So we had a GOP lawmaker a few days ago who tried to lecture a doctor
during another anti-abortion fight right before he announced that he
believed a woman's stomach was connected to her vagina. (And then proceeded to pass his anti-abortion bill).
Now we have another GOP lawmaker, tax cheat,
and Cliven Bundy supporter Michele Fiore (R). If she sounds familiar,
it's because just last week she suggested "hot, little girls" on college
campuses have firearms or you like rape.
If you have cancer, which I believe is a fungus, and we
can put a pic line into your body and we’re flushing with, say, salt
water, sodium cardonate [sic-it's "biocarbonate"] through that
line and flushing out the fungus. These are some procedures that are not
FDA-approved in America that are very inexpensive, cost-effective.
Flushing yourself with baking soda because cancer is a fungus is listed as one of the top myths according to the UK's cancer research center.
As always, I can laugh these proud ignoramuses of basic science and
medicine off: but they are the ones that apathetic people are putting
in charge of our healthcare. That's why you have 24 hour waiting
abortion periods (like one coming to Florida),
forced vaginal penetration ultrasounds and other spiteful measures that
have little to do with medicine and more to do with spiteful
"punishment" for not following a medieval ideology. Even my own state
representative has an idea of fining doctors 5 million dollars if they ask about guns in the home.
I only wonder what subject the GOP will be discussing next week...
"According to the American Cancer Society, (ACS) the argument that
sodium bicarbonate can be used to flush cancer out of the body stems
from “unsubstantiated treatments” by an Italian doctor, Tullio
Simoncini. Simoncini’s license to practice medicine was revoked in 2003.
Three years later, he was convicted of wrongful death and swindling."
Nevada Republican says cancer is a fungus you can flush out with salt water
Nevada state Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R) plans to introduce a bill
she said would provide more options for cancer patients — but actually
relies on what medical experts call a myth, Think Progress reported.
“If you have cancer, which I believe is a fungus, and we can put a
pic line into your body and we’re flushing with, say, salt water, sodium
cardonate through that line and flushing out the fungus,” Fiore said on
her radio show over the weekend. “These are some procedures that are
not FDA-approved in America that are very inexpensive, cost-effective.”
As Ralston Reports noted, Fiore likely meant to say “sodium bicarbonate,” commonly known as baking soda.
According to the American Cancer Society,
(ACS) the argument that sodium bicarbonate can be used to flush cancer
out of the body stems from “unsubstantiated treatments” by an Italian
doctor, Tullio Simoncini. Simoncini’s license to practice medicine was
revoked in 2003. Three years later, he was convicted of wrongful death
and swindling.
“No peer-reviewed articles in medical journals were found to support
the theory that cancer is caused by a fungus infection or a yeast
infection. Available peer-reviewed medical journals do not support
claims that sodium bicarbonate works as a cancer treatment in humans,”
the ACS states on its website. “Scientists require certain kinds of
evidence to support claims that a kind of germ causes a certain disease.
The first requirement is that the germ should be present in all cases
of the disease. Simoncini claims that all tumors contain fungi. But
these fungi have not been found in tumors when biopsies are examined by
methods capable of revealing fungi in infected tissue.”
Fiore said she is still “waiting for the language to come back” on
the measure, which she calls the “terminally-ill bill.” She described it
as a response to seeing Nevadans leave the U.S. for what she called
“alternative treatments” after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“This isn’t the death doctor bill,” she said, adding, “Nevada — it’s
the capital of entertainment. Why not make it the medical capital of
the world, too?”
The assemblywoman, who accused federal officials last year of “coming up”
with the grazing fees that spurred their dispute with rancher Cliven
Bundy, introduced another bill last week that would allow licensed gun
owners to carry firearms on college campuses within the state, saying it
would prevent “young, hot little girls on campus” from sexual assaults.
An Idaho Republican literally let the hypocrisy fly when she defended parents who let their kids die as an exercise of religious belief and liberty instead of seeking medical care to save them.
On her own website, Idaho GOP state Rep. Christy Perry claims she “is a pro-life mother and grandmother and emphasizes her honor and value of all human life, born and unborn.”
“Christy Perry is an ardent supporter of defending each child’s right to life,” according to the site.
But now Perry has done a complete 180 degree flip-flop when it comes to fundamentalist “Christians” who would rather rely on God as their doctor instead of a real flesh and blood medical professional.
Idaho is one of six states with insane religious exemption laws that allow people to get away with committing “negligent homicide, manslaughter or capital murder.”
