E.T.

An extraterrestrial was sent to Earth on last February first as an emissary from the Council of Worlds to decide if the Earth was to be invited for membership. After a short period changing its appearance and learning all the languages, it spent its remaining time visiting most of the inhabited areas of this globe ... but concentrating on the biggest economic power, the United States.

This information gatherer found multiple forgeries in all disciplines painted over to appear as masterpieces ... while actual truths were being ridiculed into submission. It uncovered prancing hypocrisy, preening vanity, indulgent lust, ostentatious wealth, manufactured realities, rampant crime, self-serving politicians, unscientific science and a destructive media.

After six Earth months, it left this morning on the UFO trolley to go back and file its report ... shedding green tears and shaking its head in disbelief.

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Living Life

Vanity is a passionate and flattering lover ... until the money runs out. — Anon.

Obvious Truth #34

We often try to hide the effects of aging not so much out of vanity ... but rather to make believe that it isn't happening. -- Anon.

Tweet, Tweet

I don’t understand Twitter … nor do I enjoy it.

First of all it encourages twits (those who tweet) to say insipid things in a moment of fervor that they often later regret. Some studied reflection (and editing) of one’s ideas is very often a better course … such as in a blog format … particularly those blogs not comprised of a series of tweets.

Second, 140 characters is hardly enough text to express any important idea … so, as a result, tweets become so cryptic as to be unreadable by anyone but the “inside baseball” crowd (for an example see: Powerline Entry).

Thirdly, hashtags give me a #headache.

And lastly, Twitter’s only appeal seems to be the amassing of a huge number of followers as an indication of one’s hipness and popularity. Please, has such vanity overtaken our lives?!

Twitter is a bird ... no wonder its stock is tanking.

Medical Fads

When was the last time a child you know had his/her tonsils out? How about an adenoidectomy? A study in New York City in the 1930s had over 90% of its children with tonsillitis resulting in surgery or a recommendation of same. Today the equivalent statistic is below 1% (see: The Pediatric Journal).  Of late, I even can’t recall anyone I know getting his/her appendix removed. Yes, I know, the use of antibiotics may have a lot to do with the dramatic reduction in these medical procedures, but it can’t be the total reason. May I suggest that medical fads exist and that this may be one reason for our spiraling health-care costs … particularly when someone else pays for things?

What are the latest oft-expensive medical procedures that deserve to be evaluated for such faddish “crowding in?” Maybe botox injections, cellulite reductions, other vanity plastic-surgeries (Nancy Pelosi per esempio), C-sections, and maybe even some joint replacement procedures (see: Cracked Article). Yes, I know of those people where a knee replacement was a medical necessity, but I still see or hear of others where it may have been palliative or even faddish. (I, myself had been recommended for such an operation.) And, how about those ads on TV that push those fancy self-propelled wheelchairs?

Too often in the news we see of some medical quackery that operate clinics that will perform some expensive Medicare- or Medicaid-paid procedure or surgery over and over again on anyone who is willing to submit to this charlatanism. Why do these patients offer themselves up for such suffering? Often, I think, for bragging rights, borderline masochism, vanity, or even Munchausen’s syndrome.  Estimates of the “waste, fraud and abuse” in our medical system run into the tens of billion dollars per year (see: HHS Testimony), but somehow we can never seem to reduce this number significantly.

May I offer that some targeted and repeated public-service announcements, pointing out these medical fads and their consequences, might be an interesting path to follow? Escalating medical co-pays based upon the degree of faddishness involved might also be tried? These approaches do seem to be working for reducing cigarette smoking.

Afterthought:  I don't know why I didn't first suggest this solution to fix waste, fraud and abuse in the medical system ... reintroduce market forces into medical payments (Ryan's approach).