Thursday, January 20. 2011
Many have heard about the latest kerfuffle at the American Psychiatric Association, which has decided to eliminate Narcissistic Personality Disorder from their next DSM edition (the DSM V). They have also eliminated some other personality disorders.
I really do not care what those clinical researchers on those committees vote for or against, because their view of the world is not mine.
The reason things like the DSM have little meaning to me is because their "diagnoses" have no internal validity (and, indeed, they focus more on consensual validity - meaning that docs can agree on a label - than internal validity, which they feel could be either unattainable, or too "theoretical"). Regardless of its origin, it all comes out in the DSM cookbook as "Anxiety Disorder, Panic Type" or something like that.
For example, let's say there are as many pathways to panic attacks as there are people who have this nasty symptom. Some of it might be inherited, some acquired, most some mix - and all embedded in a personality of a certain structure (which is our way of saying predictability).
This idea, I believe, is to make Psychiatry so "scientific" that the doc can then refer to the latest therapeutics manual and decide what medicine to offer. To my thinking, this is "pseudo-medical." Anxiety, in my view, is a symptom and not a "disorder." Analogous to a fever. Thus saying somebody has an Anxiety Disorder is not the end point of diagnosis - it's the beginning of a search for understanding.
What's the fever (or OCD or sex obsession or eating disorder) coming from? That's what I want to do the detective work on, one person at a time.
Docs like me prefer to work in depth, and find the DSM exasperatingly superficial and reductionistic.
The Last Psychiatrist discusses further: Narcissism Out Of The DSM-- And Into The Open
We used to feature a weekly Bob music video, with lyrics, as a "Free Ad for Bob,", but they have all been taken away from YouTube. However, in cleaning out my image closet I did find a few Bob pics to post:
Continue reading "Cleaning out the Bob Closet: A few pics"
Wednesday, January 19. 2011
A Brooklyn College Political Science graduate student enrolled in a Middle East course offered at Brooklyn College for this Spring. The newly hired adjunct professor for the course is Kristofer Petersen.
Dismayed after doing some online search on the newly-hired adjunct professor, the student wrote on January 12 to the Department Chair:
Mr. Kristofer Petersen is an active partisan of Palestinians in Gaza. As a recent graduate student, he has published his views in one of the most virulent pro-Palestinian forums and elsewhere, and I have found little else in his online record displaying either balance or a wider scholarly understanding of Israel and the Palestinians… His writings and associations point to an apparent one-sidedness with regards to the Middle Eastern issue of Israel and Palestinians.
Kristofer Petersen’s own description of his background includes: “Outside the academy, I worked for some time as a human rights activist in Gaza and the West Bank and I still maintain close contact with the Palestinian activist community.”
The student points out Electronic Intifada as the venue for two of Petersen’s writings and quotes a pro-Palestinian activist and journalist, Ray Hanania, Member of the National Board of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who wrote, “Electronic Intifada, [is] a place where hypocrisy is the norm, factual inaccuracies are common place, and anger and hatred drive their mission….And they are the first to denounce the killing of Palestinians, but never denounce the killing of Israelis.” (NGO Monitor has a Fact Sheet on Electronic Intifada. The Dutch government told an interfaith organization it funds that it may cut off funding if it continues funding Electronic Intifada.)
For that matter, the Israel-Palestinian dynamics are a relatively small part of issues in the Middle East. As the WikiLeaks revealed, the principal Arab state preoccupation is threats from Iran. (BBC Middle East editor: “Now their own people can see that in private they are saying the same things about Iran as many Israelis and neo-conservative Americans.”)
Petersen is preoccupied with the Palestinian narrative, as evident in his syllabus on the course, Politics of the Middle East: “the course is structured around the broad theme of identity and will be conducted at two levels: (1) a macro level which focuses on the Arab Middle East in general—and does not include details about Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan or Pakistan—and (2) a micro level which focuses specifically on Israel/Palestine.”
There are two required readings in Petersen’s course syllabus.. The first is The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Muslim World by Mohammed Ayoob, who concludes writing:
Above all, it is the unstinted and unquestioning American support to Israel, especially to its policy of continued occupation of and settlement within Palestinian lands conquered in 1967, that demonstrates to politically conscious Muslims that the United States is committed to treating Muslims and Arabs not only with insensitivity but with utter contempt.
Ayoob footnotes John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt and Rashid Khalidi, strident critics of Israel.
Continue reading "Gaza Defender Hired To Teach Middle East At Brooklyn College"
Tuesday, January 18. 2011
 As you probably know, we're losing our wonderful, dim-able, natural-warm-light-able incandescent bulbs over the next few years. Some states are jumping the federal gun and are already planning on banning 100-watters by the end of the year, and we'll presume 75- and 60-watters will soon follow.
