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New York, 5:31 PM
Tue Nov 10
54 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/16/09
10/16/09
Here is one among many:
[www.webmd.com]
There are quite a few that DO find a connection, of course. It's hard to know what to believe with so much conflicting information. #smoking
10/16/09
10/16/09
[www.google.com] #smoking
10/16/09
Maybe you can hand out bacon? #smoking
10/16/09
Is that among smokers or non-smokers, though? I would expect there to be a drop in the general population because more people quit smoking when it's banned in public, but being around smokers socially isn't going to give you heart disease. #smoking
10/16/09
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10/16/09
I should point out that it was January 2007 when I quit. A few months later my then-fiance (she quit the same day as me) and I went ahead, got married and conceived little Ohhohoho, which was the real motivation for quitting. No wonder it took me 30 years after starting the habit to quit it; you have to have a reason, and authority flexing its muscles--or even shame--is not a reason. #smoking
10/16/09
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10/16/09
*snort* #smoking
10/16/09
10/16/09
And insurers charge more if you are on heart medication, have chronic illnesses - why is this different? To me, this is now a correction of the old system where those with "healthy habits" subsidized those without them.
I mean - if you want to smoke, go ahead - but then pay what it costs to fix you up when you need it. #smoking
10/16/09
10/16/09
10/16/09
Though, being a heavy smoker is something that I can see reasonably having an increased insurance burden. I was more worried about the obesity issue, or the issue of chronic illness. If you're a smoker, you're responsible for many of your health problems. If you're diabetic, it's not because you had "unhealthy habits." #smoking
10/09/09
10/09/09
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10/09/09
By "church," I mean "detached garage," and by "the other congregants" I mean "my private shame."
10/09/09
10/10/09
10/09/09
They gave up the wine cup for a while too. The communal wine cup always skeeved me out -- and not just because it was crappy wine.
10/09/09
10/09/09
09/20/09
Thing is, there are all manner of reasons to freak out when it comes to your kids' health and safety. The cottage industry in blaming vaccinations, however, is about as scientific and reality-based as a good old witch hunt. Our pediatrician is old enough to vividly recall holding kids as they died of diseases we now have vaccines to prevent.
My kid? Healthy as a freaking horse. But I just touched wood when I said that. Tomorrow, I'm scheduling his next round of shots.
09/21/09
The only pediatricians that don't require adherence to the correct schedule are either the very few who actually believe that anti-vax hype (i.e. either don't understand evidence based medicine or so egotistical that they ignore it even when its reached the point of lunacy to do so) or the vast majority that don't agree with alternate vaccination schedules but go along with parents either because its easier or as a means to 'appease the customers'.
To neither type would I ever consider taking my child. The truly anti-vax ones are just plain ignorant. The appeasers are the same ones who will prescribe unnecessary antibiotics to parents who demand them and who currently are flattening the supply of tamiflu liquid by rx-ing it to every kid with a fever (regardless of whether they meet CDC criteria for being at increased risk or not.) You don't want a pediatrician who feels it necessary to appease the 'customer' because if you want the best care for your kid, you want one who sees your child as their patient; their responsibility; but never in a million years a customer.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
You obviously do not understand the term hyperbole.
You are also in precisely the same camp as anti-vaccine whackjobs, with the exception that you are more subtle in your quackery. And I will admit, my hat is off to the skill at dissembling that the anti-vaccine whackjob who came up with the PR friendly slogan 'Green our Vaccines' that suggests proponents aren't 'anti-vaccine' but rather 'pro-safe-vaccine'.
I mean, hell, who isn't 'pro-safe-vaccine'? Even Satan incarnate to the anti-vax movement (Researcher Paul Offit) would be considered 'pro-safe-vaccine' (since he's spent his entire career making vaccines safer and more effective.) However, the 'pro-safe-vaccine' mantra that claims 'too many too soon' or that claims unacceptable levels of toxins are present in vaccines (which they aren't) is to the old-school purely anti-vaccine movement what holocaust minimizers are to holocaust deniers. They are the same steaming turd, but with a PR smiley face tacked on.
And while a detailed discussion of why Dr Sears' book is so incredibly dangerous is going way beyond the scope of this post, I would suggest that you read the following: "The Problem With Dr Bob's Alternative Vaccine Schedule." Offit and Moser. Pediatrics. 123: 164-169. 2009. (Of course that's the in house journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.... and we all know how much they want to poison your baby and give it to a pack of dingos.)
If you don't have access to a medical library, you could also try the following post on Orac's page at Scienceblogs: [scienceblogs.com]
09/20/09
09/21/09
a) the wife of a writer would know the difference between libel and slander (to help you remember, slander is spoken, libel is literary);
b) the wife of a writer would realize that in repeatedly using her and the kid for column material, Stein has pretty much made them into public figures of a sort, reducing the effectiveness of any claims of libel; and
c) the wife of a writer would know the difference between a commenter and a commentator.
But I clearly expect too much from people.