Sunday Sermonette: Oink, oink
If you haven ' t already, please see the introduction to the Book of Esther that I posted yesterday. For Ch. 1, the main thing to keep in mind is that it is very unlikely the author intended this to be a story about the real emperor Xerxes. The Hebrew, Ahasuerus, is not the name of any actual Achaemenid emperor and we should assume that we are reading a story about a fictitious, generic emperor. That said, I would not be surprised if the real emperors, including Xerxes, were what we would consider actual sexist pigs. What we can ' t be sure of is how the author intended us to take Vashti ' s act of defiance, refusing to be...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 9, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Special Saturday Bible Study: The Book of Esther
Esther requires a substantial introduction, worth a post to itself, so I figured I ' d get it out of the way. It was probably written in the 4th Century BCE. It comes here because we ' re following the order of the protestant Old Testament, but in the Tanakh it comes near the end. The version in the Septuagint differs considerably from the Masoretic
text, and is not really considered a translation but a retelling. Esther is notable for a few reasons, not least that it is one of two books of the Bible that does not mention God, the other being the Song of Songs or so-called Song of Solomon. (Although Solomon alm...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 8, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Like I said
The high level U.S. delegation currently in China has a lot to talk about,but they ' re putting climate change at the top of the agenda. As I said there ' s absolutely no sense driving deeper wedges between the U.S. and China. In factthe major issues are mostly about trade, global investment, and economic relations, one way or another, and those can only be resolved by deal making, not confrontation. In fact rare earths and semiconductors and photovoltaics are at the center of many of the issues so it ' s already about climate change. We hear absurd yelping from Republicans about how the administration&nbs...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 8, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Rationing Health Care
Lately we ' ve touched upon the absurd cost of medical services in the U.S. -- we spend twice as much as the next biggest spender and three or four times as much as others -- and we ' re less healthy for it. There are a few reasons for this, but here I ' m going to touch the third rail.In the United States, in contrast to other nations, if the FDA approves a treatment, insurance has to pay for it. The FDA does not consider cost, but only whether there is evident of clinical benefit that outweighs risks or (non-financial) harms. The definition of benefit and harm, and how to value them, is of course far from obvious, but we...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 7, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Thank God it's over
We have finally come to the end of Nehemiah. Just a reminder, we ' re following the order of books in the protestant Old Testament, which is different from the Tanakh. That ' s important here because we have already read the Book of Ruth, which was written later than this and comes after it in the Tanakh, although it is set in the time of the Former Prophets, specifically in the time of Judges, before the founding of the kingdom and construction of the Temple.The Book of Ruth is relevant here because it is all about the marriage of a Moabite woman and an Israelite man. This chapter, parallel to the last chapter of Ez...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 5, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The corn is knee high
As a matter of fact, we ' ve had ample rain this year (unlike last summer) and it ' s a little more than knee high. The farm fields and gardens -- including mine -- are jumping. The point of this seeming digression is that July 4 is not really an occasion for people to contemplate the nature of the American experiment or the meaning of patriotism or anything else having to do with national purpose or identity. It marks the unofficial start of summer, and it ' s an occasion to drink too much, grill cheap (and carcinogenic) meat products, and watch fireworks displays.Contrary to Lincoln ' s famous oratory, our fathers did no...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 4, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Yeah, we get it
Don ' t worry, we ' re almost done with this dreck. I ' ll have a good deal to say about the Book of Ester, which comes next, and is something completely different. Meanwhile, the point of this chapter is pretty much the same as the point of the previous chapter: hammering home that the people are supplying the priests and their hangers on in the Temple with plenty of swag. First though, we a list of names. Ezra, or somebody with that name, reappears, but the name is just in passing and he ' s apparently nobody special. Then there ' s the celebration of completion of the wall, featuring a lot of music. (As I ' ve said befo...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 2, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The boys are always prepared
I live in eastern Connecticut, not far from the Coast Guard Academy. For those who don ' t know it ' s in New London, actually across the street from Connecticut College, which my cousin attended and a friend of mind taught at, so I ' ve been in the area a few times. The Academy is a source of pride to our state and one of a few important symbols of our maritime tradition. Actually I drive right past it whenever I ' m headed to Mystic and points nearby. The Mystic Seaport museum is another of those important symbols -- home, among other rare artifacts, to the only surviving wooden whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan. ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 30, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
“Sons of Liberty” Flea Into King George’s (or Donald’s) Open Arms.
