The public-health establishment has unanimously opposed a travel and visa moratorium from Ebola-plagued West African countries to protect the U.S. population. To evaluate whether this opposition rests on purely scientific grounds, it helps to understand the political character of the public-health field. For the last several decades, the profession has been awash in social-justice ideology. Many of its members view racism, sexism, and economic inequality, rather than individual behavior, as the primary drivers of differential health outcomes in the U.S. According to mainstream public-health thinking, publicizing the behavioral choices behind bad health—promiscuous sex, drug use, overeating, or lack of exercise—blames the victim.That's why, instead of fooling around with pump handles, John Snow should have just had cholera sufferers put in the stocks for spreading miasma.
...The public-health profession has a clear political orientation, so it’s quite possible that its opposition to a visa and travel moratorium is influenced as much by belief in America’s responsibility for the postcolonial oppression of Africa, and suspicion of American border enforcement, as it is by a commitment to public-health principles of containment and control.The philosophy behind this is that anyone who wants to help people is some sort of freak and therefore can't be trusted despite their training and accomplishments in the relevant field, and we should instead listen to political hacks like Heather Mac Donald.
When seen from a distance of years, this alarmism will disgust and embarrass our descendants. But the spreaders themselves are only looking as far ahead as Election Day.
who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?
ReplyDeleteIt's like they took that old Far Side cartoon about how veterinarians learn to treat horses ("Diagnosis: Sore Throat. Treatment: Shoot. Diagnosis: Ornery. Treatment: Shoot.") and applied it to human beings. In most cases they'd substitute "Shame" for "Shoot," but not always: http://www.vocativ.com/usa/us-politics/todd-kincannon-twitter-ebola/
ReplyDeleteAccording to mainstream public-health thinking, publicizing the behavioral choices behind bad health—promiscuous sex, drug use, overeating, or lack of exercise—blames the victim.
ReplyDeleteReally, now? Even if this were true, since when have conservatives had an issue with victim-blaming? Also, good job including promiscuous sex in there as a cause of bad health.
Honestly, I'm getting mixed messages from this particular sentence, and I wouldn't be surprised if the intended audience of this screed came away a little confused. "But promiscuous sex is bad! And people who do it should feel bad! And get sick and pregnant and die in a gutter along with their heathen spawn!"
Yeah it's funny how all of the things they support like keeping decent health care out of reach of the poor, like keeping health (and sex) education out of school classrooms, like letting every snake oil salesman with a new recipe for patent medicine hawk their wares in the public sphere free from oversight, like letting stock yards plump up their livestock with runaway antibiotics, aren't causing any negative health effects, no... it's lack of character that gets people sick.
ReplyDeleteI got out of the boat because it seemed as if there MUST be more to the article. So I can save you all some time: there isn't.
ReplyDeleteThe logical sequence of the article is:
(1) Some public health advocates are sometimes concerned with inequality.
(2) Therefore, the field as a whole ignores science in support of social justice.
(3) Therefore, the lack of a travel ban is political.
Notably absent: any actual estimate of the intended effects of a travel ban, or of the costs of and unintended effects of the ban. MacDonald would need to make several substantial revisions to get this UP to the standard of a typical Jonah blog post.
Heather Mac Donald is a contributing editor of City Journal and the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
ReplyDeleteWell, there you go.
~
I don't know that the passage of time makes the populace realize what fools and assholes were trying to run things in the past--they still have the Lord Jeffrey Amherst Inn in Amherst, MA. I'm sure Heather MacDonald thinks that the Indians died of smallpox because of bad smallpoxxing habits or something but the rest of us have known for a long time they were poisoned deliberately--and yet...?
ReplyDeleteTo evaluate whether this opposition rests on purely scientific grounds, it helps to understand the political character of the public-health
ReplyDeletefield.No, actually, it helps to understand the scientific grounds. So shut your goddamned willfully ignorant piehole.
Many of its members view racism, sexism, and economic inequality, rather than individual behavior, as the primary drivers of differential health outcomes in the U.S.This just in: profession dependent on statistics and aggregate behavior focuses on statistics and aggregate behavior.
Also, I have several past Surgeons General with anti-smoking campaigns who would like a word. And by the way, the current First Lady of the United States has promoted making healthier invididual behavioral choices, and your crew have done nothing but give her shit for it. So shut your goddamned willfully ignorant piehole.
The public-health profession has a clear political orientationIf that's true, it's only because shit-smeared idiot psychopaths like you have forced them to pick the political side that lives in fucking reality. So shut your goddamned willfully ignorant piehole.
so it’s quite possibleNo, it really isn't. In related scientific insights, you know that hole? The one you use for eating pie? Shut it.
The public-health profession has a clear political orientation
ReplyDeleteYes, I suppose people who think governments can and should be involved in societal health outcomes for the good of all might not tend to be your me-first Galtian government-shouldn't-do-anything-but-punish-robbers-terrorists-and-sluts types.
There is a tragic, tragic story today over at Kos about an incredible 15 year old black teenager who was shot to death yesterday in New Orleans, no suspects. When he was ten he was part of an independent, revolutionary, school movement to bring gardens and better/healthier food to the public school system in New Orleans. The interviews and quotes from him as a ten year old are just heartbreaking in their beauty and humanity. I'm reminded of this because of the line in your post "keeping decent health care out of the reach of the poor"--even at 10 he correctly put his finger on the link between hunger/poor nutrition and problems in school leading to the school to prison or street pipeline.
ReplyDeleteProbably doesn't have enough interns or the mental ability to bleg.
ReplyDeleteThey really, really, really want to stop blackity-black-black people from immigrating here.
ReplyDeleteThe fellow for policy analysis chair of the institute of FFFFFFAARRRRRRRT, can I have wingnut welfare now plz?
ReplyDeleteComing up next! Tom Sowell on why ebola is the blackity black black people's fault.
Indeed, if there's anything public health folks never mention, it's nutrition, exercise, drug use, and safe sex. Thank heavens for conservatives and their support for educating people on healthy lifestyles!
