Certain Uncertainty Volatility. The times are out of joint, with nearly certain uncertainty stalking people’s thoughts. People tell me of sleeplessness unprecedented since 9/11, of aimless worry keeping up those who have slept well throughout their lives. Is their concern hurricanes, floods, global climate change? The nation’s three wars, or its paralyzing political deadlock? The […]
What to do when medical care goes away (8/8/11)
The Real Deficit Feeling a bit blue? Less than excited by a Federal budget “deal” that postpones real negotiations for the mere $14 trillion dollar deficit while markets tumble? Sorry, but that’s not the real problem. The debt hole is much bigger. You get different answers from different places, but the statistics should boggle […]
Florida does it again – voting to ban children from playing outside (4/06/11)
Keep Them In Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen, move over – Florida reality again trumps both fantasy and novelistic legerdemain. Perhaps it’s the effect of earthquakes and oil spills (our one year anniversary of the BP disaster) but strangeness pervades the state. Some weeks ago five teenagers in Silver Springs Shore snorted the remains of […]
Thoughts that keep you up at night (3/8/11)
Thinking, Not Sleeping “Honestly, I cannot sleep at night because I get so excited about doing good things for the world, changing the world,” says Miley Cyrus, the Hannah Montana star. Sadly, most of my sleep patients don’t complain of excitement at the wonderful things they are about to do to save our volatile, environmentally […]
Fat Planet – People are getting fatter, but not everywhere (2/22/11)
Bigger It’s not just pets that are getting fatter. Humans are, too. And though the US ranks 49th in the world in lifespan, our nation is number one in body mass index, a major index of obesity. Sixty eight percent of Americans are now classified as obese or overweight. However, beyond the headlines of Finucane […]