Rush Limbaugh, Michael J. Fox and Parkinson's Disease
POSTED BY: misbehaven
UPDATED: Saturday, November 18, 2006 01:39
VIEWED: 26984
PAGE 10 of 19
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Originally posted by FutureMrsFIllion:
Rush Limbaugh is an ass.
Everything that comes out of his mouth is shite.
Why is this even a discussion?
If you're going to be so close minded and ignorant on this issue, why even post at all?
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AURAPTOR: I'll bet this will be another one of those threads where I repeatedly ask you to back up your claims and you eventually slink away. You said
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Rush is 100% justified in answering the false claims in the CAMPAIGN AD that Michael J. Fox appears in, mainly because the underlying premise of these ads is flat out false.
WHICH underlying premise are you referring to and how is it false?
Don't make any plans for Vegas. You'd lose, again. The underlying premise of the ads is that Republicans want stop medical research which would find a cure for Parkinson's disease, that Republicans don't WANT to find cures for people like Michael J Fox, or that certain laws will, if passed, even make criminals out of those researchers trying to find such cures. In short, the message being sent .." Vote Democrat if you want Michael J. Fox to live "
John Edwards tried a similar sleezy tactic back in the '04 election. He said that Republicans are blocking research which would some day allow Christopher Reeves to walk again. That sort of wreckless, heartless pandering to those in dire need is about the lowest form of snake oil salesmenship I've ever seen. It's a false hope, founded on the most basic of needs.
People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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But what he DIDN'T do was fess up to his audience that he altered his meds for this display.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15435271/
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In a response to charges by conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, Michael J. Fox defended his appearance in recent political campaign ads, saying he was neither acting nor off his medication for Parkinson’s disease.
On the contrary, he had been overmedicated, the actor said during an interview aired on Thursday’s “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.”
“The irony of it is that I was too medicated,” Fox told Couric, adding that his jumpy condition as he spoke to her reflected “a dearth of medication — not by design. I just take it, and it kicks in when it kicks in.”
“That’s funny — the notion that you could calculate it for effect,” he said. “Would that we could.”
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“Would you support a Republican candidate?” Couric asked.
“I have,” Fox replied. “I’ve campaigned for Arlen Specter,” describing the Republican senator from Pennsylvania as a “fantastic champion of stem-cell research.”
---
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love - it's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. No, not just for some, but for everyone."
http://richlabonte.net/tvvote
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Quote:
On the contrary, he had been overmedicated, the actor said during an interview aired on Thursday’s “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.”
“The irony of it is that I was too medicated,” Fox told Couric, adding that his jumpy condition as he spoke to her reflected “a dearth of medication — not by design. I just take it, and it kicks in when it kicks in.”
That directly contradicts some of his previous statements where he knowingly overmedicated or undermedicated for the specific purpose of letting others see what the disease does to a person with out the veil of treatment.
People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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That directly contradicts some of his previous statements where he knowingly overmedicated or undermedicated for the specific purpose of letting others see what the disease does to a person with out the veil of treatment.
Would you be willing to provide links and transcripts?
---
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love - it's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. No, not just for some, but for everyone."
http://richlabonte.net/tvvote
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Of course, Jew "Rush" constantly altered his own self-medication of Hillbilly Heroin, to appear more or less like an ass.
Canadian Fox ain't too bright if he campaigned for Jewish traitor Arlen "Magic Bullet" Specter, who participated in the coup d'etat assassination of President JFK Sr.
Fox proved he's low intelligence and illiteracy by selling DIEt colas to the sheeple. Then proves again how dumb he is by not correcting that homicidal tendency. So he deserves Parkinsons, er, Rumsfeld's Disease.
And DemoRats literally shoot themselves in the head by selling genocide of 50-million US citizens as their campaign slogan, which means they literally cannibalize 10s of millions of Democrat voters....
"You can't stop the signal! You know, stem cell "research", how is that different from Reavers?"
-Mr Universe, Pirate TV
FIREFLY SERENITY PILOT MUSIC VIDEO V2
Tangerine Dream - Thief Soundtrack: Confrontation
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/8912.php
www.myspace.com/piratenewsctv
www.piratenews.org
Does that seem right to you?
www.scifi.com/onair/
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My thoughts are heading in two different directions so I'll try to make two not really related points.