ReplyDeleteAnd if you note the reason that he's dead despite all those healthy individual lifestyle choices, and correctly label it as a public health issue, you'll never be Surgeon General.
ReplyDeleteCrazy person writes column.
ReplyDelete“Does anyone doubt that former Alabama Gov. George Wallace was a
racist, after he banned blacks from attending the state’s university in
the 1960s? So too can anyone refute that Obama’s not even temporarily
banning West Africans from entering the United States is also as least
de facto racism, as this high risk caper puts whites and others at risk
at the expense of not even temporarily “inconveniencing” his fellow
Africans. Wallace and Obama are both despicable and both to be condemned to the trash heap of history for their actions.
So it was in this context that last Tuesday I decided to file another
lawsuit against Obama, joining Friedan and other dishonest health
officials as defendants. The case, which can be viewed at
FreedomWatchUSA.org, is unique, as it wraps into one complaint not just
my legal effort to temporarily stop travel from West Africa until we
find a cure for Ebola, but also address Obama’s “devil could care less”
attitude about Muslim terrorists spreading the disease.
Based on alleged violations of the anti-terrorism as well as civil
rights laws – I rightly accuse Obama of reverse discrimination – the
case not only rings true, it is fashioned to address the eligibility
issue. For if Obama is not eligible to be president, as he is not a
natural born citizen, then he has no authority to allow entry of West
Africans into the country. My complaint is thus another vehicle to have
this lingering issue finally adjudicated, as other attempts have failed
due to the cowardly judges who passed on this.
I urge you all to read the complaint thoroughly and to also contact
your congressman and senators to finally come out of hiding and stand up
to Obama. We at Freedom Watch are doing our part to address this
spreading and potentially catastrophic Ebola epidemic in the courts, but
all avenues of redress must be pursued.”
Crazy person files crazy lawsuit- view crazy complaint here:
http://www.freedomwatchusa.org/pdf/141014-EbolaComplaint13.pdf
The other philosophy behind this is that because Ebola is generally not very contagious, public health officials believe travel bans etc are a pointless use of resources. And if nothing else, this last decade plus has taught us that conservatives love throwing money at non-solutions to miniscule risks.
ReplyDeleteI'm sensing a little bit of projection here.
ReplyDeleteThe Right has long believed that some people deserve to prosper while others deserve to suffer and die, based on their worthiness as people. Reagan's ignoring the AIDS epidemic is an example of this.
Project that kind of thinking onto the Obama administration, and what do we get? This: Obama thinks America should be punished for its poor treatment of minorities by some kind of horrible plague. The fact that the punishment is coming from Africa is even better, according to the views of Fictional Obama.
This Fictional Obama is a very bad man...
Many of its members view racism, sexism, and economic inequality, rather than individual behavior, as the primary drivers of differential health outcomes in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Dick Cheney still haunts the planet is the best evidence that this is 100% true.
If Romney were president he'd be selling every man, woman, and child not living in gated communitiesFull stop.
ReplyDeleteIf Romney were president he'd be selling every man, woman, and child not living in gated communities hazmat suits.
ReplyDeleteWait--you aren't adressing his point that the complaint "rings true." If so: case closed. Book 'em, Dano.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone ever had a more appropriate name?
ReplyDeleteOh my God, I just realized that I once owned a book by this specimen. There was this ridiculous book called The Burden of Bad Ideas, and back in high school I actually had a copy for some reason. Got rid of it ASAP, which is kind of a shame as it was this last great memento of 90's wingnuttery. From what I remember, in each chapter she'd find someone acting silly, tie that back into a bugaboo of the era (safe sex or the National Endowment for the Arts or environmentalism), blamed it on pointy-headed intellectuals and explained very calmly how it meant we were all fucked. The one chapter I distinctly remember involved some school where they did a study on street art, and OMG THEY'RE TEACHING GRAFFITI AND NOT IMPORTANT THINGS! HOLY SHIT, THESE PROFESSORS ARE DESTROYING OUR CHILDREN! RED ALERT! RED ALERT! That kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteIf Romney were president he'd be selling every man, woman, and child not living in gated community hazmat suits.
ReplyDeleteThis is also incredibly dishonest:
ReplyDeleteMacDonald: During the height of the AIDS epidemic, the public-health profession abjured any focus on abstinence as a means of stopping the spread of the disease. This silence was contrary to decades of public-health response to venereal disease, which stressed individual responsibility, as well as contact tracing, to prevent further infections.
Public health officials, from the very beginning of the AIDS crisis to the present day, have always stressed abstinence, sexual monogomy, and the use of condoms as the way to control the spread of the disease. Of course they didn't focus on abstinence alone, because that would have led to many more cases and deaths, and been insanely irresponsible. But there was no silence about abstinence at all. Jesus, there is simply nothing these right-wing assholes won't lie about.
I mean, how shamelessly high would "ban all flights from Africa" poll pre-Ebola?
ReplyDeleteHey, you left out the best part. Perhaps realizing that her non-wingnut readers might pull away from that whole "the CDC is lying because of liberal guilt" argument, she decided to say something even worse to distract from it. Right in the middle of nowhere, she drops this gem:
ReplyDeleteThe American Journal of Public Health recently published a study coauthored by Columbia University professor and longtime police critic Jeffrey Fagan arguing that young black men who have been stopped and questioned by the New York Police Department suffer from stress and anxiety. The more times an individual gets stopped, Fagan claims, the more stress he may feel. The study did not consider whether individuals who have been stopped numerous times by the police may be anxious because they are gang members operating in a world where retaliatory shootings are common.
If you're a young black man who's been stopped multiple times by white police officers, it's obviously because you're a gangbanger. Otherwise, the cops wouldn't have stopped you. These fucking people, I swear.
The Rude Pundit on ebola (and David Brooks, but it applies to all the wingnut shriekers):
ReplyDelete"Second, you’ve got a large group of people who are bone-deep suspicious of globalization, what it does to their jobs and their communities," Brooks tells us. "Third, you’ve got the culture of instant news. It’s a weird phenomenon of the media age that, except in extreme circumstances, it is a lot scarier to follow an event on TV than it is to actually be there covering it. When you’re watching on TV, you only see the death and mayhem." Okay, now you can let it spray.
