By John Ballard
Via The Health Care Blog we have an appropriate video for the weekend, Christmas and health care. This streaming video comes in short segments like a string of pearls. The subject of the story is also the producer and her message is one of excetement and promise. [...]
By John Ballard
I don't want to pick a fight, but a simple point needs to be made.
Without a mandate health care will not be, by definition, universal.
Despite a veritable chorus of progressive voices to the contrary, The Wonk Room at Think Progress agrees.
The math is really quite simple. The' [...]
By John Ballard
Ending paragraphs of Why Afghans Dig Empire Graveyards by Nicholas J. S. Davies...
Afghans believe that it was they who brought down the Safavids and the Soviets. While the Afghans definitely did their part, the forces that led to the collapse of those empires were really much closer [...]
By John Ballard
Maggie Mahar is still my heroine in this contest.
If health care reform fails this time around it won't be because she and a few others didn't give it all they had trying to prevent a worse train wreck than we already have.
Yesterday, I appeared on [...]
By John Ballard
Something important is going on in Copenhagen.
Lndsay Bayerstein noticed.Tuvalu and its supporters want a treaty to protect island states. They also seek legally binding emissions targets for all countries geared to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. Last week, Tuvalu managed to get the [...]
By John Ballard
Maggie sez...This is the first game, not the match.
Neither the House nor the Senate bill plans to roll out reform before 2013 (or 2014).
Over the next three years, Congress will revisit the public plan. And Conservatives will try to repeal the stripped-down bill that we [...]
By John Ballard
This post is strictly recreational reading. Anyone looking for heavy, important stuff should move on to whatever is next on your list.By John Ballard
If more Congressional interns and staff would tear themselves away from legislative mouseprint long enough to read another language (scientific research, for example) health care reform would be more effective and less costly at the same time. It's a stretch, but I keep hoping.
By John Ballard
Some might think it's inappropriate for a non-Jew to talk about Hanukkah, but I've been doing it for years. I consider myself an honorary Jew because during my high school years in Columbus, Georgia all the Jewish families sent their kids to the same high school where I [...]
By John Ballard
Fred Clark observes...That new book, Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia, happens to have been written by Dr. Ann Dunham, the late mother of President Barack Obama. And that means if you're Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Steele or John Boehner, then [...]
By John Ballard
UNNATURAL CAUSES is the acclaimed documentary series broadcast by PBS and now used by thousands of organizations around the country to tackle the root causes of our alarming socio-economic and racial inequities in health.
The four-hour series crisscrosses the nation uncovering startling new findings that suggest there [...]
By John Ballard .
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If you want to see Chuck Kramer himself doing this piece, here is another link that I couldn't embed. [Windows Media Player]
' [...]By John Ballard
Radio blogging here.
NPR ran a story Monday about Real ID, a form of national identification I had never heard of, despite the fact that legislation was introduced in 2005 mandating that states get their acts together to meet federal requirements for identification.
Less than four weeks from now, [...]
By John Ballard
As a student I hated history. It is filled with stories and dates that no longer make any difference. Or so I thought. But as I got older I came into contact with people for whom history was more important than the present. In fact, it was history [...]
By John Ballard
His name will be synonymous with health care reform. Dr. Gawande may have influenced more thinking than any other individual. In this latest piece he compares changing the way we do medicine with the way America changed the way we do agriculture.
What [...]
By John Ballard
I'm learning to monitor tweets while doing my morning surfing. This can be distracting, especially when themes intersect in delightful ways.
Steve points to a great piece in the Guardian explaining how special interests advance the claims of climate change deniers.
..."members of the public feel more'" [...]By John Ballard
Color this post dry but important.
I would like to point to something new and sexy but health care reform, despite the histrionics, is basically a boring repetition of already known facts in the hope that reform efforts will eventually reach critical mass and those in authority will enact [...]
