Day By Day by Chris Muir

Damn! I love this cartoon!

Pants-Stuffing Clinton Crony To Plead Guilty

Thank you www.littletinylies.com for the graphic

La Shawn Barber has a great piece on former National Secuirity Advisor Sandy Berger:

"Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified documents from the National Archives, Fox News is reporting. Although he “inadvertently” took some papers, he “knowingly” crammed others down his pants. So he meant to steal only a few things. OK. Too bad it’s only a misdemeanor.

As I wrote back in July 2004, Samuel “Sandy” Berger Won’t Go To Jail…

What did I tell you?

Michelle Malkin has a great post."

Thanks La Shawn.

Socialized Dentistry U.K Style

I had to pull out seven of my own teeth, Mr Blair

A pensioner told Tony Blair how she had to pull out seven of her teeth because she could not find an NHS dentist.

Part-time cleaner Valerie Holsworth made the extraordinary revelation as the Prime Minister faced questions from members of the public during a live TV broadcast.

She said she preferred to remove her rotten teeth than to suffer in agony.

"It would be nice for somebody to take them out properly for me," she told Mr Blair.

The 65-year old mother of seven said afterwards she had pulled out four of her teeth with her husband John's pliers and three with her fingers.

"I've been in so much pain but I've not been able to find myself an NHS dentist because the waiting lists are full," she said. "Where I live, you can only get on the list if someone dies or takes themselves off it voluntarily..."

Read the rest here.

Good Grief!

What a failed health system!

Multiple Sclerosis Drug Tied to Deaths

M.S. Drug Tied to a Death

By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Published: March 31, 2005

y Bloomberg News

Biogen Idec and the Elan Corporation said that a third patient had developed a fatal nervous system disorder linked to the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri, which the companies stopped selling last month.

The patient, who died in 2003, had Crohn's disease and took Tysabri in a clinical trial, said Amy Brockelman, a spokeswoman for Biogen. Tysabri won approval in November as a treatment for multiple sclerosis and the companies were studying use of the drug for other conditions.

The rest is here.

FDA approves New Drug For Hepatitis B

Good news for dentists and patients alike.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, the drug manufacturer said Wednesday.

The drug, entecavir, is taken orally and is designed to work by preventing the virus that causes the illness from reproducing.

The chronic form of hepatitis B can permanently damage the liver and lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Entecavir is made by Bristol-Myers Squibb and will be sold under the trade name Baraclude. The company said it could be available in early April.

Read the released here.

Day By Day by Chris Muir

Anne Coulter Sirs Up Trouble at Kansas University

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Heckling, standing ovations interrupt right-wing commentator

Read the Journal-World story here:

Conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter was greeted with a mixture of standing ovations and heckling after she took center stage Tuesday night at Kansas University's Lied Center.

As soon as she stepped up to the microphone, Coulter fired off one zinger after another about liberalism while promising to answer questions from left-wing members in the audience who could "thrash their way to a coherent thought."

"I've come to find I like liberals a lot more," Coulter said early in her speech. "They're kind of cute when they're cold, shivering and afraid."

Coulter spoke as the 37th J.A. Vickers Sr. Memorial Lecture Series lecturer to a crowd estimated by KU officials at about 1,800 people. The lectures, which began in 1971, were established through a gift to the Kansas University Endowment Association by the Vickers family of Wichita.

Coulter received several standing ovations during her speech, but she also found herself interrupted several times by a small, scattered group of hecklers.

"I think there are some people in the audience who meant to be at the sexual reorientation class down the hall," Coulter said, in response to the heckling.

Moments later Coulter stopped and called for assistance from students when hecklers started in again and no one of authority was seen trying to stop them.

"Could 10 of the largest College Republicans start walking up and down the aisles and start removing anyone shouting?" Coulter asked. "Otherwise, this lecture is over."

Several people responded, leaving their seats to confront the hecklers, and verbal confrontations erupted in parts of the auditorium. One of those who answered Coulter's call was Michael Conner, a Shawnee freshman.

"All I did was say they shouldn't stop her from speaking," Conner said of confronting some audience members in the back of the auditorium.

Read the rest here.

USC Spring Football Practice

#51 Fred Matua and #71Taitusi Lutui.

See more pics here.

Hat Tip: Boi From Troy

Creeped Out Over Michael Jackson!

Too Much Information:

Jacko: I was virgin till 32

Too creepy but the rest is here.

Hat Tip: Professor Bainbridge

Cerec 3D at Costco? Wal-Mart next?

Flap has previously discussed the Sirona Patterson CAD/CAM Cerec 3D System:

Henry Schein and Sirona here.

Dr. Paul Caselle, Dental Town and the FLAP at DentalCom.net here.

Mauty, HMO Bashing and Cerec Praising - Oh My! here.

Andrew Tobias and his new Cerec restoration here.

Now comes this from Dental Town (free registration required, password = occlusal):

Scdoc posts:

"I just wanted to follow up with a conversation with Dr. Mark Morin at the Cerec conference. He told me that Costco, yes you read that correctly, Costco is now in the works at a Washington DC store testing the Cerec 3d to be placed in their stores. This is being tested now and Mark said he expects them to go national with this thing in a few months. They will pay a salaried dentist to over see the restorations and possible will charge $399. This is why I'm buying a Cerec to get ahead of the 7/11 store crowns. What's next Costco heart surgeries?
Wal-Mart already markets their Lasik and Sam's Club is watching this Costco test market with anticipation as well."

Well this is not surprising!

I mean if the chop shop dental offices in the mall or shopping center near you can do $20 laboratory processed crowns made in Costa Rica or the Phillipines than why not chop shop Cerecs in-house.

Ahhhhhh I can see the lawsuits fly now.

Free Healthcare in Los Angeles County

It is free if you are an illegal alien.... that is....

Read this shameful article in the Los Angeles Daily News about how illegal aliens are draining the coffers of Los Angeles County government.

