Jerry Lewis' Labor Day telethon

[Socnorb11]

Does anybody really think they're making ANY progress with muscular dystrophy? Could the hundreds of millions of dollars be better spent elsewhere?

I guess. But you could make an argument that this nation spends millions and billions of dollars on all sorts of things much less worthwhile than trying to find cures for various diseases.

I mean, relatively speaking, we're spending hundreds of billions to avenge the tragic loss of several thousand people on 9/11. But that battle seems every bit as futile as throwing billions at diseases (cancer, heart disease, AIDS, malaria, etc.) that kill many more thousands each year. That's not even getting into the billions spent on random government projects each year that seem relatively worthless.

I'm much more comfortable with telethons that you elect whether you give money to their cause than having politicians decide what causes to fund.

--P--

Right. But we haven't been fighting the war in Iraq for 40 years, with no signs of progress being made. That seems to be exactly what has happened with muscular dystrophy.

[Jocephus]

i find it difficult to listen to most "old times" comics...like jerry lewis, or don rickles...

they're still doing their schtick, but they seem very out of touch and just...old...

[Arthur Dent]

But we haven't been fighting the war in Iraq for 40 years, with no signs of progress being made. That seems to be exactly what has happened with muscular dystrophy.

I don't know anything about muscular dystrophy research, but is that what has happened? I think sometimes people expect miracle cures instead of the slow progress that we usually get. Time was that there was supposed to be a war on cancer and people thought that some cure would be discovered. That hasn't happened, but we have actually made a lot of progress treating cancer so that the chances of surviving it are much better than in the past.

[vinsanity]

But we haven't been fighting the war in Iraq for 40 years, with no signs of progress being made. That seems to be exactly what has happened with muscular dystrophy.

I don't know anything about muscular dystrophy research, but is that what has happened? I think sometimes people expect miracle cures instead of the slow progress that we usually get. Time was that there was supposed to be a war on cancer and people thought that some cure would be discovered. That hasn't happened, but we have actually made a lot of progress treating cancer so that the chances of surviving it are much better than in the past.

Many are nearly 100% treatable or 'cureable'. Side effects have been minimized. I too know little about MD, but I don't know how much has changed in 10 or 20 years like it has for Cancer.