Apparently, Sarah Palin’s mocking fruit fly research in her stump speeches about those horrible earmarks that escape during the middle of the night to molest children and use up the last part of your toilet paper roll without replacing it. As Kevin Berger notes, anyone with a 5th grade education should be able to realize that “fruit fly” is pretty much a huge red flag that the research is genetic research.* Hostility to genetic research is really rich coming from Palin, whose mystique for the wingnut base wouldn’t really be possible without it. After all, if there wasn’t a process of genetically testing fetuses for abnormalities, Palin wouldn’t have found out that her baby was going to be born with Down’s syndrome, and then wouldn’t have had the choice to consider abortion, and then wouldn’t have been able to carry on and secure her status as an anti-choice martyr. Her ingratitude to the scientists who developed genetic testing should be a reminder of the giant hypocrisies to come if stem cell research turns up any treatments. I have zero doubt that the same people hollering about how stem cells are little bitty babies will be lining up to be injected with little bitty babies should they require it to treat or even cure a debilitating illness. And therefore these idiots can rail against science, because they know that the pro-science side is ethically bound to ensure services for everyone. You don’t have to sign a statement refusing to protest women’s clinics before you get an abortion---no, you can sneak in one day and be back screaming about baby killers in front of the clinic the next. A long-standing opposition to stem cell research won’t mean that anyone will be refused life-saving treatments that come from it.
Remember how wingnuts were wailing a few weeks ago because the South Carolina Democratic party chair said Sarah Palin was picked because she didn’t have an abortion? In that time, the argument has turned to, “Vote McCain/Palin. Because she didn’t have an abortion, unlike you crazy sluts.” Seriously, the National Review published an article claiming that the nation has turned on Sarah Palin not because she’s a paranoid right wing nut who hates the majority of us because we’re not “real” Americans, but because she didn’t have an abortion and we’re all feeling pangs of regret over those crazy abortion parties.
To be fair, there is often a lot of post-abortion party regret, but most of it has to do with the overconsumption of wine, microbrews, and arugula. There’s not enough lattes in the world to wake you up after an abortion party that got out of control.
This article is so laden will bullshit that it’s become a vortex of bullshit, pulling bullshit from neighboring National Review articles to increase its bullshit density. Kevin Burke clearly thinks that the rest of the nation, when they see Sarah Palin, sees her as he does: A walking womb, someone whose entire existence can be summed up as, “She didn’t have an abortion.” The rest of us---who apparently have abortions all the time---feel bad when we cast our eyes on Saint Sarah. Burke believes not only that there is something called “post-abortion syndrome”,** but that society as a whole has a collective version of it. And that this “post-abortion syndrome” completely owns our brains to the degree that we can’t even stand to look at Sarah Palin, because she reminds us of that one night we got really carried away at the abortion party.
On the other hand, at least he’s not saying feminists are just jealous of Palin because we can’t get Bill Bennett to celebrate our prongability. It’s just because we all secretly wish that we could give up the abortion habit and try having a baby for once. (Because being pro-choice and being a mother are mutually exclusive.) Granted, he doesn’t exactly state that, but it’s implied. But Burke’s got a program to help you kick your addiction to abortion. The cure is to have a problem pregnancy or unwanted pregnancy and refuse to abort. Sure, some women will die from preeclampsia, but sure better than being alive and able to vote for Democrats, a sure symptom that you’re suffering from “post-abortion syndrome”. If you yourself can’t manage to have a problem pregnancy, then have a daughter and pray nightly that she gets pregnant so you can, um, counsel her to choose life. This also will cure you from “post-abortion syndrome”. Remember, you don’t have to actually feel any regret over your abortions to have “post-abortion syndrome"---just rest assured that Burke has your number. Hell, you don’t even need to have ever gotten an abortion to have “post-abortion syndrome”. Just trust that even though you have no symptoms of this made-up disease that has been thoroughly discredited, if you have a uterus and you’re pro-choice, you have it. Burke doesn’t need to have evidence or training or knowledge or the ability to think his way out of a paper bag for you ladies to trust him on this. He has a penis, and he’s smarter than you, and that’s all you need to know. That some of you ladies start making noises about scientific proof as a better source of knowledge than male authority just shows why it’s all the more important for the federal government to cut science funding and move into the area of making any science not related to weapons development illegal.
