Bargain Travel Agency

Recently the CIA staged a practice simulation of a cyber attack used to take down the Internet. The simulated attack was called “Silent Horizons” and they learned quite a bit about what could happen if we fail to protect the flow of information. Now before you say no one could bring down the entire Internet. You are sadly mistaken, as we created it and mankind has those amongst us with the tools and brains to bring it all crashing down. I recommend you read up on the CIA report after it comes out on the Silent Horizon project and while you are at it; I recommend this book as well:

Tom Clancy’s “Net Force-CyberNation”

I would have to say this is a very provocative book and extremely interesting, story line and characters were interesting as well. Very high-tech thoughts on the future and things to come; I enjoyed it very much. It was interesting how the good guys, took shifts trying to catch the bad guys. Almost like zone defense in time. Since the techno geeks do not sleep and the enforcement officers do not work weekends, they trade off befriending these individuals by way of email, even though the bad guys who are really the good guys know it. The people in the story the new generation did not understand international property rights of information, similar to the Asian way of thinking in their culture. Surely this will be the cause of future wars and mist trust between government and people. The technology already is running away from the government now today as they attempt to stifle free enterprise, but as it has been said in the past you can lock up some ones body, but you cannot lock up their mind. In other words not everyone is motivated by money and the real thinkers and tinkerers will not stop simply because there is no money.

The Net Force is inept and cannot outsmart the outsmarters. The hackers were causing economic disruption and collecting more customers for their system and therefore be a member of their nation within the nation. This is an interesting idea. The difference between the RW “Real World” and VR “Virtual Reality World”. Where do you want to take your vacation? If it is in the RW, who pays for the roads if you are a member of the cyber nation and if you are a member of the RW, whose VR, which system are you on, and who can choose the rules? This is a great book, not the story line, not the characters, not the cover, but the thought provoking ideas and foresight. Best book I’ve read this year.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

We know that love is in the air when nothing has changed but all the people and things that we look at seem special. We see all the events that are happening around us from a wider perspective. Actually, when we fall in love, we see the world in a different light. Our attitude changes for the better and we gain a lot of insights into the meaning of our existence in this beautiful planet. The weather may or may not be perfect, but we find ourselves in high spirits. Everything from a simple flower to the smile of a child, gives us pleasure and we are motivated to live our lives in a fruitful manner. Attribute it to the magic of love; the world suddenly seems a beautiful place to inhibit. We start taking a new look at the problems that life throws upon us and get the inner strength and power to tackle them in an efficient manner.

When love is in the air, we feel it everywhere we look. From the blowing of the trees, to the chirping of the birds, to the whistling of the wind…… it seems that everything in the universe is conspiring against us to fall head over heels in love. We feel joyful inside, we hear our heartbeats quicken with the sound of falling rain drops and our hearts melt when we see the beauty of the rising sun.

This strong feeling within us for our near and dear ones is an all encompassing one. We experience it several times in the course of our lives for various persons. From our parents who take care of us in our childhood; our grandparents who shower their affection on us to our friends, lovers, acquaintances and our children…we love a number of people in our lives, albeit in different ways. The emotion of love that we feel in our hearts makes us better as individuals. History is a witness to the fact that many a battles were fought and won and many obstacles were overcome for the sake of a loved one. People changed the course of their entire lives and became better or worse, all for the sake of a smile on the lips of their lovers and friends.

All of us have experienced love, one time of life or another. More often than not, we fall in love in our youth. It is a time of discovery for most of us…we start getting acquainted with ourselves…we slowly come out of our shells…..and make new friends. It is like meeting ourselves for the first time as individuals, with our distinct personalities and identities. We discover new feelings and emotions within ourselves…..then we experience the fluttering of first love in our hearts and we are taken completely aback with the intensity of our own emotions. We start feeling love in the air we breathe… and everything around us seems like magic! A moment spent with the person we love seems like eternity and we keep repeating every detail of our rendezvous with our lover in our solitude! Spent in the company of our loved one, each moment is a moment of joy…..and the joy of that moment of togetherness is invaluable. The people we love seem like the most beautiful people in the entire universe and we are pleasantly surprised by the fact that we are the luckiest persons in the whole world. All of us go through the same feelings, but each of us thinks that we are experiencing something unique. That is the power of love!

