…Actually measuring it accurately. This goes for research as well as in clinical practice.

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Possibly because I was trained in a much more rigorous science before I started on my way in the medical profession (third year medical student). Also possibly because I’m kind of a healthy living nut. And equally as possibly because I’ve been ‘overweight’ my entire adult life despite wearing pants with a 32″ waist. Hard to say really.

The point is that obesity is a serious problem. Not just when it comes to major causes of mortality like heart disease, stroke, and even cancer and dementia, but also major morbidities–ones that often further predispose you to the above-mentioned mortality risks–like arthritis, spinal dysfunction, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, and recurrent infection. There’s also little question that excess weight substantially reduces quality of life if nothing more than for the simple reason that it’s harder to move.

There is no doubt that fact, and the escalating proportion of the population that fits this definition is an even greater concern. But we actually don’t know and can’t know how serious a problem it is as long as we continue to use the BMI (actually an approximation thereof) as our method of categorization.

The Problem with BMI

BMI is a population-level measurement and has been proven time and time again to be of little to no validity when applied to the individual. Granted, if someone has a BMI of 17.5, they probably are substantially malnourished, but it still shouldn’t be the criterion we use to differentiate anorexia from bulimia, for instance. And if someone has a BMI of 40, chances are they are indeed carrying dangerous levels of body fat and have metabolic syndrome, if not overt diabetes and atherosclerosis. But in between the BMI is nothing if not lacking in precision.

The formula for the BMI is quite simple and is nothing more than our weight divided by our height squared. Yielding units of kg/m^2. And here we have the first problem. Any measurement system we use should be based on actual physical characteristics. The only physical characteristic that would naturally be expressed in terms of m^2 is our surface area. This would actually be a substantially more pertinent (although still limited) calculation. Body Surface Area is a pretty useful quality and finds application in everything from bioenergetics to exercise physiology to pharmacology. A measurement that used BSA and weight would give us an idea of body density, which is the basis for the more accurate body composition tests we have such as immersion. But since density at a given body fat percentage varies based on height (i.e. a 5′ tall person with 7% body fat will have a different density than a 6′ tall person with 7% body fat), a Bodymass Density Index (which Height/BSA would be), still wouldn’t be the most useful thing in the world.

The next problem with the body mass index is that it really doesn’t look at what kind of mass you’re carrying.

It’s a population level statistic and is more of an epiphenomenon of the fact that people are fatter today than they used to be than anything else. In other words, the only reason the BMI tends to work is because in society at large heavier people tend to be fatter. It’s an incidental finding. Amongst my gym buddies, Ken, a 230lb behemoth, sits at 6.5% body fat (based on statistically valid caliper testing). At 5′11″, he’s ‘obese’ according to BMI, yet just about anyone reading this should be envious of his low body fat content. At 5′11″ and 195, I’m only ‘overweight’, but I would bet any amount of money that I’m the one with a higher body fat percentage. And, even though my love handles have been my constant companion since I was about 14, I carry less body fat than most people who weigh 10lbs less than I do or more.

On the other end of the scale, researchers have had to coin the term ‘normal weight obesity‘ to identify those individuals who are not caught by the BMI screen and yet carry a substantial amount of body fat. Using a cutoff of 20% bodyfat for men and 30% for women, Mayo researchers found that over half of the sample of people with BMIs from 18.5-24.9 qualified as ‘normal weight’ obese. Metabolically, they appeared for all intents and purposes similar to those with a BMI over 30. The obesity problem thus isn’t restricted to those with a higher BMI, not by a longshot.

From a research standpoint, we can pretty much invalidate most of the ‘obesity’ research that has occurred thus far, at least as it relates to health risks and etiology. I haven’t been able to find a study looking at ‘normal body fat obesity’, but given that at 5′11″ a person can only weight 178 while still being considered ‘normal’ (which really isn’t very big), I suspect that a substantial proportion of people considered ‘overweight’ and even ‘obese’ by BMI are actually well within healthy limits for body fat. One bit of (slight) corroboration that I’m aware of is a study I found some years back indicating that increases in BMI among adolescent males were linked to decreasedbody fat and increased physical activity.

Current epidemiological and population-level research in obesity is thus lumping together disparate body types and compositions into its various categories. A full half of the ‘normal weight’ group carries an unhealthy amount of body fat, while a good-sized portion of the ‘overweight’ group is actually quite healthy. The major effect is to understate the health risks associated with unhealthy levels of body fat. Other potentially important factors with regard to chronic and major illness, morbidity, and mortality could easily be missed as well, such as whether llghter individuals with high body fat are at greater risk for health problems than heavier individuals with otherwise similar amounts of body fat (perhaps accounting for the occasionally mentioned ‘protective effects’ of body fat), or whether heavier individuals with low body fat are at increased or decreased risk for chronic medical conditions compared to lighter individuals of comparable body composition.

And, again (the third time I’m mentioning it I think), as BMI doesn’t hold for individuals anyway, we find ourselves hampered when it comes to translation of research into practice. It’s literally comparing apples to oranges. There is no way to put the information BMI-based research gives us into practice when it comes to screening and treatment.

The Answer?

Measure body fat. Recent attempts to popularize waist size instead of weight are a step in the right direction. But waist size is still an imperfect proxy. While unlike the BMI it is instantly translatable from research to practice, it still overlooks other possibly important body variables such as total lean body mass.

Well, immersion (hydrostatic) body composition tests are quite obviously impractical. The equipment, facilities, cost, staff training and expertise, and patient discomfort/inconvenience are prohibitive. But the 7-site skinfold method is accurate within 2% or so, training is easy, it’s fast, and it’s cheap. It might add a minute or two of time to patient/subject processing, but the dividends it pays will be tenfold.

Conclusion

Moving to skinfold tests to measure bodyfat in research and clinical practice is the wisest step we can take in understanding, preventing, and combatting the effects of obesity. It is the simplest solution to improved understanding of health and disease as well as more effective targetting of at-risk patients.

One benefit of body fat percentage testing which I’ll only touch on briefly is that it also provides us the ability to measure lean muscle mass. Muscle is an oft overlooked entity when it comes to medicine at large. We look at our patients’ bones, joints, visceral organs, endocrine systems, and brains, but nary a glance do we lend to one of the most amazing and adaptive tissues in the human body. Which is concerning, given that it makes up roughly half of our total mass.

Lean muscle mass is a pretty important variable unfortunately ignored for the most part in research and in practice. Exercise physiologists have known for decades the benefits of lean muscle mass and medicine has just started to take notice of its role in areas from prevention and alleviation of arthritis, to decreased spinal, neck, and back problems, to improved daily functioning in the elderly, to diabetes resistance, and lean body mass may even have a protective effect with regard to dementia–at the very least providing an improvement in symptoms and slow in the rate of cognitive decline.

Whatever the case, in order to properly understand, prevent, and treat obesity and obesity-related illness, we must be able to accurately assess its extent both within the population and in our individual patients. The body is too complex to be defined by a single number, be it BMI or simply weight. And in order to best understand the human body in sickness and in health we need to move away from such simplistic measurements.

Sun Tzu advises us that ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” High BMI is not the enemy. And we are not our weight. The enemy is body fat, and body composition is ourselves.

Target weight or unhealthy BMI, either concept is wrong. Rather we should seek a target body and mind, and to such an end we should endeavor to use the most enlightening tools at our disposal, especially when the effort is so small and the reward so large.

It’s been a busy umm 15 months? Third year of medical school is winding down. I still haven’t revived my primatology career. The endless and painful process of rehabilitating myself and staying as functional as possible, as long as possible, while living with RSD is–well–endless and painful. And the spectre of residency applications and the match looms large in this very ambitious, and very freaked out future psychiatrist’s head. But the blogging itch has bit me again, and so blog I shall. Probably less politics, probably more medicine, probably more on health and fitness. Who the hell knows where this’ll take me. Anyway, if any of my old readers still have me on their RSS aggregators, the point is I’m back. Probably sporadically. Deal.

