Irrational Neutrality
Do you have any people in your life who, in the face of today’s many social storms, will say things like this?
I just prefer to remain neutral.I like to see both sides.I’m not into hating people on either side.The media makes everything look bad.
How does this land with you? Do you think it’s a valid perspective?
I agree that there are some issues where intelligent, rational, and compassionate people will come to different thoughtful conclusions. People have different values, so this is to be expected.
Some examples include:
Where the government should spend more or less moneyAbortion right...
Source: Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog - June 24, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steve Pavlina Tags: Relationships Values Source Type: blogs
Reflections on “Nuclear Alarmism: Proliferation and Terrorism”
John MuellerIn October 2014, Cato published the book,Dangerous World? Threat Perception and U.S. National Security, which Christopher Preble and I edited. I also contributed a chapter,“Nuclear Alarmism: Proliferation and Terrorism, ” and this is now being made available online as part of Cato’sProject on Threat Inflation.The chapter argues that the obsession with nuclear proliferation over the last three ‐quarters of a centuryhas been unwarranted. The few countries that have acquired the weapons have used them simply to stoke their egos or to deter real or imagined threats, and that continues...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 24, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: John Mueller Source Type: blogs
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Late last week, the Trump administration issued a final rule amending an Obama-era rule implementing section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. Section 1557 applies to any health program or activity that receives federal financial assistance, any activity or program administered by a federal executive agency, and any entity established under Title I of the ACA, such as the health insurance marketplaces.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - June 16, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Timothy S. Jost Source Type: blogs
A Nation Changes Its Mind about Black Lives Matter
A few years ago, over what I expected to be a completely pleasant dinner with a friend I hadn’t seen in quite some time, he asked what I thought of Black Lives Matter. Then he told me what he thought, in a torrent of anger and hostility.
It was unnerving. But it was his position, not mine, that was normative at the time.
I don’t know if he has changed his mind. But the nation has. In the two weeks following the May 25th death of George Floyd, support for Black Lives Matter (BLM) soared. The movement now has majority support. When the percentage who do not support it is subtracted from the percentage who do, the dif...
Source: World of Psychology - June 12, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bella DePaulo, Ph.D. Tags: Policy and Advocacy Racism Black Lives Matter Police brutality Prejudice Source Type: blogs
Helping Your Children Cope with Societal Trauma
Children should be safe. Their primary jobs include playing and learning, sometimes in very tough environments. A news story of a missing boy or girl makes hearts beat faster with worry. Tragic accidents or intentional cruelty instinctively brings sorrowful or angry emotions to the surface for most of us. At times, however, what happens in view of our children inflicts a hidden trauma, one that can shape their life experiences and determine who they are for years to come. The events of 2020 qualify for both obvious and hidden types of trauma. With citizens in many countries divided on important issues and a pandemic contin...
Source: World of Psychology - June 11, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jan McDaniel Tags: Children and Teens Parenting anxiety Childhood Anxiety Coping Skills coronavirus COVID-19 Trauma Source Type: blogs
The Facts About the L-1 Visa Program
ConclusionMultinational companies play an exceptionally important role in the United States. U.S. parent companies account for nearly a quarter of all private sector output, nearly half of all exports, and nearly three quarters of all private research and development.[44] More than 30 million American workers ’ jobs depend on multinationals. The U.S. government should not further upend investment and job growth by these companies in the United States during the economic recovery. The unemployment rate in computer occupations where many L‐1s are employed did not increase at all during the downturn,[45] and the Unit...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 10, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
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In an essay reflecting on the killing of George Floyd and our nation’s 400-year legacy of racial brutality and prejudice, Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., draws inspiration from the eulogy President Obama delivered for the nine victims of the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - June 9, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: David Blumenthal, M.D. Source Type: blogs
Deeper Worries in America
I worry about the coronavirus. It’s already killed more than 100,000 Americans. The recent protests have created a nerve-wracking public-health situation for the next weeks.
I really worry about racism. Not only racism in police systems but more systemic racism in our culture.
My friend Dr. Andrew Foy sent me this slide and post showing the large disparity in black and hispanic representation in medical education.
