Academics refer to this period as the “reading revolution.” Reading was as much an indulgence as carnivals and music halls. And this habit lasted, in one form or another, until recently when reading for enjoyment started to tank.
The emergence of birthright citizenship introduces a notion concerning individuals and the state that is contrary to the entire American idea. For the majority of the court to do this on the 250th anniversary of the Founding adds to the insult.
Subjects and Citizens: A Treatise by Justice Clarence Thomas Continue Reading
John Adams stated that “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Are we modern Americans composed of the stuff needed to save our Republic?
The Declaration of Independence at 250: What Does It Tell Us? Continue Reading
America was founded on a set of beliefs and convictions—what Thomas Jefferson described as self-evident truths that were proclaimed in the 1776 Declaration of Independence and then protected by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
The Army ROTC Taught Me to Never Call Independence Day ‘The 4th of July’ Continue Reading
Arguably, the most critical question for medicine is, “How certain are we that our actions are justified?” The response to this question may determine whether medicine continues to honor its commitment to healing or shifts toward the exercise of power.
Biotech is in the driver’s seat of global health and public health workers and the media know who butters their bread. Each public health worker who goes along with the narrative is part of the problem.
Physicians can define brain death. Legislatures can codify brain death. Courts can adjudicate brain death. None of them can fully explain life. The greatest physicians I have known understood that distinction. They recognized that wisdom begins where certainty ends.
Reflections on Brain Death, Hope, and the Limits of Certainty Continue Reading
True consent must be voluntary and free from coercion, deception, or informational manipulation. Without full disclosure and comprehension, consent becomes mere compliance, negating the principle of autonomy and transforming medicine into a form of technocratic control.
Maybe the biggest lesson from Leale’s story is that medicine was never just about technical skill. It was meant to include responsibility, sacrifice, judgment, and deep human connection. Those qualities used to define the profession.
Charles Augustus Leale, Abraham Lincoln, and the Physician We Are Slowly Losing Continue Reading
Given that life expectancy in this country has stagnated over the past 12-15 years, and it is universally acknowledged that chronic disease has risen, it’s past time that we step back and take a hard look at what we’ve done.
Detours and Missteps on the Road to Medical Advances Continue Reading
I began to recognize that from the 1960s through the end of the 20th century, there were a series of illnesses that I initially referred to as ‘fad’ diseases. I now refer to these conditions as ‘meme’ diseases.
George Washington’s terrible fate ought to have sounded a national alarm to ring through our long history. The lesson should be never to replace epistemic humility in medicine with institutionalized dogma. That lesson did not stick.
George Washington, Father of the Country, Killed by Doctors Continue Reading
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