Drive carefully. Don’t drink too much. Don’t drink too much and drive. Be careful of fireworks, should you happen to get your hands on some. Please don’t give the poor nurses, physicians, EMTs and other hospital staff extra work to do tonight. They really don’t want to bring in the new year taking care of bloody bodies, courtesy of a drunk driver all nice and giddy over auld lang syne.

Have a good one.

I am most definitely not getting into the topic of capitol punishment, but here’s one for you–whether you are a bleeding heart liberal or a staunch bleeding brain neocon.

Saddam Hussein was hanged today. No great loss to the world, but the circumstances are a little unsavory. Especially when you think of the huge amount of support that this “monster” received from presidents Reagan (yes, sainted Ronnie) and Bush senior.

From the San Jose Mercury:

Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who terrorized a nation for nearly a quarter-century until he was deposed and captured by U.S. troops, was hanged at dawn Saturday for ordering the murders of 148 of his countrymen 24 years ago.

The execution occurred at about 6 a.m. local time, state television reported. Two close aides to the 69-year-old Saddam also had been sentenced to death - Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim, the former head of intelligence, and Awad Hamed al Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court.

The dear departed Mr. Hussein certainly had help from his pals, some of whom are still very much alive and well and hovering around the White House. Perhaps Dick and Donald might like to discuss their association with him, and the fact that his murderous tendencies didn’t seem to bother them, as long as the oil was flowing and the cash was changing hands.

The execution of a former head of state in his own country after a trial by an internationally monitored tribunal is almost without precedent. But its political impact was undercut by what human rights groups said was badly flawed procedure. Human Rights Watch charged that the trial didn’t meet international standards of fairness and criticized the Iraqi government for actions that it said undermined the court’s independence. It said the court was unfamiliar with the law it was attempting to apply.

No kidding. Who actually put him on trial? An elected government who represents the people in Iraq? Please, this was a dog and pony show, and I would hardly call the current government in Iraq legitimate, impartial to Dubya breathing down their neck, or a government elected by the majority of the people.

But in a statement late Friday night, President Bush said that Saddam received a fair trial.

“Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule,” Bush said. “It is a testament to the Iraqi people’s resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial.”

Another priceless gem of wisdom from GW Bush, who wouldn’t know a fair trial if it farted in his face. And what about his own crimes, like attacking a country that represented no threat, and creating a war that is rapidly destabilizing the Middle East, that is responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis and I think 3,000 American soliders, that is bringing Iraq into a civil war, and that has caused a massive escalation of terrorism. Cool, huh. I hardly think Dubya is one to be discussing war crimes, to say nothing of withholding funding for the UN Population Fund that has resulted in the death of thousands of women in childbirth, caused unwanted pregnancies and resultant abortions….

Anyway, I don’t want to get into politics, but I had to write something about this. And Dubya, the main who wants justice, refuses to have the United States participate in the World War Crimes Court. You know, it’s okay for everyone else to be tried for war crimes but not Americans.

I don’t want to ruin my good mood by thinking of Dubya, so I will end here. Back to regular programming tomorrow.

This is the story of a different child, born under the worse possible circumstances. This story was on a blog that I came across. The blogger says to pass this story along, and so am I (guilt-free).

It was a night spent in the basement of a burnt out building.
People injured by the atomic bomb took shelter in this room, filling it.
They passed the night in darkness, not even a single candle among them.
The raw smell of blood, the stench of death.
Body heat and the reek of sweat. Moaning.
Miraculously, out of the darkness, a voice sounded:
“The baby’s coming!”
In that basement room, in those lower reaches of hell,
A young woman was now going into labor.
What were they to do,
Without even a single match to light the darkness?
People forgot their own suffering to do what they could.
A seriously injured woman who had been moaning but a moments before,
Spoke out:
“I’m a midwife. Let me help with the birth.”
And now life was born
There in the deep, dark depths of hell.
Her work done, the midwife did not even wait for the break of day.
She died, still covered with the blood.
Bring forth new life!
Even should it cost me my own,
Bring forth new life!

by Sadako Kurihara

Sadako Kurihara was at her home in Horishima when the atomic bomb exploded on August 6th 1945. Two days later, in a nearby basement shelter just a mile from ground zero, a baby was born in pitch darkness surrounded by the dead and dying. The seriously injured nurse that delivered the child died, but the baby survived and grew into an adult who sixty years later still lives in the city.

