

Here is the statement from President Obama:  

Michelle and I are grieving tonight. Beau Biden was a friend of ours. His beloved family - Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter - are friends of ours. And Joe and Jill Biden are as good as friends get. 

Beau took after Joe. He studied the law, like his dad, even choosing the same law school. He chased a life of public service, like his dad, serving in Iraq and as Delaware's Attorney General. Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched - and he lives on in their hearts. 

But for all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder; nothing made him happier; nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family.

 Just like his dad. 

Joe is one of the strongest men we've ever known. He's as strong as they come, and nothing matters to him more than family. It's one of the things we love about him. And it is a testament to Joe and Jill - to who they are - that Beau lived a life that was full; a life that mattered; a life that reflected their reverence for family. 

The Bidens have more family than they know. In the Delaware they love. In the Senate Joe reveres. Across this country that he has served for more than forty years. And they have a family right here in the White House, where hundreds of hearts ache tonight - for Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter; for Joe and for Jill; for Beau's brother, Hunter; his sister, Ashley, and for the entire Biden clan. 

"I have believed the best of every man," wrote the poet William Butler Yeats, "And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher." 

Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher. 

Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth.

No parent should have to bury their child, and I think that all of us who are parents, regardless of our political points of view, are grieving with Joe Biden right now.

So with that in mind I am going to include Sarah Palin's remarks as well courtesy of Facebook:

Our family's prayers are with the Biden family tonight on the loss of their son, brother, husband and father, Beau Biden. He was a veteran of the Iraq war and was awarded the Bronze Star in recognition of his service, and continued his service in public office as well. We enjoyed the short time we got to spend with his beautiful family during the VP debate in 2008. Rest in Peace, Beau. 

Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” 

- Sarah Palin

Joe Biden has dealt with more loss in his life than I think most of us could bear, yet he still manages to walk through life with that huge smile plastered to his face while treating the people he meets as if he really cares about each and every one of them.

And that just might be because he does.

On behalf of myself, and all of us here at IM, I want to send our condolences to the Biden family.

Update: I think this is a much better picture to illustrate Joe Biden's love for his son.

Semen causes cancer. lust is emotional gangrene, and other "facts" you can only learn from the Duggar family's homeschool curriculum.

All of the following courtesy of Gawker.

Did you know that non-spousal sperm causes cancer? Well according to materials from the Advanced Training Institute's homeschool curriculum, which the Duggar family used to learn all about sex and its many dangers, it does it totally does: 

Doctors have discovered that the seed of the man is an alien substance to the woman. It triggered responses similar to those of an “allergic” reaction. A woman who has a husband is able to develop “immunity” to this reaction; however, a promiscuous woman’s immune system becomes confused and unable to distinguish alien substances. This confusion is a key to the development of cancer.

I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that this refers to HPV which can in fact cause cervical cancer. However this is not due to the fact that a man's seed is "alien" to woman but rather due to the fact that the man picked up a dose from one of the other woman who he was sharing that seed with.

Of course all of this potential cancer is caused by lust. And lust is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. (It really helps if you read that in the voice of Gomer Pyle.)

Armor of God, does that work better than a condom?

And medical diseases and diseases of the soul are linked.

Diseases of the body usually have their counterpart in diseases of the soul. There is, in fact, an intimate relationship between the health of the soul and the health of the body. 

By understanding the workings of a disease in one realm we can often gain significant insight to a corresponding disease in the other realm.

Ah, the old "bad things happen to sinners" argument. 

This was a popular idea in like the 16th century. Hard to believe that it is being taught to children in the 21st.

And remember men are not to blame for becoming all rapey, cause you know the gangrene of lust and all:

When a man looks lustfully at a woman, a flood of impulses travels through the optic nerve to the back of the brain. As a result, the glands and other bodily functions are activated, and the level of testosterone increases. 

Recent studies revealed a significant correlation between high testosterone levels and those who commit violent crimes.

You know that is exactly the same rational used in Muslim countries to convince women that an exposed elbow or ankle will drive a perfectly reasonable man crazy and fill him with the urge to rape the crap out of her.

It's never the man's fault after all.

There is of course much more over at Gawker but I think we now get a pretty good idea of exactly how the Duggar family received their education concerning sex.

Of course in no way does this excuse Josh Duggar's behaviors but it does help to explain the irrational environment in which he was raised.  

Forget raising money to help a victim of cancer, or of the Boston Bombing. The real money is in refusing to serve pizza at gay weddings.

Courtesy of NewNowNext: 

According to GoFundMe’s Most Raised page, the fund benefiting Memories Pizza is the second highest-funded project in the website’s history, raising more money than funds for a woman dying from a rare cancer, victims disfigured by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and a disabled man brutally beaten outside his home.