At different stages of life, love assumes different significance to different people. When we are teenagers in college, we experience love for the first time. It gives a new meaning to our lives and leaves an impression that is often very hard to forget. We carry the experience of these feelings of tenderness and attraction for the rest of our lives. It is said, that whatever we become later in life depends upon our first brush with this magical feeling. Many a poem has been written and many a song has been sung to commemorate the feeling of love and magic of our youth.

We do not stop loving any less, when we reach the middle ages of our lives. By that time, most of us have come to terms with the realities of life and we know our strengths and weaknesses. During this phase in our lives, we are surrounded by friends who love us for what we are and cherish our friendships for all that they are worth.

The last stage in the journey of life is old age. Even at the dusk of our lives, we can experience the magic of love. Many a times, we are surprised by the joy and happiness that we see in the faces of old couples. They have undertaken the journey of life together and have stood by each other through thick and thin…They help us to truly understand the meaning of a beautiful life.

Katie Marie is the webmaster of http://www.mobilecontentworld.co.uk and http://www.ringtonezshop.com a site specializing in the different genres of ringtones, including polyphonic ringtones mobile games,mobile phone wallpapers themes and logos.

Assuming you haven’t yet had an opportunity to learn about betting establishment card playing, read on —

black jack gambling

A definition of a betting establishment is a building that organizes gaming. Here, clients will enjoy themselves handling slot-machines or another pastimes. Betting room games normally have fully transparent probabilities informing them which make sure the gaming hall holds on to its lead over the gaming devotees. Very many casino games may cause you to get habituated rapidly. Case in point being the time-honored 1-armed bandit, a coin operated contraption with three, occasionally more cylinders that gyrate when a handle connected to it is pushed. The instrument regularly remits with reference to predefined patterns of symbols observable on the front panel of the contraption. Lamentably, gambling house pastimes strive to create the misconception of power, thereby hoodwinking the gambling aficionado — the participant is presented with choice, but in reality these do not really compensate for the client’s overall negative odds. This is precipitated by the gambling saloongambling house not refunding the full stake as hoped for. This systematic process is continuously noticeable in well known casino games such as poker, dice, roulette or blackjack.

Five-card stud is certainly an incredibly popular casino game. The betting devotees, holding either fully or partially hidden cards, wager in a principal pot that is finally paid out to the winning participant enjoying the highest combination of cards. (Obviously, the best bluffer may well prevail ..) Much the same as seven-card stud, blackjack is also a highly trendy casino pastime. A good part of its fame is owed to its particular mix of chance and savvy and choice making, not to mention a routine dubbed Card Counting. It is a skill through which gamers are in a position to significantly change the winning odds of the card game to give them an advantage both by wagering & procedural decisions in agreement with the cards shown. Craps is a popular gambling hall game based on the throw of dice. Patrons must bet on the result of 1 cycle, or on a series of rolls on two dice. Dissimilar to blackjack, there’s no practicable bona fide winning strategy you could employ to improve the chances. Roulette is another immensely popular game - a croupier twirls a roulette wheel enclosing a set of exactly thirty-seven (classical roulette) or, respectively precisely 38 (Vegas roulette) differently numbered receptacles in which a white pellet must come to lie, which establishes the winner as well as the accompanying odds. When the gamer bets on a specific number and strikes it so she is actually in luck, the set dividend will be 35:1, the stake itself is repaid. Thus in totality it is increased by thirty six.

We recommend you try to be emphatically on the lookout for these gaming room pastimes are terribly addictive. A lot of lives are known to have been spoilt thru reckless gambling & though it indeed feels like a lot of fun, do aim to restrain your wagers.

