My first wife, Renee, died of cancer in 1995. She was 42. I returned to the Winship Cancer Center in Atlanta to see what progress has been made in diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Carl D’Orsi, head of radiology noted that we have a cure for cancer; early detection. Big advances are being made in imaging and diagnosis.  Dr. D’Orsi demonstrated a topographical mammogram.  This experimental machine can take a remarkably clear image of a tumor too small to be detected by a traditional mammogram . This same machine can also read a section more clearly that may look suspicious in a mammogram and see that there is no tumor, effectively avoiding unnecessary biopsies.

This machine will likely be able to increase the effectiveness of treatments by catching it earlier. But it is expensive, and it is experimental. Few places have them.   I saw other imaging systems that are also experimental and offer great hope.

I also saw huge laboratories involved in new techniques of delivering chemotherapies such as nanotech  targeting systems.

They have developed genetic testing that can  determine your odds of getting certain types of cancer. This aids the patient is selecting treatments that can dramatically reduce the chances of contracting cancer even in a high risk pool.  One of these tests costs $3,000.

Because of the costs of these treatments it is used selectively only for those whose risk profiles merits the extra expense. But the underlying point is that our health care system may be expensive because it is just so damn good. Anyone who has dealt with the fear and trauma of cancer know the value of these new developments; but we also must realize it is not cheap. Otherwise we risk never making these improvements available.

While the large insurance companies are commonly demonized, the reality is that their annual profits would not cover our health care bill for 48 hours.  The far more significant costs drivers are the quality of the technologies that deliver the best treatment systems in the world.

The cancer specialists at the Emory Winship Clinic were  troubled over the new government standards restricting mammograms for younger women. The committee establishing these new standards, which will likely be adapted by the insurance companies, did not have a single radiologist or oncologist on them.  Clearly these standards should rely more on individual case histories than simple age categories.

I would much rather trust my health and the health of my family to the professionals at the Winship Center and other advanced centers than to the government data crunching agencies that know nothing.  They may not be a death squad but such irresponsible regulations accomplish the same goal.

Perhaps it is not the end of the world if our health care system is expensive. Perhaps it is worth it.

Random thoughts

GM’s effort to target Toyota’s  customers  in the midst of their record recall notice seems in poor taste, especially in light of the record amount of taxpayer money that is now supporting GM.  This is like the arrogant rich kid who brags about being  smart when he was just lucky enough to inherit daddy’s money.  Kudos to Honda for expressly rejecting this tactic and Ford for just making money without taxpayer funds.   This is a big debit to GM’s karma account. Remember how many Toyotas are manufactured in this country.

Has anyone ever heard a peep from this administration about the government’s  responsibility for the economic crash, or do we just keep adding to the list of corporate demons?  First the oil companies, then insurance companies, then the health care providers and then the banks and financial institutions.  I need oil companies, insurance companies, health care providers and banks because they provide stuff and  services I need and want. I wish I could say this about the government .

After reading and writing about the financial crisis, I realize that the best analysis is devoid of political and partisan scapegoating.  The causes  were multiple and extended back more than 25 years. While much is clear in hindsight, at the time there were seemingly rational reasons for every stupid step toward the cliff.  How do smart people make such stupid mistakes?  One small stupid step at a time.

I have observed that there is an innate sense of trust on the social networking sites, especially Facebook.  We have connected with people we haven’t seen in decades, and there is an instant sense of trust.  Rules of etiquette on Facebook are unwritten but seemingly obvious just the same.  I wonder if the hours we spend on Facebook comes at the expense of television viewing.

With a more substantial majority than either party has enjoyed in decades and control of the White House, the Democrats have failed to pass any of the legislative initiatives other  than the stimulus package early in 2009(and the absurd cash for clunkers program) . It seems that either the bills they are trying to pass stink or that they must be incredibly politically incompetent.

Wall Street’s financial leaders have been paraded before Congress to explain their efforts to restore stability to our financial system. Obama has turned on the populist spigot to demonize Wall Street to justify bigger taxes and fees and hip shot regulation.

