Propaganda and Reaction

Hooray. Green Jenni found my provocative post! I was hoping this would happen. I actually started that post as response to her post. I figured my rant would be more effective if she found the back link on her own. Rather than my sending it to her.

Green Jenn's reaction to my rant was that I am clueless about the current assault being made on women by the right. I agree that there are regressive elements in our society. I currently live in Utah which is dominated by one of the most regressive belief systems ever conceived. I just have a different take on the CDC report and the Washington Post article. IMHO, the propaganda in the Washington Post and reaction to the propaganda are doing more harm to the feminist agenda at the moment than the far right.

We can see this point by looking at two different books. Who Stole Feminims (1995) is a work by Christine Hoff-Sommers. Ms. Hoff-Sommers might be described as a classical feminist. Her book details the way that radical feminists started playing propaganda games and became fast and loose with facts. Radical feminists had created a social network that was selectively filtering out truth and spinning arguments to create division.

The effect of this method of discourse was that the radical feministists had not only alienated the majority of women. They had alienated classical feminists.

The second book I want to look at came out in 2000. The work Baby Boon by Elinor Burkett shows how Bill Clinton, seeing that feminism had become a liability to the Democratic Party, intentionally sold out the feminism to win his 1996 re-election.

By engaging in negative discourse, the feminist movement eroded its base leading to the current political climate where women's rights are in peril.

"Forever Pregnant" article added with the flurry of alarmist posts on the internet shows a continuation of this negative trend. The CDC and March of Dimes came out with good health advice. This good health advice gets twisted and perverted by a propagandist rag. A social network of feminists blogs fume over the propagandist piece. What happens is that this fuming ends up alientating those people who see the good health advice from the CDC and March of Dimes for what it is: Good health advice.

Apparently, a few other bloggers like Health Riverside see the same thing I do. The WP article "Forever Pregnant was a piece of propaganda designed to create a strong negative response. Which it did.

Health-Riverside took the radical step and actually read the CDC report.

What she found is that actually CDC report was designed to fit a progressive agenda. The whole focus of the article is to use the rise in birth defects and infant mortality as a call to spend more health care dollars on poor women.

I agree with Green Jenni that our society is becoming regressive on women's issue. I see why women are really upset with what the WP wrote. What is happening, though, is that this report is simply repeating the dynamics that undermined feminism in the 90s. The fact that someone named Green Jenni argued against a plan to increase the recommended intake of whole foods is bizarre to the extreme.

Castro Beyond Cuba

Sadly, one of the legacies of the Bush administration is we've pretty much lost the opportunity to nudge Cuba back onto the path of free market reform after Castro. This article appeared in a Yahoo newsfeed:

A U.S. commission is preparing to advise President George W. Bush on how to inject democracy into a post-Castro Cuba, but critics say Washington's 40 years of isolating the island may limit its chances of heading off a communist succession.

Bush should have been thinking about this before his decision to make Guantanimo Bay a perpetual prison for enemy combatants. The report on the post Castro world should have been on Bush's desk in term 1 of his presidency.

As it stands, South America has taken a decided leap to the left. Castro is able to secure Communism in Cuba for another generation by creating a fiecely anti-American alliance with Hugo Chavez.

Personally, I believe that the ongoing embargo has done more harm than good. As with the embargo of Saddam Hussein, Iran, and North Korea, these long standing generational embargos tend to solidify the political base of the dictators.

For example, if we had restored trade relations with Iran, we would have something other than military cards to play in the current nuclear crisis. Sadly, any report on post Castro Cuba received by Bush in his lame duck term is too late. Our best hope is that Castro will live on for another four years and do his tragic death scene during the next presidential term.

Orange Juice, Lentils and other Tools of Oppression

Yesterday I looked at an inflamatory article by the Washington Post designed to inflame outrage at the March of Dimes and CDC for recommending that women get more folic acid (Vitamin B9). Green-Jenni 'almost burst a blood vessel' when she read this suggestion to eat more lentils and orange juice or to take Vitamin B9 supplements.

The March of Dimes and CDC had made the recommendations because the US is seeing a rise in infant mortality and premature birth (especially among minorities). This study is actually the completion of a mandate passed in 1998 (during the Clinton era). Anyway, they believe that the rise in birth defects, infant mortality and premature births is the result of folic acid deficiencies at the time of conception and early pregnancy.

The CDC and March of Dimes want folic acid deficiencies to be seen as a woman's health issue and not simply a pregnancy issue. The thought actually makes sense. The health of one's reproductive system is important regardless of whether or not a person is trying to get pregnant.

Angry progressives, however, claim that the recommendation that women get move vitamin B9 is a plot by right wing Christian groups who see women as nothing more than walking talking fetuses. The goal, I guess, is to oppress women with lentils and orange juice.

Yesterday, I commented on Green-Jenni. I really would have expect someone claiming to be Green to be happy about suggestions that women eat more lentils.