Most people with even a small amount of decorating experience know the dramatic change that can occur in a room when you alter the colour of the walls. Another often overlooked way to change the way a room looks is to change the flooring, purple rugs can make a refreshing change from exposed floorboards.

Something else people often don’t consider is manipulating the shape of the room. Often it can be quite tricky to come up with a solution to achieve this. Rooms which are quite narrow with very high ceilings can feel claustrophobic - a great way to combat this is to install a false ceiling with down lighters. If your loo is located adjacent to your bathroom it’s a sensible idea to remove the parting wall. Having a re-think of layouts to change the size and proportion of a living space is a great strategy to breathe new life into your home.

To make a room feel much wider than in fact it is a good tip is to hang large mirrors which will instantly change the look and feel of a room. People often think that you need to use huge mirrors to give this effect but in fact small mirrors also work well. What you are trying to aim for can be likened to an optical illusion where the brain thinks there is more space around than in fact there actually is. If the room is high enough to accommodate another level then building a level at one end is a great idea to make the most of the space.

Comfortable furniture is an absolute must for any home and can make a huge difference to a room. If your room is one designed to relax in make sure that the furniture you choose for it allows you to relax.

Do you care about who is going out with your little girl? Do you need to be certain that your business partner is trustworthy and won’t hornswoggle your investment? Do you have questions about your tenant or that prospective employee that your company is hiring? If you are preoccupied about any situation above, then you might want to look at running criminal background check on the person you have in mind.

If you want to examine a person’s history, you no longer have to worry about expensive detective charges or time constraints. All you have to do in these modern times is to get on your computer, fire up your browser, and search for a federal background check website.

If you embark on a search, you will find out a large mixture of info - to include the person’s address, where they worked, if they were married, even whether they have a arrest record. You’ll be impressed with how much selected information can be found. Evidently these businesses will charge for their services, however it isn’t big-ticket.

The numerous records of interest can be gathered through numerous recognized administration departments but getting them from several locations can be very time consuming. Fortunately, available on the World Wide Web are research sites that put together the information so that you acquire instant feedback on the subject. If you are looking for instant results, it is a good idea to do a online background checks.

Copyright 2006 Vincent Wilmot

When the poor were the majority.

The poor in developed countries like the USA and UK are now a minority, though up to maybe the 1950’s or 1960’s they had been a majority.

While the poor were a majority their main problems were simply economic poverty and economic exploitation. Government bodies manned by the upper and middle classes understood this sufficiently to be able to handle the poor with some appropriateness, if not always entirely to the poor’s liking. The votes of the poor majority were basically sought with a policy mix of small economic titbits and nationalistic policies.

The poor becoming a minority.

In the USA by 1950, and the UK by 1960, growing economic prosperity saw the numbers of the poor begin to fall until soon they became a minority. This was helped by more enlightened government policy, and was good for the many that then escaped poverty. Unfortunately the remaining poor as a minority were to face seriously increased problems.

There were two main reasons why the modern minority poor in advanced countries faced increasing problems. The first was that the poor soon had more complex, though supposedly helpful, welfare systems applying to them and giving them new problems - and also as a minority they now also hit new minority social exclusion problems. The second main reason the modern poor in advanced countries faced increasing problems was that they became less seen and less understood by the governing upper and middle classes, so their governing became wildly inappropriate and plain wrong.

How affluent governments lost their poor.

When the poor in developed countries became a minority, democratic political parties began to see their votes as unnecessary, though the poor are a socially significant minority whose misgovernment can seriously undermine society.

Majority middle-class issues became prioritised, for example huge anti-tobacco-smoking resources being applied by government and employer bodies but much less on drunkenness, drug-taking or weapon-carrying - pushing many from cigarettes to these. Socially tobacco is a small undesirable but the available alternatives for the poor are really much worse. And some of the health problems of smoking may be due to inhaling cigarette lighter flints rather than inhaling tobacco.

