H1N1 Vaccine: Licensed but Untested

Question: Dr. Jeff, What’s your opinion on getting the H1N1 vaccine?

Dr. Jeffrey McCombs: I don’t recommend the vaccine to anyone. The Swine Flu first appeared in 1976 and disappeared again until this year. At the time, there weren’t any of the mass marketing techniques used today by pharmaceutical companies. With viruses mutating thousands of times, you almost guaranteed that the vaccine wouldn’t cover what you’re exposed to. The majority of all mutations are weakened and non-infectious. Here’s another article put out by Dr. Tim O’Shea on the vaccine:

Licensed and Untested

This is exactly wherein lies the clear and present danger of the current swine flu vaccine program. This swine flu vaccine is actually being brought into existence for dissemination among the general public, starting with children. With 5 manufacturers having begun clinical trials only in August 2009, none scheduled for completion until next April, it is an astounding lesson in vaccine politics that the FDA approved the untested H1N1 vaccine on 15 Sep 09, just one month after the testing began!

Licensed and untested.

We see precisely the same sequence of events that led to the last swine flu fiasco in 1976 – 50 million were vaccinated with that untested vaccine. 21 deaths 565 paralyzed, withdrawn in 10 weeks. And never replaced. Never replaced – that’s the point. Why not? If the threat was so urgent that we had to start vaccinating before the vaccine was even tested, then where did that threat go? Why didn’t we just withdraw the toxic vaccine and then continue with researching and testing to develop one that worked?

With just a little research, independent of the popular media, a cognition begins to take shape in the mind of the discriminating reader, that there may be an ulterior agenda here, one that is not necessarily directed toward the overall well-being of children. If such a reader is a responsible parent, the next realization might be to change the default setting with respect to the decision to vaccinate. At present most parents default in favor of – when in doubt, vaccinate. Many today are changing that default setting: no more vaccines until it is proven to me beyond a doubt that – the vaccines have been tested and found to be 100% safe with no chance ofharming the child – that the child absolutely needs the vaccine for optimum immune development – there are no economic or political agendas involved in the vaccine being recommended.

It is becoming increasingly clear that natural selection will favor the lines of those parents who take these extra precautions to protect and safeguard the inner immunity of their children. Who else is going to come forward? The FDA, who does no testing of their own before making a decision, but relies entirely on the research submitted to them from the companies who stand to make billions in profits if the vaccine is approved? The vaccine manufacturers, who have been granted 100% immunity from liability for any deaths or injuries? The other regulatory agencies – NIH, CDC, HHS – whose political connections to the vaccine companies are a matter of public record? But that’s exactly what all the hurry, all the hyperbole, all the outright misdirection is about. They know that they don’t have time to come up with a fully tested vaccine – that would take a year. But by that time the imaginary disease will be gone, with no hope of raising it from the dead. The market is here and now. And everyone – the clinics, the manufacturers, the regulators, and the media – all want their share of the rewards.

the physician-translator

This week’s family medicine assignment consists of thinking through the communication barrier between physician and patient.  At the heart of the debate is the low health literacy levels in the general American population, and the disproportionately prevalent illiteracy in low socioeconomic areas.  The logic goes that patient adherence to treatment is proportional to understanding of the diagnosis and treatment plan.  Compounded by the advent of modern pharmaceutical innovations with its increasingly complicated drug regiments – diabetic drugs plans being a classic example – requires an increase in patient understanding.  If, by improving physician communication skills, the treatment outcomes, patient satisfaction, and a sundry other consequences will potentially be found.

Put in other words:  The first year medical student sets out to learn a foreign language.  By the end of the student’s medical school career, the vocabulary will essentially double, an equivalent of learning a second language.  For my first two years of medical school, I have learned how to understand, as well as verbally communicate, using modern medical-speak.  But when I enter the family medicine out-patient clinic, and proceed to confer with the patient as if a peer — using terms like sigmoid and colostrum – twenty minutes of words falling upon deaf ear.  I must relearn my mother tongue.  I must serve as a translator between both world.  It seems that many of us have forgotten our native language, in the process of learning medicine.  To have spent 4 years of medical school + 3-6 years or residency to distill highly specific information about the latest scientific research into a few drops of clear, simple terms – that even the most uneducated of patients could take in – seems to be an essential, yet overlooked and neglected, role of every physician-turned-translator.

New DES More Effective To Reduce Restenosis Than First-Generation Stents: Dr Mitchell Krucoff

New DES More Effective To Reduce Restenosis Than First-Generation Stents: Dr Mitchell Krucoff
Monday, October 26, 2009 08:00 IST
Our Bureau, Bangalore

Newer drug eluting stents (DES) are proving to be significantly more effective and safer compared to the ‘first-generation’ drug eluting stents. DES is developed to reduce incidents of re-blockage or restenosis which occur with bare metal stents and almost all trials showed a marked reduction in restenosis rates. The ideal drug eluting stent is one which demonstrates high efficacy while maintaining excellent safety profile.

The latest stents made of polymer and steel are known for higher biocompatibility. These are thinner in appearance and more flexible. The lower doses of the drug are much preferred as a long treatment option for complex and difficult cases. Another big advantage is the negative side effects. The drug eluting stents reduced the need for a second intervention procedure by about 40 to 50 per cent compared to bare metal stents especially in complex cases where patients reported long blockages in diabetics and those having small blood vessels, according to Dr Mitchell Krucoff, interventional cardiology scientist and advisor to US FDA on medical devices.

Dr Krucoff who is in India to research on medicine, healing and spirituality at the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Bangalore, said that over 75,000 patients are treated with drug eluting stents each year in India. The ideal drug eluting stent is one that has proven in large clinical trials to reduce the chances of reblockage, morbidity and mortality.

According to the recently concluded international congress of interventional cardiology, Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), in San Francisco, three separate large randomized clinical studies showed that the new generation drug eluting stent Xience V was significantly more effective and safe than the first generation Taxus stent.

India will account for 60 per cent of the global heart disease burden in the next few years, reports a recent study by a team of Indian and Canadian researchers. Indians have a genetic disposition to heart disease and develop disease earlier in their life compared to western population. Already the country set to become the diabetes capital of the world and it is forecasted that it will also be known for the highest incidence of heart disease, said Dr Krucoff.

Due to the effectiveness of stents, angioplasty is becoming the preferred choice of treatment of patients with narrowing of the blood vessels in the heart. These devices have evolved over the last two decades beginning from specialized balloons mounted on catheters to treat the narrowing to bare metal stents to drug coated stents. In India, use of drug eluting stents have increased dramatically since their introduction in 2003.

Going by the economies of scale, DES is being preferred to by-pass surgery in terms of faster recovery and higher productivity for the patient to get back to work at quicker pace, he added.

