USA Health Care - Still Not #1

So how does the USA stand, when compared with 18 other industrialized countries, on preventing death? Last.



This graph is from a study published in Health Affairs, Jan./Feb. 2008 by Nolte and McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (my Alma Mater). The authors point out that if the USA were able to reduce amenable mortality to the average of the top three performing countries - over 100,000 people would not have died. The authors also point out that
"The rate of amenable mortality is a valuable indicator of health care performance".

Maybe the poor performance of the USA has to do with this - Why Hospitals Are Dangerous Places for Heart Attacks. [see Delayed Time to Defibrillation after In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in the New England Journal of Medicine, abstract here]

Hillary Clinton - Unfair Criticisms

I have been supporting Obama for President for some time. This may not be good because I never pick a winning President. On the other hand Obama seems to have made a connection with the voters. The same cannot be said about Hillary Clinton.

But it's a sad state of affairs the way Hillary has been treated by the media. She doesn't laugh - she "cackles". She doesn't project her voice seriously - she is "shrill". She isn't compassionate - she cries. None of those things have ever been said about a male candidate running for President.



It's ok for President Bush to "tear up". Hell, look at Rep. John Boehner - he cries on the floor of the House almost everyday.

It is becoming apparent that a women running for President in the USA probably faces as many unfair criticisms as a black candidate may face. Maybe more, because it's ok to criticize a woman in ways that would backfire on the opposition if it were a black candidate.

There is zero doubt in my mind that Hillary Clinton would be a great President. Unfortunately, she is no Bill Clinton on the campaign trail. She seems to unite Republicans more than she can unite Democrats. Republicans are salivating to run against Hillary Clinton. They are afraid of running against Barack Obama because they don't know how to run against him.

If Hillary Clinton is not the Democratic nominee for President, I welcome her back to NY as one of the most powerful members of the Senate.

New Hampshire Primary Results

The final results are in from Dixville Notch, NH. For the Democrats it's Obama 7 votes, Edwards 2 votes and Richardson 1 vote. For the Republicans it's McCain 4 votes, Romney 2 votes and some poor sucker voted for Guiliani. Try here if the link is overloaded.

John Sweeney in the News Again

I cannot believe that John Sweeney was ever a Congressional Representative. This time he stiffed a cab driver for a fare. At a strip club yet.

The source says Sweeney refused to pay the $80-plus cab fare. The cab company called police. State troopers showed up at the Sweeney home, but he didn't answer the door. The source says troopers called Sweeney's attorney and asked that Sweeney come to the barracks to be formally charged.

Pretty amazing that the State Police know the phone number of John Sweeney's attorney. I wonder what the State Police would do if you refused to answer your door? Call your attorney? I doubt it.

Homeopathic Influenza Treatment

If you google "homeopathy remedy influenza" you get 15,000 hits. You quickly learn that one prefered homeopathic influenza remedy is Oscillococcinum. Oscillococcinum is prepared from duck heart and liver. But no need to worry, the "drug" is diluted so much that there isn't a molecule of duck heart or liver present in the preparation. Even so, this stuff isn't cheap, more so because you are paying for nothing but a bit of sucrose and lactose.

But how can I be confident that this treatment is ineffective. Well, #1 it can't be, because there is no active ingredient in the pill (just sucrose and lactose). But if you want to check on what research has been done on this "drug" go to PubMed, which is a government funded database at the National Library of Medicine and search for "Oscillococcinum". Wow! You only get 7 hits and three of them are basically the same. But click on anyone of them and you will find that Oscillococcinum (rotten duck liver) is not effective in treating or preventing influenza.

For example, click on article #1 and read the abstract. First, you will find they did not actually do a clinical trial but rather looked at other sources of data, probably unpublished or published in non-refereed journals.

In conclusion, the effectiveness of any complementary and alternative therapy for treating or preventing seasonal influenza is not established beyond reasonable doubt.

That's a fancy way of saying it has no effect, other than a possible placebo effect. Also notice that the authors of this paper are from a Department of Complementary Medicine, a department that probably uses homeopathic treatments among others. How can I say this? Simple, go back to Google and search "Peninsula Medical School homeopathy".

