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.

Ben Affleck at the Democratic Convention

Ben Affleck will be doing the samething I will be doing over the next several days, playing poker:
Ben Affleck is upping his stake in politics – with poker. The Oscar winner, 36, will be in Denver this week for the Democratic National Convention, where he'll be celebrating at more than one political party. Among his official duties: performing at a roundtable event for SeaChange Ideas Forum, packing food for the needy and playing poker to benefit paralyzed veterans.

Of course, I won't be in Denver- I'll be playing in Vicksburg.

Another Narcissist

Maureen Dowd has a great collumn today on the Breck Girl (aka John Edwards):

The stunning admission Edwards made to ABC’s Bob Woodruff, and in a written statement from Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon, was that he’s a narcissist.
He admitted that wallowing in “self-focus” out on the trail and thinking you’re “special” can result in a solipsism that “leads you to believe you can do whatever you want, you’re invincible and there’ll be no consequences.”
Even in confessing to preening, Edwards was preening. His diagnosis of narcissism was weirdly narcissistic, or was it self-narcissistic? Given his diagnosis, I’m sure his H.M.O. would pay.
The creepiest part of his creepy confession was when he stressed to Woodruff that he cheated on Elizabeth in 2006 when her cancer was in remission. His infidelity was oncologically correct.

I'm glad Edwards lost the Democratic primaries, bad things can happen when a narcissist comes into power. On the other hand, maybe someday he'll bring balance to the country.

Neuropsychiatric explanation for Alien Abduction

Current Psychiatry has an article about Alien Abduction Experiences, which can be caused by several pscyhiatric and neurological conditions. Some cases are hypothesized to be secondary to sleep paralysis combined with hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations:

Full-body paralysis normally accompanies rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which occurs several times a night. Sleep paralysis is a transient state that occurs when an individual becomes conscious of this immobility, typically while falling asleep or awakening. These experiences can be accompanied by hypnagogic (while falling asleep) or hypnopompic (while awakening) hallucinations. An estimated 30% of the population has had at least one sleep paralysis episode. In one study, 5% of sleep paralysis patients had episodes that were accompanied by hallucinations.

During sleep paralysis episodes, individuals typically sense a threatening presence. Patients have reported beastly and demonic figures of doom: devils, demons, witches, aliens, and even cinematic villains such as Darth Vader and Freddy Kruger. Others have described this presence in terms of alien visitations or abductions.

Sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations can sometimes be treated by treating any underlying sleep disorders. Treatments for cataplexy, such as tricyclic antidepressants, are often effective for sleep paralysis.

Die Endlosung

This comment was posted on the Wall Street Journal Health Blog today:


Die Endlösung must be applied to individuals who chronically do not participate in the production and consumption of commodities.
Comment by DM - August 4, 2008 at 9:42 am

I posted this comment 11 hours later:

I’m surprised that the first comment promoting The Final Solution (Die Endlosung) hasn’t been removed by the moderators of this blog yet. I would think that a statement arguing that the chronically unemployed should be killed would be considered offensive.
Comment by Michael Rack, MD - August 4, 2008 at 8:56 pm

DM's comment, in addition to being offensive to both Jews and the chronically unemployed, doesn't make sense. While not everyone produces commodities, everyone consumes commodities.
_____________________________________________________________

Update (8/5) DM's comment has been removed from the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. Mine has been too- I guess the Wall Street Journal is trying to cover up the lax monitoring of their blog.

Woo in Psychiatry II

In response to my "Woo in Psychiatry" post, an anonymous poster advised:
read work by Steven Sevush MD

A quick google search reveals that Dr. Sevush is a geriatric psychiatrist, that he's done some work on Alzheimer's, and that he is written on consciousness. I am not sure if this essay is by him, but it came up when I googled "Steven Sevush MD and quantum".

Now quantum mechanics has some interesting philosophical implications, though it takes several years of advanced college mathematics (which I lack) to have even a basic understanding of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics has some interesting implications for the concept of consciousness. There has been some research looking at the speed of neural transmission, and whether an action can begin before the person makes the decision to carry out the action (I am probably butchering the concept, see Roger Penrose for more details).

I maintain my assertion that quantum mechanics has nothing to do with psychiatric treatment. I have no problem if a psychiatrist is interested in quantum mechanics and its philosophical implications. However, if a psychiatrist starts talking about "energy fields" to his patients, that psychiatrist is a quack.

At the last Psychiatric Congress (an annual CME seminar), I suffered through an hour session on psychotherapy in which a psychiatrist who thought he knew much more than he actually did about quantum mechanics erroneously said that quantum mechanics is about energy fields and that we are all connected by energy fields (quantum field theory has nothing to do with us all being connected). I had to restrain myself from telling him that he was a fool.
The only "energy" or "energy field" relevant to psychiatric treatment is the energy generated by an electroconvulsive therapy machine.

