Venting at Michael Moore
Sicko! was about to be released in theaters, and I’d tried repeatedly to contact someone at Wyeth pharmaceuticals to find some answers for the hell I was enduring while detoxing from Effexor. I could barely stand up for about a week and my head was constantly swimming in dizzy. Throughout the day electrical jolts would temporarily stun me as they shot through my head. I was coming down off a three-year Effexor binge and I wondering if I would ever feel well again.
Since Wyeth wasn’t responding, I sent the following cathartic tirade in an email to Michael Moore. My head was swimming in all sorts of weird trajectories, so it wasn’t just about my displeasure with Wyeth. The brain goes on some weird jags when you’re jones’n.
Here’s my letter to Michael Moore, who also didn’t respond.
Hey Mike,
I’m currently de-toxing from one of big-pharma’s chemistry set brews;
Effexor, brought to you by Wyeth! I was thinking that you might be
looking for a good opening scene for Sicko! I liked the shopping cart
wreck on Jackass, but since that’s already been done I was thinking
something along the lines of spiking Robert Essner’s Wheaties with
Effexor for a couple months, and then cut him off.You’d get some great shots of the little creep with sweat pouring off
his shiny bald head as he is escorted into the ER thinking he’s having a
stroke. Then while he’s abusing the labor with demands for a private
room and solid gold bed pan, you jump out with a bunch of balloons and
inform him that he’s been Punk’d (tm.) Oh ya… and you would publicly
inform him that he would be dealing with withdrawal symptoms for the
next 2 weeks to 2 years, and may possibly have permanent brain damage.With all your work on Sicko!, you must be well-aware of Essner/Wyeth. I
didn’t know anything about them until I googled in a panic trying to
learn about the new electrical storm in my head. I quickly discovered
that I wasn’t alone in my suffering, and that Robert Essner, CEO of
Wyeth, is a douchebag of epic proportions. The only ‘methadone’ I’ve
found for my withdrawal are fantasies of torture for Bob Essner. My
favorite is driving up on him in his broken-down Mercedes out in the
middle of the July, Arizona desert. Once Mr. Essner is properly
identified, I introduce myself by kicking him in the nuts. I then
proceed to help him in much the same manner he has helped me, “well
let’s see, it’s not exactly drinkin’ water … but it doo keep the
engine cool now don’t it?”Anyway, thanks for the ear (or eye in this case) … it helps thinking
you might be reading this.My freedom battles are fought on the technology front (when I’m feeling
well,) and you can rest assured that the high-profile stories of handing
Internet control to Bush’s media companies ultimately have no teeth.
Once again they are using fractional truths to stir their fear
campaign. From a technical standpoint, controlling the Internet is an
impossibility. You may have to trust me on this, but the Internet is in
good hands … the people’s hands! The protocols that govern electronic
information exchange were engineered by the brightest engineering minds
who also had social conscience and understood that public information
and communication must always be free. Even in a police state, us geeks
would have an underground communication network setup faster than a Karl
Rove smear campaign!Note however, that there is important legal evolution underway right now
in the tech world. The dinosaurs of the tech-industry have been using
their vast cash reserves in an Intellectual Property ‘land grab,’ hoping
that future revenue can be harvested effortlessly in the court room
through extortive software patents and dubious copyright claims.
Microsoft (for example) is being awarded, on average, 10 new patents a
day. Which sounds impressive, until you realize these are patents for
doing things like ’single-clicking’ on your mouse, and formatting your
web page with x number of columns. The software patent is the single
greatest threat to future innovation, fortunately we’ve got some
wicked-smart people working on the case.Keep up the good work, I can’t wait for Sicko!
warm regards,
E Lee Bloom
PS – Sicko! was a good movie, but (I’m sorry to say) Capitalism sucked!
In: Depression · Tagged with: bi-polar, bureaucracy, Capitalism, Depression, Effexor, Michael Moore, Sicko!, Wyeth