Free Republic

Think of the money that Medicare pays doctors for seeing patients as though it's a pie called the "Sustainable Growth Rate." This pie is not going to get bigger unless Congress cooks some more pies by New Years. Otherwise, when more patients join Medicare and more pieces are needed next year, we will have to cut the pieces that doctors are paid each time we see a patient into smaller and smaller pieces. I wimped out: I closed my office in 2003 because I saw the costs of the requirements for medical reporting and "privacy" coming and I figured that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nightmarish political realities in Baghdad are prompting American officials to curb their vision for democracy in Iraq. Instead, the officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security. **** U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, declined to be interviewed for this story, but they issued a joint statement to CNN that reiterated that the country's "fundamental democratic framework is in place" and that "the development of democratic institutions is being encouraged." And, they said, they are helping Iraqi...

August 1, 2007 Children’s Health Plan Focus of New Struggle By ROBERT PEAR WASHINGTON, July 31 — The Children’s Health Insurance Program has suddenly become a vehicle for an ideological struggle between President Bush and Congress over the future of the health care system. But in the short term, members of both parties say, the broader outline of that struggle is likely to be reduced to a simple question: “Are you for or against children?”

Sam Harris, author of the books, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason and Letter to a Christian Nation, was given a forum at the Aspen Ideas Festival. I'm not sure how I ended up finding the video, "Believing the Unbelievable: The Clash Between Faith and Reason in the Modern World," but I believe I was referred by one of the Science Blog forums. I can't remember which one, and, as far as I can tell, only one of these blogs is owned by a believer. Which is probably how I got lost. There's a bit...

Texas law may change to grant families some of doctors' authority On June 10, 2006, aging and ailing, Edith Pereira was taken by ambulance from St. Dominic nursing home to Memorial Hermann Hospital. It might have been nothing that serious. Urinary-tract infections had sent the 91-year-old with Alzheimer's and diabetes to the hospital often in the previous year, and the St. Dominic's nursing staff thought that likely was the problem this time. But Memorial Hermann doctors found no infection. Instead, they said, her altered state — high blood sugar that made her too drowsy and combative to be fed —...

Lawmakers question USCP By Jackie Kucinich and Kelly McCormack Lawmakers are questioning U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Chief Phillip Morse about his controversial decision to allow anti-war protesters to spray paint a portion of the Capitol west-front terrace this past weekend. ******According to a Democratic leadership aide, 50 to 60 protesters, rather than the 300 figure that was reported by The Hill over the weekend, were involved in the act of vandalism, which took place after the main peace march took place.

For the first time, scientists have discovered that cells passed from mother to child during pregnancy can differentiate into functioning islet beta cells that produce insulin in the child. The same study also found that maternal DNA was found in greater amounts in the blood of children and young adults with Type 1 diabetes than their healthy siblings and a control group, implying that they may be attempting to repair damaged tissue.

Scientists' interest in religion seems to come in waves. One arrived after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859. Another followed in the 1930s and 1940s, inspired by surprising revelations from quantum mechanics, which suggested the insufficiency of conventional physical theories of the universe. And now scientists are once again writing about religion, apparently provoked this time by the controversy surrounding intelligent design. . . . Richard Dawkins, the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, has given us The God Delusion, an extended polemic against faith, which will be considered at length...

Demos refuse to sign a stem cell report Web Posted: 11/22/2006 01:07 AM CST Peggy Fikac Express-News Austin Bureau AUSTIN — In what one lawmaker says could signal gridlock on stem cell issues in the upcoming legislative session, three Democrats have refused to sign a House committee report they say doesn't contain a scientifically accurate view of the promise of the research. The lawmakers said they want to be sure their colleagues take an unbiased look at research that some have fought to restrict in past sessions. The House State Affairs Committee report is meant to help guide lawmakers who...

. . . [I]nvolving the use of enemy propagandists by our MSM. . . . (snip) UPDATE XI 11/27/06 0900hrs PST BIG UPDATE…..Centcom has confirmed this Capt. Jamil Hussein is NOT a Police Officer nor is he employed by the Ministry of Interior: Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Dear Associated Press: On Nov. 24, 2006, your organization published an article by Qais Al-Bashir about six Sunnis being burned alive in the presence of Iraqi Police officers. This news item, which is below, received an enormous amount of coverage internationally. We at Multi-National Corps - Iraq made it known through MNC-I Press Release...

I'm convinced that Plan B does not block implantation. Because I keep getting emails, hearing radio personalities and reading posts on various forums claiming that Plan B is an abortifacient, here's a review of information on the medical effects of the pills and on the other effects and lack of effects. The overwhelming evidence - from several different groups of researchers - is that Plan B, the single ingredient protocol containing a synthetic progesterone called levonorgestrel, only works - when it works - the 5 days or so before and just after ovulation. Furthermore, since few women really know when...