Wall Street deserves the scrutiny and reform is needed.  Yet this fiasco was as much a government failure.  Fannie Mae was exempt from regulation by the SEC, FDIC and the Fed.  When Congress was solidly warned about excessive risks taken by the Fannies,they rejected calls to increase oversight, largely along party lines. Little protest is heard from the halls of Congress over some of the huge bonuses paid to Frank Raines and others at Fannie Mae while the system was imploding.

Some recent regulations such as the mark to market rules made this crisis much worse than it would have otherwise been.  Other regulations such as control  of derivatives  by the Commodities Futures Trading Commissions were removed (under Clinton) at a pivotal time. The Fed ’s monetary policy was also a factor.

A hearing to truly understand what happens and what needs to be done would have our Congressmen on the other side of the microphone.

We clearly need financial reform. Yet Obama’s reckless, populist, anti-business pronouncements only serve to harden the prevailing attitude that business growth and job generation is just too risky.

Financial reform should be thoroughly vetted and discussed in the appropriate House and Senate committees.  Piecemeal pronouncements only add to the uncertainty that is killing this economy. The 550 point drop in the Dow last week following his pronouncement should be of concern, although it is never totally clear what moves the market.

The objective is not just to reduce risk, but to isolate it.  We want to protect critical banking and credit functions from the raw speculation.  Yet it is hard to return to the days before the Glass-Stegall bill, separating banking and investment activities, was overturned under Clinton.

There is no substitute for better regulations.  Higher capital requirements  to reduce leverage and better control of private contracts and derivatives that increase leverage and systemic risk are likely to come.

But let them come after the careful deliberation and consideration of the necessary functions our financial system provides.  Reckless announcements from the president in the critically weak economy we still face is destructive and counterproductive.

The race in Massachusetts is stunning.  If Democrat Coakley is unable to beat Republican Brown in the bluest of blue states, then any Democrat is vulnerable. Just the fact that this race is close  should be a startling wakeup call to the Democratic party.

It appears that Brown is doing and saying all the right things and Coakley is doing just the opposite. If defeated the party will blame the candidate , and refuse to see it as a referendum on the current administration. Brown is running against Coakley on her statements, her policies, and her record. Brown is being attacked by invoking references to Bush and “tea baggers.”

Last Wednesday the odd at the trading site Intrade had the odds of a Coakley win at 85 to Brown 15, this morning it 53/47; a remarkable shift.

The Democrats have grossly misread their mandate and their hubris has dwarfed even that of the Bush administration. This mismanagement of their party’s victory should be laid squarely at the feet of their leaders, especially Pelosi and Reid. Their first constructive step to clawing their way back from the abyss should be to quickly replace both of them.  It is their hubris, partisanship and arrogance that are putting the nails in Kennedy’s coffin.

… according to Mideast expert Micah Halpern

Excerpt

This explosion was so powerful and out of control it was designed to kill, maim and damage in a wide circumference around the bomb. This was not the work of a Western intelligence force, it was not even the work of a Western assassin. Israel has perfected the art of destroying their target and their target only - a car and the people in the car, nothing else at all. Israel goes the extra mile to make sure the damage is restricted and does not injure people or property around the explosion site.

This explosion was the work of others, it was not the work of Israel and neither was it the work of the United States.

Find out who Micah believes is responsible here.

YouTubing Barbara Boxer

Some stunning moments of SENATOR Boxer on Youtube

Please call me Senator

Barbara is a clueless racist

Abortion is the same as Viagra-

tips once again to Letty Kaplan

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe

Peace vs the ‘peace process’

October 14, 2009

Excerpts:

“More than that, no country in the world, not even Germany, would respond “proportionately” if some nonstate militia started rocketing their towns from across some border and killing German citizens.  If a government could not get the state from whose territories the rockets were being fired to take responsibility for ending the threat, then it would have no choice but to silence the threat itself.  Why do German intellectuals, journalists, and politicians expect Israel alone to act differently?  And why do they, of all people, insist that the use of force must always be a last resort in any political confrontation among states, when that kind of thinking is exactly what allowed Hitler to cause the Second World War? Germans frequently talk like Neville Chamberlain at Munich, when they ought to realize that it was Winston Churchill who was right: the readiness to use force in an appropriate and judicious manner is not what causes wars; it is often what prevents them.”

Adam Garfinkle in “Jewcentricity”