Measles Outbreak.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I appreciate hearing different viewpoints, but I will mock them if they're totally stupid. I find the "Why, when I was a kid we had polio, rocky mountain spotted fever, and spinal meningitis all rolled into one... half of us survived, I don't see what the big deal is" rhetoric painfully similar to the hipster malaise of refusing to be shocked or disturbed by anything. Being jaded and desensitized to suffering isn't a virtue.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I remember when I was a stupid teenager and had a thing for the Middle Ages, and told my chemistry teacher I was born in the wrong era. He told me flat out I probably would have died. He was right. Most certainly I would have been considered blind.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I appreciate hearing different viewpoints, but I will mock them if they're totally stupid. I find the "Why, when I was a kid we had polio, rocky mountain spotted fever, and spinal meningitis all rolled into one... half of us survived, I don't see what the big deal is" rhetoric painfully similar to the hipster malaise of refusing to be shocked or disturbed by anything. Being jaded and desensitized to suffering isn't a virtue.

Polio, as mentioned earlier, is a soft spot for me.

My recently deceased grandmother is the one that got polio. Her paralysis from the waist down is the reason my father, an Irish Catholic, is the reason I am the only son of an only son.

[Suu]

I for one, am very glad that I had my fair share of poking with needles as a child. My dad described measles and mumps to me, as he was from the generation that had them, but, he was also from the generation in which the polio vaccine wasn't foolproof, and it backfired. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on the board before that he has no muscles from his right hip down, as they had to be removed in the 60s and 70s to stop them from rotting from the inside out. Although our technology is better now, I couldn't imagine going through the amount of surgeries he did. He spent most of his childhood in the hospital, with a scary metal brace on his leg, on crutches or in wheelchairs.

The fact that they aren't giving that vaccine much anymore scares me, and it scares him too. The first thing he said at the minute I was born was, "How is her legs? Look at her legs!" and the doctor was like, "Huh?" My dad didn't realize that polio wasn't hereditary, but he was so scarred by his childhood that he feared for my own.

Resurgences of any of these diseases would be catastrophic. It's bad enough that shit like tuberculosis is becoming drug resistant, we don't need people waiving shots for their kids thinking it's going to make them deformed and handicapped. My father *IS* deformed and handicapped. Ask him what he thinks.

[Jenne]

I appreciate hearing different viewpoints, but I will mock them if they're totally stupid. I find the "Why, when I was a kid we had polio, rocky mountain spotted fever, and spinal meningitis all rolled into one... half of us survived, I don't see what the big deal is" rhetoric painfully similar to the hipster malaise of refusing to be shocked or disturbed by anything. Being jaded and desensitized to suffering isn't a virtue.

I agree to that last...I'm not sure Hawk meant to imply that, but he can speak for himself.

I think my own husband has some issues in that aspect, that he has a litmus for "true suffering" that really makes me cringe.  Because like I said in another thread--how can we categorize anyone else's suffering other than our own?  It's a sketchy business at best.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I for one, am very glad that I had my fair share of poking with needles as a child. My dad described measles and mumps to me, as he was from the generation that had them, but, he was also from the generation in which the polio vaccine wasn't foolproof, and it backfired. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on the board before that he has no muscles from his right hip down, as they had to be removed in the 60s and 70s to stop them from rotting from the inside out. Although our technology is better now, I couldn't imagine going through the amount of surgeries he did. He spent most of his childhood in the hospital, with a scary metal brace on his leg, on crutches or in wheelchairs.

The fact that they aren't giving that vaccine much anymore scares me, and it scares him too. The first thing he said at the minute I was born was, "How is her legs? Look at her legs!" and the doctor was like, "Huh?" My dad didn't realize that polio wasn't hereditary, but he was so scarred by his childhood that he feared for my own.

Resurgences of any of these diseases would be catastrophic. It's bad enough that shit like tuberculosis is becoming drug resistant, we don't need people waiving shots for their kids thinking it's going to make them deformed and handicapped. My father *IS* deformed and handicapped. Ask him what he thinks.

:hugs:

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I appreciate hearing different viewpoints, but I will mock them if they're totally stupid. I find the "Why, when I was a kid we had polio, rocky mountain spotted fever, and spinal meningitis all rolled into one... half of us survived, I don't see what the big deal is" rhetoric painfully similar to the hipster malaise of refusing to be shocked or disturbed by anything. Being jaded and desensitized to suffering isn't a virtue.

