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I am glad that Frida Ghitlis covered this, glad as always that other women in other countries fight against arbitrary and repressive regimes.

Of course a woman should be allowed to show her face, that great bastion of personal identity.

I cannot claim to be surprised that Fox News, that lovely stronghold of all that is conservative, trivialized it into a headline about it being impossible to tell women “what to wear.” Read more on What “Womanstuff” Really Means…

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I had my struggles with the military about weight requirements.  Many have.  I remember an especially clever nurse-officer who had given a lot more years of her existence to the Army than I had, and was both a cracker jack clinician and a cracker jack administrator, and left with a wimp because she was too heavy.

I also remember one whom I then considered a mediocre physician’s assistant who told me he got a commission as a warrant officer where the physical consisted mainly of measuring the circumference of both his neck and his waist. He did it by pumping up his muscles in his neck so that his neck was so damned fat that the rest of him seemed “proportional.”  Yes, this really worked.  Waist not — want not.

In case anybody is curious about my military commission physical, I had starved myself to some pretty small proportions.  The physician told me I was built like a fashion model, so as much as he would surely enjoy it, he was not going to insult me by giving me a physical. Read more on Plastic Surgery To Pass The Army Physical…

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We don’t learn from history.  America sounds like it is starving with several stories on food bank cuts that have just started.  A lot of people seem to skimp and save to be able to eat.  Some of my marijuana patients tell me it is the only medical care they can afford.  One asked me where the nearest food bank was, and if I knew any good ones.

Vintage Veterans PostMy Grandmother-Of-Blessed-Memory had a couple of raspberry bushes in the back yard, and some very aggressive strawberries that sent runners under the sidewalk to the garbage can, pushing up the already fragile cracked concrete. This infuriated my Mother-Of-Blessed-Memory who always had to do such repairs, as my father of blessed memory had “such delicate hands.” At least that is what his mother would lament as she stroked them.  He had an honored place in our household for being a composer and choir director and music teacher and supporting the lot of us. Read more on Is This How We Thank Our Veterans?…

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I have a lot of trouble feeling sorry for celebrities.  I mean, I do applaud Tom Hanks for being open about his type II diabetes  (adult onset, often associated with factors such as aging and being overweight).  I have seen and heard too much about stereotypes of people as being overweight and lazy and old when they are type II diabetic.

I have always been concerned about people who have lives of such unrelenting boredom and mundanity that they choose to live through being fans of celebrities.  Many beloved patients and one beloved husband think I should be a celebrity, for having done things.  This, of course, would fly in the face of numerous celebrities who have done little or nothing identifiable, such as the Kardashians, but I am assured it is still possible. Read more on Did Yo-yo dieting Give Tom Hanks Diabetes?…

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Okay, so they found a stimulant, a long-named never tested member of the amphetamine family a body building type supplement; not listed on the label, never studied in humans.  I can’t count how many laws were broken.  So they can throw the responsible party in jail and stop this sort of thing, right? Wrong.

Read more on One Craze I Hope Won’t Catch On…

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Some of my friends like to watch cop shows — the ones called “Police Procedurals.”  They think it is exciting to see how crimes are solved and how police interact with puzzling situations. I’ve had my encounters with the police, too.  Sometimes they are very supportive when dealing with mental patients.  Sometimes they make things worse.  I’m pleased to say that many communities now have special personnel trained in handling mental health calls, and they coordinate with caregivers well — and treat the patients with understanding and a sincere desire to help. I was called in by a therapist when a patient was chronically suicidal. The therapist had to commit the patient to a mental institution and called the police to assist. I am thankful that she also called me to try to get the patient to go along involuntarily.  When confronted by a uniformed police officer, and looking at an ambulance or police car, a patient sometimes panics. Here is what I said: Read more on The Speech That Made a Cop Cry, And A Therapist Stand by Speechless…

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I found myself facing a person who had lost themselves in drug abuse.

Not so unusual — when dealing with public health clinics.  The prognosis is usually poor.  An addict won’t cooperate with treatment unless forced by the courts in most cases.

Here is what I said to one mental health center patient to convince him to go into rehab. Read more on The Speech That Made An Unwilling Addict Go To Rehab…

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The Yahoo coverage says two Americans and one German American won the prize.

My bet for the most accurate reporting is the New York Times article that says three Americans won the prize.

This is mainly because I remember I wanted to leave France and return stateside with a French citizenship as a souvenir.  I found out from American authorities that if I wanted to take any kind of oath of allegiance to any country that was not the U.S. of A., then the U.S. of A. would consider it a renouncement of citizenship. Read more on You May Shut Down The Government, But Don’t Shut Down Science!…

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First, let us establish who Callista Gingrich is.  She is the current wife of Newt Gingrich, which news reporting at least suggests is a temporary employment. She is a former Washington intern who has created documentaries and media stuff with her husband.

He has a history of finding his next wife before finishing with the last, so if she were my buddy I would tell her that I hope she has a good prenup — or maybe she wants a postnup.

This being said, I agree with this woman on the thesis of this article — assuming she actually wrote it. Often, people in the public eye let someone else “do the paperwork” when they blog, write essays, etc. Ms. Newt says that today’s young kids have an appalling lack of knowledge about the basics of the history of this country, such as why the pilgrims came or who George Washington was. Read more on Knowledge Of History Means National Pride…

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The current rate of suicide among soldiers should make us angry, maybe enough to destroy our computers or, heaven forbid, write to congress or even try to stop war.

I checked out this institution¸ the National Center for Veterans Studies, the best I could.  I am not sure why the Department of Defense and the Department of the Air Force seem to have a love affair with this division of the University of Utah.

Of their current projects, some of the proposed studies are randomized clinical trials of various therapies as suicide preventives. I am a great believer in research.  But there is one question I am asked frequently, still, although I evaluate research but am not currently engaged in it.  People ask me if I am a doctor first or a researcher first.  There is absolutely no contest.  I am a doctor first.  I want lives saved, first. Read more on Why Soldiers Commit Suicide These Days…

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