Grrr...Morning Edition got my back up...

[WalrusSlayer]

...usually I have to be sampling the BS on Right Wing Hate Radio to get my blood pressure started this early in the morning.

Let's see, where do I begin...

• First thing I get reminded of is that it's August, and you know what that means! Yes indeed, * goes on vacation for the month. Yup, mountain biking in the morning, clearing brush in the afternoon. Being President sure is Hard Work(tm). So when's the last time I got to take the summer off?
  
  
• Next up, an interview with various denizens of the town of Bellingham, MA. First fun quote (from a Republican no less), "We should pull out of there now. Just end it." That's the funny thing about getting bogged down in guerrilla war. Saying we should "just end it" presumes we're actually in control of the dynamics. Guess what buddy, the only way to "just end it" is to not have gone there in the first place.
  
  
• Then we had the guy saying that "I support the war and George Bush's actions." Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who would agree with that statement, but to actually hear one of them say this out loud makes me go batshit.
  
  
• Oh, and just so you know that this guy is a Thoughtful Sort Of Fellow, he sagely followed up that "they should be thinking about an exit strategy at this point." Whatsa matter, don't have the stomach to tough it out? Drives me crazy: these folks supported going in there, but now they're tired of hearing about it and just want to quit, consequences be damned.
  
  
• Finally, the "I Gotta Support our Troops and the Country" guy. I think he was a vet, or at least was in a military family. That a huge chunk of the country can't differentiate between cheerleading and support just boggles my mind. This was from a guy who basically admitted that we were in Vietnam II. And oh yeah, he wishes we had gone in and taken out Saddam in the 1st Gulf War. Brilliant! We just would have had Vietnam II ten years earlier.
  

I miss the Real NPR.

[SmokingJacket]

1. Then there was the story about how check-ups are a waste of money.

And a horribly condescending story about the study that says echinachea doesn't work, but how since Americans don't believe science, they're not going to listen to this study.

As a matter of fact, the problem is that Americans can no longer trust any kind of authority, since we're lied to over and over and over again for profit. I don't take echinachea myself, but the first thing I thought of when I heard of this study was, "Who paid them to say that?"

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. Vioxx et al, was not science, it was organized crime

If they had done real science, it would have never hit the market.
They spent, what, more than a Billion dollars on promos the first year of sales?

[Divernan]

10. Big Pharma spends far more $$$ on promo than on research

Think "Where the Bucks are" sung to the tune of "Where the Boys are". . . Yet Big Pharma (B P) justifies charging higher prices to US citizens than foreign customers, because they need all those excess profits to fund their noble research projects on new drugs.. Note what little research Big Pharma DOES do is focused on health issues of 1st world, wealthy countries - not on problems like malaria which ravages huge numbers of people in third world countries. No new preventive drugs for malaria have been developed for decades - and one of the old standby treatments forced on US troops in Iraq (another brilliant military decision, since malaria is not a problem in Iraq), has had some bad side effects.

Another practice of BP, which knows damn well that many of their highly touted drugs have serious side effects which may take a few years to evidence themselves, is to push/bribe FDA for quick and dirty approval to market new drugs and then immediately develop & patent "replacement" drugs for when the original drug is pulled from the market.

[Mythsaje]

7. Funny

that's not what last year's UW study said.

Wonder who funded THIS one...

[iconoclastic cat]

2. RIP, NPR.

[Justitia]

3. Holy Crap, ABC (GMA) is about to report how hard Shrub's workout is!

There is some crazy spinning out there about how critical his Hard Work(tm) on the pig ranch vacation is!

As to the rest of your points, I agree completely.
I can't believe I was reading your post and the exercise as Hard Work(tm) - love that, BTW - theme is on there!

OMG - "How To Get A Presidential Body" is the title of the piece by Jake Tapper - OMG, OMG

"his resting heart rate is 47 beats/min" - yeah, because he is BRAIN DEAD

[EST]

12. There was a report out not long ago

noting that one of the characteristics of a psychopath/serial killer is an excessively slow heartbeat...

[rurallib]

4. I would recommend switching from Morning Edition to

Morning Sedition. Follow with a couple hours of Stephanie Miller. This should calm the frazzled nerves.

[BiggJawn]

5. Boy, I'm so glad I wasn't listening this AM....

I heard them going into the Echinacea story and thought "That was SO Yesterday's News" and turned it off...

[Tsiyu]

8. Stop listening to NPR

I did, and I am much healthier emotionally.

Yes, it's good that some of us are brave enough to monitor the enemy. I watch the Big Three often - flipping from channel to channel - just to monitor their coverage and slant, but when it gets to be too depressing, enraging, frustrating I just turn the shit off.

Better to have silence and my own thoughts than the babbling of media whores and * apologists.

NPR is not the progressive's friend any more.

[salin]

9. Now comparing recess appointment of Ambassador to Luxemburg

to the appointment of US Ambassador to the UN.

First, the appointments are not comparable.

Second, the reasons behind the appointments are very different. Conservatives (esp Senator "No" Helms) were against Hormell because he was openly gay; and Bolton is resisted due to his professional track record of abuse of power, incompetence, lying to Congress, etc.

[Justitia]

13. yeah, being the Amb to the UN is just like being the amb to Luxembourg

Except you don't get to be grand marshall of the Chocolate Festival parade.

They are idiots :crazy:

[MadHound]

11. So what gets your back up about people, Bush supporters or otherwise

Stating that we should get the hell out of Iraq NOW? Quite frankly I welcome the fact that all of these people who were rah-rah war supporters are now starting to rethink their position, and are advocating that we get the hell out. In fact, it is only with the increasing pressure that such people provide will we have any chance at all of getting the hell out of Iraq.

Don't let you partisan blinders force you into missing somebody who is a potential ally in one of the biggest issues of our time, getting us the hell out of this illegal, immoral war. Look at your history, it wasn't the just the protests of the sixties liberals that changed Nixon's mind about getting out of 'Nam, it was also the outcry of his supporters against the war that moved him into action.

I welcome anybody's help, whether they formerly supported the war or not, in the struggle to end our illegal, immoral occupation and bring the troops home ASAP.