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Dear Carly, Dear Scott?
About an hour ago, I received a personal e-mail from Carly Fiorina, brightly addressed to “Claire,” and sent to an e-mail address I don’t usually share, seeing as I try to keep at least one of them spam-free:
I wrote back:
Carly,
While I welcome your entry into the GOP contest and am looking forward to hearing more from you, I’d like to hear more about your thoughts on national security before committing to your campaign. Since you’re the only candidate who has thus far found this e-mail address and contacted me, I suspect you’d have an interesting perspective, in particular, on cyber-security.
Perhaps I could interview you and chat with you about this. I’m an editor of Ricochet.com, the most cordial website for cordial conservative conversation on the Internet. Our members would be delighted to have you join us and discuss your campaign. We’d be pleased, in fact, to offer you an introductory month of free membership.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Claire Berlinski
Senior Fellow for Turkey, American Foreign Policy Institute,
Author of There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters,
Ricochet.com
PS: Generally, I would address you as Ms. Fiorina. I’m old-fashioned. But since we’re already on a first name basis, I’ll follow your lead.
I thought no more of it, until the next one showed up, ten minutes later:
It came to the same e-mail address. That’s strange, I thought. We’re on a first name basis? I can’t call him “Scott,” can I? That would just be inappropriate. After fretting a bit about it, I wrote back.
Dear Governor Walker,
While I welcome your entry into the GOP contest and am looking forward to hearing more from you, I’d like to hear more about your thoughts on foreign policy and national security before committing to your campaign.
Perhaps I could chat with you about this. I’m an editor of Ricochet.com, the most cordial website for cordial conservative conversation on the Internet. Our members would be delighted to have you join us and discuss this issue. We’d be pleased, in fact, to offer you an introductory month of free membership.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Claire Berlinski
Senior Fellow for Turkey, American Foreign Policy Institute,
Author of There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters,
Ricochet.com
Then I realized I’d forgotten to give them the coupon code for their free first month. It’s JOIN. I don’t want to bother them; I’m sure they’re busy, so I’ll just add this here, in case they stop by.
If you haven’t joined yet, of course, now’s your chance: same deal I offered Carly and … Scott.
Anyway, I hope they’ll join us. Please extend a warm Ricochet welcome to them both in case they do.
Published in Elections, General
I had most of the diseases kids are being vaccinated for. Always at holidays, it seems. I had double mumps at Christmas, for instance.
I grew up in far south-eastern Alabama in the 50s. Expected from children was Mr., Miss, Mrs., Sir, Ma’am. Pretty much the same for adults unless they were really familiar with each other, sometimes even if they were. One of my in-law aunts still always refers to my grandparents as Mr. and Mrs. even after they’ve been off the planet for a good while now. The South then, of course, was another country in culture and language (my outsider father said it took him two years to understand much of what my grandfather was saying).
I entered UC Berkeley in 1970. The norm was Mr., Mrs., Miss for faculty. Dr. and Professor were strongly discouraged (still rattled by the FSM, I think). Same for students until you’d talked to an instructor a couple of times. Some grad students had an annoying way of saying “Larry says …” referring to an instructor, conveying something emotionally complicated that the Germans probably have a word for.
Damned if I remember when all that changed. Even the simplification “Ms.” suggests people were using those forms in the 70s. But I don’t remember using anything but first names in business. Memory’s a traitor, of course.
Man, I’m glad I didn’t grow up German having to figure out who I’m Duzens with.
I believe you are thinking of Mumps, which can cause infertility in adult males.
Jules PA: there could be mass exodus from vaccination, just to get the voucher…
And how would you ensure that vouchers went only to the unvaccinated?
I wasn’t suggesting that as a course of action, just noting an unintended consequence if Vax-Vouchers were to become some sort of solution to anti-vaxers going to school.
Many would push for a Vax-voucher, just to get vouchers on the table, whether or not they were anti-vaxers. Because they want vouchers.
Once anti-vax vouchers are on the table, it could be the only way to get a voucher. We could risk a herd immunity problem, if people opted out of vax, just to get school choice.
No matter what, vaxers and anti-vaxers are not guaranteed isolation from each other, since schools are not the only sources of contact in communities.
I guess I’m saying that a Vax-Voucher probably is not the best solution for the vaccination issue.
Unintended negative consequences seem to be a fabulous, phenomenal success by our governments, at all levels.
:)
edit, darn that auto-correct. Vexer, Vaxer…Voucer Voucher.
I’d actually be in favor of some quarantines. I think far too many people get sick and then go on their merry way– after all, even a common cold (for which there’s no vaccine or surefire remedy) can be dangerous for the immunocompromised.
