Top Diaries

Well, for over a decade policy on vaccination has been decided by mob rule roused up by Melanie Phillips in the Mail. So why not ask the public ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 11:19:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I don't know where to start on that. I think I'll abstain.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:15:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I know it's the Onion, but given the way the mob have run policy up to now, I think that their sarcastic suggestion of widening the mob's franchise sadly reflects the reality of the situation rather than a satirical distortion of it.

I believe you missed that inference and imagined I might believe it myself.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:37:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The only word I understand in what you say is "vaccination". Even then, what vaccination?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:54:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Oh, I had no idea you didn't know the background.

The UK replaced 3 separate vaccines against the childhood diseases mumps, measles and rubella with a single combined MMR vaccine. A cowboy doctor, using poor methodology and allegedly dodgy commercial motives wrote a paper for the Lancet that suggested that this new vaccine was implicated in the coincident rise in autism.

this lit a fire of populism in the right wing press that meant that take up of these vaccinations in the UK was significantly down. It took over a decade before those involved were held responsible. but for a decade incidences of these quite serious diseases have been rising because kids aren't being vaccinated.

Hence mine and the Onion's dig at the idea that mob rule is determining vaccination policy.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 03:05:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

OK, but that wasn't just a UK issue. The Onion's American, and this question of autism was everywhere (apparently backed by a Lancet article): North America, across Europe too, and no doubt elsewhere.

Though I had great difficulty with the notion that MMR vaccines cause autism, I don't see why people shying away from them should be equated with mob rule (even if the Mail was involved, from a British perspective).

The Onion doesn't seem to be saying what you think, btw.

It's a spoof on "have your say", not that "mob rule is determining vaccination policy".

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 03:25:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

A Statement from Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey: Andrew Wakefield, Scientific Censorship, and Fourteen Monkeys - AGE OF AUTISM

Dr. Andrew Wakefield is being discredited to prevent an historic study from being published that for the first time looks at vaccinated versus unvaccinated primates and compares health outcomes, with potentially devastating consequences for vaccine makers and public health officials.
It is our most sincere belief that Dr. Wakefield and parents of children with autism around the world are being subjected to a remarkable media campaign engineered by vaccine manufacturers reporting on the retraction of a paper published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues.
The retraction from The Lancet was a response to a ruling from England's General Medical Council, a kangaroo court where public health officials in the pocket of vaccine makers served as judge and jury. Dr. Wakefield strenuously denies all the findings of the GMC and plans a vigorous appeal.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 05:25:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Gah, onion'd again.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:25:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The Senate Becomes A Polish Joke - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

So, here's the news from the Senate. Martha Johnson was nominated to head the General Services Administration, and was confirmed by a nearly unanimous vote -- but only after having had her nomination held hostage for nine months by Senator Kit Bond, who wanted more pork for Kansas City. And now Senator Richard Shelby has placed a hold on -- are you seated -- all, all, Obama administration nominees, until he gets some pork for Alabama.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 10:59:24 AM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 4)

I think the way DC is organised is hilarious. It'd work if it was run by adults, but right now it's kindergarten. Even the Northern Ireland Assembly is more mature, and that's syaing something.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 11:17:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 5)

Perhaps the worlds total political sanity is a constant, and when one country manages to get control of its lunacy, then it leaks out to somewhere else. but at the rate that the US system is falling apart, the Palestinian situation should be sorted in no time at all.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 11:28:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

"There was a lot of frustration in there," said a Democratic senator who declined to be identified.
"People were hot," another Democratic senator said.
Read more...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 11:59:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]

ILLINOIS, Campaign 2010

On the same day Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn officially claimed the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, he found out that his newly-minted running mate has a rap sheet that includes alleged domestic battery and tax evasion....
According to court records obtained by the Chicago Tribune, Scott Lee Cohen, a millionaire pawnbroker who prevailed with a narrow plurality in the crowded primary for lieutenant governor, was accused by his ex-girlfriend, a prostitute, of holding a knife to her neck in a 2005 domestic dispute....
"I have no intention of stepping down or stepping aside. When the facts come to light, after my ex-wife and ex-girlfriend speak, the people of Illinois can decide, and I will listen to them directly," said Cohen.
Read more...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:05:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 4)

Never a dull moment in IL politics. Though to Cohen's credit, we do have one former governor in prison and another on the way there (after a side trip to Celebrity Apprentice). Since Lt. Gov. is a position which mostly involves waiting for your boss to be arrested or impeached, it's understandable that he'd think being a criminal is pre-requisite for the job.

I think a teabagger (IL is a moderate Republican-old school democrat state) might get the GOP nomination for Gov., though it is practically a 3-way tie between the candidates (and was also practically a tie between the Dem. candidates too.) A guy who helped his family run a failed bank that gave large loans to mobsters got the Dem. nod for Senate, so you can expect that seat to be lost. On the upside, a progressive reform candidate won Cook County Board President. We'll see how long it takes them to turn her into a vampire...

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:50:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Cohen's rap sheet stuns Illinois Dems - Josh Kraushaar - POLITICO.com

Wonderful:

"I tried to tell everyone about this early on. I wanted to talk about all of these issues, but everyone wrote me off, and said I didn't have a chance to win. Now that I'm the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor, the day after the election, there are questions. I am happy to answer any and all questions; I just need time to do so," he said.

This falls squarely into "Love means never having to say you're sorry" territory.

Is there a Mr. O'Neal in the house? A Ms. McGraw?

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:59:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

"People were hot," another Democratic senator said.

I'm sure somebody once said something about leaving the kitchen if you thought it was too hot. but that aside, while Franken is right that the white house has shown the opposite of leadership on this, the senate has hardly covered itself in glory.