So for the flu, it's best to get vaccinated so you are less likely to become infected. Believe me, you do not want an influenza infection. Don't want to get vaccinated? Save your money and drink water, because that's basically all you will be getting if you take Oscillococcinum.

Now, do we need to talk about about "HeadOn"?

Unfortunately, homeopathic remedies do not need FDA approval and they do not need to be proven effective, although they do need to be shown to be safe. Of course they are safe because they do not contain any active ingredients. And, for the same reason they are not effective.

Universal CheneyCare - McHugh and Gillibrand

Would you like to have the same health insurance and health care that health-poor Dick Cheney has relied upon for many years? Then you can go here to guaranteed healthcare and sign a petition requesting CheneyCare.

I want genuine healthcare reform that guarantees everyone has healthcare coverage, without prohibitive costs , and an end to insurance company denials of needed medical care.

I support HR 676, an expanded and improved Medicare for All. I want the same access to healthcare that Vice President Cheney and all members of Congress now receive.

HR 676 (The United States National Health Insurance Act) basically proposes to expand Medicare to everyone. I think it would be perfectly appropriate to name Universal Healthcare "CheneyCare" in honor of our VP.

I do have one question about HR 676. I can understand that Rep. John McHugh would not want to co-sponsor such a bill to help his constituents by why hasn't Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand signed on to the bill? Click on your Reps. name and email them to find out why they are not co-sponsors of this bill.

Teaching to the Test

"Teaching to the test" is a phrase that frosts my ....well nevermind, I don't like the phrase. I suppose by "teaching to the test" most people think it means teachers teach material that will tested on state exams. But teachers don't know what questions are on state exams. They only know what the state standards are. The only way teaching to the test would be helpful is if you had an exact copy of the exam in hand. The point is that curriculum and assessment should be aligned. If that is the case, "teaching to the test" is exactly what you should be doing. If there is a problem, it is more likely with to be with a curriculum that is a mile wide and an inch deep rather than the testing.

When I test my students, I make sure that I have been "teaching to the test", or at least teaching what I plan to test. What am I going to do, test them on material that I haven't taught? What would that accomplish? Moreover, my students are required to pass a state licensing exam and I have only a slight idea what is on that exam. That is a lot of pressure on me (and likely more on the students), but it forces you to teach your subject in a way in which hopefully the students will be capable of thinking their way to the correct answer to a question.

President Mike Huckabee?

In todays NY Times William "The Bloody" Kristol muses whether Mike Huckabee might be our next President. Kristol makes sure to tell his readers that he is not ready "to sign up" for a President Huckabee, but all the same....Huckabee might be good.

This is excellent news for Democrats. William "The Bloody" has an almost 100% record of being wrong in anything he predicts.

Are You Rational?

Should Bush Be Impeached?

George McGovern explains "Why I Believe Bush Must Go" in todays NY Times. Actually, why he believes Bush must be impeached is more accurate.

McGovern lays out his reasoning very clearly. Reading McGovern's op-ed reminds us of all the misdeeds done by our President. It's hard to argue that Bush doesn't deserve to be impeached. But at this point I just want him to go away. Just go back to doing whatever it was Bush did before he was President. Go clear some brush since that is what Republican Presidents seem to love doing so much. Also, I think you can make the argument that the American people are as guilty as G.W. Bush as we stood by and let him do as he wished to "protect" us from the terrorists.

McGovern points out a quote from Thomas Jefferson that will provide the hope of justice to come to some. "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just....". George Bush claims to be a "born again" believer. If that is the case he surely has need to tremble.

BillO's Ego

"No one on this earth is going block a shot on the O’Reilly Factor. It is not going to happen". Straight from the mouth of major bloviator Bill O'Reilly. Apparently, BillO got into a little scuffle with an Obama aide. Bill gave the guy a shove and called him an SOB. The secret service rushed to flank BillO. BillO will have his version of what happened on "The Factor" Monday night.

