Skepticism in Healthcare

     I have often repeated the World Health Organization statistic that Americans pay TWICE that which the industrialized world pays for an average healthcare system.  Unfortunately, the American solution to this problem has been to cut payments to doctors rather than to force a change in our medical systems.  That only makes the matters worse.  Doctors then resort to quantity and not on quality of care and the problem gets worse.

·         - What’s the 6’th leading cause of death in America?  PREVENTABLE medical errors. http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/justice/hs.xsl/8677.htm
 

·         - According to the National Quality Forum our medical system is focused on QUANTITY and not quality.  http://www.qualityforum.org/Publications/2008/12/Investing_in_Healthcare_Value.aspx Overused tests and treatments include antibiotics, X-rays, cardiac CT scans, heart by-pass surgeries, back surgeries, knee and hip replacements, prostatectomies, angioplasties, and hysterectomies.

     The way we pay for medical services seriously exacerbates the problem.  Americans worry little about the services they expect.  Few pay for these treatments.  American patients are convinced that MORE is always better and care little about expenses.  They are not competent to judge their own or family treatment.  Few get intellectually involved and totally surrender decisions to the medical system that is overrun with greed.

      Unfortunately, a segment of America strive to hold onto the “status quo” which has been projected by the CBO to increase heath care spending within a decade from around 18% to 24% bankrupting the country.  They choose to treat the symptoms (more cuts to entitlements) rather than cure the cause (fee for services paid by third parties).  Obamacare may be a clumsy start, BUT at least it is a start.  Change is not an option and the rest of the industrialized world proves that a better way does exist.

Stop Swallowing Republican Lies about Obamacare

. . I keep following these Republican scare claims to be sure I am not missing anything.  I have 150 employees for whom I must provide healthcare.  I expect minor effect on my business.  I am not unusual.  The CBO expects less than 5% of Americans do be directly impacted.
 . . The facts are quite simple: The cost of American Healthcare is out of control and those raping Americans are fighting to keep it that way by feeding lies through lobbyists and buying incompetent Congress men and women, which appear to be mostly Republicans.
. . Hospitals in our area have been laying off staff because they are expecting considerably more scrutiny under Obamacare.  Medical offices are being forced to get efficient. The results of all of that seems quite self-evident – continually improving costs for medical care.
. . It’s not theory; hundreds of year of evidence shows -- it’s what happens in a free and competitive market.

Obamacare Shutdown

      They’re at it again – the Tea Party.  The focus of their ire this time is Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act otherwise known as Obamacare.  I continue to search the Internet for publications by reputable unbiased analysts to understand the real facts about Obamacare and the bottom-line reasons why so many claim to be against it.  Against it to such an extent, that they will do whatever to stop its implementation, even if it causes Americans great harm by shutting down the government.

Bachmann Out to Lunch AGAIN

Michelle Bachmann is typical of the Tea Party crowd in the US House.  They manufacture "straw men" and argue furiously about them.  They manufacture their own facts which they vigorously support.  Whereas the Tea Party is on the right track, to reduce government spending, they do it so incompetently that it is hard to take them seriously.  Bachmann's recent visit to Egypt is so representative of this group-think..

Samara Shehata, a University of Oklahoma political scientist who studies Egypt's Brotherhood, tells The New York Times that the bizarro press conference mostly demonstrates "a confluence of interests among the coup leaders in Egypt and Islamophobes in the Congress." But Bachmann's "utterly absurd" statements take the cake, Shehata says: They're like "a Saturday Night Live skit — unbelievable, ludicrous, almost comic if it wasn't so painful."

http://theweek.com/article/index/249307/watch-michele-bachmann-flubs-almost-everything-about-egypt 

This wouldn't be so scary if this woman, who claims to be a leader of the Tea Party in Congress didn't run for President and had serious Republican support, at least for a while.  No wonder Romney had so much trouble (and Boehner now).  They were (are) constantly being upstaged by the Bachmann class "theorists" with a confirmation-bias-seeking constituency who swallow her every word as factual.

