More than most societies, Americans believe that people rise or fall as a result of their own efforts, and therefore get what they deserve. Critically, when we say this is a nation of individualists, we don’t just mean Americans embrace individualism as a social ethic. Underpinning this ethic is tendency to interpret the world in highly individualistic terms. We distribute blame and praise to individuals because we believe that it is their individual actions, for better or worse, that matter. People get what they deserve. Read more
Category Archives: Politics & Issues
Misc Links 1/3/11
GOP push for repeal of health reform: Is it politically wise? (Christian Science Monitor)
Push would repeat the sin of spending too much time on health care and makes revenge the first order of business
House Rule: Will John Boehner control the Tea Party Congress? (New Yorker)
To predict the fate of health care reform, it helps to understand Boehner. Excellent profile
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WikiLeaks and modern medicine
[The 1971 Supreme Court decision on the Pentagon Papers] established the principle that it was illegal to leak secrets, but not to publish leaks. … The legal bargain from 1971 simply does not and cannot produce the outcome it used to. This is one of the things freaking people in the US government out — not that the law has changed, but that the world has, and the industrial era law, applied to internet-era publishing, might allow for media outlets which exhibit no self-restraint around national sensitivities, because they are run by people without any loyalty to — or, more importantly, need of — national affiliation to do their jobs. Read more
Misc Links 1/2/11
Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness (Wired)
Lead editor of DSM-IV accused current DSM-5 editors of “bad faith, hubris, and blindness, of making diseases out of everyday suffering and, as a result, padding the bottom lines of drug companies.”
Medicare incentive aims to make patients’ end-of-life decisions clear (Pittsburgh Tribune)
It’s good to see this discussion happening, even if Arthur Caplan’s insights get “balanced” by a conservative viewpoint. “The fear is that our health care system is becoming increasingly money-driven and utilitarian.” That’s a fact. Read more
Where the poor live: The more polluted part of town
In most of the northern hemisphere, winds blow from west to east. So in the days of heavy industrial pollution from the smoke stack industries, the air was cleaner on the west side of town. Living in the east-end was less desirable and less expensive. Another factor may have been the direction in which the local river flowed. Rivers carried sewage, and if the river flowed west to east, as it does in London, that’s another reason the east-end was less desirable. Read more
Misc Links 1/1/11
Doctors Urged to Admit Fatigue Before Performing Surgery (Businessweek)
Proposed new rules would require patient to sign consent when informed surgeon is sleep deprived
Some GOP stalwarts defend first lady’s anti-obesity campaign from Palin’s shots (Wash Post)
Mike Huckabee, Haley Barbour, Rick Santorum praise Michelle. Barack Obama: the issue “transcends politics” Read more
Misc Links 12/31/10
Real Life Among the Old Old (NYT)
To believe 90 is the new 50 is a fantasy that fails to distinguish between hope and reasonable expectation
FoodPolitics catches up: USDA’s meat labeling (Food Politics)
Meat producers greatly prefer that you remain ignorant of the amount of fat and calories meat contains Read more
Income inequality and American politics
US income inequality is not — or not simply – due to the economic consequences of globalization, like the shift from manufacturing jobs to service sector jobs, with the ensuing loss of pay and benefits. It’s also due to what’s happened in American politics. Business interests — represented by Republicans — have been much better at organizing themselves than have labor unions and interest groups that represent the middle class. And the cost of campaigning – which increased enormously once TV became the dominant campaign medium – has made Democrats willing to support legislation that favors the interests of those with money to spare. Read more
Misc Links 12/30/10
Canada to put bigger health warnings on cigarettes (Reuters)
Will cover three quarters of front and back of cigarette pack. “Unduly” delayed by tobacco lobbying
Judge Rejects City Law on Antismoking Posters (NYT)
Gruesome images won’t be required in convenience stores in NY. Judge: “Even merchants of morbidity are entitled to the full protection of the law, for our sake as well as theirs.” Read more
Misc Links 12/29/10
‘Death panels’ alive — and that’s good news for all of us (MSNBC)
“If Terri Schiavo taught us anything … “ By noted bioethicist Arthur Caplan (12/29)
Health care economics and the relationship between doctor and patient (KevinMD)
What’s wrong with the way medicine is practiced? By a pediatrician who decided to quit her practice (12/29) Read more
Misc Links 12/28/10
So Young and So Many Pills (WSJ)
More than 25% of U.S. children and teens take prescription drugs on a regular basis. Most have not been tested on children. (12/28)
Osama bin Laden is dead (Wash Times)
Medical history of bin Ladan. Conclusion: It’s unlikely he’s still alive (12/28) Read more
Misc Links 12/27/10
Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir (NYT)
Cautious progress on plans to reimburse physicians for end-of-life discussions, trying not to inflame death panel myth (which is bound to happen anyway)
Overhaul of food safety laws might not be to GOP’s taste (Wash Post)
Good summary of bill’s benefits. Republicans may deny funding, claiming: “We still have a food supply that’s 99.99 percent safe.”
