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?
208 comments:
1 – 200 of 208 Newer› Newest»Zuccotti Lung! Wow. Of course, any sane person would realize there's a reason the rest of us really, really like things like showers and toilets. But I guess that escapes them.
One thing is for sure, the Boy Scouts wouldn't have had this problem!
The STDs don't surprise me either because that was inevitable with this crew. They aren't exactly a particularly "moral bunch" and I don't think needle sharing is helping either.
P.S. Bev, Do you mind if we hijack your thread later for the debate? (CBS 8:00 PM EST)?
Please feel free use my thread, but can we not use the H-word? It's so unduly aggressive and it might cause the DHS to shut us down! ;-)
Andrew - You are absolutely right that the Boy Scouts wouldn't be having these problems. And I suspect that there aren't very many Scouts in the movement anyway. What is surprising is all the medical professionals involved in this movement and who have volunteered their time at OWS who don't seem to know much about public health themselves!
Sorry Bev, can we please "involuntarily-confiscate-to-another-location" (ICTAL) your thread! Or is it just "man-made-relocationists"? ;)
By the way, I saw a great quote from Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) about the OWS people today:
Everybody’s been too damn polite about this nonsense:
The “Occupy”movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.
“Occupy” is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the “movement” – HAH! Some “movement”, except if the word “bowel” is attached – is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.
This is no popular uprising. This is garbage. And goodness knows they’re spewing their garbage – both politically and physically – every which way they can find.
Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy.
Ouch!!
Bev, That's a really good point. They claim to have help from all kinds of professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc.) and yet either no one is offering their skills or no one is listening?
Bev: Public health is a major factor. But just remember that most major cities (San Francisco in the forefront) leave homeless people wallowing in their own filth in alleys and encampments, worrying more about offending bums than about protecting public health. I'll be surprised if they use the obvious public health issue as their excuse for removing the trash (human and otherwise), if they remove it at all.
One of the slogans of the hippies in the 60s was "cleanliness is next to nothing." The hippies were hygiene personified next to this generation of filthmeisters.
Woot woot! A debate tonight!
Bev, Be careful going near those people because soon you'll be hearing about second-hand Zuccotti. ;D
LawHawk - this movement is just the grandchild of the Haight-Ashbury crowd - mostly overeducated, upper middle class white children who are rebelling against growing up.
DUQ - I already have second-hand Zuccotti lung...
I thought the smell was just a myth perpetrated by "The Man". But I walked across the street and downwind this week and let's just say, it is sooo not a myth...yipe!
Andrew, Bev, what we are trying to do here is build consensus on redistribution of this thread from the Bourgeois bloggers to the Proletariat commenters. You can't see it, but I'm doing Zuccotti jazz-hands right now.
Zuccotti jazz hands. LOL!
Are you ready for the debate? It looks like it's only going to be an hour long and based on foreign policy. No wonder they dumped it on a Saturday night!
You know me, Mr. Saturday Night with my two toddlers.
But wait, I thought foreign policy was so important that Cain is automatically disqualified for not having any.
That sounds like what the debate moderators are thinking... stuck with a bunch of toddlers.
So it's 90 minutes! My TV lied to me!
Notice their little montage ahead of the debate? Nothing inaccurate, but boiling each candidate's platform down like that ahead of the show puts most people in a frame of mind. Just my communications background showing.
I wonder what the ratings will be with this being a Saturday night?
Mine too.
I think the best thing to come out of the Occupy movement is the "jazz hands". Nothing says "militant anarchy" like good choreography.
tryanmax, That's true. Everything is set up to make sure you aren't expecting a game show.
Do the podiums strike anyone as a game show?
Fosse!
Forget that, I'm not going on line for the last half hour. Jerks.
The last half-hour won't be on the network, you'll have to get it on streaming video from cbs.com
"Please state your answers in the form of a question."
NUKE IRAN, BABY!!!!
Cain emphasizes supporting the Iranian freedom movement before any military action. Good thinking.
tryanmax, "What is nuke Iran?"
Lawhawk, That's a horrible ideas isn't it? Who is going to switch to their internet to watch the second half?
