Apologies. I sincerely meant for my attack to be on the post, not the person, but I do see in retrospect that it could seem personal.
Hey, I found your Christie quote, you didn’t link but my Google foo is strong!
The article starts with “…New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walked back comments he made here Monday morning …”.
So, Christie “clarified” his comments after the water got hot. Or he fell off his ass on the road back from London and repented. That works too, long as he agrees with me, I don’t that much care when it happened. In a way, kinda reassuring to watch him scramble to get there.
This is the point of view of probably almost everyone here. But of course people are lining up in their usual partisan positions.
Having said that, Paul’s statement is far too weaselly and really deserves the condemnation it received. Christie’s too, actually: both give too much potential room to be read into as providing respect to anti-vaxxers.
Obama’s comment from six years ago was also poorly judged. I am glad he has clearly come a around to strong position in favor of vaccinations. I would like to see Paul and Christie do the same, and emitrely without words like “I’ve heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines,” which will inevitably appear to legitimize “concerns” about vaccinations to a certain segment of people. The subsequent weaseling from Paul hasn’t been remotely enough undo the damage caused by that single sentence.
ETA: just saw and read Elucidator’s link. Now it’s Rand Paul’s turn to pull that foot a little more convincingly out of his mouth.
Wouldn’t you just love it if they yelled “Geronimo!” when they bailed out?
A little more humor and a little less of pols taking everything so damn seriously certainly wouldn’t hurt!
Well, they do have Dennis Miller…
That’s the WaPo’s wording. But what did he “walk back” from?
Sounds like it was the " I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things" quote - which seems rather similar to “the President certainly believes that these kinds of decisions are decisions that should be made by parents”.
I’m puzzled by this from your linked article:
How is that a “break” with what the WH press secretary has said Obama believes?
Sometimes it’s incredible just how bad media reporting is.
That’s for sure.
But this is not an example. Go read the Fox “News” thread for better ones.
Xema, whatever, cool. Christie’s got it right today, so fine. Now, its just up to that other guy to pull his head out of his ass and his foot out of his mouth.
Yeah, I agree. My post probably wasn’t clear. Xema was suggesting that Obama and Christie were saying the same thing, when really they weren’t. Christie and Paul, as you say, were trying to leave enough room in their remarks for the anti-science crowd. Obama, I think, is saying, “We don’t want to strap people down and give them shots, but use your heads for fuck’s sake.”
Anyway, I think I’d like to see more states have laws that say you have to be immunized in order to attend any public or private school, and exemptions are not easy to get – e.g., only medical exemptions signed by a doctor and notarized. Lots of states, like my home state, make it easy to get a religious exemption. You basically just have to write a note exempting yourself.
I still wonder why is that Paul and Christie are doubling down on the weasel words, this is because I do agree that there is more than just a few liberals also on the woo woo side in favor of the anti-vaccine ideas…
Unless, they are finding that what I think is happening is correct, it is very likely that the numbers of the ones that deny the science on this issue are growing more on the right side nowadays. And they are hopping to take a bunch of the liberal ones to the Republican side.
As if the Republicans had not enough anti-science believers to pander before. :rolleyes:
I wonder what that liberal rag the Wall Street Journal has to say.
Rand Paul joins the Santa Monica left by indulging bad science.
Here’s an opinion piece from the very conservative RedState.
Rand Paul and Pandering to the Paranoid
So you can thank Rand Paul for warning you of the slippery slope from vaccinations to Martial Law.
[1970s Polish joke]knockknock “What was that Indian’s name again?”[/1970PJ]
Well, no doubt about it; I made a mistake. I apologize.
dalej42, I will note, has not acknowledged the equally mistaken statement that he used in the OP of this thread.
Totally. If Obama declared himself in favor of drivers stopping at red lights, that particular law would instantly change from a “sensible rule that helps society function without needless deaths and injuries” to a “government intrusion on my right to do whatever the fuck I want to.”
I think it’s a stretch to say Obama pandered to anti-vaxxers. He was addressing a woman in the crowd, and rather than say “that’s a stupid question, ya silly bitch!” he stated the need for conclusive research on the matter, which has since been done.
Rand Paul certainly implied a link between vaccines and mental disorders, no matter how he tries to walk it back.
To me, the most disturbing thing in this whole discussion has been Rand Paul’s statement “The government does not own our kids, parents own their kids”. Really? We own our children? That’s quite a disgusting idea. We are their guardians and their caregivers, we most assuredly are not their owners. Maybe we should get Rand Paul’s owner, Ron Paul, to tell Rand to shut up and go home.
In any case, he might be better off forgetting about the national political stage until dear old Dad passes on to the libertarian utopia in the sky and most voters associate the name “Ron Paul” with the Pocket Fisherman and the Veg-O-Matic.
OT, but if I tell my 15 year old daughter to do something she doesn’t like, she will retort, “You don’t own me!”
I often say, “Yes, I do. I even have the warranty and receipt for you around here somewhere.”
“THERE ARE LAWS AGAINST SLAVERY!!”
“Yeah, it’s OK if your kids are slaves. It’s a loophole.”