This weekend Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate, stood firm on the Republican belief that employers with a religious objection to contraception should not have to extend that medical service to their employees. In response to this contrived-versy the Republicans are introducing legislation that would allow employers to exempt their employees from access to any medical care that the employer had a religious objection to.
So in this Republican religious freedom world if your employer objects to contraception your insurance doesn’t pay for it. If your employer is 7th day Adventist you may not have access to blood transfusions, if your employer is a devout evangelical you may not have access to treatment of sexually transmitted diseases/HIV because fornication is a sin, and if your employer is a very conservative jew you may not have access to transplant services. The Republicans believe that the employers religious beliefs determines what healthcare you have access to!
I believe that with this action the Republicans have clearly demonstrated that their definition of “freedom of religion” is the ability of those in power to force their religious beliefs onto those not in power. I’m absolutely sure that was not what our founding fathers had intended!
TRUTH IN ADVERTISING….CPAC FINALLY DEMONSTRATES WHAT IT REALLY STANDS FOR!
With the recent Iowa Caucus results Rick Santorum is now the anti-Romney man of the hour.
I will take a moment to commend Mr. Santorum. He has consistently held to his catholic doctrinal beliefs and never swayed from them, particularly when they are unpopular. This is a rare commodity in today’s politics, and should be applauded. He has consistently balanced his electoral strategy and agenda on his moral principles. Unfortunately his beliefs and agendas are more a reflection of 17th century social laws and Nazi propaganda then modern american politics.
Ok, equating Mr. Santorum with the Nazi’s may seem a bit like overkill, but I pray thee good reader, before you judge this article read it to completion and then judge truly!
First consider Mr. Santorum’s standard stump speech on American’s moral decline. Mr. Santorum will frequently utilize the symbolism of illness or disease to conceptualize the moral decline of our society, then list the factors contributing to this decline. Mr. Santorum blames our nation’s moral decline largely on gays, liberal intellectuals and individuals who engage in sexual practices for purposes other then reproduction. He will then call for the resumption of Judeo-Christian principles in our laws and the return of “our America”.
This practice of equating the society to the body and unwanted individuals as a disease were key strategies of the Nazi regime. This symbolism was a tool to dehumanize populations, separate these populations from the “normal society”, and provided justification for the horrors that followed. The Nazi propaganda actively called for the return of the “one true Germany” by eliminating the diseased parts of their society. (I recommend you read “The Nazi Doctors” by Robert Jay Lifton). After all when a body has a cancer we cut it out, we don’t consider the consequences on the cancer.
The Nazi propaganda machine understood for their actions to be accepted by the majority of Germans they needed to convince them that it was for the common good. (Interestingly both the NAZI’s and Mr. Santorum found Gays, liberal intellectuals and the promiscuous as part of the “societal cancer”). Their primary tool was to dehumanize those they disliked or opposed them, make these groups something other than “us”. Mr. Santorum utilizes similar devices.
I am not suggesting that Mr. Santorum would advocate similar atrocities, but he is actively engaging in efforts to dehumanize populations he opposes and segregate them from the greater community for his political gain. These efforts stop any effective debate of the issues and provides Mr. Santorum with moral superiority impervious to questioning or debate. Unfortunately these efforts also fan the flames of intolerance, reinforces bigotry, and provides individuals at the fringes with justification to engage in discrimination and brutality.
Mr. Santorum further advocates for laws and policies that are more 17th century then 21st century. Mind you, he is careful to always precede his position on moral legislation by saying something like, “people can live as they like”, followed by advocating discriminatory laws and policies. The libertarian in me sees this philosophy as being a little contradictory!
Take for example his recent statement that individual States should be able to reinstate sodomy laws, if they so choose. What he is saying is that the state should be able to imprison people for being gay or lesbian. He believes that the State should be allowed to foster discrimination based on sexual orientation. He is supporting the ability of the state to criminalize private, personal behavior if the state finds it objectionable!
Mr. Santorum also advocates allowing the state to outlaw contraception.
CONTRACEPTION.
Not abortions, but the act of preventing an unwanted pregnancy. This could extend to oral contraceptives, condoms, heck even the rhythm method if the state decided. Mr. Santorum feels that the state should have the ability to force you to either abstain from sex, or bear an unwanted pregnancy if you do engage.
