Objection: Asked and Ignored
There’s a tendency here at S,N! Headquarters to assume that wingnuts, and the websites they run, slowly disappear once we start paying attention to them. It’s happened to your Justin Darrs, your Amber Pawliks, your Kelly Marsalas. The same cannot be said of TechCentralStation, America’s shittiest astroturf site, which for whatever reason is still kicking, presumably as proof that when corporate money is involved, there’s always enough around to find new manure to put onto the Internets. Even good old Astroturf King James Glassman, whose car is pictured below, is still “contributing.”
Above: James Glassman’s wheels.
The latest comes from Dr. Gilbert Ross M.D., so you know it’s going to be good. Will the government kill your grandma? Will Aspirin become the only treatment available for cancer? Maybe — but first Dr. Ross has an Amazing Wingnut Fact: The USA does not import any (prescription, we assume) drugs:
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is on a quixotic quest to allow foreign drugs into our pharmacies and clinics. However, anyone familiar with the issue is well aware that so-called “Canadian” drugs allowed under the “Vitter Amendment” can come from almost anywhere on the globe — an easy path for substandard and toxic drugs to enter our supply. … short of terrorism and contagion, there are few things that would more undermine the safety of the homeland than allowing drugs of uncertain provenance to mingle with home-grown, safe, and effective FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.
Drugs of the world: Let’s get ready to miiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnggggggllllllllleeeeeeee!
His colleagues in the Republican Party generally oppose eliminating the longstanding barrier against foreign drug imports, but they have been unable to throttle his populist posturing (drugs from other countries seem to promise lower prices, due more to foreign price controls than market competition, even if many of those drugs are in fact adulterated or otherwise worthless). [Emphasis added, peculiar use of even in the original.]
So it looks like ObamaCare will contain a provision that stipulates that all drugs sold will be bought from these guys: 
Above: All drugs available without a copayment!
Most importantly, importing cheaper foreign drugs en masse would by definition mean importing foreign price controls. And where government-imposed price controls are in place on drugs–including Europe, Japan, and Canada–innovative drug research and development withers as the profit motive is removed from the drug business. How many innovative new drugs have been developed over the past fifteen years by European pharmaceutical companies, as compared to American blockbusters?
It’s true because European drug companies aren’t allowed to sell their drugs in the US. Or not:
In conclusion, this shows how interlinked the European and US pharmaceuticals markets are. If products are authorised under the European centralised procedure or by the FDA, it is highly likely it will be launched in the other jurisdiction, the question is more when than if. [PDF]
The other question, of course, is the one Ross doesn’t answer: how bad is the European pharmaceutical industry?
Above: “There has been a small reduction in the number of authorisations but it is predicted that this will be followed by a recovery over the next 2-3 years.”
Also this:
There is also a clear trend with a higher proportion of R&D expenditure being spent in the US at the expense of Europe and Japan. However, even allowing for this, R&D expenditure in Europe has continued to grow significantly.
Are European drug companies being killed by [cue ominous music] price controls? Sadly, No!:
However, several indicators suggest Europe’s pharmaceutical manufacturers are not doing so poorly. Profitability is generally a good measure for assessing competitiveness and, to some extent, ability to innovate. European companies are among the most profitable in the world. In 2005, GlaxoSmithKline was the second most profitable firm with a net income of $8,7 billion, after Johnson&Johnson ($10,4 billion). US Pfizer comes in third with a net income of $8,1 billion, followed by three Europeans, Novartis ($6,1 billion), Roche ($5,4 billion) and AstraZeneca ($4,7 billion). For European companies, 2005 has been a highly successful year, in terms of turnover and profits, in many cases even record-breaking. Europe’s leading manufacturers were able to increase profits by 14% from 2004 to 2005, while US giants saw a decline of 7%, primarily due to poorer performances from Pfizer and Merck.
Europe’s stocks of medicines returned to robust health in 2005. After a period of underperformance, the sector grew by 30 per cent. At the same time, US drug stocks, by contrast, looked less impressive, underperforming a sluggish S&P 500 index by 9 percent.
The trade balance of Europe’s pharmaceutical industry displayed a surplus of €38,5 billion in 2004, a 45% increase since 2000 and a 445% increase since 1990. In fact, the pharmaceutical industry is by far Europe’s leading high-technology sector in terms of trade surplus.
Employment grew by 17% between 1990 and 2004 from 500,762 to 588,000. Between 2000 and 2004 alone, nearly 50,000 jobs were added, the majority of newly created jobs since 1990. [DOC]
Yet Ross wants to end on a happy note:
That way we will be protected from an onslaught of less-expensive but potentially more-toxic foreign drugs
Vote for Ross: Let’s keep our only somewhat toxic drugs.
His colleagues in the Republican Party generally oppose eliminating the longstanding barrier against foreign drug imports, but they have been unable to throttle his populist posturing
Maybe they’re using the wrong size of Depends.
Can we filter those charts for boner pills?
That way we will be protected from an onslaught of less-expensive but potentially more-toxic foreign drugs.
Also what if we start importing Yetis? Sure they’re cheaper to feed than Bigfoot, but the potential for increased danger exists (possibly)!
Heh, just got a scrip filled yesterday at the local pharmacy. “Made in Israel” right on the box.
Ooh, importing cryptozoological critters could be good, too: when Bat Boy succumbs to white-nose syndrome, we need to have something in the pipeline to pick up the slack. I vote grapefruit chupacabra.
I don’t know if I could really trust an erection pill called “Viagra Soft”.