After the trauma of Hiroshima Sadako Kurihara was determined to express her furious hatred of nuclear weapons, and to campaign against their use. Her talent as a poet gave her a powerful outlet for her beliefs. Her most famous work is the story of the baby born amongst nuclear devastation. In Japanese it is 生ましめんかな (Umashimenkana), which translates as Bring forth new life.

For the rest of her life Sadako Kurihara was a staunch anti-war and anti-nuclear campaigner. She published a literary magazine on the theme of the atom bomb attacks on Japan, and circulated an anthology of anti-war poems when discussion of the bombing was restricted by the occupying Allied powers. The author of more than five hundred poems in a writing career spanning more than seventy years, she died in March 2005 aged 92.

Can you imagine being there? Being in the aftermath of a nuclear war? Those people had never heard of an atomic bomb, Albert Einstein or the Manhattan Project. And suddenly, an explosion like none other ever witnessed on planet earth.

This story is one of horror but also of love and the strength of the human spirit. We all have it in us to love and be kind, and to honor one another and our planet. So why is it so difficult to put into action.

Peace on earth, good will to all living creatures. Merry Christmas.

Imagine having the audacity to say Merry Christmas rather than “Happy Holidays” or “seasons greetings.” Bleech. In one of the cards I received, the person has purposely bought one with the generic “holiday season,” written in. He crossed it out and wrote Merry Christmas, just to make a point.

Not to get into that on Christmas day, but while generic cards certainly do have a place, I am surely not going to go around and wish people “Happy Holidays” on Christmas day.

So Merry Christmas, all. Be politically incorrect today. Refuse to be generic.

This is my favorite Christmas picture.

Believe in the magic of Christmas.

Believe in Santa Claus.

Believe.

That should be the name of that awful Frank Capra movie, that is supposedly one of our great classics. It is one of the most depressing movies I have ever seen, basically about a man who never does what he wants to do in life and instead sacrifices himself for everyone else. Mother Theresa he’s not, because Mother Theresa took great joy in serving and she was leading the life she chose.

Anyway, there is a funny 30 second version of It’s a Wonderful Life with the main characters played by bunny rabbits. And really, 30 seconds is enough for this dreck.

And here once again, is another brilliant idea to stave off the nursing shortage. What, we’ve heard this before? Oh my, now that’s a shocker.

This is from News 8 Austin

Seton Family of Hospitals is teaming up with local educators to start a new clinical education center at Brackenridge Hospital in downtown Austin.

The University of Texas, Austin Community College and Concordia University are partnering with Seton. Classes will begin in the fall of 2007.

The center aims to boost the number of nurses.

“When Seton takes a look at our needs over the next 15 years, we are going to need to hire 3,500 nurses,” CEO Charles Barnett said.

The growing demand for healthcare created an urgent need for medical professionals.
Central Texas only graduates about 300 nurses a year. The new center will train future nurses, doctors and pharmacists. Research shows most medical professionals end up working where they studied.

Uh, have they bothered to do a survey and see how many of those nice locally educated nurses have quit nursing, or left hospital nursing? And have they bothered to ask why?

Or have they investigated how many nice locally educated nurses are now doing travel nursing for better pay and more flexibility?

My guess is no. That’s because the prevailing philosophy is just to mass produce nurses and hope for the best, without hospitals having to trouble themselves to make the work environment more conducive to keeping staff on the payroll. And actually, I think that they prefer to have nurses pop in and out. This way they don’t get any pension, they get lower wages, less benefits, and all of those nasty tidbits that hospitals don’t like.