"Facing deep deficits after a federal bailout ends June 30, Los Angeles County hospitals need to take stronger measures and consider cutting back sharply on medical care for illegal immigrants, according to a new state audit that triggered an emotional debate among county supervisors Tuesday.

The supervisors disputed how critical the audit was and tensions rose when they discussed the recommendation to limit nonemergency care to illegal immigrants. The county treats five times as many undocumented immigrants as state law requires and could save $130 million a year by limiting services.

"The Board of Supervisors has required the (Department of Health Services) to treat illegal aliens," Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said. "The county taxpayer can no longer be the HMO to the world."

The county spends about $340 million a year treating undocumented immigrants at its health facilities and could save between $130 million and $138 million a year by discontinuing nonemergency services to them, the report said.

The audit found that 53 percent of the 800,000 annual users of the county's system are uninsured and receive care even though state law does not mandate it. The county health department has estimated that from 12 percent to 19 percent of its hospital discharges and clinic visits involve undocumented immigrants."

So, why bother paying for expensive medical insurance.

Everyone should just drop their insurance, flood the hospitals and make the government pick up the tab.

This has to end.

Health Care in a Free Society: Rebutting the Myths of National Health Insurance

John C. Goodman, the president of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas, Texas has a piece here which is a paper adapted from his book Lives at Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance around the World (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), coauthored by Gerald L. Musgrave and Devon M. Herrick.

Read the entire piece here.

Some of the Myths he dispels are:

"Myth No. 1: In Countries with National Health Insurance Systems, People Have a Right to Health Care

In fact, no country with national health insurance has established a right to health care. Citizens of Canada, for example, have
no right to any particular health care service. They have no right to an MRI scan. They have no right to heart surgery. They do not even
have the right to a place in line. The 100th person waiting for heart surgery is not entitled to the 100th surgery. Other people can
and do jump the queue.

Myth No. 2: Countries with National Health Insurance Systems Deliver High-Quality Health Care

In countries with national health insurance, governments often attempt to limit demand for medical services by having fewer physicians. Because there are fewer physicians, they must see larger numbers of
patients for shorter periods of time. U.S.physicians see an average of 2,222 patients per year, but physicians in Canada and
Britain see an average of 3,143 and 3,176, respectively.
Thirty percent of American patientsspend more than 20 minutes with
their doctor on avisit, compared to20 percent inCanada and only5 percent in Britain....."

This is quite a revealing treatise and a must read for health providers.

Day By Day by Chris Muir

MGM vs Grokster A Supreme Court Showdown for File Sharing

People who oppose the entertainment industry's efforts to curtail file-sharing networks marched in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday as the justices heard arguments in a case involving Grokster

Linda Greenstone over at the New York Times (free registration required) has this story on the Grokster case and today's oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lyle Denniston over at SCOTUSblog has this take on the day's events.

Justin Levine over at Calblog calls the case: "One of the most important Supreme Court Cases of our lifetimes." Read his story here.

Tractor Driver Dies Under a Load of S**t (Manure)

Man, what a way to go!

Story from Reuters here.

Hat Tip: Annika

William Shatner Punks Iowa Town

Captain Kirk in a new reality television series punks Riverside, Iowa.

Denny Crane!

Do bloggers deserve basic journalistic protections?

David Shaw answered this rhetorical question in his Media Matters column (Los Angeles Times, free registration required) as reported by Flap here.

Now, Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters has his take on Shaw and reports Jack Shafer from Slate takes "Shaw to the woodshed".

Shaw's arguments fail from both the left and the right.

Day By Day by Chris Muir

Supreme Court Won't Rule on 'Neutral Reporting Privilege'

The Los Angeles Times (free registration required) has this story on a United States Supreme Court decison released today:

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to shield the news media from being sued for accurately reporting a politician's false charges against a rival.

Instead, the justices let stand a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that a newspaper can be forced to pay damages for having reported that a city councilman called the mayor and the council president "liars," "queers" and "child molesters."

The case turned on whether the First Amendment's protection for the freedom of the press includes a "neutral reporting privilege." Most judges around the nation have said the media do not enjoy this privilege.

Lawyers for more than two dozen of the nation's largest media organizations, including the Tribune Co., which publishes the Los Angeles Times, had urged the court to take up the Pennsylvania case and to rule that truthful news reports on public figures deserved to be shielded......

Read the rest here.

Patterico has his take here.

I, too, wonder what Volokh will opine.

Talk about a chilling effect on the reporting of news. The modern press has always had a neutral reporting exclusion.

The MSM bar will not allow this ruling to stand when this case is retried at the trial court level and then appealed.

Sullivan vs. New York Times Co. will be simply reinterpreted/redecided with a modern spin and the neutral reporting exclusion restated.

How Socialized Dentistry Works in the U.K.

From the BBC:

Huge queues to join new dentist

More than 1,500 people waited outside a dental practice on Saturday after the centre took on a new dentist.

They queued for up to seven hours to go on the list of Jimena Colino, a new Spanish dentist at the Fen House Dental Practice in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

Eye witnesses said the queue, which stretched for a mile, was three or four people deep.

Health minister Stephen Ladyman said the government was taking steps to tackle the shortage of dentists.

Dentists recruited

One man, from Gosberton, told BBC Radio Lincolnshire that he took a friend to register and waited for four hours with her.

"Anyone that was walking that side of the road either to join the queue or to get home had to use the road because the footpath was clogged," he said.

"Our friend eventually got to register at quarter past 12, she'd been there since quarter to eight."

Six dentists have been recruited by West Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Five years ago Mr Blair promised everyone would have access to an NHS dentist by 2001.

"Forward four years, the situation has got worse and all we get is talk about improvements.

"Because Labour failed to agree a new contract with the profession, dentists are voting with their feet."

Mr Lansley said fewer people were now registered with an NHS dentist than seven years ago.

