Anti-Lunesta: The first drug to disrupt restful sleep!

Have you noticed the loneliness at the office lunchroom, bathroom, copier and water cooler?

Everyone else talking about their sleep disorders and the miracle pills they are taking to "cure" themselves, while you, one of the last Americans not to be diagnosed by the T.V. ads as having severe, horrific, potentially lethal sleep distrubances, are left out of the (overly) medicated social circle.

It simply isn't right!

That is why we, Sleep Psychiatry Pharmaceuticals (a non-profit, philanthropy arm of the makers of LUNESTA), have done research into the Social Isolation Syndrome in those with Normal Sleep Patterns (SIS-NSP). Our initial studies (unpublished) reveal that the 3% of Americans who are not on prescription strength sleep aids are becoming the hidden epidemic of the 21st century. These citizens face increasing social isolation due to the fact that they are left out of the conversations that their co-workers, friends, family, plumbers, and bookies are having over their various sleep maladies (again, as diagnosed by the "educational" ads on t.v.)

SIS-NSP is no joke, and that is where we decided to step in and help - ANTI LUNESTA is a drug we have recently formulated (through cheap overseas labor by a high school chemistry class in New Delhi) to solve this problem. This drug takes someone with normal sleep, and using powerful components (arsenic, Cheese Whiz) completely distrupts the hormonal patterns that lead to this condition of "restful sleep."

And the result?

Just ask Juan, a non-documented immigrant who was enrolled in a trial of ANTI-LUNESTA on the condition that he would not be deported (perfectly legal in Texas and other border countries to the U.S.A.)

"Well man, after I took one of them pills, I could not sleep for nothing. I mean I thought the torture at the hands of the immigration officials was bad, but the inability to sleep was far worse. However, immediately, I became popular in the detention center's main gang, Las Insomnias, and could finally relate to what it was like to have sleep problems. I immediately had one of my hombres smuggle me some real LUNESTA across the border from Mexico, since it was about 1/8 of the American cost for the drug. This miraculaously restored my sleep, though I must take 3 other medicines to control the side effects from these medicines. Thanks ANTI-LUNESTA! If I ever get out of here, I want to begin a non-profit to help folks just like me join the crowd of the worried well, the over-medicated masses"
{translated word for word by one of our company's "translators")

Don't suffer from SIS-NSP any longer. Go grab you a bottle of ANTI-LUNESTA and join the crowd today! And remember, once you do, go grab some of the LUNESTA that everyone else
is taking and find your way into social circles you only imagined of being a part until now!

WARNINGS: Combining ANTI-LUNESTA with any other sleep aid other than LUNESTA has been shown to cause death in 1 - 64% of patients (unpublished data from Guantanamo). Also, buying medications from across the border to restore restful sleep may result in side effects of reduced out-of-pocket expenses and decreased rates of personal bankruptcy, so we would strongly advise buying it at prohibitively high costs right here in the good ole' U-S-of-A.

World AIDS Day: An opprtunity for physicians to shout "YES" for access to medicines, "NO" for access to our integrity

On World AIDS Day this year, we commemorate another embarrassing 365 days in which millions of persons with HIV/AIDS around the globe continue to lack access to the effective, life-saving medicines to treat their fatal disease. Not because the world can't afford it, and definitely not because the pharmaceutical companies are going bankrupt.

In fact, these companies continue to spend $15,000 to advertise to each practicing physicianin the U.S. in order to alter their prescribing behavior, toward more expensive, "me-too" medicines; this same amount of money could provide 50-150 AIDS patients a year's worth of drugs that could keep them alive. And despite the pharmaceutical industry's propaganda that they cannot afford to sell such medicines at affordable prices in thedeveloping world, consider this: over the past three decades, no U.S. industry has come close to achieving the profit margins of the makers of prescription drugs. Furthermore, only 11% of total sales for this industry come from the developing world, arguing against the sound bytes by PhRMA, the industry's lobbying group, that they would go broke in order to provide such treatments.