I vote grapefruit chupacabra.
Bu think of all the American urban legends that would be out of work!
I don’t know if I could really trust an erection pill called “Viagra Soft”.
I guess “chewable” didn’t please the focus group.
Bu think of all the American urban legends that would be out of work!
Free market, bitches! Compete or die!
I guess “chewable” didn’t please the focus group.
Ha! But “soft” did. I wonder about these focus groups sometimes.
Maybe they should have gone with “firm”.
Yep and even little communist countries like australia can invent flu vaccine and cervical cancer vaccine and determine the cause of stomach ulcers. Must because we were part of the coalition of the smiting.
Because we couldn’t, I dunno, buy Glaxosmithkline drugs manufactured in Europe already, but for some reason at a multiple of the price in Europe!
Weird.
I guess “chewable” didn’t please the focus group.
Dibs on “slow release”.
but they have been unable to throttle his populist posturing
He paid extra for the throttling, the safe word was “copay”.
Considering the safety track record of the American pharmaceutical industry and its enablers in the Republican-run FDA, Ross should really STFU.
I wonder if they tested “Viagra Mints”?
Next product? “Viagra Red Hots”
Off topic, but it’s the birthday of the the Old Gent from Providence.
Happy birthday, Uncle Howard!
Viagra Altoids! Curiously strong indeed.
throttle his populist
Veiled masturbation reference.
Off topic, but it’s the birthday of the the Old Gent from Providence.
I declined calamari at lunch today as a gesture of respect, to make sure I die first.
I made you a vitamin V-altoids post but the spamulator eated it.
I made you a vitamin V-altoids post but the spamulator eated it.
Word Press done be eating lots of postings today- GRRR!!!!
I declined calamari at lunch today as a gesture of respect, to make sure I die first.
HPL is the racist uncle I just can’t bring myself to disown, while Pat Buchanan is the racist uncle I would love to put in front of one of Obamacare’s panels.
HPL is the racist uncle I just can’t bring myself to disown
For me it’s Mencken.
That way we will be protected from an onslaught of less-expensive but potentially more-toxic foreign drugs
CEL-E-BREX good times, come on!
HPL is the racist uncle I just can’t bring myself to disown
For me it’s Mencken.
I just can’t stop Kipling.
Rudyard, of course, has the advantage that he worshiped at the feet of engineers…the way things should be.
…the way things should be.
Stop it.
Ah, the perils of digging old dead white guys. Every once in a while, there’s a hint of progressivism that comes through- I was shocked at how forward thinking Edgar Rice Burroughs was in his depiction of race-mixing (of Martians, of course) in A Princess of Mars. I think he may have screwed the pooch in his later works, but I am not that well-read in his non-Barsoomian ouvre.
Stop it.
Don’t feel bad. Ayn Rand liked you guys.
Don’t feel bad. Ayn Rand liked you guys.
Low blow! I am neutral in your conflict, but I insist on Marquis of Queensbury rules!
I favor home grown drugs.
I insist on Marquis of Queensbury rules!
Okay. I’ll rephrase. Mr. Brady was a damned good role model for architects. He worked four-hour days and made enough to support six kids, a non-working wife, and a housekeeper. And the house he designed for his family was precious.
And the house he designed for his family was precious.
At any rate, it had a lot of closet space.
it had a lot of closet space.
Low blow?
Low blow?
Maybe… but he’s not a respected member of this community.
This is really rich given that several American scientific organizations have issued public statements in the last year arguing that America has lost its competitive lead in R&D (largely as a consequence of Republican science policy).
I don’t know if I could really trust an erection pill called “Viagra Soft”.
I think that is what you are supposed to take if you get that 4 hour erection.
I think that is what you are supposed to take if you get that 4 hour erection.
Today’s installment of the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats is oddly relevant.
Wasn’t John Galt an Engineer?
So, destroying the civilized world in a fit of pique.
Yeah, that is pretty much what I’ve seen from engineers.
Don’t feel bad. Ayn Rand liked you guys.
I think she just wanted to do Frank Lloyd Wright.
I don’t suppose it occured to this Einstein that the profitability of American drug companies over the past 15 years has been due less to their “innovation” fueled by promises of gold, but rather to a fucked-up market system that more or less allows them to charge US patients whatever the fuck they like. Oh, and also TV advertising. We were a hell of a lot better off back in the good old days, when we had TV commercials for cigarettes instead of boner pills.
4 HOUR ERECTIONS ARE THE CAUSED BY ASS PENNIES!!!
BTW, zrm, I’m an architect too. Not a practicing one, but I have the degree.
I made you a vitamin V-altoids post but the spamulator eated it.
Remember, you can’t have socialism without
—————– MESSAGE TRUNCATED SPAM ALERT ———-
BTW, zrm, I’m an architect too. Not a practicing one, but I have the degree.
yup, knew that. But you got out.
Viagra lozenges … for deep throat relief.
Oh, and Flintstones Viagra for Kids!
Oh, and don’t forget Flintstones Viagra for Kids!
So, destroying the civilized world in a fit of pique. Yeah, that is pretty much what I’ve seen from engineers.
LOL, and mea culpa, kinda.
I’m a different kind of engineer – software – but the Galtishness is pretty rampant among my kind. Not that it usually causes much damage when geeks who have overestimated their importance wander off and dump work in everyone else’s lap.
I did see one programmer fuck off and completely scuttle a multimillion-dollar project once, but in that case I got where he was coming from. He’d been dicked around for an entire year with changing project requirements (and the concomitant ridiculous overtime and management harrassment) and got wind of another round of them coming up – so he exercised the “at will” clause our very Utahn employer featured so very prominently in our contracts.
