The Anti-Vaccination Movement invokes Godwin’s Law

Just when you think the anti-vaccination movement can’t get more extreme, they do.

Check out the lyrics to their new rally song.

Vaccine Gestapo
They have swastikas on their shoulders
They’re such patriotic soldiers
They’re like a militia in Montana
They’re a government agency in Atlanta

Vaccine gestapo! Vaccine gestapo!
Vaccine gestapo! Vaccine gestapo!

They’re a medical military priesthood
Just like Adolf they preach the greater good
Consciencious objectors are just little snots
Why don’t you quit complaining and go get your shots

Vaccine gestapo! Vaccine gestapo!
Vaccine gestapo! Vaccine gestapo!

If you are feeling particularly sadistic, you can listen to this song by the band The Refusers here.

Surprisingly for the HuffPo, they have an article speaking out about these tactics.  I strongly agree with the last line of this article – Jenny McCarthy and her band of scaremongers have no business being anywhere near children.

Things That Need To Be Said

Tim Minchin says them.

Not safe to be viewed at work or in the presence of small children.

Why You Need To Support Gay Marriage

Image via Wikipedia

It’s so shit like this doesn’t happen to your family, your friends or your neighbours because no one deserves to have this happen… ever.

How appalling that a gay couple who had legal documents (wills, power of attorney etc) in place were separated at the time of their greatest need of each other, thrown in separate nursing homes and weren’t able to be together when one of them died.  It is so inhumane, so wrong.

I’m sick of my workmates asking why I want gay marriage to be legal here in Australia when I should be happy with what I have got, which is barely no legal rights whatsoever just a few tax breaks & the government calls this crap reform.  This is precisely why I want it.

I don’t give a shit what people call it – call it marriage, call it civil union call it anything you like, but what gay couples need is legal recognition of their partnership that can never be thrown out of a court of law because of what mood a judge is in.

It is our right.  It isn’t a fucking privilege.

Why can’t the Pope do what is right?

Even a casual reader of this blog will know that I’m no friend to organised religion.  I’m an atheist and whilst I can see that organised religion does have its good side, in my opinion, it nowhere near counteracts the harm religion does to society in general.

I’ve been watching the latest and, in my view, the most damaging pedophilia scandal of the Catholic Church and have been biting my tongue.  Sure, I can come up with a few disgusting jokes and very long rants about how evil this organisation is, but to my pleasure, I have seen many hundreds of people doing this already both online and in the mainstream media.  I really haven’t felt an urge to add a blog post of my own on this subject.

That is until I read this fantastic opinion piece called ‘Pope must grovel and beg for our forgiveness’ by Chris Geraghty, who is a former Catholic priest, who has put so succinctly in writing the thoughts that have been stirring in my mind these past few weeks.  Like nearly everyone else, I have been shocked by the Catholic Church’s reaction to this scandal.  It has been so callous and cold that it almost defies belief.  I just can’t understand why the Catholic Church can’t own up to the fact that they have made grievous mistakes in letting these vile priests continue to serve and keep abusing kids.  Why can’t the Pope beg forgiveness from his followers and the rest of the world and bring together a taskforce to prevent this from ever happening again?  It would be naive of me to say that more rules and regulation would completely wipe out paedophilia from the Catholic Church, there will always be sickos in their ranks, just like there are sickos in every single profession, but the Church can make sure that these sick deeds are never covered up and the sicko just quietly moved to another parish.  They can de-frock him and make sure he stands trial for his actions.  Why does the Catholic Church not want to do what is right?

Surely, there must be good men in the Catholic Church who are pushing for this change to occur.  Why are they not speaking out against the Pope?  Why are they not contacting their local media outlets to condemn this shameful turn of events?  Why are they remaining silent on this? (it’s possible I have missed them and if I have, please send links!)

I think that is what saddens me the most about this scandal is that the grassroots members are not doing more to condemn this but instead are upholding the culture of keeping silent.  It’s shameful, it’s wrong and it is not in keeping with their Christian beliefs.

The Dangers of Homeopathic Vaccinations For Pets

My two dogs - Rory & Caleb

As an ex-vet nurse and “mum” to my two dogs, there is one thing that can get me to boiling point faster than anything else and that is people who don’t take care of their pets and provide them with adequate medical treatment when required.