Interventional cardiology is a super specialty and the need of the hour is adequate number of trained experts. If there are specialists who have ample experience, they are most-sought after experts to implant DES. The number of cath labs should also increase to help specialist carry out the procedure. India is far higher in terms of expertise and use of stents than China. The country has a growing patient population who need DES which are affordable, said Dr Krucoff.

Pharmabiz Reference

Also see:
- Official Sathya Sai Baba Website
- Sri Sathya Sai Medical Trust
- Sri Sathya Sai Institute Of Higher Medical Sciences Whitefield
- Sri Sathya Sai Institute Of Higher Medical Sciences Prasanthigram

The Disease Path

Day six

There seems to be a major improvement in the neck. I’ll just ignore the fact that two new regions of pain – my hip and my coccyx – have taken over instead because I’m so glad to be able to move my head without being in agony. Small price to pay. So maybe the detox is beginning to work.

I tried an epsom salt bath last night. Very nice it was too. With the pleasant side-effect that I could be alone again. You see, my dearly beloved family returned from their holiday yesterday. And much as I wanted them to come home, I realised just how nice it was not to have them around for a while. Not to have the never-ending arguments with my son about teeth-brushing, going-to-bed, washing-himself, eating. Not to be woken up in the middle of the night with a nightmare story or a I-can’t-sleep-Mummy tale. Afterwards, he falls asleep in seconds and then I lay awake for the rest of the night.

And then there’s his father. Heaven forbid that I should complain about my husband. But we do have our differences, I can tell you that much. And yesterday he seemed to think I should laugh at a long, boring joke about how badly women drive cars. I wish I could find a statistic to show that dithering women are NOT the killers on our roads. Anyhow, I ride a bike and I hate cars. With a vengeance. Two of them knocked me down. To be precise it was the drivers that knocked me down. They just used their cars to do it. The first time it was a woman, but I fully admit that it was my own fault because I was a crazy pubertal eleven-year old and I just dashed out in front of her. But the second time I was a fully grown woman riding innocently on my bike when a young Turkish lad decided to have a race with his mate and overtake him on the inside. Only thing was, I was on the inside. Crash. Bang. I landed on my tailbone and he screamed to a halt just half a metre from my head. Lucky lucky lucky.

That’s why the coccyx hurts. The squiggly residents love old injuries and I have plenty of them. And the left hip? Could be the first car accident – that’s where it hit me. I can still hear the sound of metal on bone. I can’t remember the car hitting me, but I can remember the sound. And now when I hear brakes squealing I always stop. And listen. For that sound. If its not there, then I smile and go on. Lucky lucky lucky.

So let’s go back to the subject of pioneering disease, shall we? This is where we can start getting esoteric. Time to examine the reason for all the pain and suffering. You didn’t think I was doing this just to tell everyone how sick I was, did you? The point is to get to the point. Whatever it is.

When I first arrived in Berlin in 1985, everyone was oohing and aahing about a book called “Schicksal als Chance” (the English title is “The Challenge of Fate”) by Thorwald Dethlefsen, which – if I remember rightly – encouraged you to understand the universe as being mirrored in the tiny details of the world around us, right down to the cells in our bodies. Macrocosm and microcosm are two sides of the same coin, so to speak. It was a brave attempt to explain how symbols help us to understand how the universe works, by creating a language to express its principles, most notably in astrology. Certainly a fascinating book and incidentally the first one I read from cover to cover in the German language, having only just mastered (or mistressed) it.

But an even more interesting book from the same author, together with Rüdiger Dahlke, is “Krankheit als Weg”, the follow-up to “Schicksal als Chance”. The title of the book in English is: “The Healing Power of Illness”, but a correct translation of the German title would be: “Disease as a Path”. The book delves into the realms of psychosomatic medicine and puts forward the theory that every sickness we have is a message from our bodies about the state of our psyche. That is to say, in not dealing with a problem or an inner conflict on a psychological level, it gets pushed onto a somatic level and gains expression there. The book proposed that you try to read what your body is telling you that the problem is. Easier said than done.

Talking about this means walking a real tightrope. I don’t want to suggest that it is “all in the head”, or that if we Lyme patients would do psychotherapy then we would all get better (though a little bit of psychotherapy might help us to cope with the Lyme disease!) No, the disease is real enough, the bacteria are there and the pain is insufferable.

But I do believe in the interconnectedness of things, including within myself. My psyche and my body are inseparable. So there has to be a point of healing at the psychological level as well as at the somatic level. And this is where I think this book might (and that is a very reserved “might”) be helpful. I have already poo-pooed positive thinking, so you know that’s not where I’m going with this. Where am I going then? Not really sure, to tell you the truth.

Just Get Your Kids Vaccinated Already!

I’ve been reading/hearing a lot about parents who are opposed to vaccinating their children. Admittedly, I am not a scientist, or particularly knowledgeable about science, so I decided to do a little reading. I came across this article in Wired, which details why vaccinating is a good idea and why there really is no scientific evidence that it will cause autism. This article is incredibly persuasive, but what struck me the most is this quote:

But researchers, alas, can’t respond with the same forceful certainty that the doubters are able to deploy — not if they’re going to follow the rules of science. Those tenets allow them to claim only that there is no evidence of a link between autism and vaccines. But that phrasing — what sounds like equivocation — is just enough to allow doubts to not only remain but to fester.

I think it’s interesting to think about how important language and messaging is to a campaign. In this case, there is only so much scientists can say without breaking ethical codes of conduct, whereas those who are opposed to vaccines can be as hyperbolic and forceful as they want. They can make sweeping claims appealing to the emotions of others, without having to worry about violating anything. Of course, many people react more to passion than to science, and this fuels the movement.

Swine flu is enough right now, I really don’t want to face another polio or measles epidemic. I hope people will read the actual scientific literature on vaccines and make rational decisions, rather than listening to people like Jenny McCarthy.

New York Post: Sloppy Journalism in Report of Cellphone-Cancer "Link"

In another media *facepalm* moment, the New York Post is reporting of a supposed “link” between cellphone use and cancer…

Study: Cell Phone Cancer Link

A groundbreaking, $30 million study into cell phones has found a link between long term use and brain tumors.

The World Health Organization is about to reveal that its decade-long investigation has found the devices can lead to cancer — and the internationally-respected body will soon issue a public health message with its findings, London’s Daily Telegraph reported today.

The conclusion goes against years of assurances by cell phone companies and scientists that cell phone use is safe.

But last month, Sen. Arlen Specter (D – Pa) organized Senate hearings to examine health implications of talking on-the-go.

elizabeth lippman/N.Y. Post CAN YOU KILL ME NOW? — A groundbreaking, 10-year study will show that long-term cell phone use can lead to brain tumors.

