Big Pharma and the Fountain of Youth or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Meds (as well as other thoughts.)

Those of us who are old enough to tune into the ridiculous network news on, say, CBS, for example, are treated to a few minutes of news whilst being berated by a slew of ads for neuropathic pain, high blood pressure, testosterone, Viagra, and Cialis among other bromides to cure septuagenarians, octogenarians, and other people of a certain age through the miracle of medical science, who by now, should be dead, or by the time they have finished the “newscast,” wish they were. 


The network news with, for example, Scott Pelley is usually an inane conglomeration of human interest stories, snowstorms, heat waves, tornadoes (depending upon the season) and people who rescue dogs, cats and other creatures fortunate enough not to be subjected to the insulting prattle serving as a vehicle to sell products that should not be advertised at all. This, all bolstered by an unusually sappy Steve Hartman human interest story about someone who is usually in a wheelchair who has learned to play the oboe through the same straw he uses to operate his transportation. Fortunately, this only appears as the last segment on Friday night, when the mercies of the DVR allow a quick fast forward to spare us the last insult to even those with a modicum of intelligence. 


“Talk to your doctor. It may be low T” Folks, more like, Talk to your doctor about how you can suffer a heart attack, stroke, shortness of breath, insomnia, rage, depression, suicidal impulses, prostate cancer, and various other side effects of this hormone, which naturally declines during the aging process. This is a blatant snake oil pitch, and there seems to be no restraining it, because the Supreme Court says that restrictions on commercial speech violate the first Amendment. These folks watch the CBS news, I can assure you.


Testosterone medications are marketed simply because they make money. There is no public policy reason to allow drug companies to cynically hawk these medications, no matter how beneficial, to the general public. These are products to be evaluated by physicians.  The information concerning the medications during the “sale” phase of the ad, differs from the voice during the “warning” phase of the ad. It is conceived and designed to deceive the public, no less than the tobacco companies which lied about the dangers of tobacco.


The 1950s ads about the “T” zone and more doctors smoking Camels than other brands have simply morphed into a different phase of marketing. And now the phase is low “T” instead of the the “T” zone. Testosterone marketing is no less a danger to the public and it is clear that the marketing of it will eventually lead to a plethora of claims for the foreseeable harm that it causes. 


Thoughts on the Presidential aspirations of a certain New Jersey Governor.


“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Abraham Lincoln


Governor Christie is in trouble, and deservedly so. His transparently false denials and his tossing his friends to the wolves speak volumes about his dubious character. There was something disingenuous about his two hour apologia marathon, something that did not ring true. His disavowal of his friendship with his high school friend, his denigration of his friend's status in high school as opposed to his own, rings a bell about those who are supposedly pristinely qualified for public office, who travel under the mantle of “plain speaking,” and who generally are exposed by the other Lincoln maxim of fooling some of the people some of the time but not fooling all of the people all of the time.


Now there is a feeding frenzy among the press and subpoenas will soon reveal that Mr. Christie is probably a fraud as well as a bully. Sometimes America is fortunate enough to learn why some men are not presidential timber before they are elected. That is not to say that politicians are not as flawed as the rest of us, or that they are saints, but some are more flawed than others and that is something we should be glad to know before the campaign even starts.


The Likud and the Boycott by the European Union


The Palestinians and the upcoming EU boycotts of Israel may have more of an impact on Israeli policy toward the eventual necessity of the two-state solution than all of the previous wars and violence perpetuated by Arab nationalists. Although Israel received rockets in return for their exit from Gaza, they may be faced with, in the eyes of the right wing government, an even more undesirable alternative. The impact on Israeli business and employment if the boycott takes effect. 


This may have more influence on Israeli political decisions concerning the West Bank than the foolishly conducted violent Palestinian intifadas.

It seems like the Netanyahu government wishes to create a de facto annexation of the territories. 


This, as I have written previously represents more of a threat to Israel than ending the occupation. If the EU carries out the boycott, there are many in Israel, including the newly popular potential prime minister, Yair Lapid, who believe that the 350,000 settlers will ultimately have to return to Israel, in exchange for NATO peacekeepers and what possibly might become a stable peace.


