It’s no secret that Big Pharma has been providing doctors with special perks in return for prescribing their products. This has been going on for ages. But to get a better grip on why the costs of healthcare have been increasing dramatically we need to understand about the massive networks that Big Pharma is involved in. Believe it or not, Big Pharma is connected to everything. The AMA, the FDA, the financial markets/big business, the insurance industry, law and politics; these are all affected by Big Pharma.
Recently it was reported that there are more Americans addicted to prescription drugs than illegal drugs. An article in The New York Times stated that “An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.” That’s a pretty hefty number. I know quite a few people who became addicted to prescription drugs. Some said tranquilizers and painkillers were harder to quit than illegal drugs. Prescription pain killers have become the “new heroin”, and are increasingly becoming a major problem in the school system.
Not only are the doctors getting “perks” from the drug companies, but the professors and the research facilities of major universities have been the recipient of “special benefits” as well. Recently “three influential psychiatrists from Harvard Medical School seem to have been caught with their hands in the drug-laced cookie jar, and now they’re in big trouble. Two days after it was alleged that the three doctors failed to report a collective $4.2 million in payments from pharmaceutical companies, Harvard and the affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital have launched an investigation into the doctors’ behavior.” Big Pharma = Big Money.
Let me just state for the record that I think research and development in pharmaceuticals is an important factor in saving lives. Not all prescription drugs are addictive or deadly. Many are necessary to keep people alive. But let me also state that many side effects from certain drugs are not discovered until many years later. This can be a “Catch-22”. Also more money is spent on advertising than on R&D. In an article by Science Daily it was reported that “the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spent 24.4% of the sales dollar on promotion, versus 13.4% for research and development, as a percentage of US domestic sales of US$235.4 billion.” Instead of prolonging or enhancing life, getting the word out about their products is of priority.
Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is proposing legislation for reporting any payments over $500 paid by pharmaceutical companies to doctors or academic research to be on public record. “If they are being paid, it ought to be reported,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley is also looking at the money drug companies pay doctors for academic research. He is investigating some 20 top medical schools - including Harvard, Stanford and the University of Cincinnati, for under-reporting the income top researchers are getting from the drug industry. Grassley wants to learn if the money is influencing research.”
I think transparency on this is issue is way overdue. When the absurd “war on illegal drugs” becomes part of a cover for the pharmaceutical companies’ desire to line their pockets, then something needs to be done.
“US Army Field Manual FM 31-20-3, Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces; 2004 edition. Made US Army doctrine (policy) on 20 September 1994; 219 printed pages. Written at the sensitive but unclassified level.
This sensitive US military counterinsurgency manual could be critically described as “What we learned about running death squads and propping up corrupt government in Latin America and how to apply it to other places”. Its contents are both history defining for Latin America and, given the continued role of US Special Forces in the suppression of insurgencies and guerilla movements world wide, history making.
The document, which is official US Special Forces policy, directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control, restrictions on labor unions & political parties, suspending habeas corpus, warrantless searches, detainment without charge, bribery, employing terrorists, false flag operations, concealing human rights abuses from journalists, and extensive use of “psychological operations” (propaganda) to make these and other “population & resource control” measures palatable.”
The first ten minutes of this talk is a meditation. While listening to it I found myself thinking, “Hurry up and get to the talk already”. Then Thich Nhat Hanh began to talk about how few of us are living and being in the present moment, and that almost everyone is in a hurry…
“World renown Vietnamese-born Buddhist teacher, scholar, and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh talks with Vishakha N. Desai, President of The Asia Society, about his controversial, and distinguished life as a Buddhist and a voice for peace from the days of the Vietnam War, to the ongoing conflicts of the 21st century.”
