When I first decided to merge Howling Hill with my other two blogs I made the conscious decision not to let my rage and depression flow through it. Now, I know writers are never able to completely disentangled themselves from their emotions so I know my rage and depression has filtered into this blog whether I wanted them to or not.

This time, however, I am passing this along knowing full well how rageful and depressed this makes me feel. I think it’s so fundamentally important for us to fight against this. While I’m not surprised it came to be, I am surprised it was Chris Dodd (D-CT) who brought it forth. And here I thought he was a semi-decent politician (I met him a few times last fall).

I’m posting the article in its entirety. It’s a little long but I’m sure you’ll live. Please contact your Senators and Representatives and let them know how unaccpetable this bill is. Please advocate for this bill to be overturned.

Poached from Small Meadow Farm. I’m sorry to say I don’t usually read her blog — although it’s lovely there are only so many blogs one can read! — but Neophyte does and I read hers everyday. Thanks for the heads up Neophyte!

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By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

With virtually no fanfare, President Bush signed into law a plan ordering the government to take no more than six months to set up a “national contingency plan” to screen newborns’ DNA in case of a “public health emergency.”

The new law requires that the results of the program – including “information … research, and data on newborn screening” – shall be assembled by a “central clearinghouse” and made available on the Internet.

According to congressional records, S.1858, sponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was approved in the Senate Dec. 13, in the House April 8 and signed by Bush April 24.

“Soon, under this bill, the DNA of all citizens will be housed in government genomic biobanks and considered governmental property for government research,” said Twila Brase, president of the Citizens’ Council on Health Care. “The DNA taken at birth from every citizen is essentially owned by the government, and every citizen becomes a potential subject of government-sponsored genetic research.”

Brase has objected extensively to plans in Minnesota to provide state government the same option now handed to the federal government by Congress.

The bill, she said, strips “citizens of genetic privacy rights and DNA property rights. It bill also violates research ethics and the Nuremberg Code.

“The public is clueless. S. 1858 imposes a federal agenda of DNA databanking and population-wide genetic research,” Brase continued. “It does not require consent and there are no requirements to fully inform parents about the warehousing of their child’s DNA for the purpose of genetic research.

“Already, in Minnesota, the state health department reports that 42,210 children of the 780,000 whose DNA is housed in the Minnesota ‘DNA warehouse’ have been subjected to genetic research without their parent’s knowledge or consent,” she said.

The federal plan sets up the coast-to-coast DNA collections then report the results to “physicians and families” as well as educate families about newborn screening.

“We now are considered guinea pigs, as opposed to human beings with rights,” said Brase, warning such DNA databases could spark the next wave of demands for eugenics, the concept of improving the human race through the control of various inherited traits. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, advocated eugenics to cull from the population types of people she considered unfit.

In 1921, Sanger said eugenics is “the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems,” and she later lamented “the ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.”

Such DNA collection programs are offered as screening requirements to detect treatable illnesses. Currently, the type of tests conducted varies from state-to-state, but the Health Resources and Services Administration has requested a report that would “include a recommendation for a uniform panel of conditions.”

“Fortunately,” Dodd said when his plan was launched, “some newborn screening occurs in every state. … This legislation will provide resources for states to expand their newborn screening programs.”

So what’s the big deal about looking into DNA to hunt for various disease possibilities?

Nothing, said Brase, if that’s where the hunt would end.

However, she said, “researchers already are looking for genes related to violence, crime and different behaviors.”

“This isn’t just about diabetes, asthma and cancer,” she said. “It’s also about behavioral issues.”

“In England they decided they should have doctors looking for problem children, and have those children reported, and their DNA taken in case they would become criminals,” she said.

In fact, published reports in the UK note that senior police forensics experts believe genetic samples should be studied, because it may be possible to identify potential criminals as young as age 5.

In Britain, Chris Davis of the National Primary Headteachers’ Association warned the move could be seen “as a step towards a police state.”

Brase said efforts to study traits and gene factors and classify people would be just the beginning. What could happen through subsequent programs to address such conditions, she wondered.

“Not all research is great,” she said. Classifying of people could lead to “discrimination and prejudice. … People can look at data about you and make assessments ultimately of who you are.”

The Heartland Regional Genetics and Newborn Screening is one of the organizations that advocates more screening and research.

