Crazies, Quackery, and the Mis-Informed

First these are my personal beliefs and while my opinions are strong I do not mean them as a personal attack; simply an attack on an idea that I feel strongly about.

The topic of the medical profession has been discussed much in my family as of late. Things have been said that I strongly disagree with. For all that know me I am a shy fairly reserved person that does not like confrontation thus I choose to use this forum to state my opinion.

First, I believe in God. Second, I believe God gave us many things on this planet to help us in a variety of aspects in our lives. Third, among these things I believe that God place inspired men on this planet to use those other resources He gave us to better our lives. Finally, I believe that some of these men are doctors, professors, and scientist that have used their knowledge to create medicines and vaccines for the benefit of all mankind.

My children will be vaccinated. They will be taught that medicine and vaccinations are good for them when used properly. I will not allow anything or any person influence them any differently as long as I have the power to do so. I will NOT knowingly place my children in danger of catching a deadly disease based on unfounded one-sided propaganda. Furthermore, It is futile to try and convince me that hundreds of years of medical advances are false or government conspiracies so please don't waste your time with me. For the road here are some statistics and whatnot that I have found (I'm sure I can find much more):

JAMA and Archives Journals (2007, November 16) stated,

For eight diseases for which a vaccine was licensed or recommended prior to 1980, the comparison of the period before national vaccination recommendations vs. the 2006 number of reported cases shows greater than 99 percent declines in the number of cases for diphtheria (100 percent), measles (99.9 percent), paralytic poliomyelitis (100 percent), rubella (99.9 percent), congenital rubella syndrome (99.3 percent), and smallpox (100 percent). Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide, and endemic transmission of poliovirus, measles virus, and rubella virus has been eliminated in the United States. There were no reported deaths due to diphtheria, measles, mumps, paralytic poliomyelitis, or rubella; deaths due to congenital rubella syndrome are not reported. The decline in cases of mumps was 95.9 percent, of tetanus 92.9 percent, and of pertussis 92.2 percent. The decline in tetanus deaths was 99.2 percent and in pertussis deaths 99.3 percent.

Infectious Diseases Society of America (2009, February 1) stated,

An extensive new review summarizes the many studies refuting the claim of a link between vaccines and autism. The review, in the February 15, 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and now available online, looks at the three main hypotheses and shows how epidemiological and biological studies refute these claims.

Infectious Diseases Society of America (2009, February 1). Vaccines And Autism: Many Hypotheses, But No Correlation Found. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 27, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/01/090130093407.htm

JAMA and Archives Journals (2007, November 16). Number Of Cases Of Most Vaccine-preventable Diseases In US At All-time Low. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 27, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/11/071113165636.htm

Max and Boar Goat

Here is some film on our latest encounters of Boar Goat. I am still waiting for the History channel to contact me for an episode of Monster Quest based on the origins of Boar Goat.

The Dark Arts

Before I begin just know that when I say "Dark Arts" it is done in a somewhat mocking manner and it is kind of an inside joke coming from a work friend of a different religious faith that sometimes (I think jokingly) accuses us of believing his religion and he practices the "Dark Arts". This isn't true and I actually think he is a really good guy.

Today the "Dark Arts" refer to Horoscopes, Tarot Cards, Palm Reading, Psychics, and most importantly Fortune Cookies. I just have to say that it blows my mind that people out there truly buy into these things. People, come on, why do you take heed to some random person making the most vague comments possible solely based on the lunar cycle and your birthday or randomly selected commercially purchased cards. Palm reading along with psychic hotlines are just as absurd and don't even get my started on the so called statements on fortune cookies. 90% of the time my fortune cookie at WOW is a saying instead of a fortune and my lucky numbers have never paid off.

There I said it and there will be no convincing me other wise. I will simply never buy into anything that is required to state it is for entertainment purposes only. I'm sorry to all those out there but Miss Chloe is for entertainment only.

Excluding fortune cookies the Chinese are the only ones to get the "Dark Arts" correct with their zodiac. Mostly because I am a Monkey and it states how smart I am along with other flattering comments. See http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/zodiac/Monkey.htm .

New Dog

The family recently fell into a new dog. We had been talking about getting one for sometime (ever since getting rid of that terribly annoying pygmy goat) but just hadn't done it yet. My brother called and said that a male Boxer needed a home because his owner is going away for a not so short stint in the penitentiary. His name is Max.

Side note: For those that know me; yes, my childhood friend is also named Max. The dogs name is in no way a result of some strange man crush with by best friend. Instead it is due to Max being 5 years old with the same owner and he simply knows his name. There will definitely be times that I refer to both as Max so I will make sure I clarify before getting to deep into the story.

He, the dog, is fully trained and an excellent pet. Max and I have also been very fortunate to experience The Boar Goat face to face on a number of walks. It is very eerie listening to a mystical creature make threatening sounds at you and your dog while the dog is trying to get a grasp on what type of creature is before him by sniffing in the fashion that dogs do.

Here he is:

I know, it is about time.

A certain work friend has been talking trash that this never gets updated so here we go. I created this blog quite awhile ago and this is officially the first post. This blog is going to be my place to post my strange thoughts and occurrences in my life; no cutesy pictures of the family or that type of thing (unless they are really cute).

I know that the blog is titled All Things Boar Goat but lets be real, it is quite hard to keep a blog of this caliber going solely based on one mystical creature. There have been recent sightings of the boar goat by the way but those stories will come sometime later.

Sometimes I will post the stupid things that I come across at work and home, other times simply things that I see at the local Walmart, and finally when all other things run empty I will call upon my plethora of memorable experiences of childhood and teenage years before I slightly grew up and started a family.

So, as we begin this journey let my state this one thing: I am different than what most people think they "know" me as. While it probably isn't the case I may offend some, others may think that I am making personal attacks. In most cases I mean no harm I just like to rant about things that I think are loco or just plain stupid.