Now, go vote McCain/Palin, because that’s a new, approved way to cure yourself of “post-abortion syndrome” without having to have a problem pregnancy or a pregnant teenaged daughter yourself. Hell, if you can do this for him, he’ll grant you leniency from being rediagnosed should you have an abortion in the future.
*You should read the whole one page article. It turns out the research is far from useless, and is an attempt to save the U.S. olive and olive oil market. Not very “energy independent” to champion steps that would require the U.S. to import even more food. Shit, even moose-chomping rednecks eat olive oil (and arugula) at this point.
**Dealt with in this video that addresses many anti-choice lies, including the existence of “post-abortion syndrome”.
After all, if there wasn’t a process of genetically testing fetuses for abnormalities, Palin wouldn’t have found out that her baby was going to be born with Down’s syndrome,
Not to take away from the rest of your post, but for at least 8 years there has been a non-invasive procedure to check for DS and spinal bifida that doesn’t rely on genetics. It’s over 90% accurate and can be done sooner than amniocentesis. Had it for all 3 of my “high-risk” (due to my post 30 y/o status) pregnancies.
So it’s possible, just barely, that she found out without genetic testing. Although, if that test came out positive, they’d probably push for the others to go for 100% accuracy. You need the amnio or CVS (chorionic villius sampling) for that, both of which carry a *slight* risk of causing a miscarriage.
Otherwise, keep calling them out on the hypocrisy.
Caren-Sun-blocking Creator of Animorphic Pancakes on 10/27 at 10:37 AM
I suspect the new test was developed through that eeeeevil, earmark-sucking scientific research. And newer research that may have come out of taxes you have paid. Making Sarah Palin a welfare queen. QED.
Somewhere in some far away land, I believe there is an argument for a partial ban on abortions (maybe even a universal ban) that doesn’t make you sound like an ignorant rube with mommy issues and a partisan worldview that blinds away common sense.
I hope that one day we’ll get to hear such an argument and that, when we do, it isn’t immediately preceded or followed by a pack of screeching howler monkeys flinging poo.
Kevin Burger’s argument - burdened as it is by his fifty pound woody he hold for Saint Palin and kids - doesn’t seem to fit the bill. But I encourage him to keep trying, if only because we get to hear more awesome smack downs like the above.
Caren is right. When Ms. F was four months along, we went and had an ultrasound: the technician measured the ratio of the width of the back of the fetus’s neck to its overall length. Apparently DS babies have wider neck-backs or something. At any rate, the tech was right. So there wasn’t genetic testing involved.
I was really hoping they would drag up my favorite anti-science earmark jihad form a few years ago. Some place in Chicago IIRC, was doing a study on female sexual arousal. And getting a government grant for it. It was the perfect storm of wingnut hatred: government money to learn something, pornography for arousal (makes it titiliating to talk about and holier than thou to condemn at the same time!), and the possibility that women can get sexually aroused (myth!).
Caren is right. When Ms. F was four months along, we went and had an ultrasound: the technician measured the ratio of the width of the back of the fetus’s neck to its overall length. Apparently DS babies have wider neck-backs or something. At any rate, the tech was right. So there wasn’t genetic testing involved.
But if markers had been seen, genetic testing would have been recommended. Nobody gives a true Down’s diagnosis without the genetic test--and if Palin knew about it in advance, the amnio or cvs was done.
the National Review published an article claiming that the nation has turned on Sarah Palin because she didn’t have an abortion
So where does that leave people like me who think Palin is a twit for flying across the country and back while 9 months pregnant with a special needs baby? If she had given birth on that plane, her child would have been in grave danger.
