Of all the cartoons we've ever done on the FDA, this is the one that people seem to like the best. It addresses the issue of FDA conflicts of interest. The Food and Drug Administration, an agency that suffers under the hallucination that it protects the public from dangerous foods and drugs, has actually become the marketing department of Big Pharma. It actually takes money from drug companies in exchange for evaluating and approving their drugs, and the decisions concerning which drugs to approve almost always come down to a panel of "experts" who have strong financial ties to the very companies impacted by their decisions. It's sort of like asking car companies to vote on what the federal automobile emissions standards should be. The decisions that do get made at the FDA almost always favor the profits of drug companies at the expense of public health. The situation is so bad that the FDA's efforts to reform itself involve things like limiting the level of corruption of drug panel experts so that they can only accept $50,000 / year from the drug companies instead of, say, $200,000 / year. They can still vote on the approval of the drugs, mind you, they just can't take more than $50,000 in bribes while doing so. The idea of having NO conflicts of interest isn't even being considered by the FDA. It's unthinkable. But to normal (honest) people, eliminating conflicts of interest is a common sense concept. Politicians voting on bridge construction contracts shouldn't own the construction company. Cops who bust drug dealers shouldn't be dealing drugs themselves. A real estate agent who represents the seller of a house shouldn't simultaneously represent the buyer. You get the idea. And doctors who vote to approve drugs at the FDA shouldn't be on the payroll of the companies that profits from those drugs. It only makes sense, right? But the FDA is blind to conflicts of interest. That's the point of this cartoon: the FDA Vision Test. I find this cartoon particularly hilarious because the top of the eye chart starts with the word "CON," and the Food and Drug Administration is, of course, a grand CON being perpetrated on the American people. What's the con? The idea that the FDA is doing anything whatsoever to actually protect the American public from overzealous food, drug and cosmetic companies who routinely poison consumers through the use of toxic chemicals and unsafe substances in their products. Meanwhile, the FDA refuses to legalize stevia (the natural herbal sweetener), discredits vitamins, herbs and nutritional supplements, and actually enforces a U.S. medical monopoly by outlawing imports of legal prescription drugs in order to protect the profiteering medical racket operating in the United States. In fact, if you want to do the math on the number of deaths caused by FDA-approved drugs vs. all other causes of death, the facts can only lead you to the conclusion I came to years ago: the FDA is the single most dangerous threat to the health and safety of the American people, far outweighing the threat of terrorism, infectious disease, natural disasters, violent crime or even automobile accidents. If you don't believe me, do the math yourself. Start with the Death by Medicine document at www.LEF.org Consider this: Over the last five years, more people have been killed by the FDA than by the Department of Defense. And given that we're at war with a couple of countries right now, that's really saying something. For every Iraqi that's been killed by a bomb, missile or bullet over the last five years, two or more Americans have been killed by FDA-approved pharmaceuticals (both prescription and over-the-counter varieties). It's almost as if the FDA and Big Pharma have declared chemical warfare on the American people. So why aren't we surrounding the FDA with tanks and demanding the agency's surrender? Because the CON (in "conflicts of interest") is just too darned profitable for powerful corporations to give it up. The continued disease mongering, over-screening and over-treatment of Americans with patented pharmaceuticals is a multi-billion dollar industry. And as long as the money flows, the people in power have no intention of rocking the boat. I could go on, but the stories about the FDA would fill a book. Read up on the FDA on NewsTarget to learn more: www.NewsTarget.com/the_FDA.html Or check out my book, Natural Health Solutions, which documents some of the more tyrannical actions by the FDA, including armed raids on vitamin shops, the ordered destruction of recipe books, the kidnapping of American citizens in Mexico, the raiding of a church, the bribery convictions and much more. Without any question whatsoever to anyone familiar with the facts, the FDA, as currently run, is a criminal organization. If we had anything resembling a true Dept. of Justice in this country, the people at the top of the FDA would be indicted for crimes against humanity. But, alas, the wheels of justice turn slowly, if at all. These crimes committed by the FDA and Big Pharma may continue for several more years before the American people decide they've been chemically abused enough. In the mean time, Americans will continue to be killed by FDA-approved medications, the drug companies will pretend to care about human beings, and the FDA will pretend it's protecting someone. But when it's all done and over with, and the FDA has been gutted, reformed and rebuilt from the ground up, the truth will suddenly be obvious to everyone: the agency was blind to its own conflicts of interest. And the politicians, mainstream media and medical industry profiteers all agreed to shut their eyes and pretend nothing was wrong. "Blind" isn't even the right word for it. The right word, delivered with precisely the right pronunciation and timing, is found only in The Matrix where Hugo Weaving (playing "Agent Smith") says to Morpheus, "Oblivious."