I love the way Cain pronounces "Ohl."
Sanctions only work if everybody is in on it. Russia and China make sanctions ineffective, and work to their advantage.
Andrew, I give up.
tryanmax: I had an office manager from Texas who pronounes it awl.
Did Romney actually say anything?
A moderator admits error. Hallelujah!
I can imagine a policy to dump American oil into the market such that Iran can't keep up, but now I'm reading my own fantasies into the answers.
He should have built credible action to create an affirmative zone to encourage others to participate in the medium which might achieve out goals.
Romney won't put war on the table, but given where we are and what we know, saying he would go to war is premature.
Romney basically said, given the choice, I'll take both.
How long do you think it take Romeny to order a sandwich? And how many sentences does he use?
Newt's turn. He says Romney and Cain both have superior thinking to Obama's.
Newt can has LOLZ!
Newt -- "maximum covert operations."
I have to say I like that answer.
Oh oh... Paul.
"We should be friends."
Good for Newt. Someone who advocates using covert activities.
That's an answer that even Dems I know would like. The old, "Do what you must but don't tell me about it."
Oddly, that made sense.
kumbaya
sanctions don't work... never have.
Perry adds sanctioning the Iranian National Bank. Not bad.
You can't secure Afghanistan.
Perry doesn't seem drunk tonight.
Andrew: I agree (as above). But freezing Iranian assets would help a little. In most other areas, sanctions are a waste of time.
I like that he called O out for lack of support of the military.
WTF is "endless stamina for victory"?
Perry does seem really nervous, though.
So Santorum wants to win the Afghan civil war.
Santorum thinks the defeat of the Taliban would secure Afghanistan. It won't.
Howdy Tam!
blah blah blah...Santorum needs to quit.
If only the world had listened to Santorum, nothing bad would ever have happened.
Santorum demand more time to babble. But at least he supports Israel.
Bachmann revisits the surge.
Does Bachmann look like she just got back from a funeral to anyone?
Bachmann is being too specific. That's gonna lose many people.
Publicly Setting a time table pis truly stupid.
Give her an analyst job.
But Bachmann also raises the issue of absolute withdrawal dates and the problems with insurgents in Pakistan.
tryanmax, True. The difference between 40k and 30k and which provinces won't mean anything to people.
I think Huntsman is right... and I hate that.
Huntsman channels Obama.
"Pull out now and nuke the country from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
We've been negotiating with them for years.
Donkeys bray. What does the rino say?
Andrew: You're right, and now he is at least adding the intelligence and covert activities necessity, and preparedness for outbreaks. Afghanistan is a problem nobody can solve without careful planning for new eventualities.
Timetable, timetable, blah, blah, blah.
It's a sh*thole that isn't worth any American lives.
Newt is right -- you can't win this!
BINGO!!!
Newt ties the success of the Taliban to the terrorist camps in Pakistan. Realistic.
This is a huge problem that needs to be solved region wise. We can't solve this by just killing a couple guys in caves.
Thank you, Newt, for saying that the Middle East is not solvable by a soundbite.
Nice work Herm! I concur.
I like that answer...what commitments will Pakistan make. Hold them to it, regional strategy.
Cain seems to have prepared well for discussion of Pakistan as it relates to the Afghanistan-area problem.
Mr. Perry, can you read minds?
Huh? Foreign aid?
I like that answer too. $0.
Perry wants to cut foreign aid to those countries who oppose us or covertly undermine us. I like that.
Romney looks constipated. I had to say it.
Yes, we should stop our foreign aid the Taliban until they get honest with us.
I too like the idea of $0 in foreign aid, but that's not the answer to the Pakistan problem.
true...but I like the idea :)
I agree with Perry that our foreign aid system (if you can call it that) is totally messed-up and sends mixed messages to the world.
Perry also says "foreign aid" should emphasize actual work rather than money given to profligate governments who may not even support us. I like that too.
7 Mississippi
0 Louisiana Tech
(2nd Quarter)
Nice reference to O's "friends"
All the candidates are doing well in describing the Middle East as complicated and convoluted.
