Fox News and Flu outbreak: Why are so many not getting vaccinated?

Fox News seems to struggle to maintain the line between news reporting and propaganda, and this article is no exception:

Flu outbreak: Why are so many not getting vaccinated?

Or, "Why are so many people so stupid to not trust in the power of drugs?"  What caught my attention right away is that nowhere in the article is "mercury" mentioned at all (of course, I've heard the arguments that it's no different than eating a can of tuna, but I STOPPED eating tuna because of the mercury!)

I also found this peculiar word repetition in the article.  Do they even use editors?

However, just because a person does get the flu vaccine doesn’t mean he or she won’t still get sick.  However, many people can mistake flu-like symptoms for the flu virus.  Esper noted there are many different viruses capable of causing disease, so people shouldn’t necessarily assume that if they are sneezing and coughing, they caught the flu virus.


I didn't do the greatest in English class, but don't you generally use "however" following a previous statement that you want to respond to with the contrary?  So how could you however a however?  Wouldn't that be arguing both sides of an argument?  Goofy.

I've debated getting the shot, but only because I'm curious if I had an adverse reaction if I could get some money filing a vaccine damage complaint.  But the fact is, I'll take my chances.  If people want to soup up their bodies, more power to 'em.  Not me.

Russell Moore and 'Red Ragtop' by Tim McGraw

I generally enjoy the podcast by Russell Moore of Southern Seminary called "the Cross and the Jukebox", in which Dr. Moore gives a Christian overview of different songs, generally of a classic country flavor but also including more contemporary numbers as well.  Recently he covered the song Red Ragtop by Tim McGraw, an annoying song with an even more annoying pro-abortion message nestled within it. 

What struck me about this song (and what I shared in the comments, and which was apparently too graphic to note, as it was deleted) was the fact that to me the title of the song, "Red Ragtop", has embedded within in the sound of "red rag", which in a way is evocative to me of hemorrhaging following abortion, namely the aftermath of the grizzly, abortive D&C procedure in which the unborn child is destroyed (something not usually talked about by the "women's health" propagandists of the mainstream media.  If we all believed the mainstream media, abortion would be described as nothing more than a "health decision" with no long-term health and/or psychological ramifications.)  I suppose I can see how the comment was irrelevant, but then again, half of what I post in my 1000+ some Disqus comments online are generally irrelevant.  I rarely go back to my comments once I leave them, but I speak my peace and move on.  It's generally confrontative basement-dwellers that spend all day following a comment thread.  Not me.  I don't care.

But in the situation with this comment, I was morbidly curious to see if it would land, and alas, it didn't.  Still, the song title brings to mind the less-than-pleasant aftermath of abortive butchery to me, of failed elective surgeries, of 9-11 calls from abortion clinics that are unable to provide adequate "women's health" when abortions go bad. 

I have a fear that we're going to wind up with the incumbent for another 4 years, and that's going to mean more legislation geared towards killing the unborn, at the expense of the collective taxpayer.  I really fear for the direction this country is going sometimes.

Raw Milk Sleepwalk Dream Post

I have no memory of writing this, but found these inane rantings saved on a random Notepad doc. I think I was sleep-walking one night and wrote this:

- The dairy industry wants raw milk stories buried because they want all people drinking only homogenized, pasteurized milk, of which they hold the monopoly. Raw milk is a far-healthier competitor, and the raw milk farms bring a lot of attention to the dangers, and nutritional worthlessness, or pasteurized milk. Lactose intolerant people, from what I've read, can consume raw milk. But this is something the big dairy industry wouldn't want getting into the mainstream, so bury bury bury...

- the big pharmeseutical industries would like this story buried as well, because they are often the ones responsible for adding drugs like rBGH into milk, a drug that makes the cows produce much more milk - while at the same time putting this drug into the milk for public consumption (and often causing difficulties like mastitis in cows.) Raw milk farmers don't use rBGH, so it's more money lost.

- The food industries that buy up all of the big milk industry milk wouldn't approve of this story as well, seeing how they need these big, mass-produced pasteurized farms for their milk. If a raw milk farm made headlines and got more attention as people's health started to improve from raw milk, that could mean more trouble with the public wanting them to use raw milk instead (for foods involving dairy: ice cream and what not, or even other food companies that incorporate creams into dinner entrees and what not.) Raw milk could make their operating costs more expensive.

