Flashback to =what was happening a couple years ago...and some media and charity dishonesty

So what was happening two years ago at Bradley in the Athletic Department...
well...the brand new Athletic Director Dr. Michael Cross was giving his first extended interview to the local newspaper...

Just a few weeks earlier - Bradley had just hired a NEW Athletic Director after Ken Kavanagh left Bradley 7 to 8 month earlier.
As you will recall (or can be reminded by the links below) Dr. Cross was introduced in early December 2009 and never once was any hint given in advance as to who the new AD was going to be, who was considered, who was interviewed, who the other canddiates (if any) were, and what process was used to make the selection.
After BU went more than half a year without an AD, suddenly there was a press conference and Dr. Cross was introduced.


http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13897

Kirk Wessler described the hiring as
"hiring process done by a committee of one"

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/bradley/x1171011505/Wessler-A-hiring-process-doneby-a-committee-of-one


OK - here's the first major interview after Dr. Cross was hired....I will highlight only a couple comments...

"I’d love to play Villanova."

"I have friends and colleagues all over the country who might go, “We’d love to play you guys.” Some of those conversations already are happening, although I can’t say with whom. You have to think creatively."

"..the quickest way to get BU noticed nationally is success on the playing field.
The easiest way to the NCAA's is by winning the Valley.."

"You can go to the NCAA tournament in any one of our sports in one of two ways: at-large bid or win a Missouri Valley championship; which would you choose?” — I have to imagine it would unanimously be, “To be the best in the Valley.”

"That, then, gives you the opportunity to go on the national stage and compete against the best of the best. It gives you a chance to compete against some of the people who just refuse to play you, and it becomes your opportunity to take advantage of that."

"..high aspirations and won't settle for mediocre.."

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=204881840


Lastly - one well known poster on Bradleyfans summed up Dr. Cross' words in this interview thus...
"Attendance IS down. ANYONE that tries to blow smoke up your behind with this ticket sold number is doing you and BU a disservice. There is a problem and instead of burying our head in the stands SOMETHING needs to be done to fix it. As I have said time and time again...Ray Charles could see something ain't right in the river city.
Not only is attendance down but the atmosphere is fast appraoching an all time low. Like many of you I have been going to games for 20 + years and I have to think back to the final years of Albeck to recall it this dead.
That is an undeniable fact.
I may not know X's and O's as well as some but I know crowds and excitment. I LIVE for a full house like the MSU game a few years ago and for the Days of Hawk and our own Jim Les. If anyone missed those days...WOW."

"The BU "product" just isn't real good right now (and that pains me to say it) and people will use all those other excuses NOT to go.
Mr. Cross needs to see some tapes of what the Arena CAN be like and HAS been in the past. BU has great fans but MANY...WAY to many are staying home and MANY that ARE there are losing steam."

....boy -- I sure hope that fan is watching what's going on now.....




I hate to go off topic again but someone has to do it - when we hear so many lies and deceptions in the media, someone has to step forward and give the evidence of the truth.

We've all heard a ton lately in the news about the Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood.
Here's just sampling of what's in the news...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/supporters-rally-around-planned-parenthood-after-komen-decides-to-cut-breast-screening-grants/2012/02/03/gIQAhyZFmQ_story.html?tid=pm_national_pop

And in amongst all this stuff are two claims that simply cannot be supported by any facts...

First - the Komen people claim their efforts have made a positive impact on breast cancer rates and are improving overall statistics on breast cancer and survival.

Second - the Planned Parenthood people claim their efforts in offering medical care and "Pap smears" have made a positive impact on cervical cancer and are improving overall statistics on cervical cancer rates and survival.

BUT - what are the actual facts? -- I will simply present the facts and if you care to decide, then I will leave it up to you. Maybe a lot of people don't think this affects them, but these are two of the biggest cancer-related concerns that exist - obviously more so for women than men but these diseases affect everyone who is a woman or who has a woman as a mother, daughter, sister, girlfriend, wife, or acquaintance.

