Summary Tue 5/3/94
John Switzer
for Tuesday, May 3, 1994
by John Switzer
This unofficial summary is copyright (c) 1994 by John Switzer.
All Rights Reserved. These summaries are distributed on
CompuServe and the Internet, and archived on CompuServe (DL9 of
the ISSUES forum) and Internet (cathouse.org and
grind.isca.uiowa.edu). WWW users can access
http://neptune.corp.harris.com/rush.html The /pub/jrs directory
at ftp.netcom.com contains the summaries for the past 30 days.
Distribution to other electronic forums and bulletin boards is
highly encouraged. Spelling and other corrections gratefully received.
Please read the standard disclaimer which was included with the
first summary for this month. In particular, please note that
this summary is not approved or sanctioned by Rush Limbaugh or
the EIB network, nor do I have any connection with them other
than as a daily listener.
*************************************************************
May 3, 1994
BRIEF SUMMARY OF TOPICS: GAO report finds White House firing of
the travel office staff to be justified; FDA approves use of
Prozac for bulimia; NAACP protests ending segregation in
Mississippi; Clinton hires Bob Bennett as criminal lawyer to
handle Paula Jones' accusations of sexual harassment; Jack
Kevorkian acquitted of violating Michigan's assisted suicide law;
jurors in Kevorkian trial have amazing things to say; Rush and
callers discuss merits of assisted suicide; Rush and callers
discuss merits of Attention Deficit Disorder; Surgeon General
Joycelyn Elders likes Eric Clackner; psychiatrist discusses ADD
and use of drugs on children; Rush considered but rejected taking
Prozac in last half of 1993; EIB's soap opera, "The Moral
Compass"; parents are telling kids to act crazy so that they
could collect "Crazy Checks"; Clinton to hold global town meeting
on foreign policy issues; Koko the gorilla is in no mood for
love; caller theorizes that James Carville has ADD; are Democrats
using single-payer health care plans to make Hillary's plan look good?
LIMBAUGH WATCH
May 3, 1994 - It's now (allegedly) day 469 (day 488 for the rich
and the dead) of "America Held Hostage" (aka the "Raw Deal") and
546 days after Bill Clinton's election, but Rush is still on the
air with 640 radio affiliates (with more than 22 million
listeners weekly world-wide), 234 TV affiliates (with a national
rating of 3.7), and a newsletter with over 440,000 subscribers.
His first book was on the NY Times hardback non-fiction
best-seller list for 54 consecutive weeks, with 2.6 million
copies sold, but fell off the list after Simon and Schuster
stopped printing it. The paperback version of "The Way Things
Ought To Be" has been on the NY Times paperback non-fiction
best-seller list for 28 weeks. Rush's second book, "See, I Told
You So," was on the NY Times best-seller list for 16 weeks and
has sold over 2 million copies.
NEWS
o White House Communications Director David Gergen yesterday
released a statement saying that the General Accounting Office's
investigation into the White House's firing of the White House
Travel Office staff in early 1993 "confirms the conclusions
reached by the White House Travel Office Management Review,
issued by the Chief of Staff on July 2, 1993."
According to Gergen's statement, the GAO report found that "the
FBI and IRS officials' actions during the period surrounding the
removal of the Travel Office employees were reasonable and
consistent with the agencies' normal procedures." Furthermore,
Gergen states that there was "no evidence that White House staff
made any contact with the IRS about the Travel Office matter."
However, "some white House officials' actions in conveying to the
FBI officials a sense of urgency and high level interest in the
matter created an appearance of inappropriate White House
pressure." At the time of the incident, it was reported that
White House officials had told the FBI that if they did not begin
an investigation into alleged accounting abuses and mismanagement
at the Travel Office, the IRS would be called in.
Even so, though, the GAO report indicated that the White House's
concerns about mismanagement of the Travel Office were justified,
as the report "found significant financial management weaknesses,
including the lack of formal guidelines and procedures for
procurement, poor accounting systems, inadequate documentation
and billing practices, and ineffective controls over cash
management."
o The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended last week
that Prozac be used to treat patients with bulimia, which is an
eating disorder that reportedly affects more than 1 million
Americans, most of them young women, each year. Prozac's maker,
Eli Lilly and Co., has reported that 17 other countries have
already approved the use of Prozac for treatment of bulimia.
LEST WE FORGET
The following are from the Rush Limbaugh show on Tuesday, May 5,
1992:
o Hillary Clinton, wife of and co-candidate with Bill Clinton,
announced she would quit three corporate boards of directorship
because her husband's campaign was taking up too much time. Rush
noted, however, that nothing was being said about "conflict of
interest" or the "appearance of impropriety."
Hillary Clinton was giving up seats on the boards of Walmart,
TCBY Enterprises, and LaFarge Corp, from which she earned $60,000
in 1991, in addition to her $100,000 income from the Rose law
firm.
o In the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, there were numerous
calls for more money being spent on domestic programs. USA Today
had the headline "In Riots' Wake, New Calls for Domestic
Spending," and NYC school superintendent Joe Fernandez claimed
that people were filled with hopelessness because the country was
not spending enough money on education. However, California was
spending $5400 per student, and this was scheduled to go up to
$6000 per student in 1993.
Rush also found it interesting that when black leaders, Bill
Clinton, or Mario Cuomo blamed the LA riots on Reagan and Bush,
they were never criticized for "politicizing the issue." However,
should George Bush or Marlin Fitzwater put the blame on the
failed, liberal social policies of the 60s and 70s, the press was
right there to claim that Bush was playing politics.
And then on CNBC, Ron Walters of Howard University claimed that
"public policy is what liberates people." Walters denounced
conservatism as the enemy and insisted that government action is
what frees people. Walters also echoed the words of Jesse Jackson
by saying he was tired of hearing the terms "hooligans and thugs"
being used for the rioters.
