Too Much Medical Testing — If You Can Afford It

American medical patients seem to be divided into two categories:

1. Those who don’t have access to medical care. Can’t afford the high insurance premiums, pre-existing condition, got dumped by the HMO after committing the heinous crime of getting sick — you know the drill.

2. Patients who are getting tested and poked and prodded and X-rayed and treated to death. And over-prescribed and over-medicated and referred to one specialist after another after another.

Sick people are either not getting any medical care whatsoever, or they’re being tested and treated within an inch of their lives.

There’s kind of an odd similarity with the employment situation. Either you’re out of work because you’ve been downsized, or you still have your job and you’re doing the work of five people. And you don’t dare complain about carrying the workload of your downsized co-workers; you’re just grateful to have a job.

Sort of an odd parallel here, no? A certain syndrome. Is there a name for it?

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In Norway, there’s a doomsday seed vault with half a million seed samples. It’s the world’s most diverse repository of seeds. It contains one third of the world’s crop seeds.

It’s a great idea and all that, but — does Monsanto know about this?

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And now it’s time for our Family Values Lesson of the Day. Utah’s house majority leader Kevin Garn will preach the Gospel:

“And Jesus said, go ahead and violate my teachings all you want, as long as you pay off the bitch and tell her to keep her fuckin’ mouth shut.”