Deputy health minister Yakov Litzman, a member of an ultra-religious party, said "swine flu " should not be used as it contains the name of the animal banned by Judaism
It's self-evidently stupid to ban the word describing banned things, but it is doubly stupid because associating the name of a banned item with something bad should make it doubly scary, but it is triple stupid because:
Within the Old Testament there was usually a matter of fact acceptance of nature and material things, but there was a significant exception regarding certain categories of objects or activities that were looked upon as unclean. These were four in number: certain foods, leprosy, contact with corpses and sexual activities of any kind. (Frazee 1988)
The Bible lumps disease and certain foods together. It's like saying we shouldn't call leprosy leprosy because the Bible is concerned about leprosy. It's circular logic with no real benefit to anybody.
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2 comments:
And that's why we call it Hansen's Disease. Not to mention pro-life vs choice, pre-owned autos, and special needs children. My sainted grandma useta say, 'Ladies don't sweat. Horses sweat, men perspire, and ladies glow.' dave.s.
Dave:
Call me old-fashioned, but I liked it when diseases had scary sounding names like Black Death, The Plague, and Scarlet Fever.
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