I'm obsessed with talk radio. I have no idea why. I hate TV (excpet Buffy, of course) but I love the radio. Maybe I'm transplanted from 1945.
These are some of the things I heard today that I loved:
* for some reason Larry King does commercials all the time, on all networks for all sorts of health products, from ginsing to vitamins, ect.
Why on EARTH would you want Larry King to be the person associated with any health care product? The guy's like 98, he's had about 30 heart attacks, and I think he screws his leg on to get to the studio. He's the closest thing a living, active person could be to dead.
* Dr. Scholls gel inserts promise "totally outragous comfort". What exactly is "outragous comfort"?
* The number to NY's gas company is 877/I-have-gas. Swear to god.
And of course there was the Terry Schiavo case. If you don't know about the case, here's the basics: Terry Schiavo has been brain dead for 15 years. Her husband wants to disconnect her feeding tubes and allow her to die, her parents don't. Her case has gone to court 23-yes 23 times, and EVERY time the court has sided with Michael Schiavo, her husband. Every doctor who has examined her has determined that she is in a permanent vegitative state with no hope of recovery.
So what's the problem? Well the "Christian" right has declared that to "kill" Terry Schiavo is a sin. Oh, and of course the case is in Florida (where else?), so Jeb Bush, playing to his base, had sided with the parents and issued an executive order to keep Terry Schiavo's tubes in. This was struck down by the courts, so Republicans in Congress took up the cause, pandering to the Christian Right. Without missing a step, Republicans issued an internal party talking points memo that calls this case a "great political issue". And the spin machine was set in motion.
Suddenly Republican lawmakers were issuing their own diagnosis of Terri Schiavo, saying that it looked like she was "about to wake up", or in the words of the horrid Republican speachwirter Peggy Noonan (a Rutherford, NJ native-for shame) 'wake up and ask for a hamburger".
(Ms. Schiavo suffered a heart attack due to a system weakend by bulimia, leading to her eventual vegitative state due to complications).
Finally, with great fanfare, George Bush flew to the white house from Crawford, TX and signed into law a congressional law stating that terri Schiavo's case should go BACK to the courts-for a 24th time. So more grandstanding can be done.
Now why is this all so sickening? Well because if Bush really believed in the sancity of life (or marraige for that matter, considering it's Mrs. Schiavo's HUSBAND who has asked to let his wife die in peace) it would be one thing. But in 1999 as governor of Texas, Bush signed into law the Medical Futility Act, which states that if a patient is beyond the point of recovery and considered brain dead AND IS NOT COVERED BY INSURANCE, then the hospital can pull the plug without even consulting the family.
Ah, but there's the rub.
George Carlin, who I quote a lot, once said that when he reached adulthood he felt betrayed by 3 things he once belived in: his government, his religion, and his species.
This is a good example of all three.
These are some of the things I heard today that I loved:
* for some reason Larry King does commercials all the time, on all networks for all sorts of health products, from ginsing to vitamins, ect.
Why on EARTH would you want Larry King to be the person associated with any health care product? The guy's like 98, he's had about 30 heart attacks, and I think he screws his leg on to get to the studio. He's the closest thing a living, active person could be to dead.
* Dr. Scholls gel inserts promise "totally outragous comfort". What exactly is "outragous comfort"?
* The number to NY's gas company is 877/I-have-gas. Swear to god.
And of course there was the Terry Schiavo case. If you don't know about the case, here's the basics: Terry Schiavo has been brain dead for 15 years. Her husband wants to disconnect her feeding tubes and allow her to die, her parents don't. Her case has gone to court 23-yes 23 times, and EVERY time the court has sided with Michael Schiavo, her husband. Every doctor who has examined her has determined that she is in a permanent vegitative state with no hope of recovery.
So what's the problem? Well the "Christian" right has declared that to "kill" Terry Schiavo is a sin. Oh, and of course the case is in Florida (where else?), so Jeb Bush, playing to his base, had sided with the parents and issued an executive order to keep Terry Schiavo's tubes in. This was struck down by the courts, so Republicans in Congress took up the cause, pandering to the Christian Right. Without missing a step, Republicans issued an internal party talking points memo that calls this case a "great political issue". And the spin machine was set in motion.
Suddenly Republican lawmakers were issuing their own diagnosis of Terri Schiavo, saying that it looked like she was "about to wake up", or in the words of the horrid Republican speachwirter Peggy Noonan (a Rutherford, NJ native-for shame) 'wake up and ask for a hamburger".
(Ms. Schiavo suffered a heart attack due to a system weakend by bulimia, leading to her eventual vegitative state due to complications).
Finally, with great fanfare, George Bush flew to the white house from Crawford, TX and signed into law a congressional law stating that terri Schiavo's case should go BACK to the courts-for a 24th time. So more grandstanding can be done.
Now why is this all so sickening? Well because if Bush really believed in the sancity of life (or marraige for that matter, considering it's Mrs. Schiavo's HUSBAND who has asked to let his wife die in peace) it would be one thing. But in 1999 as governor of Texas, Bush signed into law the Medical Futility Act, which states that if a patient is beyond the point of recovery and considered brain dead AND IS NOT COVERED BY INSURANCE, then the hospital can pull the plug without even consulting the family.
Ah, but there's the rub.
George Carlin, who I quote a lot, once said that when he reached adulthood he felt betrayed by 3 things he once belived in: his government, his religion, and his species.
This is a good example of all three.
VIEW 23 of 23 COMMENTS
cklarock:
Yeah, it's a classic that never gets old.
rapture:
shes in paaaarties. its in the can