Who the fuck made the nation this way? Who the fuck spent the better part of the last few decades in a concerted effort to divide us so we could be conquered? Who the fuck spread mistrust of science like it was a badge of honor to be stupid? Who the fuck exploited globalization to the extent that our factories moved across the border and overseas? Who the fuck invented the media that exists only to scare people into isolation and suspicion? Yeah, fuckin' David Brooks and all the fuckin' people who are supposedly on his side of the political street.
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2014/10/david-brooks-ebola-crisis-fear-is.html
~
SO apparently they're still shopping the "OBOLA WANTS US ALL TO DIE TO SERVE HIS BLACK BROTHERS" bullshit when both ebola cases are improving and there's no sign of any new infections anywhere in the US.
ReplyDeleteGood, good work guys, staying on top of the news the way you do. Asssharts.
"This is your brain."
ReplyDelete[holds up egg]
"This is your brain on being victimized by the patriarchy and late capitalism."
[cracks egg]
"EAT THE RICH."
If Mittens were Presznit (*gag*) we'd have napalmed West Africa by now.
ReplyDeleteYou wanna know what cures Ebola? It's a proprietary blend of Depleted Uranium mixed in a solution of spent Fracking Liquids and Coal Ash. Can I interest you in some Eli Lilly stock options?
ReplyDeleteDuring the height of the AIDS epidemic, the public-health profession
ReplyDeleteabjured any focus on abstinence as a means of stopping the spread of the
disease.And during the height of the AIDS epidemic, everyone in Reagan administration other than C. Everett Koop (member of the public health profession) abjured any focus on anything as a means of stopping the spread of the disease, because fags. So, Heather? Pie.
We at Freedom Watch are doing our part to address this spreading and potentially catastrophic Ebola epidemic in the courts
ReplyDeleteTHERE'S EBOLA IN THE COURTS?! RUN FOR YOUR FUCKING LIVES JUDGES AND LAWYE....Wait. Maybe you should hang out for awhile. Talk. Sneeze. Hug it out.
Remember, Obama is an endlessly mutable quantum superposition of ruthless bloodthirsty dictator and incompetent affirmative action hire. If we aren't all dying horribly in pools of blood and feces right now, it's because Obama can't even do white genocide right.
ReplyDeleteThe comments are pretty predictable as well. The running theme is "Studying why certain populations have poor health is a waste of time."
ReplyDeleteTo drop the snark for a second, I think a lot of the problem here is how conservatives interpret the term "social justice." Thanks to any number of piss-ignorant pundits, a lot of people read social justice as "blame whitey" and immediately get defensive. It's another case of people conflating responsibility and blame, which is why we can't have a civil conversation about anything relating to race.
But it's not as though this concept is really complicated. Contrary to what idiots like Mac Donald suggest, population and cohort studies are not some recent liberal fad. We know that populations that grow up in certain environments experience health problems not seen among populations in other environments. And as controversial and liberal as it may seem, we've noticed that those populations tend to be minorities. So what, we're not supposed to point that out? Or are we supposed to do what Mac Donald seems to be suggesting - ignore environment entirely and assume that all health problems are related to either genetics or lifestyle? I suppose there is something perversely comforting about that assumption - after all, the former isn't something the government is expected to fix and the latter is something we can use to get a jolt of self-righteousness when we wag our fingers at those people.
last Tuesday I decided to file another lawsuit against Obama
ReplyDeleteWhich will inevitably get dismissed like every other bullshit lawsuit you've brought against Obama. But at least it keeps you from stealing hubcaps, I suppose.
So what, we're not supposed to point that out?Nope.
ReplyDeleteOr are we supposed to do what Mac Donald seems to be suggesting - ignore environment entirely and assume that all health problems are related to either genetics involved in skin color or lifestyle?Yup.
Comparing AIDS to Ebola might be apropos, but not for the reasons Mac Donald thinks. The first decade after HIV was identified was a period of massive ignorance. No matter what health experts said about transmission, people were convinced that HIV was horribly virulent and could be readily spread. As a result, there were very few people willing to treat people with HIV/AIDS. Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteHeather Mac Donald re-works an old favorite:
ReplyDelete"I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five that were known to the President as being members of the Straw Liberal Establishment and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the public-health profession."
You should all read the complaint. It's chock full of crazy. I would have copy/pasted parts of it but pdf.
ReplyDeleteLet's see how long it takes me to find some total bullshit.
ReplyDeleteAccording to mainstream public-health thinking, publicizing the
behavioral choices behind bad health—promiscuous sex, drug use,
overeating, or lack of exercise—blames the victim.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Communities Program, for example, focuses on “unfair health differences closely linked with social, economic or environmental disadvantages that adversely affect
groups of people.”
Let's see what the CDC's program brags about doing.
Prekindergarten students in Eastern Highlands, Connecticut, are provided with healthy snacks every day.
Faith-based organizations in the African American community of Hillsborough County, Florida, worked together to increase breastfeeding by developing private rooms for nursing or pumping in addition to initiating a wellness policy with breastfeeding education and congregational support.
Approximately 47,000 students in Portland, Oregon, are required to engage in 60 minutes of daily physical activity and have unlimited access to fruits and vegetables during lunch.
Granted, those achievements don't include, say, "Placed signs in 1,000 California elementary schools reading IF YOU EAT THAT TWINKIE YOU'RE GOING TO END UP FAT AND POOR LIKE YOUR USELESS MOTHER" but maybe that approach didn't do well in the random tests.
"Studying why certain populations have poor health is a waste of time."
ReplyDeleteI am SHOCKED these people aren't all in public health.
So it’s quite possible that its opposition to a visa and travel moratorium is influenced as much by belief in America’s responsibility for the postcolonial oppression of Africa, and suspicion of American border enforcement, as it is by a commitment to public-health principles of containment and control.
