Black Friday Madness: Should America Seek Help?
In the John Woo action movie of the same name, we learn that losing a nuclear warhead has an official term: "Broken Arrow". "I don't know what's scarier," says character Giles Prentice, "losing a nuclear weapon or that it happens so often we have a name for it."
Every year, Americans transform themselves into deal hungry mobs and descend on malls and department stores in the middle of the night. Sometimes there are stampedes, injuries, and even death. And this happens often enough that it too is given a name: .
Black Friday doesn't simply mark the arrival of the holiday season. Its the whitehead on a deep pimple of unhealthy American consumer behavior. And its become so common, we don't even notice how disturbing it is year round.
Take the field of health and fitness. Rather than learn how to get abs the healthy way, through changing diet and exercise, more and more people are opting for quick fix solutions that are often not only ineffective but dangerous, such as surgery and medication. Recently, a man was killed after "Lap Band" weight loss surgery. Football great and "Police Academy" favorite Bubba Smith's recent death has been attributed to drug intoxication, including Phentermine, a weight loss drug.
The drug Viagra has made billions of dollars for Pfizer, (bringing in $493 million in revenue in Q3 2011 alone), providing a quick fix to men's erectile dysfunction. But even Web MD suggests you try some simple lifestyle changes before resorting to this powerful drug.
Unfortunately, lifestyle changes are a lot harder than popping a pill, and big companies know this. Ampio Pharmaceuticals and other companies are hard at work researching how to stop premature ejaculation, which can be dealt with naturally, with a drug.
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