@sweet_communist: If we end up deciding to punish Bernanke, it would be some kind of wonderful to sentence him to a summer on the Jersey Shore with these young firebrands.
@Uncle_Billy_Slumming: Oh, that would be delicious. I'd love for him to have to shill tacky T-shirts while wearing one that identifies him as a Shore Store Whore. Plus, he could use some time in the sun. He'll be orange in no time!
@sweet_communist: Gel the beard. Lipgloss. Get him juiced and all fist-pumpy. Make him stand up in the club at midnight every night and show us his pout and peace fingers while reading excerpts from Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose."
I won't be convinced that Time is at all serious about their brand of stupid unless they name Glenn Beck Man of the Year. Even "The Angry American" won't cut it. #media
Have you watched the CNN online newscast? It's two college kids doing the news from the bridge of the Enterprise but with most of the props missing. #media
@TheBusinessGuy: If there was no event that I was watching on one of their live channels, I've actually been known to leave the stationary shot of the White House or some other quiet thing open, rather than listen to the newbies blather. #media
@Magister: I know what you mean. I love Blitzer's idiotic tags to stories. For example, if Earth were blown up by the Martians, Blitzer would say on the outro, "The Earth has been blown up. Certainly a tragedy, and we will be following this." Jack Cafferty always looks at him as if he's a fly in Cafferty's soup. #media
@TheBusinessGuy:
What gets me is when he's "interviewing" a reporter or analyst to provide background and asks questions which he should be able to answer, if he's half as smart as his audience, but some producer's obviously telling him there's an interesting factoid somebody, somewhere may not have heard.
The anchors on cnn.com were much the same way, except unlike Blitzer, I never expected them to know.
@Magister: After watching Blitzer for five minutes, you really don't expect him to know much of anything. Actually, the only CNN headliners with real heft are Amanpour and Zakaria--especially Zakaria, whose Sunday show always feel like the ideal seminar at the Kennedy School. #media
Our pediatricians' office policy on vaccinations didn't leave any room for dissent, any leeway in scheduling vaccinations differently. As our doctor explained, the English quack who recommended staggering or diving vacs later admitted that he'd suggested that purely out of thin air.
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.
@Mediahohoho: Absolutely. The most skilled and caring peds docs that I know take that same stance: I won't help you commit child abuse because of your ignorance.
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.
This is Cassandra. I am not anti-vaccinations, nor was I ever. Nowhere in the column did he say I'm against vaccinations. If you read Joel's column more carefully, you'd see that I was (and am) concerned about some of the ingredients in some of the vaccines. Which is why I decided on spacing some of the vaccines out a little. (Read Dr. William Sears' very balanced, pro-vaccine book and there's a section in there about studies regarding aluminum overload in babies). Giving the Hep B vaccine at birth is a very new practice and our baby will get the vaccine soon. Long before his teen years. (Which, again: Joel did not say we are vaccinating OUR baby for Hep B when he's a teen). Get your facts straight and stop jumping to slanderous conclusions. It's really pathetic that gawker passes judgments and even blatant lies like this. But on the other hand, it kinda makes me feel like a celebrity! (P.S. Note to this commentator "NickelMD": I hope you are not really a doctor. Any doctor that would write "I should be able to piss in a cup and make them drink it after I finish beating them bloody" is clearly a disturbed person who should not be in the field of medicine).
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]
@Sigerson: I'm not convinced that BC is the real Cassandra Berry, unless her hatred of Gawker has faded over the last two years. I would hope that:
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.
Somehow it does not surprise me that this idiocy took place in LA. Not that NYC is any better, but going with what feels right is a uniquely LA proposition.
12/16/09
This is a serious fucking issue. This is not a joke. The banks are not lending!
Have you seen this graph from Brad Delong? These stats aren't jokes. People are really suffering in this shit.
There is nothing funny about this. Not. One. Fucking. Snarky. Thing.
I get that Time magazine has had a rough go of it with their last few POY, but this?
Fail on this, Time Magazine. Fail.
12/16/09
Haven't found a great nickname for him yet... Helicopter Ben is nice and cute, but "The Entity" might just do the trick better.
12/16/09
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12/16/09
I know for sure that one set of knuckles must read MICRO and the other MACRO (obviously, the thumbs are included).
12/16/09
[en.wikipedia.org])
12/16/09
Servicey!
12/16/09
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12/16/09
I hate when my fingers fall off while writing.
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02:10 AM
11/13/09
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What gets me is when he's "interviewing" a reporter or analyst to provide background and asks questions which he should be able to answer, if he's half as smart as his audience, but some producer's obviously telling him there's an interesting factoid somebody, somewhere may not have heard.
The anchors on cnn.com were much the same way, except unlike Blitzer, I never expected them to know.
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
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.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09