A Rather Unfortunate Name.

Bwwaaahhhahhhhaaaahhaaaaa.....

An Innovative, Outside The Box Incentive Program From Industry Leader Walgreens

Deerfield, IL- Corporate executives at Walgreens, the nation's largest pharmacy chain, today announced a new employee bonus program that they promised would "shake up the retail industry, if not the entire business world" at a press conference at its Zug, Switzerland Illinois corporate headquarters.  "We're turning conventional thinking upside down" stated company CEO Greg Wasson. "How? Well hang on to your seats. By rewarding.....failure"

According to Wasson, effective immediately, all Walgreens employees will receive anywhere from 0.75 to 1.2 percent of any financial errors they are responsible for in direct payments from the company. "Now granted, to a cashier whose drawer is off by ten dollars at the end of a shift, a payment of an extra dime may not mean much, and let's face it, a store manager getting an extra ten dollars for a deposit off by $1000 certainly won't be a game changer. That's why I'm announcing the start of this program with two executives who we think will become emblematic of what we're trying to accomplish. Wade, Kermit, step on up here."  

Mr. Wasson was then joined at the podium by Company Chief Financial Officer Wade Miquelon and President of pharmacy, health, and wellness Kermit Crawford*

"Now, these two men were recently responsible for a billion dollar forecasting error when projecting our upcoming Medicare business" Mr. Wasson continued. "And there's no company where a billion dollars isn't a good sized chunk of change, so naturally, we have to let them go. But not before, and I want everyone to know this, we load them up with payments and compensation worth $8.5 million and $12 million, respectively."**

"That's right" Wasson said "Write that down for the whole world to see. Make a billion dollar fuckup at Walgreens and walk away rich!"

Asked how a plan that rewarded failure could possibly further the company's interests, Wasson replied "That's the genius of this whole thing. Like I said, this won't mean a whole lot to the vast majority of our employees. Right now that is. But what it does is let them know that if they work their way up to a position where they are responsible for a whole lot of dollars, well...then the world is their oyster. So what we're gonna have here is 250,000 employees striving every day to reach a position of greater responsibility so they too can have a $10 million screwup payday. And quite honestly, 250,000 store-level employees giving their best is worth far more than one fuckup at the top."

While executive-level business people were almost universally positive in their reaction to the new bonus program, others were more skeptical.

"I don't see how this changes current executive compensation practices at all" said Harvard business professor Camfield Rosenburg. "And to be effective, the expansion of fuckup bonuses to store level employees would have to be coupled with a policy where promotions to positions of great responsibility were based on positive performance. And I didn't see anything in today's announcement to indicate such a change has taken place."

After the press conference, Miquelon and Crawford issued a joint statement that read simply "Moneymoneymoneymoney Brrrraaaahhhhhaaaahhhaaahhhaaaaaaaa!!!!!"

*As much as I would like to say I made this up,  "Kermit Crawford" is the guy's real name. 

** I didn't make  this up either. In case you were too lazy to click on the link, these guys made a billion dollar screwup and were rewarded with millions of dollars in severance money. 

I Cannot Let This Affront To Democracy Stand. I Am Prepared To Riot In The Streets Of Fort Wayne, Egypt-style, And I Ask You To Join Me.

Thanks to The PharmD Student who tipped me to the story.

A Quickie From The Morning Paper

They have a thing about making certain stories available only in the print edition, and not online, but I swear I'm not making this up:

WaterPlus includes a collection of prominent locals. In addition to Weitzman, the new group includes such well known figures as Nader Agha, Harvey Billing, Bob Massaro, Dick Rotter, and George Schroeder, among others. 

BWWWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHHAHAAAAHHAHHHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! Dick Rotter!!!!!! BWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAHHHHHAAAAHHHHHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!  Well of course Dick Rotter is well known. Who can ever forget his work in the basic training Gonorrhea film used by the US Army for over 40 years? Classic stuff, that appearance by Dick Rotter was. And who knew you could make a living making porn for people with a leprosy fetish?  "I Left My Schlong In San Francisco" was groundbreaking in its day. I've often wondered what Dick Rotter could be up to these days.

I'm kidding. I don't know who the fuck Dick Rotter is. But I have a feeling the paper wouldn't be as likely to be calling him well known if he went by Richard.

A Quickie From Today's Paper.

