Doctors – Over Testing, Over Treating & Under Sympathetic

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Another study proving doctors are over testing and over prescribing. NO SHIT!

These studies pop up now and then but nothing happens to change the nefarious doctoring methods here in the good ole US of A. Maybe for a short period but then it’s business as usual.

I remember a time when pediatricians’ handed out prescriptions for antibiotics to every child with a case of the sniffles. As a young mother I was led to believe that if I didn’t give my child this “miracle” drug they would surely die. My kids had this potion pumping through their veins at least 2 or 3 times a year. Then, sometime later, it was found that this over treating was causing the antibiotics not to be so ANTI anymore and bacterials were turning into HULKS, so it stopped!  Nice, after I raised my kids on the stuff! I’m so cynical now, that I BELIEVE ‘NUTTIN HONEY’!

BTW, to you teabaggers bellowing “HANDS OFF MY HEALTHCARE!”. What healthcare? Oh, you mean the one that uses your body as a guinea pig to increase “THEIR” wealth? thinkingblue

Experts say US doctors overtesting, overtreating
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner,

CHICAGO – Too much cancer screening, too many heart tests, too many cesarean sections. A spate of recent reports suggest that too many Americans — maybe even President Barack Obama — are being overtreated.

Is it doctors practicing defensive medicine? Or are patients so accustomed to a culture of medical technology that they insist on extensive tests and treatments?

A combination of both is at work, but now new evidence and guidelines are recommending a step back and more thorough doctor-patient conversations about risks and benefits.

As a medical journal editorial said this week about Obama’s recent checkup, Americans including the commander in chief need to realize that “more care is not necessarily better care.”

Obama’s exam included prostate cancer screening and a virtual colonoscopy. The PSA test for prostate cancer is not routinely recommended for any age and colon screening is not routinely recommended for patients younger than 50. Obama is 48. MORE HERE

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On the Net:
The National Institutes of Health: http://bit.ly/a8c7P0
The American Cancer Society: http://bit.ly/9w0fli
Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making: http://www.informedmedicaldecisions.org

Hate radio host Rush Limbaugh has been one of health care reform’s most vociferous opponents, warning that “[h]uman beings will die earlier than normal” under the “freedom killing” and “life threatening” plan, and calling for it to be “aborted.” Yesterday, Limbaugh put his money where his mouth is, saying that if health care passes and all his fears are realized, he’ll leave the country:

CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? [...]

LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, doctors have opted out. And once they’ve opted, they can’t see anybody Medicare, Medicaid, or what will become the exchanges. They have to have a clientele of private patients that will pay them a retainer and it’ll be a very small practice. I don’t know if that’s been outlawed in the Senate bill. I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica. Listen here:.

If Only We Could Laugh At Ourselves More

If people could laugh at themselves more they wouldn’t have the inclination to hate. We’re all in this together but for some reason this thought seems dead in many minds. We all want the same things, don’t we? To love and be loved,  be respected as a feeling human being, not to be judged harshly by our differences in culture, economic status, belief system, race, gender, education, body size, sexual oriantation or our age. But for some reason this empathetic human characteristic of ‘we’re all in this together’ gets put on the back-burner for a whole slew of us. Is it because it’s just remarkably too easy to hate those deemed different?  And besides, it kind of gives one a scapegoat for the ‘why we don’t feel so good about ourselves’.If a group of people with opposing opinions sat in a room and watched some funny, both sides of the spectrum, humor and could laugh freely. I believe they would emerge from that room with less hostility and hate.

(Yeah Right! )

Needless to say, John Wagner’s creation, Maxine, makes me laugh myself silly. Here’s
hoping the Grand Ole Gal, can also give you a haha or two.

Have a nice day…

(someplace else), thinkingblue

PS: Hey, what’s not to laugh at…
We’re all pretty damn funny so why not just experience The Theater Of The Absurd and laugh at ourselves; maybe it
will help us advance as a species.

RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on ‘Fear’

Watch Thom Hartmann on Freespeech TV

New Robes For SCOTUS

Please sign this very important petition “demand question
time”

(of our political leaders) HERE...

We really need more dialog from those at the top…
The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can’t hide
behind “NO”  any longer! thinkingblue

MOVE TO AMEND

Let’s keep our heads,
while we continue to watch THE

THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

“A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE.”

thinkingblue

Is the Movie “Avatar” Becoming A Reality?

The below article is UNBELIEVABLE! Is the Movie “Avatar” Becoming A Reality? Will the Corporate “Personhood” (Thanks to the Roberts Supreme Court decision Jan 21, 2010) have to seek the riches of far away Planets and Moons once they deplete Earth’s resources?