There can be no rest so long as a man like Dr. Otis Brawley, a distinguished professor of medicine,
“can get thrown to the ground, handcuffed and questioned at gunpoint for looking ...
Source: Dr John M - June 6, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
Trump ’s Social Media Order Rewrites Internet Law by Decree
Will DuffieldPresident Trump has escalated his war of words with America ’s leading technology firms. Afterthreatening to “close down” social media platforms, he announced that he would issue an executive order concerning Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a bedrock intermediary liability protection for internet platforms. However, a draft of the forthcoming executive order seems to slyly misunderstand Section 230, reading contingency into its protections. Let ’s take a look at thestatute and the relevant sections of the proposedexecutive order to see how its interpretation errs.(c) Prote...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 28, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Will Duffield Source Type: blogs
Remedy for a sick nation: Curbing hyperpartisanship after the pandemic
“Obama!” Mr. J grumbled, shaking his head and wrinkling his nose.“Obama, Obama, Obama!” Mr. J was known in the hospital as a frequent flier for his heroin abuse. Now, though, his use of dirty needles had landed him in my ICU with a life-threatening bacterial infection in his bloodstream. As his fever raged, he became so delirious that […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 26, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/happy-d-thakkar" rel="tag" > Happy D. Thakkar, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Physician Cardiology COVID-19 coronavirus Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
The Facts About Optional Practical Training (OPT) for Foreign Students
David J. BierThe Trump administrationreportedly is considering a plan this week to restrict or ban foreign students from working after graduation from U.S. universities. Under Optional Practical Training (OPT), foreign students can study for at least one year after receiving their degrees. Foreign students in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math fields can extend OPT for another two years.The plan is supposedly to benefit unemployed Americans —almost none of whom work in the relevant fields—after states reopen for business. The program is the main on‐ramp for American companies to recruit and retain foreign...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 20, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Reflections on “Security Threats in Contemporary World Politics”
Christopher A. PrebleEditor ’s note:In 2014, Cato releasedA Dangerous World? Threat Perception and U.S. National Security an edited volume of papers originally presented ata Cato conference the previous year. In each chapter, experts on international security assessed, and put in context, the supposed dangers to American security, from nuclear proliferation and a rising China, to terrorism and climate change.As part of ourProject on Threat Inflation, Cato will be republishing each chapter in an easily readable online format. Even six years after its publication, much of the book remains relevant. Policymak...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 6, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Christopher A. Preble Source Type: blogs
Senator Hawley ’s Many Misunderstandings of the WTO
Simon LesterSenator Josh Hawley has a NY Times op ‐ed today entitled “The W.T.O. Should Be Abolished. ” Debates about the scope and nature of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the trading system in general are important, but this op ‐ed gets so many facts wrong that it cannot serve as the basis for a useful discussion. In this blog post, I ’ll go through a few of them. If the early response on Twitter is any indication, plenty of other pro ‐trade folks will be doing a similar exercise, so keep an eye out for other commentary on this.Hawley starts off with this:The W.T.O. w...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 5, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Simon Lester Source Type: blogs
Trillion ‐Dollar Spending Bills Bring Out the Lobbyists
David BoazThe Center for Responsive Politicsreports that lobbying spending has jumped to near ‐record levels in the first quarter of 2020 “as powerful companies, trade groups and other clients rushed to influence the government’s response to COVID-19, particularly its $2.2 trillion stimulus bill.” Federal lobbying spending totaled $903 million in the first quarter, the most since the legislatively active first two years of the Obama administration — which had exceeded the last few months of 2008, when TARP was on the table.OpenSecrets found that at least 3,200 clients reported lobbying on issuesrelated to coro...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 1, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
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Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg, M.D., foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine and member of the Commonwealth Fund’s board of directors, served as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration during the Obama administration. The Commonwealth Fund spoke to her about the challenges of developing and testing a safe and effective vaccine to protect against the novel coronavirus, as well what it would take to ensure the vaccine could be manufactured in the enormous quantities needed and distributed to meet public health and medical needs.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - April 14, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Sarah Klein, Martha Hostetter Source Type: blogs