America's search for diapers

Bill Maher observed that we’ve become a nation of “Pant Poopers,” in search for diapers, to protect us from all the scary possibilities. He used a different word starting with “s.”

Bi-partisan pant pooping was displayed by three governors who say returning doctors who risk their lives volunteering to save lives in Africa, should be quarantined for 21 days, because one or two people died, and a few doctors and nurses got sick.

The Ebola paranoia indicts the big drug companies: there’s been dozens of Ebola outbreaks since the 1970s, but they did little, focusing on more profitable drugs, like another erectile dysfunction pill.

Chance of catching Ebola in the US is almost non-existent. You would need direct contract with body fluids from someone who has active symptoms.

Odds of getting Ebola are less than dying in an airplane crash or being hit by lightning, half as likely to die of a bee sting, a third as likely as dying from a shark attack, and thousands of time less likely than being killed in an auto accident. Or dying from any of these “preventable” causes:

• Smoking – 435,000

• Obesity – 111,909

• Alcohol – 85,000

• Infections – 75,000

• Poisons – 55,000

• Auto accident – 43,000

• Guns – 31,940

• STDs – 20,000

• Drugs – 17,000

How much do we spend on these things, which kill almost a million Americans every year?

As Edward R. Murrow said during the communist scare in the 1950s, “…we are not descended from fearful men.” How about we act like it?

Jon Monday