wmw999

It may not have been as safe, but those of us who survived do have better stories... Wendy P.

No, I don't. It's the system we've backed our way into. And I mean everyone in the US -- there are millions of drug consumers for medical reasons; we're deep in a "there's a pill for it so I'll let that deal with it" culture. Everything is more complex than it used to be, but we like the results -- no one just casts a broken leg any more, it's surgically repaired. Better results, and faster -- most Americans are happy to let their insurance pay for faster and better. Do you propose simply doing away with pharma companies? They do most of the research, with the profit motive topmost in their minds. How'd we get there? Cutting taxes to the FDA (because, after all, the pharma companies were already doing that research, and it was getting expensive, especially with all the new drugs coming online. Improving medical care on the curing side, without investing similar amounts into the maintenance of health (after all, that's "personal responsibility," right?). That takes more drugs. Allowing the public advertising of drugs on TV and in periodicals, so people ask for them by name. In the cause of deregulation. Let's not forget the huge explosion in cancer treatment -- using drugs. And, of course, our reliance on antibiotics means that we keep needing new ones, because evolution means that organisms develop resistance to the old standby ones. It's where we are. We can't get anywhere from where we coulda-shoulda-woulda been, only from where we are right now. Which means that any Tom, Dick, and Harry (preferably either with insurance or money) can ask for any old drug that they've seen advertised for whatever they think ails them. And now we have the people who are taking Ozempic or whatever to lose weight. Weight loss is an issue -- the crappy food that we've also been sold for the last 60-70 years has been designed to addict, just as tobacco products, hydrocodone, and video games are. We've back ourselves into a reasonably fucked corner. And it's not going to be private enterprise or revolutions that are going to get us out. It's not going to be governments, either -- but at least governments can make legislation. They don't always get it right, but I'd trust a publicly-elected body more than most publicly-traded companies. Because the companies are after our money, and they don't really care how they get it. They have a continuity that goes beyond individuals, where elected governments, especially on the local level, are subject to faster recall. Wendy P.

Oh for God's sake. Do you really think that another way would be better? Maybe just letting the pharma companies do whatever they want to? FDA has been hamstrung by budget cuts like pretty much all agencies; they depend in large part on the documentation by the pharmacompanies. Do you have any better suggestions, or are you just trying to poke as many holes to gen up support for the "coming revolution?" Wendy P.

No it didn't. Pharma companies gave out free samples to entice people to request it once its expected approval happened. Only it wasn't approved. Wendy P.

So far so good, huh? Wendy P.

Not to mention that it was specifically blocked by the FDA, not just approved. Sounds like the FDA was doing its job. I'll bet there were a lot of pissed off people who wanted to take something that the big bad government wouldn't let them. Wendy P.

Why yes. Over 30 years after the problems caused by its (unapproved by the FDA) use in pregnancy. It was approved as a cancer drug. There are lots of cancer drugs that cause birth defects, and are strongly contraindicated in the case of pregnancy. Would you say all of their approvals are signs of the deep state? Of course, so it accutane contraindicated in pregnancy, and it's even used by women of childbearing age. With proper supervision. Wendy P.

The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA shots are fully approved by the FDA. Have been for about a year and a half. Wendy P.

Not trying to obscure entirely, because frankly a determined search can find almost anything. It's a public obituary, so I don't think I'm crossing any boundaries. Wendy P.

Sounds legit. Wendy P.

This is weird, but somehow seems appropriate. Here's the obituary of a local man. I took the names out because, while it's in the paper, they might really not want the kind of nationwide publicity that dz.com can bring them ;-P (the new dz.com smilies really suck, so it's back to old school emoticons) Yeah, he was a lifelong grocery store employee. But he was also a volunteer fireman, in a part of the country with lots of old wooden houses that do burn. He had normal-person hobbies (well, maybe the trains were a little old-school...) That's how you build a life. Piece by piece, and asking for people to pay it forward is wonderful, and why I've shared this. Skydiving is a piece of our lives for most of it; nurture the whole thing. Wendy P.

