TWO QUOTES
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." Winston Churchill
"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment...But I also know, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times." Thomas Jefferson
These two quotes came from a book I'm reading by Alan Dershowitz called Finding Jefferson. The Churchill quote made me laugh out loud, though there is a poignant, tragic element to the truth of it.
Wish truth were as easy to spread as lies, don't you?
The second quote is one of the biggest reasons I admire one of our founding fathers and wish that I could sit down with him in some quiet Parisian cafe and talk.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Yesterday I finished a book I checked out of the library last weekend, Our Daily Meds by Melody Petersen. Fascinating and infuriating stuff, and I heartily recommend it for anyone who would even consider taking pharmaceutical drugs, or even for anyone who ever considers going to the doctor. I bless Ms. Petersen for the courage to inform the public. She did extensive research to write this book, and I'm grateful to her for doing the hard work it involved.
The book's subtitle, How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs indicates the tone of the text, but there's even more to it than that. More that will make you think more than twice about what you put into your body and how much you trust an industry that now controls a lot more than you would expect of how doctors are trained, the way they diagnose illness, the way they prescribe methodologies of treatment.
You can find it at Powell's here.
Copyright 2008 Melissa LaFavers