Ralph Ginzburg, American author, editor, publisher, photojournalist and outspoken advocate of free speech, has died after battling multiple myeloma. According to the Washington Post, among his supporters were playwright Arthur Miller, journalist I.F. Stone and attorney Melvin Belli.

While Ginzburg earned a degree in accounting, it was journalism that he pursued as a career, working for Esquire magazine, NBC, Reader's Digest, Collier's, LOOK -- and was known for his unorthodox methods of using disguises including that of a clergyman to gain entrance to news events. Ginzburg's first publication was An Unhurried View of Erotica, which explored the undercurrent of pornography in English literature. He went on to publish Eros, a periodical containing articles and photo-essays on love and sex, and later still The Housewife's Handbook on Selective Promiscuity. Ginzburg, self-described as a brandied fruitcake of a publisher, was convicted in 1963 for violating federal obscenity laws for promotional activities in publishing books and magazines on erotica and art.

In 1962, Ginzburg was granted an exclusive interview with 17-year-old Bobby Fischer, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master published by Harpers. According to all accounts, the interview of the reclusive chess genius is still a popular read today. Ginzburg was 76.

The beauty of blogs and small newspapers. If you want to read interesting reporting, take the road less traveled where writers are allowed to follow the compass to places large corporate media does not seem to venture.

In Daily News Central's FDA's Ok of Cervical Cancer Vaccine May Spawn Multibillion Dollar Market is an excellent piece explaining all the major participants and motives behind the recently approved cervical cancer vaccine. While no one expects that altruism is ever at play when it comes to business, understanding the reasoning behind the actions at least gives all the rest of us a chance to understand the brouhaha this particular cancer vaccine has, and will continue, to create.

While GlaxoSmithKline has a cervical cancer vaccine they hope will be approved and available next year, Merck is first out of the gate with the FDA approval of Gardasil. The company needs this to be a success after taking a financial hit a few years ago over its drug Vioxx, a pain pill that was widely-prescribed and later withdrawn from the market over safety concerns.

In the last year, Merck has quietly spent an estimated $1 million dollars launching the Tell Someone campaign and was connected to the Make the Connection campaign, both designed to raise a general public awareness and hopefully to ease the concerns of the evangelical Christian opposition they anticipated over a cancer vaccine so closely linked to sexual activity and teenage girls. The cancer vaccine works for girls who are virgins, who are not yet sexually active. You can see the potential for religious opposition considering their only stand on prevention in general when it comes to sex is to instruct teens not to have sex.

On June 29, immunization experts at the CDC will hold a meeting to decide if the new cervical cancer vaccine should be added to a list of mandatory vaccines administered to the youth in this country. Congress will have a vote on adding the cancer vaccine to immunization programs, and the health officials in each state will decide if the new vaccine will be required. The battle over a sexually-transmitted cancer and cancer prevention for virgins has just begun.

It is official. The first cervical cancer vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, FDA. Merck's Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine is the first of several cancer vaccines expected to win approval this year. Gardasil, which targets human papillomavirus, HPV, will be given in three doses over six months. HPV is known to be responsible for the majority of cervical cancer cases.

The cervical cancer vaccine is not without its warnings though. In an earlier post, cervical cancer vaccine protects and promotes cancer, we noted a caution that research has shown the vaccine can actually raise the risk of cervical cancer if the woman is already infected with HPV at the time she receives the cervical cancer vaccine. So, it is not for every woman.

We also noted in an earlier post, cancer vaccine facing Christian Right opposition, there is strong objection to the cervical cancer vaccine based on religious convictions regarding sex and teenage girls. According to experts, girls in their early teens are the most likely to benefit from the cervical cancer vaccine. 

Don't say I didn't warn you ahead of time we were going to hit this pothole on the cervical cancer vaccine road.  To briefly recap, last month I noticed Merck was running a television PSA, Tell Someone, in an attempt raise awareness about the virus that can lead to cervical cancer. Not once did it mention anything about the cervical cancer vaccine Merck was hoping to win FDA approval for -- and the same cervical cancer vaccine that will be available as early as next month. Let's remember this vaccine works best if administered to girls before they become sexually active. I mused that this was an intentional preemptive move on the part of Merck to the inevitable resistance from the Christian-right and other religious groups over a vaccine associated with sexual activity.

I predicted it was going to be a controversial issue and debate where sexual activity of teenage girls became the focal point and not the potentially life-saving cancer prevention vaccine. I was betting that the awareness-raising ad campaign from the drug company in the virus link to cervical cancer was an attempt to minimize the debate with an educational approach.

Sure enough, today I ran across a Reuters news article reporting just such an admission on the part of the drug company and discussion we will call the big bump in the road. Merck admits that its educational PSA was an effort to win over the Christian Right to the benefits of a vaccine to prevent cancer. Hang on to your seat -- we are coming up to the pothole.  Merck has revealed its plans to push for the vaccine as mandatory to school admission.

This is where the opposition from the Christian-right becomes more of an abyss than a pothole. The Christian Right feels the cervical cancer vaccine will lead to promiscuity and a false sense of security. Evangelical Christian groups, such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, believe that it should be left up to parents to decide if their daughters are protected against cervical cancer by way of a vaccine. It's all about sex. It's all about the religious philosophies concerning sexual activity and eventually -- and sadly -- little to do with saving lives or preventing cancer.