I haven’t posted in a few days, since I’m away in Argetina right now and my access to reliable internet access has been spotty. I’m now sitting in my hotel room in Mendoza, finishing up a few things before heading to a typically late dinner.
CNN may finally be growing a set. My general disdain for talking heads on the news networks is exceeded only by my disdain for the GOP. This evening, though, I saw a brief glimpse of the breakdown of the cozy relationship between the talkaratti and the politicos.
Anderson Cooper had a brief chitchat with Mary Landrieu on CNN about the prepardness and the leadership from Washington, basically accusing them of a) being asleep at the wheel, and b) being self-contragulatory because they’re busy passing a $10 billion emergency supplemental spending authorization to “aid” those affected by the disaster. While I can only imagine what special interests the spending supports, the fact that he was arguing that the politicians are completely incompetent was stunning. After all, the two groups generally rely on and feed upon one another. To see him throw aside the general deference that they typically provide gave me brief hope that we could see a media that actually challenges the political class to help real people.
Getting the word out in New Orleans, I’ve now read and hear in more than two instances, has been extremely difficult. Cell phones aren’t working, phone service is dead, streets are flooded or blocked by debris, radio and TVs no longer work as electricity is gone.
One obvious thing I haven’t grasped yet is why we aren’t using portable megaphones to make announcements throughout the area. Is this too low tech? It’s not whizzbang by any stretch, but the announcements by politicians in Japan driving around the city streets works annoyingly well. There’s no reason I can’t see why someone can’t be driving by slowly in a boat announcing where to head to for food, water and shelter.
As New Orleans joins with the neighboring bodies of water, in an unimaginable amount of damage so close to home, gas prices have soared. Local prices on Route 22, through the section that is part of my regular commute, jumped an average of $0.25 between my drive this morning and my return home this evening.
According to the latest statistics, the Gulf area refineries now offline account for 1.8 million barrels of gasonline per day. Given the tight refining capacity, a loss of that magnitude for an extended period of time will have a significant impact to the country. This remains true regardless of the situation in crude oil, which is important to remember with all the talk of oil prices.
This has brought out the speculators in a large way, while “experts” are brought out to tell us how gas prices will continue to go up up up! CNN brings out their own with predicitions of $4.00 per gallon prices not far off.
One item that has escaped the attention of nearly all the media is the waiving of Clean Air Act standards for sulfur and volatile compounds nationwide, in order to ease the refining constraints and ensure that gas continues to be available. At the same time, rules governing mandatory rest periods for truckers have been waived as well, again in an attempt to ensure adequate gas supplies.
My Aunt Helen died early this morning, from cancer that had spread throughout her body.
Technically she was my father’s aunt, not mine, but we all called her by that name. I never even knew her last name until about three or four years ago, when I started sending her postcards from my travels abroad. She was always just “Aunt Helen” to us.
I remember the family trips to visit her and Uncle Kelly, typically in January. My sister and I would grumble about going to visit them, wasting a perfectly good Saturday where we’d otherwise do nothing, only to sit in a room straight out of the 60s for a few hours, uncomfortable as two kids could be. Aunt Helen and Uncle Kelly would each slip us a few dollars when the other wasn’t looking, hushing us up to not mention anything to the other. And so we’d sit, as Aunt Helen’s dentures would clack away and she’d go on in her shrill voice.
It was sad, to hear this morning as I met my parents for brunch. We were on our way to visit her, expecting it to be the last time we would see her alive. To think that she slipped from this world just a few hours ahead of us…
Anyone looking to get away for the Labor Day Weekend should check out the deals available at SkyHigh Airlines.
Ahh yes, cosplay. That wonderful activity where high school girls and hentai old men get together to dress up in funky, often revealing, clothing of their favorite anime characters.
A curious discussion on people who have no homes.
From the NY Times today:
In interviews, several jurors said they had intended the verdict, which included $229 million in punitive damages, not to reward Mrs. Ernst but to punish Merck for its actions. Derrick Chizer, one of the jurors, said that the jury wanted to send Merck and the drug industry a message: “Stop doing the minimum to put your drug on the market.” Other jurors made similar comments.
The $229 million punitive damages figure was not picked at random, but referred to a 2001 Merck estimate of additional profit the company might make if it could delay an F.D.A. warning on Vioxx’s heart risk. Mr. Lanier mentioned that monetary figure in his closing argument.
The decision on VIOXX was announced this afternoon while I was sitting here in Charlotte, preparing for Yet Another Migration Weekend.
From everything I’ve read about the case, there were three questions that had to be answered in the affirmative for the outcome to turn out how it did. Did Merck market a defective product? Was there adequate warning that the product was defective? And was the product considered unreasonably dangerous, such that the benefits outweighed the harm? The jury answered yes to all three.
Nonetheless, I had long considered the plantiff’s case to be a weak one. The individual at the heart of the case, Bob Ernst, died of arrhythmia, not a heart attack. That the coroner who performed the autopsy now states that it is likely he died of a heart attack, not arrhythmia, some three years later seems flimsy to me. She then engages in true speculation, stating
Ernst probably had a heart attack because a clot blocked the blood flow in an artery that was already clogged with plaque. She also said CPR conducted on Ernst probably dislodged the clot.
Merck loses a case based entirely on the speculation of the individual who performed the autopsy some three years later gave while on the stand. There’s nothing, at least reported by the media, that indicates there’s any concrete proof behind the claim.
Given the result, it looks like anyone who took the pill should hop on the lawsuit bandwagon as a quick way to make a million or two. All you need is someone who can testify that Vioxx caused your stubbed toe, and you’re good to go. Why let some form of proof get in the way?