Thursday News Roundup

the europeans regard addiction.... (0.00 / 0)

...(and their approach to it) as a public health concern NOT a revenue stream. 

activist for hire.

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by: Jay Lassiter @ Fri Feb 09, 2007 at 09:25:15 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Profoundly Complex Moral/Policy Issues (0.00 / 0)

There are innumerable costs to human vices.

Drugs, prostitution, gambling are all activities that are considered "immoral"; yet all could be "legitimized" and become sources of tax revenues to the state and the basis for a flourishing economy. 

On the other hand, is there anyone out there that really believes there ISN'T something perverse or degrading about these activities?

Arguably all these things are happening all the time anyway, and by legalizing them and regulating them we would reduce the harm.....and that seems logical enough...on the surface.

I have my own "answers" to these conundrums; but at this point I'm more interested in hearing yours.

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by: Nick Lento @ Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 17:34:20 PM UTC

Who does Chris Smith think he is? (0.00 / 0)

Ted Stevens?

$100,000,000?

I could think of much better ways for NJ to spend that kind of money.  Public transit, open space preservation, projects to make NJ more energy efficient.

At least this man isn't on appropriations.

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by: Scott Weingart @ Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 18:12:05 PM UTC

Lyme disease as public policy (4.00 / 2)

It's $100m over 5 years, Jay. That's $5.8k per Lyme's patient per year, and yes, about $30k over 5 years per. patient. However ...

I don't have Lyme's, but I care about getting it, and I care about people who have it. Which is pretty much how I feel about most diseases, including AIDS.

No one has a disease that is more, or less, deserving than anyone else's. I'm a gay man; I DO know my HIV status; and I'm aware of your struggles. I also have a brother who, along with his wife and all three of his children, were treated a few years back for Lyme's. This required, in the end, interferon and gamma globulin treatments for the wife. Major bucks, that, and no, they didn't have health insurance.

Lyme's disease is not necessarily something that a run of ordinary antibiotics is going to cure, though that's often the case. It's a parasitic infection that has life-altering and potentially fatal consequences, depending mostly on how long it's gone untreated. Most people who have the disease recover, but it can be a slow and difficult process. Others are left with weakened hearts, immune system issues, mental deficits and terrible arthritis.

But that's NOT why Chris Smith cares about Lyme's! Lyme's is TERRIBLE for outdoors activities, and outdoors activities form a significant part of New Jersey's however-many-millions-it-is tourist industry. When everyone is done smoking their lungs out in the casinos, it's off to the woods and the fields for some refreshing outdoorsy stuff, and getting tick-bit in the process is impacting people's willingness to hike, paintball, ATV, tube, canoe, fish, paint, camp, swim, etc., etc., etc. in the great NJ outdoors. It's been great for the sale of DEET, but not much else.

So, yeah, if you don't know much about it, putting $100m over 5 years into Lyme's disease sounds stupid, but most things we don't know much about sound stupid until we do some research.

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by: denniscmcgrath @ Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 19:02:40 PM UTC

no one said it was "stupid" (0.00 / 0)

to earmark $100m for lyme's disease. 
if you look back at my post, the term i (carefully) choose was "astonishing."

sorry, folks, given the sad, sorry state of the economy, this princely sum seems like a luxury.  so if the bill is approved and Chris Smith gets his way, where is this money gonna come from?  we'll either borrow it from a trade partner or gouge other social programs to cover it.  That's what i find so problematic.

activist for hire.

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by: Jay Lassiter @ Fri Feb 09, 2007 at 09:30:23 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Chris Smith's motivations (0.00 / 0)

I'm pretty sure someone in Chris Smith's family has lyme disease (his wife?).  I think two of his daughters have asthma, so he's gone to travelling forums on childhood asthma.  He may care about people going outdoors (I've been concerned that we now have deer in my backyard in Highland Park and the city doesn't think it's anything to be concerned about), but if I'm not mistaken, his motivation is much more personal.  Maybe if someone in his family had AIDS, he'd be earmarking the money for that.

The contribution that he's made to AIDS worldwide that I know about was to change legislation so that our tax dollars could be used to fund religious AIDS prevention groups in Africa that refuse to mention condoms.

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by: kwilkinson @ Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 19:12:01 PM UTC

That's The Difference Between Republicans and Democrats... (0.00 / 0)

...generally speaking, we tend to have the capacity to empathize with humanity as a whole and they seem to only become caring when it's someone close to them that is hurting.

It's a cliche; but we really are all one.

We will learn to live to geter as a humane species or we will, eventually, become deservedly extinct.  It's inexorable common sense...you don't even have to believe in God or anything transcendent to understand the interconnectedness of life.

Gotta go.....

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by: Nick Lento @ Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 22:14:39 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lyme's and Congressman Smith (0.00 / 0)

I shouldn't be surprised that Smoth has actual personal or humanitarian motives; I only wanted to point out that there are practical, dollar 'n' cents reasons to want to overcome Lyme's disease.

And then there are your deer in the backyard of your home in Highland Park. Amazing, isn't it? Be more afraid of the mice in your garden than of the deer -- though the 'deer' tick spreads it, it's mice that are the real vectors. My brother lives in Kendall Park, not far from you, a typical tract suburb; and the fastest growing rates of Lyme's in NJ appear to be in Union County!

Keep in mind, everyone, that the 3,500 or so cases Jay cites are not in total; those are the annual number reported to the CDC. It's cumulative. Thus, over 5 years, you're not talking about 3,500 cases; you're talking about 17,500 persons impacted over 5 years. Yes, everyone gets cured (mostly -- there are ongoing problems for some that can be quite severe) -- but that's a lot of lost time, money spent on health care, and so forth. It adds up. It matters.

On the topic of deer: I have a report from the state Geologist to the Governor, dated 1898. In 1898, it was the opinion of wildlife experts in NJ that the white-tailed deer was, for all intents and purposes, extinct in NJ, as was the grey squirrel. The reason being that all the open space was in agriculture; and what wasn't had been hunted clean. 100 years later, much more of the state is covered in trees than was true in 1898; and the deer (and the squirrels) are legion. I have NO IDEA what it all means; only that, NJ (and the northeast as a whole, for that matter) is more heavily forested today that at any time since the Europeans started tearing the place up. (Don't believe me? The only uncut stand of forest -- and yes, this includes the entire Pine Barrens, which were harvested again and again for charcoal -- is on Amwell Rd. in Franklin Township, Somerset County. The Hutchinson Woods are owned by the state, and they cover maybe a hundred acres -- and THAT'S IT. Everything else -- EVERYTHING -- at one point or another was cut.)

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by: denniscmcgrath @ Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 19:30:38 PM UTC