# Is That TB Guy The Biggest Asshole Ever, Or What? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 31, 2007, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240 "2007-05-31T20:49:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/101 "2007-06-01T13:30:33Z")
I’m glad that billions of dollars we’ve spent in Iraq to make America safer can be undone because we haven’t put the dollars into useful things like not hiring retards to guard the borders. (yes! Score 2 for **Trunk** for bringing Bush and Iraq into the discussion) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/102 "2007-06-01T13:37:35Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] I’m glad that billions of dollars we’ve spent in Iraq to make America safer can be undone because we haven’t put the dollars into useful things like not hiring retards to guard the borders. (yes! Score 2 for **Trunk** for bringing Bush and Iraq into the discussion) [/QUOTE] You know what this means, don’t you? We _need_ another tax cut! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/103 "2007-06-01T13:59:48Z")
Let’s see if we can understand how pandemics spread. Infected people travel and interact with other people. The farther they go, the more they infect, the greater chance of a pandemic is to occur. I did not say he was causing a pandemic. I said: > [@](#): > > This guy hopped continents, flew with a No Fly order, he is our basic pandemic waiting to happen. We are extremely lucky it wasn’t something like an Ebola strain. GET THAT? I am aware that this version of TB, while pretty darn fatal, is not as easy to catch as some things. Now, let us see if we can wrap our head around the fact that a guy who knew he had a contagious disease, a potentially fatal contagious disease hopped on numerous planes, interacted with untold numbers of people and violated at least two countries by doing so. So, we are very lucky that TB Andy isn’t infected with something worse. Had he been infected with something hotter, he very well could have caused an epidemic to spread over numerous continents. Which, by definition, is a pandemic. I am aware of how easy, global travel is. I’m also aware of how it affects the spread of diseases. I interact with hundreds of people every day at my job. In close proximity, sharing tools and well within sneeze distance. It scares the bejeezus out of me that anyone in this day and age can be so oblivious, not just TB Andy, but the people who think “no big deal.” ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/104 "2007-06-01T14:00:31Z")
I hope I’m wrong, but frankly I don’t have faith in the CDC’s ability to handle an outbreak of cooties, rockin’ pneumonia or boogie-woogie flu, let alone a deadly pandemic. It’s part gut feeling, part anecdote (years ago I worked for an ISP that had the CDC as a customer; all their corporate dialup accounts were frozen due to nonpayment, which seemed odd to me— a government organization that can’t pay its bills?) and part a result of seeing years of news reports alleging chronic mismanagement, lack of preparedness, and dismal employee morale. When the big one hits, I hope it responds to a judicious regimen of “more cowbell,” otherwise I fear we’re all thoroughly fucked. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/105 "2007-06-01T14:11:53Z")
Vinyl: I think your fears are absolutely credible. This one guy has shown how easy it is to not only evade them, but downright make a mockery of the CDC. What possible hope do we have for anything more severe? In this era of global travel, we need a strong, attentive, effective CDC more than we ever have in history. Events like this are exactly what cause people to build stockpiles. While it doesn’t make me want to go out and empty the shelves of my local Walmart, it certainly makes me more aware than when the proverbial “shit hits the fan” we really won’t be able to be protected. I suppose the good news is that if we are all hunkered down eating spam, waiting for the Shit, we probably won’t sit around on the internet listening to insufferable assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/106 "2007-06-01T14:16:08Z")
[QUOTE=An Arky] I’m thinking the FIL being a rare TB researcher for the CDC is just too much of a coincidence, as well. Given TB Andy’s behavior, I can see how he might want him out of the picture. [/QUOTE] I wish to subscribe to your newsletter and would like to add a further paranoid-delusion that with all the hubbub about this bunghole & flying has probably set any terrorist with a twisted thought a plan in motion to find & infect someone who is not on the Watch List and give them money to fly all over the world, promising them all the virgins in the afterlife and glory & money to Mama. Finding TB or some other really nasty disease in a 3rd world country wouldn’t be that hard to do. Cause, if I were an Evil Bastid, that’s what I’d do. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/107 "2007-06-01T14:16:16Z")
