Maggie's Farm

As an intro, see the fourth toon down. I am not willing to pay $45. to post it. (I would pay up to $3. to use it.)

When I was a lowly intern, I was presiding over an ER when we got a radio call around 9 pm about an accident in a mall parking lot involving two cars with kids in them. A head-on, both cars going about 35 mph (that equals a 70 mph accident). When the ambulances arrived, four kids grey, not breathing. DOA. A Mom, still almost pink but dying with head trauma. A Dad, straight to trauma surgery for internal bleeding.

I have never assigned so many people, so quickly, to body bags and the morgue.

So when I read pious government utterances about "preventive care," I just have to laugh. People who talk about that have no idea what they're talking about. Doctors advise people to lose weight, to exercise, to quit smoking, to lower their carb intake, to drink only two wines/day, to wear bike helmets, to use condoms, to eat your vegetables (why? I don't know), to take their medicines, etc., every day. Blah, blah, blah. I might as well advise them to never leave the house because they might get hit by a bus. In the end, people do what they want, and adults are adults. Nobody lacks information and, in my view, if you want to be fat, then go for it.

Personally, I intend to remain trim, fit, athletic and energetic, but I am not interested in sacrificing my life and fun and adventure on the altar of "health" and "safety." There is no vitality or joie de vivre in that. I enjoy a little danger, stress, and excitement. I have crossed crevasses and climbed mountains and kayaked Grade 5 rapids (and almost drowned) and spent many hours on the back of motorcycles. I faced a p-ed off Cape Buffalo (and killed it. Regret it now - there was no point to it), and I sky-dived once. We always drove too fast. We quit all those things when we had young kids, despite the fact that my brother could have raised them very well indeed, and we had good life insurance.

Since everybody dies, and, with modern medicine, dies in a lengthy and expensive and often wretched drawn-out process (80% of US medical costs are in the last year of life), all "preventive medicine" can even hope to do is to delay the process a little bit.

However, it cannot even do that, really. It's 90% wishful thinking: The Big Lie of Preventive Care.

Another good toon from The New Yorker: "Tell me straight, Doc. How long do I have to ignore your advice?"