President Barack Obama is a fool

Krauthammer 'Stunned' By Obama's 'Banal & Offensive' Prayer Breakfast Remarks

Discussion regarding false moral equivalency of the presidents statements



How does the president reconcile the fact that he is making a straw man argument? In order for his argument to work, you first need to be a Christian, if you are a Jew, Hindu, Atheist, etc, his argument means nothing. Your ancestors weren't Christians that were involved in the Crusades, so how does that fact exonerate the fact that muslims are killing innocent people? It doesn't, his argument is flawed.
Weak part of argument number two. The Crusades happened nearly a millennia ago. There has been a number of occurrences in Western Civilization that have managed to alleviate the power that the Christian church has over society. In order for President Obamas argument to hold any sway, you would have to wipe out the Enlightenment, the introduction of movable type, the mass literacy of the populace, and the internet. Once people were able to read the bible themselves and the failings of the bible were brought to the open, the bible was no longer allowed to have the same fundamental innerancy that it once had. These events have not had the same hold on Islam as it has on most other parts of the world. Illiteracy in muslim countries is widespread. The introduction of freedom of religion and freedom from religion is not the norm in muslim countries.
Issue number three. The objective of the crusades was to prevent the islamization of the entire western world and to try to regain some territory that had been lost from the west to the muslims. This point was entirely missed in the presidents speech. Besides it wouldn't have been the fault of the muslims, as they gained all territory peacefully in his mind, I am sure.
The main issue that I have with President Obama is he understands the lack of knowledge of his core constituency. He owns the Walmart shopper. He doesn't own the Saks or Wall street type. The troubling part of the matter is that he also owns most academicians, simply because the Republicans are the home of the religious right. With the press and university in his corner, Obama is able to speak such dribble without any backlash. He is able to spread the blame for terrorism. He can make the argument that it isn't the fault of the terrorist, but the real fault is in each of us, each American.

Here are some of Obamas famous quotes, if you agree with these quotes, I would enjoy knowing why.

"If you've got a business- you didn't build that, someone else made that happen."

"I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I'm going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

This quote is especially cringe worthy. Is this a utilitarian philosophy he is trying to espouse? That the best decision is what garners the greatest happiness? Is he espousing hedonism here? But is this truly the most happy of decisions? In his mind it must be. The baby is labeled as such..a baby, he doesn't say fetus or pregnancy, he says baby. To him, a baby is equal to a mistake. 

If you are at all interested in a what an intellectual has to say about the future and the truth of our current world crisis, then listen to an intellectual. Obama is clearly a populist president. He makes zero qualms about this. He enjoys debasing himself (or being himself) in order to relate to what he supposes is the mindset of his constituents. He paints a bleak portrait of the common man and woman. He thinks them so stupid as to believe or to view a baby as a mistake and to think that terrorists actions are exonerated due to the actions of a group from a thousand years ago.

Christopher Hitchens debating Islam

Hypnosis and its use in Anesthesia

Approaches to Hypnosis


This is an interesting adjunct to my anesthetic regimen.

A link to societies for hypnosis

American Society of Clinical Hypnosis

The American Board of Medical Hypnosis


I try to ensure I am giving positive suggestion and am always aware of my own ability to affect the patients experience through my words and actions. I try to make the experience one that is positive for the patient. I have always wanted to broaden my ability to make the patient more relaxed and in a suggestible state to have a better overall experience.

Use of hypnosis as a substitute premedication and adjunct to anesthesia

What is Guided Imagery?

Guided Imagery & Heart Surgery

The effect of preoperative suggestions on perioperative dreams and dream recalls after administration of different general anesthetic combinations: a randomized trial in maxillofacial surgery

Guideline for Monitoring and Management of Pediatric Patients During and After Sedation for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures

Selected topics in perioperative multimodal pediatric pain management


Above are a few guided imagery studies and sites. I will look into hypnosis and non pharmacological means to assist a patient recover and get through positively the preoperative experience.

This video is a demonstration of hypnoanesthesia.