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip] It’s part gut feeling, part anecdote… [/QUOTE] Don’t forget ‘part Republican administration’: > [@](#): > > Bush has repeatedly proposed slashing the CDC’s budget: > > ``` > – 2002: Proposed a $174 million cut. > > – 2003: Proposed a $1 billion cut, with no new funding for preventive health divisions working on TB. > > – 2004: Proposed an increase of “less than 1 per cent.” > > – 2005: Proposed a $263 million cut, while simultaneously proposing a $270 million increase in abstinence education. > > – 2006: Proposed a $500 million cut which would have slashed grants to state and local health departments like the Fulton County Health and Wellness Department involved in this week’s TB-scare. > > – 2007: Proposed a $179 million cut, in addition to unspecified plans for more CDC “savings.” > > – 2008: Proposed a $37 million cut, including “massive funding cuts in proven health protection programs.” > > ``` [http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/cdc-budget/](http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/cdc-budget/) ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/108 "2007-06-01T14:18:28Z")
May I also guess that this TB will be this summers Super Evil Disease that is OVERCOVERED by all the news agencies, like the SARS/ Bird Flu/Sharks Attacking epidemics of past. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/109 "2007-06-01T14:26:56Z")
The guy is a grade A asshole. I was reading through this thread, I saw a little over-reacting, but only a little and then Bam … I guess \*\*QuiddlyClodhopper \*\* is nothing but a troll after all. What a grade a Jerk you are. You are not only wrong but deliberately painting all the prior posters with your ever ready broad brush. Mods, have you considered a serious review of her posting history. She really is pushing the jerk and trolling barrier. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/110 "2007-06-01T14:40:47Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Don’t forget ‘part Republican administration’:[http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/cdc-budget/](http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/cdc-budget/) [/QUOTE] I wouldn’t cite ThinkProgress, being that it’s a left-wing rag and all. For example, your first item mentions a $174 million dollar cut for the CDC. What it does not mention is that the cut is part of a nominal (i.e., in name only) cut for HHS while there is an overall **$2.75 billion dollar _increase_** in the budget for the NIH (National Institutes for Health). The funny thing is that ThinkProgress took the information it laundered from [this report](http://science.house.gov/randd/budget_demstaff-analysis02.htm) by a House Democratic Caucus budget analysis. The same thing happens to right-wingers when they take everything they know from right-wing sources. People spin abstract numbers to make whatever point they wish. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/111 "2007-06-01T14:47:28Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] The guy is a grade A asshole. I was reading through this thread, I saw a little over-reacting, but only a little and then Bam … I guess \*\*QuiddlyClodhopper \*\* is nothing but a troll after all. What a grade a Jerk you are. You are not only wrong but deliberately painting all the prior posters with your ever ready broad brush. Mods, have you considered a serious review of her posting history. She really is pushing the jerk and trolling barrier. Jim [/QUOTE] Why don’t you read **Martin Hyde** ’s response to **Auntbeast** above and drop your ludicrous jones for me for five minutes? How pathetic it is that you can’t handle a little truth? Rather than looking at the\* facts\* of this situation, you happily join the panic pile-on. Your ignorance, sir, is far from being fought because you defend it so vigorously. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/112 "2007-06-01T14:50:47Z")
[QUOTE=Auntbeast] So, we are very lucky that TB Andy isn’t infected with something worse. Had he been infected with something hotter, he very well could have caused an epidemic to spread over numerous continents. Which, by definition, is a pandemic. [/QUOTE] :rolleyes: Oh that makes a lot of sense. We need to be furious at this guy because if he had an _entirely different condition_, he _might_ have caused a ‘pandemic’? :rolleyes: Right, and if you were a nuclear bomb you might explode and destroy the world. But he doesn’t have a different, more dangerous disease and you’re not a nuclear bomb, though I do expect a meltdown one of these days. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/113 "2007-06-01T14:57:42Z")
