A brilliant man has recently died of pancreatic cancer, and he is one who, I admit, I had not known about before he died just this past Friday after outliving Doctor’s prognosis from his returned pancreatic cancer, which is one of the most deadly because of it’s difficulty in treating and the specific organ that it attacks, which is vital to the cleaning of our whole system. 

His name is Randy Pausch, and he’s a tall, fun loving guy who died an untimely death at the age of 47 - too young, especially for such an enthusiastic, inspiring, kind and gentle person who really knew how to talk to people, to inspire them, to encourage them to reach their goals, and to not be afraid to chase the dreams they’ve had since childhoo, and most importantly to not be swayed by such an increasingly pessimistic world.  I liked one part of his speech, where he talks about pissing matches, and how important it is to get out of a “pissing match” as quickly as one can, because all they are in fact, is unproductive and all “ego”. 

His “last lecture” became a Youtube sensation, and it was really focused around going for your dreams, and not being afraid to achieve them, and especially not to let the negative attitudes of others get you down.  He also spoke at length about the barriers you will achieve when going for your dreams, and that only those that truly want to achieve their dreams and the best life possible for them and their families, will end up achieving them. 

May you rest in peace Randy, for I am another one who has been inspired after watching your famous last lecture, as millions of others are, and I’m refreshed to see that someone is out there encouraging others to go for what they want in a kind and ethical way, something that is seriously lacking in today’s dog eat dog world.  Randy will be sorely missed by his wife Jai and their three children. 

Well, in this day and age, it must be hard to raise a child, no matter what the sex is.  Jeez, just hearing about the girls who supposedly might have made a pregnancy pact with eachother in a recent story in the news, and this one, it’s hard to believe that some kids really do stay abstinent until they at least reach age 20, or actually feel ready to deal with the repercussions of sexual activity.

In a PA school district called the Delaware Valley district, it seems the STD’s, or sexually transmitted diseases, have run rampant and are infecting a high percentage of their students.  Not only that, when surveyed, many as young as twelve years old in this district admitted they were sexually active.  I wasn’t even thinking about sex that much when I was twelve, and here now kids are already well into their sexual activity many times at that age!

The percentage is high in this particular PA district, about ten percent of them are infected with some sort of STD, most of them being HPV, which is actually a very common virus that is sexually transmitted, and is closely linked to the development of cervical cancer in women if left untreated and if of a particularly virulent strain or of a certain specific strain.

And it just begins there.  One student in this district actually tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and over twenty young ladies have tested positive for pregnancy.  I’m just wondering why these young people don’t really think it’s necessary to at least practice safe sex if they are going to be fooling around in the first place.  I remember when I was young, being in that situation would have been the worst, most devastating thing to happen to me. 

At such an early age, you really limit your opportunities by getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant, and the course of your life is forever changed.  It’s before life even starts, and you’ve already put yourself behind the gun.  I know abstinence education doesn’t work well, but there’s gotta be a way to really get that message into kid’s heads. 

There is a case out of Britain that has definitely stirred the tabloids and the papers for quite some time now, about a man named Neil Entwistle and the murder of his young daughter and his wife.  The prosecution claims that the man committed the ruthless and gory murder of his young daughter and his young wife because he was deeply in debt, and because he was unsatisfied with the married sex life he was having and was pursuing outside relationships for the sake of extra sexual relations.

Prosecutors say that Entwistle, a young father, whom everyone knew to be a loving father and husband was in fact drowning in debt from a rent he was paying at almost three grand a month and other expenses, and was looking for a way out of the marriage since he had extracurricular interests in sexual liaisons as well. 

They further contend that his and his wife’s computer was found to have records showing searches for sexual escort services and other things of a sexual nature that would indicate he was trying to network to gain access to outside sexual relations with other women.  They say the gun that was used to kill his wife and poor young daughter was actually his wife’s father’s gun, which they say Neil stole from the inlaws house not too long before the murders, and that both his DNA were found on it as well as Rachel’s - his wife’s, adding more fuel to their argument that he committed these murders.

The defense of course, contends that he did not commit these murders, and that he actually came home to find his wife and daughter dead and lying next to eachother in their bed, and then was so emotionally distraught that he caught a plane, where he was arrested at an aiport and found to have newspaper clippings offering escort services.  Because that’s what grieving men do, right?  Look for escort services after their wife and child have been murdered?  Sounds like this guy needs to be put away for life….

In the ongoing newer war against prescription drug abuse, the hardest thing to stop is the rampant internet sale of pharmaceutical drugs, which makes it very easy to get your hands on drugs that normally require a doctor’s approval and prescription.  Never mind that there are also doctors out there who unscrupulously prescribe too many medications to their patients, all in the name of making pharmaceutical companies more money, the internet sale of these drugs, which can have the potential to be highly addictive and dangerous, has pushed the fight to a whole new level and created a whole new population of drug addicts.

