Death and The Anti-Vaxxer

This is one blog post I’ve held off writing because it angers me beyond bearing, and scares me to death.

rawstory.com

15 years ago, Andrew Wakefield, then a doctor, presented a paper to the famous medical journal The Lancet. In it he claimed there was a link between autism and vaccinations, that the one caused the other. Years of controversy later, after collecting $674,000 from lawyers looking to make lawsuits, and, worst of all, frightening parents into not giving their children vaccinations, Wakefield was exposed as a fraud. He was stripped of his doctor’s licence, and struck off the list of medical practitioners in the UK. The Lancet for its part, publicly apologized, and announced, after a thorough investigation, that Wakefield had concocted the whole thing out of thin air. Yet we are still living with the consequences of Wakefield’s lies. People have died because of them, and are dying still.

en.wikipedia.org

My fear is that I will become one of them. If I do, it won’t be my fault.

You see, I belong in that percentage of people who rely on what’s known as herd immunity to keep them safe. My immune system is impaired to the point where I’m very vulnerable to infectious diseases.

Continue reading…

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I used to have the VHS tape of this concert back during another lifetime, and was really glad to find this performance of the classic Miles Davis tune “Solar” by the greatest jazz trio that ever played together; it’s sheer telepathy. The audio track is a bit on the quiet side so you may want to turn it up.

Recorded live in Tokyo, July 25, 1993 at Open Theater East.
Keith Jarrett piano
Gary Peacock double-bass
Jack DeJohnette drums

Solar (Miles Davis) + Extension (Keith Jarrett)

A Dallas Morning News editorial on that absolutely disgraceful display of anti-Muslim hatred at the Texas Capitol pulls no punches: Editorial: Capitol Spectacle Brings Shame on Texas.

It was Texas Muslim Capitol Day in Austin, an annual event for visitors of that faith to visit the seat of state government, meet lawmakers and learn about the political process.

What they learned instead was the ugliness that people are capable of.

The Muslim visitors’ right to peaceful assembly - one of five rights enshrined in the First Amendment — was violated by a small group of morons. Hair flying, one banshee seized the microphone and shrieked nonsense revealing irrational fears more than anything.

Her diatribe created a Lone Star YouTube moment that affirms the worst stereotypes about Texas — that we’re a bunch of slack-eye cousins to the backwater creatures of Deliverance.

Tell your in-laws in New York that we’re not all hateful, hayseed, redneck, ignorant Bubbas. Yes, we do have hateful, hayseed, redneck ignorant Bubbas in Texas. YouTube doesn’t lie.

This rancid garbage comes straight from the likes of Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Frank Gaffney and Fox News, who’ve been relentlessly poisoning the discourse about Islam in this country for years.

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Trixie Whitley is the heir to the amazing voice of the gone but not forgotten Chris Whitley, and in this Tiny Desk Concert with Daniel Lanois she digs deep. This is the real deal, folks.

At the NPR Music offices, Trixie Whitley and Daniel Lanois brought a variety of instrumental backing, including an electronic bed for the single “I Believe in You,” only to ditch many of the accoutrements on the fly. The result is a gripping and revealing performance.

Set List:
“Surely”
“Silverado”
“I Believe In You”
“I’d Rather Go Blind”

For more videos, visit npr.org

On January 26th, New York Times columnist Charles Blow posted an op-ed entitled Library Visit, Then Held at Gunpoint, where he wrote about his son being detained at gunpoint by a Yale University police officer. Right wing bloggers are certain they have “debunked” this story because Blow did not mention that the cop in question is black.

That’s their bombshell reveal.

From TPM:

Several conservative sites this week declared they had “debunked” New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s story about his son, who was allegedly stopped recently at gunpoint by a Yale police officer.

What was the bombshell that Blow had supposedly kept secret? The officer was apparently black.

In an op-ed published Sunday, Blow had relayed a story from his son Tahj about his recent run-in with a campus police officer who allegedly raised his gun and told the student to turn around and get on the ground.

Blow wrote that he was “exceedingly happy” that he had spoken to his son previously about precautions young black men should take when confronted by a police officer.

“In these moments, what you’ve done matters less than how you look,” he wrote.

Yale University later issued a campus-wide email that, among other things, noted that the officer in question was black, according to The Root.

Conservative media was convinced the officer’s race blew the entire story wide open.

“RACE-HOAX DEBUNKED: COP WHO DETAINED CHARLES BLOW’S SON IS BLACK,” was the Drudge-like headline at Breitbart News.

I’ll stop there (though TPM has other examples), because Breitbart “News” and John Nolte are all you really need to know about this so-called debunking of a “race hoax.”

