JEANNE ROBERTSON IS HILARIOUS! And she is coming to Denver in February but I wanted to interview her today because tickets to her show are the PERFECT Christmas gift for pretty much anyone. Her show will delight the entire family, I promise you. Here is a tiny taste of this very funny lady, and you can buy tickets by clicking here!
SOMEONE NEEDS TO HAVE AN INTERVENTION WITH HILLARY Because apparently she is still considering another run at the White House. She was on Graham Norton's show and said this:
OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH WE MIGHT BE GETTING FLYING CARS! As one is being unveiled at the Art Basel this week in Miami. I'm not sure it actually works but it sure looks cool.
A SCIENTIST MET ET And if you don't think there is the possibility of life beyond Earth you're going to think this is crap, but I must say, I'm inclined to believe it. A prominent quantum physicist Tweeted out his story on Thanksgiving day, admitting that he had been visited by aliens. It's fascinating. Read the whole thing in this article. The best part is his description of the oneness he felt with the universe. That resonates with me, because in my view of Heaven or the afterlife, oneness plays a big role. This is just cool. Would you want to be visited by aliens? If this is what it's like, I might be down.
THE OXY EPIDEMIC IS PURDUE'S FAULT And you really should read some of the coverage being done at this website about how insidious the plans by Richard Sackler to hide the addictive potential of OxyContin really were. This is the kind of thing that I would say deserves jail time. And for those who don't believe that drug companies don't buy allegiance by throwing dinners and weekend getaways, check this:
Oct. 23, 1996:In another email exchange with executives, Richard Sackler shows his attention to detail, in this case about whether dinner programs Purdue hosts for doctors are “cost-effective” in driving an increase in attendees’ prescribing of OxyContin.
“Physicians who attended the dinner programs or the weekend meetings wrote more than double the number of new Rxs for OxyContin compared to the control group,” Sackler noted, quoting from the minutes of an OxyContin team meeting. ”Weekend meetings had the greatest impact, increasing new prescriptions for OxyContin by a factor between 2.16 and 2.62.”
Read both articles here and here. They are both incredible. They are both damning of the kind of heartless greed that makes people hate capitalism. To those I say hate the player, not the game. But I think Richard Sackler should face charges that put him jail. But he won't because he's rich and well connected. From the second article:
An email chain from January 1997— just a year after Purdue launched the drug — shows that Merck Medco, then one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers, had begun cautioning doctors that use of OxyContin to treat chronic pain patients could lead to abuse. That news set off alarms among executives at the Connecticut-based Purdue because it threatened to derail the company’s strategy to tap a lucrative non-cancer pain market.
Sackler urged a robust response, writing that the “addiction” objection could be “obliterated.” Specifically, he said executives should consider giving a “convincing presentation” that controlled-release products like OxyContin are “less prone to addiction potential, abuse or diversion” than other opioid pain pills. “I think that can be done,” he wrote, but deferred to the company’s experts about whether it could.
By that time, Purdue sales representatives were falsely marketing the drug to physicians as “less addictive and less subject to abuse and diversion,” according to federal court records — conduct that would lead to Purdue pleading guilty in 2007 for the misleading way it sold OxyContin.
Think about how the opioid crisis has affected cities, and all of us. This man deserves the death penalty imo.
THE GAZETTE DOESN'T LOVE HICK FOR THE SENATE And they lay out a pretty compelling case on why they think he needs to go back to brewing beer.
EVER WANTED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BODY DURING A HANGOVER? Then read this and you're welcome.
AW, HOW SAD. TESLA OWNERS HAVE TO WAIT TO CHARGE UP And I'm posting this story not only because it's fun to make fun of people who drive Teslas but also to point out that if/when electric cars become the norm, this is our future. And you thought the gas lines of the 70s were bad.
JUST AS EVERY AUTOMATION BEFORE IT, UNSKILLED LABOR WILL BE HIT HARDEST BY THE ROBOTS This story is about an analysis that shows the top 10 areas that are expected to get hit hardest by automation. No surprise, the poor, unskilled and minorities will be hit hardest. And it's racist, it's just that those jobs are easier to replace with machines.
WE WON'T HAVE KAMALA HARRIS TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE as her campaign has been put out of it's misery.
IS THIS OUR POTATO FAMINE? It may seem extreme, but miserable weather lead to a miserable potato crop which could lead to a FRENCH FRY SHORTAGE. Shut the front door! This is madness! I did get a chuckle out of this headline though:
America Braces for Possible French Fry Shortage After Poor Potato Harvest
Are we really bracing for this? Have we braced enough? How much bracing is really necessary here? Just curious.
MORE JOHN STOSSEL THIS TIME ON HOLLYWOOD BIAS
THINKING ABOUT GETTING MARRIED? Watch this and reconsider an over the top expensive wedding. Use that money to create a great life, not a great day.
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WANT YOUR KID TO READ? GET A DOG. I love this study. It showed that kids read more when in the presence of dogs. Why? They don't know exactly, but they suspect that having a dog around may just make the kids feel less stress if they get to passage they don't understand.
NEW MATH AND OTHER NONSENSE IS NOT WORKING And I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but perhaps it's time to return to a more straightforward educational approach like the ones used when I was a kid. Rote memorization, grammar and other unpleasant things we had to do as a kid obviously worked better than new math and critical thinking instruction. Our children are falling behind the rest of the world at a time when the world is getting smaller and more competitive. We have to make a sharp course correction NOW and Common Core MUST DIE. It's NOT WORKING.