An Alleged Million Moms (Jazz Mix)

[Deliberately catty sigh]

One Million Moms, the vehemently right-wing group known for getting worked up over everything from Toys ‘R’ Us to Oreo Cookies to Chobani yogurt, is back with what could be its most obnoxious conviction yet.

This time, the group is targeting Jazz Jennings, the remarkable transgender teen who has inspired so many through her LGBT advocacy work and TLC series, “I Am Jazz.”

In two separate blog posts, one of which was titled “God doesn’t make mistakes (but humans do),” One Million Moms condemned the team behind “I Am Jazz,” arguing that the show aims “to desensitize America’s youth.”

“The show is attempting to normalize the transgender lifestyle and make it appear OK while using a young cast member to lure a young audience,” officials wrote in the blog.

(Wong)

I am of two minds about this sort of thing. “We don’t follow this group’s logic,” notes HuffPo Gay Voices Senior Editor Curtis M. Wong, “but when have they been logical?”

It is a fair question, but also one that begs recursively. To wit, we might wonder why we should bother attending the antics in this particular psychomoral cesspit when we already know they are both excrementally wrong and nearly entirely ineffective?

A Reckoning, and Its Toll

Via Associated Press:

An ultra-Orthodox Israeli who fatally stabbed a teenage girl at a Jerusalem gay pride parade has been indicted on a murder charge.

Jerusalem’s District Court indicted Yishai Schlissel for murder on Monday for last month’s deadly attack, along with multiple attempted murder charges for those he wounded.

Mr. Schlissel stands accused of murdering Shira Banki, age 16. Celebrate justice, but remember the price.

____________________

Image notes: Top ― Paramedics help a wounded woman after an ultra-Orthodox Jew attacked people with a knife during a Gay Pride parade Thursday, July 30, 2015 in central Jerusalem. Israeli police said several people were stabbed. (Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/AP) Right ― Ultra-Orthodox Jew Yishai Schlissel walks through a Gay Pride parade and is just about to pull a knife from under his coat and start stabbing people in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 30, 2015. Schlissel was recently released from prison after serving a term for stabbing several people at a gay pride parade in 2005, a police spokeswoman said. (Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/AP) Bottom ― Shira Banki died 2 August 2015 from wounds sustained in a 30 July terror attack against the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem. (Photo: Banki family)

Associated Press. “Yishai Schlissel Charged With Murder In Jerusalem Gay Pride Attack”. The Huffington Post. 24 August 2015.

Berger, Miriam. “Man attacks Jerusalem gay parade, just weeks after release from prison for similar attack”. The Star-Tribune. 30 July 2015.

A Brief Note About Nothing (Ask My Doctor Edition)

In a way, I’m surprised I haven’t noticed before; to the other, maybe it’s because this one is so blatant. An advert for a respiratory drug running in the background, a silly, touching narrative of a grandfather having to explain the problem to his granddaughter during story time, because he’s just like the big bad wolf, huffing and puffing. All of which leads to the setup, and the first joke to mind really is straightforward: So I asked my doctor, and she read me a script written by a pharmaceutical company that wants me to take their drug.

Can of corn, right? Don’t need to hack up a lung chasing that one down.

But right on its heels another thought struck, as the doctor played on TV read the standard plea: So I asked my doctor, and she told me to ask my doctor.

Maybe it’s time to rework the script template.

Just sayin’.

Some Words About Something I Know Nothing About

This is one of those I should simply steer clear of.

Critics, on the other hand, point out the teensy problem that the pharmaceutical company’s own drug trials have shown that Addyi (the brand name for flibanserin) doesn’t actually work all that well. The drug, which will likely be available to consumers in mid-October, is a daily medication, and has been associated with some decidedly unsexy side effects, such as dizziness, sleepiness, nausea, insomnia, and dry mouth. Alcohol exacerbates the side effects, so women taking Addyi are told to abstain from drinking as long as they’re taking it. And the payoff is modest at best: In clinical trials involving about 2,400 healthy, pre-menopausal women (their average age was 36), the women taking flibanserin reported up to one more “satisfying sexual event” per month on average, compared with the women who took a placebo.

(Dahl)

After all, if ever there is a time to hide behind being … oh, right. Anyway, yeah, it’s after a paragraph like that, something, something, mumble, murmur, I’ll just shut up now.