These are the same people who think that The Donald is well-characterized by their T-shirts likening him to the second coming; who think that it's better to hurt someone you disagree with than it is to improve your own lot, because perception is reality. Me, I moved to a place where I can buy local produce and meat much of the year, and support local businesses instead of big box stores. Where I can hike and bike from close to home, and where small towns DO try things. Like setting up community care departments, to offload mental health calls from the police. Like improving rather than defunding their libraries. Like buying hybrid vehicles for public departments. Like helping to fund public transit. Like having local newspapers. Like valuing education to the degree that nearly every kid in the state has access to a good vocational school (most with a waiting list) as well as a regular high school. And, yes, studying reparations. Life is good. Wendy P.

I didn't see that comment. And I've stood in the eye of two of them, but then I lived in Houston for 40+ years. Jerry and Ike. Jerry was a pussycat, but Ike was pretty nasty for lots of folks (we were OK). Been in a couple of others, and a number of pretty significant tropical depression that flooded Houston out in 1981 or so. Wedy P.

And if you don't know, it's OK to ask them. Wendy P.

That was a warning. Wendy P.

Don’t make it personal. Wendy P.

I have dual citizens in my family; I have a feeling their story reflects those of lots of others. US (as well as Canadian and most European and Japanese) citizenship has a certain cachet, in part because most people know that those countries will stand behind their citizens to some degree. They negotiate from a position of power and wealth. Anyone who travels would want that. The other citizenship eases repeated trips to the other country (or residence, which happens). And especially for people from places like Iran that they’ve had to abandon through no fault of their own, and who actually want to return there “when things change,” it’s a way of self-identifying as from there. I know Palestinians who are native-born US refugees who still consider themselves to be Palestinian. The Palestinian refugee in my family considers himself fully American — but not all of his 11 siblings do, and he no longer flies in the US if he can avoid it because he wasn’t treated like one after 9/11. There are Jews using their religion to get citizenship in Israel, as well as many Americans of European extraction using their family connections (Irish-born grandfather etc) to secure dual citizenship. It’s a global world; emigrating is not always a one-way trip forever, as it generally was even 100 years ago. People will use tools, and sometimes that tool will be used wrong, but we haven’t outlawed hammers because sometimes they’re used to murder Wendy P.

Things change with time. When I was a child abuse investigator in the 1970's, the stated rule was that children never lie about sexual abuse. Never. Think that still holds? Nope, it doesn't. Because publicity (i.e. 24 hour news, the internet, etc) makes everything a moving piece. Children are smart enough to use that as a weapon, whether for good or for evil. But assuming that parents are always right, and that children must therefore be lying if they accuse them of sexual abuse it at least as wrong. Same with gender transition in Sweden. They haven't stopped it completely, but are strictly limiting it because of soaring numbers. Think publicity. From an article in France24.com I realize that it's a little more nuanced, and not as easily drawn with crayons and sharpies, but that's more what the real world is like. Wendy P.

As long as someone else pays, and as long as you can feel smugly superior and always-right about it, you guys don't give a flying fuck what happens. Wendy P.

As someone who only fairly recently upsized (I’m a 68-year old woman — if I break, I won’t heal fast), I completely agree with most of the advantages of a smaller rig. Comfort in wearing isn’t huge, simply because you really don’t wear your rig that much outside of sitting in an airplane. And anyway, I still remember wearing converted military gear Wendy P.

Is that like people who make a point of identifying the race of someone who wronged them — as long as it’s some other race? Or always identifying criminals by ethnicity, as long as it’s not white? Because sometimes omitting that de-emphasizes it, which only highlights the seeming prevalence of other races in bad acts Wendy P.

Well, some with the help of whites. Some not. Just as some slave-state businesses and families succeeded only because of the help of blacks; the nanny’s who raised their children for them, the slaves who were the underpaid labor they built their empires on, etc Wendy P.

Some people’s idea of “freedom” is the lack of anyone to push back against their religious views. Doing things like, say, wearing swimsuits, understanding that the gender assigned at birth is wrong, showing that they are romantic with the same gender person, or figuring that “personhood” comes at a God-assigned, not a brain activity-assigned, moment. Wendy P.

It’s an existential threat to the way of life that huge numbers of people and other critters are used to. So just about everyone will have to change. And, like with everything else, poor people have to change more, and sooner, than rich people. And as long as those rich people die (preferably of old age) before making any changes, they’ve “won.” Wendy P.