Much to my surprise, I found three very interesting articles on one page of my daily newspaper last Thursday, 11/19/09. The first one surprised and angered me. It states new restrictions on treatment for the detection of breast cancer in women. These were set up by a federally appointed task force. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, stated after the outcry from women across the country, that the task force has nothing to do with setting policy as that is up to the federal government. The task force “suggested” no mammograms for women under age 50 and then only every other year. They believe the benefits are small for starting before 50. What about all the women who have had cancer in their 30s and 40s. I wonder what they have to say about that. I think what pissed me off the most was that it discouraged doctors from teaching breast self-examination. What is that about? Do they think it would create many women, diligently checking their breasts every month and possibly finding a lump? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? That is how I found my cancer. I know there are many, many women across the country that are outraged by all this, and I’m thinking maybe it’s a way to trim dollars from the proposed new health care bill we are struggling to pass. If so, I say screw the new health bill and all the stodgy men who are making up these nasty ideas. And then the next day, another group decided that Pap tests were unnecessary until the age of 21 and then not done as frequently – not once a year as usually done. Their reasoning doesn’t make sense to me, but then I’m not trying to trim the health care bill as some people seem to be doing. Who the hell are these people anyway?

The second article was about Governor Sanford of South Carolina who may be impeached sometime in the near future. He was the one who was supposedly going for a hike on the Appalachian Trail when he was actually in Argentina with his mistress, or “soul mate,” as he put it. I have been interested in the Appalachian Trail ever since the news came out, and the other night I watched a documentary on National Geographic channel about it. That trail is 2,175 miles long! Hard to believe he would attempt it. It goes through many states, starting in Maine and goes through his state where he could probably pick it up. What I saw was interesting, but it sure wasn’t a day in the park. It looked all dry and nothing pretty to look at. So I think he picked the proper vacation spot – who wouldn’t pick Argentina over the Appalachian Trail? He was really stupid in attempting to pull it off though. But those republican governors don’t seem to be the brightest and the best our country has.

The third article was concerning Sarah Palin’s bus tour on her campaign for 2012. She’s hitting different cities – the ones that like her - and appearing on talk shows and all the media interviews. These are all carefully orchestrated so as not to let in the opposition – riff raff. She is supposedly touting her book which was written by someone else, but we all know that’s not what she’s doing. She has a big following among the radical right . . . or really crazy people as I like to call them. She spoke in Michigan, and at one point said something we’ve heard many times: “Alaska and Michigan have so much in common, with the huntin’ and the fishin’ and the hockey moms.” I was hoping I didn’t have to hear that anymore, but I guess for the next couple of years, at least, she’ll be in our faces again with all of her down-home homilies. Will it make me want to vomit? You betcha!