Janet died September 11th 1978 and her mother recovered; the head of the microbiology department, Professor Henry Bedson, committed suicide.

I had the fortune of non-existence until August of 1982, so the correct answer to when I last heard of someone contracting smallpox is… never.

But, let’s review:

“Big Pharma” and “Big Biotech” identify “problems” that are not true health problems: male erectile dysfunction disorder, female sexual arousal disorder. BIG PH&BIO market the treatments for these directly to the consumer (I assume that they also market the same products to the health care cabal the same way, but with enticements).

So what? Someone, I don’t know who, decided that Cialis, Viagra, were eligible for coverage under health care insurance. Someone, I don’t know who, decides that a product to “treat” female sexual arousal disorder is eligible for coverage on health care insurance.

The determination that these types of products are eligible for coverage by health care insurance companies is due to the decisions of the health care insurance companies themselves.

Your inference that Big Damned Pharma and Big Damned Biotech are responsible for health care insurance allowing these treatments is totally off base.

The reason that these types of products become normative in the health care insurance and health care treatment industries is due to the prevalence of the public-sector “unions” that have the clout to MAKE the insurance companies to allow payments. The taxpayers have no vote in the selection.

The public-sector “unions” whose health insurance costs are paid by taxpayers, are rampant in the US. These public-sector “unions” have been given carte blanche by their elected public servant managers to charge the public at large for all health care and retirement costs. No private sector union would demand or private sector corporation would agree to payments for these off-the-wall “treatments”.

Big Pharma and Big Biotech are simply taking advantage of the uncontrolled floods of private taxpayer funds to public sector unions. The California public sector retirement system, funded by taxpayers that have little vote, is the largest single investor in the stock and bond markets.

Get real. Big Pharma and Big Biotech simply see a very, very, fat and uncontrolled pig, and are successfully stripping some bacon from that public pig. …because they can, and there is no way for the taxpayer to do anything about it.

Why can’t the public do anything about it? Simple: over the years, the public employee unions have become large enough and strong enough as a bloc to elect public officers who are in their pockets.

Why can’t the public do anything about it? Simple, over the years, the public have become disinterested in voting for school boards, mayors, county commissioners, etc. The public sector unions become the largest voting blocs, and have their way, raping and pillaging private moneys without the tiniest squeal from the public at large. …until now when taxpayers are becoming educated about their being ripped off because they weren’t paying attention to how their tax pennies became tax Benjamins.

So, the real criminals are public sector unions. The rubes are the public at large that failed to understand how three-card-monte is played. The fat vultures, cleaning up the countrysides of loose change, are Big Fat Pharma and Big Fat Biotech. The only loser is the taxpayer, where the flow of money starts.

We taxpayers are starting to get a clue. Big Fat Pharma and Big Fat Biotech are starting to feel the effects of the taxpayer revolt over high health insurance costs driven by Big Fat Public Sector Unions. Big Fat Public Sector Unions HAVE GOTTEN THE MESSAGE, and they are not amused. Their public officer toadies are in Illinois.

I am 64 years old. I was a child during the polio outbreaks in the 1950s, smallpox was still rampant worldwide, penicillin was just a mix of “stuff” that was remarkable for treating infections. None of these vaccines and antibiotics would ever have seen the light of day if use were governed by today’s FDA.

Yet, the polio vaccines did largely eradicate the scourge of polio within a couple of years, smallpox was eradicated in the western world in just several years, and lethal infections were reduced markedly.

I am not saying that todays biologicals and pharmaceuticals should not be regulated. I am simply saying that were it not for the absolute need to use these primitive products, many people my age would never have had the opportunity to become my age.

I think that the anti-vaxers should be given the opportunity to go back into time and take their chances of survival.

Let’s not even begin the discussion of how these products transformed India, China, etc.

I especially liked the line:

“Intuition leads to the flat earth society and bloodletting; experiments lead to men on the moon and microsurgery.”

Thanks for the recommendation, Phil.

I saw that interview as well .

It really is worth watching. I like how “The Agenda” doesn’t bring on crackpots in the name of “Balance”

Pete

http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=7&bpn=779967&ts=2011-03-04 20:00:00.0

I subscribe to The Agenda’s podcast and watch episodes during my daily commute… well worth the viewing, in my opinion. And that episode was one of their best.

— Steve

What is it about the words “Extreme” and “SuperMoon” that you don’t understand?

Your pathetic “science” and “facts” mean less than nothing to a moon so “Super” and “Extreme!”

You seek to chain the mighty astological forces of a SuperMoon – forces so Extreme that they can turn your very flesh into a collection of bite-sized Twinkie holes held loosely together by nothing more your Sun sign’s humoric alignment – with the insignificant bonds of actual knowledge?

Have you learned nothing from Jenny McCarthy, you pitiful fools?

[/sarcasm]

Well, I think the first steps in this debunking are:
1.) What are the claims?
All I can get thus far is some idea that a supermoon is a moon that is full AND at perigee, and this caused the morning’s earthquake. The moon is ever so slightly closer to Earth than it normally is at perigee, and because it’s full, the Sun is on the other side of the Earth.

I see one problem already, that the Moon was nowhere near full this morning (~8 days away, which is roughly 102 degrees). Thus, if the moon is going to reach perigee at the same moment it becomes full, it’s nowhere NEAR perigee now (and in fact, the distance to the Moon should be almost dead onto the average value). If this particular amount of gravitational force caused massive earthquakes, it’d do that ALL THE TIME. Ergo, nothing doing.

But- further things to look at, to be thorough:
When will the moon be at perigee?
When will the moon be full?
Are they both 19 March?
Will the moon be unusually close at this perigee?

What is the force of the Sun on the Earth right now?
on average?

Even if it IS 19 March, how much more gravitational effect will the Moon have on the Earth than it normally does
a.) on average
b.) at a normal perigee
The moon’s orbital eccentricity is about 0.055, so I’m betting the changes in its orbit are MINISCULE, maybe even to the point where they’d be dwarfed by mountains on the Earth. (Update: probably not miniscule, see below)

How often does such a conjunction happen? (probably something like 18 years, for the Saros cycle)
How often do magnitude 8+ earthquakes happen?

(Update: Check the UniverseToday link in my name. They give numbers: Yes, it’s an 18-year thing, and it will be only 356,577 km away, as opposed to 364,397. Without knowing any other numbers, F=2RGm/r^3 (tidal force, where R= radius of Earth, and r=distance to Moon) tells me the force should be 6% stronger, as all other factors are equal.)

(Also, #14 Dunc beat me to all this)

Currently the US has a special panel to deal with any potential vaccination law suits to avoid frivolity.

And the irony is that Barbara Loe Fisher was partly responsible for that system.

We’re still a little more than a week away from perigee. The Moon is actually currently further than its average distance from the Earth. (394,494 km currently, 384,403 km average.) Plus, the gravitational effects of the Moon and Sun are currently more-or-less at right-angles, so we’re actually at the point in the cycle where the tidal forces are at their weakest.

When your orbital period is only 29 days, 8 days makes a lot of difference.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/supermoon-japan-earthquake-tsunami/story?id=13097014

Bad Astronomer: Go!

(okay, I should note that while the BA is a superhero, I don’t find the quake itself amusing in the slightest bit…)

As always, feel free to visit http://factsnotfantasy.com/vaccines.php

The same people who lobby against “big pharma pushing untested vaccines on us” usually put their trust in homeopathic remedies to cure them of any ills. As if homeopathy isn’t big business and as if it is tested extremely well.

Yes. This.