Celeb Speaks Out Against Vaccines

I received this link from another mom and the article covers the question of vaccine safety. Written by Jim Carrey, he voices some basic concerns that Heath and I have about vaccines and the blanket recommendations accompanying them.

I know some of you have already written us off as the "nutty family/friends who shun every mainstream parenting choice", but truth be told, we are not against vaccines just for the sake of being different. We are not skeptical simply because it is the medical society telling us our children should have 36 of them before the age of 3. That is not why we avoid them. (Although 36 shots seems like a lot for one little 3 year old body, right?) No, there are instances when vaccines may be appropriate. However, I also believe the current U. S. system of vaccination is inappropriate, extreme and unsafe for children. Like Carrey pointed out, there are both good and bad to the vaccines. So why does the medical community tout them as 100% beneficial, without the slightest acknowledgment that they could have potential downsides? Doesn't that seem suspect?! There is a pro and con to everything in life, right?

Heath and I do not vaccinate our children because the risks of receiving the shots do not outweigh the benefits for our family. I realize we live in a country that allows us to make this choice without impending threat of diseases that plagued many children generations ago. And I am so very thankful that we CAN make this choice! Overall, the bottom line is no one knows how "safe" vaccines are. People may still be alive who have received vaccines, but we will never know the full physiological havoc they have wreaked on our bodies. And until the CDC, AAP and vaccine makers can show me an unbiased (e.g. not funded by Merck or other pharmaceutical companies), randomized, controlled clinical trial which proves safety without a shadow of a doubt, I will continue to make the choice I feel is safest for my children (which now includes another precious newborn).

Sebastian pics

Our computer was down for a bit, thus the long silence. A few pics of our new boy . . .

He's so cool!

Yes, we're still alive, and yes, I'll post some more pictures soon, but had to share this first:

"Our Teen Prez"

Excerpt:

One of the major reasons for the current insanity is that our president is mind-numbingly immature.

That's why my college-aged children love him so much. He's exactly the same age they are. He cares about the same things -- saving the world based on feelings with no regard to reality and no concern about either history or the future. A vision of utopia that most people have realized, by age thirty or so, cannot co-exist with human nature. And mostly, the thrill of the PAR-TAY!

The man cannot be parted from his crackberry, even in the interest of national security. (In other words, screw the rest of us.) Just like a 16 year-old kid, he lectures us about saving the planet while asking for gas money to go to the mall. (Has anyone calculated the carbon footprint of Airforce One since January 20th?) He wants to hang with celebrities -- which is even scarier when you realize that Simon Cowell is his idea of a celebrity. The country is falling down around us, and he's trying to schedule a dinner with Simon Cowell?????????? (If any of his admirers would like to defend that, the combox is all yours.)

... So now, while the country is falling down around us and there are about fifty fires that would be front page news (if we still had front pages) that our (for lack of a better term) representatives should be dropping everything and fixing immediately, he has them trying to fix the BCS.

WHICH IS NOT SOMETHING A GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE DOING EVEN IF IT WEREN'T RIDICULOUS!

What's next, an senate hearing on the NASCAR race-to-the-chase? A congressional oversight committee for the PGA tournament? And what is going to take precedence in the mind of the Juvenile-in-Chief, the North Korean missile crisis or the Final Four?

Democracy (not that it's possible without a free press, so it's effectively gone) is a lovely thing, until the majority of the voters are so clueless, they would trade freedom and security for a chance to have a prez who would be just so darned cool to have a beer with.

Hat tip to the Pertinacious Papist.