Scott McPherson's Web Presence

Scott, this is what I warned about 24 hours ago. This country is committing suicide in an effort to be "tolerant" and avoid looking racist. Moreover, the Obama administration is COUNTING on a mass migration of Mexicans into the USA for votes. Sound crazy?

You know what, the way I figure it if we are going to be this stupid then we deserve what we get.

Here is a quote from the greatest president in the history of the Universe : President Barack Obama said, "the death showed it was time to take "utmost precautions" against the possible spread of the virus."

The possible spread? How obtuse does one have to be to see that there is no such thing as a "possible" spread. It's been spreading for weeks! Americans have been screaming at the tops of our voices to SHUT THE BORDERS DOWN...and TODAY Obama tells is it's time to take the utmost precautions?

Wow, thank GOD we have Obama as our fearless leader. He sure is calm and collected under pressure. At first, I was not concerned about this flu, but 72 - 96 hours after this all began, Obama now gives us permission to be concerned and NOW he is going to get busy with getting tough on the spread of this influenza.

This would be a funny joke if it were not so terrifying.

Scott, do you do any moderation on comments? Just curious if you're consciously (and thus, implicitly agreeing with) Timothy's consistently inane blather. For example, everyone knows the "greatest president in the history of the Universe" was Zaphod Beeblebrox.

It's a shame he feels the need to repeatedly mar your otherwise excellent blog with his uninformed opinions.

Now, back to hording shotgun shells and ravioli...

That there is an adverb without an accompanying verb. Sigh. Maybe this time I'll preview post first...

Anyway, since my comment went through immediately, I answered my own question.

Tod, where possible I have sited passages with links. Clearly I am offering my opinions as well, but aren't web sites like this suppose to be a place where the free expression of ideas are protected by the first amendment? And is it your SMO to come into public forums like his one and attack people you whose opinions you do not agree with?

Rather than attack me personally, why not just use this forum to give voice to the opinions you have regarding this current administrations handling of this situation? Your opinions make the site that much more interesting. Its comments like your that actually mar a very nice web site like this one.

Having said that, best of wishes.

Calm down everyone.

Shutting down borders et al. may feel good as a "do something!" kinda reaction, but it may be a treatment far worse than the disease.

You can try to shut down borders, ban flights, etc. and end up destroying world trade as everyone hunkers down in their silos, but it will be hugely expensive and dangerous. You'll end up killing far more people through starvation, violence, and just the inability to purchase needed goods and services (such as medicine) by taking these measures and destroying the world economy (which is already a mess). Sure, sometimes an extreme reaction may be needed (like if this was easily transmitted airborne ebola or something), but this flu, while nasty and capable of going in unknown directions, is probably not the End of the World.

Wash your hands (lots), avoid crowds, get lots or rest, eat good healthy food, follow the news, but keep some perspective here.

I have not wanted to stifle debate, but I am hoping I do not have to exert censorship. I am hoping that people will steer their conversations toward the real topic. If not, then I won't have much of a choice, I am afraid to say.

Let me weigh in here:
Closing the borders is unwarranted at this time. It will absolutely ruin the economy, and that is as much a consideration as the bug.

We do not know what this bug will do next. There is no prevailing opinion on this among scientists, and I have spoken with plenty of them over the past few days. These are the people who are appearing on TV, in some cases. Others are the ones who work for those talking heads.

In other words, I am getting world-class advice and world-class dialogue and passing a synthesis of that to you.

Just about to blog on that. Please, let's keep this centered on the flu and not Obama.

Scott, I have to disagree with you. Closing borders is the right thing to do, and being worried about the economy when it is already in the tank is like deciding you needed to take swimming lessons AFTER you fell off the boat.

If you think our economy is bad now, just wait til 50-60,000 people die because we allowed countless hundreds and maybe thousands of infected illegals to cross the border before we decided to do something about it.

I am not the only person calling for the borders to be closed by the way, and since that is an administrative decision you can't talk about this crisis without talking about the way our government is handling it.

Something tells me that what you want to steer away from is any criticism of this current administration.

Why didn't you say so. I will take my extremist, racist comments elsewhere. It is your web site friend.

Timothy:

I won't call you a "racist" since I have no idea who you are or what you believe. I just don't believe closing borders is feasible or needed, and I think the damage it causes is far worse than an possible benefit.

If this virus kills 50K it's only slightly more lethal than normal flu. Moreover, 50 K die every year in traffic accidents. We don't close the roads over that, since it would be a massive social and economic disruption. Economic costs are real costs. People out of work lack health care, they often drift to drugs, violence, and whole systems of wellbeing fall apart. This isn't just about keeping profits flowing to rich share-holders, it's about maintaining basic economic supports to keep people healthy. Here and in Mexico.

Drastic actions need to have really clear evidence of something truly horrible happening, like efficient H-2-H bird flu. Swine flu sucks, but it's not the Black Death, and we should worry about overreacting in a way that leaves us poorer and more vulnerable to the next disease to crop up.

Dramatic actions need clear evidence of something horrible to be justified?

How about going to Pandemic Alert 5? Is that horrible enough? Or was that not justified as well? I'm just sayin'.

Common sense simply does not exist any more. We are living in the land of Lilliput. We are lemmings racing headlong towards the edge of the abyss arguing about whether or not closing the borders to Mexico is too insensitive or justified. Hell, we might as well be saying we are no longer at War with Terror. Oh wait, that's already been done. My bad.

;)

PS NArmer: I am somewhat on the fence about all of this. For a Pandemic, people sure seem to be feeling pretty well. According to WHO we have had only 7 deaths? It hardly seems to be spreading like wildfire. So, do we have a killer Pandemic or don't we? Closing the borders is another issue. I am just saying that something does not yet add up. We have people at the highest levels screaming that we have a global pandemic, and we have a president who says that schools with children who have swine flu may want to CONSIDER closing. Again, I wonder if I am alone in thinking that none of this adds up. We are getting mixed signals from every direction.

Timothy -- simply put, anyone who is worth listening to (appeal to authority fallacy!) says that "closing the borders," even if it were possible, would be dramatically bad. There was a short piece on PRI last night about how all the couplers for ventilators (for people who are very sick with respiratory diseases) are made in Mexico. So shutting those thingies out would seem counterproductive.

Oh, and Mexico is the US's third largest trading partner. So yes, an economy disaster in the face of a not-quite-a-zombie-horde event would be bad.

I just wanted to weigh in and say I agree completely with Scott and Narmer's positions here. Based on the data we've seen to date, there is no rational justification yet for closing the borders. That could change in the future, but for now, the facts on the ground do not outweigh the effort and economic impact. Vigilance and rational precaution are what is needed at this time, until the actual threat can be better determined.

That being said, from the reports I've seen, I think the US is still being too lax in its vigilance - better monitoring and checking of people crossing the border and arriving on ship or flight from Mexico should be in place. The State Department was too slow in its initial actions too. They should have posted a Travel Advisory for Mexico on 4/24.