A woman’s husband is the latest story in the battle against online drug sales.  She says that her husband obtained a sleeping medication called Soma online from a website that sold pharmaceuticals with very little to proof of a doctor’s approval or prescription, and she had thought that he had gotten a doctor’s prescription for it. 

She says she now realizes that her deceased husband developed a serious addiction to the medication after he was in a car accident that left him with severe back pain.  The only thing, she said, that would help his back pain was this Soma.  She went on to explain that he was up to popping several pills at night to fall asleep, well beyond the prescribed amount.  This sounds like something that could have possibly been prevented if he were under a doctor’s supervision. 

She explained that she came home to find her husband in a pile of his own vomit, and he died of a drug overdose on the Soma.  The DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) is well aware that pharmaceutical drugs being sold onine without doctor supervision has created a whole new breed of drug addiction and it has seized several companies assets who were selling online illegally, but there is still a ways to go, as the internet is a very difficult thing to control. 

Google has agreed to help in the fight against these illegal online drug sales, and has worked with the DEA to create warnings for people before they go to buy these drugs online.  Hopefully it can stop someone else from falling victim to unsupervised medications. 

This one goes for men and women alike, but I thought I’d write about it because I find the topic of teen angst and relationships very intriguing, remembering my own as an awkward teen who was preoccupied with thoughts of popularity and wanting to be liked.  Ehem, hope I don’t sound too pathetic there, I think everyone else knows what I’m talking about!  I remember being envious of the kids that this genuinely seemed to not matter to. 

In fact,  being so shy and awkard as a student at my high school, I think that the reason I thought about this quandry so much was that I am by nature an introvert, and introverts tend to think to themselves a lot and ponder things and gather their energies that way.  Talk about a bad combination in high school!  Being unable to communicate with my peers as well as being a natural introvert was pretty much a recipe for disaster in the popularity category for me. 

Not that I care at all now.  As an adult, I think that not being part of the popular crowd when I was younger has actually made me work all that much harder in my adult life.  It built a lot of character, and made me realize how important it really is to be nice to people and treat others how you would want to be treated. 

Apparently, recent studies have shown that for teen men and women, it does not really matter whether you really are in the popular crowd, or whether you perceive yourself as well liked and popular, you will be equally as likely to have a higher self opinion and self esteem, and therefore happiness, as you would if you truly were in the in crowd.  So, you see, it really is all about self perception, if we could only teach the youths out there that exact thing, then maybe teen angst would be a thing of the past.  Like I said though, I do think it creates and builds character in most kids.

Hey guys, this has to do with you too, since if you have a lady friend who’s on this there may be potential for danger here, so listen up.  The birth control patch that was hailed as a great new invention just not too long ago, is now “on trial” from many doctors and consumer advocates who claim that the risk of the patch vs. the traditional birth control pill for women proportionately outweighs it’s convenience too much, making it a much riskier choice for women who want birth control without taking a pill, and are calling for the product to be removed from market.

The patch, which I gather is made by juggernaut Johnson and Johnson, has been shown to have a much higher risk factor for women when it comes to blood clots in the lungs and the legs, because it releases almost 60% more estrogen into the blood stream, which is the primary risk factor for blood clots in women, than the pill does.  This is because it is in patch form, and the body absorbs more apparently this way, than it does if the pill is swallowed with the pregnancy preventing estrogen hormones in it.

The FDA has received many complaints about the birth control patch, and yet it has remained on market, so I’m not sure how severe the complaints and the evidence has to be for them to pull a product from market or make the manufacturer voluntarily pull it, although I’m sure they’re deluged with these types of requests on a dailly basis since we are a medicated society now unfortunately.

Good news is the the demand for the birth control patch has gone down considerably ever since word of mouth and bad publicity started occurring for the patch somewhere just a few years ago. 

The demand was cut more in half, with less than half the amount of prescriptions being written for it now than there were just a few years ago, so probably both patients are wising up to the risks and are not willing to take that extra risk for the convenience of a patch, and/or doctors are not willing to put their female patients at risk because they personally believe this link is critical enough to not put them in harms way. 

Of course the same warnings against smoking go for anyone on the patch as they do for women on the pills, since smoking patients can greatly increase their odds of blood clots when on the birth control pill.  This is a clear warning on all birth control oral and patch, and shots usually. 

Well, Bobby Brown, more famous for being Whitney Houston’s embattled ex husband than he is for his former music career, has taken the cake again with his new tell all book that is set to come out where he tells it like it is about his lifetime.  In one part of the book, which is cowritten by another author as well, he claims that the word on the street - whatever that means - is that he’s a very good lover and is very “well endowed”, which for any of you that don’t know what the means, means he has a large penis.  At least in his own mind.

Brown goes on to reveal, among other things reportedly, that he and Whitney had great chemistry in the bedroom and he’s good at sexuall pleasing women basically, and even supposedly is going to  name a major pop star whom he allegedly bedded.  Not sure if I believe this one, but hey, anything’s possible when you’re young and stupid, right? 