Now, you could write an angry, passionate letter to your Congresscritter and that might, indeed, have a small impact. But I have a better idea. A tried and true idea used by many of the greatest thinkers and persuaders in history:
Exploitation.
One of the reasons the word hideous applies to the Environmental Protection Agency is the way they go so overboard in their 'toxic level' figures. The problem is manyfold.
First, there's the same built-in bias from the scientists testing these things that we see in the global warming industry. Their job isn't to determine if something is safe; they've been instructed to find out how safe it isn't.
And they're certainly not going to risk being wrong and facing legal repercussions, so they're going to multiply any 'fudge factor' by 10 — just to be on the safe side.
Likewise, the administrative arm of the EPA isn't going to put its legal ass on the line, so they're going to reduce the acceptable level by another factor of 10 — just to be on the safe side. After all, as they'll hurriedly tell you, children's lives are at stake.
As a result, whereas 300 parts per million of Ingredient X is perfectly safe for the human body, the official EPA number ends up being something completely ridiculous like 20 parts per million.
One chemical that's been in the news recently is the mercury dust found in fluorescent light bulbs. Numerous experts agree that the minuscule 5 milligrams of mercury dust in a curly bulb poses no danger, whatsoever, to human beings should the bulb break. Haul out the vacuum cleaner, sweep things up, get on with your life.
EPA, meet the petard:
If you would be so kind, please hoist thineself upon one.
Though the amount is tiny, 5 milligrams of mercury is enough to contaminate 6,000 gallons of drinking water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
That's right. The wise, careful scientists at the EPA have determined that mercury dust is right up there with plutonium on the toxicity chart and what amounts to five grains of pollen is enough to (here's that word) contaminate a body of water the size of a small swimming pool. By this logic, if a crate of curly bulbs ever fell off a cargo ship in Boston, they'd have to close down the Atlantic Ocean.
The article I'm quoting from goes on at length:
Low level mercury exposure can cause tremors, mood shifts, sleeplessness, muscle fatigue, and headaches. High level or extended length exposure can lead to learning disabilities, altered personality, deafness, loss of memory, chromosomal damage, and nerve, brain, and kidney damage, as stated by the EPA. There is a particular risk to the nervous systems of unborn babies and young children.
It then rambles on about the environmental dangers of mercury, the danger to animals, and every word of it 100% true when it comes to real contamination — and thus not one word of it has anything to do with curly light bulbs.
But, because of the EPA's excessive guidelines on what the toxicity level is for mercury dust, they're literally forced to write such articles. As a result, more people — who are clueless about the subject otherwise — have it drilled into them what a danger curly bulbs pose, and they'll pay a little more attention when that Republican candidate on the 2012 ticket starts talking about repealing the ban on incandescents.
In other words, articles like this should be encouraged.
After all, children's lives are at stake. Just ask anyone.
An exploitative idea on saving the aforementioned children's lives — not to mention our own sanity — is below the fold. If you want to make a stand for incandescent light bulbs, here's an effective way.
Continue reading "On thine own petard"
A pal just bought this rugged machine for his hunting and getaway place in upstate New York. He's been fixing up the old leaky farmhouse for a couple of years. Nice to see a Maggie's Farm logo on it - naw, too bad - it's just a wide-assed Massey-Ferguson:
Monday, January 17. 2011
Via Insty, Germany Abolishes Itself' – the publishing sensation that challenges Europe's diversity consensus:
How many people in Britain make a living from multiculturalism and “community cohesion”? The number of taxpayer and partly-taxpayer funded government bodies, community groups, political organisations and “charities” devoted towards diversity and equality or race relations is certainly in the four figures, and the total cost to the taxpayer must be several hundred millions of pounds – all totally wasted.
And
The regime of euphemism has not just led to mistakes. It has also empowered a class of so-called Gutmenschen in government and the academy. If Sarrazin is right, then much of what they have lately done is not just misguided but, however good their intentions, corrupt. They are fighting with considerable skill for their political lives. Sarrazin’s few political defenders, meanwhile, tend to have one thing in common — they are retired.
Lots of people out there wanting to destroy Western Civ. I am not sure what they'd like to see replace it, however. Perhaps the Great Transgender-Moslem-Communist-Green-Palestinian-Love and Peace Community Alliance. I bet they throw some real fun parties, but I have never been invited.
I am quite pleased with our Western roots, and with what it does and has done, and for what it makes possible - including the insane thinking which is a necessary side-effect of freedom - and which provides so much entertaining fodder for me at Maggie's.
