Tag: health

The War on Fauci

On By Hitting BregmaIn How I see the worldLeave a comment

The COVID pandemic started more than half a decade ago and a handful of republicans have brought Anthony Fauci back into the news. The re-emergence came from Senator Rand Paul, who has had frequent public disputes with Fauci and is now the chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. In a recent widely-reported series of events, Paul subpoenaed Fauci to testify before the committee. Fauci was granted a blanket pardon for the time he served as NIAID director, but in the days before the hearing, several taking heads, including some members of the Senate, made it clear that the pardon didn’t cover any perjury that might happen at the hearing. In other words, while he couldn’t be charged with a crime that he admitted committing at the hearing (if the crime was during the time covered by the pardon), if he lied to the committee during this hearing, he could be charged with perjury and sent to jail.

Continue reading “The War on Fauci” →

Unhealthy America?

On By Derek DanielsIn COVID, Health and Healthcare, How I see the world, politicsLeave a comment

There’s a narrative out there that we’re incredibly unhealthy in the United States. This is echoed by the director of the Department of Health and Human Services on a daily basis. The motto of HHS has become “Make America Healthy Again.” We’re living in a time when there’s no reliance on actual information, and this feels no different.

Continue reading “Unhealthy America?” →

Florida man…oh man

On By Hitting BregmaIn COVID, Donald Trump, Health and Healthcare, How I see the world, politics, World events1 Comment

Florida has announced that all efforts to prevent the spread of COVID are over. Mask mandates cannot be enforced statewide, and restrictions are being lifted. This is so unfortunate. Again, as I’ve been saying, let’s compare this to Israel, then let’s think about how hard we work to stop people from dying from car accidents.

Continue reading “Florida man…oh man” →

Abortion, abortion, abortion…

On By Hitting BregmaIn abortion, Health and Healthcare, How I see the world, politics, Religion, society, Women's Rights2 Comments

[Somewhat rushed piece…overwhelmed with work, but trying to stay in the habit of writing, and it’s been a long time. I’m sure it’s full of typos and other problems, but at this point, it will have to do]

I’ve spent a bit of time talking about abortion and abortion rights since Hitting Bregma started (notably here and here). I’m fascinated by it as a topic because it’s so meaningful to so many people, that I honestly see it as the number one guiding issue in our politics today. I don’t have any scientific evidence for this at all, and I would enjoy being shown that it’s not true, but I think the abortion question actually drives many people in one direction or another, and then the other partisan issues take hold. It’s easy for me to imagine somebody being appalled by abortion, leaning toward a particular political identity because of that, and then slowing assimilating with all the other beliefs of that political party. It seems like a key reason, for instance, why a deeply religious Christian would so predictably care about small government, about maintaining strong borders, about a super powerful national defense, about implementing the death penalty, about low taxes (especially for the wealthy). On the flip side, it’s puzzling to me that advocacy of abortion rights does such a good job at predicting where somebody stands on raising taxes on the wealthy, on being against the death penalty, about working hard for minority rights and environmentalism, and about government services for the poor. Of course, there are plenty of folks out there who don’t fall into those more predictable positions. I know plenty who are deeply religious, and guided by this to be sickened by abortion, but put this aside to otherwise favor liberal politicians who are anti-death penalty, pro-helping the poor, pro-helping immigrants, and willing to tax people to make that possible. It would be a silly straw man fallacy to say that I’m implying that this applies to everybody equally, but I find it interesting to see how many people seem to find their political identity by following the pro-choice or anti-abortion trail to the rest of the stuff.

Continue reading “Abortion, abortion, abortion…” →