“The anti-Vietnam war demonstration of March 1968 was a turning point in post-war politics: it turned violent right in front of the world’s media; the police were shown throwing punches into the faces of already arrested students, and in general losing control. The police files from that event are considered too sensitive to release. But Newsnight has obtained, under Freedom of Information, a stack of police files relating to the much bigger anti-war demonstration of October that year. Watch tonight: they tell a story of rising panic in the establishment: the creation of Britain’s first bomb squad; an intelligence feedback loop between Special Branchand the press that ramped up the tension; and, farcically, the rock group The Doors being mistaken for a group of foreign revolutionaries…”
“This new video is showing up everywhere on the internet, but we thought we had to post it after watching it closely ourselves - as Ken Wilber’s passion for major political issues, and the clarity with which he deploys applied integral theory (at least in terms of AQAL) is something to behold.
Whatever your opinion of this integral-type theorizing (and jargon), this 30 minute video demonstrates just how accurate and useful a calibrated integral framework can be when we attempt to understand the broad currents of cultural and development change.”
I never thought I’d be defending Rachel Ray, but… C’MON:
Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray after complaints that a fringed black-and-white scarf that the celebrity chef wore in the ad offers symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism.
[..]
Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin complained that the scarf wrapped around her looked like a kaffiyeh, the traditional Arab headdress. ”The kaffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,” Malkin wrote in her syndicated column.
“Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons,” she said.
SERIOUSLY?!?!
Amahl Bishara, an anthropology lecturer at the University of Chicago who specializes in media matters relating to the Middle East, said complaints about the scarf’s use in the ad demonstrate misunderstandings of Arab culture and the multiple meanings that symbols can take on depending on someone’s perspective.
“I think that a right-wing blogger making an association between a kaffiyeh and terrorism is just an example of how so much of the complexity of Arab culture has been reduced to a very narrow vision of the Arab world on the part of some people in the U.S.,”
No, it’s not a case of Arab culture being reduced to a very narrow vision, it’s a case of a belligerent right wing commentator complaining about absolutely nothing and a clueless company taking her seriously. The correct response is to mock Dunkin’ Donuts for their stupidity.
“Don’t Vote for billionaires backed by billionaires. I’m homeless, don’t have a cent. Hell, I’m worse off than YOU are, and you know why? Because I haven’t sold out to ANYBODY, that’s why. Ain’t no corporate strings behind me. With me, what you see is what you get.
[..] How I Would Re-Write the Bill of Rights by Satan:
Amendment I:
You can believe what you want, or say what you want, or assemble where you want, but in the long run, your ass still belongs to me.
Amendment II:
You can kill each other with whatever weaponry you want, but in the long run, your ass still belongs to me.
Amendment III:
Stay where you want, do what you want, make war, steal property, who cares, in the long run, your ass still belongs to me.
Amendment IV:
If you can convince yourself that your houses, papers, and effects are secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, go ahead and do it. It ain’t illegal to be delusional.”
Wishtank: There’s been some commentary around this question within the comment section of Skilluminati.com, but could you give us your definition of fifth generation warfare (5GW)? How might this differ from popular understandings of the phrase?
Justin Boland: “Solo warfare” would be the most concise. It’s slippery because both words are deceptive — “solo” implies that you’d never collaborate with other 5GW operatives, and “warfare” implies overt agression and violence.
I’m very much uncommitted to the 5GW orthodoxy, the framework is just another model to me and of course all models are toys. Toys for thinking and analysis, but toys just the same. I like to disassemble things to see how they work and ideas are no different.
In terms of the generations of war, I think the distinction between 3GW — traditional, nation versus nation warfare — and 4GW is very useful. 4GW is non-state “guerrilla” organizations going to war against nations, and it’s a great unsolved problem of our time. Nations all around the world are losing these wars right now, and the USA is no exception.
“Representative John Conyers, Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, sent a letter to the DEA inquiring about the “paramilitary style enforcement raids” conducted against medical marijuana distributors in California. In case anyone hasn’t been following this story the state of California permits the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Since the federal government does not and the current Federal apparatuses’ have chosen not to look the other way in respect of State’s rights, there have been Federally motivated enforcement actions against people and businesses that are legally permitted by the State but not the Federal government.