By John Ballard
Lest we get warm and fuzzy about America's success in Iraq, a look at Iraq Today is a head-snapping corrective. Mounting casualties and security incidents in the Afghanistan Adventure are also being tracked here. I keep a link to the site but find it depressing so I [...]
By John Ballard
MD Whistleblower is a blogging doctor in Ohio. He started blogging in January and only averages one post a week, but he knows his stuff and writes about himself.
His candor is refreshing. I'm taking the whole post for your reading pleasure. I have a feeling this' [...]
By John Ballard
I've been busy this week with Christmas stuff and a variety of personal chores, and today I'm catching up with reading. Here's what I'm into...
Via The Arabist
Book Report, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders Short story of the title page A Spoiled Man The Swiss screw-up (and' [...]By John, H/T Abbas Raza
A few comments from me.
►This line jumped off the screen at me from the translation.
If our leader orders us to kill two people and hundreds are
killed in this process even then we will do so.
I need for someone to explain to me how [...]
By John Ballard
Crof points to a post at the Virology Blog about this question.
The 1968 pandemic began with the emergence of a novel H3N2 influenza virus in Hong Kong in July 1968. First isolates... were obtained globally throughout the summer. The previous seasonal H2N2 strain was last isolated [...]
By John Ballard
Nouri Lumendifi prefers to be called Kal but I have a hard time making that adjustment because he first got my attention with a book report he posted at the age of seventeen that impressed me more than the book. That was only three and a half [...]
By John Ballard
Ian Welsh doesn't always carry a cell phone.Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with customer location data more than 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009, according to a company manager who disclosed the statistic at a non-public interception and wiretapping conference in October.' [...]
By John Ballard
I wondered how long it would take. Or if it ever might.
In her early days Arianna Huffington was a poster child for the political right. Sullivan is by no means the first to make such a switch.
...there has to come a point at which a movement or [...]
By John Ballard
My other post sank like a rock. Not surprising since the subject was abstruse and my hypothesis far-fetched. The odds are small, but if anyone reading this should follow through and read the same material, I would appreciate feedback. That Atlantic article and the post [...]
While I'm doing homework, readers are invited to check out this video and reflect on whether it may have political implications.
Yesterday I watched the Fox network long enough to see their reporting of the growing Teabagger phenomenon. With the influence and prestige of a major' [...]
By John Ballard
Before he got famous for his superior journalism revealing The Family at C Street, Jeff Sharlet, together with Peter Manseau, founded Killing The Buddha, another of my favorite reads. That was the source of this offering which is appropriate for Thanksgiving, especially for anyone of a [...]
By John Ballard
Crof tweets a link to a Canadian study validating a usually ignored common sense conclusion.
The study and numbers may be Canadian, but there is no reason to imagine similar results anywhere in the world.
Only 51.2 per cent of Canadian men in the lowest income [...]
By John Ballard
Lou Dobbs is betraying his base, backpeddling on past statements, in an appearance on Telemundo.
He's trying hard to stuff a big pile of poop back into an elephant, or as the Wall Street Journal said "reaching out to Latinos with politics in mind."
The comments' [...]
By John Ballard
Via Bernard Avishai.Sometimes tourists show up at Jerusalem's mental health centers, convinced that a voice from the heavens told them they were the messiah. The illness, commonly known as Jerusalem Syndrome, usually passes once they have left the city. However, Israelis, mostly public figures, have been afflicted' [...]
By John Ballard
Health Information Technology is to wasted revenue what tapeworms are to nutrition.
If waste is part of the revenue stream, then reducing waste reduces revenue.
Most people would reply "So what?" until they realize that reduced revenue leads to reduced profits, especially if you are selling something that is [...]
By John Ballard
Let us turn our attention away from the turkeys in Washington to those in the grocery stores.
Thanksgiving Day is nigh.
Purists may want to consider a real turkey this year instead of what we have been taught to eat in recent years.
I've not had one, incidentally. They're [...]
