For The Love of God

Delaware Dem

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Friday January 05, 2007 · 12:11 PM PST

2007/01/05 · 12:11

I think we can all agree that we, as human beings, are faced with a lot of problems.

Starvation.

War.

Dwindling water supplies worldwide.

Dwindling oil supplies worldwide.

Increasing global temperature and climate change (evidenced by the lack of a winter in much of the United States and Canada this year).

Disease.

Lack of shelter for the homeless.

We as a society have it within ourselves and in our power and technology to solve all of these problems over the next several years if we only tapped our resources.

Instead, we waste our resources constantly on the most trivial of things.

U.S. health officials have approved the first obesity drug aimed at treating Americans' increasingly plump pooches, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.

We haven't found a cure for cancer, but we have solved dog obesity.

Let me repeat that. Dog obesity is more important than finding a cure for cancer. Or ending AIDS. Or discovering renewable energy. Or ending world hunger.

The drug, Pfizer Inc'.s Slentrol, helps decrease appetite and fat absorption to help the roughly 5 percent of U.S. dogs that are obese lose weight, the FDA said. Another 20 percent to 30 percent are overweight, it added.

I love dogs. As anyone here at Daily Kos can attest, I am a Dog person, as opposed to a Cat person. But this is just beyond the pale. Human beings come first, and our problems and our planet's problems are vast. We can solve them, but not if we waste precious time, money and manhours making sure Fido is skinny.

That Pfizer was even researching this drug is an indictment of the human race as a whole. If I had my druthers, I would ban all trivial animal research and drugs until such time as we have ended world hunger, reversed global warming, cured all human disease (including the common cold), sheltered the homeless, ended war, and discovered renewable sources of energy. Sorry Poochie, we come first. If you get fat, deal with it.

I weep for the future.

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