Recently, in a highly publicized case, Abbott Pharmaceuticalsdid the unthinkable and decided to take its drugs off the market in Thailand when the country made the decision to not honor the company's patent on an HIV/AIDS drug due to the medicine'sprhibitively high cost. But how does this connect to the free lunches and gifts given to doctors?

Daniel Carlat's recent NYT expose (Dr. Drug Rep, Nov. 25th 2007), an article in which he elaborates on the ways in which drug companies buy doctors who then pitch the company's products to their colleague physicians brings up many ethical and cost issues, but is there a connectionbetween this practice and the larger inequities we see in the access to essential, life-sustaining medicines globally?Yes, and it is quite simple - when doctors eat (literally) out of the hands of these pharmaceutical companies here at home, they are numbed into complacent non-action regarding the policies of these same companies abroad. Physicans and physicians-in-training must muster the moral and ethical willpower to shout, "YES" to access to medicines, "NO" to access to my integrity.

Physicians must tell these companies, who claim to be so fond of gift-giving, that we want to see HIV/AIDS patients served with life-saving medicines at affordable costs instead of having lavish lunches served in our clinics and hospitals. Until we can do this, wiping our chins and conscience from the bribes of the drug companies, we will not see physicians stand up to demand access to medicines for the world's most vulnerable.

Rationing worked at the Thanksgiving Day table...let's try it for healthcare!

So, the big moment for me had finally arrived - mom's Thanksgiving Day stuffing was about to arrive from the kitchen. Now, ordinarily, I am a fan of moderation, trying to practice what I preach to patients.

But Turkey Day stuffing is an exception! This is one place where I will take 5-6 USDA serving sizes, and that is per helping...three of four helpings into it, some hormonal/biologic/genetic/astrologic response (which is way to complicated to explain on this blog) tells me that it is time to slow down.

So, imagine my horror when I heard mommy's dreadful words as the stuffing arrived this year:

"We only have a small amount of stuffing this year, so I will be handing it out to each of you monsters...I mean children...in equal, modest portions."

My heart dropped. Like the 32 year-old Beverly Hills stay-at-home mother of two (a cat and a parakeet) who NEEDS her weekly full-body MRI, I equally NEED my 20+ servings of mom's stuffing.

And like her, I was willing to pay for it!

"Mom, I'll give you my gas and electric bill, my phone bill, and my college loans to buy the whole pot from you," I shouted in the good ole' Thanksgiving spirit.

But she was not having it - see, she thought that in some weird kind of logic that (1) my cries for stuffing were really not as important to the common good as was her ability to equally divide the crumbly, breaded, addictive mixture, and (2) somehow, this amount of stuffing was not even in my own best interest, since the scientific measurement of the human stomach is only 10-12 servings of stuffing.

So, I guess what I am trying to say is that universal health care, rationed out on the basis of where healthcare is needed, is a much more sane way to do healthcare than the current order in which you get how much you can pay for, which is still rationing, but in an irrational way (unless you believe that health and healthcare is not a human right, but is something that should be reserved for those with money...in which case, you may need some stuffing yourself)

Was my brothers' desire for stuffing any less important than mine?
Did I really NEED what I claimed to NEED?
And who would have gone without if I had indeed gotten my way, and taken it all for myself?

Yes, there was personal sacrifice at the dinner table this Thanksgiving for me, but you know what, I already gave up a lot of my rights for the good of the people around me (e.g. not being able to drive as fast as I want on the roads, not being able to park near a fire hydrant, and leaving the toilet seat up when I am finished), and for something as important as healthcare, I would hope I could do the same.

In thanks,
Anthony

Running and racing...in a different way

As I watched them, one-by-one, come over the last hill of the 13.1 mile course, I felt a sense of joy.

Maybe it was the memory of a few months earlier, when we turned a lot of folks who were doubtful of their ability to run such a distance, into a group who was willing to trust my confidence in them, and work toward this goal together

Maybe it was feeling the sense of accomplishment each of them was feeling as they looked to the last 800 meters of the course

And, probably, it had a lot to do with the smiles on their faces.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Running with this team is a special thing. On a campus where varsity athletics are seen as the epitome of sport, the UNC Club team brings a more holistic approach to athletics.

