I’m wondering how much immunization the several hundred million dollars worth of cruise missiles could have bought. I really should have known the Republicans would go after this next.
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by John Cole| 65 Comments
This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Assholes
I’m wondering how much immunization the several hundred million dollars worth of cruise missiles could have bought. I really should have known the Republicans would go after this next.
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MikeTheZ
But the invisible hand of the free market will protect the rich-er-virtuous from the evil virus!
MikeTheZ
But the invisible hand of the free market will protect the rich-er-virtuous from the evil virus!
Poopyman
Yeah, but that’s exactly how they roll.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
Remember, the Government doing anything to promote health is SOSHULIZMS!
MeDrewNotYou
“I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.”
Dr. Farnsworth, Futurama
On the bright side, Republicans are protecting our children from autism! Thank you guys!
/snark
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
Tax cuts make viruses go away.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
Steve has forgotten that the GOP inherently think Tax Cuts don’t have to be offset, that they’re not a cost to anything, thus we can always afford them. I agree with twisted thinking, but he gives the Republicans too much credit with that ‘if’.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
Well the older tomahawks would be scrapped (or given away as military aid). so actually using the old ones really shouldn’t count in figuring the expense of the attack. it is, after all, a sunk cost which will never be recovered. At least this way we get some good out of them.
From the Father of Warpimps Blog.
Defangularium!
Just Some Fuckhead
If we could figure out to make viruses attack just brown people with oil, we could save some money here and there.
Holden Pattern
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
I just think of bombs as self-digging Keynesian holes — the only kind of Keynesian stimulus that the Republicans will allow.
Punchy
Oh Lord, you may have answered my prayers….
From:
Please please PLEASE focus all your energy on abortion and gay marriage. Especially gay marriage. Devote all resources and money on this topic alone. Please.
Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Once again, I must quote my father, who was so wise about things like this:
“I don’t understand what’s wrong with Republicans. They’re for everything that’s bad and against everything that’s good.”
There’s nothing I can say that would add to that.
Holden Pattern
@Just Some Fuckhead:
What if we custom-designed some viruses to turn brown people into oil? Doubleplusgood!
Comrade DougJ
Kill them with autism instead of bombs.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Punchy:
I’ll agree with focusing on gay marriage. But abortion…well, fuck, tea-pocrisy is winning the battle on that sadly.
Parallel 5ths (Irish Steel)
What costs more? Immunization programs or lots of tiny coffins?
OT, but first Spencer said, “Bosnia.” To which Cisco replied “Iraq.” Back and forth. ‘Til it was “Arab League” and “mission creep.” Then it was on!
The Dangerman
Think of it as a jobs program for Raytheon that will have zero Republican opposition (missile inventory will have to be replenished, after all).
malraux
I’ve often wondered if hypermilitarism is a part of the starve the beast strategy or just coincidental synergetic.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Disease Control is hitting your target.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Comrade DougJ:
a lot of the conservative resistance to immunization programs devolved from the faked autism correlation data. Conservative Death Eaters are notoriously science averse.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Holden Pattern: win. ;) expensing ordnance is a free market solution, doontcha know?
Scamp Dog
The purpose of government is to do things to people, not for people. Hence, wars and imprisonment are suitable government activities. Anything else is soc1alism.
Poopyman
@The Dangerman: Has anyone calculated the cost of this little diversion in NPR–Years yet?
ColeFan
Wait, the Republicans are firing those cruise missiles? Christ, Cole, you’re as partisan and stupid as ever.
joe from Lowell
If Republicans controlled the House and there was no Libya action, would this cut be on the table? Yes.
If Democrats controlled the House during this Libya action, would this cut be on the table? No.
Don’t let these bastards off the hook. There is exactly one appropriate target to blame here.
Svensker
Because making sure the poor and ignorant don’t have communicable diseases is just sockalism. On the other hand, if all those poor and ignorant die of preventable disease that’s a win/win, isn’t it? Cuz all the good people will be immune?
Whoever thought this up is a genius — taking out the hippie and buck spawn with one swell foop. I wonder if they’re worried that the price of T-bones and organic carrots could go down from lack of demand eventually, though.
gnomedad
Anti-teacher, anti-immunization, anti-puppy — what’s not to like?
cermet
Even for thugs, this, I thought, would be beyond the pale – now I am starting to really understand what happened in the Balkans – these people do not belong on this planet except as dog food so they could be converted into their normal state – steaming pile of shit … assuming any dog wouldn’t be poisoned.
Ruckus
I realize this was a rhetorical question but the cut is less than one fourth of the cost of the missiles fired on the first day.
One fucking fourth. Less than 25%. One days worth of missiles.
Conservatives boggle my mind.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Parallel 5ths (Irish Steel): Silly, the parents pay for the coffins, exactly the way the free market God would have it.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Well, plenty of Dems have been hammering the GOP for their lack of a plan for addressing poverty. Here they show they do have a plan. They will reduce poverty by letting the poor die.
