Ermahgersh! Conspiracy!

If you've never seen those memes with the retainer-lisp girl, I insist that you stop reading this and go Google it now. I feel completely justified in poking some fun at the aforementioned speech difficulty because oh.dear.lord did I go through some orthodontic h-e-doublehockeysticks. (This fake swear is especially appropriate here. I literally had some kind of hockey-looking mouth guard wired into my gums from 6th to 7th grade. I was hot.)

There's actually a point to this post, I promise. For about four years, I've been in this epic intellectual battle over vaccinating vs not vaccinating. Aaron and I always land on the decision that we aren't going to do any(more) immunizations for our boys. But then one of those foaming at the mouth anti-vaccine moms comes across my path. Mmmhmm, you know the type. Aggressive. Judgmental. Flippin' crazy. I usually get an irrational desire for a shingles vaccine after an encounter with one of these moms, which is only intensified when Walgreens offers $25 in coupons if you get the shot there. (!!!) If you know me, you know how I lo-ove a good coupon! But, no. I've done a lot of research, leaned into the knowledge of some really wise people, I've taken some fairly advanced science/microbiology - all of this plays into our (hopefully) well thought out and intentional decision.

Then there's this part of my brain that I don't often access. The part that may occasionally entertain a conspiracy theory or two. I'm pretty sure this is perfectly normal. (Nope. I'm pretty sure I'm a freak and this is my way of fishing for validation) At the end of the day, I can rest assured that conspiracy theories are for the birds. And Mel Gibson. (Is that movie on Netflix? I totally want to watch it again). This little bubble of good-feeling goes away real fast when I come across things like this. 

So, I think I'm summarizing Bill Gates correctly here ... There are a lot of people on this earth and people require services (i.e. the production of food and clothing). These services require energy use, which emits additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, allegedly causing global warming and trashing the planet. A trashed planet really cramps the style of important people... like Bill and Melinda Gates. One of his points in this presentation is that a decrease in the human population in years to come would lower Co2 emissions, and I quote, 
"The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's heading up to about nine billion.
 Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, 
we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."

In all fairness, there is an obvious bias to the link I posted, and there are probably a couple different things Bill could have meant here. In my book, none of them are good or humanitarian or ethical. What a good reminder that ultimately WE are responsible for our health and our family. Doctors are wonderful, but they are neither God nor the final authority when it comes to our health and well-being. Four and a half years ago, I got to decide about whether or not to immunize my little guy. When Landon was born in February, I sat with my pediatrician and talked about how I wasn't comfortable with my sweet little man getting 80+ immunizations by the time he's six years old. That number is just shocking to me and that is a heckuva lot of chemicals. The doctor kindly refrained from rolling their eyes (too much) and then told me that if we didn't follow their immunization schedule, we had to find another doctor. I don't know if this change in policy is related to a certain big political change that occurred about four years ago, but that, my friends, is not my idea of freedom. 

These are all just things rolling around in my mind as I try to be a responsible voter this next month. Once November 7th hits, my blog posts will regress to absolute drivel, which unlike politics and healthcare, I consider myself to be quite an authority on! In the meantime, ermahgersh!