Patterico's Pontifications

2/4/2015

L.A. Times Columnist Robin Abcarian Falsely Denies That Obama Supports Parental Choice on Vaccines

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:44 am



Robin Abcarian has written two columns mocking Chris Christie for saying vaccines are a matter of parental choice. This morning, Abcarian revealed she is unaware that is also Obama’s official position.

In a sloppy piece titled GOP 2016 primary field gets case of indigestion over measles vaccine, Abcarian bemoaned the notion that Chris Christie considers vaccinations to be a “choice” for parents:

For this turn of events, we can thank New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who responded Monday to a question about measles vaccines in the wake of our current outbreak of the disease by saying they are a “choice” for parents. (His office later clarified that he thinks all children should be vaccinated against measles.) Christie’s poorly thought out response set off a chain reaction among fellow potential Republican White House seekers.

She similarly pooh-poohed the idea that immunizations are a matter of parental “choice” in a piece titled Christie’s vaccination wobble: Predictable, cynical and unacceptable:

“I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that’s the balance that the government has to decide.”

That would have been an appropriate response to a question about, say, who decides whether a 6-year-old boy is ready for first grade. Or whether a smart kid should be moved to gifted classes. But immunizations as a choice? No. With rare exceptions, they are a social responsibility.

What Robin Abcarian does not seem to realize is that Obama’s official position is . . . that vaccines should be a choice made by parents. Josh Earnest said on January 30:

Q And obviously it [the measles outbreak] has revived the debate over vaccines. Does the President, does the White House have a message about that and who will be getting vaccinated?

MR. EARNEST: Well, the President certainly believes that these kinds of decisions are decisions that should be made by parents, because ultimately when we’re talking about vaccinations, we’re typically talking about vaccinations that are given to children. But the science on this, as our public health professionals I’m sure would be happy to tell you, the science on this is really clear.

Yet when I tried telling this to Robin Abcarian, she denied it:

“No,” she tells me. “No.”

Saying “there should not be a law to make parents do the right thing” is certainly the gloss that Earnest put on Obama’s position yesterday. Three different reporters asked Earnest whether Obama believes that vaccinations should be mandatory, and he dodged it each and every time by robotically repeating that formulation. But that doesn’t change the fact that, on January 30, he said quite clearly that “the President certainly believes that these kinds of decisions are decisions that should be made by parents.”

This is precisely the sort of position that Big Media in general — and Robin Abcarian in particular — has mocked in recent days when it comes from Chris Christie. Could it be that they simply didn’t even know that Obama’s position is the same? Or are they aware of the facts, but also aware that “Obama shares GOP views on vaccines” makes a poor headline?

I’ll give Abcarian the benefit of the doubt and assume that she is not lying, but is merely exemplifying the too-familiar indolent lefty herd mentality and ignorance that is characteristic of Big Media types. Abcarian is exactly the type Ted Cruz was talking about when he said: “Nobody reasonably thinks Chris Christie is opposed to vaccinating kids, other than a bunch of reporters who want to write headlines.” He might have added: “and lazy opinion columns.”

Please understand: I’m not saying that Robin Abcarian writes her columns by reaching a consensus with her liberal friends at the water cooler, and then heading straight to her computer to type to write down that consensus, with zero intervening research. I would not make such a claim, as I have no way of knowing whether it’s true.

But I am asking: if she did write her columns that way, how would they come out any different?

71 Responses to “L.A. Times Columnist Robin Abcarian Falsely Denies That Obama Supports Parental Choice on Vaccines”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. Again , this is the paper that wrote Pres Bush said an attack
    from Iraq “was immanent” and never published a correction and apology.
    So why give any of their columnist a benefit of the doubt ?

