Is Michael Fox acting?
Posted by Moonage on 24 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: National Politics
Was reading a trashy New York gossip rag that was talking about Rush attacking Michael J. Fox for over-acting his Parkinson’s symptoms for political gain. Well, here is the video in question via Claire McCaskill:
Here’s Fox circa June 2006:
The problem Rush has is just making the allegation is distasteful to just about anyone with a heart. So, he’s totally damned for even suggesting what he suggested. It doesn’t matter whether he’s right or not. And, I do think that just about anyone that sees the video that is familiar with Fox’s public appearances will kinda sit back a little. And, the answer that Fox takes meds in public but sometimes doesn’t at home isn’t truly a sincere response since he can control it to some degree, he might as well show how he "normally" is. Being someone who has a vested interest in stem cell research, as Fox is, I resent people polarizing this issue thereby making it a political hot potato that established politicians don’t want to touch. That’s what Fox is doing here, even if it is a sincere desire to elect people who will advocate stem cell research. The problem is, McCaskill will not be in a position to affect any funding for a decade. And, in the meantime, the political backlash will be people in a position to affect funding. So, either way, Fox, by endorsing individual candidates solely on a promise they can’t keep, is hurting the issue right now.
Now you know what I think. Wanna tell me what you think?
October 30, 2006 UPDATE: Just as I fully expected:
Thanks a lot, Fox. It’s now a political football. By making a lousy ad supporting a candidate running against incorrect assumptions, the conservative right is now polarized and ready to pounce on the entire issue. Is that what you wanted?
11 Comments »
on 25 Oct 2006 at 8:39 am 1.somesortamindo said …
Why would someone suffering from Parkinson’s Disease take meds to cover up their symptoms while they are trying to gather support to find a cure? The answer is one probably wouldn’t because they want to show what it’s like living day to day with their disease. I think it is nauseating to suggest Fox is acting or exaggerating just to win support for the Democratic candidate. As voters, we can choose to support who we like based on ALL the issues that are important to us. Fox shows people how Parkinson’s affects him, demonstrating how it affects many others in the process. By doing so he raises awareness and awareness can only help his cause, whether you support his candidate or not.
on 25 Oct 2006 at 8:57 am 2.Moonage
said …
I personally don’t have a clue whether I support his candidate or not. It’s moot because I don’t live in their district or state. However, stars messing with politics have more often than not hurt the issue than helped. In this case, a question’s been raised, regardless of how nauseating it might be, that didn’t need to be raised. Stem cell research and development of a cure for any disease will take a very long time. No doctor will tell anyone otherwise. No one, other than Al Gore, has ever suggested the stem cell research will cure Fox’s condition in the foreseeable future. I have no reservation whatsoever that it will affect mine either. It might help my son, and that’s what I am hoping for. However, stem cell research was progressing fairly smoothly until it was made a political issue about 5 years ago. Bush allowed federal money for stem cell research for the first time ever in the history of man, and immediately got trashed by the Fox’s and other Hollywood people. Kerry even tried to make the fact that being funded for the first time in the history of man was somehow a ban on research. You could hear the political doors being slammed shut all over the country because of that. That perversion of what happened has done nothing but harm to stem cell research. A few years pass, Bush increases the funding and no one says a word. Now, all of a sudden, a candidate is perverting the truth again, and Michael J. Fox is there to endorse that perversion of what has happened. Get ready to hear those political doors slamming shut again.
If Michael J. Fox is truly concerned about stem cell research moreso than political rhetoric, he would not have endorsed a candidate that is lying about what is happening. The Democrats have never funded stem cell research in the past. Republicans have not only funded it, but increased that funding dramatically in the last couple of years. So, why would Michael J. Fox go to bat for a party with such a pathetic history of actually doing anything to help his problem against the party that has?
So, to question his motivation is perfectly legitimate for those that have followed the issue and therefore know that his endorsement, if he has truly followed the issue, is purely rhetoric. If he is sincere, and has been totally misled by the candidate, that would be nauseating to me.