The Obama Doctrine

      One of the key considerations for Obama's supporters is belief that he would move America out of Iraq and Afghanistan and not embroil the country in another meaningless and costly war.  He stiff- armed Libya and kept America's distance from other Islamic skirmishes.  It doesn't take much intelligence to realize that these were loosing battles for American interests.  The combatants will say or doing anything to attract the world's only super-power to their camp, including lies, misrepresentations, and disingenuous promises. History continues to prove that unequivocally.   Then came Syria.
     Obama was bombarded from all sides of the battle to involve America in some manner.  He half-heartily threatened to use that force, looked weak, but in the process achieved two major coups without firing a shot:  he moved the weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) further from falling into the hands of terrorists and he got Russia, Syria's major ally, to get off the sidelines and participate in a solution.  Who the hell cares if getting there looked sloppy.  The gambit of personal ego was successful.  It was a strategy move that neither Johnson nor Bush were competent in playing and instead chose to sacrifice America lives and treasure.

According to George Friedman in  Strategy, Ideology and the Close of the Syrian Crisis

The alignment of moral principles with national strategy is not easy under the best of circumstances. Ideologies tend to be more seductive in generalized terms, but not so coherent in specific cases. This is true throughout the political spectrum. But it is particularly intense in the Obama administration, where the ideas of humanitarian intervention, absolutism in human rights, and opposition to weapons of mass destruction collide with a strategy of limiting U.S. involvement -- particularly military involvement -- in the world. The ideologies wind up demanding judgments and actions that the strategy rejects.

Putin and the Anole Lizard

      If a male anole lizard encounters something that he perceives to be a menace or danger, he will not hesitate to prominently fluff out his throat fan, (aka a dewlap). As he does this, he may also attempt to assert his status in a couple of other ways, including head nodding and moving sideways nearer to the source of danger.What else can explain Vladimir Putin's bizarre op-ed piece in the New York Times? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
 
     Let's get this straight.  Russia is a minor world player.

George Friedman in Stratfor Global Intelligence states,

Putin is bluffing . . . Russia is merely a regional power, but mainly because its periphery is in shambles. He has tried to project a strength that that he doesn't have, and he has done it well. For him, Syria poses a problem because the United States is about to call his bluff, and he is not holding strong cards.

http://app.response.stratfor.com/e/es?s=1483&e=749033&elq=d013c47695ed431bb870ed6565d1f7c8

Confirmation Bias by Kerry and McCain?

It has been report by Fox News that Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. cited an op-ed piece by Elizabeth O’Bagy, a discredited Georgetown University alumna, in The Wall Street Journal in their rush for a military strike in Syria. Specifically, Kerry read a quote from the op-ed in which she wrote that Islamic extremist factions are not "spearheading the fight against the Syrian government," but rather that the struggle is being led by "moderate opposition forces."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/13/syrian-expert-elizabeth-obagy-vouches-for-jihadist-group-in-court-affidavit/#ixzz2elnsncG8

Their sloppy research in quoting op-ed rather than facts is reflective of the Bush Administration's rush into the Iraq War. In this latter case Bush's team gave too much credence to a so-called Sadam informant "Curveball" who latter proved to be a liar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curveball_%28informant%29

Crocodile Tears?

According to the Iraq Survey Group Final Report  Iraq used almost 19,500 chemical bombs, over 54,000 chemical artillery shells and 27,000 short-range chemical rockets between 1983 and 1988. It deployed 1,800 tons of mustard gas, 140 tons of Tabun, and over 600 tons of Sarin.  Specifically,

Use in the Iran-Iraq War, 1983-1988

• August 1983: Haij Umran — Mustard, fewer than 100 Iranian/Kurdish casualties
• October–November 1983: Panjwin — Mustard, 3,000 Iranian/Kurdish casualties
• February–March 1984: Majnoon Island — Mustard, 2,500 Iranian casualties
• March 1984: al-Basrah — Tabun, 50-100 Iranian casualties
• March 1985: Hawizah Marsh — Mustard & Tabun, 3,000 Iranian casualties
• February 1986: al-Faw — Mustard & Tabun, 8,000 to 10,000 Iranian casualties
• December 1986: Um ar-Rasas — Mustard, 1,000s Iranian casualties
• April 1987: al-Basrah — Mustard & Tabun, 5,000 Iranian casualties
• October 1987: Sumar/Mehran — Mustard & nerve agent, 3,000 Iranian casualties
• March 1988: Halabjah & Kurdish area — Mustard & nerve agent, 1,000s Kurdish/Iranian casualties
• April 1988: al-Faw — Mustard & nerve agent, 1,000s Iranian casualties
• May 1988: Fish Lake — Mustard & nerve agent, 100s or 1,000s Iranian casualties
• June 1988: Majnoon Island — Mustard & nerve agent, 100s or 1,000s Iranian casualties
• July 1988: South-central border — Mustard & nerve agent, 100s or 1,000s Iranian casualties

Where was the American outrage at that time?

