Ah, the wonders of organic farming and living in a rural tropical paradise. Right now, we are in the middle of rice growing season (which started later than usual because the rains came late). So time to make the fertilizer. To grow organic rice, it means more preparation of the fields (plowing under and flooding the fields so weeds won’t grow) before planting rice seedlings by hand. But we need fertilizer, which we “make” by mixing carbonized rice husks, good bacteria, chicken manure, and the minerals according to the analysis of the soil. As a result, when we sit out in[....]
Archive
Tag: Regional News
Written By: John Sullivan The Palestinian terror organization Hamas, in their refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist, is determined to railroad any peace treaty that may be attained from talks that started this Thursday. Dismissing Hamas is not an easy adventure, this week they executed back to back attacks on Israelis in the West Bank. Many analyst say though that the only way for U.S. led talks to succeed is for Palestinians to ostracize the terror group, but they cannot expect to succeed if they do not Jordan and Egypt are both involved in the renewed middle east peace talks;[....]
With all the hyperbolic political rhetoric in the blogosphere, one wonders if the American people are indeed “having a temper tantrum”. Or maybe the patience of the American people with political correctness is now finished. Example one: After years of the American public watching news reports of suicide bombings, or lashing raped women, destroying Hindu temples and forbidding Catholics to attend Mass in Saudi, or the nincompoop in Iran threatening to destroy Israel, the “Ground Zero” mosque is the last straw. Now, I don’t object to a mosque being located a[....]
I’m old enough to remember when a doc took two dollars to see you in his office, and the entire staff was his wife (when I became a doctor, only 6 percent of docs were women, so yes, the doc was a “he). In the 1980’s, I had one secretary, one nurse.and a part time typist to help me. In 2000 I worked for the government, and we had three nurses for two doctors (and yet often I was left trying to find one to help me…this was a government clinic, after all, so coffee breaks tended to be long). Then we had 6 folks in medical records, and another four in the office [....]
Follow the money. Yes, that’s right, follow the money. You really didn’t think that the “Wikileaks” scheme was about being anti war, did you? From ZDNET, a computer related website: …Wikileaks founder Julian Assange…(is) now blackmailing Amnesty International and other human rights groups for $700,000 to remove names of Afghan civilians who might get killed by the Taliban if their names get released on Wikileaks. Ah yes. Must have money. Last week, five Human Rights groups asked Assange not to release documents with the names of innocent[....]
In medicine, if you have a patient who is awaiting a cash settlement in a court case, it is well known that their recovery chances are better if you let them get the case settled before you do surgery or start an extensive rehabilitation program. The slang term for this is the “Green poultice effect”, i.e. that the injury won’t get better until he gets money (in the US, the bills are green) because if they recover, they get less money. Sometimes this is due to exaggerating the injury or pretending it hurts to be rewarded with a settlement or with disability pension. (Time[....]
The Taliban did it again. Killed a medical team whose only crime was to travel into isolated areas to treat eye disease. Their “crime”? They were supposedly being “spies”, even though only a few of the medical team were Americans. Oh yes: And they were (gasp) Christians. Can’t have that, can we. Kill the infidel. Never mind that the lead optometrist was well known in Afghanistan, fluent in local dialects and working there for over 20 years. So what were this team of eye doctors doing there? From the BBC: Dr Woo gave up a well-paid job with private healthcare[....]
Up popped a comment on my Facebook page: American Medical News Do you think your practice is, or will be, ready for meaningful use? Uh, silly me. True, I’m now retired, but I though that seeing 20 plus patients a day, diagnosing their ills, ordering their treatment, and (often) listening to their woes and advising them on what to do was meaningful. Or maybe not. You see, under Obama’s medical experts, the word “meaningful” means spending time, money, and energy to obey government dictates on electronic medical records, whether or not you want to do it, and whether or[....]
Yes, Plum fans, it’s summer, and the latest Stephanie Plum book has been released: Sizzling Sixteen. Think of it as pure Plum the bounty hunter, with a hint of hobbits. All you intellectuals are now free to log off, because we Plum fans read books where the heroine doesn’t moan about existential angst but worries about jelly donuts. The latest is pure Evanovich: A mixture of romance, zany characters, and slapstick, where the plot is less important than finding out if Stephanie will go to bed with Ranger. (Alas, for this book, the answer is no). Most of the joy of the books are[....]
One of the best things about the Clintons is that, during their time in office, they protected Chelsea from publicity and criticism. This allowed her to go through her teen years without the glare and criticism of, say, Sarah Palin’s children or the politicization of the Obama girls. So we are now hearing about her happy marriage, with a huge celebration that includes some of her parents friends, but rumors insist most of the guests are in her age group, while political friends of her parents are few (e.g. no invitation to the President for a photo op). The wedding ceremony will[....]
The Washington Post had an AP scare headline: Medical device problems hurt 70,000+ kids annually. Oh Heavens, another headline for doctor haters to point fingers at hard working docs. So ignore the headline, and let’s go to the Journal Pediatrics to see what the real story is. First of all, the definition of “medical devices” is quite broad. If you ever scratched your eye putting on your glasses or eye protectors, you’re on their list. If your 8 year old got Grandmom’s wheelchair or scooter and raced it down the corridor of her apartment building, and[....]
A bit of an uproar in Massachusetts, where the local papers have discovered that Senator Kerry bought a yacht, but has parked it in nearby Rhode Island to get out of paying the local sales tax. The good news is that, now that he has been caught and shamed, he will pay the half million dollar sales tax. The dirty little secret is that there are lots of places where people buy “big ticket” items across the state line to save a couple of bucks. This is illegal, but rarely prosecuted for small ticket items. And then there are internet sales. I used to buy books from Amazon, since[....]
In April, 2008, the press was hailing the brilliance of Barack Obama, and dissing the much more experienced Hillary Clinton for not dropping out of the race, even though the race was close and several primaries were still due to be held. So, when in early April, stories started percolating on right wing blogs and YOUTUBE that Obama had attended the church of one Reverend Wright for many years, but that Reverend Wright had preached hatred of the United States from his pulpit, the story was a potential time bomb. I’m not sure who posted the first video, but one that was posted as early[....]
There is a minor kerfuffle in the right wing blogs about Michael Bellesiles being caught publishing fiction as truth. The right wing has it in for Bellesiles, since he once faked data on gun ownership in early America, trying to prove no one owned guns then (and ergo the second amendment was meant to refer to the National Guard, not to private ownership of guns). So there are a lot of people out there to “get” him when he writes. What is interesting is that, when he wrote a very nice essay published in the Chronicles of Higher Education, that no one at that magazine bothered to[....]
Did Hillary Clinton actually win the Democratic nomination in 2008, but lost the caucus vote because of intimidation by Obama’s minions? That’s what an up and coming film is claiming. A film is floating around with interviews with many people who claim intimidation, vote stealing, and other shenanigans aimed at winning the small caucus votes resulted in Obama “winning” many state caucuses. Those of Problem two: The caucuses went to Obama big time. It is easy for well organized groups (in this case the “Move On” left) to win caucuses. Here’s a few examples[....]
Most of the sharks are out attacking Mel Gibson’s shocking behavior. Well, it’s better reading that the other stories in the news, such as the oil spill or that suffering Haitians still need help. And it allows lots of folks to wax self righteous. Ironically, it is Whoopie Goldberg, a celebrity who also defended Roman Polanski, who came to his defense. Drunks say stupid stuff to people all the time because they’re drunk. They’re out of control. They are not thinking they are idiotic. That’s why I don’t like alcohol. I can’t say anything about that because I know [....]
A couple weeks ago, I ran across a strange story about Zimbabwe: a couple of known terrorists were caught crossing the border from Zimbabwe into South Africa at Beitbridge. 33 year-old Imran Muhammad…was arrested last Sunday while trying to get through Beitbridge border post to South Africa on what officials believe was a fake Kenyan passport. He was traveling together with another Pakistani national. The Herald newspaper says that man is 39-year old Chaudry Parvez Ahmed. They are reported to have come to Zimbabwe from Saudi Arabia, via Tanzania . The paper says that an Imran[....]
President Obama pulled a fast one last week. While the public was entranced by trivial stories on Hollywood celebrities gone mad, or repeated laments about the oil spill, the President appointed Dr. Donald Berwick as head of Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). His appointment is a triumph for “scientific medicine”, because Berwick has spent his career trying to implement studies showing physicians the most cost effective way to treat our patient. Presumably I should be pleased, except that I am old enough to know that caring for patients is[....]
I can see the outrage by animals lovers everywhere after they read the AP headline: Baghdad kills 58,000 stray dogs in 3-month span It’s all about rabies. One reason that Islam says that dogs are “unclean” was because stray dogs carry rabies and other diseases. (These edicts did not go against hunting or watch dogs, by the way). The AP article notes that with the security problems in Baghdad, the dog control program was discontinued, while at the same time the increase in security and prosperity meant that there was more food for stray dogs to eat. This resulted in a[....]
Reporters are busy reporting the story of the day, but often they miss the big picture, preferring to report stories as a race horse betting game. Example: Michael Steele said that Afghanistan is the President’s war. What will Rush say? Will that make Obama’s popularity poll go up or down? Time out, fellahs. Because a lot of the blame for the Obama administration (for example, on the oil spill) has more to do with a big bulky government bureaucracy than it does with his competency. On the other hand, a good burocracy has “contingency plans” for everything. So maybe[....]