Autism is not a mental illness (according to Dear Abby)

DEAR ABBY: I just finished reading your June 9 column and am shocked at what I read. Your response regarding autism was way off base. You said, "Autism is a mental health disorder ... some people consider ... to be shameful."
Autism is a neurological disorder, NOT a mental health disorder......
DEAR MELISSA: My thanks to you -- and the many other readers -- who wrote to correct me..... autism is often considered a mental health disorder because it affects behavior, cognitive ability and social skills. However, it is genetically predetermined -- biologically based.
Experts clearly agree that autism is a neurologically based condition. The current criteria used to diagnose autism are contained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. However, this does not mean that autism is a "mental illness." Autism is most accurately described as a "neurodevelopmental disorder."

Most psychiatric conditions have at least some biological basis. Schizophrenia can also be considered a "neurodevelopmental disorder," though it has a later onset than autism. There is no clear dividing line between what is considered a neurological brain disease and what is considered a mental illness.

Psychiatrists in the News

A famous psychiatrist has been featured prominently in the news headlines this week:
(CNN) -- Radovan Karadzic, whose Interpol charges listed "flamboyant behavior" as a distinguishing characteristic, was a practicing psychiatrist who came to be nicknamed the "Butcher of Bosnia."
Twice indicted in 1995 by the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Karadzic faces charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, extermination, murder, willful killing, persecutions, deportation, inhumane acts, terror against civilians and hostage-taking.
While president of the so-called Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Karadzic's troops were reported to have massacred over hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats during a campaign of "ethnic cleansing." Early estimates of the death toll from the 3-year war ranged up to 300,000, but recent research reduced that to about 100,000.
Karadzic was born on June 19, 1945, in Petnjica, Montenegro. He studied psychiatry and medicine at the University of Sarajevo during the 1960s and took courses in psychiatry and poetry at Columbia University from 1974 to 1975.

Poker in Mississippi

Those living in Jackson MS no longer have to drive to the coastal region to play No Limit Texas Hold'em. Vicksburg (45 minutes from Jackson) now has 2 poker rooms. The room at the Horizon casino, though, is of low quality and sometimes only has Limit games. I recommend the Ameristar casino- not as good as the Imperial Palace in Biloxi, but Ameristar does usually have several No Limit tables going.

Woo in Psychiatry

Alternative medicine quackery is spreading throughout medicine, but is especially common in psychiatry:

Complexity theory, quantum mechanics, and quantum field theory are conceptual frameworks that have been largely overlooked by Western medicine as potentially useful explanatory models of illness and healing. These nonclassical paradigms may eventually lead to models or research methods that will clarify the nature of putative informational or energetic phenomena related to health, illness, and healing. Phenomena regarded as legitimate subjects of inquiry in nonorthodox paradigms that have been largely overlooked by Western biomedical research include the role of intention in healing and the putative beneficial effects of “subtle energy” on health.

Quantum brain dynamics is a nonclassical model that uses quantum field theory to explain subtle dynamic characteristics of brain functioning, including postulated influences of nonclassical forms of energy and information on the brain. It has been suggested that healing intention operates through nonlocal energetic interactions between the consciousness of the medical practitioner and the physical body or consciousness of the patient. Conventionally trained physicians generally regard reports of beneficial outcomes following “energy” treatments as examples of the placebo effect because contemporary Western science is not able to substantiate the role of postulated forms of nonclassical energy when these modalities are employed.

If you hear a psychiatrist using the word "quantum" or if you hear him talking about "energy fields", that psychiatrist is a quack and you should run out of his office as fast as possible. Quantum mechanics has nothing to do with psychiatric treatment.

suicide nation

USA Today reports on the Japanese suicide epidemic, which is being fueled by economic hard-times as well as Japanese cultural traditions promoting suicide:

"Suicide is not considered a sin," says sociologist Masahiro Yamada of Chuo University in Tokyo. "We've made it a bit of a virtue."
A decade of weak economic growth and the unraveling of Japan's system of lifetime employment have left many middle-age and elderly men unemployed and in financial ruin. Among Japanese suicides, nearly 71% are men, more than 73% are 40 or older, and more than 57% are jobless.
For an unemployed, former "salaryman," suicide can be "a rational decision," Yamada says. When a man commits suicide in Japan, his beneficiaries can still collect his life insurance. And insurers pay off Japanese home mortgages when a family's breadwinner dies — even if the death is a suicide. "If he dies, the rest of the family gets money," Yamada says. "If he continues to live without a job, they will lose the house."