A Dysfunctional View of Life

In an article in the New York Times by Robert Pear, "Dispute Over Medicare Plan to Cover Erectile Treatments" this was reported:

"Bush administration officials said Tuesday that the new Medicare drug benefit would generally pay for erectile dysfunction pills like Viagra and Levitra when they were medically needed" ....

"Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, said he would introduce a bill to prohibit Medicare payment for what he called such "lifestyle drugs." ....'There are only two reasons for sex,' Mr. King said. 'One is procreation, and the other is recreation. If we are going to subsidize someone's recreational sex, I don't think that's what our founding fathers had in mind.'"

Many, closer to me than you, have heard me refer to Viagra and the rest of this pack of drugs as "stiff dick drugs". I am outraged at the drug companies' cynical pursuit of profits by developing rounds of copycat drugs (isn't one working stiff dick drug enough?) while not spending our (humankind's) resources on solving the many other illnesses that are killing and depleting humans in droves.

Nevertheless, it can't go without comment when confronted by such a constrained, pinched view of what we are all about as human beings.

It must be a tough show in Representative King's life when sex is equated with another round of golf. Intimacy, sharing, touching, connection and the afterglow seem limited to a can of Budweiser at 19th hole for him.