The WHO’s Interphone investigation’s results showed, “a significantly increased risk” of some brain tumors “related to use of mobile phones for a period of ten years or more,” the Telegraph reported today.

The study’s head, Dr. Elisabeth Cardis, said, “In the absence of definitive results and in the light of a number of studies which, though limited, suggest a possible effect of radiofrequency radiation, precautions are important.”

The project carried out studies in 13 countries, talking to tumor sufferers as well as healthy cell phone users, It interviewed 12,800 people.

The results will be officially published before the end of the year, according to the Telegraph.

This is a perfect example of how some in the media misuse science to make headlines, while at the same time spreading misinformation.  Notice that the article is citing research which hasn’t even been published yet! So, if the research isn’t yet published for scrutiny, how in blazes do the morons at NY Post know what the research says?  I always thought that a good journalist was supposed to check their facts before reporting a story, not the other way around.  Apparently, the folks at the NY Post live in an alternate universe.

In addition, some other tidbits that pop up in this article:

1. It references a “significantly increased risk” of cellphone use causing cancer – but what does “significantly increased risk” even mean?  Is it a higher risk by 50%, 10%, 1%, 0.1%, 0.0001%?  The fact that this info isn’t even reported just fuels wild speculations that – despite any actual evidence – whatever it is, it’s really bad.

2. I also want to make particular note of this paragraph in the article:

The study’s head, Dr. Elisabeth Cardis, said, “In the absence of definitive results and in the light of a number of studies which, though limited, suggest a possible effect of radiofrequency radiation, precautions are important.”

Note that the head of the study states that the results are not definitive, and the studies which are there (she refers to them as “limited”, which is science-speak for “we don’t have enough research to support a solid claim”) suggest only a possible effect.  And this is the research heading the study saying this, but she’s a scientist – the goofballs who wrote the NY Post headline are not scientists.

3. Lastly, there’s this part of the article:

The project carried out studies in 13 countries, talking to tumor sufferers as well as healthy cell phone users, It interviewed 12,800 people.

Ummm… I’ve got a bad feeling about this.  From what this states, it seems the study is based upon interviews with people.  Interviews?  As far as medical studies go, that’s pretty thin stuff, folks.  It’d be much more convincing if someone could actually provide some kind of clear-cut evidence of a physical mechanism by which cellphone radiation can cause cancer.  The problem is – for reasons I’ve outlined in an earlier blog post – no such mechanism exists that can be studied.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes out at the end of the year when the actual study is published, and I’m wondering how close to reality the NY Post’s depiction of the study will be.  I’m going to guess now: not much.

So, in the end, this is a classic case of sloppy journalism which, though it might grab some people’s attention with the scary sounding headline, ultimately serves to spread fear & ignorance of science.  Way to go, NY Post!  I give you a grade of FAIL.

Why Antidepressant Medications Often Do Not Work

Eva Redei, the David Lawrence Stein Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern’s Feinberg School has published new research which explains why antidepressants don’t work for so many people.

There are two prevailing theories about the causes of depression. One is that depression can be caused by stressful life events and the second is that depression results from an imbalance in neurotransmitters. However, medications based on those theories are treating effects, not causes.

Most animal models that are used by scientists to test antidepressants are based on the hypothesis that stress causes depression. “They stress the animals and look at their behavior,” she said. “Then they manipulate the animals’ behavior with drugs and say, ‘OK, these are going to be good anti-depressants.’ But they are not treating depression; they are treating stress.”

That is one key reason why current antidepressants aren’t doing a great job, Redei noted. She is now looking at the genes that differ in the depressed rat to narrow down targets for drug development.

She said another reason current antidepressants are often ineffective is that they aim to boost neurotransmitters based on the popular molecular explanation of depression, which is that it’s the result of decreased levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. But that’s wrong, Redei said.

Redei examined the genes involved in both stress and depression. Of the 254 genes related to stress and the 1275 genes related to depression there is an overlap of only 5 genes.

“This overlap is insignificant, a very small percentage,” Redei said. “This finding is clear evidence that at least in an animal model, chronic stress does not cause the same molecular changes as depression does.”

If current medications are only treating effects then research should be focused on finding and treating the causes.

In the second part of the study, Redei found strong indications that depression actually begins further up in the chain of events in the brain. The biochemical events that ultimately result in depression actually start in the development and functioning of neurons.

“The medications have been focusing on the effect, not the cause,” she said. “That’s why it takes so long for them to work and why they aren’t effective for so many people.”

Her animal model of depression did not show dramatic differences in the levels of genes controlling neurotransmitters functions. “If depression was related to neurotransmitter activity, we would have seen that,” she said.

Unfortunately, although we now know those theories are wrong, we still do not have a theory that is right.

• Source

The disintegration and dissolution of nabumetone Dispersible Tablets

Nabumetone is an anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for the treatment of pain and inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. The incidence of gastrointestinal ulcers associated with nabumetone appears to be lower than for other NSAIDs, suggesting that the drug May be a preferential inhibitor of cyclooxygenase-2. Because the drug exhibits poor aqueous solubility, the researchers tried to improve the solubility by using various techniques . Efforts were also made to encourage rapid development of the therapeutic efficacy of the formulation as effervescent chewable tablet and a compressed annular tablet with molded triturate tablet .

Although the widely accepted conventional oral solid dosage forms, pediatric, geriatric, and bedridden patients have difficulty swallowing. In addition, for poorly soluble drugs, dissolution of the drug from the tablet is the rate-limiting step in the process of drug absorption . Because the rate and extent of drug absorption is determined by the rate and extent of dissolution of tablets of drugs, drugs with low aqueous solubility because of the irregularity or incomplete absorption from the gastrointestinal tract intestinal tract are known to pose potential bioavailability.

Because Nabumetone is practically insoluble in water, absorption will be dependent on the dissolution rate. This study attempts to resolve this problem through the formulation of the drug complexed with previously?-Cyclodextrin (?-CD) as quickly disperse porous tablet. These tablets are designed to disappear quickly and completely to facilitate complete dissolution of drug absorption after oral administration. Inclusion complexes were successfully used to improve solubility, dissolution and bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs .

H1N1 Response

The H1N1 virus is sweeping through the country.  There are lots of people who are getting sick, some are dying.  It is serious.  There is significant disruption that is being caused to schools, businesses, and lives.

There are two things that concern me about this situation.  The first is how many people will go to the doctor or even the hospital ER, at the onset of flu symptoms.  When I was growing up, the first response to flu symptoms, was to stay home from school on the couch, with the tv on, and 7up at hand.  It was only if we were sick for more than two or three days, or if our temperature went very high, that a visit to the doctor was in order.  If you do go to the doctor at the onset of flu symptoms, they will simply tell you to stay home, rest and keep hydrated.  This is a concern because of the strain that is being placed on the medical system from cases that do not yet warrant a visit to the doctor. 

