“A Hail Mary… is a very long forward pass in American football, made in desperation with only a small chance of success, especially at or near the end of a half.”
So I guess it is very much like trying to catch a stray cat.
I read “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston some years ago and that gave me the heebie jeebies.
Arguably, a technically correct phrase that might hypothetically offend some people is a great choice of words.
Because there are people (not you, obviously) who want to tone-police EVERYTHING. Every opportunity to refuse to self-censor for those pricks should be taken joyfully.
Worst case scenario for refusing to self-censor: someone (not you, obviously) feels bound to call it tasteless or a poor choice of words. Eight seconds later, nobody remembers it even happened.
Worst case scenario for every act of self-censorship: loss of a little bit of intellectual freedom and a precedent to erode it for others.
Not a hard choice.
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You seem to be confused. Self-censorship means declining to say something that you want to say, out of fear of giving offense. I agree that’s a fraught path to walk. But taking care with your language so as to clearly and unambiguously convey your meaning is something else altogether.
Consider: You might call someone a cocksucker, as a generic put-down. It’s actually a homophobic slur. You wouldn’t avoid it merely not to offend delicate sensibilities, you’d avoid it because/if you’re not really trying to imply that there’s anything demeaning or perverted about performing fellatio, you’re just trying to call the guy a fucking jerk for cutting you off in traffic or whatever.
Intellectual freedom isn’t restricted by thoughtful use of language, it’s enabled by it.
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Please tell me that no one thinks flying them to another continent is anything but a terrible idea.
You mean so that they can get the best of medical help under controlled conditions? Sounds good.
Ebola is a terrible diseases, but it doesn’t spread by magic.
No, it spreads by transporting the infected. They chose to screw around with it; let them live or die far, far away.
Oh good, a bunch of posts about how ‘funny’ things are.
What I don’t find humorous is how two infected people will be shuttled into the United States arriving at the largest transportation hub on the East Coast. This seems to be a rather large risk, and the fact that they’re even taking it boggles my mind.
But keep on cracking jokes, because humour will protect all of you, I’m sure.
“They chose to screw around with it; let them live or die far, far away.”
I understand your concern about spreading the disease but please try to show some compassion here. These two medical professionals weren’t “screwing around with” Ebola, they were putting their lives on the line to help others. You can be sure that extreme measures will be taken to prevent the virus from spreading at the US facility where they will be located.
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I don’t religion or sportsball very well, but I think that is for doing pennants…
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In reading this I wondered how the current Ebola outbreak compared to the early 1980s HIV outbreak.
The BoingBoing article says that the number of Ebola deaths up to July 27 is 57 with the total number of cases at 1300. By contrast the number of know deaths from AIDS went from 234 in 1981 to 5,636 in 1985 before scaling back considerably in 1986.
According to this article “There have been more than 3,140 reported cases and more than 2,000 deaths since the discovery of Ebola [in 1976]” and according the WHO "since the beginning of the [HIV] epidemic, almost 75 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 36 million people have died of HIV. "
Ebola is similar to HIV in that Ebola is transmitted by direct contact and not through the air, although the source I read does not mention the possibility of aerosolized blood and saliva. Ebola seems to be much more infectious, however, with the ability to infect a host with as little as a single virus. Oddly enough, despite this Ebola is considered moderately contagious due to non-transmission through the air.
In case you’re wondering, I don’t really have a point here. I was just curious to compare this to the last scary outbreak that I saw in my lifetime. I guess a point could be made that despite the current coverage of Ebola there is still a bigger problem with HIV, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where nearly 1 in 20 adults are living with HIV. To be sure, I am NOT making the point that Ebola coverage is overblown.
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[quote=“elguapo22222, post:28, topic:38199, full:true”] You can be sure that extreme measures will be taken to prevent the virus from spreading at the US facility where they will be located.
[/quote]
LOL, guess you haven’t heard about those extreme measures used to by CDC and friends to deal with small pox. On the other hand, since those incidents are so recent, safety protocols are probably fresh in everyone’s mind. Feels like flirting with disaster to me.
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That’s a valid point. I forgot about that news item.
Are you also forgetting the incredibly poor performance of US hospitals in regards to MRSA?
The US medical system is broken in numerous ways. Bringing Patients Zero to the US instead of sending treatment to West Africa is an exceptionally bad idea.
[edited to remove redundant sentence ending]
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I need to exorcise that Fox News Demon out of my head, but I’m sure “Obama is just doing this so that eventually he can declare martial law”
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Out demon, out! The Power of Capitalism* compels you!
*No way our corporatist overlords would want to impose Martial Law. It would wreck the economy, and not just in the US.
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[quote=“SteveT, post:25, topic:38199”]
Ebola is a terrible diseases, but it doesn’t spread by magic.[/quote]
Well, unless the people who think it is spread by black magic are correct.
They haven’t even taken the basic measure of not transporting them to another continent.
But, Benghazi!!!
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