I agree to that last...I'm not sure Hawk meant to imply that, but he can speak for himself.

I think my own husband has some issues in that aspect, that he has a litmus for "true suffering" that really makes me cringe.  Because like I said in another thread--how can we categorize anyone else's suffering other than our own?  It's a sketchy business at best.

That's the Dawkins fallacy at work.

Human suffering is human suffering. It doesn't matter to what degree. If it is suffering, it is suffering.

[Suu]

I for one, am very glad that I had my fair share of poking with needles as a child. My dad described measles and mumps to me, as he was from the generation that had them, but, he was also from the generation in which the polio vaccine wasn't foolproof, and it backfired. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on the board before that he has no muscles from his right hip down, as they had to be removed in the 60s and 70s to stop them from rotting from the inside out. Although our technology is better now, I couldn't imagine going through the amount of surgeries he did. He spent most of his childhood in the hospital, with a scary metal brace on his leg, on crutches or in wheelchairs.

The fact that they aren't giving that vaccine much anymore scares me, and it scares him too. The first thing he said at the minute I was born was, "How is her legs? Look at her legs!" and the doctor was like, "Huh?" My dad didn't realize that polio wasn't hereditary, but he was so scarred by his childhood that he feared for my own.

Resurgences of any of these diseases would be catastrophic. It's bad enough that shit like tuberculosis is becoming drug resistant, we don't need people waiving shots for their kids thinking it's going to make them deformed and handicapped. My father *IS* deformed and handicapped. Ask him what he thinks.

:hugs:

It's cool. He has epic scars on his legs from the 1960s sutures. I can't tell you how many times we went to the beach and he'd get asked what happened by a little kid. The story was always a shark bite or alligator attack. 

He walks, too...well...sorta. He wobbles. My sister calls him the Gimpy Bastard.

[Triple Zero]

More to the point, telling people they are retarded for their beliefs doesn't actually shame them into thinking about it and perhaps abandoning their faith, if anything, it tends to make them more obstinate in their beliefs.

If you're looking to actually make people more secular and more rational in their daily lives, castigating them for being a dumb motherfucker isn't really going to work now, is it?

Exactly this. What they accomplish, other than smug self-satisfaction over embracing an identity that amounts to approximately the same degree of usefulness as refusing to believe that Skeletor rules the dark side of the moon, is to reinforce (and then patrol with guns) the border between religious and non-religious people. They serve exactly the same function as racists and homophobes, and I wonder whether, without the Dawkins-era atheists poking at them, Christian Fundamentalists would still feel so threatened that they would be pushing for their agendas to be heard in public schools? One is surely a reaction to the other, and the two opposing forces must, by nature, escalate in response to each other.

So, then atheists are strictly better than Satanists because they have BOTH the smug satisfaction AND they believe in a dark Sky Daddy?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I for one, am very glad that I had my fair share of poking with needles as a child. My dad described measles and mumps to me, as he was from the generation that had them, but, he was also from the generation in which the polio vaccine wasn't foolproof, and it backfired. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on the board before that he has no muscles from his right hip down, as they had to be removed in the 60s and 70s to stop them from rotting from the inside out. Although our technology is better now, I couldn't imagine going through the amount of surgeries he did. He spent most of his childhood in the hospital, with a scary metal brace on his leg, on crutches or in wheelchairs.

The fact that they aren't giving that vaccine much anymore scares me, and it scares him too. The first thing he said at the minute I was born was, "How is her legs? Look at her legs!" and the doctor was like, "Huh?" My dad didn't realize that polio wasn't hereditary, but he was so scarred by his childhood that he feared for my own.

Resurgences of any of these diseases would be catastrophic. It's bad enough that shit like tuberculosis is becoming drug resistant, we don't need people waiving shots for their kids thinking it's going to make them deformed and handicapped. My father *IS* deformed and handicapped. Ask him what he thinks.

:hugs:

It's cool. He has epic scars on his legs from the 1960s sutures. I can't tell you how many times we went to the beach and he'd get asked what happened by a little kid. The story was always a shark bite or alligator attack. 

He walks, too...well...sorta. He wobbles. My sister calls him the Gimpy Bastard.

Grandma never walked again. Polio sucks. She was wheelchair bound from 1955 to 2009 at which point she remained in a hospital.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

More to the point, telling people they are retarded for their beliefs doesn't actually shame them into thinking about it and perhaps abandoning their faith, if anything, it tends to make them more obstinate in their beliefs.

