More on cancer "care"

This post was originally written as a response on the previous post, but I felt it was appropriate to post as its own blog entry. I rarely hear from people about my blog posts, I guess most readers either don't want to admit they're reading (I know you're out there), or just don't care enough to post a response. But my post about cancer "charities" generated at least some small response, so I will further clarify my position and opinions in the following:

Hey Spungey... I don't have a problem with someone disagreeing with my posts, in fact, I figure most people disagree with most of what I have to say.

I'm just curious if your sister disagrees based on her idealized vision of the way she'd like things to be, or because she has solid evidence that the cancer industry is making progress, and our solicited donations are helping?

Admittedly, my opinion is only based on the films I've watched and some small amount of my own research. I watched the cancer industry kill my mother-in-law, using chemotherapy drugs derived from chemicals used in WWI. Now there's progress for you!

The cancer industry, and indeed the entire "health care" industry seem based on only two principles: treat only symptoms (not root problems) and make a lot of money doing it.

I'm tired of feeling guilty for choosing not to contribute to these "charities." It's time we see them for what they are and teach people that WE are in control of our health, WE can choose to not support "fast" and "convenience" foods and pharmaceuticals that contribute to our own demise.

The cancer industry doesn't need our donations, it needs a complete deconstruction and overhaul, and needs to concentrate on EDUCATING people about healthy living. But then, they just might go out of business, and what industry wants to put itself out of business?

By the way, I have a good movie called "Food As Medicine" that I will be happy to send to anyone who asks, as long as you promise to watch it. You'll be glad you did.

Forget a cure, donate for someone's Hummer!

The total for my movie ticket was $6.50. I handed the kid behind the window $7, and as he handed me my tickets, he asked, "Would you like to donate your fifty cents to help save a kid from cancer?"

Tell me how, exactly, do you answer a question like that? You either give in and give up the four bits, or you look like a complete creep to the kid and every person within earshot. My reaction was one of incredulousness... "Dude!" I said, shaking my head, as though I couldn't believe the gall of his question. "Not today," I finished, and everyone watched the creep get his ticket and slink into the theater.

As I handed my ticket to the "ticket-tearing girl" inside, again I was asked, "Would you like to donate to cancer research?" What is the deal with this movie theater, I wondered. Are they now sponsored by the American Cancer Society? Again, the creep refused.

Later that day, as I was checking out at Vons, the checkout kid continued the guilt assault: "Would you like to make a donation to cancer research?" At this point, I was fed up.

"They've spent billions of dollars over more than 30 years 'researching' cancer, and they're not one bit closer to a cure today than 30 years ago," I said. Then I proceeded to tell him how the cancer industry is a sham and has no real interest in "curing" cancer. I'm sure, after I left, the kid was apprehensive about asking the next customer.

Before you think I'm just a heartless creep who cares nothing about cancer victims or research, consider this: donations to cancer research probably at least partly go toward salaries of doctors and scientists who are part of the cancer industry. Why do these people need average working Americans to "donate" for their salaries, and why do they need some poor minimum-wage kids soliciting and pandering so they can buy another Hummer?

Imagine how many people would be out of work if cancer were cured. Imagine how many pharmaceutical companies would lose sales of their "chemo" poisons; how many empty oncology buldings; how many out-of-work doctors, radiologists, researchers, Cancer "society" and "association" employees... who in their right mind would want to find a cure for such a lucrative disease?

They don't. And if we keep "donating" to keep them in business, the madness will never end. We have no reason to feel guilty about refusing to donate. It's the "cancer industry" that should feel guilty for misleading people and draining billions from people just to keep the machine running, with no intention of ever creating a cure.

Important issues in the spotlight

June 7, 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate voted down a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, but Republicans planned a vote in the House of Representatives to keep a national spotlight on the hot-button issue.

Keep a national spotlight? Hot-button issue? Do people actually give a crap if gay people want to get married? Is it going to destroy marriage for heterosexuals any more than overtaxation leading to two-income families, stress, materialism, dependence on mood-altering pharmaceuticals, self-centeredness, or any of the other societal sicknesses that are acceptable, while "gay marriage" is not?

How about Mike Smith's cartoon from today's LV Sun? Seems that the current illegal and unethical war overseas poses more of a threat to marriage, but there's no Republican plan to keep the spotlight on that. Rather, let's obscure the real issues while keeping the "spotlight" on the ephemeral and inconsequential.

Detention camps on their way...

Remember "detention"? When I was in school, detention was the worst. Stuck in a room with the degenerates of the school, for what seemed like an eternity. Well, some of us may end up in detention again, but this time it's a little more serious than middle school punks and the mean gym teacher.

KBR, a construction subsidiary of everyone's favorite military/industrial megacorporation Halliburton, has been awarded a government contract of $385 million to build "Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities" to support the Department of Homeland Security. These ICE facilities have also been referred to as "temporary immigration detention centers." (here's the Halliburton press release)

What are they preparing for? Are these facilities intended to house illegal immigrants in the case of a huge influx (or those already here)? Are they intended for political dissenters who refuse to follow the rest of the flock?

"President" Bush has indicated that he would like to use the military for law enforcement in the event of a Bird Flu pandemic (err... Martial Law, anyone?). What about the possible scenario that the Bird Flu will be used as an excuse to force mandatory "vaccinations" on the public (God only knows what will actually be in these vaccines - well, God and the scientists who create them, and the government entities that commissioned them).

Do a little research on vaccinations, their possible link to autism and other health problems, and you'll see why I'll be one of the people who refuse the "bird flu" vaccination... hopefully, they're not reserving "rooms" in "detention" for people like us. If "us" is the majority of the population, there won't be room.

Here are a couple of commentaries worth reading:

http://tinyurl.com/9sycd
http://tinyurl.com/fwy9l