lol. you could have said “single-payer,” or “public option,” or maybe “repeal obamacare”!
actually maybe “public option, no wait! . . . repeal obamacare and end its death-panels” would have worked nicely.
“I would like to pay neurologists more than all other specialties combined.”
lol
“i would outlaw all radiologists none of them can be trusted”
george mcgovern hospitalized after fall.
he was about to appear on c-span.
For reals, though, I think it’d basically be impossible to get physicians to fully sign on to single payer, if for no other reason than most of us spend enough time as students/residents/sometimes attendings in the VA system to get the impression that the VA is a place where getting stuff done is sort of impossible sometimes.
that may be. i’ve been doing a lot of health care-related work over the past few years, and one thing i’m sure of is that the old fee-for-service model is soon to be a thing of the past. everything will be managed care, of one sort or another (whether it be ACOs or HMOs or some other form).
hey C-L are you applying in mpls??
McGovern, 89, helicoptered to trauma unit:
“About 10 feet from the door he slipped and fell and hit his head,” Simmons said. “He was bleeding pretty heavily.”
Hang in there, big fella.
I am! On Monday! (I woulda posted this but then ILX asploded)
!!!
good luck, duder. say whuddup to my mans dr. fi0l
good luck, c-l.
Thank you! I may have already seen the winner of my Interview Sweepstakes, but it is still hilarious and fun to do interviews. Plus I get to go to Mayo in a couple weeks! BECAUSE I CAN~
healthcare professionals are scum
Bah. This makes me feel shitty for even saying anything. Obv. river wolf is an excellent example of a liberal-arts grad who will be an awesome health-care professional. One of my favorite uncles was a lawyer before he went back to school for a microbiology Ph.D. Obv. there are also dudes like Atul Gawande and Siddharta Mukherjee who are top-notch doctors/writers.
I guess my thing with K3vin was that I’d never encountered him having talked about his pharmacy studies with the same degree of passion that he talked about other things. Obv. ILX as a whole leans more toward humanities-related subjects than toward hard science, but it still felt sort of dissonant to me. But I have a better understanding now!
sorry i was just bein cranky
np dude u know i <3
Humanities stuff is more exciting to discuss and debate and have opinions on, though, I guess. Like, even with medicine, the stuff that starts arguments is political stuff and the squishy humanities/ethics elements. And you get some of that over the course of the day, but when I talk with my friends from school about medicine stuff it is basically a) patient stories, which are kinda awesome, but I feel weird talking about them on the internet in all but the vaguest of terms, b) gossip about other students/residents/attendings, which is SO AWESOME but does not translate well, and c) talkin’ bout residency. In the preclinical years it was talkin’ bout how stupid certain stupid things were. (Stupid antiarrhythmics HATE YOU SO MUCH)
I am kind of doing c) right now but again I am compelled to be really vague because I decided to post to the internet with my initials and so if someone really cared enough to try, they could figure out my identity pretty quickly.
Panetta to Israel/Palestine: “Get to the damn table.” Watch this cause a shitstorm.
antiarrhythmics are just the worst.
i’m at FVRS (across the river) rotating through neuro’s softer lil brother. hope you enjoy our fair burg! how long you in town?
for some reason i’ve decided to watch the herman cain announcement on two different live feeds at the same time
there’s a one second delay between the two feeds and the result is extremely psychedelic
here’s a third, if anyone wants to completely blooow their miiiind, duuuuude
CNN’s treating like the Apollo 11 launch.
They’ve even got Wolf on the phone from Florida.
he quoted the pokemon movie
lol
The Bush Obama administration’s latest decree:
U.S. citizens are legitimate military targets when they take up arms with al-Qaida, top national security lawyers in the Obama administration said Thursday.
The lawyers were asked at a national security conference about the CIA killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen and leading al-Qaida figure. He died in a Sept. 30 U.S. drone strike in the mountains of Yemen.
The government lawyers, CIA counsel Stephen Preston and Pentagon counsel Jeh Johnson, did not directly address the al-Awlaki case. But they said U.S. citizens do not have immunity when they are at war with the United States.