Villago Delenda Est
There are no massive cost overrun profits in making simple vaccines, John. Contrast with the high six to seven figure price tag of one fucking cruise missile. That’s a lot of hookers and blow for the executive suites of Boeing and General Dynamics.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Svensker: There’s a tough line to skirt there, though. You can’t let enough serfs die such that there is upward pressure on wages. That’s when the let them die policy gets dicey.
wrb
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Vivolium!
Which republican will be first to propose it and not be joking?
BigHank53
Ever wondered what it was like to live in a banana republic shithole? ‘Cause the GOP is determined that you should find out ASAP.
Linda Featheringill
I have often asked how much it costs to bury a child, knowing that the answer is always “Way too much.” The actual money involved is a very small part of the total price.
Villago Delenda Est
@BigHank53:
I spent six months in Honduras in the mid 80’s.
I’m pretty sure that’s the template the GOP is pushing to impose on the US.
Brachiator
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
Huh? Much of the opposition to vaccination comes liberals, many of them the same morans who believe in the magical efficacy of “organic” foods and “natural” remedies.
@Svensker:
Sigh. There are probably some conservatives who believe that communicable diseases only target the poor or unworthy. But what the hell, I’ve always maintained that these people want to return the US to the year 1820, before large scale immigration, before the Civil War and emancipation, before unions.
You know, the good old days when the US had Yellow Fever epidemics, wiping people out, without regard to wealth or status.
D-Chance.
@Villago Delenda Est:
Interesting you should mention Boeing and General Dynamics, if only because their highest-paid lackeys in Congress were both Democrats (Patty Murray for Boeing and John Murtha for General Dynamics).
Tsulagi
Pretty much. They’ll rain their Beck/Orange Boner level tears while wailing about the sanctity of life needing to protect the fetus in the womb from evildoers. But once it draws a breath outside, fuck ‘em.
Villago Delenda Est
@D-Chance.:
The merchants of death will take whatever pols are handy, even if they happen to be Dems.
Kallisti
I really wanted to get all righteous on my Republican Rep. over this, but Obama’s budget still cuts the CDC by $100 million as well.
Brachiator
@Kallisti:
To be fair to both, you’d have to see the details of their proposed cuts.
Cris
@D-Chance.: Anybody who says the Republicans are the War party and the Democrats are peace-loving is either naive or lying.
This is why I roll my eyes at somebody who says “I’m not voting for Obama because of Libya.” In our two-party system, the major distinction is over domestic policy and spending priorities. American military superiority is bipartisan and unquestioned.
D-Chance.
Maybe we could afford all this if we could just get Democrats to pay their “damn plane” taxes…
BTW, I could never do it. I can only imagine the multi-multi-tasking involved in trying to caulk every crack, dot every “i”, and count every straw before launching into politics. But, still, it doesn’t look good when you’re a co-sponsor of a bill that you’re running afoul of.
Holden Pattern
@Barb (formerly Gex):
Hence the attempts to eliminate access to birth control and abortion for the proles.
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
You gotta love this – ‘Murkan retirees aren’t sticking with ‘Murka.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/566514/201103181902/Peace-And-Prosperity-Far-Away.htm
‘Murkan exceptionalism – fuck yeah….
Holden Pattern
@Yevgraf (fka Michael):
You do what you can, when you can, and then you triage…
“Can” does a lot of work in there, doesn’t it? Almost like there are choices involved as to what you “can” do, and how you “triage”.
Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Villago Delenda Est:
Where were you in Honduras? I lived in Tela from 1994 to 1996, and, man, I tell you, I’d sure as hell rather be bringing up our child there right now than here. That’s a hell of a thing to say, but the way things are going here now, it’s true. A lot of it would be true anyway, even if one of our major parties weren’t becoming more fascist by the day. The food there is healthier; exercise is a normal part of life rather than something you have to make time for the way it is here; society is a lot more cohesive, you know all your neighbors and they’re your friends; needless to say, the weather’s better.
But, I swear, the way we’re circling the drain here, Honduras looks better all the time. Hell, as long as I’m going to be living in a banana republic anyway, I might as well live in one where it’s always warm and I can pick avocados and oranges right off the tree in my own yard.
The Moar You Know
@Yevgraf (fka Michael): Yeah, about that. His real estate taxes are $175 for the year. In return for that, you get:
Corrupt and wholly inadequate police protection
No fire protection (privatized)
No schools
No ambulance
Cash for service medical care only, no advanced facilities. You have a heart attack in San Felipe, you’re going to die because there’s no cath lab or even well-equipped small-town standard ERs there.
His water bill is less than $5/month. That’s because you shouldn’t drink the water, because it’s not treated and it’s not tested. But it does consistently make people sick. It’s good for washing stuff, though. Except for dishes. They won’t let you use it for watering a lawn, because lawns are illegal. I’m kind of for that.
