Nightbird's CAGE - Weblog

Curiouser and curiouser ...

In case you were wondering, you haven't fallen for a hoax.

As was reported both by Ms Magazine and Planned Parenthood on their websites on Sep 16, 2005, Norris E Alderson was indeed appointed by the FDA to serve as the Acting Director of the Office of Women's Health. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that a male, career veterinarian had been named as Acting Director of Women's Health to replace former Director, Susan Wood, who had resigned because of the way the FDA was handling an issue regarding emergency birth control.

Out of curiosity (or complete disbelief?) I googled the keywords "Norris E Alderson women's health" and found links to two FDA web pages, one entitled "About the office of Women's Health" and the other, "Office of Women's Health - Norris E Alderson."

Here is where things started to get a little strange. When I clicked the link "About the Office of Women's Health" I connected to the page only to find a woman, Theresa A. Toigo, listed as the Acting Director. As I was wondering how it could be that both Ms Magazine and Planned Parenthood would have come up with the name of the male veterinarian, Norris E Alderson, and both have it wrong, I remembered that I used his name in my initial keyword search which produced the FDA website listings in the Google search results.

With my curiosity piqued I researched a bit further; I went back to the search results page and clicked the link for the cached pages. And there they were ... Google snapshots from September 16th, 2005 of two FDA web pages each naming Norris E Alderson as the Acting Director of the Office of Women's Health. One of the pages included a bio about Norris E Alderson citing his career background with the FDA in the Center for Veterinary Medicine.

This story goes on. Just when I'm thinking about how odd it is that the FDA would announce an appointment and then unappoint Alderson apparently in the same day, things get even more curious. Researching yet again , this time to try learn the reason behind the changes on the web site I came across an article on the Salon.com website that reported the appointment of Norris E Alderson as Acting Director, which was then followed by an update regarding the change of appointees. A link to a "cached version" of the earlier page was provided within the Update paragraph, however, when the link was clicked it redirected to a different page on the FDA website.

Why did FDA suddenly ditch Norris E Alderson for Theresa A. Toigo? And why is someone going to such trouble to hide the original appointment announced on the FDA website from the viewing public? I would -really- like to see this matter pursued by someone ... anyone, who can get some answers.

Just one last note of interest ... the Department of Health and Human Services also has an Office of Women's Health. Their website includes a section, Membership of the HHS Coordinating Committee on Women's Health. Representative members are listed under their various agency headings, among which is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The contact information provided for the FDA member listing is as follows:

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Dr. Norris Alderson
Acting Director, Office of Women's Health
Associate Commissioner for Science
Food and Drug Administration
Parklawn Building, Room 14C06
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
301-827-3340 phone
301-827-3042 fax
E-mail: norris.alderson@fda.hhs.gov

In case the information suddenly vanishes from the DHHS Office of Women's Health website too, I have their web page captured in a .pdf file along with the Google Sep 16, 2005 cached versions of the earlier FDA web pages that have mysteriously disappeared.

If anyone has an explanation for what is going on and why all the mystery, please let me know. I am hoping a reporter or someone will be interested enough to investigate this story further. If so, I will provide the .pdf files upon request.

Ribbon Magnets

Please can someone explain to me how driving around with these made in china ribbon magnets supports the troops? If someone really wants to support the troops they can send them care packages filled with needed items; or better yet ... contact the congress critters and tell them to BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!

Ok, maybe the language is a little potty-mouthed, but this drawing by Natalie Dee pretty much sums up my sentiments on the topic.

I Don't Get It!

Today I read a news article about a 61 yr old man's arrest in a New York mall. The reason? He refused a demand by mall security guards to remove his t-shirt or leave the premises. He had the t-shirt made at one of the mall businesses. What was so offensive about the shirt? It bore the slogans: "Peace on Earth" and "Give Peace a Chance."

Huh? Since when did beating the drums for war become a good thing and advocating for peace, bad?

This blue ribbon used to be part of a peace and solidarity campaign promoted on ourvoices.org but the website no longer exists.

UPDATE: It seems the mall now wants to drop the charges. As it turns out, the man they arrested is a lawyer. Duh!! The arrest prompted protestors to march through the mall demanding the charges against the man be dropped.

Maybe there is still hope for this world yet ...