I haven't read all of this, but I believe more in the Tea Party movement than in the republican party.
I had no silver spoon at birth which is how most of us former blue collar family members have looked at the republicans. All incumbent elitists D or R, have filled their pockets at the expense of the USA people and I, for one, don't like it. Get a new crew in by voting. Move for term limits, tort reform, and a true health care reform in which doctors, nurses, former patients,insurance companies, and, least of all- Politicians- participate.
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: Newsmax.com
To: skegley@columbus.rr.com
Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 7:39 AM
Subject: Obamacare: They Still Don't Get It.
Dear Newsmax Reader:
Please find below a special message from our sponsoring advertiser, Republican Majority Campaign PAC. They have some important information to share with you. Thank you.
Newsmax.com
Dear Fellow American,
Today, we stand on the precipice as a country. Within the next few days, we may be overtaken by a wave of socialism! Plain and simple... that is what it really is. People in the Obama Administration are trying to paint a rosy picture---but, plain and simple, it is SOCIALISM! OBAMACARE is socialism in its purest form, and it is going to adversely affect YOU and your family! OBAMACARE will cause America to literally go bankrupt!
You and I must stop OBAMACARE in its tracks!
AND WE MUST DO IT NOW, before it is too late!
Barack Hussein Obama STILL does not "get it"--- he still has not paid any attention to the will (in every poll) of the American people. The latest Quinnipiac University National Poll shows, "American voters still disapprove 54 – 35 percent of Obama’s Health Care Reform Plan, but they say 52 – 44 percent they want Congress and the President to keep trying on health care reform rather than giving up and moving on to other matters."
At today's Summit, Vice-President Biden stated, "I am always reluctant after being here 37 years to tell people what the American people think. I think it requires a little bit of humility to be able to know what the American people think. And I don’t." Mr. Vice-President, you need to LISTEN to the American people---54 percent oppose OBAMACARE!!
Please CLICK HERE to FAX every Member of Congress to let them know that you OPPOSE OBAMACARE. Your DONATION to the Republican Majority Campaign (RMC) is urgently needed to defeat this attempt to push OBAMACARE through Congress!
I watched intently today the “OBAMACARE SUMMIT” as it was called. Frankly, I called it a continuation of "THE GREAT DIVIDE" that we have in this country, through the Democratic misinformation campaign that is going on. If one watched the proceedings today, there is a very clear choice of which way this country is to go: towards socialism with the Democrats; or away from socialism with the Republicans. The two different ideologies were very distinctive and very different! The choice should now crystal clear in the minds of most Americans.
Mr. Obama insulted Americans today. During the “Healthcare Reconciliation Summit” held today with Congressional leaders, Mr. Obama callously talked about the strong possibility of a parliamentary “reconciliation” effort that only requires 50 U. S. Senate votes to pass. He charged, “You know, this issue of reconciliation has been brought up. Again, I think the American people aren’t always all that interested in procedures inside the Senate. I do think they want a vote on how we’re going to move this forward."
What this means is that Barack Obama is prepared to give the “green light” for Congressional leadership to move ahead with the so-called “nuclear option” or “budget reconciliation” parliamentary procedure! This will be an attempt to ignore the Rules of the U. S. Senate and block debate on, and any filibuster against, OBAMACARE! We must fight this “end run” tactic, and WE MUST STOP OBAMACARE!!
According to the Gallup poll, Americans OPPOSE the use of the “reconciliation” strategy! Today’s Gallup poll states, “By a larger 52% to 39% margin, Americans... oppose the Democrats in the Senate using a reconciliation procedure to avoid a possible Republican filibuster and pass a bill by a simple majority vote."
CLICK HERE to FAX every Member of Congress to let them know that you OPPOSE OBAMACARE. Your DONATION to RMC is critically needed to defeat this “reconciliation” attempt! Hurry! They could vote any time! That’s how divisive Mr. Obama and his “Congressional Generals” really are!
