Mixed Health Messages

Health issues can be quite complex and hard to decipher. I present 3 examples that illustrate  how that is true. About 2 weeks ago the President nominated Dr Regina Benjamin to be the next  Surgeon General, our nation’s top doc and #1 health care advocate. Dr Benjamin practices on the Gulf Coast  of Alabama and has had very noteworthy medical career. She  has focused her practice on those who number among the under served. Her clinic has had to overcome the wrath of Katrina as well as a devastating fire. She has received a number of honors, all seemingly well deserved.

In her personal life, she has lost a number of family members to disease, such as diabetes, lung cancer(due to smoking)  and HIV related illness. She says that she would want to focus and wellness and prevention plans to keep people from dying of preventable diseases.

Ok, now for the mixture angle. Dr Thomas Frieden is head of the CDC. He apparently considers obesity as a preventable disease, but not by individuals themselves.  He alluded to the 26% obesity rate in our country and has this quote”Reversing obesity is not going to be done successfully with individual effort,” it will be done successfully as a society( translation -government). CDC researchers also said that spending on obesity-related diaeases  takes up 10% of health care spending.

Number 3 comes from the left coast, courtesy of the LATimes. The article is titles Tough Love for Fat  people, Tax Their Food to pay for healthcare.Don’t laugh just yet. The Urban Institute has a report that suggests using strategies that  were employed in the tobacco wars against fatty foods. Simplified, tax those chips, cookies , sodas, candies etc. What a government gold mine , all to be used for healthcare of course. They say that a 10% tax on theses evil foods along with new labeling identifying the healthier foods  would work wonders. Now whose work do they site? The Surgeon General who reported on the dangers of smoking way back in 1964 (this report was key in getting my dad to quit smoking)  and  continued to raise the bar .

Ok, do we have any connections?  Our Dr Benjamin is herself an overweight person. Some have already raised  this issue, both  as a  factor in  her favor-different perspective, knows the issues etc- and as a negative- how can she advocate against weight related issues if  she is struggling with them. A conundrum, we have, as Yoda might say.

Personally, I have always had a bit of difficulty with physicians who seemed of the mindset- take my advice, but I don’t . Could our Dr Benjamin fall in  that category, perhaps. Would she be wont to push aggressive measures that target what one eats and seeks actually to influence or control ones behaviour in that area? It will be interesting to watch. Too bad, one can only stock up so much Mello Yello ahead of time.

Just Biden Our Time

Sometimes it seems  that Joe Biden is too good to be true. We haven’t checked in on him lately, so let’s see what we can learn about his comings and goings. We know he was in Iraq on July 4 and that was acceptable, visiting the troops, boosting their morale, maybe. Just recently he was telling us that Israel had the right to defend themselves against Iran and its possible acquisition of nukes. Small problem, he contradicted the boss. Not a good move for Joey B.

Now we learn from the LA Times that a new term has been coined to help describe Biden’s schedule. It seems that he has many private meetings with unnamed sources on unnamed subjects and they are “closed press.” Guess that means no news folks allowed. For one thing, that is a good way to be certain that something he might say might come out wrong or perish the thought, be misinterpreted. It gets even better according to Andrew Malcolm. He was to show up for a meeting with HHS Secretary Sebelius at 11:00 am and after all was said and done should have been finished by say, 12:30. Hang out, Bidenspeak, schedule  style is coming  up.According to the White House  Biden will not spend the rest of his day in private meetings that are sans media. Now, the  following is a quote: ” The Vice President will spend the remainder of the day in meetings that are closed press.” Enormous difference, right? Hey, it is certainly cheaper than flying him to a  foreign country for some mindless meeting. He can stay home and have a mindless meeting.

But never fear. The globetrotting one will be off to the Ukraine and Georgia (not the state, hope he knows  that) to  offer some encouragement in their democratic reforms.

Gotta have a picture of Joe, just so you  don’t  forget. This was one of the best I saw.

 

The Vice President of the United States

(Photo from maholo.com)

Here They Go Again

Author, columnist and all-round good conservative American Ann Coulter is one of the most popular targets of the drive-by-media . No doubt she expects and even relishes such from time to time . However, their current attacks seem somewhat sophomoric  and almost a waste of computer space .

Seems that Chairman Ann recently suffered a fall and had to have her jaw wired shut ( Get well soon Ann ) . That has sparked a round of ” insults ” or ” jokes” depending on your point of view .A magazine  that I currently subscribe to,  The Week , generally serves as a compilation of information from other sources. This they came up with on their own.

” Blessed silence , after professional antagonist Ann Coulter injured herself in a fall and had to have her jaw wired shut . “

Come on now people, what is the need of attacking in that way. Try these from Mark Adams.

• Rush- to have incurable laryngitis
• Bill O’Reilly – kidnapped and no ransom being paid .

Other such silliness came from the LA Times and ” Ready 2 Beat ” who repeat a Democrat quote that  only God could silence Ann and that her  broken jaw is an early Christmas gift for many .

Guess what folks , she still has access to a keyboard !