Ed Brayton observes:
All of this can be blamed entirely on the Supreme Court, which issued one of the most indefensible rulings in its history in Gonzales v Raich. And yes, this one you can lay directly at the feet of the liberals on the court. Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer were all in the majority in ruling that the federal government has the authority to overrule state medical marijuana laws.
I ran across something specific related to this Conyers’ letter that ties back to some previous comments I had about drug advocates trying to Trojan Horse recreational use under cover of medicinal use.”
Last week, Lighthouse Trails was contacted by two other ministries who brought up issues regarding the use of their material in Steele’s book. Upon reading Steele’s work ourselves, our editors discovered that the 80-page book was filled with verbatim passages copied from other writers material, which was presented as Steele’s own authorship. Because of the sensationalistic overtones of the book (e.g., comparing Oprah to Jim Jones who gave poisoned Kool-aid to over 900 people), and because plagiarism most often ignores the original context and authorial intent of the material copied but is not ethically credited, Lighthouse Trails cannot, in good conscience, promote Steele’s book.
The new issue of Trevor Blake’s OVO Magazine has many names familiar to Technoccult readers and/or Esozone attendees (and some not so familiar): Anonymous, Dmitry Babenko, Johnny Brainwash, Klint Finley, Witta Kelssling-Jensen, Vincent Al Ken, Ruggero Maggi, Mail Art Paul, Willi Melnikov, Thom Metzger, Emilio Morandi, No Institute, Wes Unruh, Carlos Valdez and Edward Wilson.
In my article I explore the politics of alternative currencies, which is sadly more relevant now than I realized when I wrote it in October.
For those not in the know, OVO has been published by Trevor Blake since 1987. Trevor says of his work:
When I started publishing OVO I was just a self-important hayseed living in a small town making a dumb little zine among thousands of others. But OVO did accomplish a few things in the first fourteen issues. OVO was the first to publish several essays by Hakim Bey that later appeared in his book T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone. OVO published work by Mike Diana long before his work drew the attention of State and Federal employees. Photographs of body piercing appeared in OVO two years before the Modern Primitives issue of Re/Search. The phrase ‘phone tag’ appears in print for the first time in the first issue of OVO. ‘Liberating Wednesday’ by PM, author of bolo’bolo, appears in OVO for the first (and only) time; this is nearly a decade before and fifty-two times more radical a suggestion than ‘Buy Nothing Day.’ Crop circles and the Men in Black are referenced at a time when they were still obscure. The first appearance of Ride Theory in print occurs in Ignatz Topolino’s contribution to OVO. And OVO was aware enough of the outer edges of scientific ethics to mention gene patents in the same year they first were granted.
I am honored to be a contributor to such a worthy publication.
A change in the law could mean mediums, psychics and healers face prosecution if they cannot justify their claims. Spiritualists are delivering a mass petition to Downing Street and complaining that a genuine religion is being discriminated against.
[…]
Parliament is about to debate measures that will see all forms of paid-for paranormal activities fall under the new Consumer Protection Regulations. As well as tackling a raft of more mundane commercial sharp practice, these regulations will also replace the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951.
And some mediums are not happy. Under the old legislation, it had to be proven that any accused psychic was setting out to commit a fraud. The first case was a man in 1952 on a charge that he did in “purporting to act as a spiritualistic medium, unlawfully use a certain fraudulent device, namely, a length of cheesecloth”. He was acquitted, setting a pattern for the last 50 years of very few prosecutions.
Under the new laws, some mediums feel they will be obliged to prove what they do. And when you’re in the business of contacting spirits in the afterlife, that’s not easy.
[…]
The Office of Fair Trading says enforcement of the new regulations will not target sessions like this or churches, instead being more likely to be used against foreign mass mailshot fraudsters extracting large sums of money.
But despite the protestations of officialdom, the medium community has enough foresight to see potential problems ahead.