Bill Tatum, publisher of the Amsterdam News, calculated that
"each blow to Rodney King cost $27 million in damage," and then
claimed that "you can only get Bush's attention with money."
o California state senator Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) called for
a state-wide, "temporary" quarter of a cent tax increase to pay
for the damage caused by the LA riots. Critics attacked the
proposal saying that California sales taxes were already among
the highest in the nation (about 8%), and that a higher sales tax
would only hurt the state economy, which was something the state
couldn't afford, given that its deficit was already $10 billion.
o Washington, DC gave its city employees the day off so that they
could "ponder" the King verdict.
o Iraq requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting to
investigate "suffering, persecution, and oppression" in the
aftermaths of the Los Angeles riots. Iraq complained that the US
response to the riots violated the UN Charter and declarations
about human rights, saying that the US's response was no
different than how Hussein treated the Kurds. Rush recalled that
Jesse Jackson once called on the UN to investigate why
Washington, DC was not a state.
o Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) told Rush that the Justice Department
intended to vigorously prosecute the rioters, looters, and other
criminals who participated in the LA riots. Hate crime laws would
be used against these criminals, as well as against the four
police officers who beat Rodney King.
o Allen Greenspan on a PBS program pointed out that 43% of the
GNP was going to pay taxes, and he warned that this level of
taxation would start to change a free enterprise system into a
socialist system.
o Rush announced that Snapple would soon be in all 50 states by
October, 1992. Bill Clinton's state, Arkansas, however, would be
the last state to get the drink.
o The Washington Post had an in-depth story about Ross Perot and
called his appearance on Meet the Press a "campaign outing."
Perot reportedly was asked what he would have done as President
about the riots, and he answered that he would first fly out to
Los Angeles so that he could "smell and taste" the situation. He
would then call the Attorney General and "have him file a civil
suit immediately."
o "Another EIB affiliate is turning 300 today," stated Rush. He
took another look at the sheet and corrected himself - EIB's
300th affiliate, KOB in Albuquerque, NM was 70 years old.
o A survey said Americans were "too stressed out" because they
had to continually prove their worth each day on the job. Rush
was not impressed by the study, but the EIB staff took the news
to heart, eagerly seeking to "prove themselves" by repeatedly
asking Rush if there was anything that they could do for him.
o The Bush administration was reportedly considering a plan that
would allow the Spotted Owl to die off in certain parts of
Washington state in an attempt to keep the loss timber jobs in
the region below the 30,000 level. The owl would remain protected
in other parts of Washington, as well as in Oregon and
California. Rush noted that this would normally be good news, but
the administration's resolve in facing off the environmentalists
was suspect, given that this information was provided by an aide
to Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) who insisted on anonymity.
o Officials in Willoughby, OH put out an All Points Bulletin on a
deer that ran over a woman as she was getting out of her car. The
local news story reported the story as "perhaps tired of hearing
about too many kin killed by cars, a deer took matters into its
own hands, or hooves, and ran over a woman getting out of her car
in a Willoughby parking lot." Rush wondered if Disney would
respond to this by coming out with the movie "Bambi Rebels." He
regretted that Hitchcock was no longer around to do a sequel to
his thriller "The Birds," but this one being titled "The Deer."
********
MORNING UPDATE
In Jackson, MS, about ten thousand protestors marched last
weekend in support of segregated schools. However, unlike the
civil rights battles of 30 years ago, there was no southern
governor demanding segregation nor were cops beating up the
protestors. Instead, it was Ben Chavis, executive director of the
NAACP, who was urging the protestors to "hold the line" and not
give up the fight to keep schools segregated.
The protestors were angry that the state college board is
planning to shut down a college that's been traditionally black
so as to merge its operations with a traditionally white college;
in short, the state board was planning to integrate the two
schools. The board decided on this action because of a 1975
lawsuit claiming that students at state-run black schools weren't
getting equal opportunities.
Ben Chavis, though, opposes the state's attempt to end this
"separate and unequal" situation, and he told protestors "it's
ironic to witness the dismantlement of apartheid in South Africa,
and here in the United States, in the southland of Mississippi,
it appears the state wants to erect a new form of apartheid."
Rush doesn't know how Chavis can come to this conclusion, given
that the state is trying to end segregation.
What's really ironic is that it's Chavis and the NAACP that are
trying to keep apartheid alive in Mississippi, and what's worse,
they are making a mockery out of the very ideals that the members
of the NAACP marched and died for three decades ago: integration.
FIRST HOUR
Items
o "There has to be some heavy-duty booty," Rush remarks, "for the
Clintons to hire Bob Bennett as their criminal attorney." Rush
heard yesterday that Bill Clinton has hired Washington's best
criminal lawyer, Bob Bennett, brother to William Bennett, to
represent him. Rush notes that Bob Bennett is not someone who's
called in to handle parking tickets or misdemeanors, but rather
is the guy you get when you're really in trouble.
"You hire Bob Bennett if you're in deep doo-doo or think you
might be," Rush explains, adding that this is why he thinks the
"booty is severe." The White House, though, is saying that the
President has hired Bennett to handle the sexual harassment
charges levied against him by Paula Corbin Jones.
The statute of limitations on these charges is due soon to
expire, perhaps this month, but Rush isn't sure of the exact
date. Rush, though, had gotten the impression that the statute of
limitations stuff didn't apply to sexual harassment charges - at
least it didn't apply when it came to Clarence Thomas and Anita
Hill, given that her charges were made ten years after the
alleged fact.
Jones, though, has come forward a lot sooner with her charges;
she claims that while she was manning the registration desk for a
convention at a Little Rock hotel in 1991, she was asked up to
then Governor Clinton's hotel suite by a state trooper. Jones
thought that this meeting concerned a possible job, but instead
when she arrived the governor allegedly asked her to perform
various sexual acts with him.
There are no witnesses to what happened inside Clinton's hotel
room, but there are many corroborating witnesses for the other
parts of Jones' story. Jones and her attorney have a press
conference scheduled Thursday to announce their intentions, and
this is evidently what motivated Bill Clinton to hire Bob
Bennett.
Bennett already is representing Harold Ickes, a top White House
staff who has been subpoenaed in the Whitewater matter by Special
Counsel Robert Fiske. Rush thinks it will be interesting to see
what happens, given that Bob Bennett is reputed to be
Washington's best criminal lawyer.
It will also be interesting to see how the feminist groups
respond should Jones bring charges to bear against the President.
The feminists all rushed to Anita Hill's defense, but will they
do the same for Paula Corbin Jones?
o Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian, was found not guilty yesterday of
violating Michigan's law banning assisted suicide. Kevorkian had
been charged with supplying Thomas Hyde, 34, with the carbon
monoxide that he used to kill himself last August, but the jury
decided that Kevorkian, who admitted doing this, was motivated
only by a desire to relieve Hyde's suffering.
