Saturday, May 30, 2015


Doing the math: ISIS = US + Saudi + Turkish + Israeli neo-colonialists + $$$

     "Where does ISIS come from and how can we stop them?" you might ask.  Answering that question is easy if you just do the math. So let's find out the answer -- by simply adding up the columns of numbers listed below: 



ISIS = Chechen, Libyan, Malaysian, Al Qaeda and other foreign fighters paid for and armed by the House of Saud.  http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-isis-islamic-terrorists-are-supported-by-the-us-israel-and-saudi-arabia/5396171


ISIS = American neo-colonialists working in tandem with Al Qaeda. 
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/29/politics/isis-man-trained-in-us/index.html

    When we subtract American, Turkish, Israeli and Saudi neo-colonialists' $$$ and weapons from ISIS, we get peace in the Middle East -- or at least a hopeful shot at it. 

     "But, Jane," you might ask next, "how can we prove this equation?"  We don't have to be Euclid or Einstein.  We just have to do the math.

The Middle East minus Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Palestine = more land + more oil + more power + more $$$ for Turkish, American, Israeli and Saudi neo-colonialists.  http://www.globalresearch.ca/obamas-gun-running-operation-weapons-and-support-for-islamic-terrorists-in-syria-and-iraq-the-objective-was-to-create-constructive-chaos-and-redraw-the-map-of-the-middle-east/5450832

ISIS + Al Qaeda + the spoiled-brat House of Saud's grand illusion that oil $$$ can buy them anything they want + America's Wall Street and War Street immoral lust for profit and power + Zionist neo-con lust for "Greater Israel" + Turkish neo-con lust for a return of the old Ottoman Empire = Bad News for the Middle East + Bad News for you and me too.

Our tax $$$ to America's Wall Street and War Street + ISIS + Al Qaeda + Israeli neo-colonialists also equals less jobs, more class conflict, less education for our children, more paramilitary cops, more Fergusons and Baltimores, more homelessness and tent cities and a lot less democracy here at home.

Bottom line:  To stop ISIS, all we have to do is cut off the flow of $$$ + weapons + training to it from American + Saudi + Israeli + Turkish neo-colonialists.  Plus start up a flow of $$$ to Americans like you and me instead.  Plus hopefully stop the eventual flow of ISIS to Turkey, Arabia, Israel and America as well.

Friday, May 29, 2015


FIFA soccer: 1972 Munich Olympic tragedy redux?

     How many young Israeli athletes were mercilessly gunned down and slaughtered by Palestinians at the 1972 Munich Olympics?  Shot down in their prime simply because they were Israeli athletes?  Eleven were killed.

     The entire world reacted in grief to this terrible tragedy and to the senseless slaughter of these heroic youth -- pouring out its sympathy and grief for these eleven innocent victims of a violence they had never created.

     And now this same tragedy of young athletes being mercilessly gunned down and slaughtered in their prime is also being played out on the world stage all over again.

     Except that this time nobody in the world seems to notice -- or care.

    Eleven athletes were gunned down in cold blood in Munich in 1972.

     And, according to Independent Jewish Voices of Canada, four Palestinian soccer players have also been mercilessly slaughtered by Israeli neo-colonialist occupation gunmen, two Palestinian soccer players have been deliberately knee-capped by Israeli neo-colonial terrorists' bullets, numerous Palestinian soccer players have been deliberately jailed or detained simply because they were Palestinian soccer players, and every time a Palestinian or Arab-Israeli soccer player takes the field in Jerusalem today, Beitar's fans chant "Death to Arabs".

     Apparently the lives of Palestinian and Arab-Israeli athletes don't even matter.

     Right now, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is being asked to sanction Israel for its blatant apartheid attitude toward Palestinian soccer players -- to say nothing of their blatant displays of terrorism toward these innocent young athletes who do not deserve to be dead simply because of their country of origin and their love of the game.

     Let us hope that FIFA makes the right call and "red cards" this slaughter.

     No athlete, anywhere, ever, should have to put their lives in danger because of their love of sports.

------------------------------------

IJV joins with Israelis and Palestinians demanding FIFA show Israel the red card


      This Friday, the World Congress of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, will be making a crucial decision – whether to suspend Israel’s football association from the sports body.  The complaint was brought by the Palestinian Football Federation after years of harassment, intimidation, racist incitement, and even physical attacks by Israelis on Palestinian players.

     Independent Jewish Voices – Canada (IJV) joins Israeli peace groups and Palestinians in urging FIFA to “show Israel the red card” (like referees do in soccer, suspending a player when their conduct is unacceptable.)  Jeff Halper, a Jewish Israeli peace activist (who spoke across Canada last winter) met with FIFA head Sepp Blatter in Ramallah and told him of the many slights and injuries that Palestinian players have suffered over the years:
  • The Israeli government has regularly detained members of the Palestinian team from traveling to international bouts.  Last week, not hours after Israeli leaders promised Blatter to facilitate travel, they detained a leading player, Sameh Maraabah.
  • The Israeli Football Association has refused to take even the smallest steps to curb racism in Israeli football.  The most egregious behaviour is by the team Beitar Jerusalem, which has an open policy of not hiring Arab or Muslim players, even from abroad.  Its fans are sadistic and insulting to Palestinian players on other teams and regularly chant “Death to Arabs” after Beitar goals.
  • The Israeli government regularly prevents players from Gaza from joining team-mates on the West Bank, and has deliberately jailed others, holding one player incommunicado and without charges or trial for three years.
  • Two teenaged Palestinian players were shot in the legs and feet by the Israeli Defence Forces, a particularly targeted punishment for soccer players.  Needless to say, they will never play serious soccer again. 
  • Three team members were killed in the 2012 Operation Cast Lead and the team’s soccer stadium in Rafah, Gaza and the federation’s headquarters were bombed during that incursion.
  •  A teenaged Palestinian soccer star, Mohammed al-Qatari received an IDF bullet straight to the chest while protesting Israel’s last war in Gaza.  http://ijvcanada.org/2015/ijv-joins-with-israelis-and-palestinians-demanding-fifa-show-israel-the-red-card/

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Climate change & car commercials: Our planetary ship of fools

     So I'm down here in Van Nuys right now -- at an Islamic trance-dancing convention of all things.  So this morning I go into a Sufi-like trance and what is the first thing that crosses my mind?  How much I hate all those hundreds and hundreds of new-car commercials we always see on TV.  What a waste of a good trance dance! 

     And what a waste of good TV air-time too.  

