A Thought on Mental Illness
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
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
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…
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…
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)
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,…
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…
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…