Johnson said only the executive branch, not the courts, is equipped to make military battlefield targeting decisions about who qualifies as an enemy.
only the executive branch, not the courts, is equipped to make military battlefield targeting decisions
Sounds reasonable, until you realize that the targeting decision is what created the battlefield; there was no “battle” until the drone fired its weapon.
HUNT: But I’m asking, why did the economy grow a lot? Why were more jobs created in the previous decade under higher taxes than in this decade under lower taxes?
UPTON: I don’t know specifically the answer to that question.
I would have thought Michigan Republican Upton would have said that Republicans in Congress and the tech boom were responsible for Clinton era growth, but I guess these folks never get this obvious question from our esteemed press corps.
lol
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_12/an_absurd_choice_for_a_health033923.php
Why is Politico giving such awards in the first place, and really —Paul Ryan for “Health Care Policymaker of the Year”
Did y’all read that Obama called Pakistan’s President to offer condolences for those recent mistaken killings/deaths, but I read that he did not offer the apology in a public setting as the White House was afraid that Republicans would use the footage to further their stupid message that Obama is not proud of “American exceptionalism”
the White House was afraid
the White House was afraid
the White House was afraid
the White House was afraid
It’s all about politics
that’s all “it” is ever about
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_12/an_absurd_choice_for_a_health033923.php
Why is Politico giving such awards in the first place, and really —Paul Ryan for “Health Care Policymaker of the Year”
Politico is hackery congealed and in print form?
Hmm.. so Obama gave a 55-minute speech on economic themes today.
yeah good speech, albeit composed entirely of empty posturing
“empty posturing” is the best kind of posturing.
really, why waste substance on posturing?
under President Newt our empty posturing will be fuller & more vital, worthy of the greatest nation on earth
god-emperor newt, thank you very much.
FUNDAMENTALLY fuller and more vital
yeah good speech, albeit composed entirely of empty posturing
I’m not sure what would constitute non-posturing. He can’t exactly say “I promise to do this” without 60 votes in the Senate.
lol
have you not noticed how this rhetoric is completely different from the rhetoric he was using just 12 months ago. I mean, it’s ALL rhetoric whenever a President makes a speech, but in terms of legislative priorities this stuff is basically meaningless. Non-posturing would involve staking out a specific legislative goal and then following through on it.
I mean it’s pretty hilarious for him to cite regulators falling down on the job or whatever when you consider how he’s handled the SEC
for example
or letting the Bush tax cuts get extended as part of a lopsided deal with the GOP (I dunno about you but tax cuts expiring >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> gays in the military)
The president’s getting frisky because he thinks he can adeptly manipulate public opinion for the first time in ages.
^^^
there’s also some sort of election coming up
In terms of specifics, there’s the current proposal for extending the payroll tax cut for the middle class and paying for it with a tax surcharge on incomes over $1 million. But that’s not going anywhere without Republican support. There are also things that have already been passed but are still in the implementation stage, such as Dodd-Frank. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if further specific policies come out of this, but in general I think Obama tends to lay out the philosophy in broad-strokes first and then work out the specifics.
he is, as Z S reminds us, in election mode now, so he makes like Moses lifting his staff and rallying Dems behind him.
The president’s getting frisky because he thinks he can adeptly manipulate public opinion for the first time in ages.
he’s feeling frisky? how cute.
let it out shakey!
?
hi k3vin!
you just seemed righteously unhinged and i was genuinely enjoying it! xp
well I want Obama to win, given the alternatives. And I am not quite as cynical as some in regards to his overall goals and ideological bent—but dude is a centrist and a pragmatist at his core, and that handicaps his legislative priorities and tactics, the results of which are not always things I agree with. The payroll tax cut thing currently going on is small potatoes and the GOP will cave so I’m not really worried about it. Dodd-Frank bill is allright, but the SEC is totally falling down on its job and has for years. Federal climate change/energy policy legislation is dead in the water (even tho this is exactly the kind of thing that could restructure the economy, create jobs, and have vast long-term benefits). Bush tax cuts are still in place. Troops are still in Afghanistan. etc.
i agree with all that post, well said
I expect Obama to make a big show of drawing down troops in Afghanistan within the next 12 months but imho Bin Laden’s dead time to cut our losses
but imho Bin Laden’s dead
my opinion too
i need to see an official death-certificate or i don’t believe it.
this doesn’t seem to matter to most people. it matters to me. not to most.