I'm totally not making this up:

Still, illicit drug use was already common in the platoon as it prepared to leave Lewis-McChord for Afghanistan in spring 2009, at least according to the sworn testimony from one of its members, Pfc. Justin A. Stoner...

... On May 3, Private Stoner told investigators, the hash-smoking in his room was “to the point where the smoke was lingering in the air and the smell was impossible to get rid of.”

bwwwwwaaaaahhhhaaaahhhhhaaaa.....Stoner.....ok....as you were. Wait. maybe not this guy.

My Second Brush With Anti-Semitism, And Other Highlights From Friday's Pill Counting Action.

"No Arabs will come to this store again!! We will not do business with them ever!"

Believe it or not that customer statement cleared up a lot of confusion on my part. I couldn't for the life of me understand why this man cared so much where his cephalexin came from, but the second he heard it was made by Teva, he hit the roof.  This kind of thing usually only happens with the narcotic seekers. 

But Teva, you see, is headquartered in Israel. A country that can ignite passions stronger than even an opiate addiction. This is why I don't have cable my friends. I was witnessing a combination of CNN and Comedy Central right in front of my eyes for free.

Except the cephalexin was prescribed to treat his daughter's ear infection. Which made the episode a little tragic as well.

So anyway, according to Abdul the Arabs are done with my store. Somehow we'll just have to get by. I hear the Jews have all the money anyway. 

From knowing too much for your own good to not knowing nearly enough. Feeling generous, I asked the nice old lady customer if she would like me to ring up the other items in the cart behind her along with her prescriptions. 

"I don't know" the nice old lady customer said. "Is that my cart?" She seriously had no idea. Cart determination took a good 5 minutes. That was the reward for my generosity. Lesson learned. 

About an hour later a man came up to the counter with the cotton part of a Q-Tip stuck in his ear. Deep into his ear. Evidently I was the only Emergency Room in his PPO network or something. 

The next person told me  they needed a 20 inch Ace bandage and asked if the one labeled "Fits 18 to 21 inches" would work. One extreme to the other seemed to be the theme of the day. 

Around midday a customer told me there was once a NASCAR driver named Dick Trickle. I didn't believe him, but I thought it kinda funny anyway. As the usual assortment of prior auths, refill too soons, and why is my copay so highs piled up, as I spent my day with three people simultaneously demanding my immediate attention while my own dick yearned to trickle, every once in awhile, I would think of a race car driver named Dick Trickle and chuckle. I just looked up Dick Trickle. He is real, and after the morale boosts he gave me on Friday, I cannot help but to believe he is a force for good in this world. 

Of course the day ended with a customer dropping off a prescription at around the 11 hour and 59 minute mark. "The nurse at the emergency room said I should come here because the wait at Walgreen's is always so long." Such was my reward for not being a fuckup. 

I thought of Dick Trickle, and ended my shift on a note of happiness as I dispensed the last of the day's Jewish antibiotics. 

Election Wrap Up. The Al Franken Millennium On Hold, Voters In Florida Do What Al-Qaeda Cannot, Iowa Increases Its Electorate By A Factor Of 10,000

It'll be back to the pills soon my friends, I promise, but first some loose ends to wrap up from the election night that turned hope loose once again in the country. 

Hope that will be needed in Minnesota, where Al Franken's bid to unseat a United States Senator who has never denied being a member of Al-Qaeda goes to an automatic recount. Unofficial election night results show Norm Coleman, who has never denied being a member of the organization that carried out the attacks of 9/11, even when directly asked by me, ahead by 477 votes out of over 2.8 million cast. Despite a state law that automatically triggers a recount in elections closer than 0.5%, and despite cases, like the 2004 Governor's race in Washington state, where election night results were indeed reversed after such recounts, Norm Coleman  plastered the word "VICTORY" on his website, and told the press with a straight face that he would "step back" if he were in Franken's position. Proving that while his connection to Al-Qaeda may be unknown, there is no doubt Coleman is a world class douche bag. 

I don't have to tell you that Norm Coleman never denying membership in Al-Qaeda, while technically true, is written with tongue firmly in cheek. In Florida though, there really was a lunatic running for Congress who thought that Al Jazeera might be trying to kidnap him by luring him to a fake television interview. Allen West thwarted that terrorist plot, but was unable to stop the vast conspiracy that delivered an electoral ass-kicking.

