The problem with preventive medicine...

Bill Gardner over at Maternal & Child Health has a post up about why our medical system is not more focused on prevention. He asks a startling question:

Do you, as a patient, really want preventive health care? Then you must engage in a lot of time consuming and difficult behavior change (start with daily exercise). You will undergo diagnostic procedures, even when they are embarassing or painful. You must be honest with your doctor about some things you may not even be telling yourself the truth about. Finally, you must spend time going to the doctor even when you feel well. Still interested in health? I thought not. We'll see you again the next time you are  sick.

Who likes going to the doctor? I avoid it whenever possible (not least to avoid having to deal with the inevitable insurance hassles that will follow, but also for all kinds of other reasons...) When I was preggers, however, I loved going to my midwife. Her office was in a big rambling house, the waiting room was more like a lounge and always full of interesting people, the staff were friendly, there were always kids running around, and my midwife was respectful, kind, smart, and paid attention to me. Oh, and I never had to put on a gown, even for a pap smear. And there was a pretty mobile on the ceiling.

You may protest that of course I didn't mind going to the midwife, since I wasn't sick. (Though I sure as hell felt sick when I was pregnant -- but that's another post...) But isn't that the point? Maybe we'd do better with preventive care if it took place somewhere entirely different from sick-person care.

My Country, Land of Assholes...

Reuters, via the New Zealand Herald:

Virtually no one disagrees human activity is fueling global warming, and a global treaty signed in Kyoto, Japan, aims to reduce polluting emissions. However, the world's biggest polluter, the United States, has withdrawn from the 1997 treaty, saying its provisions would hurt the US economy.

I look forward to owning a beachfront apartment without all the hassle of moving. Ain't we got fun!

Rain, Kiwis, and What We Missed

Dear Readers! We are still alive. We have been traveling in New Zealand, which is not quite as wired as we'd thought. Or rather, we keep finding wireless networks that, you know, are actually secured and won't let us in. We've stopped briefly at internet cafes, but it's a bit difficult to manage them with a toddler, so we never get much time at it.

Today, though, we're staying in a fabulous "boutique hotel" in Tauranga (Hotel on Devonport, one with high-speed internet access. So we've got hours and hours of internet. The hotel is gorgeous. Last night we stayed in a cheap little hostel in Rotorua, which was great. We met some people from Hawaii traveling with their four-year-old, also in NZ to scope the place out for possible emigration.

It's weird to be so oblivious of the news. We are such internet news addicts, and yet, here we are, over a week into our NZ trip, and this is the first time we've had a chance to really take a look at anything more than the most obvious headlines ("Lebanon shows Bush Doctrine of Spreading Freedom is Success. Liberals Must Now Engage in an Orgy of Humiliated Wrongness.")

So what did we miss?

U.S. military admits more inmate deaths than previously acknowledged. Duh.
Paul Wolfowitz to head World Bank.
Drilling in ANWR
Summers gets "vote of no confidence".
"Mideast Events lifting world's view of Bush"
Karen Hughes now U.S. PR go-to chick.
Also, federal government propaganda spreads further: hundreds of segments released by federal agencies and played by local news stations as-is, without revealing the source of the video clips. Administration insists this is "not propaganda". Oh dear.
Congress has decided that its big concerns are Terry Schiavo and Major League Baseball Steroid Use. Because these are the really important things in the world today.
Pope dying.
CIA insists doesn't torture people; defends interrogation tactics
Fallujah: no city left. Also, we used Napalm. Nice.
Maternal and Child Health has some posts regarding our client, Avian Influenza, Ltd. Be sure to check them out. Bird Flu: it's the new Black Death.

Digby says:

Here's the problem. The other side is waging a battle for total political dominance. They are willing to do anything to achieve it from cheating at elections to government propaganda to spending billions on a travelling political spectacle to entertain the folks. We will not defeat them with pocket protector arguments about the information age (although if anyone were qualified to make such an argument it would be Paul Krugman, the quintessential economist geek.) I suspect the fact that Krugman sees the big picture while Klein is still floating on a cloud of Seinfeldian nostalgia speaks more to the fact that Krugman famously does not hob knob with the in crowd while Klein famously lives for it.

Okay, there's my random roundup of what's happened since we left the States. This hotel provided a complimentary glass of wine, and I am now a bit tipsy, and I still have to figure out what hostel we'll stay in tomorrow night.

-- posted by Max for Amy