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Thursday Morning Open Thread

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Blog Related
Posted on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 09:06:27 AM EST
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The Nation is rerunning the late Jack Newfield's 2002 seminal piece on Ted Kennedy. I have written about if before, but it is a must read. BTW, Jack Newfield was one of the great progressive journalists of our time and one of the nicest persons I have ever met. We miss him every day.

This is an Open Thread.

< Ted Kennedy's Final Days | The Kennedy Public Health Insurance Program >

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    Thursday Morning Open Thread | 83 comments (83 topical)

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    duck Boston (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 09:39:50 AM EST
    ...CENTER OF DANNY WOBBLES WESTWARD...

    INTERESTS FROM THE CAROLINAS NORTHWARD TO NEW ENGLAND SHOULD MONITOR
    THE PROGRESS OF DANNY.

    when I lived in Boston in the 90s a Hurricane came thru.  I was living in an apartment and took the dog and went to the basement where I was able to look out the back door as signs and trees flew by.

    projected (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 09:43:11 AM EST
    path

    Parent
    It's pretty weak (none / 0) (#13)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:25:45 AM EST
    and not well organized, so it shouldn't be a Big Event.  It's only expected to upgrade to a Cat 1 Hurricane for a single day and then slide back to Tropical Storm status.

    What will the rest of the season look like?  I'm not sure what the tally is, but right now I've seen two Atlantic seaboard hurricanes and zero Gulf hurricanes.

    Parent

    if I am not mistaken (5.00 / 2) (#15)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:28:09 AM EST
    it was a cat 1 that went thru when I was there.
    it was still pretty hairy.
    not terrifying bur hairy.


    Parent
    "Hairy" is a good word (5.00 / 1) (#26)
    by gyrfalcon on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:43:16 AM EST
    I went through 2 Cat1s when I lived in the Boston area.  Both brought down a lot of big old trees, did some damage when they fell on house roofs, took down a lot of power lines.  Clean-up was pretty quick, though.  So no overwhelming damage, but some individual tragedies of property damage to homes here and there.

    Parent
    I did Ike last year. (none / 0) (#24)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:38:19 AM EST
    Effing went without power for days.  Less lucky folks went up to two weeks without power.  I wiki'd it and Ike was the third most damaging hurricane ever to make landfall in America.  

    Parent
    I know it's not nice to laugh (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by scribe on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 09:57:58 AM EST
    at others' misfortune, but I couldn't help myself:  Ben Bernanke a victim of an identity-theft ring.

    It seems they've busted the ring, and the ringleader has one of the all-time great street names:  "Big Head".

    Can't make this stuff up.

    why do I think (none / 0) (#7)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:10:27 AM EST
    It said the theft of the Bernanke checkbook became part of a wide-ranging identity-theft investigation by the US Secret Service and US Postal Inspection Service which had been previously underway.

    my checkbook might not have launched the same wide ranging investigation?

    Parent

    Definitely not... (none / 0) (#59)
    by kdog on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:48:41 AM EST
    kinda like how the credit reporting agencies have special handlers for celebrities and power-brokers to make sure there are no errors...they couldn't care less about errors on your report.

    Parent
    Crackers still going wild (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:03:21 AM EST
    I try very hard to not lump all Republicans into a box labeled racist, but I just watched the Lynn Jenkins video where she acknowledges that Republicans are looking for their Great White Hope, and it gets pretty challenging with all this Freudian slippage to not just want to throw them all in the labeled box.

    I know what you mean (5.00 / 1) (#10)
    by ruffian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:15:31 AM EST
    Watching the Ted Kennedy documentary last night and being reminded again of the stands he and his brothers took for civil rights, I couldn't help but connect the dots to the right's hatred of him, which has always seemed way over the top to me. Makes more sense in that context - their memories are a lot longer than mine.

    Parent
    Wow (5.00 / 1) (#37)
    by Socraticsilence on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:56:54 AM EST
    that's not even the veiled "states rights", "urban blight", "hip-hop culture" dog whistle stuff they normally use- that's blatant not only in its literal imagery but also in its etymology (not sure if this is the word to use for idioms).

    Parent
    I know it's probably not right. (none / 0) (#18)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:31:14 AM EST
    But I tend to believe that they just can't help themselves because they are in the grip of some mental disorder.