Back to Minnesota quickly, where Elwyn Tinklenberg came sooooooo close to winning that state's 6th District Congressional race, in the end though, he came up a little short, thereby depriving me of many, many jokes that would have involved the name "Congressman Elwyn Tinklenberg." Dammit. 

Voters in Arizona, Florida, and California passed anti-gay marriage measures, ensuring a continuing healthy sex life for gays and lesbians in those states. Seriously gay people, be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it one day. 

In Colorado, South Dakota, and California, draconian restrictions on a woman's right to an abortion went down to defeat. Again. Ensuring that the Christian lunatics will be back next election with something more obnoxious so they can waste all our time by making us kick their ass. Again. 

In what I'm sure is a blow to my good friend, and by "good friend" I mean "person I've never met but who was like the 2nd human to ever read this blog," Romius T,  South Carolina amended its state constitution to eliminate language that set the legal age of consent for unmarried women at 14 years old.  The constitutional clause conflicted with South Carolina statutory law, which set the age of consent at a much more responsible..... 16. 

By far my favorite nugget of the night though, comes from the state of Iowa, I'll let Time magazine set the stage:

Iowa Public Measure D, also known as "Idiot Amendment," will change the language of the constitution, which currently prohibits an individual from voting if he or she is deemed an "idiot or insane."

"We decided it really wasn't fair to let the same 5 people decide everything election after election" said Des Moines resident Wally Dunlap, one of the 0.00002% of Iowans eligible to vote under the original Constitutional language. "And once we saw that dumbass plumber get his 15 minutes of fame this year, we really thought the trend just wasn't worth fighting anymore"

I still would have voted to keep the idiots away from the voting booth. It'll make re-electing Obama so much easier if we can keep the idiots away from the voting booth.

Disclaimer- Wally Dunlap isn't real. Everyone and everything else mentioned is.

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That.

Sometimes, the best way to blog a story is to get out of the way and just let it tell itself:

The American Family Association obviously didn't foresee the problems that might arise with its strict policy to always replace the word "gay" with "homosexual" on the Web site of its Christian news outlet, OneNewsNow. The group's automated system for changing the forbidden word wound up publishing a story about a world-class sprinter named "Tyson Homosexual" who qualified this week for the Beijing Olympics.

The problem: Tyson's real last name is Gay. Therefore, OneNewsNow's reliable software changed the Associated Press story about Tyson Gay's amazing Olympic qualifying trial to read this way:

Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has. Homosexual qualified for his first Summer Games team and served notice he's certainly someone to watch in Beijing.

"It means a lot to me," the 25-year-old Homosexual said. "I'm glad my body could do it, because now I know I have it in me."

Wait. It gets better.

Wearing a royal blue uniform with red and white diagonal stripes across the front, along with matching shoes, all in a tribute to 1936 Olympic star Jesse Owens, Homosexual dominated the competition. He started well and pulled out to a comfortable lead by the 40-meter mark. This time, he kept pumping those legs all the way through the finish line, extending his lead. In Saturday's opening heat, Homosexual pulled way up, way too soon, and nearly was caught by the field, before accelerating again and lunging in for fourth place.

I think the lesson here is that to be a successful homosexual, you must always remember to keep those legs pumping. And never, ever, pull way up, way too soon.

But wait. It gets better. They guy who finished in second place? His name was Dix. I swear.

After the race, Homosexual and Dix looked at each other and slapped palms, then hugged.

Is that what they call it these days? Slapping palms? Well good for Homosexual. If I were gay and had just qualified for the Olympics, I might be tempted to slap a little palm with some Dix myself.

Stupid Christians.

From The "It's Their Real Name" File.

An Australian Catholic school is at the centre of an unholy row over claims it refused entry to a five-year-old boy with the surname Hell.

Alex Hell said St Peter the Apostle School, Melbourne, had welcomed his son Max when enrolled under his mother's maiden name, Wembridge.

But they baulked when the family had a change of heart over the surname.

Mr Hell said he initially decided to enroll Max at the school under his wife's maiden name, to avoid the ridicule he himself had suffered as a schoolboy.

OK, you know what there Hell, I might feel a little sympathy for you IF YOU HADN'T HAVE NAMED YOUR KID MAX.

MAX HELL.