I’ve come to accept that there actually is no floor with regard to how stupid Sarah Palin is, but are more than about 8% of Americans going to laugh at the idea of fruit-fly research?
For God’s sake, my entire scientific career consists of two weeks with a biology student in 1992, and I know that fruit flies are basically the Dry-Erase board of genetics.
This is totally confusing to me. My neighbor, who has a Palinesque mind set, refused to do an amnio because she knew she wouldn’t abort no matter how bad the result. I can’t understand why someone who’s against abortion in all cases would put their fetus at a small but pointless risk by doing the test. Wouldn’t she be more “heroic” if she refused the amnio? If you refuse the benefits of modern medicine, why assume the risks?
I work in Early Childhood Intervention (services for kids under 3 with disabilities) and thank you P.A.T. we’ve been having this discussion in our office for weeks. No OB/GYN’s I know would have approved that flight and they would never have agreed to flying back with her water broken and her FIFTH child. As for the testing she probably had a quad screen blood test which came out high and then she was likely sent for a high level ultrasound. I still don’t know why she would go to all that trouble if there was no way she would abort. Maybe that’s why she hasn’t released her medical records.
So where does that leave people like me who think Palin is a twit for flying across the country and back while 9 months pregnant with a special needs baby? If she had given birth on that plane, her child would have been in grave danger.
My colleague things that Palin was intentionally reckless around Trig’s birth in order to increase the possibility that he wouldn’t survive. She called it an Irish Abortion.
I still don’t know why she would go to all that trouble if there was no way she would abort. Maybe that’s why she hasn’t released her medical records.
Because she was over 35, and all that trouble is considered basic pre-natal care at that point?
I was 30, and I had to deal with my OB giving me grief for turning down the quad screen, and I still suspect that they reported abnormalities on my basic ultrasound and ordered a level II simply because I turned down the quad screen.
I have friends over the age of 35 who had recently had babies, and cvs, the quad screen, and an automatic level II were presented to them as required tests, not optional tests.
More evidence that Palin has a learning disability that prevents her from functional literacy/information processing. She covers for it by pretending that God guides her so that she doesn’t have to get information from anywhere, read, or think.
Again - six+ years to get through college? She’s not that drunk and not that dumb.
I still don’t know why she would go to all that trouble if there was no way she would abort.
I was told that test results meant that it was a high chance of Downs for both my kids and sent for a high level ultrasound. Each time, the ultrasound confirmed that the lab and doctors made the foolish error of dating the pregnancy by date of last period rather than what a mere stupid and unqualified patient told them about what she knew about her unusually long cycles with day 20-24 ovulation, and the dates were off by two weeks in both cases.
In any case, I knew that I would keep a down syndrome child, regardless. I still would have had the workups and confirmations done, because I would have wanted to plan for any known issues associated - like heart defects and neonatal support.
I saw both the post-abortion syndrome article and the fruit flies. Can’t say which pisses me off more.
Seriously, I can’t imagine that Palin stayed awake in high school biology or ever went to a science fair or could tell you what a Punnett’s Square is. She and McCain are so....science-adverse that it’s not funny.
Required is kind of a strong word, though, I mean what would they have done if she refused? Not delivered the baby? I would imagine they’d give her grief, but that is also protection for themselves in cases of wrongful birth suits. They wouldn’t want her to turn around and say that she wasn’t really told that her child would have Downs, especially as noted, the skin folds test only represents a possibility, not a definite diagnosis.
oh right! a chromosomal disorder is different from a genetic one. probably still has something to do with genetics though...tendencies for meiosis to fuck up and such. Downs Syndrome is trisomy 21, in case people didn’t know.
Amancay: I used the same argument anytime someone brings up Palin as a pro-choice hero. Apparently, the fact that I’m having a (currently, and hopefully temporarily; I’m a recurrent miscarrier, so come 2nd trimester I should be safe) high risk pregnancy and would never get an amnio because I wouldn’t terminate over something that was compatible with life (and you can see things like lack of brain on an ultrasound) means nothing because I’m an evil pro-choicer.
