On-line polls

Did you ever get an e-mail from an acquaintance who says YOU MUST go to such and such a site and answer a poll on this issue or that? Sure you have.

Such an e-mail hit my in-box today for an MSNBC poll on Arizona's new immigration law that allows police officers to ask for identification if they think a person is in the country illegally. Here was the message in the exact type size:

If you don't do anything else today, please answer this MSNBC Poll question and forward it on to as many people as you can. The silent majority must not be silent on this one.

OK, I get it, you want me to look at the poll. So, I did, and voted.

Now, I don't know when this poll was first posted on MSNBC but as of this morning it had more than 1,100,000 respondents. The question is, where are all the people opposed to the Arizona initiative? Why haven't their e-mail alerts clued them to the poll?

Let's be honest, polls don't matter. They don't change political positions but they make you feel good to know that you are not alone with your feelings one way or the other. Keep those polls coming, I love to be one in million or in this case one of 90+% of 1,100,000.

Well, that's what I have to say.

Stephen M. Flatow

Fatal drugs - counterfeit malaria treatment in Southeast Asia

Here's a trivia question for film buffs out there-- Harry Lime was accused of what crime?

Time's up. It was selling counterfeit penicillin. The drug was still relatively knew when Graham Greene wrote his novel and was a potent anti-biotic for many illnesses. When caught by the gendarmes, Harry would have been tried and sentenced to death because he was responsible for the deaths of dozens in a meningitis outbreak.

Today, the problem of counterfeit medicines is still with us. We're not talking about generics or knock-off drugs. No, we're talking about pills being 100% flour, or worse, containing parasites.

Smithsonian Magazine writes about "The Fatal Consequences of Counterfeit Drugs." And the story is scary. Malaria is rampant in southeast Asia, and many people fall prey to the disease each year. Prior drugs are no longer working, but a new one, China's "Artesunate," is very effective but is a little pricey--not for us in the States but for people there.

Crooks have found a way to duplicate the look of the pill, and pharmacists are often without the means of knowing if the drug they are selling is the real thing or not.

In the meantime, read the magazine article, and learn what's happening on the other side of the world. Harry Lime gets his in the end, maybe the new Harrys will get theirs.

Well, that's what I have to say.

Stephen M. Flatow

From the shake of the head department - Gays bash Israel

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid wins battle against censorship proudly

"congratulates Toronto’s LGBT community for successfully reversing censorship at
the 2010 Pride Parade. Pride Toronto announced today that it would not censor
the term ‘Israeli apartheid’ from the parade."

The Queers group is aligned with the Israeli apartheid movement because they believe that Israelis are tolerant of a gay lifestyle only to contrast Israeli practices with those in the Arab and Muslim world where homosexuality is punishable by death. In other words, Israel's liberal attitude towards gays is a ruse to trick liberal countries into supporting their oppression of Palestinians.

I give up.

Well, that's what I have to say.

Stephen M. Flatow