     Here we all are, living on a planet that is about to extinguish all human life here by choking us to death with all the rings and layers of air pollution that currently circle the earth -- and the only thing mankind can come up to hopefully solve or stop this desperate and scary crisis is to bombard Americans with hundreds and hundreds of commercials to go out and buy yet even more new cars?  Cars that are causing this desperate and scary crisis in the first place?

      That is not thinking outside the box. That is a death wish.

      And now I'm about to go off to have dinner at a famous Jewish delicatessen in Encino, about six miles away.  And I'm gonna walk there!

PS:  Are you aware that some sleazy Israeli neo-colonialists have just sold some sleazy Saudi Arabian neo-colonialists a bunch of bunker-buster bombs -- which the House of Saud immediately went out and dropped on helpless civilians in Yemen?  Apparently Yemen has become the House of Saud's equivalent of Gaza.

      And are you also aware that the Saudis, in order to stop relief ships loaded with medicine, food and toys from landing in Yemen, have totally bombed and destroyed the port where the ships were supposed to land?  This war crime would be the equivalent of that if the House of Saud didn't want relief ships to dock in California (perhaps after watching the movie "San Andreas"), they then blew up the entire Port of Oakland.

     Talk about your air pollution!

     I guess that I should just be grateful that there aren't any ads for bunker-buster bombs or bomb-dropping airplanes on prime-time TV. 

     So far. 

Friday, May 22, 2015


Wanna defend Islam? Then forget about joining ISIS. Go defend Syria or Yemen instead

    My three-month-old granddaughter has finally fallen asleep so I gotta bang this article out fast before she wakes up and I don't have a lot of time to run all this down to you ad infinitum.  Thus I'm only going to explain it to you once.  So listen up.

     If you are a disenchanted western Muslim youth and you are considering running off to the Middle East to join ISIS and fight to protect the name of the Prophet, I only got one word for you.  "Forget-about-it".

     Let's face it, guys.  If Mohammed (PBUH) was living today, he would be absolutely horrified by ISIS.  Horrified!  Absolutely.  Muslims hacking Muslims to death like they were bloody chickens being slaughtered for Eid and Muslim men raping Muslim women like they were cattle instead of humans?  Forget that.  Just forget it.  The Prophet would be totally appalled.

    But if you really really do want to fight to protect Islam, then go to Damascus and join Assad's heroic Syrian army instead.  Or go fight for Hezbollah.  Or join the Houthi in Yemen.  Or decry the slaughter of Muslims in Gaza.  Are you pissed off at the western neo-colonialist imperialist Empire of Chaos for unjustly demonizing your religion and destroying the Middle East?  Then put your freaking anger where your mouth is.  Go fight against ISIS -- not for it.

     You need another reason to fight against ISIS?  I got another one here.

     ISIS was originally created in order to spread chaos in the Middle East so that western neo-colonialists could easily swoop in and take over once all those pesky Muslims who actually own the land (and oil) there have finished slaughtering each other.  And you disenchanted western Muslim youth want a piece of this?  Really? 

    Fighting these neo-colonialist bastards' wars for them is definitely not halal!

    Anyone who does even the slightest bit of research and anyone who is even slightly intelligent enough to question all the American, Israeli, European and Saudi neo-colonial lies and propaganda that we are constantly being bombarded with has just got to know that western imperialists are equipping, training and backing ISIS -- for both fun and profit. 
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/22/secret-intel-reports-on-syria-iraq-revealed/

     So if you are a good Muslim, don't even think about joining ISIS because the western Empire of Chaos will have all the fun -- and you will be left getting none of the Prophet.

     And after the American, Israeli, European and Saudi neo-colonialist bastards get done destroying the Middle East, they are gonna turn on America, Israel, Europe and Arabia next.  You think I'm wrong?  It's already started to happen.

     Oops, gotta go now.  The baby's awake.  And it's time for disenchanted western Muslim youth to wake up too.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

American Regime: 10 reasons why America is now a "Regime"

    We are constantly seeing and hearing our American media use the word "Regime" these days.  So exactly what is a "Regime"?  Apparently it is whatever you want it to be.

     Whenever Wall Street and/or War Street want to vilify a country that disagrees with their policies of occupation and exploitation, they always begin their vilification program by calling that country's form of government a "Regime".

     Here are some examples:  Syria is a "Regime" -- even though it has a constitution, holds elections and almost all Syrians support its president, Bashar Assad.  Gaddafi in Libya also operated a "Regime" -- even though his government offered the kind of free education and healthcare benefits to its citizens that most Americans can only dream about.  Cuba was (and still is) considered a "Regime" in the eyes of Wall Street and War Street.  Putin also runs a "Regime" -- even though most Russians today support him totally.

     In reverse, Saudi Arabia is not a "Regime" -- even though the House of Saud uses torture, suppresses dissent, beheads people, treats women badly, brutally invades other countries and supports Al Qaeda and ISIS.  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41834.htm 

     The House of Saud has spent over a trillion $$$$ of its enormous petro-dollar wealth over the last half-century on killing people and being despotic.  Just imagine what the Middle East would look like right now if the Saudis had chosen butter instead of guns.  What a waste.  And yet Saudi Arabia is still not considered to be a "Regime" by American media. https://candobetter.net/node/4421

     Israel never gets called a "Regime" either -- even though it supplied Iran with weapons back when Khomeini was holding Americans hostage and it kills Palestinian children with impunity, foments wars whenever possible, runs secret torture prisons, is a neo-colonialist in the worst sort of way, appears to even be anti-Jewish, uses 9-11 to its advantage and has notoriously corrupt leaders.  http://buchanan.org/blog/our-next-mideast-war-syria-15984

    And now America seems to have become a "Regime" as well -- even though nobody ever dares to call it by that name.  But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

     Here are at least ten reasons that cause me to suspect that Wall Street and War Street are running a "Regime" here in America too:

Reason No. 1:  Torture.  Black sites.  Rendition.  Indefinite detention of Americans.  Stuff like that.  Our tax dollars at work.

Reason No. 2:  No one is ever allowed to examine (let alone question) election results or voting machines here in the USA.  Remember GWB, for instance?  Never legally won an election in his life!  Or take those new voter restrictions that have suddenly become so popular in the Ol' South.  You would expect something like that in the old Soviet Union or in the bad old days of Jim Crow -- but not here, not now.  And yet here it is. 
http://evergreenedigest.org/bb-king-and-our-blatant-racial-revisionism-south-still-denies-roots-americas-music

Reason No. 3:  Spying on its citizens.  NSA.  The Patriot Act.  Snowden and Manning are being persecuted for spying -- while FaceBook, Google and NSA get a free pass.  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/06/were-citizens-not-subjects-we-have-the-right-to-criticize-government-without-fear

Reason No. 4:  Ferguson.  Baltimore.  Zuccotti Park.  Oakland.  Military tactics used to violently suppress the American underclass if they dare to complain that their jobs are all disappearing, their children's education sucks eggs and their tax dollars are being spent on military adventurism in foreign lands instead of on infrastructure here at home.  

