Word: snake-oil
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Fair enough. It is part of the FDA's job to protect us from snake-oil salesmen. The Government quite rightly went to court to make Carter's Little Liver Pills stop implying that they had anything to do with liver function (they are now advertised as a laxative). And we now know that Lydia Pinkham's soothing syrup, once a favorite remedy for women's ills of all sorts, was 20% alcohol. The FDA argues, as do most doctors, that ineffective medications can be harmful because they tend to prevent a patient from seeking effective treatment...
...York Times with CBS, indicate that over 50 percent of the populace continue to believe that Reaganomics "has helped" or "will eventually help" the economy. What is most amazing here is not the majority's patience in expecting positive results from what John Anderson rightfully termed "snake-oil economics"--but rather, that they persist in believing that the policy was ever designed to help anyone but Reagan's political creditors in the upper class...
...McNab, a Glasgow-born track man who served as script consultant for the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire, makes the marathon seem real as he assembles a memorable cast, including a snake-oil salesman, a determined Scot, an underweight Mexican and such historical folks as Al Capone, members of the Industrial Workers of the World and a handful of Hitler Youth. On the way, Flanagan's Run captures the masochistic ecstasy of long-distance running. No one who runs, walks or just sits in an armchair and reads will fail to cross McNab's taut finish line...
...expanded program is expected to draw in at least $20 billion annually, and so financial institutions are pitching I.R.A.s with all the enthusiasm of oldtime snake-oil salesmen. Many advertisements promise investors that if they start saving now, they can be millionaires in their golden years. An ad run by Chase Manhattan Bank, for example, points out that a couple saving $4,000 annually will pile up $1.3 million after 30 years, if the interest rate stays at a 12% level...
...Bangkok cab drivers to dispense condoms along with family-planning advice, and pays the taxi insurance for cabbies who send in 50 or more people for sterilization; so far, six drivers have qualified. At village fairs and festivals, he shows up in a well-polished minibus to deliver his snake-oil monologue on the glories of contraception, organizing balloon-blowing ontests with condoms and teaching youngsters his hard-hitting song Too Many Children Make You Poor. Says he: I wanted to remove the taboo, take birth control out of the realm of the secretive and make...