I agree with the initial Republican who spoke at the summit, U. S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), when he said, "We think we have a better idea. START OVER!!" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sarcastically answered Senator Alexander, "You’re entitled to your own opinions..." Apparently, Senator Reid “doesn’t get it” either! Americans agree with Republicans. They want a fresh start on health care. According to a recent CNN poll, "73 percent of Americans say, ‘Lawmakers should work on an entirely new bill’ or ‘stop all work.'"
NOW, more than ever, I saw the true intentions---all six hours and 22 minutes worth of dialogue and debate. Mr. Obama and the liberal Democrats in the House and Senate are determined to do whatever it takes to force OBAMACARE down our throats! WE MUST STOP OBAMACARE, AND WE MUST STOP IT NOW!
In one of the most heated dialogue sessions of this so-called “reconciliation summit” former Republican Presidential Nominee and U. S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) discussed that most Americans were against any “backroom deals” just to pass healthcare reform. Mr. Obama brushed aside that charge, claiming that Senator McCain was back to his usual politics.
That’s right, my friend, the Democrats STILL DON’T GET IT!! The Chicago-style, backroom, deals that have permeated this year-long debate on OBAMACARE have sickened most Americans. And we’re not going to take it anymore! We must force into the open, and stop, the “backroom deals!" No more “special privileges” for only those who live in Nebraska! No more special funding only for those who live in Louisiana. THE BRIBES HAVE GOT TO STOP
You know, a different kind of "reconciliation" was the goal of the Democrats all along!
The Republican side was well prepared; and even the liberal news media noticed. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said, "It looks like the Republicans certainly showed up ready to play."
CNN’s David Gergen stated, "The folks at the White House just must be kicking themselves right now. They thought that coming out of Baltimore when the President went in and was mesmerizing and commanding in front of the House Republicans that he could do that again here today. That would revive health care and would change the public opinion about their health care bill and they can go on to victory. Just the opposite has happened."
We must keep the pressure on Congress, because some Americans might not have caught the “great divide” and the “great difference” that was so obvious today at this summit. Please, CLICK HERE to FAX every Member of Congress to OPPOSE OBAMACARE. Your crucial DONATION to the Republican Majority Campaign will make the difference to ensure that the “reconciliation” procedure does not allow OBAMACARE to pass!
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi expressed, "Health care is entitlement reform." Wow. How wrong she is. As Democrats played to the cameras about extending healthcare coverage to millions, Republican Senators and Representatives talked common sense about the economic tsunami OBAMACARE will cause in America.
Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) said, "Health care inflation is driving us (the United States) off a cliff!"
Representative Peter Rookam (R-IL) eloquently stated, "Medicaid is a flawed foundation!" He also intimated that Democrats were at the summit not to bring Members of Congress together, but to see what it would take to pass their bill.
U. S. Senator Kent Conrad, a Democrat, admitted, "Medicare is going broke in eight years."
Officially, “on the clock," Democrats (including Mr. Obama) spoke TWICE as long as Republicans---how is that for reconciliation?!
The bottom line of the over six hours of dialogue was that there may be a little room for “coming together” but, per Mr. Obama, “Americans cannot wait any longer!" Deflecting the obvious “nuclear option” questions from Republicans, he said that Congressional leadership would decide how to progress!!
We must do all that we possibly can to STOP OBAMACARE RIGHT NOW! Barack Obama indicated that the “reconciliation” procedure was a very viable option. Please, help us to tell Members of Congress to STOP OBAMACARE.
CLICK HERE to FAX every Member of Congress to MAKE SURE THEY OPPOSE OBAMACARE. Your DONATION to RMC is urgently needed NOW, MORE THAN EVER BEFORE, so we can halt this unbelievable attempt to cram OBAMACARE down our throats. PLEASE GIVE YOUR LARGEST POSSIBLE DONATION TO THE REPUBLICAN MAJORITY CAMPAIGN, RIGHT NOW!
This is your moment to show your true patriotism to America. Don’t miss this opportunity to STOP OBAMACARE and preserve the principles of our great country. This is Socialism, and we cannot financially afford it! It must be stopped... TODAY! The Democrats' “nuclear option” could come at any moment.