They volunteer together and raise funds for local families in need.
They use the team to promote and advertise their individual service projects, mobilizing the entire team to work for causes such as Nourish International and the Ronald McDonald House.
They work hard together, and do so as a supportive family.
They set goals - both individual and collective - to challenge themselves, knowing that the discipline and work ethic involved will help make them successful in ways far beyond running.
They run with appreciation, understanding the privilege it is to be able to dance upon Mother Earth
Maybe most importantly, they don't take their running, or themselves, too seriously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On days when I am troubled by the lack of justice and equity in this world (see all previous posts on this blog), this group is a healing tonic for me, not just a running team.

I hope they realize how unique and special they are!

We can fight a war...but no plastic bags

I am entering the security at Chicago's O'Hare airport, and they find a small toothpaste that was in the bottom of my bag, not in a plastic bag (they use the word "zip lock", but I refuse to, on the basis that this is a brand name, and I want there to be parity in the plastic bag market)

"Uh, do you all have a plastic bag I could use?"

"No, we do not carry bags anymore."

"So, we can fight a war for oil....uh, I mean freedom...but cannot afford plastic bags?"

Silence.

Maybe I was upset that I was missing the large peace demonstration in Chicago, or maybe I was simply taking out my frustration over the impending police state in which we live.

Either way, it would make an interesting ballot question on election day.

"Would you rather
(1) have your taxes go to sending the young men of this country to go kill young men, women, and children of another country, in order to secure the ever-expanding empires of the oil tycoons. or
(2) have your taxes go to providing plastic bags at the scurity lines of the airport, in case you commit the ungodly sin of forgetting to put all liquids in a bag beforehand?

But don't hold your breathe looking for this one when you pull the curtain behind you and prepare to vote!

SCHIP: A sad comment on our leaders’ conscience and lack thereof


It is indeed a sad day when the profits of tobacco companies are deemed more important than the health of our nation’s children.

Overstated?

Not really.

Two weeks ago the President refused to okay a Congress-approved expansion of SCHIP, and in doing so, made a statement about the value he places on the health of our nation’s most vulnerable children. Unfortunately, when Congress was given the chance to correct his "slip of the pen," they also failed to muster the ethical resolve to vote "yes" for children's health.

Interesting, coming from leaders whose presidential/congressional families benefit from the finest socialized healthcare that money can buy, funded by our tax dollars.

Also interesting coming from a person like Bush who will fight to the end for fetus’ right to be born, yet will show crass indifference to these same children once they are born.

A Congressional office I spoke with was even more blatant, telling me that the tobacco interests in their district were simply too important for them to vote for SCHIP expansion. In fact, they told me "Whatever you may think of the tobacco companies, we deem them important constituencies." As a physician in training, I told them that I had no choice but to see the tobacco companies as producers of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), and that, no, I didn't see their point that tobacco profits should trump children's right to health.

You would think that maybe, just out of guilt that we are already sending our children to fight a pawns in a war for oil, that we would do the right thing when it comes to the children here at home.

My friends, please do not lose faith - yes, our leaders have failed millions of children on this one.

But no, they do not have the final word, not when it comes to the babies of our nation. If they won't put children first, then in the name of mighty Homeland Security, I call on us to secure a place for children's health in our states, in our coutnties, and in our commmunities.

Oh lost sailor, we hail your "discovery"

A day to celebrate....
what?

That an Italian outcast, lost at sea, finally found a piece of land?

That after thousands of years of being inhabitated by "pre-historic" peoples, it now miraculously entered into being a bonafide, recognized part of the earth's land mass since a European's feet had touched its soil?

The inception of civilizing and christianizing the savages of the New World?

I am not sure what to feel on this day, but I know that it isn't an incredible admiration for a sailor lost at sea, somewhere in the order of 5,000 miles off course from his destination of India.

And I do question what exactly he "discovered" that makes us want to celebrate.

I have to think of our astronauts here...we land on the seemingly lifeless moon, but we don't claim Armstrong and company to have "discovered" the moon. So why do we put this honor upon a guy who comes upon a land filled with cultures, civilizations, and history far deeper than the European lands from which he was banished.

