Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the first case of Ebola had been diagnosed in the United States. While the disease is spreading rapidly in several undeveloped African nations, it does not pose the same threat in our nation. In fact, there are much bigger threats to public health.

Despite all its faults, our healthcare system is strong enough to stop the spread of Ebola, and the scary disease doesn't pass from person to person as easily as many other illnesses. To put this health scare in perspective, we must remember that even in third world nations, only a few thousand people have become sick.

At the same time, every year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of Americans die of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease – yet, the public isn't in a panic over those conditions. A new article in the British Medical Journal says that climate change is actually a much larger threat to our species than Ebola, yet we can't even get lawmakers here in the states to agree that global warming is real.

The scare tactics over the Ebola case are nothing more than fear-mongering. We could use this discussion as an opportunity to strengthen our healthcare system, or to point how thousands more people die from shootings in our nation ever year. There may be more people diagnosed with Ebola in our nation, and we should be doing everything we can to stop the disease from spreading. However, let's not lose focus on the many other real threats that we face.

Ebola is scary, but it's not a reason to panic – it's a reason to remember that we've got much bigger threats when it comes to saving our species.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

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Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan & Kevin McCarthy: Plot To Sabotage US Economy with Frank Luntz" by keepemhonest.

Video: Falwell and Robertson on The 700 Club after 9/11.

Article: "Saudis Are Next on Biden’s Mideast Apology List After Harvard Remarks" by Mark Landler.

Article: "Before ISIS: A history of beheadings to terrify, punish" by PBS.

Article: "Surgeon General Still Silent on Ebola" by Joel B. Pollak.

Article: "How the NRA is making the Ebola crisis worse" by Krystal Ball and Anne Thompson.

Article: "Can Our Commercialized Health Care System Contain Ebola?" by Yves Smith.

Article: "Spanish nurse first to contract Ebola in Europe 'had virus for a week' before being diagnosed" by Fiona Govan.

Article: "“Private Equity at Work” Rigorously Debunks Industry Mythology" by Yves Smith.

Book: Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street by Eileen Appelbaum, Rosemary Batt .

Article: "How 14 People Made More Money Than the Entire Food Stamp Budget for 50 Million People " by Paul Buchheit.

Article: "7 Disturbing Facts About the Koch Brothers' Relationship with Race and Civil Rights" by Terrell Jermaine Starr.

Article: "Shocking: New Research Shows Pollution Inequality in America Even Worse Than Income Inequality" by Lynn Stuart Parramore.

Article: "Here We Go Again: Larry Klayman Just Can’t Quit Obama, Files ‘Deportation Petition’" by Eric Owens.

Video: Nixon vs. Ted Kennedy on health care (CBS News archives).

Article: "Tommy Douglas" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Walmart to eliminate healthcare benefits for some part-time workers" by Reuters.

Article: "Harvard Study: States' Medicaid expansion refusal will kill thousands" by Joan McCarter, Jan 31, 2014.

Article: "New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage" by David Cecere, September 17, 2009 .

Hour Two: Should the FDA treat cigars and cigarettes equally?
- Tom Kakadelis, cigar store owner

Article: "Cigar Dealers Fear FDA Rules Would Kill Business, Jobs" by Dan Way.

Bible: "Revelation 11:18" "The time has come ... for destroying those who destroy the earth.

Article: "Inhofe: It Is ‘Arrogance Of People To Think That We … Would Be Able To Change’ What God Is Doing With The Climate" by Joe Romm.

Article: "Sufism" by Wikipedia.

Book: The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America's Interests in the Middle East by Mitchell Bard.

Article: "Tea Party Debate Audience Cheered Idea of Letting Uninsured Patients Die" by Amy Bingham.

Article: "Congress Investigating Why Generic Drug Prices Are Skyrocketing" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Bob Ney

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Article: "CDC director says they’re ‘confident’ they can stop ‘chain of transmission’ in Dallas Ebola case" by Robert Wilonsky.

Article: "Supreme Court Won’t Hear Same-Sex Marriage Appeals" by TRNS.

Article: "Top banks facing US currency probe" by Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ben Protess.

Article: "Attorney General Eric Holder to step down" by Juliet Eilperin.

Article: "Federal judges tosses ’5 second rule’ being used to police Ferguson protests" by Wesley Lowery.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 10/7" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 10/6" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Should workers be paid for time in mandatory security lines?
- Josh Eidelson, Businessweek

Article: "Amazon Warehouse Workers Want to Be Paid for Waiting in Line" by Josh Eidelson.

Live in the studio with Thom
- Marianne Williamson, The Law of Divine Compensation

Speech: "Madison Square Garden Speech", President Franklin D. Roosevelt, October 31, 1936. "They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred"

Book: The American Revolution of 1800: How Jefferson Rescued Democracy from Tyranny and Faction - and What This Means Today by Dan Sisson with Thom Hartmann.

Book: A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections by Marianne Williamson.

Speech: "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr., 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. "In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check".

Article: "David Barton (author)" by Wikipedia.

Book: "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations", Adam Smith, 1776.

Book: Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith, 1759.

Article: "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" by Wikipedia.

Book: Everyday Grace by Marianne Williamson.

Book: Healing the Soul of America: Reclaiming Our Voices as Spiritual Citizens by Marianne Williamson.

Article: "Global Inequality Reaches Levels Not Seen in Nearly 200 Years" by Deirdre Fulton.

Article: "Walmart Wants to Offer Banking For America’s Poor, Which Is a Really Crappy Idea" by Lynn Stuart Parramore.

Article: "Judge Slams Voter Suppression Law — ‘Why Does The State Of North Carolina Not Want People To Vote?’" by Ian Millhiser.

Article: "Judge Says Poor Have No Right To Clean Water, Allows Detroit Water Shutoffs To Continue" by Alan Pyke.

Article: "This Country Just Abolished College Tuition Fees" (Germany) by Joaquim Moreira Salles.

Article: "Supreme Court Blocks Early Voting In Ohio" by Sahil Kapur.

Article: "Order in Pending Case 14a336 Husted, OH Sec. of State, Et Al. V. NAACP, et al.", September 29, 2014 by Supreme Court.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

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Full Show 10/6/14: Will Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution Succeed?

Thom discusses the GOP’s continued war on voting in the lead up to the midterm elections with the Advancement Project’s Jasmyn Richardson, the latest from the Hong Kong protests with Independent Journalist Tom Grundy and the right-wing fear mongering over Ebola with Author & Activist Marianne Williamson. Thom debates the Supreme Court’s refusal to rule on same-sex marriage with the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer and in tonight's “Daily Take” Thom discusses how, thanks to Republicans, America is without its top doctor (U.S. Surgeon General) while a deadly virus continues to grow and spread.

Should the FDA treat Cigars & Cigarettes Equally?

Caller: Obamacare Won't Stop Ebola...

The Republican Caucus Room Conspiracy vs. Ebola

Thom Hartmann on Economic & Labor News: October 6, 2014

First the Arctic, now Greenland's Ice is Melting...

Caller: Muslims Do Nothing Good in America...

NRA says Violent People Have gun Rights too...?!

Caller: Are There Certain Religions likely to Condone Oppression?