Just another day in paradise. And the nursing shortage rocks on…

Okay, I have something nice to say about Seattle and its inhabitants. Maybe it is the Christmas spirit catching up, or the glint of sunshine that we had yesterday before it got stormy again. Who knows, but it was nice to see.

And what’s more, it is medically related!

There are a lot of homeless people hanging out in lower Queen Anne. There are some regulars who hang out at the busstop on Mercer, corner of Queen Anne Avenue. I don’t really know why, since there isn’t any shelter there for them, or even a place to sit down. The busstop across the street, and half a block down, is a much better hangout. They at least have a bench to sit on plus a little shelter from the rain.

Anyway, a woman was helping a very intoxicated homeless man stand up, while the man’s equally intoxicated female companion watched. I assisted the woman, who was nicely dressed and looked as if she had just popped out of a nearby office, and we got the man to his feet.

But no sooner was he up and standing, then he started wobbling. The woman asked if he wanted to sit down, but he was orbiting another world in an alcoholic phase and didn’t pay any attention. He then started walking over to the curb, where a bus had pulled in a few minutes earlier. He tottered, and then crashed into the gutter–just as the bus started to move.

The worst could have happened. The woman started screaming, people ran to the front of the bus…but it just skimmed right by the man lying there. I don’t think it touched him. And so, the miracle of the bells. People came over to help the man, cell phones flipped out to call 911, and bus driver permanently parked the bus until the man could be moved.

The poor man was bleeding, and there was blood on the curb where his head hit. But the kind strangers were hovering over him, calling him “sir” and telling him to stay put until help arrived. I don’t think he comprehended because he kept trying to move, even though he wasn’t capable of it.

The ambulance arrived within minutes, but then, Seattle has one of the best EMT systems in the nation.

I feel for the poor man. Homeless, drunk, an outcast of society that we don’t seem to know what to do with (of course Dubya thinks that cutting taxes to the wealthiest Americans is a cure, but let’s keep with the Christmas spirit and not go there), but yet, surrounded by the love and concern of perfect strangers.

Merry Christmas, Seattle.

The Guardian has a really good write up about the Libyan situation. They retell the story, the flimsy evidence against them, and some of the evidence that has been brought forward to support their innocence and how the courts have turned a deaf ear.

Also, the politics. Seems like Col Gaddafi is sitting in a precarious spot. Kill the nurses, he saves face and a strong grip on power. But may lose some opportunities with the EU and US.

Release the nurses, and the opposition may gain and Gaddafi may have to really think up a plan to save face and his grip on power. But then he will have gained the favor of the international community. And I imagine healthcare must be suffering there, as I doubt any foreign nurses are eager to set foot in the place.

It seems that Libya has done a turn around and resentenced the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian physician to death. This story has been evolving for a while, but in a nutshell, the the group of healthcare workers are accused of intentionally infecting children with the HIV virus.

Of course, I wasn’t there. So I can’t make a pronouncement as to their innocence.

But sheer logic tells me something else. Why? Why would they do it? What on earth would these healthcare professionals have against a bunch of little children? Now I can see if they were accused by trying to infect Mr. Gaddafi, or any of his inner circle. Then you might say, well, they have a motive. It gets political, and certainly, much more of a motive in wanting to assassinate a leader (and one with a rather infamous record) than a few small kids.

According to the news stories, over 400 children were infected because of a botched experiment that was being carried out by the five nurses and doctor, to cure AIDS. I can’t imagine what kind of experiment they were doing, unless someone was funding it from outside of Libya.

And you never know. Maybe the hidden corporate/government hand offered this group some money and figured that Libyan children were just throw away things. Who would care or know what happens to a bunch of tots in Gaddafi’s kingdom. Anything is possible.

But the evidence does show that they were innocent. If you believe the science, that is.