THE BEGINNING OF THE END for mankind is underway and already the Omnivorous are setting sail on ‘WHO GETS WHAT’, as our planet melts …. The mindset of the Corporatemeisters can only see in $$$$ signs.

There seems to be little concern for the survival of our species. It’s only how much profit can be made with this new found “perk” that Global Warming has stimulated to the point of… “THE WALLS (of Ice) CAME TUMBLING DOWN”. What can “WE” do? Is it only watch and do as we’re told? “THEY” WANT US TO BELIEVE THIS!

Global Warming is not a hoax. Its real and its lethal. The Psychopathic Corporate World may learn this someday but don’t count on it. After all a Corporation is amoral and really doesn’t care about the living of this Earth. It’s only profits that count even if it destroys those who make “said profits” possible. http://movetoamend.org thinkingblue

China Eyeing Perks of ice-free Artic

What you are about to witness (in the video below) is the melting of several Glaciers due to Global Warming… The Republican Conservative Party has convinced many that Global Warming is a hoax. Tell that to the Greedmeisters who are eyeballing the prospects of greater wealth due to Global Warming and tell that to the victims swept out to sea as a Glacier Melts in front of their eyes and then carries them to their deaths. thinkingblue

MOVE TO AMEND

ATTENTION: FACEBOOK

Would you please tell us
(we the fans of Can-this-poodle-wearing-a-tinfoil-hat-get-more-fans-than-Glenn-Beck)

WHY
“TINFOIL HAT POODLE” has been put under a FB “publish blocked”…  It doesn’t make sense, there has to be an ulterior motive involved. Perhaps, FOX NEWS has contacted you and ordered THE BLOCK.

You see, since it does not make sense you are giving birth to A CONSPIRACY THEORY.

(Maybe there’s some truth in this conspiracy with this headline – Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, has issued another idle threat in response to what Murdoch perceives to be theft of information. Apparently, he wants News Corp. content removed from Google, because Google is not paying him to index content, and in connection with his idea of requiring visitors to pay to access said content. Read more: http://foxnewsboycott.com/rupert-murdoch/rupert-murdoch-wants-to-needlessly-block-google/#ixzz0gvEf6xsU)

The only thing I have witnessed on this member page was a bunch of people, (who can’t stand Glenn Beck or how Fox News pushes him and his hate mongering in all of our faces) getting together to rant and support the idea that Glenn Beck isn’t the only one or CREATURE that has a strong following. Even when his sponsors have pulled out in droves… Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News Network, keeps him on the air. Indeed, there is money to be made in promoting FEAR AND HATE. So the Sky’s The Limit and No Holds Barred!

America is fast becoming an Oligarchy (Ruled by Corporations.) and it looks as though FACEBOOK is contributing to America’s (We The People) demise.

Please unblock the publishing rights for “http://www.facebook.com/pages/Can-this-poodle-wearing-a-tinfoil-hat-get-more-fans-than-Glenn-Beck/334162806080” and help save
The America Republic and DEMOCRACY!

Thank you, THINKINGBLUE

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Can-this-poodle-wearing-a-tinfoil-hat-get-more-fans-than-Glenn-Beck/334162806080

http://bobthewonderpoodle.com

Please Write To—-
info@facebook.com, appeals@facebook.com
Tell them to give the page back the publishing rights to the owner AND don’t forget to include the URL from this site– http://www.facebook.com/pages/Can-this-poodle-wearing-a-tinfoil-hat-get-more-fans-than-Glenn-Beck/334162806080

BREAKING NEWS:

THIS JUST IN FROM Bitsy Bob – It has been said that I “Bob”s mom (and original image holder) gave everyone permission to use Bitsy’s picture. This was a false claim. While we do appreciate everyone’s support, please do not take other people’s word for Bob/Bitsy. As the owner (sorry to have to use the …trump card here), only I can make claims, com…ments and authorizations for Bob/Bitsy, her image and its use. Thank you…. BitsyBob

I sent Bob a message… Please use my poodle’s image:

Denounce Glenn Beck’s Vicious Attacks
Glenn Beck told last week’s annual meeting of the lunatic right-wing fringe:

“progressivism is the cancer in America and it’s eating our Constitution.”

Sign the petition below to denounce Glenn Beck’s vicious attacks:

http://www.dccc.org/page/s/beckcpacfbad

It is beyond reason… that ANYONE listens to this greedy idiot. There was a time, a cognitive time when he would have been laughed off the stage or theater Fox News has provided him. What happened to our country and how did it get so half-witted? It’s getting so an American will not want to be called an American because the label will be synonymous with ignorant. This small man is a joke and only he knows the motives behind what drives him to look, sound and act so psychotic. $$$$! Now we all know! thinkingblue.blogspot.com

A PICTURE THAT SAYS A TRILLION WORDS!

