Rapid Fire Shorters

Megan uses too many words, I'm going to try not to.

A Rambling Response on Obesity:

Last week, Ezra Klein accused me of not having talked to more than a handful of obesity experts. Alas, had he done a little googling, he could easily have discovered that I was interviewing public health experts about obesity back when he was, by my count, finishing up Freshman comp.

Ahhhhhh, the shallow but genuine pleasure received from watching people you don't like and who used to be friends argue. I wonder what the word for it is in German.
You know how the rest goes. Megan tries to use the vocab of a topic she has no actual understanding of and cover up that non-understanding with a torrent of words. Ezra isn't going to respond because no one will ever read everything she wrote there. It boils down to "don't change things".

Just Say No to . . . Drug Companies?:

Update: Once published, I realized that the tone was a little snottier than I meant it to be. So apologies to both Ezra and Dr. Avorn, assuming that they read this, for my over-the-top sarcasm. I don't retract any of the arguments, but I wish I'd made them a little more temperately.

The 'argument'? Basically there's no way the system could adjust to the shock of executives and marketing departments not being quite as motivated to try to monetize the work of actual scientists. Can you imagine, medicine being produced without assholes who have nothing to do with it getting rich and taking all the credit?

Dialogue: Ellen Ruppel Shell on Our Obsession With Cheap:
There's a line here that deserves special attention:

The reason wages in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and so on are so low is that there are millions of such people on the farm who would be happy to work in a garment factory or assembly plant.

You see, the whole concept that sweatshop labor often involves deceptive recruiting and charging as much or more for housing and food than they pay for labor in order to entrap the workers is... something Megan pretends doesn't exist. The idea in her head is too pretty, she won't let reality soil it.

To DJ or Not to DJ:

This post, in a nutshell, is why anyone I marry has to also want Elvis to marry us in Vegas. Fat, almost dead Elvis. If possible, zombie Elvis.

The Abolition of Medicare:

Mark Kleiman suggests that Democrats start implying that Republicans want to abolish Medicare. This is a rather common trope among Democrats. But in this case, I don't think it will work.
But in this case, given that Barack Obama actually has proposed substantial changes to Medicare, including a commission in charge of restricting treatments (your belief that we should restrict those treatments is rather beside the point), this doesn't seem like a winning issue for the Democrats. Well informed seniors--the sort who follow these debates--are aware that Medicare is unsustainable, and presumably the reason so many of them oppose health care change is that think that expanding coverage will simply hasten the day of reckoning. Bringing up abolishing Medicare simply reminds them of this point.

People who agree with Megan will agree with her. Those who aren't well informed and think that Republicans are opposed to the very idea of Medicare just because Republicans are opposed to the very idea of Medicare don't matter, because.... umm, I plain don't know. I can't even snark Megan's thinking here, it's too stupid. Oppose health care reform so you can help Republicans save Medicare!

Interesting Megan is staying quiet about the teabaggers being so very civil and constructive with their bused in astroturf opposition to health care reform. I wonder if that means Peter is consulting on it.