The future of our great country is in your hands,
Gary G. Kreep
Executive Director
Republican Majority Campaign
P. S. Members of Congress must be told to STOP OBAMACARE. They especially must be told to not use the rarely-used, divisive, “reconciliation” procedure. We urgently need your financial help to put the final press on Congress!
Please, CLICK HERE to communicate with every Member of Congress through your FAX , telling them to STOP OBAMACARE! Your DONATION to the Republican Majority Campaign will be used this week to put the “heat” on Congress!
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Saturday, February 27, 2010
The new store in Cincy- Clay Vice
I thought that I had read this a while back, Clay, but this is an even better version. ;)
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: Clay Vice
Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 8:03 AM
Subject: Fw: New Store in Cincinnati
Husband Store
A store that sells new husbands has opened in Cincinnati, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:
You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!
So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads:
Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs
She is intrigued, but continues to the second floor, where the sign reads:
Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.
'That's nice,' she thinks, 'but I want more.'
So she continues upward. The third floor sign reads:
Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking.
'Wow,' she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.
She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads:
Floor 4 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help With Housework.
'Oh, mercy me!' she exclaims, 'I can hardly stand it!'
Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads:
Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.
She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor, where the sign reads:
Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. (scroll and keep reading!)
PLEASE NOTE:
To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opened a New Wives store just across the street.
The first floor has wives that love sex.
T he second floor has wives that love sex and have money and like beer.
The third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors have never been visited.
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: Clay Vice
Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 8:03 AM
Subject: Fw: New Store in Cincinnati
Husband Store
A store that sells new husbands has opened in Cincinnati, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:
You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!
So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads:
Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs
She is intrigued, but continues to the second floor, where the sign reads:
Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.
'That's nice,' she thinks, 'but I want more.'
So she continues upward. The third floor sign reads:
Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking.
'Wow,' she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.
She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads:
Floor 4 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help With Housework.
'Oh, mercy me!' she exclaims, 'I can hardly stand it!'
Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads:
Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.
She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor, where the sign reads:
Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. (scroll and keep reading!)
PLEASE NOTE:
To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opened a New Wives store just across the street.
The first floor has wives that love sex.
T he second floor has wives that love sex and have money and like beer.
The third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors have never been visited.
Charles Krauthammer article on the Toyota troubles
I, too, Judi!
Charles is the main voice of reason within these troubled political times.
I believe this is an obama motors contrived attack. My last Buick's, admittedly before o owned GM, had a poorly engineered synthetic valve cover that cost the personal owner $500 to $700 a fix and lasted for several years without a recall.
My 2003 Toyota Avalon XLS is the nicest car I have ever owned. Ride is much smoother than the smoothest Buick I owned.
I was a Quality control director for a hyydraulic widget manufacturer for several years. We had no fatal recalls that I am aware of. when an internal problem in manufacturing was discovered, we all got on it and tried to correct it within the organization.
We had qualtiy problems that got out to our customers, but the attempts were to fix them internally as quickly as possible.
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: judith Cole
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 8:21 PM
Subject: Krauthammer article
A very good article! I've had my concerns about the future of Toyota and wish them nothing but the best because they have had a superior product for years. The Camry I once owned was such a reliable car.
Toyota and the price of modernity
By Charles Krauthammer
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
Amazingly, the congressional hearings on Toyota were relatively civilized. Apart from some inevitable theatrical hectoring, the questioning was generally respectful, the emotions controlled. This was all the more remarkable given the drama of some of the testimony, such as that offered by a tearful Rhonda Smith, who recounted how, in her runaway Lexus, she had called her husband because "I wanted to hear his voice one more time."
Such wrenching and compelling stories might impel you to want to string up the first Toyota executive you find. But the issue here is larger and highly complex.
Industrial society produces an astonishing array of mass-produced products — cars, drugs, medical devices — that are at once wondrous and potentially lethal.
The wondrousness sometimes eludes us. Even the lowliest wage earner has an automobile that conveys him with more luxury, more freedom, more comfort than any traveling king ever experienced in all the centuries before the 20th. And modern medicines — why, vaccines alone — have prevented more suffering, more debility and more death than anything ever conceived by man.
