Are we wimps or just getting old?

[Chuck H]

Modern Medicine; With Insurance companies, drug manufacturers, The Surgeon General, The ACA, and The FDA controlling things, We're all kinda fucked. Do you know how many people are walking around out there addicted to psychotropic drugs, and pain killers? The system is broken. It's been designed to make the rich richer instead of putting patients first.

Ok. Anyone tired of my nutjob conspiracy antics can skip this post.

The top one percent ("they"/"them") have been making their money on oil for a long time. The power of this commodity is so great that we're only now starting to get serious about alternatives. But not entirely because oil=bad. Mostly it's because we're running out of oil. We're hitting our reserves now. I've read a few different estimates but there's some solid evidence to support the possibility that we'll only have oil as a fuel staple for another forty or fifty years. So what's a top oner to do? Just let the gravy train stop? Invest in the same stuff as the ordinary rich? Nah.

How about we just fix the game so that all manor of awful pharmaceuticals can be approved that never could be before? Then we can pump up the drug and chemical companies to empower them. Play it right and we can gather a captive demographic to hold us up through this oil crisis. If we can bamboozle and even addict enough commoners we'll have a steady draw to line our pockets with money that we trade their health for. Brilliant!

Certainly everyone has noticed the glut of pharmaceutical advertising on TV that never use to be there. Al of them with more side affects, user particulars and serious health risks than whatever they're meant to treat. My doctor should know what to do for me if I have something obscure like "restless leg syndrome". Now I can see the ad, decide for myself if I have it and then ask my doctor to scrip me the pills that sexy girl on the TV was taking. Really? How do we not see through this?

Ok, I'm done for now.

[John_H]

If you don't find this scary, you must be on Abilify.

Last month, the news broke that the anti-psychotic Abilify, thanks in part to direct marketing to consumers for depression, has become the best-selling drug in the United States, raking in roughly $7 billion a year. Yet as Jay Michaelson in The Daily Beast pointed out recently, no one's sure how it may achieve its purported effects as an "augmented" treatment for depression.

Abilify Is Top-Selling U.S. Drug -- But New Reports Question Long-Term Antipsychotic Use, Cite Need for Personalized Services | Art Levine

[Justin Thomas]

Back in a past life when I worked in a pharmacy, a patient was having an allergic reaction to something in a drug. Not the active ingredient, but one of the others. After acfew hours on the phone, pharmacist gets a REAL list of ingredients from the manufacturer. You know, the inserts that are written in microfilm-size print on a 36"x36" map-foldout piece of tissue paper that nobody ever reads, including pharmacists. Hey, whad'ya know? Chock full o' petrochemicals & petroleum distillates and other nasties. Yum! Look, I know it adds up to pretty tiny quantities, but last time I checked ingesting ANY quantities of petroleum products is unhealthy. Considering some people take 20+ meds, it adds up.

I made a constant effort to forget details, because I have the kind of memory where if I ended up in a bar with a pitcher, well, HIPAA goes bye-bye. Working there largely influenced me to quit drinking so much.

So, it's worse than you fear, Chuck! >:O

Justin

[olddawg]

I'm old 60 and the world has changed. I have played plenty of gigs, including the HOB, with a 5 watt Epi Valve Jr and a 2x12" open back cab and and an OD pedal. And... Still had to use an Weber attenuator.The sound man talkback......, "Dude... That has to come down!" Sometimes I can get away with an 18 watt Marshall or a DR. Most of the "younger" bands I see are using SS amps and are more concerned with "patches". Truthfully.. I like to keep the stage volume down, hear the vocals, not have my ears ring, and not lift dinosaur gear. But, if I have someone else to lift it, there's still nothing like a wall of dimed amps in a large or outdoor venue.

[Chuck H]

I had a side gig with a friend that did coffee houses. I used a little 2xel84 Mesa combo that did double duty as my chair. I remember a light hearted feeling that came with knowing I didn't have to move all the big stuff. I won't say I had more fun at those shows, but I had fewer head and body aches.

[tedmich]

and this guy plays with ear muffs on, too bad he doesn't bring one for each audience member...

its all marketing, bedroom players are constantly wondering how to get their 120w/412 beast to sound decent without breaking the windows,

an venues want cheap loud PA's run by stoned non GEDs

"Rated Watts 2ch x 2 ohms: 1750 watts 20ms repetitive burst / 1450 watts 1% THD both ch. driven @ 1kHz"
ouch