Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 26

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Resurrection instead of Immortality" based on 1 Corinthians 15:17

Easter does not celebrate a struggle between darkness and light that in any case must finally be won by light, since darkness is, in actual fact, nothing at all, and death is, after all, already life. It does not celebrate a struggle between winter and spring, between ice and sunshine. Rather, it remembers the struggle of guilty mankind against divine love, or better: of divine love against guilty humankind; a struggle in which God seems to succumb on Good Friday and in which precisely by succumbing he is actually victorious on Easter.

Do I recognize both the inevitability of Christ's victory, and its paradox?

Congrats, UCONN Huskies! NCAA Champions!

New Green Lantern Trailer

Looks far better than the first one.

When will we get serious?

All too timely with this story in the news. Cartoon from here.

This has really been feeding my soul of late...

FDA cracks down on drugmakers, drugmakers crank up the prices

In an age of skyrocketing medical costs, it is in the Federal government's best interest to ensure our medicines are as safe and precisely targeted as possible. Enter the FDA, charged with regulating and monitoring drug safety. Unfortunately, their recent efforts to lock down drugs has resulted in 50x increases in drug prices for patients who can ill afford the cost, by creating pseudo-monopolies. Thus, increasing medical costs for everyone, including the Federal government.

Beware the well-intentioned bureaucrat!

Until January, colchicine was sold by many companies and cost as little as 10 cents a pill. Now it's available only under the trade name Colcrys, sold by a Philadelphia company called URL Pharma—for five dollars per pill.* The colchicine story, and a few others like it, have provoked ire among some patients and doctors about an otherwise praiseworthy effort by the FDA to get rid of old, untested, potentially harmful drugs.

Take the case of 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17OHP), a synthetic hormone designed to prevent preterm births in pregnant women...The drug's retail price jumped from $15 to $1,440 per treatment, a shock to obstetricians and their patients, as well as to those who write checks at insurance companies and Medicaid. The tens of thousands of women who receive the treatment each year typically require 20 injections during the course of their pregnancies.

To be fair, though, it appears that the FDA is not entirely deaf to these complaints, and is taking some action.

Closed for April Fools Day

Today is April Fool's Day. The day when the internet stops being a useful resource for 24 hours, and becomes a liar's/prankster's paradise. Rather than add to the noise, I will not be posting to the blog today at all. Hope it is a good day for you and yours. See you again soon.