From USA Today

On Dec. 6, too late for use in the trial, Nature magazine published an analysis of HIV and hepatitis virus samples from the children. Using changes in the genetic information of HIV over time as a “molecular clock,” analysts concluded the virus was contracted before the six defendants arrived at the hospital — perhaps even three years before.

Oxford University, which took part in the study, issued a statement saying the verdict “runs counter to the conclusion reached by a research team from Oxford University’s Zoology Department who, in collaboration with several European universities, showed that the subtype of HIV involved began infecting patients long before March 1998, the date the prosecution claims the crime began.”

Idriss Lagha, president of a group representing the victims, has rejected the Nature article, telling a news conference Monday in London that the nurses had infected the children with a “genetically engineered” virus. He accused them as doing so for research on behalf of foreign intelligence agencies.
.

It is quite likely that infected needles were the cause, due to improper sterilization and inadequate supplies. That would be the most believable story. Another thing to consider is how fast the children became ill and died. Some of the nurses, if not all, had only been working there about six months. Unless the kids were slammed with a really virulent and potent form of the virus, HIV usually takes years to become symptomatic.

At any rate, it is a rather sad story all around. I’m sure that there are going to be hordes of international nurses and doctors rushing to go and work in Libya now.

Since I am inundated with porny-sounding spam, I decided to go with the flow. Here is an interesting little factoid for those of you who might want to visit the websites that constantly try to infiltrate my comments.

FYI, Hamburg is said to have the hottest nightlife in Europe. The Reeperbahn, best known as the red light district but it is also chock full of nightclubs, discos–in fact, the Beatles first played there before they went on to fame and fortune and the Ed Sullivan show.

So here’s an interesting little tidbit:

In St Pauli, Hamburg’s red light district, one sex shop displays in its window an unusually large condom. A cash prize is offered to any gentleman who fits it. The money has only been won twice.

Any of you guys care to try for the prize????

If I get one more offer of Viagra for Christmas (courtesy of relentless spammers who apparently have never heard of a Christmas cease fire) I am going to get the Grinch after them. Or Ebenezar Scrooge before his redemption. Or Donald Rumsfield–maybe he can put the spammers to use in the war against terror–drive them mother-f***ker terrorist insane with Viagra spam (wasn’t his outgoing message pathetic? Poor thing, why can’t I feel sorry for him? Why doesn’t he go put on a uniform and go fight the war with the “equipment that you’re given).

Well, these comments aren’t very much in the Christmas spirit, but spam is driving me insane. It seems to have tapered off a little on my blog, but my regular mailbox is bursting over. There must be some way to impale spammers with their boxes of viagra, rolex watches, or whatever else they are trying to spam.

Happy third Advent! Can it be that Christmas is just a week away? This isn’t fair that the fourth Advent falls on Christmas Eve–that sort of deprives you of an extra day of celebration.

In case you’ve been following the Christmas tree saga at SeaTac airport, the trees have been brought back. I don’t know what it is with people and this political correctness. Are we supposed to dilute Christmas because some people don’t celebrate it? Are we not supposed to say “Merry Christmas” but go with the generic “Happy holidays?” Certainly, I don’t send Christmas cards to people who don’t celebrate Christmas. I send them New year’s cards, or generic greetings. But for people who do celebrate Christmas, I am surely not going to say or write, “Happy holidays.” Bleech…

And the Christmas trees at Seatac….well Mr. Rabbi, like it or not, our country is predominantly Christian, and Christmas decorations are a fact of life. Especially in a gray dark city like Seattle, the lights and brightness of Christmas decorations certainly cheer things up. Now, I realize that your gripe wasn’t about the trees, only that you thought you should get fair time with an 8 foot menorah.

Uh, I disagree completely. Christmas trees and wreaths are not so much a religious decoration as a seasonal one. It would be one thing if the airport had nativity scenes and crucifixes all over the place. Then I could see wanting to balance that with a menorah. But trees are not a religious symbol whereas a menorah is.