One of the best friends I’ll ever have died on October 31, 2006. Eric Shockley drowned in his own body fluids in a hospital bed, in his early 30’s. A couple years ago his aorta started to balloon. They were able to patch it and replace the damaged valve, but we always knew it was going to kill him. We just didn’t think it would be this soon. And I promised I’d say this at his funeral, but I didn’t find out he’d died until afterward. So here goes:

Eric had a heart of gold. Shame about the shitty aorta.

Our friendship started randomly, as all great ones do. On a ford focus discussion board of all places, debating politics. Eric was a dirty socialist. I was a hardcore conservative. But by the time he died we were both converging on a kind of conservation-centered pseudolibertarianism. The politics weren’t important, except that they were the way we met, and a microcosm of our entire friendship.

Sometimes, I still think it’s some kind of sick joke. That there’ll be a gigantic 300lb crate on my doorstep when I come home from school some random day. That upon prying the lid off, out will pop a heavyset 6′4 white guy with a stupid beard who’ll shout ‘Surprise’. I’ll scream and have a heart attack and then we’ll both have weak tickers and moronic facial hair.

Which is exactly the kind of thing Eric would do. But he probably wouldn’t let me stew this long. At least I don’t think he was that much of a bastard.

Anyway, the point is, Eric and I were like brothers. We fought constantly, usually because one or the other was being pigheaded about some opinion or another. And then we’d make up. Heck, we were worse than brothers. If you’re a Scrubs fan as I am, you probably find great humor in the pseudo-homosexual relationship between JD and Turk, epitomized by the touching and beautiful song, Guy Love. That’s about where we were.

I’m known for my gay jokes around school, but Eric definitely holds the title for ‘gayest thing ever said by a straight man’ when he in all seriousness told me that the only time he ever smiled anymore was when we talked. But that was one of the great things about our friendship. Self consciousness was never an issue. We were ourselves.

People have a lot of layers. Some more than others. Myself? I collect layers as a sort of hobby, not to mention as a defense mechanism. I can’t say that too many people know the real me. Eric did. Hell, without Eric I don’t think I would know the real me.

In a post I made about a week before he died, I all but named him specifically. And I’m glad he commented, because it would turn out to be our last interaction. Around Eric, and perhaps a couple others, Nick came out. Not the jock, not the clown, not the nerd. Just the guy.
————————————————————–

You know how all 5 year olds have that annoying ability to ask you ‘How Come?’ until you’re blue in the face with frustration and are starting to contemplate just how far you can hurl 40lbs of annoying kindergartener? That kind of doggedness was Eric’s greatest gift to me. He forced me to push my understanding of the world and myself. And whenever I’d get to a ‘Just because, dammit!’, he’d force me through it and out the other side into deeper understanding. I’d like to think I pushed him too, which is probably why he was slightly less of a hippy by the time he died. And why I’m slightly more of one.

We have a concept in hinduism known as maya–the veil of illusion. The thing about reality is that we will always have trouble perceiving it. It’s concealed from us by our imperfect sense, by our prejudices and our preconceptions. But if we’re aware of these imperfections in ourselves and in our view of the world, we can come closer to finding reality.

In science we develop models of the world, and these models are based on certain assumptions. A model is only as true to the world as its assumptions are. The more accurate the assumptions, the more accurate the model.

Eric wasn’t a hindu or a scientist, but more than any scripture (and I’ve read them all), or any science book (and I’ve read thousands), he was the most instrumental in helping me to acknowledge the veil, and start to lift it. Because of Eric, I’ve pushed back the boundaries of simple belief and replaced it with knowledgeable understanding.

And that’s why even though I’ll never be lucky enough to see that giant crate on my doorstep, will never again hear him say something so gay that even JD and Turk would be embarassed, I know that Eric isn’t dead.

Eric’s gift is still with me, pushing me, demanding more of me. Like that 5 year old, his memory tugs on my pant leg, asking why? I’ve still got my ‘Just because’s but today it’s a much different, much smaller set of them than it was before I met him. And I keep pushing through, finding explanations for things I’d taken for granted. Changing my opinions, seeking to find not internal consistency, not some assumption upon which to build a castle in the clouds, but the truth. And it’ll never stop. I owe that much to Eric.

Eric was larger than life. And he was taken long before his time. But I take solace in the fact that everything I do, he does. That whatever I manage to do with my life is in no small part his doing. That if I can push people the way he pushed me, to find themselves and in so doing find each other, that if I accomplish nothing else, it’ll still be a life well spent.

So in memory of Eric, I’ll ask you. Where does your understanding end, and your blind belief begin?

the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace things, but burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes “AWWW!”
–Jack Kerouac

I’ve been arguing with anti-gunnies for a few years now. And the one thing that strikes me about these people is they have no fear of being violently attacked. Whether or not this fear is rational is beside the point. The thing is that they are unable to understand why others don’t feel that way. But more importantly they see no need for others to have a means of self defense.

I’ve made the confession several times before that carrying is not one of my top priorities. Because like those anti-gunnies with their heads in the clouds, I too have almost no fear of being attacked. The closest I ever came was while in England, fearing not being mugged, but the legal and criminal repercussions of defending myself against the mugger. Like the silver spoon leftists I went to school with, I live in a very nice area almost devoid of any crime. Which no doubt contributes. But I do go to school and spend much of my time in as close to a ghetto as Oklahoma City has. And that’s where my youthful arrogance and over-reliance on size comes in. One of the funniest examples of not understanding the need for firearms in self defense I ever encountered was in a Canadian bouncer. The guy was close to 250lbs, and paid to be able to beat people up, of course he saw much less need for a gun than others. I’m a dark, well built guy with a little training in boxing, grappling, and tae kwan do. While I’d likely get my butt kicked by any similar-sized guy with even a moderate amount of more disciplined training, I’m simply not that worried about your average mugger. I’ve taken them down before, and would not be surprised if I had to do it again.

Like I’ve said since the beginning, I’m far more obsessed with the right than doing so myself. In Men Like Me I talked about my schizoid tendencies just a bit. And maybe that’s why I’m able to put myself in others’ shoes. I’ve known guys with my strength and intelligence who lacked a moral code; and the results were uniformly ugly. Sometimes a friend will make a joke or hassle me a bit and I’ll say “I could end you right here, right now.” And they’ll laugh, and I’ll laugh, and someone will probably say “You’re harmless” or “Nick, you’re just a great big teddy bear”. But I know my capabilities, and I’ve seen the results when I got just a bit too into it when I was sparring with a buddy, or when someone threatened a friend. And it isn’t that far from the truth.

I think about what it would take to stop someone like me, if he was determined. A tazer? Probably not. Mace? Hardly. A wooden bat? If swung right, perhaps. A gun? Every time. Tazers and other deterrents like mace rely on luck and an easily discouraged–rather than easily enraged–perp. Bats, batons, etc still pit the potential victim against the criminal in a contest of strength and fighting ability. Not to mention that many of those are banned in the same places that ban the carry of firearms for self defense. A gun is literally the only thing that completely negates an attacker’s size and ability. And if a loved one had to go up against a guy like me, I damn well hope they’re armed with one.

The silver spoon kids are unable to put themselves in circumstances where self defense may be necessary, where you’re outweighed, outnumbered, outmatched. Where a gun might make the difference between your life, your virtue, and your property, or the rape and theft of what and who you are. So they say things like “Well, there’s martial arts” or “That’s the police’s job.” What if I were like them? What if I said “Well I don’t really need it, so no one else should either.” What if I were so selfish, so childish, as to condemn people to suffer a horrible fate at the hands of a violent criminal, simply because I was unlikely to be one of those victims?

