Images Of the Antis: Ebola

I’ve seen a few images from Anti-Gun Zealots in particular, and “Progressives” in general:

OK they’re right, we have only had one death from Ebola currently. Sadly I highly doubt it will stand at one. I also highly doubt it will ever get to the roughly 30,000 “Gun Deaths” we have per year in this nation. Now first up, I will NEVER trivialize that number. I may downplay it to roughly 13,000 deaths, as approximately 17,000 of those “Gun Deaths” are suicides. I won’t downplay suicide either, but like I don’t care what tool is used for violent crime, I don’t care what tool is used to end a person’s life. Further I will never equate the personal decision for a person to end their life with the antisocial decision for another person to harm another.

Still getting to Ebola, I can’t talk about Ebola and guns without talking about this story:

Every day brings more details about the first case of the Ebola virus to be diagnosed in the U.S. And while experts say there is essentially no risk of a significant outbreak here in the states, much of the public remains worried. A poll by Harvard found that 39% of U.S. adults are concerned about a large outbreak here, and more than a quarter fear someone in their immediate family could get sick with Ebola.

If only there was someone around who could educate the American public about the actual level of risk. Someone who was trusted as a public health expert and whose job it was to help us understand what we really need to worry about and what precautions we should take.

Actually, that is one of the primary responsibilities of the United States surgeon general. There’s just one problem: Thanks to Senate dysfunction and NRA opposition, we don’t have a surgeon general right now. In fact, we haven’t had a surgeon general for more than a year now — even though the president nominated the eminently qualified Dr. Vivek Murthy back in November 2013.

The lack of a surgeon general is now becoming more than just one more abstract example of government gridlock.

Well first up, Government has been horribly wasting money that COULD have been used to combat an Ebola outbreak both here and abroad. Second this isn’t Gridlock, Obama presented a poor candidate, the candidate was blocked, and he took his ball and went home. This is the natural checks and balances of government, not gridlock. Gridlock would be if Obama has presented several candidates (hopefully at least ONE with qualifications for the position) and THEN getting stonewalled.

And about that Candidate. First up, he’s young and inexperienced, and has little experience with public health. What he DOES have experience with is running a PAC for President Obama campaigning for Obamacare. This was not a serious nomination, this was a political favor.

Last up, we don’t have a Surgeon general, but we DO have an ACTING Surgeon General.

RADM Lushniak was introduced to the USPHS in 1983 as a senior medical student when he completed an elective with the Indian Health Service in Winslow, Arizona. He began his USPHS career in 1988 as a Lieutenant, entering the service as part of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and initially was stationed with the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati, Ohio where he conducted epidemiological investigations of workplace hazards. In 1990, he was accepted for the CDC’s long-term training program and completed a three-year residency in dermatology at the University of Cincinnati after which he established an occupational skin disease program at NIOSH. During his time at the CDC, he also served on special assignments and disaster response activities in Bangladesh, St. Croix, Russia, and Kosovo, was part of the CDC/NIOSH team at Ground Zero (World Trade Center) and the CDC team investigating the anthrax attacks in Washington, DC. In 2004, he transitioned from the CDC to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the Chief Medical Officer of the Office of Counterterrorism, and in 2005 was appointed FDA Assistant Commissioner, Counterterrorism Policy and Director of the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats within the Office of the Commissioner. While at the FDA, he was deployed after Hurricane Katrina to serve as the Department of Health and Human Services representative in San Antonio and served as the FDA Deputy Incident Commander for the 2009 pandemic response. He was promoted to Rear Admiral, Lower Half in 2006 and attained the rank of Rear Admiral, Upper Half in 2010.

Holy shit! Now that’s a fucking RESUME! He’s worked with infection Disease control with the CDC and he attained the rank of Rear Admiral in the Navy United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (Thanks Jake -ed) as well as being a Medical Doctor. He was even Appointed by President Obama so there’s no partisan sour grapes there. Give the dude another term, he’s PERFECT!

Of course nobody mentions him and what HIS resume looks like compared to Dr. Murthy. Why, because they really don’t care, this is all political posturing.

Now onto the whole gun thing. What do the “Progressives” who love this kind of cartoon want done about guns. Gun bans, magazine bans, background checks, restrictions on carry, restrictions on ownership.

How has that worked for public health? Look at those numbers, and the great amount of work Linoge has put into this perennial graphic. It’s pretty obvious as he says ” the hypothesis of “more guns = more ‘gun violence’” cannot be true in the frame of reference of America over the past 18 years.” and in a slightly different graphic. “the hypothesis of “more guns = more deaths” cannot be true* in the frame of reference of American society over the past 31 years.”

Also note the time frame, currently in America gun ownership is becoming more wide spread. Carry is becoming liberal and permissive. The federal Assault Weapons ban has expired and more companies than ever are making guns that used to be restricted. And America is a safer country, both from being killed and from being the victim of violent crime.

As in EVERYTHING that the “Progressives” hate. As I said before, I don’t like the amount of death and violent crime in this nation and will do nothing to belittle it. And frankly by my support of the 2nd Amendment and the right to self defense I’m helping make is a SAFER place.

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3 Responses to Images Of the Antis: Ebola

  1. Jake says:

    he attained the rank of Rear Admiral in the Navy

    Not the Navy. He’s in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which is one of the U.S.’s seven uniformed services. They use naval ranks, and Navy uniforms with their own service insignia, but are not part of the Navy, and are not one of the armed services.

    He is, however, vastly more qualified both for handling the Ebola issue and for the job of Surgeon General than either Murthy or Obama’s new Ebola Czar.

  2. Geodkyt says:

    If Obama nominated RADM Lushniak tomorrow morning, I’d be on the phone to both my senators by that afternoon, demanding they vote to confirm immediately.

    Because his specialty is is what the CDC is supposed to be doing.

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