I hope you don't have a toothache.

But, then again, why wait when you can pay a private dentist.

Nahhhh why do that when the government will provide it for you FREE!

The folly of it all.

Hat Tip: Socialized Medicine

Do bloggers deserve basic journalistic protections?

David Shaw at the Los Angeles Times (reg. req.) answers this rhetorical question in his Media Matters column.

Some highlights:

"...BLOGGERS require no journalistic experience. All they need is computer access and the desire to blog. There are other, even important differences between bloggers and mainstream journalists, perhaps the most significant being that bloggers pride themselves on being part of an unmediated medium, giving their readers unfiltered information. And therein lies the problem.....

....Many bloggers — not all, perhaps not even most — don't seem to worry much about being accurate. Or fair. They just want to get their opinions — and their "scoops" — out there as fast as they pop into their brains. One of the great advantages of the Internet, many Web lovers have told me, is that it's easy to correct an error there. You can do it instantly, as soon as the error is called to your attention, instead of having to wait until the next day's paper.....

Reporters in 31 states, including California, as well as Washington, D.C., are protected by shield laws. Most of those laws — and California's in particular — provide more protection than does the 1st Amendment itself. That's why the Bush administration is pursuing its cases in federal court, where state shield laws don't apply. That's also why many journalists — and several congressmen — are actively seeking a federal shield law.

I strongly favor such a law, and in this climate we have to be careful about when and under what circumstances we apply and assert the journalist's privilege. If the courts allow every Tom, Dick and Matt who wants to call himself a journalist to invoke the privilege to protect confidential sources, the public will become even less trusting than it already is of all journalists.

That would ultimately damage society as much as it would the media."

The MSM fights back.

But, how do you distinguish the NEW media from the old?

And how do you distinguish the application of the journalistic shield to prevent government interference in a free press? Distinguish by whom employs you?

Hardly!

Shaw raises the questions but fails in the answers.

Update #1

Dodo David over at Lifelike Pundits has a good take in his piece entitled MSM vs. Bloggers:

In a letter to Poynter Online's Jim Romenesko, Weldon Berger criticizes David Shaw's LA Times piece Do bloggers deserve basic journalistic protections?.

Here is an excerpt from Berger's letter to Romenesko:

"There are something like ten million bloggers out there and many of them are as nasty and feckless as they come (and would shriek with laughter at being accused of pretending to journalism). But institutional journalism, with its lofty standards and fail-safes, has its own serial offenders, its Nedra Picklers and Judith Millers and such, who regularly trigger the hackery alarms. Those two should have lifetime invites to the press critics ball, and they'd never lack for a dance with their peers. The notion that they're more deserving of legal protections than their more responsible blogging counterparts in similar straits would be laughable if it weren't so frickin' irritating.

Given the flaws in his own reporting, Shaw should probably be asking bloggers, many of whom survive and thrive - accurately - with only spell-checking, Google and common sense at their disposal rather than an armada of editors, for lessons on how to get things right."

Over on his own blog, Weldon Berger writes the following:
"Los Angeles Times media critic David Shaw has a column in Sunday’s paper in which he argues for the reservation of source shield privileges to bought-and-paid-for journalists, excluding, I trust (for no good reason), the ones who have been bought and paid for twice: once by their employers and once by the government.

It’s an epic low-grade temper tantrum from an unreservedly elitist journalist who continues to project his own and his profession’s failings onto the backs of bloggers."

Read more here.

Senator Lieberman supports Life for Terri Schiavo

Even Senator Lieberman has had his say regarding Terri:

Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman says if it were up to him, he'd reinsert Terri Schiavo's feeding tube in order to keep her alive.

"You would have kept the tube in?" asked NBC's "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert.

Lieberman, a Demcoratic U.S. senator from Connecticut who ran as his party’s vice presidential nominee in 2000, replied, "I would have kept the tube in.

What say you Glenn at Instapundit?

Glenn: What is Your Opinion on the Terri Schiavo case?

Xrlq asks it first.

Calblog says Glenn has jumped the Shark.

So, what is your opinion Glenn?

Day By Day by Chris Muir

Lasorda, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Fans

Captain Ed has a piece over at Captain's Quarters about recent Los Angeles Dodgers' owner Frank McCourt's (commonly referred to as the Boston Parking Lot Attendant in the Los Angeles Times) treatment of former Dodger manager, Tommy Lasorda.

This is all well and good for Tommy but what have the McCourt's done for the Los Angeles fans?

Well..... increasing costs it seems for the kids and increasing costs for the loyal adult fans.

And the team.....well they traded away or allowed most of their better players to leave.

Don't look for the Dodgers to be a play-off contender this season.

MGM vs Grokster A Supreme Court Showdown for File Sharing

Stephanie Berger for The New York Times Mark Gorton of LimeWire says file-sharing software will remain on the Internet, no matter what decision the Supreme Court makes.

The N.Y. Times has a great story on the showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow: M.G.M. vs. Grokster.

My prediction is a limited split decision with no clear cut holding/direction.

Stay tuned.

Happy Easter

Matthew 28:2-6 (Amplified Bible)

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled the boulder back and sat upon it.

His appearance was like lightning, and his garments as white as snow.

And those keeping guard were so frightened at the sight of him that they were agitated and they trembled and became like dead men.

But the angel said to the women, Do not be alarmed and frightened, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, Who was crucified.

He is not here; He has risen, as He said [He would do]. Come, see the place where He lay.

A Blessed Easter to All

Should Bloggers Have the Same Journalistic Protections as MSM Journalists?

Should Bloggers have the same journalistic protections as MSM journalists?

Congressman John Conyers thinks so here:

"Commentary--The Internet has proved to be the greatest advancement in our ability to disseminate news and information since the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1450.