- And of course, the Big Government would disaprove of raw milk news stories, since it could mean more cost for dairy for government workers, public school lunches, military meals, etc, etc...

I'm sure all of these industries are pals, and their big-wigs have council meetings to decide what to tell the AP to include in the news. Visualize a big round table with the following:

- Big Dairy industry executives
- Big pharmaseutical executives
- Big Food industry executives
- Government agents from the FDA
- AP agent that decides what stories to run

"Gentlemen, let us make sure that this raw milk story is buried. Someone contact Lindsay Lohan's agent and give him $50,000 in return for encouraging Lindsay to doing something stupid, dangerous and news-worthy! Oh, and be sure that the LAPD somehow connect this raw milk farmer with the fringe 'sovereignty' movement, so that law enforcement will crack down on him hard!"

For what it's worth, I'm not a raw milk drinker - but simply for the reason that I can't find it anywhere local. It's nearly impossible to come by. There's a farm a couple hours from here, but - and another reason I don't drink it - it runs like $10 a gallon. Which is a shame: I've tried it, and it's delicious. It's a shame that the government won't lessen the restrictions on the availability of raw milk, but then again, I don't expect things to change any time soon. The Powers that Be have seen to that.

From The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter

Responding to an Anti-Anti-Vasectomy Site

Here's a letter I wrote to an anti-anti-vasectomy site, responding to this site, that I doubt will see print, so posting it here instead.

Hey, I doubt my email will see print, but I'll write and send it anyway just for the therapeutic effect it gives me.

Bottom line: seriously, the entirety of your 'response' site sounds like pharmaceutical propaganda, but in this case, Big Urology propaganda. My unfounded-yet-likely suspicion: enough prominent urologists are talking together one day over beers, lamenting their profits affected by Kevin Hauber's site (or perhaps doctors find themselves getting far too many pestering questions thanks to his site) so -- enough is enough! -- break out the propaganda machine! Pool funds and get a professional, "medical sounding"-response site together, and get it out there, with the same efficiency of the vaccine industry getting the counter-autism propaganda online (only the top pro-vax articles seem to get the top search engine hits!) Urologists scramble, assemble funds, perhaps a call made to an ivy-league buddy or two, and the big money comes rolling in for a professional-looking, objective-sounding website ("be sure to include text like 'no book to sell' so that no one will suspect any ulterior motives to this site...")

But seriously, the polish used to refute Kevin's documentation seemed strained: using tactics such as marginalize the studies that support chronic issues and dismiss everything else in a cheerful ad homonym wave, and do what you can to steer around and away from the chronic page issue. Make his site as fringy and anecdotal-sounding as possible. Let's stamp out his documentation and research with our impressive-sounding, big-budget research. Chronic pain.... let's make this sound minor, dismissive, something to elicit the collective shrugging of shoulders, and let's watch the business come flooding back in again. Besides, EVERYONE takes a pain-killer when they first wake up, right, so why not someone damaged by a vasectomy?

If you think about it, vasectomies probably mark the singular reason a man would go to a urologist in the first place. So if there is skepticism of the safety of this procedure, you take away from that business, and what else would there be to give urologists business? A periodic, rare health issue with the reproductive organ? No, I see the big picture going on here. A well-played counter-move by a not-so-well-meaning group of urologists who need business.

But for what it's worth, frankly, it's not just Kevin Hauber's site that has dissuaded me from ever getting my manhood components mutilated, nor does it have anything specifically to do with philosophical or religious purposes. For me, it's all about cold, clear reason. If there is an elective operation that could potentially cause, no matter how small the likelihood, chronic pain in the region of my manhood, for every day for the rest of my natural life, then there is no way on earth would I get this operation. The other side-effect stuff that Kevin lists, that the anti-anti-vasectomy folks like trashing the research of, is secondary: I'm more concerned about the lingering, ongoing pain. My heart goes out to any guy who got the operation, experienced endless pain as a result, then when questioning the doctor received little more than a pain-killer prescription and a shrug. If there's the prospect of pain, then there's no possibility of getting this operation for me. At least with a barrier, I don't have to fear living each day with pain for the rest of my life.

Rational Neo