December 2017

New Healthcare Reform Legislation Is Doubtful On The Federal Level By Leonard Zwelling The first thing to understand is that ObamaCare, the program of government-subsidized, guaranteed insurability health coverage, is used by a relatively few number of Americans. Most Americans under 65 still get their health insurance provided by their employer. It has been estimated […]

Concerned? Worried? What’s The Right Word? By Leonard Zwelling My good friend told me using the word “concerned” is a bad idea when what I really mean is “worried.” I have now been present for four interactions with the new president of MD Anderson. The first was his initial address to the faculty which I

Eliminating Identity Politics At MD Anderson: Pister’s Job One By Leonard Zwelling https://www.wsj.com/articles/identity-politics-began-in-the-american-revolution-1513381892 It seems identity politics is as old as the United States according to this piece in the Wall Street Journal. It’s as old as academic medicine as well. To diagnose gout in 1973, joint fluid was aspirated from the afflicted patient’s affected

Who’s To Blame And How Much?: Sexual Harassment and Institutional Mismanagement By Leonard Zwelling In matters of misbehavior, the primary responsibility ought to rest with the miscreant. But not only. Also in matters of misbehavior, there are degrees of bad actions and speech. It is one thing to call someone a “dirty rat” and quite

Making Wedding Cakes: Who Decides? By Leonard Zwelling http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/05/politics/supreme-court-masterpiece-cakeshop/index.html This is a brutally hard one. The Supreme Court will have to determine if a baker’s freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression are being undermined if he is forced to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. Sometimes, the Supreme Court really does

Normalizing Crazy By Leonard Zwelling Come on. Admit it. You get up every morning wanting to know the answer to one question. What bit of nonsense did the president tweet about last night? It has become normal to expect some silliness from the inhabitant of the Oval Office. My new fave is that Hillary lied

Time Magazine’s 2018 Person Of The Year: Robert Mueller By Leonard Zwelling This is over. The current President of the United States will be impeached. The evidence is mounting that he obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey and surely violated the Logan Act when he was dealing with the Russian government prior

Why Al Franken Should Have Stuck It Out-Due Process; Why Al Franken Had To Go-Politics By Leonard Zwelling It is not a particularly sad day when any one member of the US Senate resigns. Given the track record of the current members of the upper chamber since 2010, losing one of one hundred will probably

Why Move The Israeli Embassy Now? By Leonard Zwelling Why is the operative word? There is no doubt that Mr. Trump’s latest flippancy, moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, is going to cause a stir. I suspect that is just what he wants. It will shore up his (and Roy Moore’s) evangelical base

Flynn Down Faster Than Chin By Leonard Zwelling http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/health/article/Chin-wife-of-M-D-Anderson-president-to-take-UT-6176250.php It took until April of 2015 to finally remove Lynda Chin from the ranks of the MD Anderson faculty according to the above article in the Houston Chronicle. It took less than a year to take Michael Flynn from National Security Advisor to felon. Maybe the