We need a travel ban

This NR article states well why we need a travel ban to help prevent the spread of Ebola in the United States. Excerpt:

The ban should, of course, apply to a traveler’s country of origin, preventing persons from West Africa from entering the United States via other countries. Such a ban would, in theory, have prevented entry to Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, who arrived from Liberia via Belgium. Furthermore, it would have protected the two hospital workers who contracted the disease through their interactions with Duncan.

No, the ban would not work perfectly. But an inability to eliminate all risk whatsoever should not disqualify efforts that would reduce it, and restrictions would substantially curtail travel from high-risk nations and minimize the risk of Ebola-infected patients reaching American shores.

The situation in Dallas makes clear that it is easier to protect Americans from the disease by keeping it abroad than by addressing it when it arrives. Screening procedures failed, because prior to boarding in Liberia, Duncan lied about his contact with the disease. When Duncan told staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital that he had just returned from Liberia, they took no notice and sent him home with a fever of 103 degrees. The two hospital workers now suffering Ebola were the victims of minor missteps in following safety guidelines. Even with American health standards and procedures, treating and containing the virus affords ample opportunities for accidental transmission. The U.S. can reduce that risk by instituting travel restrictions that will minimize Americans’ contact with the virus and keep the treatment process, as much as possible, abroad.

No, the ban would not work perfectly. But an inability to eliminate all risk whatsoever should not disqualify efforts that would reduce it.... It's hard to imagine how our leaders can trade this common sense fact for the blather they have been feeding us. But I suspect political correctness and false accusations of racism.

Doc Strangelove after reading the Divine Comedy

Miraculous cure.

Stop Ebola Flights Petitions

Matt Lynch is advertising this petition on Twitter to stop flights to and from ebola countries. Let's all sign it. I can't think of a reason not to.

Sign my online petition #StopEbolaFlights at http://t.co/etPmSM0Qs0

— Matt Lynch (@MattLynch4Ohio) October 15, 2014

Text of the petition:

We, the undersigned concerned citizens of the United States, hereby demand that the U.S. government immediately suspend commercial flights from countries at high risk for Ebola infection, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea. We further demand that all non-emergency or non-medical travelers from these nations be denied entry into the United States until the Ebola crisis has ended.

Here's another one on the White House website. Over 38,000 signatures -- just signed both.

Hail, hail, the gang's all here!

Can you smell the desperation? "Jerry Springer hits the road for Democratic Ohio candidate" reads the title. Drag out Jerry Springer to whip the crowd up into a frenzy to vote for Ed FitzGerald and the Democrats!

Oh, wait—sorry... misleading headline. Springer isn't joining the FitzGerald campaign. He's joining the Nina Turner campaign. Springer knows a loser when he sees one, no doubt, and Turner does have a chance against Husted.

Springer has given at least $12,000 to gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald, $10,000 to attorney general candidate David Pepper, and $5,000 to treasurer candidate Connie Pillich, according to state campaign finance reports this year. He also gave the state Democratic party at least $28,000.

Most of the time Jerry Springer is making money from showcasing losers rather than losing money to a loser. But $12,000.00 is probably pocket change. Springer is reportedly worth $45 million.

Springer said he attracts potential voters who don't typically attend political events. "Certainly not the blue bloods," he said, but more of a "working-class kind of audience."

I guess working class kind of folks can relate to people who can pony up $45,000.00 in political donations. For some reason.

The host of "The Jerry Springer Show" now lives in Sarasota, Florida, though he spent half his life in Ohio. He travels to Connecticut where he tapes episodes that feature bleeped-out obscenities, guests in fisticuffs and a studio audience chanting his name. (Recent titles include "I Slept With Your Twin & Your Mom" and "Stay With Me Or Else.")

We should qualify terms. Most of the working class people I know are decent people who vote Republican—sometimes begrudgingly—because the alternative is to support the ideology and lifestyles of pimps like Jerry Springer and philandering liars like Ed FitzGerald.

A spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party said Springer's appearance illustrates the size of FitzGerald's problems and hurts the Democratic ticket.

"Now voters associate the Democratic Party with two people: Ed FitzGerald & Jerry Springer," said GOP spokesman Chris Schrimpf in an email. "Maybe Ed can go on Jerry's show after the election and explain how not to run a campaign."

The question is whether Jerry Springer would ever let anyone he had the least bit of respect for to be on his show. Yes; this includes himself.

Read my tarot cards, baby

"Please help!! Buy me a Benedict Option to write about!!"

Our Cub Reporter sees a Benedictine convent on the sales block, and it makes him sad.

Bravely, Dreher puts out the call for someone else to buy it, and for others to go live there under the Benedict Option that he himself has been calling for:

Is there anyone who would have the means to make this a Benedict Option community, in which Catholic (and perhaps other Christian) families live together in community, and work in the surrounding area? . . . . 

Somebody, please help. . . . 

. . . . Are there any faithful singles and families who would be willing to relocate for the prospect of living this way?  

Now, now.  Before y'all get catty and accuse Dreher of asking others to do what he himself is unwilling to do (i.e., part with some money toward the purchase, or (gasp) pack up and move his own family there), take note that he is indeed willing to pitch in and do his part:

Share this with the people you know.  Let's see if we can get something going.

That's right.  He'll offer the TAC server to handle the blog hits from getting the word out.

Furthering the Police Brutality Narrative

This is a pretty pointless article, and this was the most ridiculous part:

A grand jury, meanwhile, is examining evidence to determine whether Darren Wilson should stand trial for shooting Michael Brown. The grand jury, originally impaneled until this month, has had its term extended to January—a date that not only falls after upcoming elections, but well into the winter, when cold weather might diminish the likelihood of rioting if there is not an indictment. Last week, the Missouri secretary of state’s office announced that more than three thousand people in Ferguson had registered to vote in the aftermath of the shooting. The next day, officials reversed themselves and said that they’d made an error: the actual number was a hundred twenty eight. The revision, in an already tense environment, inspired suspicions that the keepers of the status quo were somehow manipulating the numbers.

Italics mine. A little poking around shows the reason for the initial mistake in the original reported number of 3,287: this number included all name and address changes, marriages plus voters tagged in some kind of recent recount.

The part that cracks me up is the part about the manipulations of the evil "keepers of the status quo". This characterization would make sense if the status quo had under-reported the number and had to correct itself upward. But if their are any suspicions to be taken from the downward correction they would properly be that the agitators are doing the manipulation. And, to my mind, it was probably just a mistake.

However to people determined to create conspiracies and the perception of victimization from an unfortunate event, everything which happens plays into the grand narrative of police brutality and the attempt to cover it up. If there was any violence on the part of Officer Wilson the public has yet to see evidence of it.

Available Happiness

Michael Medved was just speaking to a gay caller who recently got married to his partner. Medved ended the call by stating "Well, I wish you every happiness available to you." Wow, I thought, that is a great, well-qualified wish to extend to gay people. I'm going to keep that one in my back pocket. When you say this, just make sure you pronounce the word happiness distinctly.