And, other candidates have made the claim that if they had been elected, Parkinson’s would have been cured by now. So, there is a reason to believe that could be happening now.
on 29 Oct 2006 at 1:04 am 3.American Phoenix
said …
I have three problems with Michael J. Fox’s ad:
1. He’s using his “victimhood” to quash debate about a very important subject - embryonic stem cell research - and demonize the opposition;
2. He’s promoting bad science; and
3. He may well be disingenuous in the ad, his disease notwithstanding.
People who are opposed to embryonic stem cell research 1) aren’t opposed to stem cell research generally and 2) don’t wish Michael J. Fox ill. We want him to get better. We just don’t want other people harmed in the process.
Michael J. Fox has already admitted in his book that he intentionally did not take his medication in front of a Congressional Appropriations Subcommittee hearing a few years ago. Since this ad is also political, there was certainly the possibility that he didn’t take his medication for this ad either. (While he has since denied doing that, I think his prior admissions cast doubt on that and it would have been impossible for Rush to know this prior to his recent statement.)
The bottom line, which very few people have addressed, is that embryonic stem cells have a) produced no cures to date, b) cause cancer, and c) have a high rate of rejection. Adult and placental stem cells, on the other hand, have provided over 70 different cures, including for multiple sclerosis, without the side effects of uncontrollable replication and rejection. A recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine has pointed out the problems of rejection and tumor growth and recommended that it is way too early for human testing because of these problems.
What Michael J. Fox is promoting is just bad science. He’s offering sick people false hope. Research into embryonic stem cells has been conducted over the last twenty years and it has proven fruitless thus far.
Perhaps he himself has been offered such false hope and believes it? We really can’t say.
Whatever the case, he doesn’t address the ethical concerns regarding embryonic stem cell research in his ad - namely, that taking embryonic stem cells requires the destruction of the embryo, which is a living human being albeit in an early stage of development. These ethical concerns are completely ignored leaving many people with the impression that he wants a cure - who wouldn’t? - but no matter the cost to someone else.
Frankly, he’s done more damage to his cause than he’s helped because he’s politicized the issue. Now, I volunteer for an organization that raises money for breast cancer patient support. There is an explosion of breast cancer among women right now. There is some research indicating that the use of hormones, whether for birth control or for fertility treatment, can cause a higher risk of breast cancer. We could politicize this issue, but then everyone, patients included, would lose. It would just become a huge turn off and people wouldn’t want to donate money or touch it with a ten foot pole. We wouldn’t be supporting many patients then, would we? Of if we still did, we’d only be supporting half as many.
Frankly, I think the ad was a really stupid move.
on 29 Oct 2006 at 1:05 am 4.American Phoenix
said …
P.S. PLEASE turn off the autoplay option on the video!!!! I don’t need to hear it everytime I load this page.
on 29 Oct 2006 at 7:39 pm 5.Moonage
said …
You simply elaborated on what I was referring to. And, why I don’t particularly see that he’s sincere in what he’s asserting he’s doing here. If he’s the least bit knowledgeable in what is actually going on regarding stem cell research, then he might suppoty “A” candidate, but not this one, since she’s obviously ignorant of the topic. There are just way too many inconsistancies politically for it to make sense IF he’s promoting research for parkinson’s. IF all he’s doing is promoting a candidate for their political ideology, then he’s not sincere in his using his disease for maximum impact. And, first it was because he didn’t take his meds, now it’s because he took too many. Either way, if you dig deeply enough into the topic, the more right Rush seems to be. Even if people consider his doubts nauseating.
And, I have no control over that feed. Before too long, I’m sure it will be gone.
on 09 Nov 2006 at 9:17 am 6.Moonage Political Webdream
said …
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on 13 Feb 2007 at 11:23 pm 8.Moonage Spacedream said …
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said …
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on 04 May 2007 at 11:36 pm 11.Moonage SpaceDream said …
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