    The sad thing about rhetoric like that is that it keeps people from paying attention to the true causes of their (& our) troubles.  It just takes a fast study of a few statistics to see that teen pregnancy, lack of education and poverty are always found together.  (A lack of health care often shows up as well.)  

    Parent

    Their days are numbered (5.00 / 1) (#67)
    by mmc9431 on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:09:34 PM EST
    I think a lot of Republican's see the writing on the wall. Demographics show that their days are numbered. The cold war generation is aging. We're a much more diverse population than the party represnts.

    I guess they want to go out kicking and screaming.

    Parent

    heres a comment (none / 0) (#19)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:32:22 AM EST
    I liked from another blog on that:

    I am loving this "great white hope" thing, I love when people are honest. If this toothy old babe gets some criticism, I am betting on Limbaugh to defend her by openly arguing for the legitimacy of the expression, and I hope he succeeds in getting the GOP to start using it across the board. I hope that the GOP candidate for president in 2012 puts it on his or her posters, "Elect Palin, the Great White Hope."

    indeed

    Parent

    Well it would be amusing (none / 0) (#40)
    by Socraticsilence on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:02:38 AM EST
    if they embraced the title of a loser http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Jeffries

    Parent
    Yikes... (none / 0) (#45)
    by desertswine on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:13:02 AM EST
    that picture of Jeffries, taken in 1908, is rather imposing.

    Parent
    fone word for it (none / 0) (#52)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:28:07 AM EST
    "hot" would be another

    Parent
    Brother Jack Johnson (none / 0) (#64)
    by jondee on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:04:18 PM EST
    had big ones, thats for sure.

    That photo of him still smiling that beautiful cheshire cat smile after returning from exile to the states pretty much says it all. This during a time when blacks in many parts of the country were still rather routinely tortured, lynched and fashion accessorie souvenirs made out of thier skin for so much as whistling at a white woman.

    Parent

    Show Some Spine, Mr. President (5.00 / 2) (#8)
    by FreakyBeaky on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:13:26 AM EST
    Opponents of Obama's "public plan option" whine about government intervention in the private sector, though they were conspicuously silent when taxpayers had to bail out Wall Street.

    Show Some Spine

    god bless Helen Thomas (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:26:15 AM EST
    President Obama should stop trying to win bipartisan support for national health care reform legislation.



    Parent
    I don't know what's got into her ... (none / 0) (#86)
    by FreakyBeaky on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 05:30:41 PM EST
    ... but I do welcome it.

    Parent
    Swine flu projections (5.00 / 2) (#11)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:21:52 AM EST
    for campuses are getting really scary now, folks.  I'm still not falling for the Cassandra memos, but they're coming fast and furious in the last few days -- and, of course, each day's memo contravenes the previous one.  (I.e., from don't-put-anything-in-the-syllabi to think-about-doing-so to tear-up-syllabi-already-printed-and- redo-with-swine flu warning and what to do.  Some campuses that already started classes already are seeing students hit harder and in greater numbers than expected so early in the semester, still in August.

    So, btw, the latest projection from your gov't for the peak hit has been moved up from mid-November to mid-October -- and that's really a problem with the lack of availability of even the first swine flu vaccine shots until, you guessed it, mid-October.  There still would be a second shot, and it all would take four to six weeks to start to take effect.

    also the age group (5.00 / 2) (#12)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:25:08 AM EST
    (like the age group I work mostly with) who are the hardest to convince there is any danger.
    its the I am invulnerable age.

    Parent
    Clorox will benefit (5.00 / 2) (#48)
    by Inspector Gadget on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:15:04 AM EST
    I think we're going to start seeing those giant containers of Clorox wipes all over. They have them right where we grab our grocery carts so we can wipe them down before grabbing hold of those germ-infested cart handles.

    Maybe the schools should have them available for the students to wipe down their desks, or chair arms before class starts.

    I think I'd hang a container of those wipes from my belt if I were a teacher this year.


    Parent

    Hand sanitizers up all over my campus (5.00 / 3) (#55)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:35:01 AM EST
    for several months now, since spring.  And I already started, this summer, bringing wipes to try to wipe down the (ever-disgusting) lecterns and the like.  But I only use multimedia podia, and there's just no way to really get at all the germ hideouts in those -- keyboard, mouse, dozens of switches -- in the minute or so I have left before class in the few minutes I get to do setup as it is. . . .