ReplyDeleteNo it's not. It's not remotely, even a little, possible. It's wrong on the premise and on the rationale contained in the wrong premise. It's a deep dive of illogical stupidity, contained in a fallacy that sinks to the bottom of an intellectual abyss. We are way past the tipping point with conservative intellectuals. I mean, part of me really wants to be challenged in my assumptions about everything from Kenyesian economics to crime stats. But this is the best they can do. Dishonestly stupid mouth thoughts about post-colonial white guilt clouding the minds of public health professionals about a pandemic.
Shorter Heather: "Unless we isolate West Africa to die on its own, we've betrayed Western Civilization."
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, nine million people last year caught TB, but the wingnuts are quiet about that because nobody's sneaking into the US to kill us all with it. Derp.
Some of them are pretty fucking blunt about it, too. A couple people state outright that the only thing (repeating for emphasis: only thing) public health officials should do is track active disease outbreaks. So we've found a cluster of people who are all dying from cancer at 40, and we think this can give us insight into the environmental causes of cancer and why some people die so much more quickly than others? Tough shit, not our department.
ReplyDeleteIf we use their gun rights logic, more people should get Ebola to prevent Ebola.
ReplyDeleteI would like to fill this comment's piehole. With pie, you pervs.
ReplyDeleteLarge portions or regular servings of the rich are NOT part of a healthy diet.
ReplyDeleteThe fat mostly drips off. That's the beauty of grilling.
ReplyDeleteThanks to any number of piss-ignorant pundits, a lot of people read social justice as "blame whitey" and immediately get defensive.
ReplyDelete"Social justice warrior" is a term whose existence - like "politically correct" - I was unaware of and didn't know it was supposed to be used non-ironically by people like myself until I heard it come out of the sneering mouth of some rightwing nut ball.
Now "economic justice warrior", that's a handle I can get behind.
If we use what members of Congress are saying, the only thing that stops a bad guy with Ebola is a good guy with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said before, "Social Justice Warrior" (in caps, like The Left) is something different - a term Men's Rights assholes use to refer to them uppity feminists trying to take away their video games. Among your more straight-up wingnuts, "social justice" alone is enough to trigger that lizard brain response.
ReplyDeleteI thought you made it up, and it was a good imitation, but a little over the top.
ReplyDeleteThe Great Conservative Ebola Panic Stampede of 2014 seems to have peaked a little early. I'm sure they wanted it at full gallop on the day before the election, but reality has reared its ugly head and, in the US at least, containment is working. People are learning more about the disease. Among normal people, mindless fear has abated.
ReplyDeleteWhatever their hopes, a few harumph-pieces by leading right-wing *thinkers* probably won't change that.
Do you think he would be unwilling to find suckers in gated communities? Lots of rich customers there.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it's all too real.
ReplyDeleteTwo words: botulinum toxin.
ReplyDelete"The American Journal of Public Health recently published a study
ReplyDeletecoauthored by Columbia University professor and longtime police critic
Jeffrey Fagan arguing that young black men who have been stopped and
questioned by the New York Police Department suffer from stress and
anxiety. The more times an individual gets stopped, Fagan claims, the
more stress he may feel. The study did not consider whether individuals
who have been stopped numerous times by the police may be anxious
because they are gang members operating in a world where retaliatory
shootings are common. Nor did it compare the stress of stop subjects
with the stress once experienced by law-abiding residents of high-crime
neighborhoods before the NYPD brought violent crime down 80 percent."
Good lord, does that last sentence imply that anyone stopped by cops was guilty or what?
Portion size is key. There really aren't all that many of the 1%. Once the weight of bones and viscera are discarded, when we share, at the big revolution picnic, there will only be a few bites of the rich per attendee. They would be appetizers not entrees.
ReplyDeleteHow about the part on AIDS
ReplyDeleteMac Donald asserts the public health communtiy reacted to AIDS by eschewing thousands of years of epidemiology and urging abstinence. she fails to note the alternative strategy worked. And, since abstinence education has been shown by study after study to fail to educate, the public health community's insistence on condoms may have made her fear for people's souls, but it saved their lives. imagine, public health crusaders doing something effective, rather than just presenting Heather's morality as policy.
Look--these are the same people as the guy who apparently wrote to Dear Prudence today to complain that, living as he does in a nice neighborhood of famous people and one percenters, lots of people from outside the neighbhoord and their "poor" kids come and trick or treat at Halloween and he doesn't want to pay extra for those kids and their candy dreams and caviar wishes. So when they hear the words social justice or environmental justice they don't think "wow! its awful that those people had their moutains cut down and their water poisoned and need help" They think "oh shit they are coming for my mallomars."
ReplyDeleteThey wouldn't stop you if you weren't guilty, after all. Right?
ReplyDeleteBasically they really hate the word justice, so whether its social, economic, environmental, or restorative their agin' it once you add the word "justice."
ReplyDeleteThe study did not consider whether individuals who have been stopped numerous times by the police may be anxious because they are gang members operating in a world where retaliatory shootings are common.
ReplyDeleteWell, it did consider "their perceptions of police fairness," and one would think people stopped when they were doing shit probably had slightly different perceptions than those who were just stopped for no good reason. Also, the conclusion was not for the police to stop, but to stop being such aggressive assholes. I may be paraphrasing a little.
"Eventually you run out of other people's bodies."
ReplyDeleteCannibal Zombie Margaret Thatcher
The study did not consider whether individuals who have been stopped numerous times by the police may be anxious because they are gang members operating in a world where retaliatory shootings are common.
ReplyDeleteOr how about "they are dark-skinned citizens operating in a world where unprovoked police shootings are common" as long as we're speculating here, Heather?
Heather's busy JAQing off.
ReplyDeleteThe "Social X-Rays" aren't even worth the calories expended to consume them.
ReplyDeleteThis is basically Brooks admitting, "My profession is dishonest; we don't convey an accurate picture of events, preferring instead to whip morons into a frenzy by showing only the death and mayhem bits of reality."
ReplyDeleteIt is fun that aggregate data can be ignored when it pertains to black people feeling stress and is scientific, but is of paramount importance when it pertains to black people being criminals and is imaginary.