Agree, possibly to the point where others will charge me with totalitarianism. I’m one of those people to whom a common cold is more dangerous than to others. I tend to get secondary sinus infections that last months, causing severe pain and, sometimes, disability. They tend to be entirely resistant to antibiotics or other treatment. When I meet people who are out taking their cold germs for a walk, I cease to be the polite, smiling, mild-mannered, and cordial conservative you’ve come to know and, I hope, like. I (politely) throw them out of my home, if they were dumb enough to get near it. I refuse to get in car with them. I ask to be re-seated, if they’re near me in a restaurant.
This policy has caused tension between me and friends and family who find it rude. Too bad. They’re not going to pay my bills if I’m unable to work.
Since I implemented my “I don’t get near people with colds,” “I wash my hands with hot, soapy water immediately after I have contact with anyone,” and my “I never touch my own nose,” policy, I’ve not had a single cold — and thus not a single sinus infection. Hygiene works.
While I don’t see any way to legislate it without it being massively over-intrusive, I do think there should be well-enforced social norms militating against spreading cold germs. It would please me if sneezing in public were an absolute social taboo, like urinating in public.
I hope you carry hand sanitizer too. Any surface you touch in public is a potential source.
Sneezing is a reflex, it’s pretty much impossible to stifle.
Oh, I do. Between touching any surface in public and touching my nose, my hands will either get washed in hot, soapy water or sanitized.
Fair enough, but so’s urinating. Note that I’m not calling for the execution of people who sneeze. I’m just wishing for it to be somewhat socially stigmatized. (And wishing that it were taken for granted that if you absolutely can’t hold it in, you should sneeze in your elbow, not your hands, then race to the bathroom to wash your hands in hot, soapy, water — and then excuse yourself to go home.)
The people I can’t bear to be around are the promiscuous sneezers who clearly do have a honking cold, and who seem to think it’s no big deal to sneeze right into their hands and then touch everything around them. They need shaming.
Well no. People have control over urination. Well, most of the time.
Sneezing is a lot more problematic to stop.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen kids who cough in my face and the parents think it’s “cute”. I want to offer those parents a free sterilization.
A few fun facts for you….
11 Surprising Sneezing Facts
I’m so sorry about your health issues. :(
Whenever I watch documentaries set in/about Asian countries I notice how many people wear masks in public. I’ve always wondered if this is more because of smog or germs?
Oh, please don’t be! The good news with this is that if I’m very careful, in the way I’ve described above, it’s almost entirely avoidable. If this is the worst problem I’ve ever experienced with my health — and a few accidents and a few surgeries apart, it is — I can count myself one of the luckiest people I know.
It’s both, though in neither case does it work (not like hand-washing, which really does work), and it’s a few other things, beside. Here’s a sort-of good article about that … Mostly people who wear them are wearing them not to protect themselves, but to protect others — to be polite, in other words. I approve of the sentiment, although I’d be more impressed still if they were frequently washing their hands in hot, soapy water.
I have to imagine that since you’re a physician, parents and their kids take it more seriously when you say, “If you have to sneeze, you must not ever do it in someone else’s face. Carry a Kleenex if you think you’re going to sneeze, and sneeze into that, then dispose of it in a sanitary receptacle. If you don’t have a Kleenex, sneeze in your elbow, not your hand; and in either case, wash your hands right away afterward in hot, soapy water.” I mean — you’re the one people will trust about these things, not me, right? I don’t think the parents need sterilizing, but it does sound as if they need to be taught about hygiene — and guess who they’d be apt to trust? You!
And if they could learn that before they get to school, especially the elbow thing, it would save me many antibiotics…
Some sneezes are harder to stop than others. Most of us have a lot of control over how and where we sneeze. And there’s huge variation from culture to culture about how various cold-germ-transmitting-behaviors are viewed: The French are always touching their nose without inhibition in public, which turns my stomach. Watch for it next time you’re in France or around French people — they have a weird relationship with their noses; they’re always touching them or even slowly excavating them, no embarrassment at all. In Turkey it’s (properly, in my view) seen as disgusting to blow your nose in public. As Lady Randolph pointed out, in many countries in the far east, people with colds often wear sanitary masks. Americans are slowly getting the idea of “Sneeze into your elbow, not your hands,” but it’s still not universal. And a lot of Americans think it’s a sign of your commitment to your job to come to the office with a honking cold. I’m surprised HR departments don’t stomp on this idea harder than they do, since I have to assume the total hours lost by all employees exposed to Mr. Stoic Germ Vector greatly exceeds the number of hours he works.
does he have an avatar? I bet it is gross…
Introducing Mr. Stoic Germ Vector
(seriously, found his pic on google images: germ vector)