...The Mutter Museum. Being a bit squeamish, I've managed to avoid visiting.

My daughter and her family gave me a Bushisms desk calendar this year. My son-in-law wanted to last year, but my daughter talked him down. This year he insisted. After I'd read 4 or 5 or 6 of them aloud, often preceded by ohmigod, she said that was why she had resisted before. It would be too painful. But now that a countdown is in order...

I was astonished by how many of the Bushisms I actually remembered.

Glenn, how fitting that Sheilagh Murray ranked first in your list (so far) with three, count 'em three, memorable quotes from the past year. And, I am not surprised at all by how well I remember any of these...

There does not seem to be any impediment to Dick Cheney becoming vice-president again, should he be appointed to find a vice-president by a Republican candidate, and that candidate win. Except for the limit on coronary bypasses.-- ondelette

And here, I-- naively-- thought we'd be guaranteed an end to Cheney's brand of public service.

some of whatever WT is having...

It will be a nice finish to the lamb my daughter prepared for dinner.

I think I agree with ondelette more, just because I do get to hear about studies re: adverse drug reactions, etc., and because I don't think the drug companies can be trusted properly to market drugs directly to the public. In fact, most professionals I know seem to think they shouldn't do it at all, since it creates a demand similar to the one for antibiotics (agreed that over-prescription is a real public health issue). And I also had an experience with a friend not long ago, whose meds had quit working, and was thus unable able to choose to seek the care that was needed. [Again, better mental health care might have prevented the episode, but insurance left big holes in the safety net. It should be malpractice to let someone see a psychiatrist for a few minutes every few months for drugs, but not cover them for a therapist, too, when that kind of relationship could monitor the situation.]

Ultimately, the proper solutions must be found in re-vamping the health system, so that doctors don't have to practice 15-minute medicine, and can spend more time with patients. And mental health issues need to get the attention and coverage they deserve, which they really don't under the current system.

As for decriminalization... by all means, when it comes to the illegal drugs that just put people in jail, but complete deregulation seems over the top. Informed consent would be a better goal, in general, especially for prescribed drugs. How we could approach that for illicit, but decriminalized drugs, is another matter, but again, I think it comes down to better mental health care options, so that people don't have to self-medicate.

My own approach with doctors or health care providers is more collaborative than not. If they only want to tell me what to do, and aren't willing to hear what I know from first-hand experience about myself, then I have to find someone else. I suspect that a lot of those who find it necessary to self-medicate have had difficulty finding doctors who really listen. Or, perhaps, who have the time to listen.

All of the references to drugs in the water supply reminded me of a novel by Walker Percy: The Thanatos Syndrome

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

first, the idea of the "non-profit entity for independent journalism, supported by foundations,"

and, second, of equal importance, that "writers and submitters in any medium or discipline, those so submitting should own their product or content as independents from the get-go and not be regarded as people doing a 'work for hire.'"

I have been thinking that their "work for hire" status is one of the reasons that the WGA cannot easily negotiate from a position of strength.

And then there's the whole issue of quality. Surely, if television and screen writers owned their own copyrights, as playwrights do, there would not be so many things written by committee, or by serial writers, or requiring the fixes of script doctors, because some producer or other executive required changes to the original. It's probably too late to correct that environment...

...but it should not be allowed to happen to an alternative media organization.

Are any of you familiar with Creators.com? Their model might be worth investigating, since they do allow their writers/artists/etc. to own their own work. They used to syndicate the late Molly Ivins work, and their site is still a good archive source for her work.

might be Milquetoast.