ReplyDeleteObviously you are wrong. Poor black female Dick Cheney wouldn't be dead of heart disease today because of unequal treatment by our institutions -- she'd be dead because she didn't bootstrap herself into becoming a congressperson, secretary of defense, CEO of a large and secretive private army, and friend of a president's son, from which position she could declare herself Vice President and seize victory in an election where her ticket didn't win 50% of the vote. It has nothing to do with color, gender, or money. It's about gumption.
ReplyDeleteAs a white dude in a midwestern city, cops are angles to me, but after reading Matt Tiabbi's latest book, I understand a lot of stuff I see on the side of the road
ReplyDeleteIt frustrates me that the panicked and panic-mongers don't learn, after decade spent sounding the apocalypse alarm, to sound it at least less often. You'd think being wrong so often would result in some hesitancy. But I know a woman who told me in 2008, "Well, I just voted in my last election, because Obama's going to outlaw democracy -- you'll see. He's never leaving the White House." Let's say he leaves in 2017 -- what are the odds she'll admit she at least overstated her case? Very close to zero.
ReplyDeletepublicizing the behavioral choices behind bad health—promiscuous sex, drug use, overeating, or lack of exercise—blames the victim.
ReplyDeleteWell which is it, Heather -- are we done in by promiscuous sex or lack of exercise? It can't be both.
When seen from a distance of years, this alarmism will disgust and
ReplyDeleteembarrass our descendants. But the spreaders themselves are only looking
as far ahead as Election Day.
Goody. Because the latest poll I saw showed USAsians could give a back-flipping fuck about Ebola. The fact that the total domestic death count remains at 1 is a major hurdle for the shart artists. The fact that the only victim was one of those people is another problem.
And I'm not sure that LOOK OUT FOR THE AFRICAN DEATH COOTIES! is the best way to get easily frightened xenophobes to leave their homes and congregate in a crowded public area, e.g. polling places.
While other people (including the inhabitant of the White House)
ReplyDeleteremained convinced that only gay men could catch it, so har har, let 'em
die!
There were people who refused to treat any gay person, period. I don't know how much of that was actual fear of catching the disease and how much of it was people being asshole. I have met otherwise intelligent people who think cancer is contagious.
Yeah, there were never any plagues while the Church was in charge.
ReplyDeleteFunny bit of sexism on my part: I assumed it was a woman writing that note to Dear Prudence, and I've noticed other folks on FB assuming the same.
ReplyDeleteMuslims and Ebola.
ReplyDeleteDamn, there's gotta be an "Ebola Gay" joke in here somewhere...
Mad con disease
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy hearing The Rude Pundit when he's on the Stephanie Miller show, but for some reason, I never got around to looking for his writing online.
I don't think I saw the original letter so I don't know whether its a man or a woman. I assumed it was a man for some reason. I think guys are very often at home for Halloween and so although it takes place in and around the home its not a gendered holiday in the same way that some others are. Also I think that it can make some people (male and female) very antsy in general because your home/space/safe place is invaded by other people. So I think that fear of other people could rise to the level of writing to an advice columnist for a guy when other things might not.
ReplyDeleteThere were but the Church helped fight them by encouraging good Christians to burn Jewish people.
ReplyDeleteWhen I checked it, I was reminded of Amity Shlaes.
ReplyDeleteFrickin' Yale.
~
The study didn't consider it because it's not relevant to the data. Jeez, it's called a "data point," not an "anecdote point."
ReplyDelete"We at ArbeitMachtFreiWacht"
ReplyDeleteFixed
"The Public Health Service is not there to prevent Ebola, the Public Health Service is there to preserve Ebola" Zombie Richard J. Daley
ReplyDeleteAs i recall from my youth, discussing the Enola Gay was one way to get right wing support. So, combining Ebola with gay may win over some of the older conservatives who are still dying to stick it to the Japs
ReplyDeleteAND????
ReplyDeleteAND???
Muslims never took over most of Orthodox and Catholic territory? Or, is Spain not Catholic? Sicily? Southern Italy?
I'm not saying that members of the 1% never write advice columnists, but that sounds like the sort of sad shit some dirt-poor fuck would write.
ReplyDeleteIf he were a rich man (do be do be do) his chief concern would be grubby poor kids coming into his nice, clean, rich, neighborhood, begging for candy. Turning off the lights on the front of the house isn't an option. By damn it, he would want to answer the door on Halloween, but only to the rich kids not to any urchins!
There's also this really weird form of sucking up to rich people in which the sucker expresses opinions he believes the suckee holds ("Ugg, I just hate the fact that an entire dollar of my money goes to candy for the urchins, don't you?") but that doesn't fit here.
Well if they hadn't been moochers and accepted those blankets...
ReplyDeleteTo evaluate whether this opposition rests on purely scientific grounds,
ReplyDeleteit helps to understand the political character of the public-health
field.
To evaluate whether relativity and quantum theory rest on purely scientific grounds,
it helps to understand the racial background of the physicists.
"Ugg, I just hate the fact that an entire dollar of my money goes to candy for the urchins, don't you?"
ReplyDeleteToo bad Libertarians don't have pamphlets like Christians do, so they could hand them out on Halloween instead of candy. "Here, you little moocher, read some Ayn Rand."
The case, which can be viewed at FreedomWatchUSA.org, is unique, as it wraps into one complaint
ReplyDelete"My lawsuit bundles a whole lot of unconnected complaints into one; also there are too many states" is not usually seen as a legal selling point.
Among normal people, mindless fear has abated."But I need a majority."
ReplyDeletebundles a whole lot of unconnected complaints into one
ReplyDeleteIANAL, but I imagine that in the legal world (the REAL legal world, not the fantasy world of Mr. Klayman) this would be seen not so much as an example of efficiency but of batshit insanity.
Not that they are right in general, but some forms of cancer are contagious, like the one wiping out the last few tasmanian devils in the wild. Other cancers can be caused by viruses like the human papilloma virus.
