Michael J Fox

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by artplumber

That's the correct story. He doesn't take meds during public appearances to highlight his agenda.

Well, I have always liked his movies & TV shows, but not taking his meds to highlight, well, that I have a problem with.. I feel that he could do more good for people suffering if he showed them that they could lead a semi normal life..

The agenda is not necessarily his own, rather he has been used by others to further their agendas. Is he even a U.S. citizen?

He became a U.S. citizen in 2000.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

He became a U.S. citizen in 2000.

In time to vote against Bush, eh?

BTW, he did make a campaign commercial for Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in which mischaracterized her opponent's position on stem cells. So yeah, he does have a bit of a partisan agenda.

[stomachmonkey]

The whole does not take his meds thing started in 06' when Rush mocked his appearance in a campaign ad.

MJF was highly animated during it and Rush insisted he either did not take his meds or was acting to garner more sympathy.

The uncontrolled movements that you see associated with Parkinson's is not the disease, it's a side affect of the medication.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

In time to vote against Bush, eh?

BTW, he did make a campaign commercial for Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in which mischaracterized her opponent's position on stem cells. So yeah, he does have a bit of a partisan agenda.

He also did one for Arlen Specter in 04'. Long before the 30 yr Republican switched sides.

He did it for Specter because Specter was pro research.

So it would appear he is bi partisan.

He does ads for people that support his agenda of finding a cure.

[Jeff Alton]

Proud of this local boy! Very selfless individual...........

Cheers

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

I think many peoples moral high ground is inversely proportional to how much skin they've got in the game.

Well put.

That's nearly always the case with moral high ground.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

He also did one for Arlen Specter in 04'. Long before the 30 yr Republican switched sides.

He did it for Specter because Specter was pro research.

So it would appear he is bi partisan.

He does ads for people that support his agenda of finding a cure.

Specter is every bit as liberal as is McCaskill. My beef is that MJF lied about Talent's position on stem cells in the ad he did for McCaskill.

[Flatbutt1]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

Well, I have always liked his movies & TV shows, but not taking his meds to highlight, well, that I have a problem with.. I feel that he could do more good for people suffering if he showed them that they could lead a semi normal life..
He became a U.S. citizen in 2000.

When I'm having a good day people think I'm an old guy with a limp and probably don't give it another thought.

On a less than good day people might think I've had a stroke and that the right side of my body just doesn't work so well anymore.

When I'm having a really bad day or the dysreflexia hits me people know I have a real problem and there is no shortage of people ready to help me. If I get dysreflexic in the mall for instance I always have someone offer me a hand.

But if I'm having a good day and just having a little difficulty with a package or some such, there are no offers of help.

Showing people what your life is like on a really bad day is the way to help healthy people understand what you're living with. On a good day there is nothing to see.

PS ...that is the hidden meaning behind my sig line, my natural right handed-ness is a thing of the past

[artplumber]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

I'm terribly confused by some responses here.

What is Fox's agenda? To cure his debilitating illness?

Fox's current Meds will not cure him. They only mask the symptoms of his disease.

His is a degenerative disease.

It will only get worse, not better.

At some point the meds will likely be completely ineffective.

Why does he not have the right to fight for his own life?

Why is that wrong?

What is wrong with you people?

Fox's agenda is to try to shock or obtain empathic feelings with the general public to allow increased funding for PD (at the expense of other programs) and push for use of a morally questionable solution to the exclusion of almost any other consideration. No one is debating his right of free speech, it is his careful manipulation of the images to emphasize his illness.

His disease process is no different than numerous other chronic medical illnesses such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes. They too, are progressive and not only debilitating but much more lethal than parkinsonism. His efforts have channeled funds away from cardiovascular problems (affecting 80 million in the USA) (that's you Flattbutt) and diabetes (affecting 24 million)(that's you Zman) for approx 1 million affected.

His insistence that embryonic stem cell research is the only hope for a cure is misguided at best and completely erroneous at worst. Yet, he has sought to boil every candidate's platform down to this single issue. Notably, most chronic diseases don't have cures, there is only therapy. Replacing neurotransmitters seems esthetically pleasing, but there are numerous failed esthetically pleasing therapies in medicine (we often learn that we don't know what we thought we knew). Furthermore, it is a therapy not without a significant slippery slope, ie at what point does the fertilized egg become a human? An extension of this argument lies in a reported case of parents having a second child to provide bone marrow for a transplant when their first child was diagnosed with a malignancy and no donor marrow could be found. Harvesting marrow from a child is quite risky and luckily doesn't really have to be done anymore. He does this because he has access to a bully pulpit that Zman and Flatbutt don't. He is disenfranchising them. Same thing happened with Katie Couric and colonoscopy screening for colon cancer. A lot of dollars are going to that when they could be used better elsewhere.

So, I guess it must be wrong to ever question someone with an illness or debate their actions.

[berettafan]

i'm gonna give the guy a pass for campaigning to get medical research dollars put towards parkinsons.

now the millions of people in this country who insist on smoking themselves to the grave and hog up huge sums of money in lung cancer reasearch......money which could be spent on pediatric cancers......well **** those people.