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  3. And I am certainly not saying that Ms. Abcarian has to punch out a certain number of words in a row in order to keep getting her paycheck and she could not care less what those words are as long as they pass New York Times vs. Sullivan and fit her chosen political narrative. No, I am definitely not calling her a hack, with a left-wing shtick the sincerity of which only she knows, who is a walking argument for repeal of the First Amendment. Nope. I am saying no such things.

    nk (dbc370)

  4. “There should not be a law to make parents do the right thing.”

    And how, exactly, does that differ from “these kinds of decisions are decisions that should be made by parents”, or “parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well”? The first two statements seem to me to be semantically identical; I see no daylight between them at all. The third seems to me to be less pro-choice, since it only affords parents “some measure” of choice. So if any distinction can be drawn between Christie’s position and 0bama’s, it’s Christie who comes out as more pro-vaxx. I honestly don’t understand the fuss about his words, or how anyone can possibly read an anti-vaxx message into them. Paul’s words, yes; he actually allows for the possibility that the anti-vaxxers may be right. But Christie doesn’t. He simply points out that this is not a dictatorship, and parents do have rights! Does anyone dispute that? Not 0bama, at any rate.

    Milhouse (9d71c3)

  5. bless her heart she’s in over her head

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  6. Do the anti-vax leaders have a problem with kids bringing peanut butter sandwhiches to school?

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  7. At the water cooler, or at the after work tavern, it’s just more fun and socially cool for them to make fun of R’s than this historic president and his inept Earnest spox.

    elissa (5d0244)

  8. The law should be, and may well be, that children have to be vaccinated to come to school. Somewhere this morning I read about the instances where “philosophical objection” was included in the rule and this has become the most common, about ten times the religious objection, in deep blue states like California and Colorado.

    That seems reasonable to me. If leftists and libertarian parent don’t want to immunize their kids, they should just home school them. Problem solved !

    Actually, I’m kidding because those kids would have to be barred from places like Disneyland.

    I am also curious about the dead silence on the illegal immigrant kids that flooded the country last summer. How many have been immunized ? Another reason to miss Ellis Island.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  9. During the past 6+ years, people have taken Obama’s comments/speeches and interpreted them to mean what they wanted to hear. I think liberals are especially prone to do this. Obama specializes in being whatever people want him to be, and it’s only by watching what he does that one realizes how vacuous and unreliable his words are.

    It’s possible liberals have been interpreting Obama’s vague words for so long that they still do it when he actually says something specific. In this instance, the reporter adds an element of revisionist history to the mix. It’s as if the reporter decides what Obama and Earnest mean, no matter what they actually said, and is “fixing” it for them.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  10. == It’s as if the reporter decides what Obama and Earnest mean, no matter what they actually said, and is “fixing” it for them.==

    Well, they saw it worked for Candy Crowley.

    elissa (5d0244)

  11. The LAT’s mission statement is to accurately report the spin as received from W.H. spokesman Josh Earnest in the daily email.

    Make her head explode, Pat. Ask her to explain the difference between Obama’s position and Christie’s.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  12. Six-plus years in office, eight on the national scene, almost 20 years as an elected official — and Obama still is a blank slate.

    Or a hopelessly confused, chaotic, and self-contradictory slate. Close enough, for his friends.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  13. It’s really amusing to watch this blow up in the Left’s face.

    First, many of the richie-rich Dem donors are anti-vax.

    I’ll bet they all eat free range compassionately grown tofu, as well. Without really knowing what tofu is, of course. Other than it is gluten free.

    The it turns out BHO has a history of pandering on this topic. So does Bill Maher. And Jon Stewart. And so on, and so on.

    Look: they are politicians and celebrity parakeets, not public health officials. Of course they don’t know what they are talking about.

    But I do admit I enjoy watching people like RA try to explain that their position is not “…it’s different when my side does it…” complete with petulant foot stomp. And sometimes they get away with it, because all people generally read are the headlines. Right? Thinking is hard.

    The only problem is that little kids are in the crosshairs of this political nonsense.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  14. Beldar, like JFK, BHO is a narcissistic and self-congratulatory mirror that the Left looks into.

