I’ve written before about how the anti-vaccination ‘campaigners’ annoy me. Anger me. There’s another good article refuting all their arguments by David Gorscki up here.
I would love the anti-vaxxers to read it, to slap their foreheads and say, ‘Blimey mate, I’ve been wrong all along! I’m so sorry for being such a fuckwit, for trying to kill my own children and trying to kill yours! Can you point me to the nearest doctor so I can jab my children now please?’ but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Anti-vaccination has become a religion for these nutters. And I mean that in the following-blindly-no-matter-what-happens-to-prove-I’m-a-fuckwit sense, not the handing out stale buns to the starving sense. Idiots like Jenni Barnet who has now removed all evidence that she ever uttered the word ‘vaccination’ from her personal website. That’s right love, pop a few homeopathic pills and pretend nothing’s the matter. Fuckwit.
Oh and yes, I do realise that many who, like me, despise and despair of the anti-vaxxers do their best to be polite and reasoned, to produce logical arguments against their stupidity and point them gently towards arguments proving them wrong.
Not me. I want to beat them with pointy sticks and stab them in the eye with a fork. Stupidity around the world is on the increase, not decrease, and reason doesn’t work against stupidity. These people need to be removed from the gene pool by a system of licenses for having children. An IQ higher than the wattage of an old-fashioned lightbulb will be one requirement. Acceptance of the scientific method will be another. Anyone who thinks that crystals can cure herpes or that wearing purple clothes will stop them coughing will be pushed off a cliff.

Fvnniest thing I’ue read in ages!

Really, will someone just arrest this man and have done with it? He is clearly trying to kill our children. Just evil.

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I like this guy more and more.

Measles up 38% last year! People, get an education! Or a clue!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7872541.stm

I used to quite like Jeni Barnett when she did the cookery program on Chef Porn TV. Turns out she’s a complete idiot.
And now her employer LBC radio – which I have to admit I always thought of as Loud Mouthed Ill-Informed Idiot Radio when I lived in London – is siccing its lawyers onto Dr Ben Goldacre for daring to call her out on her ill-informed rantings about MMR and not vaccinating your children.
Look. This is quite easy. Vaccinations will probably save your child’s life. Not vaccinating your children will increase their chances of them dying, and will also increase the chances that others will die. it’s that simple, really. There’s plenty of evidence that vaccination is good and none that it is bad. Sure, there are plenty of anecdotes from uninformed (wilfully uninformed, even) parents saying that ‘My child fell ill after vaccination’ but the plural of ‘anecdote; is not ‘facts’.
And if, like the nutter on the Jeni Barnett page above, you believe that you can treat measles with vitamin C – stay the hell away from me and keep your superstitions and infectious children to yourself.
When we visited the UK over Christmas, we felt obliged to consult our pediatrician about whether or not to vaccinate Scarlett against TB. This is no longer done routinely in France because it simply doesn’t exist here any more. However, it’s become quite popular in the UK due to people NOT vaccinating their children, with herd immunity against it descending in places to 60%. So, visiting the UK is becoming like visiting the third world – get your vaccinations before you go or you risk catching medieval diseases.
And yes, I am angry, very angry about this. Wilfully, ignorantly putting your children and, above all, my children at risk through stupidity should be illegal. Parents who refuse to have their offspring vaccinated should be prosecuted as if they were beating them with lead pipes.

I thought about going out to hit 18 holes or so with my golf bat or perhaps playing some tennis with the local politians but they won’t let my dog on the golf course so in the end decided that I’d rather have a takeaway curry. But you can’t find any here because the place is full of crappy drivers and cheese shops and bloody English people who write about how delightful the cheese is and how you can’t get an effin’ plumber for cash. So I ended up ordering some instant curry powder on the internet which I gave to my wife to cook instead. She’s a great cook, nearly as good as my mother who’s Italian. I prefer Italy, the food is great and my auntie knows what I like to eat.

* Normal service will be resumed eventually

With apologies to Bob and Alex who are both a bit more interesting than that.

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm

Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge wrote this piece in advance, to be published should he ever be killed. He was murdered by the bad guys in Sri Lanka. I’m grateful there are still journalists who do this sort of work, and I’m sorry we still need them.

” People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:

First they came for the Jews

and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists

and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists

and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted. Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.”

http://www.blueservo.net/

Texas border patrol puts up webcams watching for Mexicans trying to sneak in. If we see anything suspicious we should let them know. Will someone please write me a perl script that does this every 8 nanoseconds or so?

I laughed so much tears are still running down my face now.

Oh, I registered on the site: they think I’m 5-year-old Joe Jackson from Tanzania, and that I’m qualified to guard their border.

Bwahahahaha!

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