UPDATED: Medics WRONG, As They Often Are, On One-Size-Fits-All Mammography

Healthcare, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Intelligence, Science, Technology

Years back, paleo warrior Karen De Coster was fired by her doctor for questioning the wisdom of the prescribed annual mammogram and refusing to submit to it. Uncoordinated, and in the same month, I was given my marching orders by my medic for a related infraction.

Just the other day, at the (new) doctor’s office, I was treated as an alien for suggesting that an ultrasound be performed for an additional data point, to alternate with the mammogram the provider kept pressing for. Be a daredevil, I suggested (not in those words, of course); get a different angle on the breast tissue! The providers’ response–from doctor to radiographer: “OMG! Nooooo … there’s a heretic among us. Reach for the smelling salts. Should we call security????!!! This could escalate.”

Pretty much.

Now the data suggest that mammography belongs not as an annual rule, but, rather, in the context of a personalized, individualized healthcare strategy, tailored to a woman’s genetic and general risk profile—the kind of holistic healthcare less likely under the trillion-dollar burden of ObamaCare.

From “American Cancer Society eases mammogram recommendations”:

In a major shift, the American Cancer Society is recommending that women at average risk of breast cancer get annual mammograms starting at age 45 rather than at age 40, and that women 55 and older scale back screening to every other year.

The new guidelines, published on Tuesday in JAMA, fall more closely in line with guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government-backed panel of experts that recommend biennial breast cancer screening starting at age 50 for most women.

The Task Force’s 2009 recommendations to reduce the frequency and delay the start of mammogram screening were based on studies suggesting the benefits of detecting cancers earlier did not outweigh the risk of false positive results, which needlessly expose women to additional testing, including a possible biopsy. …

… The differences between the two sets of guidelines shows there is no single or correct answer for when and how often women should be screened for breast cancer, said Dr. Nancy Keating of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Keating, who co-wrote a commentary accompanying the new guidelines, said the differences between the two groups emphasize the need to talk to patients and understand their preferences about breast cancer screening. …

UPDATE: There are risk in radiation and in the exploration of false positives (biopsies or further interventions that cause disease). Overall, the data show that the annual mammogram doesn’t reduce mortality from breast cancer.

Time For A Canadian Community Organizer

Canada, Economy, Elections

Canadians (not this ex-pat) want their own Barack Obama, so they elected Justin Trudeau: a community organizer with a better political pedigree, a prettier face, more privilege and less brain power than even the ass with ears, Obama.

By profession, young Justin Trudeau is “A substitute drama teacher” to quote Kathy Shaidle. His resume is emptier than a banker’s heart.

Canada has enjoyed solid economic fundamentals, having averted the economic meltdown of 2008 due to more conservative fiscal policies, including no affirmative action in money lending.

The Central Bank of Canada is not nearly as inflationary as our Fed. Its banks, in fact, were the healthiest in the world as ours collapsed in 2008. The Canadian immigration system is generally geared to serve the country’s shifting needs. The country’s corporate tax rate is lower than ours.

The voters, however, thought it was time for less austerity and more government spending.

“Sunny ways my friends. Sunny ways,” Trudeau told his enthusiastic supporters in Montreal. “This is what positive politics can do.”

Very weird. Is “Sunny ways” some sort of a chant?

Genghis Bush Is Not Blameless In Sept. 11 Catastrophe

Bush, Media, Terrorism

Damn straight George Bush bears some culpability for 9/11, as Donald Trump intimated. We all recall Condoleezza Rice’s unblushing justifications for her dismissive treatment of the critical mass of intelligence pertaining to impending terrorist attacks. Even now, it’s essential that she and President G. Bush not be allowed to fob off their responsibilities for September 11 on their underlings. “HOLD THEIR FEET TO THE FIRE!” I demanded in May 29, 2002, in a column that still holds true (most of them do):

… By now everyone knows of the Phoenix FBI agent who, in July, wrote a memorandum about the bin Ladenites who were training in U.S. flight schools. Agent Ken Williams’ report was very specific. Over and above the standard sloth the memo met in the Washington headquarters, it transpired that the FBI was also concerned to avoid “racial profiling.”

The pending, bipartisan “End Racial Profiling Act of 2001” is the standard victim’s legislation. It’ll allow the U.S. government or the investigated racial or ethnic minority member to sue the taxpayer if there is a remote sense that law enforcement has engaged in an investigation that has “a disparate impact” on a minority’s eternally, and conveniently suppurating emotional wounds. …

Donald Trump’s right. What’s more, Mr. Trump continues to smoke out members of the media-political complex, who’re on the war path against him, not least Charles Krauthammer and Megyn Kelly.

Sock It To Ghoul G. Bush, Mr. Trump, And Keep Going

Bush, Neoconservatism, Pseudo-history, Republicans, Terrorism

Donald Trump has done it again. As part of his mission of mercy to us true freedom lovers, he has begun chipping away at the sacred cow of the pseudo-right: George W. Bush, the man who:

* intervened with the World Court against his own state of Texas, on behalf of José Medellín, rapist and murderer of Texan girls.
* kept the borders wide open for future Medellíns.
* spent the most money since Lyndon B. Johnson.
* supported the prosecution by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of patriotic Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
* cowed a cowardly Congress into authorizing war against Iraq, the repercussions of which are with us today.
* extended credit to the un-creditworthy to give us the subprime fiasco, also known at the Wall Street Journal as “The Bush Ownership Society” (much loved by editor Stephen Moore).
* gave banksters our money (or inflated the money supply to bail out the banksters).

On and on.

So when Mr. Trump refused to play footsie, Friday, and “suggested that former President George W. Bush had failed to stop the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,” he was right!

In an interview with Bloomberg, Mr. Trump was asked how he would demonstrate compassion during a crisis such as a hurricane or attacks on the World Trade Center. Saying that he has more heart and is more competent than the leaders who dealt with those tragedies, Mr. Trump then criticized the former president.

“When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,” Mr. Trump said.

Blaming 9/11 on Mr. Bush is taboo for Republicans and has largely been off-limits for Democrats. Pressed on whether he really meant to blame the attacks on Mr. Bush, the billionaire developer did not back down.

“He was president, O.K.?,” Mr. Trump said. “The World Trade Center came down during his reign.”

Donald Trump has begun a process that is absolutely vital to freedom lovers: challenging everything about the regimes that have gone before. It is a positive process in as much as it threatens to unsettle an ossified, corrupt, hermetically sealed political spoils system.

Mr. Trump, do not back down, do not waver. George Bush was, first and foremost, and enemy of his own people. The fact that he sent soldiers to die for naught, and now goes on bike rides with limbless, clueless soldiers, who crave a pat on the back from TCIC: this makes Genghis Bush even more of a ghoul (“Iraq Liars & Deniers: We Knew Then What We Know Now”).