Web Loggers, or bloggers, have already broken several major stories, including those that led to the resignation of a Virginia congressman, a shake-up at CBS news over the "60 Minutes" Bush National Guard story, the firing of a CNN executive over remarks criticizing the U.S. military, and the White House granting Jeff Gannon inappropriate access to White House daily press briefings.

Unfortunately, today in two separate arenas--campaign finance laws and the legal privileges accorded to journalists to protect confidential sources--bloggers' free speech rights are at risk. It is incumbent on the Federal Election Commission, legislatures, and the courts to ensure these rights are protected for Internet-based media.

The FEC is currently considering bloggers' role as journalists as it intersects with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or BCRA. Late last year, the District Court for the District of Columbia overturned the FEC's blanket exemption of the Internet from campaign finance law.

The FEC must therefore decide whether to characterize Web reporters as members of the press warranting a BCRA exemption similar to that of the print and broadcast media. I recently wrote a letter along with 13 of my colleagues urging the FEC to apply the press exemption to the Internet, and Sen. Harry Reid has introduced legislation to this effect.

The state courts have also considered the issue of bloggers' First Amendment rights. Last month, Apple Computer sought a California court's permission to serve subpoenas on three Web sites for publishing Apple's trade secrets. Bloggers argued the subpoenas violated their First Amendment rights to maintain confidential sources.

The Superior Court judge eventually ruled against the bloggers, however, and in doing so the court did not reach the issue of whether they should be considered journalists and entitled to First Amendment protection. So the legal issue of journalist privileges for bloggers is still unresolved.

The confluence of these two cases indicates that we are at a turning point in the evolution of Internet-based media. I believe bloggers have shown they warrant First Amendment protection for several reasons.

First, bloggers have become widely accepted as legitimate news gatherers and disseminators. Columbia University's Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that 32 million Americans are currently turning to blogs for their information. Bloggers were granted press passes to both the Democratic and Republican national conventions last summer, and the White House recently approved the first blog press pass to a day's gaggle.

Bloggers should be classified as journalists and given First Amendment protections based on the function they perform, not the form of their transmissions. Properly understood, the First Amendment applies to all those who report with journalistic integrity--offline or online.

In a prescient 1993 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that an author had standing to invoke a reporter's privilege when the court ruled that "what makes journalism journalism is not its format but its content." The same principle and rights should apply to bloggers--if they are producing similar content and using similar journalistic techniques as the mainstream media. Ironically, many of the "established" media outlets have also migrated online, with some even running their own blogs.

For better or worse, we operate in an environment where major conglomerates such as News Corp., General Electric, Disney, Viacom, Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Clear Channel dominate the nation's airwaves and print media. Whenever a potential story criticizing a powerful political figure or corporate parent is squelched, questions are raised concerning the independence of the mainstream news media. Bloggers, by contrast, are not subject to these same constraints or concerns, and have shown their independence over and over.

I agree with Thomas Jefferson's sentiments when he wrote, "The basis of our government being the opinion of people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter."

In Jefferson's era, print newspapers revolutionized the way the country read and processed the news. Today we stand on the precipice of a new media revolution with the advent of the Internet. We need to protect bloggers' First Amendment rights so they can help us protect our own citizens' rights."

biography
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., is the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee.

H/T SoCal Law Blog

Tom Delay - Hypocrite?

John Carroll, Editor of the Los Angeles Times

Patterico has a good commentary on the L.A. Times Article, Delay's Own Tragic Crossroads (reg req.) regarding the death of Congressman Tom Delay's father.

So, is Tom Delay a hypocrite?

The Lib writers and editors at the L.A. Times certainly think so. And go to great lengths to spin their NEWS(?) story on their Sunday front page - not their op-ed page.

But, the distinctions between the cases are so noteworthy, particularly the agreement among family members.

Moreover, the Times furthers the cheap shot by mentioning the family's wrongful death lawsuit and the Congressman's attempt to restrain the Tort Trial Lawyers.

This is disgraceful journalism but unfortunately typical of a Times under the leadership of John Carroll and Michael Kinsley.

Michael Kinsley, Op-Ed Editor, Los Angeles Times

Day By Day by Chris Muir

Ahhhhh a dental cartoon and one which lampoons the U.K's Socialized healthcare system as well!

Awesome stuff - heh!

More Estrogen for Ms. Estrich!

Melanie Kirkpatrick over at OpinionJournal weighs in on the fight of Susan Estrich v. Michael Kinsley and the dearth of female op-ed columnists/writers.

This contest was previously reported here.

Read Kirkpatrick's best George Eliot rendition here.

March for Justice II

March over to Lifelike Pundits and check it out.

Kyung Lah Firing Update

Updated Commentary Link for this story is at Flap's new blog site: http://flapsblog.com here.

It seems there is now a FLAP regarding the breaking news of the three firings of KNBC reporters which was reported here.

LA Observed has an update:

Folo on KNBC firings

Friday's New York Post Page Six picks up the story we had Tuesday on the three KNBC news staffers fired over an affair that somehow broke station rules. No mention in the Post that the story originated with RonFineman.com, but there is a headline screaming "3 Axed in TV Sex Scandal." Instead, the gossip page credits it all to a column at the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, which does attribute most of what it knows to Fineman. The column by Richard Prince adds some perspective from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and names axed reporter Kyung Lah's husband.

* Claiming credit: Another pay site that covers television, FTVLive, makes a good case to me in email that it posted the KNBC gossip several hours before Fineman.

My Oh My this story is getting alot of play.

I guess Sex gossip sells.......DUH!

Wendy's diner finds human finger in her chili

Patterico has a humorous story about Wendy's chili.

Patrick really knows how to POKE fun at these folks.... LOL.....

Check it out here.

