Didn't know there was such a word, so I looked it up and by gosh, there is — what’s more, I like it

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“Subsidiarity”?

Sec. Turner: ‘Burdensome Regulation’ Fuels Affordability Crisis

AI Overview

Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be handled at the lowest possible or most local level, with a higher authority only intervening when a lower authority cannot resolve the issue effectively

. Originating in Catholic social doctrine, it is now a concept used in political systems to promote decentralized decision-making and respect for local autonomy. 

Secretary Turner:

The Founding Fathers believed in the principle of subsidiarity and in putting careful restrictions on the federal government, while local governments perform many functions more efficiently. Unfortunately, America long ago stopped operating on that principle, but the Trump administration is bucking the trend. When possible, the administration wants to empower state and local authorities to get the job done and focus on solutions specific to their areas.

Why ChatGPD can be so much fun on an otherwise boring Saturday afternoon

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So, for years I’ve wondered about those ridiculous drug ads on television, and today I decided to ask ChatGPD about them. As follows:

I'm curious about the endless number of ads on television pushing particular prescription drugs. They all show show a few seconds of happy, smiling patients enjoying life, then the remaining 30 seconds or minute are devoted to a recital of all the possible horrible side effects (warnings presumably mandated by the FDA). My question is, who are these ads targeted to? Doctors, or patients who then go to their doctors and demand the drug they've seen on TV? I assume the ads are effective in driving up sales or the drug companies wouldn't keep running them, but how?

ChatGPT said:

Excellent question — and one that touches on a uniquely American phenomenon. Let’s unpack it a bit.

Who the ads are aimed at

The short answer: they’re aimed at patients, not doctors.

Only the United States and New Zealand allow direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising. Everywhere else, such ads can only target healthcare professionals.

Pharmaceutical companies run these ads to make patients aware of a drug, often for a chronic condition, and to motivate them to ask their doctor about it by name. The industry even coined a term for this goal: “ask your doctor” marketing.

Why they target patients

The logic is simple but powerful:

  • Patients are the demand side. If enough patients request a specific brand, doctors are more likely to prescribe it (even if alternatives exist).

  • Brand recognition matters. Drugs like Humira, Ozempic, and Dupixent become household names, which influences both patients and doctors subconsciously.

  • Insurance coverage battles. A drug with consumer recognition can pressure insurers to include it on their formularies (covered lists).

  • Emotional appeal. Ads sell the feeling of wellness — the smiling joggers, grandparents on swings — more than the molecule itself.

The FDA’s role and the long list of side effects

You’re right that the long recital of warnings is legally required. The FDA mandates that any benefits shown must be balanced by a “fair presentation” of the risks, hence the often comically long lists of potential side effects.

Drug makers use pleasant imagery and upbeat music to offset the negative tone of the warnings — it’s an odd dance between regulation and persuasion.

Are these ads effective?

Surprisingly, yes — very.

Studies show that:

  • Around 20–30% of patients who see a DTC drug ad discuss it with their doctor.

  • Of those, half or more often receive a prescription for the drug (or something similar).

  • For high-revenue drugs (especially biologics or diabetes/weight-loss meds), the return on investment for ads can be huge.

So even though the ads may seem ridiculous, they work by:

  1. Creating disease awareness (“Do you have symptoms of X?”).

  2. Planting the drug’s name in the viewer’s mind.

  3. Turning viewers into proactive “consumers” in the exam room.

Bottom line

These ads are a blend of public health education, emotional marketing, and corporate profit-seeking. They exist because U.S. law permits them, and because they successfully drive patients to ask for specific drugs — which in turn drives prescriptions and sales.

Would you like me to show you some examples of how the visuals and language in these ads are strategically designed to overcome the negative impact of the side-effect lists?

You said:

sure

ChatGPT said:

Great — this is actually a fascinating exercise in psychological design and marketing strategy. Let’s look at how these prescription drug ads work on multiple levels to make you forget the scary part while feeling good about the brand.