    I may well use the massive multimedia podia as a bulwark between me and coughing students, though.  Stand back!  Email me!  Etc.

    Thing is that this germ, like most flu germs, is communicable before you start coughing and aching . . . as well as for at least a week afterward.  Argh.

    Parent

    There are protective products for (5.00 / 2) (#61)
    by Inspector Gadget on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:58:54 AM EST
    keyboards, and I have a plethora of latex finger tip protectors from my esthetician practice.

    Since esthetics mandates absolute care in germ management, I've got lots of tools and ideas :)

    Fortunately, my day job is in a small office with just 3 people.

    I am not an advocate of hand sanitizers or antibacterial soaps, so I do more protections. I caught a bit of a flu last winter from my grandson, but that was my first cold/flu for almost 20 years.


    Parent

    One study (5.00 / 3) (#65)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:04:33 PM EST
    found that the best way to keep elders healthy was to vaccinate the children.  Apparently children are most efficient disease vectors around.  I want everyone to remember this when schools shut down and people start howling.  

    Parent
    You can wear gloves. (5.00 / 2) (#63)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:01:20 PM EST
    I like thin nitrile gloves best.  You could become known as the teacher who wears those weird purple gloves. ;)

    Parent
    Excellent tips; thanks, all (5.00 / 2) (#72)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:29:03 PM EST
    as I will save this advice and these links as we see how bad it may be.

    But I also have a responsibility to not add to the panic that all this could engender in some students.  I already had to calm down one of my TAs who went to a campus orientation for them that freeked out a lot of them, and they're grad students.  This is going to be an interesting line to walk -- protecting students from panic while protecting myself from them. :-)

    Parent

    Encourage them to be responsible. (5.00 / 1) (#74)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:31:57 PM EST
    That's all anyone can do - be responsible.

    If they need more, send them to the CDC's website for the facts.  

    Parent

    Yeh, that's what the TAs were told (5.00 / 1) (#78)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 01:04:51 PM EST
    after freeking out, the sum total of the advice was to wash their hands and not sneeze on each other, unquote.

    As I replied to the TA who gave me the account of the gathering, that's very good advice . . . because it's what your mom has been telling you to do for years.

    There is a bit more at the CDC site but not that much, natch.  It's the flu.  We all know what to do . . . which is not that much that can be done, either.

    Parent

    My knuckleheaded opinion... (none / 0) (#66)
    by kdog on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:06:54 PM EST
    all the sanitizers and gloves and anti-bacteria sh*t on the market will get us all killed one day.  The immune system, much like a muscle, needs excercise.  It is good to come in contact with germs.

    So lay off before you speed along Mother Nature's super-germ!...:)

    Parent

    True (5.00 / 2) (#68)
    by mmc9431 on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:15:58 PM EST
    I can remember my grandmother telling me not to worry about a little dirt.

    "you'll eat a peck of dirt before you die"!

    I sometimes wonder how any of us over 50 are still alive now that I read everything I ate or did as a kid is a killer.

    Parent

    My dad used to say that! (none / 0) (#70)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:26:44 PM EST
    and then he died.

    Seriously, he used to drive me nuts saying that about my kids when they were infants, and I was trying to follow the pediatrician's very good advice about triggering too early their genetic inclination to allergies.  (And because I listened more to the doc than the dad, the advice worked.)

    Yeh, dad, I'd say -- but I'd just as soon they don't consume that peck of dirt today . . . so I get a few more years with them.:-)

    Parent

    Footnote (5.00 / 3) (#77)
    by mmc9431 on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:46:06 PM EST
    So did she, but not until she had buried 5 husbands! (Maybe she fed them dirt)

    Parent
    Omigod, that (5.00 / 2) (#79)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 01:06:04 PM EST
    cracks me up.  I mean, condolences . . . but that cracks me up.  I bet she was a lot of fun along the way. :-)

    Parent
    Thanks (5.00 / 3) (#80)
    by mmc9431 on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 01:09:55 PM EST
    She was a libber before there was lib. Her concept was that you only have one life. If you screw it up or are unhappy, do something about it.