Yeah, that is pretty much what I’ve seen from engineers.
Read “The Grid” by Philip Kerr. His best work is her Berlin mystery series, but how could anyone dislike a book with an evil building killing people with a structural engineer as hero.
You know, fantasy.
Uh…”her” should have been “the.” Too much Nicaraguan rum.
ZRM –
In general, my apologies. I’m having a really lousy week with work. A worker dead on one project (a combination of his fuck-up regarding safety procedure and equipment failure, but still..) and another where a developer is using code regs to demolish a tenement with 35+ people living in it.
About half the engineers I know are Galtarian garbage and half really care about the effect of their work. About half the architects I know are Randian wanna-bes, and half really want to make the world a better place through changes in the built environment. Too much of the wrong halves right now…
zmr, I still dick around with designing things. Don’t get to do it as much now that I’m not doing remodel contracting, and I’m decidedly old-school with doing the drawings by hand, but I still get to do some things. What’s surprising is that I get just as turned on by making a kitchen work and look good as I did with all the museum, auditorium, library, etc. fantasy projects in college.
50th! Ha!
Gee that’s funny, someone with the exact same name, “Gilbert Ross, M.D.” wrote in a letter to the L.A. Times.
In general, my apologies.
No worries. I took it as good-natured joshing. I readily admit that my colleagues do have more than a bit of pretentiousness and deserve being knocked down a peg or two. Plus, Urban Renewal? We fucked that up pretty bad.
That’s terrible on the demise. Worst I’ve had recently was a guy who fell off a deck, but only fell about twelve feet and was okay. The developer thing sucks. In Wis, we now use the IEBC to allow existing buildings adequate leeway in compliance with existing codes.
I approve of the Nicaraguan rum. Send some.
I’m one of the architects that just wants to be happy with the work I do….
Jennifer, I’ve been decidedly short on staff lately, and have found myself going through emergency crash course on computer work. I’ve always been just competent enough for the young folks to laugh at, but now I’m getting damn good…and fast. I did a little work on a table yesterday, but just far enough to put it into the machine. It looks pretty scratchy, it’s essentially graphic notes to myself and nobody else would be able to figure it out.
I’m with you on the project scope thing. While I’ve not been fortunate enough to do a lot of bigger projects, I still like to do the houses and interiors work too. I’ve got a nice highly-sustainable house waiting in the wings, as soon as I finish the design development on a nice rehab. Now that I put it that way, I should be thankful, it’s good work….
have found myself going through emergency crash course on computer work
Speaking as someone who can’t hand-draft worth a damn and has been CADding since 1985, the secret: use the fewest command to get it done. I can draw an I-beam in section faster using lines, offsets, and fillets than the office kiddies can using the dedicated I-beam command. It drives them insane, which more than justifies me being the head cheese.
Speaking as someone who can’t hand-draft worth a damn and has been CADding since 1985,
Now that’s my gig. Hand drafting, fast, accurate and presentable. I get irate when people have no idea about drafting standards like line weight and hierarchy.
I used to have a standing challenge to the CAD guys to draft something. Anything. And I would do it faster by hand.
I still like to do renderings by hand, markers and colored pencils. I usually generate a model on computer first, pick the best view, then trace it by hand adding all the little quirks. I hope to do one for my current project next week. And the house I mentioned is for an artist and her husband, so I imagine we’ll have a competition to see who can render it the most compellingly…
Jennifer and Islamofascist –
The real primary source of pharmaceutical companies’ “innovation” and profitability (other than be able to rape customers on the prices) is federally subsidized research and development, mostly conducted either at universities or at NIH. Drug companies do little or no basic research on their own and spend several times as much on marketing as on R&D.
I get irate when people have no idea about drafting standards like line weight and hierarchy.
I know all about them. DO IT WITH PHOTONS, MAN!
I imagine we’ll have a competition to see who can render it the most compellingly…
Do you do the perspective-from-three-feet-below-grade thing to make your renderings more manly?
I made an insightful, witty comment about engineers but WP eated it.
PS – My mother was Catholic, my father was an engineer.
my father was an engineer
Mine, too. However, I have discovered that, after years of intensive therapy, you can overcome it.
DrDick:
+1. All drug company “research” does any more is find tiny little chemical variants of existing drugs and patent them anew, thus allowing them to charge an arm and a leg for them. Most of their money is spent on propagandizing doctors so they won’t prescribe the previous versions, old enough to be sold as generics, for fear of being considered “old-fashioned.”
Basic scientific research in the academic arena is the only source of “innovation” in drugs or any other biological discipline. For all the good it does, that is. Biological science actually handed these fucking medicos human tumor necrosis factor on a silver platter, and they somehow managed to screw it up. So if a mouse has medical insurance, we can cure his cancer, but if you’re a human, you’re SOL.
I want “socialized medicine” just because I think it’s the right thing to do, not because I have any confidence in the medical industry to actually help anybody most of the time. And since trillions of dollars are being wasted on treatments, particularly cancer treatments, that have been demonstrated not to work, we might as well save some money on them.
Bianca Hicjga sends her regards from Drumheller.
The reference to “American blockbusters” sure rings a chord with me, as my mom was kindly offered (& turned down) the well-known benefits of some yummy Thalidomide to offset her morning-sickness while I was busy dividing cells in her tummy.