If you're looking to actually make people more secular and more rational in their daily lives, castigating them for being a dumb motherfucker isn't really going to work now, is it?

Exactly this. What they accomplish, other than smug self-satisfaction over embracing an identity that amounts to approximately the same degree of usefulness as refusing to believe that Skeletor rules the dark side of the moon, is to reinforce (and then patrol with guns) the border between religious and non-religious people. They serve exactly the same function as racists and homophobes, and I wonder whether, without the Dawkins-era atheists poking at them, Christian Fundamentalists would still feel so threatened that they would be pushing for their agendas to be heard in public schools? One is surely a reaction to the other, and the two opposing forces must, by nature, escalate in response to each other.

So, then atheists are strictly better than Satanists because they have BOTH the smug satisfaction AND they believe in a dark Sky Daddy?

Depends on type of Satanist. LaVeyans tend to be atheists.

[Jenne]

I appreciate hearing different viewpoints, but I will mock them if they're totally stupid. I find the "Why, when I was a kid we had polio, rocky mountain spotted fever, and spinal meningitis all rolled into one... half of us survived, I don't see what the big deal is" rhetoric painfully similar to the hipster malaise of refusing to be shocked or disturbed by anything. Being jaded and desensitized to suffering isn't a virtue.

I agree to that last...I'm not sure Hawk meant to imply that, but he can speak for himself.

I think my own husband has some issues in that aspect, that he has a litmus for "true suffering" that really makes me cringe.  Because like I said in another thread--how can we categorize anyone else's suffering other than our own?  It's a sketchy business at best.

That's the Dawkins fallacy at work.

Human suffering is human suffering. It doesn't matter to what degree. If it is suffering, it is suffering.

I have to confess I'm a judgemental bitch, and sometimes I fall into that fallacy myself with a WHOMP!  (notice the "H" there...)

But yeah...it's a difficult proposition at best, isn't it? 

And Suu, I second Twid's hugs...I can only imagine your dad's suffering...glad he's been so successful in life in spite of it, though!

[Cain]

Ahem.

FUCK YOU, MY DAD DIED FROM MEASLES.

Thank you.  You may continue.

[Triple Zero]

I'm pretty sure I got both mumps and measles when I was young too, btw. Isn't that the point, as long as you get them while you're young it's not as bad? And I guess that's what the vaccine is for, so you can get it without really getting totally ill.

Though I really can't remember how crappy it was because I was really young.

[Suu]

I for one, am very glad that I had my fair share of poking with needles as a child. My dad described measles and mumps to me, as he was from the generation that had them, but, he was also from the generation in which the polio vaccine wasn't foolproof, and it backfired. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on the board before that he has no muscles from his right hip down, as they had to be removed in the 60s and 70s to stop them from rotting from the inside out. Although our technology is better now, I couldn't imagine going through the amount of surgeries he did. He spent most of his childhood in the hospital, with a scary metal brace on his leg, on crutches or in wheelchairs.

The fact that they aren't giving that vaccine much anymore scares me, and it scares him too. The first thing he said at the minute I was born was, "How is her legs? Look at her legs!" and the doctor was like, "Huh?" My dad didn't realize that polio wasn't hereditary, but he was so scarred by his childhood that he feared for my own.

Resurgences of any of these diseases would be catastrophic. It's bad enough that shit like tuberculosis is becoming drug resistant, we don't need people waiving shots for their kids thinking it's going to make them deformed and handicapped. My father *IS* deformed and handicapped. Ask him what he thinks.

:hugs:

It's cool. He has epic scars on his legs from the 1960s sutures. I can't tell you how many times we went to the beach and he'd get asked what happened by a little kid. The story was always a shark bite or alligator attack. 

He walks, too...well...sorta. He wobbles. My sister calls him the Gimpy Bastard.

Grandma never walked again. Polio sucks. She was wheelchair bound from 1955 to 2009 at which point she remained in a hospital.

I'm not 100% sure, but from what I understand the treatments my father underwent were pretty revolutionary at the time, which probably saved him in the long run. Not that long ago they had a special on TV in which folks that had suffered from Polio in the 50s were having severe complications now. My dad get's check ups regularly, but since the infected tissue was removed, he has little issues other than, well, not being able to walk normally. He can ride a bike and drive a car, he was just trained to do so with his left leg. He was also a high school wrestler once all of the surgeries had been completed and he could function without the brace.

He does, however, now that's he's in his 50s, use his handicap as a crutch, which get's fucking annoying at times.