One Mistake Can't be Corrected by a Bigger One

If events in Syria play out as it seems they will - a "narrow and limited strike" that rallies people around Assad and shifts focus away from his murderous campaign against his own people - Obama will have succeeded in making the situation even worse for the Syrians on whose behalf he is supposedly striking. Truly, Syria could wind up being one of the worst foreign policy disasters in US history, destroying whatever shred of diplomatic credibility the Obama administration had left.
It's almost enough to make one nostalgic for the days of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld..

by Mark LeVine, professor of Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine and distinguished visiting professor at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden

Click here to read his entire post on, Will Syria's chemical weapons take down Assad - or Obama?  

Yes, we're witnessing a huge amateurish boondoggle by Obama administrations, but a second boondoggle only makes matters worse.  Obama's credibility in the World is gone PERIOD.  He can only make matters worse for Americans. 

Don't Underestimate Our Ability to Screwup Syria

. . .Think American administrations know what they are doing?  Has anyone forgotten Iraq?  Oh yah, our military did their job, just fine.  The problems didn't arise until we had to implement a foreign policy in Iraq and the Bush Administration looked like total amateurs.  They demonstrated a level of naivete that astonished the world.  Is there any reason to expect the Obama Administration will be any different?  Absolutely not.
. . . Since 1948 western governments repeatedly misunderstood the Middle East and nothing has changed. These countries are tribal societies devoted to a religion into which few non-Islamists have any insight.  With this high level of incompetence, western countries have no business interfering in Middle Eastern affairs.  Every time our arrogant politicians THINK they are going to help these poor backwoods nations move into the 21-st century, they prove how very little they know.  Hell, our politicians can't even fix America's problems.
. . . Stratfor Global Intelligence has had several educational articles on Middle Eastern strategies.  You'll want to click the title to read their recent. Make no mistake, these countries have very sophisticated leaders, who LIVE Middle Eastern politics.

Iran: Managing U.S. Military Action in Syria
Conventional wisdom says that a weakened Syria would undermine Iran's regional influence, but a U.S. military intervention in the country could actually benefit Tehran. The government there has devised a sophisticated strategy for responding to a U.S. attack.  

Do Not Forget GENERAL Eisenhower's Warning

Washington Hypocrisy

"History would judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turned a blind eye to a dictator's wanton use of weapons of mass destruction against all warnings," John Kerry said reflecting his strong belief that action was a moral imperative.

Where was that MORAL IMPERATIVE when

Tell Congress NO on Syria

This whole Syrian issue is a major chess game for which America must look far beyond its next move.  Our leadership must be planning moves three and four down the road.  Just as in the game of chess you will certainly loose if your vision is limited only on your next move.

It is obvious to everyone who has done even the simplest analysis that any punitive strike on Syria will have no effect -- period.  First, it has zero support from the world’s nations, except for maybe France and Turkey, and it will be read for exactly what it is – a feckless attempt of America to save face.  Then what?

Climate Bamboozle

. . When the President can't get his facts straight, what is the average Joe supposed to do? Unfortunately, Obama reflects the general opinion of Americans (click here) which haven't change too much since 2008.
. . With that as a backdrop the U.S. Senate is preparing to vote this week on a resolution that would block the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant. It very unlikely that they will recognize the REAL climate facts.

• Globally, weather-related losses have not increased since 1990 as a proportion of GDP (they have actually decreased by about 25 percent).
• Insured catastrophe losses have not increased as a proportion of GDP since 1960.
• Hurricanes have not increased in the U.S. in frequency, intensity, or normalized damage since at least 1900.
• There are no significant trends (up or down) in global tropical cyclone landfalls since 1970 (when data allow for a comprehensive perspective) or in the overall number of cyclones.
• Floods have not increased in the U.S. in frequency or intensity since at least 1950.
• Tornadoes have not increased in frequency, intensity, or normalized damage since 1950, and there is some evidence to suggest that they have actually declined.
• Droughts have, for the most part, become shorter, less frequent, and have been covering a smaller portion of the U.S. over the past century.
• Of 73 climate models used and their predictions versus the actual temperature measurements from two satellite datasets and four weather balloon datasets. “The level of disagreement between models and observations is quite striking.”
• The level of warming in the most recent 15-year period is not significantly different from zero, despite this being the period of greatest greenhouse gas concentration

. . The last two factual bullets are the clinchers.  The so-called global temperature anomaly has not significantly increased during the last 15 years whereas everyone one of the 73 climate models projected significant increases. The catastrophic global warming crowd have no credible explanation.  However, the simple answer is – the models are wrong and governments need to be careful about basing policy on them.