1. Visual Storytelling: “Life Before and After the Drug”

Almost every ad follows the same emotional arc:

SegmentWhat You SeeWhat You HearWhat It’s Doing PsychologicallyBefore the drugDim lighting, slow movement, people looking tired or restricted.Somber tone: “If you struggle with your condition…”Establishes problem and empathy. You identify with the sufferer.After the drugBright, warm colors; people smiling, dancing, gardening, traveling.Upbeat music, “Talk to your doctor about…”Creates a fantasy of transformation — your life could look like this.Side effects disclaimerSame bright scenes continue — maybe a family picnic, fishing, or yoga.Voiceover calmly lists 30 risks, sometimes including “death.”Keeps your emotional brain focused on joy and connection, not the words. The cheerful visuals literally override the fear reaction.

The result: your brain pairs the drug’s name with relief, not risk.

2. Linguistic Tricks

Drug advertisers use careful wording to maintain optimism and control perception:

  • “May help” — implies benefit without guaranteeing it.

  • “Not for everyone” — sounds honest and responsible.

  • “You may be able to…” — transfers agency to you (“You can take control”).

  • “Ask your doctor if [DrugName] is right for you.” — a call to action that turns the patient into the sales representative.

It’s subtle, but it works: your doctor is now responding to a consumer request, not initiating a medical recommendation.

3. Sound Design and Voice

That calm, trustworthy narrator? Usually a woman, middle-aged, with a voice tested in focus groups for soothing authority.

Meanwhile, the background music never stops being upbeat — even during the list of side effects. The auditory continuity keeps the mood elevated, reducing the emotional impact of the warnings.

4. Color and Symbolism

You’ll often see:

  • Pastels and natural light – signal safety and serenity.

  • Soft blues and greens – associated with healing and trust.

  • Warm family scenes – subconsciously evoke belonging and care.

  • Repetition of the pill’s color in clothing or props – creates subtle brand memory (like a woman’s scarf matching the pill).

5. “Disease Awareness” Ads Without Naming the Drug

Sometimes, companies run teaser ads that don’t even mention a product — just the condition (“Do you have chronic plaque psoriasis?”). These prime audiences for the upcoming branded ad campaign, which appears a few weeks later. It’s a one-two punch: awareness first, then brand solution.

6. Effectiveness in Numbers

The pharmaceutical industry spends over $7 billion annually on direct-to-consumer ads in the U.S. — more than on research for many drugs. They track measurable spikes in:

  • Doctor visits mentioning the brand.

  • Requests for prescriptions.

  • Social media searches about the drug.

That’s why the formula hasn’t changed much in 20 years — it works.

I'm going with "there are no accidents", but I'm fine with this either way

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greetings from Gdańsk!

Whoa: Major Foreign Propagandists Utterly Exposed After X Glitch Reveals Account Locations

A temporary glitch on X led to a credibility bloodbath for a variety of foreign propaganda accounts that were either posing as Americans or lying about their locations in other ways. 

Days prior, Head of Product Nikita Brier had announced a new feature revealing the origin and current location of users. When it rolled out, though, only account owners could view it. That all changed on Friday night, though. In what is assumed to have been a mistake, everyone's origins and current locations were made public for about an hour before disappearing. 

In one instance, it was revealed that one of Hamas' biggest simps has been lying about being in Gaza. 

The above was posted when it was 65 degrees at night (and 80 during the day), just to give you an idea of the kind of propaganda being spewed. For years, the above account has claimed to be reporting from the ground in Gaza. He's made hundreds of posts pushing fake claims about genocide, famine, and his own supposed hardships. In reality, his account was created in the United Kingdom, and he's currently residing in Poland. 

I guess when he said he and his "children" were freezing, he forgot he was still in Eastern Europe. He's not the only one who got exposed, though. A large number of other accounts that obsess over Israel and Jews, many claiming to be Americans, were also revealed to be foreign ops. 