Here are the facts on the first point-
"American women have the highest incidence rates of breast cancer in the world"

http://themoderatevoice.com/137255/ill-never-look-at-a-pink-ribbon-the-same-way-again/

..this is undisputed and strangely there's hardly anyone who wants the reasons to be known - but I do and I will give the reasons.
BUT -- even worse...EVERYWHERE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD breast cancer rates are rising!!
So are cervical cancer rates...again - this is undisputed!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/15/breast-cervical-cancer-rising

So if breast cancer rates are rising and the rates are higher in the US than anywhere else in the world - one really has to question the premise that the efforts of the Komen folks are doing any good at all!!!
It is true that women who get mammograms do find their cancers earlier and thus they have better survival - BUT -- the VAST majority of all the IMPROVEMENT in cancer survival statistics took place between the 1960's and the 1980's.......the survival rates have continued to improve slightly since then but remember MOST of the statistical improvement in survival rates took place LONG before the Komen folks really ever got involved in all this!!!!!

It is flat out dishonest for them to take credit for something they had NOTHING to do with!

Susan Komen lived in Peoria and got breast cancer at the age of 33, she died from the disease in 1980, and the foundation that bears her name was started up in the early 1980's by Komen's sister, Nancy Goodman Brinker.
It wasn't until the late 80's and 90's that any significant nation-wide impact of the Komen Foundations effort have been felt.

BUT -- in the meantime - the single risk factor that leads to BREAST CANCER - is hardly mentioned. I'll bet many reading this blog do NOT know what it is.
If a single risk factor is as powerful as all the other preventable risk factors combined - don't you think we ought to know it LOUD and CLEAR so women can take the steps to avoid this risk factor.
That factor is hormone use by women which has plummetted since the 1980's because of factors again UNRELATED to Komen or any of their efforts -- it was DOCTOR groups who did studies and showed the links between hormones and cancer rates and who refuted the pharmacy industry and the women's advocates who have ALWAYS pushed for easier access and wider use of hormones in women (both post-menopausal and in the form of birth control pills).

ALSO -- Komen has essentially NEVER, EVER addressed this other risk factor....and as for why they don't that's a topic for another whole blog entry but they simply DO NOT tell women about the single thing that might CHOOSE which will drop their cancer risk in HALF!!

The answer here is, of course, HORMONE use - specifically estrogen hormones that are prescribed for women.
Women have their own natural estrogens up through about age 45 or 50 then they naturally lose their hormones. There are basically TWO ways they can get or take extra hormones...
-doctors can prescribe hormone supplements to women who lose their natural supply and this does happen quite a bit as many women's groups have touted the positive aspects of hormone use.
-also doctors and health clinics like Planned Parenthood can prescribe "birth control pills" which are generally powerful estrogen hormones that end up being used often by very young women - for decades at a time - so that by the time those women are in their 50's they may well have taken powerful estrogen drugs for 3/4 of their entire lives!!

Anyone want to know what all those powerful hormones might do to the female body??
Well - here's the evidence - that those hormones, especially in certain women whose genetics might predispose them to cancer - appear to accelerate the risk of breast cancer TREMENDOUSLY.

Just read for yourself...these various forms of hormone use by women may increase the risk of breast cancer (and cervical cancer as well) by as MORE THEN 600 percent!
SERIOUSLY - it might double, triple, quadruple, or even increase a woman's risk of cancer by SIX FOLD!!!!
"...a wealth of statistical data from various sources to support a fact that is known by the medical community to be true yet is rarely acknowledged: use of the pill has been strongly linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. The pill is also believed to increase the risk of cervical cancer and liver cancer.
“This stuff is not new... linking pill use to the 660 percent rise in non-invasive breast cancer since 1973."

http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2010/12/kansas-senior-arrested-and-50-years-but.html

http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/03/nat-6908/

Also - the post-menopausal use of estrogen is also highly associated with increase breast cancer rates - and in fact, VIRTUALLY all doctors have all but STOPPED recommending or prescribing hormones for post-menopausal women because of these cancer risks. So why do organizations like Komen and Planned Parenthood still push these killer hormones?? They somehow think they know better and still tell their clients and even prescribe for them these powerful hormones that cause cancer and can kill them - but it's because both organizations promote and even celebrate a free lifestyle where they want their women to do as they please and behave as they wish!!

