Here's a link to the viedo of Bob, the guy with parkinson's who prompted this topic.He is reported to be a nuclear engineer with a doctorate from Cornell. It is very poignant video.



http://www.progressohio.org/page/com...veharding/CXYm

Steve,

I know what everyone is saying and why you feel that way. But whether you like what you see or not, look at how anxious and over-reacting people can be about these things. That's what the media looks for and then it seems to be fair game to blame the ridiculously ridiculed right for it all.

if you stick your hands in a lion's cage you are going to get bit.

I don't think those guys are right in what they did but i think stirring up hatred for an entire group of people is wrong too...just as wrong.
This isn't all directed at you Steve.

As my grandson's teacher says, "Save your drama for your mama". There's plenty of hate to go around and for what? It doesn't solve a thing.

in the words of Michael Jackson:

If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror

paula

so he is brilliant.

Well of course he is brilliant - he has pd; and i'll bet he can walk too. if he raises pd awareness then the tea party inadvertantly caused themselves to look bad and more people know about pd. so good comes out of something negative.....happens all the time.

madelyn i've heard you mention nationalized drug development.....i see why you would come to that point - i'm as frustrated as you are. but the more the government owns [ and here is a fear that could or could not be rational] the more another country could take over.

I truly believe we are going to have a financial collapse.
paula

Hi Paula, I too believe we are looking at very very difficult economic times. I wonder if the dollar will be our currency 10 yrs from now. And I think the extreme polarization that has gone on for the past 10 yrs will only intensify, leading to more behaviors like those exhibited at this rally. I truly do not know what is in the entire health care bill; I have yet to meet anyone who has read the whole thing. I do know leaving everything to the insanely rich and powerful industries, which they term "capitalism", until it does not advantage them, is not working for anyone but the stockholders and CEOs. Witness the bill preventing our government from negotiating drug prices for Medicare, the largest drug using sector in the world. Big Pharma cries "foul",, the sector is just too large which gives Medicare too much leverage in negotiating..
( http://www.ncpssm.org/pdf/price_negotiation_part_d.pdf
"The law that established Medicare Part D explicitly prohibits the prescription drug program from negotiating lower drug costs for beneficiaries. The major pharmaceutical companies adamantly defend this rule, contending that the higher prices are necessary to support the industry’s investment in research and development. However, a comparison of the prices paid by Part D with those paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other agencies shows that PartD could save billions of dollars through the use of additional negotiation techniques)
Last I recall, that's how capitalizm works. But in this instance, our representatives represented Big Pharma money, not their constituents.
The Industry will be given an increase in time of patents from 7 yrs to 12 1/2yrs. Thus generics which lower drug costs are kept off the market for even longer period than now. Oh, yes, Big Pharma is also allowed to patent genes and genetic material. How ludicrous.
In addition, it remains illegal to import drugs from other countries; this under the ruse of "protecting" our citizens. Please, we know the real reason; drugs are cheaper from other countries. Though the latest statistic I read stated there are 98,000 deaths/yr from medication errors/adverse events-more than all vehicle accidents, breast cancer and HIV (.http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/...tmarch2009.pdf)
It is the 4th largest cause of death in the US. So, inadvertantly, guess our govt is protecting us by not allowing more drugs to be imported--means less in the market to be used.
The stranglehold Big Pharma has over almost all scientific trials and medical education is unbelieveable. How could government running scientific research be any worse? Everything is about the bottom line. I trust little to nothing pharma publishes and know well their intention is only to make more money, not to help people in need.
Guess I fear and distrust Big Money more than I do Big Government. Besides, you probably do not know this, but I have such anger toward the pharmaceutical industry. i do not expect others to share the level of antipathy I feel toward them. I understand my representatives have allowed all these perks for big pharma. my government has not loooked out for my interests. Still, would rather deal with govt than big pharma any day.
Thus I stillthink the industry should be nationalized.

Would it be free of conflicts of interest? oh - just trying to picture where to begin is tricky! it's massive but so is health care.

Big pharma is never going to stop putting the squeeze on the world and the FDA has been ignoring regulations and laws for ever. I wonder if our current system of drug development even saves many people. i'd put money on the possibility that it has caused millions of deaths , including possibly my own when GDNF was halted.

so we have to watch them on tv,, kids have to watch sex ads in the afternoon, the jelly one [his and hers] is much more than anyone cares about i would like to find the clinical trial protocol and data about that stuff. wonder where the poster for that study was displayed. measured by.......ick! sorry not even funny.

well it's an interesting idea. maybe we need a presidential candidate who would take that on. it would take that to even begin wouldn't it?

paula

I have been following this thread with great interest and just want to share an incident i experienced. Last week while I was at the grocery store, there were two stands, one for girl scouts cookies and the other was for the Tea party group. We were buying cookies and overheard the conversation between the tea party guys and two asian women who wanted to know what this Tea party is all about..... Tea party guys explained and the two ladies left talking to each other in their native language, it was not clear if they followed what he said. As they were leaving, this guy shakes his head and mutters, stupid foreigners, cannot even speak English and live here.. ......

I looked at him about to respond to that muttering, controlled my anger and instead asked my daughter and the other girls, "may be you should teach him American History" and walked away

This is a minor incident compared to what happened in Columbus. It is a slice of life which most minorities face and experience from various fractions of the society, not just Tea party guys.... What troubles me these are not isolated cases but are world-wide occurrences with varying magnitude. Sometimes we notice these inhumane acts if it pertains to us, many times it is a story we read on yahoo or news item on TV and we even brush it off as a political propaganda. To me it seems like our tolerance for intolerance is increasing and that is the scary part. It might seem like I am making mountains out of moles.....Probably yes, but I am always looking at the global perspective....Laura, I understand your point and share your concerns and feelings.

Coming back to the story, I want to thank Bob for what did or rather didnt do and that sends a great message. Hope universal health insurance becomes a reality.

Girija




[

Has anyone thought the may may not have sat down voluntarily, that maybe he had reached the end of his tether? No one knows the motivations of any one else, but each of us is responsible for our behavior. The behavior of the men in the video is simply unacceptable. Period. Motivation is irrelevant.

We may not be able to control the way we think or feel but we always have control of our behavior.

http://www.progressohio.org/page/com...veharding/CXYm

I understand what you are saying, which is the second reason why I would not go to one of those protests

There is more hate in this coiuntry now, than there has ever been in my memory..I have been doing alot of reading and research about it..and some of those people at those protests, particularly the tea partyers, dont even have a clue as to why they are there

Must correct the statement re: negotiating pharmaceutical prices for medicare. seems there is a bipartisan group supporting change in the former bill to allow negotiation with big pharma. move in right direction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY59B...youtube_gdatau


though remember george carlin's assessment of "bipartisan": means we're being scammed BIG time.

Girija, I am saddened to hear of the ignorant bias expressed. I embrace the idea that we all descended from one Eve out of Africa. ( am reading Abraham Verghese's book "cutting for Stone" and love his description of the peoples of Ethiopia while the main characters are of Indian extraction. I have migrated from the primary topic of this posting, though recommend this book to appreciate other cultures,immigrarnts' experiences, and lots of medcine embedded in a sweeping epic type novel.)