Therefore, when @drunkenmadman posted a link to a place selling homeopathic vaccinations for pets my blood began to boil.

Pet Homeopath has for sale homeopathic vaccinations for distemper & parvovirus as well as preventives for heartworm and ticks.  All of the above are deadly, especially for dogs.  With the exception of distemper, I have seen dogs die of parvovirus, heartworm and ticks in my old vet practice located in Sydney.  All because owners did not either vaccinate against parvo or give their dogs heartworm medication (I can’t say anything horrible about owners whose dogs suffer ticks bites because they are damn near impossible to prevent).

So, why am I against these homeopathic vaccinations?  Because homeopathy is complete bullocks.  They don’t contain any active ingredient whatsoever.  It isn’t herbal medication, it is just water and sugar – that’s it.  Water & sugar is not going to prevent your dog during an outbreak of parvovirus which occurs every summer without fail in Sydney.

Parvovirus has a kill rate of about 50%.  It really is pure luck if your dog survives a bout of parvovirus.  The best vets can do is to put your dog on a drip and just watch as it shits and vomits out all the water content in its body.  It is one of the most gruesome ways a dog can die (and I used to watch about 20 dogs die from it each summer) and yet it is totally preventable by one yearly vaccination.

Heartworm is spread by mozzies and I don’t need to tell anyone who lives in Australia that we have a hell of a lot of mozzies.  You can’t prevent stop your dog  from being bit by a mozzie, so why risk it?  Heartworm can be prevented by one yearly vaccination or a once month spot on application.  It’s that simple and easy.  The treatment if your dog does get heartworm is extremely hard on dogs and can kill them.

Yes, there are side effects to vaccinations, but they are extremely rare in dogs.  The vast majority of dogs handle their vaccinations just fine and the once yearly trip to the vet to get them also includes a general check up so you can catch any other potential problems early.

Don’t think that by using homeopathic vaccinations that you are doing the best thing for your dog by giving them something natural. Yes, water is natural & has no side-effects but it is not going to prevent them from contracting deadly diseases.  Do the right thing and get them properly vaccinated once a year, every year.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!!

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

Although,  instead of eating chocolate eggs we really should be eating these:

Chocolate Brains!

Now that would be a holiday I could really get behind.

I shall just have to content myself by eating the ears of a chocolate rabbit instead.

Neighbourhood Conspiracy Theories

Image via Wikipedia

We have a lovely old lady, Bonnie, who lives with her husband next door.  She is deaf as a post but she knows everything that is going on in the neighbourhood and as she is out in her garden every single day she is perfect neighbourhood watch.  She is a little eccentric but she means well.  She brings in our garbage bins as soon as the garbage men have been cause the council said they will start fining people for leaving out their bins.  Even though I have told her many times the council is referring to people to leave them out for days on end, she is worried we will get a fine if they are left out for more than 20 minutes.

Today she accosted Lela and I as we arrived home from the supermarket wanting to know if we had heard about Dave.  I still have no idea who Dave is, but was ready to hear one of her tales about people in our neighbourhood. I find out all kinds of fascinating things about my neighbours from Bonnie.  However, today she crossed the line from an eccentric busybody to batshit insane.  It seems that her friend Dave who lives up the street at the local hotel passed out whilst entering his room and was rushed to hospital.  According to Bonnie, there was 100 people from our local area at the hospital that day all suffering from the same mysterious symptoms as Dave that left doctors baffled.  However, the hospital is covering it up as they don’t want anyone to know.  Bonnie thinks that people who hate us are trying to kill everyone in the neighbourhood.

I got no idea who these mysterious people who hate us are, but if I suddenly go missing, you will know that they have gotten me and the hospital has covered it up.

Religious Imbecile Of The Week

This week’s religious imbecile of the week goes to Bishop Porteous and the Sydney Catholic Church for believing so strongly that Harry Potter & Twilight expose young people to ideas about the occult & opens the way for the devil that they are hiring a full-time exorcist. Porteous also believes that Eastern relaxation tips like yoga and tai chi encourage experimentation with ‘deep dark spiritual ideas & traditions’.  That’s right, all those old people doing tai chi to help relieve the pain of arthritis are actually channelling the devil, who knew.

Good to see that the Sydney Catholic Church is keeping the intolerance of cultures different to theirs alive and well in the 21st century.