UPDATE: Here is the Obama staffer's version of what happened.

John Dickerson has an amusing piece on O'Reilly at a NH rally here. It's really worth a read. People were not treating BillO with the respect I'm sure BillO thinks he deserves.

When the popular Fox News entertainer arrived at the Obama event in Nashua, people turned to him but not always approvingly. "Hey O'Reilly," yelled a man. When O'Reilly turned he got a single-finger salute. A few people approached Bill to shake his hand but the overwhelming sentiment was unfavorable. "O'Reilly hatemonger," yelled a woman. A few other people gave him the bird. "I hate you Bill," yelled a man. "You can't stop us Bill," yelled another. I thought someone might brain him with one of those Obama "Hope" signs.

Dickerson also says the word "falafel" was yelled out quite a bit.

O'Reilly must be a really strong man. You'd have to be strong to carry around the ego BillO has. Did you hear about the recent incident where BillO was corrected by a young girl?

O'REILLY: And finally tonight, the mail -- plenty of letters from kids over the holiday; lots of questions about Kids Are Americans Too, which turned out to be a very hot Christmas gift this season.

[...]

O'REILLY: Courtney Yong, San Francisco: "Mr. O'Reilly, I really enjoyed 'Kids Are Americans Too' but in the first sentence of Chapter Three you say the Constitution guarantees 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Isn't that from the Declaration of Independence?"

Another excellent question, Courtney. The reason the Constitution was forged was to assure new American citizens the right to free life and access to pursue happiness in his or her own way. The Declaration was the statement; the Constitution, the instrument.

You really need to hear the video to understand the how patronizing BillO can be. Excellent question, Courtney (but I'm not wrong kid, you are). It's completely beyond me how anyone can stand to listen to this guy for more than 30 seconds.

Wyoming Republican Caucus Today

Did you know there was a Republican caucus being held today? Yep, in Wyoming....but it's a caucus that is not sanctioned by the RNC so the State will be punished by giving up half of their Republican delegates to the convention. It's predicted that Mike Huckabee may win the Wyoming Republican Primary.

UPDATE: It's a caucus, not a primary. Predictions are thus far wrong - so far it's Romney all the way.

H. Res. 888

At least it wasn't H.R. 666. Here is the title of this bill:

Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as "American Religious History Week" for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith.

Right away I'm suspicious of this resolution because it is cosponsored by "Mean Jean" Schmidt of Ohio, Patrick T. McHenry of N. Carolina., John T. Doolittle of California and Tom Feeney of Florida (you can check out the last two of these guys here.

You have to ask yourself "what exactly is the purpose of this resolution"? It appears to be a resolution that gets the "fact" that we are a Christian Nation into the Congressional Record and then into the history books. I don't know if we were founded as a Christian nation or not. I agree that the majority of people living in the USA are Christians....but does that make us a "Christian Nation"? Don't these guys have anything better to do?

Electronic Voting Machines

The is an extensive article in todays New York Times about electronic voting machines. The title of the article is "Can You Count On These Machines"?

America voted on paper in the 19th century, until ballot-box stuffing — and inept poll workers who lost bags of votes — led many to abandon that system. Some elections officials next adopted lever machines, which record each vote mechanically. But lever machines have problems of their own, not least that they make meaningful recounts impossible because they do not preserve each individual vote. Beginning in the 1960s they were widely replaced by punch-card systems, in which voters knock holes in ballots, and the ballots can be stored for a recount. Punch cards worked for decades without controversy
(except for those minor "hanging chads").

So I guess there are potential problems with every method of casting and counting votes. But it appears that "touchscreen" voting has more than it's share of problems. This confuses me. I've used automated teller machines for about 25 years now and I've yet to find a mistake in any of my accounts. I've used credit cards even longer than that and also (knock on wood) have never had a problem. How come the financial systems seems to be able to process transactions via computer but we can seem to find a way to do a simple vote count using computers?

The voting machines seem to be built with important redundant mechanisms in place.