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The problem is you
Any theory that claims to tell us who and what we are contains a potential for abuse. Advice from “legitimate” sources, addressing itself to areas of human weakness and vulnerability, can deprive an individual of the confidence that he could know for himself who he should be. Religion used to have this potential on a wide scale when the population was less educated, less self-conscious, less “sophisticated.” Organized religion still has the advantage of being able to hide behind a veil of crossed intentions and a choirboy squeaky-clean. But any closed system of thought can gain ascendancy using perfected psychological, that is, commercial, techniques. Read more
Misc Links 12/23/10
Can Congress Make You Buy Broccoli? And Why That’s a Hard Question (NEJM)
Four reasons why it’s hard to answer this question. A legal opinion (12/23)
Doctor Arrested in Whistle-Blowing Case (NYT)
Doctor accused of practicing substandard medicine worked with his friend, the sheriff, to get nurses fired. Nurses vindicated. Doctor now out on bail. (12/23) Read more
Wikileaks, nerd supremacy, anarchy, dictatorship, and democracy
The flip side of responsibly held secrets … is trust. A perfectly open world, without secrets, would be a world without the need for trust, and therefore a world without trust. What a sad sterile place that would be: A perfect world for machines. Read more
Misc Links 12/22/10
The Hazards of Nerd Supremacy: The Case of WikiLeaks (Atlantic)
Substantial, thought-provoking essay by philosopher of the information age, Jaron Lanier
Secrecy May Be Unnecessary for Placebo Effect (WebMD)
Ted Kaptchuk trial involved 80 IBS patients. “There may be significant benefit to the very performance of medical ritual.” Read more
Why the US doesn’t have universal health care
Most high-income countries today have some form of national health insurance. Why is the US different? What stands in the way? … How to explain American opposition to universal health care. “Nearly every time this country has expanded its social safety net or tried to guarantee civil rights, passionate opposition has followed.” Read more
Misc Links 12/21/10
Court Backs Patents for Diagnostic Tests (NYT)
A closely watched development in personalized medicine. Patents on tests raise costs and impede medical progress (12/21)
Drug Makers New Targets for U.S. Fraud Inquiries, Report Says (NYT)
Drug industry overtakes defense as main target of federal fraud investigations. Pharma makes so much money by bending or breaking the rules on off-label marketing that the fines are worth it. (12/21) Read more
Carbs are the new no-no
To see doctors and nutritionists give voice to so much common sense is truly encouraging. Actually, most of them have been saying something like this all along. Their message to eat a balanced diet just wasn’t titillating enough to get the press coverage it deserved. Read more
Misc Links 12/20/10
A reversal on carbs (LA Times)
The country’s big low-fat message backfired. The overemphasis on reducing fat caused the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar in our diets to soar. That shift may be linked to the biggest health problems in America today.
Mental Health Needs Seen Growing at Colleges (NYT)
70s students saw college counselors for existential crisis: Who am I? “Now they’re bringing in life stories involving extensive trauma, a history of serious mental illness, eating disorders, self-injury, alcohol and other drug use.” Read more
The day Neda Soltan died: Inside an Iranian hospital
I tried to explain that my colleagues and I needed to know the cause of the accidents and the nature of the trauma. Then a bearded tall man approached me “ask me!” he said. I immediately recognised the “plainclothes”. “I wanted to know”, I began. He locked his intense hatred into my eyes. “You have no right to ask any question. At least if you don’t want to join them.” And he pointed to the line of the victims lying on the beds and on the floor. Read more
Misc Links 12/19/10
An epidemic of loneliness (Lancet)
“Doctor”, she asks, “can you give me a cure for loneliness?” Patients whose only misunderstanding is to have lived to an age when they are no longer coveted by a society addicted to youth.
Tackling loneliness in the holidays (Lancet)
The holiday season is the time of the year when our desire for social contact is most likely to outstrip what our circumstances will allow; it is into this gap that loneliness creeps. Read more
Can Congress Force You to Be Healthy?
Yes, we want affordable health care. No, we don’t want the government interfering in our personal lives. Don’t get emotionally manipulated into believing we can’t have the first without the second. Read more
Misc Links 12/18/10
The U-bend of life: Why, beyond middle age, people get happier as they get older (Economist)
Life improves after the stressful middle years. Interesting comments
Can Congress Force You to Be Healthy? (NYT)
A good point or the wrong question? Virginia judge’s ruling could prove irresistible to the Supreme Court Read more
Character, personality, and cosmetic surgery
There’s something inherently liberating about realizing there’s nothing actually wrong with you. It’s just an arbitrary message you’ve received all your life. Society controls people’s behavior by making them feel guilty about not being normal, but who gets to decide what’s normal? Read more
The death of Wang Bei: Cosmetic surgery as a moral choice
Each one of us who makes the decision to have cosmetic surgery changes the standards of acceptable appearance in which everyone else must live. In that sense, the decision to have cosmetic surgery is communal and thus ultimately moral. Read more
What we used to eat
Four Fish: There are many things — in my opinion — that recommend this book. The author has been fishing all his life and is at one with his subject. He doesn’t criticize fishermen, nor is he preachy about what consumers choose to eat. He doesn’t leave his reader with a sense of doom and gloom, a common aftertaste of books that document the extinction of species. Greenberg believes there’s still hope for the future of fish. He’s also a fabulous writer. That’s why I recommend the book highly. Read more
Professionalism of UK doctors questioned over health inequalities
Where was the medical profession? Doctors are supposed to feel an acute responsibility to deliver the best health service to the whole population. It is on this basis that they ask the public and government to support generous pay increases and terms and conditions of service. These attitudes and behaviours are what we commonly mean by professionalism. It seems that doctors failed completely to live up to the rhetoric of their commitment to professional values. Read more
Life expectancy of the rich and the poor
While average life expectancy is indeed rising, it’s doing so mainly for high earners, precisely the people who need Social Security least. Life expectancy in the bottom half of the income distribution has barely inched up over the past three decades. So the Bowles-Simpson proposal is basically saying that janitors should be forced to work longer because these days corporate lawyers live to a ripe old age. Read more
The post-midterm world
Conservatives will not find it much easier than liberals to govern a society where so many people feel themselves cheated — and where so many refuse to believe that the so-called experts care for the interests of anyone beyond their narrow coterie and class. Read more