Hypocrisy

Matt and I have been quite disgusted by the Manchurian candidates for both of the major parties in the upcoming election.

The only thing amusing about this coming election is how the Democrats’ incredible push to support “diversity” has overcome their ability to pick a candidate based on qualifications, instead of race or gender.  And as a result, their own Politically Correct machine is biting them in the butt.  Lord knows, I’ve heard racist comments from my own non-white relatives.  So all Matt and I can do is go about our lives, spending time with our coworkers, because sadly, the hashing out of race and gender inequality is only occurring on television.

Just because Obama is part-black, people seem to think he is immune from scandal.  Honey, all one needs to do is look up who ran against him for the Senate.  Does no one remember?  Of course not.  Chicago’s political machine sees to it that it’s not brought up again.  Godfathers are nice that way.

Also no one need question what Obama has done to help the citizens of Southside Chicago.  Just contain them all there, and it’ll be alright.

I can’t understand why African-Americans in the South continue to vote for someone who did *NOTHING* to improve their conditions during her husband’s many years as governor of one of the poorest states in the Union.

My female and black (and female *AND* black) medical
school classmates are still happily getting paid over $200,000 a year. 
I dunno where this feeling of gender and race “inequality” is coming
from.  No one kept us from graduating from medical school.

Freedom of Choice

Maybe
it’s because I see life and death every day that I get bored watching
T.V. shows these days. Maybe it’s because I see people without any real
choices in life other than to accept that they have a terminal disease
that makes me scoff when I listen to people complaining about the U.S.
government taking away their freedom to smoke pot or to go above 45 in
a 20 mph school zone. Maybe it’s because a lot of the patients who end
up in my hospital have diseases that are fully preventable, by their
own choice of what they’ve done in life.

And every day, I attempt to fix the results of poor choices. That is the price we pay for freedom — poor choices.

I
still remember when I was just a medical student, a man came in who had
serious liver cirrhosis (from drinking) and COPD (from smoking). As I
was taught, I counseled this man (old enough to be my grandfather)
about the hazards of continuing to smoke. I offered him two options –
the patch or the gum. He wanted neither. Only oxygen by nasal cannula
was what he wanted and needed to stay alive (for the meantime).

He
was discharged from the hospital in stable condition, but we sent him
to a veterans facility because 1) he was homeless and 2) he probably
had liver cancer and would need further evaluation and treatment.

While
he was in the hospital, he was visited a total of 1 time, by his
sister. When he was discharged from the hospital, she paged me, and
then asked to talk to me. The entire conversation consisted of her
yelling at me for not making him stop smoking. I explained to her that
I discussed the dangers of smoking and offered him smoking cessation
aids, which he refused. “You didn’t do enough,” she yelled. And
proceeded to emit a series of foul words which I will not repeat on
this site.

I was quite livid at the time, but looking back on
it, it was easy to see why she was angry. First, she was probably
feeling guilty that her brother was in the hospital. Alone. After all,
he’d been homeless for who knows how many months. Even he didn’t know how many months. She had to find someone
to blame for the fact that her brother was not well. Nevermind that
before his hospitalization, I had never even met the man, and she had
known him for nearly all his life (which is maybe why he chose to be
homeless rather than to live with her).

Secondly, control freaks
like her are the reason Singapore has outlawed smoking completely. And
outlawed chewing gum, as well. I’m happy to say that America is still a
free country, and that as much as I deplore the effects smoking have on
my patients who started this absurd habit of inhaling partially
combusted material. . . I’m not fascist enough to tie a man down to a
bed and force him to use a nicotine patch.

Nor am I schizophrenic enough to go blaming health professionals for refusing to force a man to accept elective medication.

Next
thing you know, this lady will be lobbying in the Senate to impose
nicotine patches on people against their will. “Chew that nicotine gum!
Chew it! NOW, I SAY!“

Control freaks. They know how you
must live your life, and they will force you to live a “good” life,
even if it means making it a law.

The Role of Government

“It is not the business of government to make men
virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of
his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is
necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from
aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental
prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating
the very ends they are intended to serve.”

– Henry George*

*author of Progress and Poverty

Denmark

I‘m always amazed at how so many American-born citizens know so little about other countries, and yet, with such little knowledge of the outside world, they loathe what (very) little they know about their own country.

For example, I keep wondering why celebrities say that everyone hates the U.S.  Who hates the U.S.?  I know my relatives don’t hate the U.S., because while celebrities keep leaving, my own relatives KEEP COMING HERE.  I guess if you already have millions, you get more bang for your buck in other countries.  No wonder rich celebrities hate the U.S.; they’ve got less spending power here than in places like the Philippines or Thailand.