Also, Chanukah is a minor Jewish holiday and the only reason that it gets so much notice is that is falls the same time as Christmas. But you certainly can’t compare Chanukah to Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur, for instance.

But Christmas is a major Christian holiday. It is the most important holiday along with Easter. So why are you trying to make Chanukah compete with Christmas?

The outcome was that the trees were removed and you didn’t get your menorah. I know that wasn’t what you had in mind, but that was the outcome. During the busy holiday travel season, the airport has better things to do than try to come up with an 8 foot menorah to please you. And then you threatened to sue? What, for equal time? Are you also planning on suing all of the stores downtown for not putting up a menorah? Are you going to sue the city as well for not putting up a giant menorah at the Seattle center, next to the Christmas tree and wreath? Come on, rabbi, let’s keep your lawyers busy.

At any rate, the trees are back at Seatac. The rabbi was flooded with hate mail. He earned the dismay of the Jewish community at large here in Seattle and elsewhere. Nice going, bub.

My advice to the rabbi–why don’t you concentrate instead, on trying to get the religious nutcases out of the White House and Congress. Afterall, we have a seated president who says that God told him to attack Iraq. Now I know that in the Bible God used to chitchat with the likes of Abraham, Moses, Job, Jesus and Joshua, but Dubya? These days, those kind of people are usually put on heavy duty medication and kept where they can’t harm themselves or anyone else.

Also, it doesn’t seem like God gave Dubya any instructions on what to do once he attacked Iraq, and how to get the hell out of there in one piece.

Anyway, not to get off track, but that’s a religious issue that you might want to address Mr. Rabbi. Just please our Christmas decorations alone. And stop trying to equate Chanukah with Christmas. They are not the same, as I have already pointed out.

And stop this political correctness before I lose my mind. Next thing you know, Santa is going to be banned from department stores. Unless he also spins a dreidal.

It is Christmas season, I am extremely busy, and trying to tolerate skies that look like someone covered them with soot. A few months ago I read a prediction that the Pacific Northwest was going to have a drier than average winter this year, due to El Nino.

Well, November was a record breaker for rainfall. It snowed in November. It has been raining almost ceaselessly since before Halloweend. But I guess it still is officially autumn, so perhaps the winter will be dry and somewhat sunny. I am planning an escape to Florida at the end fo January, at any rate.

But here’s a little ditty of interest. Willie and Harry are getting weary of the world trying to find the “real story” behind Diana’s death. No kidding. It’s only been a decade now, and I hardly think there’s much of a conspiracy. She was the victim of drunk driving, recklessness (wasn’t wearing a seat belt), and perhaps she and her beau were intoxicated as well. I mean, not to notice that your driver was bloody drunk, or was driving at a speed using reserved for race tracks?

From the Scotsman:

Rather than hunting for conspiracies (although much of the conspiracy digging is instigated by Dodi’s father), we should be focused on yet another tragic episode linked to drunk driving. And that seat belts really can save a life.

The life insurance Web site, LifeInsure.com, collected a list of 19 historical errata, superstitions and just plain weird facts about death. The list is a little bizarre, but it’s really fascinating to know how hard it is to kill a cockroach (hint: don’t cut off their head–it doesn’t work)

The 19 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Death

1. After being decapitated, the average person remains conscious for an additional 15-20 seconds. Talk about a way to go.

2. Mourning your dear departed cat? You could shave your eyebrows like the ancient Egyptians used to. Then again, maybe a trip to the pet cemetery would be easier.

3. May want to rethink what you bury your loved ones in. An old wives’ tale claims that if a woman is buried wearing the color black, she’ll come back to haunt the family.

4. Speaking of preventing hauntings, yet another old wives tale led to the institution of burial wreaths. It was believed that the wreath would encircle the spirit of the dead person, thereby preventing them from returning from the grave.