. . If you want the almost unbiased facts, see NASA website http://climate.nasa.gov/key_indicators#globalTemp

Voltaire

I disagree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

I can't remember how many times I have heard somebody repeat that phrase on talk radio, but I suspect often disingenuously. I like the addition to that quote  that Keith Taylor added in his article "Grumble Grumble" in Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 37 Issue 4. p54. Because it reflects my experiences so closely and because showing a snapshot of the article adds to my credibility, I have attached the major portion of it.  Just click the <Read more> at the bottom of this post.

It's remarkable the trash people circulate on the internet.  I also like Keith's comment

"If you don't want your ideas challenged, don't send them to people who think."

A News Skeptic

      Even the most skeptical among us have had this happen: A friend or relative forwards an e-mail from an organization with a safe-sounding name (“The Clean Air Initiative,” “The Center for Consumer Freedom”), but the e-mail is filled with scary assertions, usually of a political nature. If the Obama-care health bill is passed, Grandma will face a “death panel” that will decide if she lives or dies; if Barack Obama is re-elected, America will soon become a Marxist or Muslim nation. Some of the chain-emails are obvious partisan propaganda. But some are more subtle . . .

      This is the opening paragraph of How To Be a Skeptical News Consumer by Donna L. Halper.  Since it overflows with her biases and tends to ramble, I have paraphrased the important content below.  You can read the article in its entirety at http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/13-06-12/.

Theory of Everything.

The following video, Athene's Theory of Everything, offers thought provoking insights into belief systems, cognitive dissonance, and quantum physics.  The interpretations are based on facts, but they are the interpretations of the author. 

The Whorehouse Sues the Church

This story is all over the internet, but is it factual?

MT. VERNON, TEXAS . WHOREHOUSE SUES LOCAL CHURCH OVER LIGHTNING STRIKE

      Diamond D's brothel began construction on an expansion of their building to increase their ever-growing business. In response, the local Baptist Church started a campaign to block the business from expanding -- with morning, afternoon, and evening prayer sessions at their church. Work on Diamond D's progressed right up until the week before the grand reopening when lightning struck the whorehouse and burned it to the ground!

      After the cat-house was burned to the ground by the lightning strike, the church folks were rather smug in their outlook, bragging about "the power of prayer." But late last week 'Big Jugs' Jill Diamond, the owner/madam, sued the church, the preacher and the entire congregation on the grounds that the church ... "was ultimately responsible for the demise of her building and her business -- either through direct or indirect divine actions or means."

      In its reply to the court, the church vehemently and voraciously denied any and all responsibility or any connection to the building's demise.

      The crusty old judge read through the plaintiff's complaint and the defendant's reply, and at the opening hearing he commented, "I don't know how the hell I'm going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, that we now have a whorehouse owner who staunchly believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that thinks it's all bullshit!"

Positivity Effect

I lead bicycle rides around middle Tennessee.  Often, I have a ride started and not too far into the route the grumbling starts.  I hear, "I thought you said this route was flat."

Well, I thought it was.  I honestly didn't remember all the hills, but sure enough.  We got hills.  My comrades don't except my excuse of "these hills weren't here the last time I rode it."  Finally, I just tell them, "I'm old.  I no longer have space in my database to remember the bad things.  So I triage my memories.  Good stays; bad is out."

I have recently learned, while studying cognitive biases and why people believe idiotic things, that I am hardly alone in my bias.  It even has a name "Positivity Effect."  Wikipedia explains it  as follows:

Is it REAL or a Myth?

For a myth to persist it must inspire, it must capture the imagination, and most important it must capture a person intellectually enough that they commit "body and soul" to the concept no matter how improbable or irrational giving rise to cognitive dissonance.  To see what I mean watch this video

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4146234873383&set=vb.1809138075&type=2&theater 

Are you amazed?  Have you figured it out?  Is it possible for a staircase to violate the laws of physics.and basic logic by looping back on itself?

Imagine what one could do given decades, centuries, or millennia to fashion a myth with stories built upon stories upon stories.  We detail one such myth in this blog -- the Bell Witch Legend.  Was it real? Of course not, but that has not stopped hundreds of people to believe in or even claim to have personally experienced the Bell Witch.  Want to know more? Then you must continue to read this post.