Dirty Stinking Government HealthcareFollow

I'm assuming you have to have X number of work days before you are allowed to get paid sick days. Otherwise the time you take off is unpaid.

Right, he can miss some days as needed but unless they are for other work related reasons (conferences, etc) they are unpaid til he has more sick days built up.

You can save em up and use em like vacation days too. He's already confirmed he can combine his sick days and vacation days to add an extra week to spring break next spring so we can go to San Fran (academic conference+vacation combined.)

Are you guys still batting this ****** about? Just cut the cretin loose and move on with your lives, people. We already have a token moron.

I'll log on to call you retarded for the vaccine opinion, and retarded again for your response here. "Oh no, he's regulating and interfering with me!"

That is a neither interesting, nor well written, nor unbiased article. This is to say nothing of your bias, as in, I will leave your bias alone, and thus say nothing of it right now, in respect for your apparent busy schedule this week, but I should still note that the article which you did link was not what it was claimed to be.



I agree with Ambrya on almost nothing really that gets posted here, but at least she doesn't drag a four-ton cross behind her and blame it on some persecution complex.

Edited, Oct 25th 2009 9:26pm by Pensive

On a super personal level, it's like this: the fact that you have a degree in my field of study makes every post of yours a personal insult to my delicate sensibilities. I feel proximately responsible in some sort of way for the complete foolishness you're speaking with, just in even the implicit solidarity which I would have with you, whether I like it or not, due to that. The mission is clear: purify or marginalize, and I'm all out of Brita water filters.

As a wise woman once said: "A foolish fool with a foolish sieve for a brain only speaks foolishly with foolish words."

~Bertrand Russell

I like this new troll, he seems more real and personable.


Keep up the stupidity, I approve.

Actually I think Denis Leary got there first. (3:05)

Edited, Oct 25th 2009 8:26pm by Ambrya

Those links aren't saying what you think they're saying.

They're mostly criticizing the effectiveness of the yearly flu vaccine, which makes sense if you think about what they're actually doing. The article actually agrees that a vaccine for a specific virus is very effective in reducing deaths from said virus. The H1N1 virus is one virus. Sure it's related to the flu, but it is a unique strain, and thus can be defended against with a vaccine. This is completely separate from the seasonal flu vaccine.

@Ambrya The main criticism of soul wasn't his points, it was that he wasn't making any. All he was doing was asking vague, uninformed, leading questions. Stuff like, I'm not saying vaccines are bad, but what if they will kill everyone in 50 years? I'm just asking, why aren't you taking me seriously. wah wah wah.

Edited, Oct 25th 2009 11:52pm by Xsarus

Wow. So many people talking right past each other.

The Atlantic article was interesting in that it danced completely around its own central point without ever making it: Is the flu enough of a threat to justify millions of dollars and man hours developing a hit-or-miss vaccine for every year?

I would argue that it is, particularly for those groups most at risk from flu: older people, young kids, and people with compromised immune systems.

Aside from (presumably) kids, you seem to be implying, Soulshaver, that we should let nature take its course and cull the weak? Do I have that right?

No, your only reasoning behind not wanting to use or wanting anyone else to use vaccines is because we don't know everything there is to know about the evolution of viruses OR the evolution of the human immune system. That's it. That's hardly reasoning. We don't know everything about anything.

While the flu vaccine is not the most effective of all the vaccines, required public vaccinations have nearly eliminated many highly contagious diseases - whooping cough, polio, measles, rubella, etc.

The article that you and your good friend miss omgambrya linked is nothing. there are no facts, no science, simply one persons opinion - and not even a medical professional.

If you want to argue here, the more the merrier, but don't think it's going to be easy or fair. People will disagree with you because they don't like your name, or your choice of avatar or your forum 'tone'. They'll rate down a ubiquitous response to some non-controversial topic because they can. It's the asylum - the kids are excused from playing nice.








Edited, Oct 26th 2009 3:23pm by Elinda