Ultimately what is being advocated by Mr. Santorum is that elected officials should have the power to impose their moral values and beliefs on the citizens, “for the common good”. (Perversely Mr. Santorum condemns the left for trying to impose their moral beliefs on society, attacking the left when they act to protect the rights of populations that do not fit into Mr. Santorum’s moral reality.) A belief system more consistent with tyrant nations then free ones.
The wise founders of nation crafted a constitution to protect it’s citizens from overreach by zealot elected officials through checks and balances by the court system. Courts can reverse intrusions into individual rights and find such invasive laws as unconstitutional. This was the basis of the repeals of sodomy laws, laws outlawing inter-racial marriage and laws that criminalized contraception. In response to our founding fathers wisdom Mr. Santorum, and all of the GOP presidential candidates, advocate that if judges make decisions that legislators do not like then the legislators should have the ability to replace those judges with more compliant judges.
Similar policies were prevalent in the Nazi Germany where judges who did not conform to the Nazi ideology were quickly removed by the legislators and replaced by more friendly judges. This manipulation of courts provided the legal support for the persecutions and atrocities that that followed in Germany.
So as Mr. Santorum, and his fellow GOP hopefuls, court their conservative followers I urge you to listen carefully to their words. Dissect their rhetoric and ask yourself what they are really advocating. Then ask yourself if you fit into their definition of “moral”, their definition of “American”, or their definition of “family”. And if you don’t fit into their definitions, take a moment and ask yourself what are they advocating that the state does to you?
Today was a good day in the emergency room where I practice. Today we have only had two overdoses from people taking prescribed pain killers. Yep, only two. Usually it’s a lot more!
To anyone who lives in Florida you are likely familiar with the phenomenon of “Pill Mills”. These are small medical clinics that prescribe strong prescription narcotic medications to their clients. These prescriptions are usually for very large amounts, for very high doses and usually prescribed after minimal, or no physical examination. The patients often have non-specific medical diagnosis (such as “chronic pain syndrome”) and are given prescriptions for extremely potent narcotics and anxiety medications. Many of these clinics have attached pharmacies to ensure that the prescriptions are filled with minimal difficulties.
A percentage of the clients who use these clinics will sell the medications they have procured to others for profits. A percentage keep part of the prescription and sell the rest as income. A friend recently told me of a practice where the “clinic” will “loan” the money to the patient so they can get their prescription filled at a 10% per day interest rate. The individual can then sell the medications and return to the clinic and make the payment. This practice makes it clear that these clinics know the prescriptions they dispense are being sold.
Individuals who utilize these clinics often overdose because of the strength and volume of the prescription they are given. A report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found that oxycodone, one of the most popular pain medications dispensed from these clinics, was the cause of 1,185 state deaths in 2009, a 26 percent increase from the year before and a whopping 249 percent increase from 2005. The end result of these pill mills is people are dying.
I have previously assigned blame for these deaths on the physicians who participate in these illicit practices. These medications cannot be dispensed without a physician prescription, so I figure a few bad players in the healthcare profession are putting profit before human life. (In the state of Florida nurse practitioners and physicians assistants cannot write prescriptions for narcotic medications as we cannot be “trusted”, according to the Florida Medical Association who have done little to reign in the Pill Mill epidemic in our state.)
Unfortunately I have been wrong!
A recent report by ProPublica (http://www.propublica.org/article/the-champion-of-painkillers) details that these practices are a product of efforts by the pharmaceutical industry to continue these practices. The pharmaceutical industry finances “Advocacy Groups” staffed by well respected physicians to advance and defend the utilization of these potent pain killers. They also lobby aggressively to prevent any restrictions to the liberal dispensing of these medications. The pharmaceutical industry cannot be blind to the staggering statistics of deaths from their products, so they must feel these deaths are acceptable. The physicians who represent the interests of this industry are also complicit in the many deaths that have occurred from these drugs.
A colleague of mine once defended these physicians, saying they are only practicing medicine and not responsible if these drugs are misused. From that rationale the drug pusher isn’t responsible for the deaths of their clients, they are just providing a service! “But heroin is illegal!” you say. So is dispensing narcotics without cause, even if you have a medical license!