Tam, Tryanmax and Lawhawk, I don't disagree. I think the system is broken and should be fixed and I don't know why we're paying anything.
But that isn't he answer to how we fix Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iran.
Newt agrees with Perry. It's not the only answer, but it's a good start. $0 if you oppose us, help if you support us.
Thanks, Tam. I missed that. (Toddlers.)
YES! "Arab Spring" is not all sunshine and flowers.
Good answer Newt.
Newt agrees with me (LOL). The Arab Spring is quickly becoming the Anti-Christian Spring.
Rick... quit.
Andrew, you're right, it's no fix, which was the question (sort of). But no fix would be complete without addressing it.
What is he talking about? There is a HUGE difference between 20 idiots acting as terrorist and a country that hates us and is undermining us.
I'm sorry, did that male mannequin they put on stage say something?
Santorum is showing at least a basic understanding of realpolitik. We must keep Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the fold, but he doesn't have a good plan for how to do that.
Lawhawk, I agree. Rick gets the ultimate issue, but doesn't know how to get there except "keep doing what we're doing, it will all work out."
While they're taking the break, I have to continue to be impressed by Gingrich's steadfastness and deep knowledge of another area of presidential power and world politics.
tryanmax, It definitely is part of the whole package that needs to be fixed.
Santorum is doing all the convolution that make it impossible to have a serious discussion about the ME. I didn't expect that from him. That's usually a leftist tactic. I guess the difference is that he's doing it by accident.
Lawhawk, I agree with that. Newt continues to impress.
In fact, none of them seem really out of their depth here, but I do have to note that few of them have said much more than "get 'em" or and "stop sending them money."
tryanmax, That's been his style in the prior debates too, he's 100% acting like a politician.
Great answer Newt!
Newt ain't gonna bite, Mr. Moderator. "Every single one of us is better than Barack Obama."
This is why Newt is gaining in the polls.
Taking on the "absurdities" of the UN. CHEERS!
And that is jobs, and legitimate government.
(Talkin' 'bout the navy.)
That's a good answer by Cain. Very smart answer to an impossible question.
Cain's answer: the conservative approach in a nutshell. Nice!
"I don't hire people who disagree with me."
BAD ANSWER... those are called "yes men."
Sadly, we are still confused about what Santorum believes.
Cain makes a good argument for having top advisers. But so did Kennedy prior to the Bay of Pigs. They even called themselves "the best and brightest." At some point, a crisis that requires an immediate decision from the Commander-in-Chief will be required, and there may not be time to consult all your advisors.
Cain says: I want a lot of opinions.
Santorum says: I want an echo.
Who do you trust?
Good joke, Perry. Well played.
Perry remembers the Department of Energy. Good laughs all around.
Ok, props for being funny.
Good point, Lawhawk, especially in light of how they framed the debate at the outset, talking about crises that occurred in the first 100 days.
Perry is right about there being plenty of departments which could handle nuclear issues without relying on the useless Department of Energy. Eliminate it.
At the same time, not a bad answer.
So Perry plans to bring Texans National Guard people to advise him in Washington?
Que the gotcha questions.
Or is that "cue"?
Solid answer by Cain on torture.
Oh, boy. Here comes the "torture" debate again. I oppose torture, Cain opposes torture. So who gets to define torture? Cain would rely on the military to draw the line. Maybe right, maybe not.
I think it's "cue".
Cain would bring back waterboarding. Good (I know several people here disagree).
The ACLU runs the CIA?
Bachmann: Good line. The ACLU is being allowed to run the CIA.
Yeah, this isn't "Do you support torture?" This is "How do you define torture?" Stupid question.
I don't disagree. I have a bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be waterboarding." It's effective.
...and proving my point. Thanks Ron.
Paul says waterboarding is torture. His definition of torture obviously is at odds with Cain's. I'm with Cain.
Siberia is where Huntsman belongs.
Again, not asking them if they oppose torture, just asking them to define it. Grrrr!
Huntsman agrees with Paul. Uh, oh. We're outnumbered.
