We have all heard of lobbyists, both from “good” and “bad” organizations, companies and trade associations roaming through the halls of Congress and pretty much everywhere, trying to further their myriad economic, social and political agendas.

Those who still watch TV network news are very familiar with all kinds of erectile dysfunction drugs, arthritis, asthma, mental disorder, prostate, stomach, bladder, toe nail and other kinds of remedies offered by large pharmaceutical companies.

A lot of these drugs are found later to be downright deadly and pulled from the shelves, but until that time, they are perfectly able to bring billions to their manufacturers. After all, in most cases a huge part of the research leading to the development of many drugs is funded directly by government research grants and not really by the manufacturers, who have the gall of offering pills, costing them pennies for an often-exorbitant price. The Big Pharma excuses usually refer to “development costs”, indeed, those same costs, which you the taxpayer have already borne by paying for the research grants.

But lets not forget those expensive drug commercials during the network news, or multi-page ads in newspapers and magazines – those supremely annoying page-after-page ads, which contain warnings and disclaimers in fine print. Don’t be fooled for a minute that this information is meant as a “public service”. What it really amounts to is: “we warned you ahead of time, so if the drug damages your body, or kills you, you have been forewarned and shouldn’t sue us”.

This is not to say that all drugs are dangerous, or bad for you. There are some that actually help people, or cure them of all kinds of diseases. The lowly, inexpensive aspirin comes to mind, along with some antibiotics and some of the statin drugs (which should be used with care, in our opinion).

There is also no doubt that most drugs – at least those sold and pushed in the U.S. are way overpriced, others are way overused and others – at least according to Big Pharma-are actually underused.

That’s why you see so many of those drug ads and commercials and that is why that the big and even small pharmaceutical companies employ legions of sales representatives – not necessarily in the halls of Congress, but in physician’s offices, medical schools, publishing houses and everywhere their presence is deemed to be necessary for the financial well being of their companies.

How many of you have noticed the usually attractive, well-dressed women and men, towing roller cases through buildings housing “doctors’” offices? They seem to be ever-present. How about the reps bringing in catered lunches to the physician’s offices on a regular basis? Leaving tons of samples of their products, so the physicians can use them themselves, give them free of charge to their family members, or friends and to their patients?

Lets not be gullible and think that the samples and the lunches are given out of the goodness of the Big Pharma’s “hearts”. How about the exotic trips, golf vacations, dinners and gifts of all sorts?

Its is a nice, comfortable arrangement for many “doctors”, who in return for all of these favors often prescribe the drugs pushed by the reps, instead of treating their patients with the best (and often cheaper) of the available medicines.

At the same time, several university medical centers such as Yale have barred drug company sales reps from bringing free lunches to staff physicians. Yale might have been motivated to do so by the ‘C’ grade it received from the American Medical Student Association, a national group that rates how well medical schools monitor and control drug industry money.

We wonder if this trend will flourish and eventually bring about a ban throughout the medical industry. Frankly, we doubt it, as the whole shtick is much too comfy and profitable for all of the beneficiaries of such practices. This is corruption on a grand scale.

In the meantime, expect for the medical and drug expenses to continue climbing out of sight and to continue paying through the nose for health care, whether the Democrats manage to push the health care reform through, or not.

Technorati Tags: ads, Big Pharma, commercials, dinners, Drugs, free lunches, gifts, golf vacations, sales reps, Unethical Game

As most of you probably know by now, Democratic Representative from New York, Eric Massa, has resigned his post, which he has held only since 2009.

The official House of Representatives website of the former congressman resolves into one, where Office of the Clerk informs that:

“Office of the Twenty-Ninth Congressional District of New York
Formerly the Office of Representative Eric J. J. Massa

The Washington, D.C. office and the district of the Honorable Eric J. J. Massa will continue to serve the people of the Twenty-Ninth Congressional District of New York under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Representative Massa resigned on March 8, 2010. The vacancy became effective March 9, 2010.”

And what was the reason for the resignation? That’s all very unclear at this point.

The Atlantic’s Josh Green reports that Massa was “notorious for making unwanted advances toward subordinates” during his 20-year Naval career.

Massa, who is married and has four children, was never formally accused of inappropriate behavior. Asked by CNN’s Larry King if he is gay, he declined to answer the question and deemed it offensive.