This situation is only a small symptom of the ongoing problem of healthcare in our country! Healthcare has ceased to be the practice of the healing arts. It has become a commodity. A means by which individuals and corporations can make profits. The health of the individual is an unimportant byproduct. The quality of care provided is dependent on the impact on profits and the ability of the individual to pay for that care. Our healthcare system is no longer about health, but clearly about wealth!
These practices are supported by corporations, legislators, professional medical organizations and the american public. The sad truth is that these practices will continue, in one form or another, until our nation changes our attitude about healthcare and demands our health become more important that share holder dividends.
Just a quick bitch and moan. I am completely sick and tired of political hacks like Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh self appointing themselves as warriors in the “War Against Christmas”. First, using Christmas as a political tool to manipulate the poor unfortunate souls who happen to listen to your programs is itself an attack on Christmas. Christmas is supposed to be a celebration FOR CHRISTIANS about the birth of Jesus Christ. By Evangelical doctrine the holiday isn’t intended for non-christians.
Second, Christmas trees, Santa Claus and the rest of the holiday adornment is Pagan in nature, and isn’t Christian. So calling it a holiday tree, or not displaying wreaths is more accurate to this religious holiday. There was no Pine Tree when the angel appeared before the shepherds, and the big fat guy in the red suit wasn’t hanging out at the manger!
Third, businesses saying “happy holidays” and displaying “happy holiday” signs is called “marketing”. It isn’t an attack on Christmas. Businesses understand not everyone is Christian, and pissing off your clientele is never a good thing. Marketers have very effectively manipulated a religious holiday into a high holy day of capitalism. Almost everyone, including non-christians, now buy gifts for the holiday season. This isn’t an attack on Christmas, it’s spreading the joy of increased profit margins!
Finally, these pompous, self righteous bigots are using a holiday that should bring us all together as a tool to further separate us and advance their agenda that is anything but “Christian”. This holiday season is a time for us all to remember we are all given this gift of life, and we are all brothers and sisters. This should be a time of Joy, and Love, not rhetoric!
So the real “War on Christmas” comes not from saying “Happy Holidays”, or protecting non-believers from being subjected to religious ideology, but from individuals who want to use the holiday as a tool to further divide our peoples and advance a political agenda.
So, in the spirit of the season I would like to wish all of you a Happy Chrischanzaa. (Christmas/Chanuka/Kwanzaa) I figure this way I’m not attacking anyone’s belief system.
I will be selling HAPPY CHRISCHANZAA signs and marketing the new traditional CHRISCHANZAA gumbo next year!
Hey, it is the Christmas season and guy has to make a buck!
There is, for want of a better explanation, a genetic predisposition of males of the human species to interpret physical injury as a measure of masculinity. I can’t think of any other explanation. I remember in high school football and wrestling repeatedly getting my brains significantly rattled and then telling everyone that I was “OK”. This of course would lead to the coach slapping me in the back of the head and instructing me to “get back in there”!
I knew I was injured, but also knew that I was invulnerable! (It is amazing how as we age that invulnerability diminishes). Even with a significant injury I would have likely said that I was “fine”. To accept injury is to accept weakness, or even worse our mortality! So I played on. Lucky for me my high school sports career was short lived and I found other passions.
As a healthcare professional I look at the issue of youth sports related injuries and shake my head. The body of evidence demonstrating the potential for irreparable harm from repeated head injuries is staggering. This is no longer a issue to debate. The data is in, the debate is finished and machismo has lost this one! Now is the time for legislators to act, and across the country they are.
The Florida Legislators are considering bills that would provide protections for students who engage in sports that may result in head injuries. The goal of the bill is to ensure that young athletes who suffer a head injury do not return immediately to the sport and they receive an appropriate medical evaluation. The bills would further ensure that no one can return to the game until they are appropriately evaluated and cleared for sports.
Some people would argue that such a bill is further intrusion by the government. I have had people tell me that taking a blow to the head is part of many high school sports, particularly football. These individuals would say that it’s “manly” to take a blow to the head and then return to the game. “If they can’t take it they shouldn’t be in the game!”
I would argue that causing our young athletes to develop Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is neither “manly”, nor should it be part of high school sports.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is a neurodegenerative disease often found in athletes who have experienced repetitive mild head trauma. Long known to have affected boxers who have taken many blows to the head, CTE has been recently discovered in football players. Those repeated blows to the head aren’t inconsequential, they cause small areas of damage that over time accumulate. Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at Boston University, conducted post-mortem studies on the brains of more than 20 NFL players and discovered almost all of them had CTE.
