Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
“If you’re so smart, how come you’re not rich?” Somehow the opposite formulation comes to mind when Mike Bloomberg makes the news.
Pej has already dealt with the mayor’s command to reduce the number of painkillers hospitals hand out, but I can’t resist the opportunity to point out the ROOM TO LET sign hanging in the window of Hizzoner’s upper floors. I am not objective on the matter. Just consumed a Vicodin smoothie to quiet the shrieks of some aggravated nerve-endings. If I was in favor of the Bloomberg approach to pill control, I would be a Voice that Needs to be Heard, but since I’m opposed, I’m anecdotal chaff. Well, decide for yourself, to use a phrase that makes the Mayor roll his eyes.
Here’s the quote from a story about his response to those idiots who didn’t roll over and present their belly when he decided that prescription bottles are now the “large capacity magazines” of the war on drugs.
“The city hospitals we control, so … we’re going to do it and we’re urging all of the other hospitals to do it, voluntary guidelines. Somebody said, oh, somebody wrote, ‘Oh then maybe there won’t be enough painkillers for the poor who use the emergency rooms as their primary care doctor,’” the mayor said on his weekly radio show with John Gambling.
He’s making it sound like a supply problem, as though hospitals will be unable to provide painkillers, not unwilling. No one believes that, because it doesn’t make sense. “Sorry, ever since we stopped giving so many, we ran out earlier.” Uh huh. The argument he’s attempting to rephrase is “the poor won’t be given as many pills if you tell the doctors they shouldn’t be given as many pills.” That’s what will happen, because they are wards of the state and hence can be treated like property.
Bloomberg bats those objectives away like gnats fluttering over his cold cream jar:
“Number one, there’s no evidence of that. Number two, supposing it is really true, so you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit.”
Stop right there. Picture Mayor Bloomberg enduring “suffering” for a “a little bit” when remedial measures were right at hand, and denying himself surcease on behalf of a greater social good.
Wipe away the bitter tears of laughter, friend, and continue:
“The other side of the coin is people are dying and there’s nothing perfect …”
Actually, my lord, I’m not expecting perfectibility in the human condition, what with our manifold fallibilities inherent in the post-lapsarian state, but “people are dying” is both obvious and irrelevant. Yes, people get hooked on prescription drugs, but - and this is crucial, sire, so pay heed - the process of denying me the pill to quiet my shrieking tooth will not unhook anyone. If you believe that unused medicine in my possession will somehow escape my control and hook someone who will then die, make the assertion - but to quote one of the solons you admire most, “number one, there’s no evidence of that.”
The quote concludes:
“There’s nothing that you can possibly do where somebody isn’t going to suffer, and it’s always the same group [claiming], ‘Everybody is heartless.’ Come on, this is a very big problem.”
I swear, if he accompanied Dorothy and crew to Oz, the Wizard would look him and say “Fresh out of brains and hearts, son, try later.”
What does this mean? “There’s nothing you can possibly do where somebody isn’t going to suffer.” Rubbish on the face of it, but also cold: he compares the suffering of someone who has a legitimate need for the pill with someone who suffers because he’s addicted. In his mind they’re equal - not because he’s thought the issue through at all, but because he has unconsciously adapted the mealy pieties of the opioid apologists.
“It’s always the same group claiming ‘Everybody is heartless.”
Incoherent and sloppy: everybody? Who’s this “same group?” I suspect they come under the heading of “People who do not snap to attention when Mayor Bloomberg blows his whistle, the little silver one he got as a young boy and used to make the servants miserable because he told on them if they didn’t come right away and they got docked in their pay and ha ha that showed them all right.” That group.
“Come on, this is a very big problem.” Defining it as such trumps arguments to the contrary, apparently.
He also said this, which sums up his ability to find peril in the recesses of your medicine cabinet as well as your fridge:
“If you get 20 days worth of pills and you only need them three days, there’s 17 days sitting there. Invariably some of the kids are going to find them, or you’re going to take them and get you addicted.”
Invariably. These are the only two possible outcomes. As it happens, I had a bottle with 17 days or so of Vicodin sitting in my drawer for a year. Some of The Kids did not find them. I never took them and did not get addicted. Doesn't matter: invariably.
So there. Hand over your pills.
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Comments:
Feb '11
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
The sooner this statist clown is out of office, the better. I truly do not understand why New Yorkers put up with his nannying schtick.
Apr '12
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
It is "invariably" the case that liberals are unable to appreciate unintended consequences, but Bloomberg doesn't have much success with obvious or intended consequences either.