Day By Day

Methamphetaimine and Unprotected Sex = HIV Superstrain

The Guardian Unlimited has a story about a New York Club which may have facilitated the spread of a new strain of HIV:

West Side story: a tale of unprotected sex which could be link to new HIV superbug

New fears for gay men after doctor breaks silence

Mark Honigsbaum in New York
Saturday March 26, 2005
The Guardian

From street level it looks like the entrance to any other New York office block. But mount the stairs to the second floor and you suddenly find yourself standing in front of a glass booth from behind which an attendant is busy dispensing locker keys and towels to a line of eager young men. No Drugs or Poppers, reads a notice beside the fogged glass. No Sleeping in Public Areas.

This is the West Side Club, a Manhattan bathhouse where both HIV-positive and HIV-negative men come to enjoy the steam and engage in anonymous and often unprotected sex with other men. According to an HIV/Aids practitioner whose clients are frequent visitors, it may also be where the so-called Aids superbug, whose existence was revealed last month, was first transmitted.

The extraordinary claim is made by Gary Blick, a Connecticut-based physician who heads a regional taskforce aimed at educating gay men about rising HIV and syphilis infections. Last week he decided to break his silence about the bathhouse and his clients' possible role in the transmission of the supposed new superstrain of HIV because of his mounting concerns about what he views as the continued unsafe sex practices in the gay community.

In particular, Dr Blick, who runs an HIV treatment centre in Norwalk, a sedate commuter town to the north of Manhattan, wanted to warn men to be vigilant ahead of last weekend's Black Party, a three-day shindig at New York's Roseland Ballroom where gay men engage in anonymous sex, fuelled by crystal meth, a highly addictive amphetamine that lowers sexual inhibitions and which many doctors blame for the recent increase in HIV transmissions.

Genetic match

"Most patients who abuse crystal meth do not care whether or not they are practising safer sex," said Dr Blick. "Here in Norwalk we're only 45 minutes out of the city. I felt I had to get my message out."

He chose to do so by issuing a press release revealing that a California laboratory had found a partial genetic match between the middle-aged New York man who is at the centre of the superbug alert and one of his clients. His announcement infuriated public health officials who have been at pains to counter accusations of scaremongering about the virus.

The existence of a possible new superstrain of HIV first surfaced on February 11 when the New York health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, gave details of the New York man, who remains anonymous, citing an unprecedented combination in his case of multi-drug resistance and the rapid onset of Aids. Mr Frieden too has faced criticism for going public.

Further scientific backing to the thesis that the New York man could be infected with a new strain of HIV that could be much more difficult to treat and contain was provided last week in the medical journal the Lancet which suggested that he might have gone from being infected with the strain of HIV to developing full-blown Aids in the space of just four months - something not seen since the advent of the epidemic in the early 1980s.

The study, co-authored by Martin Markowitz and David Ho, researchers at New York's Aaron Diamond Aids Research Centre, also found that the new strain contained an extra key for latching on to human receptor cells and evading the body's immune response.

For many gay activists and scientists specialising in Aids, such findings are premature. "One man does not make an epidemic," said John Moore, an Aids expert at Cornell University. "If they'd reported a cluster of cases I would be much more concerned."

But what of the claims of Dr Blick of a connection between the New York case and his client in Connecticut? Although Steve Wolinsky, a specialist in HIV genetics at Northwestern University, points out that without wider studies Dr Blick's claims are meaningless, the California lab's findings are being taken sufficiently seriously for the health department to request that Dr Blick forward further cell samples to the Aaron centre.

And on Tuesday Dr Blick spoke directly to Dr Markowitz to inform him that another lab had turned up a match for their New York patient. Intriguingly, this time the match was the partner of Dr Blick's Connecticut patient - a gay man also in his 40s whom Dr Blick has simultaneously been treating for multi-drug resistant HIV.

Both men have given accounts to Dr Blick of how they may have passed the infection to the New York patient - a story which leads straight to the door of the West Side Club and shines an uncomfortable light on the crystal meth sex scene and the widespread ignorance among gay men about the risks associated with HIV transmission.

Unlike other venues where men meet for anonymous sex, West Side has a reputation for being a friendly and pressure-free environment. Many men undoubtedly visit the bathhouse simply to unwind after a hard day at the office. Others go there in the hope of finding sympathetic partners - or, in the phraseology favoured by crystal meths users, to "party and play".

According to one regular attendee who asked to remain anonymous, the West Side Club is attractive to many HIV positive men precisely because "no one questions you about your HIV status" there. The result is "everyone assumes everyone is positive".

He says that when he has offered to use condoms in the past he has been told by the men he has partnered not to bother. Instead, like many of the bathhouse's clientele, he goes "bareback" oblivious to the fact that even HIV positive men need to protect themselves during anal sex because of the risk of cross-infection with different strains of the virus.

According to Dr Blick this appears to be precisely what happened one weekend last autumn when his clients travelled to the club from Connecticut. Not surprisingly, neither of the men was willing to speak directly to a journalist - like the New York man they have only agreed to cooperate with public health officials on the basis of anonymity.

However, the men told Dr Blick that the New York patient had already identified them to public health officials who have been working with him to trace his contacts. "He remembered key details about my clients' occupations. He also recalled particular markings on their bodies," said Dr Blick.

The officials believe that until November, when he started complaining of a febrile illness, the New York man was probably HIV negative (when he had last been tested in May 2003 he was clear). However, in the autumn of 2004, fuelled by his addiction to crystal meth, he had begun trawling the internet for new partners. By October, the period when he met the Connecticut couple at the West Side Club, he was having scores of casual encounters. It was only in December, when his health began to deteriorate and he was diagnosed with HIV, that he ceased his sexual activity.

Unlike the New York man, Dr Blick says his clients were not addicted to crystal meth. However they liked to binge on the drug and told Dr Blick that tragically on this particular weekend in October the New York man did not volunteer his HIV status and neither did they.

This week Dr Blick informed his clients that they might have inadvertently been responsible for infecting the New York patient and hence triggering the emergence of the possible new strain of HIV. He said the pair were devastated by the news. "They said that if they had know the guy was HIV negative they wouldn't have had sex with him," said Dr Blick.

