Notes from the Weekend

Those who follow my pharmaceutical investigation should sign up for the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP) newsletter. It’s loaded with reports on the mainstream media’s most affluent advertisers.

As much as the left whines about the evils of “Big Oil” and “corporate greed,” they seem oblivious to the makers of their daily dose of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and the guy who bribed officials to authorize its distribution, even though Eli Lilly always knew that SSRI's do nothing more than cause depression and suicidal ideation. No wonder those people are so unhappy.

AHRP reports that a U.S. federal judge has issued an order to unseal thousands of Wyeth Pharmaceutical documents that provide details about the company's "mammoth" ghostwriting campaign. The order affects 8,000 lawsuits:

Wyeth flooded medical journals with some 40 favorable ghostwritten articles penned by prominent physicians who sold their name for cash, in an all-out effort to offset the scientific evidence linking its female hormone replacement drug, Prempro, to breast cancer.

According to (this) New York Times report, Sen. Charles Grassley obtained these documents as part of a congressional investigation into drug industry influence on doctors.

AHRP also reports that the Association of Clinical Researchers and Educators (ACRE) is, like AIDSTruth, nothing more than a pharmaceutical front group – this one hosted by Harvard University which just happens to receive millions of dollars in pharmaceutical marketing funding every year. As easy as it is to buy universities like Harvard and Cornell, it’s hard to imagine that a Saudi-funded group like al Qaeda won’t buy a chunk of it.

Speaking of Harvard University, Barack Obama and Henry Gates now seek to turn Gates’ racial tantrum and Obama’s ignorant remarks into a teachable moment. What could two beneficiaries of affirmative action possibly teach a white man who excelled despite the anti-white bigotry he faced as a white male police applicant competing against racial quotas? Harvard grads know that you can’t tell a Harvard man anything, so unless those Harvard quota recipients can sit still for a lecture from Sergeant Crowley for a few hours, they will likely miss their teachable moment.

Speaking of our Beloved Leader, attorney Clarice Feldman lists evidence that suggests that Obama’s intellect may only be one more affirmative action media myth. As a Hollywood resident, I’ve found that many of my liberal neighbors often assume that well-behaved black men are intellectually superior to ordinary men of a lighter complexion. It's not their fault - most are Ivy League grads, union members and entertainment people so they have an excuse.