Month: May 2011

Earlier this week, Michelle Andrews reported that "hospitals perform autopsies on only about 5 percent of patients who die, down from roughly 50 percent in the 1960s." She also dug up a 1998 report that found "autopsy results showed that clinicians misdiagnosed the cause of death up to 40 percent of the time." Robin Hanson has a theory:

A pretty obvious explanation for fewer autopsies: docs don’t like being proven wrong. Such dislike can lead to lawsuits, and generally make docs look bad. … Could there be any clearer evidence that docs care more about getting paid than about healing patients, yet the public can’t bring itself to imagine docs are that selfish?

Michelle Dean argues that Bridesmaids isn't exactly "a victory for women." Adam Serwer differs:

I think it's worth distinguishing between the content of the film and the existence of the film itself. Women in the comedy world have long been smeared as, in the words of the late comedian John Belushi, "just fundamentally not funny." And if you believe his Saturday Night Live colleagues like Jane Curtin, Belushi made a commitment to sabotaging his women colleagues in an effort to prove himself prophetic. So while the characters in particular might not be particularly feminist, the film is a step forward in the sense that it proves a lingering stereotype utterly false. The movie is hilarious.

A fringe group is predicting Armageddon just around the corner. Stephanie Pappas searches for the root of these beliefs:

Apocalpytic beliefs have been on rise for the past 40 to 50 years, said [Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal], who has been researching doomsday believers for an upcoming book, "The Architecture of Apocalypticism." What ties these disparate groups together is a sense that the world's problems are too big to solve, DiTommaso said.

… The apocalyptic worldview springs from a desire to reconcile two conflicting beliefs. "The first is that there is something dreadfully wrong with the world of human existence today," he said. "On the other hand, there is a sense that there is a higher good or some purpose for existence, a hope for a better future."

Richard C. Longworth tackles the border war between the Missouri and Kansas sides of Kansas City. Both governors have offered ridiculous incentives for companies to switch sides:

Seventeen leading businessmen from both sides of the border sent an open letter to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, urging them to voluntarily "agree to a bilateral halt" in this "economic border war." Nixon responded positively. Brownback basically told the businessmen to go jump in the Missouri River. This probably has something to do with the fact that, so far, Kansas has been winning most of these battles.

A reader writes:

After hearing Newt’s lack of an explanation to David Gregory about why Obama is the "food stamp president", I built a chart from Food Stamp participation data from the US Agricultural and the US Population and compared in to the unemployment rate. The chart reflects that there is a latent effect in food stamp usage increases after the unemployment rate increases. It also shows that the percentage of people on food stamps is at an all-time high. One of the reasons is that we have seen an increase of the unemployment rate by 104% in the three years starting since 2007. Interestingly enough, the food stamp population percentage increased only 50%.

Gingrich does not take into account that the unemployment increase is unprecedented since the Great Depression. And I hasten to add, that he lacks the Catholic social justice values that we should help those in need during difficult times.

Another writes:

I was less galled by Newt's saying of the thing as I was by David Gregory's complete failure to challenge the idea of it, when the very conversation that allowed Gingrich to parade his latent racism was talk of high unemployment rates.

"Food stamps" as a Conservative dog-whistle almost makes sense to me in a thriving, Clintonesque economy where jobs are plentiful and the few leeches surface to suckle from our shared prosperity. But David Gregory sat there and allowed Newt Gingrich to demonize government FOOD assistance in an economy in which almost 1 in 10 Americans is out of work. What sort of country do we live in where a candidate for President of the United States can rally citizens to his banner with cries of "LESS FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY!", even IF that cry is coupled with "MORE JOBS FOR THE JOBLESS!"?

Today on the Dish, Andrew rejected Marc Thiessen's claims about torture, torture apologists weren't eager for more information, and Santorum accused McCain of not understanding how enhanced interrogation works. Andrew critiqued the moral certainty of famous people defending their indefensible friends, dissed the perp walk, hesitated to glean a message from Trump's almost-run and dismantled Newt as a thinker. Bernstein compared Pawlenty to Dukakis, Jon Huntsman sounded sane on climate change, and David Brooks the meme ducked Newt. Michael Grunwald invested in Santorum, and Andrew singled out Palin's still strong poll numbers. Andrew ogled Marine on Marine combat, Glenn Beck filled Huckabee's crazy pro-Israel vacuum, and a reader identified Obama as a third culture kid.

The GOP hugged uncertainty on the debt ceiling, and Andrew Sprung solved the debt problem in the shower. Bruce Bartlett blew our mind on the amount our taxes would need to be raised to pay for what's been promised, Annie Lowrey likened the debt ceiling to the appendix, and Reagan remained sane from the grave. Seconds count for nuclear arsenals, size matters even for babies, and by the year 2100 more than 20% of the population will be over 65. More gifted readers weighed in, Andrew sized up a new CPAP, Seth Godin imagined the next libraries, and DNA got all poetic. Andrew remembered the days of Magic Johnson's HIV announcement, John Gray nailed the creationists' mistake, and Stephanie Pappas explained why we think the end is always near. Suketu Mehta praised New York's diverse caste system, and bears slept with dogs.

Moore award here, quotes for the day here, here, here and here, cool ad watch here, chart of the day here, FOTD here, MHB here, view from your airplane window here, VFYW here, and VFYW contest winner #50 here.

–Z.P.

Suketu Mehta grew up in Jackson Heights, "the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the U.S.A." He celebrates the fact that "two out of three New Yorkers are immigrants or their children":

They come because any newcomer stepping off the plane at JFK can find a place in the hierarchy of New York. If you look at a New York City restaurant, for example, the chef might be French, the people washing dishes might be Mexican, the hostess might be Russian, the taxi driver bringing the customers might be Pakistani, the owner might be British. They are not all equal. They earn different rates. But they work together, to get food to hungry people. It’s like the Hindu caste system: it’s not equitable, but everybody has a place.

Reihan edits this thought:

There is a small problem with this analogy, which is that New York’s caste system is not a caste system at all. Rather, New York is an imperfect machine for upward mobility, in which immigrants arrive in enclave communities, build assets, and then fan out to other cities and towns and regions. For many new arrivals, New York is a launch pad into middle class prosperity elsewhere.

Like the Dish, Mark Kleiman is against it:

It seems to me that showing someone in manacles is a visual statement of guilt. Even putting aside the physical discomfort and personal humiliation of being cuffed, arranging for that photo to be in every newspaper and on every TV news show is an especially vicious and unnecessary form of punishment without trial. … Even in cases where the cuffs are necessary, showing someone in cuffs isn’t. And it ought to be against the rules.

Protesters are detained by Irish Police following clashes in the streets adjacent to the Garden on Remembrance where Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath on May 17, 2011 in Dublin, Ireland. The Duke and Queen's visit is the first by a monarch since 1911. An unprecedented security operation is taking place with much of the centre of Dublin turning into a car free zone. Republican dissident groups have made it clear they are intent on disrupting proceedings. By Oli Scarff/Getty Images.

Amy Davidson drives it home by focusing on the deaths of four children in Afghanistan.