Okay now, I have a pet peeve, & I’d like someone with more science-chops than me to confirm or refute: about that chapparal-dingus on the arse-end of Glassman’s car … I know racecars have them, but does it actually do anything to increase stability or aerodynamic efficiency at normal speeds? I kind of suspect that those things are just an overpriced highbrow version of TruckNutz.
Jim –
It’s TruckNutz for boyz with itty bitty weenies.
The reference to “American blockbusters” sure rings a chord with me, as my mom was kindly offered (& turned down) the well-known benefits of some yummy Thalidomide to offset her morning-sickness while I was busy dividing cells in her tummy.
I had a friend in my hometown who was part of that unwilling experimental cohort.
He was born missing two vertebrae, and his thumb and little finger on one hand had an interesting left turn at the knuckle. But he counted himself lucky at that.
So yeah, maybe American Drug Wizards aren’t such the Galtian Supermen they are being presented as.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge –
That is my understanding as well, but I was not sure of my facts and scaled back a bit.
Hate to rain on the thalidomide parade but (1) it’s a furrin drug, and (2) the FDA actually did its job on this one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide
Yeah, I just remembered that Thalidomide was actually German – & Canada in the mid-60s isn’t really very germane to the US of today. It was a simpler time, a more innocent time – a time when TeeVee was still in black-&-white, just like the morals … a time when carpet-bombing was still cool … when sex was dirty & air was … was … yeah, actually it was pretty fucking ghastly back then, too. Sigh.
In the future, approach my anecdotes & analogies with caution, & stay upwind.
But I stand by my “highbrow TruckNuts” comment, dammit!
highbrow TruckNuts
I’m not sure that’s physically possible unless your tongue is down a tailpipe.
you stay away from my tailpipe, N__B.
Shorter every wingnut on healthcare:
A) The best thing for US healthcare is for health providers and health insurance companies to compete in the free market.
B) The worst thing for US healthcare is to force US drug manufacturers to compete in the free market.
Not even Orwell would have believed doublethink on this level.
The movie made from ‘The Grid’ was terrible, though.
I will admit that some of the ‘new’ drugs are kinda worth it. Change a methyl group and suddenly less people have reactions to it or something.
But sometimes there’s no real change. Look up provigil.
I mean, like Effexor worked. But the side effects of that vs the newer stuff like Cymbalta… Man, you don’t want to touch Effexor unless you really need to. Of course, it really does work, too.
I have no idea what any of those medications you’ve mentioned are supposed to do, Crissa.
Then again, I’ve long been convinced that I’m the least medicated person in America. On prescription drugs, anyway. I took a course of antibiotics last fall because I was having pain from a new crown and suspected an impaction…turned out to just be an irritated nerve…and figured out it was the first time I’d had anything prescribed in 19 years.
Ah, the perils of digging old dead white guys.
Hey, I’m a lifelong fan of country music and can’t shake my appreciation of neither Hank Williams Jr. nor David Allan Coe. At least your embarrasing honky artists are dead and, thus, not out embarrasing themselves still.
I took Effexor for a while after my last suicide attempt and didn’t notice any side effects. ‘Course, I had other things on my mind, so perhaps I didn’t notice them. That and Depakote, and both worked.
Hate to rain on the thalidomide parade but (1) it’s a furrin drug, and (2) the FDA actually did its job on this one.
Francie — who refused to sign off on authorising thalidomide — retired a few years ago. That was her 2nd retirement; she retired earlier at age 75 but went back to work anyway. She still replies to e-mail.
“…it was the first time I’d had anything prescribed in 19 years.
You’re just not trying.
And yeah, the wing is almost purely decorative under about 75 MPH.
Now this is a wing. And yeah, I’ve seen that vehicle go and it changes direction faster than you can blink.
HPL is the racist uncle I just can’t bring myself to disown
I like to think of The Colour out of Space as the original story of furriners ruining property values.
But even all this was not so bad as the blasted heath. I knew it the moment I came upon it at the bottom of a spacious valley; for no other name could fit such a thing, or any other thing fit such a name. It was as if the poet had coined the phrase from having seen this one particular region. It must, I thought as I viewed it, be the outcome of a fire; but why had nothing new ever grown over these five acres of grey desolation that sprawled open to the sky like a great spot eaten by acid in the woods and fields? It lay largely to the north of the ancient road line, but encroached a little on the other side. I felt an odd reluctance about approaching, and did so at last only because my business took me through and past it. There was no vegetation of any kind on that broad expanse, but only a fine grey dust or ash which no wind seemed ever to blow about. The trees near it were sickly and stunted, and many dead trunks stood or lay rotting at the rim. As I walked hurriedly by I saw the tumbled bricks and stones of an old chimney and cellar on my right, and the yawning black maw of an abandoned well whose stagnant vapours played strange tricks with the hues of the sunlight. Even the long, dark woodland climb beyond seemed welcome in contrast, and I marvelled no more at the frightened whispers of Arkham people. There had been no house or ruin near; even in the old days the place must have been lonely and remote. And at twilight, dreading to repass that ominous spot, I walked circuitously back to the town by the curious road on the south. I vaguely wished some clouds would gather, for an odd timidity about the deep skyey voids above had crept into my soul.
It was not long before Chichikov’s purchases had become the talk of the
town; and various were the opinions expressed as to whether or not it
was expedient to procure peasants for transferment. Indeed such was the
interest taken by certain citizens in the matter that they advised the
purchaser to provide himself and his convoy with an escort, in order
to ensure their safe arrival at the appointed destination; but though
Chichikov thanked the donors of this advice for the same, and declared
that he should be very glad, in case of need, to avail himself of it, he
declared also that there was no real need for an escort, seeing that the
peasants whom he had purchased were exceptionally peace-loving folk,
and that, being themselves consenting parties to the transferment, they
would undoubtedly prove in every way tractable.