You can't really blame the Catholic school. I'm pretty sure the book of Revelation warns of the day of the coming of Max Hell.

Times Have Changed At My Alma Mater, Or Not

From the latest issue of The Ampul, the alumni magazine from the Ohio Northern University College of Pharmacy, we have this profile of a freshman pharmacy student. I did not change the name.

Melissa Negro finds faculty accessible, early pharmacy education helpful.

Seeing professors eating lunch in the dining hall makes an important impression on freshman Melissa Negro.

"On occasion, you'll see them in the dining hall having lunch or walking through; they'll say hello and greet you by your name. I think that's incredible," she says......

......Her Profession of Pharmacy (POP) classes address topics she finds fascinating, she says. Last quarter included a general introduction into pharmacy along with a discussion on HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, with a focus on security and privacy of customer health information.

Putting aside the utter........bizarreness......that there is a soul on this planet that finds the fine print of the privacy notice tucked into your prescription bag the slightest bit....fascinating, I'll just say that it's good that Negros are finally getting some respect at ONU. Back when I was a young Drugmonkey there, people didn't seem to like Negros very much at all. You should have heard the way they talked about the Negros when they were sure that there weren't any Negros around, which was pretty much all the time, as I only remember one Negro at the ONU college of pharmacy when I was there. She was really quiet, and usually sat in the back of the class, although I'm pretty sure she wasn't forced to. Anyway, evidently times have changed at ONU, and so have the Negros. Here's a picture of the young Negro featured in the Ampul:


I don't remember the Negro at ONU looking anything like this when I was there.

Perhaps things haven't changed.

Tonight's Immaturity Moment

Important news from the field of AIDS prevention reported in this morning's New York Times:

Circumcision appears to reduce a man’s risk of contracting AIDS from heterosexual sex by half, United States government health officials said yesterday

Circumcision is “not a magic bullet, but a potentially important intervention,” said Dr. Kevin M. De Cock, director of H.I.V./AIDS for the World Health Organization.

I have a feeling that doctor really knows what he's talking about.

Random Election Night Observations

At least it's election night for me, as California has a permanent absentee/early voting system that means you can sit down in front of the information superhighway and do your election research and voting all in one easy step. While doing so I come across the website of the candidate for governor of the Peace and Freedom party, Janice Jordan. At the top of one of the pages there's a picture of Ms. Jordan holding a giant banner reading "Free Leonard Peltier" and another of her being led away by the cops after being arrested at a San Diego protest.

Now I ask you, how the hell could I not vote for that? So I did.

Sure, the current governor thinks he's some sort of tough guy because he used to lift weights and pretend to fight aliens from a Hollywood movie set, but MY candidate rages against the man and gets led away by the pigs.

Sweet.

Those of you who regularly read my little blog garden also know I've been covering Dick Mountjoy's campaign for US Senate like a ribbed Trojan. My inner Beavis has been eagerly anticipating the moment when I would see the words "Dick Mountjoy" printed on official election material. My expectations were exceeded though when I opened my ballot envelope and saw this:







Huh huh......ok......so I understand wanting the name "Richard" on your ballot line. But then to go out of your way to make sure "Dick" gets in there as well.....in quotation marks! BBBBWWWAAAAHHHAAAAAHHHHAAAAHHHHAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! It's like someone at the print shop hates him and decided to stick in a random insult.

Immaturity can so lift the spirit sometimes.

A Political Update. The Dick Mountjoy Campaign Appears To Have Gone Flaccid

Some of you may remember my earlier delight upon hearing that former California State Senator Dick Mountjoy had won the Republican nomination to seek a promotion to the United States Senate this fall. (I'm not making this up, here's his website.) I looked forward to a long, hard campaign where Dick Mountjoy's unbending commitment and unequalled endurance would thrust the issues that excite the people of California to the forefront again and again, leading to a cathartic climax on election day that would release the tension that had built up all over the Golden State.