NEW ROBES FOR THE SUPREME COURT JUDGES.

THIS SAYS IT ALL!

thinkingblue

The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Democracy
By Noam Chomsky February 3, 2010

Jan. 21, 2010, will go down as a dark day in the history of U.S. democracy, and its decline.

On that day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government may not ban corporations from political spending on elections–a decision that profoundly affects government policy, both domestic and international.

The decision heralds even further corporate takeover of the U.S. political system.

To the editors of The New York Times, the ruling “strikes at the heart of democracy” by having “paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.”

The court was split, 5-4, with the four reactionary judges (misleadingly called “conservative”) joined by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. selected a case that could easily have been settled on narrow grounds and maneuvered the court into using it to push through a far-reaching decision that overturns a century of precedents restricting corporate contributions to federal campaigns.

Now corporate managers can in effect buy elections directly, bypassing more complex indirect means. It is well-known that corporate contributions, sometimes packaged in complex ways, can tip the balance in elections, hence driving policy. The court has just handed much more power to the small sector of the population that dominates the economy.

Political economist Thomas Ferguson’s “investment theory of politics” is a very successful predictor of government policy over a long period. The theory interprets elections as occasions on which segments of private sector power coalesce to invest to control the state.

The Jan. 21 decision only reinforces the means to undermine functioning democracy.

The background is enlightening. In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens acknowledged that “we have long since held that corporations are covered by the First Amendment”–the constitutional guarantee of free speech, which would include support for political candidates.

In the early 20th century, legal theorists and courts implemented the court’s 1886 decision that corporations–these “collectivist legal entities”–have the same rights as persons of flesh and blood.

This attack on classical liberalism was sharply condemned by the vanishing breed of conservatives. Christopher G. Tiedeman described the principle as “a menace to the liberty of the individual, and to the stability of the American states as popular governments.”

Morton Horwitz writes in his standard legal history that the concept of corporate personhood evolved alongside the shift of power from shareholders to managers, and finally to the doctrine that “the powers of the board of directors “are identical with the powers of the corporation.” In later years, corporate rights were expanded far beyond those of persons, notably by the mislabeled “free trade agreements.” Under these agreements, for example, if General Motors establishes a plant in Mexico, it can demand to be treated just like a Mexican business (”national treatment”)–quite unlike a Mexican of flesh and blood who might seek “national treatment” in New York, or even minimal human rights.

A century ago, Woodrow Wilson, then an academic, described an America in which “comparatively small groups of men,” corporate managers, “wield a power and control over the wealth and the business operations of the country,” becoming “rivals of the government itself.”

In reality, these “small groups” increasingly have become government’s masters. The Roberts court gives them even greater scope.

The Jan. 21 decision came three days after another victory for wealth and power: the election of Republican candidate Scott Brown to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the “liberal lion” of Massachusetts. Brown’s election was depicted as a “populist upsurge” against the liberal elitists who run the government.

The voting data reveal a rather different story.

High turnouts in the wealthy suburbs, and low ones in largely Democratic urban areas, helped elect Brown. “Fifty-five percent of Republican voters said they were `very interested’ in the election,” The Wall St. Journal/NBC poll reported, “compared with 38 percent of Democrats.”

So the results were indeed an uprising against President Obama’s policies: For the wealthy, he was not doing enough to enrich them further, while for the poorer sectors, he was doing too much to achieve that end.

The popular anger is quite understandable, given that the banks are thriving, thanks to bailouts, while unemployment has risen to 10 percent.

In manufacturing, one in six is out of work–unemployment at the level of the Great Depression. With the increasing financialization of the economy and the hollowing out of productive industry, prospects are bleak for recovering the kinds of jobs that were lost.

Brown presented himself as the 41st vote against healthcare–that is, the vote that could undermine majority rule in the U.S. Senate.

It is true that Obama’s healthcare program was a factor in the Massachusetts election. The headlines are correct when they report that the public is turning against the program.

The poll figures explain why: The bill does not go far enough. The Wall St. Journal/NBC poll found that a majority of voters disapprove of the handling of healthcare both by the Republicans and by Obama.

These figures align with recent nationwide polls. The public option was favored by 56 percent of those polled, and the Medicare buy-in at age 55 by 64 percent; both programs were abandoned.

Eighty-five percent believe that the government should have the right to negotiate drug prices, as in other countries; Obama guaranteed Big Pharma that he would not pursue that option.

