Petitioning the (not yet and hopefully won't be) government

Dear Michelle Bachman,
I realize we don't talk much, what with you being kind of a crazy tea-partier and me being a bleeding heart liberal, but I just thought I'd write you a little letter about one of your recent attacks on Rick Perry.
Don't get me wrong: I am all for any attack (of a political nature, not a physical or violent nature) on Rick Perry, especially if it helps to derail his bid for president. But the thing that gets me is how you have decided to go about attacking his recent "every girl must get vaccinated against HPV" law a little over a week ago.
See, you decided to go with the age-old and dis-proven "vaccines will cause mental retardation in your children" argument. First off, it's been proven that they don't. Second off, the guy who did the study that found that back in the 80's has confessed to tampering with the data and participants chosen because he wanted to find that result whether or not it was a scientifically sound study. He was even bought off by supporters of the anti-vaccine movement at the time to publish such false results.
Also, the vaccine is given after age 9. If that lady told you her daughter developed mental retardation after getting that vaccine at age 9 that is rather remarkable. I bet lots of doctors would like to study her daughter: mental retardation developing that late in a child's life is rather remarkable, if in a very sad way.
If you want to attack Perry's law, go for it in a way that makes you look like an intelligent human being rather than someone that read one headline 30 years ago and hasn't bothered to check the validity of the statement and just keeps repeating it. Here are a few options:
1. How about you say it is ridiculous that he requires the HPV vaccine only for girls? Boys are actually more likely to carry HPV without showing symptoms, so they are more likely to pass it on to their sexual partners. The vaccine is also thought to be more effective in males.
2. How is he expecting people to pay for the vaccine? It costs roughly $128 per shot without health insurance and requires three shots within 3-6 months of each other. That can be pretty costly. And since Texas has more uninsured or under-insured residents than any other state, that mandatory vaccine is going to be pretty costly.
3. As far as women's health is concerned, you could have mentioned how he took approximately 2/3 of the budget away of every women's clinic that offered any kind of contraceptive or made referrals for abortions. None of that money was used for contraception or abortions (none of the clinics performed them). The money taken away was used for things like pap smears and breast cancer screenings. All of that money was re-allocated to "crisis pregnancy centers" that only offer care for pregnant women that are willing to keep their baby or put it up for adoption. Those centers to nothing in the form of cancer screenings or health exams at all. If he is really worried about women's health enough to make girls get those vaccines one would think he would be behind them getting screened as a cancer preventative measure as well.
4. You could have even gone with the "if girls think they can have sex without worrying about the consequences of STDs they will start having sex at age 9" argument and would have sounded like a more intelligent person. (Note: that is a ridiculous statement and is not to be taken seriously in any way. Also, girls already can have sex without having to worry (as much) about STDs: they are called condoms.)
Okay, I know you are busy, what with trying to ruin the free world and all. So I'll just leave you with this: I would be okay if you win the Republican primary, because I know that Barrack Obama will eat you alive when it comes time for the real election.
Most sincerely,
Sara Belger
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New blogger. I like it. It feels nice and fresh.

So I have started this new job at an organization I am not going to state the name of here in case it gets searched, and it is kind of a "We're going to give you a job and pay you a bit and want you to do these few things and maybe come up with new things but we aren't really sure about what we want and have a lot of bureaucracy to go through and have gotten really stagnant and don't really do anything anymore but some of us think we might like to so can you figure it out while we work on the figuring out of the structure of the organization until January" -thing. It has been...interesting. I have tons of great ideas of programs and events I could do but would have to take place well after January and whether or not I will be here is still up in the air. There is also the question of money when it comes to trying to figure out how to fund these new programs I want to create. I've mostly just been researching grant opportunities and outlining fundraiser and member event ideas, but it is all so...squishy (that was the best I could come up with for an antonym to concrete without saying non-concrete).

Otherwise, life is pretty good. We still don't have internet in our apartment, hence the lack of posts and my general presence on the internet overall. But that should change in the coming weeks.

We have also been fighting with our older apartment that has issues (as most older apartments do) and a language barrier with the landlady. It's kind of fun, not knowing if she understands what you mean and not understanding 100% what she means.

I really need to learn Spanish.

Funny boyfriend act of the week: I really wanted chocolate last night but was already in my comfy clothes. So Andrew said to think of what I wanted and he would run to the gas station to get it. I couldn't really decide (it's chocolate, how can you go wrong?) so he decided for me. He came back with 15 candy bars, spent a total of $22 on nothing but chocolate in various forms. What a goofball. <3
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IGOTAJOBIGOTAJOB!

Big things have been going down for this girl. I have moved into an apartment with the boyfriend, gotten a job doing something I find interesting and also entirely too much to take on, and I am looking at cars.

Also, I saved over $40 in one grocery trip with coupons and comparison shopping. It was an exciting day.
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