The Arizona massacre highlighted the age-old issue of violence and the mentally ill. We see things like this: Lawmakers call for hearings, help for the mentally ill after Giffords shooting.
I do not wish to go over old ground here, about which I have posted at length in the remote past in the wake of other similar situations, but I can assert a few basic facts:
1. Dangerously ill people rarely seek help, want help, or cooperate with help. There is no shortage of "help" out there. Paranoid people, especially, distrust and avoid any forms of help. It is often said that those most desperately in need of help cannot recognize their need - or most fear what they might find out about themselves.
2. Just being delusional does not get you hospitalized, and getting hospitalized does not necessarily mean you will get help that you want to use. Lots of people are quietly psychotic out there in the world. At least 1% of the population, probably.
3. The ability of Psychiatrists to predict violent behavior, or self-harm, is approximately zero. That is because the incidence is so low. We usually just hedge our bets, and take our chances with the judiciary. If a court lets them go, nothing we can do. It's a free country, including free to be nuts. In Russia, Cuba, or China, they just mysteriously disappear. One of the prices of freedom is messiness. In authoritarian nations, the government provides the messes, behind the scenes.
Spent 3 days in NY last week. Took a few lousy snaps which are of no interest to people who go there all the time.
Continue reading "More NYC pics from last week"
Sunday, January 16. 2011
My pup is uncomfortable with all of this global warming snow and cold. He lifts his leg, for instance, but cannot get it above the snow - much less get his peeing organ above the snow. He's not a small dog, medium-sized, big enough to grab cheese off the kitchen counter. Our snow is powdery, not crusty, and around 2' deep these days and 5' in the drifts.
As for poops, he seems uncomfortable because he feels he is just pooping against himself, without the satisfying drop of proper elimination.
We wonder what small dogs do, especially little ankle-biters when the snow is over their heads.
Do they tunnel like the famous Snow Mole of the Arctic? Or do they sneak into the basement like I just discovered, to my dismay, that our pup has been doing since all of the big snows?
You know what I uttered when I saw it all.
Steinberg debates the late great Moynihan in Poor Reason - Culture still doesn’t explain poverty. Steinberg claims that the behavior of the black poor is a consequence of poverty, not a cause. But what about the white poor?
This is from Wiki (US poverty rates, as I understand it, are calculated prior to government or charitable monies, goods, or benefits):
21% of all children in the United States live in poverty, about 46% of African American children and 40% of Latino children live in poverty.[37] What is unclear is why so many minorities live in poverty. The poverty rate is 9.9% for black married couples and only 30% of black children are born to married couples (see Marriage below). In 2007,11% of black women aged 30–44 without a high school diploma had a working spouse.[38] The poverty rate for native born and naturalized whites is identical (9.6%). On the other hand, the poverty rate for naturalized blacks is 11.8% compared to 25.1% for native born blacks suggesting race alone does not explain income disparity. Not all minorities have low incomes. Asian families have higher incomes than all other ethnic groups. For example, the 2005 median income of Asian families was $68,957 compared to the median income of white families of $59,124.[39] Asians, however, report discrimination occurrences more frequently than blacks. Specifically, 31% of Asians reported employment discrimination compared to 26% of blacks in 2005.
After reading Steinberg's essay, I am more convinced that Moynihan was right. There is substantial white poverty in the US too. Regardless of racial differences - Asian, black, Hispanic, white - (and excluding penniless new immigrants who rightly expect a challenging beginning) - I'd be willing to bet that poverty in the US can be understood mostly in terms of bad luck, character (including tendencies, interests, abilities, and personal inclinations), parental role models, or, most often, life choices. (Behavior is a choice, as a human being.) These things are not all "culture", but they are part of it.
I believe that many people choose poverty, in the broad sense of "choose". And, as a reader notes, if X% of the population is below the poverty line by definition, it's impossible to get rid of it no matter how much money people take in.
Furthermore, in my opinion, if you have heat and a roof over your head, a TV if you want one, a functioning vehicle if you need one - or a bus pass or a subway token, beer money, and funds for clothes and Big Macs, you aren't really poor.
We have all lived hand-to-mouth at some points in our lives. I decided that it wasn't for me, so I made a plan for my life. And then another one when the first plan didn't work. Eventually, I made a plan that worked and I could afford a family and a wife who likes horses. Still, I need to work every day and plenty of weekends too, to support Casa Barrister.
Final word: I suspect that all of these opinion pieces about black poverty have the agenda to support the notion of "institutional racism." With a black guy in the White House, it's getting difficult to maintain that invention, just like it's getting difficult to maintain the notion of "institutional sexism" with Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton as presidential contenders (on some days, it seems that women are the real stars of the Conservative movement).