With the growing popularity of concealed carry licenses has also come a ballooning number of establishments that prohibit firearms upon their premises.

Employee and customer alike must obey these dictates. And–often angrily–they wonder why their ‘right to bear arms’ doesn’t extend to these places of business. The answer of course is that this is the essence of the right to own property. What good is owning something if you have no control over it? Much like the 1st amendment, you can criticize their position, but not their right to hold said position.

And just as entertainers and celebrities often pay a price for opening their mouths a bit too wide, these proprietors may pay a price for the positions they take. A guy on Kim du Toit’s forum shared a letter to the editor in American Handgunner with us that illustrate’s this point perfectly:

Thought this may be of interest to Handgunner readers. Today I received the following letter:

”Dear Mr. *****, Today, while in the bank, you were noticed wearing at your side a pistol. Unless you have some specific duty or reason to enter the bank with your pistol, we appreciate your leaving all firearms in your vehicle.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

Sincerely John Parker
Vice President & Branch Manager
Troy Bank & Trust Company
Troy, AL 36081”

After receiving this letter, I immediately called the bank president and asked if he knew of the letter and agreed with it’s content. He assured me he did, saying there is not much crime in Troy and we don’t thin you need to be carrying a pistol. After a few words advising him of my position on the issue, and the fact Alabama has open carry, I proceeded to seek out local banks who would recognize my right to self protection and the exercising of my second amendment rights. Wachovia advised they would not permit any armed individuals in their bank. Colonial Bank never got back to me.
Regions Bank advised they would be happy to recognize my carry rights, my status as a retired LEO and would welcome my money. By close of business that day, I had closed several accounts at Troy Bank & Trust, with several more to go, and deposited over $480,000 in the Regions Bank. You just got to do what you feel is right. Oh, by the way, I’m also getting much better interest at the new bank.
Thought this would be of interest in so far as gun owners need to know where the gun friendly banks are.

Name withheld by request
Via email

This is pretty much a classic example of how things that are neither bought nor sold still have value. This man chose to make a statement about how important it is to him to be able to carry. And perhaps what he thought of a place of business whose idea of ’safety’ was to disarm the people who follow the rules, yet do little to make sure rule-breakers weren’t armed. Works for me, and maybe got the bank to think for a second or two. Certainly if a substantial portion of the 2nd amendment supporters in Troy followed suit anyway.

Not all second amendment supporters are classical liberals, but I certainly am. And the essence of our philosophy is that we should be free to act as we wish so long as we do not interfere with the freedom of others. Demanding that we have a ‘right’ to carry our firearms on someone else’s property is imposing our will upon them. But we can always make our displeasure known, as this gentleman did.

My first contribution at the Liberty Papers in months

The essence of the post has been seen on this blog a hundred times before. Intellectimpure will soon be complaining that I’m not saying anything new. Which is true.

But liberty papers now gets more readers than I do. So I thought I’d say it anyway lol.

anyway, quick snippet

In today’s political climate, Kennedy’s famous quote has been reversed. It is now not about what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you. In this climate, freedom has been redefined as comfort. Into this environment you invite millions of people who through no fault of their own better qualify as ‘have-nots’ than ‘haves’. And as the ‘have nots’–together with the cultural elite–have shown themselves all to willing to do, they will vote from others’ pocketbooks. And they will vote for other egregious restrictions and legalized discrimination.

Like leftists, many libertarians seem to suffer from what I can only call perfectworlditis. The major difference being that while libertarians’ idea of what the perfect world is, probably is the platonic form of our own world. Whereas what leftists think the perfect world is doesn’t make sense at any level.

I have no illusions of how perfect the world is and more importantly I understand something called the Tragedy of the Commons. Which is one of the reasons I’m a hardcore conservationist (although I don’t think global warming has been proven, deforestation and other environmental destruction due to man certainly have). And why I support some kind of government regulation/funding in education. Unlike many of my fellow classical liberals and libertarians. But much like plenty of them.

It’s something I’ve seen time and time again with people looking for philosophical and logical consistency while failing to anchor themselves against real world concerns:

“I’m more internally consistent than you!”
“Not going to deny it. But as the surgeon said to the patient with gangrene, ‘would you rather die with two legs or live with one?’”
“Yeah, well, you’re right. But I’m still more internally consistent.”
“And I’m still breathing. Later”

Post on perfectworlditis tommorrow.

Amazingly enough within a couple of hours of writing yesterday’s post and heading to school, I was assaulted by yet another piece on the horrors of debt. This one in the OU student newspaper.

Apparently ’some students don’t realize future implications of frequent credit card use.’ Not going to deny that. But yet again I’m amazed by the tone of the article. If I were to write the article, it’d very much have a tone of “Quit screwing up you idiots!” Sovereign individuals over the age of majority are making bad choices. They need to stop making them.

Instead of course the article is fairly typical in its pleas for sympathy and understanding.

Moyer, a National Merit Scholarship finalist and letters major, applied for his first credit card at 18 with a credit card company set up on campus at UTD.

He did not understand the problems he was going to face.

OU gives full rides to national merit finalists. I think UTD does too. So unlike a good chunk of this country, this kid’s tuition and general living expenses were heavily subsidized. If a National Merit Finalist isn’t smart enough to understand how debt works, who is? And even more problematic, if people of above-average intellect can’t even be expected to manage their own finances who can?

“He didn’t know how he got into all of this debt and didn’t know how to get out,” she said. “He felt like a failure.”

He didn’t know how he got into all of this debt? He did it by ignoring the consequences of his actions.

Since Moyer’s death, his mother has become an advocate for groups working to change the way people get credit cards.

She has joined the advocacy group, Americans for Fairness in Lending (AFFIL). The group is pushing Congress for change.

“We are asking for credit cards to be based on how much you make and how much you owe,” she said. “I don’t understand how all of these companies can give credit cards to someone making $5.15 an hour.”

Mother loses son. Mother wants to blame someone for son’s death. Mother then seeks to change the law and restrict freedom to somehow honor her son’s death or find purpose in it. Nope, never seen that happen.

Here’s an excellent quote from a kid with a good head on his shoulders in the same article though:

Although he is stuck repaying every dollar of his loans, he said he doesn’t regret what he is doing with the money.

“It is definitely worth it,” McCroan said. “People take out 30 or 40 thousand dollar loans to buy a car. I’m getting an education with the money. In our society, education is expensive, but it is worth it.”

Course, McCroan does whine a bit about the cost of education, but then again so does everyone. I definitely bitch and moan about the 60,000 i’ve amassed for just two years of med school. But like McCroan I grin and bear it.

I know I’m beating a dead horse here but I really don’t like ‘consumer protection laws’. And I really don’t like the intimation that we’re too stupid to make decisions for ourselves. But more importantly if we are too stupid to be masters of our own lives, what business do we have telling others how to live? Democrat, Republican, and yes even Libertarian. All of us support the right to vote and some degree of social coercion through government and law. But along with the right to vote comes the responsibility to choose wisely. To pick the right leaders who will take us down the right path. And if we can’t be responsible for ourselves how can we possibly be responsible for a whole nation?

Headline News had a little spiel about how more people are cutting back on holiday spending and are worried about credit card debt than this time last year. They blame the usual culprit: cost of living. What they didn’t ask was what level people are living at.

What I’d like to see would be a longitudinal study of income vs. ownership rates of 20k+ cars, 1k+ TVs, size/expense of movie collections, number of times people eat out at sit-down restaurants, stuff like that. Because anecdotal evidence tells me that the actual cost of living hasn’t really increased: I pay the same for Old Navy jeans as I did back in high school, bean burritos are the same price, and the only grocery I’ve seen increase are those damnably addictive Clementine Oranges. And I know for a fact that medical residents live much more luxuriously these days than they did in the mid 1980s. Same for college students.

