The bristling hostility of two meetings in two days between Netanyahu and BHO — without so much as a press release or photo op — makes me quite uneasy.

It could just be a continuation of ongoing bilateral diplomatic spats, including Secty State HRC’s recent discordant trip to Israel. If so, we could each view that through different political lenses…but it would just be politics-as-usual in a partisan era.

No, what unsettles me much more than continuing political tiffs is that the dispute may actually have been about Iranian nuclear weapons policies, programs and facilities.

Our sanction-centered Iranian initiatives have thus far been ineffectual, and HRC was embarrassingly rebuffed recently in Moscow (the Russians in fact announced they would help the Iranians start their Russian-supplied nuclear reactor next summer). The Chinese have never been supportive of Iranian sanctions, and still aren’t.

Is the Piper about to ask for payment?

A nuclear-armed Iran is not less than an existential threat to Israel, and Israel’s too close for “containment” to be a viable option. So was Netanyahu saying in this week’s contentious DC meetings “we will use military force together or we will do it alone?”

Man, that would be one big Pandora’s box. And, if it happens, our weakness will have made it possible.

To begin, the only reason I’m alive to write this diary is because I benefitted from high-tech medical innovation. In my case, it was computer-controlled 3D conformal, external x-ray therapy for recurrent prostate cancer. (BTW I’m happy to report nominal PSA values at five years and counting.)

So continued medical innovation and I have an intense personal relationship. For that reason, one key reason that both the House and Senate versions of health care “reform” deeply disappoint me is that they will badly damage medical innovation by removing most of the profit motive to fund risky research.

There are two basic reasons for this, both driven by political budgeting: price controls and limitation of market access. Market access will be collateral damage from “relative cost-effectiveness” judgments rendered by committees of political apparatchiks empowered by both House and Senate bills.

If you think that choking off medical innovation will only mean that currently untreated medical conditions will remain untreated, you aren’t seeing the whole picture. (As if ignoring the long list of currently-unsatisfactorily-treated medical conditions weren’t bad enough.)

Especially in the area of infectious disease, to fail to innovate is to go backwards.
As documented here, competent international medical experts are calling urgently for “ten new antibiotics by 2020″ to combat the steady accumulation of resistant strains. They cite this as one of the top priorities in medicine.

Virus mutation is no less of a problem than bacterial — arguably it’s a bigger issue.

I lament the time that will elapse, if anything like these ill-conceived health “reform” packages are enacted, before the full extent of the damage done by suppression of innovation is widely apparent. And there’s the conundrum of how to prove a negative: how to know if some individual sick or dying of a medical condition could otherwise have been cured?

But if an individual suffers an infection that we used to be able to cure, but can no longer, that may be a different matter.

The current debacle of H1N1 vaccine shortfalls nicely illustrates what happens when we stop innovating. The old incubation-in-eggs technology used to produce influenza vaccines should long since have been replaced by genetically-engineered fermentation processes that have been reliable for almost 25 years, since Eli Lilly first commercialized human insulin.

File the large and enthusiastic Libyan crowds welcoming Lockerbie bomber-terrorist Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi home after his “compassionate release” from prison in Scotland in the same folder with Palestinian dancing-in-the-streets euphoria after 9/11.

I’m simply saying what I believe many others are thinking, but are inhibited by political correctness from expressing, that antipathy towards America* is pervasive in, at least, Arabic Islam. Multiple administrations have now insisted that the worldwide jihadi attacks don’t represent a “conflict of civilizations.” To speak truly, I’m not so sure.

* I would say “Christianity,” but it’s hard for me to characterize American as a Christian nation, especially under our current national leadership. It’s hard to have a clash of religions when only one side is observant.

I’m a hard-core Colts fan, admitting that Plaxico Burress’ dim-witted concealed-carry violation last Nov 29th isn’t deserving of a “minimum 2.5 year sentence.”

Coverage here

The guy had a just-expired CCW permit in Florida…albeit not a valid permit in NY. He did endanger others when he dropped the weapon, I admit, but in fact the only person actually injured was him.

Quite aside from this legal mess, Burress isn’t an easy guy to admire, what with his selfish, egotistical and immature athletic personna. But prosecutorial disclaimers not withstanding, Plaxico Burress is being set up for a disproportionately harsh punishment by officials in full political posturing mode.

So what would be “fair?” Exercising my (hypothetical) tsarist powers, I’d have him serve 30 days as a wake-up call.

This airborne laser anti-missle system seems to be making good progress. Here’s some detail.

Aloft over the Persian gulf, might this system neutralize the Iranian nuclear missle threat to Israel, and possibly to Europe?

And aloft east of NoKor, might this system protect Japan? I’m unclear what kind of anti-missle system can protect SoKor, given the super-short missle flight times.

Will the BHO administration snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by cancelling this airborne anti-missle system? As crazy as that sounds, it’s what he promised to do during the primaries.

Perhaps you noticed that Washington voters approved Initiative-1000 in the general election just concluded. In 2009-Q1 I-1000 will establish a copy of Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” assisted suicide procedures here in Washington.

The only hospital, and the largest health care provider, where I live in Whatcom County is Peace Health — a Catholic nonprofit organization headquartered, if memory serves, in Bellevue (WA). Peace Health just announced that none of their physicians, about 400 of whom work here in Bellingham, will be allowed to prescribe fatal drugs under the upcoming I-1000 regime. Other large medical practices say they are studying their policy options on this topic and will presumably announce decisions later. To my knowledge, no medical practices — in our area at least — have announced support for I-1000 yet.

Earlier this year, we had litigation and political angst over the desire of (just reelected) Governor Christine Gregorie’s to force pharmacists to dispense the abortion-inducing drug “Plan B” (also known as RU-486), even if individual pharmacists were morally unwilling to do so. I don’t remember the outcome of that litigation, but perhaps a kind reader will clarify that point by posting a comment.

I speculate that there will soon be similar conflicts over assisted-suicide, analogous to the previous dispute over RU-486.

Apparently we’re really into death here in Washington…perhaps it’s the long dark winters?

Inspired by the plaintiff’s bar, congressional Dems (and a few Republicans like Charles Grassley), began about five years ago to beat up the FDA regarding the perceived dangers of antidepressant use by adolescents.

That always-risk-averse agency responded with a flurry of dire “black-box” warnings in the official labeling of virtually all modern antidepresssant prescription drugs. The politicians pointed with pride to what they had accomplished.

The trial lawyers were also pleased, since this widened their opportunities for medical malpractice lawsuits.

Read More →