All government, charity, employer and other bodies being now run by a middle-class having no real understanding of modern poor minority problems has led to many policies affecting the poor becoming totally inappropriate. And developed countries prioritising middle-class issues and worsening the position of their poor minority are in effect doing a Nero and ‘fiddling while Rome burns’, but their governments basically lost the poor.

Re-finding the poor.

In developed countries now, those producing policies are educated professionals with little or no experience of the poor today, and they may commonly have correct general theories but often be missing the correct practical detail needed for correct modern policy making for today’s minority poor. They urgently need to find and involve the tiny handful of street-wise professionals who somehow do happen to have substantial real experience of today’s poor themselves - but as yet they are totally unaware that this is needed.

Or if modern affluent middle-class government cannot find a way to better govern their poor and other minorities, then perhaps modern democratic government will demand less middle-class officials. Maybe a percentage of politicians should not be elected, but instead be randomly selected from elector lists ?

Something that is commonly at the very bottom of the list when budgeting for an education is medical insurance for college students. Broadly Speaking, the last thing on any student’s mind is how they will cope with medical insurance needs. When you are in your 20’s you will generally tend to think that you are immortal and of course you will not become sick. Alas, no matter how well a person might seem, there is no way to predict their continuing good health. A student health insurance policy isn’t a good idea, it is absolutely essential. For those lucky enough to be covered under their parent’s insurance policy, most of them will extend to a college student up to the age of twenty-three. For the student who doesn’t currently have insurance coverage through a family policy, an important part of planning for a college education will be obtaining an affordable medical insurance policy.

What must a student look for in an insurance plan directed at college students? So what’s your deductible? It is a yearly payment which has to be made prior to the health benefits beginning, much the same as an auto deductible. For example, should the deductible be $500, you must to pay that sum before getting benefits from your plan.

So what is meant by the term co-pay? Once you have paid the deductible, by and large for every physician’s visit, medicinal drug, or operation you will have to contribute a pre-determined part of the bill. This is called a co-pay.

What’s the range of insurance coverage? Almost all insurance policies do include Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA). Essentially this means certain specialists might not be included in your authorized medical professionals or not be covered by a health insurance plan. A list of participating health providers should be included with your health insurance policy, check this thoroughly when you take out a medical plan designed for college students.

What is catastrophic coverage? Restrictions are commonplace in medical insurance plans designed for students as far as catastrophic illness, the coverage offered in most student health insurance is more often than not lower than a regular insurance plan. And what are the restrictions? Restrictions are standard in most student health insurance. Study your policy and find out what may or may not be covered.

Keep any health insurance cards in your wallet everywhere. Accidents are not only not possible to plan for, but they are unfortunately likely to happen when not convenient. Ensure you are acquainted with your insurance policy even if you are included in your parent’s insurance policy.

It is in the heart of every revolution, in the mind of every Humanitarian; it is attacked by every dictator, scorned by every politician; it is held in animosity by the enemy of the people; held as the most sacrilige by every tyrant and the most sacred by every freeman — it is the dream of a lover while they sleep, tossed and tumbled over their heart’s desire — it is the dirt under the fingernails of a worker, writhing with pain that their labors can feed their family — it has been taught by philosophers, it has been revered by wisemen… it is sought by the heart and cherished with memories by the mind: it is liberty.

Some have argued that it is the presence of others that limits our freedom. That it is the various wants of each man that create conflict, which lead to fighting and wars. In heeding to our natural instincts of survival and domination, mankind has erected torture chambers, built prisons, put bondages on the legs of individual thought, put chains on the hands of free inquiry. Every new method of persecution and oppression has not been left undone, left alone. It has been the taste of mankind to seek wealth and glory, whether it leads others to lives of misery and vice or not. So, it has been the argument of every philosopher, of every statesmen, that the presence of many men, and therefore, the presence of many interests, has been the greatest obstacle to liberty. To some extent, my reasoning ability must consent to this argument, that it has some merit, that to some extent, it is true. But to tell half the story, would be as much a lie as distorting it. A man would be a slave if he were alone. Deprive any person from the society of their fellows, and they will know what true pain is. For no man can be free, when he knows that he cannot stimulate the emotions of another, by exciting passions of either lust or affection, by interesting another in stories and legends of times past. If a man were to speak his heart, were to utter the memories his mind had collected, and if there were no one to hear him, then he would be truly a lone. The philosopher will call him free, but he would still be a slave to pain. The statesman will call him in liberty, but he would be in the shackles of loneliness and depression. There are few individuals who would prefer life without their lovers, over death with them. So, it must be true… the man who lives with nothing but his reflection, may very well be cursed to a miserable life. Just as the man who lives with thoughtless and brutish persecutors, will be cursed to a similar life…. liberty, therefore, is neither the presence or lack of presence of persons, but your relationship to them. It is this which cannot be denied, as it fulfills the premises of reason, it serves the honesty of compassion.