Inflation has occurred, I’m not denying it. When I was a 1st grader taco bell burritos were 59 cents. Now they’re 79! And 20oz sodas were .75 out of the vending machine back in junior high. But then again so have paychecks. I’ve only worked entry level jobs. And I’ve never been paid minimum wage. Still during these sporadic periods of employment I’ve seen a significant rise in pay uncorrelated with the degree of skill or effort the jobs involved. But have increases in wages kept pace with inflation? Apparently, yes.

There are certain costs that are outpacing inflation. But for the vast majority of people worried about credit card debt and cutting back on their spending I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason for this fiscal bind could be traced back to the fact that these people are choosing to spend more on frivolous expenses, or simply spending more than they have to on necessary purchases.

The undertone of the pseudo-factual hit pieces we’re bombarded by about ‘making ends meet’ is that it shouldn’t be this way, that people shouldn’t be in this position. It amuses me then that the people of the self-proclaimed ‘Party of Science’ consistently fail to even remark upon what is in all likelihood a prominent factor in the rising debt of our nation’s people.

For just about any other kind of health problem, we talk about how lifestyle (diet, exercise, etc.) plays a huge role in the etiology of disease. Lifestyle changes can prevent disease, they can slow its progression, and in some cases even reverse it, depending on what we’re talking about.

Diabetes, cancer, heart disease…all are illnesses that affect a substantial portion of the population. And in each of these cases, a significant amount of time, effort, and money is allocated toward learning how to reduce the risks of developing such debilitating conditions. Furthermore, as a quick perusal of the ADA and AHA websites show, lifestyle modification is a crucial part of the strategy for managing these health problems. Indeed, as time goes on, doctors are emphasizing the fact that all the drugs in the world cannot make patients healthy if they make unhealthy decisions.

They claim that 47% of adults will suffer from a diagnosable mental illness during their lifetime. I take issue with the label ‘illness’ as that implies a degree of severity and irreversibility that simply isn’t the case. They also claim that 23% of us will suffer from clinical depression. By contrast, only 10% of the population aged 20 or older has diabetes.

Psychiatric problems (illness or not) can be just as deadly and debilitating as any other medical issue. Why then is there little or nothing in the way of preventive education? Why then do primary care physicians prescribe antidepressants and psychostimulants often without so much as a referral to a therapist?

We are surrounded by messages telling us how we know if we ‘have depression’ or ‘have ADHD’, and what drugs to ask our doctor for. But have we ever been told how to prevent ourselves from becoming clinically depressed? Have we ever been shown how to deal with depression, ameliorate our anxiety, or learn how to focus better?

I find it hard to believe that unlike diabetes, unlike heart disease, unlike cancer there is nothing we can do to prevent ourselves from suffering from mental health problems. Indeed, the fact that some people appear far more resistant to depression and anxiety than others in similar circumstances, combined with the relatively weak heredity of such psychiatric problems, would seem to indicate that mindset and worldview play a substantial role in resistance to mental health problems. And, even more convincingly, depression is on the rise in this country. Which would point to something we are doing rather than something inside of us being the culprit.

Relapse rates for those treated with antidepressants alone are considerably higher than for those who received combination therapy or only psychotherapy; in fact, only about 1/3 of those who take anti-depressants alone see a full resolution of their symptoms while 1/3 don’t respond at all. Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Edison, and countless other accomplished people fit the textbook definition of ADHD, yet never took a pill for their ‘condition’.

Simple logic dictates that if systemic disease can be prevented or at the very least mitigated by behavioral modification, then certainly mental health problems would too. Scientific evidence backs this idea up quite firmly. And yet it would seem that they’re far more interested in telling us we have a psychiatric illness, then telling us what we can do to prevent being so labeled or how to fix it.

Rosie O’Donnell made a comment today about how we shouldn’t fear the terrorists:

Faith or fear, that’s your choice. You can walk through life believing in the goodness of the world, or walk through life afraid of anyone who thinks different than you and trying to convert them to your way of thinking.

I figure most people are going to key in on the ‘we shouldn’t fear the terrorists’ line. Whatever. It’s expected from her. What I personally find noteworthy is how in one short sentence she has exposed both the hypocrisy and the innate instability of the leftist worldview.

“You can walk through life believing in the goodness of the world…” is the choice she wishes us to believe she has made. ‘Faith’ in her fellow man. I consider myself a freethinker. And a tireless seeker of the truth. Are people fundamentally good? Every day in the news they shows us otherwise; rather, greed, anger, and pettiness seem to be innate characteristics. Are people fundamentally evil? Thousands of acts of kindness both large and small–many going largely unrecognized and unrewarded–would seem to belie this assertion. I submit instead that people are neutral. Neither good nor bad until we make that choice.

To have faith in the goodness of the world is to invite yourself to become a victim. Should girls at college parties get drop dead drunk assuming that all men are perfect gentlemen? Should the elderly couple entrust their life savings to a shyster? Should a person walk down the streets of Camden Town at 2 am assuming that no one will assault them?

To do so is not only the height of stupidity, but if Ms. O’Donnell truly behaved in such a fashion and truly lived in the real world, she would quickly be disabused of such lofty and inane notions.

…or walk through life afraid of anyone who thinks different than you and trying to convert them to your way of thinking. Here Ms. O’Donnell seems to be talking about the Right, religious and otherwise. But what about herself and her own politics? She rails against firearms, yet if people were truly good, she would have nothing to fear would she? She bangs her meaty fist upon her desk screaming at the camera about the need for social welfare. Yet if people were truly good, would we have need for such things? Ms. O’Donnell compares Christians to the Taliban and tells us that Christianity is if not evil, at least a danger to be carefully guarded against.

She openly derides those who seek limited government, and seeks to impose her leftist will upon us through government. She campaigns for the erosion of freedoms that could be used to cause harm and demands that government force us to be charitable.

Rosie and her ilk have no faith in the goodness of people or they wouldn’t campaign so hard to limit our freedoms and coerce us into making the social choices they want us to make. They have no respect for opposing viewpoints or they wouldn’t work so hard to silence voices like mine. Or, at best, compel us to act as they would wish through the use of government fiat, making us unwilling cogs in their machine.

What is it they fear? The evil that lies in the hearts of men. The pettiness. The greed. Just as everyone else does. This is why they fight tirelessly to control how we behave. They fear that a morally neutral tool would inevitably be used against them. They see the freedom of others as innately threatening. They fear that left alone, we would let others starve as we pad our own pockets. They fear that we have no capacity for goodwill toward others. If they do not fear such things, why do they work so hard to legislate them?

What is it they have faith in? It’s clearly not the people, or they wouldn’t try so hard to direct our every move. Yet, feeling as they do about our capacity for evil, they willingly give power to government to control us. They find little to be apprehensive about in this granting of enormous power because it will be ‘used for good’.

And yet when non-leftists are in control they briefly don the anti-establishment cloak that never leaves the shoulders of liberty-minded individuals, wearing for a time the mask of someone who sees the implicit danger of concentrated power. Faith in big government by fellow leftists, but not in big government by those other than themselves. What is this but fear of others that believe differently from you. We are left to the inescapable conclusion that what the leftist elite have faith in is in their own ability to justly preside over others.

I choose neither faith nor fear, but simple rationality. People are neither good nor bad, but will act in either fashion as their own self-interest dictates. Unlike the leftists, I do not fear others to the point I wish to control them. But neither do I have faith in them to always act in a goodly manner. More importantly, whereas the leftist has faith in ‘the right people’ and their ability to rule over us, I have faith in no one to do so. I am not an elitist, believing I operate on a level of righteousness unparalleled by ‘the common people’. I have within me the same capacity for evil as they do. And so I wouldn’t trust myself with such power, nor anyone else of a like mind. I do not hold myself above others, as the leftist elite seems to.