It's almost unparallelled anywhere else - they are promoting the very drugs that keep causing the cancer that justifies their existence!! Could it be that they knowingly push the very product that keeps them in business and keeps their services on the front page?
Could they be that self-serving or is it ignorance?

Some, in fact many, wise doctors have known this all along and have NEVER followed this risky pattern of putting women on unnatural hormones for unjustifiable reasons - given the risks. And the few who used to now greatly regret having done so and have changed their opinions 180 degrees.

http://articles.philly.com/2010-10-21/news/24981656_1_rowan-chlebowski-breast-cancer-hormone-therapy

So - in conclusion - the data is clear -- breast cancer rates are INCREASING (not decreasing), and hormone use is the single greatest factor accountable for this - yet virtually nobody will tell you that, least of all the folks at Komen or Planned Parenthood, and all their push to panhandle contributions and use the money to make mammograms more available have resulted in little benefit that wasn't already fully achieved between the 60's and 80's BEFORE Komen ever came into being!
Boiled down, they are causing way more cancer that they are helping!


Then we tackle the issue involving Planned Parenthood. We already showed hormones increase cervical cancer - but Planned parenthood claims their efforts help reduce cancer concerns because they promote women's health and Pap smears.

Well, again, the facts call them LIARS!!
The HUGE drop in cervical cancer rates took place between the 1950's and 1980's when the factors were identified and Pap smears became popular. Every women who ever sees a doctor for a Pap smear, or who sees a doctor when she gets pregnant or has a baby - gets screened, and thus many cancers are prevented.
Planned Parenthood simply CANNOT claim credit here since the reduction in cervical cancer took place BEFORE they were active in this area or providing widespread Pap smears.

BUT - whatever good they might do with their Pap smears - they more than offset with their other recommendations...
They put millions of young women on hormone containing birth control pills which have been proved to INCREASE cervical cancer rates substantially.
BUT - even worse - they promote widespread, prolific, casual and promiscuous sex which happens to be .....

The #1 cause of cervical cancer!!!

EVERY SITE THAT DISCUSSES CERVICAL CANCER RISKS ADMITS THIS IS TRUE.
It is due to exposure to the Human Pappiloma Virus that is transmitted sexually.
"Having unprotected sex, especially at a young age, makes HPV infection more likely. Also, women who have many sex partners (or who have sex with men who have had many partners) have a greater chance of getting HPV."
"For cervical cancer, the most important risk factor is infection with a virus known as HPV (human papilloma virus). HPV ....cause(s) cancer of the cervix.
HPV is passed from one person to another..In fact, doctors believe that a woman must be infected by HPV before she develops cervical cancer."

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CervicalCancer/OverviewGuide/cervical-cancer-overview-what-causes

So there you have it - overwhelming evidence that both the Komen folks and the Planned Parenthood folks are doing NO good at all and are actually making things worse by promoting (and failing to help contain) all the major risk factors such as hormone use, casual prescribing of birth control hormones, encouraging prolific sex and ignoring the real causes such as the sexually transmitted viruses and other factors - even abortions, which increase cancer risks.

I have no dog in this fight - I am not biased, I do not work for nor get paid by either side of this argument, nor does anyone in my family have any of these health concerns -- so check the evidence for yourself and make wise decisions, but the facts prove that Komen & Planned Parenthood in conjunction with a gullible and sympathetic press are LYING to you.