Inside each machine there is a computer roughly as powerful and flexible as a modern hand-held organizer. It runs Windows CE as its operating system, and Diebold has installed its own specialized voting software to run on top of Windows. When the voters tap the screen to indicate their choices, the computer records each choice on a flash-memory card that fits in a slot on the machine, much as a flash card stores pictures on your digital camera. At the end of the election night, these cards are taken to the county’s election headquarters and tallied by the GEMS server. In case a memory card is accidentally lost or destroyed, the computer also stores each vote on a different chip inside the machine; election officials can open the voting machine and remove the chip in an emergency.

The machines’ lack of a recountable, verifiable paper trail has sparked controversy, and some elections officials are rushing to phase them back out of use, as has been done in Sarasota, Fla.

Booths for paper ballots in Cleveland. Paper is subject to poor design and ambiguous markup, but many elections observers believe optical-scanning systems still provide the best way to ensure public confidence in the voting process.
But there is also a third place the vote is recorded. Next to each machine’s LCD screen, there is a printer much like one on a cash register. Each time a voter picks a candidate on screen, the printer types up the selections, in small, eight-point letters. Before the voter pushes “vote,” she’s supposed to peer down at the ribbon of paper — which sits beneath a layer of see-through plastic, to prevent tampering — and verify that the machine has, in fact, correctly recorded her choices. (She can’t take the paper vote with her as proof; the spool of paper remains locked inside the machine until the end of the day.)

Yet servers fail, printers jam, memory cards are lost or misplaced, poorly trained poll-workers are confused and the problems are still there. But here is the biggest problem:

But the truth is that it’s hard for computer scientists to figure out just how well or poorly the machines are made, because the vendors who make them keep the details of their manufacture tightly held. Like most software firms, they regard their “source code” — the computer programs that run on their machines — as a trade secret. The public is not allowed to see the code, so computer experts who wish to assess it for flaws and reliability can’t get access to it. Felten and voter rights groups argue that this “black box” culture of secrecy is the biggest single problem with voting machines. Because the machines are not transparent, their reliability cannot be trusted.

Naturally the vendors disagree. They point out that the machines are tested by the government and are certified to work properly. But if this is the case, how come the machines still have so many problems? Obviously the testing isn't rigorous enough. Besides that, testing is not mandatory. And, government officials are a bit too cozy with the vendors. Do we really want private companies to be involved with our voting?

“The types of malfunctions we’re seeing would be caught in a first-year computer science course,” says Lillie Coney, an associate director with the Electronic Privacy Information Commission, which is releasing a study later this month critical of the federal tests.

I've only discussed half of this ten page article. If you are a concerned voter you should take the time to read the entire article. Vote counts in the last two elections, at least in Florida and Ohio, have been way to close for us to allow any slack in properly recording votes.

Bush to Stimulate US Economy

G.W. is concerned that the "little guy" is being hurt economically by rising health care costs and gasoline prices. So G.W. is working on an economic stimulus package. I wonder what he will propose?

But it is a safe bet that tax cuts, long a centerpiece of the Bush domestic agenda, would be a feature of any administration initiative. And it is an equally safe bet that Democrats, who are contemplating their own economic stimulus package, would object, saying further tax cuts are unaffordable.

I'm willing to bet that any proposed new tax cuts will not be targeted towards those who need them most. Nosir, the taxcuts will go to the same people that have benefited all along....the wealthy. The "little guy" will have to gather what "trickles down".

But potential presidential candidate Mike Huckabee sees things a bit differently.

Huckabee is the one Republican candidate in the race who has talked often about working class and middle class Americans and the anxieties they have even in an economy that by the numbers looks pretty good. In an interview aboard the Huckabus, the candidate once again discussed the economic situation of "people at the lower ends of the economic scale," who because of rising energy, health care, and education prices "don't have the same level of disposable income they had this time a year ago."

Huckabee wants to help the "Sam's Club Republicans" not the "country club Republicans...at least that is what he claims.

Huckabee has yet to fashion economic policies that might appeal to middle and working class voters--"Sam's Club Republicans," as they have been called, in contrast to the old "country club Republicans." But at some point his campaign presumably will have to offer policies to match his rhetoric.