By John Ballard
Frank Sharry is Founder and Executive Director of America's Voice. With the support of allies in the immigration reform community, he created the new organization in early 2008 to focus on communications and media as part of a renewed effort to win comprehensive immigration reform. Prior to heading America's Voice, Frank [...]
By John Ballard
Said before.What a golden opportunity has been missed to educate Americans about the implications of their health care choices. Otis W. Brawley, the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, in an op-ed in today's Washington Post condemning the USPSTF guidelines, confirms [...]
By John Ballard
This is too long to tweet and too short to blog, but too good to miss.
Tom Watson riffs on the Palin phenomenon.
Journalistic poetry.
...Newsweek went with the full Joan on its cover this week, fronting essays by Evan Thomas and Christopher Hitchens, pieces that are also accompanied by [...]
By John Ballard
This quote speaks for itself.
For a fuller view go to the link.
Hospitals have no incentives to prevent unnecessary hospitalization. Physicians, paid mostly by fee-for-service, have every incentive to order more tests and procedures. Neither is rewarded directly for making – or keeping – patients healthy. Key to [...]
By John Ballard
The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force kicked over a hornet's nest this week by changing the long-standing recommendation for routine mammogram screenings for breast cancer in women. I cannot imagine any reader who missed the story, but in case anyone just recovered from a coma here is a [...]
By John Ballard
Dina Temple-Raston's report this morning on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed does little to explain how this man became a poster child for terrorism. Though it comes as no surprise, I had no idea he had been a foreign student in an American university in his younger years, but [...]
By John Ballard
OFA (Organizing For America) had a contest to select an amateur video to promote health care reform using paid advertising. The contest energized the base, then from among twenty finalists one entry was selected by voting. In order for one's vote to be counted it was necessary to' [...]
By John Ballard
This is an information only post.
Having listened closely for years and still not figuring out this reporter's name, I finally got around to looking it up. Doualy Xaykaothao has been reporting from all over Asia since 1999 and with every broadcast I have turned up the radio [...]
By John Ballard
Dead Pool time.
Get braced for a deluge of opinions as KSM goes on trial in NYC.
Everybody who is Anybody (as well as the Nobodies) will have something to say.
My post is prompted by something said by a new contributor at Coming Anarchy.
...whether it’s by military [...]
By John Ballard
Immigration reform may be the Next Big Thing.
Janet Napolitano fired the first shot yesterday speaking to the Center for American Progress.
We all know the story: A steady influx of undocumented workers, crossing our borders illegally in search of work and a better life. A market among [...]
By John Ballard
This man is so rational he makes me want to move to Vermont.
His constituents must be very proud of him.
Contrary to my previous post, I'm reluctantly back to undecided about the Coathangar provision of the bill.
A Massachusetts race indicates it's too soon to expect [...]
By John Ballard
Most Progressives, myself included, reacted to the Coathanger Amendment with dismay. After all the time and effort spent plowing the ground getting ready for eventual Congressional action on the Freedom Of Choice Act, the leadership of the House betrayed everyone by caving to one of the most [...]
By John Ballard
Charts like this are supposed to make us feel better. Light at the end of the tunnel and all that.
I would feel better if I didn't have such a bad attitude about the Reagan/Clinton/Bush years. The last two and a half decades will be remembered as the Age' [...]
By John Ballard
Found at Facing South
More links and details at the source.
By John Ballard
Let's hope the teabaggers can peek out from behind their American Flags today long enough to check out this report regarding immigrants in the armed forces.
Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY), and Russ Feingold (D-WI) have introduced' [...]
By John Ballard
This is something for Veteran's Day I came across several years ago. I posted it at my old blog with regularity since most readers don't read archives and items like this are unforgettable. The original link is still active but the formatting has become messy.
August 13, [...]
By John Ballard
I use the term in progress advisedly. In Washington terms like "progress" or "in progress" don't mean the same as when used in everyday conversation.
Pat Garofalo at the The Wonk Room compares the two versions of financial services regulatory reform being crafted in the House and' [...]
By John Ballard
Posted without comment.Today my little brother Bill would have turned 51.