5. In 1931, Henry Ford decided to preserve his friend, Thomas Edison’s last dying breath. He kept it in a bottle. Hope he put a label on that one.

6. One of the main reasons cowboys carried pistols in the 1800’s was to avoid being dragged to death by their horse. You think they could have just gotten bigger stirrups.

7. The last words spoken by Union General John Sedgewick were, “They (the Confederate soldiers) couldn’t hit an elephant from this dis…”

8. So much for the curse of good ole King Tut. Despite reports that all twenty-two people who were present at the exhumation kicked the bucket, twenty-one were still kicking ten years later.

9. If someone plans to jump off Mount Everest to commit suicide, you’ll need a lot of patience. It takes the average person 2.5 minutes to hit bottom. And we don’t want to know who timed it.

10. Here’s a job I definitely wouldn’t want to have. When Pyrenees beekeepers die, someone has to go around and splash every single one of their bees with black ink.

11. John Bowman, a tanner from Vermont believed that after his death he would be reincarnated with his pre-deceased wife and children. So, he ordered his house staff to have dinner on the table every night, just in case. They finally stopped in 1950 when the money finally dried up.

12. Think your décor is bad? Oscar Wilde’s last words were, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go” He fought the wallpaper and the wallpaper won.

13. An old superstition stated that if the doors in the house were locked, the soul of a dying person couldn’t get out.

14. Yet another superstition warns against pointing at a funeral procession, with the dire warning that you’ll die within a month. More proof for that whole three fingers pointing back at you thing.

15. Might want to read the labels a little more carefully. Nearly 2,500 lefties are killed every year using products meant for righties. Who knew? Now, just back away from those right-handed scissors.

16. A pet-parrot caused a ruckus at President Andrew Jackson’s funeral. His crime? Swearing during the ceremony. Guess he should have given Polly just one more cracker.

17. That ballpoint pen? The one you’re chewing on? Might want to put it down. 100 people are killed every year by choking on a ballpoint pen. Which proves the old quote about the pen being mightier than the sword. At least some of the time.

18. Apparently, they really are virtually destructible. A cockroach can reportedly live up to 9 days without its head. The only reason they finally kick over? Starvation.

19. And you thought sex appeal was the first to go. Allegedly, it’s actually your sight that goes first when you die. It’s your hearing that’s the last to go…. What was that?

Indian men seem to be a bit smaller than the international standard. How one goes about drawing up an international standard of penis size would make an interesting story all in itself, but it seems that the condoms are too big for Indian men.

NEW DELHI: Condoms designed to meet international size specifications are too big for many Indian men as their penises fall short of what manufacturers had anticipated, an Indian study has found.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, a leading state-run centre, said its initial findings from a two-year study showed 60 per cent of men in the financial capital Mumbai had penises about 2.4 cm shorter than those condoms catered for.

For a further 30 per cent, the difference was at least 5cm. A poor fit meant the prophylactics often didn’t do the job they were bought for, and led to some tearing or slipping off during use.

“One of the reasons for a failure of up to 20 per cent (of condoms) is the association of the size of the condom to the erect penis,” the council’s Dr Chander Puri said, adding another reason was couples often put them on in a hurry.

Puri said many men in India, which has the world’s highest HIV positive caseload, were too shy to ask for condoms.

“We need more vending machines for condoms of different sizes so people can pick a condom with confidence that is suited to their needs,” he said.

The Times of India reported the ICMR survey had studied 1400 men between 18-50 years of age in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi as well as in rural areas in a report. It entitled its story “Indian men don’t measure up”.

Weep Neocon, weep. But cry as you might, the winds of change are upon us. Plan B has arrived.

It took a battle and a near lawsuit against the FDA (Federal Dork Association) to get this moving, but Plan B is available over the counter. And readily available.

