Tuesday, April 17, 2007

HA! I knew it!

I quote from the Observer, April 1st 2007* -

'. . .(Donald Rumsfeld) was appointed to run an ailing pharmaceutical company in Chicago (in 1976). The company's one ray of hope was that it had the patent for aspartame, the artificial sweetener; the problem was that the Food and Drugs Administration suspected the company of falsifying its trials and feared that aspartame could cause brain cancer.

Rumsfeld duly brought in various cronies with whom he had worked in government and who knew nothing about drugs but everything about the inner workings of the corridors of power in Washington. Before long, the FDA magically approved the use of aspartame and the fortunes of both the company and Rumsfeld were sealed.'

You remember that stunt that John Selwyn Gummer pulled, with the hamburger and a small child (HIS OWN)? I have visions of Rumsfeld spooning the stuff into his face in front of the FDA chiefs, who bestow approval just to get him to STOP.

* I know. I really don't think it's relevant.

7 comments:

I, Like The View said...

how come you were reading it a fortnight late?

not that that's important in the big scheme of things!

I detest the taste of articifial sweetners

FirstNations said...

i was actually told by my dr. to switch to things with aspartame in them because it's been shown to work in the same way as maoi inhibitors.
in other words, aspartame is a psychoactive drug.
true fact.

Mangonel said...

Hey ILTV - my Ma's newspaper - she saved it for me. Actually mostly because of the stuff later on in the article about the Halliburton Group and Dick Cheney - I used to work for them. I know. Sorry.

FN - I'm shocked. Thank goodness it tastes so awful, otherwise we would all be at it. Hmm - I wonder what other A-list drugs taste like? There's no mention of this in the literature - maybe the suppliers need to add sugar to the crack to make it palatable.

FirstNations said...

yeah, i didn't have a whole lot of success complying. kind of a gasoline aftertaste. on the other hand, maybe donald would profit by a couple three handfuls down his neck. i say we try.

Rog said...

Are you sure the April 1st date isn't significant? It sounds too good to be true, the artificial sweetie.

Rog said...

No, it is unbelievably true!

Mangonel said...

Hey Murph. Tooth-grindingly cynical, huh? And he looks like such a nice man.