Reason No. 5:  Congress!  Government for sale.  Widespread corruption.  The Koch brothers' and K Street's yard sale of our politicians -- all bought on the cheap.  A solder in Afghanistan once told me that, "The only difference between corrupt politicians in Afghanistan and corrupt politicians in America is that corrupt politicians in America pass laws to make their corruption legal and Afghan politicians do not."  (Also see Reason No. 9)

Reason No. 6:  No daycare!  I just threw that in because I'm now babysitting my wonderful three-month-old granddaughter so that my daughter can go back to work.  Even Iraq under Saddam Hussein had free daycare!  Even Cuba under Castro. 

     And when Sofia goes off to kindergarten in five years, then I'll finally be able to go back to being a war correspondent again -- knowing for certain that the American "Regime" will still be subsidizing despots and Endless War in the Middle East even five years from now.  What a waste.

Reason No. 7:  Media suppression.  You think that you might have some good ideas about telling truth to power around here?  Then don't expect to get a job with the New York Times or the Washington Post any time soon.  Shades of the old Pravda. 

Reason No. 8:  Cops and the military (again).  Peaceful protests are suppressed here just like they are in Occupied Palestine.  Rubber bullets and tear gas R Us!  Our cops recently used tear gas on protesters even here in my own hometown.  And then there are all those poor countries abroad that have been Blitzkriegged by our very own Luftwaffe and then invaded by our very own Storm Troopers.  I could drone on and on about that!

Reason No. 9:  Our Supreme Court.  Scalia would feel right at home in Nigeria or Haiti.  There's not a single corrupt corporate take-over that he doesn't like.

Reason No 10:  Corporatism itself.  Nazi Germany ran on "Corporatism".  Hitler just loved handing out corporate welfare.  And so do our so-called leaders.  Nazi Germany was a "Regime".  Perhaps America is too.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p5pXqQEGM4

     I rest my case.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Richard Tamm's report on vaccines

     Author's note:  Richard didn't have a URL for this so I'm publishing it here.  It's a long read -- but worth it, especially the article at the end, and especially stuff you should know if you ever plain to vaccine your kids (or yourself!)  And here's the link to my thoughts on the subject, entitled "Vaccines: Why I no longer shoot up".  http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2015/05/vaccines-why-i-no-longer-shoot-up.html


     I was not interested in doing extensive research on vaccinations, but in the brief time I did spend, I was surprised at how much evidence there is that vaccinations do pose a danger and may even bring on autism.

     The one point I got for sure is that environmental stress is a definite component in the rise in autism, and that this environmental stress includes vaccinations.


     Various sites that appear to be quite mainstream claim Autism is caused by both a genetic link/weakness plus environmental stresses -- such as heavy metals like mercury, aluminum, etc., found in vaccines (CDC site below confirms this), pesticides and other chemicals.

1.  At this Autism Society website, they say:

Environmental Factors

Research indicates other factors besides the genetic component are contributing to the rise in increasing occurrence of autism – for example, environmental toxins (e.g., heavy metals such as mercury), which are more prevalent than in the past. Those with autism (or those at risk) may be especially vulnerable to such toxins, as their ability to metabolize and detoxify these exposures might be compromised.
2.  And from the National Autism Association

Based on parent reports – including parents representing the National Autism Association – sharp regression occurred in their children directly following immunizations.  While many parents can provide detailed accounts of regression in their children following vaccination, other parents have reported autism in their unvaccinated children.  More sparsely, parents report swift regression following an illness, use of antibiotics, and random chemical exposure – such as carpet cleaning.  Though published mainstream science fails to acknowledge a causal link to any of these specific exposures, it’s important that parental accounts be carefully considered.
     Most researchers do agree that environmental factors play a role, though there is no one cause of autism identified by mainstream science. In identical twins who share the exact same genetic code, if one has autism, the other twin also has autism in nearly 9 out of 10 cases.   There are cases where one twin has autism and his/her identical twin with matching genetic codes do not.  It’s important that environmental exposures are considered among all cases, especially cases of regressive autism.
     A recent review of the world’s medical literature suggests that underlying biochemical abnormalities are likely involved in environmental susceptibilities and the development of autism including mitochondrial dysfunction, immune dysregulation, inflammation, oxidative stress, methylation problems, transsulfuration issues and toxicity.
AUTISM AND GENETICS
     According to officials at the National Institutes of Health, while there is most likely a genetic predisposition, there must also be an environmental component to autism. The rapid rise in the rate of autism over the last 20 years cannot be attributed solely to genetics.
CONTRIBUTING ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
     The theory that parental practices are responsible for autism has long been disproven. While mainstream science discounts vaccinations as a cause, members of the National Autism Association feel vaccinations have triggered autism in a subset of children, and that an overly aggressive vaccination schedule coupled with toxic adjuvants in vaccines could affect individuals who have a family history of autoimmune disorders specifically.  As with any medication, adverse events do happen, and vaccinations are no exception.  Research to investigate, and reduce, adverse events in immunized individuals is currently nonexistent.
The National Autism Association believes:
  • Vaccinations can trigger or exacerbate autism in some, if not many, children, especially those who are genetically predisposed to immune, autoimmune or inflammatory conditions.
  • Other environmental exposures may trigger, or exacerbate, autism in certain children, especially those who are genetically predisposed to immune, autoimmune or inflammatory conditions.

3. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) lists mercury, aluminum, antibiotics and other pollutants in Vaccines.