From the Washington Post

A month after distribution began, the over-the-counter version of the morning-after pill is now available at pharmacies nationwide. Planned Parenthood celebrated Wednesday with a free giveaway of the emergency contraceptive, while critics insisted that Plan B’s accessibility will soon be a cause for regret.

Plan B was the focus of bitter debate for years before the Food and Drug Administration, after repeated delays, declared in August that customers 18 and older should be able to buy it in pharmacies without a prescription.

The same critics who say that it will be a cause for regret are the same ones who predicted that with abortion legalization in 1973, we would soon be killing premature babies, the disabled and the mentally impaired. Of course, the exact opposite has occured in the past 30 years. We are saving tiny premies, the Disabilities Act was passed, and disabled children have never had so many resources available to them. The system isn’t perfect yet, but we are light years ahead of where we were three decades ago.

So now the sky is falling once again, and we will “regret” making Plan B available. Shall we get out the violins and dress in mourning?

Now get ready to laugh…

Critics of the drug challenge those claims, arguing that Plan B instead will promote promiscuity and unsafe sex; they warn that men might coerce their underage sexual partners into using it. Some critics also consider the pill tantamount to abortion, although it differs from the abortion pill RU-486 and has no effect on women who are already pregnant.

The ignorance they spew would be comical if it wasn’t so dangerous. Plan B does nothing to interfere with a pregnancy–it prevents conception. And come on, can you see it now–two horny teens will now “do it” only because they know that they can run to the drugstore afterwards and get Plan B. Men are now going to become pedophiles and desire sex with little girls because of Plan B.

People said the same thing about the birth control pill when it first came out. They also said the same thing about women having the right to vote, and about wearing skirts that showed their ankles.

This is an interesting twist on healthcare worker shortages—are we missing doctors? Are the MDs also vanishing into thin air?

Well, not quite. This story is about the lack of minority physicians practicing HIV medicine, and again, it is one of those things that I see more as divying people into selective little groups, rather than addressing the problem as a whole.

Lack of minority doctors practicing HIV medicine. According to this press release, black Americans accounted for 49 percent of the AIDS diagnoses and 55 percent of the AIDS deaths in 2004, and Latinos for 20 percent of the AIDS cases. And? It means that the focus for prevention needs to be more on these groups, but why do their treating physicians have to be “the same.”

That type of logic stems back to when black physicians weren’t allowed to treat whites, or at least, not very many white folks would go see a black doctor. We seem to be finally getting away from that, and here comes this idea that medicine needs to be compartmentalized. Blacks treat blacks, Latinos treat latinos, and in that vein, should we be recruiting more Asians to treat that population?

“Many Latinos also struggle with language barriers and are the ethnic group most likely to be uninsured, further limiting their access to care.”

Well, Latino physicians aren’t going to help the insurance problem. Please, the notion that a “fellow” member of your group is going to treat you for free or spend hours of their time finding funding for you is one of those urban myths. Plus, there is also that other myth that all Latinos speak Spanish. They don’t. I speak Spanish better than many Latinos I know. Not every Latino is right off the boat, or grew up speaking Spanish, or speaks Spanish as their primary language.

I don’t know about the ethnic make-up in the field of HIV medicine, but I spend enough time contacting physicians to observe the overall ethnic diversity. It is another grand old myth that American medicine is overwhelmingly white men. Take another look. I think Dr. Welby is being rapidly replaced by Dr. Krishna. Yes, Indians. I am amazed by the number of Indian physicians who are working, studying, teaching, and doing research in the US. I was trying to find a specialist for a story I was doing about a month ago, and I was looking at the website of large medical center in the Midwest. At least half of the physicians were either Asian or Indian. About a third were female. There were several from the Middle East as well. Not very many blacks or Latinos, but still, the diversity was amazing.

There is nothing wrong with wanting more black and Latino physicians to enter HIV medicine. But I think that the reasoning is just wrong, and we shouldn’t be sending a message that one must be treated by a physician (or nurse for that matter) of “your own kind.”