On the mechanisms of action of short-term levonorgestrel administration in emergency contraception Contraception 64 (2001) 227–234 Marta Durand, Ma. del Carmen Cravioto, Elizabeth G. Raymond, Ofelia Duran-Sanchez, Ma. De la Luz Cruz-Hinojosa, Andre´s Castell-Rodrıguez, Raffaela Schiavond, Fernando Larrea, Department of Reproductive Biology, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Me´dicas y Nutricio´n Salvador Zubiran, Mexico City, Mexico Family Health International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA Department of Cellular Biology, School of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Auto´noma de Me´xico, Mexico City, Mexico Reproductive Health Service, Instituto Nacional de Pediatrı´a, Mexico City, Mexico Abstract The effects of short-term administration of levonorgestrel (LNG) at different stages of...

Mama's the lady who answered the smart-alec neurologist with the bowtie and the big attitude about coming from Harvard ("Haaahvaaahd," when she told it) who asked her to name all the animals she could with, "Lions and bears and tigers and jackasses and Democrats."Please pray for my Daddy and family as my Mama passed away Sunday night. She never got strong and pain free even after all of the thymic carcinoma was removed by surgery in November, 2004. I believe that the antibodies she made against the tumor caused nerve damage that led to a stroke. She reassured me the...

John Leo Wed Jul 26, 12:14 PM ET Washinton Post reporter Anthony Shadid is at it again. Shadid is the world's foremost practitioner of "They Killed My Baby!" journalism. His technique is to appear at a war scene after a bombing and conduct an emotionally loaded interview with someone who has just lost a child or a spouse. The despair of the grieving civilian comes to represent the amazing brutality of war, almost always the brutality of Israel or the United States. The Post headline writers cooperate by placing an over-the-top headline on his piece, which therefore takes on the...

Destroying Human Exceptionalism By Creating Human/Chimp HybridsI just don't understand the emotional stake some people invest in convincing us that humankind is nothing special in the universe. Indeed, some, such as University of Washington psychology professor David P. Barash, are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to knock us off the pedestal of exceptionalism. This includes, as he urges in this piece published in the LA Times, creating human/chimp hybrids to prove that we are just a bunch of apes. (This is not the first time I have seen such advocacy.) And, bonus of bonuses, Barash believes, such a hybrid...

President Bush has outlined what sounds like a middle ground for immigration. (I know I may have lost half of you, but give me a chance.) In my (not so humble) opinion, here's the pluses" 1. There's an immediate move to plug the holes. 2. The National Guard will be more likely to check the drug cartels in Mexican Army uniforms that the local police and even the Border Patrol. 3. There's a promise to end to the "catch and release" debacle 4. There's a tiered system of settling who stays and who goes and under what circumstances. 5. The...

Last week, three of the targeted lawmakers – New Braunfels Rep. Carter Casteel (who lost), Lubbock Rep. Delwin Jones and Longview Rep. Tommy Merritt (who both won) – were among several lawmakers and reform advocates who joined the press conference to support adding the bill to the governor's special-session call. In addition to Strama, Austin Democratic Reps. Elliott Naishtat and Donna Howard spoke in favor of the legislation. Casteel, whose vocal opposition to school vouchers during the 2005 debate made her an instant darling of teachers' groups and lefty Capitol bloggers, talked about being a target of Leininger's money. "I...

Mice testicles yield 'ethical' stem cells * 16:22 24 March 2006 * NewScientist.com news service * Andy Coghlan Men’s testicles may provide an “ethical” source of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), suggest new experiments in mice. A team in Germany has successfully grown mouse ESC-like cells from spermatagonial stem cells which normally turn into sperm. The ESC-like cells can be grown into all tissues of the mouse body, suggesting that if the same could be done in men, it would provide patients with a source of tissue-matched cells for repairing any damaged organs or tissue. So far, all existing colonies of...

Zogby Poll Reveals: Abortion Tough Issue for Hillary Clinton & '06 Congressional Democrats LOS ANGELES, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Federal candidates who make abortion rights an important part of their election platform this year and in 2008 may find themselves swimming against the current of American political thinking, a new Zogby Interactive survey shows. The survey, commissioned by Associated Television News and The O'Leary Report, included 30,117 respondents in the 48 contiguous states, and was conducted from March 10-14, 2006. It carries a margin of error of +/- 0.6 percentage points. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030425/ATNLOGO ) The poll included 20 questions on...

While the Patriot Act and NSA wiretapping have received enormous attention and criticism from the mainstream media, another federal agency has been quietly gathering far more personal information about Americans than those laws ever can. And this unreported project affects thousands more people. Our inquisitive federal government has been demanding that selected U.S. residents answer 73 nosy questions. They are threatened with a fine of $5,000 for failure to respond. When I first heard about this from a reader in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, I thought it might be a joke or an anomaly. But when another in Ishpeming in Michigan's...