rhetorical

[rone]

<beakman> libertarians: "So if there has to be a law about HPV vaccinations, they should be illegal. STDs are good tools for reminding society that there are consequences for behavior."
<lb> if a conservative is a liberal who got mugged, a liberal is a conservative who got sick... what's a libertarian who got AIDS?

Comments

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

...an IV drug user, 'cause who has sex with libertarians? Ew. You might get some on you.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling clueless. In what libertarian world would there be a law against a person getting a vaccination? Even the objectivists, which is the group I think you might really be thinking of, would say that STDs are reminders that there are consequences for bad decisions, such as foregoing vaccinations.

I think I might be too literal-minded today.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

How i read it is that "libertarians" are saying that if there must be a law about vaccinations, it would be one proscribing them, not enforcing them. I agree that it's a completely goofy assertion, especially as written, but i had to keep it in there to set up the punchline.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

Punchlines are important. Sometimes when I'm driving along 101, I want to form a punchline only it turns out that such violence is frowned upon by the oppressors government.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

There's actually a pretty interesting discussion about this over at the blog Assymetrical Information (http://www.janegalt.net/archives/009620.html). Don't let the "Jane Galt" thing scare you away-- the blogger has libertarian leanings, but sees many of its flaws, and picked that nick (before blogging) to piss off the objectivists she argued with online. (Yes, I know what they say about arguing online.) Anyway, her commenters are a mix from all over the spectrum, so you can get a good look at the libertarian viewpoints as well as some that're okay with mandating the vaccine.

After reading most of the comments and reading some linked material, I'm starting to get the idea that the value of the vaccine is perhaps being oversold by its proponents. But it's cheap at $300million a year, even if we're averting only one death for each $100,000.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

What commentary i've seen has snarked on it being the "right" thing for the "wrong" reason, with the implication that Gov. Perry is in Merck's pocket.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the link and review; I'll look this afternoon.

But it's cheap at $300million a year, even if we're averting only one death for each $100,000.

Additionally, there's a non-monetary cost that many women would consider more valuable. There's the whole cancer death angle, of course, but there's also the cancer treatment angle. I couldn't measure that in financial terms unless actually faced with the situation.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

A communist who couldn't be bothered with the queue for the condoms.

[merovingian.livejournal.com]

As a libertarian, let me state my own slightly different view:

If there has to be a law about HPV vaccinations, that law should be a non-binding resolution declaring HPV vaccinations to be AWESOME. Cancer is a good for reminding society that modern medicine rules.

A communist

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

From each according to their means to the person who really really needs it badly or he'll die because he can't get disability because he hasn't been paying taxes for years and stuff.

Obnoxious answer

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Irrelevant to the politicians, because they'll be dead or too ill to vote by the time the next election rolls around.