A Thought on Mental Illness

Byadmin March 25, 2014

Freedom to be insane is an illusory freedom, a cruel hoax perpetrated on those who cannot think clearly by those who will not think clearly.

-E. Fuller Torrey

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Health & Well-being

Smoking Cigarettes (My Circumstances Made Me Do It)

Byadmin June 12, 2020

Rates of cigarette smoking have dropped substantially in the US over the past few decades. But lots of Americans still smoke, and the burden of tobacco-related illness does not fall evenly across our population. That is tragic under normal circumstances, with tobacco use leading to heart attacks, strokes, cancers, and emphysema, to name but a…

Uncategorized

Something I Have in Common with Beethoven

Byadmin September 3, 2014

Friends and family are painfully aware of how obsessed I have become with Beethoven lately. My plan is to have 10 of his piano sonatas in my brain and fingertips at any one time, ready to play by memory on demand. I’ve been listening to his music, studying his scores, and even reading biographies. And…

Miscellaneous

Great Sentence from National Geographic

Byadmin October 14, 2013

In an eye opening article on Aborigines, Michael Finkel paints a colorful picture of the local landscape: The pilot flew low over the bush, the trees thin and straight and widely spaced, like a bad hair transplant. Maybe the Aussie government needs to invest in Tree Club for Men. (Click here to view comments)

Health & Well-being | Health Policy

Obesity Really DOES Kill

Byadmin March 14, 2014

There has been controversy recently about whether obesity is truly bad for people’s health, or in fact whether it might even protect people from early mortality. A study from the New England Journal in January provides strong evidence that obesity kills. It shows that people with very low body mass index have high mortality rates,…

Miscellaneous

Why I Sometimes Feel Like an Eisenhower Republican

Byadmin February 21, 2013

As Jim Newton pointed out several times in his book on the White House Years, Eisenhower valued balancing the budget. Sometimes that meant controlling social welfare spending. But it also meant trying to restrain military spending and foregoing tax cuts, even when his Vice President, Richard Nixon, was running for Presidency and needed a lift in…

Health & Well-being

What Healthcare Costs American Families

Byadmin June 11, 2013

I found a wonderful picture that nicely summarizes how much Americans spend on health care each year. The picture was produced by the Milliman company, and represents typical spending for a family of four. The $22,000 figure represents overall healthcare costs for this family. You’ll see that $12,000 of this money comes from employers. That…

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