Bobby Brown has been made to look like the villain in the Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston divorce, and many think that he’s the reason the Whitney started doing hard core drugs, but he might refute that partly in his book as well so I’ve heard.  All I can say is that it seems like Whitney is doing a lot better without him, so that kind of helps along the theory that he was the reason for the couple’s admittedly “joing” downfall, but Whitney I’m sure was no angel either, and it takes two to tango.

I just love when men claim they’re great lovers and well endowed with large penises.  It makes you wonder why they have to say it out loud, if it’s true, men usually will keep that to themselves.  It just seems a little classier.  But then again, look who we’re dealing with.

Just when you thought the world of politics was already submerged in enough sex scandal to last a few good years in the press, here comes another one!  In the wake o Elliot Spitzer’s downfall among allegations that he used an escort service several times that was geared toward high profile and rich men, his lieutenant governor has taken over for him. 

To avoid any investigations into his personal past, the new governor of New York has already come forth with his skeletons and proclaimed that he had an extramarital affair, and his wife did as well when they were going through a rough patch in their marriage.

Not only that, he has already gone so far as to disclose that he tried certain recreational drugs in his youth.  I for one think it’s smart of him to just come right out and spill it, instead of wasting the taxpayers money with big investigations.  And who cares about his past anyways? 

Well now, the Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, who has been dubbed the hip hop mayor of Detroit, and has gained quite a loyal following among the younger population, but also has been a dividing force, is being investigated for lying about an ongoing affair with his assistant.  Mr. Kilpatrick and his assistant are both married with children, although now his assistant (it sounds like) may be separated. 

The reason it is being pursued is because supposedly Mr. Kilpatrick lied about the affair, and committed perjury by doing so.  He is being pursued because it is said that he lied after intimate text messages between himself and his assistant were found. 

I’m not really sure why this has to do with public interest (I think you can see that I don’t care what politicians do in their spare time), but the prosecutor is saying that he created a mockery out of the justice system by lying and has wasted taxpayers money and trust, so he is being pursued.  He could serve many years if he is convicted.  What is this world coming to?

Well, this is one of those very scary news story that, thank God, is a very rare occurrence, that makes all of us look at our loved ones and thank the heavens that they are still with us.  It also makes us very aware that life is precious and even the most seemingly harmless little surgeries are in fact, surgeries and still present some sort of threat to our health if our bodies do not react favorably and/or predictably toward them.

The 37 year old man, Jem Abbott and his wife Karen, had decided that after two children they were done having kids, so Jem decided to have the vasectomy, which is a very low risk and relatively painless and easy procedure that is done under local anesthesia.  Jem was told the same thing that every man about to undergo a vasectomy is told, that the procedure was relatively quick and painless, and that he just may experience a bit of swelling and tenderness in the area afterwards, but he would remedy that with the typical ice packs, or bags of frozen peas as more commonly prescribed. 

However, Jem started feeling badly and vomiting and having diarrhea just days after the surgery.  Unbeknownst to him at the time, his body was experiencing a deadly reaction to surgeries, in which the body actually attacks itself instead of the infection (I guess this can also happen any time there is infection, not just in surgery cases), called septicemia.  Jem unfortunately succumbed to the deadly bacterial infection in which his body attacked itself in one week after his low risk operation.  The doctor had apparently prescribed antibiotics to fend off what he thought was a normal bacterial infection and it was already too late.

Septicemia is extremely rare, and therefore is rarely talked about in the media and news stories.  A good thing, because this clearly is a tragedy since a father of two has been taken from his young children after undergoing what he thought would just be routine for him.  And why wouldn’t he think that?  Our heart goes out to the Abbott family. 

Wow.  I didn’t even know that there was a state who had a ban on sex toys, but apparently Texas did, and it has now been lifted thanks to a judgment by an appeals court for a company that thought the law was unfair and trying to regulate what adults do in their own private time in their own homes.  I second that motion!

The statute that had been on the books was one of the oldest ones, and left Texas as one of only two state with such strict laws on the books about selling toys of an obscene nature.  So, really, those sex toy parties that are so popular everywhere else, would have been totally illegal in Texas.  Very strange thought indeed.

The first court to hear the case, which was brought by two sellers of such toys back in 2004, said that the constitution did not offer any protection for them, and therefore the Texas law was upheld, but they took it all the way to appeals, and a judgment has now been held in their favor as having the law overturned/repealed. 

This is encouraging news for other sex toy makers and sellers that are left in another state or two with the same ridiculous, outdated laws, but they are still fighting their way through the courts to get the law lifted, and have been in some cases for up to years.  I’m amazed that this type of law regulating people’s private business is still constitutional in some states.  Makes you wonder why we have a US constitution when states can still make laws that sort of infringe on our rights, you know?