Hypnosis in the OR, ICU, and ER

Interesting Book on Medical Hypnosis: Clinical Hypnosis and Pain Therapy-Palliative

2014 in retrospective, Medical school and Affirmative Action

This has been a crazy year, to say the least.
Highlights of the year
1) Simon learning he loves ice skating, Jena skating, and Oliver playing basketball
2) play lots of basketball
3) join the Mount Holyoke gym with Oliver
4) post a ton of pics to pinterest
5) visit D.C.
6) visit the Cape
7) visit Bahamas

Might as well promote my pinterest page

https://www.pinterest.com/tnobabbott/

I am going in a new direction on my blog. I had in the past posted quite a few things on Facebook. I think in the future posting on my blog would be more beneficial. Fighting with people on Facebook is about as useful as a punch to the face.

One of the issues that I have argued about in the past consistently is affirmative action. I am vehemently against affirmative action, and this is why. I argue that affirmative action is racism. Racism is the belief that one race is superior to another race. Affirmative action was put into place originally as a system to break the barriers that were inherent in many corporations, universities, and societies. What was once used to allow people of differing races to enter into a job, profession or obtain an education, is now a system of white guilt appeasement. Affirmative action was used to allow people of differing colors with the skill sets necessary or the aptitude necessary to compete with whites of similar aptitude and skill set. That is no longer the case. The case now has been to put people of color with lesser skill or lesser aptitude in positions that they could not compete for without a system in place that gives them credit for being black. It is a racist system that judges a person competent based solely on the color of their skin and not on their skill set. This is racism.

In order to matriculate in a medical school an applicant needs to have the necessary credentials to do so. An applicant must have an overall GPA >3.8 and a science GPA>3.7, a MCAT score >32, and be a well rounded individual. What constitutes a well rounded individual? Community service, having a skill in a science or non science related field (being a concert pianist, having engineering experience, etc), would constitute what medical schools would be looking for to round out a well rounded individual that would separate them from the other stellar applicants. Does being black entitle one to the criteria of being well rounded? Does diversity mean you are well rounded?

The argument for diversity usually revolves around the future patient. Many believe that patients would like to be treated by someone of their own cultural and racial makeup. However when I posted some time ago on a medical forum that there were too many Asians and that I think that impairs my ability to be seen by a white physician, I was rightfully argued against that I was being racist and that this type of thinking is unacceptable in this day and age. If it is unacceptable for me to desire to be seen by someone of my cultural and racial makeup, then why is it acceptable and sought after to go after black applicants that have lesser aptitudes than other applicants? Would it be acceptable to fill an NBA team with white players in order to meet a quota? To accept players with lesser skill, simply due to race?

Here are the facts that clearly show a discrimination towards accepting blacks with lesser qualifications than whites and asians:

MCAT Scores and GPAs for Applicants and Matriculants to U.S. Medical Schools by Race/Ethnicity, 2014

There is a large statistical gap separating the MCAT and GPAs of white/asians from blacks. This is clear racism against white/asian applicants in order to benefit black applicants. Should we be judging based on the content of a persons skill set or on the basis of the applicants skin color? If the tilt was to the opposite direction, say whites with lower GPAs and MCAT scores in comparison to blacks with higher MCAT scores and GPAs the outcry I am sure would be widespread and immediate.

Mindy Kaling's brother exposes affirmative action

2013 thoughts and thoughts going forward

huh...
this has been a..this past year has been difficult.
my mother passed away.
 jesus.  i miss her

i have fortunately been thinking a lot about death lately. not sure if its an effect of the death of my mother or from turning 40 years old. what is it about this damn number? why is it so damn stark? God I need to get this fear out my mind. I keep thinking i need to make sure i leave my kids financially secure. well what about leaving them the tools to be happy? ....that's always what i have wanted...love..is it possible? i need to be the ultimate person that i can be, share that and spread that, epigeneticize that

lol, well, 2013 was a tough year, but logically suffering brings on intelligence; wisdom. well 2014, if God wills it, will be a year of planning, building, and settling. i am very optimistic about me, my family, and our prospects. the sun is shining and i am enjoying its rays.