Rush says he is disturbed by this decision and by what three of
the jurors in the case had to say about it. This case makes one
wonder why the prosecution allowed these obviously biased jurors
on the jury, given that their past experiences would seem to have
biased them in Kevorkian's favor.
For example, Gwen Bryson, 51, is a nurse who said "I don't
believe that the intent was to commit suicide." Another juror,
Gail Donaldson, said "I believe Kevorkian did this to relieve
this man's pain and suffering, even though it was wrong to help
someone to commit suicide. I don't feel that it is our obligation
to choose for someone else how much pain and suffering they can
go through. I do believe that an individual has to decide what
happens to their own lives and bodies, and not the government or
the legislature."
In other words, these jurors drew a distinction between
Kevorkian's "ending someone's suffering" and his killing them.
The motivation to end suffering obviously was enough for them to
believe that Kevorkian wasn't helping Hyde to commit suicide.
Yet what could the intent possible be when you administer carbon
monoxide to someone? If carbon monoxide is supposed to "relieve
pain and suffering," then why aren't doctors prescribing it all
the time? The answer is that carbon monoxide ends pain and
suffering because it kills you, so Rush has to wonder what is
going on in society.
He notes he is not going to tell someone who wants to die that
they can't kill themselves, but it is another matter to corrupt
the medical society by turning doctors into agents of death.
Thomas Hyde did not need Jack Kevorkian in order to die, yet some
jurors really did see a difference between killing someone and
"ending their pain and suffering."
The defendant admitted what he did, but the jurors were willing
to overlook it, just as other jurors were willing to overlook the
Menendez brothers' confessions that they had killed their
parents. Kevorkian, though, is not about ending pain and
suffering, but about death; he loves death and is obsessed with
it. At the National Press Club he talked about how "we must learn
to understand they dying process."
Rush has to wonder where society is going, given that a doctor
can now proudly talk about how he is killing people, and a juror
can say she doesn't believe the intent was to commit suicide. If
what happened to Hyde was not suicide, then does that mean the
dead guy really didn't want to die?
This kind of logic defies any common sense, and Rush has to ask
why society has the attitude it does now about killing. What
Kevorkian does is no different than murder, so he can't
understand why people are upset with drive-by shootings yet can
allow Kevorkian to do what he does.
*BREAK*
Rush has already played clips of the three Kevorkian jurors on
his TV show, but he also wants to replay them now. First, is Gwen
Bryson, who has a background in nursing, who said that her
background played a part in her decision to acquit Kevorkian. She
noted that she has seen a lot of suffering, "and you want to help
them, but there's nothing you can really do. And I wouldn't want
to suffer like that myself, personally."
So is the solution death? Is this the only alternative to someone
who's in pain? Even more amazing than this, though, is Anthony
Scaife:
"Well, it was like I said, it was because of the evidence and
thinking about what's happened to me personally in my life -
well, in 1973 I was pronounced clinically dead and it wasn't so
bad, I guess."
Thus, this juror doesn't think death is so bad because he was
clinically dead once himself. Does this guy not think death is
permanent? Another nurse, Gail Donaldson, said:
"The whole trial was very emotional for me. I've had a terminally
ill sister and a father, who I took care of from 1975 to 1989,
and it was just emotional. It brought back the memories, and like
I said, I had to take care of my father almost by myself."
Does this mean this woman would have preferred not to take care
of her father, perhaps by having Kevorkian come over and help her
father "end his suffering"? Is this the reason assisted suicide
should be allowed - so that people don't have to care for their
relatives for 14 years? Should this selfishness really be the
motivation for allowing doctors to kill?
Phone David from Washington, DC
David says that while Jack Kevorkian is giving these people the
means of suicide, this is not the same as assisting them with
those suicides. David doesn't agree with what Kevorkian is doing,
but it seems to him that there is a thin line that's being
crossed here.
He adds that in his work he deals with medical people, and they
sometimes have to bring people back from supposed death; the line
between not resuscitating someone and between handing them a
canister of gas is very thin. However, even so, David has to
wonder how society is evolving given that it seems to have a
desire for assisted suicide.
Rush says this is a great point, especially in the context of the
Clinton health care plan. If such a plan is implemented, it's
inevitable that health care will be rationed, and the United
States government will be deciding who lives and who dies. The
country is thus setting the stage right now in getting people
comfortable with the idea that patients should be `allowed' to
die.
Right now the patients are willing and able to speak for
themselves. Yet, what will happen in a few years, when society
gets comfortable with doctors helping to push a patient over the
edge? It will only be a matter of time before someone decides
that this or that patient is too old or too feeble to warrant any
further care, and so that person will die, too, regardless of
their own wishes.
What Kevorkian is doing is just the first step towards having the
medical community decide who dies, and it's all happening because
the country is losing its respect for life.
*BREAK*
Phone Mark from Boston, MA
Mark thinks that assisted suicide should be okay if there is a
legitimate need; is anyone really guilty of a crime if they show
someone else how to use a gun? What Mark is concerned about,
though, is that this leaves open the door to some people deciding
that others should die.
Rush says that Kevorkian himself is obsessed with death, and he
seeks out those who want to die - not all his patients are
terminally ill. His first patient, for example, had Alzheimer's,
and it's doubtful that had Kevorkian not hooked her up to his
poison machine that she would have killed herself.
Mark says that this brings up another question - whether the
patient is competent to choose death. Rush says that even if the
patient is competent, they should be the ones to kill themselves;
the medical community should not start killing people, nor should
society be celebrating these deaths.
Rush adds that this growing loss of respect for the sanctity of
life can be traced to many antecedents, proving that such things
are never the solution to a problem, but instead create a host of
new problems. And once national health care is implemented, in
whatever form, government can start demanding that everyone
follow its behavioral standards, with those refusing to do so
being penalized by being denied treatments.
Then government will start deciding whose life is worthy of being
saved; the government and its bureaucrats will be making these
decisions, not the patients. Mark says that the experience other
countries have had with euthanasia has shown how it can be
misused and abused, which is what he is most concerned about.
It's one thing to show someone how to kill themselves, but
another to "help" them. Rush says that killing oneself is not
really that hard - if people want to die from carbon monoxide
poisoning, all they need is a car, a hose, and a garage.