That's a Savage Model 99 chambered for .308. There is always a good selection of Savage 99s at reasonable prices at Gun Broker.com. It's good to be able to purchase firearms through them: it's an online gun show.
A 100 year-old lever action hammerless design, still going strong although the manufacturing of this rifle ended in the 1990s. Jon Wolfe says:
For hunting North American game, the Savage 99 is still one of the finest hunting rifles of all time. In fact, it was a solid performer well into the later part of the last century, nearly one hundred years after its creation. It was manufactured for nearly a century with over a million rifles produced before the Savage 99 was discontinued due to decrepit machinery and increased cost.
Here's the Savage 99 website
The Wiki entry has lots of info.
Here's a useful short article: GOOD FIRST BIG GAME RIFLES
Here's Hawks on A Dozen Top Deer Rifles (he does not include the Model 99 on his list)
The Alpha course was developed in response to people who wanted to have the opportunity to investigate the claims of the Christian faith.
Over ten weekly sessions, including a day or weekend away, guests hear the claims of the Christian faith. After the presentation, course attendees have a chance to question what they heard and discuss the validity of the claims. The support of all the major Christian denominations has enabled the Alpha course to spread rapidly around the world. Today, Alpha is run in over 160 countries and has been translated into more than 100 languages. Courses can also be found in many contexts including churches, homes, workplaces, military bases, colleges, schools, and prisons.
There are many reasons why people enjoy attending the Alpha course. For some it’s the no pressure, non-judgmental atmosphere, others enjoy building relationships with new friends, while others appreciate the chance to discuss deep questions of life that they don’t otherwise get the chance to ask.
WHAT HAPPENS AT ALPHA?
Each Alpha course begins with a meal or refreshments providing a chance to relax and get to know others. There is then a short talk, which looks at a different aspect of the Christian faith each week. This is followed by a time of discussion in small groups of about 10 people. Everyone is welcome to contribute their opinion, ask questions and discuss with the rest of the group.
Alpha courses run in a wide variety of locations and at different times of the day. Courses vary in size, from one small group meeting in a home, to hundreds of people in a larger venue. Some courses are held over morning coffee or during a lunch hour, though most are evening courses, typically lasting 2 hours. Whatever the course size, people tend to remain in the same small groups for the duration of the course so they can get to know each other, continue discussions and deepen friendships.
The whole course usually lasts for 10 weeks, with a day or weekend away about half way through. The emphasis is upon exploration and discovery in a relaxed and informal environment.
The Alpha course consists of a series of talks addressing key issues related to the Christian faith.
TOPICS
Week 1: Who is Jesus?
Week 2: Why did Jesus die?
Week 3: How can we have faith?
Week 4: Why and how do I pray?
Week 5: Why and how should I read the Bible?
Week 6 Full Day: Who is the Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit do? How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?How can I make the most of the rest of my life?
Week 7: How does God guide us?
Week 8: How can I resist evil?
Week 9: Why & how should we tell others?
Week 10: Does God heal today?
The course curriculum is the book Questions of Life by Nicky Gumbel. Each talk reflects one of the chapters from this book.
Please note: There is no obligation to attend all ten sessions.
WHAT THE PRESS SAYS
The New York Times
"A novel approach to Christian education that has been catching on nationwide."
Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian
"What Alpha offers, and what is attracting thousands of people, is permission, rare in secular culture, to discuss the big questions - life and death and their meaning.“
The Express London
" Alpha makes Christianity relevant to modern life."
Los Angeles Times
“Alpha helps people navigate through Christianity.”
WHAT PAST GUESTS SAY
Anthony: "I didn’t expect the warm welcome I received, the interesting discussions or the lack of pressure to speak in the small groups that followed. I found that I could express any doubts about Christianity, and that my opinions would be respected. If I had an issue with something, I had a forum to voice it with no need to apologize."
Rebecca: “Our church was offering this course and my husband and I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to share in this spiritual journey. We go to church with our two kids, say our prayers, etc. but something was missing. We wanted to find out what was missing.”
Cynthia: I decided to take the Alpha course because I was unsure what it was I believed. I needed something to fill the empty place in my life. I started attending Alpha to seek answers to those basic questions about my faith and who God was.”
Heather: “I was the typical 20 something who had attended church as a child, but once I became an adult I stopped going. When I returned to church I felt like something was missing in my life. The Alpha course helped me understand more about God.
Saturday, January 15. 2011
I am continuing to clean up my image closet. Feel free to use 'em or steal them. It's another good stash. Can't recall where they all came from, but any of them that were used here were properly attributed.
