ave the people who hate Big Pharma and think they just want to make money and keep everyone sick and buying their drugs heard of compassionate use programs? We give away so much drugs for free!

Umm and also Big Pharma does do some awful things. I mean the "suppressed cure" is bullshit along with most of the altmedicine. But it is really true that Big Pharma has a long history of testing drugs in prisons and poor nations without gaining proper consent. Big Pharma does have a habit of funding studies of the safety and efficacy of drugs, and writing into the contract the ability to suppress the results if they are not appealing. Big Pharma seems to stop producing life saving drugs on occasion when more expensive ones can be produced more profitably. And none of this is a matter of conspiracy but doing what they can get away with that will make them a profit. And they really do need to be reined in. And none of this is to say they don't have good people doing good things An analogy:

Think of a poorly run apartment building. Not quite a slumlord but borderline. The landscaping lovely, the buildings are kept painted. There are really wonderful maintenance people to take care of minor problems. If your garbage disposal plugs they will run up and have it fixed the same day, usually within hours of your calling them. But Sweet Zombie Jesus forbid anything major goes wrong. If your water goes out it could be weeks before it is fixed. If you lose use of your heater or stove or hot water, it could be months. And of course the maintenance people and landscapers get insulted if you point this out. "We work very hard" they say. "Look how well we keep the place looking. Look at how fast we respond to calls. Why if it wasn't for people like us think how many more people would be homeless".

And of course it is not that most of the people working for the near slum lord are not wonderful. It is not that they don't work hard or do damn good work. It is not that providing housing is not a vital function. What is bad about the place is not the fault of 99% of the people working for the near-slumlord. What is good about the near-slum is probably due to the same 99%. But none of that changes one important fact: the place really sucks.

The TAL piece wasn't about a whackadoo cure -- but an unconventional guy who maybe had a good enough idea to get a Real Researcher(TM) involved and how they found they couldn't work together. Why anecdotal evidence isn't good enough for scientific research and more.

Yeah, that was a terrible description -- it was an idea that was "so crazy, it just might work." As a notion, it was fairly wacky, though.

Big Pharma is part of a capitalist system, for better AND for worse.

Big Pharma is part of a capitalist system, for better AND for worse.

Maybe capitalism sucks too, at least in its current form. Maybe capitalism needs to be reined in too. Both the current environmental and economic crisis are at least points in favor of that view, not necessarily proof, but evidence.

In other news, I just tried the nail polish sticker things, and....no. Maybe someone has the perfect nails and/or technique for them, but that person is not me. Ah well.

Also, hydrofluoric acid is also natural. Have a sip. I'll call the hearse. PEOPLE.

Yeah, I think to myself that belladonna is all-natural too, but taking it in its natural state doesn't cure anything unless you consider breathing to be a pesky affliction.

But it is really true that Big Pharma has a long history of testing drugs in prisons and poor nations without gaining proper consent.

Oh yeah. There's huge corruption. I don't want it to appear that I'm absolving Big Pharma from past/current sins. The bullshit they pull aids in the distrust of them, and probably results in a ton of harm from people who actually have some pretty good factual reasons to distrust Big Pharma.

And you know, there are supposed to be regulatory agencies policing the shit out of them. I think mostly it does work, which is why it can frustratingly slow to get some great new drug out on the market. But also, less likely to have babies with flippers.

Shit is complex.

There are a few people selling quack stuff I kinda end up reading just because. One of them is pretty vocal about how the cure to all that ails us is colonics.

Daily colonics and a raw food diet or at least a whole food diet. But, besides the colonics here's a whole host of stuff to spend your money on! But also he comes up with ideas that he read in a really old book somewhere so it must be true! Like - there were monks (or some old dudes living a long time ago) who went into caves and slept in caves and they regrew their hair! and Teeth! And it was in this really old book so it must be true!

Because clearly people were healthier in Olden Tymes?

Buh. I just checked my mail, and in it was another thing I bought for my sister. She really profited from my overwork and lack of satisfying ideas of what to buy her. She scored a lot, because I forgot I bought her stuff each time I bought it.

NOW. If only these files would copy to my tablet. I want to finish up watching Misfits, dammit.