Your Joy Will Kill You

So I don’t get to the movies much anymore.  The last movie I saw was “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” with my youngest (good movie for kids and adults– highly recommended).  When she and I go to a movie, we always get a bag of popcorn to split.  We wouldn’t have it any other way.

But, the killjoys over at the Center for Science in the Public Interest have analyzed the popcorn and have determined it’s probably the worst thing you can eat.  I pretty much figured when you go to the spigot and spray that golden-hued buttery liquid on the popcorn, I’m going to feel it oozing through my pores sometime later in the day (Hey, I’m sweating artificial butter flavoring!)  But it’s a guilty pleasure for an uncommon event.  But the CSPI folks would rather you eat boiled lentils with a coating of flaxseed oil rather than let us enjoy our treat on our special day.  I’m not saying we should eat this stuff on a daily basis, but I am saying that regulating an occasional indulgence seems overly critical.

And I have to take issue with the name “Center for Science in the Public Interest”.  If you look at their website, you’re treated to a group that are obsessed with what you eat.  The entire side menu comprises of food-related topics (with the exception of Integrity in Science, which watchdogs for conflicts of interests).  Effectively, the CSPI is going to do what it can to make sure you don’t eat candy, drink soda, eat popcorn, use salt, drink booze, or benefit from the advances of genetically engineering your crops.  The dubious “Eating Green” tab sums up the CSPI’s political interests.  This isn’t science (which is a broad term with many specialized areas).  This is nutrition science, not general science.  The name itself is misleading.

As we grow closer to a nationalized health care system, please be aware that these types of lobbyists will have a say on what kind of food is sold, as the population must eat well to stay healthy.  So expect your Dolly Madison Snack Cakes to vanish from store aisles, as well as any carbonated beverage, as the government forces milk upon you.  And when you go to the movies, be sure to pick up the Big Salad to split with your kids while watching the film.

Al Gore: Earth’s Core Is a Few Million Degrees C

The all-around GENIUS Nobel Laureate who’s been touting geothermal energy tells Conan the planetary core temperature of earth is “several million degrees“:

Conan:   Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …
Al:   Yeah, yeah.
Conan:     and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that’s generated from the core of the earth …
Al:   Yeah.
Conan:   … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?
Al:   It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …

The CORE is several million degrees!?  Quick, call Hillary Swank!

The SUN has a core temperature of a few million Kelvins.  The Earth’s core is estimated to be about 6000-7000 K.  You’d think he’d know this, being an expert on renewable energy and all that.  Unless he’s just a political hack making things up as he goes along to push his fantasy of imminent destruction by CO2.

STD Infections Still on the Rise

A recent report by the CDC shows that common, treatable infections of ghonnorhea, syphilis, and chlamydia are on the rise.  So who’s the blame for the increase in these STDs?  According to John Douglas, you and me, ignorant American!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States.

“Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated,” said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world,” Douglas added in a telephone interview.

…

“We haven’t been promoting the full battery of messages,” Douglas said. “We have been sending people out with one seatbelt in the whole car.”

The blame falls on people to spread the message on how to treat these common disease.  However, look at these statistics I’ve highlighted.

* 1.2 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1 million in 2007.

* Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported.

* Adolescent girls 15 to 19 years had the most chlamydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.

* Blacks, who represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 71 percent of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.

* Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

* 13,500 syphilis cases were reported in 2008, an almost 18 percent increase from 2007.

* 63 percent of syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men.

Ah, notice the elephant in the room?  These diseases is prevalent amongst historically-poor minority Americans.  If I had to guess, these infections are also common in the inner cities, where education is poor, as is access to adequate medical care.

I don’t think the problem here is education.  I think the problem here is rampant poverty in urban areas, poverty that’s been prevalent in the ghetto for 40 years.  I also think the obsession with sex amongst teens, especially at-risk teens, driven by a popular culture obsessed with sex, has really helped this STD explosion more than you and I talking to kids about sex.

Kids are bombarded with sex daily, from dolls, to TV shows, to movies, to music.  There’s no escaping it.  A society with an unhealthy preoccupation with sex is exacerbating the problems.

I am also concerned that nearly 2/3 of all syphilis cases occur within the gay population.  Syphilis is a nasty disease.  The fact the disease is growing in prevalence is not due to government policy but a breakdown of social and individual responsibility.