Don't let them go to waste. Recycling makes Gaia smile.
More random and informative images, toons, and charts below the fold -
Continue reading "Another random image dump: Fun pics and valuable and interesting charts and graphs"
When it comes to movies, I have to confess that I've been seriously disappointed with most of the Westerns I've watched in recent years. To pick on a few:
Unforgiven — Wow, a Clint Eastwood western. That means it's got to be good, right? Yeah, except there was one gun fight in the whole dang thing, and probably the most unrealistic gun fight in cinematic history, at that. Yawn.
Appaloosa — Just can't go wrong with Ed Harris, Renée Zellweger and Viggo Mortensen, right? Yeah, except the writers spent 90% of the movie dealing with the intricate, puzzling, lurid, soap-opera relationship between Ed Harris, Renée Zellweger and Viggo Mortensen! As an additional plus, Hollywood was so afraid that someone in the audience might be shocked by actual gun play on the screen that they toned down the gun sounds to just below that of cap gun level.
3:10 To Yuma — Hey, Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, just can't go wrong with that duo, right? Okay, picture the following:
The movie opens with twenty bad guys chasing a stage, greed in their eyes. The guy on the stage riding shotgun (hence the term) is firing back with a big shotgun, picking them off here and there. This goes on for endless minutes. Then the camera is a quarter mile ahead of the stage as Russell Crowe drives a herd of cattle across the road, blocking it. The stage comes wheeling to a stop. All in all, a very effective, efficient way to stop a stage — EXCEPT THAT TEN OF YOUR BUDDIES ARE LYING DEAD ON THE ROAD BACK THERE!!
The rest of the movie was just some big 'war of wills' between Crowe and Bale — which was really the point of the movie in the first place; to display the writers' brilliant virtuosity — and the fact that it took place in western times was more or less irrelevant.
The Assassination of Jesse James — Hey, Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, just can't go wrong with that combo, right? Actually, I have no idea. I was too busy heaving my guts into the toilet because of Affleck's acting performance — or lack thereof. Let me know how it turned out. Did Jesse live?
Silverado, Open Range, Wyatt Earp — For the love of God, won't someone PLEASE tell Kevin Costner to stop playing cowboys? I'm sorry — I honestly love the guy and think he's brilliant as a sports hero (Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Tin Cup, For Love of the Game) — but with those boyish cheekbones, weak chin and soft voice, he simply doesn't look or sound the part of the tough Westerner. By means of comparison, check out Kurt Russell's performance as Earp in the link below. That's what a Westerner looks and sounds like.
Tombstone — I'd give this thing an 'A' if it hadn't spent endless, interminable minutes bogged down in his wife's endless, interminable opium problem.
Wild Wild West — Both the critics and every decent movie lover in the world hated this thing, so naturally I loved it. The superb 'anti-chemistry' between Will Smith and Kevin Kline hasn't been seen since the unlikely pairing of Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro in Showtime. While not an outright 'Western' by genre (it would more properly fit in the category of 'Western Sci-Fi'), at least there were loud guns and galloping horses.
The Quick and the Dead — I actually thought this was a pretty good flick, but it wasn't a Western, as such, in the sense that it all took place in the middle of a street and, as a dueling event, could have taken place in Al Capone's Chicago or even today. Gene Hackman is such a badass that I made him #2 on my cinematic Tough Guys page.
So, all in all, I've been quite disappointed with Westerns in recent years.
Then up rode Jonah Hex:
"Cut muhself shavin'. What happened to yours?"
That pretty much says it all. Without giving anything away, it's a straight-up Western with one additional element of... (gropes for proper word)... spirituality that really makes it something special. Josh Brolin stars, John Malkovich is the merciless bad guy, and Megan Fox turns in a spectacular role as dragon bait.
Below the fold we'll take a peek at the new BBC presentation of the (ongoing) Sherlock Holmes story.
Continue reading "Movie review: 'Jonah Hex', 'Sherlock'"
 Some call it Red Flannel Hash. With two eggs sunny-side up on top, and some ketchup or some hot sauce, it can't be beat for a winter breakfast.
This recipe is good, if a bit too complicated. Here's a simpler Southern version, with gravy of course (in the South, they even put gravy on top of gravy).
I don't mind the canned version at all, fried first in butter. Yes, it smells (and looks) a bit like canned dog food, but I am part dog.
