Orac brings us a report from the front line of the anti-vaccination movement and shows how it's becoming even more hysterical. I'm very pleased to see that Time last week had a cover story about how the anti-vaccination movement is putting us all at risk.
How much do you think solving the world's worst problem would cost? Would you believe only $60 million a year? Eight hours of Iraq. That's how much it would cost to prevent the cognitive developmental diseases related to being malnourished in beta carotene and zinc to the 140 million children worldwide who lack them. Malnutrition, disease control, and access to education-- all relatively economically cheap (but sometimes politically expensive) problems that don't have quite the same cachet as worrying about carbon footprints. This is like exercise... we know how to stay healthy, we're just fatigued of hearing it.
Darwinism "serves the goals of global Jewery." And "When the Clinton White House made statements that they didn't like, what did Zionism do-- they sent him the Jewish Monica."
Because, you know, nothing is more important than bringing little Iraqi kids to Jesus. Yeah, that'll help our cause. I think any soldiers found doing this should be discharged immediately and dishonorably for failing to take their Soldier's Oath seriously.
A case from Tennessee of parents who created a proseltyzing parents group at public schools has been settled. Some of the quotes Ed Brayton collected are quite telling.
Brad DeLong brings us the greatest hits of the Republican spin machine explaining to us how McClellan was always a poor representative of the President's magnificent and eloquent leadership.
Wow. Apparently, there's a huge kerfluffle in the world of vertebrate paleontology, where a respected member of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History is accused of intellectual theft and publishing material without permission from the specimen holders-- and it looks like the professional review was stacked. It's a fascinating look at the ugly underbelly of the politics of science, the ferocious battle over grants and prestige.
Reagan's Director of the Budget brings us his tales of the Reagan White House, and how out of it Reagan really was. Cabinet members would regularly bring him a bamboozling array of facts and figures, and then point to one anecdote that would please him and point him in the direction of approving whatever it was that cabinet member wanted. The "magic asterisks" were footnotes that hid the actual costs of any operation from Reagan's eyes. (via Brad Delong)
As a parent, my feeling on the matter has always been this: if you don't want to have vaccinations for your children until a certain again, fine. But please keep them out of school, out of the grocery store, out of day care, and away from my kids. Perhaps we could have special armbands these "organic, free range" children wear, so that it would be easy to spot and avoid them. And little masks for them. Oh, and their body wastes would have be treated as biohazard material. It sounds difficult, but I'm sure that parents who really *care* about their children's safety would have no problem agreeing to those limitations, for the good of all children.
Re: vaccines
Date: 2008-06-03 06:30 pm (UTC)Just a modest proposal. ;-)