We must realize the powerful ways that language suggesting that the C-guy "discovered" this land dismisses all peoples native to this land before his arrival...it is the same language that allowed droves of Europeans to follow the path to Turtle Island, feeling that this was their land to own and conquer, regardless of how many sub-human Natives they had to massacre, and regardless of how many sub-human Africans they forced to toil in chains to make America the Beautiful

Be careful of how flippantly we treat a day like today, and consider celebrating the many cultures and peoples who truly have claim to being "discoverers" of this land the next time the second Monday in October rolls around.

Believe it or not, more proof that relgions can get along!

{Paraphrased from event at UNC Chapel Hill, called “Iftaar in the Sukkah,” an event to explore the holidays of Sukkot and Ramadan, held at sundown to coincide with the breaking of the fast for Muslims present, and at the Sukkah on campus, to allow the Jewish community to perform blessings of the holiday of Sukkot. Event was sponsored by UNC Hillel, the UNC Muslim Students Association, and the UNC Interfaith Alliance. Of note, a quarter of the 100 students in attendance were neither Jewish nor Muslim.}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the holiest days of the Muslim and Jewish calendars coincide this September, I reflect on the dual sins we are all guilty off – being scared and staying silent. The first has to do with the opportunities we miss to join hands with our sister faiths, as we cower and worry about entering into another faith’s domain. The second, staying silent, has more to do with the times when hatred and bigotry stares us in the face, and yet we remain speechless since it is directed at someone else.

We offer now, our collective prayer…

Why are we scared to join in worship of One Higher,
And then silent when demagogues try to divide us?


Why are we scared to use the beautiful language of The One Greater, used by our sister faith,
And then silent when leaders corrupt this same language of the Holy Books to
make it seem as if we are sworn enemies?


Why are we scared to see the many things that so unite us, especially in this time of fasting and repentance,
And then silent when one more event – a car bomb here, a civilian casualty
there - is blasted upon our collective conscience by religious and secular media as
further evidence of the hatred we are to have for one another?


Why are we scared to see that our smallness and His Greatness binds us as brothers and sisters through divine lineage,
And then silent when a friend or sermon claims that His Mercy and Favor is but
for a chosen few?


Brothers and sisters,
We cannot be scared
nor
silent
any longer,
allowing hatred to linger,
serving as fatal spiritual stinger (to our heart)


Instead, let us replace fear of our sister faiths with fear of Allah, Adonai, The Creator, The Sustainer of us all.


Let us replace silence with a loud heart, voice, and lives that speak to our common smallness and His Universal Greatness.




Let us close this collective poem and prayer by closing our eyes, bowing our heads, and seeking You in our hearts, being neither scared nor silent in chanting the holy words of us all:
Baruch atah Adonai, elohheinu melech ha’olam
(We praise You, Eternal God, Sovereign of the Universe)

Bismillah irrahman irrahim
(In the name of God/Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful)

Shalom
(Peace)

Salaam
(Peace)

Amen
(Let it be so!)

Amin
(Let it be so!)

Jews and Muslims united this day through fasting

A day of spiritual solace, amidst a world polarized by the very Holy Books whose capacity is to unite mankind.

A day where both Jews and Muslims turn to the east, praying prayers pleading for forgiveness, purging themselves from all things "lower" in favor of all things "higher"

I am beautifully aware this day, as a practicing muslim in a family with Jewish/Catholic/Navajo religions, how united we are when we turn upward, as we do this day in the simple act of fasting.

No news stories will cover the symbolism and similarity of the faiths on this day, as it makes for nothing more to most than a sappy news story. (Though I am sure the next clash between Israel and Palestine will be blasted on front pages everywhere, including in the muslim and jewish worlds, where it will immediately be a symbol of the hatred that God wants us to have for each other)

I pray that we will simply recognize moments like these, not only when our faiths coincide by the calendar, but when we see other crying for help to One Higher...when we see others looking for guidance from above, when we see others in pain, or in need of help.