One particularly good result of this advertisement of his scheme was
that he came to rank as neither more nor less than a millionaire.
Consequently, much as the inhabitants had liked our hero in the first
instance (as seen in Chapter I.), they now liked him more than ever.
As a matter of fact, they were citizens of an exceptionally quiet,
good-natured, easy-going disposition; and some of them were even
well-educated. For instance, the President of the Local Council could
recite the whole of Zhukovski’s LUDMILLA by heart, and give such an
impressive rendering of the passage “The pine forest was asleep and the
valley at rest” (as well as of the exclamation “Phew!”) that one felt,
as he did so, that the pine forest and the valley really WERE as he
described them. The effect was also further heightened by the manner in
which, at such moments, he assumed the most portentous frown.
I mean, like Effexor worked. But the side effects of that vs the newer stuff like Cymbalta… Man, you don’t want to touch Effexor unless you really need to. Of course, it really does work, too.
I wish I’d known about that before I got started on Effexor, about 8 years ago: I’ve spent several months with a variety of charming withdrawal symptoms, including the feeling that someone’s unscrewing my head, and the rather alarming brain shocks. Now I’m in the bizarre-emotional-swings-and-crushing-regret-for-every-mistake-I-ever-made stage, which I devoutly hope will be over soon.
Well, I’m hoping it’s withdrawal effects. If that turns out to be my normal state I’ll be wanting to do something about it.
And Matt T.: sorry to hear about your suicide attempt(s). I know it doesn’t help, but you should know that you bring a little joy into this small life, because you’re piss funny (is that an expression that gets used in the US? I don’t know, but it gets used a lot around here).
The movie made from ‘The Grid’ was terrible, though.
Never heard of it. I don’t see it on IMDB – what title did they use?
Why does dr. Ross approve of the state-run FDA? Doesn’t he know that anything involving the state regulating the market is evil evil communism?
wasn’t Cube, was it?
wasn’t Cube, was it?
Not unless it was changed beyond all recognition.
C-BAR, so to speak.
Not unless it was changed beyond all recognition.\
Well, THAT’S never happened before, has it.
But you’re probably right. I kind of liked Cube
So, destroying the civilized world in a fit of pique.
Yeah, that is pretty much what I’ve seen from engineers
Oh just bite me, zombie rotten mcdonald
Just b-
Oh crap
Ooh! oooh! a comment thread I can comment on AND stay on-topic with the original post! Wheeeee!
Anyway, it’s possible the drop in NME for Europe is due to more careful examination of drugs after such winners as Vioxx and Phen-Fen. Which doesn’t say much for the leap in U.S. approvals, though I seem to recall Bush pushed something through that enabled Big Pharma to circumvent FDA regulation for a fee – which I can’t see going horribly wrong, nope nosirree.
And as far as “Dr.” Gilbertarian Ross goes –
when the Food and Drug Administration puts up obstacles, demanding absolute safety at every turn
*sigh* Yeah, it’s almost like they have to be absolutely sure something you put in your body won’t kill your ass. Almost like it’s a mandate or something. Fascists.
Anyone remember the “1% Doctrine”? Anyone remember why we HAD HAD HAD to invade Iraq? I can hear the wingnuts now – “OH BUT THAT’S TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!”
Anybody see Jon Stewart school Betsy McCaughey last night? I don’t see anything about it on HuffPo, maybe I just dreamed it…..
Anybody see Jon Stewart school Betsy McCaughey last night? I don’t see anything about it on HuffPo, maybe I just dreamed it…..
TPM has it up.
Add this would be the linky…MOAR KOFfIE
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-20-2009/betsy-mccaughey-pt–1
Why does dr. Ross approve of the state-run FDA?
Even worse – he wants PROTECTIONISM! From the free actions of the free market!
Anyone checked Dr. (prounced “durrrr”) Ross’ PDR to make sure it’s not hollowed out and hiding a copy of Das Kapital?
I think he may have screwed the pooch in his later works, but I am not that well-read in his non-Barsoomian ouvre.
There was no man-on-dog, or box-turtle, in any of his other series, that I can recall. Nor any fictitious domesticated animal screwing.
Am I still not well-formed?
Am I still not well-formed?
I hear across the wine-dark seas that you have comely and shapely thighs.
FYWP ate some damned good comments. They may not have been well-formed, but they served in the trenchants as well as any snark. Let us remember them for their sacrifice because I sure as hell can’t remember what the fuck I typed in the past hour or so.
Oh, wait – maybe I can…
PENIS.
Sheesh, you two, GET A ROOM.
Anybody see Jon Stewart school Betsy McCaughey last night?
I only just saw that now on my Intertubes … hey nonny nonny & holy goalie – that’s definitely some of the slickest fear-whoring disguised as innocent concern-trolling that I’ve seen in many moons.
A Ph.D. in constitutional law who doesn’t know about either Post-Its or bookmarks? Sure, I’ll buy that – it’ll go nicely with my deed to the Holland Tunnel & my “Fully Authenticated” Scrap Of The Shroud Of Turin™©✿†®!
Pro football only dreams of being able to run out the clock that smoothly … & you could plainly tell that she knew damn well her weak shit would get called: she just kept killing that poor old clock with one fallback & derail after another, knowing that time was on her side – just as long as she could keep landing the bull-turds in the scoop of her shovel & giving it the heave-ho on cue.