The second concern is a little more serious.  The vaccine for H1N1 was rushed through research and production.  When something is produced quickly, under pressure, the chances of unforeseen consequences are increased.  There is a reason why drug research normally takes a long time before a new drug is introduced to the market.  I am sure that the medical professionals who are in charge, are acting in accordance with their best judgement.  They are certainly more informed about these matters than I am, but it still concerns me.   

I wonder what the final evaluation of our countries’ response to this illness will show us.   Did we respond correctly?  Only time will tell.

Need to be Cured of Drug Commercials

Leg won’t stop shaking? Here, swallow this pill. Eyelashes not long or thick enough? Here, take a swig of this. Scared to meet new people? No problem, we can fix that. Sex life not quite what it used to be? Believe me, we’ve got you covered.

It seems there is a drug for every possible malady nowadays. There are so many things called “sicknesses,” “disorders,” or “diseases” now that I never even knew existed, and somewhere on the market, there is a drug to cure each and every one of them.

Until I found out what RLS meant, I was wondering why they were drugging the Mormons. Now, thanks to Requip of course, we all know that RLS is an acronym for “Restless Leg Syndrome.” Who knew there was such a thing? I always thought if someone’s leg was shaking, they had to go to the bathroom (of course, there are plenty of drugs to help dampen those urges, too).

I was so shocked the other day to see an advertisement on television for a drug called “Latisse” that actually claims to make eyelashes thicker. I guess this is for the women who do not have the time for mascara. Of course, it comes with a warning about how it might irritate your eyes. It does not seem like it would be worth it to me. Big eyelashes, but red, irritated, watery eyes. What a strange trade.

The social anxiety commercial always makes me laugh. I believe it is for a drug called “Clarocet.” The actor in the advertisement is so happy to be out at a party, finally able to mingle with people again. The funny part is when the side effects are listed. It is totally hilarious.

“May cause diarrhea, incontinence, bladder-control problems, sudden mood swings and/or impotence.” Wow, that is totally amazing. Whoever takes that drug is going to be the life of the party.

They will want to mix and mingle. All their fear of social interaction will be gone. The only problem is going to arise when they wet themselves while going bipolar on the other party guests. Yeah, they will be going out again real soon after that. Seems like they should have just embraced their anxiety.

The whole impotence thing leads us up to my last complaint. What is it with all these Viagra and Cialis commercials? I was watching the American League Championship Series the other night and it seemed like every other commercial was for these two pills. What in the heck is going on? Can’t this go back to being a private matter?

I am so tired of seeing those people in the tub. I wish they would just be clean already. Does Cialis really just make you want to take a really long bath outside while the sun sets? Perhaps these men do not need the drug at all. It is the inordinate amount of time they spend in the bathtub that is causing the problem.

It is time to return to the better days of the past, when I could turn on the T.V. and not be confronted with all these advertisements for drugs. We all need medicine some time. We know where to get it, and our doctor or pharmacist can help us figure out what to get. We do not need the T.V. to tell us.

Days of our lives

Well… what fun I have been having.

I feel the need to have a teensy rant, in between talking about magic and medicine, and just tell you something of my life. Tragically, at the moment, my life revolves around medicine. My placement takes well over an hour to get to (even with a lift!) each way, so I waste at least 3 hours a day. This on top of the fact we have to be in for 8.30 starts, and finish whenever the doctor deems us done with, means I’m spending my whole life going to hospital, being in hospital or sleeping.

Not leaving much time for blogging!

It’s times like these when I feel dissillusioned with the whole thing. I feel like the consultants are constantly on my case about not having done enough reading, but it becomes a choice between sleeping or sudying. I choose sleeping! I’d just like a bit of time, a bit of breathing space from this production line.

The UKFPO forms for the year above (basically our job applications) look horrible – the questions are truly yucky!! They don’t care if you have a life outside medicine, or that you have hobbies to keep you sane. They just want to know that you’ve locked yourself in a hopsital to find a load of “cases” (these patients no longer become individuals, just their hospital id number, and initials if they’re very lucky…).

Ho hum.

Will try to stay on topic next time!

Jo

A Must Read For Health

For all you holistic types out there, and for anyone who wants to be healthy, wants to remain cancer free, wants to detox from environmental toxins, or who want to cure cancer, please read this:

Important Thing To Read

What corporations including big-pharma and big-medicine do not want you to know is that much if not all of what we need to remain healthy exists naturally in our environment.  We are creatures of the Earth, and she is there to take care of us if only we let her.

Too bad we don’t take care of her.

The Calvin and Hobbes dream

I get to sleep all I want, stay under a pile of blankets, drink tea and read comic books. I can spend hours watching movies and wasting time on my laptop. I even get to miss my math test. I wish I could do this all the time.

The only catch is I have to have a hacking cough, sore throat and body aches.

… Eh, worth it.

My mom thinks I have H1N1. (Irony!) She even called the doctor and told her so – even though I didn’t have half the symptoms. The diagnosis? The flu, but not swine. Ha. I get to stay home for a WEEK! At the moment sipping ginger ale and searching for my CSI DVD set. It’s somewhere around here!

Book of the day: The Greatest Benefit to Mankind – Roy Porter. (A word about the book – this is incredible fantastic. I’m just waiting to lend this to someone for a good, long read. Ask!)

Photo of the day:

So of course, I was on Stumbleupon. And I found this great site:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#2eEWng/roomfulexpress.icovia.com//

where you could design your own house. As I used to have aspirations to become an architect, here is the designed blueprint of my future living room:

I could win a lot of awards for this design. (Will post an actual picture next time.)

Harry Reid And The Chamber Of Secrets

By Rory Cooper at The Foundry

“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government…Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” Or so President Obama says on the White House website. But does he mean it? Of course not.

President Obama is leading the most secretive and least transparent administration in legislative history. And today, we have more proof. The video above was taken as Senate and White House leadership met behind closed doors to cobble together a bill that will make yesterday’s Finance Committee vote irrelevant. There around the cozy table are White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, OMB Director Peter Orzag, Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Max Baucus (D-MT), Chris Dodd (D-CT) and a few other liberal Senators. They will negotiate the final bill that the Senate will vote on.  And they’re doing it all behind closed doors, so you can’t see it.  Is this an “unprecedented level of openness?”

Would you like to know what they are saying? Of course, and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama agreed with you when he said in August 2008: “I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We’ll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies — they’ll get a seat at the table, they just won’t be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process.” Too bad, President Obama is getting so good at breaking Candidate Obama’s promises.

Watch as Fox’s Trace Gallagher narrates the action saying: “…they’ll shuffle everyone outside, close the door…” and photographers, journalists and cameras are pushed from the room.  They are persona non grata in these chambers of the Senate.  Barack Obama promised America these negotiations would be on C-SPAN, and he promised we would see who is making what arguments on behalf of whom.  But President Obama, Harry Reid and Rahm Emanuel know that the more you learn about their plans for your health care, the less you’ll like it.