But these wonders can be lethal. And sorting out the endless complaints about these products is maddeningly difficult — though sort you must, otherwise every complaint would require shutting down the factories, and we'd have no industrial society at all.
The question is: How do you distinguish the idiosyncratic failure from the systemic — for example, the single lemon that came off the auto assembly line vs. an intrinsic problem inherent in that model's engineering? How do you separate one patient's physiology producing a drug side effect vs. an intrinsic problem with a drug that makes it unacceptably dangerous?
Consider the oddity of those drug commercials on television. Fifteen seconds of the purported therapeutic effort, followed by about 45 seconds of a rapidly muttered list of horrific possible side effects. When the ad is over, I can't remember a thing about what the pill is supposed to do, except perhaps cause nausea, liver damage, projectile vomiting, a nasty rash, a four-hour erection and sudden death. Sudden death is my favorite because there is something comical about its being a side effect. What exactly is the main effect in that case? Relief from abdominal bloating?
And how many sudden deaths does it take until we say: "Enough," and pull the drug off the market?
It's not an easy calculation. Six years ago, Vioxx, a powerful anti-inflammatory, was withdrawn by the manufacturer because it was found to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke from 0.75 percent per year to 1.5 percent. The company was pilloried for not having owned up to this earlier, but some rheumatologists were furious that the drug was forced off the market at all. They had patients with crippling arthritis who had achieved a functioning life with Vioxx, for which they were quite willing to risk a long-shot cardiac complication. The public furor denied them the choice.
And don't imagine that we do not coldly calculate the price of a human life. In 1974, the speed limit was lowered to 55 mph to conserve oil. That also led to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities — approximately 3,000 lives every year. This didn't stop us, after the oil crisis, from raising the speed limit back to 65 and beyond — knowing that thousands of Americans would die as a result.
The calculation was never explicit but it was nevertheless real. We were quite prepared to trade away a finite number of human lives for speed, and for the efficiency and convenience that come with it.
This is not to let Toyota off the hook simply because all products carry risk. Toyota executives have already admitted that they had underplayed the reports of sticking accelerators. They seem finally to have made a very serious, almost frantic, effort to correct what can be corrected — the floor-mat and sticky-accelerator problems — while continuing to investigate the more elusive possibility (never proved, perhaps never provable) of some additional electronic glitch.
But it is no disrespect to the memory of those killed, and the sorrow of those left behind, to simply admit that even the highest technology produced by the world's finest companies can be fallible and fatal, and that the intelligent response is not rage and retribution but sober remediation and recognition of the very high price we pay — willingly pay — for modernity with all its wondrous, dangerous bounty.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on Charles Krauthammer's column by clicking by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006 WPWG
I, too, Judi!
Charles is the main voice of reason within these troubled political times.
I believe this is an obama motors contrived attack. My last Buick's, admittedly before o owned GM, had a poorly engineered synthetic valve cover that cost the personal owner $500 to $700 a fix and lasted for several years without a recall.
My 2003 Toyota Avalon XLS is the nicest car I have ever owned. Ride is much smoother than the smoothest Buick I owned.
I was a Quality control director for a hyydraulic widget manufacturer for several years. We had no fatal recalls that I am aware of. when an internal problem in manufacturing was discovered, we all got on it and tried to correct it within the organization.
We had qualtiy problems that got out to our customers, but the attempts were to fix them internally as quickly as possible.
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: judith Cole
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 8:21 PM
Subject: Krauthammer article
A very good article! I've had my concerns about the future of Toyota and wish them nothing but the best because they have had a superior product for years. The Camry I once owned was such a reliable car.
Toyota and the price of modernity
By Charles Krauthammer
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
Amazingly, the congressional hearings on Toyota were relatively civilized. Apart from some inevitable theatrical hectoring, the questioning was generally respectful, the emotions controlled. This was all the more remarkable given the drama of some of the testimony, such as that offered by a tearful Rhonda Smith, who recounted how, in her runaway Lexus, she had called her husband because "I wanted to hear his voice one more time."
