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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 [....]

Gerald F. Seib’s article in the WSJ is insightful and useful to help us achieve our common goal of freedom in America as detailed in my article, We The People and my blog: USA Integrity-Freedom. Seib states, “Economic stress has a way of bringing underlying tensions and suppressed emotions to the surface, for people and nations alike. That’s certainly true for the U.S., where economic anxiety tends to bubble up in three related forms: isolationism, protectionism and anti-immigration sentiment.” He explains this anxiety is revealed most prominently in the debates over the Arizona[....]

MISSOURI – Freedom is a daily endeavor dependent on the people, and it requires, at times, a call to action to ensure that justice is served–this is one of those times. Over the last few years we have seen a pattern of communication develop most prominently in the way of “Disasters” that are really not disasters.  They are, however, opportunities for all Americans to consider the accuracy of the information they receive by the mainstream media: newspapers, network news, cable opinions, and in particular, the information available over the Internet. My attempt to draw a link[....]

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[....]

It has been said that the heart and soul of the American economy is the small business. To that point it has been argued that excessive taxation, fees and regulations have provided barriers to the creation and growth of small business. The mantra from conservative radio and many business periodicals is that if the government would just get out of the way of the small business owner, said business would prosper, create jobs and add to the overall growth of the economy. The mantra of the Right, beginning with Reagan is, “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the[....]

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[....]

I have to be honest. I haven’t been feeling the creative juices this last week. Thus, I haven’t written anything in almost a week. I sat down this morning looking for a little inspiration. As is often the case, I needed to look no further than the words of Ronald Reagan. If you scan through his speeches and writings, it is apparent that he was able to see the socialized nation we were becoming. His famous speech in 1964 to the Republican National Convention gave us great insight to his wisdom and his knowledge that we were already headed down the road to socialism. I linked a[....]

In 1920 the top marginal tax rate was 73% of over1 million dollars earned. In 1925 the top marginal rate was lowered to 25% of over 1 hundred thousand dollars earned. And then in 1929 we had the Great Depression. Tax cuts ladies and gentleman…the myth, the math, the legend. Nobody who has made any money seems to want to pay taxes. Despite painstaking explanations that it is in fact tax money that allows our country to operate, one may still hear constant complaining and abject aversion to the very concept of taxes. This is not a political issue as such seeing that both rich Democrats[....]

I’ve come out in favor of the Electoral College before (see here).  Among other things, the EC ensures that Presidents get broad support as opposed to simply the most support, it gives minorities a bigger voice, and it makes vote fraud much more difficult.  See here for an FEC paper on the origins of the EC, and it makes for very informative reading, especially on the reason that the Founders decided not to go with a direct popular vote for the President.  (The paper was last updated in 1992, but the history is what’s important.) In Wednesday’s “Best[....]

Dr. Berwick, now appointed to a US panel to shape US heath care, is an admirer of the UK system of health care, which includes limiting or rationing of it’s care. So this week, two stories are coming out of the UK on health care. One is a report that more autonomy will be given to GP’s in deciding their patient’s care. But the second, if true, is ominous.  The UK Telegraph reports: An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered widespread cuts planned across the NHS, many of which have already been agreed by senior health service officials. They include: *[....]

New and interesting ideas are important in politics. All too often voters are stuck with candidates who mindlessly pander to whatever audience may be in front of them at any given time. Between the time split between pandering and attacking the other side we the public rarely are given any serious ideas for solving this countries complicated problems. However, on occasion a politician separates him or herself from the pack and comes to the American public with solid ideas that are actually within the realm of possibly working. But even when we are given fresh ideas, that does not mean[....]

The large American Federal Bureaucracy was founded to replace the “spoils system” that allowed those elected to place all their friends/relatives/cronies/campaign contributors into offices where they could then go on to help their friends/neighbors/relatives/cronies. The idea was to make bureaucrats non political, and represent the people and follow the regulations rather than to promote a political agenda by using the power of their government office. You get the job impartially by applying and taking an examination. Yes, there is some discrimination in hiring (veterans[....]

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[....]

This is a guest article by D. Alan Johnson, his latest book Asgaard explores the role of US military Contractors in far flung parts of the globe. D. Alan Johnson is well equipped to write not only Asgaard, but also this article. He is what he writes about! Since the mid 1980’s he has been a private military contractor – Simon Back in business school we learned that every successful business must master three disciplines: Discipline One:    OperationsDiscipline Two:    FinanceDiscipline Three: Marketing “Operations” means doing what your[....]

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[....]