Electric bill of $30/month? No way. The reason I know the above is because I’ve got relatives living down there, and the price of electricity – when it works – is about triple what it is here in San Diego, which has some of the highest electricity rates in the country.
And it might not be a big deal for him, but it would be for me: online access. Insanely expensive for speeds that would have been slow a deacade ago. Telnor is one of the worst companies on the planet; shitty service, shitty product, sky-high prices.
Gas is about 2/3 of what it is here, but most people don’t doa lot of driving, and it is kind of scary when you come up on a checkpoint with guys sitting around with M-16s – soldiers or criminals? You’ll find out, one way or another.
FWIW, the soldiers are usually really nice. And the people are nice, with a sense of community you don’t find in America anymore. But let’s not bullshit ourselves; quality of life costs money, and if you drop your costs that much, you’re going to lose a lot in the process.
PIGL
@Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Know who else is against everything that’s good and for everything that’s bad? Satan, that’s who.
Republican’s are evil. There’s no two ways to it. They may act nice superficially, and go to Church on Sunday, but they are not good people. Good people can not be deceived into stoutly rejecting commmon decency.
And yet the American people are poised to give the Republican Party a majority in the Senate. What’s it going to take? They are only one step from burning victims at the stake in front of the cheering multitude.
Omnes Omnibus
@PIGL:
Why do you say this? Link to polls? Anything?
jl
They are nuts. They do want to take us back pre Enlightenmnet.
What’s next up for elimination? Maybe obliteration of totalitarian ‘government run’ sewer systems and water treatment plants?
Maybe those communist public storm drains and flood control infrastructure? I have long felt that one of the problems with Los Angeles is that the people’s spirit is crushed because they are surrounded (like fish in a barrel) by all those flood control drains, cachements, and little damlets in the surrounding mountains. Set them FREE, I SAY!
PIGL
@Omnes Omnibus: It is what I thought I had been reading here and there lately, but I have not any particular link, and a 5 minute search shows nothing. I hope with all my heart that I am guilty of spreading unfounded rumour.
genetics prof
Sorry to be pedantic, but whooping cough is a bacterium not a virus. And Republicans are in fact evil.
bemused
Even kids that get all their immunizations are at more risk when there are more kids that don’t. Adults aren’t safe either. R’s in favor of cutting funds for immunizations, like most of their brilliant defunding ideas, never think it will ever impact their own lives. A few GOP legislators would have to come down with whooping cough before they figure this out.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Holden Pattern:
What if we custom-designed some viruses to turn brown people into oil? Doubleplusgood!
Please don’t joke about that. Two days after that technology was invented, the wingnuts would be arguing that we need to liquify the fucking sand niggers in order to liberate them.
Wolfdaughter
Sigh. Yep, Republicans are evil. And short-sighted.
Bacteria and viruses won’t stop at the gates of their gated communities. So even if their kids go to elite private schools, or if they homeschool them, they still can get sick from diseases affecting children. And young adults these days, if they didn’t get vaccinations as children.
The Dems are also letting a great propaganda opportunity pass here. Someone should put together a list of the Repubs’ proposed cuts, how much they add up to vs. the total expenditure pie, and what makes up the expenditure pie. And whom the Repubs’ cuts affect.
Play this over and over again. I’d kick in some bucks to buy TV time for something like this.
Murphoney
This story explains why the CDC called (and then called back) to try to conduct a survey with me inre: (1)immunization status and attitudes for persons 14yrs and under, (2) same, for infants 3yrs and under.
I answered the call the second time but don’t have any of the target age-groups persons in the household, so we said our kind goodbyes.
RalfW
Saving unborn babies is paramount. Letting them die of whooping cough is OK, though. Somehow, I just totally fail to grasp the morals of this bunch.
Xenos
Paradise
Is exactly like
Where you are right now
Only much much
Better.
Xenos
@RalfW: If your religion tells you the point of creation is to generate sin-free souls for Heaven to populate its armies of angels to fight against Satan, then the morals of it make some sense. It goes against the explicit moral instructions of you prophet/godhead, but if the whole system is geared to this end it can be pretty easy to rationalize.
As a system of ethics it ranks up there with creating armies for Valhalla in the course of gaining honor and booty, but there you go.
Jebediah, a Bruce
@cermet:
I must warn you, sir, if either of my dogs develops so much as a tummy ache because you fed them any Republican, you may expect a sternly worded letter. Very sternly worded!
Yutsano
@PIGL: FWIW Carlie Cook said it was likely, then walked it back because he realized teh crazy is still holding onto the Republicans. Remember, we were supposed to lose the Senate in 2010 too.
bob h
Immunizing a child or giving he/her a nutritious lunch will endanger that child’s future, according to Republicans. (Orwell was the big winner in November).