Finally, it seems that HIV medicine is not a very popular speciality for physicians in general, and very few physicians of any race or ethnicity are going into the field of HIV medicine. So instead of trying to focus in on one or two particular groups, should the idea be to recruit medical students and residents who may have an interest in it, or stimulate an interest in it–regardless of whether they are black, white, pink, purple, Serbo-Croatian or Melanese? Afterall, we want qualified physicians and those who want to work with this population, so why narrow the focus like this? The ultimate goal is provide care to patients with HIV.

New Minority Fellowships Tackle Shortage of Physicians from Hardest-Hit Communities

Toronto, CA, Oct. 12—The leading organization of HIV care providers has created clinical fellowships designed to encourage physicians from some of the most-affected communities to enter the field of HIV care. The HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) Minority Clinical Fellowship Program will offer African American and Latino physicians the opportunity to gain clinical experience and expertise in HIV care.

The need for more minority physicians practicing HIV care is urgent. African Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population but accounted for 49 percent of the AIDS diagnoses and 55 percent of the AIDS deaths in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Latinos represent 14 percent of the U.S. population but 20 percent of the AIDS cases. Many Latinos also struggle with language barriers and are the ethnic group most likely to be uninsured, further limiting their access to care.

“The number of African Americans and Latinos with HIV /AIDS continues to grow, but we have not seen a parallel increase of health care providers from those constituencies,” said Arlene Bardeguez, MD, MPH, vice chair of the HIVMA Board of Directors. About 1,100 physicians from each group graduated from medical school in 2004, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. That’s up from 704 African Americans and 473 Latinos in 1980, but still one tenth the number of white graduates.

“To make matters worse, very few physicians of any race or ethnicity are going into the field of HIV medicine,” added Kimberly Y. Smith, MD, MPH, member of the HIVMA Minority Clinical Fellowship Committee. HIVMA and other organizations fear a crisis unless action is taken to train more providers in HIV care.

HIVMA Chair Daniel R. Kuritzkes, MD, added, “The Fellowships will train physicians from the African American and Latino communities—those hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic—who can bring their much-needed expertise and commitment to HIV-positive patients in their communities.”

The Fellowships provide each recipient a stipend plus benefits for one year as well as financial support for the sponsoring institution and mentor. Applicants will work with HIVMA mentors at institutions where they will continuously manage HIV-positive inpatients and outpatients.

HIVMA is delighted to have received support for the Fellowships from several pharmaceutical companies. HIVMA acknowledges the generous support of GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott Laboratories, and Gilead Sciences for this important new initiative.

The official start of the Christmas season. We put up lights, started getting out the decorations (which I hope to finish tomorrow) had some eggnog lattes and cranked up the Christmas music. And lit the first Advent’s candle.

I am always amazed by people who absolutely loathe Christmas and think it’s just a big rush and they’re worn out from too many parties, poor from too much gift buying, hate going to stores, and so on.

Well, then don’t. If you go to one less party, is anyone going to notice? And if a person is offended, well, then they are not much of a friend, are they? And put the brakes on shopping. Send people cards and indicate how much of charitable donation you’ve given in their name, rather than buying them something that they’ll end up returning to the store. Use your imagination. But whatever, don’t blame it on Christmas. The holiday is what you make of it, and you can break the bitch/complain mode if you want to.

And now, as I step down from the soapbox, I’m going to have another slice of Stollen.

Just in case anyone was wondering, we still have a nursing shortage going on. I mean, the shortage that is being touted in the news as the dire lack of warm bodies to fill slots that no one else wants. That shortage.

There are over 2 million registered nurses in the US, and that’s not included licensed practical/vocational nurses. Surely we have enough nurses? So why can’t we get them (ie, people like me) to put on their white clogs and head off to the land of bedpans and needle sticks?

Anyway, I just wanted to keep everyone on their toes and let you know that I haven’t forgotten the shortage. Of forgot to post.