The General US Politics Thread

I had forgotten about it, but we got a letter from my kid's school this week saying in plain English that if your child isn't vaccinated, regardless of reason, they will not be attending school next year. Given how many kids attend due to the semi-charter program^note it's still a public school, but the districts around here are small and have programs in place that if parents want their kid to attend another school, they can so long as the parents provide all transportation. The one my kids are at is a rather popular choice., this is no small threat. But we've had multiple whooping cough disease clusters around the county.

My wife doesn't follow the news the way I do, so she didn't understand why I was so happy to read that letter.

My school district has had that rule for decades. It makes me very happy they got that right.

That just means the parents will homeschool them which brings in its own problems.

I know it would never happen but I still think it should be illegal to not vaccinate your child unless they have a legitimate medical excuse like a compromised immune system.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) won his third consecutive straw poll victory at the CPAC on Saturday.

edited 1st Mar '15 9:26:37 AM by AngelicBraeburn

Now is this because conservative activists really want Paul-brand libertarianism (which is closest to "honest" libertarianism that any politician is pitching right now), or is it because other candidates split the vote of conservative activists, while the libertarian branch coalesces around Paul?

The Paul-heads have often been a presence at Republican National Convention, and yet their candidate(s) never win a single state. Super-vocal minority, or what's the deal?

Of course, the issue there is some kids actually do have an allergic reaction to vaccinations - apparently my brother was one of them, so our pediatrician opted to not continue that particular vaccination, as there was a legitimate medical reason.

I tend to pretty much ignore straw polls altogether. While I understand and respect the basic principle of a quick informal poll with no overhead, in practice they're run by private organizations not subject to any oversight at all — so at the moment the poll itself is pretty much guaranteed propaganda that's cherrypicked its own sample space so badly as to be meaningless.

edited 1st Mar '15 11:09:47 AM by Pykrete

Yeah, the straw polls are essentially meaningless.

Yes and herd immunity is suppose to help protect people like your brother. Unfortunately, herd immunity is being compromised by people who are perfectly able to be vaccinated but refuses to do so.

edited 1st Mar '15 11:12:11 AM by nightwyrm_zero

Agreed, but I meant to direct that post at the "Everyone immunized, no exceptions" at the top of the page, since that would unfairly screw over those with legitimate medical reasons.

According to Blueninja, the district sent out a letter stating "no exceptions" - so unless he omitted that part, someone's saying it.

edited 1st Mar '15 11:39:12 AM by ironballs16

Who is suggesting every single person be vaccinated? We just want everyone to be vaccinated that can be.

An exception would probably be granted for a child who cannot be vaccinated for whatever reason, if only because kicking the student out in that case would open them up to a lawsuit. But it's better that they don't mention that loophole or the crazier parents might try to bribe a doctor to get an exception.

EDIT: Oh, the letter said "regardless of reason". That might be a problem in legitimate cases.

edited 1st Mar '15 11:53:33 AM by Zendervai

I don't have the letter in front of me, but it definitely did not list medical exceptions. More than likely, if a parent could provide documentation from a physician about them being unable to receive vaccination X for legitimate reason Y, the school would allow it.^note Then again it might not, I couldn't say without being the person asking the question. But not being an idiot, all my kids have been vaccinated. But this county, with under 100k people, has had six clusters of whooping cough in less than three years - if an outbreak happens at the school, some anti-vaxxer parent could then sue the school district if their special snowflake caught it from another student. So I'm perfectly fine with the school wanting to do some ass-covering, when it means my kids will be safer as a result.

Honestly, the part I find funniest with Republicans going "personal responsibility!" is that, generally speaking, they're also some of the harshest critics when such responsibility doesn't happen.

You would think personal responsibility would be an argument in favor of vaccination . I realize the ones saying it don't really care, but no one is going to point that out.

edited 1st Mar '15 5:08:43 PM by LSBK

You'd also think that (general) support for gun-owners having gone through a training course would translate into supporting mandates to that effect, but nope.

Graphic Video Captures LAPD Officers Fatally Shooting Homeless Man.

He apparently was living on LA’s skid row after leaving a mental health facility, and was probably black.

So resisting arrest is grounds for being killed now?

If you're not white yeah.

This one is a little iffier for me. If there were better footage of the guy in the back it might help, but on the audio you can clearly hear the cop yelling that the guy has his gun. So if the guy did grab the cop's gun and point it at him, that I understand. Especially when the other guy had already grabbed one of the cop's batons and attacked them with it. This one wasn't a peaceful resistance.

There is a body cam and other surveillance video being analysed so let's see how that looks. I'm very curious in this.

I cannot see the video on my work computer, so I don't know.

Yeah. If he went for the guy's gun, it's justified. This is what body cams are for, after all.

We my be done with this, but on the vaccine issue, I think this is helpful.

The homeless guy is on his but, his hands about waist high on the officers, struggling. There's a cry of "Gun, gun, he's got my gun." A few more seconds of struggle as one of the cops pulls back, draws his weapon, and fires. But the officer doesn't even pull his gun until the cry goes up.

I would love to see the body cam video as well, but at least from this angle, it looks justified. I feel for everyone involved, but I don't think the officers are at fault here.

Agreed - the angle of the video doesn't lend itself well to determining whether or not it was justified, although I am a bit perturbed about the number of shots fired, unless it was the Gun Struggle trope done in real life.

And on the topic of vaccines and religious freedom, the Followers of Christ church is making headlines in Idaho for practicing Faith Healing so ardently that a number of children have died, similar to what caused Oregon to amend their laws to allow stronger prosecution in such cases.

And the reason it's making headlines now (the link is from 2013) is due to Idaho Republicans are coming to the practice's defense, similar to their stance regarding vaccinations, killing one bill on the topic last year, and there are currently efforts to codify it into explicit law.

edited 2nd Mar '15 1:50:37 PM by ironballs16