Wedding / Anniversary Vacation

My son, Adam, is getting married in Hawaii in a few days. So that's where we're off to. But since our 35th wedding anniversary follows soon after, we'll be staying on there for a couple weeks. So, during that period my posts may be a little more sporadic.

$$$--Where Big Pharma & Med Schools Intersect: JAMA--Impugning the Integrity of Medical Science and Industry Influence

Big pharmaceutical companies play for big profits and play to win. They push the edge of professional ethics and legal compliance. And they misappropriate, misuse and compromise the good names, work, and cache of some the country's finest medical schools and their faculty researchers. I'm sure there are still many people for whom these reported practices are still surprising. But then, why wouldn't they be? With the FDA--all the regulation--professional, medical school, and medical research ethics, with the potential for public outrage, how could they not be surprised?

How surprising to me, in Spring 2001, when taking a graduate ed course on higher ed policy with Derek Bok (former president of Harvard), that one of our classes was devoted largely to readings on this very issue. And Professor Bok, like many higher education leaders, viewed this as something that had to change. Of course, it wasn't just medical schools, but any area of university research and any professors working in those areas that could benefit a range of corporate businesses. Corporations can be generous to those schools, departments and faculty. But Big Pharma appears the most aggressive player on this field. As a result, many believe, the integrity of those research institutions and faculty is compromised. Yet neither the higher ed community nor the government regulators and examiners have stopped it.

In the current edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), an article by the Editor in Chief and Executive Deputy Editor calls for reform in this area, raising the visibility and affirming the continuing threat of this problem. But will the medical profession or the government do any more now than they have in the past? Don't hold your breath.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/299/15/1833

Al Franken for Senator?

If you're waiting for the punch line, forget it. And April fools day has come and gone. Al Franken is not Joking. He is running for Senator from Minnesota and--unbelievably--he is running strong.

Despite his history as a blunt comedic instrument of the left, an over-the-top former actor and writer in the early days of Saturday Night Live, and author of some books with outrageous titles and matching content, this often publicly confrontational personality has reinvented himself as a serious candidate for national office. And it has got lots of people nervous, some upset--including the Minnesota Republican party and the National Dems in Washington.

The Atlantic magazine chronicles his journey from comedic caricature and public provocateur to very serious political candidate--serious enough to have come from way behind to way ahead of his Democratic primary rivals in the polls, and even inching ahead of the presumptive Republican candidate. What might the Senate look like with Al Franken?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200805/franken

Obama, Petraeus, Race & Patriotism - Klein

Joe Klein, in his last two columns in Time, makes two important observations about Barack Obama's recent performance. The first (1, below) was how adroitly he handled his questioning of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker in the recent Senate hearings. Taking his questioning of them on the Iraq War--and the stardards for our departure--to a more incisive, more effective level, Obama appeared to leave Petraeus agreeing with him and Crocker either "semi-speechless" or nonresponsive. Obama left little doubt about who offered both an understanding of the situation and the incisive thinking and reasoning skills to properly challenge and reveal the administrations circular and purposefully misleading reasoning for just what it is.

The second (2, below) has two elements to it. The first and most impressive was Obama's speech on race. It was partly in response to Billary's racial innuendo and oblique insinuations that started in the South and continued from time to time. But more immediately, it addressed Obama's pastor of many years and the news of some of his incindiary and regrettable earlier remarks and sermons. Obama resonded with the most principled, honest and frank speech on race, the Black and white experience, and the Black community, that any candidate has ever given. He spoke to the American people as though we were all adults, something presidential candidates rarely do. And whether you liked the speech or not, whether you thought it effective or wise or not, soon after, the campaign and the dialogue for the most part moved on.

The second element, and more troublesome, is the so-called Patriotism Problem. Obama, Klein opines, insufficiently addressed the unpatriotic language his pastor used to express anger and disappointment with America's social and political failure to understand and address the challenges of the Black American community. And in the process, he left questions with some about his own patriotism. His pastor's language registered as un-American with many people, especially white people. And while Obama distanced himself from these statements and stressed his repudiation of them, he apparently did not effectively erase questions of his patriotism--not in some quarters, anyway--and it appears he really needs to. As Klein suggests, he is implicitly patriotic: everything about Obama, his multi-ethnic experience, his success, and his promise, is so very American. And he is very grateful for it. But, as Klein concludes, "Obama has to make the implicit explicit."