Heck, her debit-card idea sounds like it could be America’s greatest slam-dunk since Iraq! Wowsers – a whole whopping princely two to five thou per annum per
rubecitizen for medical care! Don’t spend it all on one organ, America!What, WP doesn’t hate us all anymore?
Jennifer: “We were a hell of a lot better off back in the good old days, when we had TV commercials for cigarettes instead of boner pills.”
In the Olden Days of Cigarette ads (remember “I’d rather FIGHT than switch!) we also got anti-smoking commercials. I recall one that affected me (at 11 years old), may even have contributed to my not smoking. It showed a couple of kids hanging out…somewhere, an alley? behind a Barn?…and lighting up for the first time. Turning green, sweating, coughing & choking. The narrator said: “Do you recall the first time you ever smoked? Don’t you think you’re body was trying to tell you something?”
I’d love to see that commercial again, even if on YouTube.
For Future Reference: if you say something incredibly kewl, & your attempt to post it gets this –
“Something went wrong – -32700 : parse error. not well formed”
… & you didn’t copy it, just leave the tab up & (gasp!) go elsewhere on the Internuts.
Wait. Go work on your storyboard for that movie about Ninja Cyborg Zen Buddhist Furries. Play some 16-dimensional chess. Square some circles. Gay-abort some Quiverfull babies for extra Amway points. Sniff a few tricycle-seats. Polish your shrine to Creed. Find Higgs’ Boson & then hide it again out of sheer unmitigated bastardry. Just do whatever else you sickos do for a good time … then come back & F5 that sucker. Repeat if necessary.
It worked for my (slightly older) Firefox, anyway.
Higgs Boson? No thanks, we’ve already got one.
Polish your shrine to Creed.
Is THAT what kids are calling it these days?
OT – since it’s well past overdue to take a swipe at Ambinder, I’ll instead point out that Public Option makes so much sense that Jane Hamsher is agreeing with Terry McAuliffe.
Find Higgs’ Boson & then hide it again
I’d understood the boson was on Gilligan’s Island all this time. However, MaryAnn‘s “tell-all” memoir suggests it was a clever knock-off made by The Professor from pineapples.
Higgs Boson?
Hmmm, rings a bell. Third baseman for the Red Sox, ate a lot chicken?
After the food fight of ’79, we never again served peas. Those were simpler times, kid.
After the food fight of ‘79, we never again served peas.
I’m sure it wasn’t because of all those kids holding up the line asking if they could “take a pea”.
Pfuagh. Youth is wasted on the young.
God bless the Lunch Lady!
FYWP ate some damned good comments.
It’s gotten to the point where copypasta is my M/O when dealing with WP.
Did Dr Ross have any comments about Medicare Part D?
In honor of HPL, I make reference to the ancient legends of Ultimate Talk Radio Chaos, at whose center sprawls the blind idiot god Leembaughph, encircled by his flopping horde of mindless and flatulent dittoheads, and lulled by the thin monotonous piping of a Savage Weiner held in nameless paws.
A libertarian friend opposes universal health care for the ‘it will stifle the development of pharmaceuticals, blah, blah, blah….’ I was actually looking for exactly this data to refute his claim that only the US produces significant new development in pharmaceuticals.
Thanks
Have I got some
goodnews for you!I bring you the latest site for musings from a girl who strongly supports free markets, a strong foreign policy, borders that are secured in a smart and fair way, the right to bear arms, strong currency, and straddles a fine conservative/libertarian line on many social issues.
heh, heh. She straddles stuff on social issues. heh, heh.
and lulled by the thin monotonous piping of a Savage Weiner held in nameless paws
Those Weiner holding paws have a name.
Post title make me think of this.
@KDP
That’s the “intelligent” conservative/glibertarian objection to HCR. It’s about all they have and as you would expect it’s not intelligent at all, being based on typical glibertarian delusions about how things work.
It’s categorically impossible to get a glib to understand that business could possibly benefit from something the government funds, since they Do It All By Themselves(tm).
You know, in preview my trademark worked. I put Themselves(tm) and I clearly saw the trademark appear in the preview.
Then I posted, and it went back to parentheses around tm.
So preview and post are not the same code path, I take it?
So I finally get around to checking out Dr. Ross. According to Sourcewatch:
I’m so disgusted and amused, I can’t even comment.
For slippy,
<trade;
Whups.
™
slippy,
Preview is your friend but it’s a tricksy, unreliable friend. WordPress is your worst fucking enemy. Use (ampersand)trade; and so on.
Sheesh. The more I find out about teh Dr., the more outraged I get and I also can’t stop laughing. Check out this expose at Mother Jones.
You can trade ampersands? Is this like the carbon-credit market?
Check out this expose
Hah hah! PeeJ has trusted WP to embed a link properly!
The Trademark™ symbol is alt-2 on my Mac. And ® is alt-r.
Thorlac – needs more eldritch.
I’d understood the boson was on Gilligan’s Island all this time. However, MaryAnn’s “tell-all” memoir suggests it was a clever knock-off made by The Professor from pineapples.
Yes, that was the Higgs Bonoboson.
FYWP
THIS GODDAMN FUCKING LINKED expose at Mother Jones.
Heh. I was kinda waiting for a bit of the FYWP!!!suxxor!!!111. No worries, it right atop the Gazoogle. And Mr. Ross is a serious douchenozzle. He is well beyond any sort of “he got screwed on a technicality” kind of redemption. And no, he doesn’t get the “Dr.” title.