The Ignorant, Brainwashed Naturalists Strike Again

So, in defense of Bill “Let’s Not Vaccinate” Maher, Autopsy commenter Karen popped up with copy-and-pasted blather from people who think Big Pharma and Big Medicine are out to kill us all while they make billions of dollars (for rich, white, racist, fat, smoking Republicans, nonetheless).

This is a problem I have with the internet.  Some people, like Karen, want to believe in something so much, that they will stop accepting any kind of rational explanations and instead post half-truths to make themselves look better.  What’s worse, it’s not even their own words they use.  Says Karen:

783,936 people in the United States die every year from conventional medicine mistakes.

I recognized that wasn’t Karen’s voice, so I copy-and-pasted it into Google, and lo and behold, see what I found!  Those words are attributed to Dr. Gary Null (I’ll use the term “doctor” lightly in his case, as he got his Ph.D. in “Interdisciplinary Studies” from correspondence school).

But wait!  Karen isn’t done not thinking. She “says”:

Poisoning from prescription drugs has risen to become the second-leading cause of unintentional deaths in the United States, according to the CDC

Here’s another line, lifted from NaturalNews.com, and several other places that propagate holistic well-being over modern medicine.  Odd that they all  use the exact same wording in their articles?

And I’m sure if you called up the CDC and asked them “Hey, unintentional poisioning is high, so I’m going to stop taking my medicine”, they’ll tell you you’re out of your mind.  Why?  Because, yes, accidents happen.  Yes, people are allergic to some medicines.  There’s no way of knowing there would be a complication if someone’s never take the drug before.  Does that mean all medicine is dangerous?  Of course not.  But it does mean that there are risks with all medicines.  Karen wants us to think that by going to all-natural, holistic cures, we’d do away with the risk of them.  Alternatively, if Karen wants us to test every single drug against every other single drug, and every single genetic marker, etc, so we prevent such deaths, then she is dooming many other people, people who need those medicines, to death as we run countless tests to see if there may be a 1 in 10,000,000 risk with the drug.

The truth of the matter is that Big Pharma (evil bastards *spit*) have rigorous controls in place to check the development phase of new medicines for any dangers.  The FDA puts strict limits on the clinical trials of these drugs.  The process chemist doesn’t want to kill people.  The clinician doesn’t want to kill people.  The pharmacists don’t want to kill people.  Nobody wants to kill people, but Karen and others of the “all-natural” cures are actually attacking our medical infrastructure to try and prove their insane notions.  (And, when you are attempting to prevent people from getting the medicines they need to survive, then yes, you are insane.)

Karen even goes so far as to post a list of drugs that the FDA has recalled or issued warnings about.  Now, this is a bit misleading (no, Karen wouldn’t purposefully mislead us, would she?).  So let’s go through the first 5 drugs she listed:

Heparin.  What is it?  It’s an anti-coagulent.  In fact, it’s isolated from natural sources (odd she’d pick on a natural product).  Why was it recalled?  Actually, a batch of heparin was contaminated, so to prevent possible dangers, all people who got that batch of heparin for their blood-carrying materials were advised to not use it.  Is all heparin bad?  No.  If it were, then we couldn’t do things like give blood, or store blood samples, or run IV transfusions.  Bear in mind that the American Red Cross states that giving one pint of blood can save 3 lives.  So the question is, why doesn’t Karen want people to donate blood to save lives?!

Visicol.  What is Visicol?  It’s a phosphate-based laxative used to “purge” the colon before colonoscopies.   What is the warning?  Visicol has been reported, in rare cases, to cause kidney damage.  Again, in rare cases.  I suppose Karen would rather have all those people get colon cancer.  Oh wait, who’s most at risk from colon cancer?  African Americans! I guess Karen really is a racist.

OsmoPrep.  Where have I heard this before?  Oh, it’s a rival phosphate product to Visicol.  So this is the same warning as Visicol, not that Karen tells us.  She just conjures another boogeyman.

Healon D.  What is it?  Well, it’s not a dangerous drug.  It’s a device used in eye surgery.  And only one lot has been recalled.  Why?  A chemical associated with the manufacture of these items tested above the FDA limit.  Good thing there’s quality control.

Raptiva.  What is it?  A drug to treat psoriasis.  Why is it being recalled?  Raptiva has been shown to cause an increased risk of a nervous disorder called PML (progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy), which, once contracted, becomes fatal.  In this case, Genentech, the company who manufactures Raptiva, is voluntarily removing Raptiva from the market.

So there you have it.  OF the first 5, only 1 has a dangerous recall, and one wasn’t even a drug.  But in the eyes of the fanatic, there’s no reason to actually do the research when there are websites to do it for you!