We were talking about The 300 on the med school discussion board. Of course, a couple of the meatheads mentioned that we would’ve loved to be born in such a time. Which incited me to mention that the Velamas today are a far cry from our warrior past, namely engineers, doctors, and mid-level managers. Someone said that stereotyping isn’t ok, even if you’re stereotyping your own people. Which, umm prompted a response. Here it is.

Stereotyping isn’t bad. The human brain (all higher mammal brains really) is designed for the express purpose of pattern recognition and categorization. All a stereotype is is a generalization concerning a given category. Many of these generalizations have considerable statistical validity. NOT acknowledging a statistically valid stereotype is irrational. Creation of stereotypes is essential to any kind of job or task that involves dealing with variability in your subjects. Without stereotypes we would be paralyzed by uncertainty. We couldn’t make assumptions. We couldn’t move forward. Because you can never be 100% sure of anything.

Stereotyping only becomes wrong when you make the mistake of assuming that everyone within a category fits the stereotype. For instance, BMI works well at the population level. As a population, people with a BMI higher than 25 tend to be fatter, have a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, etc. At an individual level, BMI fails to accurately predict such things. Use of BMI is a stereotype. The BMI in and of itself doesn’t measure anything medically valid. It just happens to correlate well to something that is (namely body fat percentage and metabolic indicators).

A public health researcher can say “Oklahoma’s average BMI is on the rise. This is bad because this means that our incidence of heart disease, diabetes, etc will also see a corresponding rise.” Valid. Yet it’s a stereotype.

Misuse of a stereotype would be what would happen when I went to the doctor while I was still an athlete. I had a BMI of over 30. I also had a 31″ waist size. The doctor still told me I needed to lose weight because my high BMI was a health risk. BMI as I said is a population level phenomenon. And as long as it is used as such, no problem. But you can have fat people with a BMI under 25 (I’ve seen many) and people with BMI’s over 40 without an ounce of fat on them.

Or here’s another example. You’re walking from the BSEB to your car the night before a test at 3am and you see a 210lb dark guy in a black hoody walking directly at you at a fast pace. Do you make the stereotype of assuming this guy might mean you ill? If you’re smart, you do. Because at 3 am in a bad neighborhood, there’s a high likelihood that such a guy has a high possibility of being a criminal. If on the other hand you say “That guy right there is a violent criminal”, then you’ve taken it too far.

Can’t wait to see the fuss I cause this time. I’m honestly surprised the discussion board hasn’t gotten me into serious trouble yet…

Last week, I saw a totally thugged out guy with the whole huge jacket, saggy pants, and silver chains thing going on walking around my neighborhood. I thought to myself “that dude doesn’t belong here. He’s probably up to something.” I parked my car in the garage and left the family beater outside instead. And sure enough around midnight that guy and his buddies broke into several cars on our street. I live in an upper-middle class white neighborhood. And I do mean white. We are one of two minority families in the entire square mile.

I’m stereotyped the same way that guy is all the time. Back in London, after midnight people would cross the road to the other sidewalk when I was walking by. It doesn’t really bother me. Heck, I take advantage of it and am probably safer for it.

It really befuddles me that the self-proclaimed ‘Defenders of Science’ ™ are unable to understand basic logic and statistics. That they tell us we shouldn’t use the most basic element of animal intelligence when we deal with day to day life.

But what’s even weirder than that is that they go ahead and make racial stereotypes themselves with affirmative action.

It was a point I made to the new President of Cornell back in 2003. Lehman was notorious for the affirmative action supreme court case and I decided to bust his balls a bit when he had an open mic q&a situation on the quad. So I asked him why he’s such an ardent supporter of affirmative action when using income instead of race would be far more valid. I asked him how he could look at a black applicant and assume that their parents were low income and uneducated, then turn around and look at a white applicant and assume that they were privileged.

I have rarely been more popular with white people than I was that day.

Yeah, limited blogging until at least the end of this week. Possibly forever. *shrug*

Anyway, I heard an Orlando Magic fan had his season ticket revoked because he called Dikembe Mitumbo a monkey. Apparently that’s racist. I’ve had a lot of racial slurs thrown at me over the years, including pretty much everything you could call a muslim or a black person (which is funny, because I’m neither), but I’d never even heard of monkey being used as a racial epithet.

In fact, my nickname all through highschool and college was monkey. This might be because I’m an extremely gangly bastard and can touch my knees without bending over.

I’m not much of a sports fan, but one thing I know about Mitumbo is that he’s pretty much known for one thing: blocked shots. He’s not a bad rebounder either. Blocking shots and rebounding are two of the only basketball skills I’m mediocre instead of miserable at. One thing we have in common is being gangly bastards. It’s conceivable that he was called ‘monkey’ because of that.

Why I mention this is because it’s an example of how special protection laws erode the basic liberties we hold so dear. Whether it’s muslims in europe or minorities and gays here the end result is a limitation of the 1st amendment. Which I find rather strange given that it seems to be the only one leftists–the ones often behind such legislation–seem to remember exists.

This fan of an opposing team hurled an insult at a particular player. To my understanding, this is a regular occurrence. I would suspect that very few of us think insults should be illegal. Is calling someone a monkey somehow worse than calling him a loser or a moron? What if this fan had called Dirk Nowitski (also gangly) a monkey? Would he have been in the wrong then? No?

Strange. So insulting a white guy by calling him a monkey ain’t a big deal, but insulting a black guy by calling him one is? Seems odd to me. The black guy wasn’t hurt, his reputation wasn’t tarnished. I fail to see a crime. And even if there was one, how was it worse than if the player had been white?

Furthermore, they’ve managed to give this word a power it didn’t have before they made such a fuss. They’ve managed to turn a simple allusion, a simple comparison, into something hurtful. I wonder how many people like me would never have even thought monkey was racist before they heard the term.

I’m not a fan of special protection laws (such as ’sexual harassment’ or ‘age discrimination’ laws) as they take all objectivity out of the equation. It’s no longer important what actually happened but rather how someone interpreted it. Calling Nick a monkey wasn’t racist, because Nick didn’t interpret it that way. Calling Mitumbo one was, because he did. I realize moral relativism is ascendant in the children in adult bodies who are quickly claiming this world as its own, but is it really so hard to see the untenability in a justice system where the definition of crime is so capricious?

So. This is an ugly time in our Nation’s history. Far uglier than the Civil War and Reconstruction. Much worse than the Depression–although the seeds of today were planted by FDR, his four freedoms, and even moreso his massive ego.

Claire Wolfe puts it succinctly in the opening lines of 101 Things To Do ’til The Revolution when she says:

“America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.”

That is exactly the situation we’re in. At this point it is all but impossible for one to vote for a party that supports the essential American ideal of liberty. The Libertarians who perhaps come closest still fail to acknowledge the basic pragmatism espoused by the founding fathers and which common sense when applied to classical liberal theory would suggest.

A vote for the Democrats is the same as a vote for Old Europe. Also known as the road to serfdom, socialist collapse, and totalitarianism. To vote for the Republicans is to vote for a strange combination of plutocracy, social authoritarianism, and a brand of big government all their own. Democrats fail to understand that if it requires coercion to maintain, then it can’t really be freedom. They also strangely see no problem with giving Government control of our economic lives, all the while whining about the problems faced by those without it. Republicans are unable to separate their personal moral views from their political stances. And neither party is able to understand the difference between political and economic capitalism.

Both parties are broken. The left irretrievably so seeing as the very definitions of important words like ‘freedom’ and ‘rights’ they operate under are flawed. Castles in the sand and all that. Democrats’ minds inhabit a world in which physics, biology, and basic mathematics do not obey the rules of the physical universe. They live in a world where ’socialism is a good idea in theory’. Despite the fact that it’s at the theoretic level that socialism is most flawed, failing to take into account the basic self interest inherent in all animals.