Currently, the biggest controversy is whether the state should ban faith-healing and punish those who allow their kids to die because they believe God will heal them if they pray enough.
Democratic Senator John Gannon seeks the closure of a loophole that will give authorities the power to prosecute parents “whenever a child’s medical condition may cause death or permanent disability.”
The self-proclaimed “pro-life” Perry, however, insists that religious parents of the Followers of Christ should have the right to choose whether or not their child dies or lives.
In an interview with Al Jazeera America, Perry claimed “They have a clear understanding of what the role of government should be. [It] isn’t how to tell me how to live my life.”
“Children do die. And I’m not trying to sound callous, but [people calling for reform] want to act as if death is an anomaly. But it’s not. It’s a way of life.”
Yeah, she really said that. And then she went on to further destroy the notion that conservatives are “pro-life.”
“They are comforted by the fact that they know their child is in heaven,” Perry said of these religious parents. “If I want to let my child be with God, why is that wrong?”
And there you have it. A “pro-life” conservative “Christian” Republican lawmaker just demonstrated that her party cares more about fetuses than they do about children. According to this philosophy, women should be forced to carry pregnancies to term, but religious nutjobs should be allowed to let their already born children die by denying them professional medical care. This is about as monstrous and hypocritical as it gets.
CALDWELL, Idaho — In the heart of the Northwest,
there is Idaho. And in the heart of Idaho, there is God. And God,
residents believe, blesses some and takes others away early.
Like Neil Jacob Randolph, a 3-year-old buried in Peaceful Valley
Cemetery in Caldwell in 1982. “Sleep on sweet Neil — and take thy rest,”
his headstone reads. “God called thee home. He thought it best.”
In another row are the graves of four infants
marked with identical headstones on which “Infant Bailey” is
hand-scrawled in capital letters — pressed into wet cement decades ago.
Many of the nearly 600 people buried here were Followers of Christ
— a Christian sect that believes in faith healing and does not allow
members — including sick children — to see doctors or use modern
medicine. The Pentecostal religion, founded in the 1930s, has long had a
presence in Western states. Former members say the church has become
increasingly secretive about its beliefs and population after years of
negative attention for deaths related to spiritual healing.
Several of the children buried here at Peaceful Valley Cemetery died from preventable ailments like pneumonia and food poisoning.
And 70 percent of these children died after 1972, when religious
exemptions protecting faith healers from charges of neglect, abuse and
murder were enacted in Idaho and around the country. If a child dies or
is abused in Idaho, law states that a parent can’t be found guilty if
they believe in spiritual healing.
“The practice of a parent or guardian who chooses for his child
treatment by prayer or spiritual means alone shall not for that reason
alone be construed to have violated the duty of care to such child,” the
law reads.
But today, some people wonder how many of the dead children here
could have been saved. Idaho is one of only six U.S. states that allow
religious exemption for negligent homicide, manslaughter or capital
murder. While some have called for the Gem State’s law to be revised, efforts have gained little traction. A bill introduced last year was swiftly nixed by Idaho’s House speaker,
and lawmakers say they haven’t heard of any bills coming forward in
this year’s session. And this week, the House State Affairs Committee
passed a bill — despite emotional testimony — that recognizes that Idaho
parents and guardians “have a fundamental right to make decisions
concerning the care, custody, education and control of their children.”
Many expressed concern that this was just another covert protection for
faith healers
Efforts to discuss Idaho’s laws by Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal
Duty (CHILD), a national organization working to protect children, have
been met coolly by the Idaho Governor’s Task Force on Children at Risk.
“The governor has indicated that he will not take a position on this
legislation, and therefore the task force will not be taking a
position,” its chairman wrote in an email last fall to CHILD.
“Individuals may act independently as they desire.”
Idaho is bucking the legal trend around the country, particularly in
Northwestern states, where religious shield laws are quickly falling
away. Oregon removed its laws in 2011 and has seen convictions of faith healers in recent months. Earlier this month, Washington took steps to revamp its law
by passing a bill unanimously through committee that would remove
references to faith-based exemptions regarding criminal mistreatment of
children and vulnerable adults. Supporters of reform testified that
Washington’s current law creates “confusion that results in harm to
children.”
But in deeply religious Idaho,
debate over faith-based protections raises questions about how far
religious freedom extends, what rights children are born with and
whether government can tell people how to parent.
Many believe religious exemption laws legalize child abuse.