    She even was brazen enough to go into the local bar unescorted!

    Parent

    Healthy diet (none / 0) (#76)
    by mmc9431 on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:34:14 PM EST
    I attribute my good health to all the Twinkees I've eaten over the years! Those preservatives have worked wonders.

    As Apu said in the Simpson's "You can't destroy a twinkee".

    Parent

    I once heard an interview... (none / 0) (#84)
    by desertswine on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 02:28:11 PM EST
    over the radio with William Rosenberg, the guy who founded Dunkin Donuts, claiming that donuts were good for you. He was in his eighties at the time.

    "If it makes you feel good," he said, "it's a health food!"

    I think I agree with him.

    Parent

    I worked in a hospital lab. (5.00 / 1) (#73)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:29:36 PM EST
    It gave me an entirely different POV.  The spinal fluid alive with bacteria was a memorable experience.  Not part of my job, but we all were encouraged to see what bacterial meningitis looked like under a microscope.  I said a prayer for the patient.

    The blood samples from the patient who was undergoing a chemotherapy so toxic that anyone handling his samples had to use special gloves and face protection.

    The idiocy of lab techs who said "That patient is HIV positive!".  We were taught universal precautions because you never know what samples contain pathogens.

    Parent

    Not knuckleheaded at all (none / 0) (#81)
    by Inspector Gadget on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 01:24:48 PM EST
    I agree with you about hand santizers and anti-bacterial. Took to using liquid baby wash in pump containers during that timeframe when it was impossible to find liquid hand soap that was NOT anti-bacterial.

    The gloves protect others from your germs, and do less in protecting the wearer, but at least they do not kill the good bacteria that fights off the bad. I find them the better choice.

    Parent

    Already doing it (none / 0) (#51)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:21:19 AM EST
    at least in elementary school.

    I expect the teachers will be standing outside the restrooms where the sinks are to enforce hand washing.

    Parent

    you'd think... (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by Dadler on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:29:00 AM EST
    ...obama would be wise enough to use this as yeat ANOTHER reason that we MUST have public healthcare available for all.  

    then again, he doesn't even play the real economic card on this.  that is, he doesn't say that we are in highly competitive trade agreements (for good or bad) with, say, Europe and that they don't have to waste hundreds of billions lining the pockets of insurance company executives, which means American will NEVER be competetive until we fix this problem in a manner that ELIMINATES the need to waste money lining those pockets.  and the ONLY way we can do that is to offer public healthcare for all.  

    Parent

    Thanks for the updates from the trenches (5.00 / 1) (#35)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:54:51 AM EST
    Joshua had a foot checkup with his GP yesterday afternoon.  Poor kid, after having two teeth out.  But if he has to miss school I'm piling on all the medical appointments I can in one day.  When we got to his GP though healthy children were pointed to a different waiting room with a certain vigor.  When we left the nurse told us to hold our breath when we walked through the waiting room.  I got a vibe from them too that they are awaiting shoes to drop....or hopefully maybe not.

    Parent
    Ah. (none / 0) (#44)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:11:28 AM EST
    Our pediatrician has always had a "well waiting room" and an "ill waiting room".  And one time they had me bring my kid in the back entrance!

    Next time, just bring your own masks.  Then everyone will look at you and wonder what kind of dread disease you have!

    Parent

    This pediatrician has always had a well (5.00 / 1) (#46)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:13:50 AM EST
    and sick waiting room too, but toys usually traveled back and forth without too much precaution and he never had traffic police out front pointing anyone to this one or that one with vigor.  He did yesterday.  Some people in the waiting room were masked.

    Parent
    Oh geez. (5.00 / 1) (#38)
    by Dr Molly on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:01:18 AM EST
    I just dropped off my baby at college last week - first one off to college. Great timing!


    Parent
    I don't understand how it's taking that long (none / 0) (#16)
    by andgarden on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:28:57 AM EST
    to get a vaccine. Public health FAIL.

    Parent
    Science and quality control. (5.00 / 2) (#22)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:34:22 AM EST
    They could rush a vaccine out without making sure it was both safe and effective.  I'd rather they didn't.

    (And with the antivaxxers out there, I'd really hate for them to get even more ammunition for their disinformation campaigns.)

