Wednesday, September 14, 2011

It's Official!

Michelle Bachmann is also an anti-vax loon...

The Newsweek cover is regarded by many as a cheap shot, but mounting evidence suggests Michelle may actually think the way she looks.

An embarrassment to thoughtful discourse for years now, our 6th District Representative, Tea Bagger, and very scary Presidential candidate, Michelle Bachmann, has finally let her Pseudo-Science Anti-Vax freak flag fly.  Innocent little girls?  CHECK.  Government injections?  CHECK.  The vaccine is unsafe?  CHECK.  The vaccine causes mental retardation?  CHECK.  Move over, Jenny McCarthy, there's a new anti-vax mommy in town.

It's not just Michelle though; the HPV vaccine is some sort of special problem for conservatives, both political and religious.  What is it about vaccinating our daughters against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) - and the venereal warts and labial, vaginal, and cervical cancers it causes - that gets the right wing all freaked out?  Perhaps it's using words like "venereal," "labia," "vagina," and "cervix" in the same sentence as "daughter?"  Who knows?

When asked by Sean Hannity about her reckless comment Bachmann backpedaled, "I am not a doctor. I am not a scientist. I'm not a physician."  Yeah, but you're doing fine job as a arch-conservative presidential candidate, Michelle.  Even Rush is shaking his dittoheads.  On behalf of my fellow Minnesotan's let me say this to the rest of the country, "Our bad."

UPDATE: I was intrigued so I did a little more Google Fu.  The religious right is against the HPV vaccine because they believe that if both partners practice ("Remember, practice makes perfect!") abstinence until marriage and remain perfectly faithful for a lifetime then there is no reason to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease.  I so wish that changed everything...

REUPDATE: Here's an excellent article by author Susan Jacoby.  Thanks to Why Evolution Is True for the heads up.