    The Vanity Smurf voters.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  15. They will insist ‘they have always been at war, with east asia’ Maher in particular has proven himself a knave enough times. Yes he criticizes the wolves, ( yay) but he does so to the sheepdogs

    narciso (201c91)

  16. The it turns out BHO has a history of pandering on this topic. So does Bill Maher. And Jon Stewart. And so on, and so on.

    Simon Jester – Jon Stewart? Really? Do you have a link?

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jon-stewart-mocks-anti-vaccine-770054

    http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/g1lev1/an-outbreak-of-liberal-idiocy

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  17. Mr. Instapundit has a link Mr. Carlitos

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  18. here

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  19. ooh, i would never put JFK in the low level of BHO. well, not his political life anyway. From all indications it would be the opposite with the personal lives.

    In a million years I could not see BHO lying about his health in order to be able to fight in a war. As for policies, JFK’s was hardly a radical socialists. The only thing they might be even close to each other is in Foreign Policy and even there i think JFK was more misguided than working from an anit-West playbook.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  20. True its very hard to see an analog to jfk in the current center left architecture

    narciso (bcc59c)

  21. Thanks feets. 2005 was before the Lancet article by Andrew Wakefield was discredited, so that’s the problem here. Wow – Kennedy said “1 in 66” kids have autism; that was even more crazy than the “1 in 88” we’ve heard from anti-vaxxers. Crap – “overwhelming science.”

    I heard Bill Clinton speak a few years ago, and he was obliquely alluding to this autism/vaccine link, long discredited (maybe 2008 or so). It’s a shame, but as we all know, a lie makes it around the world before the truth gets its boots on.

    Neither Kennedy nor Stewart seem to understand the diagnostic aspect of this – more doctor visits = more diagnoses. Would you really believe that there was “no autism” in China before 1990? That’s silly.

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  22. i would bet you a whole jar of pickles that this “causes” more cases of autism than all the vaccines in the whole whirl

    Some children who live with autism may qualify for Social Security Disability benefits, or SSI. The condition, however, must meet a certain level of severity in order for a child to qualify. Children with severe forms of autism will qualify for benefits under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program run by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  23. The Lancet article was discredited long before 2005 , 2005 was just
    when the magazine itself had to create a distance from it.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  24. It’s ironic that no matter how many staff members they lay off, the LA Times still seems to have an endless supply of halfwits sitting at computer keyboards (though I’m starting to wonder if people like Abcarian don’t write their columns on their smart phones).

    JVW (60ca93)

  25. Carlitos–==2005 was before …was discredited, so that’s the problem here==

    I don’t mean to resume a fight with you on another continuing discussion here, but please try to understand that Kennedy’s use of the phrase “the science is overwhelming?” which you casually wave off by saying it was later discredited, is why the phrase “the science is settled–or the science is overwhelming” on almost any topic makes a lot of very smart people’s skin crawl.

    elissa (5d0244)

  26. The Lancet article was discredited long before 2005 , 2005 was just
    when the magazine itself had to create a distance from it.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e) — 2/4/2015 @ 9:18 am

    In 2004 was when the Times published an article about it. He didn’t have his license revoked until 2010, so maybe that’s what I was thinking. Anyway, my mistake if I got the timing wrong.

    elissa – if anyone said that “the science is settled” regarding an autism/vaccine link, that would be news to me.

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  27. i was a loser

    then i got vaccinated!

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  28. Carlitos–Please don’t be deliberately obtuse. Did you not just watch Kennedy say the words “the science is overwhelming” and Stewart nod his head? And why do you pretend to not know what else I’m referencing?

    elissa (5d0244)

  29. elissa – I’m sorry, but I meant anyone serious. If Robert Kennedy or Jon Stewart tell me that “the science is settled” on a given subject, that doesn’t do much for me. Some clueless schmuck telling me that “the science is overwhelming” leaves me … underwhelmed. I hope that he doesn’t take Ambien and drive, or whatever.