On their page entitled: "Vaccines and Immunizations" and 

subtitled: "Ingredients of Vaccines - Fact Sheet

at: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/additives.htm#  under "Additional Facts" they list under "Common substances found in vaccines include:" (and note that they are careful to use the word "include" meaning there may be other pollutants as well in trace amounts)
  • Aluminum gels or salts of aluminum which are added as adjuvants to help the vaccine stimulate a better response. Adjuvants help promote an earlier, more potent response, and more persistent immune response to the vaccine. 
  • Antibiotics which are added to some vaccines to prevent the growth of germs (bacteria) during production and storage of the vaccine. No vaccine produced in the United States contains penicillin.
  • Egg protein is found in influenza and yellow fever vaccines, which are prepared using chicken eggs. Ordinarily, persons who are able to eat eggs or egg products safely can receive these vaccines.
  • Formaldehyde is used to inactivate bacterial products for toxoid vaccines, (these are vaccines that use an inactive bacterial toxin to produce immunity.) It is also used to kill unwanted viruses and bacteria that might contaminate the vaccine during production. Most formaldehyde is removed from the vaccine before it is packaged.
  • Monosodium glutamate (MSG) and 2-phenoxy-ethanol which are used as stabilizers in a few vaccines to help the vaccine remain unchanged when the vaccine is exposed to heat, light, acidity, or humidity. 
  • Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative that is added to vials of vaccine that contain more than one dose to prevent contamination and growth of potentially harmful bacteria.
  • For children with a prior history of allergic reactions to any of these substances in vaccines, parents should consult their child’s healthcare provider before vaccination.

4.  The number of Vaccines that a child in the U.S. receives by the age of 6 has increased from 7 in 1950 to 36 today.
Thus we have this added environmental stress on our children that can increase the possibility of complications including autism.

5.  And the incidence of Autism has increased tremendously in the U.S.  At the Autism Society website http://www.autism-society.org/what-is/facts-and-statistics/ the say:  About 1 percent of the world population has autism spectrum disorder. (CDC, 2014).  Prevalence in the United States is estimated at 1 in 68 births. (CDC, 2014).  More than 3.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder. (Buescher et al., 2014).

     Prevalence of autism in U.S. children increased by 119.4 percent from 2000 (1 in 150) to 2010 (1 in 68). (CDC, 2014) Autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability. (CDC, 2008).  Prevalence has increased by 6-15 percent each year from 2002 to 2010. (Based on biennial numbers from the CDC
6.  Why require vaccinations?  On the FAQs page of the National Autism Association at: http://nationalautismassociation.org/about-naa/faqs-about-naa/
  1. What is NAA’s position on vaccinations?NAA believes that every parent has the right to research and educate themselves about all medical products, including vaccinations. Informed consent is critical and each parent should have the freedom and information necessary to make the best decision for their child. NAA cannot make this decision for any parent, but we are happy to provide sources of information to anyone in need. We recommend visiting http://nvic.org)
7.   l end with this long article and ask why require vaccinations, and why attack parents who refuse?
at: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/bretigne-shaffer/first-they-came-for-the-anti-vaxxers/