On Friday the 13th this past February, President Obama and Democrats in Congress rammed through a trillion dollar stimulus bill without any Members of Congress reading it. It was supposed to create jobs. It didn’t. It was supposed to be online for days before a final vote. It wasn’t.

On June 26th of this year, the House of Representatives passed a massive Energy Tax called Cap and Trade, by adding 300 pages of amendments to the already unread bill only hours before the vote, which was delayed an hour by House Minority Leader John Boehner attempting to read the bill aloud before he was forced to stop. It was supposed to help the environment. It won’t. They said it wouldn’t raise your taxes or kill the economy. It will.

And now, we have another chamber of secrets. A few liberals will get together to craft a hyper partisan bill, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Remember, what was voted on yesterday in the Finance Committee wasn’t a bill, it was the framework of a bill. What they are writing behind closed doors this week will be the ultimate legislation that still leaves millions uninsured while lowering the quality of care and raising the costs for those already covered.  This legislation will get quickly shuffled to the floor and voted on through their secret plan which has been exposed by Heritage’s own Brian Darling.

  

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid —– White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel    (Click on White Arrow on right to close thumbnails.  —ed)

It’s time for President Obama to keep a promise. Open up the doors. Debate the bill in public. Let seniors, families, students and state governors know the consequences of this legislation. Let them see the sausage get made. Harry Potter couldn’t pull off a magic trick this good. Only Harry Reid can make transparency…disappear.

Rory Cooper contributes posts at The Foundry and he is the Director of Strategic Communications at The Heritage Foundation

Read more informative articles at Heritage – The Foundry

What Color Is Sorrow?

You may recall the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Apostle John echoes something of Old Testament imagery throughout his Apocalypse, and the horsemen are no different (Zechariah 6). Whatever else you make of it, John’s image would be recognized as symbols of political ambition (conquest), war, economic collapse, and plague. If we miss the broadest meaning of such symbols, we can’t hope to make any particular applications.

It should be obvious John is not impressed with human behavior at large. So at least a part of what he says with that image of horsemen is a contrast to what Zechariah saw, with angels reporting quiet and peace. John’s horsemen were anything but. Since man began to record his activities, we see where some urge to conquest always results in war, which destroys the economy and everything supporting life, so that disease runs rampant. Every part of it means death. The four were a team, and you always get them as a package. While the association is altogether natural in sequence, that hardly stops some ambitious politician from inducing the others intentionally.

Is there anyone who still clings to the myth America is peace-loving? Don’t let your love for the people here blind you to what people in other nations rightly see as a bully nation which goes to war for lies. From the American Revolution forward, the whole story of motives has seldom been told, so we get a nice whitewash over sinful human motives. History for kids is the story told by the winning side. We aren’t winning as much, so it’s pretty distressing to see the American Empire crumble. Political ambition is obviously the primary trait of America.

The wars are seldom what is publicly claimed. Here’s a brief exposure:

• American Revolution: Merchants rejecting regulation of any sort, because they held a radical theology which said God intended for them to prosper materially, and any system or person which interfered was inherently sinful, deserving of death and destruction. Issues of taxation and liberty were mostly propaganda.
• 1812: We were provoking England with all sorts of naughty trade tactics, threatening to annex Canada against Canadians’ will, etc. We prefer to focus on England’s equally naughty tactics.
• Civil War: All about taxation, with slavery the mere propaganda issue on both sides. The real movers and shakers in the North were hatefully seeking to plunder the South via taxation. Those in the South were contemptuous. The two sides hated each other because they were two truly different nations.
• Spanish American War: Objective examination proved the explosion of that ship had nothing to do with Spain, but was a combination of faulty design and construction, plus abuse. We attacked an aging feeble empire like any thug going after an old lady — because we could.

So it goes, but the rest are more complicated, well covered in books and websites. A good and moral people have no need to stomp on others to show their ability to defend themselves.

And wars cost huge amounts of money. It is so easy to ignore how every war so far was the result of economic interests eager to sacrifice the children of others to enrich themselves. Our alleged prosperity after WW2 was manipulated by the same people who cause the Great Depression. As soon as things were stable, they promptly got us into Korea, then Vietnam. All of it leads right to where we are today, on the verge of total economic collapse. Will Grigg rightly says of this time in history: Have a Nice Apocalypse. We are the deadbeat nation.

And it’s not as if we won’t suffer from enough health issues once medical care becomes unaffordable, but we have to all appearances a concerted effort to cripple the nation’s health by hiding real health information to create a population utterly dependent because they can’t avoid getting sick. All the normal human systemic responses to disease are suppressed with fake medicine, so we can’t even ward off or get through a simple head cold. Now, we have this flu vaccine business which stands to fatally cripple the entire nation even more. The vaccines will either spread the disease like wildfire (see “shedding” in relation to the nasal spray vaccine), or cripple the normal immune system (adjuvants), and possibly sterilize an entire generation (also adjuvants). This, from vaccine makers who are downright criminal, with such fine acts as selling AIDS tainted blood products after being warned of the problem.

Paint the horses any color you like. Your government wants you suffering or dead, America. We know some folks in government are just doing what they are told, refusing to think about whether it’s actually right or wrong. Many more don’t care because they’ve been bought, such as Congress. But a few honestly do know how this will turn out, and pursue it with a will. It’s no different from what the Apostle John saw in the Roman Imperial government. Those who aren’t stupid or insane are just plain evil.

Welcome to Apocalypse.

Science and Soul: Earthquakes

This year’s Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to three Americans for their discovery of the importance of telomerase in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.  Elizabeth H. Blackburn of UC San Francisco, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Jack W. Szostak of Harvard Medical School were the winners.

Cellular Biology Review: Telomerase is an enzyme that adds specific DNA sequence repeats to the 3′ end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes.  The telomeres are known as cellular clocks.  As they degrade, the cells become closer to death.  Grey hair is caused by telomere degradation to a certain degree.

Politicians’ low aims regarding climate change reform could be too little, too late, according to a new historical record of carbon dioxide levels.  Using ocean sediments to research carbon dioxide levels, scientists determined that the numbers many politicians want to reach are not extreme enough.

Apocalypse Soon: Sea levels could become 25 to 40 meters higher than today’s levels.

Scientists have discovered how the two meter long strands of DNA code (one cell) are packed into the cells’ nucleus, which is 1/100 millimeter in diameter.  The genes are organized into a tight, knotted ball to do so.

Fuzzy Math: Unravel your DNA and it would stretch from here to the moon: 3.85 × 108 m.