If you wanted to talk about being set-up, it's hard to avoid concluding that the WH wanted to avoid their own nasty little pharma-deal becoming the story of HCR, so they allowed the Senate to fight like rats in a sack until what was left was a threadbare and embarrassing mess. But the Senate didn't have to be so obliging; it's their fault too.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 01:12:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

UHMM, does anyone know if Kit Bond got his pork before the vote? If so, Shelby's vote could be construed, especially by him, as a protest against the policy. A long shot, I know.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 01:29:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

S.C. Code of Laws Title 23 Chapter 29 Subversive Activities Registration Act - www.scstatehouse.gov-LPITS

If anyone is keeping score, it must be Citizens Against Government Waste.

"House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, (D-Mass.) won with 49 percent of the vote. In second place was Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) with 26.3 percent. Third-place honors went to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) with 6.6 percent. Honorable mentions go out to Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) with 5.9 percent and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) with 5.5 percent. President Barack Obama was the overwhelming favorite in the write-in category, coming in just behind Rep. Abercrombie and ahead of last-place Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 01:58:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Do we need a licence (4.00 / 2)

in case were read in South Carolina?

Title 23 - Law Enforcement and Public Safety
CHAPTER 29.
SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES REGISTRATION ACT

<snip>

Every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States, of this State or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence or other unlawful means, who resides, transacts any business or attempts to influence political action in this State, shall register with the Secretary of State on the forms and at the times prescribed by him.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:03:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Do we need a licence (none / 0)

reminds me of that marvellous question that used to be on the US Immigration form;-

Is it your intention, during your visit, to overthrow the government of the USA ?

I wholeheartedly admire Gilbert Harding, who replied "Sole purpose of visit". Although some say his reply was "Not sole purpose of visit" which is more acidly ambiguous.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:15:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Do we need a licence (none / 1)

They also used to ask "Do you have any infectious diseases, i.e. tuberculosis". I think they meant "e.g."...

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:32:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Do we need a licence (none / 0)

I would recommend a bath.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:23:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Blair Peach - the worm turns again -- New Internationalist Blog

A fine thing it would be if we could rely on paragons of virtue to administer just laws impartially at all times. But I reckon it's wiser to assume otherwise, as I and many others did after the killing of my good friend Blair Peach on St George's Day, 23 April 1979. At the time we were derided as paranoid extremists by public officials. The more time passes, however, the more the paranoid extremists seem to have been the public officials.
Take the late Dr John Burton, the coroner who presided over the one feeble inquiry - the inquest - there has ever been into Blair's killing. I sat through most of the wretched thing. It was pretty clear to me that Dr Burton, a foolish and cadaverous old bat, had made up his own mind well before the inquest even started.
Certainly, if Blair hadn't been an anti-fascist, and if he hadn't gone to Southall, West London, to resist the National Front, he would not have been killed there. But the fact that at least 10 eye-witnesses saw him struck by a police officer, and no-one saw him struck by anyone else, suggested to Dr John Burton not that Blair had been killed by a police officer, but that he, Dr John Burton, was the unfortunate victim of a plot.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:23:22 PM EST

Everybody knows that inquiries aren't set up to find out the truth, they exist to tease out the acceptable falsehood. Especially under thatcher when anybody who refused to abjectly comply with arbitrary authority was deemed an Enemy of the State.

There was never any chance that the police were going to be found in any way culpable, any more than any of the other bad things that have happened in the last 30 years. We have no Constitution, so the Executive aren't even breaking any laws with their exercise of power. They do what they like because they can, and grow ever more arrogant on such license.

The tories refer to the 60s as a liberal wasteland, when what they mean is that by and large the public were engaged enough to hold the ruling classes to account. Now we are distanced, disengaged and they can go back to the ruthless and unchecked control they prefer.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 01:23:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

This is not the first game to get a modern reboot (there's an update to the classic Trivial Pursuit, and Scrabble got a face-lift for its 60th anniversary), but Monopoly's changes will undoubtedly appeal to the 21st century's techie youngsters. For one thing, the adjusted-for-inflation prizes are more impressive.
Read more...

progress

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 01:27:41 PM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 4)

The history of Monopoly is very interesting.

Let us go back a few spaces and look at earlier versions and patents of Monopoly type games, information that does not click with events as described by Maxine Brady.
On January 5, 1904, Lizzie J. Magie, a Quaker woman from Virginia, received a patent (view patent) for a board game. Lizzie Magie belonged to a tax movement led by Philadelphia-born Henry George; the movement supported the theory that the renting of land and real estate produced an unearned increase in land values that profited a few individuals (landlords) rather than the majority of the people (tenants). Henry George proposed a single federal tax based on land ownership believing a single tax would discourage speculation and encourage equal opportunity.

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 01:35:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

DJIA off 130.

Blizzards, employment stats implausible.

Mike.com blames Yurp.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 01:46:41 PM EST

I dream of us being that influential.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:17:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Looks like a wonderful winter weekend.

(To me.)

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:39:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Drew, are you okay?

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:43:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You kidding? It's paradise if it pans out.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 03:06:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Only downside is I meant to stop by the guitar store and grab some stuff so I could mod my new one over the weekend. Completely forgot.

Aw, well.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 03:08:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Where's that good old fashioned 'Murkin pioneering spirit?

Venture forth, young man! You have nothing to lose! (but your smashing your car into little bitty bits and increasing your insurance rates to astronomical levels for the rest of your life but who cares about that).

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 03:18:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

This is the East Coast, amigo. That pioneering crap is for you lot out in the desert and the mountains with your peyote and your magic underwear. ;)

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 04:20:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Although, really, I'm pretty sure the insurance company decided, "Fuck it, just let him go," when I was in my teens, so I could probably get away with it.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 06:49:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]