    Earlier this year I spent a few days at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with my daughter who was having an EEG done. On our way home, I learned that there had been an outbreak of an antibiotic-resistant bacteria while we were there, that it had infected seven people and killed two of them.  My daughter and I were fine – the infection having been limited to people using a particular kind of duodenoscope.
     When the story hit the news, I fully expected nationwide outcry similar to that inspired by the recent measles “epidemic” that began at Disneyland.   That outbreak killed no-one, yet set the country on fire with calls for mandatory vaccination and even prison sentences for parents who choose not to vaccinate their children.  Drug-resistant “superbugs” kill nearly 15,000 people a year in the US and a recent report predicts that they could kill as many as 300 million people by 2050.  Surely this far more deadly health threat would lead to similar widespread outrage and calls for those even remotely responsible to be held accountable.
     I expected to see editorials calling for anyone who engaged in the overuse of antibiotics to be shunned by society; doctors who prescribedthem unnecessarily (around 50% of all prescriptions by some estimates) to be censured and perhaps lose their licenses; parents who asked for antibiotics every time their child had an ear infection – despite the fact that the vast majority are not bacterial and are unaffected by antibiotics – to be thrown in jail for endangering the rest of us.  But I saw nothing along these lines.  Why not?
     The manipulation of the conversation around vaccines in the mainstream media has been nothing short of a tour de force.  If you read only mainstream publications, you might come away with the impression that outbreaks of measles are the most serious public health crisis since the Black Death.  You might think that those who do not vaccinate are uneducated, superstitious“anti-science” zealots who get their information from daytime talk shows.  You might even start to feel outrage at these people who – for no good reason at all – have decided to endanger everyone else by refusing to do what every doctor knows is perfectly safe, effective and the socially responsible thing to do.
     The presentation of this issue has been a study in just how easy it can be to generate mass hysteria around a particular threat – even while much more serious threats inspire no such response.  It’s as if every mainstream reporter has been given the same playbook to use in putting together their articles about vaccines – a playbook designed to elicit the above response from the public. I’ve tried to imagine what this playbook must look like and I think I’ve come up with a pretty decent facsimile.  Here it is, along with my own annotations:
1. Make it clear that parents who choose not to vaccinate their children are only getting their information from Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carey and other celebrities with absolutely no scientific credentials.
     Pretend that doctors and scientists who are critical of vaccines – doctors like Dr. Suzanne HumphriesDr. Robert SearsDr. Kenneth StollerDr. Robert RowenDr. Janet LevatinDr. Stephanie CaveDr. Sherri TenpennyDr. Meryl NassDr. Jay GordonDr. Jane Orient, and many of the members of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, CDC researcher Dr. William Thompson, and all of the doctors and scientists listed here and here – don’t exist.  Because really, if you don’t write about them, they don’t.
2. Always equate the views of the CDC, medical journals and pharmaceutical company spokespeople with “science.”   Some people will try to tell you that science is a method, not a conclusion, that scientific truths cannot be determined by consensus or by appeal to authority, but you can just ignore them.
     As one (self-proclaimed) scientist put it:
“In my personal and scientifically backed opinion, the war against disease is a hundred fold more important than the mum-led war against vaccines.   Do you want your child to die a slow, painful, agonizing death?  If not, then shut the f*** up with your so called ‘facts’ you got from Yahoo Answers and get your kid vaccinated.
“I am going to sound derogatory, but if you don’t have formal education in at least biology, you have no role to talk about the way vaccines should be done.” (Sic.)
In other words, if you don’t have the same training we do, you don’t get to be part of the discussion.  Even when the topic of that discussion is whether or not we get to forcibly inject things into your bodies and the bodies of your children.  Just shut up and trust the scientists.  But not these scientists – they are all anti-science scientists.  Only trust these ones.
3.   Remind your readers that, however heart wrenching or tragic, anecdotal accounts are just that.  They are not scientific, they don’t say anything about relative risk, and should play no role in influencing your opinion about vaccines.
     Until you want to tell them the heart wrenching story of how author Roald Dahl lost his daughter to measles, or about the death of a young girl from rotavirus that inspired Dr. Paul Offit to develop a vaccine for that disease.
     Anecdotal accounts of people suffering from vaccine-preventable illnesses are fine.  Anything else though is just irrational. 
     Take for example the thousands of stories from parents whose children were perfectly healthy until they received one or more vaccines and then suddenly lost the ability to speak, to walk, to feed themselves, or who started having seizures, stopped breathing or died.  Many of the parents in these cases report that their doctors insist the vaccines had nothing to do with their child’s injury, even when no other explanation is apparent.  Indeed, the vaccine manufacturers and the CDC insist that most such cases are simply coincidences and have nothing to do with the vaccines.  But given the well-documented degree of conflict of interest and fraudulent practices within the CDC and the medical research community as a whole, many parents are understandably skeptical of such claims.
4. Remind your readers that “correlation is not causation.
     Unless you want to show them this graph and tell them it proves that vaccines save lives:
1
Whatever you do though, make sure you don’t accidentally show them this graph instead:
2
     To listen to the mainstream media, one would think that measles was a deadly affliction on a par with Ebola or the plague.  Vaccine advocates distort the dangers of measles by pointing to adverse effects experienced by populations in underdeveloped countries, where even the mildest of diseases can be deadly due to things like poor nutrition and sanitation.
     By the 1950s in the United States though, measles was considered a mild childhood disease that nearly everyone caught before adulthood and lived through with no serious consequences. Says Dr. Donald Miller:
“With good sanitation and nutrition, the pre-vaccine mortality rateof measles in the U.S. was less than 1 in a million (compared with 14 deaths per 100,000 in 1900); seizures occurred in 1 in 3,000 people; and encephalitis, 1 in 100,000, with full recovery in 75 percent of those cases.”
It is also worth noting that the CDC’s statement that “(f)or every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it” relies on reported cases of measles. A more accurate estimate puts the death rate at closer to 1 out of 10,000 cases.
     Meanwhile, in the past ten years there have been only a handful of measles deaths in the US, but VAERS data report 109 deaths associated with the measles vaccine since January of 2004, and the US Court of Federal Claims has settled 111 claims related to harm from the MMR vaccine in that same time.
     Not only is measles a relatively benign illness for healthy people living in developed countries, contracting and surviving the disease confers benefits to the immune system – as well as strengthening herd immunity – in ways that vaccines cannot.
     Far from protecting the most vulnerable demographic groups, widespread vaccination has increased the risk of serious harm from measles in some of these populations: Infants and very young children, as well as adults.  Normally, measles wouldn’t appear in these age groups – but now it does, thanks to the vaccine.  As Lawrence Solomon reported in the Financial Post last year:
“In the pre-vaccine era, when the natural measles virus infected the entire population, measles — ‘typically a benign childhood illness,’ as Clinical Pediatrics described it — was welcomed for providing lifetime immunity, thus avoiding dangerous adult infections.  In today’s vaccine era, adults have accounted for one quarter to one half of measles cases; most of them involve pneumonia, one-quarter of them hospitalization.
“Also importantly, measles during pregnancies have risen dangerously because expectant mothers no longer have lifetime immunity. Today’s vaccinated expectant mothers are at risk because the measles vaccine wanes with time and because it often fails to protect against measles.
“…The danger extends to babies, whose bodies are too immature to receive measles vaccination before age one, making them entirely dependent on antibodies inherited from their mothers. In their first year out of the womb, infants suffer the highest rate of measles infections and the most lasting harm. Yet vaccinated mothers have little antibody to pass on — only about one-quarter as much as mothers protected by natural measles — leaving infants vulnerable three months after birth, according to a study last year in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. [Emphasis mine.]
