“Your mind is like a
parachute: If it isn’t open,
it doesn’t work.”
Buzz Aldrin, quoted in
BusinessInsider.com
“I would feel more opti-
mistic about a bright
future for man if he spent
less time proving that he
can outwit Nature and
more time tasting her
sweetness and respecting
her seniority.”
E.B. White, quoted in the
Montreal Gazette
“Journalism largely
consists in saying ‘Lord
Jones is dead’ to people
who never knew Lord
Jones was alive.”
G.K. Chesterton,
quoted in RFI.fr
“I must endure the pres-
ence of a few caterpillars if I
wish to become acquainted
with the butterflies.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
quoted in Vogue
“Our most basic
instinct is not for survival,
but for family.”
Neuropsychologist
Paul Pearsall, quoted in
CountryLiving.com
“It is impossible to live
without failing at
something, unless you
live so cautiously that you
might as well not have
lived at all. In which case,
you fail by default.”
J.K. Rowling, quoted in Parade
“The years between 50
and 70 are the hardest. You
are always being asked
to do things, and yet you
are not decrepit enough to
turn them down.”
T.S. Eliot, quoted in The Daily
Telegraph (U.K.)Talking points
Wit &
Wisdom
Ge
tty
NEWS 17
Poll watch
Q22% of Millennials
(ages 23 to 38) say they
have “no friends,’’ and
30% say they always or
often feel lonely—higher
than any other gener a-
tion. 16% of Gen Xers
and 9% of Baby Boomers
say they don’t have
any friends.
YouGov Insulin: Its high price is killing people
“Jesimya David Scherer-
Radcliff might still be alive
if he could have afforded his
insulin,” said Sarah Jones in
NYMag.com. Instead, the
Minnesota man, 21, died in
June after trying to ration his
supply—and his “death is not
an isolated event.” Insulin
costs have skyrocketed as a
trio of pharmaceutical compa-
nies has essentially cornered
the market with no generic
alternative. A vial that sold for $35 in 2001 is
now retailing for almost $300. This has led to
devastating choices for many of the 7.5 million
diabetic Americans who rely on insulin to survive.
Nearly 30 percent are now rationing due to cost,
while others have resorted to injecting dog insulin,
or smuggling vials from Canada, where it still
costs $30. At Scherer-Radcliff’s funeral, his mother
said he was “murdered” by Big Pharma—and that
the cause of death was “corporate greed.”Claims of corporate profiteering are an oversim-
plification, said The Wall Street Journal in an
editor ial. Insulin has gone from “a mere drug
made from animals to a sophisticated class of
products” dispensed with “innovations like pens
that make dosing and delivery easier.” Someone
has to pay for such advances, or you remove the
profit motive that drives their creation. Actually,the drug companies are
gaming the system, said
William Galston, also in the
Journal. Today, Eli Lilly,
Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi
“command the lion’s share
of the U.S. insulin market,”
and there isn’t a single
generic because insulin is a
“biologic” medication made
of living cells that is harder
to replicate and given
greater regulatory protec-
tion. The three companies continually released
new insulin formulations with minor tweaks to
protect their patents and keep cheaper, generic
insulin off the market.The insulin crisis “is part of a deeper malaise
in American health care,” said Alan MacLeod
in The Guardian. Hospital bills are the lead-
ing cause of bankruptcy, and one-third of all
GoFundMe donations are for medical expenses.
Even people who do have insurance face ruinous
deductibles that force them to shell out $4,
or more before coverage kicks in. Polls show that
“Americans are more scared of getting sick than
of a terrorist attack.” These things don’t happen
elsewhere in the developed world. Drug prices
are regulated, health insurance is universally pro-
vided, and no one “must pay thousands of dollars
a year simply to not die.”Joe Biden was “good enough” in last week’s
primary debate, said Dana Milbank in The Wash-
ington Post. And for the Democratic front-runner,
“that, in itself, was a victory.” Unlike his flat,
defensive performance in Miami earlier this sum-
mer, Biden managed to hold his ground as his
rivals savaged him from the left. The former vice
president stuck to centrist positions, pointedly
refusing to endorse unpopular progressive schemes
to abolish private health insurance or decriminal-
ize border crossings. Instead, Biden repeatedly
redirected the focus to President Trump’s disas-
trous administration while wrapping himself in
the legacy of Barack Obama. Unless something
changes, most Democrats still seem convinced
“this nonthreatening old white guy of moderate
leanings is the one to beat President Trump.” A
new Quinnipiac poll shows Biden far out in front
with 32 percent, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren in sec-
ond with 21 percent.“Biden may still be the front-runner, but he can’t
fail upwards forever,” said Moira Donegan in
The Guardian (U.K.). Biden was as cringey and
gaffe-prone as ever, caught on a hot mic telling
Sen. Kamala Harris, a 54-year-old woman, to “go
easy on me, kid.” He also remains “ideologicallymiles to the right of the party.” For example, he
had no answer for the “inhumane immigration
practices” of the Obama administration, which
deported more than 3 million people. Biden was
lucky that Harris, his chief rival on the debate
stage, had an equally mediocre performance. The
California senator stumbled in trying to explain
her convoluted new health-care plan and in
responding to progressive criticism of her tenure
as California attorney general, during which she
jailed 1,500 people for marijuana violations.Have Democrats lost their minds? asked Michael
Tomasky in TheDailyBeast.com. In an attempt to
drag down Biden, the candidates unloaded on the
Obama administration’s record on everything from
health care to immigration to criminal justice.
This is “political suicide.” Obama is still highly
popular, with an astonishing 97 percent approval
rating among Democrats. However, Democrats
like to “eat their own,” said David French in The
New York Times. During Obama’s first term, it
took every ounce of the party’s political capital to
pass Obamacare. But now Democrats hell-bent on
socialized medicine argue it “must be completely
undone.” Biden’s biggest opponent in this primary
is not his past. It’s “the arrogance of the present.”Biden: The center is holding
Scherer-Radcliff’s mom leading a protest