Break us free,
O Lord,
Adonai,
Allah,
Jehovah,
Om,
Creator,
Knower of all things,
Sustainer of life,
Most merciful
GOD
from all that leads us to see you, your names, and your attributes,
as disperate,
divided,
instead of One with Love bountiless,
With mercy restricted to no one
And restorative power for all.

only from this vision of One,
will healing for the world be won.

Undercover story - Big Pharmaceutical Interests Have Invaded The Diner!

Notes from the trail:
8:16am, Sunday Sept. 2nd, at a good ole' American-style diner.

To fit in with the locals and avoid detection, I ordered the biggest breakfast plate on the menu, and proceded to finish every last bite (again, only because I was intent on avoiding detection).

After carefully studying the accents of the bikers at the table next to me, I calmly asked for the check in a cool, southern drawl.

"Honey, ya' reckon ya' might could get me the check so I can go out to da' tobacco field."

And when I saw that she wasn't buying it, I smoothly added in a nice loud,

"I'm fixin."

A few minutes of awkward stares from the nearby tables, and a few packets of those jam containers later, and the waittress was back with the check.

I thought everything was on the up and up, and then out of nowhere, in a slick move of deft and cunning diversion, she handed me a drug company pen, with which I was supposed to sign the check.

{As this is a PG-13 blog, I will not be explicit and tell you the words written on this pen, but suffice it to say that this was a company that puts a precedence on astronomical profit margins at the expense of those that can and can't afford it.}

{Which means it could be just about any drug company or health insurance company out there.}

"Ma'am, where did you get this pen?" I sputtered, wiping the jelly from my nose and cheeks.

Of course, she played dumb, and insisted that she didn't know who gave her the pen or where it came from.

"Let me see if this jogs your memory," I said gruffly, showing that I meant business, and producing pictures from my pocket of prototype pharmaceutical representatives :

ex-cheerleaders in skimpy skirts with bags of erectile dysfunction drugs and assorted goodies in their hand,

ex-Chippendale performers in skin tight shirts with bags of estrogen-amplifying drugs and assorted paraphenalia,

ex-Catholic nuns in skin tight "nun outfits" sporting fanny packs with "free" samples of birth control pills,

ex-convicts in body armor toting cages of paranoia medications, and

45 year-old ex-prostitutes in Victorian dress wielding baby carriages full of "educational" information on MLCS (Mid-Life Crisis Sydrome).

At this the waitress became weak, knowing that I was on to her. Embarrassed, she quickly tried to regain her compsure, and even attempted to change the subject by pointing out that I still had jelly on my face.

But her little game was no match for a seasoned PharmFree professional - I quickly whipped out the PharmFree stickers I had in my pocket and proceded to "liberate" her sinister writing tool, covering the drug company's name on her pen with a nifty "PharmFree-Liberated" sticker (see http://www.pharmfree.org/) just as she whistled for reinforcements, and the large, Men-in-Black, secret-service looking pharmaceutical executives, numbering at least 50-60, came at me from all directions, yelling,

"Get him before he makes a dent into our profits...we need to eat too, you know!"

{A quote which, incidentally, did not make for a very dramatic, movie-quality entrance}

They got closer, and I could hear the chairs and tables being toppled as the for-profit army approached.

Babies went flying, elderly women's canes turned into snakes, and that darn waitress was yelling at the top of her lungs,

"But, but... he's still got jelly on his face!"

Then, all went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Morals of the story:
1) Choose your diners carefully
2) Never let your guard down when it comes to assuming that the drug companies and their disease-synthesizing propoganda have not yet staked a claim in "place X" or "business Y" - THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!
3) Be careful when consuming those free packets of jelly.


God bless,
Anthony
http://www.pharmfree.org/

Let's talk about love...and our fear of it!

In my work with a beautiful program, the Native Health Initiative (www.unc.edu/~flega) over the last 3 years, I have constantly seen love in action...the Indigenous communities of Turtle Island are in touch with the power of love, and will share it willingly to those who approach respectfully.

However, it is interesting to see how uncomfortable people are with our mission to address inequities in health through loving service...they cannot see how injustices in health could possibly be linked to a foundation of love.