I think what upsets me the most is that people like Karen would deny people medicines they need because they are not on the approved list of “natural” remedies.  Given that I am currently fighting off H1N1, I’m pretty thankful for antibiotics and expectorants and analgesics.  And modern medicine, which makes once-dangerous illnesses like influenza far less fatal than they would be.

And just to let you know, Karens of the world, viruses like this attack the young and the healthy.  No exercise or organic food or holistic remedies will stop the virus.

 

 

Another Sign He Doesn’t Get It

Obama has stopped whining about FOX news, for now, and has instead shifted his attention to conservatives.  He’s particularly miffed that he caught heat for taking his wife out on an extravagant date night to New York.

“People made it into a political issue,” Obama told The New York Times Magazine for an article about the Obamas’ marriage, appearing in the Nov. 1 issue. The article was posted on the Times’ Web site on Wednesday.

“If I weren’t president, I would be happy to catch the shuttle with my wife to take her to a Broadway show, as I had promised her during the campaign, and there would be no fuss and no muss and no photographers,” he said. “That would please me greatly.”

Again, this is part of Obama’s massive narcissism.   ‘I just wanted to take my wife out for dinner!  Is that so wrong?’

Usually, when people find fault with something I do, I perform an internal examination to determine if my course of action was indeed misguided.  If I wore a lampshade on my head, and danced around in my underwear at a party, would I then whine about the people complaining about my actions?  Or would I say, “Hey, maybe the Lampshade Underwear Mambo wasn’t the classiest of maneuvers?”

Obama’s still living in the world of Obama, not the world of the President.  Obama the Senator could charter a helicopter to fly him and Michelle to New York to dine at a 4 star, then hit some swanky parties and get home at 4 AM.  But with the office of President, you are now charged with being the Head of State.  You have to arrange travel through the Secret Service, as well as transportation to New York from D.C.  The NYPD need to be alerted and involved.  The FBI has to run checks to make sure there’s no elevated risk of terrorist activity.  Effectively, a little harmless jaunt costs the US money in protection and manpower.  Worse, we’re paying for security for a private date– this doesn’t even have any official State function.  Effectively, the US paid $80,000 so Obama and Michelle could have a date.  And yes, Mr. President, that is a political issue.

Presidents become trapped in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by means of elaborate security measures.  We need our Head of State to be safe.  And if you don’t understand the inherent costs to the taxpayer for your indulgence of the New York Nightlife, you’re just confirming everyone’s suspicions you’re aloof.

The Solitary Confinement of the Echo Chamber

I’ve noticed an interesting trend on the Internet.  I don’t think what I’m about to address is confined to cyberspace, but there are certainly concrete examples popping up all over.  I’m speaking of the movement of prominent opinion artists away from a discussion of ideas and into an echo chamber, where only their opinion matters.  What gradually happens to many people who have such solitary focus is an almost fanatical devotion to their core principles, so much so that they eschew healthy analysis and instead start veering into cult of personality.  There are many examples, so let me bring them to light.

