Angry Grumblings from a Busy Worker Bee
Submitted by Hogfan on December 21, 2006 - 1:16pm.
Climate Crisis | Economy | Environment | Fossil Fuels | Global Warming | Greenhouse Gases | Health Care | Iraq | Prescription Drugs
Grumbling #1
Now that Christmas is just around the corner, it’s a good time to ask this question: In 30 years, what are we going to tell the kids about Santa? That he sent the elves to live on a farm where there’s plenty of room to run and play? That he’s outsourced his toy manufacturing facilities to India – whatever’s left above sea level? That Santa drowned? Merry F*cking Christmas, Tommy!
Grumbling #2
I’m not a big drug-taker. By that, I mean prescription drugs. First off, I’m impossibly healthy. Secondly, by and large, for most common ailments, I don’t believe drugs have any remarkable effect on healing. The body does a damn fine job of kicking a cold’s ass on its own, thank you. And third, I don’t want to give my money (or my employer’s share of my insurance premiums) to big, corrupt drug companies. I mention all these things as a disclaimer to explain why I hadn’t yet discovered the phenomenon of drug stores with double drive-thru windows. As if one lane wasn’t fast enough to keep society hooked on happy pills? As if there wasn’t a new drug store on every freaking corner anyways? What’s it come to when the pharmacy is dishing out Prozac and Prilosec like Big Macs and Meximelts – times two?! Do you want Zoloft with that? What's next? Drive-by IVs? Nexium-loaded tranquilizer guns? There’s a great Morgan Spurlock documentary waiting to happen here. Drive through, please.
Grumbling #3
If a minimum wage hike is the right thing to do, why hold it hostage by attaching a separate issue to it? Why not handle each piece of legislation separately? Douchebag.
Grumbling #4
Why would anyone want to save the Neocons? I mean, that is, unless you were pinning them down to a piece of Styrofoam like a bug collection, wings stretched out to show their true colors?
Grumbling #5
So let me get this straight. A pesticide isn’t a pollutant when it's deliberately applied to water? Because of brilliant EPA decisions like this, a company would be labeled a polluter if its toxic waste was carried to a river as storm runoff but not if the company just runs a pipe to the shore and pumps the crap directly into the water? That’s like saying that a gun isn’t a weapon when it’s deliberately applied to the forehead.
Grumbling #6
And as of today, 2818 American troops have died due to MINOR combat operations in Iraq.
...and I'm happy to be here. At least when I can.
Yeah, a sense of humor helps. So does balanced, healhty, organic eating, lots and LOTS of exercise and a wife who's trained as a dietician. But since getting a dietician wife is out of the question for you, I guess you'll have to settle for a few extra laughs.
BTW, thanks for the tip on that westcott thread. It's hilarious.
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
The dietician wife will be for another lifetime, but both hubby and I are uber healthy too. We don't deny ourselves the little luxuries like desserts, fine ales, wines, gooey pizza from time to time, and the like... but it's all about balance as you say. He does the exercise for the two of us... My stress levels burn off more calories than his gym visits I'm convinced. : )
Have we had Hogfan Appreciation Day here yet?? I know we had Westcott Appreciation Day (WAD) but not sure we did a HAD celebration yet...
Of course, there's no need for any of that though. Good commentary (whether in agreement with me or not) is all I need.
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
best use of the phrase "Merry F***ing Christmas, Tommy!" ever.
...from the frontlines of '04 Holiday Wars was a much funnier use of that phrase. Guess not. Screw me.
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
your rant about prescription drugs reminds me of one of the most disturbing stories I saw on Al Jazeera English while in Doha.
A doctor in Iraq did his own mini-documentary on the untold story of drug dependency in that country.
For some reason many Iraqi's are having trouble sleeping or fending off panic episodes. Could perhaps be due to the threat of random explosions, the trauma of seeing family and friends killed or the general uncertainty about the future. (**snark alert**: Why don't they just take charge of their own country and stop expecting everything to be done for them?)
Fortunately for them their pharmaceutical system has broken down completely and for the equivalent of a couple of bucks they can buy over the counter without a prescription, drugs like valium or parkinsol (a Parkinson's disease treatment, apparently).
As a result thousands of ordinary Iraqis who aren't maimed or dead are now addicted to these drugs. The hospital system is so overloaded treating victims of bombings and shootings that mental health issues are right off the agenda.
Nice to know that if the US couldn't organise a democracy for them, they might at least in the future be able to look forward to double drive through drug stores.
Merry F***king Christmas, Abdul.
and to you too Hogfan.
You'd be taking them to the Better Business Bureau if you bought a washing machine the way we went into the war in Iraq. Wes Clark, CNN Aug 17 2003
Thanks for adding extra (terrible) insight on our Mess O'Potamia. And thanks for that thorough post on your time in Doha. That was interesting.
