(Uh uh, no fair looking -- gotta read Part 1 first, way
down past this entry.)
So. So, the decades
have rolled forward
quite a distance since the Vietnam years, and you know
what? Very recently, I was again the
recipient -- via the kindness of others -- of several drug dynasty gifts
intended for physicians -- things such as flash drives (cool!), flashlights,
clock paperweights, table clocks, laser pointers, key rings, balls that glow in
the dark. . .etc., etc. Man oh man, if I
owned a drug company I guess I'd be bribing the white coat community with
goodies, too.
Supposedly, all
the gift-giving is going away, but I wouldn't count on that. Backdoor deals never went out of style, as
any D.C. lobbyist can tell you. Ain't no
ducks in Drug Dynasty, except for folks who need to duck for cover.
If you like your
drug company freebie, you can keep your drug company freebie. If you want to continue bestowing gifts and
kisses upon the doctors who play the game, you can continue bestowing gifts and
kisses.
And now the 17
trillion dollar deficit, accompanied by an albatross named Obamacare, enters
the room. Wasn't it just yesterday when
the medical establishment put on a happy face and announced to one and all that
health care is a partnership between doctor and patient? How is it that Congress allowed a partnership
expansion, to include the Internal Revenue Service and government
representatives aplenty? What a deal,
what a marriage, what a bureaucratic colonoscopy for the masses.
And the
multi-national drug companies play on, as Americans plod forward still as the
poor suckers forced to pay higher prices than anybody else for the alleged
products of better living through chemistry.
A society hypnotized by medications, and doctors forced to spend more
time staring at computer screens than examining the patients whose grand lives
have been reduced only to pixels. Computer
says the pixilated human requires computer-determined drugs per digital
calculations from hell. Pac-Man
guards the nation and Pac-Man diagnoses and treats the patient in a vast
game of winners and losers. Guess who
loses, particularly if the patient wishes to try and is automatically denied
access to alternative treatments or alternative supplements.
And what
explosive piece of news hit the TV screens, radio and Internet this very
week? Why, it seems that vitamins don't
do a damned thing for our health. Nope,
no cardiac benefits, no diabetic prop-up, no nothing. You undoubtedly saw this announcement from on
high by way of your local journalist-pretenders quoting, what was it -- The
Annals of Internal Medicine?
Trouble is,
radio talk show host Michael Savage (see more below) went where
pseudo-journalists fear to go -- right to the long-term study itself. What did he find? That researchers associated with the long-term
vitamin study were actually unimpressed with their own results because a
large number among thousands of volunteers over the years had dropped out of
the project, making results questionable, to say the least.
As if that
wasn't bad enough for a situation which, you can almost bet, won't be corrected
by the TV sound bite crowd -- some later discovered that the vitamin
"study" was financed by a major pharmaceutical company. Again.
I say again because this sort of thing happens over and over,
with major "studies" condemning vitamins and other supplements paid
for by drug companies and their panels of paid-off physicians, who might just
as soon have us swallowing their expensive sometimes-poisons instead of
alternatives which may work just as nicely or better. Surely, it's no secret that drug companies
exist to make money and sell, sell, sell.
And research IS so expensive -- that's why Americans have to foot most
of the bill while the rest of the world gets off cheaply in the world of legal
drug peddling.
Robert's WTF?
of the day: Yeah, I know, I don't generally do a WTF of
the day, but today is different. What
the heck is it with the psychiatric community?
Now they're adding a new diagnosis to the DSM IV (the do-all,
end-all reference source which codes every disorder known to man and woman in a
numerical format and thus legitimizes new diseases, syndromes, maladies and,
near as I can figure, crazy intellectual pipe dreams). This time, they've outdone themselves,
making a mental disorder out of folks who engage in free thinking and
opposition to authority. Hey, even as a
kid I knew they did this stuff in the old Soviet Union, and we know the
practice continues in Russia today. Why
are we intent upon becoming Russia? For
my part, and not as a patient (underline that, please), I've encountered
a few psychologists in my life. Some
were rock-solid, and some appeared disturbed in their own right. Very,
very. I really, really buy that old
chestnut hypothesis suggesting that some people in the psych field enter that
troubled portal as much to learn about themselves as to learn about their
patients. Meanwhile, the medical
conjurer class continues adjusting that freakin' lucrative DSM. Who's going to stop the clown show? Surely not the clowns.
From Drug
Dynasty to Duck Dynasty:
Gay lobby, you are becoming ever so tiresome in your militancy. Why the speech-fascist tendencies? Would you be better off in Iran or
Russia? Look, I fought for your right to
serve honorably in the military, but tone down the persistent outrage. If you keep going off half-cocked (um. . .) like this, some might believe that you aren't comfy with your own sexual "identity." There will always be folks who cannot or will
not accept gays, and just as Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty exercised
his First Amendment rights by quoting biblical history and pointing out --
correctly -- how human anatomy is constructed, your representatives did the
same by taking Mr. Robertson to task.
That should have been the end of it.
However, when members of any group take the extra step of
demanding firings or resignations, that's a wrong-way street, cowardly and
absurd. We must not shut anyone up
in these matters. You've already pounced mercilessly upon the recent release, The Book of Matt, which portrays tragically murdered gay kid and agenda-cloaked poster boy Matthew Shepherd (hope I spelled that right) as the victim of drug use/users rather than intentional gay mayhem. Come on, there's room for everybody to speak.
The DD controversy? I can't comment on the
religious aspects, but having worked in the medical field I can suggest that
gay folk check out human anatomy reference sources -- where all available
evidence indicates the dangers and inappropriateness of anorectal activities other
than those intended via human physiology.
I've never seen a medical textbook suggesting the anal highway journey as a way
of life, and there can be severe consequences.
I mean, do what you want to do, as gay people have throughout history --
but it's kind of hard to argue against basic anatomical principles, no matter
how nature, in her own peculiar way, instructs some to manipulate the dilemma
for sexual reasons (and I do believe homosexuality is hard-wired, not a
flip of some coin of choice). Be yourself, live free or die, whatever,
but respect the rights of others to speak, as you would have them respect your
rights to speak. To do otherwise puts
our society in serious trouble, and guess whose heads are the first to be
chopped off in the end if things go bonkers? Got that? Good, 'cause I ain't in the mood to reiterate
today. By the way. . .
Have a happy 2014 and don't forget
to vote bad people out in November. That
should be interesting. And don't forget.
. .
TURN OFF THE TV beginning
January 1 and find Michael Savage's "The Savage Nation" on your radio
dial. The "controversial" Dr.
Savage is going big, big time on major stations from coast to coast, and
neither his wit, nor twist on political and scientific issues should be
dismissed. Yes, often he sounds like a
crabby old man and can seem as unpleasant as your least favorite uncle -- but
once your mind cuts through the crust you may discover that his brilliance and
common sense imparted on national radio are medications for the mind. You may
hate his show for a few days, but chances are you'll become hooked. Conservative?
Yes -- doesn't everybody quest to be something? Borders, language and culture are more
than words in The Savage Nation.
Bonus: A poodle named Teddy
(you'll find out).