Actually, it “was” right atop the Gazoogle. Baaad brane.
For “his participation in a scheme that ultimately defrauded New York’s Medicaid program of approximately $8 million,” Ross had his medical license revoked, spent a year at a federal prison camp, and was barred from the Medicare and Medicaid programs for 10 years, after a judge found him to be “a highly untrustworthy individual.”
Um.
Why does that SO TOTALLY not surprise me?
So the fucknozzle who stole $8 million of our tax money now wants to recommend to us what we do with our, um, tax money. FUCK YOU SIR!
If you play EVE, please contact me. Interested in bringing any SadlyNauts in New Eden into my corporation.
And no, he doesn’t get the “Dr.” title.
Doctorates are a finite good.
In my imaginary universe, Ross can make as many appearances as he likes in the print media or broadcasts or websites, as long as he is identified in a bye-line as “Lobbyist for the fruad industry”.
The ancient among us may remember Dr. Ross Dog Food.
“Dr. Ross’ Dog Food Is Dog-Gone Good,” went the jingle, w/ the sound of a barking dog.
Dr. (Vet, or M. D.?) Ross was a right-wing loon who contributed to such crap as Gerald L. K. Smith’s Christian Anti-Communist Crusade.
Any relation? It would be irresponsible not to …
Not to forget Dr. Ross of “ER,” though he’s some sort of bleeding heart pinko.
A-fucking-hem!!
Dr. Ross.
Fine. Google it yourselves. And somebody fix the damn preview or whatever.
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=“Dr.+Ross+dog+food”&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
WHAT THE MOTHERFUCKING HELL??????one
Lose the quotes.
Can’t say I heard of Dr. Ross’ dog food, but I do fondly remember ads for The Mad Butcher grocery stores here in the South.
Under a visage that looked like an evil Andre the Giant as drawn by Robert Crumb was the slogan “You can’t beat the Mad Butcher’s meat”.
Those were more innocent times…(or not)
Oh, yeah.
Thanks, but I’m not doing it again. Those who give a shit can Google it themselves.
“You can lick our chops, but you can’t beat our meat!!”
Guess the Mad Butcher was more a Southeast Arkansas thing.
Hah…someone reminded me of the creepy “He’s MAAAAAAD about savings!” bit on the ads too. Damn commercials were like Halloween ads – in other words, far superior to damn near any advertising done today.
I was watching an old VHS tape with my son the other night and he noted “Wow. A commercial that actually talks about what they are selling during the entire spot. How quaint”.
So the fucknozzle who stole $8 million of our tax money now wants to recommend to us what we do with our, um, tax money.
“Doctors can’t be trusted not to cheat the government! I should know!”
“Doctors can’t be trusted not to cheat the government! I should know!”
Little Chucky Krauthammer made pretty much the same argument a few days ago. “You can’t trust doctors. I know, I used to be one.”
These assholes assume the system would be rife with corruption and fraud because they’d try like Hell to make it so. And at the same time they’d decry poor people getting care they “don’t deserve.”
And no, he doesn’t get the “Dr.” title.
We’ll let Dross keep the “D”.
well, the fruads are certainly not going to lobby for themselves, if my experience is anything to go by
If you play EVE, please contact me. Interested in bringing any SadlyNauts in New Eden into my corporation.
No, but I played a snake in a school play once.
And no, he doesn’t get the “Dr.” title.
I also have serious doubts as to whether Charlie Stross earned his sainthood legitimately.
The Mad Butcher grocery stores here in the South
You know, there’s a whole Herschel Gordon Lewis thing going in that sentence.
I’d have steered clear of their pork. Just in case.
I also have serious doubts as to whether Charlie Stross earned his sainthood legitimately.
Having just finished “The Jennifer Morgue” I think of Stross as more nephilim than saint.
Charlie notes in his blog:
Friends assure me that the Laundry novels are in many respects MISLEADING AND UNREALISTIC.
Friends assure me that the Laundry novels are in many respects MISLEADING AND UNREALISTIC.
You don’t say. Friends inform me not to chew the insulation on CAT5e cables.
There’s a sequel to “Atrocity Archive”?
Why doesn’t someone TELL me these things!?
I also have serious doubts as to whether Charlie Stross earned his sainthood legitimately.
Cyberpope Uniblab I canonized him as patron saint of technological singularities.
Cyberpope Uniblab I canonized him
He is now in reduced row-echelon form.
I’d rather chew cat5 than read novels about laundry.
What?
I’d rather chew cat5 than read novels about laundry.
Now, be fair- One Hundred Years of Solenoid was a classic.
MICHELLE OBAMA’S MOTHER IS USING ILLEGAL ALIEN ASS PENNIES IN HER WHITE HOUSE VOODOO RITUALS!!! HEED MY PANIC, LIBS!!
I think of Stross as more nephilim
Nephilim = plural. Singular = naphil.
Unless you are imagining Stross as some form of collective entity.
the fact is, some of us are unemployed and could use some more posts around here dammit.
tintin can’t handle the site by itself.
the fact is, some of us are unemployed and could use some more posts around here dammit.
Now, Gary, whatever happened to your Twitter feed?
tintin can’t handle the site by itself.
You gotta be impressed that a dog can write blog posts at all, though, doncha.
I’d rather chew cat5 than read novels about laundry.
But would you rather chew laundry than read novels about cats?
Pretty much anything is preferable to reading about cats.
Pretty much anything is preferable to reading about cats.
Even actual cats?
But would you rather chew laundry than read novels about cats?
