October 2004 Archives

Have you ever noticed that there are only ever three topics that people discuss during election years: education, healthcare, and taxes? This year we can add war to the mix, but on the whole these three topics dominate the discourse. In the realm of healthcare falls the recently-popular prescription drug cost debate. We all know that drugs are overpriced, in many cases outrageously so. The question Why? isn’t much addressed by the politicians, but the New Yorker’s Critic At Large, Malcom Gladwell, has taken a stab at the topic.

Gladwell takes the example of heartburn treatments Prilosec and Nexium to illustrate a very interesting point about the strategy of drug companies to boost profits and retain control of markets for one drug family or another. Prilosec was a brilliantly effective medication o treat heartburn and acid reflux, but it’s patent was running out. AstraZeneca, the maker of the drug, decided to change slightly in order to extend its patent.

The big drug companies justify the high prices they charge預nd the extraordinary profits they enjoy傭y arguing that the search for innovative, life-saving medicines is risky and expensive. But Nexium is little more than a repackaged version of an old medicine. And the hundred and twenty dollars a month that AstraZeneca charges isn稚 to recoup the costs of risky research and development; the costs were for a series of clinical trials that told us nothing we needed to know, and a half-billion-dollar marketing campaign selling the solution to a problem we壇 already solved.

Basically, the drug companies are turning out old drugs in new clothes, thus saving themselves huge expense and reaping massive profits. I’m all for making a profit. The problem is that we aren’t really getting more bang for our buck when this kind of thing goes on. Not only that, but we get less pharmaceutical innovation because there is no incentive to explore as many new drugs when the old ones can simply be repackaged and re-marketed at least twice, maybe more. Instead of developing new classes of antibiotics and other essential drugs, companies are focused solely on “me too” drugs like Viagra and Prilosec.

Unfortunately I don’t know what government’s role in the marketplace should be or how it can react to encourage innovation and help create more affordable prescription drugs. Maybe there is no legislative solution, as there often isn’t, and it is a matter of publicizing the methods of the drug industry.

Did you know that Norway is the world’s 3rd largest oil exporter?

It looks like Utah is joining the long list of states banning marriage between two people of the same sex. I have no doubt that the Church (of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints) has its fingers in this legislation, but I was just reading an interesting post Blurbomat that makes an excellent point.

Even crazier, the Mormons are all about limiting the marital rights of others, even though at one time, certain states passed an extermination order to kill Mormons precisely because of their marital doctrines, amongst other things.

This seems an trenchant observation to me because, as a member of the Church, I am particularly sensitive to its history. I would not want future historians looking back only to find that we never learned from the mistakes of those that persecuted us.

No doubt most, if not all, of my family in Utah is voting for Proposition 3. I hope they have thought about what exactly they are voting for and the motivations driving the legislation.

I had a conversation tonight with someone about the upcoming election, about the danger of voting for John Kerry because he is weak and indecisive and a Democrat, about the political process in the United States, and about how New York has turned me from a card-carrying Republican to a card-carrying Republican Liberal Democrat. It was a deeply frustrating and as well as enlightening conversation. I think I discovered something of what many average US citizens consider to be a thoughtful and reasoned take on politics.

My friend — a Bush supporter, Republican, and Texan — profoundly misunderstands the nature of the US system and the role of elections as a mechanism for holding politicians accountable for their choices while in office. For example, agreeing that there have been at least some large mistakes made by the current administration in Washington, my friend suggested that people vote for Bush anyway. This would give President Bush the opportunity to go in make right his mistakes. These of course include a failing effort in Iraq, botched Medicare reform, disastrous environmental policy, a foreign affairs mess, the PATRIOT Act, John Ashcroft, an abandoned Middle East Roadmap, constitutionalizing discrimination, proliferation of AK-47s in the US, ad infinitum. Instead of holding President Bush accountable for even some of these failings, we are expected to give him a second term, in which he will have a free hand to do what he wants without fear of actually being accountable.

This is not an issue of party — despite what my friend says I am still a Republican — it is an issue of seeing every election as an opportunity to tell candidates that they have been doing a good job or bad.

I mailed my vote for John Kerry to the Denton County Elections Administrator on Monday. No doubt he will cringe when he records my ballot.

Maybe it’s because of some cliché sentimentality borne of my US roots. It could stem from some actual patriotic fervor, I don’t know. But this is one of my favorite apothegms.

Vox populi, vox dei. (The voice of the people is the voice of God.)

This one’s for my good friend, Miss Katie Connor or Gainsville, Georgia. (Bunny, can you ever forgive me?)

One of my favorite weblogs is written by a brilliant and uncontrollably funny women from Utah. Not a day goes by that I don’t check out what is going on with Dooce, aka Heather Armstrong, ex-Mormon and new mother. Heather is very fond of talking about her pooping difficulties and this reminded me of Katie, who is also fond of discussing those kinds of topics, especially in mixed company if possible.

Yesterday’s post, “Every comment should include the word poop,” was so hilarious I almost peed my pants. Someone sent Dooce a book called Put Hemorrhoids & Constipation Behind You, and she wanted to share this learned wisdom with the rest of the world:

Lesson number two in today痴 entry comes from the constipation book: 2) Did you know that you池e supposed to be able to poop in less than two minutes? IT SAYS SO IN THE BOOK, MEN. The optimum time from urge of evacuation to actual elimination should take no longer than SIX MINUTES! Which means you shouldn稚 have to take in any reading material. I have never in my life known a male who can poop in under 30 minutes, who doesn稚 have to take in an entire year痴 worth of MacWorld to see him from start to finish.

All I can say is, “Amen, sister! Preach on.”

According to the Congressional Quarterly there is currently a “monkey shortage”. Just thought you all should know so you can stock up now.

via CQ.com

Mars wants us to eat more chocolate because it’s good for our hearts. Sounds good to me

A Piece in the New Yorker about the crazy way our government is screwing us, and itself.

McSweeny’s is here with these Hiking Safety Tips

Did you watch the presidential debate last Thursday? It was very interesting, and I think the president did surprisingly well and surprisingly bad at the same time. Kerry was not bad either; he probably eeked out a win if I had to pick one or the other. My biggest complaint all along has been the format of the debates though — they aren’t debates at all.

NPR has a great list of the 10 reasons why “debate” is a misnomer for Thursday’s exercise.

Tucker Carlson, Friday night on Real Time with Bill Maher:

“No matter how you feel about Bush, watching him speak is difficult. Itç—´ like watching a drunk man cross an icy street…”

The John Gilmore illegal ID-search requirement case continues in federal court. The Justice Department now says that a requirement to show ID does exist but it is secret and can’t been read by the public or challenged in court. Read more about in a Wired article.

Previously here:
Ashcroft back in court
Gilmore v. Ashcroft, Part 2