“Factors such as these increased the death rate for adults and the very young, helping to reverse the decline in deaths seen in previous decades, according to a 2004 study in the Journal of Infectious Disease, authored by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.”
As discussed below, childhood illnesses like measles and mumps can help to develop the immune system in ways that help to protect against things like asthma, autoimmune disease and even cancer. So the proposition that eliminating measles – rather than simply reducing its deadliness – is a worthy public health goal is a questionable one.
5.  Whenever possible, present the debate as if there are no legitimate reasons to choose not to vaccinate – only “personal beliefs” and “irrational fears.
     The reality is that there are legitimate and documented concerns about vaccine safety.  Nobody denies this – all that is in dispute is the magnitude of the harm caused by vaccines.  Vaccine manufacturers and their institutional supporters of course insist that any harm from vaccines is minuscule and easily outweighed by the benefits.  However this claim is suspect for a number of reasons, not least of which is the stunning degree of conflict of interest and outright fraud within the world of medical research.  Leaving aside these issues though, there remain good reasons to distrust the manufacturers’ claims.
     Numerous studies fly in the face of the manufacturers’ claims, showing connections between vaccines and autoimmune disease, asthma, allergies, cancer, encephalopathy, and yes, autism.  And even assuming integrity in the clinical trial process, these are not sufficient to demonstrate vaccine safety, as they typically only look at reactions that occur within a few weeks of vaccination, and only compare the adverse events experienced with one vaccine against those experienced with another vaccine – not against an unvaccinated sample.  Even the Cochrane Review of the literature on the MMR vaccine, for example, came to the conclusion in 2012 that “(t)he design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are largely inadequate.”
Studies that purport to demonstrate the safety of vaccines are similarly flawed and limited in their scope.  Indeed, of the list of 42 studies put forward by the American Academy of Pediatrics, with an invitation to parents to “examine the evidence”, none compare vaccinated against unvaccinated populations, and most look only at either the MMR vaccine or at Thimerosal.
     Meanwhile, because of a law that removes any liability from the makers of vaccines for any harm caused by their products, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has paid out nearly $3 billion in damages to the families of those who claim they have been injured by vaccines since its inception in 1988.  This is despite the elimination by the DHHS of most of the original adverse events from the “Table of Compensable Events”, and what NVIC President Barbara Loe Fisher calls “…a highly adversarial, lengthy, expensive, traumatic and unfair imitation of a court trial for vaccine victims and their attorneys.”
     And every year, around 30,000 reports are made to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) which records adverse reactions immediately following vaccination, as reported by doctors, other medical professionals, pharmaceutical companies, patients and parents.  Thirteen percent of these are classified as “serious” (including death).
     Of course these numbers don’t mean very much without a comparison to the background rate of such adverse events in the general population, not immediately following vaccination.  Some studies have shown no increased adverse events after vaccination as compared to the general population.  Other studies (including some that use post-vaccination data for other vaccines for comparison, rather than population-wide background rates) show higher rates of adverse events immediately post-vaccine.
     Vaccine proponents argue that the VAERS numbers are not an accurate reflection of vaccine damage, because each case reported has not been conclusively proven to be caused by a vaccine.  It is a legitimate point – and is largely due to the fact that in most cases there is no way to confirm vaccination as the cause of the event.
     The much bigger problem though is the degree to which the VAERS numbers suffer from significant underreportingSays president of the National Vaccine Information Center and advocate for parental choice regarding vaccines Barbara Loe Fisher:
“There have been estimates that perhaps less than 5 or 10 percent of doctors report hospitalizations, injuries, deaths, or other serious health problems following vaccination.  The 1986 Vaccine Injury Act contained no legal sanctions for not reporting [via VAERS]; doctors can refuse to report and suffer no consequences.”
Indeed, one study found that while 68% of cases of vaccine-associated polio were reported, only 4% of MMR-associated thrombocytopenia were reported.  An earlier study found that only 1% of adverse events following prescription drug use were reported.  And in 1994, a survey found that only 18% of 159 doctors’ offices made reports when children suffered serious health problems following vaccination.  In New York, this number was one out of 40.
     Some argue that adverse events are also over-reported to VAERS, presumably by distraught parents, but this charge is less credible.  All the evidence shows that doctors and other healthcare providers are extremely reluctant to report events to VAERS.  Healthcare providers account for 36% of all reports to VAERS, with vaccine manufacturers accounting for another 37%.  Vaccine recipients and their parents or guardians account for only 7% of reports.
     So what is the real risk of overall vaccine injury?  The only honest answer is that nobody knows.  The number of genuine vaccine injuries is likely much higher than what is reported in VAERS, but how much higher nobody can reliably say.  The science on vaccine safety is conflicted, it is insufficient and it is badly corrupted by special interests.  It is anything but “settled.”
     But there’s more.
     There is evidence that vaccines may cause harm well beyond what would show up in an adverse events report – harm that may manifest over many years, rather than in the days and weeks immediately following vaccination.   Vaccines have been connected to increased rates of cancer, severe allergies and autoimmune disease:
As Dr. Donald Miller explains:
“Measles helps a child’s immune system grow strong and mature.
“Once past the immunologic barriers of skin and mucosa, our (2-trillion-cell) immune system has two components: An innate system, which all animals have; and an evolutionarily more recent adaptive system that vertebrates have.  The childhood diseases—measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox—play a constructive role in the maturation of the adaptive immune system.  Two kinds of helper T-cells (Th) manage this system:cellular T-cells (Th1); and humoral T-cells (Th2), which make antibodies.  The Th1 cellular T-cells are especially important because they attack and kill cells in the body that run amok and become cancerous.  And they also kill cells that become infected with viruses.
“Measles (and other viral childhood diseases) stimulate both the Th1 and Th2 components.  The MMR vaccine stimulates predominately the Th2 side.  Overstimulation of this part of the adaptive immune system provokes allergies, asthma, and auto-immune diseases.  Since the Th1 side thwarts cancer, if it does not get fully developed in childhood a person can wind up being more prone to cancer later in life.  Women who had mumps during childhood, for example, have been found to be less likely to develop ovarian cancer compared with women who did not have mumps.”
(The study can be found here.)
     According to the CDC, food allergies in children increased by about 50% between 1997 and 2011.  Asthma rates have also been on the rise, with an increase of 28% between 2001 and 2011.  And childhood cancer rates have been increasing since the 1970s.  The National Institutes of Health reported in 1996 that the incidence of childhood cancer had increased by 10% between 1973 and 1991, and a 1999 report in the International Journal of Health Services said that:
“From the early 1980s to the early 1990s, the incidence of cancer in American children under 10 years of age rose 37 percent, or 3 percent annually.   There is an inverse correlation between increases in cancer rates and age at diagnosis; the largest rise (54 percent) occurred in children diagnosed before their first birthday. “
There are no definitive explanations for these dramatic increases in potentially life-threatening conditions among children, and in all likelihood there is no single cause responsible for any one of them.  However parents have good reason to be concerned about harmful environmental factors, including vaccines.  Indeed, several studies show increased rates of immunological problems associated with vaccination.
     A study in New Zealand found a higher rate of asthma among those who had been vaccinated (Kemp et al, 1997); Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study in the US showed that children vaccinated with DTP or Tetanus vaccines were twice as likely to develop asthma as unvaccinated children (Hurwitz and Morgenstern, 2000), and another study showed that the MMR vaccine can cause human white blood cells to develop IgE antibodies – one of the main characteristics of asthma (Imani and Kehoe, 2001).  A 2008 study found that delaying DPT vaccination was associated with reduced risk of childhood asthma.
     Other studies have found a link between vaccines and allergies and autoimmune disease.  A 1996 study in Africa found higher rates of allergies among those who had been vaccinated against measles than among those who had survived the disease.  The study concluded that “(m)easles infection may prevent the development of atopy in African children.”