The day before Massa told Fox News’ Glenn Beck that he had groped one of his staffers, though he said it had been non-sexual. He had previously said he told a male aide he should be “frakking” him while at a wedding.

Reports surfaced earlier in the day that Massa had been under investigation for allegedly groping multiple male staffers and behaving inappropriately with interns.

Eric Massa announced his resignation last week after it came to light that the House ethics committee was investigating him on sexual harassment charges. Massa said he had been pushed out because of his opposition to the health care reform bill, a charge the White House and top Democrats deemed ridiculous.

Massa has cited his battle with cancer as the primary reason he is leaving office.

As the Ides of March approach, we might all reflect on the age-old question: To grope, or not to grope?

Technorati Tags: cancer, congress, democrats, Eric Massa, groping, health care bill, resignation

We offer you another excellent view on the Republican approach to health care by Washington Post’s Tom Toles.

Technorati Tags: Republican 'Health Care'

Republicans and Democrats attending the a Bipartisan Meeting on Health Reform meeting at the Blair House across from the White House have very different definitions of the event.

President Obama urged lawmakers on both sides to focus on areas of agreement. An email from the so-called GOP Action Team in turn says in part: “After pledging to listen to Republican ideas at this Thursday’s photo op- er, “bipartisan health care summit,” President Obama has decided to stick with the Senate Democrats’ health care legislation, a bill that Americans have already rejected as a massive restructuring of our economy that is a short walk down the road to government run health care. He’s rejected alternative methods of tackling our health insurance crisis before hearing them. He’s betrayed the American people’s trust.”

Republicans and Democrats admit that they remain far apart on key provisions advocated by each side. There were also major unresolved divisions within the Democratic Party itself, whose leaders were looking beyond a meeting they expected to amount to little more than political theater and focusing on a final round of negotiations within the party.

The White House said discussions at the meeting would revolve around four main themes: controlling costs, reforming insurance coverage, reducing the federal deficit and expanding coverage.

Senator Lamar Alexander, speaking for the Republican side, said, “We want you to succeed, because if you succeed, our country succeeds.” But Alexander also said Republicans want to “change the direction” that Obama is pursuing, get rid of the bills already passed by the House and Senate and aim for less ambitious reforms.

Obama has said that his latest proposal, aimed at salvaging the stalled health-care legislation, would cover 31 million Americans who currently lack insurance and would cost about $950 billion over 10 years. It would require people to buy health-care insurance and would penalize large employers who do not offer it.

Republicans reject mandating the purchase of insurance and have advanced an alternative that would cover 3 million people at a cost of $61 billion.

What will the meeting actually achieve is anybody’s guess.

In the meantime, our health care and health insurance system needs reforming quite urgently. Are the GOPistas and the tea baggers listening?!

Technorati Tags: democrats, Health, obama, republicans, summit, white house

The picture of the unhappy-looking individual on the right shows of course the world’s number one golfer Tiger Woods.

Woods talked for more than 13 minutes Friday from the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass, home of the PGA Tour. About 40 people were in the room, including his mother. The event was tightly controlled, with only a few journalists allowed to watch Tiger live.

He said: “I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did was not acceptable,” said Woods, looking composed and speaking in a steady voice. His wife, Elin, was not present in the room.

Tiger Woods also informed the public that he has undergone therapy for 45 days and that he will return for some more.

This is, as far as we are concerned the gist of the issue. Officially, the therapy was for so-called “sexual addiction”. The way we look at this is that if Tiger needed therapy for sex addition, the same kind of therapy should probably be administered to almost every man on the planet and some women as well.

What in the heck is “sex addiction”? Isn’t that the natural sexual drive which most of us have? It is also patently obvious that it is easier to enjoy this so-called affliction if one is famous, rich and successful. Not that we are being too permissive here, but that is simple, unadorned reality.

What is also pretty obvious is that Tiger’s wife Elin is pretty hot indeed, probably much hotter that any of his casual squeezes.

Yes, newness, excitement and all that do play an important role in sexual attraction, but since most of our sexual feelings appear to be centered in our brains, rather than crotches, we firmly believe that the therapy needed here would be one that would help enhance the subject’s thinking ability, rather than something called a “sexual addiction”.

There is a saying out there that:  “there is no cure for stupidity”. There is also probably no viable cure for what our social rule makers and the mental health industry label as “sexual addiction”.

Technorati Tags: apology, Cheating, golf, sexual addiction, therapy, tiger woods