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Fragoso: Every Regulatory Rose Has Its Thorn |
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Written by Michael Fragoso
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Thursday, 29 April 2010 11:41 |
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[Mr. Fragoso's Friday submission reminds the editor of the clerihew penned by Sir Edmund Bentley:
Sir Edmund Davy
abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
of having discovered sodium.
Hopefully you have enjoyed this brief poetic interlude. And now without further ado, Mr. Fragoso:]
Every Regulatory Rose Has Its Thorn
Recently the public has received word that the Obama’s Food and Drug Administration is seeking to regulate the salt found in manufactured food in order to reduce Americans’ sodium intake.
Well, word has just come down that musical group Poison’s frontman Bret Michaels, who recently was stricken with a subarachnoid hemorrhage, is suffering from hyponatremia. So while the FDA is trying to get us all to eat less salt, one of the rockingest men alive is in the ICU because of too little salt.
Obviously, I’m not saying that Michaels’ condition moots the efforts of the FDA and Obama’s health police. I just think the juxtaposition goes to show that the same sodium whose overuse so worries the current Public Health establishment, is similarly unhealthy in its absence. These sorts of behavioral health questions entail numerous competing goods and balancing of risks by citizen consumers.
Maybe - just maybe - people should be free to choose how much sodium is too much or too little for themselves, cognizant of both the Scylla of hypertension and the Charybdis of hyponatremia.Maybe Obama’s public health establishment will decide to treat us like adults and scrap this boneheaded idea. Now that’s something to believe in. |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 29 April 2010 11:47 |
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Promoting Religious Freedom Abroad - Is the U.S. Policy Fair? |
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Written by Thomas Farr
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Thursday, 24 September 2009 09:00 |
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 Among the many obstacles faced by America's foreign policy of promoting international religious freedom (IRF) are the largely negative perceptions about that policy at home and abroad. Unfortunately, U.S. diplomacy has done little to overcome these perceptions, including the ones that are true. I was reminded of this problem in reading Margarita Mooney's fine piece on how France and Canada do not afford religious freedom to Haitian immigrants as does the United States.
One of the most damaging and deeply entrenched views about U.S. IRF policy is that the U.S. seeks to protect only Christians, and that the policy is basically a front for American missionaries. This is simply wrong. Neither the 1998 IRF Act as passed nor the policy as implemented has focused on Christians. Ironically, U.S. foreign policy has actually tended to downplay the fate of Christian minorities in places like Iraq and Israel-Palestine. Neither Arab nor domestic opponents of U.S. policy, however, seem to have noticed. |
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Last Updated on Monday, 28 September 2009 10:19 |
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Private Insurance vs. Government Benefits |
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Written by Emmett McGroarty
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Tuesday, 15 September 2009 11:49 |
Emmett McGroarty discusses some of the key terms, concepts and myths of the Health Care reform debate.
 The President’s Healthcare Speech
The President last night seemed to blame his party’s congressional leaders for having failed to deliver a healthcare bill and for having failed to garner the support of the citizenry. In regards to healthcare, he failed to even mention any Democratic member by name except for the deceased Senator Kennedy and Representative Dingell’s repeated re-introduction of his father’s 1943 bill.
Several substantive points in his speech bear analysis, not the least of which is his call for a “public insurance option.” One problem with that call is that the term “public insurance” is deceptive. In reality it would be a benefit scheme similar to Medicare and Social Security. But those programs have created a crisis that severely threatens the ascending elderly generation --the baby boomers. To create another such program would exacerbate their precarious situation.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 September 2009 12:05 |
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Robert George on the Lockerbie Bomber |
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Written by Robert George
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Monday, 31 August 2009 14:34 |
(This article by Robert P. George originally appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday, August 30th.)
Killer's release demands answersDid U.S. get to weigh in on his fate? Most of the dead were American.
A few days before Christmas in 1988, a charming, brilliant, and strikingly beautiful young American woman boarded Pan Am Flight 103 in London bound for the United States. Her name was Valerie Canady. She was headed home to celebrate the holidays with her mom and dad.
As all the world knows, Pan Am 103 never landed. It was blown apart in the skies above Lockerbie, Scotland, when a bomb planted on the plane by Libyan terrorists exploded. All the passengers were killed. Valerie's body was never recovered. She was seated directly over the bomb. There was literally nothing left of that beautiful girl for the Scottish authorities to send home to her loved ones.
As a lawyer with the firm of Robinson & McElwee in Charleston, W.Va., I represented Valerie's family in the litigation against the Libyan regime. But my relationship with Valerie was deeper than that. She had been my friend since childhood.
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Last Updated on Monday, 31 August 2009 14:39 |
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