The ideas they have about us are totally insane. A friend of mine was shocked, shocked i tell you when I told her I wouldn’t force my hypothetical pregnant teenage daughter to abort. Now, she’d disown hers, but my response would be “Well, what do you want to do?” And I’m the evil one.
Also, if the pro-lifers are so damn concerned about “post-abortive syndrome” why do they never once mention the real mental anguish a woman goes through after miscarriage, stillbirth, or medically necessary termination of a wanted pregnancy?
I’m guessing that by required they presented the test as “ok, so you’ll get this done on x date, and that done on y date” not “would you like to have this done?”
I have my 8 week prenatal appointment on Thursday and I strongly suspect I get to spend a bunch of it refusing tests. And I’m 24. No needles in the stomach for me, thank you very much.
...Palin wouldn’t have found out that her baby was going to be born with Down’s syndrome, and then wouldn’t have had the choice to consider abortion, and then wouldn’t have been able to carry on and secure her status as an anti-choice martyr.
It’s funny, when you really look at it, just how little respect a lot of wingers have for the lives of people with disabilities.
A lot of them seem to believe, after all, that Palin’s decision not to abort makes her so unique and so heroic that - damn it, and by gum! - she deserves to be Vice President based on the strength of her character alone.
“Also, if the pro-lifers are so damn concerned about “post-abortive syndrome” why do they never once mention the real mental anguish a woman goes through after miscarriage, stillbirth, or medically necessary termination of a wanted pregnancy?”
I can’t understand why someone who’s against abortion in all cases would put their fetus at a small but pointless risk by doing the test.
I believe there are a bunch of attendant complications of Down Syndrome that make it a good idea to know ahead of time even if you do intend to carry to term, because you can have the equipment on hand and your doctor prepared to look for the signs of those complications right away.
I’ve also heard that there are a lot of early and possibly even pre-natal interventions that can reduce the risk of those complications. So there are plenty of reasons why you might want to know.
Devil’s, it really is appalling how disrespectful this whole thing is. This whole election has really shown how wingnuts think disabled people are political props for anti-choice guilt trips and apparently nothing more. Because when it comes to real life services real life disabled people need, the sudden concern for them dries up. Even and especially with Palin.
But if markers had been seen, genetic testing would have been recommended. Nobody gives a true Down’s diagnosis without the genetic test--and if Palin knew about it in advance, the amnio or cvs was done.
Well, not necessarily. I wasn’t interested in having a giant needle stuck into my uterus no matter what.
There is an AFP (alpha fetal protein) blood screening test they can do, and there is the other test I mentioned first, where they look at the ‘nuchal translucency area” or the space between the skin of the neck and the muscle. People with DS are known to have more lax muscles and looser joints. As fetuseses, if the fluid layer is more than 3 mms wide, odds are you’re looking at DS. They also look for formation of a bone in the nose if you’re caucasian, as people with DS have more asiatic noses. If you’re not white, that bone may form later, so it’s only a bonus marker for melanin-challenged folk.
There are concurrent blood tests checking for certain hormonal layers. If one’s too high, it might be Down Syndrome, if another’s too low, it might be spina bifida, etc..
Now, explaining why someone would go to this trouble when they didn’t plant to abort? Pretty easy. Odds are extremely high that I would have kept a baby with DS. I didn’t want one, but had any of my three had an extra chromosome, I doubt I would have been able to bring myself to abort for that reason alone. I wanted to know though. It’s good to be prepared. You can research all the available resources, get on waiting lists and be ready for the hard work to start as soon as the baby’s born.
Also, I like knowing as much about my babies as soon as possible. I really don’t get people who don’t want to know the gender. It’s a surprise whenever you find out, and why wouldn’t you want to find out asap? Start the naming and clothes-buying and fun stuff. I know, I know, YMMV, but I wanted to know all I could about the little people inside me.
Enough about me...I bet Palin had amnio at least. I also think her whole story of flying around for hours after her water broke is insane. There’s nothing even slightly responsible about it, and I have a nearly impossible time believing it was anything other than a vain attempt to ‘lose’ Trig in a tragic unforeseen happenstance.