Which means he's been dead almost 9 years. Can't quite understand that.
He was waiting for health insurance to kick in at his new job: We'd watched how medical costs had starved our family when we' [...]
By John Ballard
"Without objection..." (as they say in Congress) I'm stealing Ian Welsh's headline.
He gets today's extra points for squeezing the most content into the smallest space with this latest step in health care reform's laborious, turgid, messy, bruised and stained trudge through Washington politics, hopefully on the' [...]
By John Ballard
Speaking of denial, the tragedy at Ft. Hood (strategically scheduled exactly between Election Day and Veteran Day) prompts little in the way of soul-searching as many patriotic Americans close ranks for a stoning.
As a population we are quick to be in denial about the violent extremism [...]
By John Ballard
Denial is reaching pandemic proportions.
In the short space of a day I came across two more examples.
►►►Via NPR this morning, a new book by Michael Specter: "Denialism."
Nearly 20 percent of the families in Vashon Island, Wash., aren't getting their' [...]
By John Ballard
I haven't read it yet but this is a snip from my next reading assignment. I'm posting as I wait for the printer to finish eleven pages.
H/T Maggie Mahar's blog. Looks like pretty good content.
Followup later: It's an excellent article. Recommended reading. Notes and comments after [...]
By John Ballard
Mark Lynch poses more questions than answers about how best to confront extremism. His list needs to be widely discussed by both laymen and policy makers. This timely list was published just in time for the tragedy at Ft. Hood to trigger another round of public consideration [...]
By John Ballard
So you don't have enough on your plate?
Here's an off-the-wall take on some serious issues. Fasten your seatbelt.
Is human population expanding? Or dwindling? Should we neuter ourselves at the SPCA? Or multiply like the Octomom? The answer is... both?! Yes. Depending on your GPS coordinates, human numbers [...]
By John Ballard
Hamid Dabashi is the author of "Iran: A People Interrupted." He is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. His Web site is [www.hamiddabashi.com].
I heard a news reporter this afternoon refer to Iran's street demonstrations as "the biggest civil'" [...]
By John Ballard
Pay for what works. What a concept!
Oddly, no one seems to have thought about it before.
...Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare (the health insurance system for people connected to the military), the federal employees’ health benefit system, and private insurers have spent tens of millions of dollars on non-medical services, [...]
By John Ballard
Got a tweet from Crof about swine flu in Gaza.
Swine flu has not reached Gaza yet but with 1.5 million residents squeezed into 360 square kilometers it would appear to be a small miracle.By John Ballard
Okay, ya'll.
If and when it happens, just remember you read it here first.
Noriel Roubini is very smart. He was among the few economists who saw last year's economic collapse the year before. They don't call him Doctor Doom for nothing. So this most recent warning is' [...]
By John Ballard
Gregg Carlstrom's inaugural post at Newshoggers points our attention to Iran.
Mousavi and Karroubi plan to hold a rally on Wednesday, Nov. 4 -- the 13th of Aban in the Iranian calendar. Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.The embassy takeover is' [...]
By John Ballard
Reader advisory: This post is too dry for the average reader. If you find wonky details boring you might want to move to whatever is next on your reading list.
There are two parts. Part One is a progress report on how Massachusetts is coming along with what is [...]
By John Ballard
A previous post presented a brief outline of where Congressional legislation now stands on its way to being delivered.
Timothy Jost, in a trio of summary posts, combs through nearly two thousand pages of legislative mouseprint to find details that only a dedicated policy wonk could love. [...]
By John Ballard
Have you ever looked at the details of an EOB (Explanation of Benefits -- the verdict rendered by an insurance company indicating how the amount of your benefits were determined) and come across a note that said insurance was not gonna pay the full bill because the amount [...]
By John Ballard
Two links today regarding the much booed and ballyhooed Congressional study in legislative obesity (nearly two thousand pages, already). And they have yet to go to reconciliation.