• Bill Maher.  I used to like Bill Maher.  His show “Politically Incorrect” was a healthy debate forum, and he usually started the show with something snarky.  However, as time progressed, he used his monologues as a self-righteous pulpit from which to preach, and he never allowed a following discourse from the guests to discuss the ideas in his monologues.  As time progressed, Maher became more and more of an establishment liberal, and in doing so, has walked his self-righteous being into a state reserved for conspiracy theorists.  Here he is on his show, looking to his guests for support, as he rambles about inoculations and mercury fillings.  Strap in and enjoy this special kind of crazy (especially the “settled science” bit):
• Charles Johnson.  I remember I used to have a good ol’ time a Little Green Footballs, reading the 700+ comments on a single post, and listen to Charles talk about the rise of Islamofacism in Europe.  People like Robert Spencer (of JihadWatch) would stop by and contribute.  But about two years ago, CJ started afoul of the White Nationalist movement in Europe, and he slowly drifted into some deranged paranoia, so much so he even banned Robert Spencer from his site for reasons I can’t readily explain (it’s logged on JihadWatch if you want to see the actions of a paranoid individual attacking a steadfast intellectual in Spencer).  He started banning commenters for disagreeing with him.  He’s done such a good job of discouraging debate, he now speaks to an echo chamber as their Grand Poobah.  His loss of focus on Creationists drifted into “hate-mongers” at the Washington D.C. protest march.  Look at these “hate-mongers” in this photo-essay of his and tell me– are all of these people foaming-at-the-mouth racists?  I see people who are talking of revolution, not hate, because they fear their rights are being eroded.  Somehow that gets translated into White Supremacy.  And, of course, there is a Birther thrown in, as well as someone with a satirical sign (“Dr. Strangelove” anyone?) and someone stating that Barney Frank is a sexual deviant (which, given Frank’s track record on economic issues, should be the least of our concerns).
• Lee.  I used to love Right Thinking from the Left Coast.  I even sent money.  Now, I don’t want to speak ill of the dead (Lee tragically passed away last year in China), but the blog seemed to lose its focus on a variety of topics and instead spent a lot of time on torture.  In fact, Lee spent an inordinate amount of time on torture and why it was bad.  After about the 100th post on torture, I had lost hope in the blog as a whole, and moved on to greener pastures.  I enjoyed many of Lee’s posts before his torture obsession, and I miss the guy who made me laugh.  I think that’s what got me the most– I stopped laughing, and reading someone so obsessed with the minutiae of a gray-area topic that it sucked the life out of anything else he was talking about, pretty much ruined the site for me.  Rest in Peace, Lee, and I hope you find laughter wherever your Spaghetti Monster puts you.
• The Huffington Post and other liberal blogs.  I used to love going to the Huffington post because I could effectively dismantle arguments of the bloggers there (and before you click to see my greatest hits, know that the comments have been under maintenance for about 2 years now).  I even had the good fortune of being mentioned in a blog post by Jane Smiley (in which I am called arrogant for telling another commenter that she’s, ahem, a human).  The meat and potatoes of a liberal commenter on a blog is the strawman, and it was so much fun knocking them down.  Abortion debates were my specialty, and I had fun there, helping the confused sort come to rational decisions.  However, out of the blue, one day I was banned.  I had not violated any terms of service.  But what I did was upset the Echo Chamber.  I was persona-non-grata because I challenged them by bringing in debate.  I rarely veered off topic, and I always discussed the merits of the post.  But, at some point, I was too big of a thorn in the side, and my attempts to bring rational debate met with banning.  I found a few other blogs, and even found William, the hardcore liberal, who would plagiarize posts from other places and claim them as his own.  (When I routinely made him look stupid for blindly following the liberal talking points, he started attacking me personally.)  But in those other blogs, I discovered a microcosm of people who simply found others who agreed with them, and would result to derivative dribble when debated.  It’s come to a point where the Defenders of Academia are so locked into their liberal mindset that anyone who disagrees is the subject of ridicule, not debate (although some, like Maher, want to debate something that’s saved the lives of millions of people).
• And that brings us to the News.  Conservatives love to point at the Mainstream Media and claim that they have a largely liberal bias.  And who can blame them, when CNN runs a story with a psychiatrist calling conservatives cowed toadies?   Who else would run with the video other than a network tailoring its news to its listeners– liberals.  Is there any debate here, or is this just a story put together to make conservatives sound like angry ignoramuses who only do what are told by a bully?

What I’ve illustrated here is a disturbing trend within the Age of New Media.  We are so connected that it’s not hard to go out and find people who agree with us, but to actually engage in argument forming debate is so uncomfortable that it is shunned and the opposition ridiculed.  And in that echo chamber, we find people we once trusted are deteriorating into nothing more than conspiracy theorists with 50,000 daily counter hits.

We’re becoming a polarized nation, and it has nothing to do with Talk Radio, as it’s a product of the lack of debate found elsewhere.  When the policies of indoctrination end in academics and the News, maybe we’ll see a thawing of the polarized viewpoint.  But so long as people can find a safe haven to hear people agreeing without debate, we’ll never have this thaw.  And to that end, the internet is not doing us any favors– it merely magnifies the ever-growing rift sown by the media and ideological blogs.

UPDATE: Charles Johnson is now surfing HotAir comments and posting them on the front page of his blog, trying to expose the “racism” inherent in the Right-o-Sphere.  It takes a special kind of vindictiveness to surf the comments on a rival’s blog and use them to try and smear it.  Essentially, because HotAir doesn’t spend the time prowling and banning people for possible racist comments, HotAir must itself condone all racism.  (Or, maybe HotAir is just more tolerant of free speech, not just speech you agree with?)