Such wrenching and compelling stories might impel you to want to string up the first Toyota executive you find. But the issue here is larger and highly complex.
Industrial society produces an astonishing array of mass-produced products — cars, drugs, medical devices — that are at once wondrous and potentially lethal.
The wondrousness sometimes eludes us. Even the lowliest wage earner has an automobile that conveys him with more luxury, more freedom, more comfort than any traveling king ever experienced in all the centuries before the 20th. And modern medicines — why, vaccines alone — have prevented more suffering, more debility and more death than anything ever conceived by man.
But these wonders can be lethal. And sorting out the endless complaints about these products is maddeningly difficult — though sort you must, otherwise every complaint would require shutting down the factories, and we'd have no industrial society at all.
The question is: How do you distinguish the idiosyncratic failure from the systemic — for example, the single lemon that came off the auto assembly line vs. an intrinsic problem inherent in that model's engineering? How do you separate one patient's physiology producing a drug side effect vs. an intrinsic problem with a drug that makes it unacceptably dangerous?
Consider the oddity of those drug commercials on television. Fifteen seconds of the purported therapeutic effort, followed by about 45 seconds of a rapidly muttered list of horrific possible side effects. When the ad is over, I can't remember a thing about what the pill is supposed to do, except perhaps cause nausea, liver damage, projectile vomiting, a nasty rash, a four-hour erection and sudden death. Sudden death is my favorite because there is something comical about its being a side effect. What exactly is the main effect in that case? Relief from abdominal bloating?
And how many sudden deaths does it take until we say: "Enough," and pull the drug off the market?
It's not an easy calculation. Six years ago, Vioxx, a powerful anti-inflammatory, was withdrawn by the manufacturer because it was found to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke from 0.75 percent per year to 1.5 percent. The company was pilloried for not having owned up to this earlier, but some rheumatologists were furious that the drug was forced off the market at all. They had patients with crippling arthritis who had achieved a functioning life with Vioxx, for which they were quite willing to risk a long-shot cardiac complication. The public furor denied them the choice.
And don't imagine that we do not coldly calculate the price of a human life. In 1974, the speed limit was lowered to 55 mph to conserve oil. That also led to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities — approximately 3,000 lives every year. This didn't stop us, after the oil crisis, from raising the speed limit back to 65 and beyond — knowing that thousands of Americans would die as a result.
The calculation was never explicit but it was nevertheless real. We were quite prepared to trade away a finite number of human lives for speed, and for the efficiency and convenience that come with it.
This is not to let Toyota off the hook simply because all products carry risk. Toyota executives have already admitted that they had underplayed the reports of sticking accelerators. They seem finally to have made a very serious, almost frantic, effort to correct what can be corrected — the floor-mat and sticky-accelerator problems — while continuing to investigate the more elusive possibility (never proved, perhaps never provable) of some additional electronic glitch.
But it is no disrespect to the memory of those killed, and the sorrow of those left behind, to simply admit that even the highest technology produced by the world's finest companies can be fallible and fatal, and that the intelligent response is not rage and retribution but sober remediation and recognition of the very high price we pay — willingly pay — for modernity with all its wondrous, dangerous bounty.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on Charles Krauthammer's column by clicking by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006 WPWG
Charles is the main voice of reason within these troubled political times.
I believe this is an obama motors contrived attack. My last Buick's, admittedly before o owned GM, had a poorly engineered synthetic valve cover that cost the personal owner $500 to $700 a fix and lasted for several years without a recall.
My 2003 Toyota Avalon XLS is the nicest car I have ever owned. Ride is much smoother than the smoothest Buick I owned.
I was a Quality control director for a hyydraulic widget manufacturer for several years. We had no fatal recalls that I am aware of. when an internal problem in manufacturing was discovered, we all got on it and tried to correct it within the organization.
We had qualtiy problems that got out to our customers, but the attempts were to fix them internally as quickly as possible.
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: judith Cole
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 8:21 PM
Subject: Krauthammer article
A very good article! I've had my concerns about the future of Toyota and wish them nothing but the best because they have had a superior product for years. The Camry I once owned was such a reliable car.
