and the hits just keep on comin'

remember a few hours ago when i said i thought maybe i'd never feel good again? well, that was before i read this:

On Monday, the federal office that oversees the nation's family-planning program got a new boss who doesn't believe in birth control. Eric Keroack is a Massachusetts obstetrician-gynecologist who argues that abstinence until marriage is the only healthy choice for women. Until recently, he served as medical director of a pregnancy-counseling organization that runs down contraception and gives out scientifically false health information—for instance, that condoms "offer virtually no protection" against herpes or HPV. Keroack also promotes a wacky piece of pseudoscience: the claim that premarital sex disrupts brain chemistry so as to create a physiological barrier to happy marriage.

In his new role, Keroack will have extensive power to shape the kinds of information disseminated to millions of women. He will be able to develop new guidelines for clinics, set priorities, and determine how scarce dollars get spent, says Marilyn Keefe of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. "We've seen that people in these political slots have a tremendous influence over how programs get implemented," she said.

and now i don't think it, i know.

NARAL pro-choice america has set up a petition that will be sent to mike leavitt, secretary of health and human services, urging him to reject keroack's appointment. sign it. seriously, like, right this second. sign it. that is, of course, unless you, too, believe "that the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness," in which case you may take this time to do something else, like grow a lollipop tree or levitate.

i suppose this is how bushco's fighting back. but come on, ladies, even dead-set chastity-belt-clad conservative ladies--do you want this man to be involved with your lower bits?


he's crazy! he's got the crazy eyes! i'd chase him away from my reproductive system with a flaming torch. the last time the bushmen tried to plant a psycho ("dr." w. david hager) in a role like this, they were shot down. this time, though, it appears to have been carried out in stealth, and i am sore afraid. two more years, though, right?

right?