    I’m sorry if that resembled me being “deliberately obtuse;” that was not my intent. If your other reference is to global warming, I’d rather not get into it here.

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  30. Vaccinated?
    I just got measles and chicken pox from the other grubby kids.
    We were a festering, steaming cauldron of disease. That classroom is still there, 60 years later and it should be burned

    I’m pretty sure it affected my IQ and I want repartitittations “MONEY”
    “GIVE ME MY MONEY”

    steveg (794291)

  31. RFK is a grifter whats got to keep his mug in the public eye.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  32. It’s of a part with the Whole Foods crowd. They want everything 100% natural.
    I saw this episode of “Survivor” which highlighted the problem with that. All the contestants were dropped on a beach and told they had to find their own forage to eat.
    So they’re three days starved, and someone finds a fruit tree. They break out the survival knife, cut open the fruit, and it’s all crawling with worms.

    Gotta love it when reality shows puncture anti pesticide, anti vax, anti oil drilling, lib culture.

    Currently the Obama Admin is busy shutting down California oil drilling, using a backdoor trap. Did you notice the jump in oil prices?
    The trap: State let oil companies taint drinkable water in Central Valley.
    Outline: Oil wells in California typically pump ten gallons of water for every gallon of oil. Geothermal hot water. It’s the nature of the beast. This hot water is filled with minerals, salty which makes it match just about every natural spring lake and dry lake bed in Southern California -shocker!
    Technically it’s feasible to hang a tarp over the top of a pond of the stuff to evaporate out drinkable water. If you were lost in the desert that would be the way to go. But because it’s industrial scale and unusable otherwise the oil companies pump it back into the hole where it came from.

    Because that hole intersects somewhere the layer of the drinking water aquafer, Obama’s EPA is shutting them down. The same people who sketched up the anti vax campaign, describe what is essentially geyser water as “a blend of briny water, hydrocarbons and trace chemicals into lower-quality aquifers that could be used with more intense treatment“.

    So crooked.
    They’re costing us money today. Prices going up at the pumps today.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  33. a blend of briny water, hydrocarbons and trace chemicals [pumped] into lower-quality aquifers that could be used with more intense treatment

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  34. So they’re three days starved, and someone finds a fruit tree. They break out the survival knife, cut open the fruit, and it’s all crawling with worms.

    MMM mmm. Protein!

    That’s like a two course meal right there.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  35. Oh, if you’re squeamish you could try to use the worms as bait and go fishing. But given the energy you’d expend it’s better to just eat the bait yourself. Besides, depending on how I got to that island I’d just make a net out of my parachute cord.

    Bait. Dinner. Either way the worms are a gift.

    If you’ll refuse to eat worms, you’re not really hungry.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  36. I am also curious about the dead silence on the illegal immigrant kids that flooded the country last summer. How many have been immunized ?

    Probably almost all. Immunization rates in their countries is higher than in the USA.

    Milhouse (9d71c3)

  37. The law should be, and may well be, that children have to be vaccinated to come to school.

    Yes, that is not coercion, since nobody is forced to send their kids to government schools, and private schools should be free to make their own rules. One problem is that in California private schools are not allowed to exclude children whose parents have filed an objection and received a waiver from the state! They have to admit such children, even if they are worried about exposing the rest of their student body to disease!

    Milhouse (9d71c3)

  38. Milhouse, you have no evidence that “almost all” of the children flooding into this country from Central America because of published immunization rates for those countries. Even if we are to take those published figures at face value the immunization rates for children living in poverty in those countries is much, much lower than for the country overall.

    In other words, the children who being dispatched by their parents to risk death, rape, or enslavement crossing Mexico to flood into this country.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  39. elissa – if anyone said that “the science is settled” regarding an autism/vaccine link, that would be news to me.

    You’re kidding, right?

    Patterico (6a7f3a)

  40. Bait. Dinner. Either way the worms are a gift.

    If you’ll refuse to eat worms, you’re not really hungry.

