Persnickety

I grew up watching the news. My family would watch the news--network news, of course, as this was before cable--while having supper. Usually NBC. I remember the peacock logo. For the longest time, into my twenties, I assumed that that was how people knew what was going on in the country and world. The newspaper was delivered as well; my father read it dutifully. I, on the other hand, mainly read the comics and the sports section. Eventually I came to love the print media, preferring magazines and papers for their more in-depth coverage of events and political analysis. I gave up on TV news. For a good long time. Lately I've been watching again. More out of curiosity, to see what's being covered. What I've discovered is that there really isn't anything being covered anymore (was there ever?). Every evening there is a run-down of four or five stories, and I do mean stories. These are all feel-good human interest stories, devoid of any analysis of causes or conclusions. To...

I recently underwent a preventative procedure at a local hospital. I thought it might be instructive to follow it through from start to finish, just to see how the system actually works, or doesn't work, as the case may be. My visit began with a routine examination at my primary physician. After determining that I just turned 50 he told me that it was time to schedule a colonoscopy. Yikes, I thought, but if it was good--or bad--enough for Katie Couric then I guess I could put up with it too. So, after giving me the name of a specialist, I called and made an appointment. Pretty simple. He advised me on what was going to happen and why it was important, what to expect and so forth. He gave me a prescription for MoviePrep and I went to the pharmacy. Being a pharmacist myself, I already knew all about the stuff so I just went to pay for it. $50! Yes, the MD had kindly given me a coupon, but that still made the total out to be $30. (Note: one month later I still haven't received the...

Continuing my rant from yesterday's post re Bobby Jindal's utopian air of laissez-faire oil drilling, I'd like to point to the map, specifically to Nigeria. The country, sitting in the middle of the African continent on the crook of the western coastline, is the most populous in Africa. It is rich as well. Rich in oil. Unfortunately is is poor in just about everything else, also mainly due to oil. From 1970 to 2000, according to Nigerian government estimates, there were 7000 oil spills in the country. One of the most devastating spills has occurred in the Niger Delta, and is at least as large as the Deepwater Horizon disaster now pummeling the Gulf of Mexico. But in Nigeria there is no camera crew to cover it. No Brian Williams to interview some government hack. There isn't even a Shell Oil executive appearing on TV wearing a look of frustration. There's pretty much nothing, except for a lot of oozing ugly greasy black stuff. Nigerian light crude--the most desired o...

Tonight I was watching NBC News with Brian Williams interviewing Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal at the scene of the oil spill. Globs of oil covered the beaches. Brown ooze now blankets the Louisiana coastline, coating pelicans and terns and so forth. You might expect Jindal to be a tad circumspect regarding future oil rigs bobbing up and down the Gulf. But you would be wrong. Jindal adheres to the Republican platform (full disclosure: this author is a Republican, written with a punctuated embarrassment) of Drill, Baby, Drill! Even now. Even now. He says, "We shouldn't have to choose between drilling for an energy source like oil and clean beaches." Really? And Avatar wasn't a movie...it was a documentary! And Harry Potter is alive and well somewhere in the Lakeside District of England. If this disaster hasn't shaken the likes of these Republican oil barons (and their lackeys) into reality from their Utopian dream of clean carbon energy sources, then nothing will....

The New York Times has published an article that neatly dovetails with my previous blog entry, the one concerning brand v. generic. It appears that two renowned scientists, a Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, and Malden C. Nesheim, emeritus professor of nutrition at Cornell University, have taken the lion's share of pet food and sifted the remains in order to find out what precisely is in there, and more to the point, what is really the difference between the high end vittles and the low end (published as “Feed Your Pet Right: The Authoritative Guide to Feeding Your Dog and Cat,” published in May by Free Press). You've probably guessed by now about the conclusions. Right. Not much difference. Maybe a prettier package, but all these pet foods come from the same source: human scraps. So you can spend a lot on your pet and feel all fuzzy good that you are doing your best for good old Max but who--or w...

I confess to a slight measure of satisfaction on hearing the FDA is weighing (See? Measure, Weighing...Ahh, metaphorical congruity!) penalties on J & J (Johnson and Johnson). The manufacturer of Tylenol products has been found less than upfront about certain irregularities at its manufacturing plant. I remember so well trying to convince customers to save a lot simply by buying generic versions of the Tylenol brand products. The generics were often half the price for the same stuff. The vast majority of people, not having money to burn, bought the generics. But once in a while someone would come to the counter and insist on brand only, usually with a huff, saying in effect, I only buy the best! Well, I thought to myself, I remember that Tylenol poisoning thing going on (though no fault to the manufacturer) about thirty years ago. Didn't seem to hurt people's confidence in the brand. But now, given J & J's current display of quality abandonment, perhaps these people ...

The Public Option is coming... It's only a matter of time before the public option in healthcare comes back to the table. Why? Because the insurance company's shenanigans will eventually anger enough people that both Republicans and Democrats will see that it is to their advantage to have it implemented. The insurance industry has already begun to exploit the loop holes. People between the ages of 55 and 65 will see their premiums triple. Many will not be able to pay their premiums and will have to forgo insurance entirely and pay the penalty. If there was a public option they wouldn't have been able to get away with that (thanks Republicans!). Think pre-existing conditions went away with this new legislation which outlaws pre-existing conditions? Think again. According to the Huffington Post [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/31/insurance-industry-alread_n_519503.html], the companies are allowed "to charge as much as 50 percent more for people who engage in unheal...