Skip to main content

Liberals Attack Brett Kavanaugh and Trash the Neighborhood


We live in frustrating and angry times here in America.  If you are not aware of this reality, then you are:
  • a newborn
  • a plant or an invertebrate
  • in heaven
  • comatose
  • on a deserted island sans electronic devices or wifi
  • living outside of the Milky Way
Peruse the front page of any newspaper or turn on any cable news channel.   You will read and hear about conflicts, outrage, investigations, accusations, threats and denials because this is what we desire and demand.  If we rejected such partisan and inflammatory reportage, the media would modify their content.   I do not accept that the media simply reports what is truly newsworthy; they produce their product to appeal to market forces.  Is Stormy Daniel's news value proportionate to the coverage she has received?  The reason that rags like the National Enquirer are successful is because we read them.

Beyond our collective appetite for darker and salacious content, we are also participants in the various tribal and cultural conflicts that are ongoing with no resolution in sight.  In other words, it's not all the media's fault.  For many interest groups and organizations, the mission is not to compromise or accommodate, but to vanquish and prevail.  Issues are viewed as a series of zero sum games – if you win, then I lose.   Of course, this is absurd. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed in a 96-3 vote in the Senate in 1993.   She was a known liberal, but Republicans properly supported her confirmation as she was qualified to serve.  Liberal presidents nominate jurists who are aligned with their philosophies.  Indeed, this should be a major consideration of voters when casting ballots in presidential elections.  Qualified nominees should be confirmed.  President Obama’s 2 Supreme Court Justices received Republican support, as they deserved.  Recently, Judge Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to assume Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat.   Although his qualifications and temperament are unassailable, he has been vilified as if he is the anti-Christ.  Just because the Republicans inexcusably deprived Judge Merrick Garland of a hearing, does not justify perpetuating the dishonorable misdeed.  I wonder had President Trump nominated Moses, King Solomon or Jesus, if they would be similarly and summarily rejected by political opponents.


Moses - Clearly not Judge Material

Let me offer readers an oasis, albeit a brief one, from the chaos and the depressing morass that surrounds us.

Go and see Won’t You Be My Neighbor, a film that chronicles the life and work of one of our nation’s treasures, Fred Rogers.   He was an extraordinary human being, who inspired us with his deep humanity, compassion and love.   I found myself near tears during several moments of the film, and I continue to reflect on him his weeks later.  He was an antidote to hate and intolerance.  He made a difference.  We need him now more than ever.  See the film and you will also yearn to join his neighborhood.  

In today's era, if Fred Rogers needed Senate confirmation, could he achieve it?

Comments

  1. You might want to update this post Dr. Kirsch.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Most Doctors Choose Employment

Increasingly, physicians today are employed and most of them willingly so.  The advantages of this employment model, which I will highlight below, appeal to the current and emerging generations of physicians and medical professionals.  In addition, the alternatives to direct employment are scarce, although they do exist.  Private practice gastroenterology practices in Cleveland, for example, are increasingly rare sightings.  Another practice model is gaining ground rapidly on the medical landscape.   Private equity (PE) firms have   been purchasing medical practices who are in need of capital and management oversight.   PE can provide services efficiently as they may be serving multiple practices and have economies of scale.   While these physicians technically have authority over all medical decisions, the PE partners can exert behavioral influences on physicians which can be ethically problematic. For example, if the PE folks reduce non-medical overhead, this may very directly affe

Should Doctors Wear White Coats?

Many professions can be easily identified by their uniforms or state of dress. Consider how easy it is for us to identify a policeman, a judge, a baseball player, a housekeeper, a chef, or a soldier.  There must be a reason why so many professions require a uniform.  Presumably, it is to create team spirit among colleagues and to communicate a message to the clientele.  It certainly doesn’t enhance professional performance.  For instance, do we think if a judge ditches the robe and is wearing jeans and a T-shirt, that he or she cannot issue sage rulings?  If members of a baseball team showed up dressed in comfortable street clothes, would they commit more errors or achieve fewer hits?  The medical profession for most of its existence has had its own uniform.   Male doctors donned a shirt and tie and all doctors wore the iconic white coat.   The stated reason was that this created an aura of professionalism that inspired confidence in patients and their families.   Indeed, even today

Electronic Medical Records vs Physicians: Not a Fair Fight!

Each work day, I enter the chamber of horrors also known as the electronic medical record (EMR).  I’ve endured several versions of this torture over the years, monstrosities that were designed more to appeal to the needs of billers and coders than physicians. Make sense? I will admit that my current EMR, called Epic, is more physician-friendly than prior competitors, but it remains a formidable adversary.  And it’s not a fair fight.  You might be a great chess player, but odds are that you will not vanquish a computer adversary armed with artificial intelligence. I have a competitive advantage over many other physician contestants in the battle of Man vs Machine.   I can type well and can do so while maintaining eye contact with the patient.   You must think I am a magician or a savant.   While this may be true, the birth of my advanced digital skills started decades ago.   (As an aside, digital competence is essential for gastroenterologists.) During college, I worked as a secretary