http://www.commonhealth.us One Body, Many Cells, Everything Connects Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:24:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This is a great article from Ezra Klein. First he makes clear that our current insurance system actually works against the commonhealth, not for it. Then he offers five steps to improving the system — none of which have any chance of ever happening — ultimately making the case for non-insurance-based, ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2008/why-insurers-suck-and-five-ways-to-make-them-better/ I finally got to watch Michael Moore's Sicko two nights ago, a nice piece of timing as, the very next day Hillary Clinton announced her healthcare reform plan. What a frikkin disappointment she and the rest of the Democratic hopefuls (with the exception of Kucinich) have turned out to be. She ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/insurance-industry-run-government/ read part 1 The Free Pursuit of Happiness We could argue that all of the positive effects of moderate intoxicant use would be better achieved through such practices as prayer, meditation, good works and simple clean living. At the same time, all of the obvious negative effects of intoxicant overuse and abuse ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/use-overuse-and-abuse-pt-3/ read part 1 Overuse No major American decision was ever made without the influence of alcohol, nicotine or caffeine­‑often all three. —Peter McWilliams Yet all intoxicants can be overused. This is the 'tox" in intoxication. Use any intoxicant too much or too often and its positive promise invariably turns poisonous. The overuse of any ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/use-overuse-and-abuse-pt-2/ As a species, we will continue to play with half a deck as long as we continue to tolerate cardinals of government and science who presume to dictate where human curiosity can legitimately focus its attention and where it cannot. Such restrictions on the human imagination are demeaning and preposterous. ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/use-overuse-and-abuse/ About 80% of all births worldwide are attended by midwives. In America, some 10,000 midwives attend 5% of all births. —"Mothering" Fall 1995In 1979, [California] appropriated $750,000 for the first scientific study ever made of the root causes of violence. Two years later a first paper was issued, listing the ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/rethinking-birth/ Something’s wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries. —Dr Christopher Murray, head of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington It's getting to be old news, ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/hard-truths-about-hardcare/ As he retired from office, Dwight Eisenhower imparted a scary warning about the "military-industrial complex": an insidious merging of America's security apparatus with private and corporate profiteers that gobbles up vast national resources while spewing waste and destruction in its wake. (Early drafts used the term military-industrial-congressional complex, but the ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/the-medical-congressional-industrial-complex/ During the 14th century the bubonic plague struck with devastating results, wiping out half of the population of Europe and much of Asia. Called the Black Death, it was caused by an infectious bacterium which was spread by flea-infested rats. I can remember as a child watching a movie about that ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/no-remedy/ "We will never solve our problems using the same kind of thinking that caused them in the first place." —Albert Einstein The healthcare debate of the past few years must have Einstein nodding sagely from the grave. For all the volumes that have been written, for all the legislative starts and stops, ... http://www.commonhealth.us/2007/rethinking-healthcare/