Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Friday, November 18, 2011

It's The Government's Fault

Shorter Megan McArdle: My doctor wouldn't listen to me, therefore death panels.

11 comments:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

you know, I understand the writing technique of using a personal anecdote to launch into a more wide ranging analysis or critique, heck I've used it once or twice my own self, but Monster McCardle really does insist on then bringing it back to make it all about her, doesn't she?

The self-absorption is truly staggering.

atat said...

My favortie bit of anecdata:

"[O]ne person I know was living basically entirely on oatmeal and sashimi, and working out so many hours a day that she injured herself rather badly, but the weight didn't come off."

Because the Oatmeal, Sashimi & Over-Exercise Until You Hurt Yourself Diet sounds like such a surefire way to lose weight.

Anonymous said...

pragmatism 39 minutes ago
its irresponsible not to speculate that your organs are revolting against the continual reliance on logical fallacies.

Kathy said...

Her long essay doesn't really address the side effects of drugs for hypothyroidism. They're pretty dangerous, doctors don't just hand the drugs out to anyone who complains about weight gain.

But she & her friends probably think ANYTHING is better than being overweight! Only POOR people are Fat!

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I am a cynical person who spends a lot of time reading drug studies

But gullible enough to buy the crap sold by Ayn Rand.
~

atat said...

I thought the rest of that sentence was pretty funny. Her claim to cynicism is that she automatically assumes that any effect she notices from a medication is due to the placebo effect.

So she defends drug corporations from all sides, browbeats her doctors into feeding her all sorts of meds, but apparently doesn't actually think that any of those drugs have any effect beyond a placebo?

Kathy said...

Her claim to cynicism is that she automatically assumes that any effect she notices from a medication is due to the placebo effect.

That puzzled me a bit, too. If she assumes its a placebo, why does she want it? Was it a placebo for her sushi-oatmeal eating chum?

Anonymous said...

Oh how I loathe her cavalier use of the word "rather." I know she thinks it makes her sound British, and therefore smart, but it really doesn't.

brad said...

"When she finally found a doctor who would get her TSH into a normal range, she lost twenty pounds in 2-3 weeks."

In what world aside from those suffering from eating disorders is this a good outcome?
Even from the perspective of vapid, ignorant vanity that probably leaves behind a fair amount of loose skin.

Anonymous said...

I have rather many doubts that Megan spends rather a lot of time reading anything.

Daniel Harper said...

I love the bit at the end where she starts raving about "evidence-based medicine." For Megan, anything based on evidence is naturally suspect -- all her critics keep pointing out all this "evidence" that she's wrong and therefore she can't trust the nasty stuff.