A polio ward in Los Angeles, California. 1953
Dr. Paul Marantz:
There is an inherent conflict between public health and individual liberty, as is well understood by those in the field. Indeed, when teaching my public health epidemiology course, I would joke about how my American Public Health Association and American Civil Liberties Union cards were battling in my wallet—a quip largely meant to underscore that it is possible to care simultaneously about both issues. But in contrast to many other societies, we Americans seem to have come down squarely on the side of individual liberty, even at the expense of our neighbors, including our kids’ friends and classmates. [...] It is an undeniable fact that immunizing children provides benefits not only to the child vaccinated but to the entire community, and conversely, that unvaccinated children pose a substantial risk to public health (as the current measles outbreak amply demonstrates). Perhaps we in the scientific community have done a disservice by labeling this feature “herd immunity”—no one wants to be part of a “herd,” I guess. So let’s just call it “community immunity”; not only does that make a nice rhyme, but it emphasizes that we do, in fact, live in community. (Of course, we’d need to care about others in our community for that really to work, so this “rebranding” won’t do the trick by itself.)
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—OBL hates Saddam; Powell loses cred:
This story is weird, even by current standards:
1) Powell announces in Congressional testimony that al-Jazeera will broadcast a tape proving the OBL-SH nexus.
Powell said he read a transcript of "what bin Laden-- or who we believe to be bin Laden" will be saying on the Al-Jazeera Arab satellite station later Tuesday, "where once again he speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership with Iraq." |
Powell is smart enough to know that showing solidarity with Iraq in the face of an aggressor invader is not the same as being "in partnership", but whatever.
2) al-Jazeera airs the tape, and makes Powell look the fool:
taped message believed to be from fugitive militant Osama bin Laden branded Iraq's government on Tuesday as "infidels" but said Iraq's leaders shared his goal of fighting the United States.
[...] The statement said that Iraq's rulers had "lost their credibility long ago" and that "socialists are infidels wherever they are."
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In other words, this statement backs everyone (including me) who has argued that OBL and SH HATE each other. To be clear, there is no greater insult in the Fundie world than to call someone an "infidel."
So despite Powell's declarations, this is nothing more than a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", not of any true alliance between al Qaeda and Iraq.
So when did Powell decide to sell his soul? And to paraphrase something I hear more and more every day: If the need for war is so self-evident, why does Bush and his surrogates have to lie so much to justify it?
Tweet of the Day
News anchors seem to ask only non Muslim if #ChapelHillShooting is a hate crime. Shocking how Muslims Are excluded from their own narrative
— @rulajebreal
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, we're once again forced to open the show with an acknowledgement of outrageous gun violence.
Greg Dworkin joined us for morning chatter on Jon Stewart & Brian Williams. Jeb Bush is down with the young people! And the identity thieves. The vaccine and measles story finally expands to include Gardacil, and more controversy.
Joan McCarter dropped in to discuss state Medicaid expansions, who'd lose the biggest if subsidies disappear, the collapsing
King case, and the enormous implications of the new AUMF against ISIS. Also, state secrets strike again. And Joni Ernst didn't say this one particular crazy thing.
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