Most of y’all probably got a bunch of shots as little kids. And let’s face it, nobody likes shots. They hurt. But I’m awful glad that I never got polio or measles or smallpox. And if the chicken pox vaccine had been widespread when I was a kid, it would’ve been awful nice to miss out on that terrible week in fifth grade where I was itchy as hell and miserable.
So while vaccination has had hugely beneficial effects for society, in recent years a number of ill-informed, misguided fools have decided that vaccines are bad. For a while people were pissed off about thimerosal, a mercury-containing compound used in some vaccines. They suggested that thimerosal caused autism. So the CDC asked vaccine makers to get rid of it, and they did, even though no studies ever showed a link between thimerosal and autism. In fact, one of the world’s leading experts on vaccines, Dr. Paul Offit, even suggested that this policy shook parents’ (and even doctors’) “faith in the vaccine infrastructure.” He says that “about 10 percent of hospitals suspended use of the hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns,” leading to the death of a 3-month-old born to a woman infected with hepatitis B. Furthermore, the idea that thimerosal and mercury were linked led to many bogus claims of an autism cure through chelation. According to the article, about 10,000 autistic children a year receive this pointless treatment, and in one case, this led to the death of a 5-year-old. Continue reading ‘the anti-vaccine movement’
What’s the quickest way to piss off a million people? Claiming that Dallas is a better place to live than New Orleans. Sean Payton just found this out the hard way when he announced that he was moving his family to the Vaquero Club, an ultra-exclusive, ultra-expensive golf course community in Westlake, a suburb of Dallas. Reportedly, the house once belonged to Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira, who used to play for the Texas Rangers. And as you might expect for a guy who supposedly makes about $8 million a year, it’s a really, really nice house.
As time has passed, more information has come out about how this situation is going to work. First, there were reports of a door-to-door 90-minute commute by private plane, which sounded a bit unlikely. Instead, according to an article in today’s Times-Picayune, Payton will live full-time in the New Orleans area during the season, with his family flying in for Saints home games; he also expects to move from Mandeville somewhere closer to Saints headquarters in Metairie.
Most rational Saints fans and New Orleanians acknowledge and understand Payton’s desire to do what he feels is best for his family. But just about everyone in the area, on at least some level, is emotionally appalled at Payton’s decision. You live in Dallas for a couple years, then you live here for five years, become more-or-less deified after winning a Super Bowl, then you decide Dallas is a nicer place to raise a family than here? New Orleans has had a long rivalry/inferiority complex with regards to Dallas and Houston and Atlanta. Everybody holds those cities up as crown jewels of the South, with their downtown corporate headquarter skyscrapers and their vast, sprawling suburbs filled with cookie-cutter houses and strictly regulated signage in commercial areas. But we in New Orleans steadfastly reject those supposed paragons of commerce and industry and wealth. We think it’s a good idea to take a mid-winter Tuesday off work, make enormous papier-mâché tractor-towed floats, throw silly trinkets from said floats, fight over said trinkets, and drink alcohol and eat king cake while doing these things. Clearly our way of life is different. Continue reading ‘that sean payton is moving his family to dallas’
America is counting down to a Super Bowl that will involve two of the NFL’s most storied franchises: the Steelers and the Packers. Both have trophy cases lined with league championships. Both can point to many Hall of Fame players who have suited up for them. Both have had a tremendous amount of fan support. But there’s one very big difference. The Steelers are owned (and essentially have been since their inception) by the Rooney family. The Packers? They’re owned by 112,158 people. They are the only major American sports franchise owned in such a manner. And it’s not like the shareholders are looking to get rich: the club is a non-profit entity, and if it is ever sold, the proceeds would have to go to local charities. Thanks to this structure, the team can’t hold the city hostage and threaten to move if they don’t get a fancy new stadium.
In case you don’t already realize how awesome this concept is, let’s go back to basics. What is the point of a business? To make money. What is the point of a sports team? To win. What is the point of a business that is a sports team? To make money and to win. But what happens when those two goals collide? Which one of them gets pushed by the wayside? Sure, some owners spend money lavishly, running their teams more to stroke their ego than to make money. Others are miserly, clinging to their investment and looking for every last penny.* The two goals—profit and winning—can come into conflict, and a team’s success is often determined by which of the two the owner would rather seek. Continue reading ‘that we don’t have more community-owned sports teams’