However, Dr Blick's link between his patients and the New York case are far from certain. He has stressed himself that the lab report was preliminary, did not prove there had been direct transmission from his patients, and that the Aaron centre would need to do further screening of the gene "envelope" to be certain.

But whatever the truth, there is little doubt that Blick's tale is a further wake-up call for New Yorkers who, after the anxious chatter that followed Mr Frieden's announcement six weeks ago, had once again slipped into complacency about the risks of transmission.

It has added to anxieties that a degree of complacency about the risks of transmission of HIV may have entered the New York gay scene, encouraged by the use of crystal meth. "People have safe-sex fatigue - they are fed up of having to be afraid of HIV," explained Peter Staley, the founder of Aids Med, an internet-based treatment site for people living with HIV, and himself an HIV positive recovering crystal addict. "In those circumstances, crystal is the perfect Petri dish for disease transmission."

The most worrying aspect of the New York case is how rapidly the man progressed to Aids and how difficult his infection has proved to treat. When the man was first diagnosed with Aids in January his T-cell count - the measure of his ability to mount an immune response - was negligible and by February he had lost 20 lb (9kg). Although he has since put on weight, according to the latest medical reports he is responding to only one of the 21 anti-retroviral drugs.

Unique

Does that mean that his virus is a unique superstrain, one that could spark a new epidemic? And is Dr Blick right to say that recombination between his clients' strains of HIV may be the reason the New York man developed Aids so quickly?

According to most scientists it is simply too early to say. Treatment specialists at Gay Men's Health Crisis, New York's leading advocacy group for men with HIV, point out that rapid progression on its own is hardly news. In a trawl of the medical literature GMHC turned up several recent cases where individuals infected with HIV had developed Aids and died within six months.

Neither is there anything new about multidrug resistance. Studies have found resistance to at least one drug in up to 15% of new infections and multiple resistance in 1.3% of new infections.

What GMHC concedes is worrying is the possibility that the New York patient may have been infected with one or more multidrug resistant strains at the same time - not just from the Connecticut men but other men he may have had unsafe sex with. It is also concerned about the widespread perception in gay circles that it is safe to have condom-free anal sex with other positive men because one strain of HIV is somehow protective against another.

"That's where we need to do more work to educate people," admitted George Ayala, the director of GMHC's Institute of Gay's Men's Health. "There is no doubt that the safe-sex message - use condoms - is not considered as relevant today as it used to be." But there is also a risk of crying wolf, Mr Ayala warns. In a clear swipe at Mr Frieden he says officials should take care "not to make announcements that demonise gay men and the choices they make around sex and drugs".

In an editorial accompanying the Aaron research study last week, the Lancet agreed that alarm about any so-called superbug was premature, pointing out that the rapid progression of the disease in the New York man could be due to an "as yet undetermined host susceptibility". But the journal praised Mr Frieden's decision to go public, arguing that it could speed up the investigation by encouraging the man's sexual contacts to come forward.

According to a public health official quoted last week by the New York Times, that strategy is already paying dividends. The department has heard from more than a dozen men believed to have had sex with the patient and is now testing their blood to see if he passed on the virus.

Scientists say we will have to wait and see whether newspapers were right to brand the new strain a superbug. But the case is already a timely reminder that, for all the advances in anti-retroviral therapy, HIV remains a formidable foe.


Special reports
Aids
Medicine and health

Special investigation
February 2003: Saving Grace - why 30m people with Aids can't get the drugs they need

Full text
UN Aids report, November 2002
UN report into Aids, July 2002

Useful links
NHS Direct: HIV/Aids
British HIV Association
Eldis HIV/Aids guide
National Aids Trust
Terrence Higgins Trust
Elton John Aids Foundation
Children with Aids
Médecins Sans Frontières

Pez to dispense MP3s instead of candy

Rap impresario 50 Cent may be riding atop the Billboard charts on the strength of his hit single "Candy Shop," but music lovers of all kinds will soon be able to mix their passions for beats and sweets if one gadget maker's plans come to fruition.

That's right, the candy market's best-known handheld device, the iconic Pez dispenser, is about to go digital. Under a recently granted licensing agreement with Pez Candy, a gadget design company Lincoln West Studios will soon begin selling MP3 players modeled after the big-headed plastic treat sleeves.

Based on Lincoln West's plans, which were first detailed Thursday in a blog posted to the company's Web site, the Pez MP3 will arrive sometime this summer. The gadget will be built around a Samsung chip and will have 512MB capacity, as well as an LCD screen. The device will look exactly like a traditional Pez dispenser from at least two sides and will come in a variety of colors, said Patrick Misterovich, president of the Springfield, Mo., design company.

And while the Pez MP3 will not hold any hidden capacity for carrying the time-honored candy onboard, the device will mate with any of the plastic heads produced to snap onto actual Pez Candy dispensers. This feature alone could play out in a gadget geek's dream, as Pez recently added new characters from the Star Wars trilogy to its legions of swappable hinged craniums.

The first production run of the devices, built for Lincoln West by a third-party manufacturer, will deliver roughly 1,000 of the MP3 players to the United States. The music players, which will come with ear bud-style headphones and a USB cable to connect with PCs, will sell for $129 apiece and be sold directly through Lincoln West's site. The lightweight devices will have six control buttons and an LCD readout that mimics the design of other smaller players, Misterovich said.

The designer said he was inspired to create the Pez MP3 after following a competition launched by breath mint maker Altoids, which challenged participants to create something original out of one of the company's pocket-size tin containers. The winner of the competition was an individual who stuffed a speaker for use with Apple Computer's iPod digital music player into one of the tins.

"I saw that and I thought, that's pretty neat, taking something that you wouldn't think of as electronics and turning it into a device," Misterovich said. "When I started thinking about how I could do that, the Pez idea came to me, and I figured it was something that was pretty cool that could appeal to a lot of people."