Cool Creature

A small glass lizard

A glass lizard (Scheltopusik) is commonly referred to as the snake lizard, because it resembles a snake.  This lizard has no legs, but have a characteristic head shape, movable eyelids, and external ear openings.  These characteristics are present in lizards, not snakes.  They can grow up to 4 feet long.  They will commonly eat insects and can be found in Southeastern Asia, North Africa, and the Southern United States.

Feature Story: Earthquakes

Admitedly, this post will be late, but still pertinent. More than 1,100 people have been killed and thousands more injured by the strong earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java. The quake, which occurred on the 3oth of September, measured 7.6 on the Richter scale.  To put this in the perspective, imagine 2 atomic bombs being dropped simultaneously.  This is the amount of destruction rained down on this little southeast Asian island.  Fortunately, the earthquake’s epicenter was in the ocean, which created a buffer for the island.  Geologists have long warned that Padang – a city of 900,000 people – could one day be completely destroyed by an earthquake because of its location.

Unfortunately, Java sits in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area famous for its high frequencies of earthquake and volcanoes. About 90% of the world’s earthquakes and 80% of the world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire.  The ring consists of a 40,000 kilometer horseshoe shape where tectonic plates jut up against one another.  The Western portion of the ring, where Java is located, is made up of several smaller plates which are all shifting on the earth’s liquid mantle.  Usually, during an earthquake, one of these plates will dip at a fault and the other will rise: a dip-slip.  An earthquake is essentially seismic waves created by the release of energy.  This jerk causes the forces we feel: tremors, tsunamis, and landslides.

Cosmic Perspective

We live on a planet that is constantly in motion.  Not only are we hurtling through space, the ground below us moves, slowly but surely.  Sometimes, these slight movements create huge effects.  When this happens, humans think of this as nature being against us.  Nature must be out to get us because something in nature caused human death.  And yet, I feel that humans pose a greater problem for humanity’s survival.  We do more to kill ourselves off than any natural disaster.  People must realize that nature is not inherently against or for us.  Nature is.  To quote The Big Lebowski: “The dude abides.”  Nature’s forces reigned before we came into being and will reign afterwards as well.

I suppose this cosmic perspective would not be complete without a public service announcement.  The amount of destruction in Java is terrible.  We must help those affected by the tragedy.  Do what you can, donate money, time, prayers, a smile.  I like this Arlo Guthrie story:

Do you know the story of Joseph, you know, in the Bible.  Well, Joseph is looking for his brothers, who aren’t where he thought they’d be, and while Joseph is going down the road, he asks some dude where his brothers were.  Some unnamed person working in a field points and says, “They’re that way.” When he catches up to them, the brothers send him to jail in Egypt. While there, he helps his cellmates with troubled dreams. One cellmate goes on to advise the Pharaoh and when the Pharaoh has bad dreams, Joseph is summoned, and he helps predict a drought and helps Egypt prepare for it. From Joseph derives Moses, and from Moses comes the whole line of people down to Jesus, and all that — and it’s all because of that one guy who said, “They went that way.”  Remember, if the world was wonderful: everyone has a BMW, health insurance, a nice family and a job, one would have to go a long way to make a difference.  But in a world that sucks, like this one, well…there was never a time like this: where you could do so little and get so much done! And you can do so much with a hug, a gentle word, or a smile when you don’t feel like smiling.

HealthMash: Health Knowledge Base and Semantic Search Engine

HealthMash, a promising new search engine was just launched and now it is in beta version so the developer team would like to get some feedback. An excerpt from their mission statement:

Our mission is to promote health and well being in the world by providing personally relevant information from trusted health sites on the Web. HealthMash™ is powered by the world’s most sophisticated Health Knowledge Base that captures the expertise of medical professionals and people everywhere practicing the art of living and healing and the Wisdom of the Ages.

HealthMash™ combines sophisticated Web 2.0 universal search and discovery technology with Semantic Web Concepts in a simple yet highly informative user interface.

When you do a search for a specific topic, it will help you with different clusters of relevant topics and related concepts. It also shows relevant images and videos as well as drugs, news, articles, books and clinical trials.

Cialis Professional

Cialis Professional is a newly formulated and chemically improved prescription medicine that is taken orally for the treatment of erectile dysfunction only in men, extremely enhancing male sexual activity, that is resulted in boosted penile potency, multiplied orgasms and increased penis size.

Drug Name

Cialis Professional (Tadalafil)

Drug Uses

Cialis Professional is a newly formulated and chemically improved prescription medicine that is taken orally for the treatment of erectile dysfunction only in men, extremely enhancing male sexual activity that is resulted in boosted penile potency, multiplied orgasms and increased penis size.

Benefits:
36-48 Hours Response Period;
Sexual Concentration Peak;
Penile Nerves Angered;
Non-Stoppable Desire ;
Innerved Male Stamina;
Rapid Chemical Uptake;
Sensational Hardness and Firmness;
Prolonged Sexual Activity;
Piece and Fantasy in Mind.

How to use

Cialis Professional will help the vast majority of erectile dysfunction sufferers regain the ability to achieve and maintain fantastic erections, sufficient enough to improve their lovemaking experience.

Taking Cialis Professional about 20 minutes to 30 minutes before your sexual intercourse will make you feel comfortable and eager to experience all the recreational amenities , connected with the pleasuring your second half in the way you like.

Note, than Cialis Professional is indifferent to any high-fat meal (such as fish & chips, cheeseburger or French fries) or drinks. Cialis Professional allows you to respond to your partner when the moment is right. You can take Cialis Professional in advance so you and your partner can take your time to let an intimate moment develop spontaneously.
Drug Class and Mechanism

Cialis Professional enhances the effect of nitric oxide at the nerve ending and endothelial cells in the corpus cavernosum by inhibiting phosphodiesterase type 5 in the corpus cavernosum of the penis. This results in vasodilation, increased inflow of blood into the corporus cavernosum, and ensuing penile erection upon sexual stimulation.

Thus, by relaxing the smooth muscle of the blood vessels to the fullest, the amplified blood flow to the penis will promote your erection and sexual state to unbelievable borders.

If you experience some lapses in your sexual life, please, do not hesitate or make your life worse. Just a pill will cure all your doubts and restore the life you will not help enjoying.