Every pregnancy is different, but subsequent births tend to go much quicker, though not always. Once the water has broken, there baby is no longer in a sterile environment and there is an opening to let in infection. Palin was phenomenally stupid, at best, and I really have a hard time believing the best of her.
There is no qualified OB in the nation who would tell her to jump on a plane for a 5 hour flight after her water had broken.
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Ashley, they probably won’t offer you many tests b/c you’re 24. You would have to ask for them. Amnio is a very safe test, but it causes a miscarriage in an otherwise healthy fetus 1 out of 200 times, so until the risk of having a baby with some sort of detectable genetic defect is higher than 1 out of 200, they aren’t going to offer to jam a giant needle into your uterus. UGH.
I liked the nuchal translucency test though b/c you get an extra sonogram. Some people are wary of the whole ultrasound thing, but I liked seeing them. It was the only good thing about a low lying placenta-->they do a later ultrasound to insure that it’s moved up and isn’t covering the cervix.
Good luck, Ashley, and congratulations.
Caren-Sun-blocking Creator of Animorphic Pancakes on 10/27 at 12:58 PM
Thanks Caren. The thing is, I’m currently being treated as a high-risk pregnancy. I’ve had 3 beta HCGs, one progesterone, an ultrasound (measured on target and had a heartbeat!), a prenatal appt. and I’m going in for my 2nd ultrasound and prenatal on Thursday. All in the past 3 weeks (8 weeks today). Hopefully it scales back after this week and everything’s still fine. I’m betting because of my history they’ll want me to do the amnio, and needle in the belly ow! not gonna happen.
Luckily, my OB is very natural birth friendly, so I’m not too worried about that.
Back on topic, totally not buying Palin’s flying around after her water broke. Considering I know women who went from inactive labor to crossing her legs to keep the baby in in, seriously, less than 2 hours, no sane woman would risk something like that.
For God’s sake, my entire scientific career consists of two weeks with a biology student in 1992, and I know that fruit flies are basically the Dry-Erase board of genetics.
I don’t see the flying-after-your-water-broke thing as intending to harm the baby. I think it’s more of a control-freak worldview that says, “I’m competent and in charge and I’ve had 4 healthy kids, so I know what I’m doing and I’ll stick to my plan and nothing bad will happen.” Magical thinking at its finest - just what I want in a national leader.
Why does Sarah Palin hate farmers? Aren’t farmers the backbone of the Real America? (TM)
From UCDavis.edu: The rapid invasion of California by the olive fruit fly poses a severe economic threat for the state’s commercial olive growers. The olive fruit fly is considered the most devastating insect pest of olives in the Mediterranean region, where it has occurred for over 2000 years. The larvae (maggots) of the olive fruit fly feed inside the fruit, destroying the pulp and allowing the entry of secondary bacteria and fungi that rot the fruit and impair quality or flavor of the oil. Feeding damage can cause premature fruit drop and reduce fruit quality for both table olive and olive oil production. Large numbers of rotting fruit on the ground can create an unwelcome mess, especially in landscape and backyard trees.
In areas of the world where the olive fruit fly is well established, it has been responsible for losses of 100% of some table cultivars and up to 80% of oil value. For table olive growers, the presence of even a few infested fruit can lead to rejection of an entire crop. Some infestation can be tolerated in olive fruit used for oil production as long as the fruit are not rotten.
Devil’s, it really is appalling how disrespectful this whole thing is. This whole election has really shown how wingnuts think disabled people are political props for anti-choice guilt trips and apparently nothing more.
I think it’s more that wingnuts think of disabled people as guilt trips, period, because they themselves think so seldom of them or how they exist in day to day life.
Skeptic, believe what you will, but that is too short an interval between births to be plausible. Women can’t crank out babies like that, even very young ones.
Not that Bristols parity is any of our business anyway.
Women can’t crank out babies like that, even very young ones.
