Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Have you no sense of decency, AMA? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?


Just when you think the AMA can't be more of a would-be NRA (with all the shameless pandering and disingenuous bullshit, but without the political clout) the Kochsuckers in Columbus come out with… wait for it… an assault on the Centers for Disease Control.

After the NRA succeeded in blocking the appointment of a Surgeon General who had the temerity to address gun violence as a public-health issue, the AMA's decided to attack the CDC for considering Americans' propensity to ride motorcycles without crash helmets as a public health issue.


Then, it has the sheer fucking unmitigated gall to coyly say, "The AMA strongly encourages the use of personal protective equipment, including gloves, sturdy footwear and a properly fitted motorcycle helmet certified by its manufacturer to meet the DOT standard."


NO IT DOESN'T. Let's just make that clear, OK?


If the steady flow of press releases I get is any indication, the AMA's single largest legislative focus is fighting mandatory helmet laws. There is simply no reason to say, "We want you to be able to ride without a helmet," unless it's OK to ride without a helmet. This is exactly the same as when tobacco companies argue against smoking restrictions, while claiming that they aren't encouraging smoking.


What the fuck, AMA? How can killing off your constituents possibly make sense to you? I mean, the tobacco industry sells a product that comes with a guaranteed level of risk, but the AMA continually uses its words to make a qualified argument for helmets, but devotes its effort and budget to REDUCING helmet use. Because make no mistake, states with mandatory helmet laws have close to universal helmet use, and states without mandatory laws… don't. Ipso facto, the AMA's working to reduce the use of the single most effective piece of motorcycle safety equipment. And if the AMA's pathetic shills trot out the tired old lie that, "We don't want the helmet debate to distract from driver education blah, blah, blah…" I will fucking puke.


Let's get this straight! All the effort that the AMA spends arguing against helmet laws—all that effort and expense is, in fact, effort and expense that otherwise COULD be used for driver education.


And now, they're capitalizing on the media's fucking trumped up ebola panic to get in a little dig at the CDC. That's just great. You know what, if there's a fucking ebola epidemic, it won't matter whether we wear crash helmets or not. It'll serve the AMA right.




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