ReplyDeletetheir "poor" kids come and trick or treat at Halloween
ReplyDeleteRule 1 in Stand-your-ground states -- don't dress up as black.
And I'm not sure that LOOK OUT FOR THE AFRICAN DEATH COOTIES! is the
ReplyDeletebest way to get easily frightened xenophobes to leave their homes and
congregate in a crowded public area, e.g. polling places.Hmmm, I was looking a a cage of rats and thinking of putting on some sexy jazz music, but as ittdgy's reply suggests, the likelier result than avoiding the contaminated polling stations on election day will be to invent "public health" measures to prevent blahs from entering polling stations. Or submitting possibly virus-ridden ballots by any other means. And SCOTUS's Fecal Five would probably back them up on it at this point.
Build the dang wall.
ReplyDeleteI should have specified they thought it is common head cold contagious. Which, if it were, we'd all be very obviously fucked. But apparently there's fun to be had getting freaked over things that make no sense.
ReplyDeleteA book copy of Atlas Shrugged might be too heavy for a little tyke like you, so I put the entire digital archive of Ayn Rand on this little thumb drive here. Happy Hallowe'en!
ReplyDeleteHeads I win, tails you lose.
ReplyDeleteAntisocial Injustice Cowards.
ReplyDeleteSo, um... not to state the obvious, but Heather Mac Donald and the Republicans proposing a travel ban also have clear political preferences and agendas.
ReplyDeleteAre we just supposed to come to a conclusion based on whose politics we prefer? Because I get that we can't all be experts in disease control, so we have to decide which "experts" we choose to believe and which we don't, but I can't help feeling that, you know, actual data should still be involved somewhere in the process.
This silence was contrary to decades of public-health response to venereal disease
ReplyDeleteDecades of public-health response to venereal disease have always emphasised the use of condoms (MacDonald could look it up).
http://www.hakes.com/product_images/14/54954/001_big.jpg
Just as with AIDS.
Also too:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_U.S._Military_Sex_Education#Condom_Use
Was the commenter specifying something "demonic", or was it just general free-floating demonic-ness?
ReplyDeleteI Googled the phrase, and found various Photoshop images like this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm not even sure what point they were trying to make, but there ARE plenty of people who are turning that particular phrase. Too convenient to pass up, I guess.
They're all kinda hard to hum.
ReplyDeletePlus the threat of socialism.
ReplyDeleteRule 1 in Stand-your-ground states -- don't dress up while black.
ReplyDeletefixed.
But Christians and conservatives are an oppressed minority, so their viewpoints should be given greater weight.
ReplyDeleteNow "economic justice warrior", that's a handle I can get behind.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this just a class warrior or a communist or an anti-Rand
There's no smoke without fire
ReplyDeleteThere's no hominy without corn
When it's cold outside, I've got the World Cup in Qatar
even if we're just dancin' in the dark
I would be worried about opulent spongiform encephalopathy infecting me and making me want to be rich after I ate my portion
ReplyDeletebut Social X-Ray Spex with Mike Ness replacing Poly Styrene on vocals for such super dooper hits like Warrior in Woolworth's, The Day the World Turned Day-Glo and Oh Boredom, Up Yours would be quite the happening
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not _just_ used by MRA assholes. It's also used by assholes in general to express contempt for any discussion of social inequality, non-discriminatory language, etc.— all the same stuff that "PC" is used as an insult for. And, like "PC", it's also sometimes used by not-entirely-assholes to refer to people whose politics they generally agree with but who they feel are being overly dramatic/self-righteous about it... although, again like "PC", that usage becomes less defensible the more it's appropriated by wingnuts.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't mind the viruses and Trojan horses. Just tell your daddy they're all okay for his computer.
ReplyDeleteYou've put your finger on another reason I thought it was a guy, actually. I believe what he said (or the way it was represented at the blog where I read about it) was that he was living in a neighborhood full of famous/rich people on a quiet cul de sac. I think he sounds like one of those middle class people who ended up with a house near enough to Hollywood royalty that his neighborhood gets the spillover--I mean people don't trick or treat at Brad Pitt's house but maybe they drive over to a given area to see the decorations and then trick or treat around? I thought he might feel resentful at having to put on a show or do more decorating/holiday shit than he wants to to keep up with wealthier neighbors?
ReplyDeleteEbola Gay
ReplyDeleteYou should have stayed at home yesterday
Oh, it can't describe
The feeling and the way you lied
These games you play
They're gonna end it all in tears someday
Oh, Ebola Gay
It shouldn't ever have to end this way
Gift exchange--if only they'd been able to give him syphilis!
ReplyDeleteDuring the height of the AIDS epidemic, the public-health profession abjured any focus on abstinence as a means of stopping the spread of the disease.
ReplyDeleteSo much of this simply goes back to the view of disease as being the judgment of a righteous God. These people are the modern-day versions of Job's comforters.
Too few people walking the Earth today have seen the 5-star movie Hansel and Regretal.
ReplyDeleteEar-helminths are a growing public health concern.
ReplyDeleteA-ha! You'll notice there are no cases of Ebola in Kenya! So he really IS protecting his homies.[\wingnut]
ReplyDeleteLow points in Epidemiology:
ReplyDelete1775. Pott uses "squamous cell carcinoma" scare to destroy jobs in the chimney-sweeping industry and deprive working-class children of entry-point access to the labour market.
Everyone's motives should be questioned but theirs.
ReplyDeleteBush kept us safe from the Ebola menace with tax cuts.
ReplyDeleteNow when I suggested that I got called a bad person.
ReplyDeleteINJUSTICE,
As of today, about 465 people have been shot to death since Duncan died of Ebola. But I guess that's just a normal part of everyday life.
ReplyDeleteThat is to say, Margaret Thatcher.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a rural area, and it's pointless to trick or treat there. So in our community, all the kids go into the city. Where else would you go, other than a rich neighborhood? We're not stupid!
ReplyDeleteWell, you DID ask.
ReplyDeleteHell, you can't even make one TWEET, you'll never be SG.
ReplyDelete465 more proofs of FREEDOM!
ReplyDeletewat the fuk.