Of course absolutely. If you go to war with the US, you die.
and the strongest Mutual Fund.
Perry would shoot 'em all because this should be the American Century. Huh?
Isn't dying torture?
So many hedgewords, but the sentiment is ok.
Good job Newt!!!!!
+100 for Newt!
Newt takes the ball and runs with "he is fighting against America, so he's not an 'alleged' terrorist." If you engage in war with America, you are an enemy combatant not subject to civilian rules of law.
Newt has a clear view on these things. I like.
Well said Newt!
Quoting Reagan ain't gonna help you, Rick.
Huh? Is virtues like "fluid essence"?
P-O-E
I can't help but think this would have been done better in a series of interviews.
Romney would avoid a cold war with China by making markets accessible. I'm not sure that's a complete answer by any means.
What is P-O-E?
All good points. So what do you do?
Perry's is a non-answer, it's a sidestep. Pthzzz.
Romney wants China to play by the rules. I agree. Now, how do we get them to do that?
tryanmax, It's a reference to Dr. Strangelove.
Sorry, I meant Romney.
It's been too long. I'll have to watch it again.
"we can't just sit back..."
great, but WHAT DO YOU DO?!
Romney actually thinks the WTO would do anything about China's currency manipulation. He has more faith than I do in international organizations.
His whole speech about virtue came across as the speech by the insane general in Dr. Strangelove about his fluid essences being sapped by communism, i.e. erectile dysfunction.
Huntsman believes the internet is magic, and that it will save us.
Huntsman loves small businesses in America, so let's not go into a trade war with China. OK, but give us a plan than doesn't include surrender.
Huntsman: The children are the future! La la la
Lawhawk, They actually do issue ruling like that all the time, but people ignore it.
Also, most finance people are saying China actually isn't holding their currency down anymore.
So the WTO answer is an evasion -- nothing will happen... after 10 years of litigation.
Andrew, LOLZ!
"integrity" of 60 Minutes?
Since when?
Andrew: I agree about them making rulings, but they're rulings without teeth. It's not the the WTO might not act so much as it might act, and it's meaningless. Good point about ten years of litigation coming to nothing.
Whoops. A lot of people are going to hate that.
He needs to stop going back to that "I was stupid" point.
Actually talking about zero-based budgeting. Unheard of! The conversation really has changed.
He's channeling George W. Bush right now.
Wheel of Fortune!! WTF
Well, that's it for the debate for much of the nation. Now you'll have to stream the rest, and my download speeds are so bad that I won't even try.
Anyone sticking around for the internet part?
I'm still here, if my feed comes back.
Let me say again, this would have been better handled as a series of interviews rather than a debate. Too little time was given to each person and not enough follow up.
Ok, I've got it.
Nevermind, my feed is unwatchable. I'm out.
this is a lousy feed.
Me too.
Thanks for coming everyone.
Of course, they save the Israel questions until after the broadcast part.
If intelligence, quick wits, in-depth knowledge and unflappability were the only criteria for a presidential candidate, I would be forming a Newt for President committee right now. He stood out above all the other debaters. But practical politics still say he may have too much baggage to be a viable candidate. Still, I would give him much more consideration than I would have just a month ago. And I'd support him enthusiastically if he were to win the nomination.
They shoulda done what Hulu does, allow the user to set their own bit rate. Oh well.
Lawhawk, Same here. I have my doubts about Newt, but he has moved up a lot in my estimation and I would enthusiastically support him in the general election.
Lindsey graham is proud of each and every one of the candidates for running for pres. I'm sure they are all glad for the affirmation.
and, my feed is terrible now. I'm probably going to have to leave.
Tam, Just he doesn't start handing out lollipops!
Okay, first off, who was impersonating me with their faux sockpuppet? Only I can do that. (not really)
Second, the Ole Miss-Louisiana Tech game was Teh Suck. 27-7 defeat for us, against an unranked team we should have beaten, and it was chilly and windy the whole time. Bleh.
Third, I gather from the comments nobody did badly tonight in the debate, but Newt did very well? And I still want to know what idiot scheduled a debate for tonight.
Also, good post, Bev.
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