Happy Christmas to you, Phoebe.
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
and how much do drug companies spend every year ADVERTISING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS!!!!
i mean, are doctors not supposed to keep abreast of the latest drugs? isnt that their profesional responsibility?
but nooooooo....
lets spend buzillions of $ every year encouraging hypochondriacs to pester their physicians for the latest medical miracle (whose side effects may result in cranial explosion or implosion, and spontaneous combustion in a very small number of patients and ten years down the road turn out to cause a spike in the birth of flipper babies and possum boys...)
OMG. I swear to god, this has GOT TO GO!
Big pharma spends waaaaaaay too much money on marketing and advertising - and we're not even adding in the huge salaries of their sales force - who spend their days wandering in and out of docs offices dropping off wheelbarrow loads of the latest drug samples - "Here, try this! If it doesn't work, we've got tons more where that came from!" and it's akin to the playground pusher - "Pssst. First one's free..."
Sickening. And yes - Docs should be responsible for staying ahead of the curve on treatment. But that takes us to another problem entirely.
Oh dear - I seem to have gotten started. I'm gonna stop now, while I'm still breathing steadily.
Drug sales reps don't only give away free trials. They also take doctors out to expensive "business" lunches, too. Sound familiar? A little Abramoffish?
And according to my wife, who's in the healthcare industry:
1. Doctors are not trained in pharmacology. Originally, doctors were not intended to give prescriptions, only to diagnose ailments. Pharacists were actually the ones who were supposed to decide on and provide the pharmaceuticals.
2. The profit margins of the pharmaceutical industry are the largest of any industry in history. Yes, even larger than Big Oil.
3. The dollars Big Pharma spends on advertising/marketing surpasses the dollars they spend researching, developing and testing the drugs they're marketing.
4. Some doctors receive incentives (kickbacks) on prescriptions.
5. Everyone should try a little experiment. The next time your doctor prescribes a medication for you, ask him/her to explain the biochemistry of the drug and how it actually works to treat your problem. Also, ask him/her to recite the side effects for you.
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
when I inquire, but since I am also impossibly healthy I really don't know if the people doctor would be able to do the same.
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
just seeing me when she comes through the door. She would be really pissed if I gave her a quiz. If I did that, she'd tell me I have to see a specialist for sure. That's way better than a doctor I once had, because I had to be in an HMO. When I questioned why he did something and asked to speak to him, I got fired from that office. We really need a healthcare system where doctors have the time to get to know their patients, keep up on the latest and not feel like their patients are the enemy. It wasn't always like this. I remember when it was actually pretty good. We didn't have all the designer drugs and technology we have today, but nobody threw sick people out of hospitals and all my doctors actually knew me pretty well.
I've had incompetent care and "I couldn't care less" care. But never scare care.
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
They're all afraid of being sued, so they pass whatever they think can come back to bite them onto someone else. They teach it in medical school and have for a long time now. What we need isn't tort reform so much as legal reform. Everything in our legal system that drives up costs needlessly when someone tries to redress a grievance needs to be looked at so all the money doesn't just go to lawyers. Then perhaps medical malpractice insurance and other insurance costs would go down for a change.
Get the complete set and win a free prize! ;-)
The Francis Fukuyama model has been discontinued. The complete Neocon set is no longer available. Remaining items will be on discount until out of stock. Buy now! They will make great conversation pieces when your grandchildren ask "What were Neocons, Grandpa?"
Ladies and gentlemen, Dan Juma...
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
I'm especially fond of grumbling #2.
Please grumble more often, lol!
Merry Christmas,
Kelly
"Our public servants work for us - we don't work for them. We have an obligation, as citizens of this country, to always remember that - and to never let them forget it." - DeadMessengers
Glad you enjoyed it, Kelly. Normally, I blog at least weekly but I've been swamped with work the last few months.
I do have two more posts in the works - the first of two in an episodic series I'm going to call "Letters from Kay." Basically, I'm going to post the response letters I receive from one of my senators and pick them apart. Hopefully, they'll be funny and though-provoking. At the very least, I'll expose you to the frustration I feel every time I read one of her say-nothing form letters.
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
to have HOGFAN in our community to keep our spirits up!
I can tell you one reason you're "impossibly healthy" is your incorporation of the comedic in everyday life. It keeps the heart and soul "impossibly young".
I am going for triple digits so I try to get at least 30 good laughs in per day. It's a strict medical regime. Only because my lifetime "TO DO" list is so long I'm gonna need all those extra decades.
Thanks for your grumblings.
And on Santa Claus- these days better known as Claus Inc., Check out the Santa for Pres blog by westcott.
<----------
I think you'll be surprised at the developments.