I was hoping for a Zero Wing novelization!
I was hoping for a Zero Wing novelization!
It’s a very good book, though.
Really!
. . .
oh, what the hell –
MOVE ALL PU55YS FOR GREAT JUSTICE!
Even actual cats?
Especially actual cats.
Somebody set us up the hairball!
How are you gentlemen !!
But would you rather chew laundry than read novels about cats?
I got you some laundry, but I eated it.
I’d rather chew cat5 than read novels about laundry.
Does ‘Spin City’ count?
I never claimed to be a gentleman so I do not offer an explanation.
Lord, it’s come to this: Zero Wing jokes. Shame!
Anyway, I don’t know about movies but I thought the soap opera “As the Tub Spins” was OK. Kinda dirty, though.
I’m glad you eated it, ’cause I sure didn’t want to do it!
Address my knits and delicates, libs!
Which brings to mind John Ralston Saul’s description of Italian bread:
“an intriguing mixture of tastes — hand towels on the inside and cardboard in the crust.”
Hah hah! PeeJ has trusted WP to embed a link properly!
Perhaps if they possess the means to do so, our benevolent overlords might consider changing the “Submit Comment” legend on the button underneath what I’m typing into “Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?” or “Spin The Big Wheel, Vanna!” or even “FYWP” … just a thought.
Somebody set us up the hairball!
Little doubt I’m gonna get an extra 10,000 added onto my time in hell for this, but what the heck:
U HAZ NO CHANTS 2 SURVIEV MAEK YR TIEM, HOOMAN
( Totally worth all that extra brimstone-action, because I just know I’m the first guy in the world to ever combine those two rare & fleeting cultural seasonings together into such a uniquely exotic stew, amirite?)
our benevolent overlords might consider changing the “Submit Comment” legend on the button underneath what I’m typing into “Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?” or “Spin The Big Wheel, Vanna!” or even “FYWP”
“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate”
Perhaps if they possess the means to do so, our benevolent overlords might consider changing the “Submit Comment” legend on the button underneath what I’m typing into “Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?” or “Spin The Big Wheel, Vanna!” or even “FYWP” … just a thought.
Why not cut to the chase? The button should say “PENIS!” Or “POOP!” Or “HITLER!”
Actually, it should say…SCUSE MAH FinGARS!” (And yes, I know, the caps are all fubar but whateves)
Everyone loves a good laundry joke.
Everyone loves a good laundry joke.
As long as you keep it clean.
Friday night in Hell …
Lasciate ogne speranza
i cn hz recipe?
(“Pasta al Dante” joke goes here)
That’s not exactly where the joke goes, knowutImean?
(”Pasta al Dante” joke goes here)
Surve ovurr spuhgety.
Lasciate ogne speranza
Is that what the kids are calling it …
Well it is Freitag and it’s from hell. The Ho saw an ad for an abomination of a “sandwich” that got him interested in fried chicken so that’s what I’m doing. I poach the chicken parts (after I cut the chicky apart) in buttermilk then dredge them in the crustymakingstuffs. Flour seasoned with corainder and salt and pepper, then the mix of panko, regular bread crumbs and flour with various herbs and shit. Only then does the frying take place. Fabulous flavor, the frying stage takes only a few moments and it’s far less greasy than usual methods.
We’ll be having roasted garlic smashed spuddies, and roasted corn – lightly painted with mayo, sprinkled with ancho pili powder and grated parmigiano reggiano, then drizzled lightly with lime juice.
The Ho made Key Lime Pie. Scuse me, my next martini is ready.
Ummmm, a Willamette Pinot Noir will accompany.
This blog’s weine and culinary cred is rapidly fading – COME ON PEOPLE!
My culinary cred may have faded, but my “weine” is just fine, thank you very much.
This blog’s weine and culinary cred is rapidly fading – COME ON PEOPLE!
At the risk of incurring your wrath, IT’S TOO HOT TO COOK!!!!
I did scrump a whole lotta apples and pears on the job, though. It’s nice to work near an orchard nobody seems care about. I have gotten so profligate in my habits, I’m not even eating the peels, but tossing them to a somewhat out-of-sorts Branta canadensis which haunts the property.
When it gets a little cooler, I’ll make a bigos with some leftover sauerkraut and a head of fresh cabbage I have on hand. The tart apples I’ve been subsisting on for the past week will make a good addition to the pot.
Nephilim = plural. Singular = naphil.
Unless you are imagining Stross as some form of collective entity.
Definitely. The good angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other, and Sam’s dog saying in his ear “kill them all kill them all.”
#
Hey tigrismus,
I always demand and italicized rendering for the bangs:
How are you gentlemen !!
Hey jim,
Also some mild criticism — how about the more common ‘can has’ construction:
U CAN HAZ NO CHANTS 2 SURVIEV MAEK UR TIEM !!
Sheesh, you’re so demanding !!
(”Pasta al Dante” joke goes here)
Hmph, I expected a “that’s a Doré” lyric.
Checking something…
Results 1 – 2 of 2 for “that’s a Doré”.
Oh no, retreads are NOT acceptable.
When you’re struck with an axe
or you swallow some tacks
That’s a Gorey!
I suspect that im doin it rong.
Hey Smut Clyde,
UR DOIN IT: RITE
Observe and also please to note this image.
Please reassure me that that is not a birthday cake.
When the flame comes in flakes
And you swap shapes with snakes
That’s a Doré!
Happy now?
Hey Smut Clyde,
Suitably owned. This somehow seems relevant..? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3TeIWyr2qQ