As Scott Atran points out, these kids dream of fighting for some meaningful cause that will make them heroes in their communities. Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri—and Arab satellite television and in some cases their own experiences—have convinced them that fighting against the most powerful country in the world and its allies is the most heroic thing they can do.
No, “The 99″ comic books are not going to solve that problem. Their circulation is in the tens of thousands at this point, while bin Laden’s violent message gets out to billions. But comic books are “likely to be a lot more helpful than our bullets and bombs in attracting young people away from jihadi cool,” says Atran. They might even help convince Washington that “knowledge is the true base of power.” But maybe that’s hoping for too much.
(Update/clarification The image above is not from The 99, it’s from Chuck Dixon’s aborted American Power series. I presented it along with the question of what message it for sarcastic rather illustrative purposes.)
I wrote a blog entry over at Klintron’s Brain that went from being a couple hundred words to basically a full length article:
Two economic crises face the world today: the credit crunch resulting from the subprime mortgage crisis, and the food prices crisis precipitated by the demand for biofuels. Both are problems we should have identified and solved years ago, but didn’t. Why did we ignore the warning signs and allow ourselves to be hoodwinked into this mess? I believe they both relate to our tendency for wishful thinking.
A new U.N. Human Rights Council official assigned to monitor Israel is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
On March 26, Richard Falk, Milbank professor of international law emeritus at Princeton University, was named by unanimous vote to a newly created position to report on human rights in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. While Mr. Falk’s specialty is human rights and international law, since the attacks in 2001, he has devoted some of his time to challenging what he calls the “9-11 official version.”
“Planning to open a bookstore in Indiana? Maybe a newsstand? How about a pharmacy? You may be officially labeled a purveyor of “sexually explicit materials.” Now, if you’ll just sign this registry, the secretary of state will accept your check for $250.
At the end of March’s legislative session, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed House Act 1042, which requires all new businesses selling “sexually explicit materials” to notify the secretary of state and pay a licensing fee. Failure to comply is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 180 days in jail.
Exactly who — or what — defines “sexually explicit” is the $250 question, and the crux of any test of the law’s constitutionality. One such test may come from the Media Coalition, a trade association representing publishers, libraries and booksellers in 1st Amendment cases.”
Better propaganda (and more informative) than Fitna. Some valid points brought up at Wikipedia: there is no discussion of business interests ir the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Leo Strauss’s influence is overblown.
“If you are male and a Led Zeppelin fan, chances are you may be leaning toward voting Republican in the U.S. presidential election, according to a survey of rock radio fans released on Wednesday.The Jacobs Media’s Media/Technology Web Poll IV of more than 27,000 respondents cited stronger than expected interest in the November 2008 election among fans of rock, classic rock, and alternative radio stations.
It also found that John McCain, the Republican candidate for U.S. president, was the top pick for the Oval Office for men and classic rock partisans — those people who tune in to stations playing music from the “original classic rock era” of 1964 to 1975, comprised of bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who and Pink Floyd. Jacobs Media said the survey, conducted among 69 U.S. rock-formatted stations in markets as diverse as Los Angeles and Knoxville to Buffalo, found 84 percent of the respondents planned to vote in the November election.”
First Freedom First’s simulcast now available online: “[..] learn about the threats to church-state separation and find out how you can ensure that candidates for elected office answer questions about key issues dealing with individual freedom.
Peter Coyote, celebrated Hollywood actor and filmmaker, emceed the program, which included special guests The Bacon Brothers (featuring actor Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael), actors Michael J. Fox, Jack Klugman, Wendie Malick, Dan Lauria and Catherine Dent, comedian and Air America host Marc Maron; singer/songwriter Catie Curtis and satirist Roy Zimmerman.
Watch our courageous church-state separation champions share their compelling personal stories of fighting to protect the First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom. And learn where you can find the 10 QUESTIONS you need to ask every candidate running for public office!”
