[Parallax]

Actually, I think he means Poland.

Lech Walesa, the Solidarity union, and the Round Table Agreement of 1989 may have played role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, though.
I have to get out of this debate now. I'm coming uncomfortably close to agreeing with shooz again; and on a union issue no less.

[jeffkrol]

Shame Of America: Desperate Man Robs Store For One Dollar In Order To Go To Jail To Get Health Coverage | ThinkProgress

James Richard Verone of North Carolina spent his whole life playing by the rules and staying out of trouble. Having worked as a delivery man for Coca Cola for 17 years, Verone was known as a hard worker and honest man.

Yet when he was laid off from Coca Cola three years ago, Verone was desperate to find work. He eventually found employment as a convenience clerk, yet he began to notice a protrusion in his chest. He developed arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome, and soon the pain became too much for him to bear. He filed for disability, but he was denied any sort of coverage by the federal government.

So earlier this month, as the Gaston Gazette reports Verone drove to a local RBC Bank and told the teller he was robbing them for a dollar. He said he wanted to rob the bank in order to go to jail and get medical coverage:

Verone didn’t want to scare anyone. He executed the robbery the most passive way he knew how. He handed the teller a note demanding one dollar, and medical attention. “I didn’t have any fears,” said Verone. “I told the teller that I would sit over here and wait for police.” [...]

Verone says he’s not a political man. But he has a lot to say on the subject of socialized medical care. He suspects he wouldn’t be talking to a reporter through a metal screen wearing an orange jumpsuit if such an option were available in the U.S. “If you don’t have your health you don’t have anything,” said Verone. The man has high hopes with his recent incarceration. He has seen several nurses and has an appointment with a doctor Friday.The ideal scenario would include back and foot surgery and a diagnosis and treatment of the protrusion on his chest, he said.

Verone told the local press he would like to serve in prison long enough to be able to get out in time to collect Social Security benefits that he paid into his entire life. He also hopes to be able to retire along a beach some day. Verone says that he doesn’t regret landing behind bars and that he had no choice. Between continuing a life in pain and choosing prison, he is happy with his decision. “If I had not exercised all the alternatives I would be sitting here saying, ‘Man I feel bad about it,’” he said. “I picked jail.” The United States is the only wealthy country that does not offer comprehensive universal health care to every citizen; in no other rich country would anyone be faced with such a choice.

[Jodokast96]

Shame Of America: Desperate Man Robs Store For One Dollar In Order To Go To Jail To Get Health Coverage | ThinkProgress

No, it's not ok to be a dumbass.

Edited to clarify what I was responding to.

[shooz]

We're all Bozos on this bus.

------Firesign Theater-------

[Parallax]

No, it's not ok to be a dumbass.

Certainly seems to be popular, though.

[cardinal43]

Certainly seems to be popular, though.

Especially on the right.

[Parallax]

Especially on the right.

Tom; political dumbassery knows no party boundaries , but sadly the Grand Old Party does seem to be becoming a caricature of itself. I'm still a registered Republican, though I'm becoming more and more reluctant to admit it.

[Todd Adamson]

It's such a common (and becoming so very tiresome) tactic among conservatives to claim the "outrage" at dumbassery is louder when it goes against conservatives. It's almost never true, and it is sometimes the opposite of true. This thread has a completely ridiculous premise, and is therefore useless.

[Parallax]

This thread has a completely ridiculous premise, and is therefore useless.

As opposed to the usual productive nature of P&R threads?

[Todd Adamson]

As opposed to the usual productive nature of P&R threads?

Heh....point taken. Still, sometimes it's nice to point it out explicitly.

[Parallax]

Seriously, the purpose of this forum is to be a pressure relief valve. It largely accomplishes that, and has a side benefit of actually educating and informing. It is rumored that some people have even been swayed some from their previously concrete positions.

[jeffkrol]

how US does "research"..........
Infuse cited in patients' painful bone overgrowth - JSOnline

Enthusiasm seemed to bubble over in 1999 as a group of surgeons from around the country began to implant a new spinal fusion product in patients that initially appeared to safely grow bone and help fuse vertebrae.

Then something bad happened.

Read the article.........

The doctors who wrote the 2004 paper would go on to receive millions of dollars in royalties and other payments from Medtronic.

"This is very troubling," said Richard Deyo, a physician and professor with the Oregon Health and Science University who has done research on spinal fusion. "If we can't trust the scientific medical literature to be accurate, we can't provide the best patient care."

The approval of Infuse followed what drug industry critics say is a familiar playbook:

First, a buzz is created about a potential new therapy. Then, research - often by doctors with financial ties to the product - is presented to the FDA for a specific use in a narrow group of people. Once the product is on the market, other uses for it are promoted in articles and presentations, often by doctors with financial ties to the company.

As much as 85% of Infuse use now is in those so-called off-label applications, according the research.

Infuse sales amount to several hundred million dollars a year.

Researchers writing in the Spine Journal this week will mention Malone's experience in the 1999 clinical trial. The Spine Journal paper is part of an unprecedented critical review of Infuse complications that were not reported in the medical literature. That review found a systematic failure to report Infuse complications over the course of nearly a decade in 13 published papers involving Medtronic-funded research.

The 2004 paper has drawn a growing amount of criticism as an example of industry-funded research on drugs and devices by doctors with financial conflicts who go on to write papers that promote those products. Doctors interviewed by the Journal Sentinel last year said the medical paper was more marketing than science.

Last year alone, the newspaper found, three of the four authors of the 2004 paper received nearly $4 million in royalties from Medtronic through the first nine months of the year. None of the royalties involved Infuse.

Regis Haid, lead author of the 2004 paper and an Atlanta neurosurgeon, did not respond to attempts to reach him for comment. Through September last year, Haid and Spinal Engineering LLC received about $2 million in royalties from Medtronic.

Co-author Ken Burkus, a Columbus, Ga., surgeon, also did not respond to emails. His RBCK Research & Consulting received $573,000 in royalties from Medtronic through nine months of last year.

Charles Branch Jr., one of the co-authors of the 2004 paper and chairman of neurosurgery at Wake Forest University, took issue with Malone's assessment that the follow-up operations were caused by bone growth related to Infuse. Branch and Wake Forest received a total of $1.2 million in royalties through the first nine months of last year.

This article is part of an ongoing series about how money and conflicts of interest affect medicine and patient care. John Fauber reported this story in a joint project of the Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today. MedPage Today provides a clinical perspective for physicians on breaking medical news at medpagetoday.com.

Is that OK???????

[Nesster]

No, that was Reagan.



(Ducking, running, and looking for cover..........)

Why, yes, wasn't Reagan an union man, a thug of the first order, the worst kind, like Hoffa, a union leader.


Although, in his defense, he was also Confidential Informant T-10 to the FBI during this time, and was successfully turned via a GE contract to becoming a spokesman for the right.

[gokenin]

Seriously, the purpose of this forum is to be a pressure relief valve. It largely accomplishes that, and has a side benefit of actually educating and informing. It is rumored that some people have even been swayed some from their previously concrete positions.

Now do you actually have any hard proof of such an outlandish claim as this? I will have to say that if you look at the majority of posts in this forum most are clearly on the democratic side and many are character attacks against any republican candidate or anyone that is a non-Democrat either in ideology or in party membership. That is all I will say and let the fun begin

[Parallax]

It is rumored that some people have even been swayed some from their previously concrete positions.

Now do you actually have any hard proof of such an outlandish claim as this?

I am invoking the right granted me by the 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.