patrick.net

Wonder what will be in his next meal at a restaurant?

Is there a Germ Rights plank in the GOP platform that I was unaware of?

I knew they felt smallpox, polio and measles had been unfairly maligned/eradicated by northern aggression (noble cause! states' rights!), but salmonella?

sbh says

Which makes me wonder, is there a germ-right-to-life issue here?

Some slippery-slope arguments have merit, I guess.

If you're gonna argue for tax cuts for blastocysts (invasive vaginal refund), then it's not much further to extending rights to microbes, who are potential human beings if one is to judge from Newt Gingrich. Or did he come from spores?

sbh says

Which makes me wonder, is there a germ-right-to-life issue here? They're all part of god's plan, right?

Yes, I suspect it's about faith healing and rejecting the germ theory of disease. If you're a good Christian, you can swallow whole platefuls of crap and never worry about hepatitis: Jesus will turn those feces into fishes. True believers have healing power, so even if one of your nearest and dearest takes ill, you can touch them and heal them, or at least look forward to seeing them in the hereafter.

Meanwhile, back here on earth, the Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, and the individual states have even broader power to require food service employees to wash their hands. Hepatitis B can cause serious problems, and getting vaccinated does not always result in immunity.