One of my cousins did get diagnosed with whooping cough when we were maybe 4, well before the antivax BS had started rolling. His pediatrician couldn’t figure out how he would have even been exposed to it, when they hadn’t had any other reported cases anywhere nearby for years at that point.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his problem had really been a particularly nasty bout with the exact same Family Asthma Hell set off by a cold/flu. (Pretty much that whole side of the family does it.) Which was how I spent most of every winter from the time I started school, with the constant exposure to minor bugs.
(And it went unrecognized/untreated as asthma until I was about 14, precisely because it does sound like some terrible hybrid between croup and whooping cough. Antibiotics do nothing, but they kept trying escalating courses anyway on the basis that something that awful sounding had to be coming from a chest infection. They just were not looking for asthma nearly as much then, especially dealing with girls.)
But, I’m still boggling at the contrast between when we were kids and now. “Where the hell could this kid have even caught it?!” to whooping cough parties 😱
Oh yeah, and as I recall my cousin was apparently put under health department home quarantine for a while. Because that’s how much they wanted pertussis spreading, even with pretty much everyone vaccinated then.
One of my cousins did get diagnosed with whooping cough when we were maybe 4, well before the antivax BS had started rolling. His pediatrician couldn’t figure out how he would have even been exposed to it, when they hadn’t had any other reported cases anywhere nearby for years at that point.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his problem had really been a particularly nasty bout with the exact same Family Asthma Hell set off by a cold/flu. (Pretty much that whole side of the family does it.) Which was how I spent most of every winter from the time I started school, with the constant exposure to minor bugs.
(And it went unrecognized/untreated as asthma until I was about 14, precisely because it does sound like some terrible hybrid between croup and whooping cough. Antibiotics do nothing, but they kept trying escalating courses anyway on the basis that something that awful sounding had to be coming from a chest infection. They just were not looking for asthma nearly as much then, especially dealing with girls.)
But, I’m still boggling at the contrast between when we were kids and now. “Where the hell could this kid have even caught it?!” to whooping cough parties 😱
I just saw the phrase “whooping cough party” and I can’t… I can’t.
Okay, so here’s the thing. Whenever someone asks me “how are you still alive” my favorite
flippancy is usually “spite”, but in all honesty it’s vaccines. Spite
and vaccines.
And not just me being vaccinated, but everyone
around me too, because there are some vaccines I cannot safely have and I
rely on everyone else around me being vaccinated to avoid it.
Things
like, oh, say, whooping cough, which I actually had as a child because I
went to school with the victims of antivaxxers, and we all got super
sick and coughed so hard the blood vessels in our eyes ruptured and
every fit felt like you were going to die choking for breath.
And
tonight, a friend of mine who happens to be a mother, hauled me into an
argument on Facebook where people in her neighborhood group were hosting
a “whooping cough party” cause one of their kids got sick, and the tag
line was “come on over and get it over with lol”, and words cannot
convey how much visceral hatred I had for this person in that moment. If I could have set them on fire with my brain, I probably would.
Because I
can wholly remember sitting in bed clutching my little
chest, desperate for the pain to stop, making that horrible wheezing
sound, with tears streaming down my face, utterly convinced I was going to die if I couldn’t draw breath. And that went on for months
because even with treatment, the cough can take up to three months to
subside. And that is a horrible thing for a child to go through. I
cannot stress enough how painful and terrifying it was and my parents
for all their faults could do nothing. They’d done everything they could
to keep me safe from other illnesses. I had all my other vaccines, I
just couldn’t have that one.
And the thing is, you can get it
again, it’s not a one time deal. You can get it more than once, and
doctors actually recommend you get a booster shot for it every ten
years, and I can’t do that. I cannot protect myself from it. I rely on
other people being responsible, and taking the necessary steps to keep
whooping cough outbreaks low, and the only way to do that is through
regular routine inoculation.
And these fuckers are throwing a party??? What???
Let me be clear, it is through profound measures of willful ignorance, hubris, and yes privilege,
that people have allowed for things like measles and whooping cough to
make a come back. It is a privilege to live in a healthy society where
you can expect all your children to make it out of infancy. It is a
privilege to not die young from TB, it is a privilege that many people
before you had to suffer for and work hard to bring about, all in the
hopes that another child wouldn’t have to go into the iron lung from
polio. And through the privilege of never having had to suffer, you have
elected to do harm. You have elected to allow for the resurgence of
mumps, and measles and coughs that sound like a death rattle in the
lungs of infant children, and then you have the absolute audacity and
malice in your souls to celebrate and throw “sickness parties” because
you’d rather let your child suffer through unnecessary illness than be
vaccinated?