That's why Huckabee has the Republican establishment so upset with him. It will be interesting to see how they attack Huckabee in order to save their favorite candidate Willard Romney.

It's Obama and Huckabee in Iowa

I called it. At least in my own mind. I was pretty sure Huckabee would win and I was really hoping that Obama would win. Obama took 37% of the vote with Edwards and Clinton basically tying with 29% (Edwards a few tenths of a point ahead of Clinton). The number of Democrats that turned out to caucus was almost twice what it was in 2004. Democrats are on the move.

Huckabee took 34% of the vote with Romney at 25%. I doubt Huckabee will get much further in the race. The establishment wants Romney. So the race is on.

Pat Robertson's Election Prediction

The Reverend Pat Robertson has been talking with God again. God told him who will become the next President of the USA. But Pat ain't tellin:

"He told me some things about the election, but I'm not going to say, because some old man on "60 Minutes" would make fun of me, so I'm not going to tell you who the winner's going to be," Robertson said, in apparent reference to CBS humorist Andy Rooney, who turns 89 on Jan. 14

Last year God told Robertson that a US city would be hit with a terrorist attack involving millions of deaths. It didn't happen, but Pat has an explanation:

"All I can think is that somehow the people of God prayed and God in his mercy spared us," Robertson said on "The 700 Club," a television show he hosts on the Christian Broadcasting Network, based in Virginia Beach.

I wonder why Pat Robertson doesn't ask God about something really important? Something like.....why is there air?

More New Books - Parasites - Evolution

I forgot that I had a gift card for Barnes and Noble sitting in my wallet. But I found it and used it to purchase a couple more books.

Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures by Carl Zimmer.

As a parasitologist, I doubt I'll learn much truly new from this book, but I think Carl Zimmer is a great science writer. I already know about parasites controlling the minds of their hosts (think Toxoplasma-infected mice). I also know that parasites can drink blood, eat tissue, block ducts, increase the size of your gonads to that of very large basketballs and chemically castrate you. Let's not enough talk about screwworms and other forms of myiasis. They can also masquerade as "self-tissue", change their antigenic coats, and generally fool the immune system into nonfunctionality.

I am sure that I will learn some really cool, and if I'm lucky, gross, examples of parasitic infections which may result in some revolting stories I can relate on my blog.

The second book is Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism by Philip Kitcher.

An interview with Dr. Kitcher can be found here. I bought this book because I don't own a book that discusses evolution vs creationism. I'm not sure this is the best book on the subject as it is 25 years old, but we will see. On the other hand, I'm sure I will not be surprised if the creationists are making the same arguments today that they made 25 years ago. Kitcher is a philosopher of science rather than a bench scientist and I think that will be good.

Common Sense Notions

Common sense is defined as what people in common agree upon, although Albert Einstein said "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." How about a few proverbs to guide your common sense-based decision making?

It's better to be safe than sorry, yet, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Two heads are better than one, yet, too many cooks spoil the broth.

Look before you leap, yet, he who hesitates is lost.

Opposites attract, yet, birds of a feather flock together.

Where there is smoke there is fire, yet, you can't tell a book by it's cover.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, yet, out of sight...out of mind.

These are examples of the kinds of sayings that "common sense" is based upon. So are they right or wrong? I think you can argue that much common sense isn't much sensible at all. So called common sense can often hinder logical thinking and common sense certainly does not always apply to science.....think quantum mechanics. You can take a "common sense" interactive quiz here.

December 2007 Weather Summary

It's a cold one this morning. The Petrova School weather station reports -14 degrees but WNBZ radio is reporting -18 degrees. I guess I should get a thermometer for my place. But it's a nice clear, blue-sky day, with the sun just now starting to shine on the top of Baker Mt. outside my window.

The high temperature for December was 38.9 degrees and the low temperature -2.6 degrees. We had 0.65 in. of precipitation, most of that falling between Dec. 28-30. The barometric pressure ranged from a high of 30.8 in. to a low of 29.22 in. Winds ranged from 2.8 mph to 27 mph.