Quick Hitts

When Michael Graham took his daughter to the pediatrician for a routine checkup, he wasn’t expecting that she’d be grilled about his drinking. He didn’t expect the doctor would ask his kid if he and his wife got along well, or if either of them used drugs, or of he made his daughter “feel uncomfortable”, but that’s what happened. (Note, you can read the whole article by clicking on the numbers at the bottom of the page.)

He goes on to tell the story a five year old who was asked if her parents had a gun. When she said yes the doctor grilled her for more details; he wanted to know what kinds of guns the parents had, how many they had, and how they were stored.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the doctor then called the police and reported everything he had learned.

An errant doc? A nosy exception to the rule? Nope. These are not isolated instances. They are, in fact, required.

This policy document, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, establishes a policy requiring doctors to not only hound their young patients, but to question them about anything their parents do. The following are direct quotes from the policy paper:

“Pre-teens as well as teenagers should be interviewed privately during each office visit with the reassurance of confidentiality and a discussion of its limits. Even an apparently straightforward complaint such as headache or sore throat may be associated with an underlying substance abuse problem.”

“It may be helpful to begin with questions about the patient’s attitude toward use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs within his or her environment (home, school, and friends) rather than probing personal beliefs or habits.”

“Inquiry regarding the extent of tobacco, alcohol, or other drug use by peers and family should be a part of the routine history of every child who is seen in the pediatrician’s office.”

What happens when the kids get something wrong? When I was growing up my father had a beer with every evening meal. One beer, never two, and I never saw him drunk, or even tipsy. Yet, if I were asked, as a five year old kid, about Dad’s drinking I probably would have said “Dad drinks beer every day.” Of course, back then, pediatricians weren’t acting as the eyes and ears of Big Brother.

While it is reasonable for a doctor to make further inquiries if there are signs of abuse or he suspects something is wrong, this kind of fishing is unconscionable. Since this is official policy, parents should never leave their kids alone with their pediatrician.

Isn’t that sick?

The Nobel Peace Prize lost all its value when it was given to Yasser Arafat for taking a brief break from murdering Jews. But just in anyone forgot how worthless it is, they’re reminding us by giving it to Al Gore and the IPCC.

I’ve already said most of what I have to say about Gore in this podcast and this article. But I’m making this blog entry to provide a place for you, the readers, to comment.

“I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that young person turns 18 if they have finished high school they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that down payment on their first home” – Hillary Clinton

“New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, continuing to hit on economic themes in her White House campaign, said the government should do more to help people save for retirement, and is proposing an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 to help do that.”  – The Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2007

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship.” – Alexander Fraser Tyler, 18th century Scottish historian, The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic

In a semi-free country like the US it’s difficult to impose tyranny in one fell swoop. It has to be done slowly, little by little, baby step by baby step. And it’s important that those first few steps seem reasonable.

The first anti-smoker law was passed in the sixties. It demanded smoking and non-smoking sections in airplanes. That seems pretty reasonable, and it was passed with little objection. If someone said “In a couple of decades this will lead to it being illegal to have a smoke in a bar,” everyone would have laughed at him. And if he said “In forty years this will lead to it being illegal to smoke in your own home” he’d have been written off as being batshit crazy.

This week the city of Belmont CA passed a law that does just that. If you live in an apartment or a in a condo you’ve paid for, your private property, it will soon be illegal to smoke in it.

Fellow citizens, how long are we going to put up with this kind of shit? What will it take to wake up the American Sheeple?

The AP reported that  Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter earmarked $100,000 of our tax money for the Louisiana Family Forum, which is headed by former political cronies.  And what does this fine group do?  They push creationism.

That’s right, our tax money is being used to finance an organization devoted to making kids stupid.  And even these mouth breathers fail they’ll force educators to fight them, using resources and energy that could be better spent elsewhere.

Out of the 60,000+ podcasts out there somehow yours caught my eye. It looked interesting enough for me to add it to my podcatcher and download a few shows. Unfortunately, I’ve removed it from my subscription list, for one or more of the following reasons.

Your show is too long. I don’t have as much time as I’d like for podcasts, and I’m just not willing to listen to you for the hour and a half I could spend listening to six fifteen minute podcasts. I think there is a much shorter, much better show in there struggling to get out. As an experiment, try doing one episode that’s 1/3 the length to see if it makes it better.

You talk in a monotone. If you’re not excited about the subject, why should I be?

You laugh at your own jokes. A lot. As a solo show, an occasional laugh is fine, but you bellow at your own cleverness every single time you say anything you think is even slightly amusing. I hate laugh tracks.

Your production sucks. The days of great content allowing you to get away with lousy production are over. There’s more well-produced good content out there than anyone has time to listen too. Your whistling Ss sound like fingernails on a blackboard, your popping Ps are pathetic, and your three dollar microphone just doesn’t cut it any more. If your show were brand new I’d be a little more forgiving, but you’ve been doing this for a while now and if you don’t care enough about it to learn the technical end of your craft I don’t care enough to listen.

Your volume is all over the place. The first time I dived for the volume knob I was annoyed. The third time I skipped the rest of your show and deleted it from my podcatcher.

You use too many word whiskers. A few ums and aws are fine, but your show is so full of them I couldn’t pay attention to anything else. Your excessive use of “like” and “you know” makes you sound like a Valley Girl. (Last year I tried a podcast on Film Noir which was hosted by two people. One of them said “And, Uh,” in front of every sentence. I loved the subject enough to give it one more try a few shows later to see if they had improved. They hadn’t. The End, roll credits.)

You didn’t get to the point. You told me your show was about X, but you rambled on and on about all kinds of supporting crap until I got bored and moved on. (Point of Inquiry is a good example. They spend a good five minutes telling you about their organization, what the show is about, blah blah blah, and then they often play a promo! And it’s the same shtick every damn time. When they finally get to the content it’s a great show, but why does it take them so long to get to the point (of inquiry)?)

You didn’t get to the point II. You told me your show was about X, but you rambled on and on about your cat or your kid or your operation and I just lost interest before you got anywhere near the subject matter.

You put your own show down. Actually, I never subscribed because of this. Your show description said “Just a couple of guys hanging out. We’re not that good, but its fun.” If you tell me your show sucks I’m just going to agree with you without trying it.

You put your closing comments first. Sharing phone calls and e-mails is the best way to encourage more phone calls and e-mails. It’s an interesting part of the show for some people, but others find it dull. If you put it at the end of the show, where it belongs, people who aren’t interested can skip it easily after enjoying the meat of your message. But you put it at the beginning, so I just skipped to the next show on my list.

Looking for a podcast that avoids these errors? Try The Quick Hitts Podcast, the perfect complement to this blog.