Rush is not trying to keep people from killing themselves, but
does think that those who want to commit suicide should do it
themselves (or find a family member to help and willing to stand
trial). What they do not have any right to do is to corrupt the
medical field by turning doctors into killers and by making death
the latest medical specialty.
Should anyone who is depressed be allowed to show up at a
doctor's office to get a pain-free exit from life? Is this the
type of medical service people want from their medical community?
Phone P.J. from Richmond, VA
P.J. notes that when a caller yesterday gave Rush a test for
Attention Deficit Disorder, he took it along with Rush and he
failed, just as Rush did; thus, all his failings and problems
really are not his fault - he's just got a disease. Rush notes
that he's getting complaint letters at a record pace over the ADD
issue; these aren't hate letters, though, because each person
starts off by saying how much they love Rush. However, there is a
thinly veiled threat that Rush had better get up to speed on this
issue or else.
Rush, however, has been working to educate himself on this issue,
and he'll be talking to a psychiatrist later today about the
subject. He notes, though, that while there are many doctors who
firmly believe that ADD is a true disease, there are many others
who think it's a scam.
ADD, which was first diagnosed in 1981, supposedly has the
following symptoms: nervous, twitchy feet; an inability to stay
seated for long periods; and an inability to listen to entire
conversations without your attention being diverted elsewhere.
Doctors who believe in ADD even admit these symptoms can be
indicative of other problems, which is why they insist that only
thorough psychological testing and examination can discover what
is truly causing these symptoms.
However, between 1975 and today, special education ("the little
yellow bus") has grown from 2% to 26% of public school rolls, yet
other countries have figures from 1 to 3%. In 1974, Ridalin use
was 61% adult and 39% school-age children; by 1986, though,
ridalin was prescribed 72% of the time for children and only 28%
for adults. And curiously, there are 7 to 10 boys diagnosed with
ADD for every girl.
ADD is treated with ridalin, which is a Schedule 2 drug, as are
morphine, cocaine, amphetamines, and heroin. Schedule 2 drugs, as
might be expected, have a high potential for misuse and for
addiction. Of all the ridalin prescribed in 1990, 75% was
prescribed in the U.S. Finally, statistics show that none of
America's major western competitors recognize ADD as a disease.
*BREAK*
At Lincoln Center last night, there was a rock-and-roll benefit
for the Martelle Foundation, with Eric Clapton as the headliner.
Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders was at the evening, and in true
Elders fashion delivered the following wonderful observation:
"I've heard Eric Clackner, but I was . . . I think it was a
wonderful thing that Eric Clackner the musician is putting on
this event for the Martelle Foundation in support of Leukemia,
AIDS, and cancer. So I think that's really the wonderful part
about it, but listen . . . I like Eric Clapner!"
Rush recalls that Elders is also the woman who suggested that
"safer guns and safer bullets" were needed to cut down on
violence. He replays Elders' soundbite, noting that she is
obviously a "huge Eric Clapner fan," and probably likes his
version of the classic "Lyla." In honor of the nation's
distinguished Surgeon General, Rush plays some classic Clapner
music from his album "Clapner," including "Lyla" and "After
Eleven."
Phone Chris from Grand Rapids, MI
Chris doesn't agree with what Jack Kevorkian is doing, and
suspects that Kevorkian does a lot to persuade his victims to
kill themselves. He thinks there is a lack of respect for life
towards in all this.
Rush says his main point is that society is allowing this stuff
to happen, as proven by the comments made by the jurors in the
recent trial. He doesn't doubt that those who chose to die did
make that decision, but he is concerned about how all of this is
proceeding and the effect it will have on society.
Chris agrees, but thinks that the Netherlands' euthanasia program
is superior to any other country's; a physician studies the
patient for some time before coming to any conclusion about
whether the person is just depressed or actually "needs to die."
He doubts that Kevorkian is as thorough.
Rush finds Chris's choice of words in this - "needs to die" - to
be interesting, and this goes to the center of his concern about
whether the medical community should have the job of deciding
whether someone "needs to die." Rush thanks Chris for calling and
notes that he's been talking about these basic issues for six
years, and it all comes down to America's view of life and
respect for it.
*BREAK*
Phone Bob from Sacramento, CA
Bob is a bit upset and worried about Rush because his accuracy
rating is declining, and Rush is coming up with more inaccuracies
than he used to. In particular, Bob thinks Rush is misquoting
Kevorkian's position - Kevorkian has said he wants the medical
industry to set up procedures for assisted suicide, just as
procedures are created for every other medical procedure, such as
brain surgery.
Rush notes that he's been commenting on what Kevorkian is doing,
not saying, and he holds Bob over the break.
*BREAK*
SECOND HOUR
Phone Bob from Sacramento, CA (continued)
Bob notes that he's neutral about what Kevorkian is doing; what
he's really concerned about is that if Rush continues to be
inaccurate, his enemies will simply have more ammo with which to
attack him. Rush says that his main point is simply that doctors
should not be turned into agents of death, but regardless, he
hasn't been misquoting Dr. Death.
Bob says that Rush is misquoting what Kevorkian is saying on the
video clip which is being shown on Rush's TV show; this clip
shows Kevorkian talking about the dying process, but it doesn't
show his earlier statement that doctors should be allowed to end
suffering. Rush doesn't doubt Kevorkian said that, but he also
clearly said on the tape "we must understand the dying process."
Bob thinks Rush is paraphrasing Kevorkian, but Rush notes that
this clip shows Kevorkian himself saying this with his own words.
Bob thinks for a second and admits that Rush is right on this,
and Rush says that he's been harping on this because it's
profound for a doctor to be saying that humanity must understand
the dying process. Humanity does understand death, and to
everyone except perhaps Anthony Scaife, death is final and
painful.
Kevorkian has said that he doesn't like killing people the way he
is doing it, as he would prefer that doctors be able to do this
in a more "medical" fashion. However, having doctors treat death
as a medical procedure is precisely what Rush opposes;
furthermore, while Kevorkian might not like using carbon monoxide
to kill people, he's nevertheless using this technique.
