Like a Sex Machine

Happy July, people!

I had the opportunity to attend a screening of a documentary on the medical industrial complex called "Orgasm Inc." The film gives us a view into the deceit and corruption of traditional icons of health such as Laura Berman and Proctor & Gamble. The movie goes inside the suite of a pharmaceutical start-up where a secretary walked away with a fortune and the suite of a cosmetic surgeon where a patient walked away with a near fatal genital mutilation. It shows the science of health at both its most deceptive and at its most enlightening states.

One of the women featured in the movie underwent a risky operation to implant an orgasmatron in her spinal column. As it turned out, the woman did not really need a machine to induce orgasm. What she really lacked was a partner who cared more about her orgasm than he cared about his own. She was in need of a sensitive new age guy (or gal).

The movie also shows us how researchers fudge results. I never subscribed to the fundamentalist accusation that Proctor and Gamble's icon is a symbol of Satan, but their medical research practices come off as diabolical. They tested their sex drug on women who were taking another drug and used that data to argue for general efficacy. Needless to say, the FDA did not allow them to pull the wool over their eyes. The EU proved to be more lenient.

The film includes a great deal of footage of the noble opposition figures who fight for truth against the maw of big business. Author Ray Moynihan promotes his book Selling Sickness and argues thoughtfully against the idea that sexual dissatisfaction is a disease. An advocate of alternative treatment promoted her methods at a medical convention despite being shut out by the big pill pushers. A saleswoman for genital mutilation procedures confesses her discomfort with her own job. The curator of San Francisco's museum for massage devices recounts her own first experience with erotic paraphernalia.

We have already heard a confession of poor performance between the sheets from at least one member of this community. Let us talk about big business rather than big egos or big disappointments.

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Monthly topic:
Post-Truth Politics Revisited

Dailyquote:

"The NATO charter clearly says that any attack on a NATO member shall be treated, by all members, as an attack against all. So that means that, if we attack Greenland, we'll be obligated to go to war against ... ourselves! Gee, that's scary. You really don't want to go to war with the United States. They're insane!"

(edelsont)

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blue-mangos.livejournal.com

I keep getting confused today as to which community I am in.

sophia-sadek.livejournal.com

... that's awfully big of you.

404.livejournal.com

That's what she said?

htpcl.livejournal.com

> Happy July, people!

This reminds me of last night's "July Morning" festival down here at the seaside. It's an old tradition from the hippie years, and it's deeply associated with the dissident movement of the youth during the communist times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Morning

And of course, the Uriah Heep frontman was again here to sing their legendary song July Morning, to the exalted crowds in front of the rising sun which got born from the waves of the Black Sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Morning_(song)

Electrifying.

Sorry for the OT.

So, what are your opinions of the Medical-Industrial Complex? Inquiring minds want to know.

It's a bunch of greedy bastards.

fizzyland.livejournal.com

Note to Vancouver: please don't riot, it's a happy occasion.

Please, share your views of the Medical-Industrial Complex.

You mean the one that is complicit with drug manufacturers being able to keep drug prices inflated for Americans, deny any form of alternative medicine that would cut into their profits and in general is happy to sell quasi-lethal drugs to the public? No thanks, an AMA Death Panel-van would probably be rolling up on me if I did that.

I can see them drilling through your ceiling as we speak to make the arrest.

NOOOOOOOooooo!!!

root-fu.livejournal.com

AFAIK, the entire healthcare and educational industries are corrupt through and through. Yays for having new documentaries to watch though. I was wondering what would fill the void now that other documentaries like The Perfect Vagina are old news now.

... I will have to check that one out.

BTW, education is not an industry, unless you consider textbook publishing. There is always a need for new textbooks in schools due to changing educational standards and the fact that kids trash the books. Publishing in general is a big business racket.

For profit college -- industry. :I

Private schools could be considered profitable businesses, but they are not industrial. I suppose you could consider them to produce bureaucrats, but that is not their stated mission.

If tourism which fails to produce or manufacture specific goods can be considered an industry. I might think education might be considered much the same.

Since the tourist trade is part of the service sector, calling it an industry is off the mark. It would better be called a post-industry.

Thanks! I appreciate the distinction.

I might argue that attempting to re-create empirical science in economic terminology and elsewhere is doomed to failure. The definition of free markets isn't necessitated to apply to their common use. Likewise with other terminology they could be considered loosely as opposed to tightly bound.

Economic terms tend to obfuscate rather than elucidate. There is little room for layered semantics in the field of economics.

anfalicious.livejournal.com

There is a massive correlation between women who can't orgasm and women who don't masturbate. No, it's not a disease, but no, it's not necessarily their partner either. The best way to cure female sexual disfunction would be to create a society where female sexuality is no longer considered a disfunction.

It would be interesting to find out what percentage of men and women do not masturbate. It would also be interesting to find out what percentage of them do, but are not willing to admit it.

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