The 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death in New York drew a big article in Newsweek by Jeff Giles, filled with all the normal liberal genuflections: "the man who wrote ‘Imagine,’ ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘All You Need Is Love,’ which amount to the greatest ad campaign for brother- and sisterhood in history." In between that and Sinead O’Connor’s scary metaphors for Lennon ("He was my breast milk, you know?") was a series of rock star tributes to their favorite songs. Dave Matthews bowed deeply to the genius of "Imagine," his utopian anthem about imagining a world without religion, without possesions, without countries, and without anything to kill or die for:

The Associated Press and United Press International are reporting that another Democratic hawk, Norm Dicks (D-Washington), has changed his position on the Iraq war. They are both quoting from and referencing a Seattle Times article first published about 16 hours ago entitled “Defense hawk Dicks says he now sees war as a mistake.” Yet, they are conveniently ignoring previous statements made by Dicks concerning the war that were also reported by the Seattle Times.

Today’s article stated:

Medical Slavery It would be nice if you could find some way to speak out about this ongoing atrocity.<!--break--> African Americans have twice as much hypertension and type 2 diabetes than whites. More devastating, for every patient with hypertension or diabetes, they are five times more likely to go on dialysis if they happen to be black than white. So the net effect of being black is a 10-fold higher rate of kidney dialysis that whites. Other minorities, like Hispanics and Native Americans, are in the same boat. Talk about racial disparities in disease! Dialysis is about the worst.<!--break--> GenoMed CEO and Chief Medical Officer David W. Moskowitz stated "We published three years ago that we can prevent 95% of kidney failure in blacks and whites (1). In unpublished work, we've seen the same medical recipe work in about 350 Hispanic men and women." The data has been called "beautiful" by Dr. Larry Agodoa, the Director of the US Renal Data System for the NIH. The Renal Data System keeps track of how well patients do on dialysis. They don't do well. The average life expectancy for a 65 yr old starting dialysis is only 2.5 years. GenoMed also offers those who already suffer from diabetes or high blood pressure the hope of preventing many of the complications, including kidney failure, amputation, heart disease, nerve damage and blindness.<!--break--> Speaking before attendees at Disease Management conferences held this past summer in Philadelphia and Boston, Dr. Moskowitz presented data from a number of patients. The data indicated specific ACE inhibitors in the correct doses can prevent kidney failure in patients with diabetes or high blood pressure.<!--break--> Commenting on the data presented at the conference, Moskowitz said "The therapeutic benefits we've witnessed among diabetic or hypertensive patients who have been on our patent-pending regimen of ACE inhibitors have been dramatic. In the case of kidney failure, we have actually seen an improvement in kidney function in patients when we have been able to start them on our course of treatment before they have lost 50% of their kidney function. This is the first time that regression of kidney failure has ever been seen."<!--break--> "While the therapeutic benefits alone make the effort worthwhile, the economic implications of preventing diabetes and its complications are staggering. There are 20 million adults in the US with diabetes, and 60 million more with high blood pressure. Since the late 1980'S, diabetes has led high blood pressure as the top two causes of kidney failure. Data for 2001 indicates the total cost for kidney dialysis was $18 billion or approximately $90,000 for each of the approximately 200,000 patients requiring the treatment. Estimates are that by the year 2010 there will be 300,000 patients requiring dialysis and the cost of treatment will rise to $150,000 per year. We believe if our treatment is employed, many of the patients who might otherwise require dialysis could avoid kidney failure. Individuals and healthcare insurance providers could save billions of dollars in costs while at the same time improving the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Americans," Moskowitz added. The savings would result from prevention of the onset of a number of diseases, most notably in diabetes, and in individuals at risk.<!--break--> What this amounts to, now that a cure has been found, is nothing less than medical slavery. I haven't been able to find a single person or institution to respond to me. Without people knowing about the cure, it might as well not exist. The irresponsibility, apathy, and self-serving venality of every player in the healthcare system disgust me. No wonder healthcare costs keep rising every year! Each dialysis patient brings in $100,000 a year for the two or three years that they're alive. And then they're replaced by two more patients on dialysis. It's a wonderful growth business for all concerned, including the bureaucrats who pay for dialysis with other people's money. Only the poor patient suffers, and we all know how little voice patients have in the healthcare system. Blacks are only the most obvious slaves to the healthcare system. We're all its slaves.<!--break-->  It would be nice if you could find some way to speak out about this ongoing atrocity. To continue the silence is a bit like keeping mum about the Holocaust in the 1940s, a Holocaust we're all headed for. Believe me, dialysis is very much like living in a concentration camp.<!--break--> About GenoMed<!--break--> GenoMed is leading the clinical revolution which knowledge of disease genes has already made possible. GenoMed is currently marketing its protocols to prevent the need for kidney dialysis due to high blood pressure and diabetes, and to delay the progression of emphysema. The Company recently developed a Healthchip® which can predict breast, colon, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate cancer in whites with 85% accuracy.<!--break--> GenoMed offers consultative services to patients and their physicians. The cost of the service, currently $75 per month or $800 per year, is no more than the average American spends on vitamins, according to Moskowitz. He also said the return on investment, particularly in the case of conditions like kidney failure, is dramatic. The treatment is also patient-friendly because patients can maintain their relationship with their primary physician while benefiting from the cutting edge molecular medicine GenoMed has developed, he noted.<!--break--> Moskowitz said he believes there are a wide variety of additional diseases that can be prevented or treated by GenoMed's approach. These include a variety of common cancers such as pancreatic, breast and lung cancer, emphysema, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, West Nile Virus and others. The company has a number of clinical trials underway.<!--break-->  1.  Moskowitz DW.  From pharmacogenomics to improved patient outcomes: angiotensin I-converting enzyme as an example. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2002;4(4):519-32. PMID: 12396747 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] --for PDF file, click on paper #1 at: http://www.genomed.com/index.cfm?action=investor&drill=publications <!--break-->  2. Moskowitz DW, Johnson FE.  The central role of angiotensin I-converting enzyme in vertebrate pathophysiology. Curr Top Med Chem. 2004;4(13):1433-54. PMID: 15379656 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] --for PDF file, click on paper #6 at: http://www.genomed.com/index.cfm?action=investor&drill=publications <!--break-->  3. See Section 2151 of BioShield II, now called US Senate bill S. 975 (text available at: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s109-975) <!--break--> David W. Moskowitz MD, MA (Oxon.), FACP