     A 2001 study confirmed “A causal association between measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)…”; A study in 2014 found a strong correlation between hepatitis B vaccination and higher rates of multiple sclerosis; a 1999 study in Japan found that “…gelatin-containing DTaP vaccine may have a causal relationship to the development of this gelatin allergy”; and in 2009, a Japanese study that gave mice repeated immunizations with antigen found that “(s)ystemic autoimmunity appears to be the inevitable consequence of over-stimulating the host’s immune ‘system’ by repeated immunization…”
     In the journal Autoimmunity, Vared Molina and Yehudi Shoenfeld write “Vaccines, in several reports were found to be temporally followed by a new onset of autoimmune disease.  The same mechanisms that act in infectious invasion of the host, apply equally to the host response to vaccination.  It has been accepted for diphtheria and tetanus toxoid, polio and measles vaccines and GBS.  Also this theory has been accepted for MMR vaccination and development of autoimmune thrombocytopenia, MS has been associated with HBV vaccination.”
     Those who would force vaccinations on the rest of us are fond of repeating bromides like “your right to be sick ends where public health begins.”   But who gets to decide what constitutes “public health”?  Who decided that the eradication of every childhood illness is in the best interests of “public health”?  Why are not increased rates of childhood cancer and life-threatening allergies relevant to “public health”?  Why can I not demand that everyone else stop vaccinating their children because doing so directly threatens the ability of mine to contract childhood diseases which might help strengthen their immune systems?
6.   If you must acknowledge that critics of vaccines have actual reasons for their concerns, restrict the discussion to the fear that vaccines may cause autism, and be sure to stress that the only basis for this concern is the retracted 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield.
     You can also mention some of the studies that “prove” there is no causal link between vaccines and autism.  Just be sure not to mention any of the ones that do show a connection, like this onethis one or this one.  Be especially careful not to mention this onethis one, or any of thesethese or these.
     At all costs, never ever mention any of the concerns listed in “4.” above.
     For bonus points, see if you can create the impression that the only potential problem with vaccines is thimerosal, and then declare that thimerosal has been removed from all vaccines. (It hasn’t.)
7.   When in doubt, pepper your stories with some of the following affirmations.  Remember: The more you say them, the truer they become:  “Vaccines save lives”; “parents who don’t vaccinate are selfish” (“ignorant”, “anti-science” and “hippies” all work well too.); and above all: “the science is settled.
     You may have to repeat this last one many many times before your readers come to understand and accept it.
8.  Don’t even address vaccines directly.  Simply include some mention of vaccine skepticism as an example of the kind of irrational thinking some people (especially, strangely, well-educated ones) still engage in despite “everyone knowing” how foolish it is.
     This is perhaps the most powerful tool you can use to sway your audience.  Nobody wants to be seen as foolish, and most people don’t have the time or inclination to look closely at the evidence for and against vaccine safety.  If people keep hearing that “everyone knows” vaccines are safe and effective, most of them will tend to go along with that position even if they don’t know much about the topic – if only to avoid being seen as crackpots.  Fear of public humiliation can be a beautiful thing in the right hands.
9.   If the icky topic of conflict of interest or corruption of the research by vested interests comes up, just laugh it off.  Remember:  Writing in a derisive tone about other people’s claims or concerns is exactly the same as refuting them.
      Amy Wallace, who wrote this Wired piece handled this especially well.  And not only did she fail to interview a single critic of vaccines for the article, she cunningly created the impression that she had included their views by visiting an Autism One conference and mentioning and briefly quoting – but never actually speaking with – NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher.  Well done Amy Wallace!
     Be sure to quote Dr. Paul Offit and to cite him as a “vaccine expert”Don’t bother disclosing that he has made millions of dollars from the Rotavirus vaccine he developed.  The whole notion of disclosing conflicts of interest within a story is so passé.  Also anti-science.
     Vaccine advocates like to point to studies that show no increased risk of harm from vaccines.  They assert that these studies invalidate the findings of other studies that do show a link between vaccines and asthma, allergies, autism and other conditions.  In a world in which scientific institutions could be trusted to conduct honest, objective research and produce credible results, this might provide some comfort.  In the real world though, there is little reason to give credence to much of the research that gets produced on vaccines – and much less so to results that in any way favor the manufacturers of those vaccines.
     Lest anyone suspect that this kind of cynicism about the scientific establishment is confined to anti-vaccination activists, here is what Marcia Angell, former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicinewrote in 2009:
“…(C)onflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices.  It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.  I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” [Emphasis mine.]
Angell adds:
“No one knows the total amount provided by drug companies to physicians, but I estimate from the annual reports of the top nine US drug companies that it comes to tens of billions of dollars a year.  By such means, the pharmaceutical industry has gained enormous control over how doctors evaluate and use its own products.  Its extensive ties to physicians, particularly senior faculty at prestigious medical schools, affect the results of research, the way medicine is practiced, and even the definition of what constitutes a disease.”
Likewise, in his 2013 book “Bad Pharma”, physician (and vaccine advocate) Ben Goldacre writes:
“Overall, the pharmaceutical industry spends around half a billion dollars a year on advertising in academic journals.  The biggest – NEJM, JAMA – take $10 or $20 million each, and there is a few million each for the next rank down.”
Goldacre adds that “(a)dvertising is not the only source of drug company revenue for academic journals”, and cites “supplements” – special editions sponsored by drug companies – and reprints of individual academic papers that can bring in up to a million dollars each.  And he cites a 2009 study demonstrating that industry-funded studies are more likely to be accepted by journals.
     The real-world impact of this control has been well documented, from the FDA concealing fraud in medical trials, to built-in biases in studies, to pharmaceutical companies misleading practitioners as to the safety and efficacy of their products, to allegations of fraudulent misconductbrought by scientists turned whistleblowers.
     Recently, two former Merck scientists charged that the pharmaceutical giant “…fraudulently misled the government and omitted, concealed, and adulterated material information regarding the efficacy of its mumps vaccine…”  And in August of last year, senior CDC scientist William Thompson came forward with the statement that he and other researchers had omitted statistically significant data from a 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics.  (It is worth noting that Dr. Thompson’s earlier studies at the CDC were hailed as “definitive” in refuting the Thimerosal-autism link by none other than Dr. Paul Offit.)
     According to Thompson’s statement “(t)he omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased  risk for autism.  Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.”
     In a secretly recorded conversation, Dr. Thompson told with Dr. Brian Hooker, “I have a boss who is asking me to lie.  The higher ups wanted to do certain things and I went along with it.”  He told Dr. Hooker that “…the CDC has not been transparent, we’ve missed ten years of research, because the CDC is so paralyzed right now by anything related to autism.  They’re not doing what they should be doing.  They are afraid to look for things that might be associated…”
     Put simply:  The scientific establishment has lost any right to be taken at its word on this issue.
10.  “Herd Immunity!
      Remind your readers of our long-treasured right to herd immunity:  The right to demand – at gunpoint if necessary – that others take every possible precaution against contracting communicable diseases, regardless of the risks to themselves of doing so.  This is a right our forefathers fought and died for and we’re not about to give it up now.
     Actually, no.
     Those who support imposing vaccines by force argue that those who do not vaccinate threaten herd immunity for the entire population.  The idea that vaccines can successfully provide herd immunity is already questionable, as – unlike many childhood diseases – they do not confer lifetime immunity.  Nor do they offer 100% immunity to those vaccinated.   But more importantly this argument presumes that “herd immunity” is something anyone has a right to in the first place.
