Give me a presidential candidate who will pledge to spend more money on cancer research than on fighting wars, they'll get my vote.
Our collective national selfishness is shameful. We'll give up a few hundred billion like it's chump change to preserve the security of a "national interest" like oil fields. But cancer researchers go begging for grants.
We have parents who'll drop $1000 or more to send their princesses to see a Hanna Montana concert. Would they teach that same future adult a lesson in selflessness by donating the same amount to cancer research?
Yesterday, a friend of a friend died of cancer. I didn't know this little boy, other than through his mother's blog. I wouldn't have know that except for a Wrox author and technical editor whose daughter is fighting the same battle.
Childhood cancer. Hospice care. There's just no excuse that we haven't beaten this beast other than apathy and selfishness.
would you give up 1 percent of your income for the world to be cancer free in 10 years? It only took us less than 10 years to go to the moon when when put minds and money to it.
If tomorrow research proved that automobile exhaust caused 1/2 of all childhood cancers, would you ride a bike or take public transportation to work? Or would you deny the data?
Of the 1.1 TRILLION DOLLARS in the US DISCRETIONARY budget in FY2008, how much would you spend fighting these most terrible diseases?
If you spent 1% less than the current $620 BILLION of that on defense and the "war on terror" you could free up an extra 6 billion to double the NIH cancer research spending!
Hillary promises to increase breast cancer research spending by $300m annually which is laudable but wrong because
1: according to the New York Times, breast cancer research is already the best funded cancer:
"Among the big cancers, breast cancer receives the most funding per new case, $2,596 — and by far the most money relative to each death, $13,452."
and 2: $300 isn't near enough anyway. It's just a randomly large number that means little to most voters other than "wow that's a lot of money" and it's clearly geared to buy votes from 1 constituency.
3. How about we give NIH the money to study and cure cancer and let them decide the best way to spend it, instead of letting the politicians pick? I'm all for ridding the world of breast cancer. But let's cure lung cancer, prostate, colon, lymphoma, brain cancer, leukemia, and Ewing's Sarcoma while we're at it too.
And Hillary blew any cred she had remaining by promising to be ready to fight Bin Laden from day 1.
Tonight, I'll pray for Cody's family. And for Miranda and her family.
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