One argument I'm reading in this thread is that those who are supporting Michael J. Fox and bashing Limbaugh are trying to censor legitimate criticism. I think I've summarized that accurately. Which leads me off on a tangent. It reminds me of the complaint of a bigot when they're called on their hate speech, "Well, you're just trying to stifle debate." No. We're just not going to let you get away with being an asshole. Rush Limbaugh, in calling Michael J. Fox a shameless faker, was being an asshole. By design. Because he doesn't want people to think at all about the effects of Parkinson's disease. I hope we can all agree that Rush was being an asshole. Did he have any legitimate criticism of the contents of the ad? Maybe, maybe not. That didn't appear to me to be his point. The legitimate criticism, or I should say criticism, was an aside. Window dressing to allow him a fallback defense if he was called on his assholery, "Well, you just can't handle the truth." He was just trying to tear down the credibility of Michael J. Fox. And, for the ten million or so dittoheads, it worked. That's all that matters in Rush's world, keeping the base happy. Now, for the rest of their lives, Rush's listeners can tune out anything Michael J. Fox has to say because he's a shameless faker. He was playing to the home crowd.
But what was also happening was he was sending a message to the next person who might think about spotlighting their physical condition to make a point. And that message was crystal clear, "We will attack you. Hard. Fast. And we won't let up. And we're ten million strong and have a compliant media who will report our attacks." Most sports fans are familiar with the phrase, "working the refs." Well, Limbaugh and others are masters at a similar tactic of, "scaring off the witnesses." Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks. Look at what happened to Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. Anyone who gets in the way of a permanent Republican majority must be attacked so hard that it silences the next ten. Every time some member of the government has felt that it was important the country learned what was going on behind closed doors the FIRST reaction of this administration was to investigate who the leaker was. Look at what happened with the Foley case. The first impulse of Hastert was to call for an investigation into who passed the e-mails on to ABC. It's control through brute force bullying. What person in their right mind is going to want to put up with what the 9/11 widows are putting up with? And for the rest of their lives? The Dixie Chicks utter twelve words and they're getting death threats. There are now people who will go to their graves cursing the Dixie Chicks. That's a lot of hate that's being effectively manipulated.
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Auraptor, when challenged to state the underlying (false) premise of MJ Fo'x ad, you said
Quote:However, what MJ Fox specifically said in the ad was
Don't make any plans for Vegas. You'd lose, again. The underlying premise of the ads is that Republicans want stop medical research which would find a cure for Parkinson's disease, that Republicans don't WANT to find cures for people like Michael J Fox, or that certain laws will, if passed, even make criminals out of those researchers trying to find such cures. In short, the message being sent .." Vote Democrat if you want Michael J. Fox to live "
Quote:It's very clear that the issue is STEM CELL research not "medical" research. STEM CELL was repeated twice. How much clearer does MJ Fox have to get?
As you might know, I care deeply about stem cell research. In Missouri you can elect Claire McCaskill, who shares my hope for cures. Unfortunately, Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope. They say all politics is local, but that’s not always the case. What you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans. Americans like me.
I'll take my money now, thanks.
Amusingly, the right wing suddenly becomes concerned with "the truth"!
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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.
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Auraptor: It would be nice if you would educate yourself first. Even reading the other posts would have prevented you from making this mistake.
Quote:I happen to know something about the disease and about the medication side effects because my daughter was taking one of the milder anti-Parkinson's medications (amantadine) for about two years and suddenly devloped a movement disorder. And what I DON'T know I can look up. What I originally said was
On the contrary, he had been overmedicated, the actor said during an interview aired on Thursday’s “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.” “The irony of it is that I was too medicated,” Fox told Couric, adding that his jumpy condition as he spoke to her reflected “a dearth of medication — not by design. I just take it, and it kicks in when it kicks in.” That directly contradicts some of his previous statements where he knowingly overmedicated (NO) or undermedicated for the specific purpose of letting others see what the disease does to a person with out the veil of treatment.
Quote:However, since nobody seemd to "get" the point, I posted a more detailed description later, which was
Parkinson's is a very difficult disease to control, and in MJ Fox's version (which begins at an early age) the progression is more rapid that with later-onset Parkinson's. It is a balancing act between enough meds (L-dopa and related/ synergistic meds) and too much meds, and eventually you get all of the side effects but very little benefit.
Quote:www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/what_levadopa_l-dopa_000051_7.htm
Within four to six years (PLEASE NOTE: MJ FOX is very definitley in this phase as he has been taking meds longer than six years) of treatment with levodopa, the effects of the drug in many patients begin to last for shorter periods of time (called the wearing-off effect) and the following pattern may occur:
* Patients may first notice slowness (bradykinesia) or tremor in the morning before the next dose is due.
* Less commonly, some experience painful dystonia, muscle spasms that can cause sustained contortions of various parts of the body, particularly the neck, jaw, trunk, and eyes and possibly the feet.