Toyota and the price of modernity
By Charles Krauthammer
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
Amazingly, the congressional hearings on Toyota were relatively civilized. Apart from some inevitable theatrical hectoring, the questioning was generally respectful, the emotions controlled. This was all the more remarkable given the drama of some of the testimony, such as that offered by a tearful Rhonda Smith, who recounted how, in her runaway Lexus, she had called her husband because "I wanted to hear his voice one more time."
Such wrenching and compelling stories might impel you to want to string up the first Toyota executive you find. But the issue here is larger and highly complex.
Industrial society produces an astonishing array of mass-produced products — cars, drugs, medical devices — that are at once wondrous and potentially lethal.
The wondrousness sometimes eludes us. Even the lowliest wage earner has an automobile that conveys him with more luxury, more freedom, more comfort than any traveling king ever experienced in all the centuries before the 20th. And modern medicines — why, vaccines alone — have prevented more suffering, more debility and more death than anything ever conceived by man.
But these wonders can be lethal. And sorting out the endless complaints about these products is maddeningly difficult — though sort you must, otherwise every complaint would require shutting down the factories, and we'd have no industrial society at all.
The question is: How do you distinguish the idiosyncratic failure from the systemic — for example, the single lemon that came off the auto assembly line vs. an intrinsic problem inherent in that model's engineering? How do you separate one patient's physiology producing a drug side effect vs. an intrinsic problem with a drug that makes it unacceptably dangerous?
Consider the oddity of those drug commercials on television. Fifteen seconds of the purported therapeutic effort, followed by about 45 seconds of a rapidly muttered list of horrific possible side effects. When the ad is over, I can't remember a thing about what the pill is supposed to do, except perhaps cause nausea, liver damage, projectile vomiting, a nasty rash, a four-hour erection and sudden death. Sudden death is my favorite because there is something comical about its being a side effect. What exactly is the main effect in that case? Relief from abdominal bloating?
And how many sudden deaths does it take until we say: "Enough," and pull the drug off the market?
It's not an easy calculation. Six years ago, Vioxx, a powerful anti-inflammatory, was withdrawn by the manufacturer because it was found to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke from 0.75 percent per year to 1.5 percent. The company was pilloried for not having owned up to this earlier, but some rheumatologists were furious that the drug was forced off the market at all. They had patients with crippling arthritis who had achieved a functioning life with Vioxx, for which they were quite willing to risk a long-shot cardiac complication. The public furor denied them the choice.
And don't imagine that we do not coldly calculate the price of a human life. In 1974, the speed limit was lowered to 55 mph to conserve oil. That also led to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities — approximately 3,000 lives every year. This didn't stop us, after the oil crisis, from raising the speed limit back to 65 and beyond — knowing that thousands of Americans would die as a result.
The calculation was never explicit but it was nevertheless real. We were quite prepared to trade away a finite number of human lives for speed, and for the efficiency and convenience that come with it.
This is not to let Toyota off the hook simply because all products carry risk. Toyota executives have already admitted that they had underplayed the reports of sticking accelerators. They seem finally to have made a very serious, almost frantic, effort to correct what can be corrected — the floor-mat and sticky-accelerator problems — while continuing to investigate the more elusive possibility (never proved, perhaps never provable) of some additional electronic glitch.
But it is no disrespect to the memory of those killed, and the sorrow of those left behind, to simply admit that even the highest technology produced by the world's finest companies can be fallible and fatal, and that the intelligent response is not rage and retribution but sober remediation and recognition of the very high price we pay — willingly pay — for modernity with all its wondrous, dangerous bounty.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on Charles Krauthammer's column by clicking by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006 WPWG
I, too, Judi!
Charles is the main voice of reason within these troubled political times.
I believe this is an obama motors contrived attack. My last Buick's, admittedly before o owned GM, had a poorly engineered synthetic valve cover that cost the personal owner $500 to $700 a fix and lasted for several years without a recall.
My 2003 Toyota Avalon XLS is the nicest car I have ever owned. Ride is much smoother than the smoothest Buick I owned.
