White Coat Underground
Archives for May, 2009
Passion—what is it good for?
Posted by PalMD on May 31, 2009 One of the hardest things about practicing medicine is being compassionate and dispassionate at the same time; acknowledging a person’s pain, but standing aside enough to view the problem with a degree of objectivity. This is one of the easiest mis-steps to make in medicine, and is the root of the problem of many so-called…
Kansas doctor gunned down
Posted by PalMD on May 31, 2009 A Kansas doctor who performs abortions was murdered today at his church. I’ll leave it to others to discuss the long history of this doctor’s part in the abortion debate; what I want to show you today is the transparent lies told by the murderous group Operation Rescue. “We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing…
Kids: how do they do that?
Posted by PalMD on May 31, 2009 Around midnight, my wife and I heard a loud “thump” followed by screaming. We ran to our daughter’s room and found her lying on the floor, crying, clearly terrified. I picked her up and held her, feeling around her legs, hips, arms, and head to see if anything seemed out of place or painful. That’s…
Experts and accountability
Posted by PalMD on May 28, 2009 My buddy Janet always makes me think, which is one of the things I like about her (that, and her cookies). Today, she wrote about a recent PLoS Biology article about the vaccine-autism debate (Orac has also covered it, of course). I especially like Janet’s take on expert status and accountability. Let’s examine these issues…
There’s a contest going on in the blogosphere, and I want in. 3 Quarks Daily is taking nominations for best social science or natural history blog post published between May 28th, 2008 and now. Go here to nominate your favorite piece, but HURRY—nominations end June 1. This year’s judge is Steven Pinker. So, when you…
Not-so-silent stupidity
Posted by PalMD on May 27, 2009 In case you were worried that the Huffington Post had “gone legit” with regards to medical reporting, fear no more. Barry Sears, creator of a popular diet book, has written a searingly stupid piece called We’re Fighting the Wrong Epidemic. Like Gaul, it is divided into three parts: wrong information about influenza; an invented medical…
Lyin’ about Lyme
Posted by PalMD on May 27, 2009 Earlier this month I wrote about some of the people who claim to be Lyme disease experts, and specifically about an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, and its author. The article was truly horrid, especially when presented in the context of an ethics journal. My ethicist friend weighed in at the time, and…
PalCast 11—the kitchen edition
Posted by PalMD on May 25, 2009 It’s now up. It’s a good one. One link in particular that was discussed is here. Go and read, then go and listen.
Generations of imbeciles
Posted by PalMD on May 24, 2009 I’m actually rather surprised that the movement to castrate autistic kids isn’t more in the news. Parents of autistic kids are very good at advocacy, so where are they on this one? On the other hand, the abuse of the mentally and cognitively disabled is so ingrained in our society, that perhaps these parents can’t…
Do the Geiers hate autistic children?
Posted by PalMD on May 22, 2009 It would certainly seem so. Alternative autism “experts” have a long history of dehumanizing autistic kids. But the Geiers take it one step further. The father-son team is chemically castrating autistic children. And what do they have to say about this? …the Geiers focus on issues most likely to disturb parents, such as aggressive behavior…