There are a lot more examples, but what needs to be understood is that this is all coordinated. Foreigners, possibly funded by other governments, are creating accounts and using bots to game the algorithms to gain notoriety. They then use those platforms to push vile content under the banner of "America First." Every bit of it is meant to demoralize and divide Americans, and specifically, the Republican Party. 

Dispatch from Somaliland

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well, lots of police forces have their shameful moments, eh, Greenwich?

Minneapolis Police Chief Grovels After Flagging ‘East African’ Crime In City

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara apologized at a press conference Thursday after he previously discussed crime committed by “groups of East African kids.”

…. “The Somali community here in Minneapolis has been welcoming and has shown love towards me, and I appreciate it,” O’Hara said. “Over the last three years we have been working together to try and address some of the real serious problems that we have in our community.”

“We have to be honest at times with the problems that we’re having in our community, and we need our community to help us fix those problems together because it’s real and it’s serious,” O’Hara added later. “At the same time, if people have taken anything that I have said out of context in a way that’s caused harm, I apologize, and I’m sorry for that because that’s not my intention at all.”

O’Hara told WCCO that part of the problem was gangs, as well as the fact that many of those committing crimes, ranging from vandalism to carjacking, were not from the city. Prosecutorial and judicial leniency in Minneapolis have also made addressing crime difficult, according to Alpha News.

“They aren’t the poor kids from Minneapolis that are our residents, these are kids coming down in mommy’s Mercedes-Benz to Dinkytown, and they don’t know where they are,” O’Hara told WCCO.

O’Hara said that the person killed in the Oct. 31 shooting and one of those wounded were not from Minneapolis.

“Groups of kids, groups of East African kids that are coming from surrounding communities and not just one community, kind of all over the place,” O’Hara said in the Nov. 11 interview.

Trigger warning — or should that be hypocrisy alert? Either way, we present for your amusement a tale from the same city, 10 days go:

Democrat Official Pushing Leftist Criminal Reforms Gets Carjacked, Demands ‘Consequences’

Democratic Minneapolis City Councilman Jamal Osman was carjacked days after winning reelection on a liberal criminal justice reform platform, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Tuesday.

A 15- and 16-year-old threatened Osman with mace on Monday, stole his car, crashed into other cars and a fire hydrant and ran on foot before police captured them, O’Hara said in a press conference. Although Osman’s Nov. 4 campaign promoted “restorative justice programs for low-level offenses,” the use of “alternative” responses to some 911 calls, “violence prevention programs” and other liberal priorities, he stressed that those who robbed him must face repercussions.

“I’m not a legal expert, but there has to be some kind of consequences with the action,” Osman told reporters. “If individuals know they can get away [with] this kind of heinous behavior or crimes, they’re going to continue doing it again.”

One of the juveniles who targeted Osman was already “known” to police, and the pair were involved in another carjacking earlier that evening, O’Hara said.

“Didn’t really think it was going to happen to me,” Osman said with a chuckle.

They never do.

If you’re curious, the full story of poor Osman’s ordeal is here:

Nearly a week after sailing to re-election, Minneapolis Council Member Jamal Osman was carjacked Monday by two teenage boys, who seemingly targeted victims at random throughout the city in a violent crime spree.

In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Osman recalled how he was talking on the phone in his parked, rented Volkswagen near Lake Street and Portland Avenue, near a new coffee shop on the southern edge of the ward he represents. Around 8 p.m., he saw two boys get out of a vehicle in front of him. One opened Osman’s passenger door and threatened to mace him if he didn’t give them the keys and get out. The other indicated he had a gun. 

“They looked scared,” Osman told the Minnesota Star Tribune. But also, he said, they “looked dangerous.” 

Osman decided it wasn’t worth fighting and “quietly cooperated.” He said the vehicle was rented for his campaign to transport people to vote.