Bob also says that Rush is taking the wrong approach on Attention
Deficit Disorder, and although others have corrected Rush's
impression about it, he has yet to admit that he's wrong about
it. Rush says he remains skeptical and is not certain he's wrong
about it yet, which is why he's not admitted he's wrong.
In fact, because Rush's instincts tell him that ADD is not what
others are saying it is, even as caller after caller is telling
him he's wrong about it, he has invited on the show a guest, Dr.
Peter Bregen of the Center for the Study of Psychiatry.
Phone Dr. Peter Bregen from Bethesda, MD
Dr. Bregen thanks Rush for having him on the show, and notes that
he's been a practicing psychiatrist since 1968. The Center for
the Study of Psychiatry is concerned about the potentially
adverse impact of psychiatry on society at large as well as on
the physical well-being of individuals.
He notes that early in his practice he got the impression that
psychiatrists were often doing more harm than good, and that
psychiatrists were offending basic American principles, such as
self-reliance, freedom, and personal responsibility. Also, the
treatments - electroshock therapy, lobotomies, drug therapy - are
very harmful in their own right.
Dr. Bergen has met a lot of criticism from his colleagues, as one
might expect. His first book, "Toxic Psychiatry," is very
critical of the industry, and his next book, "Talking Back from
Prozac," due out in June, warns against the trend in psychiatry
to solve all problems with drugs. People are miserable and
feeling empty because they have no spiritual component, but the
psychiatrist's answer is to distribute drugs like Prozac. It's
thus not surprising that when kids are frustrated and doing
poorly in school, thanks to the decline of the family and that of
the schools, that drugs are also the treatment of choice.
Dr. Bregen points out that many of his colleagues are still
insisting that a child has a disease simply because he fidgets in
class. For example, the three official symptoms of Attention
Deficit Disorder are:
o Often fidgets with hands or feet, or squirms in seat; in
adolescence, may be limited to subjective feelings of
restlessness
o Has difficulty when remaining seated when required to do so
o Is easily distracted
Rush notes that he feels this way when he's around women, and Dr.
Bregen admits he gets these symptoms whenever he goes back to
school himself. These are not symptoms of a disease, but rather
are often the signs of a normal child, perhaps a child who's
uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. The schools might not be
addressing the child's needs, especially if the school is, as so
many are today, undisciplined and uncaring about individual
children.
Rush mentions the story in the Washington Post about how teachers
are doing away with homework assignments because the kids aren't
doing them. Dr. Bregen thinks this is just plan irresponsible -
society is either drugging its kids or giving up on them, instead
of doing what should be done.
Rush asks what Dr. Bregen's Center is, and he replies that it's a
network of about 100 professionals, including 20 to 30
psychiatrists. Dr. Bregen, his wife, and assistant work out of
his home, but there is no staff other than them; rather, the
Center puts out a newsletter and runs the group Children First
which is trying to stop the tendency among America's medical
community's tendency to drug the nation's kids.
Dr. Bregen thinks discipline and love go together, and often when
he sees families who have children that have been diagnosed as
having ADD, it's clear the parents are at a loss as to how they
can discipline their kids. Rush would like Dr. Bregen to hang on
through the break so that he can answer two questions: how would
he address those parents who are certain their kids have ADD
because the treatments for it are working and how have
psychiatrists managed to con everyone into believing that ADD
exists.
*BREAK*
Phone Dr. Bregen from Bethesda, MD (continued)
Rush again asks what Dr. Bregen would say to those parents who
are convinced that their children have ADD. Dr. Bregen replies
that the country's intellectuals have long been telling the
nation that people are not in charge of their lives; B.F.
Skinner, for example, started the ball rolling by portraying
humans not as people will souls and free will, but as a mess of
biological processes. Now, biological psychiatrists are telling
people that they need Prozac should they be sad and lonely, when
in reality what they might really need is a spiritual dimension
and values.
It's thus not surprising that these guys would approach the
nation's children in this manner. However, Dr. Bregen doesn't
want parents to feel guilty, but rather wants to discourage them
from handing their kids over to these "experts" who are not
trained in the family, love, or discipline; rather, parents
should look at their kids and try to understand whether their
kids' problems might really be a family problem.
Kids could also have a problems with their peers, be watching
television too much, be having problems in school, etc. Rush says
many would say all these problems are the result of ADD, but Dr.
Bregen says ADD is just a convenient scapegoat. There is no
evidence for ADD, which is shocking given that ridalin and other
drugs being given these kids are essentially amphetamines,
commonly referred to as "speed," and which turns the kids into
zombies.
Rush asks why so many more boys than girls are diagnosed with
ADD. Dr. Bregen says that when girls are in trouble, they tend to
withdraw, while boys become more aggressive. A lot of these kids
also don't have a father who will tell them to behave and to
respect women; instead, the boys will watch TV which routinely
denigrates women, and then go to school where most teachers are
women.
Many children lose their "hyperactivity" when they have a male
teacher, male coach, or a father that pays attention to them. Dr.
Bregen has found that in his own practice a lot of his time is
spent with the fathers, forcing them to rearrange their values so
as to spend more time with their sons.
Rush asks how Dr. Bregen's colleagues have reacted to his claim
that ADD doesn't exist, and Dr. Bregen says that he basically is
being ignored. His two books, which concentrate on how kids and
adults are being drugged "into happiness," are meeting
resistance, in part because many book buyers themselves are
taking Prozac and giving ridalin to their kids.
Rush says that he certainly knows about book censorship, but he
recalls seeing one book about Prozac being on the best-seller
lists. Dr. Bregen notes that this book was pro-Prozac and
basically gave the standard psychiatric line. He points out that
"Toxic Psychiatry" has had only one book review, even after
selling 20,000 copies.
Rush says he understands why - those who advocate personal
responsibility and the accepting of consequences for one's
actions fly right in the face of those who want to turn everyone
into victims. Rush thanks Dr. Bregen for being on the show and
encourages him to keep up the fight.
*BREAK*
Rush reveals that the last half of 1993 was a very tumultuous
period for him; he encountered some of the worst anxiety he had
ever experienced and was "very down in the dumps." Rush doesn't
want to say that he was depressed because depression has assumed
a clinical definition today, but he definitely was in a "funk."
Rush at the time was surprised because he realized he had no real
reason to be in such a state; however, he was miserably unhappy
because of some internal feelings about his life and where he
thought he was and where he was going. Rush has since worked
through these feelings, but while he was in his funk it was
noticeable to everyone around him.