Three of The Health Care Blog's most eminent contributors put up a post not even damning with very faint praise. Put [...]
By John Ballard
Tom Watson says it best......the image of President Obama standing on the tarmac at Dover is important, whatever his strategic decision. That is because he is not a figurative commander-in-chief, a mere head of state who leaves the conduct of American military action to the generals. No, [...]
By John Ballard
This commentary by Crof is worth a reprint. This man's blog is the gold standard for picking a subject and staying on task. Of course Avian flu (H5N1) is technically not the same as Swine flu (H1N1) but the current national and global response to the H1N1' [...]
By John Ballard
This is not today's news but today's NPR interview is a must-listen. Captain Matthew Hoh speaks with reason, authority and the calm confidence of a man who has done the right thing at great risk. A card-carrying hero, he spent enough time in Iraq to become a [...]
By John Ballard
Senator Russ Feingold released an important statement putting to rest four items clouding discussions about what next to do in Afghanistan. It's an easy, quick read supported by quotes from hearing testimonies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Myth 1 – Preventing a potential al Qaeda safe haven [...]By John Ballard
Thanks to Abbas' bringing it to my attention, I have read this piece two or three times, but I'm still not sure I get it. In many ways Pakistan is to her part of Asia what Israel is to the Levant, a state based on faith, [...]
By John Ballard
I don't recall how I came across this link.
This is a barebones list. Fuller explanations at the link.
1. Godwin’s Law The most famous of all the internet laws, formed by Mike Godwin in 1990. As originally stated, it said: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability'" [...]
By John Ballard
We need a communication tool between a blogpost and a tweet.
This one-liner is too long to tweet, too short for a good blogpost and too good to miss. H/T Crof
By John Ballard
Death panels across the pond, perhaps?
I don't think so. The professionals who conducted this study are too circumspect to advance any final explanations. But as a layman who has been doing his homework the reason seems obvious top me: protracted end of life medical care brings in' [...]
By John Ballard
Same message. Different language.
I know this is tiresome, but repetition is a good way to drive home a point.
For background, anyone who has yet to read Dr. Gawande's June article in The New Yorker should do so at once. The Cost Conundrum is to health care reform' [...]
By John Ballard
If you think Big Brother knows too much about you, take a closer look at your druggist. Naomi Freundlich, posting at Health Beat, spells out enough details to stir the pot.
Critics see data mining as an invasion of privacy, for both patients and providers. From the [...]
By John Ballard
Review of another review. That's what blogging is about, especially for those of us who seem not to have time enough to read as much as we would like. (Or think, perhaps wrongly, that we already know what's in the pages.)
Thanks, Abbas.
In this case, [...]
By John Ballard
This video opens with a reference to Goldman Alchemy: Turning a crisis into Billions, a NY Times article by Graham Bowley and Jenny Anderson about Goldman-Sachs. The focus of this post is neither Goldman-Sachs nor Matt Taibbi, but both are important to understanding yesterday's tepid but courageous attempt' [...]
By John Ballard
Did you ever try to clean out a desk or closet and come across a pile of stuff you need to toss but somehow it's too good to put in the trash? When that happens to me I box it all up and donate it to Goodwill. Maybe' [...]
By John Ballard
When political reporters start using phrases like "behind closed doors" it's a sure sign that the sausage grinder is humming away. For practical purposes the health care debate is over and all that is left for most of us, like expectant family members outside a surgery, is' [...]
By John Ballard
Thanks to the health care debate I have learned several new terms not in the vocabulary of most laymen. I have already posted a few times about the medical home concept.
This morning I was reminded of hospitalist, another term that seems simple enough but which represents [...]
By John Ballard
[The doctor] said, “If you were a white man, you have a chance, an 80 percent chance of living. A black man, a 20 percent.”
I said, “Race matters at that level? You’ve got to be kidding.”
"Prostate cancer, yes."
I said, “What about the research?” They don’t [...]
By John Ballard
Kern County, California, has lost a sixth resident to the "swine flu."