“If it can happen to a council member, it can happen to anybody,” Osman said. “We should not normalize this kind of behavior in the city of Minneapolis.”

Police tracked and arrested two teens – ages 15 and 16 – after they crashed the stolen vehicles into parked cars and a fire hydrant in south Minneapolis following a pursuit. Investigators recovered a replica firearm and later tied the boys to at least three carjackings, including Osman’s, committed over a six-hour period Monday.

In a news briefing Tuesday afternoon, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara outlined the sequence of events, where “totally senseless” behavior left residents terrorized and one woman battered and bruised. 

The spree began near Loring Park, where the boys reportedly stole a Subaru Outback, whose owner inadvertently left the key fob inside. Over the next several hours, the teens are believed to have used that Subaru to commit multiple robberies and carjackings, including one downtown where they assaulted a motorist and smashed his cellphone.

But the most egregious incident occurred on the city’s North Side, where a mother and her young daughter were carjacked near N. Elwood and Humboldt Avenues around 5:15 p.m. The suspect jumped in the front seat as the mother was attempting to strap her toddler in the back — repeatedly punching her in the face as she clung to her child inside the moving vehicle.

That 31-year-old mother, Jackie Aguirre, was leaving work at a nearby daycare facility and heading back to her parked car in the adjacent lot on Humboldt just after dark. She had turned the vehicle on and was preparing to leave when another vehicle rolled into the lot, Aguirre told the Star Tribune.

“This guy appears out of nowhere,” Aguirre recalled in a phone interview, noting that his face was obscured with a COVID-style mask. 

The teen hopped in the front and began to drive. Aguirre jumped in the back, lying on top of her 18-month-old child huddled on the floor. He turned and assaulted her before crashing about a block away and fleeing on foot.

“I was trying to protect my little daughter,” she said, adding that her child was not physically harmed. But the attack left her riddled with bruises on her face and leg and shook her sense of security. Aguirre is scared to walk to her car alone at night now.

“I know the world is dangerous...but I’ve never experienced nothing like this,” she said. “I couldn’t have reacted different. It was my baby, you know?”

“This incident is another reminder of the work ahead to keep all of our communities safe,” he wrote. At the news conference, he called on parents to take on a more active role in their children’s lives and noted that there must be consequences for these “heinous crimes.”

Clash of the Mamdani voters

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Swanky new NYC grocer facing death threats over insane prices — but has ‘lines around the block’ in first days

A swanky new grocer in downtown Manhattan has been getting death threats over its stratospheric prices – even as the shop was forced to briefly shutter this week after its shelves were emptied by a customer frenzy….

Meadow Lane, a posh store in Tribeca at 355 Greenwich St., has drawn such massive crowds since it opened last Friday that it was forced to impose quotas on goods. Those include $625 tins of Siberian caviar, $65 bottles of extra virgin olive oil, $74 containers of matcha powder and gluten-free chicken nuggets priced at $15 per half dozen.

“We can’t keep up,” founder Sammy Nussdorf, known online as “Brokeback Contessa,” told Side Dish. “We outperformed all of our projections.”

Meanwhile, the 28-year-old New Yorker said he’s also been receiving death threats and hate – with online loons enraged by his prices as socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly attacked the rich.

“I have death threats. People are threatening to burn down the store and throw rocks through the windows. The hate is out of control. They focus on any imperfection. It’s politically charged,” said Nussdorf, whose parents previously made Forbes’ list of America’s richest families.

Now, Meadow Lane is selling out hundreds of pounds of chicken per day and doesn’t “have enough space in the fridge to keep up with demand,” according to the shop’s director of operations.

Customers have been wolfing down the nuggets, which are crispy and delicious, along with a $20 Chinese chicken salad. It is packed with tangy dressing and edamame, cabbage, cucumbers and carrots that lend the dish a mysteriously satisfying crunch.