I first read this post yesterday, and since then the Most Raised page has removed Memories Pizza's account from their list. However if you click the link above, and compare the top earners to Memories Pizza's GoFundMe page, it will still demonstrate that they have indeed raised more money than everybody else except an account for a young girl dying of cancer.

And that includes more money than two victims of the Boston Bombing, the family of a priest killed in a car accident, and a woman dying of a rare form of cancer.

Maybe it's just me but it seems that if closing your store after a few threatening phone calls, makes you a bigger victim in the eyes of the eyes of the public than losing your limbs or dying of cancer, then there is something truly fucked up about this country.

Oh and by the way Memories Pizza is reopening. Which must be a snap when you have  $842,000 for remodeling, advertising, and of course security to keep teh gays out.

Men who have had more than 20 female lovers less likely to get prostate cancer. Hang on, I'm counting.

Courtesy of The Independent:  

There’s good news for the Casanovas of the world – sleeping with numerous women could help to protect men from prostate cancer, according to a new study. 

Researchers at the University of Montreal and INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier found that men who had slept with more than 20 women during their lifetime were 28 per cent less likely to develop the disease. 

They were also 19 per cent less likely to develop an aggressive type of cancer, compared to those who had had only one female sexual partner. 

Meanwhile, men who were virgins were almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who were sexually experienced.

Well I'm in the clear. In fact I might be okay even if I were triplets.

I knew being a man-whore would pay off someday.

I can just see husband's caught flagrante delicto by their wives using this to their advantage.

"Honey I am not betraying our vows, I am simply fighting cancer."

I wish all cancer fighting was this easy. Sure beats the hell out of avoiding red meat and exercising.

Mother whose daughter died of cancer while she was attempting to save her by using faith healing, wants her child neglect charges thrown out. I agree, instead she should be convicted of manslaughter at the very least.

Courtesy of The Tennessean: 

An East Tennessee woman convicted of child neglect in her teenage daughter’s cancer death is asking the state Supreme Court to declare that she is innocent because she relied on prayer to heal the girl. 

Jacqueline Crank was sentenced to unsupervised probation after her 15-year-old daughter died of Ewing’s sarcoma in 2002. 

Despite the light sentence, Crank has continued to pursue the case, arguing that faith-healing should be legal for everyone. 

The Tennessee Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case in Knoxville on Thursday. 

State law makes it a crime to fail to provide medical care to children, but there is an exception for those who rely on prayer alone for healing. However, the Spiritual Treatment Exemption Act applies only to faith healing performed by an accredited practitioner of a recognized church or religious denomination. 

In turning to prayer for her daughter’s healing, Crank relied on the advice of Ariel Ben Sherman, who called himself the girl’s “spiritual father.” 

Testimony showed Sherman was accredited by the Universal Life Church, which will accredit anyone who fills out an application.

Damn this shit infuriates me!

And what the fuck is an "accredited practitioner" of fucking faith healing?

This is 2014 you superstitious inbred assholes!

You know if Tennessee would stop fearing religious people, and grow a pair, they could start charging these frauds with murder and believe you me suddenly all kinds of people would start receiving legitimate medical service for their health problems.

I swear the next person who dares to ask me what harm religion has done, is going to get hit so hard it will put bruises on their ancestors.

Colin Powell calls for universal health care in America.

Courtesy of Spero News:  

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said universal health care should be available to all Americans. He was speaking at a charity event for prostate survivors in Seattle. 

Powell told the audience that countries in Europe, Canada and South Korea offer universal, single-payer health care and said he often asks why the United States has not implemented the same system. 

"Whether it's Obamacare, or son of Obamacare, I don't care," Powell said. "As long as we get it done." 

Powell, a retired four-star general, was diagnosed with prostate cancer and credits his survival to the universal health care provided by the United States military. 

Sharing health stories with the audience about his wife, Alma, and a neighbor, Powell said he and his wife have never worried about whether their health care would bankrupt them. He contrasted his experience with his neighbor, Anne, who cannot afford the MRIs to identify tumors in her brain before doctors will operate on her. Powell said she has health insurance, but it does not cover MRI imaging. He said she was out of work and he gave her the funds three weeks ago to receive treatment. 

"We are a wealthy enough country," Powell said, "with the capacity to make sure that every one of our fellow citizens has access to quality health care."

Son of Obamacare. Sounds like a good deal to me.

I have the hardest time forgiving Colin Powell for allowing himself to be used by the Bush administration to sell the Iraq war, but if he keeps on talking sense like this I may have to start trying.

Of course single payer universal health care is the best option for our country, and if Americans would stop allowing themselves to be frightened by the Right Wing scare tactics we could be enjoying its benefits today.

Your morning wake up call.