HT: Take Your Vitamin Z

HT: HotAir, @marklevinshow, American Thinker

Mark Levin C-SPAN Interview:

part 1

Click here to view the embedded video.

Links: part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

Levin’s bio from wikipedia:

Levin is an American radio host, author, and political commentator. He is the host of The Mark Levin Show, a nationally-syndicated talk show that airs throughout the United States on Citadel Media (formerly known as ABC Radio Networks). Levin earned his B.A. and J.D. at Temple University. His book Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list (hardcover nonfiction) the week of April 3, 2009.

Beginning in 1981, Levin served as advisor to several members of President Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet, eventually becoming associate director of presidential personnel and ultimately Chief of Staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese; Levin also served as deputy assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education, and deputy solicitor of the U.S. Department of Interior. He has practiced law in the private sector, and is president of the Landmark Legal Foundationin Leesburg, Virginia. He holds a B.A. from Temple University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law.

In 2001, the American Conservative Union gave Levin its Ronald Reagan Award.

Studies show blacks and whites are treated differently.

While it’s extremely difficult to tell in any given situation how much race — consciously or unconsciously — plays a role in a doctor’s decision making, multiple studies over several decades have found doctors make different decisions for black patients and white patients even when they have the same medical problems and the same insurance.

“It’s absolutely proven through studies that a black man and a white man going to the hospital with the same complaint will be treated differently,” Dr. Neil Calman, a family physician and president of the Institute for Family Health in New York, said. Calman is also Reid’s regular physician.

For example, a 2005 study found African-American cardiac patients were less likely than whites to receive a lifesaving procedure called revascularization, where doctors restore the flow of oxygen to the heart. The study authors at RTI International, a research institute, noted that all of the patients had Medicare, which covers the cost of revascularization.

In a study conducted in 2007, Harvard researchers showed doctors a vignette about a 50-year-old man with chest pain who arrived at the emergency room, where an EKG showed he’d had a heart attack. Sometimes the researchers paired the medical history with a photo of black man and other times with a photo of a white man.

The doctors were significantly more likely to recommend lifesaving drugs when they thought the patient was white than when they thought the patient was black.

Is it racism or something else?

Video link: here.

I think this is a bunch of bull.

Elsewhere today, a group representing the nation’s ENT surgeons responded to President Obama’s press briefing with remarks on tonsillectomy procedures:

(HT: HotAir)

Responding to a question, President Obama said, “Part of what we want to do is to make sure that those decisions are being made by doctors and medical experts based on evidence, based on what works…. Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that’s out there. … the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, ‘You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out … I’d rather have that doctor making those decisions based on whether you really need your kid’s tonsils out, or whether … something else would make a difference…. So part of what we want to do is to free doctors, patients, hospitals to make decisions based on what’s best for patient care.”

In reply, the AAO-HNS stated, “We, too, are in favor of evidence-based medicine that supports quality patient care. President Obama’s statement highlights the complexity of medical decisions like this. However, the AAO-HNS is disappointed by the President’s portrayal of the decision making processes by the physicians who perform these surgeries. In many cases, tonsillectomy may be a more effective treatment, and less costly, than prolonged or repeated treatments for an infected throat.

“For the past several years, the Academy has been developing clinical guidelines based on evidence and outcomes research, including ‘Quality of Life after Tonsillectomy,’ a January 2008 supplement to the journal Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery. We are in agreement with the President’s statement that physicians, patients, and hospitals should make the decisions, based on the evidence, about what’s best for patient care.”

As I said yesterday, I am not surprised at these sort of attacks at this time:

The majority of physicians are against socialized medicine. Likewise, the majority of patients don’t like the government making their health decisions for them. Neither the American people nor their doctors are interested in forming a doctor-government-patient relationship. This relationship is a big obstacle to ObamaCare, and I think the democrats know this. Therefore, I am not surprised when dumb and offensive statements like this are made.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The following is some background information from Christianity Today:

Douglas Wilson is author of Letter from a Christian Citizen, senior fellow of theology at New Saint Andrews College, and minister at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. He is also the editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine and has written (among other things) Reforming Marriageand A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire and Trinitarian Skylarking. His Blog and Mablog site inevitably makes for provocative reading.

Christopher Hitchens wrote, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Twelve Books). Hitchens is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School. He is the author of numerous books, Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man,” Letters To a Young Contrarian, and Why Orwell Matters. He was named, to his own amusement, number five on a list of the “Top 100 Public Intellectuals” by Foreign Policy and Britain’s Prospect.

The following is a preview.

Click here to view the embedded video.

HT: Justin Taylor

1.  What do you mean by that?

2.  Where do you get your information?

3.  How do you know you are right?

4.  What happens if you are wrong?

Can you think of other questions to ask?  Comment below.