A number of people started suggesting that Rush take Prozac, an
idea which Rush was not comfortable with. However, he was tempted
by the idea because he was in such a mental state that he would
fly off the handle at odd times and didn't feel as if he was in
control of himself. His friends promised that Prozac would mellow
him out and make him not care so much about things.
Rush didn't want to go to a doctor for this, but his friends said
they could score some Prozac for him anyway. Rush's instincts,
though, were not to get anywhere near it, and he thanks his
parents for teaching him to avoid drugs wherever possible. In his
family, drugs (and doctors, for that matter) were meant to be
used only as a last resort.
Rush also knew, though, that his problems were due to something
being wrong with him and his soul, not with his body. He was also
a bit concerned about his reputation should it come out that he
was on Prozac.
Rush thus rejected the idea of taking this drug, and because he
did he eventually found out what was really bothering him. Had he
taken the drug, though, he still might not have discovered what
was eating away at him and wouldn't have discovered the conflicts
that were within him.
In short, Rush had a "six-month fit," and he eventually dragged
himself out of it. Yet, while Prozac might have helped him on a
day to day basis, it would not have solved any of his basic
problems. Yet there were those who, when they saw his problems,
immediately suggested this drug as a quick fix.
Rush was told that if Prozac worked, he'd end up staying on it
for the rest of his life, and while he was tempted at the time to
end his funk, he was not willing to go the toxic route and take
drugs for the rest of his life. This doesn't mean that these
drugs don't have some validity for others, but he does know that
for himself, it was not the wise choice.
This experience also shows one reason why Rush is skeptical of
all drugs that alter behavior, especially when they're being used
instead of holding people responsible for their actions. He notes
that his funk was created in part by himself and his own actions;
he was not an innocent victim by any means. Because he didn't
take the drug, he got to the root of his problems, and he fears
many are using drugs precisely to avoid having to do this.
It's becoming common for people to use drugs to get through the
day, and Rush is troubled by this trend.
*BREAK*
Phone Gayle from Baton Rouge, LA
Gayle's son has both Tourette's Syndrome and Attention Deficit
Disorder, and because of Tourette's Syndrome, he can't be given
any drugs whatsoever for the ADD. Thus, when he was diagnosed at
age 6 as having these problems, Gayle and her husband pointedly
told him that he would not be allowed to get away with anything
because out in the real world, nobody cares what diseases you
have.
Her son's pediatrician, in fact, told Gayle and her husband that
their son had three of the four characteristics found in juvenile
delinquents: ADD, hyperactivity, and Tourette's, but he didn't
have the anti-social behavior. Thus, the pediatrician warned them
that they would have to discipline their son strictly.
As a result, their son is now a model student at school. They
couldn't give him any drugs for ADD, so they spent their time
repeatedly pushing him so that he would pay attention to the
things he must do. For example, Gayle will time and time again
come into his room to force him to do his homework, and he is not
allowed any sort of misbehavior at all, either at school or home.
The son knows that he's going to face strict behavior, and he's
responded to this positively. Rush says this is his whole point -
Gayle's son has ADD, but he can't take the recommended drugs.
Thus, Gayle is doing what parents of old have done: strict
discipline. This has worked, so how can ADD be a valid disease,
given that it can be "cured" without resorting to toxic drugs?
Gayle says that she has three children, all boys, and this third
child is a "difficult child"; any family with more than two kids
will have someone like this. Strict discipline, though, has
proven to be the key to dealing with him.
Gayle, though, points out that she does think her child has ADD
because of how he reacts to the things around him. For example,
each year SRA tests are given to the children at school, but her
son continually was unable to finish any of the sections in any
of the tests. So even though he's a straight A student, he still
ended up with lousy scores.
However, this year the teacher put him in a room with only one
other student. Without all the distractions that were present in
a full classroom, he finished every section of every test, and he
was excited beyond belief at this accomplishment. In fact,
although he was placed in a room that was as bare as a cellblock,
he thanked the teacher profusely for doing this, because he
finally was able to finish the tests.
Gayle has never allowed her son to use his problems as an excuse
for anything, and this strict discipline has worked. Rush says
that he continually has to discipline himself to do certain
things; in fact, he sometimes finds himself wishing he didn't
have to do his radio show or take a phone call. Yet this doesn't
mean he has ADD.
Rush skipped the entire year of April his senior year of high
school and he never finished the sections in the yearly
achievement tests, but this doesn't mean he had ADD. Discipline
is the key to these things.
For example, reading a book is easier if the TV and radio aren't
on simply because humans tend to be distracted easily under
certain situations. This is why Rush still is skeptical of the
whole concept of ADD, especially when Gayle has just shown that
it's "discipline, discipline, discipline."
*BREAK*
Phone Mark from Staten Island, NY
Mark thinks Rush is the "national cure for ADD - when you're on
the air, everyone is listening and paying attention." He notes
he's been teaching piano at people's homes for the past 15 years,
and his worst behavior problems are nearly always the kids with
working mothers or those who have parents who can't or won't
discipline their kids. Every kid is different and needs their own
level of discipline, so some kids might be fine, but others need
more discipline or a different type of discipline.
Rush recalls that he took piano lessons for three years because
his mother thought it would be "good" for him. After three years,
he could play chopsticks with one hand; he didn't ever progress
beyond this point because he simply wasn't interested in learning
the piano. He didn't have ADD, but simply knew he didn't have the
aptitude or finger dexterity needed for the piano.
*BREAK*
THIRD HOUR
Items
o Rush proudly introduces the first installment of EIB's new soap
opera, "The Moral Compass."
<<Wurlitzer organ music plays in the background, as Johnny
Donovan announces>> "And now, from the EIB radio network, another
soul-searching, heart-rendering, stomach-turning, mind-numbing,
behind the fringe episode of `The Moral Compass.' "
Rush welcomes everyone to today's episode of "The Moral Compass"
in which there's a new visitor to the "Casa Agua," the winter
hideaway of the Clintons. Yesterday, Betsy Wright was being
inundated by too many "bimbo eruptions," but today help has
arrived right in the nick of time, in the form of the most noted
criminal lawyer in Washington, DC, Robert Bennett.