ReplyDeleteThe study did not consider whether individuals who have been stopped numerous times by the police might have just had an expresso, or a fight with their girlfriend, or just missed the bus, or couldn't find their glasses that morning, or their shoes were too tight, or ...
ReplyDeleteI had coworker back in 2000 who considered voting in that election to be pointless because there was no way Clinton would give up the office. His coup would come any day now and the November election would be canceled, just you wait. After the election, of course, he was convinced that Clinton was going to take over the One World Government through the UN or something. He also believed in a secret underground railway connecting Los Alamos, Area 51, and the Pentagon, that lead paint was really banned because it makes houses opaque to X-Ray and infrared surveillance, giants once ruled the 6000 year old Earth, and that we were witnessing the end of days.
ReplyDeleteBut one couldn't call him crazy or delusional because these were his religious beliefs which we all have to respect.
Thing of it is, he was actually a really decent guy, kind and helpful and friendly.
And lest we forget, the fact that conservatives and Christians [i]also[/i] simultaneously have a longstanding tradition of moral authority and being generally in the majority (certainly among those who enjoy a position of power or wealth or both, at least in the Western World), is [i]also[/i] a reason why their viewpoints should be given greater weight.
ReplyDeleteAnd from weoponized anthrax.
ReplyDeletemds, if she ever reads this comment, it's gonna leave a mark.
ReplyDeleteThe whole of epidemiology has been one long effort against business. Between forcing water companies to provide clean water and making pharmaceutical companies prove their drug work (and don't kill or maim), these scientific types have just ruined it for entrepreneurial snake-oil blender-vendors.
ReplyDelete#SYGWIP!
ReplyDeleteNow, there's a plan.
ReplyDeleteI've been told that high marginal tax rates will prevent anyone from desiring to be rich.
ReplyDeleteI think it was America's greatest attorney general, Edwin Meese, who stated that the police never arrest innocent people.
ReplyDeleteOK--I'll compromise. Lets have a travel ban on Catholic priests from Africa.
ReplyDeleteIf Romney were president, do you think we'd be hearing all of this hysterical bullshit over ebola?
ReplyDeleteThe rich people I've been around (including some relatives I love so deeply, so very very deeply - hello?) have never been home answering the door on Halloween.
ReplyDeleteThey throw parties for their kids' friends or go to friends' houses or the club where parties are being held for kids or have the help take the kids to a party while they go to a fundraiser or other crawl-up-anus event in a terribly expensive but ostensibly blasé costume that lets them mock something or show off their usually less repressed sexytimes self.
Their doors don't even open out onto the street - if they can even be seen from the street. If the door is reachable and answered, the odds are very, very long that it's answered by a pleasant member of the staff who pleasantly drops something pleasant in each bag. Impersonal response to impersonal request.
So the letter writer does indeed seem to be either a marginal member of the rich community - or a fake. If it was just bait, Ms. Yoffe was please to stripe it with wasabi and munch it right down:
Your whine makes me kind of wish that people from the actual poor side of town come this year not with scary costumes but with real pitchforks. Stop being callous and miserly and go to Costco, you cheapskate, and get enough candy to fill the bags of the kids who come one day a year to marvel at how the 1 percent live.
Fucking ghouls.
ReplyDeleteThere's a new diagnosis of an ebola case in NYC, and I've been looking at this nutter site off and on, and you should see how *giddy* these bastards are about this. They're fucking HOPING for mass death so they can blame it on "Obola" and his one-world masters. Sick fucks.
Holy Roman Empirical evidence? Always consult a religious professional before undertaking anything involving evidence.
ReplyDeleteAfrican Death cooties you say? I'm putting the band back together!
ReplyDelete"But the spreaders themselves are only looking as far ahead as Election Day."
ReplyDeleteAnd panic isn't the only thing they're spreading.
We have tonight a doctor who has tested positive in New York, having recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea. De Blasio says there is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed and that NYC is benefiting from Dallas's experience, but… Hannity's on.
ReplyDeleteI bet Hannity's been wetting himself with excitement, the creep.
ReplyDeleteObama is a gay Muslim Jihadist who is gonna drop an Ebola bomb on railmurka. Isn't the point obvious or do you not speak wingnut Pere?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm sort of regretting posting this here.
ReplyDeleteRighteous!
ReplyDeleteAw, too bad he's on poor terms with Orly. With her dental, legal, and foreign affairs expertise, she would have much to contribute to this thrilling effort.
ReplyDeleteNo, I think we need to keep in mind how bad it is out there.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is my new motto To evaluate whether this opposition rests on purely scientific grounds, it helps to understand the political character
ReplyDeletebecause what the actual fuck?
I assume that here follows a learned discussion and comparison of the decision if it were made on purely scientific grounds versus the Machiavellian scheming of Sturmbannführer Obama as he cunningly lets thousands die in Africa to mumble blerg arggh FART death in America.
City Journal is the nation’s premier urban-policy magazine, “the Bible of the new urbanism,” as London’s Daily Telegraph puts it. During the Giuliani Administration, the magazine served as an idea factory as the then-mayor revivified New York City, quickly becoming, in the words of the New York Post, “the place where Rudy gets his ideas.” - About City Journal
ReplyDeletePeach pie. Peach pie is very good.
ReplyDeleteRudy has ideas?
ReplyDeleteNews to me.
Well that is better than my first reading which was "the spiders themselves". I mean you can't trust the little bleeders but planning for Election day?
ReplyDeleteApparently City Journal had a Bernie Kerik centerfold in one particularly fateful issue.
ReplyDeleteJesus. In my day they just put needles in the apples...
ReplyDeleteEWWWWW EWWWW EWWWWW
ReplyDeleteZOMG - from City Journal's home page tonight, THIS amazing juxtaposition:
ReplyDeletehttp://s11.postimg.org/dkrzn38er/conflict.png
"According to mainstream public-health thinking, publicizing the behavioral choices behind bad health—promiscuous sex, drug use, overeating, or lack of exercise—blames the victim." So if Michelle Obama were to start publicizing the consequences of overeating or the lack of exercise, Heather and her fellow right-wingers would be totally on board, right? Sure, Michelle could also speak out about bad behavorial choices like promiscuous sex and drug use, but why needlessly antagonize Rush Limbaugh?