It proclaims in its vision statement a desire to see newborns screened for 200 conditions. It also forecasts “every student … with an individual program for education based on confidential interpretation of their family medical history, their brain imaging, their genetic predictors of best learning methods…”

Further, every individual should share information about “personal and family health histories” as well as “gene tests for recessive conditions and drug metabolism” with the “other parent of their future children.”

Still further, it seeks “ecogenetic research that could improve health, lessen disability, and lower costs for sickness.”

“They want to test every child for 200 conditions, take the child’s history and a brain image, and genetics, and come up with a plan for that child,” Brase said. “They want to learn their weaknesses and defects.

“Nobody including and especially the government should be allowed to create such extensive profiles,” she said.

The next step, said Brase, is obvious: The government, with information about potential health weaknesses, could say to couples, “We don’t want your expensive children.”

“I think people have forgotten about eugenics. The fact of the matter is that the eugenicists have not gone away. Newborn genetic testing is the entry into the 21st Century version of eugenics,” she said.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has posted a position statement on the issue, noting that many good things can result from genetic testing.

However, it expressed two significant areas of concern.

“History shows that this information will sometimes be leaked or misused, regardless of who controls it. When private companies leak information and break people’s confidence, they have often been exposed and punished, as people no longer buy their services or sue. In contrast, when government agencies do the same, the guilty bureaucrats have often been protected and rewarded instead of suffering meaningful consequences,” the group said.

The AAPS said in order to do the best possible job of protecting privacy, anyone who has access to DNA data should be “individually liable in the event of unlawful disclosure of genetic testing information. …”

The other area of concern is equally significant.

“Genetic testing could be used for purposes found immoral in the Hippocratic medical tradition. For example, a utilitarian use of testing, in this example also immoral, would be to test for conditions which would make an individual less useful to society for the purpose of killing that person, as has been done in some totalitarian systems, such as Nazi Germany. Likewise, the use of genetic testing in attempts to breed a super race would be immoral and unethical. In these examples, the utility of the person to the society is the deciding factor, a position antithetical to the Hippocratic tradition of primary responsibility to the individual patient rather than to an amorphous society or relativistic social policies,” the group said.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, was one of the few voices to warn of the dangers. Before the plan’s approval, he said, “I cannot support legislation, no matter how much I sympathize with the legislation’s stated goals, that exceed the Constitutional limitations on federal power or in any way threatens the liberty of the American people. Since S. 1858 violates the Constitution, and may have untended consequences that will weaken the American health care system and further erode medical privacy, I must oppose it.”

Paul said, “S. 1858 gives the federal bureaucracy the authority to develop a model newborn screening program. Madame Speaker the federal government lacks both the constitutional authority and the competence to develop a newborn screening program adequate for a nation as large and diverse as the United States. …”

He also said as the federal government assumes more control over health care, medical privacy is coming under assault.

“Those of us in the medical profession should be particularly concerned about policies allowing government officials and state-favored interests to access our medical records without our consent … My review of S. 1858 indicates the drafters of the legislation made no effort to ensure these newborn screening programs do not violate the privacy rights of parents and children,” Paul continued.

“In fact, by directing federal bureaucrats to create a contingency plan for newborn screening in the event of a ‘public health’ disaster, this bill may lead to further erosions of medical privacy. As recent history so eloquently illustrates, politicians are more than willing to take, and people are more than willing to cede, liberty during times of ‘emergency,” he said.

Food and Water Watch’s blog, Smorgasbord, had this to say today

We need dedicated and talented fellowship applicants. We provide grassroots advocacy training, a chance to work with an incredible team of leaders, and a blueprint for environmental victory.

Can you imagine you or someone you know leading the way on one of the most important environmental and human rights issues of our time?

Food & Water Watch’s Take Back the Tap Campaign is building upon a groundswell of activism to address the global water crisis. It’s growing fast and it needs leaders like you!

Not something I’m interested in doing but I thought I’d pass it along for yous all.

Last month I opened my blog up to your questions and really enjoyed answering them so I thought I’d open up again.

Go ahead. Ask me anything. I dare you.

Double dare.

Triple dare with whipped cream, cherries, and jimmies.

Last week I posted about an unsuccessful attempt at using a neti pot. Well, I gave it a try today and had better results.

I’m still stuffy, sniffly, and snotty although I feel tons better than I did last week which is why I thought today I would have good results with the neti pot.

