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" [...]
By John Ballard
From Fierce Healthcare Newsletter.
Medical home pilots will impact 20,000 Blue Cross of Illinois beneficiaries
In yet another example that medical homes are taking root, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois has launched medical home pilot programs with two Chicago-area group practices. As with other medical [...]
By John Ballard
An otherwise healthy seven year old has died in Georgia with H1N1. Statistically rare, but not insignificant. Our children deserve all the protection we can provide.
Via Crawford Killian a link from Bloomberg.
The new H1N1 influenza strain has killed at least 3,917 people and spread [...]
By John Ballard
Sarah Palin, that is, according to Andrew Sullivan.
Good turn of phrase. Too good not to share.
By John Ballard
Via H5N1 blog.FORT WORTH - Five days ago, Fort Worth eight grader Chloe Lindsey came down with a fever. She was diagnosed with the flu Friday and died Sunday. The 14 year old didn't get Tamiflu at her doctor's visit because she wasn't considered high risk.
Chloe's' [...]
Sunday morning meditations by John Ballard.
These two videos are dedicated to the recent meeting of the G-20 as well as the trembling fearful masses alarmed by a recent viral video of school children singing the praises of Barack Hussein Obama.
To put matters into perspective don't miss Kaplan's comments on [...]
By John Ballard
Robert Kaplan in The Atlantic via 3 Quarks Daily.
...Al Jazeera is forgivable for its biases in a way that the BBC or CNN is not. In the case of Al Jazeera, news isn’t so much biased as honestly representative of a middle-of-the-road developing-world viewpoint. Where you [...]
By John Ballard
When I hear complaints about the government spending too much money I think about stuff like this.
Coalition airpower integrated with ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during operations Sept. 23, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.
In [...]
By John Ballard
Earlier this year, in a stunning display of high-profile bureaucratic ignorance, Egyptian authorities responded to the global H1N1 pandemic by ordering the slaughter of all the pigs in the country. The Arabist surveys the results. I can't decide whether to laugh or cry.
Was killing all the' [...]
By John Ballard
Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital is closing its money-losing dialysis unit.
Judge clears way for Grady dialysis to close
A Fulton County judge on Friday cleared the way for Grady Memorial Hospital to close its outpatient dialysis clinic within days.
Grady spokesman Matt Gove said the outpatient dialysis clinic' [...]
By John Ballard
Sez here......how can the Dow be so far up when every business and Wall Street executive I come across tells me government is crushing the economy with its huge deficits, and its supposed “takeover” of health care, autos, housing, energy, and finance? Their anguished cries of “socialism” [...]
By John Ballard
Atlanta floods uncovered an interesting but little known fact. Most home insurance policies do not cover flooding.Homeowners are anxiously waiting for the President to declare a State of Emergency for Georgia. If he does all those whose homes were damaged in the flood will have [...]
By John Ballard
Many of those individuals who would need a public health care option are those who are not likely to be able to take two hours out of their day to go to a public event like that town hall, They were too busy earning hourly wages and trying [...]
By John Ballard
Open Secrets seems to think this is hot.We usually reserve Capital Eye Opener's "CRP in the News" nugget for the end of this, our daily a.m. posting. But we're going upside down today, if only because of the overwhelming reaction to our report last week' [...]
By John Ballard
Yet another good interview link:
High-Quality, Low-Cost Care: An Interview With Gundersen-Lutheran CEO Jeff Thompson.
For part of the back story read also the links at What is a "Medical Home"?
There are 3 system-level characteristics of Gundersen Lutheran Health System, our not-for-profit organization, that make a [...]
By John Ballard
Ancillary to my previous post, this subject is low-hanging fruit that can lead to changes in meaningful Congressional oversight over federal contracts. The leaning of American journalism, with newspapers becoming an endangered species, leaves an investigative reporting gap big enough for bigots, fascist wannabes and gasbags to [...]
By John Ballard
Sue Sturgis at Facing South looks at Congressional oversight of government contractors.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to cut off federal funds to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN, a national grassroots group that advocates for poor and modest-income families. The [...]
By John Ballard
I'm posting as I listen to a remarkable description of how modern medicine is practiced in most of the world and will eventually be practiced in America. Those of us who have been doing our homework already know of a handful of high-profile systems already modeled as "medical'" [...]
By John Ballard
Advance Directives -- Two Case Studies (September 7) pointed to a couple of examples illustrating the importance of final directives, but didn't explain in detail what that meant. This post is a followup explaining what the term "final directives" means.
By John Ballard
Rocketboom gives us a three-minute glimpse into an issue not in today's headlines. Reports like this help us remember that the world is bigger than the village where we live.
An image of the young tailor with a measuring tape around his neck sticks in my mind. [...]
By John Ballard
The real Norma Rae is dead.
Real 'Norma Rae' dies of cancer after insurer delayed treatment
Crystal Lee Sutton, formerly Crystal Lee Jordan, was fired from her job folding towels at the J.P. Stevens textile plant in her hometown of Roanoke Rapids, N.C. for trying to [...]
By John Ballard
Sara Robinson is a regular contributor at Dave Neiwert's place. She missed the president's speech the other nite due to a medical emergency. I'm sorry she had to go to the emergency room, but her account makes a timely read.
By John Ballard via Dr. Lippin and Peter Yarrow.
A physician-activist, Dr. Rick Lippin, knowing my deeply held belief that songs that touch peoples' hearts can bring them together to advance causes such as social justice and societal equity, posed a question to me about which songs might appropriately be' [...]
Picked up by John Ballard at The Health Care Blog.
Here is a little song celebrating our position at #37 in the world in healthcare. "We're Number 37"
(Lyrics after the break.)
Come one,
Down to the hall
Were gonna make noise
Were gonna bust balls
Were gonna disrupt
Were gonna jump in the fray
I' [...]
By John Ballard, found by Abbas Raza at 3 Quarks Daily.
(Atlanta talk show host Neal Boortz says condescending stuff about soccer.)
[...]By John Ballard (Inside joke: Deron, this one's for you!)
Dr. Weil was a guest of Larry King last night. Asked his opinion of the health care reform discussion he had no problem framing the whole matter in a truly non-partisan manner, moving the Overton Window a few degrees in the' [...]
By John Ballard
John Robb first got my attention as a 4GW writer. But like so many good thinkers he is a sharp observer of many other trends, including economics. He called the collapse of the real estate market two months in advance of when the stock market and the rest [...]