I agree with the spirit of Shakey’s remarks but at this point still won’t vote for the man, mostly because his foreign policy consists of extending most of the Bush era’s most heinous positions and his arrogance in assuming he could coast on his empyrean cool last winter. Renewing those Bush tax cuts was the kind of catastrophe that a man with his acumen should have seen; how could it not have led to this summer’s impasse?
oh I probably won’t vote for him either
“his foreign policy consists of extending most of the Bush era’s most heinous positions”
69 with Condi?
save it for the ILX slash fic thread
if you want Obama (or a Republican) to win, you still don’t get it
yeah as i’ve said i won’t vote for obama and face absolutely no moral quandary in not doing so, thanks electoral college!
if you think there are currently other viable options...
xp
I want Obama to win, & I think I do “get it”, & as I’ve said before, it’s as much about identity politics for me as it is about economics & foreign policy.
how do we define “identity politics” in 2011? No snark — I’m curious!
I mean that he is biracial, & that we can elect such a person president, twice! reaffirms my hope in America. of course there are lots of axes of hope for this “land of opportunity”, & this is just one, but I’ll take it, since I gather we’re all on the same page that on other axes, he’s not made much progress over Little Bush.
Fair enough, but we are reducing him to a symbol — a brand, if you will.
and maybe that’s all he’ll be remembered for. We’ll know in fifteen years.
we already know that America’s not really run by the president, & indeed that’s what “the founders” wanted. the president’s a symbol & that’s fine, that’s all that person needs to be in a republic like ours. I think maybe that’s where I differ from a lot of you, esp. Morbius, who expect more out of the Great Leader: I want a Great Government, but the presidency is just a small part of that.
yay, a biracial man can be Imperial War Criminal. He’s proven it!
I expect shit out of the Great Leader, and more out of us.
I expect Obama to make a big show of drawing down troops in Afghanistan within the next 12 months but imho Bin Laden’s dead time to cut our losses
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 22:49 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink
this terrible pedantic post is going to be awesome because i get to step into john mccain let’s listen to our generals on the ground shoes for a lil minute, but: afghanistan is so complicated, & there are a p diverse range of pro- and anti- opinions re: continuing US involvement from people in afghanistan (or there were around a year ago, idk how things have changed), those being the people who we should be at the service of & considering our decisions based on, having already got so involved in fucking w/their country without a great plan, etc etc etc. i’m not even saying that we should or shouldn’t pull out, but framing the decision wrt ‘our losses’ is nagl i think. like if the best thing—as in safest, I guess, rather than ‘thing that inches us closest to something we can put a flag in & call victory’—was to be there in a five hundred year long agonising drawdown then that would be the thing to do.
i’ll vote for Obama only if Gingrich somehow manages to win the GOP nomination. but such a vote would be in the spirit of French voters a decade ago voting for Jacques Chirac simply because Jean-Marie Le Pen was that odious (and Newt is also that odious) and not b/c they all of a sudden fell in love w/ Chirac (who certainly didn’t deserve it otherwise).
but Newt won’t win the nomination.
I promise you this: Newt can’t win the nomination without winning the presidency, but he can only win the presidency if America gets back to fundamentals, to what gives our nation its vitality, men like George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, & women like Condi Rice & Sarah Jessica Parker too. This election, this nomination, are the dawn before Morning In America, or at least the night before that Morning, & the presidency depends on someone being the alarm clock waking up the nation for that Bright Morning, an alarm clock I like to call Newt Gingrich.