Since the disease progresses with aging, CTE often appears in mid-life, and a person’s memory and cognition is affected. According to Dr. McKee’s research, CTE symptoms can at first include “behavioral and personality changes, sometimes moodiness, depression, and heightened suicidality and erratic behaviors.” McKee’s research has shown that in some instances symptoms can include motor neuron disease or mimic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (A.L.S.), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Last year, research showed that Owen Thomas, the 21-year-old captain of the University of Pennsylvania football team who committed suicide in April 2010, was in the early stages of CTE. He had never been diagnosed with a concussion.
There is very little debate about the impact of head injuries in sports. Research clearly demonstrates that the earlier the trauma, and the more repetitive the trauma, the more likely permanent damage to the brain will result.
The debate is now in the hands of our legislators in Tallahassee. A bill to address this issue failed to advance in the Florida Legislature in 2011. In the 2012 Florida Legislative session two bills have been filed that would require:
Parents be advised of the head injury risk of the sport their child is participating in.
Any individual who suffers a head blow will be evaluated immediately prior to returning to the sport.
If there is evidence of a significant injury the athlete will be removed from the game and receive a more thorough medical evaluation.
Athletes who suffered a significant injury cannot return to the sport until cleared my an appropriate healthcare provider.
Both professional football and college football have implemented similar measures to protect their players. Many states have passed similar measures to protect child athletes.
You can click on these links to view the entire texts of the bills: HB 291SB 948
This legislation has opponents who argue that the cost of such evaluations are prohibitive. In a time of tight budgets schools can ill afford additional expenses to maintain their sports programs. Others would argue that this legislation is an over-reaction. School sports have existed for nearly a century and we’ve never needed such supervision before.
To these arguments I will simply state that the priority of our schools should be the well being of our students, not the budgets or some misguided masculine ideal. If there is the slightest possibility that these children could suffer permanent damage from engaging in the sports they love then we should afford them whatever guidelines that are necessary to ensure their safety.
Now is your turn to make a difference. I ask you to contact your Florida State Legislators in the House and the Senate and demand they pass this bill. Call, email, write or visit their offices. Make your voice heard for the well being of our families. We can’t allow these bills to languish or fail.
Below are a list of important committee members who will be hearing this bill. Email them and demand that they vote yes on this important legislation.
To help you out you can copy and paste the following text into your email:
Dear
I am writing you to encourage you to vote yes on HB 291/SB 948 regarding youth athletics and head injuries.
The long term consequences of repeated head injuries for young adults include potential permanent brain injury. By detecting head injuries early, and preventing repeated injuries we can help prevent long term medical conditions and disability.
The bill that will appear before your committee will help to protect our young athletes and ensure their health and safety.
Have you been looking at the world around you and been wondering what the hell happened?
I know that I have. I’ve sat back and watched as our individual liberties have been systematically attacked and eroded. I’ve become angry and frustrated as News and Media organizations lie and manipulate the truth to advance a political party or agenda. I’ve thrown my hands up in disgust and frustration as corporations have become individuals, hard working families and public servants have been attacked while wealthy individuals, who have greatly prospered under many political administrations, have become the sole priority of many of our politicians. I’ve seethed as I have watched elected officials blatantly prostitute themselves, and their votes, to the highest corporate donors. Finally I have exploded in a rage as individuals in the Occupy Wall Street movement, who are exercising the rights given to them by our founding fathers, have been brutalized and persecuted by those individuals charged with protecting those very rights!
And so I have started this blog. My goal is to share information and encourage activism from like minded individuals. (Hell, I would love to see activism from those I disagree with. Any time we express our selves we strengthen our liberties.) It may not be much, and it may not have any impact, but least it is my attempt at making a difference. I’m not sure what direction this blog might take, but it’s gonna be interesting to find out!
Thanks for reading it, and I hope it’s useful.
Ed
“I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other man’s rights.” - Abraham Lincoln
"I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other man's rights." - Abraham Lincoln
It's a good old case of I was for it before I was against it, that is before I was for it.
Was there ever a time when leaders stood behind their convictions and fought for what they believed in?