Mankind has lost his freedom by being without company, and being in the company of those who had the intention to exploit him. The greatest evils of the world could be solved if brotherly love were instituted in place of competition, if charity was the virtue of the heart that was followed, instead of the vice of domination being obeyed. What, then, can be said of the liberty of women? As long as the Roman Empire existed and Europe dissolved into Western civilization, women have been regarded as inferior. The right to vote, something which has been enjoyed by men for centuries, has only been acquired in this nation in this past century. The wages between women and men have been unequal, despite their equal capability of productivity. In the mind of every intellectual, of every thinker and philosopher — except those who have arduously followed the path of truth — there has been a dogma, a social idea, that women have an inferior sort of emotion, that their thoughts are less valuable, that their affectionate is cheap, that their love is dirty. They have been made the whores of humanity, not on their own account, but on the account of their oppressors. Half of the human species has been cursed with this injustice, to be regarded as wholly inferior, in every aspect: emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. They have relied on the “scientific nature” and popularity of their understanding, just to give this sort of cruelty an aura of legitimacy. I will say this, though… Every woman ought to be free, from want, from misery, from slavery, from everything that may inhibit true independence.

The society of men has been ruled sometimes by savagery, other times by domination — one is regarded as civilized and the other not so, but in both cases they operate on brutality, cruelty, and a totally disrespect for the humanity of others. One may be called primitive, and the other may be called advanced, but both may as well be lost the understanding of compassion oc goodness as the other. A society may best be judged by the method it so decides to rear its children. As the older generation teaches the younger generation, they are deciding whether their minds shall soar freely and their hearts shall genuinely follow their own desires; or they are deciding whether they are creating filler for their cemeteries, whether they are creating foddor for their prisons, whether they are creating targets for iniquity and injustice — if a society treats its children brutally and harshly, without regard for development or kindness, the generation will grow up, and on their last breath, they will wonder why they did not follow their dreams, why they did not seek out that horizon that was shining just beyond their thoughts… but, they may wonder in vain. And what do we do in our society? We force them into schools, but the proper term may be prison. And how would you define prison? As a place you are coerced into staying, without any consent on your part? If that is a just description, then the schools in our world are nothing different than prisons, and it is their intent to form the social attitudes of children in such an atmosphere, that perhaps one day they will obediently abide by every unjust law, every decrease of their wages, every oppressive military coup. If you were to gather up all children, aged seven to seventeen, and if you were to ask them if they felt that they were treated unjustly, the answers you would receive would run the gamut. The younger ones, with less exposure to prison life, would find greater injustice in it, but since they were more impressionable, they would be more docile and accepting. The older ones, with more exposure to prison life, would find lesser injustice in it, but since they may be more intelligent — their reasoning faculties damaged by schooling — they may find more injustice in it. So, we have the condition of the children of our western nations: imprisoned, without hope, without dreams. Since the children have no souls, the nation is the epitome of a slave state.

