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"Seven Wonders Award for Humor"

“Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?”
— Kurt Vonnegut

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes an act of rebellion.” — George Orwell

“Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are...a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." — President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54

Justice, after all, is what love sounds like when it speaks in public. — Michael Eric Dyson

“We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy. But we cannot have both.” — Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

"The enormous power of the ‘oligarchy of private capital‘ can no longer be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true, since the members of legislative bodies are largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.

"Private capitalists inevitably control the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights." ˆ Albert Einstein

Never lose your sense of outrage. There has to be in all of us a moral thermostat that flips when we are confronted by suffering, injustice, inequity, or callous behavior.
— Paul Ylvisaker

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little. — Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Inaugural Address

The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, safety first instead of duty first, a love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life. This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live unless it is a good place for all of us to live. — Teddy Roosevelt

Progress in every age results only from the fact that there are some men and women who refuse to believe that what they know to be right cannot be done.— Russell W. Davenport

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities" — Voltaire

"Kaiser's a literate, witty, sometimes biting, sometimes ironic writer with an exterior of rumpled steel and the heart of a streetwise pussycat!" SENIOR MESSENGER

Remember "Halitosis?"

That dire affliction, invented by Listerine in 1921, is one of hundreds concocted by admen through the years to cast grave doubt on our personal lives — Often a bridesmaid but never a bride — always paired with a solution assuring happiness for us and profits for the sponsoring company.

From Odo-Ro-No, which in 1919 cautioned women that "B.O." stripped them of any hope of social success to today's medicines for everything from headaches to toe nail fungus, ads "seldom educate, provide limited information about the causes of a disease or who may be at risk."

So says a study published Monday in the Annals of Family Practice.

UCLA researcher Dominick Frosch analyzed prescription drug commercials aired in 2004 and found —Surprise! — Madison Avenue baloney, not facts, dominated.

Ninety percent of the ads studied portrayed actors far happier after they took the advertised drug, most with no mention of causes, risk factors, prevalence of the disease, alternatives like exercise, diet, or cheaper over-the-counter medications of equal effect.

Typical is the 30-second spot in which a desolate urban-dweller enters a doctor's office, is prescribed a cholesterol-lowering drug, then exits into sunny suburbia to the delight of his loved ones and neighbors. Hallelujah!

In other words, most consumer drug advertising is hogwash.

Little wonder all the advanced countries on earth ban such bull, except New Zealand and the US. And while New Zealand considers a prohibition, here, like everything else, it's a matter of money.

Although Pharma claims that such lies are commercial speech, protected by the First Amendment, remember: We got rid of cigarette commercials, didn't we?

Thing is, we believe all their crap.

Seniors, especially, are seduced by our faith in the power and magic of a pill. "Wonder drugs" like penicillin are part of our heritage.

So, when we watch a miserable "patient" on TV find happiness, true love, social acceptance, even spousal adulation, not to mention terrific sex after just one hour on a new medication (paid for in good part by Uncle Sam), we say, "Hey, I want some of that."

And we get it. Overworked physicians frequently capitulate when a patient requests a name-brand drug. Little wonder drug companies spent $4.2 billion in 2005 on advertising, far more than they budgeted for research and development.

We're dangerously overmedicated, taking far more drugs per person than any other country. Result? Listen to pharmacist Tom Braun, author of the Suddenly Senior column "Confessions of a Drug Pusher":

• Often drugs are prescribed for symptoms that turn out to be side effects of existing drug regimens, creating an upward spiral of drug consumption in the attempt to correct the situation. The resulting polypharmacy, or pill burden, increases adverse drug reactions. This constant selling of brand drugs directly or indirectly through consumer ads without full side-effect disclosure multiplies the potential for harm. Good drug marketing trumps good medicine.

The number of US prescriptions filled annually has bloated to 3.5 billion. An acclaimed 2003 study called "Death by Medicine" found that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.

Scary, huh? The FDA won't do anything about Pharma's lies and omissions. Congress won't either. In this era when greed rules, both are so deep in the rich pockets of Big Pharma that God Himself can't entice them out.

So, it all comes down to you.

First, know that all drugs are potentially dangerous, especially in combination with other pharmaceuticals. If you're on a number of pills every day, there's a good chance that you are not functioning as well as you should. Decline can be gradual, so often you won't recognize your diminished state.

Instead of relying on drugs as your first option, consider them your last.

Finally, stop believing in the magic of pills. Talk to your doctor about alternatives for each and every pill you take: diet, exercise, less powerful medications.

Consider, too, that today drug makers, doctors, and patients all are quick to medicate conditions once accepted simply as part of the human condition. Remember Halitosis. And Restless Legs Syndrome, whatever that is.

Fight back. It's your life!