    They were 3 days hungry. Not Ethiopia in a drought hungry.

    If you’re eating worms, you want all your vaccinations up to date. Oh… problem.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  41. Just think of the worm-filled fruit as Prosciutto e Melone.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  42. Even if we are to take those published figures at face value the immunization rates for children living in poverty in those countries is much, much lower than for the country overall.

    What makes you think so? It’s not as if they have to pay for vaccinations over there.

    Milhouse (9d71c3)

  43. The CDC says the measles outbreak last year was due to tourists from the Phillipines and the suspicion is foreign tourists caused the current outbreak, too:

    Many of you know that in 2014, the U.S. experienced the highest number of measles cases we had reported in 20 years, over 600. Many of the people who got measles last year were linked to travelers who had gotten measles from the Philippines, where an extremely large outbreak of over 50,000 cases was occurring. Although we aren’t sure exactly how this year’s outbreak began, we assume that someone got infected overseas, visited the parks and spread the disease to others.
    ***
    Yes and let me clarify. The 67 people associated with the California outbreak includes Californians and people from six other states but it also goes back to December 28th, so it includes a handful of cases from 2014. 84 people i mentioned is the count from January 1.

    In another part of the transcript, it suggests another country or countries could be the source for the 2015 infections (but presumably the Phillipines is or could be for the late 2014 measles cases):

    Let me read a few countries where we have a history to links of recent measles case with a different country of origin, not to say that the person was of origin of the other country but there was a travel history. Indonesia, India and Dubai at a minimum and there is probably some additional ones that are under investigation. That’s for the 2015 importations. So we don’t have a definite Philippines travel history in any of our 2015 cases. Of course last year there were a number of importations that were associated with the Philippines last year.

    Regarding vaccine status:

    We do know that some of the reported measles cases this year had exempted from vaccines. We don’t have all the details yet to know what proportion had delayed vaccine. We just, you know, had not yet gotten around to it yet versus who didn’t want it. We do know that the measles cases we have been seeing have generally been in people who have been unvaccinated and many of them not vaccinated due to personal belief exemptions. We do have some cases where people were at the doctor’s office and didn’t get the vaccine because of another illness or something. We recommend you should get vaccinated unless you have a severe illness. In 2014, 79 percent of the unvaccinated cases of measles in the U.S. were unvaccinated due to personal belief exceptions. Whether that data will hold up this year we don’t know.

    Also, the CDC spokesperson says there are more adult victims than children, and the link seems to say that it’s the adults who may not have been immunized.

    DRJ (e80d46)

  44. From the same link:

    OPERATOR: Last question comes from Lenny Bernstein from the Washington Post.

    LENNY BERNSTEIN: I wanted to follow up on the 79 percent Do you have any good data of the number of people, the percentage of people in the United States who have chosen not to get the vaccine? Not the medical reason? Personal beliefs?

    ANNE SCHUCHAT: No. In terms of the general population, we don’t. We have been tracking a number of things over time. One of the things we have been tracks something the percent of infants and toddlers who get no vaccines at all. There is a misunderstanding that when we talk about vaccine acceptance that everybody is dropped out of the system. We continue to have less than 1% of toddlers in the u.s. have received no vaccines at all. Almost every toddler is getting vaccinated with some vaccine most of the time. We don’t have data on, for the whole nation on exemptions. We do track kindergarten entries every state. And we report that every summer. Our website has that information. So state by state you can see what percent of kindergartners have gotten MMR vaccine as recommended and what percent are exempting due to medical or other exemptions.

    DRJ (e80d46)

  45. i would bet you a whole jar of pickles that this “causes” more cases of autism than all the vaccines in the whole whirl

    Something like 25% of the children in Kentucky were on SSI a few years ago for “ADD.”

