There was an hysterical sendup of Merck on the Simpsons tonight. A corporate music video featured a doctor wearing a gold Celebrex necklace dancing with scantily clad girls while singing Merck's praises.

 

....and what was Homer doing all of this time?

 

Ahhhh.....I guess he's gone to bed now but I'm glad to see that the contending VSA is getting back into the picture m

All of this 'respect' is giving me a toothache b/c this is the 'controversy' thread!

 

Warren,

I didn't know of the NHTSA tests or the website that you referred to, but I do know that there were a number of Corvair roll-overs, some resulting in death. I believe one of the top executives at GM lost a son in a Corvair roll over. Everything that I've read, probably not as much as you, contended that the swing axle was at fault.

I happen to agree with you that it was a shame that the Corvair was discontinued. Unlike you, I blame General Motors for the early ones, but by the 1965 model year, it was truly a fine car. The Spyder version was perhaps the best American sporty of its day. Once GM changed it, it became a fine car but the damage was already done.

 

Lisa and Marge had gone to the drug companies for help when Mr. Burns cancelled their prescription plan. Homer was up in Canada with Grandpa smuggling cheaper Canadian drugs across the border. (Not realizing which border they were crossing, Homer was dressed in sombrero and serape. )

aside complete: back to the controversy...

How about steroids in baseball?

Baseball was in trouble after the '94 strike. For years, attendance was down. Then, in '97, McGwire and Sosa started hitting homers and the seats were filled. McGwire admitted a while ago that he used a type of steriod, now banned. Ken Caminitti recently died at a very young age due to various health problems, he was an admitted steriod user. Yesterday, an out of control Barrett Robbins, a former member of the Raiders and admitted steriod user, was shot by police in Florida. This kind of stuff has been going on for years, yet the owners talked tough while looking the other way as the turnstiles whirred to record attendance and ratings. It wasn't until a senate probe warned baseball: "do something or we will", that any real progress was actually made.

These guys know the risk when they take these steriods, right? Trouble is, they'd gladly sell their souls to the steroid-devil for that "edge" that could put them over the top. As many of you have suggested with fast food, shouldn't we just let these guys take these steriods and destroy thier bodies if they want to?

Steroids are worse than fast food, but by how much? How quickly does something have to destroy your body to go from "you shouldn't" to "it's against the law!"

 

There are rollovers and deaths in all car models. With 50,000 traffic deaths a year, there's plenty of space for deaths associated with any given car model. I'm sure that there were also fatal rollovers in the Mercedes cars of the time period, which along with some other manufacturers also used the "swing axle" design. And I'm sure there were also fatal rollovers for the more standard "live axle" design Detroit was then using for their front engine cars.

That's why I think it's important to reserve judgement until one sees actual statistics or tests in situations like this. Unfortunately, blowing a few colorful examples out of proportion makes for better press, and requires a lot less effort on the part of reporters than gathering data on all 50,000 cases.

(Just trying to prolong the controversy here.)

 

That's what I would do, provided I didn't have to subsidize the costs of any of their subsequent health care problems. Same goes for if they want to get their muscle the traditional way, by overexercising.

Depends on how much the steroid dosage is. Small amounts - comparable to the naturally occurring amounts in young adults - have been shown to help reverse many effects of aging in older adults, so they may be beneficial for some people. My understanding is that some of the Olympic doping scandals involved dosages hundreds or thousands of times these levels, though.

On the other hand, if you are looking for things to make illegal, alcohol should probably be far higher on the list. It not only kills many times more users, but also many times more innocent bystanders.

 

Drew, nice post. We should talk about gambling and responsibility. Very tough, personal subject for many folks.

 

Interesting time to be talking about gambling as I am leaving for Vegas this morning....if you don't hear back from me in a few days - organize a search party and look for me in the desert .....

 

Marco

Be very careful.

They tell a story about a man who arrived in Vegas in a $95,000 Mercedes Benz and went home in a $250,000 Greyhound Bus.