Scrolling around...August 28th, 2012

A Surgeon Cuts to the Heart of the ObamaCare Nightmare
..."But when I go to meetings now, I see that there's very little innovation going on. Everything's being impacted by ObamaCare, which, among other things, raises taxes on medical devices.

"You know, doctors are people, and we're being hammered on all sides here.
It's the paperwork; it's insurance; it's transitioning to electronic medical records, so the government can get their mitts into your practice. It's lawsuits; it's rising overhead and decreasing compensation; it's stress upon stress upon stress.

"And a lot of doctors are going to say, 'Forget it. I don't want to do this anymore.' Guys that are 5 or 10 years older than me are just going to give up and walk away.

"Why should I be a slave to the government? You know, it used to be that doctors would do charity work at a charity hospital. Nobody wants to do it anymore, because we're too overwhelmed.

"I work 60 to 70 hours a week, so how am I supposed to fight back against this? Most doctors don't have the time to lobby their congressman or go to Washington. If you're a doctor in the trenches, you've got a stressful job; you've got a family. You're seeing the same number of patients and making half the income you used to make. People are litigious these days, so you've got to worry about lawsuits. When are you going to find time to lobby a politician?...

World Council of Churches to Highlight Pakistani Girl's Imprisonment at Global Conference
As most of the western world remains in shock over the news in Pakistan that an 11-year-old Christian girl believed to have Down syndrome was imprisoned over the nation's strict blasphemy laws, the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) has praised the World Council of Churches (WCC)'s decision to hold an urgent international conference on the issue.
"At the best of times, the situation for most of Pakistan's Christians is deplorable. They live in extreme poverty and degradation, limited to the lowest of job and educational opportunity. But there is hardly ever a best of times. They always live under the Damocles sword of this abominable Blasphemy Law, never knowing when they could be accused, or what ridiculous issue will cause mobs to form," said IRD Religious Liberty Program Director Faith J.H. McDonnell in a statement...

California earthquake swarm enters third day; hundreds of temblors
Hundreds of earthquakes have rattled Imperial County since Sunday morning as an earthquake swarm continued.
But experts say the swarm does not necessarily indicates a larger temblor is on the way...

Christian In Pakistan Blasphemy Case Ruled A Minor
An official medical review of a Pakistani Christian girl accused of desecrating the Quran has determined that the girl is a minor, a lawyer for the girl said Tuesday.
The finding, which means the girl will be tried in the juvenile court system, could possibly defuse what has been a highly contentious case in Pakistan, where blasphemy can be punished with life in prison or even death...

A “Duty” to Engineer Morality?
...Savulescu’s more blatant error is to say that by killing your child, after having discovered it has or lacks certain genes, is giving it “the best opportunity for a great life.” Killing your child gives it no opportunity for life at all. Instead, to state what should be obvious but is not, at least to Savulescu, killing the child removes all its opportunity. And this is still true if per impossible you believe that an unborn child is not a human being: because, of course, this unborn-child-which-is-not-a-human-being is at least still alive, and killing it removes all its opportunities...

Not a Joke: Solyndra investors could reap tax windfall
Two investment companies stand to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks under a bankruptcy exit plan for failed solar company Solyndra, government lawyers say.
Nearly a year to the day after the solar company filed for bankruptcy owing taxpayers more than $500 million, Solyndra is poised to restructure under a deal that government lawyers fear could provide a tax windfall to the investors...