    The interactive map at The WaPo site has Honduras at 85% but I wonder how widely they get data. I suspect the 15% are more likely to be in the immigrant horde.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  46. I read somewhere else this morning that Colorado has about 300 religious exemption per year but over a thousand Philosophical exemptions.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  47. Steve – how many days hungry would you have to be to eat worm fruit?

    Disclaimer : I’ve ate apples with worm (singular) and moldy bread in the dark. Not on purpose.

    Not a real test because Steve would eat worm fruit just because “how dare those worms get in my fruit!”

    How many days hungry would happyfeet have to be to eat worm fruit?

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  48. What’s worse than find a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm.

    Gazzer (e441dc)

  49. Milhouse @42, it doesn’t matter if it’s free. You have to be able to access it.

    http://www.iadb.org/en/news/news-releases/2010-06-10/guatemala-health-and-nutrition-idb,7304.html

    …The program will expand coverage and improve the quality of basic health care services at the primary level of care for some of Guatemala’s poorest rural communities. It will focus particularly on maternal and child care, improving the effectiveness of Guatemala’s preventive nutrition program, and the delivery of vital micronutrient supplements to pregnant women and children under age two, as well as providing basic health services such as prenatal controls, immunizations, postpartum care and other services.

    …Guatemala has made substantial improvements in the health of its population, increasing life expectancy by nearly 10 years and decreasing maternal and infant mortality. Nevertheless, 43.4 percent of children under the age of five suffer chronic malnutrition. Many Guatemalans do not use formal health care systems, for reasons that include lack of economic resources and cultural and geographical factors. Approximately 95 percent of low-income Guatemalans must travel for over an hour to reach health care providers…

    I don’t believe they hit their 2014 targets. I don’t recall where I read that. Feel free to assume government programs in Guatemala actually come in on time and within budget if you wish.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  50. how could one find 1/2 a worm in an apple?

    seeRpea (181740)

  51. Abcarian is less obnoxious than “half-Truth” Hiltzik, and somewhat more polished than the LAT’s former bearded blowhard, Tim Rutten. She is infinitely preferable to former Boy Writer Joel Stein. Yet she suffers from the same overwhelming urge to write about what they do not know, on topics already covered by more competent media. In the process, of course, they shamelessly shill for the side they know to be Good.

    The only one left at the Times with any recollection of days when the Times carried some news and not just press releases, is George (“raise taxes!”) Skelton. He is a devotee of higher taxes and hates Prop 13, but his data receptors work and he retains some judgment based on earlier days. Abracarian is a lost cause. But then so is the Times.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82)

  52. #24, the Kansas City Star (and, I suspect, most urban dailies) has also laid off most of its news reporters while retaining all the sanctimonious, lefter-than-thou opinion writers. At some point it stopped being a “newspaper” and began its new life as an agitprop organ.

    GKH (1943bf)

  53. elissa – if anyone said that “the science is settled” regarding an autism/vaccine link, that would be news to me

    .

    You’re kidding, right?

    Patterico (6a7f3a) — 2/4/2015 @ 12:37 pm

    I realize that you were probably posting on a phone at lunch, and maybe my context was unclear as well. I meant – back in 2005 – when there was still an alleged controversy, did a scientific consensus say “the science is settled” on the matter. Meaning that it was “settled” that there was a link between vaccines and autism. I don’t believe that ever happened. elissa was trying to draw a parallel between this and global warming. Some scientist said a thing and later it was wrong, therefore … something. Wakefield was one guy, and he was a lying crook who was trying to sell his own vaccine program.

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  54. carlitos, you do realize that if you’re discussing consensus you’re not discussing science, right? No amount of consensus ever “settles” the science. You can have 97% of scientists agreeing on something (the warmists never had that level of consensus, but I’ll let that go for now) but as Einstein put it when asked about how many scientists it would take to disprove his theory of relativity, all it takes is one.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  55. food is plentiful here in chicago so far you guys

    let’s circle back on the worm thing

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  56. how could one find 1/2 a worm in an apple?