Missed Dose

If you miss a dose of Cialis Professional, take it as soon as possible. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not take 2 doses at once.
Storage

Store Cialis Professional at room temperature, between 68 and 77 degrees F (20 and 25 degrees C). Store away from heat, moisture, and light. Keep Cialis Professional out of the reach of children and away from pets.
Buy Cialis Professional

H5N1 Spray Causes Spread of Pandemic Flu

Watch the Video – then read the article. Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 Doctors and hospitals are expressing concern that the FluMist vaccine could endanger people because it contains live H1N1 virus, unlike the injectable shot that contains antibodies. With no less than 60 per cent of the U.S. population immunodeficient in one way or another, could FluMist be a pandemic waiting to happen? Hospitals in Colorado and elsewhere are shunning the FluMist H1N1 vaccine, a nasal spray that contains live swine flu virus, because of fears it could infect people with weakened immune systems and underlying health conditions. “Several metro area hospitals said they won’t be taking the FluMist because they don’t want to endanger patients,” reports TheDenverChannel.com. Lois VanFleet, infection prevention specialist at Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, expressed concern that doctors and nurses who inhaled the live virus could infect patients whose immune systems are compromised. However, H1N1 FluMist is being rolled out nationwide from this week, including at “drive-through clinics” across the country where the nasal spray is administered while people sit in their cars with their window wide open (see top picture). The live virus contained in the nasal spray is weakened but it can be transmitted from person to person for up to three weeks. According to studies, “the odds of transmitting the virus after receiving the nasal spray are about 2.5 percent,” with children the most susceptible. The nasal spray is being rolled out on a mass scale before the widespread introduction of the injectable vaccine. Some fear that the nasal spray will contribute to a wider pandemic, which will then provide governments with the crisis they need to make the injectable vaccine mandatory. “This would accelerate the move to a state of emergency, cripple the US health care system, and would result in the “need” to have military, eventually UN troops, take control,” notes TheFluCase.com. “Also, all public assemblies, including courts, would be prohibited, thereby satisfying a condition for the imposition of martial law, mass quarantines, and forced vaccinations for the rest of us.” According to the Mayo Clinic, the swine flu scandal of 1976, when more people died from the vaccine than the actual virus,  was what caused the live virus to be removed from future vaccines. However, it is admitted that FluMist contains the live virus. “It has been documented that the live viruses from the vaccine can be shed (and potentially spread into the community) from recipient children for up to 21 days, and even longer from adults. Viral shedding also puts breastfeeding infants at risk if the mother has been given FluMist,” writes Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, one of the most outspoken physicians in the country on the hazards of vaccines and vaccination. PLEASE READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE HERE.

So far I’ve talked quite a bit about toxic relationships, but now I want to talk about the toxic relationships we have with our own bodies. I have two versions of me. In the vision I have of myself in my head I am fit, thin(ner) and flexible. I move through life with a happy lightness because my body and soul are in alignment. I eat well because I’ve come to realize food is medicine, and I want to fuel my body with the very best fuel that’s available to me.

But that’s not reality. My reality is I’m disabled. I have chronic pain from a hip fracture 5 years ago that messed up my leg and my nerves. I’m tired all the time and my diet is pretty poor, so poor that I recently was tested for glucose intolerance and I found out I am pre-diabetic, which means if I don’t change my diet I WILL become a diabetic.

I’m constantly fighting this internal battle. One part of me says to clean up my life, and do it NOW. The other part doesn’t want to accept all the hard work I’ll have to put in in order to feel better. I still want to treat my body like a garbage can – eat fast food, stay up late, smoke cigars (that’s a whole other blog post) and be negative. The inside me is constant. I either take the leap and change my life, even though I know it will be difficult and uncomfortable and will seriously push me outside of my comfort zone. Or I can continue to treat my body like a trash can and continue to feel tired, anxious and worn out all the time. The choice should be simple, but it’s not.

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance

Atul Gawande’s second book Better is a collection of his experiences as a surgeon. (If you’ve not heard about Gawande, Elizabeth Gudrais’ article (An unlikely writer) for Harvard magazine is a must read.)

Gawande divided the book into three sections based on what he thinks a surgeon should be and in each section he draws from his experiences as a surgeon and an observer to produce some compelling writing. There’s stuff in there about hand washing in hospitals, polio vaccinations in India, the absolute miracle that is the birth of a child, and other wonderful stories.

Gawande’s strength is that he writes simply and he explains stuff clearly, which as any writer will tell you are the hardest things to do. Did I mention that the man’s a surgeon too — some people get second helpings on the talent buffet before they are born. (If after reading the book you want to jump off the nearest cliff because your writing isn’t anywhere as good as Gawande’s, you’re not alone.)

You can find a listing of Gawande’s articles via his web page. Now, if you’ll excuse me there’s a cliff I must get to.

When Pigs Fly and A-H1N1 (weekly rant)

Copyright, Corbis (artist unknown)

I choose not to respond to H1N1 as a hazardous, disastrous flu that will wreak havoc across the world. Sure, it is a flu, but it only has mild symptoms. None greater than Norovirus. Lasting only 1 week, with a fever over 38, it’s not that bad for the average healthy person to get through. What is winter without a week off because of a fever and sniffles?! Knock on wood, tap on the ceiling, nothing will prevent getting the H1N1 Flu besides washing your hands for a solid 20 seconds with soap and water. Yell at the person leaving the bathroom w/o washing their hands- it’s your duty! I think Bronchitis may be possibly worse than the flu.

What’s all this business about suggesting not to have a vaccination for the “regular” flu, because of the increase in susceptibility to getting H1N1? Load of crap! If you’re not skeptical about this warning, then you haven’t had your bacon for breakfast. I think this is a cheap scam to save money on people getting over-vaccinated to prevent a run-out of vaccines, but “of course this won’t happen.” Pssshaw. The worst of it all is when Prime Minister Harper’s government arranged for a delivery of extra body bags to a town in Manitoba. Disgraceful, disgusting, and disappointing. Tension headaches suck, otherwise I would so continue writing.

End of rant.

Disordered or Diseased?

Thursday is usually the best day of the week at gym. The attendance falls off steadily as the week progresses from Monday. This being a good moral organized religion community the facility is closed on Sunday but open on Shabat. And I am not sure whether the progression is linear or (negative) exponential; there is a cyclic effect as I have previously described.

Anyway the only nuisances today were the representatives of the local constabulary who lift (and bounce) weights to strengthen their stolid limbs and nothing to reduce the two-and-a-half-trimester appearance of their abdomens, and a pair of young women who seem to believe their conversation is of interest to everyone in the facility, given the volume they use in carrying on their conversation. Sadly they are not even drowned out by the brief passage of the custodial support armed with industrial strength vacuum cleaner. I am seriously considering reverting to the clunky noise canceling earphones so I can hear the podcast without being distracted by thrilling tidbits of their boggish lives.

Those podcasts this morning were Melvyn, Lord Bragg’s “In Our Time” and Jesse Brown’s “Search Engine”. The former’s thread the morning was the set to between Newton and Leibniz over the calculus. The discussion was enthralling mostly because of my background; the only thing I garnered that seemed worth blogging was an observation, not explicitly drawn by the academics, that geniuses are highly different and tend to fight with heart thrusts. Given that fighting is a waste of their time, that latter is hardly surprising, except maybe to bogs?