    Parent

    You would think that they have (none / 0) (#25)
    by andgarden on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:38:35 AM EST
    enough experience making flu vaccine to do this in fairly short order.

    In any case, I'm thinking of asking my doctor for a Tamiflu prescription (apparently effective on this H1N1 version) so I have the pills around just in case.

    Parent

    They're testing right now (5.00 / 1) (#33)
    by nycstray on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:50:21 AM EST
    they need to decide on the right dosage for the vials also (part of the testing, iirc). Report I saw said they were just going ahead and filling the first batches . . .

    Parent
    I guess I would be adding to your (5.00 / 1) (#54)
    by Anne on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:34:04 AM EST
    terror to post this link, and a snip of the July, 2009 article:

    A San Francisco teenager has been diagnosed with a strain of swine flu that is resistant to the common antiviral drug Tamiflu - an important milestone in the pandemic's evolution.

    The case suggests swine flu - a form of influenza Type A, subtype H1N1 - is capable of not only developing drug resistance but also spreading between humans in that resistant form, said Dr. Arthur Reingold, professor at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

    [snip]

    It is not surprising that a Tamiflu-resistant form of the virus would develop, Reingold said: If a virus finds itself within a host that is taking an antiviral drug as a preventive measure, that virus may mutate to a form that can survive that drug.

    The two other resistant cases - in patients in Japan and in Denmark - were taking Tamiflu prophylactically, said Dr Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the WHO.

    But the San Francisco teenager was not, which gives her case added significance, Reingold said, because it suggests she caught the resistant variant from somebody else.

    The resistant strains remain treatable with another drug, generically known as Zanamivir, Fukuda said.

    So, maybe best not to take it until you are symptomatic.

    Parent

    So the good news is (5.00 / 1) (#58)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:39:28 AM EST
    that the projected shortage of Tamiflu is not as big a worry, since it probably couldn't help a lot of us, anyway.  Oh, good.  Love those silver linings.

    Parent
    Obviously (none / 0) (#56)
    by andgarden on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:37:53 AM EST
    But apparently some people weren't so careful. . .

    Like those idiots taking Cipro even though there was no way they were infected with anthrax.

    Parent

    That actually was fast. (none / 0) (#27)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:45:37 AM EST
    I'm not really worried about the flu.  I'm more worried about disruptions and people succumbing to the mob mentality.  (Can you create mob psychology just with Twitter?)

    Parent
    Twitter (5.00 / 1) (#29)
    by TeresaInSnow2 on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:46:59 AM EST
    Yes, but in that case, it would be a "flash mob" mentality.

    Parent
    I usually don't worry (none / 0) (#32)
    by andgarden on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:49:38 AM EST
    much about the flu either, but it terrifies me that we can't do this more quickly. What if there were an outbreak of something really deadly?

    Parent
    Then we quarantine. (5.00 / 2) (#39)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:01:48 AM EST
    Pandemic science is fairly simple and a truly lethal communicable disease is usually short lived - after the hosts die, the disease does too.

    A disease that merely makes some (not all) of its hosts sick and kills a small percentage has the potential to kill many more than a disease that quickly kills the majority of people it infects.  Marburg hemorrhagic fever is a great example of that.  

    It's an inverse relationship - the faster and more surely a microorganism kills its hosts, the smaller and shorter the outbreak.  

    Parent

    That's a very interesting point, thanks (5.00 / 1) (#41)
    by andgarden on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:05:03 AM EST
    I assume this is basic epidemiology, of which I know almost nothing.

    Parent
    Math, statistics, biology (5.00 / 1) (#49)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:16:01 AM EST
    It's fascinating stuff.

    Don't ask me about anything legal - it scares me! ;-)

    Parent

    I am with you on that, Fabian.... (5.00 / 2) (#62)
    by vml68 on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:00:10 PM EST
    Math and Sciences courses were fascinating and a breeze for me.
    I took one class of business law and between all the torts and contract law, I swear not only was it a struggle to keep my eyes open in class but I could barely make sense of it.... :-)

    Don't ask me about anything legal - it scares me! ;-)