Ok, let’s try this again. Toss a tidbit to the trolls if you will. No, he does not have a highly contagious disease. However, his ACTIONS in response to the disease HE DOES HAVE is exactly how pandemics start. Some holier than thou/scared shitless/oblivious asshole thinks he knows better than anyone else and does something he is told NOT to do and thereby risks infecting untold thousands across many continents. I’m a fairly verbose person and I understand the meaning can get lost in the message but let me try it again. We are lucky he did NOT have something worse. See that? Read it again. It is no different than what I have said earlier. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/114 "2007-06-01T15:00:49Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Why don’t you read **Martin Hyde** ’s response to **Auntbeast** above and drop your ludicrous jones for me for five minutes? How pathetic it is that you can’t handle a little truth? Rather than looking at the\* facts\* of this situation, you happily join the panic pile-on. Your ignorance, sir, is far from being fought because you defend it so vigorously. [/QUOTE] Sorry, \*\*Martin’s \*\* post was well written, thoughtful and truthful. It appears to be correct. Your initial post was just trolling and broad-brushing. Apparently your normal mode. If you had posted what \*\*Martin \*\* did, I would not be calling you a troll. I hardly joined the pile-on. The guy flew while under a no-fly and against strongly word medical advice. He is a grade A asshole despite your protest. **Martin** , does not even disagree he was an asshole. Why don’t you reread it yourself. he was correctly arguing that the man is not a “pandemic waiting to happen”. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/115 "2007-06-01T15:07:15Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Why don’t you read **Martin Hyde** ’s response to **Auntbeast** above and drop your ludicrous jones for me for five minutes? How pathetic it is that you can’t handle a little truth? Rather than looking at the\* facts\* of this situation, you happily join the panic pile-on. Your ignorance, sir, is far from being fought because you defend it so vigorously. [/QUOTE] Actually, I do not believe that **What Exit?** was commenting on the veracity of any particular source of data so much as he was commenting on _your_ personal behavior in this and other Pit threads. Thinking you’re a troll is not the same as being unable to “handle the truth.” Regardless of the merits of an argument on the contagious nature of TB and the likelihood of a pandemic, _this guy behaved like a premium jackas_s (which, we all assume, is why you feel compelled to defend him - you have a pathological need to defend whosoever is being discussed in the Pit). Let’s talk about truth, shall we? _Truth 1_: This guy was informed several months before a planned overseas trip that he was infected with a disease known far-and-wide as being infectious, potentially lethal, and responsible in times past for major epidemics. _Truth 2_: He was extensively educated about said disease - by the CDC, by his father-in-law, who is a researcher into said disease, and by the doctors who diagnosed him. _Truth 3_: Those same parties made it clear to him they thought it was inadviseable for him to travel by airplane. Particularly to travel by airplane before the strain of TB he was infected with was identified, lest that strain turn out to be the one resistant to treatment options. _Truth 4_: Rather than wait for the aforementioned test results, he chose to travel by airplane anyways. _Truth 5_: Once informed of those unfavorable test results, he chose to violate No Fly directives, board not one or two but _seven motherfucking airplanes_, thereby exposing hundreds of other people to his drug-resistant infectious disease with wanton disregard for their health and welfare, in an effort to get himself to what he viewed as the best possible treatment. _Truth 6_: He and his lovely bride were not touring ghettos in third-world nations for their honeymoon, they were in an affluent, industrialized nation possessed of perfectly adequate health care. I am confident that health care professionals in Italy were totally capable of treating his disease without the necessity of risking the health of hundreds of other people for the amount of time that would have been necessary for him to arrange a way home that did _not_ endanger hundreds of other people. How’s that for truth for you, you sanctimonious bitch? Don’t ask me for cites. Each and every one of those truths (with the single exception of 6, of which only the ‘arranging safe travel’ bit is an assumption on my part - but it’s an assumption based on common sense, which you appear to lack) has been copiously and widely distributed and all have been referenced in this self-same thread that you’ve come to shit on. If you’re so completely clueless and lazy that you missed any of those points in the vast wave of information splashed all over every news media in the country, or so immersed in your own personal pseudointellectual masturbation as to require a cite for any factual statement before you credit one you personally disagree with, then you have problems my inclusion of hyperlinks cannot address. People are pitting _his behaviour_, which has been completely detestable from any reasonable standpoint. His decisions in this matter were undeniably wrong. He, at least, gets to play the “panic at the thought of dangerous infectious disease” card. What’s your excuse? ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/116 "2007-06-01T15:10:15Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Why don’t you reread it yourself. he was correctly arguing that the man is not a “pandemic waiting to happen”. [/QUOTE] Yes, and if you’d read what I wrote instead of immediately flying off the handle, you’d see that I said that the guy didn’t do a good thing, however there’s no need to overreact because the danger isn’t that great. You may note someday if you manage to read what I’m actually writing that I often attempt to make the point that people get far too overwrought about things that are not that serious or worthy of outrage. This is one of those things. More and more I think that ‘Recreational Outrage’ is a very apt phrase; it seems some folks get their jollies by working up a nice big head of steam over pretty much anything. I guess it’s an adrenaline high or something. Just seems a pointless waste of time to me. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/117 "2007-06-01T15:10:37Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] TB Guy is number 1, can I add a number 2 to the Pit List? I pit whoever saw this guy was on the [No-Fly](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUSrqDITzOR8&refer=home) List and _passed him through anyway_. Jeez Louise, who else is being passed through? :eek: [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=the article] An agent at the border crossing in Champlain, New York, saw the warning when he ran Speaker’s passport through a computer and let him pass anyway because he didn’t look ill [/QUOTE] I’ll bet he let him through because he didn’t look _Arabic._ If an Arabic guy was on the list and a warning was issued about him trying to enter the country with a deadly disease, does anybody think he would have been paseed through “because he didn’t look ill”? It’s because this guy looks like “one of us” that he got the benefit of the doubt. The agent got off quite lightly if firing is the only thing that happens to him; in the military, allowing someone to pass through a post you’re guarding is at the least dereliction of duty. I seem to recall in the old days they shot people who were alseep on watch. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/118 "2007-06-01T15:15:50Z")
[QUOTE=Aangelica] Actually, I do not believe that **What Exit?** was commenting on the veracity of any particular source of data so much as he was commenting on _your_ personal behavior in this and other Pit threads. [/QUOTE] Yeah because ‘gasp’! I don’t leap onto the pile with the rest of you and refusing to behave like the rest of the hive is a capital offense here in the Board of the Intelligent and Free. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/119 "2007-06-01T15:16:52Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Yes, and if you’d read what I wrote instead of immediately flying off the handle, you’d see that I said that the guy didn’t do a good thing, however there’s no need to overreact because the danger isn’t that great. You may note someday if you manage to read what I’m actually writing that I often attempt to make the point that people get far too overwrought about things that are not that serious or worthy of outrage. This is one of those things. More and more I think that ‘Recreational Outrage’ is a very apt phrase; it seems some folks get their jollies by working up a nice big head of steam over pretty much anything. I guess it’s an adrenaline high or something. Just seems a pointless waste of time to me. [/QUOTE] Really is that why this was your first post? > [@](#): > > Oh come on now. Surely you don’t mean to do something as ridiculous as interject fact and logic into another SDMB RO Meltdown Special? Heck, if the hive paid attention to these inconvenient facts, where would all that ranting and frothing go? :rolleyes: That post was pure trolling and broadbrushing. You added nothing to the discussion like \*\*Martin \*\* and \*\*Duck Duck Goose \*\* did. Now you are doing your normal attempt at backpedal or changing the subject to what you want to argue and not what you actually said. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240/120 "2007-06-01T15:21:49Z")
[QUOTE=Sailboat] The agent got off quite lightly if firing is the only thing that happens to him; in the military, allowing someone to pass through a post you’re guarding is at the least dereliction of duty. I seem to recall in the old days they shot people who were alseep on watch. Sailboat [/QUOTE] Hmmm. You don’t suppose they stopped that because of how high up they’d have to if they started shooting people in this Admin for dereliction of duty, do you? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-tb-guy-the-biggest-asshole-ever-or-what/406240.md?page=7)