11-21-15 Hodgepodge

Arguments by and for Second-Handers

The following observation is spot-on:

Have you noticed ... that for just-like-Holocausters everything is as bad as the Holocaust except for the Holocaust? They have no sympathy for Jews but every sympathy for just-like-Jews.

When one considers further that many of these are also in the business of resolutely ignoring the religious excuses given for near-daily atrocities by members of a certain unreformed religion, one should stop examining the folly, but ask what it accomplishes. A better, mutually beneficial grasp of reality by two parties to a conversation isn't it.

Weekend Reading

"[W]ill [Nominal GDP] be the only contract where both parties' capital must be locked up for months until the Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes the final number?" -- Keith Weiner, in "Will a GDP Futures Market Be Liquid?" at SNB & CHF

"It's sadly ironic that the language of marriage -- 'commitment' to the 'institution' of marriage -- is the same terminology used to describe mental patients entering an asylum." -- Michael Hurd, in "Is Your Relationship Hard Work?" at The Delaware Wave

"In spite of the psychological pitfalls that may lurk in the shadowy outskirts of reality, the positive benefits of applying our imaginations to our everyday lives far outweigh the negatives." -- Michael Hurd, in "Imagination: Uniquely Human" at The Delaware Coast Press

Bike-Shedding vs. Health?

Amesh Adalja, in the course of discussing an annoying phenomenon, notes:

While I don't dispute that it can be a real issue if a contagious form of conjunctivitis is marauding its way through a day care center, it strikes me as paradoxical when a child with conjunctivitis--a mild benign illness--is exiled from school but those lacking vaccinations against such diseases as measles and chickenpox are welcomed with open arms.

If one were to gauge the severity of an infection only by the degree of fear, preparation, evasive action, and urgency by the general public pink eye, lice, crabs, bed bugs, and scabies would easily outrank measles, influenza, tuberculosis, and everything else.

I think that part of the problem is due to bike-shedding, or people dwelling on what they know (or think they know), but deferring too easily to others on other matters. Anyone can see pink-eye or lice, but how many people really understand how vaccines work, or herd immunity, or even the seriousness of some of the diseases mass vaccination has caused most of us to forget?

-- CAV

Updates

11-23-15: Corrected two phrasing errors in final paragraph.