politics

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Some of the most vivid and memorable lectures I sat through in medical school were about bacteriology.  Our professor was a woman who was a consultant to the World Health Organization and who returned from assignments with dramatic first person stories about how she had collected trachoma samples from children in darkest Africa, and would thus help prevent their blindness.

She told us about Cholera, a horrible disease that killed quickly by diarrhea and subsequent dehydration.  A disease of poor hygiene that was found where people lived in congested settings and hygiene was tough to maintain. Did not even need antibiotics to save most of the lives; just hydration and electrolytes.  An illness apparently easy to prevent; there were pills to sterilize the water, simple public health interventions. But none of us were likely to ever see it.  We would all practice in civilized countries, like France. Vive la France. Read more on How Cholera Showed Up In Haiti…

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The current litany is “The economy is bad and I need more money just to get by.” Patients tell me they are about to get evicted or starve to death.  I know nothing about benefits or their politics, except that governmental entities have no money either and this route is harder.

A lot of people seem to think that their lives would be better if they were plugged into a job that fit them as well as a plaster cast fits a fracture.  But instead, they usually tell me there are no jobs at all.  I try to slip in a little bit of useful advice, but obviously personal experience is limited.  I don’t even have a really good answer for the patients who say “you have a job.  Lucky you.  You can’t understand what I am going through.”

There are patients who amaze me with their resourcefulness.  Mostly, the manics or hypomanics; depressed people seem more likely to get “stuck.” Read more on Brainpower Helps In Hard Times…

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One of the major stories of 2010 was the move toward health care reform — “Obamacare.”

Although the name should be “Obama insurance”, there were several instances where the government made efforts — or made noises that there would be efforts — at controlling what they perceive as an obesity epidemic.

This included removing soda and candy machines from schools, major warnings against high-fructose corn syrup (neither of which I have a problem with) and making it mandatory for calorie counts to be listed on menus in several states (which left me scratching my head).
Read more on Politically Correct Dieting and The Obama Children…

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“Argumentum ad hominem’  is what we called this back in the days when I was on the debating team in prep school.  I was interested because it was supposed to be something that the more academic kids like me did instead of sports — where I consistently had shown prize-winning ineptitude for many years.

Besides, it was something you could do with (?against?) boys prep schools. Even in choral singing, the lowest of the altos were the only ones who actually got to stand next to boys.  Here, on the debating team, there was at least an equal number of boys and girls, and everyone got to talk to a real live boy. Read more on Name-Calling Attacks…

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A few weeks ago I was flipping the channels on TV and discovered something disturbing. In fact, I think it took me this long to cool down before I could write about it. Apparently, I discovered “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” quite accidentally. I’ve heard that if a preacher in the pulpit talks about politics, his or her church can lose its tax-exempt status.  This always seemed to me to be a way to separate church and state.

Considering that most of the Founding Fathers, as is well documented elsewhere, were mostly Deists or Unitarians and some were on a road barrelling toward atheism, as well as the large number of people who came to the colonies for religious freedom, this has always made cosmic sense. Apparently, people were given free rein to talk about politics in the pulpit from 1788 (ratification of the U.S. Constitution) until the Johnson Amendment in 1954, which a bunch of Christian lawyers feel is unconstitutional, because it is an abridgment of Freedom of Speech. Read more on Religion And Politics Shouldn’t Mix…

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I used to be the darling of the pharmaceutical industry.  They gave me contracts to test their new drugs.  They hired me to travel the country and speak at meetings of medical groups. I don’t think their current opinion is quite so flattering.  I’m often asked, “Why do you hate prescription drugs? Why are you against drug companies?”  And the answer is, “I’m NOT!”  I strongly believe in using prescription drugs made by legitimate pharmaceutical companies in certain cases.  In fact, I insist on it.  If a patient who is aware of my facility in using natural treatments could do better with a prescription, that’s what I advise. If they refuse, I may decide to work with them on a second-best treatment, if it doesn’t run risk of serious illness or death. Otherwise, I tell them to find somebody else to give them natural treatments. I won’t risk their health or life.  What I oppose is the politics involved with pharmaceutical companies and some of the things they have done. Read more on Why Big Pharma Gets A Bad Reputation…

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I’ve lived in a lot of places in my time — The USA, Canada and France, just to name the countries.  Massachusetts, Ohio, North Dakota, Minnesota, North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana and California, just to name a few of the states.

I won’t even begin to start a list of the towns and cities, as it would take me too long to just remember them — much less write them down.

And with each place I’ve lived, I eventually start thinking that it is the most corrupt place I’ve ever seen — until I move to the next place.

It’s not news any more, really.  From the White House through the Legislature and the state governors down to the mayors and city council and even the dog catchers (do places really have elections for dog catchers?) power corrupts and money flows to the corrupt politician. Read more on Political Ugliness and More About That Mosque…

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I do not know if I am the only person worried about this, but here goes.

There seems to be a massive controversy about building a mosque near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center in New York City.  This is bothering people so much that somebody has asked the president to say something.

Well of course the man said something.  And of course his words were “measured.”  People seem to have forgotten that the country was founded on religious freedom.  This bit about the Founding Fathers (and mothers — yes they did as much as they could) intending the USA being only for Christians is pretty much rubbish. 

Was George Washington a Christian?  Thomas Jefferson wrote in his private journal, Feb. 1800 — “Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself.” Read more on Politics, Religion and Sports: Forbidden Topics…

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“Innovative Health Care Programs?”

This seems to be the era of backwards-definitions.  “No Child Left Behind” means a diminished budget and fewer programs for child education. “Compassionate Conservatism” means cutting programs for the unemployed, the medical indigent and the hungry. “Strategic Defense” means a full-speed-ahead attack.

The “Innovative Programs” article talks about are mostly supplied by The Greenfield group, where improved medical care is provided if people  fork in some cash to get it.  Also “Harvard Vanguard,” who loves to be the first to do things.

Since there is nothing but Harvard hospitals on the reality TV show  Boston Med, I wonder if the Harvard Public relations people have descended to some all-invasive biological state, to infiltrate all media, and to try to get us to believe that they do things medically and surgically that are more advanced than other providers.  Read more on Walls and Barriers To Providing Health Care…

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On the one hand I am amazed that somebody actually noticed that employees with more control on the job are happier. On the other hand, I am amazed nobody thought of this.

I am certain none of you remember the industrial revolution, as it happened a while ago.  To my amazement and delight, internet to the rescue.  Really, you can learn about anything you feel like learning on this internet thing.

The great thing, I think, is that this 18th and 19th century period was full of inventions and improvements in the standards of manufacture that made the standard of living better for a lot of folks. The bad thing is the human toll.  Working women and children in particular had no laws to protect them.  People did not know about factories and production and what it would do to people. I remember reading a long time ago about how rebellious the first factory workers were, rebellious at the outset.  People had been living primarily on largely self-sufficient farms.  Nobody told them when they had to start work and end work and such.  So it really is not any surprise, given the fact that a relatively low alcohol content grog was the main drink available, that people went out for grog breaks as frequently as they could manage.  They concentrated poorly and required direction from a management that could probably only be seen as repressive, no matter what they said or did. Read more on Working For A Living — And Loving It…

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