“Irish twins” and “Vatican twins” are slang terms for siblings who are not actually twins, but rather, were born less than 12 months apart [2] – possibly in the same calendar year and/or school year. It refers to the perception that Irish Catholic families have many children, often with little time between births. It is sometimes considered derogatory. Similarly, “Irish triplets” refers to three siblings born in two years.
My great-grandmother had two daughters as Irish twins, and I’ve known of families that had several sets of siblings who were IT.
So where does that leave people like me who think Palin is a twit for flying across the country and back while 9 months pregnant with a special needs baby?
Down’s Syndrome is indeed a genetic disorder. It results from three copies of Chromosome 21 being present, rather than the normal two.
If what I remember from genetics is right, I think others were right to have made the distinction - generally “genetic disorder” refers to illnesses that are caused by specific alleles of genes, and are therefore heritable (along the traditional Mendelian or sex-linked patterns), as opposed to chromosomal abnormalities arising from meiosis like trisomy 21, which typically cannot be inherited. So, by those definitions, Down’s syndrome is not a genetic disorder, it’s a chromosomal disorder.
Similarly, the test for Down’s is not strictly a genetic test - that is, determining the presence or absence of a certain allele at a given gene - but rather sampling amniotic fluid for abnormal hormone levels.
Seriously, the National Review published an article claiming that the nation has turned on Sarah Palin not because she’s a paranoid right wing nut who hates the majority of us because we’re not “real” Americans, but because she didn’t have an abortion and we’re all feeling pangs of regret over those crazy abortion parties.
Shoot. There’s a wingnut out there who made this claim in her column a few weeks ago. Can’t remember her name, but she’s been referenced here. Initials K and W?
“I’m beginning to wonder if a lot of the people who love that theory just want to believe women quit fucking at 40.”
In this case, given the furor over Palin’s hotness, probably not that many. I think it’s more a combination of her actions being so reckless and otherwise inexplicable--even if you exclude danger to the baby, it was hardly a safe thing for her personally to have done--and the relatively common past phenomenon of underaged, single mothers’ babies being passed off as their siblings and raised by the grandmother. It does present an alternative that doesn’t raise the rather grim specter of a woman courting a stillbirth or neonatal death in order to avoid raising a child she doesn’t want without having to admit that abortion isn’t just the domain of evil sluts.
Avenger, my sons’ godfather is an Irish Triplet ... his brother is 10 months older, his sister 11 months younger.
That said, Trig was born in May and Bristol’s child is due to arrive in December/January, while Trig Palin was born in late April.
If Bristol was Trig’s mother, she could not have gotten pregnant before about mid-May. My son conceived in mid-May was born in Mid-February. There just aren’t enough months there.
Yes, it’s clear to me that we simply don’t deserve to breathe the same air as Sarah Palin, which is why I for one will be happy about her imminent departure from the national stage.
Ms. Kate, how do we know that Bristol’s baby will be born in December or January? I think if the birth happens then, and the child is big enough to be full-term, we’ll have reason to think the Daily Kos rumor was a lie. Until then, given Palin’s refusal to share medical records, no birth certificate disclosed, late announcement of the pregnancy, Bristol’s long absence from high school, the weird story about flying out of Texas leaking amniotic fluid and so on, I’m neutral on who gave birth to Trig.
Sarah Palin has made her reproductive proclivities part of her case for John McCain. She’s made her “honesty” part of her case for John McCain. She’s certainly made skepticism and inquiry about private family matters a part of her own campaigns.
I don’t see that it’s off-limits. I wouldn’t think any less of her for adopting another person’s child - concluding, perhaps, that her teenage daughter was unequipped to parent a special-needs child - but she’s chosen to run for the second-highest office in the land. How much privacy is she really entitled to? Almost none, as far as I can tell.
OK, just some “too many mystery book reading” connect the dots speculation here:
1) photos of Palin “not showing” at seven months - although she sure did with previous pregnancies
2) Bristol off school for months (I’ve had mono - 5 weeks, tops)
3) That irresponsible flight back to her “own” (ed) doc in AK - with a preterm, high-risk child
4) Baby Trig’s size - uhm that’s one big kid, especially for a supposedly breastfed one, he’d be what 7 month’s now?
