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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Understatement in today's political environment.

In her interview Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show, (Homeland Security Secretary) Napolitano was asked why the government isn't requiring all Americans to get the swine flu vaccine, once it's available. "Because health programs generally aren't mandatory, and you get pushback to that," she replied.
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posted by mikevotes at 7:20 AM

5 Comments:

  • What if all the crazies shun life-saving vaccines because of there boiling hate for "The Government"? What if they all get sick, realize that," oh shit, our insurance sucks." And what if that generation just sort of all dies off in they hate-filled quest for some sort of Christo-nationalist purity?

    See, right now there is no cost for being an ignorant, anarchist, gun-totin' piece of shit. What if there was a price to pay for the actions (or inactions) of perverse ignorance and assholery? There needs to be a reckoning. Those shrill voice calling for personal responsibility need feel the pain of their irresponsibility. They'll either smarten up, or die off as the evolutionary process kicks in.

    Sorry for the rant.

    By Blogger -epm, at 10:15 AM  

  • Well, there are lots of folks rejecting vaccines for their children right now, although my impressions is that that's from both the paranoid right and the corporate paranoid left.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:18 AM  

  • I was mashing my rants. I really wasn't talking about vaccines and the various fringe fears (either medical or gubmint conspiracy).

    My main point is that there's no personal cost to being ill-informed and wildly ignorant. One way of being wildly ignorant is to avoid getting a flu shot merely because someone in Obama's administration said to.

    I have a pretty fatalistic view of the American experience. I think we're on a downward trajectory and within a generation will become -- not globally irrelevant -- but something on par with Great Britain or France on the international stage. We are culturally, emotionally, intellectually and morally incapable of maintaining -- and building upon -- the national ideal left to us by previous generations.

    By Blogger -epm, at 10:47 AM  

  • Just as a broad statement, we're too big and too well armed to end up as GB or France, especially within a generation or two.

    Most likely we just subside back to one power center among many.

    Simply the military and economics will keep us at par in the game.

    Think about how the Soviet Union collapsed. Their military and history kept them in relevance when they had no business at the table.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:33 PM  

  • Yes. USSR/Russia is a better guess than GB or France. But, still... I'm pretty certain the international bloom is off the American rose for the rest of my lifetime. Americans are willing to do violent/military things... we're just not willing to do great things.

    By Blogger -epm, at 3:11 PM  

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