The consequences are threatening

The consequences are threatening

So says the one-page glossy sent to me from Traditional Values Coalition. Actually, it was sent to my address but listed a person named "King" as its intended recipient. Not me.

No website on the mailing, but, being the deviously clever human I am with Google access and a bit of deductive reasoning, I soon found it.

The subject of the mailing? Stop Todd Akin from voting for H.R. 2427. (Your mission, should you choose to accept it...).

The sideshows? Baby chewing on toy looking like, well, a baby; young woman eyeing a pack of pills as though she has a difficult decision to make. Baby in white light. Woman in brown light. Caption? "If H.R. 2427 becomes law, RU-486, the "abortion pill," may become as easy to get as aspirin.

Ooh, not shocking. This is a religious right (read faaaaaaaaaaaar right) organization that has the audacity to quote Jerry Falwell on its mailing as an expert about prescription drugs? I think that's like a walrus endorsing Frosted Flakes, no? Oh, goody, and my friend Tommy Thompson, the most rational human in the government health sector. His argument?

Opening our borders to reimported drugs potentially could increase the flow of conterfeit drugs, cheap foreign copies of FDA approved drugs, expired and contaminated drugs, and drugs stored under inappropriate and unsafe conditions.

Could not you people find someone who could proffer an argument stronger that "potentially could?"

And Falwell.

Drug importation is about much more than getting cheap prescriptions. It's also partially about easing access to abortion drugs like RU-486, euthanasia drugs, and "life extension" drugs of questionable merit and potentially harmful effect.

And what's this bill about really, you ask? Its true name is the Pharmaceutal Market Access Act of 2003. Funny, on a full-text search of the bill, the only time I see the letters "ru" are contained within the word drug.

The bill is not exceptionally interesting, as bills go. I read it all.

The far right scares me about as much as the far left. Both seem far too interested in saving Americans from themselves, vast conspiracies for or against [insert cause here] and achieving their agendas through means other than reason. And I just don't buy in.

hln

Posted by hln at July 11, 2003 10:17 PM | Blogspot Blog