“Part of my job, I think, as president, is to make government cool again.”
– Barack Obama, September 11, 2008.
News item, August 6, 2008:
Pending OMB approval, the [Food and Drug Administration] would create a phony blood pressure pill, then run ads touting its benefits and risks in various ways, and finally test consumer responses to the ads.
At a May hearing, the House Energy and Commerce Committee heard Duke researcher Ruth Day explain exactly how this works regarding the Schering-Plough allergy spray Nasonex (shown).
When the narrator described the drug’s benefits, the bee hovered on the screen, but when side-effects were mentioned it flew about to distract viewers’ attention, she said.
Could we get a government that focuses a little less on being “cool” and a little more on “hey, is chasing down the hypnotic effects of the Nasonex Bee a good way to spend the taxpayers’ money?”