Bob Bennett brings with him high-profile and extensive experience
with televised hearings, and he shows up only when "serious
booty" is at stake. Thus, the questions begin to mount - will
Paula Jones file her sexual harassment charges before Friday,
when the statute of limitations expires? Will the bimbo eruption
team discredit Ms. Jones if she does? Who will pay Bob Bennett's
expensive legal bills? Does Hillary have any of the $100,000 she
earned in her cattle futures days?
Rush promises more of "The Moral Compass" on future shows. He
suspects, though, that Bob Bennett has been hired by the
President to handle more than Paula Jones' charges.
o Last night's ABC World News Tonight had a story about "Crazy
Checks," the latest idiocy coming out from the welfare state.
Crazy Checks are not insane citizens from the Czech Republic nor
a new brand of cereal, but rather checks issued to parents of a
child with a disability. These checks, made out for $465, are
sent out each month, and they aren't intended to help the parents
cure the child, but rather are for extra spending money because
these parents have it "tougher."
The real expose of ABC's story is not that these checks exist in
the first place, but the "shocking" fact that there are parents
who are actually defrauding the government to get this money.
Some parents are even telling their kids to act crazy in school,
to not answer questions, to nod off, and basically to act as if
they had ADD, just so the parents can get this free money.
All the kid then has to do is have one interview in which he
blows up and goes bonkers, and his parents will get $465 a month.
This is costing the nation $3.2 billion each year.
Rush bets most listeners are furious about this, but he is made
hopeful by this news. This policy established by the U.S.
government is being defrauded by normal, average Americans. In
short, the elite intellectuals who think this sort of thing up
are being outwitted by average Americans. In fact, many of the
people acting wacko haven't even gotten their high school
diplomas yet, but they are fooling the nation's college-educated
elite.
o President Clinton will be interviewed on CNN tonight to discuss
foreign policy issues, which is surprising since the Clinton
administration thinks "it's the economy, stupid." Clinton,
though, must be getting results back from his polls and focus
groups showing that he's being perceived as being a dunce on
foreign policy, which is why he'll be hosting a 90-minute global
forum to discuss these issues.
Rush bets that Clinton is even now studying hard to learn the
names of not just the countries that are the world's trouble
spots, but also the names of their leaders, major political
parties, capitals, mountains, and rivers. Undoubtedly, Clinton
will also be able to list all the Presidents who are to blame for
leaving him all his current problems.
Clinton will also demonstrate how he can assign responsibility
for all these problems to NATO, the United Nations, or the
Organization of American States. Of course, Clinton won't be able
to tell anyone what can be done about Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia,
North Korea, but he might trot out Warren Christopher to explain
these matters in more detail and with more "vigorousness."
To make this night truly complete, of course, Clinton's
dissertation on the world's problems should be interrupted by
some news flash about how the Serbs are moving back into Gorazde
or how the North Koreans are deploying their nukes. Maybe Saddam
Hussein will even attack Rwanda.
*BREAK*
Koko, the Santa Cruz gorilla that knows sign language, seems
unable to get into the mood for love. She simply is not attracted
to any of the male gorillas who live with her in her compound.
Also, though, the noise coming from a nearby construction site
could be making her less romantic and more aggressive.
The EIB staff suggest that Koko be sent to New York to meet Timmy
the Gorilla. Rush, however, thinks that all is really needed is
for Koko to take a lesson from President Clinton and put some
astroturf on the bottom of her cage.
Phone Hazel from Brooklyn, NY
Rush notes that he finally got to meet Hazel when she came to his
TV show recently. She was glad to be in the show's audience, but
hopes that she dispelled forever Rush's idea that "a good voice
equals a dog." Rush admits that when he was younger and cruder he
said such a thing, but he would never believe this now, at his
current "level of maturation."
Hazel thinks that the existence of ADD can be easily proven by
one man: James Carville. On the Nightline special on Whitewater,
Carville fidgeted, rustled papers, and otherwise couldn't sit
still. Rush, though, says that this was all carefully planned so
as to distract others, not because Carville himself was
distracted.
Hazel disagrees, however - she thinks the reason Carville came up
with the sign "It's the economy, stupid" was because he's easily
distracted in the first place. Rush still refuses to believe
this, pointing out that whenever Carville made his faces, the
camera always went to him, which was his whole goal - to distract
the audience from whatever was being said at the time.
Carville couldn't refute what was being said, so he, like Paul
Begala, does what he can to distract people from paying attention
to it. Hazel still thinks this was caused by pathology, not by
politics. Rush admits this could be pathology, but it's a
"studied pathology."
Hazel also notes that she's noticed a suspicious groundswell of
support for single-payer health care plans, especially in
California. She's also noticed the Stiller and Miera ads that are
a take-off on the Harry and Louise ads which the insurance
companies put on. These new ads aren't any good, and Hazel is
beginning to suspect that because Hillary's health care plan is
dead, the Democratic party is pushing single-payer plans, so that
by comparison Hillary's plan looks good.
Rush says anything is possible, but single-payer has the support
of only 96 members of Congress right now, which is nowhere near
enough. Hazel, though, says that the Democrats think they can con
the people into supporting it, and Rush agrees that single-payer
will be attractive to many people.
Hazel, though, thinks that the problems with euthanasia and
abortion will just multiply under such a system, and Rush agrees
completely. This is why he's been warning against Jack Kevorkian
and government-controlled health care plans. When the government
is in charge of health care, it will start dictating the types of
behavior that people must follow so as to use the services that
are paid for by "government" money. Rush thanks Hazel for
calling.
Phone Doris from Los Angeles, CA
Doris loves Rush and is glad that she is echoing so much of what
she herself believes. However, she disagrees with him about Jack
Kevorkian because when she was 5 years old, her mother was
diagnosed with cancer and given 6 months to live. However, she
ended up living nine years, in great pain.
Doris and her sister will be haunted by their mother's screams
for the rest of their lives, and she doesn't think anyone should
have to deal with this. The night that her mother died, Doris
prayed that God would take her, and she wishes she could have
found Kevorkian back then. "I wish I could have saved my
childhood, saved her, because there was no living," Doris says.
Doris thinks that respecting the sanctity of life also means
respecting the dignity of life. Rush thinks this is a good point
and holds her over the break.
