Thursday, December 14, 2006
Paging Dr. Dean O' Dung
Dr. Dean Edell is the host of a syndicated radio program (heard locally on 1510 WLAC) specializing in medical chit-chat. Some of his views are, well, out there. For example, Dr. Dean recently suggested that if we - society, that is - were to decriminalize the sale, purchase and use of heroin, heroin addicts would resemble folks who are addicted to prescription painkillers. Because they must live a subterranean life of law-breaking, you see, heroin addicts often come to resemble concentration camp victims.
Anyone who's actually seen a person who's deeply addicted to heroin knows this is complete bunk. Indeed, ask musician John Frusciante, whose skeletal visage on a Dutch television program shocked his friends enough that they implored him to seek help, what can happen to a person's body and well-being when that person is hooked on smack.
That being said, Dr. Dean's biggest pet peave these days is circumcision (or, as he calls it, genital mutilation). I don't listen to the Dr. Dean Edell Show every weekend, but every other time - I swear - that I've listened to him I've had to endure an anti-circumcision rant. It's almost as if he has nothing else preying on his mind these days. I can only wonder what the good doctor thinks about this:
"Circumcising African men may cut their risk of catching AIDS in half, the National Institutes of Health said today as it stopped two clinical trials in Africa, when preliminary results suggested that circumcision worked so well that it would be unethical not to offer it to uncircumcised men in the trials.
"AIDS experts immediately hailed the result, saying it gave the world a new way to fight the spread of AIDS, and the directors of the two largest funds for fighting the disease said they would now consider paying for circumcisions."
Anyone who's actually seen a person who's deeply addicted to heroin knows this is complete bunk. Indeed, ask musician John Frusciante, whose skeletal visage on a Dutch television program shocked his friends enough that they implored him to seek help, what can happen to a person's body and well-being when that person is hooked on smack.
That being said, Dr. Dean's biggest pet peave these days is circumcision (or, as he calls it, genital mutilation). I don't listen to the Dr. Dean Edell Show every weekend, but every other time - I swear - that I've listened to him I've had to endure an anti-circumcision rant. It's almost as if he has nothing else preying on his mind these days. I can only wonder what the good doctor thinks about this:
"Circumcising African men may cut their risk of catching AIDS in half, the National Institutes of Health said today as it stopped two clinical trials in Africa, when preliminary results suggested that circumcision worked so well that it would be unethical not to offer it to uncircumcised men in the trials.
"AIDS experts immediately hailed the result, saying it gave the world a new way to fight the spread of AIDS, and the directors of the two largest funds for fighting the disease said they would now consider paying for circumcisions."
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Thursday, December 14, 2006 