    By biting into it…

    Chuck Bartowski (11fb31)

  57. http://www.cooks.com/recipe/46m94rl/earthworm-chow.html

    Wash earthworms thoroughly and place in boiling water for three minutes. Pour off water and repeat the boiling process twice. Bake on cookie sheet at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes. Roll the worms in flour, brown in butter…

    Most people shudder at the mention of earthworms for food, but they are 97 percent protein and one of the most available and healthful foods outside your door.

    Yum.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  58. Worms in fruit, or meat, or cheese, or bread, are not worms. They’re insect larvae. A/k/a maggots.

    nk (dbc370)

  59. The recipe will still work.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  60. Also it works with Palm Grubs.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  61. DRJ (e80d46) — 2/4/2015 @ 12:56 pm

    > Also, the CDC spokesperson says there are more adult victims than children, and the link seems to say that it’s the adults who may not have been immunized.

    Adults get more serious cases. Their immune system does not react so quickly to new antiogens. Children may have gotten iot but not gotten very sick, or their cases never got reported.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  62. Who cares what Obama thinks, Hillary needs to be grilled about her 2008 statement as reported in the Wash Po yesterday: “I am committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines,” Clinton wrote. Sounds like she’s a science denier.

    AZ Bob (34bb80)

  63. Should we care that they are unfairly beating up on Christie? And then there is this treat:

    http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2015-02-04.html

    THREE GENERATIONS OF IMBECILES ARE ENOUGH

    AZ Bob (34bb80)

  64. Please understand: I’m not saying that Robin Abcarian writes her columns by reaching a consensus with her liberal friends at the water cooler, and then heading straight to her computer to type to write down that consensus, with zero intervening research. I would not make such a claim, as I have no way of knowing whether it’s true.

    But I am asking: if she did write her columns that way, how would they come out any different?

    Well, since that WAS the behavior of a large number of them some years ago — there was a big scandal over it that “blew over” quickly, since the media was hardly about to call themselves to task about it — this is far more possible than ought to be the case.

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  65. carlitos, you do realize that if you’re discussing consensus you’re not discussing science, right? No amount of consensus ever “settles” the science. You can have 97% of scientists agreeing on something (the warmists never had that level of consensus, but I’ll let that go for now) but as Einstein put it when asked about how many scientists it would take to disprove his theory of relativity, all it takes is one.

    Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:32 pm

    More critically, Steve, there’s a perfect example of it in the history of Physics.

    Ca. 1880, everyone — and I do mean EVERYONE — “knew” how light propagated through the vacuum of space. After all, it had been demonstrated to be a WAVE, and, clearly, if it’s a WAVE, then something needs to be WAVING. Hence, “Lumniferous Aether“.

    In 1886 or so, two guys, Michelson and Morley, did an experiment. The results of that experiment demonstrated absolutely that there WAS NO Lumniferous Aether.

    The results were published in 1887.

    By 1890, the results of the experiment got around to all, and pretty much EVERYONE knew they had NO CLUE how light propagated in a vacuum.

    1 experiment + 2 men > “the consensus”.

    Every time.

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  66. From a different time, The Times.
    Rotherham disclosure goes back to September, and while it took too long the other shoe has dropped:
    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/401125/46966_Report_of_Inspection_of_Rotherham_WEB.pdf

    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4344838.ece

    has taken three years for Rotherham council to begin to acknowledge the gravity of the child sex abuse scandal that it failed to prevent. Yesterday the council cabinet resigned en masse. They did so within minutes of the release of a devastating government report on a council exposed as corrupt, rudderless and “unfit for purpose”.

    Rotherham needs a fresh start, the report said. There is no doubt of that, but even now there is little sign that the departing councillors truly understand what they did wrong.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  67. She’s too stupid not to work for the Times.

    Nick M. (f8e14b)

  68. Re: Rotherham 268. Notice the word corrupt

    This was not political correctness gone mad.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)


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