Linked to my lowly blogs. I have friends in Zimbabwe who distribute the medicines in programs and also who have had relatives die of HIV.

Well, it could be worse: here in the Philippines, the Europeans, especially the Italians, routinely pay ransom for kidnapped aid workers. But in the long run, if the Taliban knows you will search and rescue the worker, the aid workers will be safer. As for aid workers: it is a fine line between your work and your safety. Misjudge, and you can get killed/kidnapped etc. but leave too early and locals die. Been there, done that (and one of my friends in Africa died because she waited too long).

the Enneagram is also scientific nonsense. There is no hard evidence of it being ancient, nor is there any scientific evidence that it has scientific validity. That is why we doctors don't use it or refer to those who use it. Where is James Randi when we need him?

ironically, she is much more sympathetic to the Saudis:LINK...

I argue the same thing here...and added a quote from you as an addendum. If you object I'll remove it.

one of the joys of reading the daily prayer of the church was discovering Gregory's down to earth advice.

linked...and I borrowed the photo (my bandwidth), if you object let me know.

now, if they only would post it on iTunes U, or another podcast site for those of us who can't attend to learn. I am retired and live in the rural Philippines, and one of my joys is finding lectures from Berkeley, USCSD or Stanford etc. on line for free.

The answer could be on line education courses to keep these ideas on line. I download and listen to many that are on line (Itunes U etc) some very very good, and some PC which I just don't listen to. There are also good courses at the Teaching company that are too expensive for most of us who are now retired, but worth it if you can afford it.

Opus Dei does have some scary members, but the Knights of Malta aid a lot of hospitals etc. in poor countries. I ran into them when I was working as a doctor in Liberia.

and her petsmart page sells sequined skull decorated coats for your puppy.

Gee, they do have a lot of uses. I'm a doctor, and you really don't want to know why we use them.

Alzheimers is more than simple "aging": people with Down's get it at age 40...and often other dementias (e.g. multiinfarct dementia from hypertension) are pegged as Alzheimer's in the public's mind. But until there is a cheap and effective treatment, diagnosing it earlier seems more a way to make folks depressed. Yes, there are expensive medicines with side effects that slow down the progression of Alzheimers, but are they suggesting we docs start it early and make the drug company rich?

These scholars also portray a culture that could never be...the "original" gospels resonate with village life in today's third world, but their fantasies mirror only a Chomsky fantasy of how folks think and act. (I base this on years working in poor areas on three continents). Two: Anne Rice, who researched her books on Jesus commented that she was astonished to find most of these scholars seemed to hate Jesus...because how could you spend your life researching someone you loathed?

Hitler used to have schools promote kids to calculate the cost of caring for the retarded, brain damaged, and mentally ill. in contrast, Mother Teresa and her nuns risked death rescuing brain damaged kids when they were stranded in the midst of a battle in Lebanon we now see whose side is being pushed in the USA, and personally I am glad I live in the Philippines.

you don't have to look at the UK...the US has "socialized" medicine for the American Indians: JUst look how we had weekly panels to decide if you can get checked by a specialist or get a medicine not on our list.

Hitchens is often wrong, but honest. I always pray for him, because I suspect a lot of his anger against God is due to his mother's suicide when he was a child...

Judgement at Nuremburg with Spencer Tracy...shows how normal, good people got seduced into evil and then tried to ignore what their decisions led to.

Because I am aware of the racism where I grew up, I avoid being racist. But because I am lower class, I don't feel "white guilt", because like most ethnic Americans I too have been the victim of both prejudice (prior to 1970 when my gender and religion were held against me) and "reverse discrimination" (after 1970 when I lost a scholarship because money was diverted to correct prior discrimination).

One could argue that treating HIV means less money for treating malaria etc. But the BBC article is naive. I'll give two examples why: One: A lot of the docs who are well paid to run HIV clinics would probably emigrate if not given this well paying local job where they can use their talents. The BBC article notes the clinic without supplies or physicians next door, but fails to ask why there are no supplies, when WHO rehydration fluid costs three cents a quart. (hint:Government corruption probably skimmed off the money for the medicines, and the equipment was probably stolen and sold on the black market). And paying an infectious disease specialist to give WHO rehydration fluid (which can be done by a village health worker with six months training) is a waste of resources. Two: A lot of those with HIV include the most educated. Treat malaria, and a farmer lives, but will live as a poor farmer, vulnerable to disease and starvation. Treat HIV, and you save the life of a teacher or nurse or businessman who might actually help the farmer escape poverty.

If Afghanistan goes, then Pakistan is in trouble. And if Pakistan is allowed to be taken over by jihadis (either the Taliban or more likely the Jihadis in their military) then India is in trouble. Then there is the danger that the natural gas rich central Asian republics will be next. China will also be in trouble, with their western region having Muslims being incited to rebel. And Iran? Can they stand more cheap heroin and three million Afghan refugees flooding in again? Yet none of the press seems to want to discuss what this may mean for Asia... A

good idea. He is getting very bitter lately. I'll remember him in my prayers.

A lot of us pick up cross cultural medicine by experience (we learn from our patients and from sensitive physician teachers). But the only articles I read about cross cultural medicine were so broad ("Asian" attitudes, or equating Mexico to all Latin America) and theoretical (full of jargon) that I didn't find them much help. Have you read the book that teaches medical ethics by using great literature? Similar stories might be a lot more helpful...when I worked with the Navajo, they told me I'd learn more from Hillerman than anthropology books... As for interpreters, I agree...but in rural areas, it's a problem...

of course it will create a backlash. did you notice that none of the articles mentioned that he had just been acquitted of illegal practices in getting a patsy to sign off on his abortions? Or of his many contributions to Sibelius, which resulted in her vetoing twice a bill making late term abortions illegal? Also not mentioned: that This guy's late term abortions were done for social reasons not just abnormalities (I had an 18 year old ask me about it when Planned parenthood referred her there, and she wanted my opinion). But watch the press spin this to bash right wing types, and of course Catholics.

Ah, but like others who are "nuanced" he assumes those of us who are pro life don't do these other things. Why?