The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease.
The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

On Managed Care And Cutting-Edge Technology

Many Americans, even physicians, are unaware that the National Research Council, which is an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, proclaimed in February 1993 that “the AIDS epidemic will have little impact on the lives of most Americans or the way society functions.” Moreover, the CDC has released the year-end AIDS figures for 1992 which show that “the overall cases increased only 3.5% from the year before, less than the 5% increase from 1990-1991.” Furthermore, as recently reported by National Review, the CDC enunciated that it was revising downward its estimate of future AIDS

Evidence mounts that Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old disturbed individual accused of the attempted assassination of blue dog, conservative Democrat, U.S Representative Gabrielle Giffords; the cold-blooded killing of five other citizens, including an innocent 9-year-old student and a conservative judge; and the wounding of fourteen people --- should have been under psychiatric treatment.

A prominent member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has refuted key details of a study published recently by the Violence Policy Center, in which researchers concluded that women were not safer if they used a handgun for self-defense.

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. If you don't feel particularly thankful this year, go to the bookstore and buy Dr. Miguel A. Faria, Jr.'s insightful and autobiographical book, Cuba in Revolution: Escape from a Lost Paradise. You will become educated about Cuba, you will learn about America, and you will become very thankful.

In 1997, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., spoke candidly to Time magazine regarding McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation. The Democrat admitted, "What we have is two important values in direct conflict: freedom of speech and our desire for healthy campaigns in a healthy democracy. … You can't have both."

Writer's note: Difficult as it is to be critical of a friend and ally on the war on terror, Great Britain has instituted a cruel and unjust gun-control policy, a worsening evil, upon her law-abiding citizens that needs correcting. The title of this essay comes from the seemingly paradoxical unrelenting tide of thievery and burglaries that has swept Great Britain, and was so dubbed by the London Sunday Times in 1998.

Thank you for your kind introduction. It's my pleasure to have the opportunity to address this distinguished audience of physician colleagues and fellow scientists in Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP). I want to talk about the issue of scientific integrity in public health and firearm research. This is a topic like many others in which you have only heard one side of the story.

The AMA/CDC/NCIPC Propaganda Axis 

Although I have not practiced neurosurgery for many years, I have kept abreast of health care policy and advances in medicine. Since my retirement I founded and edited a medical journal, served on the editorial board of another international surgical neurology peer-reviewed journal, and at the request of President George W. Bush I served in the Injury Research Grant Review Committee of the CDC in Atlanta. I trained at the premier Georgia trauma center, Grady Memorial Hospital, under the auspices of Emory University, and I have published on this subject.

Kudos for The Telegraph report [07/02/07] describing the current tax situation in Bibb County that may saddle county taxpayers with thousands of dollars in penalties and tax arrears.

Now we read that Bibb County Chief Appraiser, Jim Davis, is looking for a private consulting firm with an incredible price tag of $2.5 million to do another property tax assessment in Bibb County.

People of the decaying Roman Empire enjoyed their peace and prosperity too much to quibble over losing a few liberties in exchange for security, Dr. Miguel A. Faria. Jr. said Monday.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of the Republican Women of Bibb County, Faria said the United States appears headed down the same path. Moral decay runs rampant through society, and people aren't coming forward to express outrage over moral and ethical lapses, such as the ones underscored in the recent accusations against President Clinton.

The column last Thursday by a trial lawyer about suing gun manufacturers is greatly self-serving.

If Don C. Keenan wants to help America's children, he should immediately direct his foundation to sponsor nationwide gun safety programs in schools, as we have done very successfully in Bibb County, rather than propose yet another way for trial lawyers to enrich themselves in the name of conducting a moral pseudo-crusade for the children.

In the Fall 2001 issue of the AANS Bulletin, "A Profession at Risk---The Medical Liability Crisis," the editors brought forth the momentous issue of spiraling medical liability for neurosurgeons.

Indeed, neurosurgery has been a profession at risk for quite some time, and many American neurosurgeons are quitting early rather than becoming grist for the trial lawyers' mill. This medical liability problem is number one for U.S. neurosurgeons and the AANS, yet it's not so at all for the umbrella organization, the AMA, which politically claims to represent all physicians.

This biographical reference book on "the key figures in the gun control debate today" delivers arguments and counterarguments on the meaning of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Americans' right to keep and bear arms. This book puts human faces on the argumentation. The figures featured in the reference book came from different backgrounds and disciplines, law, medicine, academics, law enforcement and plain mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, etc. who have become, because of their own experience, activists in the great debate.

A major engagement in the war over the right to keep and bear arms was fought in the House of Representatives this past July. The House voted to shift $2.6 million away from the National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) - a research unit of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) - and earmark the funds for other health research projects. The funding was equivalent to the amount spent by the NCIPC in its campaign to redefine guns as "first and foremost, a public health menace."

On June 23, 1995, a swarm of armed men invaded the Mason, West Virginia medical office of Dr. Danny R. Westmoreland. With their guns drawn, the intruders ordered everyone, including a nine-year-old child, to stand against a wall while the office was ransacked. The marauders were agents of the federal "health police," and they had violated the sanctuary of Dr. Westmoreland's office - which is also his home - and terrorized patients at gunpoint in order to execute a search warrant against the physician.

Federal Assault

The trend of enacting public policy by lawsuits went into high gear during the eight years of the Clinton-Gore administration, as frenzied attorney-litigators rolled over increasing numbers of unwary defendants.

Perhaps it is time we turn the ignition off to this litigation locomotive.