Friday, January 14. 2011
This pic from Retriever:
These from Gwynnie, an autumn ago:
Thursday, January 13. 2011
Re Grand Central Station: "It's bloody gorgeous." As I was walking around late this afternoon, making my rounds, a Brit couple, rightly perceiving me to be a friendly, approachable, and respectable bloke, asked where where they might find a cab. We were near Grand Central, so I suggested they try the main exit from the station. Usually some cabs there. "Seen the inside of the station?" I asked. Well, this nice, refined older couple followed me in through the side door and down the escalator to check it out. I hope they found a cab or, as Brits are wont to do, found a cozy nook for a drinky. I did recommend the Campbell Apartment for a good cocktail, which many people do not know about.
As a country boy who lived in the city for around 6 years in younger days, I still get a rush of energy and inspiration just by visiting for a day or two. And that is despite the fact that, most places I go, you cannot smoke a ceegar indoors thanks to the sanctimonious jerk Nanny Bloomberg.
More pics from today, below the fold -
Continue reading "Pics: Hanging out around midtown"
Wednesday, January 12. 2011
Unlike all of the amateurs with their pet theories about why somebody would kill strangers, I offer no opinion. I don't know the guy. I would rather post about something else.
This post was prompted by this case in the UK: Fattest man in the world suing NHS for "letting me grow."
If a patient of mine got fat, or killed people, can I be called liable? I have been twice named in medical malpractice lawsuits. It is an appalling, demoralizing, painful, and time-consuming experience. It makes you want to quit medicine.
The first case was a teenaged gal who got herself knocked up. The claim by the teen and her anti-abortion parents was that, since she was an impulsive kid, it was my medical duty to make sure she used birth control. I had mentioned it to her, but I had not written that down in my deliberately-sketchy notes.
My second was a guy who cut his wrists in a suicide attempt (or gesture?). He and his wife and lawyer decided that they could make a case that I had prescribed an inadequate amount of antidepressants to prevent him from doing this. Even though the guy's main problem was a personality disorder, they found a psychopharmacologist to testify that the fellow's mood swings and tantrums represented Bipolar Disorder. He was wrong, but that didn't matter.
Both cases sued me to triple the max of my insurance. The first case was a charity treatment case, in a clinic to which I donate one day per week. I suspect they figured out on Google that my husband is a banker. Both plaintiffs lost in trial, but both experiences left me feeling dragged through a sewer, slimed. A trial lawyer can always find somebody to pay to say you did something wrong. In my field of work, everything is a judgement call, and there is rarely or never a right and wrong.
I had felt, with both patients, that I had had a good, constructive, and friendly relationship, and that I had helped them quite a bit. Interestingly, both sued me for their behavior and their behavioral choices, as if I were responsible for those - as if I were God.
Like most docs I know, I try to do the best that I can to help the people I see, but my powers are limited. Still, lawsuits are always in the back of every doctor's mind in the US. My guess is that about half of medical tests are done with lawsuits in mind (eg $700 CT scans for tension headaches). Lots of hungry, parasitical trial lawyers out there, and plenty of people who are willing to toss away a relationship with a doctor if they think they can hit the jackpot by doing so. They can always find another doctor (although few doctors are willing to see litigious patients. I will refuse to treat anyone who has sued a physician. In other ways too, I select the people that I am willing to help. It's my prerogative.).
The lesson: Evil lurks in human hearts. No doubt about it.
Tuesday, January 11. 2011
 A Bird Dog pup (pupette, actually) has asked me to help her fill out her college education by listing some things she ought to know and read, but cannot fit into her college schedule as she has mapped it out.
Music to a Dad's ears, of course. Father knows best.
Well, I will just focus on one piece of her request here and now (because it went well beyond entertainment - this is just the fun part). She is a theater rat and reads plays daily for fun. She knows most of Shakespeare pretty well, and loves Pinter too (!). But she says her knowledge of films prior to her era is very limited. "What films should I know?," she asks. (I call them movies because I am a knuckle-dragging clinger.)
Ain't it great when the youths acknowledge their ignorance?
I told her I had once, for fun, made a list of my 100 essential movies (and I am not much of a movie fan), but it went away when my ancient Mac died ten years ago. Naturally, my list had some John Wayne, Gone With The Wind, Bridge Over The River Kwai, Swept Away, Streetcar, Waterfront, Mr. Blandings, Wonderful Life, the hideously painful Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, some James Bond and some WC Fields, Citizen Kane, Days of Wine and Roses, some Jack Lemmon like 7 Year Itch, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Harvey, Billy Budd, the Alistair Sim Christmas Carol ( which she has seen countless times), and, as one item, all of Charlie Chaplin. I don't want to try to make my list again, and, for a person who is more of a reader than a movie person, I got well over 100 with my list of basic flicks.
If you google "100 essential movies of all time," you can get all sorts of obscure lists by critics. She did take the time from her Christmas-break reading and ski trips to New Hampshire and constant NYC trips to watch Amarcord today, which definitely is on my list.