BY MIKE MAGEE
If there is a silver lining to the Trump assault on decency and civility, it is our majority response to this “stress test” of our Democracy, and the sturdiness (thus far) of our Founders’ vision.
It was, after all, a long shot when Alexander Hamilton, under the pen name Publius, published Federalist No. 1 on October 27, 1787, writing: “It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflec...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 29, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Donald Trump Mike Magee Roe v. Wade Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Hit the snooze button
As I said last time, don ' t worry we ' re almost done with this dreck. Here we get another meaningless list of names. The whole proposition doesn ' t make a lot of sense, or at least it hasn ' t been explained. Remember that most of the exiles returned something like 100 years ago. Nehemiah is parachuting in to a society that has already become established. For some reason, the number of people who have settled in the city of Jerusalem is fewer than he considers desirable, so he invites people to come in from the countryside and forces a number more to do so when he doesn ' t get enough volunteers. Why anybody would care ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 28, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
This and that
Responding to some of the responses to my last post on global carbon emissions, yes, we agree on the facts, the issue seems to be the implications. It is correct that at this moment, the U.S. accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and we have been heading downward; while China in particular has been going in the wrong direction and is the largest emitter. Maybe " fairness " is an issue here, since the U.S. is responsible for far more cumulative emissions and China ' s emissions per capita are not as large, but given the crisis facing humanity I think that ' s pretty much beside the point. What matters i...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 26, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Matthew ’s health care tidbits: Time to get Cynical
Each time I send out the THCB Reader, our newsletter that summarizes the best of THCB (Sign up here!) I include a brief tidbits section. Then I had the brainwave to add them to the blog. They’re short and usually not too sweet! –Matthew Holt
Plenty of reason to worry about the future of American health care this week. The biggest for-profit hospital chain–HCA–was accused of aggressively pushing patients into hospice care, sometimes in the same room, in order to make their hospitality mortality numbers look better. Most of the leading benefits consulting companies were exposed as taking payments from PB...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 26, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Matthew Holt Babylon Health HCA Medicaid Medicaid Work Requirements PBMs UnitedHealth Group VBC Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Taking the pledge
Don ' t worry, we ' re getting close to the end of Nehemiah and the books that come next are a lot more interesting. Ch. 10 starts off with the sort of pointless list of names that the Chronicler and whoever wrote this seem to like. Note, however, that Ezra once again seems to have disappeared.Then it describes the pledge the people took which mostly has to do with giving stuff to the priests, which is a major emphasis of all the material we ' ve been reading going back to Deuteronomy. Which is no surprise, don ' t forget who wrote this.Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hakaliah.Zedekiah,2 Seraiah, Az...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 25, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The power of liquid biopsies and the challenge of health care disparities
Laura Nuttall was diagnosed with deadly brain cancer at the age of 18 after going for a routine eye exam. She completed an incredible bucket list, which included meeting Michelle Obama, driving a monster truck, and commanding a Royal Navy warship before ultimately succumbing to her cancer this past Monday at the age of 23.
Read more…
The power of liquid biopsies and the challenge of health care disparities originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 23, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Aadel Chaudhuri, MD, PhD Tags: Conditions Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs
Carbon footprint
Whenever I post anything about anthropogenic climate change, I get " What about China? " comments. It is true that the U.S. has actually reduced its carbon emissions slightly in recent years, and that China has now surpassed the U.S. in annual emissions. But we ' re still the #2 emitter in the world. Growing emissions from India are also a problem. Note that because the U.S. was the #1 emitter for most of the industrial age, we ' re still far an away responsible for the largest cumulative amount of anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere. Here ' s the story for the whole planet right now. So yes, if...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 22, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