As for the haters, Nussdorf says, “All it is doing is increasing my engagement and making this more relevant. I have lines around the block and more than 100,000 followers because of the haters. That’s the antithesis of what they want, but it is what’s happening.”

“People are lining up. There is a market for this,” he added. “That doesn’t mean other people aren’t suffering.”

Meadow Lane was sold out of most of its products by Friday afternoon. The crowds kept coming through the weekend, and by Monday, it had to close to reassess and restock.

…. Even the checkered blue and beige Meadow Lane reusable tote bag, reminiscent of a Louis Vuitton pattern, is in demand.

The striking interiors, from designer Sarah Carpenter, include carved nooks where customers can put their baskets while paying the cashier.

Kate Friedman, 24, was waiting in line Tuesday morning while visiting New York from Chicago with her boyfriend, on a work trip.

“I love [Nussdorf] on TikTok and I am also gluten free [Ed - of course she is] . I want to try the chicken nuggets and the matcha,” she told Side Dish.

The fun part of all this is that the patrons and the protesters are almost surely all Mamdani socialists; the rich Tribeccans expect to keep what they have even as Mamdani Magic™works to raise the living conditions of the underclass, while the yowling liberal arts baristas believe that Mamdani will make everything level so that, while the rich will be denied their triple soy lattes, everyone will be able to sip single-shot skims in their own elegant kitchens located in rent-free luxury apartments. Power to the people, right on.

If history is a guide, my guess is that some, but not all of the Meadow Lane deli grazers will retain their money no matter what form of rule is established, and those who can’t join the new power structure will join in mutual discovery with their same-age-group baristas that in a system that takes from those who have and distributes the loot to the have-nots (after suitable deductions for administrative expenses and salaries), there will always be people who have louder voices and less than you do, so it’s your trading desk income, and your waitress tips alike that will be stripped and given away. No truffle soup for either of you.

“Better I have no cow than my neighbor have two” is a sentiment that’s powered many revolutions, and it’s always worked out the same: the masses do end up with no cows, and discover that they’re tending the massive dairy herd owned by their (now former) neighbor. Too bad Howard Zinn’s disciples in our school systems don’t mention that.

Burns does Zinn

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People Are Fighting About the New Ken Burns Documentary

Hot Air’s John Sexton admits that he hasn’t watched Burns’ documentary on the American Revolution, but does offer a (very) lengthy compilation of X-posts from those who have, and you can find those at the link. Here are two of them, one from each side:

And from the woke, approval:

After watching the first two episodes and skimming through the third before quitting, my personal take is that Burns’ intention was to channel the communist Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of America” (“presenting a different side of history from the more traditional fundamental nationalist glorification of country") and the NYT’s 1619 Project (self-described as an effort to “reframe the country’s history” by arguing that our country was founded upon the idea of slavery”) and produce a documentary about the heretofore underreported role of blacks, Indians and women in the American Revolution and the dark side of the white men — land speculators and slave owners — who have up to now been venerated as the founders of our country.

He’s succeed in that effort, to the extent that he’s made a 12-hour documentary that will appeal to his PBS audience, and I have no particular objection to the subject: there is a dark irony to the dichotomy of fighting for the individual freedom of all people while holding millions in slavery, and a casual reader of history might have been unaware of the existence of Abigail Adams, and the fact that blacks and Indians fought on both sides of the war. Now he does, if he can sit through the series.

The trouble comes from Burns’ insistence on hammering those points home relentlessly at every possible moment. George Washington arrives outside Boston to take command of the militia forces surrounding the city but, as is carefully noted, he is accompanied “by his personal slave.” Thomas Jefferson travels to Philadelphia to help draft the Declaration of Independence, and brings with him his slave valet, “the son of Jefferson’s concubine Sally Hemings’ and Jefferson’s father-in-law”. Okay, we get the irony; point made: who knew that some of our revolution’s heros owned slaves? Gosh! But Burns is like that obnoxious stranger sitting next to you in a movie theater, constantly elbowing you, saying “did you see that? See that?” “Wow, did you catch what he just did?” “Can I have some of your popcorn?”