More appetizing was a discussion on the latter about Internet Addiction Disease (or Disorder.) Attempts to classify this officially as a disease here in the Yankee republic have been declined by the Imperial Apparat of Medicine on the grounds that there are already several authorized official diseases that could be applied. Perhaps the most chilling of this was the reminder that one cannot be actually ill in the Yankee republic any more without whatever it is you are suffering from being granted official status by the high priests of health. Of course the second thought was that this state of affairs not be made known to the Yankee government lest Congress Critters see pruning of the list of official maladies as a means of effecting heath care revision. Think how much cheaper health insurance would be if cancer and other expensive treatment diseases were removed from the list? And politicians could tell their usual prevarications of how they made things better?

On the other hand, China has officially approved Internet Addiction Disease and are treating it in standard social/political deviant fashion with electro-convulsive shock treatment, physical browbeating and just plain beating, and joy-labor camps. The only standard tactic of political and social correction not mentioned was mandatory readings from a little red book. Somehow the lessons of how not to do social engineering will not be brought home to the politicians here in the Yankee republic.

But the question I would really ask is if the symptomatology described as being part of the disease are so bad, why is society continuing to foster them? If people are taking refuge in the not-mundanity of the internet in preference to the “real” world of society, why are we not altering society to make it more satisfying instead of driving them into an artificial refuge?

My Experience at Joe Wilson's Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform

At the Lexington Town Hall meeting instead of showing the President’s plan they showed the GOP plan (chart included).
At the Lexington Hall Meeting there was majority Republicans of course, and a few Democrats. There was a share of outbursts here and there.
I sat up front and got to ask the people around me their opinion on Health Care. Some were unsure about it. Dr. John Black, the President, SC Medical Assoc. Said the? Doctor association (don’t remember the name) was supporting the President’s Plan, because of duress. Rep. Joe Wilson also echoed that other groups were under duress, to support the plan. What I find so interesting about Dr. Black everything he would support in a Bill in Health Care Reform is already in the President’s plan. The folks love it, but they didn’t understand that this is part of the President’s Plan not the GOP.

Rep. Joe Wilson continuously spread some of the same falsehoods Republicans have been spreading in emails. He said that Abortion is mention through out this bill, which is False. He talked about the so called death panel and how the illegal aliens would take advantage of the Presidents plans. Some Democrats were fed up of the falsehoods and would shout out liar. Any information in reference to the President’s Health Care Reform Joe Wilson talked about has been proven false by the Media and the White House. Questions were put on post cards and drawn from a box. All the questions we heard were from Republicans. (Not to add there were several duplicate questions on the Post cards which was a waste of time.) I guess they were afraid of the questions if people got up to use a microphone.

There was one short elder lady that kept interrupting and calling Joe Wilson a liar with some shouts about Iraq. She kept getting reprimanded by the man reading the Questions on stage. At one point Joe Wilson directly reprimanded her for her out bursts (something about comparing to a chair and table). People were yelling at her to leave. After it was almost over she got up to leave and Republicans were roaring and clapping. As she was leaving and Joe Wilson was speaking she yelled something and another elder man went over and looked like touch her arm (? I guess to take her out). The elder gentlemen she was with stood in front of her and stared the other elderly man down.

After the meeting I went over to Speak to Rep. Wilson to ask a question. There were several people trying to ask questions and I was directly standing beside Rep. Wilson and every time I tried to get in to ask a question he seem to keep to turning around in the circle to answer someone else’s question. Not to say this figured into the picture, but I was probably suspected as a supporter for the President since I am African American, and I was the only African I noticed in the crowd trying to ask Rep. Joe Wilson a question after the meeting. There were some people who kept mentioning after the last person had finish with their question, I was trying to ask a question. (He seem to keep turning in a circle in the other direction to answers someone else’s question, mind you again I was directly next to him). The agent? I assume who was with Rep. Wilson said he would make sure I would get to speak to Rep. Wilson.

I ask Rep. Wilson How can he explain for Canada, who he said has everyone on a 6 months waiting list, can some how be able to provide health care since 2007 for any American unemployed or simply cannot afford insurance in the United States to come there to gain health care for a small fee? How can he justify the United States can’t take care of his own? He gave be a blip answer, we can’t afford it, and tried to turn away.
I then said the President’s Public option was not free and that people would have to pay for it. The plan also help covers the gap for those that can’t pay for private insurance.
He also later said each country should take care of its own. Mind you Joe Wilson is not interested in providing insurance option such as a public plan so how could he say the United States will take care of its own? The folks chimed in…

He tried to mention the Trillion dollars the President’s health care program would cost and I said I understood it to be in the billions.

He tried to mention all the illegal aliens that have been driving up the cost, (when he mentions illegal aliens everyone began yelling about the illegal aliens. I had one woman pointing at me and screaming. I looked at her and looked away. I told him of all the millions Americans who drive up cost by using the emergency rooms to get medical attention.

He then mention all the small businessmen that would go out of business and all the people with private insurance would be removed from their personal insurance plan and I explained a public plan would be good for the small businessmen that could not afford providing insurance to their employees. Employees would be able to buy affordable insurance on their own, and people with private insurance would still be able to keep their insurance.

He kept trying to make people fear government involved in health care throughout the town hall meeting and when I was talking to him, I also ask him if he is going to ask all these folks around him to get off Medicare since Medicare is ran by the government. I then ask him does he support Medicare and he did say yes.
There was another woman next to me who kept yelling I was wrong about the small businessmen not going out of business. She said she would explain it to me, and I looked at her and told her I didn’t want to hear from her because anything she had to say would be biased. Rep. Joe Wilson looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. (I had overheard earlier this same woman talking to one of Joe’s Wilson’s people. Apparently she and Rep. Wilson have talked before and also I overheard her tell she works for the Insurance Industry).
We had some other comments back and forth but that’s about the gist of it.
I had all the questions I could think of and so I left. On my way out small businessmen shook my hand and told me he actually understood the questions I asked Rep. Joe Wilson. He thought the President plans was a good plan, but was concerned about some of the penalties (some more of the Falsehoods Joe Wilson put out there at this Town Hall meeting).
Actually I believe majority of those people in that room would support a Public choice, but the Republicans are making it sound bad. One lady told Joe she was mad and she was afraid that the government was going to take her Medicare. Do you think Joe Wilson told her she shouldn’t worry about that in the President’s plan? NO, he didn’t tell her she was wrong, he overlooked this and referenced what he would not support this bill. One gentleman told Joe Wilson that he hopes he can put out more information about the Health Care Reform bill, because he just didn’t have enough information about it. C’mon he isn’t going to get the correct information from Representative Republican Joe Wilson.

Well that’s my long story, and my last Town Hall meeting on Health Care, so my mom can stop worrying.