There are many Israelis who think that the climate has now changed enough to give peace a chance. Many Jewish American supporters of Israel agree.

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Why the West is allowing Ukrainians to Bleed and Die

November 21, 2025
During his “wilderness years,” Churchill understood Adolf Hitler’s ambitions, presciently shouting to a deaf world the dangers ahead. The Rhineland. Sudetenland. Czechoslovakia gobbled up while appeasers twiddled. England and France could have sent Hitler packing. Instead, they gave him three more years to arm. It was too late. Fifty million died. Stalin, double-crossed by his former Poland-dividing German friend, decided too late that he had to fight. Millions of Soviets soldiers and civilians died because of his dithering. FDR had to contend with America Firsters and could have entered the war sooner; he had third term political considerations in in 1940; but he knew he had to fight, too. Eventually. WE RELIVE THE MISTAKES OF HISTORY AT OUR OWN PERIL, LIKE WILEY CAYOTE CHASING THE ROAD RUNNER. PUTIN INVADED A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY. STOP HIM, GERMANS. STOP HIM, FRENCHMEN. STOP HIM, NATO. STOP HIM, AMERICA. UKRAINIAN CHILDREN ARE FREEZING AND STARVING. PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR LIVES TO A RUSSIAN BLOODTHIRSTY PYROMANIAC, A HANNIBAL LECTER. Here’s the rub: using time as his weapon, like Hitler, Putin is conscripting, propagandizing, and gradually conscripting massive manpower—constructing his war machine, gaslighting his people, building support, slowly, craftily, cunningly, odiously. Russians believe his lies about Ukraine as a Nazi haven, a virtual pizza parlor filled with basement dwelling pedophiles, or in this case, jackbooted storm troopers. Despite President Zelensky’s Churchillian appearance before congress, we must move swiftly, because time is on Putin’s side. A war of attrition is not on Ukraine’s side. Even with US Ordinance, rockets, drones, artillery. Western fear is Putin’s ally. Time is Putin’s ally. Wars start slowly but inevitably spiral out of control; aid the west provides the Ukrainians resembles aid the US gave to England in 1940, followed by exponential materiel increase from the great American “arsenal of democracy.” It was not enough. Not in 1940 and not enough in 2022; it will not be enough in 2023, 2024, 2025 as this war drags on. Too many Russians, too much manpower. Too much time. Victory requires a credible threat of NATO mobilization—an army ready to do battle. And an ultimatum. But that will not happen, I fear. Billions of dollars for weapons in a proxy war with Ukrainians fighting Russians has been impactful. Americans can watch Netflix war movies while Ukrainians bleed. They can watch Tom Hanks storm the beach at Normandy. Much less dangerous. Let’s just ship some more rockets to Ukraine instead. Yellowstone is on. Even so, it was heartening to see the bipartisan support for Ukraine in the Congress. Military planners in the Pentagon and in Western European capitals should be preparing for a wider war. It would be malfeasant for them not to do. We just don’t realize it yet. NATO is obliged to tell Putin to get out of Ukraine or face an allied army to evict him. Putin must be given an ultimatum to get out or face military force. Germans and French, British and American, Canadian and Australian. Putin understands naked power. The west must mobilize. He does not understand anything else. Lenin said, “push forward the bayonet. If you find soft flesh, push. If you find steel, retreat.” Putin learned Lenin in school; Lenin is in his DNA. He learned it in the KGB. He learned it in Mother Russia. He wants it all. He is Czar Nicholas, Comrade Stalin, Comrade Lenin all rolled into a painting in the Hermitage, his hometown museum, where he went as a schoolboy, where his parents took him, where he learned of the greatness of Russia. Where the Czar had palaces. Russians never had democratic traditions. Ask Nicholas II and his family, brutally executed by Bolsheviks. Ask the millions starved by Stalin in the Ukraine during his communized agriculture plan. Ask the people sent to the Gulag, or the Hungarians who dared to revolt against the Soviet hammer and sickle. Ask the subjugated Poles carved up by Stalin and Hitler. Ask all of the subjugated and terrorized people who suffered behind the iron curtain. Ask Alexi Navalny, a political prisoner, poisoned once, and now jailed in a Russian gulag. A delusional revanchist KGB agent in the Kremlin tries to raise the Soviet corpse by terrorizing a sovereign nation. A nation which had its own history before Lenin and his desciples created a dark Bolshevik empire. NATO, led by Germany and France and then the United States, face the eventual inevitability of mobilizing an army to kick Putin out of Ukraine and Crimea. The alternative is too grim to contemplate. Trench warfare. Stalemate. Ukrainians under siege. Massive Russian armies. Possibly being defeated. World economic disruption. Continued war crimes. A war of attrition, cold and misery. I hope I am wrong about this.  Western ambitions about this outrageous war ending through negotiation are delusional. If Putin sees that we are serious about the sovereignty of nations, he must face a serious military threat-- mobilization of NATO forces. Only then he will likely back down. Until then brave Ukrainians will bleed, freeze and die bearing the brunt of our fear.

