Ghost Writers and Drug Companies

I was recently searching for information on hiring ghost writers and on accident I came across this article. The information in this article may be old news to some of you, but I was not aware of this. Apparently drug companies pay ghost writers to write articles about their drugs, and then they find doctors to put their name on the articles. The doctor gets paid for allowing the drug company to use their name as the author of the ghost written article.

Allegedly, many of the drug companies persuade the ghost writers to write favorable reviews of their drugs. That seems to make perfectly good marketing sense. It is however UNETHICAL!

This news doesn't surprise me considering how many doctors I go to that try to push medicines on me that have horrendous side effects, where the side effects far outweigh the benefits.

I remember how our (former) pediatrician once spent a lot of time convincing us to give our second child (Adam) the "roto virus" vaccine. We weren't sure about getting it, but she convinced us (wore us down). Two weeks later they recalled the vaccine because of the potential horrendous side effects (kids having to have surgery to fix their stomachs). That's when we became very leary of vaccines in general.

If I were President there would be some big changes to the medical industry (guess I won't be getting their vote). Since no drug company would be lining my pockets with money I could certainly try to make big changes. I would just need to find 435 people to run for Congress who weren't getting money from the medical industry. Then we could make some real changes to the medical industry.

Do you remember the story in the news not so long ago, where an Arizona police department was training a monkey to be spy? Instead of training monkeys to be spies I would train monkeys to be Congressmen! Then the monkeys could help me make big changes to our government, because they wouldn't have any ties to lobbyist. Another side benefit is that I would reduce the government's budget, because we could pay Congress with bananas. Just a thought...

Texas is better than NY

I talked briefly yesterday about this story and I decided that I had to talk about it a LITTLE bit more.

For those who haven't read the article, New York is considering tracking all diabetics to make sure they go to the doctor, etc. Talk about invasion of privacy!

They claim they are doing this to try and save the State money. Please! I mean how much money is it going to cost to track that many people? Now, it might increase the number of government jobs and cut down a little on unemployment. But how does that save taxpayers money?

If tracking people to make sure they aren't going to be a burden on the finances of the State is the real issue, then they should track EVERYBODY.

Have you seen the movie "SuperSize Me"? Anyone could eat badly and cause all kinds of problems to their body that would potentially cost taxpayers money. Smokers, alcohol drinkers, coffee drinkers, those who are overweight, those who don't exercise, those who over exercise, people with other diseases, etc, all should be tracked.

Diabetes isn't even the leading cause of death in this country. Heart attacks are the greatest killer in the United States! More people die of heart attacks than of gun shots, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, car accidents, etc. Shouldn't we track those who have heart problems and/or high blood pressure?

One thing, I am certain of is that there can't possibly be any lobbyist behind this potential new law in NY. I mean all the big drug companies wouldn't have ANYTHING to gain from diabetics taking their medicine, would they?

If I was running for President I would not take campaign money from anyone. I would not want to owe anyone (the drug companies, the lawyers, the food industry, doctors, ...) anything. I would want to do what I thought was right, not what someone paid me to do. If this potential new law in NY isn't influenced by medical lobbyist, then what kind of people do they have running NY? I can understand when lobbyist money is influencing this kind of decision, but if someone in the NY government came up with this crazy idea by themselves... Yikes. What were they thinking?

Now you might be wondering what's up with the title of this post, "Texas is better than NY".

I am glad you asked.

There is no way a Texas politician would be dumb enough to bring up anything about tracking people in the great State of Texas. You see, Texas is the most conservative state in the Union. As such it is also the most FREE State in the Union. We don't have nearly as many regulations and rules as some other states (especially the really liberal ones). We are so free in Texas that there are some people who think we aren't even part of the United States (but that's another story).

If someone in the Texas legislature were to bring up the idea of tracking us, you would have what we call around these parts a "shotgun march" on the capitol. That's where all us Texans march to the capitol in Austin with our shotguns in hand. When we all get there we ask a simple question like:

"Where's the fella that wants to track us? We've got a present for him."