ReplyDeleteUpon further study I find it's published by the Manhattan Institute. Brian Anderson, the editor of the City Journal - and author of "South Park Conservatives" - lives in Westchester County. How have I missed this perfect storm of stupid before?!?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteWhy all this complexity? We oppose the travel ban because we hate America and we want our families, friends, and neighbors to get sick and die. Jeez.
ReplyDeleteI remember when homelessness first because widespread, back during the Reagan years, and conservatives concluded that it was caused by a whole bunch of people all over America independently deciding that living in the streets would be really cool.
ReplyDeleteMy own father told me it was because they preferred to live that way.
ReplyDeleteIt has that same, uber-evil cthulhuan ring as "Community Organizer"
ReplyDeleteMeta: For two days now, Roy has wanted me to look at this ad every time I visit him here. At first I thought it was some kind of high-grade oil for bicycle parts, but that "hamorrhoiden" word is starting to look a little familiar.
ReplyDeleteProbably, the harder you push, the bigger the umlaut.
The button at the bottom is in the English, yes, but I've been worried about how others will take mussen whenb Sicher mit me if I clicken it. Still, the clicken is probably what brings in the bitmarks for more oh-so-Edroso.
Could I have the Zulily flowered lady shoes ads back to click? I've been trying to get a foot fetish going for my senior years. kthxbai
http://s29.postimg.org/jnytd98h3/image.png
"You know nothing, John Snow" - Heather Mac Donald
ReplyDeleteFather Lamont will be trapped in Ethiopia!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2S2g-lHJyY
MacDonald, 1950, responding to Doll's epidemiological study on lung cancer: "You know who else blamed lung cancer on cigarettes?!"
ReplyDeleteIs there anything to stop Congress from taking action to block flights from West Africa?(other than work aversion and the absence of suitable lobbyists to draft the legislation for them). Using their constitutional power to regulate commerce?
ReplyDeleteI realise that Congress has shared that power with the Executive branch (in the form of the FAA), but shirley they can act independently, so any imputations of Obama's sinister motives for inaction apply with equal force to them. It is almost as if the wingnuts want Obama to issue an Executive Order so they rant about his tyranny.
stniop 5 +
ReplyDeletelast Tuesday I decided to file another lawsuit against Obama
ReplyDeleteIn a just universe, that would be the first sentence of an Anthony Burgess novel.
RudePundit calls it like it is.
ReplyDeleteThe infuriating thing about modern America is how it is a smoking ruin of lost potential primarily BECAUSE of fuck-headed, frightened, selfish, arrogant, childish pricks manipulating generations of dopes into being corporate slaves. And NOW they want to whine and cry about it, but the pricks are too fuck-headed, frightened, selfish, arrogant, childish to understand whom is to blame, so they glom onto the nearest scapegoat that the Limballs of the world throw to them.
Right Wing playbook: make a mess of things; whine about it being messy; blame the folks who tried to stop it; leave it to others to clean up; do it all over again.
To evaluate whether this opposition rests on purely scientific grounds,
ReplyDeleteit helps to understand the political character of the faculty of the University of Chicago's Economics Department
field.
FTFY
The Right doesn't like Obama's choice for an Ebola Czar (big surprise.)
ReplyDeleteSteve Forbes has three alternates for the job: he'd like to see Michael Bloomberg, Bill Frist or Ben Carson. No kidding.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2014/10/19/obamas-ebola-czar-is-a-dangerous-mistake-here-are-3-who-could-do-the-job/
Personally, I think it's kind of odd that they've been so insistent on the idea of appointing a "czar" at all. Doesn't anyone remember the big stink the Rightwing media made about Obama having czars in the first place? I sure do.
I think that if Obama decided never to use teleprompters again, his detractors on the Right would insist that he start again... and then criticize the specific model of teleprompter that he might decide to use.
Well, the next time I wander off like that, I'll make sure to wipe my feet before I get back in the boat.
ReplyDeleteI have the feeling that's the case.
ReplyDeleteThey want to stop the blahs from living here.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I think it was just one of those "we live in dangerous times." You know, that thing small-minded people say since they lack perspective and knowledge
ReplyDeleteEverybody knows shame is the best medicine, right? Hey! Where is everyone going?
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine worked with some American doctors running a clinic on a remote island, and one day she accepted an invitation to their church potluck. There was prayer and a reading and a discussion -- and she learned that they too believed in Giants who once ruled the Earth. She was shocked -- they were all so sane and decent, and they'd all gone to medical school. How did they ALSO believe that 6,000 years ago Giants ruled a brand-new Earth? I have no guess. I mean Giants aren't even IN the Bible, are they?? I don't remember them getting mentioned once in 10 years of CCD and I am pretty sure they'd have mentioned it as one of the bits most likely to hook little kids.
ReplyDelete"To evaluate whether this opposition rests on purely scientific grounds, it helps to understand the political character of the public-health field. "
ReplyDeleteYes, it does.
πόλις clearly means the structure of a community.
I'd think that we could get somewhere by combining that with the "purely scientific grounds" that you only catch communicable disease if you're in a community. Only in communities do we develop medicines.
Only in communities do we look after one another.
By Jove, I think the woman is onto something. The health of our communities is political.
-dlj.
They might be talking about the Nephilim, who make a few brief appearances in the Old Testament. (Genesis 6:4, KJV: "There were giants in the earth in those days...") If you look them up on teh Wiki, it turns out that apparently Cotton Mather, the Puritan minister, thought mastodon fossils were the bones of Nephilim.
ReplyDeleteYep. After my post I went internetting and indeed, it's the Nephilim. The Bible indisputably says there were giants. So this belief is every bit as justified as the 6,000-year-old Earth.
ReplyDeleteVirginia Deane Abernethy left a supportive comment under Heather Mac's post. That's probably good for at least three Mac splooges.
ReplyDelete