I expect Obama to make a big show of drawing down troops in Afghanistan within the next 12 months but imho Bin Laden’s dead time to cut our losses
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 22:49 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink
this terrible pedantic post is going to be awesome because i get to step into john mccain let’s listen to our generals on the ground shoes for a lil minute, but: afghanistan is so complicated, & there are a p diverse range of pro- and anti- opinions re: continuing US involvement from people in afghanistan (or there were around a year ago, idk how things have changed), those being the people who we should be at the service of & considering our decisions based on, having already got so involved in fucking w/their country without a great plan, etc etc etc. i’m not even saying that we should or shouldn’t pull out, but framing the decision wrt ‘our losses’ is nagl i think. like if the best thing—as in safest, I guess, rather than ‘thing that inches us closest to something we can put a flag in & call victory’—was to be there in a five hundred year long agonising drawdown then that would be the thing to do.
― Never translate German (schlump), Tuesday, December 6, 2011 8:39 PM (19 minutes ago)
cool can we do this for free though?
we already know that America’s not really run by the president, & indeed that’s what “the founders” wanted. the president’s a symbol & that’s fine, that’s all that person needs to be in a republic like ours. I think maybe that’s where I differ from a lot of you, esp. Morbius, who expect more out of the Great Leader: I want a Great Government, but the presidency is just a small part of that.
― by (mennen), Tuesday, December 6, 2011 8:35 PM (24 minutes ago)
pretttttty sure he’s got some important jobs dude, and btw the office of the presidency if you haven’t noticed doesn’t much resemble what “the founders wanted” these days
cool can we do this for free though?
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 7 December 2011 01:59 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink
yeah but c’mon i just- like i am not practical with this but i sorta feel like our obligation began when we got involved, rather than expired when we had problems—obviously that’s part of a larger conversation about how we need to work out what we need to pay for & then raise the appropriate funds, rather than just work out that we don’t really wanna spend money and argue over what we’re gonna cut, &c.
but yes, i feel like if i come & smash up your house then i am obliged to either split, if being there is just gonna annoy you further, or clear up what i did, having trashed the place. i am dumb w/this & not pragmatic but i just feel like the money issue is that it should have been financed not we can’t finance it
sorry i feel like an asshole making this point, i know it isn’t like either of y’all are looking for a satisfying exit, i just think it’s a weird obligation thing. wasn’t the us obliged to pay vietnam a gazillion dollars, after the war, only to renege a year later & be all ‘we’re not gonna do that’, leaving it the poorest country on earth? we are invested there in a lot of ways, leaving and cutting ties just feels so unconscionable to me, like equal investment in rebuilding would ~morally~ be the appropriate coda to being engaged in warfare. but yeah i know that doesn’t exactly fit with how things are
re: payroll tax cut extension
House leaders are hoping to entice conservative support by packaging the payroll tax extension with other priorities, such as a provision that would make it more likely that construction would begin soon on a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
hahah oh fuck off you idiots
leaving and cutting ties just feels so unconscionable to me, like equal investment in rebuilding would ~morally~ be the appropriate coda to being engaged in warfare
the problem is no amount of imperial meddling is going to make Afghanistan a better to place to live. I dunno if you could even say we’re leaving it WORSE off than it was before, it’s pretty much the same as far as I can tell—riven with sectarian conflict and aggro nutjobs who want to fight among themselves indefinitely, with no interest in being anything resembling a modern nation.
it’s the socialist healthcare they get
They all need to eat more pretzels.
Adams lost teeth but not brains.
14 years for blogojevich.
14 years of explaining his complete innocence to the prison guards.
well, he said at sentencing that he was sorry for his “made terrible mistakes,” but that he “never intended to break the law.” the judge said, “the jury didn’t believe you and neither do i.”
a provision that would make it more likely that construction would begin soon on a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, they’re so transparently servants of the oil industry
Well, why not? Do you believe this climate change twaddle?
totally. it was in the 50s around here recently. you see? it’s C-O-L-D-E-R than expected, not h-o-t-t-e-r.