Republicans? I’d give them slightly better odds but not much better. This might be a personal bias though. Like most minarchists I’m more sympathetic to conservatism than neosocialism since although we push for legalization of many things conservatives stand staunchly against, many or most of us willingly choose not to partake in such activities. Firmly wedded to personal responsibility as we are, the liberties of excess are not objectives we are likely to pursue.

So what do we do with one of the few tools left to us? Our vote? Well, we’ve all heard the basic arguments, which basically boil down to two:

1) The Republicans are still better than the Democrats, so we should vote for them.

2) The Republicans need to be sent a message so we should…

2a. Vote Libertarian
2b. Vote Democrat

3) The political machine is completely broken so we should refuse to vote at all.

4) Give the Democrats some power so they can hang themselves with their own rope.

I think Michael Savage has taken option 3 (if you can overlook his egotism, he’s actually fun to listen to). Boortz has rejected option 1, but I don’t know if he’s committed to anything else.
Personally I’ll be using option 2a and 3 depending on availability and palatability.

Just a couple days ago I reminded people that this is not an either/or proposition. And that’s what we need to keep in mind. This isn’t about choosing between Republicans and Democrats but architecting the birth of a new party or three. About changing things from the top to the bottom. Perhaps the new parties will keep the old names, perhaps they won’t. The fact that the Democrats can call themselves the ‘Party of Jefferson’ proves that names are as ephemeral and irrelevant as can be imagined.

Not everyone will choose the same option. Not everyone should choose the same option. I will say that Option 4 is just plain stupid. The thing about government power is that once granted it is almost impossible to revoke. Bush, like the past 70 years of presidents, is operating under the ‘emergency powers’ that FDR bequeathed upon himself. His Rural Electrification Administration is still in operation. Which is strange. I’ve lived in West Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and rural New York state, and have never had a problem with access to electricity. It’s just possible that that particular branch of government has outlived its always dubious usefulness.

Choosing Option 4 in other words is to accept that revolution–a true revolution–will be the only recourse. Whether it could be avoided in any case is doubtful. Still, as a young man who hopes to raise children as soon as he finds a worthy vessel, I’d like to at least try for a peaceful solution.

The other options boil down to a combination of geography, the individual candidate, and personal principle. I refuse to vote for a Republican. I can do this because I live in what was the Reddest state in the union back in the 2004 election. I’m also lucky enough to call Porkbusting Senator Tom Coburn my own. I get to have my cake and eat it too. Were I to live in a borderline state like Ohio or Wisconsin, my personal convictions might have some negative side effects.

My vote isn’t meaningless, but it is futile. Even if the libertarian party presented me a candidate who’s head wasn’t in the clouds, a candidate with a strong and popular following, some Republican who displayed ‘Christian Family Values’ would still win. But like I said, my vote isn’t meaningless. Voting for an LP official would send a message. 5% of the vote this cycle, 10% next cycle. It would remind the people at large that there could be a viable alternative. And it would remind the Republicans that they aren’t the only option for non-socialists. And there is a certain comfort in knowing that even though I’d be ‘throwing my vote away’, at least I wouldn’t be abetting a Democrat in gaining a seat.

In a similar way, the same goes for those living in California, New York, or any of the other neosocialist bastions. They similarly have little chance of changing the tides. They are free to vote for an alternative candidate with a clear conscience. And that is what they ought to be doing without a doubt.

Borderline states, it’s you who have the real dilemma. When elections hang on margins that measure in the low thousands, your vote does make a measurable difference. Not voting for a Republican could change the election. Then again, voting for a Republican doesn’t quite convey your disapproval of the GOP. And then there’s the danger of the message being interpreted wrongly. The GOP could always take your decision not to vote for them as a signal that they need to turn even farther left. All I can tell you is that just remember that Dems in power means yet more liberty all but irretrievably lost.

Maverick candidates offer the best of both worlds. Republican candidates who support the FairTax plan, are more socially liberal, or firmly stand against the growth in the Executive Branch are people we can give our full support to. Unfortunately they’re an all too rare breed.

Nope, I don’t have an all encompassing solution to this quagmire. And there is no one-size-fits-all voting strategy. Human power struggles are far too messy. Which is probably why the Founders sought to limit the power of government so much when they created the law of the land. Sadly, we forgot their lesson. And this is the mess we’ve inherited.

All I can hope for is that we tread carefully and prudently. Whether we merely prolong the seemingly inevitable or somehow manage to revive our ailing nation, either would be better than hastening its demise.

Ben Folds Five - Philosophy

Go ahead you can
Laugh all you want
I got my philosophy
Keeps my feet on the ground
And I trust it like the ground
And thats why my philosophy
It keeps me walking when Im falling down
I see that there is evil
And I know that there is good
And the inbetweens
I never understood
Wont you look at me
Im crazy
But I get the job done
Yeah Im crazy
But I get the job done

I find it hard to function without philosophy. Not that I always think things through on a metaphysical level before I do them. But that I can’t help but reflect upon the things I see and do in that way. It just kind of…happens.

“Just because,” the favorite explanation of everyone between the ages of 5 and 10–and seemingly the majority of adults–simply doesn’t work for me. “Because [authority figure] said so” is scarcely any more satisfying. “It shouldn’t have to be that way,” a favorite justification of the left (and you thought I couldn’t bring politics into this), is similarly without value unless it’s explained why.

I’m often half-jokingly asked if I was a philosophy major. Which is flattering because believe me this ego loves to be stroked. But it’s also disheartening. I’m saddened that in the circles I run in, people find the depth to which I take politics, science, even hobbies to be something unique. I don’t want it to be unique. I don’t want to be singled out for it. I’d much rather it be the initiation or the continuation of an ongoing friendly debate. Something that’s as much take as give.

For me, I’m nothing without philosophy. It’s what helps me stand alone. It’s how I know I’m my own man, not beholden to the indoctrination of culture, peers, ancestors, or society. Because under the layers, under everything those outside see, is a core I know to be my own. Take away the clothing, the degrees, the resume. Forget about the way people describe you, from those who’ve just met you to those who’ve known you for years. Take away the words of others who taught you what to do and how to do it. What’s left?

Sadly, it would seem that the answer is at best that most people simply don’t care what makes them tick.

Perhaps it’s because I romanticize, well, the romantic period, the enlightenment, and the renaissance. Perhaps it’s because for all my cynicism and anger, I’m really an optimist when it comes to the capabilities of humanity. Couldn’t say. I just think that people are capable of understanding themselves and the world to a much greater degree than they ever try to. And when they do put in that effort, not only do they grow larger in the making, but so does the world.

A coherent personal philosophy doesn’t just help you stand alone but also together. Spider Robinson’s Callahan series more or less revolves around this idea. Through the course of that marvelous series, the denizens of Callahan’s Bar learned who they really were, and were able to form a friendship so deep and so strong that though few in number, they were able to save the world. But here in the world much of the time I feel like part of a circuit that’s been cut, a charged battery whose frayed wires are uselessly flapping in the wind.

You may take this all for granted
Take the mortar, block and glass
And you forget the speech
That moved the stone
Its really not the you cant see
The forest for the trees
Youve never been out
In the woods before

Go ahead you can laugh
All you want
But I got my philosophy
Keeps my feet on the ground
And I love you
Youre my friend
But you got no philosophy
Now its time for this song to end

There are a few people I’m able to really connect with. And I treasure those friendships, because it’s the only time Nick ever has a chance to be seen. Everyone else simply sees one layer or another.

You know what pisses me off?

Being called conservative.

You know what pisses me off even more?

When pseudosocialists call themselves ‘liberal’.

Do you know what pisses me off more than either of those?

Being told to vote for Democrats since I’m fed up with Republicans.

That one exposes just how statist and juvenile the modern so-called liberal is.

