The Dish

A summer warning.

Another first-person rave:

I agree with your reader’s positive description of the healthcare system in France. A recent commentator in Le Monde argued that, despite the US’s anxieties about "socialized medicine," our healthcare system actually shows more evidence of "socialization" than theirs does. As the commentator points out, countless French physicians operate independently out of their own offices, whereas most US physicians, because of the burdens of paperwork, have to work in groups or in hospitals. French citizens have far more liberty in choosing the doctors they would like than most US citizens do.

I was treated for the same minor health problem in France and in the U.S. In France, I walked into the French hospital, spoke with a doctor in a few minutes, received treatment, and was charged $25. In the U.S., I was subjected to a barrage of bureaucracy before I could ever speak with anyone, and I left $600 poorer (after health insurance), on my graduate student’s salary. In France, a visiting friend hurt her foot, so we stopped by a hospital. An internist examined her and told her what the problem was. When we tried to pay, she shrugged and said that there would be no bill, as we were from "le pays de la liberté." (This was admittedly before the Bush presidency.) If only U.S. physicians could function with the efficiency, common sense, and independence of their French equivalents.

My British friends say the same. Many escape the NHS for French medicine.

GQ has some questions for the exiting Bush loyalist. My fave:

GQ: Is there anybody else other than the president who can tell the vice president to shut the hell up?

Dan Bartlett: Maybe the editor of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

A pediatrician blogger who hung on in the Gulf Coast after Katrina has just decided to quit and leave. Money quote:

When George W. Bush spoke in New Orleans days after Katrina, he promised to do whatever it took to set things right. He gave us hope. He didn’t have to say those words. He could have expressed sympathy, mentioned that "the nation stands with you as you rebuild," et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But instead he promised action. The terrible tragedy would be met with just as equally awesome a recovery.

Perhaps the only thing worse than no hope is false hope. Hear me out: no hope leads to reasonable expectations. No one is coming; make your plans accordingly. False hope, on the other hand, encourages you to go to the brink, even over it. I may be near the end of my rope, my finances, my energy, but at least the cavalry is coming. Until you finally realize that it isn’t. And then it’s too late, and the anger comes forth.

Yes, they have a website. And yes, they’re unconvinced by the studies suggesting MGM is central to HIV prevention. The critique of the studies seems well-taken to me, but I’m not a scientist.

I’ve gotten into the habit of checking this "Astronomy Picture of the Day" site for a little perspective every now and again.

Dunegrass.

An HIV-positive reader writes:

Here’s another reason you’re right about HIV. Suggesting HIV is a manageable disease may cause some HIV negative guys (very foolish guys I would add) to take safer sex less seriously than before the disease became treatable, but try looking at the situation through the eyes of another population: The untested HIV-positive gay man. In the past several years, I have had the opportunity to be a peer counselor to many newly diagnosed HIV-positive gay men, and I have heard the same story repeated by several of these men. They "kind of had an idea" that they might be positive, but because of fear, stigma, denial or whatever you want to call it (stupidity maybe), they did not get tested because they were afraid of what it would to be labeled "poz".

It is not the healthy, medicated HIV-positive men in America out infecting other men; it is the untreated, untested gay man living in fear of the "gay plague", with viral-loads of several hundred thousand, living in denial that would be responsible for a majority of the new HIV cases among American gay men.

So again, looking at the problem through the eyes of this untested/untreated population, what would be a better picture for them to see: 1) HIV is something you need to fear and will kill you? Or 2) HIV is a manageable disease that is best detected and treated as early as possible? The answer seems obvious to me, and not just because the fact of the matter is that HIV is very manageable, but because letting the highest risk populations know the truth will save lives.

An expose:

The first hundred cartoons in the Caption Contest, drawn mainly by men, tend to depict male, light-skinned, and apparently heterosexual "protagonists" in work and home situations. However, in the bedroom scenarios, the "protagonists" tend to be female.

No, not a cover-story in the next Vanity Fair. (When, I wonder, will they merge with the Huffington Post and be done with it?) Just the latest piece of cultural diplomacy:

Visitors to the UAE park will be moved by an animatronic Effie’s emotional delivery of "I’m Telling You I’m Not Going" on Dreamgirls: The Ride.

What Condi can’t do maybe Jennifer will accomplish. More here.