I put it in my right nostril — the clogged one — and it came out of my left nostril in drips. I switched and again it came out in drips although it took a couple seconds longer to make it through the mucus* but it did. Again, though, my right ear got some fluid in it and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s supposed to be like that…? Or maybe my body is that way.

I don’t feel any better or worse than I did although now I’m starting to get a slight sinus headache above my eyes and, of course, my nose is running again. But if it’s all part of recovery I’ll suck it up. (Well, not literally, that’d be gross).

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have been taking some expired Allegra Wolf was prescribed in 2005. I’ve been taking it at night so I can get some sleep (and so Wolf can get some sleep too) because I’d gotten to the point where I just couldn’t take it any more. Because I wasn’t sleeping I wasn’t getting better. One can’t get better if they can’t sleep. And poor Wolf wasn’t sleeping either and that makes for an unproductive day at work, which in turns makes a cranky Wolf. So with the idea of keeping my man employed, I took some Allegra. I put me to sleep and made us both happy.

Kim was nice enough to get me some Allergy Relief Herbal Tea from Wise River Herbals. Wise River Herbals is run out of D Acres. Kim and I have been taking an herbal class there but I had to miss Sunday’s class because I felt like total shit. You see, I managed to get a migraine so I brought my ass right home and to bed from the grocery store and she went without me. Lauren, the herbalist who is teaching the class, asked where I was and Kim explained I was on my death bed.

I was fully intending to take an herbalist class at Misty Meadows this year but couldn’t come up with the $1500. I’ve been wanting to take this particular herbalist class for the last couple years so I can “get off” pharmaceuticals and treat our illnesses the way I think they should be treated: with herbs and plants. I’ll be the first to admit when I’m miserable I’ll do anything for relief. If that means taking something poisonous to get to sleep and/or feel better, I’ll do it if my body isn’t healing in the time I’d like it too. Mostly, though, I take the drugs because I don’t know how to treat illnesses with herbs, hence the classes. And the desire to take a full course to be a “true” herbalist. Learning from books just doesn’t do it for me, I need the hands on instruction of someone in the know.

*Wolf said to me last week “I’m impressed with the sheer volume of mucus you body produces. I didn’t think anyone could make that much snot that fast.” Um, thanks Babe. I think.

Updated to add: it’s been a 1/2 hour and how my head is *pounding*. Ug. I think me and the neti pot are breaking up. I’ll give it one more chance when (if) I feel better but if the headache happens again, I’m booting neti to the curb like The Worst Boyfriend I Ever Had (O’Hal).

Well, the four are doing fine. Wolf has assigned names to them. The leader of the pack is Buffalo and the one at the bottom of the pecking order is McNugget. The other two remain nameless for a few more days. Buffalo is light tan/red while the others are all a bit darker tannish/red.

They haven’t been allowed out of the coop yet and they’re itching to get out. I think I’ll broach the subject with Wolf today when he gets home for work.

He has gotten them to eat out of his hand and out of mine too which is good. And while we’re a little peeved they came debeaked, at least it didn’t hurt one one bit me earlier today nor does it hurt when they eat out of your hand.

Pictures as soon as my camera comes back from the shop.

Oh, and no eggs yet. I’m hoping around Memorial Day.

Gina over at Cauldron Ridge wrote a beautiful post about her kin. Reading her words got my juices flowing about favorites.

Do you have a favorite aunt, uncle, or grandparent? Is there one parent you prefer over the other? What about your kids? Your nieces and nephews?

Over the years I’ve listened to many parents say they don’t choose favorites from their broods but observation tells me otherwise. I’ll use my mother’s side and my father’s side as examples. But first I want to say I think we all pick favorites whether we want to or not and whether we acknowledge it or not.

My mother has two brothers, Billy and Ben. She has one sister, Nancy. My mother was the youngest; Ben is a year older than her; Nancy is nine years older and Billy is ten. My mother was her father’s favorite and Ben my grandmother’s. While I never met my grandfather, I know my mother was his favorite from the way other people talk about him and how they describe his relationship with my mother. With Uncle Ben, I did see it firsthand.

When my mother or aunt would ask Nana to get them something she would always say “get it yourself” but with Ben, she would trip all over herself to get whatever he asked for. It was in the way she looked at her son, with the moon in her eyes. You could hear it in the tone of her voice, the words she used to speak of her son, to her son.