Everywhere around me I see discontent with the political leadership of both parties. The only ones who fully support the Democratic Leadership’s 12 step plan to emulate Europe’s slow decay are the ivory tower academics, their spoonfed and sheltered students, and a bunch of rich white people who feel guilty about their economic success.

And I don’t think I’ve actually met anyone who fully supports the Republican leadership. And I live in the reddest state in the union. Then again, maybe that’s why…

Yet this November, people are going to get into the booths and vote for people who don’t necessarily represent their interests or their positions, and in some cases are directly antagonistic to them. They’ll do so because “it’s as close as they can get.”

Unfortunately, when you vote you can’t put down “only because you’re the lesser of two evils,” or “I’m not voting for Republicans but against Democrats (which I may do, we’ll see),” or “I’m only voting for points 1, 3, 4, and 8 of the party platform.” A vote is all or nothing.

If we persist in the mindset that there are only two options, what will happen is we’ll enable these people to continue drifting away from what we really support. This is what the Bush administration has skillfully done for the past 6 years. I would sooner have shot myself than vote for Al Gore. I was 16 at the time, so it was irrelevent. But my position wasn’t so different from the people who were of voting age. And the Bush administration pushed their retarded agenda, the only unifying theme of which seems to be the desire to increase Executive Powers as much as possible while helping business out (which isn’t the same as advocating a free market).

Bush’s approval rating amongst conservatives has been relatively low for most of his presidency and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Yet he was voted in again in 2004. Not because people liked him but because he was better than Horseface.

And the same goes for Democrats. A lot of my left-leaning friends say they don’t support things like fully open borders, expanding social welfare, or enabling violent criminals by reducing our ability to defend ourselves, or a nanny state, but then they turn around vote for the people who do. Why? Because it’s ‘better than the alternative’.

So what do we have here? We have two political parties, neither of which represent their base all that well. And we have people that will continue to vote for one or the other knowing this. We are enabling the theocrats and the neosocialists by our unwillingness to tell them to go to hell.

A reformer, a new party, we need something. If Zell Miller and Ross Perot were to do their respective things right here, right now that’d be just about perfect. And we’re only get that if we encourage it. I don’t see any good options for 2006 but 2008 could be a very good time for an up-and-comer if we’re brave enough to break the hold the decayed and corrupt parties have on us. Don’t think of it as a vote thrown away, but as an investment on what could be something great.

At the moment we’re well within that 60 day period during which our First Amendment rights cease to exist courtesy of Sen. McCain’s insane publicity-driven political posturing. Which makes me angry. But I saw an ad air on TV that cleverly sidesteps that bit of legislative retardation. Which makes me smile.

Imagine an advertisement that starts out with a silhouette of what is clearly a female with a butch haircut (women should have long hair dammit). Imagine the advertisement explaining exactly why they can’t tell you what her name is or show you her picture. Imagine they tell you that this state insurance commissioner took tens of thousands of dollars from the very out of state insurance companies she was supposed to observe and regulate.

Now, imagine they give you a web address where you can learn more. This one right here:

www.oklahomasecrets.com

I don’t necessarily have an opinion on her. I already don’t like her. I don’t like her haircut. I don’t like her husband. As a former state employee I don’t like her abuse of expense accounts. And I don’t think the people who are supposed to be a check against something should be able to have their elections funded by that very thing. Could you imagine if Logan County (one of the nation’s largest meth hotspots) had a guy running for Sherrif who took campaign contributions from known drug dealers? Doesn’t make sense.

The advertisement could’ve been against Tom Coburn, who I would’ve voted for in 2004 if I’d been in the country at the time. I’d still have been posting about this slick little 30 second TV spot.

They found a way to bypass McCain-Feingold. And for that reason alone, I approve of their message.

Guy on a Focaljet asked this question and posted his top ten. Mine were slightly different. The one commonality, healthcare reform, showed just how different our ideologies and thought processes were. I wanted to reform it into a true market system with posted prices and employer-insurance decoupling. He of course wanted to go socialist. Which I found amusing since he supposedly likes math. And you have to be pretty bad with math to think socialist anything will work. Anyway, my Top Ten. There’s a fair amount of things you’ve seen before and these don’t necessarily go in order of importance.

1. Lock down the border
–simple logic says you cannot increase the size of your lower classes under a progressive income tax system
–furthermore, we are importing (and thus creating) an underclass, not good for them not good for us
–make English the official language. It’s the only way to be fair to all immigrant groups.

2. Tax Reform
2a. Eliminate Concealed Taxation
–the 7.5% ‘employer contribution’ to social security is a perfect example. It isn’t an employer contribution at all, but part of your paycheck deducted before you even see the stub. If you can’t see what taxes you’re paying you can’t know how badly the government is soaking you.
2b. Reduce corporate income taxes from sales
–this is effectively a concealed consumption tax, as their ‘profits’ are actually the money you spent on sales
2c. Initiate movement toward the FairTax plan
–income tax is both unconstitutional and unfair
–prebate plan ensures no one is taxed on necessities
–plus a lot more I’m not willing to get into. More here
2d. Decrease capital gains taxes
–possibly just for individuals below a certain income threshold to encourage saving and investing, reducing the need/desire for SS and government subsidized education loans

3. Healthcare reform (not what Hillary means when she says it)
3a. Decouple employers from managed care plans
–this is a form of concealed income. The employer doesn’t pay for health insurance, rather it subtracts the cost from your paycheck before you see the stub. The accountants consider health insurance just another part of payroll.
–this would increase competition as rather than having to sell to a single company, insurance companies now have to court thousands of individuals
*instead of pleasing the employer (by looking effective while being cheap), they’d have to please the person who wants to be insured.
–this would allow consumer choice as to whether full insurance is necessary or not. In many cases (especially single young people) it is simply too much coverage
3b. Push alternative coverage plans
–traditional health insurance is too inclusive, it’s like being forced to take no deductible comprehensive car insurance and a prepaid maintenance plan when all you need is high deductible liability
3c. Increase utilization of non-MD practitioners
–I’ve got a lot of respect for nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants. They could largely replace a lot of general practitioners
3d. Restrict medicaid and medicare programs significantly
–I’m very anti social welfare. It is not a good thing.
–Medicaid destroys market efficiency in healthcare. It gives too much coverage for some things and too little for others. And as eligibility grows, they become a larger and larger part chunk of the medical market. They can strongarm healthcare delivery systems in much the same way WalMart does with their suppliers.
–Medicaid and medicare encourage overuse of medical resources. You’re not paying, so why not go in for every little unnecessary thing.
3e. Allow emergency rooms to turn away non-urgent cases
–Right now ERs have to see and treat anyone who walks in the door, even someone with a simple cold
*seeing a kid with a runny nose in an ER is much more costly than in an urgent care or outpatient setting
–This is bankrupting them and increasing costs astronomically because many don’t pay, using it for ersatz primary care. This drives up your and my bill as these hospitals try to recover costs from us.
3f. Use tax incentives to encourage hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to provide indigent care
3g. Upfront pricing for medical care
–Allow patients to shop around
3h. In general encourage competition
–the current medical system is anything but a free market

4. Welfare reform
–major penalties for having children while on welfare
*not being able to take care of yourself is one thing, being derelict in your duty to raise your child is another
–couple welfare to working on government projects
*government can recoup cost of welfare by essentially ‘hiring’ these people, reducing the size of the civil service corps
–ensure that welfare is a transient safety net and not a lifestyle
–I toy with the idea of suspending their voting rights. If you’re not even taking care of yourself, what right do you have to tell other people how to live? But more importantly, if you’re living off of other peoples’ money, should you be able to vote yourself more of their money?

5. Move away from Social Security
–we will have to be weaned off of it as a 64 year old can hardly be expected to save enough money by next year to retire. Say anyone under 30 or so will not receive benefits and each year reduce the SS tax.
–private investment is a better alternative. Not government privatization of social security, but complete dissolution and moving to IRAs, 401ks and the like.

