Funky Winkerbean this week: am I the only one to find it depressing

[hedgehog]

to think that in 10 years we will still be having fundraisers for breast cancer reearch?

[Basileus Basileon]

1. Whenever you ask the question,

"Am I the only one to find Funky Winkerbean depressing" in any regard whatsoever, the answer is certainly "no." That strip could be used to break a Gitmo inmate.

[Phillycat]

5. And it's name is "Funky Winkerbean".

:shrug:

[OzarkDem]

7. The writer, Tom Batiuk was at Kent State during the shootings

His partner on the comic Crankshaft, Chuck Ayers, was as student protesting at the shootings and took a lot of the photographs of May 4.

http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/4may70/box189/189.html

[HughBeaumont]

2. It's depressing there are still MDA Telethons.

Of course, the SICK industry makes far, FAR more money with more repeat business than the HEALTH CARE industry.

[hedgehog]

3. MDA is a very tough nut to crack.

I was just hoping progress on breast cancer would be faster.

[madinmaryland]

4. Someone still carries funky winkerbean?

Can you provide a link so that i can see it?

[OzarkDem]

6. Short answer is yes, but it doesn't have to be

Ninety per cent of breast cancer research is funded by the federal government. Feds are spending over $1.5 BILLION every year on breast cancer research. Its plenty, we just have to pay attention to how they're spending it.

American Cancer Society has been doing poorly in its leadership role in Cancer advocacy, but there is some hope for them w/ a new leader in their midst, Dr. Otis Brawley.

Race for the Cure (Komen) isn't pushing in the right direction, these days they're working hard to plump up Laura Bush and the GOP's approval ratings for women voters. They also continue to promote the aged technology of mammography when we should be focusing money on better screening technologies. American Cancer Society also relies to heavily on mammography, probably because they're run by doctors, many of whom will be out of a job if new technology is developed.

Bottom line, breast cancer is a very complex set of neoplastic breast diseases, much more complicated even than other cancers. Docs and researchers are discovering new "targets" for therapy and new therapies for them. Thanks to survivor advocates, they're also focusing more on questions like "what makes cancer metastasize and how do we stop or control it". There won't be one magic bullet, there will be many, depending on the type of breast cancer and continued use of combinations of therapies.

More and more women will be able to live long term with their disease and more will be treated without having a recurrence. It will take years, though, to know who and how many those are.

Access to health care remains a huge barrier. We could find a cure for it tomorrow and up to 30% of women would still die from it due to lack of access to health care. Uninsured women either don't get treatment at all, or get it later. Recent studies have proven that uninsured women and those on Medicaid don't get the same level of recommended care for breast cancer and are more likely to relapse and die as a result.

Funding for research into what causes breast cancer (environmental research, including diet, exercise, environmental exposures) is still severely underfunded. The Breast Cancer & Environmental Research Act (BCERA) is stalled for the 6th year in a row in House & Senate committees, in spite of broad bipartisan support. Latest action on that one is to call Sen. Harry Reid and tell him to get busy and get it out to the floor for a vote.

We're seeing a decline in breast cancer incidence, about 15% in post menopausal women, due to declines in use of Hormone Replacement Therapy. This trend should continue - a good thing.

There's hope and the docs and researchers I know are cautious about using the "C" word - cure. They think more women will be surviving in the long term as cancer care becomes more personalized and others will be living long term w/ stable disease.

But since we're not investing money into researching the causes and preventions of breast cancer, it will still be around in 10 years, no doubt.

BTW, over 90% of all breast cancer research is funded by the federal government - as it should be and as it should remain. Its the only way to insure research spending and focus is open and accountable to the public. Don't buy any more pink crap for research, just pay your taxes.


And Tell Sen. Reid to get busy and get BCERA out on the floor for a vote, pronto. We've waited six years. One would think Democrats could finally get this done.

[GliderGuider]

8. If I could rec just one reply today, it would be yours.

Thanks.

[OzarkDem]

16. Thanks

No problem. There are a lot of us survivors out there trying to move the agenda forward.

[Kurovski]

9. As with most cancer,

The causes are not addressed nor researched to any breathtaking degree.

That's depressing.

It seems to me there is a movement to make cancer a regular part of life. A badge of honor, even "sexy". We are being trained to live with it and love it. Corporate America wants you to know they don't intend to change their "means of production", so they tell us to make the most of it. Pesticides, hormones in food, cheap chemicals in products, whatever-the-hell combinations of poisons are cultivating the increasing growth of cancers.

[hedgehog]

10. That's what I'm thinking. I want anger and outrage, not acceptance

as a way of life.

[Kurovski]

12. There is that business aspect to cancer

that is not only depressing but immoral. Maybe on some level criminal.

It's been said for decades: there's a lot of money to be made off of cancer. The health industry relies on illness being produced.

Was it in ancient China that a physician was only paid when the family they treated remained healthy? Or is that a myth? Maybe I'll do some google later.

[OzarkDem]

14. Call Sen. Harry Reid

and Nancy Pelosi. Tell them both to get busy and get the Breast Cancer & Environmental Research Act out of committee.(S.579/H.R.1157) Right now its bottled up in the HELP Committee in the Senate.

http://www.natlbcc.org/bin/index.asp?strid=654&depid=3&btnid=2

It has more than enough bipartisan support in the House and Senate to pass and probably to override a veto threat from the Blivet.

[Kurovski]

15. Thank you. The calls will be placed.

"Purpose of the Legislation

The Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act would establish a national strategy to study the links between the environment and breast cancer. This legislation would authorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a peer-reviewed grant program for the establishment of collaborative research centers to study environmental factors that are believed to contribute to breast cancer. Specifically, $40 million per year in fiscal years 2008-2012 would be authorized for this purpose.

Under a competitive, peer-reviewed grant program involving trained consumers in the decision-making process and using a broad definition of environment, the Director of the NIH would award grants to conduct multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary research through a national network of collaborative centers. The bill would require each center to be multi-institutional and to include collaborations with community organizations, including those that represent women with breast cancer. Each center would be required to collaborate with the other funded centers."

[nykym]

11. AND IF THEY FOUND A CURE

WHAT WOULD ALL THOSE ADMINISTRATORS DO FOR A LIVING?

[spanone]

13. there's big money in cancer....BIG money

[Berry Cool]

17. OzarkDem, you say it so well and without the emotion I infuse it with

that probably turns people off with my anger. And Kurovski said it too: Cancer is being turned into something we can all get used to and become comfortable with. Breast Cancer Awareness Month in particular has become just another October holiday. Each year, we drape stuff in pink and buy pink things to celebrate yet another year of the successful persistence of breast cancer. At least that's how it feels to me.

I'm so sick of it. We need to stop celebrating cancer with a special month every year. We need to stop having fundraising runs in which everyone gets to hug and be part of a big ya-ya breast cancer sisterhood. We need to rise up and just get RID of the damn disease.