First, here is the obligatory screenshot, in case Nolte and/or someone at Breitbart “News” decides it would be the better part of valor to delete this post:

And here are the comments that followed:

And on and on and on it goes, in typical Breitbart fashion.

Meanwhile, on Anderson Cooper’s show, Charles Blow correctly says the officer being black doesn’t change the fact that something very troubling happened.

It’s official: Mitt Romney is bailing out, following the defection of one of his top advisers to Jeb Bush.

“You can’t imagine how hard it is for Ann and me to step aside, especially knowing of your support and the support of so many people across the country,” Romney said in his prepared remarks for the call. “But we believe it is for the best of the party and the nation.”

AUSTIN - Teachers would be able to use deadly force against students, and would be safe from prosecution, under legislation filed last week in the state House.

The Teacher’s Protection Act by Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, would allow educators to use force or deadly force if they feel they need to protect themselves against a student or anyone else on school grounds. It also allows teachers to use deadly force to protect school property, and to avoid prosecution “for injury or death that results from the educator’s use of deadly force.”

The bill was filed just days before a video of a New Jersey physics teacher being body slammed by his 9th grade student went viral. In the video, it’s clear the teacher is avoiding fighting back or touching the student.

More: Bill Would Allow Texas Teachers to Use Deadly Force Against Students - Texas Politics

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Right wing loons are always demanding that Muslims renounce terrorism and show their loyalty to the United States.

And this is what happens when they do.

Texas Muslim Capitol Day, which began in 2003, is organized by the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and brings members of Muslim communities in Houston, Dallas and other areas of the state to the Capitol to learn about the political process and meet state lawmakers. Texas has the eighth-largest Muslim population in the United States, with more than 420,000 Muslims residing in the state, according to estimates from the Texas State Historical Association.

Even before participants in Thursday’s event — about 100 Muslims, mostly children — could get to lawmakers’ offices, they encountered opposition from a group of about 25 protesters outside the Capitol holding signs. One said, “Radical Islam is the New Nazi.” Another said, “Go Home & Take Obama With You.”

The Muslim group held a press conference on the South steps of the Capitol, where one of the protesters yanked the microphone from an event organizer, shouting, “Islam will never dominate the United States and by the grace of God, it will never dominate Texas.”

As the group of Muslims continued the event by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the interruptions persisted, with the protesters yelling, “Islam is a lie!” and “No Sharia here!”

And state representative Molly White played a major role in inciting this bad craziness.

Freshman state Rep. Molly White, R-Belton, is not in Austin today to celebrate Texas Muslim Capitol Day. But she left instructions for the staff in her Capitol office on how to handle visitors who are, including asking them to declare allegiance to the United States.

“I did leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws,” she posted on Facebook. “We will see how long they stay in my office.”

MP3 Audio

The Mormon church has apparently learned a lesson from the Catholics and Protestants who’ve been redefining “religious freedom” as a free pass for bigotry, because they announced this week that they’ll support LGBT anti-discrimination laws — with one catch. They want to be immune from criticism when they continue the same anti-LGBT policies they’ve always had.

NPR has an interview with Mormon leader Elder Dallin Oaks, with a ration of phony victimhood that has to be heard to be believed. When I listened to this earlier, I was yelling at the radio: Mormon LGBT Announcement Met With Cheers, Skepticism.

You may recall former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s absurd stories about her computer being hacked by the Post Office. I had some comments about her laughable claims last November.

Well, today the Justice Department’s Inspector General released a report on their investigation, and imagine my surprise: Justice Department’s IG Report Disputes Attkisson’s Computer-Intrusion Allegations.

Many of the allegations made by former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson regarding alleged computer intrusions by the U.S. government are disputed in a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general. “The OIG’s investigation was not able to substantiate the allegations that Attkisson’s computers were subject to remote intrusion by the FBI, other government personnel, or otherwise,” reads the inspector general’s report.

In her book “Stonewalled,” Attkisson had issued a wide-ranging set of claims — that her CBS News work computers and her personal computer had been hacked, that a strange wire was found hanging from the cable TV/broadband box outside of her home and that her phone service went fuzzy. The inspector general’s report found that the cable in question was a “common” cable used by Attkisson’s broadband provider. Here’s how the report sums up the situation:

Lastly, Attkisson reported to the OIG that a “suspicious” cable was attached to her Internet Service Provider’s connection box installed on her house. She opined to the OIG that perhaps this cable was being used to “tap” her house. Further investigation by the OIG revealed that the cable was a common cable used by the provider and could not be used to monitor or otherwise affect the phone or internet service at her residence.

And in response to Attkisson’s videotape of an alleged hacker deleting content from her computer screen, the report says that the activity was caused by “the back space key being stuck.”

And that last conclusion is exactly what I said in my post. (Because it’s obvious.)