Old Dominion Lunancy

I guess even good old Virginia common sense is in short supply these days. This post demonstrates the need for a native or birth-right requirement to run for governor. Kaine always looks like one of those guys you see in the bus station; the lights are on but you really wonder if anyone is at home.

"Hysterics in Newsrooms and Faculty Lounges......."

"We were all supposed to be dead now, done in by AIDS, the gift of the gays. After that it was SARS, bequeathed to the world by China. Then it was avian flu, which, to be fair to the alarmists, did in fact result in the deaths of millions. The millions were all chickens, true, but chickens have feelings, too. You could ask the folks at PETA." Wesley Pruden, Washington Times, 17 June 2008 (NB: the above title will link you to the Pruden article).

The Germ Circus in Boston

Disclosure time: I have been a loyal dues-paying journal-reading member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) since my first year in grad school (1982). Besides being the oldest professional life science organization in the world, one really needs to be a member to be considered a true card-carrying microbiologist. But with the press releases that come out of the annual General Meeting (GM), one really has to wonder who in the world is running the ASM Press Office, some contractor? Its embarrassing. The releases coming out of this meeting have been so shallow and silly over the last five years or so that it is becoming a spring event to try and guess just how ridiculous the next one will be. You might remember that just a couple of years ago the big news out of the GM was that paper money is dirty. Wow, now why don't we write that one up for PNAS.

The 2008 GM just finished-up this week in Boston and the big news is that so-called antibacterial wipes, the wonder drug for any mother with young children and pretty darn nifty for the rest of us, can actually spread that dreaded beast from the Cheney-Halliburton-NSA conspiracy---MRSA. Who would have thought!!! So antibacterial wipes are a fomite for infection just like the rag your waitress used to use to wipe your restaurant table with a few short years ago was too until the health department got smart and required restaurateurs to store their rags in a dilute bleach solution. So why aren't hospital infection control officers doing the same thing for cleaning up hospital rooms and equipment? You really can't get much cheaper or efficient than good old bleach.

Antibacterial wipes generally contain a mild soap and some type of disinfectant. Since most of these are for use on human skin, the chemical of choice is usually some type of quaternary ammonium compound. Think Zephrin in a moist towlette. I would hope that the hospital variety that would be used by the house keeping staff are a bit more robust, but the bottom line is that these things are single use only and if they are used properly say to clean only one piece of equipment in one room at a time, then where is the story?

But wait, there's more!!!!!

And if the previous post on antibacterial wipes doesn't get you started, how about this little gem: "Time-travelling Bugs Resist Antibiotics of the Future". Imagine your average Joe on the street who barely passed tenth grade biology class wrapping his nicotine-stained brain around that one. How on earth can we discover new antibiotics if the bacteria already are resistant to compounds we haven't even synthesized yet! How on earth do they do it?

Gee, I wonder if Obama can get us out of this one???

Well, let's think about this for a minute, unless bacteria have some type of control over the space-time continuum, then they are really smart. But the REALLY big question then is why do we have ANY clinically effective antibiotics AT THIS VERY MOMENT? And how exactly did we manage to operate in the "ERA OF ANTIBACTERIAL THERAPY" for the last seventy years or so?

Oh wait, almost forgot, there are basic concepts in antibacterial pharmacodynamics called "cross-resistance" and "efflux pumps".

Nuff said............................

Is this really from Time Magazine?

"The twin elements of a bubble are euphoria and roguery, with the proportions varying from case to case. The coming green bubble, which is already attracting large amounts of venture capital and government money, displays both."; Nigel Lawson, May 21, 2008.

I gave up on Time and Newsweek magazines years ago as nothing more than mild entertainment while sitting in various waiting rooms, but this post in the May 21 on-line issue by Nigel Lawson was a real shocker. Hey Algore, better check your subscription dude.

This Week's Constitutional Moment

"When you vote for president this fall, you will not be voting for Barack Obama or John McCain; you will be voting for an elector who pledges to cast his vote for Obama or McCain. (For those new Obama voters who may be reading, it's like voting for Paula, Randy or Simon to represent you, instead of texting your vote directly.) "; Ann Coulter, June 4, 2008.

Just in case the old cerebral files from high school government class are fading, a quick review by Ann on the concept of the Electoral College in the context of libtards behaving badly.

Our Boy -- B. Hussein Obama

"Because, really, who better to face down a Holocaust denier with a messianic complex than the guy who is afraid of a debate moderated by Brit Hume?" Ann Coulter, 28 May 2008.

Posts to Social Detritus have been far and few between due to an unusually busy spring, work commitments, and well, watching my step so as not to soil my boots by stepping into any social detritus. Although I must admit, it has been great fun watching the libtards eat their young as part of the primary process. Are we really watching the final self-destruct of Billary? Hard to imagine that the Little Rock machine will go down that easily especially against a fellow Chicagoan.

Ann Coulter had a very nice post this week, and as I often try to do, I pick-out a representative line (quoted above) that sums up the piece, enjoy!