This gif. Is everything.

In regards to the history of witchcraft in the South: I think it's important to point out that the plantation South is just such a small part of our regional history. As opposed to the more monolithic New England, the region, even - perhaps especially - in antebellum times was made of a complex and diverse blend of…

I think you missed her point that witch beliefs WERE rational in the 16th century. Rationality is a culturally and historically subjective position. Witch beliefs were shared by those Oxford and Cambridge educated, as was a belief in diabolic influences on the world. Scot's skepticism was wholly conditioned by a…

It really is awful and I fear that Mr. Duncan has been so wrongly vilified. The pictures of him in his bright green shirt should remind us all that he is a human being, who was probably so excited to get here and marry his girlfriend and had hopes and dreams and treated a neighbor with fatal kindness. And we could do…

The NYTimes is reporting that before boarding the flight from Cleveland to Dallas, the second nurse reported to the CDC that her temperature was 99.5, but because that's below the 100.4 threshold the CDC didn't tell her not to fly. At that point the CDC had known for two days that the first nurse was sick, yet they…

Agree that this shouldn't have happened. Disagree that it means anything close to imminent pandemic or risk for more than a handful of people.

Yeah, it's probably not good.

Don't panic Auntie. It will be ok. The people who are currently being treated at that hospital have a far greater chance of catching ebola than any of us, even the people who flew with the nurse. Apparently the hospital really didn't give those nurses much to go on, and sent samples of Duncan's fluids down the tubes…

I hate to be that guy, but keep in mind that none of Duncan's family has been diagnosed yet. It sounds like nurses were cleaning up the fluids he was expelling from his body with minimal safety training, which is why health care workers — especially ones in this apparent clusterfuck of a hospital — are at a much…

So is the US gov't. They should have had a team from CDC in place. It appeared to me initially that only a few hospitals in the US were equipped to deal with this disease, why did they not transport him to one of them?

Exactly.

The last line of your comment is especially poignant, given that if I remember correctly, Duncan contracted ebola by helping an afflicted woman get to the hospital by taxi because she couldn't get an ambulance to come get her :/

Overall this was fascinating and eye-opening, and totally, I'm 100-percent on board with the idea that ebola panic is at least in part racist panic. However, I'm kinda turned off by the opening critique of the New York Times photo and story. Correct me if that is truly a skewed representation of what is actually…

If anything, we should be seeing more photos of the reality of Ebola in west Africa because it's way too easy for us sitting comfortably on this side of the world to shrug off the crisis as just something that's happening "over there." Yes, it's shameful that people don't give a shit until it lands in their backyard,…

A really interesting article with a lot to think about.

As a longtime bleeding heart liberal, this article is so unbelivably self-serving and disingenuous.

Yeah, that's the one. All the local channels broke in to their regular programming to follow the ambulance from their helicopters. I guess he didn't have it though.

I don't think it's that Ebola is easier to contract than people say. I think it's that the suiting up and, more importantly, taking those protective suits off, is more complicated than people realize. That's the real danger: there are infectious fluids all over the protective gear, and a person who makes a mistake…

Not too long ago I was part of a lab that worked with bacteria. Nothing horrible but you could give yourself the runs. The thing about protective gear is that it's uncomfortable and can make you feel hot and sweaty. A lot of people tend to rub their eyes, wipe the sweat off their face etc as a matter of habit. Add the…

I don't think that Ebola is likely to take off here, but I'd have been more surprised if none of the first patient's contacts got it. Physicians and nurses have always been at extremely high risk, because caregivers get exposed to the sickest, most contagious patients. The patient-to-nurse transmission that happened…