The gadget stylist has previously marketed MP3 players aimed at younger audiences, including so-called "tweeners," or boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 13, who aren't in the traditional marketing segments for children and teenagers. While those players, dubbed Secondhand Monkeys, produced only mixed results and relatively small sales, Misterovich said, the designer is convinced that the cult-like following already dedicated to the ubiquitous Pez candy dispensers will help spur greater interest in his newest creation.

"The (Secondhand Monkey) was just an experiment; it was probably a bit too early to market at that demographic, but it will be there someday," Misterovich observed. "Pez dispensers are something people have already shown that they're very willing to grab onto."

Wow and this PEZ will not rot out your teeth!

The Coming Legal Superstorm Against Bloggers - Exhibit 8

Justin Levine over at Calblog has another piece on the "coming legal superstorm against bloggers":

Exhibit 8 here. (Not so much a case "exhibit" admittedly, but an interesting commentary worth reading.)

Tech Central Station seems to agree with the issue that I have been sounding the alarm bell over for some time now.

The only thing that the writer is out to lunch on is that he fails to recognize that

The war is already here in terms of libel and copyright law. A further expansion of those already overbroad laws are hardly needed in order to shut bloggers down. His implication that copyright and libel laws are currently well balanced against First Amendment interests strikes me as utterly loony.

The expansion of FEC laws are already in the works. Talk radio was the canary in the blogger birdcage as far as that front is concerned.

I will keep saying it until I am blue in the face - the only viable long-term solution is to scale back the entire scope of libel and copyright laws.

Simply attempting to carve out a "blogging exception" will never work and will easily be bypassed by a legal establishment that looks for loopholes. (Just like carving out a "blog" exception to the Apple case won't work either. Courts will never accept that since it would effectively end their ability to subpoena witnesses altogether. The attack shouldn't be directed at evidentiary "privileges" or arguments as to what constitutes a "journalist", but rather must be waged against "trade secret" laws in general - something that the conservative/blog/legal establishment isn't up for quite frankly.)

Exhibit 7 here.

Exhibit 6 here (with further links to exhibits 1 - 5).

So, will bloggers unite to fight the MSM?

Will strength in numbers be able to subdue these attacks and allow blogging to be a subset of a new Media?

Stay tuned.....

Dentist Licensure in the Unites States: The Licensure Process

This is first in a series on dentist licensure in the USA:

The American Dental Association (membership and registration required, I have been a member for over 25 years) has a booklet that summarizes the challenges of dental licensure, particularly for the new graduate. It is:

• Dental Boards and Licensure Information for the New Graduate handbook | PDF file/390k

For those reading this blog and that do not have access directly to the ADA site I will incorporate materials from it and other sites.

So, here we go:

"In the United States, each state has the right to set its own requirements for professional licensure. In addition to health professionals such as dentists, physicians, nurses, and dental hygienists, etc., states also license realtors, attorneys, and a myriad of other licensure categories. Although each state has a dental board, its level of autonomy varies. Even the independent boards, which exercise all licensingand disciplinary powers, are often functionally housed within other governmental departments.

In rare cases board members may be elected but are most frequently appointed by the
state’s governor. Generally, standards for licensure are set by statute and can be changed only by an action of the state legislature."

In other words, each state of the union regulates the ability of a person to practice dentistry in their state. There is no national standard.

This is unlike medicine licensure which will be discussed as we progress.

Is this appropriate? Is it fair?

Why was licensure established in this manner?

Hold on..... the questions will be answered.

Why USA Healthcare is Better!

John J. Ray over at Socialised Medicine has a nice commentary on why USA Healthcare is Dearer: Its Better:

WHY U.S. HEALTH CARE IS DEARER: IT'S BETTER

According to those who subscribe to the myth of massive waste in health care spending, the large discrepancy in the share of GDP devoted to health care (15 percent in the United States, compared with less than 10 percent in many other developed countries) reflects the inferiority of our system. They take our higher spending level as irrefutable proof of the inefficiency of our system of private and public financing relative to a more socialized approach.

Instead, I am prepared to make the following bet: ten years from now, it will be objectively clear that the United States provided significantly better health care to its citizens between 1990 and 2005 than did other developed countries. From the vantage point of 2015, the policy blunder of the past fifteen years will not be that the United States spent too much on health care, but that other countries spent too little. The socialized systems, forced to ration health care because tax revenues are not sufficient to pay for state-of-the-art care, are constraining their citizens from being diagnosed and treated as well as Americans.

I am not denying that waste exists. However, I contend that the difference between health care spending in the United States and that in other countries cannot be accounted for by the wasteful items that critics have identified.....

Read more here.

Read the Source article here.

Dentist Licensure in the United States: A Series

Dentist Licensure in the USA is an ever evolving and changing subject of importance to dental professionals.

In this series of posts I will piece together the history, facts, laws,rationales and controversies regarding this subject.

Your comments and trackbacks are welcome.

Day By Day

Europe and Africa warned over TB

Always a major problem in U.S dentistry, the BBC has a story about this scourage in Africa and Europe:



The global war against tuberculosis is being successfully fought, but not in Africa and Europe, warn experts.

While most areas of the world have seen a 20% drop in TB since 1990, rates in Africa have tripled, a WHO report says.

The rise continues, fuelled by high rates of HIV/Aids and poor healthcare, and now a third of the 1.7 million TB deaths a year occur in Africa.

In Eastern Europe, drug resistance is to blame, the WHO says.

We have to face the fact that we have much further to go Dr Lee Jong-wook, director-general of WHO

Russia continues to be challenged by resistant strains of the bacterium that cannot be treated with conventional, cheaper medications.

Dr Lee Jong-wook, director-general of WHO, said the report provided real optimism that TB was beatable, but said it also carried a clear warning.

"We have to face the fact that we have much further to go."