I was a Quality control director for a hyydraulic widget manufacturer for several years. We had no fatal recalls that I am aware of. when an internal problem in manufacturing was discovered, we all got on it and tried to correct it within the organization.
We had qualtiy problems that got out to our customers, but the attempts were to fix them internally as quickly as possible.
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: judith Cole
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 8:21 PM
Subject: Krauthammer article
A very good article! I've had my concerns about the future of Toyota and wish them nothing but the best because they have had a superior product for years. The Camry I once owned was such a reliable car.
Toyota and the price of modernity
By Charles Krauthammer
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
Amazingly, the congressional hearings on Toyota were relatively civilized. Apart from some inevitable theatrical hectoring, the questioning was generally respectful, the emotions controlled. This was all the more remarkable given the drama of some of the testimony, such as that offered by a tearful Rhonda Smith, who recounted how, in her runaway Lexus, she had called her husband because "I wanted to hear his voice one more time."
Such wrenching and compelling stories might impel you to want to string up the first Toyota executive you find. But the issue here is larger and highly complex.
Industrial society produces an astonishing array of mass-produced products — cars, drugs, medical devices — that are at once wondrous and potentially lethal.
The wondrousness sometimes eludes us. Even the lowliest wage earner has an automobile that conveys him with more luxury, more freedom, more comfort than any traveling king ever experienced in all the centuries before the 20th. And modern medicines — why, vaccines alone — have prevented more suffering, more debility and more death than anything ever conceived by man.
But these wonders can be lethal. And sorting out the endless complaints about these products is maddeningly difficult — though sort you must, otherwise every complaint would require shutting down the factories, and we'd have no industrial society at all.
The question is: How do you distinguish the idiosyncratic failure from the systemic — for example, the single lemon that came off the auto assembly line vs. an intrinsic problem inherent in that model's engineering? How do you separate one patient's physiology producing a drug side effect vs. an intrinsic problem with a drug that makes it unacceptably dangerous?
Consider the oddity of those drug commercials on television. Fifteen seconds of the purported therapeutic effort, followed by about 45 seconds of a rapidly muttered list of horrific possible side effects. When the ad is over, I can't remember a thing about what the pill is supposed to do, except perhaps cause nausea, liver damage, projectile vomiting, a nasty rash, a four-hour erection and sudden death. Sudden death is my favorite because there is something comical about its being a side effect. What exactly is the main effect in that case? Relief from abdominal bloating?
And how many sudden deaths does it take until we say: "Enough," and pull the drug off the market?
It's not an easy calculation. Six years ago, Vioxx, a powerful anti-inflammatory, was withdrawn by the manufacturer because it was found to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke from 0.75 percent per year to 1.5 percent. The company was pilloried for not having owned up to this earlier, but some rheumatologists were furious that the drug was forced off the market at all. They had patients with crippling arthritis who had achieved a functioning life with Vioxx, for which they were quite willing to risk a long-shot cardiac complication. The public furor denied them the choice.
And don't imagine that we do not coldly calculate the price of a human life. In 1974, the speed limit was lowered to 55 mph to conserve oil. That also led to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities — approximately 3,000 lives every year. This didn't stop us, after the oil crisis, from raising the speed limit back to 65 and beyond — knowing that thousands of Americans would die as a result.
The calculation was never explicit but it was nevertheless real. We were quite prepared to trade away a finite number of human lives for speed, and for the efficiency and convenience that come with it.
This is not to let Toyota off the hook simply because all products carry risk. Toyota executives have already admitted that they had underplayed the reports of sticking accelerators. They seem finally to have made a very serious, almost frantic, effort to correct what can be corrected — the floor-mat and sticky-accelerator problems — while continuing to investigate the more elusive possibility (never proved, perhaps never provable) of some additional electronic glitch.
But it is no disrespect to the memory of those killed, and the sorrow of those left behind, to simply admit that even the highest technology produced by the world's finest companies can be fallible and fatal, and that the intelligent response is not rage and retribution but sober remediation and recognition of the very high price we pay — willingly pay — for modernity with all its wondrous, dangerous bounty.
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