Posted on 10/24/2006 9:43:27 PM PDT by peggybac
As many around the country now know, baseball fans in Missouri got more than they bargained for on Sunday night when an advertisement for senate candidate Claire McCaskill ran during the World Series featuring Hollywood actor and Parkinsons sufferer Michael J. Fox (video here). In the ad, a trembling Fox said, "As you might know I care deeply about stem cell research." He continued, "In Missouri you can elect Claire McCaskill, who shares my hope for cures."
Well, the rhetoric is heating up in this important state (hat tip to Drudge). Past and present Missouri professional athletes including Kurt Warner (formerly of the St. Louis Rams), current Cardinals' pitcher Jeff Suppan, Royals' first-baseman Mike Sweeney, as well as actress Patricia Heaton have created an advertisement to run during Wednesdays World Series game (video here). In this one, the aforementioned speak out against Missouris Amendment 2, otherwise known as the Stem Cell Initiative.
Opinion added post facto: I am a huge Michael J. Fox fan, and my dad has Parkinson's. As such, I'm all over the map on this issue. However, I don't see this as being a good time for the Democrats to bring this up in a state like Missouri which would appear to not favor abortion or such research. As McCaskill was polling well against Talent, I wonder whether she needed this peculiar hail Mary. This might end up working against her.
Thanx. ((Hugs)) are good.
Dad suffered greatly, and my mother and family as a consequence of this illness. I think that he is now looking down from Heaven. I'm genuinely very cynical about medicine and the folks that practice it as a result of this experience.
People like Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve have done an awful lot to sow misinformation about this subject into their pleas for help which is sad because I think it takes away resources which could be more effectively used in other areas. I think they have done this because they are desperate to escape their situations.
Thanks. I wish I had the Cliff's Notes version of this discussion for you. I bet some pointy headed Freeper may have a suggestion if they wander into the thread.
In simple terms; always follow the money trail (a creedo taught to me by my old man). There is a kajillion dollars waiting to be made in this field. Researchers would tell Michael J. Fox that he could have a brain transplant to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's and he is in such bad straits that he would be inclined to believe it.
Finally, let's not undersetimate the power of prayer, as a source of consolation for those who suffer and for an eventual cure. I believe they are going down the wrong path with the embryonic stem cells.
Pray for those who would defend life.
His neurologist said that it is his drugs that cause the jerkiness in the ad, not the lack of meds. Parkinson's is a nasty disease and Fox has had a long, long time.
I hope they are guaranteed placement during the game because Wednesday's game is very likely to be a rain out and not take place according to local weathermen.
What universe do you live in? The race has been dead even for months. Last poll had Talent up by 3%.
How bad has it gotten for conservatives these days that we are happy a Republican imcumbent from a Red state who ran a statewide election four years ago for governor is in a toss up race two weeks prior to the election?
Check out Real Clear Politics. The latest poll has McCaskill up three. In reality it's probably still a toss up but its going to be a late night before this race is decided.
Email, hand out, etc....
Stem Cell Research: Countering the Democrats' Big Lie
http://www.mccl.org/pdf/StemCell63.pdf
Does Fox know he's lying
No, actually he's pretty stupid, not an intellectual.
Rush said he personally read in Fox's own book that Fox said he deliberately went off his meds before testifying to a Senate hearing, so that the effects of the disease would be most apparent. Now, with that past behavior and admission as predictive for the future...
But, to be fair, maybe the doctor hasn't read the book??
fox is just like charlie sheen... to be forever ignored by my entire family.
LLS
"I don't believe for a minute that someone would go off their meds just to look more pathetic....."
fox has a book out where HE ADMITS THAT HE GOES OFF MEDS WHEN HE TESTIFIES BEFORE THE CONGRESS AND during SOME INTERVIEWS. I take him at his own word that he does!
LLS
It's still a bad bill, Mr. Sheppard. Folks can see for themselves at the link:
Fox on drugs?
Have never heard this.
Could you provide info. and, from what source we could research?
Very in testing!!!!hum!
Are you saying Fox was off his meds in the recent commercial or back in the 90's before the Senate hearing? Fox's neurologist was quoted as saying yesterday that Fox's meds cause his jerkiness NOW, not being off the meds. I dont have a clue whether this is the same neurologist as eight to ten years ago or whether the doc has time to read biographies of his clients.
I think Talent may be able to pull it out but its a sad state of affairs that we think being within the margin of error is a good thing for an imcumbent senator who has run two state wide races in four years (one for Gov and one for Senate).
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Nice slander, any proof of it?
I can't stand Michael J. Fox. I had a terrible disease and you didn't see me all over the radio and tv shilling for a cure or for embryonic stem cell research. Michael is promoting EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH - and that does not promise a cure!
"Compassion? Theres nothing less compassionate than to construct a political constituency of sufferers (and their loved ones) by falsely and cruelly intimating that their disease is on the very cusp of cure if only the President would stop playing politics with the issue."
krauthammer
But isn't that typical of The Party of Compassion?
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0012399
"If anything, he says, he responds too well to the drug, which can cause dyskinesia - unlocking the rigidity and spasmodic tremors of Parkinson's to the point that the body starts to writhe with excess fluidity. "Sometimes," says Fox, "people with Parkinson's will come up to me and say, 'You're taking too much medication.' And I say, 'Listen, if I've got to keep up with Larry King, I've got to take too much.' I don't have the luxury of having any kind of halting thing. I'm used to it, my family's used to it, but in a high-stress situation I can't afford it."
Fox writes about the "thrill ride" of going on and off the medication in riveting detail. When he's off, he experiences the classic Parkinson's symptoms of rigidity, shuffling, tremors and imbalance. "You wouldn't recognize me when I'm off," he says.
But when he's on the drug, Michael is keenly articulate - in transcribing the tape of our interview, I could detect no evidence of his condition. Over time, however, his medication will become less effective, and the symptoms will escalate."
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