“Heavy metal is the ideal soundtrack to the bloody conflict raging in Baghdad right now. The city boasts a macho crowd—guns for hire, thrill-seeking journalists, war profiteers, kamikaze insurgents—and metal holds machismo in very high regard. Of course, Acrassicauda, the band at the center of the documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad, which opens the New York Underground Film Festival April 2 (a DVD release comes later this year), was not born of war-torn, modern-day Iraq, but rather a much less openly violent society.
Baghdad’s metal scene grew from a small community of teenagers with a shared love of American music—many of the most accomplished and well-known Iraqi groups got their start covering Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne. In the late 1980s, bands like Scarecrew performed regularly to sold-out crowds of headbangers and moshers, albeit in small halls and with almost no commercial backing. By the late ’90s, the scene had cooled slightly, though a few bands, like Converse and Passage, still played regularly for packs of fans numbering in the low hundreds.”
I don’t watch much tv, so I missed the ads for this miniseries. It aired its first part on Sunday and the finalé airs this Sunday. If anyone can find the .torrent, let me know. Sometimes it’s a pain finding Canadian media on the interwebs. Interesting premise, though:
Tom McLaughlin (Paul Gross), former Canadian prime minister, watches from the sidelines as a majority of Canadians vote for union with the United States of America. The Canadian flag comes down and the country is redrawn into six states.
In revenge, McLaughlin — secretly backed by three key European nations — runs as an independent for President with his ex-wife, Texas Governor Mary Miller (Martha Burns) as his running mate. An assassination attempt boosts his credibility with voters. Veteran British journalist Helen Madigan (Greta Scacchi) is probing the London shooting of her adopted son –- she too gets targeted for assassination after she uncovers a computer program designed to fix the votes in the next U.S. election. She believes McLaughlin is an honest broker and she looks to him to expose the corruption in President Stanfield’s (Tom Skerritt) current U.S. administration, an administration hell-bent on invading Saudi Arabia to cut off China’s oil supply.
Ehsan Jami is not to release his animation film The Life of Mohammed. After consultations with his advisors, Jami is abandoning the plan to show his film, which was to be released on 20 April.
“Minister Hirsch Ballin (Justice) has stated that he fears the film will drive a wedge through our society. That was never my intention”, said Jami. He added however that he does not believe the Dutch government is capable of protecting him against death threats.
A couple whose church preaches against medical care are facing criminal charges after their young daughter died of an infection that authorities said went untreated.
Carl and Raylene Worthington were indicted Friday on charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter Ava. They belong to the Followers of Christ Church, whose members have a history of treating gravely ill children only with prayer.
I found this update through this opinion piece that TiamatsVision linked to in the comments of this post about a similar situation in Wisconsin where the parents have yet to be charged.
This is good news. Laws should apply to all citizen equally, regardless of their religious beliefs (or lack thereof).
“Beyond the pure insanity of a nutty cult leader having the influence that Reverend Moon has, there are so many things so very wrong here I hardly know where to begin. But I’ll force myself to start with what’s been in the news recently. And I’ll do it briefly because, as I’ve said before, this topic has been discussed to death in the corporate media. And now that I think about it, it’s not that it’s been discussed so much, but how it’s been discussed, as an endless 20 second loop, that’s the problem.
If you go back as far as I do, ask yourself when the last time was, or if you don’t go back that far, ask yourself if you’ve ever, heard the Reverend Sun Myung Moon mentioned in the corporate media. I go back far enough to remember the John Belushi skit from the documentary when it first aired on Saturday Night Live. While Reverend Wright sound bites play on and endless loop in the corporate media, a man who has more political influence and is more dangerous than all the religious nut cases you can name combined, and I don’t include Wright in that group, is rarely, if ever brought up. In fact, he’s only been mentioned recently in the blogosphere from what I’ve seen, and I watch a lot of CNN and MSNBC. And while that might not be exhaustive coverage of what the media is reporting, googling his name for news stories on him finds only a handful. One by AlterNet, none by major media outlets.”