Large majorities favor cost-cutting, which makes good sense: U.S. per capita costs for healthcare are about twice those of other industrial countries, and health outcomes are at the low end.

But cost-cutting cannot be seriously undertaken when largesse is showered on the drug companies, and healthcare is in the hands of virtually unregulated private insurers–a costly system peculiar to the U.S.

The Jan. 21 decision raises significant new barriers to overcoming the serious crisis of healthcare, or to addressing such critical issues as the looming environmental and energy crises. The gap between public opinion and public policy looms larger. And the damage to American democracy can hardly be overestimated.

——————————————————————————–
Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the author of dozens of books on U.S. foreign policy. He writes a monthly column for The New York Times News Service/Syndicate.

Please sign this very important petition “demand question time”
(of our political leaders) HERE...
We really need more dialog from those at the top…
The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can’t hide behind “NO”
any longer! thinkingblue

Scientists Unravel Mysteries of Intelligence

FRIDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthDay News) — It’s not a particular brain region that makes someone smart or not smart.
Nor is it the strength and speed of the connections throughout the brain or such features as total brain volume
Instead, new research shows, it’s the connections between very specific areas of the brain that determine intelligence and often, by extension, how well someone does in life. MORE HERE

What Makes A Brain Smart?

I have always pondered as to what makes a human being intelligent (or the lack thereof)? This article reveals a bit of the reason why some brains excel in intelligence while others are inferior. IQ may simply be a matter of brain [sic]liaisons (lesions – thanks to Ezekial) (the injury or damage to tissue within the brain as in Alzheimer’s disease). So the next time you hear someone talking gibberish, especially if he/she is seeking a position of power, try to imagine what is causing that gibberish… there may be a brain “lesion” lurking behind that wide forehead. Maybe that imagery will be enough to convince us to vote for the smart guy. Now if we could only solve the riddle of why one man/woman’s gibberish seems like rationale and eloquence to some while another man/woman’s rationale and eloquence seems like gibberish to others. Solve that and we will all live together harmoniously. (Believe that and I’ve got some swampland to sell you.)
thinkingblue

The Hour: Interview with Richard Dawkins PART 1

Also here:

Please sign petition. http://stopkennedysmears.com/ History Channel was one of my favorites but no longer. Presenting this fictional garbage as history, they have now become just another right-wing propagandist like “Fox UCALLTHATNEWS?”… it can’t get any worse than that! The History Channel has now become “The UCALLTHATHISTORY? Channel”. What will they attack next? School text books? Oops, the right-wing-nuts are already doing that!

“Texas to revise history textbooks: liberals out, Limbaugh and Gingrich in” http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/21/texas-history-gingrich/

If we, who worship honesty and truth just sit around and allow this to take place, the evolutionary process of the human mind will go the way of the DODO BIRD! thinkingblue

(The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo

Make the GOP and The History Channel Accountable Sign Here

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Please sign this very important petition “demand question time” (of our political leaders) HERE... We really need more dialog from those at the top… The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can’t hide behind “NO” any longer! thinkingblue

Wearing a tinfoil hat because… CLICK HERE

Let’s keep our heads, while we continue to watch THE
THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

“A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE.”
thinkingblue

Click Here To Read The Article “The New Poor” by Peter S. Goodman
Monday, February 22, 2010

Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits. (MORE HERE)

THE NEW POOR who will be counted?

There’s so much sadness in the air today, caused by an economic philosophy, coined Reaganomics. {The economic policies of Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. President, which called for widespread tax cuts (for the rich), decreased social spending (for the poor), increased military spending (for the wars) and the deregulation of domestic markets (for the meltdowns).}

It took almost 30 years for this convoluted mindset to take us to the place we are today… 30 years of bubbles and bursts where the few got filthy rich and the many, fell into a class baptized “The New Poor”. 30 years is not a long time in the scheme of things but for the New Poor it’s a lifetime. All the King’s Experts and his men…  knew this was happening but they did nothing because the wealthy were making billions… So the sadness in the air will continue for years to come and the ranks of the New Poor will grow, and like Humpty-Dumpty they’ll never be able to climb back up on that middle-class wall again! thinkingblue.blogspot.com

How the wealthiest American make money off the poor-1 of 2

THE NEW POOR who will be counted?

Please sign this very important petition “demand question time” (of our political leaders) HERE... We really need more dialog from those at the top… The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can’t hide behind “NO” any longer! thinkingblue

Wearing a tinfoil hat because… CLICK HERE

Let’s keep our heads, while we continue to watch THE
THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

“A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE.”
thinkingblue