The Ice Age is Coming

The Russians think Al Gore was wrong about Global Warming:

The data from paleoclimatology, including ice cores, sea sediments, geology, paleobotany and zoology, indicate that we are on the verge of entering another Ice Age, and the data also shows that severe and lasting climate change can occur within only a few years. While concern over the dubious threat of Anthropogenic Global Warming continues to distract the attention of people throughout the world, the very real threat of the approaching and inevitable Ice Age, which will render large parts of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, is being foolishly ignored.

Obesity Continues to Increase

Numbers posted by the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared to 32.7 percent who are overweight. It said just under 6 percent are "extremely" obese.

For the first time, obesity is more common than being merely overweight.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE50863H20090109?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

Funding Retirement, Building Wealth

Many, but not all, doctors make high incomes. Most doctors are not wealthy. This blog post at Liberated Doc discusses why having successful medical practice often does not translate into the conversion of income to wealth:

the limited or complete lack of equity that physicians have an opportunity to build is a major shortcoming of clinical practice....
The money left after direct expenses are paid and that is left for the partners is equal to what it would cost to hire other doctors to do the work in place of the partners. In other words, the partners often don’t make much more than if they were just receiving a salary as an employee.

The days when doctors could hope to fund retirement by selling a medical practice are long over.
Personally, I'm hoping that my investment in junk bonds (within retirement accounts, primarily a Vanguard SIMPLE IRA) will pay off. I started gradually investing in high yield bond funds in Mid-December and have done well so far. I have sold a portion of my holdings over the last several days and now plan to monitor market conditions for a few days before deciding whether to stay in junk bonds or switch back into a money market fund.

Autoenucleation

And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Matthew 18:9.

AOL news reports :
A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye and told authorities he ate it.

Matthew 18:9 is occasionally misinterpreted by those with schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses, with drastic resuls. The AOL article doesn't mention any citation of this Bible verse by Andre Thomas, the Texas inmate. Perhaps Matthew 18:9 was not involved in this instance, as ingesting the eye goes against the phrase "and cast it from thee."

Abuse of Power by Democratic Senator Reid

CNN reports that Senate Democrats plan to block Roland Burris, Blagojevich's appointee to Obama's vacated Senate seat, from entering the Senate floor:

The aide familiar with Senate Democratic leaders' plans said if Burris tries to enter the Senate chamber, the Senate doorkeeper will stop Burris. If Burris were to persist, either trying to force his way onto the Senate floor or refusing to leave and causing a scene, U.S. Capitol Police would stop him, said the aide.

What right do Harry Reid and the rest of the Senate Democrats have to keep Burris from entering the Senate floor? The Constitution gives the Senate, not Reid or the Democrats, the right to determine its members. Until the 111th Congress formally meets, and until the Senate formally votes to deny Burris his seat in the Senate, Burris has as much right to enter the Senate floor as any other new member of the Senate.

It is an abuse of his power for Reid to use the Senate doorkeeper or the U.S. Capitol Police against Burris until a vote by the full Senate is taken to deny Burris his lawfully appointed seat.

EDIT (1/4/09): Reid and the Senate Democrats have softened their stance a little. It appears that if he has a valid certicate of appointment, he will be allowed on the Senate floor. This new stance seems valid to me. According to Fox news:

The certificate of appointment must bare the signatures of both the governor and the secretary of state. Secretary of State Jesse White who has refused to sign the document because of the allegations of corruption against the governor.
Should the Illinois Supreme Court force White to sign the document, a move Burris is seeking, Burris would be allowed on the Senate floor. Reid or some other Democrat would then have to object to Burris being seated and call up a resolution that would send his credentials to the Rules Committee pending an investigation.

EDIT (1/5/09): The Wall Street Journal published an editorial 1/3/09 stating that according to the Supreme Court's opinion in Powell v. McCormack (1969), the Senate must seat Burris but can then expel him with a 2/3 rds vote.

Assuming that Burris obtains certification by the Illinois secretary of state (which is a nodiscretionary duty and will probably be compelled by the Illinois state courts), the Senate must seat him and can then expel him if they wish.

Buying a Senate Seat

Those in the know are saying that Caroline Kennedy won't get appointed to the empty New York Senate seat because she hasn't donated that much to New York politicians.

On the other hand, Illinois governor Blagojevich is fighting to keep his job and stay out of prison after being accused of trying to sell Obama's former Senate seat.

I guess the lesson here is that if you want to buy a Senate seat, you need to start spreading the money around far in advance of the seat being open, and you can't just give money to the governor who will be appointing you, you need to spread the money around to other state officials in the governor's party. I guess it's illegal to directly buy a Senate seat, it has to be done indirectly and there can't be a quid pro quo.
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One of the main problems with medicine today is that the rules are made by corrupt lawyers and politicians, and not by doctors themselves. Why is it considered improper influence if a pharm rep gives a doctor a pen (this practice will stop Jan 1, 2009), but it's perfectly fine for a lobbyist to give $1000 to a politician's re-election campaign?

Opioids and Testosterone

Although I mainly practice sleep medicine, I have been treating patients with opioid dependence at Somnus Sleep Clinic for the last year. I prescribe suboxone. Several of my male patients have complained of decreased libido and erectile dysfunction. After checking a testosterone level and finding it to be low in several of these patients, I referred them to an endocrinologist for testosterone therapy.

Opioids can cause hypogonadism, probably by interfering with the hypothalamic-pituitary-luteinizing hormone (LH) axis.