Man, that movie is rich in memorable imagery, and as Italian as anchovies in olive oil.
So help me out. What's on your essential movies-to-see-to-be-culturally-literate list? (please do not feel that you need to list 100!).
The propaganda issued by the Obama administration to obtain support for ObamaCare is blatant and wrong. An example is touting that ObamaCare has helped small businesses to obtain medical insurance. The federal Department of Health and Human Services cites a Democrat-front organization. The real facts say otherwise.
The federal Department of Health and Human Services website HealthCare.gov offers this “fact”: “According to a new survey from the Small Business Majority, one third of employers that don’t offer health insurance said they are more likely to do so because of the small business tax credits included in the Affordable Care Act, which help small employers afford coverage for their employees.”
But, as an expose in the New York Times says, “As far as the Agenda knows, the Small Business Majority research is the only research that has found that small businesses buy in to pay-or-play. All of the other small-business advocates claim the opposite, and by greater margins.”
What is the Small Business Majority? According to the New York Times expose:
The group has been around since 2004, founded by a tech entrepreneur named John Arensmeyer….Small Business Majority has no membership — if it did, Mr. Arensmeyer says, it could no longer objectively represent all of small business, since memberships are by definition self-selecting. Nor is it funded by small businesses; instead the organization depends almost entirely on foundation grants…. Small Business Majority is nonpartisan only in the most technical sense, in that it is not formally allied with any party. Informally, however, it is allied with the Democratic Party. Mr. Arensmeyer serves as a board member of the Bay Area Democrats, which describes itself as “a network of private citizens active in national Democratic Politics.” Since 2002, Mr. Arensmeyer has given generously, and exclusively, to Democratic candidates, according to F.E.C. records. (“I’ve voted for Republicans,” he offers.)… But when Mr. Arensmeyer insists that his organization is not ideological, he appears to mean that it is not “conservative.” The whole project, frankly, seems fundamentally ideological, and clearly liberal. It’s received a leg up from Demos, the advocacy group that counts among its objectives “a more equitable economy with widely shared prosperity and opportunity” — no initiatives to foster Ayn Rand-style self-reliance here. (Demos serves as a fiscal agent, which allows the group to raise money as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.)
In Business Week, Prof. Scott Shane, of Case Western Reserve University, lays out the reality:
Sellers of small group policies report little change in demand for employee health insurance policies among small business owners. The sellers explain that compensation limits for employees make few small businesses eligible for the credit and that the low value of the credit does little to get business owners to provide employee health insurance.
The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that the uptick in the share of firms offering employee health insurance is an artifact of high failure rates of the most vulnerable small businesses (which tend not to offer employee health insurance) during the economic downturn. With more of the companies not providing insurance out of the sample, the share of those providing insurance has increased for purely mathematical reasons….
Another claim is that the new law is bringing down health insurance premiums. Even if the law might, possibly, maybe, at some time in the future, bring down premiums, it hasn't done that yet. Trade publication Employee Benefit News explains that private companies' spending on health insurance is expected to have increased by 4.3 percent in 2010, a rise from the 2.5 percent expected the month before the PPACA was passed because of changes in COBRA policies….
So why am I challenging the claims of the law's cheerleaders? Because its effect so far has been a net negative. That's because many business owners have formed negative expectations of the future effects of the law. For instance, a survey of 459 businesses conducted by Fidelity Investments in June revealed that 49 percent of small employers expect the new law to increase their costs. Many small business owners are responding to these expectations by passing on health insurance costs to employees, by changing the type of insurance they offer, and by planning to drop employee health insurance coverage in the future.
As to the reduced workforce, this USA Today study points out that employment recovery from this recession is slower and less than from prior ones: “This year's hiring should lower the 9.8% jobless rate to 8.9% or so by the end of the year, Moody's Analytics says. That would still leave about 13 million Americans jobless by year's end and many economists say it will take at least five years for unemployment to return to its normal 5% to 6% rate.”
Why are firms either not hiring or limiting hiring?
The President of the US Chamber of Commerce knows the primary reason, excess regulations and taxes sapping the ability and willingness by entrepreneurs to start or stay in business, or by businesses to expand employment or to retain benefits programs. ObamaCare, for example, “creates 159 new agencies, commissions, panels, and other bodies. It grants extraordinary powers to the Department of Health and Human Services to redefine health care as we know it.” It is time to go back to the drawing board, first by wiping as much of it clean as can be gotten through this Congress and forced upon President Obama. As Obama gears up for his re-election campaign, it should be on his mind that most Americans are not buying the many exposed lies of his false claims for ObamaCare.
