Monday, April 01, 2013

An April Fools News Round Up

After a week's absence for Vital Signs Blog, here's an April Fools Day
news roundup. But, alas, all of these news items are all too true.

* White House Pressures TV Station; Vacation Story Killed

Normally, Barack Obama can rely on the media to carefully polish his public image. That means glowing coverage, spinning the facts, and avoiding anything that might reveal the incompetence, corruption, anti-Americanism, and downright arrogance of the President and his administration. But sometimes, there's a slip -- like a TV news crew doing a story on yet another luxurious Obama family vacation. Enter Team Obama doing damage control and "poof" the story is gone. Here's more from Breitbart.

* Bill Gates Offering a Cash Award for a "Better Condom"

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is offering a $100,000 cash grant (and that's just the start) for the clever inventor who creates a condom "that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure" and promotes "regular use." But, astonishingly, Gates leaves out the biggest problem of all with condoms; namely, that the supposed guarantee they present (even when used properly and consistently) against pregnancy and disease is bogus. For instance, 15% of couples who rely on condoms still get pregnant within the first year of sexual activity.  Some guarantee, huh?  And what about health safety to the sexual partners themselves?  Again, the “safety net” of condom usage proves to be full of holes – literally.  Condoms do not eliminate the risk of contracting such diseases as gonorrhea or even HIV.  Condoms are even less effective in preventing chlamydia, genital herpes and trichomoniasis.

Finally, condoms offer no protection at all against human papiloma virus – one of America’s most widespread sexual diseases. It's the disease, by the way, that causes the most of the cervical cancer cases in the country.

* "Little hope seen for millions priced out of health overhaul" (Reuters story)

* Among All of Obama's Terrible Appointments, Is This One the Worst?

Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez’s nomination by President Obama as labor secretary has been met with criticism from Republicans and widespread concern among current and former Justice Department attorneys who question whether the Civil Rights Division chief is qualified for the post.

“People should be raising serious questions about this nomination,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a veteran Justice Department lawyer who formerly served as counsel to the division. “This is a man who misled both Congress and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

“He was the focus last week of the most devastating indictment of a federal government agency I have even seen,” he added, noting that the Justice Department’s office of inspector general in a 258-page report documented widespread intimidation, harassment and even threats of violence under Mr. Perez’s leadership... (Here's the rest of this Washington Times story.)

* Disaster for Dems: ObamaCare & the 2014 vote

"Democrats hope to retake the House of Representatives in next year’s elections. They won’t — and they’ll have themselves to blame, because 2014 is when ObamaCare kicks in. With a vengeance." (One can only hope that Betsy McCaughey's story in the New York Post is spot on.)

* Planned Parenthood: Babies Born Alive in Abortion Mills Shouldn't Be Protected by Law

Florida legislators considering a bill to require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion were shocked during a committee hearing this week when a Planned Parenthood official endorsed a right to post-birth abortion.

Alisa LaPolt Snow, the lobbyist representing the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, testified that her organization believes the decision to kill an infant who survives a failed abortion should be left up to the woman seeking an abortion and her abortion doctor…(Here's more of the Weekly Standard story which includes a video clip of the sinister hems, haws, and spins of the PP official.)

* What Sequester Crisis?

Remember President Obama (and other Democrats) speaking of the apocalyptic terrors which will fall on the United States because of the sequester cuts? Then where are they finding the money to spend on all kinds of wasteful, spurious and downright damnable things…like $500 million being gifted to the Palestinian Authority?

*  CDC: 110,197,000 Venereal Infections in U.S: Nation Creating New STIs Faster Than New Jobs or College Grads (CNS News story)