There's no immunization against foolish ideas
A call to arms
Among people who actually study disease, the fear is growing that too many Kansans are buying in to what looks like a national trend against mandatory vaccinations.
Among those who don’t actually study disease, but apparently base their health care decisions on anecdotes and the notion that government is bad, this is a good thing.
But it’s not. It’s dangerous. While vaccine critics point to a handful of unverified problems, doctors and scientists point to a verified history of million of lives saved each year through immunizations.
While it’s clear that the parents who have approached Kansas legislators seeking to expand exemptions to include personal beliefs are sincerely concerned, the science is equally clear that they are misguided. The Legislature should not allow them to opt out of mandatory immunizations and enroll their children in public school.
An unimmunized child puts the children of others at risk. If enough people join the craze, it leads to society paying billions more in health costs.
Humbuggery
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is giving the state’s have-nots a mighty whack in his income tax “reduction” proposal.
The governor makes the point that his fiddling will reduce income taxes for most Kansans. And it would. In fact, the more folks make, they more they’ll keep.
But then there are those without. According to state revenue department figures, Kansans earning less than $25,000 a year get more back from income taxes than they put in (because, in case you missed it, they are poor and in need). Under the Brownback-breaking plan, that group’s total taxes increase by about 5,100 percent.
Those making more than $250,000 a year would see reductions of about 18 percent. For Brownback, it all balances out rather well.
Providing, of course, that Kansas has enough prisons and workhouses.
Still evolving
Not you too, Missouri.
Kansas is the state where the evolution controversy smolders.
But now first-term Rep. Rick Brattin, a Republican from Harrisonville, is pushing a bill that would require Missouri’s public schools and colleges to teach “intelligent design.” That is a belief that the world and living things are too complex to have evolved through a natural selection process, and must be the work of a divine hand.
Brattin is trucking out the old falsehood that “the jury is still out on evolution,” so why not “have a fair discussion about all the possibilities?”
The jury is not out on evolution. Established science regards it as the foundation of modern biology, and it has for many years.
Brattin also seems woefully uninformed about the perils of legislating anti-science teachings not only in public schools, but in the state’s colleges and universities. Good luck with that.
Ranklings
The American Lung Association this week issued its annual State of Tobacco Control report, which grades states on how well they discourage people from smoking.
No surprise, Missouri, home to the lowest-in-the-nation 17-cents-a-pack cigarette tax, received all F’s. It was one of only six states which flunked completely — not a point of pride.
Kansas drew failing grades for not spending enough on prevention and cessation efforts, and it received a D for its 79-cents a pack cigarette tax, which is below the national average of $1.46 cents a pack. But the Sunflower State was graded an A for its statewide ban on smoking in public places. The one, sadly, that some lawmakers seem determined to repeal.
Another group to release state comparisons this week was the Humane Society of the United States.
Missouri fared badly in this one, too, scoring 45th among the 50 states and Washington D.C. The report noted that Missouri permits the private possession of exotic animals as pets, and has no protection for animals on factory farms. And then there was that whole puppy mill thing.
Kansas was ranked 33rd among the states, losing points for its weak animal fighting laws.
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