How mankind has treated his own species, how the husband has treated his wife, how the parents have treated their children, these are all signs that perhaps injustice will prevail before justice can be sustained — perhaps the battles we fight for liberty and independence will be remember forever in the hearts of every kind person… so that when they look at the stars in a night sky, they can be sure that as they sleep, they will wake to a world that does not discriminate, a world that will not ask them to sacrifice their hopes so that they can survive. And those mornings that they wake, the future generations, with only the faintest memory of those dreams, of lovers, of family… they will truly know that life is a blessing and death is a curse. But, in all of the emancipations which have been engaged in, one large group has been left out of the liberation: the creatures of the world. They have, more or less, been treated cruelly. Their persecutors will argue whatever they can, relying on the same words of those who have oppressed men, women, and children. “They are stupid, and have no rights!” — “They cannot live autonomously!” — “They are inferior!” Every lie which has been botched against the fragile face of the woman is now thrown against that of the animal. As they argue against the rights of other species, they are but echoing every voice to oppose abolitionism. As the animals are herded, to move into slaughter houses, to be executed, their pains of agony verbally expressed are no different than those of a slave being whipped. Yet, while human slaves have only been in the millions, the animals slaughtered every year has been numbered in the billions! These creatures, whom science have finally recognized as having their emotions and their own society, not unlike human society, their lives are destroyed, because they have the unfortunate genes which made their flesh taste good to humans. No man of heart will say they are to be without our pity, and no man of thought will say they are to be without liberty. The creatures of this planet must be recognized as having rights. And this ideal must be enforced, just as men and women risked their lives to liberate slaves, just as husbands gained the courage to treat their wives with respect, just as parents gain the sanity to offer only affection and gentleness to their children. The animals of the world must be liberated. There can be no justice while there are some suffering at the merciless exploits of another.

It may have once been argued by a military advisor, that those who are the strongest have the greatest success of being the oppressors, and those who are the weakest have the strongest chance of being the oppressed. The history of civilization will prove this thesis to be true. It can be seen the countless examples. First, it was man, the stronger gender of the human species, which has more physical strength than woman. And he was the first oppressor. But then justice came; man realized that it was wrong to subject women to slavery, and women realized that it was wrong to be coerced into a life of dependence — together, the woman realized the independence of being free, and the man discovered the duty of living a nobile life. Then there are children, physically weaker and brought up to be mentally submissive, who are put into submission of their elders. In only a few countries, they have been liberated from dangerous factory conditions. In only fewer countries, if any, they have been allowed to pursue a free education. But much of the western world resides in ignorance, as it believes that force is equal to learning, that coercion is equal to education, that slavery is the same thing is knowledge. Finally, we come to the last class of the oppressed, those whose opinion have been given the smallest The creatures of the world, often times deprived of their natural habitat, and then selectively bred until they met the needs of their oppressors. It has been argued by scientists of ages past, that animals have no emotions, that they are devoid of meaning, that they are not in any way worth anything. This view has been upheld by theologians and philosophers. But it has been these same people who oppressed the female part of mankind, and it has been these same people who have oppressed the younger generations of the human species. We find that cruelty has been a distinct part of prejudice, and nothing can make us feel so sure of this than how the minds of thinkers have defended the injustices of society.

www.punkerslut.com

For Life,
Punkerslut

Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has been writing essays and poetry on social issues which have caught his attention for several years. His website http://www.punkerslut.com provides a complete list of all of these writings. His life experience includes homelessness, squating in New Orleans and LA, dropping out of high school, getting expelled from college for “subversive activities,” and a myriad of other revolutionary actions.

Cincinnati is among cities in the U.S. experiencing an expansion in medical services. Along with the growing demand for services, comes a larger spectrum of careers and schools training students to work in a nursing job.

Nursing LPN Training can lead to a highly viable career path for many who are looking for a rewarding profession in a medical field. The gratifying elements that the profession entails exist mainly for people with a compassionate and serviceable approach to helping clients who are in need of medical services. While searching for a nursing job, one may find that the positions can come with many different specializations.

For example, at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, nursing units can be made up of professionals with specializations in anything from hematology to intensive care. The diversity in distinct areas of Cincinnati’s health care facilities can be beneficial to a student considering Nursing LPN Training. The variety of available paths is also advantageous for those who prefer having flexibility in their careers and mobility within their practice.