He said it would be impossible to beat Africa's TB and HIV/Aids epidemics unless the two diseases were tackled together.

Africa's TB problem Ricardo, 21, has been on TB treatment for seven months now in Kuito, Angola, where he lives He did not realise that he had TB when he started coughing up blood and having daily bouts of fever Ricardo sees himself as one of the lucky ones because he is getting the care he needs Source: Medecins Sans Frontieres

"The methods, procedures and supplies needed are well known. They are getting impressive results wherever they are being used.

"The challenge now is to invest enough so that they can be used in Africa," he said.

Push further

Dr Mario Raviglione, director of WHO's Stop TB department, said in some regions over half of patients did not have access to TB treatments.

"We need to push even further."

WHO recommends that people with TB be tested and if appropriate treated for HIV and vice versa.

The Department for International Development has pledged £5m over the next three years to help fund work to halt the spread of TB.

Announcing the funding, Hilary Benn, the UK's International Development Secretary, said: "It is a remarkable achievement that we are on target to reach the goal of halving TB cases by 2015 in most places."

But he called for a stepping up of efforts to curb TB and HIV/Aids in Africa.

"We need to get stuck in for the long term," he said.

Other organisations called for greater awareness about the dangers of TB as the WHO released its report, which coincided with World TB Day on Thursday.

The international agency Medecins Sans Frontieres called for an effort to overhaul time-consuming diagnostic tests that are based on 123-year-old lab procedures, and introduce a better vaccine and a new generation of antibiotics.

The Conservative Party said it would make TB and public health a priority.

There needs to be more awareness of these highly infectious diseases here and abroad vis a vis the global transmission of people and their diseases.

Authorities seek ways to stop spread of Methamphetamine

The Unnecessary Epidemic reaches New England:

CONCORD, N.H. — Citing growing evidence that methamphetamine has spread well beyond western states where it originated, authorities want to develop strategies for minimizing the highly addictive drug´s presence in New Hampshire.

"In other areas of the country oftentimes what has happened is they went from nothing to a very serious epidemic overnight," said Joe Harding, director of the state office of alcohol and drug policy. "This hasn´t happened in New Hampshire yet. What do we need to do to prevent it?"

Cheap and easily cooked up with supplies from drug and hardware stores, meth first started on the West Coast but didn´t reach national attention until it reached the Midwest, where it quickly took devastating hold over rural towns and cities.

Meth has not reached the same level in New Hampshire but authorities are worried that it could. Lawmakers, drug treatment workers and law enforcement officials plan to meet Thursday in Bedford to discuss meth´s reach in New Hampshire and ways to prevent its spread.

"It´s way behind heroin cocaine and marijuana at this point and we´d like to keep it that way," said Kevin McCarthy, a senior investigator on the New Hampshire Drug Task Force. "It´s a potential problem because it´s a very volatile drug."

Meth-related admissions to state-contracted drug treatment centers rose from 16 in 2001 to 30 in 2002 and 43 in 2004, Harding said.

Ray McGarty, executive director of Southeastern New Hampshire Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services in Dover, said the last three months have seen an uptick in calls on meth.

"We´ve started to see substantial increases," he said. "Multiple calls a week and then it´s being reflected in about 3 to 5 percent of our admissions."

McGarty said cocaine treatment admissions also have risen recently _ a sign that drug users are beginning to switch from heroin, an opiate, back to stimulants.

"We´re pretty on top of the switches when they start to happen," McGarty said. "Our patient population switched from cocaine to heroin literally overnight three years ago," he said. "Now we´re starting to see this slow shift back to cocaine and meth."

According to a study of federal drug use surveys by the Center for Substance Abuse Research, New Hampshire has the highest rate of meth treatment rates in the Northeast. That figure _ seven treatment admissions in 100,000, is far below meth hotspots like Oregon, Hawaii, California, Iowa, Wyoming and Nevada. In comparison, Maine and Vermont reported four meth treatment admissions per 100,000.

Meth seems to defy demographic boundaries _ scores of mothers, long-distance truck drivers, college students, homosexuals and dieters are said to be drawn to the drug´s rapid, euphoric high, appetite suppressing effect and energy surge that can keep users hyped up and sleepless for days.

Meth abuse prevention is the No. 1 drug issue states are asking about, "with a number two not even in sight," said Allison Colker, senior policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislators, which is presenting Thursday´s meeting.

Some states have acted to limit access to the store-bought ingredients that go into meth production. In Iowa on Tuesday, Gov. Tom Vilsack signed a bill restricting the sale of over-the-counter drugs containing pseudoephedrine, a meth ingredient. The law is the toughest to date, requiring customers to show identification and sign a log sheet when they buy the products and limiting the amount they can buy. Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky also have laws restricting pseudoephedrine-containing products.

Vermont lawmakers are considering a bill to limit the amount of ingredient chemicals residents would be allowed to possess. Only one meth lab has been broken up in Vermont so far, but state police and health officials have been briefing local emergency responders and other officials on the problem. State police recently arrested a man found with 700 pounds of ephedrine.

Besides meth´s addictive aspect, home meth labs are hazards to children and others. "From the production standpoint it is a really big problem because of the whole danger issue," Colker said. Children can be poisoned by chemical residue left by meth production; labs are brimming with flammable materials.

McCarthy, of the task force, says there are few meth labs in New Hampshire. "We are seeing evidence that it comes here by the mail, some kind of shipment," he said.

But Vermont authorities pointed east when asked about the state´s meth source. "We´ve had cases in the past where the methamphetamine in fact was coming out of New Hampshire," said Capt. Thomas L´Esperance, head of special investigations for the Vermont State Police, who added that New York is also a source for the drug.

From the Drug Enforcement Administration:





The spread of Methamphetamine eastward is demonstrated in the two graphics above. Now the Unnecessary Epidemic has become a national problem.

Congress must act to better interdict the precursor chemicals and to limit their importation by criminal cartels.