A recent article about NHI, thorough in its coverage of the partnerships and projects of our work, left a big, gaping hole...there was no mention of the LOVE foundation to our work. It is only the reason for doing the work, the funding source, the guiding tool, etc....nothing important right?

I wonder,

Was it thought that readers of this article would not have understood loving service?

Would they have had a problem putting together the reality that Indigenous citizens and communities live sicker and die younger, a result of the lack of love in our society, with a program that is funded by, driven by, and carried out through love?

Maybe it would have threatened the crdibility of the program, and therefore the article itself, to talk about love?

It is one of the symptoms of our highly technological, mechanistic world that we cringe and assume the fetal position when talking about love in such an open sense. The hug we would have received in the past is now a smiley face at the end of an email, text message, or IM post.

Maybe a bigger issue, though, is the way that our world has fallen into a fear-driven mentality, requiring love to take a back seat.

Look at the Bush aristocracy (uh...I mean, U.S. foreign policy) and how we deal with nations as enemies (e.g. they won't give us unlimited power over their oil so that we can ride around in our SUVs), inspiring fear that terrorists are out to get America unless we get them first. We use military might to try to force peace, ignoring the love-based strategy of promoting educational and economic systems that will promote a sustaining peace...and in doing so, we only escalate the hunger of all parties involved to devour and destroy the other.

But it is not only a problem of fear at this level. Look at our lives and communities. Is it love or fear that has allowed us to build a society that says (by its actions) that the expression of melanin in the epidermis is the best lie on which to base our society, our lives, and our communities? We live in a society in which de facto housing segregation has produced communities that rival apartheid South Africa's! We fear going into each other's communities, places of worship, schools, groceries, etc.

We must tug at our hearts to release us from the bondage and lies of fear, along with the heart-numbing existence that is our addiction to technology...

We must open our hearts to see a world in which "us and them" replaces "us vs. them".

We must begin to talk and walk in love, building our lives, our communities, and our fragile planet on this foundation.

I know that we are capable of it, and I know that we can each do something today to begin the heart revolution...

In love,
Because of love,
And through love,
I sign off for now!

Need a disease...uh, I mean a drug? Try Koma-tos!

Do you ever get that "too scared to talk" feeling when faced with imminent danger?

Does your stomach ever growl after a meal?

Are you ever happy?

Are you ever sad?

Are ever happy and sad, and a little angry - all at the same time?


If yes to any of the above, it is time for a new pill, made just for people like you by the EPFU (Enormous Profits For Us) Pharmaceuticals. This pill, called "Koma-tos" will put you out of your misery, for good. Koma-tos contains mild* amounts of narcotics and benzos, with a bit of sleeping medicine mixed in.

(*The use of the word "mild" is used according to the U.S. Vetinary Association's guidelines for horse tranquilizers)

Why haven't you heard of this drug before? Well, between you and me, it is probably because your doctor does not care about you, and probably wants to see you suffer!

Which might make you think, "Gee, maybe I will just order them from Canada, where I can bypass my doctor and get them cheaper." To which we would politely say, "Are you sure you trust some Communist leaning folks, people who believe in universal healthcare and the s*** m**** phrase (socialized medicine) to count your pills. I didn't think so!

What we suggest you do is to ask your doctor for Koma-tos by name, and if your doctor happens to be "latino-friendly", make sure that he does not confuse this with a cough medicine (as "tos" means cough in spanish). If he refuses, and gives you some line about "happiness not being a disease", make sure you contact our friend, Sue Forlots, a lawyer with expertise in handling such malpractice cases!

Side effects? We knew you would ask - but let's think for a second before worrying about side effects...do you really want to risk being happy any longer? Does it even matter what the side effects are when the sickness is so severe? Exactly!

But so the FDA is satisfied, here they are:
death, shock, coma, dizziness, happiness, sadness, fullness, embarrassment, poverty, etc.

Note: most (94%) users of Koma-tos are too sedated to give an accurate account of the side effects they are experiencing



So, from your friends at EPFU, where we "care about America, and care for America,"
Be well, be in health, be tranquil (and barely conscious) with Koma-tos.