    Parent
    Your comment about the standing army (5.00 / 1) (#43)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:11:17 AM EST
    is a very good approach to arguing for a government agency that would produce vaccines.  Not having a swine flu vaccine is going to place our military at a recently unprecedented risk.  A few days back our daughter was talking about how she thought it was ridiculous how her father gets every single flu vaccine every single year.  She said that she's never had the flu that bad to warrant such crazed vaccinating.  Her father explained to her though that the reason why all soldiers are fully vaccinated though is so that when the flu does work its way through the population, hopefully we will never have 10%, 20%, 30% of our forces feverish and vomiting.  Many battles in our world history were won and lost not so much at the hands of warriors but upon the seige of certain viruses and bacteria attacking an armies forces.  You would think that with forces stretched to the point of breaking, we would be working double time to make certain that the swine flu doesn't knock them all out.

    Parent
    Military are on priority (5.00 / 2) (#53)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:31:10 AM EST
    for the swine flu vaccine.  History teaches us that is a wise move -- as that's how the 1918 pandemic spread to this country, it appears.  Training centers got it first.  Then campuses got it in their ROTC units first.  Etc.

    Parent
    Oh, come on (5.00 / 1) (#31)
    by gyrfalcon on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:49:23 AM EST
    It's the not the government that makes the vaccine, it's private companies.  I'd say private industry FAIL, if anything, but it's more like Mother Nature FAIL.  Growing the cultures is a process of nature.  It can't be sped up.

    Each year's seasonal flu vaccine has to be started long before they really know what it's going to look like, so it's based on educated guessing, which is why some years it's not very effective.

    The swine flu came up abruptly and independently, so there was no chance to start making the vaccine far enough in advance for this coming flu season.  Even as it is, they had to cross their fingers and hope it wouldn't mutate by the time they could grow the vaccine.

    Parent

    You think maybe there ought to be (5.00 / 1) (#34)
    by andgarden on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:51:44 AM EST
    a publicly owned health authority devoted to producing vaccines for potential outbreaks? If we can have a standing army, surely we can have that.

    And if it can't be done more quickly, I'm really disappointed in modern medicine.

    Parent

    Heh. (5.00 / 1) (#42)
    by Fabian on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:08:56 AM EST
    You are just now being disappointed in modern medicine?

    Consider it a moment of enlightenment.  From what I can tell, modern medicine is very good at finding what it wrong and much less capable of fixing the problems.  Part of it is just our ridiculous amount of genetic diversity.  A study just came out on Plavix that found that people with a certain gene do not benefit much from the drug.  

    That's good news and bad news.  Bad news for the "nonresponders", but good news because now we can do more studies to determine other ways that our genetics can determine whether certain drugs will work well for us.  

    Parent

    Be disappointed in modern Mother Nature (5.00 / 1) (#71)
    by gyrfalcon on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:28:54 PM EST
    We can't make the earth revolve faster than every 24 hours, either.  Are you disappointed in modern science for that?

    Do you get that the vaccine has to be grown from live viruses?

    Parent

    It always takes two years (5.00 / 2) (#57)
    by Cream City on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:38:19 AM EST
    for even the regular flu vaccines to be developed -- in terms of which strains the medicos guess will be the problem -- and tested and then produced in millions of algae jars or whatever.  Read about it.

    So this time, we actually will be starting the flue vaccines before the full test results are in -- and some of us can remember back to major problems from that shortcut in the past.  (I suspect that some of the illness and fatality projection numbers include people who will have adverse reactions to the vaccine itself, birth defects as in past, etc.)

    Parent

    the vaccine industry... (none / 0) (#20)
    by Dadler on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:32:27 AM EST
    ...is like all others in this nation.  if you can't pay, you can't play -- or, in this case, survive.

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    Good for the Feds... (5.00 / 1) (#21)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:32:52 AM EST
    A 70-year-old real estate broker from Spokane, Wash., has been indicted on suspicion of making threats against a Boulder abortion provider, the first federal prosecution of abortion threats since the slaying of a Kansas doctor.

    A federal grand jury in Denver indicted Donald Hertz on charges of making telephone threats to Dr. Warren Hern's Boulder medical office and violations of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE.

    Link

    I'm still trying to figure out how this person though their "activities" would help their cause.  

    The political identity of alleged window basher Maurice Joseph Schwenkler -- once a matter that spawned bickering and accusations between Colorado liberals and conservatives -- became clearer Wednesday.