6. School reform
–competition is good
–vouchers ensure that parents are forced to spend money on their children (through taxation), yet allows choice.
–competition and government standards will ensure that even if parents do not choose school, school will still be decent
6a. Incentives to put elite schools in bad neighborhoods
–this worked well where I grew up. Kids who have little parental support nevertheless find themselves at schools with great opportunities.
6b. Accelerate the curriculum and provide public trade schools
–the answer is not dumbing down the curriculum but to smarten up the students. You won’t know what they’re capable of until you push them.
–some people can’t hack it. This is ok. There are plenty of well paying jobs for skilled labor, many of which can’t be replaced by machines.
–accelerated curricula might decrease the ‘college degree. any college degree’ requirement of many jobs.
*many jobs simply do not need a ba or a bs, they require these because the school system has gotten so crappy that they figure if you have an undergrad degree you’re up to high school standard.

7. Encourage research into viable alternative fuels–biofuels show great promise yet are underfunded compared to pie-in-the-sky tech that is often theoretically flawed, let alone impractical.

8. Remove ‘under god’ from the pledge of allegiance
–it just pisses me off and i’m running out of points to make. A 1950’s addition that undermines our founders’ commitment to a separation of religion and state.

9. Destroy the two party system
–there are more than two viewpoints out there yet sadly that is the choice we are forced to make
–The country would be better served by several parties who overlapped in ideologies. Voting blocs would disappear and there would be far less of this party line voting nonsense.

10. Shore up the constitution and its commitment to limited government–no more intellectual dishonesty about certain amendments (*cough* 2nd)
–return the Senate to state appointments rather than popular elections
*this would make senators part of state governments, and so reduce their urge to grow federal power.
–eliminate the executive powers first expanded by FDR and later by every president since
*reduce the size and power of the executive branch’s ’shadow wing’ (including FBI, CIA, ATF, etc). They don’t answer to the people and in many cases only nominally to the President. They have too much autonomy and not enough accountability.
–restrict federal powers to those areas envisioned by the founders as being necessary
–reform the judicial branch by increasing accountability and decreasing bench legislation
*there are activist judges on both the right and the left. With all too little justification they can drastically change interpretation of law even when original and/or commonsense interpretation is well established.
*term limits or at least periodic performance review periods

Thoughts
Schools and biofuels are probably the two things that pop out at you as not very minarchist. You’re right on the latter. And the former was cause for debate even in the formative years of our guiding philosophy.

I consider the environment a commons situation. And like all commons situations, self-interested individuals acting self-interestedly will result in destruction. I think that market solutions can work, but not without a regulatory framework. I see hunters, outdoorsmen, and the like as vital to preserving the natural world. I also know that we need to reduce our continued population growth and environmental impact. Not necessarily down from current levels, but control the growth from this point on.

On education, I think it was John Stuart Mill who said something along the lines of education being necessary for the maintenance of freedom. I happen to agree with him. Minarchists of all stripes tend to be very self-sufficient people and capable of taking care of themselves. These aren’t skills we’re born with, but things we learn. And it would be nice to say ‘It’s the parent’s responsibility.’ Which it is. But the truth is far too many people have children and whether through malice, indifference, or simple incompetence do not know how to turn those children into self-actualized adults. With a government education system (including a somewhat subsidized state university/college system), we can ensure that the opportunity to learn is there for all children and that they are exposed to it.

There’ll be disagreements of course. That’s kinda the point of political discourse. Anyway, that’s what I would do if I were eligible in 2008. Instead of 2020.

If you’re a firearms enthusiast you’ve probably heard of Norinco.

They’re a chinese manufacturer of a lot of weapon-related tech. What makes buying Norinco different from buying other Chinese stuff is that they are a profit center for the People’s Liberation Army. Who they’re liberating and who they’ve kept liberated I don’t know. But there you have it.

Buying exports sucks, but we all do it. But when you buy Norinco, you are directly increasing the coffers of the army of the world’s next big–probably inimical–threat. What makes it so tempting is that in several cases, Norinco offers clones of some interesting and highly sought after weapons.

They make the only forged M14/M1A receivers, Springfield et al. use cast receivers. And while they need a heat treat and some hand finishing, they are far and away the best new receivers available.

They also make a clone of John Browning’s Winchester 1887 lever action shotgun. Which is just plane cool. Also, Cowboy Action Shooting is fueling a resurgence of interest in clones of period longarms like the Taurus Thunderbolts. An 1887 would be a pretty cool piece to show up with at one of these matches.

They also do a clone of a Winchester 1897 ‘trench gun’, used in WW1 during the desperate and dirty fighting across the atlantic.

The M14 is the quintessential battle rifle and probably will always be regarded as such. The 1887 and 1897, while not exactly an improvement upon modern choices, remain interesting and fun (especially the lever-action) historical pieces and offer plenty in the way of desirability themselves.

Tempting, but worth it? To my mind no.

Most of us are well aware of all that. But a question I’ve seen come up time and again is “If it’s already in the store, then the PLA already has the money, why shouldn’t I buy it?”

Simple economics. It’s true that the chinese government has already benefited from this transaction. But importers and retailers typically decide what, how much, and how often to order based on prior sales. The faster those Norinco guns get bought off the shelves, the more of them importers and retailers will buy, and thus the more the PLA benefits.

There is one way to keep your conscience somewhat clear when it comes to these firearms, and that is to buy them used off of a site like gunbroker. The money changed hands long ago, and the person selling the firearm likely has no interest in selling more of them for a profit.

Still, this too can lead to increased sales of new weapons should these firearms become popular enough. Indeed domestic firearms manufacturers keep their eyes on sales of discontinued models, calibers, and options. When these used firearms become popular enough to start engendering a premium, manufacturers look into reintroducing these models.

You’re free to make your own choices when it comes to buying these products. After all, buying anything Chinese has a similar, but more mitigated, effect. I’m certainly not going to judge you for buying Norinco, just as I don’t judge my friends for getting drunk when I don’t. But you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

This is my personal take on buddhism, a combination of a strong spiritual upbringing and some scholarly dabbling in college. The Dalai Lama almost certainly has a different interpretation. I hope this clears up some of the misconceptions about Buddhism, and explains somethign of the differences between the Buddhist sect of Hinduism and other religions. It isn’t that this way is the only way, just that, so long as you remember the above lessons, it is incorruptible. If you live as a Christian, a Jew, whatever, so long as you, yourself are uncorrupted, the Hindu Gods really won’t give a damn which path you took to get there.

To understand the nature of Buddhism, and the purpose of Buddha’s life itself, one has to understand why God himself would come to Earth in mortal form, for the express purpose of telling people NOT to pray to Him.

Buddhism is a much misunderstood religion, often the biggest perpetrators of it of misinformation are Buddhists themselves.

The New Testament is like a ship floating aimlessly in the sea without the anchor of the Old Testament: You can’t understand Christianity without a basic knowledge of Judaism.

The same is true, even moreso, for Buddhism with regard to Hinduism. In fact, Buddhism is not a religion of its own so much as a sect of Hinduism. To understand this, we might as well start at Buddha’s birth.

A young queen has a dream that a six-tusked white elephant pierces her womb, an omen that the child is destined for great things. Eventually a baby boy is born: Siddhartha Gautama. The crown prince lives a sheltered and indulgent life until sometime in his twenties, he realizes that he has no idea about what life really is. So he kisses his wife and son goodbye and sits underneath a tree (a bodhi tree to be specific) and doesn’t move for 8 years.

He comes back from his trance enlightened. Now it is revealed that he is Vishnu incarnate. Other vishnu incarnations you might be familiar with include Rama and Krishna (as in Hare Krishna cultists…who I’ll save a tirade against for later). Buddha didn’t actually say anyt