Here’s a few examples of comments CJ has objections with:

Of course not, Oba-Mao is their messiah, he holds their Marxist ideologies every bit as dearly to his heart as they do their own. Were the founding fathers alive today, they would be hanging these ba$tards from the nearest Liberty Tree for treason. Benjamin Franklin would be spitting flames to see what his precious Fourth Estate has become.

doriangrey on October 21, 2009 at 8:18 AM

[…]

Like any good dictatorship the filthy lying coward in the White House will soon not allow unapproved media networks.

highhopes on October 21, 2009 at 8:34 AM

[...]

Unfortunately, we have a Marxist/Maoist Administration, a slavish Congress, and a Goebbels-esque Fourth Estate, who has destroyed the concept of objective reporting more than any other generation before it. The best defense is a good offense and sunlight is the best disinfectant. Remeber, Chavez, Mao, and Putin exercised containment of the media and control of the message, also.

kingsjester on October 21, 2009 at 8:39 AM

Yes, CJ actually thinks these are “extreme, hateful, racist, and/or violent”, and need to be banned and scrubbed from the HotAir comments.  So believing a President to be Marxist who has surrounded himself with some clearly in-the-realm-of-communist leftists is now considered a banning offense, or a window into your racist soul?  For someone who claims rationality, CJ is clearly moving into the realm of megalomania.

So, my recommendation to HotAir commenters — beware!  CJ may attempt to shame you by posting your possibly “extreme, hateful, racist, and/or violent” comments on his website for all to see!

Auto Tune the News

A cult is building around these guys, and it’s well deserved.  I caught on with Auto Tune the News #2, and they’re just getting better.

Throwing the Money Around

Unbelievable. President Obama is going to hand $250 to seniors to make up for a lack of a boost in Social Security payouts. I guess that money tree behind the White House just won’t stop producing fruit! And by fruit, I mean gold bars, because the dollar is quickly losing its stature. Social Security payments are supposed to increase with inflation, but last year, there was no inflation, so the payments are going to remain constant.

Here’s the money quote of the story:

“Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession,” Obama said in a statement. “This additional assistance will be especially important in the coming months, as countless seniors and others have seen their retirement accounts and home values decline as a result of this economic crisis.”

Huh? The people hardest hit by the recession are people with houses they already own and retirement savings that have slowly been recovering? Plus, he’s going to give them a whole $250? For what? To buy a couple of Snuggies?

President Obama, the people hardest hit by your recession are the folks who lost their jobs (not that $250 would really help there). But he’s willing to spend $12.5 billion dollars to do.. what? Try to quell the backlash against the AARP?

So far, Obama’s shown he doesn’t know much about economics, or history. I don’t see what throwing $250 at a person over 65 is going to do to stimulate the economy. If anything, it’ll stimulate the Matlock Memorabilia market.

Stimulus saves or creates 8,284 jobs in Wisconsin!

According to a report submitted by Gov. Jim Doyle to the Feds, the Stimulus money has saved or created 8,284 jobs in Wisconsin. (Of course, that’s BS. If you have to say things have been “created or saved”, you’re painting with a big brush. The job has either been created or it’s been saved. You don’t get to say it’s both without giving specifics.)

So far Wisconsin has received $1.9 billion dollars in aid from the Feds.

And if you get out a calculator, you’ll discover that’s just shy of $230,000 a job. According to the report, most of those jobs are fireman, policemen, and teachers (and I guarantee they don’t get paid more than $200,000 a year.)

Where did the rest of the money go? And why did it take $230,000 / job to save it?

And let’s be honest, this is a little bit of legerdemain. Do you think Wisconsin would really lay off 6100 firefighters, policemen and teachers? Of course not. That would be political suicide for Democrats as each is unionized. (I’m a teacher in a public school, and I’ve lost 5% of my income.) So did the stimulus really “save” those jobs? No. What it did was allow the state to say they would have cut those jobs had there been no stimulus.

As an analogy, suppose I get $100,000 from a benefactor, then say, “Thank goodness I got the money, or I would have had to sell my kids for medical experiments!” Would I really sell my kids? Of course not. But that’s the impression I’m giving by saying they were “saved” by the $100,000 donation.

The Wisconsin Office of Recovery can be found here.

If you really want to look at what the stimulus has done for Wisconsin, you can look here. At least it’s less than 9.7%.

UPDATE:  Looks as though this “education jobs are threatened” BS has been exposed in Ohio.  I wonder how many other states this is prominent in?

Bill Engvall Should Change His Act

…from “Here’s your sign” to “Here’s your Nobel Peace Prize”.