In so doing, you can say "goodbye" to all of those pesky human experiences and emotions that have plagued you for so many years!

Love in the midst of greed

Having now viewed SiCKO, I am tempted to throw up my hands in disgust, and throw in the towel in defeat.

However, the love I felt for each of the victims in that movie, and the love I feel for the millions more that they represent, gives me no option but to press on in the face of greed and utter disrespect for fellow humans.

Let me say this - our notion that we need to simply insure the un-insured needs to be examined and re-examined, and then examined some more.

Do we mean to say that these folks are the "problem" with our health system, and therefore should be the target of our proposed solution?

Do we mean to say that these "poor, un-responsible folks who don't value their health and therefore choose not to have health insurance" are the ones to be fixed?

It sounds silly, but think about the logic - you fix what it broken, and attack what is the source of the problem.

I hear no one positing that maybe what we need to voting on in 2008 is a more genuine plan of fixing the larger system that creates, as one of many symptoms of its disease, the millions who are uninsured and underinsured.

That system, my friends, is called "unchecked profit motives running a health care system"

The medical analogy for this is a blood infection, also known as sepsis. Now, this life threatening condition has many symptoms, such as high fever. A very junior medical student might think that Tylenol would be arrented to attack the symptom of fever, but we all know that this is a ridiculous way to treat sepsis, one which will only worsen the problem.

In our current "progressive", "liberated" debate on healthcare, pushed as a way to appeal to voters, and appease the Big Business interests funding the campaigns, we are throwing Tylenol at a life threatening condition, treating the symptom of fever instead of focusing on the cause of the fever, the "microbes" of the for-profit machine (Insurance and Drug companies to name a few of the biggest perpetrators)....under we get serious about treating the disease, and not a symptom of the disease, we are only postponing the continued demise of treating humans as humans and health as a human right.

In love,
Anthony

Justice issue for the day: the for-profit industry of healthcare

As SICKO prepares to open in a few days, I am more and more convinced that our current healthcare system is truly sick, over-run with profit motives that are like aggressive cancers, waiting to eat us alive.



And like any sickness, especially one of this magnitude, we cannot simply put band-aid treatments on the gushing, frothing wounds. We cannot treat the symptoms - such as proposing to "politely" and gradually extend coverage to more Americans - and think we are creating change or curing the problem.



Uninsured patients are one symptom of the larger problem, and we must not assume that "all we need is universal coverage" and all will be well. This sort of logic assumes that the problem is the uninsured folks themselves, since that is the only thing being addressed in this schema. What we need is to ask, Why?



Why, in the richest country in the world, do a good 50 million or so, go without proper heatlh coverage?


Why, in the country that spends far more than any other nation per-capita on health, do we have embarrasingly poor health outcomes, especially for the marginalized of our society?



The answer, and therefore the solution, does not rest with the victims of this system!



Therefore, a justice-oriented approach leads me to see that removing the for-profit machine that runs our system, including not only the industries (pharmaceutical, insurance, biotech, device manufacturers), but also the workforce (physicians, administrators) is the only medicine worth taking!

Other solutions, watered down to appeal to potential voters, afraid of addressing the 800 pound Gorilla, and instead focusing on the bananas we are feeding him, simply will not do.



In love,

Anthony

Learning how to blog - metaphysics, biomechanics, etc

Feeling like the nervous kid who is pushed onto the stage by his teacher, forced to stare into the blinding lights of the auditorium, and not quite sure what to say to the world, I begin my blogging life.

Uhhh....uhhhh....hel....hello? Is this mic on? Can you all hear me?

I am looking forward to sharing my heartfelt thoughts on love, and its ability to transform the world.

I am also excited to reveal fear and the other motives that seem to over-ride love in our world today.

I am excited to talk about my work in the work of JUSTICE, which has taken many forms.

I am excited to be honest about myself, my white priveledge, and the racism of our society.

I am excited to make some folks laugh in the midst of it all!

In love,
As there is no other way to be,
I bid you farewell for now.