Nursing schools are expanding curriculum in order to tailor their courses to students in different specializations of nursing. One of the many attractive options available in pursuing a career in nursing is found at institutions that offer nursing degrees and also offer interesting practicum and hands-on training.

There are also many resources for students who are thinking of studying nursing or who are already enrolled in a program. Financial aid and job placement is widely available through institutions that offer nursing programs. Job placement is a sought-after incentive for students when researching a program, especially since it is usually a hallmark of stability in that career.

Some of the prominent medical centers in Cincinnati offer so many services to help such a large population of clients, that they can hire a nursing staff on a part-time or full-time basis.

Pharmacists refusing to fill birth control prescriptions written by qualified health care providers, based on personal and moral beliefs? Many women find it hard to fathom such a quandary. Could it be true that in the year 2005, some forty years after oral contraception was initially marketed, reproductive rights are yet again being challenged?

It has been seen all over the country, in companies as world renowned as Wal-Mart, which was among several pharmacies refusing women to obtain the pill in very recent years. Initially starting in 1996, when an Ohio woman was turned away by a Kmart pharmacist claiming to be following the 5th commandment, several incidents of the same nature have occurred, with similar claims of women’s use of the pill violating the employee’s individual religious beliefs. This case is still pending in federal court; however Kmart did not stop there. According to the Yurica Report, in the summer of 2002 a student in Menomonie, Wisconsin went into her local Kmart to get her prescription refilled, and was refused based upon the pharmacist’s concern that it may cause an abortion. He also denied informing her of her rights to have her prescription transferred elsewhere, which prevented the young woman from starting the medication on the first day of her cycle, increasing the chances of pregnancy. Following the first incident of this nature, numerous like cases stemming from 1996 until present have taken place, including the refusal of a rape victim to obtain emergency contraceptives to decrease her chances of pregnancy at an Eckerd Pharmacy in Denton, Texas. Such incidents have at last received the attention of the federal government, in particular Congressman Christopher Shays, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, and Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Debbie Wasserman-Schwartz.

In Washington this past April, according to www.citizen.org, Congressman Shays stated

“Make no mistake about this, the refusal to fill birth control prescriptions targets women and their choice of contraception, not men’s, “I have no doubt that if pharmacists were refusing to sell men condoms that this issue would have already been addressed legislatively. Our legislation will require the pharmacies -the businesses employing the pharmacists- to provide a woman with access to legal forms of birth control.”

This issue has raised eyebrows among women young and old, such as student Denisha Richardson who stated “I guess pharmacy companies should have the right to do what they want, but using birth control is a woman’s personal decision, no one else should have a say in that”. Despite the fact that women alike maintain their diverse opinions on the controversial issue, females on the other side of the pro-choice fence are also concerned, such as one self identified pro-life supporter who said “Contraception is contraception, not abortion.” In spite of efforts by concerned members of society, special interest organizations, and the federal government; extreme anti-choice activists affiliated with pharmacies are continuing to turn women away due to personal ethical conflicts, decisions that are supported by the Bush Administration, and their current efforts to abolish Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court’s decision that allows a woman’s legal right to have an abortion based on personal preference, passed in 1973. Also set to battle the efforts of such anti-choice activists is NARAL Pro-Choice America, the nation’s leading advocacy organization for women’s reproductive rights, and has launched a campaign to stop the unfair refusal of birth control from pharmacies across the country.

Whilst influential members of society continue to come to blows on this multifaceted issue, only the months to come hold answers for those distressed and concerned with the future reproductive rights of American women. According to self-proclaimed concerned student and Citizen Quella Gomez, “I don’t think ones personal beliefs should ever be a factor in another’s choices, which is why we have the Constitution, why we live in a democracy and why we have laws… No one ever said “Land of the free, Home of what’s right in the eyes of religion”.

To get involved in the campaign concerning birth control rights, visit
NARAL Pro-Choice: http://www.naral.org/