*BREAK*
Phone Doris from Los Angeles, CA (continued)
Rush says he does care about the dignity, preservation, and
quality of human life, but at the same time he is not going to
sit in judgment of those who have gone through what Doris has
gone through, nor will he tell them that they should endure what
she and her mother did. What Rush is afraid of, though, is that
at some point society will start deciding that those who aren't
terminally ill should be put to death.
Doris asks if everyone should be penalized because of these other
possible situations. She notes that her father also ended up on
life support, and the family rejected the doctor's offer of
extraordinary measures to keep him alive. Instead, the tubes were
withdrawn and her father died; is this assisted suicide?
Rush says there is a big difference between withdrawing
artificial life support and giving someone carbon monoxide;
there's a difference between telling a doctor not to use
extraordinary measures and telling a doctor "kill me." Doris
thinks that society can't penalize people who are suffering; she
doesn't think anyone should have to live through what she did
with her mother.
Rush says that he faced a similar situation, although not as
extreme, with his maternal grandmother who had Alzheimer's and
then had a stroke. The doctors told Rush's mother that her
choices were to remove the feeding tube, which meant Rush's
grandmother would die of starvation in a week, or return her to a
nursing home where she might or might not survive.
Rush's mother thus was faced with the problem of removing the
feeding tube, and Rush tried to convince her doing so would be a
mistake. As it turned out, though, Rush's grandmother had another
stroke and died within the week.
Doris, though, asks Rush if he would want to live in such a
situation, full of pain and wasting away to the 65 pounds that
her mother ended up weighing. Rush says he doesn't want to die,
so he really doesn't know what he'd want in that situation.
Doris says she thinks about these things whenever she sees Jack
Kevorkian, who is simply trying to get the laws passed where
doctors can help patients who are suffering die. Rush asks how
many cases there are like Doris's mother and she replies
"hundreds, millions, thousands!" She adds her girlfriend's mother
died this way, as did her uncle.
Rush can't believe "millions" are dying this way, but Doris says
"yes, yes, yes!" Rush, however, still can't get away from the
thought that there are those others who are supporting Kevorkian
out of selfish reasons, and that these others would be willing to
have a doctor kill a relative for the sake of convenience.
Few of those Kevorkian has "helped" to die were anywhere near the
circumstances that Doris describes, so Rush still finds it hard
to justify getting the medical profession involved with causing
death. He points out that callers typically call in with a
personal and emotional point of view, while he looks at things
from a clinical, societal, and "big picture" view.
You must assess the ramifications to society of things like
euthanasia, and Rush is concerned about the legacy which would be
left to future generations if we started allowing doctors to kill
today. He thus is loathe to do anything that would reduce any
reverence and respect for life in the future; the current
generation's selfishness cannot override concerns of what future
generations will have to deal with.
What if what Kevorkian has started with his 20 suicides leads to
having the medical community decide who lives and who dies - once
this door is opened, it won't stop with the terminally ill, but
will apply to those who are on life support, in comas, not worth
the expense of keeping alive, etc. Furthermore, advances in
genetics will soon present all sorts of additional ethical
questions to future generations, and it will not do society any
good to lay the foundation for those future problems on a selfish
disregard for the sanctity for life.
No one is an island - everyone's actions has consequences and
will affect the rest of society. That's why this issue has to be
considered in those terms.
*BREAK*
Phone Judy from Cincinnati, OH
Judy gives "dittos 80% of the time" because she thinks Rush is
right about Kevorkian and partially right about ADD, but doesn't
think that Rush articulates the case against Kevorkian as well as
he could. It's definitely true, as Kevorkian says, that if
someone wants to kill themselves, they will do it, but it is also
true that someone who's thinking about suicide, but not yet
convinced, can be pushed over the edge by someone they love and
trust. This will only happen all the more should assisted suicide
become legal.
Judy thinks this is a major danger about euthanasia and assisted
suicide, and she doesn't think this issue should even be
discussed except to point out the dangers. Rush asks what Judy
would say to Doris, who just called. Judy says she took care of
her dying mother, and her mother took care of her dying brother
who had cancer for 21 years - as a result he died at home with
dignity, as he desired.
Judy is also a retired psychiatrist, so she knows a lot about
suicide. She thinks Kevorkian and what he wants to do is absolute
insanity; it should not be legal to allow one person to help
another commit suicide because it's too easy for people who
aren't certain about suicide to be pushed into doing it by
another.
Judy wonders what Kevorkian says to his patients - when they ask
"do you think I should kill myself?" does he tell them yes, go
ahead and do it? Does he try at all to discourage them? And even
if he does, is he subconsciously encouraging them to go ahead and
kill themselves?
Rush says that Kevorkian supposedly has tapes that show he never
talks these patients into dying, but Rush admits he has his own
suspicions. Judy says that Kevorkian doesn't have to tell people
"yes, you should die" in order to push them over the edge; the
fact he has assisted with 20 suicides, in and of itself, is
telling people that suicide is an appropriate and valid thing to
do.
Rush recalls that Janet Atkins, 54, played tennis the day that
Kevorkian killed her. When Rush heard about this case, he asked
whether Kevorkian told this Alzheimer's patient that suicide was
not necessary, given that her condition wasn't terminal. Judy
points out that Alzheimer's is a disease that can be conclusively
diagnosed only after an autopsy; there are many other diseases
which produce similar symptoms, and some of those diseases aren't
permanent. Thus, what if this woman was incorrectly diagnosed?
Rush points out he used this example to illustrate the zeal
Kevorkian has for wanting to help others kill themselves. Are
there any people who went to Kevorkian who were turned away or
otherwise convinced that they shouldn't kill themselves?
Kevorkian's paintings show he's obsessed with death, and his
remarks in praise of Nazi experiments show he is a "cup and
saucer of a full place setting." Is this the man who should be
"helping" people commit "suicide?"
*BREAK*
Phone Susie from San Diego, CA
Susie has a daughter who's trying ridalin right now, and she
believes that Rush is 110% correct in what he's been saying about
how people are no longer personally responsible for their
actions. This is an age of immediate gratification and total
convenience. Rush agrees, noting that these people are also empty
and looking for fulfillment. He thanks Susie for calling.
--
John Switzer | Neon - the Barney of the automobile
| world ("Hi").
CompuServe: 74076,1250 |
Internet: j...@netcom.com |