A local hospital has pitched tents to triage the growing number of patients showing up in its emergency department with coughs and fevers.
A doctor from Dell Children's Hospital in Austin, Texas tweets "BUY SOME" [...]
By John Ballard
With customary attention to detail Gladwell puts football head injuries under a microscope and drives home his points by weaving his findings together with a subject guaranteed to get attention: dog fighting. Michael Vick, of course, is the lynchpin, but once he has the reader's attention Malcolm Gladwell [...]
By John Ballard
Guest poster at Maggie Mahar's blog, Dr. Nortin M. Hadler, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology at UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine, lays out the odds when you go to the doctor.
I can relate to what he writes because I have been blessed with good health' [...]
By John Ballard
As an American Conscientious Objector I am putting up a post about these brave young people in memory of the late Leila Abu-Saba.
The new Shministim class of 2010
A new group of Shministim has formed. Their letter of refusal, has already been signed by [...]
By John Ballard
Leila Abu-Saba has died of cancer.
A part of me dies with her.
I followed her blog for several years.
Phillip Weiss remembers.
By John Ballard
This may be the year of collapse for the Great Columbus Day Mythology. Cracks have been forming for years but revisionist history this year is like the bursting of a dam.
Five years ago I came across this at Thanksgiving and commented at the time that it would [...]
By John Ballard
Home Depot had a couple of people giving away hot dogs today trying to drum up business. One was pushing air conditioning and heating installations, and the other screen porch additions and deck improvements. Both were friendly but neither was very pumped. I had the impression that both [...]
By John Ballard
The Nobel committee's decision to award their famous Peace Prize to Barack Obama has generated an unbelievable reaction on all sides of the political spectrum, including many who were instrumental in electing him. Yes, even his friends cannot justify this honor. The response is surreal.
By John Ballard
Been thinking about recent seismic activity resulting in tsunamis and flooding around the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Sea levels are rising at the rate of a centimeter every five years.
Question: How much weight does one centimeter add to the weight of the Pacific Ocean?
By the way, [...]
By John Ballard
Fierce Healthcare is an email newsletter for health care executives. This morning's lede links HealthLeaders Media, a leading multi-platform media company dedicated to meeting the business information needs of healthcare executives and professionals.
With the Senate Finance Committee's approval of healthcare reform legislation last week, Congress is [...]
By John Ballard
Victor Sandler is an internist and geriatrician. He also is bioethics committee co-chair for the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, medical director of Fairview Hospice, and a member of the State of Minnesota’s Health Service Advisory Council.
His column Pop the Cost Bubble: Unallot Medicare appears at [...]
By John Ballard
Nearly thirty years ago I saw a video of Dr. James Dobson that haunts me to this day. I was a young parent of what would later be labeled a "strong-willed child," looking for effective ways to conquer his ungovernable behavior. Even now I have pangs of guilt [...]
By John Ballard
Via Digby we find this gem from Kaiser Health News:
It happened on Thursday night, just before midnight, when John Kerry put forward an amendment. It was amendment C-8: "Empowering State Exchanges to be Prudent Purchasers." The title may sound innocuous, if a bit arcane. But if [...]
By John Ballard
Watch for a smile at 2:15. Don't blink.
They don't call it the dismal science for nothing.
While my mind was clear this morning I read an insightful piece about Larry Summers by Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker. Too long to read from the monitor, it prints [...]
By John Ballard
An eye doctor, a heart surgeon and an HMO executive die and are in heaven.
God asks the eye doctor why he should be let into heaven, and the doctor explains to God that he helped people save or regain their sight. God says, ''Welcome to heaven, my [...]
By John Ballard
I'm not a sports fan but this is just too good not to share.
H/T Jesse Wendel
By John Ballard
This deserves more links. Rocketboom is not all fluff pieces.
The comments thread embeds a similar video focused on the challenges of Palestinian education in the West Bank.
The line that nearly brought tears to my eyes was the child who said "It's important because when your" [...]