“You can’t beat a child,” said Linda Martin, a former Follower of
Christ working to see Idaho’s laws repealed. She said she could no
longer sit back and watch Idaho children die in the name of God. “To sit
there and do absolutely nothing for a child except pray for them and
watch them suffer? That’s just inhumane.”
“You’re dealing with an 1800s mentality in the 2000s. And there’s just no reasoning with it,” she added.
But Rep. Christy Perry (R-Nampa) said the law, as it stands,
represents the constituents of her district, Canyon County, where
Peaceful Valley Cemetery sits. “They have a clear understanding of what
the role of government should be,” she said. “[It] isn’t how to tell me
how to live my life.”
And perhaps, she said, Followers of Christ are more comfortable
confronting death. “Children do die,” Perry said. “And I’m not trying to
sound callous, but [people calling for reform] want to act as if death
is an anomaly. But it’s not. It’s a way of life.”
With Perry’s help, Al Jazeera America reached out to two groups
associated with faith healing as well as one family, but all declined to
speak publicly.
For the past two years, Martin, 60, who left the Boise Followers of
Christ when she was 16, has chased down Idaho legislators in the Capitol
hallways. She has told them stories of the stillborn babies she saw as a
child, the funerals she attended, the birth defects that caused her to
recently go on disability.
She tells them about her nephew Steven, born with spina bifida and
paralyzed from the waist down. He was never allowed a wheelchair. “He
had to drag himself on the floor with his fingers,” she said. “He was
given nothing for pain. This child suffered every day of his life until
he died when he was almost 3.”
Debate over faith-healing believers like the Followers of Christ is
part of one of the longest-running conversations in America, said
Charles Haynes, director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum
Institute and a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center.
“We’ve made a commitment as a country to protect the rights of people
to follow their God as far as possible,” he said. “The question has
always been in the United States, How far is that? How far is the line?
The struggle is to determine [where] the government has the right to
draw the line.”
Haynes points to the 1878 Supreme Court case Reynolds v. United States,
in which the court struck down polygamy. “That was sort of one of the
great moments of line drawing. Yes, everyone has the right to believe
what they want to believe, and that right is absolute. But the right to
act on one’s religious beliefs is not absolute.”
“I don’t think that there’s any room under the law for endangering
the life of a child. Or under the First Amendment,” he added. “These
laws are not supposed to extend that far.”
Martin said she’s not attacking religious freedom, but lawmakers
can’t seem to get past that. One senator, she said, told her, “‘You’ve
said parental rights and religious freedom — none of us are going to
jump in front that bus.’”
University of Idaho law professor Shaakirrah Sanders raises an eyebrow at Idaho’s faith-healer protections.
“A lot of the language is a little broad and a little vague,” Sanders
said. “That’s exacerbated by the fact that Idaho has declined to really
prosecute anyone.”
Perry said her inbox has been flooded with emails from people who
want to see Idaho’s faith-healing laws repealed. But most of them are
from out of state, she said.
“As you move out West, we tend to be much more independent people,
and Idaho is a lot like that,” she said, adding that the independent
streak is probably stronger in certain parts of the state, like Canyon
County.
“They do not look to the government to help them at all,” said Perry,
speaking about Followers of Christ. “They’re very self-sufficient and
know how to take care of themselves. In Canyon County, people hunt to
feed their families. They fish. They grow their own food.”
Faith healers, she said, are not uncaring parents. They simply trust
God above doctors and have faith that God will do what’s right.
“They are comforted by the fact that they know their child is in
heaven,” Perry said. “If I want to let my child be with God, why is that
wrong?”
Furthermore, she said, she’s unsure of the motives of those who want to see faith-healing protections removed.
“Is it really because these children are dying more so than other
children? Or is this really about an attack on a religion you don’t
agree with?”
For Martin, it is simply an issue of child welfare.
“What Idaho is doing is they’re opening their doors and they’re
welcoming these people in as the other states strengthen their laws,”
she said.
![Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R) [official Facebook page]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vZAP6nlI5PoBohwA2Ism8Y0zr5cq0yNSIrrpH1CV5puDWIsPVFpCIPrKzqXzknk55fBl8fDm2NaT9UJLcP1aLFqyKsUDCKtZG5MYkh4FZ5nj_dshy5ABy5rscX5iILyP4VfkzgXIiiHQG-DmneZR8YCxtQfpi3MoIETWst0d9VVSRrkTj3r_6x3AudD_YYL4zSiTpjnDB8a-i_oRQeH4eI=s0-d)
