Wednesday, July 19, 2006

.

"False information" == "another pack of lies"

I knew the government wouldn't run for too long without giving us more to fume about here. There are lots of things that get my hackles up, but none do it more readily than Official Government LiesTM. The Washington Post tell it to us with this headline: Pregnancy Centers Found to Give False Information on Abortion. A quick summary?:

Federally funded "pregnancy resource centers" are incorrectly telling women that abortion results in an increased risk of breast cancer, infertility and deep psychological trauma, a minority congressional report charged yesterday. The report said that 20 of 23 federally funded centers contacted by staff investigators requesting information about an unintended pregnancy were told false or misleading information about the potential risks of an abortion.

Let's see: They can't do it with legislation, and they can't do it through the courts, so there are two of the three branches of government out of the picture. The picket lines aren't working either, and there's something rather self-limiting about actually killing healthcare workers, a tactic that only a few true lunatics will accept. And the remaining branch of government, the Executive branch, really has no power here. So what to do?

Ah, yes! Do what the Executive branch does best, what it's practiced and turned into an art form through the Bush administration: Lie!

While we're at it, why don't we pull out the "masturbation causes blindness" one too; that's an old favourite. We can make some new brochures and have them passed out at the clinics, next to the "Abstinance is the Only Way" pamphlets, and we can give them to the parents who think we shouldn't make a vaccine available to prevent cervical cancer because the disease is God's retribution against their daughters for wanton sexual behaviour.

Or maybe, instead, we can thank Congressman Henry Waxman of California for calling our attention to this latest in a long line of conservative-kook cow cookies. Let's get the message out that this "false information" is false... and isn't just some benign error, but is intended to mislead, to manipulate. Our health is not something to be lied about.

1 comment:

The Ridger, FCD said...

"Providing false information" is something this administration does better than many, if not any, that I can remember (and I'm no kid - I remember back to JFK). Nobody's perfect, all politicians lie, but this group makes lying their first choice.