Unfortunately, for most of these patients I checked testosterone levels after they had been taking suboxone for several months, so it wasn't clear if suboxone was causing the effect or if it was due to prior opioid abuse.

When I see male patients for their initial visit prior to initiating suboxone therapy, I think I am going to start ordering baseline testosterone levels if there are symptoms of hypogonadism present.

Shredding of the Constitution

President-elect Obama, who allegedly is not a natural born citizen and would therefore be ineligible to be President, has nominated Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton is ineligible to be Secretary of State due to the Constitution's emoluments clause.

Unethical Psychiatrists

An editorial in the NY Times today discusses the unethical activities of two prominent psychiatrists:

The company also drafted a scientific abstract on Risperdal for Dr. Biederman to sign — as if he were the author.... And it sought his advice on how to handle the uncomfortable fact, not mentioned in the abstract, that children given placebos, not just those given Risperdal, also improved significantly.
Dr. Biederman’s work and reputation have helped fuel a huge increase in the use of powerful, risky and expensive antipsychotic medicines in young people... Now it is hard to know whether he has been speaking as an independent expert or a paid shill for the drug industry.

The editorial also discusses Dr. Frederick Goodwin.

The Democrats are still trying to Steal the Election

It's been a while since I last posted; I have been busy.

The Presidential election is over and Americans have gotten the President they deserve.

The votes are still being counted for a few Senatorial and Congressional races. The Democrats are putting a big effort into stealing the Minnesota Senate seat:

http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/11/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough/?icid=100214839x1212508863x1200805879


It increasingly seems Al Franken, Mark Ritchie, ACORN, and a whole host of Democrats across Minnesota have a plan to put Mr. Franken in office, be it the will of the people or not. There needs to be a recount in Minnesota, that's true. But someone needs to step in and make this thing happen clean. So far, it's just plain dirty.

The Democrats are trying to steal the election

The liberal group ACORN, which has been engaging in massive voter fraud across the country, tried to register Mickey Mouse to vote in Florida.

Obama criticizes America

Obama vs. America

Obama Youth II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy09UpI60F8



The previous video of Obama's paramilitary troops is no longer available; here is another copy:

The Carnage Continues

While world leaders announce rescue measures to fix the crumbling global financial system, Israel stocks drop 7.68%:

Israel's main stock index dived 7.68 percent on Sunday when the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange opened after a four-day holiday weekend and a 45-minute delay enforced after a sharp drop in preliminary trading.

Recommendations for your Investments

I think the broad market indices are going to decline approximately 15% more before hitting bottom. I believe this will happen near the end of October. Once the Dow drops below 7500, I would recommend gradually moving your money into a stock market index fund or ETF.

Given the recent strength of the US dollar and its likely future decline, moving some of your money into international fund is also reasonable (once the Dow drops below 7500).

How to Ruin the US Economy

Scare Americans into putting up $750 billion of their hard earned money to bail out the billionaires and their friends who created the market for loans to poor credit risks (The "subprime" market) and the unbelievably large side bets on those loans, promising that such a bailout would save the retirement savings of Americans, then allow the immense hedge funds to make the market crater immediately afterwards.
by Ben Stein

Time to Get Out of the Stock Market

According to Jim Cramer, it's time to get out of the stock market:
“Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week. I do not believe that you should risk those assets in the stock market right now.”

The Cure for Psychiatric Illness

CASH:

Based on our findings, the clinical utility of monetary incentives in the form of cash deposits or lump sum payments directly to patients should be reappraised as a viable alternative therapeutic modality for the treatment of mild, moderate or severe cases of anxiety with or without co-occurring depression. Cash payment should also be considered the treatment of choice for all major depressive disorders including mild, moderate and severe clinical or sub-clinical depression, depressed moods, or any and all dysthymic, cyclothymic or depressive symptoms appearing with or without comorbid anxiety disorders.

from the Bonkers Institute for Nearly Genuine Research

The Bailout Tax

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants a "Wall Street tax" to fund the $700 billion bailout:

... the fee could be assessed after five years if the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office determined taxpayers had lost money in the bailout.
"If after five years ... the CBO decides that the American taxpayer has lost money in this, then there would be a fee on financial institutions," Pelosi said...

I find it interesting that Democrat Pelosi is proposing this, since the Democrats, especially New York Senator Schumer, receive a majority of Wall Street's political contributions. Schumer and other Democrats blocked the Republican's attempt earlier this year to increase the tax on hedge fund managers (I guess Democrats could claim that hedge funds aren't technically part of "Wall Street", since most are now headquartered in Connecticut). Because of the Democrats, hedge fund managers pay only a 15% tax rate on their earnings, rather than the usual tax rate. I think increasing this tax rate would be a great start to paying for the bailout.

Democrats responsible for the Financial Crisis

Bloomberg has a collumn today, written by Kevin Hassett, explaining why the Democrats are responsible for the current financial crisis:

Alan Greenspan warned Congress about the coming financial crisis in 2005:
... If Fannie and Freddie ``continue to grow, continue to have the low capital that they have, continue to engage in the dynamic hedging of their portfolios, which they need to do for interest rate risk aversion, they potentially create ever-growing potential systemic risk down the road,'' he said. ``We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.''
Republicans tried to act:
For the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.

But Democrats opposed the reform bill:

But the bill didn't become law...... Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee..... Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.

If only the Senate Democrats hadn't obstructed the Republicans in reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we wouldn't have the serious financial crisis that we are in today.