     For centuries, people have been aware that being out in public carries certain risks – among them, the risk that one might contract a disease from another person.  Never before have people widely asserted that they have the right to demand that everyone around them take all possible precautions at whatever cost to themselves to make this environment absolutely risk free.  If, as the mandatory vaccination proponents contend, we can demand that everyone around us take every conceivable precaution against every communicable disease, what else can we demand of them?
     For starters, the recently vaccinated (with live-virus vaccines) should be excluded from all public property.  And if not, why not?  They pose far more of a risk than does anyone who has simply not been vaccinated.  What are some other risky practices Americans should no longer tolerate from each other?   Going out in public with a cold?  Being a poor driver?  Being in possession of any substance that might cause a severe allergic reaction in someone else?
     How about superbugs?  What are we going to do about all those people who abuse antibiotics, ultimately leading to the creation of superbugs.  Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are responsible for nearly 15,000 deaths in the US each year, far outstripping pre-vaccine deaths for measles, mumps and whooping cough combined.  Can we not hold the irresponsible people who take antibiotics every time they have a minor infection accountable for this?
     Personally, I avoid antibiotics for myself and my family as much as possible.  I have never given them to a child with an ear infection (and yes, we’ve had some.) Should my preferences be imposed on everyone else?  Doing so would clearly strike a blow against the propagation of superbugs.  So why not?
     Here’s why not:  Because your right to protect “public health” – whatever you think that may be given the interest-driven media hysteria of the moment – ends where my body begins.
     Herd immunity is not something anyone has a “right” to.  It is a positive externality, and like other such externalities it is not something you have a right to demand that your fellow human beings provide for you.  More to the point, you do not have a right to demand that other parents impose risks on their children that they are not comfortable with, in order to protect your child or anyone else’s children.
The Forced Vaccination Threat: a Tragedy of the Commons
     Can there ever be a point where spreading a disease becomes “assault”?  Of course there can:  A person who knows that they are infected with Ebola, for example, stepping into a crowded subway car and proceeding to cough all over the other passengers, could easily be considered guilty of assault.  But measles is hardly Ebola (it is not even on the federal government’s list of quarantinable diseases), and – contrary to the media frenzy that insists otherwise – not being vaccinated does not equate to being infected with a disease, far less to knowingly infecting others.  Failure to take every precaution against getting a disease is hardly “assault.”
     Even in the case of a truly deadly illness like Ebola, there is no justification for forcing a particular method of prevention on those who have not contracted it, or forcing treatment on anyone who has. All that anyone has a right to do is demand that those people not infect others.
     It should be obvious by now that none of this would even be an issue if we lived in a society that honored self-ownership and private property.  In the event of an outbreak of a truly dangerous disease – or even a disease that posed a serious risk to only a small segment of the population – each property owner could make their own decision about whether to exclude those who were infected or indeed, even those who chose not to be vaccinated against the disease, presuming there was a vaccine for it.
As economist Robert Murphy writes:
“Private businesses aren’t stupid; they don’t need the government to order them to keep lepers away.  And if a particular church, say, wants to open its doors to such a person, that’s perfectly within their rights.  (As a matter of courtesy, we would hope this policy would be announced to others who might not want to visit the same building.)  Indeed, the final repository for such people would be buildings where the owners thought they could safely contain the disease.  And the common name people would use for these buildings is “hospital.”  In a free society, to be “quarantined” would simply mean that most owners (of roads, sidewalks, malls, hotels, factories, etc.) would refuse access, and so a contagious person would have few choices outside of treatment facilities.”
Rather than having a one-size-fits-all solution imposed upon everyone by some authority, everyone would make choices based on their own perception of the risks.  Businesses that responded to the risk sensitivities of their customers would do well and those that did not would suffer.  And because not all people have the same perception of or sensitivity to the same risks, there would be a wide variety of choices: Schools that allow unvaccinated children and schools that do not; restaurants that cater to those with severe allergies and those that do not; parks, libraries, cinemas and other establishments that specialize in serving immuno-compromised and other medically fragile individuals, and those that do not.
      In the absence of a “commons” – property that is used by everyone but owned by no-one (or, more realistically, owned by the state) there would be no calls for anyone to have vaccines forced upon them at gunpoint.   Those who believe vaccinations are absolutely necessary would frequent businesses and venues that enforced strict vaccination policies, and those who did not would frequent places that had more relaxed policies.
      My own guess is that for the most part, the issue would simply go away.  People would come to realize that the real risk to themselves and their families posed by those who do not vaccinate is in fact minuscule – particularly in comparison to other risks we all expose ourselves to daily.  In the absence of a “commons” managed by people who do not have to earn the costs of their operation, most business owners would find that they stood to lose more by excluding “non-vaxxers” than they did to gain by allowing them in.
      It is only in a world where property rights are not clearly defined, where there are great swathes of “commons” (either “public” property or nominally private property over which owners do not have genuine decision-making powers) that there can be a conflict between “public” health and individual rights.  Eliminate the commons and you eliminate that conflict – replacing it with a myriad of voluntary solutions to meet the differing wants and needs of diverse individuals.
Whatever Your Views on Vaccines, the Prospect of Forced Vaccination Ought to Make You Very Very Afraid
     Do those who believe in mandated vaccination really want to establish the precedent of granting a government body the power to compel people to be injected with substances against their will?  You may support the forced vaccination of other people’s children because you think vaccines are undeniably beneficial and problem-free.  But you may not be so thrilled about the next substance the state decides everyone should have forced into their veins.
     Do you really want to establish the precedent of being able to demand from your neighbors that they pose no risk to you at all?  The corollary of course being that they may then demand the same of you?  If as a society we decide that we have the right to demand a 100% risk-free environment in which to live then the potential intrusions into our lives are infinite.
     Even if the manufacturers’ claims are correct and the risk of serious injury from vaccines is infinitesimal, for most people it is impossible to know ahead of time whether or not they will be injured by a vaccine.  Nobody has the right to force another person to choose that risk – however small it may be – over the risks of the diseases the vaccines are intended to prevent.
     The state already controls vast swathes of what we can do with our lives:   What professions we may enter, how and where we may conduct business, what substances we cannot ingest, how much of the money we earn we are allowed to keep, how we may travel and what indignities we must tolerate in order to do so, when and where we may protest, and the list goes on and on.  If you do not believe that individuals have the right to control what goes into their own bodies then I have to wonder what rights – if any – you do believe people still have.
      It seems to me that, save choosing our mates for us, the last remnant of our self ownership lies in our right not to be directly assaulted, not to have unwanted drugs or other substances forced into our bodies.  If you believe that the state has the right to do this, then there is essentially nothing left that it does not have a right to do.
      The pro-vaccine lobby has done a phenomenal job of inciting fear among the American public in a way that happens to serve its interests:  Fear of little children who may not have been vaccinated; fear of other parents who may make choices different from yours; fear of a disease that in the developed world is far less deadly than lightning strikes.  But they’ve left out one of the most frightening specters of all, one that has a truly horrifying historical record of death and destruction:  An all-powerful state that can literally do whatever it wishes to those living under it.  If that prospect frightens you less than the remote possibility that you might contract measles from my five year old, then quite frankly you scare the hell out of me.