Today, I want to look at the comment of Laura who says "This isn't about health care, or making people healthy (because we'd have socialized medicine if that were the case)"

I think it is a bit unfair to say that the March of Dimes doesn't care about making people healthy. Laura is welcome to her opinions.

The really puzzling part of her statement is that Laura is complaining about the government's interference in her diet and in her reproductive system, but follows the complaint with a praise of socialized medicine.

I am puzzled by the large number of people who praise the ideal of socialized medicine without understanding what socialized medicine is.

Socialized medicine is a system where people completely relinquish their health care to the government. Doctors in government organizations would then sit in an ivory tower like the CDC and administer their version of health care to the populace. In socialized health care, this study on birth defects would not have ended with a recommendation that women take more folic acid. It would have resulted in a mandate that women take more folic acid.

Laura is angry because the "pre-pregnancy recommendations" do not take into account the individuality of women. Laura is not thinking of having children at this moment so she does not worried about the health of her reproductive system.

I happen to agree with Laura on this part of the issue. As an avowed free marketeer, my personal belief is that each person should develop their own individual approach to health care.

Socialized Health Care is the system where you have a paternal government dictating one's health care choices.

I showed the WP article and anti-folic acid rants to a few people. What is interesting is that people with a free market point of view take this research showing a strong link between folic acid deficiencies and birth defects as welcome news. Progressives, who advocate socialized medicine, take the recommendation as an affront.

Anyway, I need to rush. I see a woman down the street who appears to be starting to have an independent thought; As a male oppressor, I need to do my duty and oppress her by forcing her to eat a bowl of lentil soup (Get Free Soup).

Lentil Soup ... the choice of the oppressor!
Oppress the women in your neighborhood ...
serve lentil soup today!

Here is more info on folic acid.

Forever Pregnant

I happen to have a great deal of respect for the March of Dimes. After helping irradicate polio, the March of Dimes turned its focus on the more difficult issue of birth defects and premature birth.

The March of Dimes is one of those groups that works in the trenches. They are in the trenches directly helping women and children with birth defects and they are in the trenches doing fundamental research in health issues. It is a group that has earned respect. The Center for Diseasse Control and Prevention notes that 1 in 33 children in the US are born with birth defects. This is a big problem affecting a large number of children.

One of the problems that the March of Dimes and the CDC have noticed is that many birth issues seem to be the result of health issues during the first days of pregnancy. Specifically, taking folic acid (buy vitamins online) can prevent Neural Tube Defects and premature births.

It is easy to get information on the importance of taking vitamin B to women who are seeking a doctor's help before becoming pregnant. The problem is that most births really aren't planned in advance.

So, the CDC and March of Dimes think that the best approach to preventing birth defects is to promote taking Vitamin B9 (folic acid) as a part of an overall women's health issue. Folic acid is found in orange juice, spinache, lentils, etc..

Folic acid helps in the production of red blood cells. A folic acid deficiency leads to anemia. The CDC and March of Dimes think women in child bearing ages should increase their folic acid intake with the aim of preventing birth defects. They are calling this effort pre-pregnancy health.

The ideal of pre-pregnancy health is that, since reproduction is a very important part of a women's life, health issues related to pregnancy should be included in the wider spectrum of women's health.

The March of Dimes and CDC have a very good, solid argument for promoting an increase in the RDA of folic acid for women.

Now for the Idiots R Us side of the debate: Since the CDC and March of Dimes are promoting taking vitamins to prevent birth defects, the Great American Left is now on an anti-vitamin campaign.

As part of this anti-vitamin campaign, The Washington Post ran an article titled "Forever Pregnant which begins "New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon."

Bloggers like Green Jenn are taking cue. Of this effort to increase the intake of Vitamin B9, she says "It's frightening to see how fast all the progress that women have made in the last 40 years are being stripped away."

Please note that 30 years ago, the hue and cry was that majority of health research was based on men's health. A feminist during the 50s, 60s and 70s would have praised research that showed women's specific health needs demand more Folic Acid than men. Now that we actually starting to have good scientific information specific to the needs of women's health, we get idiotic ranting about how such research turns back the clock on women's rights and reduces women to mere baby farms:

Again, here is Green Jenn's reaction to the suggestion that women should drink more orange juice or eat lentil soup: "Hi. My name is Jenny. I'll be your handmaiden, walking-incubator, live-baby-farm, uterus for the day."

The reason for these rants is not that eating lentils is bad. Our schools have indoctrinated people to make their judgments based on who is speaking and not what is said.

Were Hillary Clinton to come out in praise of lentils, the blogosphere would be fluttering with praise of the progressive new think in the air. Rather than silly statements like this "the new CDC guidelines prettty much makes for a smooth continuum of oppression."

The new left has raised Vitamin B9 to a tool of oppression! Arrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!