Aunt Nancy also has favorites in her brood of four: George (the oldest) and Deborah (her only daughter). Neither George nor Deborah can do no wrong. She dotes on their children and their spouses but her other two sons barely get her attention. And yet, John and Bobby are the ones who do the most for her: they call constantly, mow her lawn, plow her driveway, and pull her trailer where ever she wants to go. She always says how lucky she is to have children who do so much for her but she doesn’t seem to realize who’s doing most of the work.

On Dad’s side it’s much the same. My Dad, may he rest in peace, was not my grandmother’s favorite. Bobby and Cindy are. Jack, much like Bobby (above) and John, is the one who dotes most on Nana. She realizes it, acknowledges it but doesn’t realize the reason behind how much he dotes: he’s still seeking her attention and affection after all these years. Bobby and Cindy can blow off holidays and she’ll make excuses for them. But [enter name of favorite deity here] forbid Jack does.

Even in Wolf’s family I see this same favorites game. Wolf happens to be the favorite boy in his family. His sisters all live very far away (Wolf’s brother lives in NH also, almost two hours south of us) but before they all moved away Margery was the favorite and I think she still is despite Elizabeth’s constant attention to her mother.

So how does this happen? How is it parents choose favorites? And why deny what everyone can see plain as the noses on your faces?

I myself had a favorite grandmother, my mother’s mother. She passed away when I was 13 and I still miss her. I was Nana P’s favorite however I think it had more to do with location. That is, I was the only one of her grandchildren who lived near her. All her other grandchildren lived either in California, Connecticut, or over an hour away in Central Massachusetts so I was the one she had the most access to since we lived down the street from her. As much as I dote on Nana C., my paternal grandmother, I do so because I’m trying to get her attention and affection, which she lavishes on her other grandchildren (the one’s who don’t call, visit, or write, nor acknowledge her birthday) much the same way my Uncle Jack does. I am not Nana’s favorite, however; my cousin Chrissy is.

While I used to have favorite cousins I don’t anymore because I can’t stand any of them. And it’s the same with aunts and uncles. I used to have favorites but now I have aunts and uncles I can tolerate more than others. You see, as I grew the rose colored glasses I had dimmed and faded and soon the glaring sun showed me my kin in their true light and I’m not interested in being a part of their lives anymore and I know the feeling is mutual.

I don’t think any of us make the conscious decision to chose a favorite, we just do. Maybe the favorite reminds us of another relative, one we like and miss. Or maybe the favorite reminds us of ourselves. But we all chose favorites of this I have absolute faith.

Wolf spent the morning raking and cleaning up the yard, building a new bed for the garden, and fine tuning the coop. I was supposed to help but I ended up in bed with a migraine by noon. I’m feeling marginally better but want this allergy head to stop in the worst way.

I still haven’t gotten the seeds into peat pots but I’m hoping to tomorrow. I don’t want to be outside much because I still feel awful — clogged and runny at the same time and now I have a sinus headache which would bring the gods to their knees. The dryness of the air is the biggest problem.

It’s been warm and sunny all weekend. In reality it’s been a beautiful weekend, one I wish I could’ve enjoyed.

But we really need some rain. A week of rain. Not flood type rain but a nice wetting, soaking, drenching rain. It’s too dry here. It’s as if our weather patterns have changed. April showers are supposed to bring May flowers but it hasn’t been like that for the last few years. April has been dry as a bone and May has brought flooding rains. So far, that hasn’t happened as yet and it’s almost mid-May.

Our fire hazard is up way high because the water table is way down. Last week there was a barn fire which, thankfully, was detected early. It was up on the mountain — waaaay up on the mountain — where the winds were high. Some of the embers flew off and lit the yard on fire but the combined efforts of three departments got it under control before it became catastrophic. Wolf spent half the evening up fighting the fire. I went up for a little while to take pictures but left when my allergy head felt as if it would explode. Between the pollen, dryness of the air, and the smoke I was beyond miserable.

(Wolf just called me away to show me a turkey in the garden bed. He said “I knew I should’ve put the fucking fence up.” I hope they didn’t eat the seed I did manage to get in there last week.)

Ok, enough blabbering. Honestly, I’m blogging right now because I’m bored as shit.