It keeps the politicians in there place (ie. doing what the people want them to, not the lobbyist).

Texas is the only State that can fly it's flag at the same height as the US flag. There's a reason for that, we are our own country. Maybe not legally, but for all intents and purposes we are. If I were President, I wouldn't mess with Texas.

Special Notes about this Post:
* I grew up in Florida, but after living here for about nine years Texas has really grown on me.
* This is the edited (subdued) version of my feelings on this topic.
* I made up the term "shotgun march" to get my point across. We don't really have anything like that in Texas, because nobody's dumb enough to suggest something like tracking us.

Yikes! Diabetics in NY to be tracked

I can hardly believe this story. I have diabetes and there is no way I would want the government to track me.

If I were President there is no way this would happen. It's not like diabetes is contagious.

I think the people who thought this idea up should be tracked for ten years and then they can get back to us on the merits of the idea...

Rain brings out the Ants

It has rained A LOT the past several weeks. Even though we had an exterminator treat our yard for ants a week before the rains came... THE ANTS ARE BACK!

Ants tend to come out after it rains and exterminators can't get rid of them until the rain stops. So now we have ants getting into our house again.

So far it hasn't been so bad, but our President really needs start up the Ant Hill Security department soon. I know it is part of my Presidential campaign platform, but I don't mind if the current President takes my idea and run with it. Ridding this country of ants would be Fabulous!

Fail is a bad word

Apparently, in England "fail" is considered a bad word.

The Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) in England would like to ban the use of the word “fail” and in its place kids should use the phrase “deferred success”.

Cool, I wonder if this will work in the business world?
I can see it now...

CEO of major company: "We didn't fail to reach our profit goals, we just deferred success to next year."
(That would go over well with stock holders)

It turns out that in this past election, I didn't fail to get more votes than Mickey Mouse I just deferred success to Mickey (I let him win when I withdrew from the running).

If I were President, I might consider banning the use of the word "fail". It is a four letter word after all.

Although, I think I would ban another four letter word first ... "ants"!!! If you have read my campaign platform you would know why...

Advice for Dads to Be

Now that our newest edition to the household is getting older (almost 4 months) I decided to let all of the men out their know the most important things I have learned about pregnancy and child birth. After going through FOUR births I think I am qualified to give advice on this topic. This is my advice for dads to be out there and any man who plans on getting married and having a family.

Here goes, this is my top ten tidbits of advice for Dads to be:

1. Never, ever, ever, steal food away from a pregnant woman.

2. During labor, don't ask your wife lot's of questions like:

"How are you feeling honey?"

"What did the doctor just say?"

"What does a contraction feel like?"

"When is this going to be done, the game starts in 20 minutes?"

"I am tired, when is a good time for me to take a nap?"

3. Apparently, watching "Tin Cup" with your wife's OB-GYN and talking about golf with him while your wife is in labor, is a big no-no. (This happened with the first baby we had)

4. Never, tell your wife how tired, worn out, and exhausted you are (especially when she is pushing).

5. During labor, don't run any errand that takes longer than 10 minutes.

6. NEVER disagree with your wife when she is in labor. This is also a good rule while your wife is pregnant, but during labor it's a MUST.

7. After the baby is born and the baby needs his/her first diaper changed in the middle of night, don't say "I don't know how to change diapers, you are going to have to change all the diapers." (Especially not good if she had a long hard induced labor).

8. During the Pregnancy don't comment on your wife's weight (good or bad). If she asks about it, just change topics. It's a no-win situation.

9. NEVER, EVER, EVER, complain about how tired you are while your wife is in labor. (I know I already covered that, but this one is really important to remember unless you want to give birth to your next child.)

10. Fill in the blank ... (this one is for your wife to fill in. In other words, ask her what she needs from you. WARNING: Not doing this may result in the same consequence as number 9 in this list).

Beam Me up Scotty

I think I have a new plan for the ants...

Check out this article on teleporting. We can just teleport all the ants to Terrorist hangouts...

That would be a great weapon!