Possible explanations
1) Trig’s real birthdate is actually a few months earlier and he is Bristol’s
2) Not Bristol’s but not Palin’s either - she does tend to use her kids as props you know? If you don’t have one....
Why is it our business?
1) see props above
2) her anti-choice stance is part of her campaign - and something is fishy about her personal
story which she touts as supporitng said stance
3) her “working mom/self-made woman pose” (not honest about all the paid and unpaid help she gets)
4) if she was preggers and in labor, that flight shows some real character flaws like:
- reckless endangerment of child
- disregard for fellow passengers whose flight would have been made REAL interesting. forced
to land, etc.
Further fantasy about how it played out:
(months before Trig’s birth)
Bristol: Mom, Dad, I’m pregnant.
Family aghast, Bristol wants to either abort or marry Levi - NO says family. Remember, Bristol lived with aunt for quite a while. She’s forced to have kid and give it to mommy to raise. With parental attention elsewhere, she manages to get back with Levi, and get pregnant again. The second pregnancy is a further act of rebellion on Bristol’s part, desperately seeking to get out of the Palin home/control.
Then there’s the Track vandalism speculation. If true, and they sent kid off to Michigan and military to avoid questions, it speaks about a pattern of coverup of kids out of control -Palin’s “ability to keep a secret” has been touted by friends.
It is again our business because Palin is held up as representative of that feminist ideal that women can do it all and do it all successfully and simultaneously - thus ANY woman can do it, without help. Yeah, only if the stars align pretty darn well (money, support network, proximity, health, work accomodations, etc).
Bristol off school for months (I’ve had mono - 5 weeks, tops)
Yeah, I don’t know about that. Maybe you had a light case but months-long cases of mono aren’t unheard of. A buddy of mine missed six months of class with mono and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just an excuse for him to hide a pregnancy.
Apparently, Sarah Palin’s mocking fruit fly research in her stump speeches about those horrible earmarks that escape during the middle of the night to molest children and use up the last part of your toilet paper roll without replacing it. As Kevin Berger notes, anyone with a 5th grade education should be able to realize that “fruit fly” is pretty much a huge red flag that the research is genetic research.* Hostility to genetic research is really rich coming from Palin, whose mystique for the wingnut base wouldn’t really be possible without it. After all, if there wasn’t a process of genetically testing fetuses for abnormalities, Palin wouldn’t have found out that her baby was going to be born with Down’s syndrome, and then wouldn’t have had the choice to consider abortion, and then wouldn’t have been able to carry on and secure her status as an anti-choice martyr. Her ingratitude to the scientists who developed genetic testing should be a reminder of the giant hypocrisies to come if stem cell research turns up any treatments. I have zero doubt that the same people hollering about how stem cells are little bitty babies will be lining up to be injected with little bitty babies should they require it to treat or even cure a debilitating illness. And therefore these idiots can rail against science, because they know that the pro-science side is ethically bound to ensure services for everyone. You don’t have to sign a statement refusing to protest women’s clinics before you get an abortion---no, you can sneak in one day and be back screaming about baby killers in front of the clinic the next. A long-standing opposition to stem cell research won’t mean that anyone will be refused life-saving treatments that come from it.
Not to take away from the rest of your post, but for at least 8 years there has been a non-invasive procedure to check for DS and spinal bifida that doesn’t rely on genetics. It’s over 90% accurate and can be done sooner than amniocentesis. Had it for all 3 of my “high-risk” (due to my post 30 y/o status) pregnancies.
So it’s possible, just barely, that she found out without genetic testing. Although, if that test came out positive, they’d probably push for the others to go for 100% accuracy. You need the amnio or CVS (chorionic villius sampling) for that, both of which carry a *slight* risk of causing a miscarriage.
Otherwise, keep calling them out on the hypocrisy.