You might be an asshole if…
…you take off on a trans-Atlantic flight while knowing you have a form of tuberculosis that isn’t responding to antibiotics. You might be an asshole if you then proceed to traipse all across Europe. You might be an asshole if you run off to Prague when the CDC calls to tell you that your case of TB is so virulent that the Italian authorities are on their way to take you into custody and (eventually) ship you back to the US so you can be isolated from other people. You might be an asshole if you then take another trans-Atlantic flight, all the while breathing the same limited volume of air as your unsuspecting fellow passengers.
But when you complain about why the government felt it necessary to post an armed guard outside your isolation ward at Grady Hospital? Case closed. You’re an asshole.
Posted: May 30th, 2007 under Miscellaneous.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from LaDonna
Time: May 30, 2007, 9:30 pm
Lynne, this is priceless! LOL Couldn’t have said it better. This guy is so guilty of self-absorption it’s pitiful. What a butt-wipe! I swear, if I or a loved one had been on one of those flights, armed guards or not–I’d be smacking him upside the head!
Comment from Michelle
Time: May 31, 2007, 11:19 am
I don’t know the story, but I’d say he was a criminal, not an asshole.
Comment from ericka Scott
Time: May 31, 2007, 1:27 pm
I’m in agreement with Michelle. If anyone else contracts TB from him, I’d prosecute him for assault or whatever I could throw at him. . . even attempted murder. Such a jerk.
Comment from John
Time: May 31, 2007, 4:04 pm
Even if his behavior was somehow not criminal, a class-action lawsuit would seem to be a no-brainer. That armed guard had better be ready to protect Mr. Speaker, now that his identity’s known–that’s more consideration than he showed any of the rest of us whom he might have infected.
How does someone grow a sense of entitlement that huge? Sounds as though only his father-in-law’s coincidental occupation cut short a real bacterial spree.
Comment from Lynne
Time: May 31, 2007, 8:00 pm
Y’all are so right. It’s criminal negligence on his part.
As a result of Mr. Speaker’s actions, it’s probably inevitable that government will enact even more draconian laws that further limit our freedom and invade our privacy. If you look at the laws on the books, you can see clearly in many cases that there was a specific behavior the lawmakers were hoping to discourage, hence all the “No spitting inside the courthouse” laws we hear about.
I’m guessing that it’ll become easier and faster to slap an isolation order on someone, since there are obviously some people who will still travel on airplanes even after they’ve been told not to. He was determined to do whatever the hell he wanted, regardless of the risk to others, unless the authorities physically locked him up.
Comment from James Robinson
Time: June 1, 2007, 12:05 am
I have to say I’m mildly sympathetic to his desire to get away from Italy’s medical care. It’s better than Greece’s, but that’s about all it has going for it.
Still, he should at least have accepted quarantine until he could get back to the US, or the US could fly someone out. Slipping away from custody, boarding a plane and slipping into the country is way out of line. And I’d really like to know how he did it. That’s the strangest part of the story for me. I can’t walk fifteen feet in an airport without three forms of ID and a urine sample. What’d he do?
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