Burns’ endless messaging even extends to the illustrations created for the film, which are always careful to include heroic women and blacks in the foreground of every picture, bravely standing next to white males confronting the British, watching as cities burn, and just being present. “Remember us? Huh? We were here too!”

And so on. It’s not a documentary on the history of the Revolution so much as a story about oppressed people having a difficult time, and uses the Revolution as a backdrop to frame the tale. I didn’t use a stopwatch, but I’d estimate that at least a quarter of the first three episodes, possibly a third, are devoted to the theme of slaves and indians and those, “by gosh, weren’t they brave?” women. As I said, the target PBS audience will love it, and, like the 1619 project, it will probably be incorporated into our schools as a primary pedagogical resource, but I found it first, annoying, then boring, and then I turned it off.

Huh — it turns out that Chris Murphy isn't the only transvestite politician asserting that Trump's been proved to be a pedophile

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Democrats Aren't Even Trying to Hide That They Are Just Making Up Hoaxes

A Minnesota (of course) congressman, currently going by the name of Leigh Finke (curiously, his original name appears to have been scrubbed from the internet ) is right there alongside the Dullard of the Nutmeg State, claiming to have proof that Trump was the center of a sex ring that preyed on underaged children

Finke, who was named by USA Today’s 2023 “Woman” of the year, wrote in an Instagram post a week ago: “I don’t know what happens in this current political climate when we definitively prove that our president is a participant in a massive sex trafficking ring organized by his friends. …. “it is one thing for us to presume what we know in the face of mounting evidence. But it’s another thing to confirm the reality … that the man who is our elected president is a child rapist.”

“Release the files. Prosecute these predators, and find justice for the victims.”

David Strom reminds readers of the forerunner of these frauds by citing the 2012 lie told by Harry Reid, who knowingly, falsely claimed that Mitt Romney was a tax dodger. The success of that lie inspired the Democrats who have followed in his footsteps to abandon truth entirely and rely instead on hoaxes and fraud to dupe their constituents and stay in office.

“Time Magazine interviewed him about it, and he had no regrets.”

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has no regrets with falsely accusing Mitt Romney of paying zero taxes for ten years during the 2012 presidential elections.

“So the word is out that he has not paid any taxes for ten years,” Reid said on the Senate floor in August 2012. “Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”

Under criticism and repeated denials by Romney, Reid later put out a statement backed by an “extremely credible source,” which turned out to be billionaire Jon Huntsman, Sr, the father of the former Utah governor and Romney rival, according to Double Down by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. PolitiFact rated Reid’s allegation “Pants on Fire.”

When asked about his comments in a new interview by CNN’s Dana Bash, Reid, who recently announced he would retire in 2017 after his term is up, rebuffed those who said his attacks were “McCarthyite.”

“Well, they can call it whatever they want,” Reid said. “Romney didn’t win, did he?”

100-year-old adage: “California has four seasons—Earthquake, Drought, Fire, and Mudslide”

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This post from 2015 cites a reference to the “joke” dated 1993, but I heard it from former test pilot and Malibu native Bill Bridgeman when, at 10-years-old, my mother and I visited him and his wife in Malibu Colony, and it was old even then; as both my mother and her childhood friend Jackie, Bill’s wife and LA natives themselves, attested.

Despite decades of warnings from forestry and land use professionals that the state’s laggard brush clearing was making its annual wildfire seasons increasingly worse, California’s environmentalists, in collaboration with the state’s feckless politicians, reduced brush clearing, year after year.

But that’s history, and logic, and we don’t do either of those anymore, we go for panic, headlines, and misinformation, as can be seen in this this latest bit of witless “reporting”:

Not surprisingly, California refuses to release the climate change from custody: Man accused of sparking Palisades Fire will not be released from custody.

Here’s the climate change’s booking photo from last month: