Wacky Headline Punchdrunk Sing-a-long!

I just had one of those days where there were just too many headlines that dumbfounded me.

N.J. warns: Don't eat squirrel near dump
We the Living Dead: The convoluted politics of zombie cinema
Church hosts 'porn and pancakes' event
Scientist develops caffeinated doughnuts
Teacher reassigned for anatomy drawings
Senator Schilling? Curt’s not so sure, but fans think he’s just the ticket
New York plans official city condom

And from the "no damn duh" category:

Alternative medicine rarely discussed with doctors
Most diabetics don't exercise
Study says skin tone affects earnings
Triptans can ward off orgasmic headaches

Wait, orgasmic headaches? If my headaches were orgasmic, I don't think I'd take Motrin ever again. *rimshot*

Even the NAACP can be stupid sometimes

An NAACP official blames U.S. government policy for alleged disparity in treating African-Americans with heart failure.

Juan M. Cofield, president of the NAACP's New England council in Boston, strongly criticized Medicare for what he called lack of promotion for insurance coverage of BiDil, a cardiac medication for blacks, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Medicare's stance "is so contrary to evidence-based medicine and so extraordinary that it arouses suspicions of institutional racism," said the sharply worded letter.

The missive highlighted tension between the Boston regional office of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the local civil rights group over BiDil, the only drug approved for use by one race.

I've got a better line: Medicare's stance is so consistent with evidence-based medicine and completely predictable by those who understand that health policy is supposed to actually, say, promote the well-being of those underserved by the health care system rather than just give in to the joke science that a quick-buck-seeking drug company threw together to market two generic drugs in a combination pill in an insulting play on the legitimate insecurities of the African-American community.

Now, Cofield is probably a smart dude with his heart in the right place. African-American community leaders are clearly warranted in taking their suspicions of the medical community to near conspiracy-theory levels (because the AA community actually had a conspiracy pulled on them in recent memory and all). But he's also obviously underequipped to evaluate medical evidence or health policy.

You might ask, what's the white dude got to say about this? Well, this white dude has received all of his policy education on BiDil from evidence-based material presented by black dudes, and those black dudes, who are, ya know, faculty in health sciences, seemed to have their ducks in a row. Mr Cofield doesn't.

BiDil isn't a medication for blacks. It's a medication that is marketed to blacks in hopes that doctors A) won't know how to evaluate evidence, or B) will give in to political pressure from a community that's been hoodwinked before. BiDil is an insult to the African American community, inflicted by a company that believes that, instead of advancing science, it can simply manipulate science with hazy politics and make lots of money.

Some Say It's OK for Girls to Go Wild

I'll be the first to admit that talking about young girls dressing like sluts makes me cringe/sick/what have you. I noticed an interesting trend in my diagnosis while working in the psych emergency department last year: I labeled every girl with absolutely any exposed cleavage a likely borderline personality disorder-in-training. My attendings (well, the ones who were women, at least) thought I was jumping the gun a bit, but I couldn't get past that. Not in that one month, at least.

But I've learned enough about adolescent development (or at least, the best substantiated theories thereof) to admit that these people know what they're talking about, and my I-see-your-boobs-so-you're-unstable instinct isn't a valuable or accurate one.

While young women may express their sexuality more overtly than they have in the past, for the most part, their behavior isn't cause for alarm. It's a necessary step in growing up.

Looking Sexy Doesn't Equate With Sexual Activity

Looks can be deceiving. A girl who puts a seductive picture of herself on the Internet for all to see may shudder at the thought of striking the same pose in front of her peers.

"There's a difference between posting a picture of yourself in virtual space, like Myspace or YouTube or Friendster, and posing in provocative clothing in public," said John Broughton, Columbia University professor of psychology and education.

Similarly, sexy clothes do not beget sexual activity.

Jaana Juvonen, who studies the development of middle and high school students at UCLA, said that because girls hit puberty earlier now than they did decades ago, they're tempted to mimic the appearance of their older peers. That doesn't mean they're engaging in acts that ought to be beyond their years.

"Many girls might look very differently from how they act," she said. "We should not judge them based on what they look like.

Now, if my daughter reads this in twenty years and says, "see, Dad, you thought it was okay back when you were a kid," I'll deny it all. Or I'll take her to the mall and buy her some nice, flattering sweaters. No V-neck's allowed. Not until she's 18.

Obama 1, Fox 0

Barry-O's senate office has released a killer statement debunking the 'madrassa' myth. Greg Sargent has the text on his blog. Read it. It's scathingly beautiful.

Suck it, Fox.

Go Vols!

Not to minimize the implicit rivalry between Kentucky and Tennessee, but as long as Bruce Pearl doesn't pull a Rick Stansbury and make a habit of saying stupid shit about Kentucky, stunts like this will only make me love the dude. (Stolen from ESPN.COM)

Darwin Wins: Those damn shoes with the wheels in the back are dangerous for kids

You've seen them, those 8-year old flying through the mall, their parents nowhere to be seen, with nothing but a pair of ugly-ass sneakers on. And, if you're like my wife and I, you really hoped the kid would run into something and crack its head open.

Apparently, that stuff is happening. I'm personally more worried about the danger of a child being raised by a parent stupid enough to buy these things for their child and let them wear them places like the mall.

My favorite part of the article is that they have to cite a pediatrician to say that the things are dangerous. I hope an MD is not required to understand the physics of kid + wheels = doom.

Film: Most boring Oscars ever?

I can't evaluate the past zillion years of Oscars nominations, but can anybody actually get excited about any of this? The interesting story lines center around omissions rather than inclusions: 1) does Scorcese FINALLY not get snubbed, 2) no Borat?, 3) another Clint Eastwood movie over the most heralded 'black' movie in recent memory? 4) The controversy was whether Brad Pitt received a best actor or best supporting actor role in Babel, and he receives... neither. Cleared that up, you hack!

Seriously, this year's field sucks. The fact that there will be people who are legitimately surprised that Sasha Baron-Cohen received no nomination sums up the whole year.

UPDATE: Dana Stevens' State of the Oscar is a worthy read.

Drug Politics: AIDS group sues Pfizer over Viagra ads

OK, so the AIDS Health Care Foundation has criticized Viagra ads that depict Viagra as a great way to have great sex on national holidays (e.g. Super Bowl, New Years). It also says that this encourages the use of Viagra as a party drug (often in conjunction with crystal meth). While this is true, and probably in bad taste (shame on Pfizer), the next point seems odd. They are suing for damages, saying that this advertising fostered an increase in the spread of STDs, which the groups has to pay for treating (it has many public health services that it provides). That seems to go too far. Might as well sue the alcohol industry and makers of every teen/college movie ever made. How about a combination pill that contains Viagra and a HAART cocktail (people from Pfizer should take note).

Woof: Brew for Derby and Julep

And even more important than the SOTU, an Amsterdam pet store owner is brewing non-alcoholic beer for dogs.

MedPol: Bush insurance proposal: SOTU preview

The Reuters skinny:

Bush's health-care proposal would use tax breaks to make it easier for people who do not have employer-provided health insurance to buy coverage on their own. The tax incentives would be similar to deductions used by homeowners for the interest on their mortgages, Bush said.

But the program is intended to have no effect on government revenues because the cost of the tax breaks would be offset by changing the way health insurance is treated in the tax code, according to a senior administration official who described the proposal to reporters.

The current health system relies primarily on employers to provide health-care coverage as a fringe benefit. Employees are not taxed on the benefits but the Bush plan would set a cap on the amount of coverage that could be offered tax-free.

Anything above that would be taxed as income, the administration official on condition of anonymity.

Mankiw's commentary:

Economists have long suggested that tax subsidies lead to excessive use of employer-provided health insurance. This proposal would help fix that problem, while giving a helping hand to the uninsured.

Note that some Democratic economists have made similar proposals in the past, so there is hope that this idea will command bipartisan support.

I'm convinced Mankiw is correct in the longview, that fifty years from now, this sort of incentive-disincentive revamping would lead to a better equilibrium than exists currently. But I'm not sure that apparently taxing middle-class health care benefits to fix a larger problem is going to be particularly attractive for the left or the right.

A prolonged evolution away from employer-based health care only creates problems in transitions. As folks are macro-scale moved from getting insurance from employers to somewhere else, they'll likely face large unfilled gaps in insurance status, and given that insurance is supposed to be something that provides peace of mind, flirting with its status seems unattractive.

If my point isn't clear, see Stephen J. Gould's model of punctuated equilibrium for evolutionary change. Auxiliary point: we can't start creating disincentives against current modes of delivering health insurance without creating equally viable alternatives for those finding themselves unable to attain insurance through traditional, employer-based plans.

Kevin Drum finds the proposal to be too little, too late.

The amazing thing about this isn't whether it's a good idea or not. It's the fact that healthcare is supposed to be one of the big issues in this year's SOTU but this puny little proposal is all Bush has to offer. To call it laughable would be giving it too much credit.

The good news is that this will go nowhere in Congress. The bad news is that Bush will probably want to make up for the lameness of his healthcare plan with some brand new mega-hawkery about Iran. Otherwise, no headlines. I can hardly wait.

I'm not sure that it's necessarily good news that this will go nowhere in Congress, because I'm not sure the plan doesn't have some merits in the context of broader intervention as a way of weaning the country away from employer-based health plans.

What is clear is that this isn't an administration that takes advancing the plight of the uninsured seriously.

YouTube: Jack Bauer Management Informercial

Politics: Richardson exploring

As much as I heart Barry O, Bill Richardson is amazingly overrated in political cuddliness. I feel like he's been on everyone's shortlist since he left the House. Foreign policy experience + we-can't-elect-congresspeople-alosis make B-Rich even more palatable.

Plus, honestly, the South ain't near as scared of Hispanics as they are blacks. And New Mexico isn't exactly a paleoliberal haven.

Besides, he doesn't even smoke!

PS: Do we know if Barack even smokes Marlboros? I mean, I'm pretty sure he mentioned at least one brand of cigarrettes in Dreams from my Father, but I'm not sure what it was. Of course, I'm sure those denizens of honesty and truth at FoxNews did their research, so perhaps I shouldn't even question the reliability of their quaint graphic.

Go Cats!: Touching the Top 25

After losing at home to the most enigmatic team in the SEC (Vandy = 12-6 overall, 3-1 against Sagarin top 25, 4-2 against top 50 ... aka WTF, mate?), Kentucky will drop out of the top 25 (not that the coaches even let them in to begin with). Take heart, Mr Sagarin knows we're still Top 25.

Politics: Gay Marriage and the End of Civilization

My attention wandered during the "Theology and Science" seminar. Just a little bit.

Sports: Why the Colts Will Finally Beat the Patriots

Tom Brady is the other reason (first being Chris Webber) why my Michigan sports fandom will remain a non-starter. God knows, I've tried.

Medicine: BMJ readers think Sanitation, and not ECMO, is the greatest medical milestone since 1840

The headline is of course a joke only embittered Michiganders will get. Forgive me that.

Of course the Brits would think that. The dirty mongrels kept drinking shitty water and getting cholera in 1854. Most of them still have the runs, even though John Snow figured out it was all the water company's fault.

I.e., John Stossel can suck John Snow's waterpump. There's some corporate malfeasance exposure for you.

And that's why there are no dentists in Britain, because you can't sit in a dentist chair while you have the runs. The dentists took the snakes with them too, explaining that whole St Patrick thing, or whatever.

Improved sewage disposal and clean water supply systems, which have reduced diseases such as cholera, was the overwhelming favorite of 11,341 people worldwide who voted in the survey conducted by the British Medical Journal.

It surpassed antibiotics, the discovery of DNA, and anesthesia, which were among the top five milestones in the poll. Participants were asked what they thought was the biggest medical advance since the journal was established in 1840.

"I'm delighted that sanitation is recognized by so many people as such an important milestone," said Professor Johan Mackenbach, of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam who championed the sanitation choice.

My vote for nerd of the year: Johan Mackenbach. It's one thing to be right that having your shit leave your house in a timely fashion is pretty important for health. It's another thing to be THAT excited about shit leaving your house in a timely fashion.

For your daily "I need to learn something nerdy about medicine" dose, read about John Snow, Papa of Epidemiology. UCLA is similarly WAY TOO EXCITED about John Snow.

Politics: EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

Barack Obama is a smoker, and Juliet Eilperin is scared that he might lose his "wonderful maple-syrup sound" if he stops.

I especially like when the article refers to smoking as "old-school GOP."

cue MP3 of "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

Politics: Dodd, Biden sacrifice the South for sanity

Dodd says the confederate flag should be in a museum.

Biden says the confederate flag shouldn't be at the South Carolina state house (at an NAACP rally on MLK Day--appropriate enough).

White Southerners say they love their racist heritage and ignorance of the power of a racist symbol to hurt people different than them.

Oh well. I'd rather see the lost-cause crew take the hits early.

NBA: Karma ran over my Dogma (PG-13)

Which is greater?

A) My love for Tayshaun.

B) My MOTHERF@@#$^G HATRED OF CHRIS F@#$#@ING WEBBER!

I officially renounce my fandom of the Pistons until they get rid of Captain Douchebag.

When the Pistons signed Rasheed Wallace, who I'd previously hated for his asstardery at North Carolina, I decided to give him a second chance, and he turned out to be much more cuddly than Dean Smith would have had us believe.

But Webber's shitheadedness for the Wolverines cannot be forgiven.

I still heart Tayshaun. But a fella's gotta draw a line somewhere.

MLK: Expanded I Have a Dream PowerPoint outline

I HAVE A DREAM

A PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

SOME OF MY DREAMS:

• We achieve a level playing field.
• The glory of the Lord becomes visible.

STRATEGY FOR REALIZING DREAMS:

• Must rely on faith.
• Must stick together.
• Need to pray a lot.
• May have to go to jail.
• Must use catch phrase, "Let Freedom Ring."

(Cut to MP3 track of "My Country 'Tis of Thee")

EXPECTATIONS:

• Freedom rings in a broad range of places.
• Will speed day of racial and religious harmony.
• Day will include a sing-a-long.
• Singers: Black men, white men, Jews, Gentiles, Protestants, Catholics.
• Song of choice: old Negro spiritual.
• Song's inspirational tagline:
  • "Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Health: Idiotic Counterproductive Not-News

Headline: Do TVs, iPods help or hurt your workout?

So sure, the article makes the valid point that if you're, say, training for some pseudo-professional ironman competition, maybe you don't run quite as hard as you might otherwise. But, for the other 99.95% of folks exercising, or folks who should be exercising, there's no way in hell they're going to go face the pain of putting their bodies through exercise without the benefit of distraction.

So what's the result of irresponsible, hardly accurate headlines such as these? Hmm... my doctor says if I don't start going to the gym, my pancreas is going to freak out and I'm going to die of a heart attack. And my wife just bought me an 80G iPod for Christmas. But now those geniuses at CNN tell me I that iPods hurt your workout, so I guess I shouldn't even bother. Oh well.

Because people don't read articles nearly as much as they read headlines. And when people see headlines that suggest that a TV or an iPod might hurt your workout, that must mean that it does! If it didn't, those fine folks at CN-unNews wouldn't be putting that up there.

So thanks, CNN, for giving people like me one more excuse not to go work out because you didn't have anything more important to write about on MLK day.

MedPol: New Jersey to cut "idiot" from constitution

No word on whether they will cut idiots out of the rest of the state government.

New Jersey is to consider cutting the word 'idiot' from its constitution so that people with some mental disabilities won't be barred from voting. State Senate President Richard Codey introduced a bill Monday that would remove language from the New Jersey constitution that was designed more than 150 years ago to prevent people suffering from mental illness or handicap from casting their vote in national, state or local elections.

Codey wants to eliminate a section that says "no idiot or insane person should enjoy the right of suffrage" and substitute with a reference to "a person who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting."

Codey, a Democrat who was previously acting governor of New Jersey, said in a statement the term "idiot" is "outdated, vague, offensive to many and may be subject to misinterpretation."

He said individuals with cognitive or emotional disabilities may be capable of making decisions in a voting booth, and those people should not be discriminated against.

Of course, you've got to wonder just how long new language will remain relatively useful. Psychiatric literature still speaks of retardation, but it's certainly not PC, even in the context of clinical care, to say that someone suffers from retardation rather than a mental handicap, and I'm not even sure that handicapped is necessarily so kosher either.

But Mike Judge's latest would certainly lose something if it were handicapocracy. So yay for outdated terms, and yay for folks who at least think its important to try to reduce mental health stigma, even if by seemingly baby steps.

To be extra lame, I think I would point out that only an idiot could "enjoy the right of suffrage."

TV: One Nation, Under 24

Maybe my reaction to hyperanalysis has changed from guilty savoring to mere tolerance, but Troy Patterson's look into the 24 phenonemon sorta makes me wish Bauer would just suffocate him to shut him up. Which isn't to say it's not a recommended read.

A Greek Orthodox friend in undergrad used to complain about how people who weren't a part of religion, while capable of intellectual analysis, missed something special in their objective writings about it. The same must hold for the Church of Bauer.

Politics: House votes to increase minimum wage

Because minimum wage laws benefit not only poor people and rich teenagers, but also the liberal arts-major career-student spouses of medical students!

CatPol: Proof that Bush hates America

Daniel at Kentucky Democrat blogs that Bush's speech tonight about his bumbling new disaster of a plan for getting more Americans needlessly killed in Iraq could very well cause a delay in the broadcast of tonight's Kentucky versus Auburn game.

Clear proof that George W Bush hates America, or at least Kentucky.

Didn't Kentucky elect Mitch McConnell solely because he was supposed to be able to stop this sort of shit from happening? We have the most conniving (McConnell) and most incompetent (Bunning) Senators left in the capitol building, and a lot of good it does us, when Kentuckians can't see their Cats play.

With ESPNFullCourt, my coverage of the game will not be interrupted. But a Kentucky ex-pat understands true bluegrass values better than you might think. Kentuckians skip church for ball games. I have no reason to think they wouldn't skip wars for ball games as well.

So maybe the entire Iraq War is really just an attempt to bolster the cable companies' ability to sell more college basketball subscriptions. That somehow seems less dirty than whatever real justification Joe Klein is puking out this week.

I impart Bo to use his connections in the Fletcher administration to condemn Bush's use of time sanctimoniously set aside for the playing of the Cats. The Cats don't play tomorrow. He can talk then. Or yesterday, you're telling me he didn't know what crap he was going to pull on us yesterday?



Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm kidding. Except about Joe Klein. You should have seen the part I had about Bush being almost as bad as Eddie Sutton. But even I'm not THAT shrill.

UPDATE: The Herald Leader: Basketball or Bush? Tonight, you have to pick

Politics: Scwarzenegger can't decide which speech to give, throws scripts in blender, gives resulting mishmash of wtf'edness.

I am going to terminate welfare for poor people!

and then

I am going to give all our kids health insurance!

What?

Schwarzenegger says he wants to cut welfare to give people incentive to find work. Huh. Right. That works. If people wanted to work, they'd work. Not giving them money won't make them work, it'll just make their kids starve.

So now, when kids are starving because their folks don't feed them, at least they'll be able to go to the doctor, who can tell the parents they better spend all that money they aren't making on feeding their kids. That's good planning.

I'll give Governator a little bit of credit for proposing health insurance for kids. That's good. And in Governator's little fantasy world, people who could work would start working, and people that couldn't, well, they'd still get welfare and their kids would still be covered. Shame that's a fantasy world.

Go Cats!: Eddie Sutton is a rotten, classless bastard

Sutton takes a few potshots at Kentucky while talking to some folks at UK.

Eddie Sutton = alcoholic piece of shit.

Laugh: These aren't the pants you're looking for

I hate to return from a blogging hiatus without some substance, but this wins: 232 Star Wars Lines Improved by Substituting the Word “Pants.”

Highlights:

I find your lack of pants disturbing.
The Force is strong in my pants.
I cannot teach him. The boy has no pants.
I’ve just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of our pants forever.
Alderan is peaceful, we have no pants!
These aren’t the pants you’re looking for.

For lack of content, here's bonus cuteness overload:

Save the . . . Models

An article in the NY Times covered the American response to recent deaths of models due to anorexia and the growing fear that these models are encouraging American women to pursue an aesthetic that is unhealthy and dangerous. American designers don't want to set BMI restrictions on their models (as a recent show in Madrid did for BMI's under 18) because (as we all know from Republicans) legislation and rules never solve anything.

“It is important as a fashion industry to show our interest and see what we can do because we are in a business of image,” said Diane von Furstenberg, the president of the designers’ council, the industry trade group. “But I feel like we should promote health as a part of beauty rather than setting rules.”

I guess they're looking more for a free market solution. And granted, I know 99% of people hear about this and think, 'boohoo, the rich, famous super models are too skinny'; but I guess it's kind of like AIDS in sex workers (the key point being, just because someone does something you wouldn't doesn't mean we shouldn't care about them) and the bigger picture is the effect on women's perceptions of health and beauty. Maybe we should just declare them a vulnerable population, like old people or children.

Lock the Library! Rowdy Students Are Taking Over

This is horrible. This article in the NY Times covers the plight of Maplewood Memorial Library that has a problem . . . too many teens coming after school. How is this a problem, you ask? Well, apparently the rowdy latch-key kids come to socialize, etc. So what is the library's response? They are now closing on weekdays from 2:45 to 5 p.m, thus forcing the kids to find alternate hangouts on the street.

The controversy does cover a few good points, like "a dearth of 'third places' — neither home nor school — where kids can be kids." It also mentions the double standard we sometimes apply to today's teens:

“If there are little kids making noise, it’s cute, and they can run around, it’s O.K.,” Ms. Braun said of standard library operating procedure. “Or if seniors with hearing difficulties are talking loudly, that’s accepted. But a teen who might talk loudly for a minute or two gets in trouble.”

It just seems like a sorry state when libraries close to prevent kids from coming after school.

Evil Empire: Power-Sipping Bulbs Get Backing From Wal-Mart

Wait, that headline sounds like Walmart might be doing something positive. On Sparkgrass? What gives?

The article, which outlines efforts to replace incandescent with fluorescent light bulbs, demonstrates that Walmart, when its not busy, say, violating human rights, could use its powers for socially responsible good instead of evil and still employ its ball-busting supply chaining and monopolistic methods.

Bottom-line for Walmart is, I'm sure, that they could make a lot of money if they're the big supplier of these things. And Walmart, simply through its stocking practices, has more control over what American consumers believe they need than any other cultural force. But I'll never fault Wal-Mart for making tons of money (well, that's not absolutely true) by making socially responsible decisions.

Unless tomorrow's article demonstrates why the fluorescent light bulbs are really just attempts to destroy liberals or something. Maybe Dems, who tend to live in colder areas, will all die of cancer quicker because they are forced to spend more time indoors during the winter using more of these fancy light bulbs.

That would be much more consistent with the Evil Empire we all know and love.

Politics: 10 most outrageous civil liberties violations of 2006

More Slate year-end fun.

Politics: Ford's pardon of Nixon wrong then, wrong now

Says Slate editor Timothy Noah.

Sparkgrass Policy Statement

The death penalty is barbaric, even when used on barbarians.

The only time it is justified to kill someone is when you are Jack Bauer. Otherwise, unacceptable.

In the above statement, I'm assuming that Jack Bauer is second only to Christ in that whole omniscience thing. In no way interpret that as condoning inhumane methods when you aren't as bad ass as Jack Bauer. When you're less bad ass than Jack Bauer, such methods are just sloppy absurdity.

Even if you are Kiefer Sutherland in another role, you aren't as bad ass as Jack Bauer.

NCAAF: Why it's so warm in Michigan (for December, of course)

Hell is freezing over, so the heat is being pumped up to Michigan.

Medicine: Pediatric hospitals that serve fast food raise more alarm

An article in Pediatrics, suggests that having fast-food restaurants in children's hospitals influences patients' families to eat fast food and to think that it's relatively healthy. And apparently, at least 59 of the nation's 250 children's hospitals have fast-food restaurants. This isn't shocking, although the logic behind it is kind of odd. I mean, hospitals are full of sick people; why can't they associate sick kids with fast-food? What do we have to do to let people know that (tasty, delicious) fast food is bad for you? My idea, instead of toys, give kids insulin syringes and aspirin to prepare for a future of type two diabetes and ischemic heart disease. Any other ideas?

MedPol: Bastards from the FDA say food from clones is safe

So the FDA has looked at all the evidence and announced that it can't find anything dangerous about consuming cloned food products (not that shocking since clones are pretty much delayed twins). But instead of being pleased that the FDA, charged with "assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of . . . our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation", has acted on a wealth of scientific information, we're pissed that they didn't take our feelings on cloning into account. I for one don't want the FDA to take my feelings into account; that's how Plan B ended up on the shelf (and not over the counter) for several years. If people don't want to buy it, then they can try to find something wrong with it, or (as many people already do) buy products labeled with "organic" (which I'm sure this whole debate will make more popular). Either way everyone gets what they want, and I can't wait till I can have the same exact burger every time I go to McDonalds (same cow, same cheese from same cow, same lettuce substitute, etc.)

Politics: John Edwards for President

Lord help us. I honestly have no idea what his politics are. To me, he'll always be that idiot from the Vice Presidential debates who made Dick Cheney look well informed and intelligent. Oh, and apparently he loves YouTube so as a young voter I must love love him.

Politics: only the good die young

Former President Ford dies at 93.

Condolences in order. Ford's death leaves Jimmy Carter as the least competent former president alive. Apologies for the offensive subject line. It's mostly an inside joke with my wife, and my traffic isn't high enough to justify excluding inside jokes.

Merry Sparkgrass Christmas

If you're visiting those uber-conservative family folks, and feel a need for some nice liberal inoculation, ThinkProgress's Naughty and Nice List should give you a nice cathartic moment.

Elementary school teachers aside, what do you prefer: thinkprogress's or thinkprogress'. I know we were taught various useless rules about which is "correct," but the s-apostrophe thing just always made me feel a little empty, like I was bastardizing that poor genitive ending. Granted, I had speech therapy as a little'un for an s-sound articulation disorder, so maybe I just have personal issues surrounding memories of my hissing 9-year old self, but I still just dislike the inconsistency of the s-apostrophe. Apostrophe-s is where it's at.

But yeah, Merry Christmas.

A sampling:

NAUGHTY: Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), for attacking incoming Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to Congress.
NICE: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), for still wanting to be friends with Rep. Virgil Goode.

NAUGHTY: The 109th Congress, for doing nothing.
NICE: The 110th Congress, for promising to work five days a week.

NICE: Nancy Pelosi, for becoming the first female Speaker of the House.
NAUGHTY: The Capitol, for having no women’s restroom in the Speaker’s office.

It goes on, and includes some obvious partisan hackery (including the 5-days a week line, which is fun to say, but obviously quasi-irrelevant). But it's Christmas. Indulge.

It's only 334 days until Bill O'Reilly launches the next "defensive" "War on Christmas^®."

Politics: Obama too African for African-Americans?

African-Americans however, who are are accustomed to leaders who emerge from the civil rights movement, sometimes appear to struggle to relate to Obama.

"For some African-Americans, he has not really affirmed their identity. He has affirmed his own mixed identity, but he has not strongly affirmed the right and the claim of African-Americans in this society to equal treatment," said Walters, a professor at the University of Maryland.

Others said Obama is simply an unknown figure to many African-Americans who are almost reflexively suspicious.

As a white Southerner who knows practically nothing about his genealogy and what his ancestors might have been doing pre-1863, I know nothing about what it means to be an African-American with a slavery legacy, other than what I can get from books. As a kid born in the final weeks of the Carter administration, I know nothing about the civil rights movement outside of books and interviews.

That said, my initial impression is that if there are individuals who don't like Obama because he's not black enough, then said individuals should get their heads out of their asses, because I'm sure John McCain is white enough for white people, and they'll be glad to vote accordingly.

I don't care if Obama is paisley purple with green stripes. If he's traveling around telling people that one of his top three priorities is health care for all, he's got my positive attention. And he'd certainly be paisley enough for me.

Merry Christmas, Reds fans: Griffey proves he can get hurt doing anything

Ken Griffey Jr. broke his left hand in an accident at home, the latest in a series of injuries that have derailed the career of the All-Star outfielder.

Griffey's throwing hand will be in a hard cast for three weeks, then will be re-examined, Reds spokesman Rob Butcher said Friday.

Butcher said he could not say when or how the accident occurred because Griffey did not authorize any more details to be released.

General manager Wayne Krivsky wasn't sure whether Griffey will be ready for the start of spring training. The club will have a better idea when the hand is examined again in three weeks.

Harry Potter and the ...

If you go to jkrowling.com, click on the eraser and you will be taken to a room — you'll see a window, a door and a mirror.

In the mirror, you'll see a hallway. Click on the farthest doorknob and look for the Christmas tree. They click on the center of the door next to the mirror and a wreath appears. Then click on the top of the mirror and you'll see a garland.

Look for a cobweb next to the door. Click on it, and it will disappear. Now, look at the chimes in the window. Click on the second chime to the right, and hold it down. The chime will turn into the key, which opens the door. Click on the wrapped gift behind the door, then click on it again and figure out the title yourself by playing a game of hangman.

Or you can just click on the damn link and it'll tell you in the last line. But it's much more cracked out to go through the seventeen arcane steps.

Btw, that's one lame title.

Happy Birthday, Jack Bauer!

Any guy who can put up with Joel Surnow's right-wing bullshit deserves Sparkgrass props. The lead vampire from the Lost Boys (or lead jackass medical student from Flatliners, or lead dude-who-wakes-up in Dark City) is 40 today.

Medicine: J&J wins FDA approval for Risperdal 2.0 (Haldol 3.0)

The new treatment is designed to deliver paliperidone -- the active ingredient in Risperdal -- through a technology that allows the drug to remain in the body over a longer period of time.

I'd hate for somebody to have to come up with, ya know, a new drug. Not to say that a longer acting atypical isn't a nice addition to the palette, but the fact that J&J's stock is suddenly worth more because their chemists did some reformulation work on the weekend is pretty frustrating.

Medicine: What, not Why, most important for change

My least favorite psychiatrist ever (in competition with Peter Breggin), American Enterprise hack Sally Satel, has a fairly reasonable, albeit provocative, article in the NYT about the importance of behavior change over insight in drug addiction recovery. Now, I can't say that I appreciate the degree to which she is a condescending jerk about her patients who are just trying to find some meaning in their shitty lives, but in between all of her AEI hackery, I still think this article is good enough to link. Imagine that.

LGBT: Service with a smile

A new poll reports that approx 3/4 of American GI's are comfortable serving with lesbian and gay colleagues. In fact 1/4 of those polled were aware of a gay or lesbian colleague currently serving with them. I really hope this Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy can be "straightened" out with the new legislature coming to town in December. We're at the point were we need every soldier we can get, gay or straight!

Premarital Sex is the norm

It seems, according to this study of 38,000 Americans, that premarital sex isn't just the norm, it's almost universal. 95% of Americans have premarital sex... then why do we still have this false notion that waiting for marriage is the ideal and what we all should be shooting for? I can't imagine having an ideal that only 5% of people actually attain. We need to strengthen our sex ed by teaching children how to protect themselves, not ignoring the role of condoms and birth control to spew an abstinence-only message. Abstinence works, but so do condoms and OCPs.

Old Dog Trey: Ernest?

Birds of a feather are flocking outside.

LitPol: Michael Crichton is a douchebag

Summary: You write a pseudoscience novel about global warming in which you claim that ecoterrorists are trying to destroy the earth and take rich people down with them. A Washington political columnist for TNR writes a cover-story trashing you for your crappy pseudoscience.

Do you
A) write a letter-to-the-editor to the New Republic, defending your stance
B) ignore it, because it's not like the anti-global warming crowd reads TNR anyway
C) write the columnist into your next book as a child rapist!

It doesn't take a Harvard Anthropology degree to figure out the answer to this one. Obviously, it's C! Mick Crowley not only rapes a two-year-old, but also has a small penis!

Alex Burnet was in the middle of the most difficult trial of her career, a rape case involving the sexual assault of a two-year-old boy in Malibu. The defendant, thirty-year-old Mick Crowley, was a Washington-based political columnist who was visiting his sister-in-law when he experienced an overwhelming urge to have anal sex with her young son, still in diapers. Crowley was a wealthy, spoiled Yale graduate and heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. ...

It turned out Crowley's taste in love objects was well known in Washington, but [his lawyer]--as was his custom--tried the case vigorously in the press months before the trial, repeatedly characterizing Alex and the child's mother as "fantasizing feminist fundamentalists" who had made up the whole thing from "their sick, twisted imaginations." This, despite a well-documented hospital examination of the child. (Crowley's penis was small, but he had still caused significant tears to the toddler's rectum.)

Real mature. Real Crichton.

Understand that Michael Crichton was amazingly important in my career choice, back when I was twelve. I thought Jurassic Park was awesome, and Crichton went to med school, and then Crichton wrote fun stuff that my twelve-year Dickens-reading self thought was the greatest literature the world could have to offer.

Then I turned sixteen or so and read some James Joyce and some Fitzgerald and learned a little about neuroscience and, well, that was that, I was on my way to being an English-major med student.

Which is why it pains the hell out of me to state the obvious: Michael Crichton is a right-wing douchebag hack. I wondered after reading the racist Rising Sun, but I didn't know any Japanese people, and my dad worked at an oil refinery, so I cut him a break. There was a certain male populism to Disclosure, which I now understand was abject anti-feminist women-hating. And even Prey took a few shots at liberal politics, but hey, nanotech was cool.

Then State of Fear, which I won't even waste my time on. I'd love to see Al Gore and Michael Crichton in a steel cage match.

So, Michael Crichton, write me into your next one. I'm a senior med student at the University of Michigan, in a Master's program in clinical research, and I'm going into Child Psychiatry. I haven't raped any children, and I believe by most metrics I don't have a small penis, and my family was way too poor to be heir to any sort of pharmaceutical fortune, but I'm sure you can figure out something. You're a douchebag like that.

Politics: Bayh not running in 2008

"As you know I have been exploring helping the people of my state and our country in a different capacity," he wrote. "After talking with family and friends over the past several days, I have decided that this is not the year for me to run for President and I will not be a candidate for the presidency in 2008.

"It wasn't an easy decision but it was the right one for my family, my friends and my state. I have always prided myself on putting my public responsibilities ahead of my own ambitions."

Please send Daniel Solzman at Kentucky Democrat your condolences. He basically had his next two years' schedule cleared to campaign for Bayh. We have to make sure he doesn't start hitting the Manischewitz too hard.

Daniel, I'm sure Barack could use your help on universal health care.

LGBT: Civil Unions in New Jersey

NJ legislature has passed a bill authorizing civil unions in that state in an effort to comply with their supreme court ruling. While this isn't the gold medal marriage bill that most LGBT individuals are looking for, we should be grateful that there was plenty of support for this big step. Like Assemblyman Reed Gusciora said, "The distance between nothing and civil unions is greater than the distance between civil unions and marriage." I think that's a key fact to keep in mind. So, to all of you activists, keep fighting... but don't lose sight of the gains we've gathered so far!

LGBT: Soy as the cause?

This nutjob actually thinks that ingesting soy as a baby will lead to homosexuality. He's blaming it on all those "estrogens" found in soy products. Oh, he's trying to blame childhood leukemia on soy products too. The sad thing is that there are probably some people out there who will actually believe him.

Well, I want to go on record as saying I NEVER had any soy products as a baby (to the best of my knowledge) and I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with my sexual orientation. Seriously, I'm all for free speech, but some people are just crazy!

LGBT: Gay Evangelicals?

Gay evangelicals struggle to find a church where they feel welcome and comfortable practicing their faith. Given the recent outing of two prominent evangelical leaders, let's all pray that this spurs some questioning from the evangelical community at large as to the acceptance of LGBT individuals. If someone like Rev Barnes can struggle his whole life and not be able to "convert," maybe that means that conversion isn't really the answer. Maybe some people were actually created gay by God and are meant to love a partner of the same sex. Maybe Jesus doesn't want us to be judged and discriminated against. Just a thought.

Religion: "Bad Catholics and Birth Control"

Chris Tessone recommends a recent National Catholic Reporter editorial on the latest statements from the US Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops at Even the Devils Believe.

LBGTPol: spinning Mary Cheney's baby (not just on a merry-go-round)

Something fabulous about the way William Saletan breaks down the spins:

Nice liberal spin: They're model parents, together for 15 years and committed for life. Honor them by legalizing gay marriage.

Nice conservative spin: Nothing against this couple—we're sure they'll try their best—but kids need a dad as well as a mom.

Mean conservative spin: "Mary Cheney Cruel to Children … Our society already has too many children born without the benefits of marriage."

Mean liberal spin: If that's the way you haters feel, there's still time for an abortion.

Feels... very... cold... in... here...

My Old Ky Home: Eastern Kentucky students hold onto Confederate school symbols

I'm sure I could try to say a lot about how I understand where these podunkers are coming from, but how I really wish they'd get a clue that it's not nice to do something when everybody else thinks it's bad (even if you swear that's not why you're doing it!). But I'll let one of Kentucky's finest tell you in her own words why it's okay to have confederate flags all over her high school:

"To us it's not about the hatred," said Tiffany Owens, an 18-year-old cheerleader at Allen Central High School in eastern Kentucky. "I have colored friends around here and they never say anything."

Sure, it ain't about the hatred. But it sure is about being embarrassingly ignorant of history and culture at large.

Medicine: Lilly schizophrenia drug shows promise in trial

So Lilly has some sort of glutamatergic antipsychotic in the works?

Eli Lilly and Co. on Thursday said one of its experimental drugs was comparably effective in a mid-stage trial as the company's widely used Zyprexa treatment, but without weight gains seen with Zyprexa. . .

Zyprexa, whose U.S. patent lapses in 2011, is Lilly's best selling-product but its U.S. sales have been badly hurt by the drug's tendency to cause weight gains that can lead to diabetes. The new drug, if it eventually is approved, could help Lilly remain a major player in the field.

Books: Fresh Air's Maureen Corrigan's 2006 picks

It's always depressing for an English major medical student to find end-of-the-year book lists and realize he's only heard of one of the books on the list, and read none of them.

But at least I don't have mono, said the PA at University Health Services today! Maybe that means I'll feel like non-crap just in time to half-ass a bunch of finals projects I have this semester that I would have loved to focus on without fevers, chills, and sweats.

Update: No more fevers, but I didn't do any better on Slate's Best Books of 2006.

LGBT: Mary Cheney pregnant

and some conservative groups are upset about it. WTF??? Can we say, "none of your damn business!"

Don't get me wrong. Mary Cheney is a Hypocritical Bitch. But that doesn't mean I don't think that the Hypocritical Bitch's Partner, who will be functioning as a parent for Spawn of Hypocritical Bitch, shouldn't have all the rights that I'll have someday when my wife and I hatch our own eggs.

Here's some highlights:

Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as "unconscionable."

"It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father," said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group's think tank. "They are encouraging people who don't have the advantages they have."

Crouse said there was no doubt that the news would, in conservatives' eyes, be damaging to the Bush administration, which already has been chided by some leaders on the right for what they felt was halfhearted commitment to anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights causes in this year's general election.

Carrie Gordon Earll, a policy analyst for the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family, expressed empathy for the Cheney family but depicted the newly announced pregnancy as unwise.

"Just because you can conceive a child outside a one-woman, one-man marriage doesn't mean it's a good idea," said. "Love can't replace a mother and a father."

Yeah, that love thing is totally overrated. Unloving mom+dad+2.6kids+goldenretriever households are so much better than those loving mom+mom+2.6kids+goldenretriever households. Right.

So, congratulations to Hypocritical Bitch and Hypocritical Bitch's Partner. No, really. I think it rocks that they are standing up for their human right to love who you want to love. Maybe the kid will even grow up to realize how grandad's politics were shit, and how mommy was really confused about her politics, but at least had the guts to stand up for what she believed when it came to bringing a kid into a loving household.

Medicine: which antidepressant tastes best for you?

First, we have psychiatric scratch-and-sniff.

Now, we have taste tests for whether you should be tried on a serotonin or noepinephrine targeting antidepressant!

The authors, led by Melichar and Lucy Donaldson, a neuroscientist and physiologist also at the University of Bristol, found that a person's sense of taste--known to be genetic and once thought to be fixed--is in fact plastic and responds to changes in neurotransmitter levels as well as to different moods. The research group gave 20 volunteers either one of two classes of common antidepressants--serotonin specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (NARIs)--or a placebo. (Both classes of drugs increase the levels of the specific neurotransmitter that they act upon in the brain.) Before taking the treatments and then again two hours after, the subjects took taste tests where researchers gave them solutions of tastants in different concentrations and told them what taste to expect--sour, salt, sweet or bitter. The participants then had to indicate at what concentration they could detect taste.

Most interestingly, this research, if it panned out to be a valid clinical test, would lend some credencce to the role of the waning monoamine theory of depression and psychopathology.

Monoamine theory is waning, you say? Note that this is one of my own personal scientific quirks, and I'd bet money that twenty years from now my reasoning will pan out. But don't think that I have fabulous direct evidence that monoamine theory is BS. I just really believe that it is BS.

MedPol: Soldiers Say Army Ignores, Punishes Mental Anguish

NPR study via HuffPo:

1 in 5 Iraq vets are coming home with a serious mental health problem like anxiety, depression, or PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Experts believe that over time, the number will reach almost 1 in 3.

How has the military responded to these wounded warriors? A new investigation by National Public Radio looked at troops diagnosed with mental health disorders, and concluded that "officers at Ft. Carson punish soldiers who need help, and even kick them out of the Army."

Five months before, Jennings had gone to the medical center at Ft. Carson, where a staff member typed up his symptoms: "Crying spells... hopelessness... helplessness... worthlessness." Jennings says that when the sergeants who ran his platoon found out he was having a breakdown and taking drugs, they started to haze him. He decided to attempt suicide when they said that they would eject him from the Army.

Read or listen, and understand the ways in which are soldiers are being abused for suffering from mental illness.

Medicine: psychiatric scratch-and-sniff

It originated in a discovery by Melbourne University researchers of a link between these illnesses and a poor ability to identify smells.

To test their theory, they developed a set of 40 scratch-and-sniff cards and asked people to identify the smell from a list of four possibilities, such as coffee, roses, oranges and petrol.

Professor Warwick Brewer, from the university's Orygen Research Centre, said the people who later went on to develop a brain disorder had demonstrated difficulty correctly answering more than half the questions.

He said the simple test also could be used by relatives of people with these conditions.

"Because of the genetic link in many illnesses, it is hoped the test could also be used by family members of people who have developed an illness of the brain."

Professor Christos Pantelis, from the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, said smell ability provided unique information about brain structure and function.

"Mental illness can arrest the full maturation of the frontal lobe, while degenerative illness can damage it," Professor Pantelis said.

Chance of clinical utility ever: 0.2%. But cool enough.

As an added bonus, Elissa Ely had a touching case anecdote in yesterday's NYT: A Heart That Needed Fixing, a Mind That Said No. And yes, I just said touching. I'm that lame.

Medicine: Bulimia round-up

Anorexics, bulimics learn methods online: study

Young sufferers of anorexia and bulimia who try to hide their eating problems from their parents and doctors are turning to a growing number of Internet chat rooms dedicated to perpetuating their illness.

A pilot study released on Monday of U.S. eating disorder patients aged between 10 and 22 showed that up to a third learn new weight loss or purging methods from Web sites that promote eating disorders by enabling users to share tips, such as what drugs induce vomiting and what Internet sites sell them.

But the study -- published in the American Academy of Pediatrics' journal Pediatrics -- found that eating disorder sufferers were also learning new high-risk ways to lose weight from each other on Web sites aimed at helping them recover.

Many women may not recognize bulimia symptoms

Many women may fail to recognize bulimia symptoms in themselves, particularly if they don't go to the extremes of self-induced vomiting, new research suggests.

In a study of 158 women with bulimia-type eating disorders, Australian researchers found that nearly half did not acknowledge a problem with their eating. This was particularly true of those who did not vomit to control their weight.

Blogging: Oh the places you'll go

I've always refrained from demonstrating what search terms direct folks to Sparkgrass, but this collection just cracked me up a little too much.

	Num	Perc.	Search Term
	1	7.69%	pm&r sucks
	1	7.69%	pro's of emergency contraception
	1	7.69%	camden nj looking for sexual partner
	1	7.69%	video clips of a prostate massage in inprogress
	1	7.69%	nancy pelosi colbert
	1	7.69%	lunesta versus zoplicone
	1	7.69%	wii nancy pelosi stephen colbert
	1	7.69%	volvo breathalyzer seatbelt
	1	7.69%	tayshaun prince bi-sexual
	1	7.69%	bumbler spaniel
	1	7.69%	james dobson christian treatment center for anxiety eating di
	1	7.69%	will cymbalta make semen clear
	1	7.69%	community health articles people comment

Something tells me I'm doing all the right things.

And I'm fairly sure that cymbalta does not make semen clear. But that's certainly subject to a randomized controlled trial.

Medicine: NYT on Pfizer's loss

The news came to Pfizer’s chief scientist, Dr. John L. LaMattina, as he was showering at 7 a.m. Saturday: the company’s most promising experimental drug, intended to treat heart disease, actually caused an increase in deaths and heart problems. Eighty-two people had died so far in a clinical trial, versus 51 people in the same trial who had not taken it.

Within hours, Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker, told more than 100 trial investigators to stop giving patients the drug, called torcetrapib. Shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday, Pfizer announced that it had pulled the plug on the medicine entirely, turning the company’s nearly $1 billion investment in it into a total loss.

Medicine: drug companies stick heads between tails, run away

Two drug company disasters in as many days.

First, CATIE-II gets published, and suggests that perphenazine, a typical (high potency) antipsychotic off-patent, is probably as good a place to start as any atypical antipsychotic for schizophrenics. Which isn't to say that psychiatrists are ready to throw atypicals out the window. Instead, tons of skepticism, in the face this cost-effectiveness report, will start spewing forth from the managed care folks, who (we're scared, at least) will try to justify restrictions on atypicals. Bad day for drug companies, great day for managed care, and an unclear day for psychiatric patients.

And then, even more importantly for poor lil' Pfizer, clinical trials for torcetrapib have been halted. What is torcetrapib, you might ask? Only the most important drug (from a stock holder's perspective) in the last ten years for any major drug company. Lipitor only has a few more years on-patent, and pravastatin will probably be off patent in the next year or so, i.e. insurance companies will probably do everything they can to get physicians to switch their Lipitor-taking patients into generic pravastatin-taking patients. I'm interested to see how far Pfizer's stock might plunge, as probably nothing could have been more devastating for the company.

None of the doomsday articles point to Roger Newton's new cholesterol drug, an infusable HDL-variant shown to reduce plaque sizes substantially (yes, 4% of a plaque is SUBSTANTIAL). Now, last I heard, most indications pointed towards the use of the infusable for stabilization after plaque ruptures, but after hearing Newton talk about Esperion's goals, I have to believe that Pfizer (who aquired Esperion for 1.3 billion in 2005) has more anti-cholesterol strategies up their sleeve than news articles suggest.

But still, losing torcetrapib, which Pfizer contemplated pairing with Lipitor to blackmail folks into continuing to take their proprietary statin, suggests that the blockbuster model of drug development might really be dying faster than we thought.

Obviously, Pfizer should pair Lipitor and Geodon and send them to sub-Saharan Africa. Maybe the Africans could trade the drugs to the Russians to get the AIDS drugs they need.

Sanity Preserved: Frist not running in 2008

I'd say he should take his ball and go home, but I wouldn't wish such a terrible thing on Tennessee.

Oh wait, Tennessee wished that upon themselves.

I'm not sure how a transplant surgeon magically just reappears onto the scene after 12 years of limited-to-no time in an OR. But anything to get Frist out of politics and away from kitty cats and poor people.

Brilliant: Wii + Stephen Colbert vs Nancy Pelosi

I normally just need any excuse to dedicate some video watching time to Colbert, you're flat out depriving yourself if you don't catch this on.

Politics: Apologetics for Prediction Markets

Bo co-authored an article in TNR explaining how, despite popular lambasting of prediction markets after the midterm elections, their predictive power is as strong as ever.

For those of us with little disposable income and a need for a prediction market fix for mostly popular concerns, Inkling offers a little bit of fun. All my damn inklings are tied up right now though, so much that I can't even sell credit against Michigan to play Ohio State in a title rematch.

Lost: Top 50 Loose Ends

Or the top 50 reasons why we should all violently storm Hawaii for some answers. Or just stop watching. But Lost has crack in it, so I guess we're all stuck.

Sorry about my hiatus from blogging the past few weeks, I've a stack of links ready to go a mile high. We'll see how many of them are still up to date by the time I get around to them.

MedEthics: 5 kidneys are better than 1

I read this headline in the newspaper today: "Doctors pull off 5-way kidney transplant". Considering that kidney transplants are not cutting edge (and the only impressive part of the feat was the number of simultaneous transplants) I had to ask myself, why would anyone (in this case Johns Hopkins) consider this a good thing? Five simultaneous surgeries with five donors, five recipients, 12 surgeons, and 6 operating rooms. Seems like a recipe for disaster. Apparently the recipients had living donors who weren't matches and so by pooling resources (and one "altruistic donor") there was enough matches to swap kidneys. And the reason they did it simultaneously: "to prevent anyone from backing out later or in case someone fell ill." This seems horrible. That in order to get people to donate life, we have to put them in a dangerous situation, essentially a five way Mexican standoff (put the kidney down and nobody gets hurt) seems horrible. Welcome to the Guinness book of Medical records.

Culture: The War on Christmas

I want you!

I'm serious.

See also "The War on Christmas Explained."

World Leader Slumber Party

I make this post about a NY Times article covering Bush's visit to Vietnam for two reasons. First of all, I find the photo hilarious. And secondly, I find the fact that Bush "sped past the evacuation spot on his arrival here, but made no stops that would invite comparisons to the current debate over whether the United States should stay or retreat from Iraq" also great. I mean, he's in Vietnam, the whole country is a metaphor for Iraq and trying to "downplay" that is hysterical (almost as funny as the photo which pictures President Bush, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, rear, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, foreground).

Safer Driving Through Technology

Apparently new laws in New Mexico requiring car breathalyzers have lead to a significant drop in drunk driving. MADD, as well as several industry groups seem to be moving to increased use of such devices with possible installation on all cars. The article also mentions some neat non-invasive ways of testing, such as a pulse-ox like device that measures blood alcohol (although most medical professionals would call the current breathalyzer pretty non-invasive). My big question was cost, which can add up since the rental of the devices can cost about $2 a day. Additionally, this article brings up a good point about programs that suspend licenses; namely that since people need to drive, they just end up driving without a license unmonitored. (Crazy conservatives please note that this same line of thinking also applies to refusing to issue undocumented aliens drivers licenses.)

Troy W. Prichard, a lawyer who defends people arrested on drunken driving charges, had this to say:

There could be the responsible guy that just lapses that one time. Getting the handcuffs put on him might be all that guy needed to know not to do it again. But, another guy, it may be his first and he’s on the road to 12.

While this is true, it doesn't really contribute much to the issue and supports my belief that lawyers that defend drunk drivers are horrible little creatures with small brains and no sense of right and wrong.

The Game: Mutual Contempt

As one of the few impartial observers in Ann Arbor (my Cats are going to a bowl? What?!?!?), I can particularly enjoy the Slate conversation: A Michigan fan and an Ohio State fan explain why they hate each other and who's going to win Saturday's big game.

As hard as I've tried, I just can't really care about college football when college basketball is so much a more beautiful sport. Having said that, I spent last weekend in Columbus with Matz, at a Decemberists concert, only to realize that, damn, Ohio State undergrads really are the most obnoxious drunken pieces of shit on the planet. I doubt Michigan undergrads are golden children, but the fact that most of them can wipe their asses by themselves suggests to me that they're light-years more evolved than the Buckeyes dancing drunk and pummeling my very short wife with their white-fraternity asses.

So I will root for Michigan next week, not because I'll have a few degrees from there, but because I really hope there are some assholes in Columbus who have their hearts broken along with their national championship hopes.

And if not, eh, Kentucky's headed to a bowl! Of course, that means we keep our retard coach, Rich Brooks. I would rather have had another 2-9 season so we could maybe get a coach that, say, any other Div-1 school would want.

Medicine: Replacement parts?

It may sound like science fiction, but apparently it's not! Researchers have announced at this week's AHA mtg that they can grow some replacement organ parts from fluid found in the pregnant uterus. They've actually grown a new heart valve.

What does this mean? Are we all going to have our amniotic fluid collected as we're born and then stored for later life when we need a replacement part? Perhaps. But the more realistic possibility is to use this technology to help replace congential defects shortly after birth.

Sounds exciting - now let's see if the right wing can find something objectionable to it :)

Medicine: Not so fast (or slow, as the case may be)

This article from the NEJM demonstrates why we need better decision making about interventional procedures in medicine. Angioplasty (using a balloon +/- a stent to open a clogged artery) has been praised as the savior of heart disease. As a result, many cardiologists are recommending this procedure to all their patients with evidence of coronary disease or recent infarct (read: lots of $$ for the MD doing the procedure). However, we now have data that shows undergoing angioplasty 3-28 days post-MI is actually more harmful than good. So, while this should cut down on the number of procedures being done, that would be dependant on interventional cardiologists keep up with the latest research AND being willing to cut a procedure that brings in big bucks for them. I hope their oath to patient care comes before their desire to fill their wallets!

LGBT: Civil Unions in Mexico

Even Mexico City, capital of an uber Catholic nation, has approved a bill for same-sex civil unions. And we think we're progressive in the US? Maybe we need to look up (Canada) and look down (Mexico) and say to ourselves, what have they figured out that we still haven't?!?!?!

LGBT: No landscaping for gays?

A company in Houston, TX sent an e-mail to a would-be-customer informing them that they could not landscape this couple's yard because the company refuses to work with homosexuals. I guess it's their right, but seriously? What does cutting grass and planting bushes have to do with who shares a bed? Some people are just so ignorant it's almost funny (if it wern't so scary!).

LGBT: Arizona stops a trend

Those "crazy liberals" in Arizona have stopped a trend of late. They are the first state to defeat a proposed constitutional ammendment to ban same-sex marriage. Something tells me all that sun must be good for them :)

Jesus Loves the US: S.D. Rejects Abortion Ban, Missouri Backs Stem Cells

On the day after the first election since I was eligible to vote that I felt the world was a little less screwed than it was before, I'll limit commentary to the two big happy health initiatives. Both demonstrated that our country can, at times, suppress the wingnuts and aspire to reality-based policy. Hurray!

Granholm needs to fire aids

Now I actually support Governor Granholm, but whoever let her wear this while voting and let her picture be taken should be fired. Can you say . . . frumpy? And I know, lets take a photo while she feebly attempts to slide the ballot into the secrecy sleeve. On top of that, isn't the point of the secrecy partitions and the sleeve to prevent people (say someone with a camera) from seeing your ballot? Other politicians go with the laid back baseball cap look, but somehow they don't look that bad. Am I being harder on her because she's a woman?

Update
I should take back some of my venom from above. Apparently Devos kept his ballot secret, but now all of Michigan is well aware of his bald spot.

LGBT: Transgendered in NY? Ok by the state!

Here is a NY Times article about a change in state policy such that trans individuals can have their gender changed on their birth certificate without having had a sex-change operation.

Politics: Humpty Dumpty: wrong on wall-sitting

All Things Considered has some attack ad voice artists reading nursery rhymes. This is some incredibly funny shit, more than worth your six minutes of listening.

I think they like the way I say liberal.

Politics: Stay the Course, YouTube style

Find it here if the link below is acting funky.

MedEcon: Americans outsource their healthcare

This USA Today article isn't groundbreaking, but it does demonstrate a disturbing trend. Some of the people in this article were insured in the US, but had their requests for hip surgery declined by their insurance. Thus they did what any good capitalist would do and flew to India. Another gentleman had angina and instead of going to an ED, flew to India for cardiac cath and stent placement. Maybe I'm just biased, but it kind of bugs me when Americans (some of the most protected patients in the world when it comes to provider training, drug approval, use of new technology) decide they'd rather get cheap surgery without the protections of US medicine. And I don't see this trend disappearing, as the likelihood of national healthcare continues to increase, healthcare rationing will also rise forcing many to choose an international option to get the procedures they want. And worse yet, when one of these patients gets an infection or restenosis (not because it was done in India but because it happens to some portion of all patients) they'll walk into my ED with no medical records, and maybe a slew of international phone numbers scribbled on a sheet of paper, and demand to be fixed.

The odd thing is that I'm okay with purchasing prescription drugs from Canada, but I find surgical outsourcing to be reckless and horrible. Is there really that much difference between the two?

Politics: John Kerry

Dialogue the Third: Democrates and Republius discuss the recent controversy at Gladly Suffering Fools.

Video Games: Trailer for next killer Zelda

Medicine: All the public hears from Star*D IV: A New Hope, and more on SSRIs and childhood suicide

For depression relief, try variety of medications
Study: Antidepressants help most patients if they sample several kinds

Well that's nice. At least they're not accusing psychiatrists of killing children today. It's amazing that such a landmark study can be distilled into such a vanilla, yet pretty accurate, headline.

Instead, we just have a study of dubious design tying lower suicide rates to higher rates of prescriptions of SSRIs to kids. There's a certain macro-attractiveness about the study design, and as one commenter in the article mentions, at least we know we're probably not creating this raging army of childhood suicides by giving out medicines to try to treat their depression. But the statistical value of such removed exposure and outcomes are pretty minimal, given just how much better we could probably design (more expensive) studies to measure the same outcome so much more accurately.

But it seems like we already have all the info we really need about SSRIs and childhood suicidal behaviors. We know that, in no study, has a kid actually committed suicide because of an SSRI, but that some kids probably have an increase, at least in the short-term, of likelihood of self-harm. Solution: monitor the kids closer! I think we can be comfortable with the idea that sometimes, things have to get worse before they can get better. If we admit such, we can design interventions to minimize dangerous thoughts and behaviors in the critical window following the beginning of treatment in a depressed patient.

Politics: Jesus Hearts Clinton

Frank Lockwood of the Lexington Herald-Leader is showing the American Family Association of Kentucky who's in charge.

If crime rates really are an expression of God's displeasure over "secularization," then what are we to make of the declining rate during the Clinton Administration?

Bible Belt Blogger: "Did Clinton Save America From God's Wrath?"

Music: Ann Friedman (of Feministing) interviews Colin Meloy (of The Decemberists)

And it only gets better:

Ann: I can imagine you’d tell fabulous bedtime stories.

Colin: The first lullaby I ever sang to him was “The Old Main Drag,” the Pogues song about prostitution. Both of us [me and Carson] have real fixations on dark subject matter. But he might rebel against it and be a Republican or something.

I've thoroughly refrained from gushing on and on about how ridiculously amazing The Crane Wife is, because this would quickly become a Decemberists blog.

Zombies: First Person

So what are the zombies thinking?

Gladly Suffering Fools: "I'm a Zombie."

Also funny: "Monday Things Around the House Blogging: An Illegal Immigrant's Tale."

Technorati Tags: zombies, halloween, immigration

Politics: Don't Say the T-word

I would suppose that any al Qaida operative who's any good at it already knows a torture method or two, and has thought about it enough. The real (and obvious) reason that Mr. Bush doesn't want to speak publicly about how US agencies question suspects that is that he wants VOTERS to stay in the dark. But you knew that, right? Check out this conversation between Mr. Bush and O'Reilly at Catholic Anarchy.

Technorati Tags: torture, Mr. Bush

Medicine: Lawrence C Kolb (1911-2006)

I'd summarize all the stuff this uber-psychiatrist did, but my hands would fall off. Lawrence Kolb, psychiatric pirate ninja, died in his sleep at the age of 95 of natural causes.

I'm glad to see he died of natural causes. It always scares me when people die of unnatural causes. Especially this close to Halloween.

Zombies: Dawn of the Dead Zombie Walk!

Dude, if anything would make me move to Pittsburgh, it would be the opportunity to participate in the Walk of the Dead.

LGBT: New Rules for Gay Catholics

This NY Times article describes the draft of new guidelines being put before the US Bishops regarding ministering to gay and lesbian Catholics.

They are apparently trying to "reach out" while maintaininging a safe distance. Some pretty offensive stuff.

For instance, while they are suggesting that I "may benefit" from sharing my "tendencies" with close family and friends, they strongly discourage "public announcements" about it at church (are they serious? tendencies? come on, that's just downright ignorant!). And they also say that I shouldn't be allowed to serve as a Eucharistic Minister.

Are these people serious? Do they really think this is a step forward?

Medicine: Creative writing classes lead to better bedside manner

Or at least, that's what this Yale study reports, that by taking a writing workshop, 15 residents were better able to empathize with their patients.

Yale University researchers found that medical residents who completed a creative writing workshop felt the experience helped them better view their patients as people, and not just medical cases.

The effect, according to the researchers, seems to stem from the fact that the residents not only reflected on their own emotions and the experiences of their patients, but also wrote it down as a story.

Now of course, the study methods don't come anywhere close to meeting any sort of criteria to be included as "evidence-based" practice. But who cares? How about the simple institution of ars medicinae artis gratia?

But I wonder why researchers decided to wait until residency, when a culture of helplessness and pessimism is already deeply ingrained. Why not include this in medical school training during the clinical years, or at least during the fourth year, when nobody's doing anything important anyway, and med students have a taste, but not a total disillusionment, of what it means to be paged at four in the morning by a borderline asking for pain meds while trying to put in an A-line on your pneumonia patient who's probably going to have to be transferred to the unit anyway.

Yay for narrative medicine. But let's not go so far as to say that creative writing classes will make better doctors. Let's just say that it might make better human beings, and let the doctors fall where they will.