My family was evangelical protestant but probably wouldn't be described as a conservative church. My upbringing was happy and my parents were great - but they weren't really into strong judgments about others. For example, I don't really know their personal opinions about gay marriage but they attended my cousin's…

I think you and I could be drinking buddies. :-)

Yeah, basically, I'm a moderation kind of gal. I'm sure that "natural" options are sometimes good (I clean with a lot of vinegar, for example) but I don't think anything "natural" is automatically better or even good.

I imagine she would not laugh if you suggested that she get the Magic Flu Preventing Blend that is available every fall at your doctor's office or drugstore. Only one application needed per year.

My husband is a chemist and when people rail about chemicals (!) on Facebook and such I get treated to long rants about how the whole world is made of chemicals and how some nice chemical that we like is just one little atom away from killing us all. So thanks for that, chemical-complainers. I'm sending my husband to…

And I'm boring this way, but I'd like to know how many calories are in my wine. I loves me some wine, but I do not love buying new pants because the old ones are too snug.

When I was in labor my doula (don't laugh she was a godsend) asked me if I wanted her to use lavender essential oil to help with pain and "relaxation." I imagine I was not in the right frame of mind to be open to new things, but it did not appear to help with either. :-)

THIS. Either way the person has a financial incentive. At least in traditional medicine there are checks in place so that hopefully someone will stop you if your claims are utter crap.

I would be curious to see the overlap between people who distrust traditional medicines and vaccines and people who are buying this unregulated stuff. The FDA isn't perfect, but I don't know why anyone would think some random company selling who knows what would be more trustworthy.

Yeah, that makes sense. I still hope they asked, but I doubt it.

Agreed. Even if it isn't the actual woman speaking, I'm not comfortable turning the transcript into a commercial, even if it is public record. Lots of things are public record that the person would still rather not have highlighted in this manner, particularly since she didn't really have a choice about calling 911.

Exactly. This must have been a terrible night for her and I wouldn't want her to be blindsided hearing her own words out in public like that.

This is perhaps a small thing, but I hope they got this woman's permission to use that recording. Some people may not want that moment out there for the world to hear, particularly during the Super Bowl.

On behalf of children who are too young to vaccinate, people who cannot be vaccinated, and those for whom the vaccine doesn't work, your willingness to risk infecting these people and possibly leaving them with lifelong issues or DEAD angers me beyond words. We as members of a society have all kinds of requirements…

The point is that I think that is his real answer and he's just unwilling to say it because he's hoping that he doesn't have to insult anyone with his response. Instead he insulted the intelligence of everyone who listened to that ridiculous statement.

Thank you for this - I love it.

That's what irritates me - he's clearly just stringing nonsense together so that he doesn't have to say what he actually thinks - that vaccines are safe and are critical to preventing serious diseases. Because God forbid politicians be required to tell us what they actually think when we are considering whether to…

Yeah, given the way her condition was presented in the statement, I'm assuming the prognosis is not good. So sad.

Hell I'm about 40 years younger than her and she is at least 10 times more gorgeous than me right now. I don't even want to think about 30 years from now. I now know what hairstyle I will have in 30 years, though, so I can add that to the list of reasons why Dame Helen Mirren is an absolute treasure.

I asked our pediatrician before choosing her for the same reason - I didn't want to bring an infant who was too young to be vaccinated to a doctor's office (with sick people all around!) if the doctor accepted unvaccinated patients. I am perfectly fine with her accepting patients who CAN'T be vaccinated for some…