Dissenters' Corner

I hope you realize that you will mired in interminable genealogical and historical research that no one else will care about but is highly important for a reason that only Einstein could appreciate. You will notice that people tend to go to sleep when you tell your latest ancestral tale. I was lucky, I transmitted the sickness to my son, who as a tenured mathematician actually emulated  and invented original techniques, one of which was to interview everyone on his mother's side and write a huge professional genealogical narrative for posterity. Actually, for me, the value of genealogy is encapsulated by the notion of identity.  Just as when we identify with fictional literary or media characters, I identify with each ancestor and then study the historical context of the person. Unfortunately, when I discover their deaths it makes me sad. I persuaded a history teacher that he should have his students do their genealogy, for example, and relate to the times. I muse that I am my great  grandfather Lt. Andrew Jackson Grayson marching up the banks of the Tennessee River at the Battle of Shiloh or my great grandfather Ephraim Hambujer who I boast had 5 wives and 11 children. I tell this to guys asking for GU/sterilization referrals to try to talk them out of it. And I ponder whether I am burdened or blessed with myths and traditions or cerebral disturbances that I don't recognize.  Is there a universal unconscious? Are there archetypal universal myths? What  about instincts? The neurologists say that all is in the neurons and neurotransmitters.  Really? Oh well, I will lean back and be Fiddler on the Roof for a while, I think

Viewpoint: Real Preventive Medicine is Around the Corner

“DALLAS--(Business Wire)--

U.S. Preventive Medicine®, the leader in disease prevention services, today

applauded U.S. President Barack Obama’s call for modernizing the health care

system by investing in prevention initiatives aimed at controlling costs and

improving the health of Americans.” (24 March 2009)

What a marvelous idea! All we have to do is to prevent sickness, injury, and death, 
and the cost of medical care will go down. The economy will be saved. I don’t know 
why I didn’t think of this sometime during the last 61 years of my medical practice 
since I escaped from the University of Illinois Medical School.

I must admit, I have been a spectacular failure at curing chronic alcoholism, binge 
drinking, illegal drug usage, bungee jumping, cigarette smoking, chronic obesity, 
gang banging, motorcycle riding without helmets, and promoting the use of automobile 
seat belts, the use of heavy, safe cars with multiple air bags, and the prevention of all
 types of metastatic cancer.

If the President would instruct us old-timers on these matters, maybe the overcharging by 
the medical profession would stop and the national debt would be cured. 
Now that would be what I call preventive medicine.