I don't laugh at anyone's pain.
I was in 'real' pain myself, but my dentist refused to prescribe any more Vicadin (I think) because he thought I was mis-using it. Told me 4 advils do the same job.
Point is, once you make yourself spokesperson for Conservatism, you have certain responsibilities, and one of the primary being, DO NOT EMBARASS your-self otherwise you make all conservatives look like hyporcrites.
Look at Bill O'Reilly. What a joke. He writes the O'Reilly factory about Kids, always spouting about family values, offended by Paris Hilton Commercial for Carl's Junior, and meanwhile he is harrassing his co-worker in most disgusting way.
You think next Republican/Conservative cadidate would sit down with him for interview and talk about family values? Would look like a fool if they did so.
WANTED:
Republican Spokesman
Only perfect people need apply
So your doctor made a wise choice for you before you became addicted. Not too many doctors do that and keep prescribing these highly addictive pain-killers for way too long.
No they wouldn't. The fact is that most of O'Reilly's viewers don't give a damn about something that appeared to be extortion. He's still #1 in the cable ratings.
As for those conservative candidates, if they don't sit down with him, he'll rip 'em, and they'll have to live with the consequences.
Rush didn't become hooked on oxycontin (sp?) on purpose or because he was using it as a recreational drug. He was suffering intensely from a back problem, something I have a LOT of experience with myself, and his doctor prescribed one of the few drugs which can handle that kind of intense pain. The trouble with the drug is that it is highly addictive.
Have you ever been in really severe pain for an extended period of time? If so, you know that neither the Vicadin and/or Advil you mentioned is any more effective on that kind of pain than sugar pills. I suffered from that kind of pain periodically over an extended time, (roughly 20 years) and the most effective prescription pain med I was willing to risk taking only gave partial relief.
Have you ever been truly addicted to a drug? I haven't been there myself in spite of a 20 year battle with chronic severe back pain which was eventually relieved to some extent by major spine surgery. But I have 2 close relatives who were in almost the same situation as Rush at one point in their lives. They both became addicted to prescription pain medications to the point that there were few things they would not do to obtain the drug, and they both spent time in prison and lost their families as a result of their addiction. They were both men of sound moral character and strong willpower before unintentionally becoming addicted to prescribed narcotic pain meds, but the addiction simply engulfed them and came to override everything else they valued in their lives.
Maybe you have had some personal experience with addictive medications yourself. If so, you should know what kind of hellish predicament Rush was in that caused him to seek out the drug by illegal means. (If in fact he did. AFAIK no solid evidence to that effect has been entered in a court of law, only allegations by a disgruntled employee and politically motivated liberal prosecutors. Correct me if I am mistaken) But if you haven't been there yourself, IMHO you are out of line in condemning someone who has been there and back.
Some otherwise "good" conservatives are jealous and/or resentful of Rush's fabulous success story and what they see as his undeserved wealth, and they have allowed their jealousy/resentment to overpower their sense of fairness and common decency. Because of their antipathy toward Rush, they don't feel the appreciation some of us feel for all the tremendous good he has done for conservatism and the GOP over the last 2 decades. I hope you aren't one of those people, but your posts make you sound as though you are.
BTW, just for the record I am by no means a 'dittohead", and I very rarely listen to Rush these days. But at one time I did listen frequently, and I still believe he is one of the most valuable assets the conservative movement has had over the time he has been a nationally recognized personality.
I've taken both drugs, and even though I'm not medically trained, your dentist is a moron (no offense to you, of course). If the man truly believes that, I'd seriously consider getting a different dentist. That statement totally undermines his credibility.
"I was in 'real' pain myself, but my dentist refused to prescribe any more Vicadin (I think) because he thought I was mis-using it. Told me 4 advils do the same job."
My dad has bad neuropathy. He's also an amputee, and has chronic pain in the missing leg. He takes morphine sulphate - it's the only thing that even comes close to controlling the pain... and it just comes close. He's probably addicted... but so what? The pain meds help him to lead a somewhat normal life, some days. He's a combat veteran and rock-ribbed conservative... If you PM me, I'll give you his number and you can call him and tell him he's a doper who should be in jail for 10 to 20 years.
"Look at Bill O'Reilly. What a joke. He writes the O'Reilly factory about Kids, always spouting about family values, offended by Paris Hilton Commercial for Carl's Junior, and meanwhile he is harrassing his co-worker in most disgusting way."
We don't know for a fact that O'Reilly did this. We just know that he was accused of harrassment, and that the suit was settled out of court. That's the problem with giving someone money just to make a case "go away". The suspicion always lingers, whether or not the allegations are true. But O'Reilly made the choice to do settle out of court, ostensibly because he didn't want to have the thing in the news day after day after day. He wanted to put it behind him, but in the process, he maintained that his decision was NOT an admission of guilt. Actually, the woman involved DID have some motive to try to screw him over, and one of the $ide effect$ of having lot$ of money i$ that people are alway$ trying to get their hand$ in one'$ pocket$, one way or another.
I don't think that any conservative (Let alone human being) is perfect and we don't claim to be. We would set ourselves up for failure. We all have a weakness.