But now that the passion of election season is heating up all over the country, it would seem Dick Mountjoy is missing the excitement necessary to have a relationship with California voters. Everywhere politicians are on the TV, blaring from the radio, and plastered in the newspapers accusing each other of wanting to raise your taxes and the price of gas, but as the weather gets colder, the Dick Mountjoy campaign seems to be shrinking away from it's job of injecting debate into this election season. So I went looking for Dick today and discovered this, from MSNBC.com:

If the 2006 election for California's U.S. Senate seat were held today, would you vote for:

FEINSTEIN 53%

MOUNTJOY 23%

OTHER 3%

It would seem that support for Dick Mountjoy is too soft for him to become a fully functional candidate, much to the frustration of his partners at the California Republican Party, who despite their assurances that this kind of thing happens to a lot of candidates, have turned their attention elsewhere, leaving Dick Mountjoy feeling very inadequate next to the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm sure however, that even though it is almost certain we won't have Mr. Mountjoy to kick around after November, there will always be plenty of Dicks in politics.

A Victory For Members of Sex-Based Cults Everywhere

The small but growing number of regular readers of this blog may remember my previous posts about the saga of Plan B, the effective and safe contraceptive that was rejected for over the counter sale by the government agency responsible for regulating drug efficacy and safety not because it wasn't safe or effective, but because, in the words of deputy commissioner for operations at the FDA at the time, Janet Woodcock (huh huh....huh huh...Woodcock....huh huh)out of concern for things like:

making the drug available over the counter could lead to "extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an 'urban legend' status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B."

I swear she said that.

Today we have news that the FDA may be having a change of heart. According to the New York Times:

The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it was moving toward endorsing sale of the morning-after pill without a prescription for women 18 and older, signaling what may be the end of one of the most stubborn health policy debates of the Bush administration.

The agency’s acting commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, asked the drug’s manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals, for a meeting to complete plans that would allow the over-the-counter sale of the emergency contraceptive, called Plan B. In a statement, the F.D.A. said it hoped “the process can be wrapped up in a matter of weeks.”

While the agency’s letter to Barr was not a final approval, both the F.D.A. and the company expressed optimism about the drug’s future.

Hmmmm....within 3 years we've gone from government officials worrying about teenagers fucking in the streets to wanting to wrap up the OTC approval process in a matter of weeks. Three theories as to what's behind this flip-flop, from most likely to least likely.

1) Acting commissioner Eschenbach is trying to become permanent commissioner Eschenbach, and is saying what he thinks it will take in order to get past the Senate confirmation process.

2) People at the FDA have realized Janet Woodcock was insane.

3) The Bush administration has started to care about women's health.

Assuming it's theory #1 in play here, it'll be interesting to see if the same commitment to "wrap up the process" holds after Dr. Eschenbach gets the permanent job. His predecessor, Dr. Lester Crawford, said during his confirmation that if confirmed he would make a decision on Plan B by September 1, 2005. He either lost his calendar or he lied. Knowing how the Bush administration treats the truth like a seldom seen relative, embracing it only on special occasions, I'm holding off starting my cult until I see the OTC Plan B on my shelf.

Read the whole Times story here.

The Maturity Triumvirate Is Now Complete.

Maybe I should start a new "I can't believe that's their real name" category for my little blog garden. First we had Dr. Janet Woodcock (huh-huh, huh-huh), the deputy commissioner for operations at the FDA, keeping us safe from adolescent sex-based cults.

Next we had Rear Admiral Harry Harris, (huh-huh, huh-huh, huh-huh), commander of the prison at Guantanamo, who thinks that suicide is really all about us.

And now from the world of politics, the drugnazi would like to introduce the Republican nominee for United States Senate from the state of California, a man who I'm sure will be working very hard between now and November to make a deep, personal connection with each and every voter he comes in contact with.

Dick Mountjoy.

huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh
huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh huh-huh

I swear I'm not making this up. Here's his website. Here's a man who has a choice between calling himself a name that is synonymous with wealthy and a name that is slang for the male sexual organ, chooses the later, and wants me to believe that he has the judgment to be a United States Senator. I didn't think it was possible, but I'll be damned if the Republicans didn't go and find someone more mockable than Dianne Feinstein

For those of you too kind or, um, mature, to make fun of someone just because of their name, I'll point you to this, cut and pasted from Mountjoy's website:

The time has come for those who live their lives by Judeo Christian beliefs – Americans of all faiths and all political parties—to rise up and speak with one voice across America (emphasis mine)

There, now you can make fun of him for apparently believing that there are Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Animists and Satan Worshipers who live their lives by Judeo Christian beliefs.

In other words, he's stupid. On many levels. Please join me in mocking him relentlessly.