    Anarchist websites lit up across the country as Schwenkler's friends asked for cash to bail out the 24-year-old, who stands accused of felony criminal mischief and was described in the solicitations as "a transgendered anarchist" using the name Ariel Attack. Schwenkler was released from jail on $5,000 bail Wednesday.

    Link
    Link

    Violence (personal or property) is not the answer, no matter which side of the political divide you fall.  

    in a similar vien (5.00 / 2) (#23)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:37:41 AM EST
       
    The Moran town hall was the last stop on a 10-city tour for Randall Terry, the anti-abortion activist known for his extreme tactics.

        Terry's colleagues put on a skit with a man in an Obama mask pretending to whip a bloodied woman, who kept saying, "Massa, don't hit me no more. I got the money to kill the babies."

        Terry himself dressed in a doctor's lab coat and pretended to stab a woman in a gray wig.

        "There's no way to pay for this thing without killing granny," Terry explained.



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    Window-smashers... (none / 0) (#60)
    by kdog on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:53:02 AM EST
    give anarchists a bad name...its why most people think anarchy is a synonym of rioting and have no undertanding of the political philosophy, which happens to intrigue the sh*t out of me.

    No Czar, No King, No President!

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    indeed (5.00 / 2) (#36)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:56:09 AM EST
    I am afraid there has been a misunderstanding since that election in 2008, during which 66,882,230 Americans cast their votes for you. Perhaps one of your trusted advisors has given you bum information. Maybe they told you that we voted for you -- walked, marched, prayed, fund-raised and knocked on doors for you -- because we hoped you would try to reunite the country. Of the total votes cast that long-ago November day, I'm guessing that about 1,575 people wanted you to try to reconcile the toxic bipartisanship that culminated in those Sarah Palin rallies.

    The other 66,880,655 of us wanted universal healthcare.
    'Win One for Teddy,' (none / 0) (#1)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 09:30:36 AM EST
    Say Dems Pushing for Health Reform

    Democrats are hoping that the memory of Sen. Ted Kennedy will revive the Democratic Party's flagging push for health care reform.

    "You've heard of 'win one for the Gipper'? There is going to be an atmosphere of 'win one for Teddy,'" Ralph G. Neas, the CEO of the liberal National Coalition on Health Care, told ABC News.

    Democrats are hoping that Kennedy's influence in death may be even stronger than it was when he was alive as they push for President Obama's top domestic priority.

    I agree with Anglachel's suggestion (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by MO Blue on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 09:53:31 AM EST
    I think the best memorial we can offer to this man, respecting his political service and offering amends for any political follies, is to enact, in its own right and without any other riders, exceptions, additions and/or emendations, his Medicare for All Act. link


    Parent
    Here is another suggestion (5.00 / 1) (#50)
    by MO Blue on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 11:20:24 AM EST
    I wholeheartedly endorse:

    Gotta love Bob Cesca's HuffPo headline: "Healthcare Reform Named After Ted Kennedy Must Not Suck." h/t MyDD


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    Sounds good to me (none / 0) (#9)
    by andgarden on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:14:47 AM EST
    Matters most in the Senate IMO.

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    they are frightened (none / 0) (#30)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:47:29 AM EST
    Makes sense. He was an archetypal tax-and-spend liberal and the living symbol of dynastic politics. What better way to mark the passing of a royal than to deplete the state treasury erecting a monument to his greatness?

    Just as Limbaugh predicted, incidentally.

    I like when they are frightened

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    Newfield piece is a good read and (none / 0) (#28)
    by oculus on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:46:13 AM EST
    explains a lot about Sen. Kennedy's personality and motivations.

    One of my favorite TV shows was preempted (none / 0) (#75)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 12:34:12 PM EST
    last night for a special on Teddy K. I had been looking forward to my show all day. Big bummer.

    Is it one of the shows that can be viewed (5.00 / 1) (#82)
    by Inspector Gadget on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 01:27:17 PM EST
    online? I watch a lot of my favorite programs online because it's hard for me to live by a tv guide schedule these days.

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    Ah jeez, I just found all 3 seasons online. (5.00 / 3) (#83)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 02:05:00 PM EST
    I may not get any work done at all today.

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    Thursday Morning Open Thread | 83 comments (83 topical)

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