Texas Republican says vaccines are "sorcery"

I have an AOL email box but only because Verizon stopped hosting its own and ported it over to them.

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Stickland’s legislative agenda:

An anti-abortion legislator, Stickland supported in 2013 the ban on abortion after twenty weeks of gestation; the measure passed the House, 96-49. He co-sponsored companion legislation to increase medical and licensing requirements of abortion providers,[9] a law that the opponents claim could shut down many abortion clinics. These issues instigated a filibuster in the Texas State Senate by Wendy R. Davis of Fort Worth.[10] The Texas Right to Life Committee rated Stickland 78 percent favorable,[11] presenting him with a “Former Fetus” wall plaque which was briefly displayed on the wall outside Stickland’s office at the Capitol building.[12]

Stickland voted against the legislation to establish a taxpayer-funded breakfast program for public schools; the measure passed the House, 73-58. He co-sponsored legislation to provide marshals for school security as a separate law-enforcement entity. He voted for the extension of the franchise tax exemption to certain businesses, which passed the House 117-24. He voted against the adoption of the biennial 2013 state budget. He voted to require testing for narcotics of those individuals receiving unemployment compensation. Stickland voted against a bill relating to unlawful employment practices regarding discrimination in payment of compensation, which nevertheless passed the House, 78-61.[9]

Stickland co-sponsored the measure to forbid the state from engaging in the enforcement of federal regulations of firearms. He also co-sponsored legislation to permit college and university officials to carry concealed weapons. He voted to reduce the time required to obtain a concealed-carry permit in Texas. He backed the redistricting bills for the state House and Senate and the United States House of Representatives. Stickland voted for term limits for certain state officials. He voted for legislation to forbid one individual from turning in multiple ballots.[[9](Jonathan Stickland - Wikipedia

Plus, his backers:

In 2013, Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, managed in Texas by Cathie Adams, a former state chairman of the Texas Republican Party, rated Stickland 100 percent favorable; the Young Conservatives of Texas, 97 percent. The Texas League of Conservation Voters rated him 38 percent; a similar group Environment Texas rated him 12 percent. The interest group, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, founded by Michael Quinn Sullivan, rated him 100 percent. The National Rifle Association scored Stickland 92 percent.[11]

In 2017, Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom scored Stickland 104 percent.[13] In 2017, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility scored him at 100 percent and rated him as one of the top 10 Best Legislators of 2017.[14][15]

(All from Wikipedia.org.)

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Thank you internet stranger. You’ve made my day. :ok_hand:

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Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.—Neil Gershenfeld, 2013.

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I agree that the guy is clearly an idiot, but there are plenty of idiots with bachelors, masters, etc. My long-term goal is to teach at a community college, so I’m frustrated by the subtext (unless it’s inadvertent).

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We have antivaxx MD’s for fuck’s sake. (Although I tend to think that is often driven by profit motive more than “true believer” status.) Degrees do not impart wisdom, integrity or even knowledge.

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Yes. We really have to start making the distinction between “college educated” and “college credentialed.” One can graduate from community college and be the former or graduate from Harvard and be the latter.

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This guy is why you have quarantine.

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Taken together, those tales of “witchcraft” in Africa remind me of the west’s new fondness for conspiracy theories-- you can neither prove nor disprove them, but you can provide assorted anecdotes and cherry-picked data to partially support them, and fear does the rest. Then you have people who know that witchcraft and/or conspiracy theories are bunk, but will promote and use them to benefit themselves politically or financially.

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Just to be clear here…I am all for any “magic” that has positive benefits on the human condition.

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What, you mean like Andrew “Moral Equivalent of Serial Random Mass Murderer of Mostly Children” Wakefield not being entirely open about the fact that he was personally vested in bringing a new measels vaccine to market when he faked data about the existing MMR vaccine and autism?

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Among many, but yeah, he is probably the worst among these evil fucks. Dr. Bob Sears is another one, and there are an endless list of others.

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Sadly, what makes the technology sufficiently advanced to look like magic depends on the observer. Vaccines aren’t sorcery TO ME, but apparently they are in Texas. The real lesson: everything is magic if when you’re stupid enough.

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“Who are you who so wise in the ways of science?”

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“Very small stones?” “Wood!”

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It’s so easy to mix them up.

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And not by accident. It’s a race to the bottom. The more everything appears to be utter nonsense, the more you can argue for anything you want with any absurd reasoning, like cutting aid to starving blind autistic orphans to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.

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not when you to take into account the conservative’s penchant for protection projection. the subtext is that the representative takes money for his positions, so presumably the doctor does too.

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“Projection” or “protection”?

Almost works either way. :upside_down_face:

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