None Of This Is Happening. What A Relief.

I admit the last few years have been a bit hard to take. Living under the rule of President Monkey-Boy and seeing the world pay the price for the Oedipus complex that haunts his soul, having a job where people whose eyeballs I would dearly love to gouge out with a pill counting spatula are ultimately responsible for providing the money that makes it possible for me to eat, the garbage truck that seems to show up every morning at the crack of dawn. It's getting expensive to buy enough scotch to numb my brain to the point where it's tolerable. All that is behind me though, because today I realized that it's impossible for any of this to be happening.

This revelation came to me, as so many do, as I was browsing through the day's news headlines. You've probably heard about the prison at Guantanamo Bay. You may have heard that 3 prisoners recently committed suicide there. You might have even heard the reaction of the commander at Guantanamo, who said:

"They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

At first this incredibly obtuse, self centered, Orwellian, life denigrating quote from the side that claims to have a culture of life may seem like just another reason to reach for the martini glass. Until you realize the name of the person who said it.

Rear Admiral Harry Harris.

Feel better now? You should. No way anyone based in reality would call themselves "Rear Admiral Harry Harris." The only place a "Rear Admiral Harry Harris" would exist is in a movie you'd see on Showtime at 2 in the morning. The character is either flamboyantly gay or a total straight arrow mockable Ted Knight in Caddyshack type who is constantly made to look foolish by some sort of Sean Penn in Fast Times At Ridgemont High "too cool for school" type protagonist, who would taunt him by purposely mispronouncing his name as something like "Rear Admiral Harry Hair-Ass"

Maybe in a Beavis and Butthead cartoon. That might be another place where you would find a "Rear Admiral Harry Harris".

Definitely not in the actual world though. Which I admit is like a ton or two of weight off my shoulders. I look forward to my eventual return to the world of real things. Of thought, reason, facts and logic ruling over animal emotions. Of a single payer health system, or at least payers that give you clear instructions as to how to file a claim. Of a person named Harry Harris being mocked relentlessly instead of running a torture camp. Hopefully I'll be there before that garbage truck has a chance to wake me up again.

From The Jihad Watch. Just In Case You Have Any Doubt Left These People Are Absolutely Insane.

I've written many times here about the saga of Plan B, the emergency contraceptive hated so much by the right-wing American Taliban, and the American Taliban's jihad to keep Plan B from achieving over the counter status. It annoys me to no end how they just can't admit that they hate women/and or sex and try to frame their opposition by corrupting the scientific process. I suppose though that trying to confuse people with pseudo-science is a far better option than coming up with arguments like this:

Meanwhile a government report later found that Dr. Janet Woodcock, deputy commissioner for operations at the FDA had also expressed a fear that making the drug available over the counter could lead to "extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an 'urban legend' status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B"

An actual medical doctor, serving in a federal agency whose mandate is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of drugs, uses her position and your tax dollars to oppose a medication because of a fear that it will lead to the formation of sex-based cults. Stop reading and let that sink in for awhile.

OK, now that you're back, write your own joke about a woman named Woodcock and sex based cults. It shouldn't be hard.

Not to minimize the danger of cults. They can do some pretty odd things. Like sponsor "purity balls." At these events:

a father gives a "purity ring" to his daughter-a symbol of the promise she makes to maintain her virginity for her future husband. Then, during her marriage ceremony, the daughter gives the ring to her new husband.

The cult in this case would be the Absinence Clearinghouse, and the cult leader a woman by the name of Leslee Unruh, who says "we think the relationship between fathers and their daughters is the key." The Abstinence Clearinghouse website says the purity ball is an event "which celebrates your 'little girl' and her gift of sexual purity"

This behavior would certainly seem to be that of a sex-based cult, not to mention creepingly close to pedophilia. Somehow though this has escaped the notice of the sex-cult watchdogs at the FDA. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that "Unruh" is the German word for "Woodcock." Not really. That was a joke. "Unruhe" can actually be translated as "to disturb the peace" which still seems very appropriate.

What isn't a joke though is how these whack jobs have, and continue to, infiltrate the highest levels of power in your country. I've just given you a little taste of the things the New York Times uncovered in it's Sunday magazine awhile back. If you're concerned about the Christian fascists and their plans for us all, it's well worth taking a look at the whole article. You can get it here.