Since at least the 19th Century, public health officials have fought hard to educate the public of the importance of proper hygiene and sanitation. It was observed that people living in cramped, unsanitary conditions caused the fast, virulent spread of deadly airborne diseases. As a result, cities and towns set about developing a system of public sewage disposal, indoor toilets, public parks, and the aggressive education of the need for proper hygiene. The simple act of washing one's hands has save more lives than all the antibiotics in the world. In the last 50 years, the Plague, cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, tuberculosis and many other diseases have all but been eradicated from the "first world" because of these agressive public health systems. Airborne diseases like influenza, that wiped out nearly 16 million people in 1918, are, today, just inconveniences for healthy people.
So why the public health history lesson? Well, as they say, when one does not understand history, one is doomed to repeat it. And when a group of people who have been raised in a world where major problems of public health have progressed to the dangers of "transfats" and "obesity", it is not even in their thought process that there is a reason for proper sanitation beyond the smell. Okay, I will get to my point - the Occupy movement has become a matter of public health! In the last few weeks, there has been an alarming rise in reported cases of airborne and sexually transmitted diseases running rampant through the Occupy camps. Respiratory ailments are so prevalent at the Occupy Wall Street camp that medical professionals have a name for it - "Zuccotti Lung". More disturbing is the antibiotic-resistant strain of tuberculosis that cropped up at Occupy Atlanta. And now, the occupiers are hunkering down for the Winter. Big military-style tents began to crop up at Zuccotti Park this week and it is rumored that there are bunkbeds coming to fill them. No running water, no proper toilet facilities, and cramped, closed quarters - the only thing left is a an outbreak of cholera, and we will be right back to the 19th Century. The health department has shut down businesses for not keeping soup at the proper temperature. Is it going to take a typhoid epidemic for our Mayor to do something?
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Sorry to hear your team stinks. There's always next year... unless they stink so badly they're canceling the program. ;)
On the debate, I would say they all did well tonight, but Newt easily had the best night. For one thing, he's mastered the art of attacking the moderators to score points. It's actually kind of a cheap trick, but it makes for great soundbites. He's also very good at throwing out hints of policies to make it sound like he's got vast amounts of knowledge just waiting.... without ever really committing.
I doubt any of the others changed any opinions tonight.... assuming anyone was even watching. They all said pretty much what you would have expected:
Paul -- We need to stop worrying about overseas. Though he did make the interesting point that if we go to war, then we need to win it and be done with it.
Romney -- lots of sound and fury signifying nothing you could really follow. He seems to want good things for us and bad things for our enemies.
Cain -- only spoke a couple times, but he was very solid when he did speak. I would say he overcame the doubts about his foreign policy skills, except I'm not sure he spoke enough for that.
Perry -- Not drunk. He's also big on Texas.
Bachmann -- has become a detail oriented technocrat who never really gets to a point.
Huntsman -- made some good points now and then (even though we may not want to hear them), but he leaves you with the suspicion that he doesn't really have American interests first.
Beaker -- Ah Beaker. The world would be perfect if people had only listened to Beaker back when all those evil Republicans were trying to squelch his ideas.
Beaker also had the "WTF" statement of the night when he said he would only hire people who thought like he did. So much for his grasp on how leadership works because leaders tend to like hearing opposing views before they make up their minds.
That's all that struck me. CBS was stupid and only rank 1 hour on television and then did the last 30 minutes online somewhere.
just now got online and discovered there was a debate earlier tonight... thanks for keeping me in the loop!
rlaWTX, I only found out yesterday evening and I think most people only found out today.
This one was really poorly planned. Seriously, who plans debates back to back like this and then has it on a Saturday night?
I'd say performances were good all-around.
Cain and Newt shone brightest and offered actual conservative viewpoints. If anything hurt them, it was that they sounded too much like each other.
Perry stepped up his game in spite of coming off nervous in the first few minutes. He made a few good jokes at his own expense to brush off his earlier gaffe. Too bad nobody was watching.
Paul and Huntsman delivered as expected.
Romney seemed more like a politician than ever to me.
Bachmann was too wonkish trying to demonstrate her knowledge. There is such a thing as being too prepared.
Oh, and Santorum was there.
Andrew, thanks for pointing out how little speaking time Cain had. I didn't realize it at the time, but in retrospect he didn't speak much. Now why do you suppose...
tryanmax, I suspect it's because the MSM would rather you not focus on Cain anymore.
They haven't been able to destroy him and that scares them. Plus, they think they know/understand Gingrich and they know how to deal with him, so they would rather conservatives switched to him. Also, I think it plays well with the narrative that conservatives can't make up their minds and are just going from crush to crush. So why not help things out by minimizing Cain and shifting conservatives to Gingrich. Then in a couple weeks, they'll attack him and how we switch to Santorum.
In may ways, this felt like an early debate when the order was Romney, Cain, Romney, Gingrich, Romney, Perry, Romney, Paul, Romney Huntsman, Romney, Bachmann... only this time they mixed in more Gingrich.
It would be interesting to see how much time each candidate got.
P.S. I agree with you. I think both Cain and Gingrich did really well -- both better than expected in fact. BUT it hurt them a bit (probably more Cain than Gingrich) that their answers were very similar.
And I agree, more than any night before, Romney gave generic answers without any substance, which really made him sound like a politician.
Since we are out of the debate made and I read these things late anyways I'd like to make a point that Bev has illuminated through her article.
Why exactly is it that the Occupy Protesters get to "camp" out on the public grounds wi8thout a permit. The Tea Party would never have been allotted this privilege and they acutally got the permits needed and cleaned up afterwards.
Seems to me that the mayors of these cities are doing their citizens a huge disservice by not forcing the Occupy people to meet the same requirements that everyone else would.
To my mind the Occupy people outside my house say in and say out woiuld be as welcome as the American Socilist White people's party or as Joliet Jake referes to them "Illinois Nazis".
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