(1) http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729525,00.html

(2) http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1727502,00.html

Israel's Dysfunctional Political System

Some folks at the Economist are convinced that the biggest obstacle to resolving the Israeli-Palistinian conflict and their territorial differences is the intractably clumsy and dysfunctional Israeli electoral system--and the impossibly demanding level of political consensus it requires to act.

According to the article, a substantial majority of Israelis favor a separate Palistinian state and peaceful coexistence. But that majority is constantly frustrated by the array of small, even numerically insignificant, political parties and their different issues and interests, resulting in the fragmentation of Israel's will, voice, and ability to act. Of course, there is plenty of dysfunctionality on the Palistinian sides of the walls as well. There are powerful political forces there who do not see their purposes served by removing Israel as the regional whipping boy. Complicated stuff, and more complicated than this short piece suggests. But their point may well be a good one--just one more dispiriting aspect of so many well intentioned, but failed and futile efforts to accomplish what would seem so obvious, so logical, so right.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10960108

Using Comics to Turn Off Terror

Smarter than the Bush/Cheney administration, for sure--and most conventional thinkers for that matter--and more effective than threats, bullets and bombs. That's what they are saying about a new comic book, "The 99", featuring Middle East action heroes and honoring the best of Middle Eastern history and culture. The brain child of Scott Atrans, a think-tanker who studies young people who give themselves up as fodder in the al Qaeda martyrdom machine, it is already reaching tens of thousands of young Muslim kids--and with some apparent success. Only problem is that it needs to reach millions. Still, it's an encouraging start. Who'd a thunk it? Comics...


http://www.newsweek.com/id/132147/page/1

The Sting of Poverty - The Boston Globe

Another perspective on an old, but important discussion. Why is poverty so persistently intractable among those with the most problems? Is it because they have the least of everything? Do they become so dispirited that they cannot even respond to existing aid and support initiatives? If so, what does that imply for social policy, more aid and support or less? Among people who responsibly share community, doesn't it have to be more?

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/30/the_sting_of_poverty/?page=full

Right at the End

I was a fan of Wm. F. Buckley for a long time. We've lost an important voice in his passing. But I have parted ways with him on a number of issues over the years, and especially in more recent years. Still, I've always respected his views and wanted to hear and understand his arguments for them. And now, I am so very pleased to join with him again because, regarding the Iraq War at least, he was right at the end. (See the article below.)

http://www.amconmag.com/2008/2008_03_24/article1.html

I and My Brother Against My Cousin

The war on terror, we are told, is as much explained by "tribalism" as radicalized Islamist organizing and action--or at least a complicated intertwining of the two. That is the thesis of this author. And while disavowed by some post-modern and post-colonial scholars, a better understanding of tribal or clan history and dynamics may help clarify our perception and deepen our understanding of the complicated circumstances that underlie the so-called war on terror in the Middle East. (See article through link below.)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=14947&R=13A16D2F3

Opus Comic: Anxiety Competition

Political cartooning has long been a part--even a respected part--of the backdrop of political elections and the political process in America. And though Sunday comics don't often arise to that category, there are at least a couple that do. For us '60's folks, there has always been Doonesbury. But for some time now, there has been another: Opus, the successor strip to Outland, by Berkeley Breathed. And this week's Sunday offering really grabbed my attention.

But it may have been a long time since you have read the "funny papers," and you may not even be familiar with Opus (a penguin, actually). So I am sending it along to you via Salon.com and the link below.

One of the recurring themes is Opus' sleep anxieties that reside in his bedroom closet, from which they make their various unwelcome appearances during the night. Inspired by the Democratic primary, this one takes a new turn, raising everything to a new level. In the continuing--some would say protracted--race between Clinton and Obama, some have suggested that Clinton's unwillingness to concede likely defeat is polarizing their respective supporters and risks alienating supporters of the losing candidate in the general election. Others suggest it is a healthy process that will energize the Democratic party and independents for the general election. I don't know if you would call Breathed's statement here more polarized or energized, but it surely reflects the strong opinions and dug-in tactics this primary process has engendered.

http://www.salon.com/comics/opus/2008/04/06/opus/