Thank Goodness the Election is Over

November 21, 2025
This is my first blog entry, and a fine time it is for it, if I must say so myself. Florida has now elected an ethically challenged Republican governor, who essentially flooded the airwaves with negative ads about Alex Sink, the democratic candidate. People who have voted for him will not be surprised if he disappoints by trying to shut the door to the courthouse to "protect" businesses which despoil the environment, drill for oil in pristine seas off the coast, or manufacture harmful products. On the national scene, people are amazed that tea partiers have gained so many seats in the House of Representatives, by mouthing standard platitudes of how they are going to slash spending. But where? They do not say. Elected to the United States Senate is Marco Rubio, a 39 year old tea party conservative, who has railed against a woman's right to choose, waffled on global warming, and thinks that America is moving in the wrong direction. He expects to cure this problem by slashing the budget and making "hard choices," but has failed to specify which choices. Not social security because his 80 something mother is a beneficiary, but more likely because he fears the wrath of Florida's seniors. He is supposedly a rising star in the Republican party and since the other tea partiers are pretty crazy, he probably won't be around for his full term, unless he keeps his seat while running for higher office a la Joe Lieberman. The selling of candidates like bars of soap continues, and the insulting, demeaning ads are over, but the consequences of the electorate not having to think too much about the candidates or listen seriously to debates about complex issues should be troublesome to any thoughtful person. People in Florida should not be discouraged, however. Now that the GOP has some power, they will be held responsible by the punditry, including yours truly in the next election.

George Bush has His New Book Out.....

November 21, 2025
George Bush has his new book out. I have not yet read it, but I have heard him interviewed on TV and have read reviews of the book. This frat boy, this pious peddler of religious virtue, this hypocrite now wants to sell his writing (if he wrote it at all) as though he would be regarded kindly by history. He will not. He lacks no chutzpah. Ignorance surely is bliss. His absence of remorse for sending our young service men and women to fight and die or have a leg or an arm blown off, is an exemplar of hubris and rationalization with which history will be able to evaluate his Presidency for its true worthlessness. Claiming to "protect Americans," he invaded a country that did not present an existential threat to our national security, violating his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. Arguably he is a war criminal, having authorized torture and assuming responsibility for the unnecessary deaths of thousands of American youths, as well as around 100,000 innocent civilian Iraqis. Speaking of audacity, the current occupant of the White House could use some. His potential compromise of the Bush tax cuts, favoring the richest of Americans threatens to perpetuate a growing disparity between the super rich and the rest of us. Imposing taxes to implement social policy, despite Republican protestations, is not a new phenomenon. Seems that the American people have been fed and are voraciously consuming the malarkey of the conservatives who, despite evidence to the contrary, still believe that these rich folk are benefactors who create more jobs when they fail to pay their fair share of taxes. These are the same people who spent two trillion dollars on two wars and insist that we need a fleet of warplanes and billion dollar aircraft carriers to fight an amorphous band of illiterate religious fundamentalist terrorist thugs who have to smuggle explosive-laden printer cartridges onto airplanes or fill a truck with explosives to attack us. Now we need to get spending under control, they say. No present day politician, Republican, Democrat or Tea Partier seems to have the courage to tell us exactly what they will cut. Social Security? The defense budget? Veterans Benefits? Medicare? The truth be told, no one dares. It must be the fault of the lawyers