 I wonder what our readers use for high-quality computer speakers. I am using my machine more and more to listen to music while doing paperwork, even though I have a fine real sound system in my office for radio and CDs. I won't use headphones, and I do not waste time with computer games: engaging in real life offers more than enough games for me - and the result counts.
A friend told me the Bose stuff is good, but I have no clue.
Advice requested. Price, within reason, is no object.
Monday, January 10. 2011
(I hope this is my most inane post of 2011)
I don't get to malls very often, I am happy to say. Basically never, but I did join the Mrs. to check out Teavana on Sunday afternoon. We had run out of good tea. They had one of the Help Wanted signs. The place was busy. Help Wanted signs all over the place.
Well, it was a bit of an adventure for me. "Bird Dog Goes To The Mall." Your editor goes to lots of places, and loves to bang around NYC, but not malls or shops unless Home Depot counts. Nice clean mall with natural light and Palm trees all over. Packed with people, but I tried to avoid taking their photos. The main thing I noticed was the small-d democratic nature of the populace there. All types, all colors, every apparent level of evident prosperity or lack thereof, all languages, all ages, strolling, laughing, window-shopping, and joking around. A day off work. In the tea place, I heard German, Japanese, Chinese, French, and something I could not identify.
An agora. People having fun, spending money, looking at stuff. Too bad they couldn't have built a similar phenomenon on the town's streets, but perhaps people like the feeling of enclosure and predictability.
More Mall Adventure pics below -
Continue reading "Help Wanted: A Mall Adventure for Bird Dog"
Sunday, January 9. 2011
Had a fine New England hunt today with Gwynnie, another pal, and the new pup. We did manage to bag a few birds. This enthusiastic young Lab (only his third real hunt) puts on a good point. I think it would be a shame to train the point out of him, but some folks like a Lab to flush the bird right away.
More photos on continuation page below:
Continue reading "New England Pheasants "
Well, that was easy.
The one big question after yesterday's horrific shooting was whether the mainstream media was going to blame Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, the Tea Party, Bible-thumpin' gun clingers everywhere, or simply Republicans in general.
Question asked, question answered.
Critics of Sarah Palin have already drawn a link between the shooting and the fact that the former Alaska governor put Giffords on a "target list" of lawmakers Palin wanted to see unseated in the midterm elections. - CBS News
“We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list,” Ms. Giffords said last March. “But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that.” - New York Times
Ms. Giffords was also among a group of Democratic House candidates featured on the Web site of Sarah Palin’s political action committee with cross hairs over their districts, a fact that disturbed Ms. Giffords at the time. - MSNBC
Afterward, she referred to the animosity against her by conservatives, including former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's decision to list Giffords' seat as one of the top "targets" in the November midterm elections. - USA Today
As of Saturday, Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' name appeared on a website titled "take back the 20" as part of a list originally issued by Sarah Palin of vulnerable House Democrats. A map on the site showed crosshairs over the contested Democratic districts. - CNN
Linking to a map of U.S. House districts that Sarah Palin's PAC wanted to "target" during the 2010 mid-term elections -- which sadly included crosshairs over Rep. Giffords' district (among others). DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Tweeted, "Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin." - ABC News
What went unmentioned during this rampant outbreak of PDS was:
— According to the shooter's YouTube profile, two of his favorite books were Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto. Now, maybe I'm just naive, but I doubt Sarah Palin has read either of those.
— And did you see the quote from Markos "Kos" Moulitsas up above? What also went unmentioned in the above articles is that Kos had a post up — now removed — referring to Giffords titled "My CongressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me!" Giffords, a centrist, voted against Pelosi in the recent Minority Leader race and is hated far more by the hard left for that indiscretion than by Palin & Company simply because she's not a Republican.
So, let a Lefty use the word "DEAD" — in all caps, no less — in an article about Giffords and that's perfectly okay, but let a Righty put (gasp!) crosshairs over her congressional district, and you're one step removed from being the next Beltway Sniper.
In related news:
Bristol Palin Pregnancy: Is Sarah Palin’s 5th Child Really Her Daughter's?
Who is Trig Palin's Mother?
Kathy Griffin's Next Target: Willow Palin
Bird Dog did a pic dump yesterday, before the shooting, including this gem. Have you ever seen anything more timely?
Saturday, January 8. 2011
I have been sorting through my file of images, and found some that are worth posting before discarding. I suppose some have been used in past years. I don't recall where most of them came from.
I may need to do this for a few Saturdays, to clean out the files...
Steal them at will.
More below the fold -
Continue reading "My first fun and useful image dump"
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