Jun '10
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
Bloomberg is yet another pathological personality who has made his way into politics. It doesn't take a shrink to recognize megalomania in its advanced stages, but that's pretty much the sum of it. The mayor is literally diseased and should be removed from office on psychiatric grounds. Why voters put up with insanity in office is another question altogether.
May '11
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
Generally this is the problem with representitive democracy. Those who seek office are generally those who shouldn't be let anywhere near the levers of power. That is true of the vast majority of our Federal elected officials, Republican and Democrat. The Framers were wise in wanting a limited Federal government for just that reason.
Bloomberg is an example of the disease at even the mayoral level.
Edited on January 15, 2013 at 5:35pmSep '10
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
I'd like to extend Mike Bloomberg's analogy to the debt ceiling discussions. I don't think the American people should have such access to debt to avoid getting them addicted like our chain smoking, big spending Hawaiian Heinz 57 stater in chief is.
Jan '12
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
Brilliant dismemberment of the stream of wishful consciousness line of argument so prevalent in liberal thought circles - and yes, Bloomberg is a quintessential liberal politician. Their wishes father their thoughts - alas substance seldom catches up.
May '10
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
This is our future under state-run healthcare. If in 20 years us commoners can wrangle a warm, clean place to die with adequate painkillers to help us get through it, we will be very lucky indeed.
The Bloombergs, Obamas, Pelosis, Reeds, Boehners, Cantors, Gregorys, &tc. Will have access to pain relief in whatever quantity, of whatever description, whenever and wherever they want it.
When the state provides, you get what some bureaucrat decides you're going to get.
Apr '12
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
Another factor ignored by Bloomberg and his ilk is that people vary widely in their ability to tolerate pain.
I've always had an incredibly high tolerance for pain; I could probably undergo most minor surgeries with little or no anesthesia. When I had my wisdom teeth out I took plain old Tylenol for one afternoon and that was that.
On the other hand, I've known people who are in agony for days from a muscle pull or a minor (never mind major) surgery if they don't have serious pain meds.
So to opine that one person will "get 20 days worth of pills and . . . only need them three days" is utter one-size-fits-all garbage from a physiological standpoint. Someone like me might need one (or no) pills; someone else might need all twenty (and yet not be an addict, imagine that).
Violating personal liberty, common sense, and basic physiological principles all in one swell foop--take a bow, Mr. Bloomberg! You're a talented tyrant, you rascal you!
Mar '11
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
Frankly, I suspect they are already taking a lot of painkillers. The presence of large quantities of opiates in their systems would certainly go a long way towards explaining their behavior.
Nov '11
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
So, when government owns the hospitals, government officials with no medical training can dictate the medications administered to patients. Sounds great. Where do I sign up? Oh. Nevermind. I've already been signed up. Obamacare.
May '10
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
Whatever happened to keeping "private medical decisions between a patient and [her] doctor"? Guess that's only in effect for one medical procedure ...
Nov '11
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
Interesting point. Politically connected people and procedures will have priority under politically-driven medical care.
Apr '11
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
It boggles my mind how this guy keeps getting re-elected. Are there no better alternatives in NYC? Or do New Yorkers actually want a mayor who wants to regulate how much/many baby formula, pain pills, salt, soda, etc. they can have? Is it right that a city chooses one model of car that can be used for taxis in the future? That this is the location of the Statue of Liberty is a sick joke. Either relocate it or rename it Statue of Obedience.
Apr '12
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
James Lileks
Invariably. These are the only two possible outcomes. As it happens, I had a bottle with 17 days or so of Vicodin sitting in my drawer for a year. Some of The Kids did not find them. I never took them and did not get addicted. Doesn't matter:invariably.
And yet, not only have said kids not materialized in my house-- in spite of still having some pills from my first c-section that I keep forgetting to drop at the police station's "save our waterways" pill drop-- I haven't been tempted to take one of them, either. Somehow, anything less than being gutted just isn't bad enough.
Perhaps not everyone is as easily addicted to zombiehood as the mayor, or whoever he's basing is notion off of?
Feb '12
Re: Everyone Agrees it's a Problem and Something Must Be Done
Foxfier
...
Perhaps not everyone is as easily addicted to zombiehood as the mayor, or whoever he's basing is notion off of? · 11 hours ago
I believe it's called projection.
I bet that somewhere in the mansion (does he live in the Mayor's official residence, Gracie Mansion?) he calls home Hizzoner has his own personal salt lick, a 55 gallon drum of Coke, and a Pez dispenser filled with Vicodin.
Methinks he doth protest too much, about everything.