Comedian and “Air America” radio host Al Franken was on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” last night, and took the opportunity to defame all three of America’s leading conservative media personalities. First, O’Brien set him up nicely by asking:

“I’m curious. How do your books sell compared to say the books by you know, Rush Limbaugh or O’Reilly? The books from the right, 'cause I know those, those are popular books, too.”

Franken’s response:

ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday broke a story about Michael Jackson that has received surprisingly little press. In a report about the pop star’s finances, as well as his relationship with financial advisors, an audiotape was played of a telephone message Jackson left for a former business associate:

JACKSON: They suck - they're like leeches. I'm so tired of it. They start out the most popular person in the world, make a lot of money, big house, cars, and everything, end up with, penniless. It is conspiracy. The Jews do it on purpose.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 CONTACT:

November 17, 2005                                                    Jill Minette, CASE, 202-478-5666

                                                                                    Professor Lawrence Roberge, 413-547-8448

I've recently described, here and here, how an unexpected streak of reasonableness broke out at the Today show.  On successive days, Matt Lauer criticized the Democrats for trying to make political hay out of Iraq without offering any alternatives of their own.

Strangely, sanity has seemingly struck again.  And this in the most unlikely person of NBC reporter Jim Maceda, who only last week, as I reported here was carping that the French were not appeasing their Muslim rioters assiduously enough.

This morning, Maceda was in Iraq interviewing US troops.  He summarized their message in this blunt and refreshing way: "these soldiers think the politicians who want to pull out quickly are dead wrong."

In his Monday chat with Charlie Rose on PBS, Ted Koppel played armchair general or armchair Secretary of State and explained why he would not have gone to war with Iraq, didn't see the urgent need to remove Saddam, saw no connection with terrorism, and worst of all, smeared Ronald Reagan as not caring about the gassing of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988. This is, as a matter of historical record, untrue. Reagan went and denounced the gassing from the podium of the United Nations. Secretary of State George Shultz also denounced it in no uncertain terms. The ironic thing about Halabja? Our media didn't cover it very hard or very long at the time. So take a look at how much Koppel sounds like Joe Biden or John Kerry:

Ted Koppel did a long interview with Charlie Rose on PBS Monday night, a day before he retired as host of "Nightline." One segment of the interview that stuck out was their discussion of racism and racial inequality and how passionate they are about it. Koppel said it "just infuriates" him. Rose agreed:

Rose: Regrets about this "Nightline" thing in terms of – where you think, God, I missed it that day, I didn't go, or we talked about if we could have been tougher, raised better questions about war and peace with respect to Iraq, should they have waited, all of that, and questions -- You and I share another passion which is the passion about race and civil rights in america.