[Z-man]

Peter: Always appreciate your counter-point, especially in the realm of medicine. Thanks for posting.
-Z-man.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by artplumber

Fox's agenda is to try to shock or obtain empathic feelings with the general public to allow increased funding for PD

What he does is different than images of bloated starving children with flies crawling all over them while they die a slow death from starvation? Sad to say but people need a slap in the face sometimes.

(at the expense of other programs) and push for use of a morally questionable solution

He should be the martyr and not have hope for a solution at the expense of other programs? The morality of it is an opinion. Not everyone shares the same opinion.

to the exclusion of almost any other consideration. No one is debating his right of free speech, it is his careful manipulation of the images to emphasize his illness.

His right to free speech is not in question here, it's his right to want his health.

His disease process is no different than numerous other chronic medical illnesses such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes. They too, are progressive and not only debilitating but much more lethal than parkinsonism. His efforts have channeled funds away from cardiovascular problems (affecting 80 million in the USA) (that's you Flattbutt) and diabetes (affecting 24 million)(that's you Zman) for approx 1 million affected.

So it's only 1 million PD victims. That pales in comparison to your other examples. We should just funnel all the PD money into the other illnesses. I'm sure those 1 million will understand it, greater good and all that.

His insistence that embryonic stem cell research is the only hope for a cure is misguided at best and completely erroneous at worst. Yet, he has sought to boil every candidate's platform down to this single issue. Notably, most chronic diseases don't have cures, there is only therapy. Replacing neurotransmitters seems esthetically pleasing, but there are numerous failed esthetically pleasing therapies in medicine (we often learn that we don't know what we thought we knew). Furthermore, it is a therapy not without a significant slippery slope, ie at what point does the fertilized egg become a human? An extension of this argument lies in a reported case of parents having a second child to provide bone marrow for a transplant when their first child was diagnosed with a malignancy and no donor marrow could be found. Harvesting marrow from a child is quite risky and luckily doesn't really have to be done anymore. He does this because he has access to a bully pulpit that Zman and Flatbutt don't. He is disenfranchising them. Same thing happened with Katie Couric and colonoscopy screening for colon cancer. A lot of dollars are going to that when they could be used better elsewhere.

Basically your opinion that is shared by a great many. Does not make it right, or wrong. The slippery slope that I see in this is your position on where dollars "are better spent". What gives you the right to decide? End of day it's not about what illness kills you, dead is dead.

So, I guess it must be wrong to ever question someone with an illness or debate their actions.

No. And that's not what this thread was about. It was about my feelings of respect for the guy. Very simple.

............

[jhynesrockmtn]

Wait for it, wait for it, 1,2,3,4........

PARF bound this one is. Thanks to those who can't help themselves drag into the gutter a simple thread about someone dealing with a difficult illness with humor and dignity.

Can't you guys stay in your own sandbox and start a Michael J Fox is bleeding liberal sucking money away from more deserving research thread?

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

............

If Canada has such great health care, why is he over here & why did he get a US Citizenship??

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

If Canada has such great health care, why is he over here & why did he get a US Citizenship??

If Austria has such great gyms why is Arnold over here and why did he get his US Citizenship and run for governor of California and marry a Kennedy?

[Rick Lee]

Who said Austria had great gyms? I've been to plenty of them there. You know how European hygiene is.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

If Austria has such great gyms why is Arnold over here and why did he get his US Citizenship and run for governor of California and marry a Kennedy?

Arnold is over here working MJF is whining, plus we always hear people talking about how great the health care in Canada is, so my question is fair, since MJF stopped (for tthe most part) working, why isn't he in Canada pushing them???

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

Arnold is over here working MJF is whining, plus we always hear people talking about how great the health care in Canada is, so my question is fair, since MJF stopped (for tthe most part) working, why isn't he in Canada pushing them???

Your response/question was/is a total non sequitur.

It lacks so much relevance that it's not even a negative contribution to this thread.

I seem to recall you have no issue with people who want to come to this country and become citizens thru legal means. I guess that comes with conditions? Like it's after midnight and you just got back from the bar?

And Arnold is a dope smoking steroid abuser who leveraged his celebrity for personal gain, same as people are accusing MJF of doing so what's your point?

[jeffgrant]

Health care is not the same thing as research science.

When it comes to R&D, Canada is pathetically underfunded when compared to the US.

If MJF wants to see something done about his condition, his best bet is to champion the cause in the US.


I've created and marketed a laboratory information system into life sciences labs in both Canada and the US, and it's quite telling that after 6 years, we don't have a single Canadian customer... they're all too busy trying to figure out how to buy rubber gloves for their research, never mind software. I wish I was making that up.

[billybek]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

If Canada has such great health care, why is he over here & why did he get a US Citizenship??

If you consider how many people in the U.S. cannot afford health insurance, you would understand why some say the Canadian model is better.
If you have great coverage, there is probably no better care available than in the U.S.
Why wouldn't you take your problems to a country with great care, if you can afford it?