* Patients must increase the frequency of levodopa doses. This puts them at risk for dyskinesia (the inability to control muscles), which usually occurs when the drug level peaks. Dyskinesia can take many forms, most often uncontrolled flailing of the arms and legs or chorea, rapid and repetitive motions that can affect the limbs, face, tongue, mouth, and neck. Dyskinesia is not painful, but it is very distressing.
* In some people, eventually L-dopa is effective only for one to two hours and most patients start to experience motor fluctuations. In about 15% to 20% of patients such fluctuations become extreme, a phenomenon known as the on-off effect , which consists of unpredictable, alternating periods of dyskinesia and immobility. Sometimes the symptoms switch back in forth within minutes or even seconds.
I know from personal experience what happens and I have heard many times about the difficulty of controlling Parkinson's. What you saw was the appalling truth of end-stage Parkinson's. Eventually, MJ's condition will get WORSE, not better. Eventually (and probably in the not-too-distant future- most likely within a year or two) MJ will die a horrible death. He's not faking his disease, he's just not hiding it.
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Stop running from the truth.
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SIGNYM.....I'm more than educated enough for this debate. This has NOTHING to do w/ MJ Fox and the severity of his disease. That's what is so damn infuriating about this, is that everybody who doesn't listen to Rush has it WRONG. I listened to Rush, I know what he said, what his arguments were.
I've already posted the main point twice, so I feel little need to do so again. But I'll repeat. Rush wasn't making fun of , trying to intimate that MJF isn't really that sick, or any of that. What Rush did was correctly point out that MJF actively has, in the past, adjusted his medication doses for the specific purpose of showing people what Parkinson's DOES to those who are affected by it .
And SIGNYM, I don't know why you're attempting to split hairs here, per my comment of 'medical', or 'stem cell' research. It SHOULD have been understood, with the topic we're discussing, that I meant EMBRYONIC STEM CELL research. And where you lose your bet is that not only did I specifically answer you, but you also go the point of the matter wrong!
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Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope.
This is line from the ad is a flat out lie. I don't know any other way to put it. All the research and treatment that has shown promise has come from ADULT stem cells, while NOTHING of use in the form of treatment has come from EMBRYONIC stem cells. There in lies the point. Embryonic vs adult stem cell research. The idea of spending federal $$ for the harvesting of embryos for stem cell research is what the GOP is against. California, on the other hand, HAS allowed for STATE moneies (raised by state taxes) to be allocated for exactly this purpose.
Sorry, SIG, but the House wins this one.
People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
What Rush did was correctly point out that MJ Fox DID indeed alter his medication so as to appear worse while testifying in front of Congress. Fox admitted to doing exactly that, and for the specific purpose of showing folks what the disease is doing to him.
And what is wrong with showing Congrees exactly what the effects of the disease are? If Congress is to make an informed decision about whether or not to fund embryonic stem cell research, then it would stand to reason that they should know what happens to people who are medicated and those that are not medicated. As you noted, Fox did not try and conceal that he was not on medication, so that he could indeed show people what the disease is doing to him.
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But what he DIDN'T do was fess up to his audience that he altered his meds for this display.
If you mean by altering his medication that he actually took it, then yes you are right. But here is the problem. Fox stated in his interview with Katie Couric that if he was not medicated, at this stage of the disesase, he would no longer be able to speak.
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But none of that was the point of Rush's issue w/ MJ Fox or his meds.
If it was not Rush's point, then why did he go on and on about it?
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It has to do with the underlying implication of the DNC ads which falsly try to paint the GOP as being against a cure for such diseases as Parkinsons and Alzheimers.
The majority of Republicans in both Congress and in the current administration are against funding for embryonic stem cell research. This is not an implication; it is a fact. I will grant that the majority of Republican voters would like to see federal funding; however, the people they have elected are too busy pandering to the religious Right. As a result, Bush vetoed the legislation that passed both houses of Congress, and would have provided funding for the necessary research.
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Rush responded to Fox's ( and the DNC's ) purely political ad, because that's how politics works. Parkinson's diseas does not grant Mr Fox or anyone a shield against other's answering their unfounded accusations. Just as Cindy Sheehan is not granted immunity from those to counter her anti - Bush rhetoric simply because her son died in Iraq. If their positions have any merrit, then the facts, and not pure sentimentality, will be what gather's the most attention.
Yes. It is a political ad. To receive federal funding, you need politicians, specifically politicans who support funding the research. What is wrong with that? And, yes, it would not grant Fox a shield against answering questions. But Rush was not asking questions. He was too busy doing impersonations of Fox and accusing him of lying about his condition. As for the merit of their argument, the American public overwhelmingly supports federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and the scientists performing the research believe that it may potentially yield cures for numerous diseases. I would say there is some merit in that.
The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
-Bertrand Russell
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