How dare you. You have a moral and social
obligation to protect your children and the people around you, and not
only have you chosen to wave this responsibility, but you are actively endangering others?
How dare you.
And
the thing is I know, I know in your own misguided way you think you are
doing what is best for you child. But if the road to hell truly is
paved with good intentions, I can tell you now with absolute certainty
that you fuckers have got your own burning stars on the walk of shame.
Vaccinate
your god damn kids. And get your booster shots while you’re at it. You
might just save someone’s life without ever knowing or trying.
(Note: This is not aimed at people who cannot be vaccinated or whose
children cannot be vaccinated. I know that struggle, I know it is real
and I’m so sorry other people are putting you and your loved ones at
risk.
Also yes, I know chickenpox parties used to be a thing, I
went to one of them as a kid. Thankfully there is now a vaccine for that
too! Isn’t living in the future neat!
And just so you know, if
you come onto this post telling me that vaccines cause autism, you will
be afflicted with the condition known as my foot up your ass. I will not
engage on discourse over this, there is no discourse to be had. You are
wrong. And that is the end of the discussion.)
“I was sloshing through the water [in Charleston SC] with my puppy dog, debris was everywhere,” she said. “I feel completely sunken. It would cost me around $500,000 to raise the house, demolish the first floor. I’m going to rent a place instead, on higher ground.”
Millions of Americans will confront similarly hard choices as climate change conjures up brutal storms, flooding rains, receding coastlines and punishing heat. Many are already opting to shift to less perilous areas of the same city, or to havens in other states. Whole towns from Alaska to Louisiana are looking to relocate, in their entirety, to safer ground.
The era of climate migration is, virtually unheralded, already upon America.
The population shift gathering pace is so sprawling that it may rival anything in US history. “Including all climate impacts it isn’t too far-fetched to imagine something twice as large as the Dustbowl,” said Jesse Keenan, a climate adaptation expert at Harvard University, referencing the 1930s upheaval in which 2.5 million people moved from the dusty, drought-ridden plains to California.
This enormous migration will probably take place over a longer period than the Dustbowl but its implications are both profound and opaque. It will plunge the US into an utterly alien reality. “It is very difficult to model human behaviour under such extreme and historically unprecedented circumstances,” Keenan admits.
By the end of this century, sea level rise alone could displace 13 million people, according to one study, including 6 million in Florida. States including Louisiana, California, New York and New Jersey will also have to grapple with hordes of residents seeking dry ground.
“There’s not a state unaffected by this,” said demographer Mat Hauer, lead author of the research, which is predicated on a severe 6ft sea level increase. There are established migration preferences for some places – south Florida to Georgia, New York to Colorado – but in many cases people would uproot to the closest inland city, if they have the means.
The native Maori people of New Zealand have tattooed their faces for centuries. They had a complex warrior culture before the arrival of Europeans, and suffered under early colonialism, but have experienced a cultural revival since the 60′s.
The marks are called moko, and are etched with chisels instead of needles to leave grooves along with the ink. The true form is sacred, unique to each person, and distinct from European tattoos that mimic that traditional style.
There arent many pictures non combat related that look this badass
Actually most
Tā moko are done with modern tattoo equipment these days, but some people get them done the traditional way. And, as others have said, they’re not for Non-
Māori, as they have specific meanings and significance. If you want a tattoo with Māori
style, you can get a
kirituhi. These avoid any designs associated with particular tribes or famous people you’re not related to.
Kirituhi is a Māori style tattoo either made by a non-Māori tattooer, or made for a non-Māori wearer. Kirituhi has mana of it’s own and is a design telling the unique story of the wearer in the visual language of Māori art and design. Kiri means ‘skin’, and tuhi means ‘to write, draw, record, adorn or decorate with painting’.
Kirituhi is not restricted to only Māori people, and it is a way for Māori to share our cultural arts with people from around the world in a respectful manner, and for non-Māori artists to enjoy our beautiful art form as well. I happily do kirituhi for my clients around the world and it is a privilege to do such work for them.
Kirituhi is no lesser an artform than moko, however it is different and I believe these differences must be acknowledged and respected, so that the integrity of our taonga Māori – moko, is maintained around the world.
Moko is uniquely Māori and it is strictly reserved to be done by Māori, for Māori.
If either the recipient or tattooer do not have Māori whakapapa, then the resulting design is a Māori Style tattoo or kirituhi, NOT moko. The word moko originated from the Māori atua (god) of volcanic activity and earthquakes, Rūaumoko – therefore the origin of tā moko is divine and sacred – to me this is no small thing, nor should it be dismissed.
As my mentor once told me, ‘moko is about 99% culture, and 1% tattoo’.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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