so far this year- promotion to vice chief of department, increase in income, plans to build a house, plans to vacation to rome, plans to go to the beach (was thinking miami, but probably the cape, miami will have to wait till next year)

goals for this year- optimism, prosperity, change

Pump and Dump

My life as a day trader has been thus far insightful and remarkable. My investments began with little known stocks such as McDonalds and Amazon.com, jk. These stocks, enormous, well known, and made me some nice pocket change. I then branched out to lesser known investments such as cloud computing, chinese social media stocks and then so far as to invest in the company that issues my credit card, Discover. Discover, I must admit is one of my favorite stocks, simply because I love the company philosophy. Its gives you a penny or more for every dollar you spend. That penny you earn can then be redeemed for gift cards for stores (these gift cards are bought for 5-20% their face value). I then use these gift cards (basically these gift cards obtained free of cost for me since we pay our credit card statement monthly) at stores online, such as gap.com. When I get to gap.com there are promo codes that I can redeem for 10-20% off my purchase, which I purchase with "free money" which was obtained at a discount. So I receive a discount on a discount of free money, now if you don't like the sound of this, then you don't understand the beauty of winning in a capitalistic country, how I love America. So when I trade Discover in my brokerage account, not only does this company give me free money, but when I trade Discover and then sell it a few hours later, I can quickly make 100-2000 dollars, not bad for basically just believing in a company's philosophy.
However, like I sometimes do, I deviated from my path, and tried to explore paths of greed and what I will label as intricacies of what I consider intellectual superiority. However the joke was on me. Not only was I not taking a path of intellectual superiority and esotericismal monetary reward, I was stepping into what I did not realize was a trap of brilliant and simplistic scope. I became involved in Pump and Dump. Now what pump and dump is for those of you who are unaware, pump and dump is a term used to describe a scheme in which a ring of criminal investors will send out email messages to investors such as myself touting the prospects of a startup company. These investors will send out fabricated press releases and will setup a front company with a front board, CEO, press releases, and will put this company on the OTC:BB. I did not realize that securities traded on the market were unscrutinized to the extent that they are. So what happens is these criminal investors will send out these emails pumping up the ticker and numerous unwitting investors will buy the stock driving its price up, the criminals have large quantities of the stock which they bought for pennies, once the stock is driven up the criminals then "dump" their stocks at the inflated price, thus causing the stock to plummet. Unwitting purchasers of the stock at the overly inflated price begin to notice a drop on price, however there are no longer any new purchasers of the stock, so when you try to sell something no one now wants to buy? Fire sale, the price plummets and you lose whatever money you put into the stock. So to simplify, the criminals buy the stock, say 50,000 shares for $5,000, next they email investors about the company and its recent large contracts and the likely expectant increase in stock price. Investors clamor for the stock, the stock value increases (lots of buyers, with few sellers, so the price escalates). This is where the criminal investors begin dumping stock and the price begins to fall, to prevent its complete collapse a few more investors are targeted with emails in a staggered fashion, so these new investors begin buying and the criminals sell. Once the unwitting investors try to sell their stocks at the inflated price they realize there no longer are any buyers and the price drops dramatically. So the criminal who bought 50,000 share for $5,000 is able to sell that same amount of shares for $250,000, meanwhile the investor who bought 50,000 shares for  $25,000 can now only recoup perhaps $10,000. Again the scheme is simple however to set this fraudalent illegal activity up I would assume would be complex as the government, I would hope, would be policing such fraud.
Have I learned my lesson? Yes, I have. I have learned to invest in what I know and what I trust and to stay away from schemes promising quick profits. I also learned that criminals are operating in the stock market very openly and brazenly, which I did not realize the extent of the criminal activity on the stock market. I guess it was a tuition of sorts, instead of paying a semesters tuition, I paid to learn what to invest in by experience and what to avoid. I hope if you are a day trader you will learn from this and avoid the expensive experience that I have been a part of.

UFOs and alien beings

Have you ever been to Foxwoods? Well if you havent, it is an extremely large, and when I say extremely I mean 4.7 million square feet, the largest casino in the world and it contains the largest number of slot machines in the world with over 7,900. Wandering through the casino in such a daze, looking at the extremely high ceilings and entryways, the oak covered restaurant facades, the plush carpets, the grandeosity of the place is truly startling. And it was clean. The floors were clean, no where did I look was litter on the floor for more than 10 minutes time. This is a place that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Sort of like a hospital. It felt alive to me. There have been births, deaths, fortunes attained, and life savings surrendered. Hope, despair, friendship, loneliness...
I went to Foxwoods to see a friend of mine from college, I trek down to Foxwoods every 2-3 years to meet up with my friend, to see him, lose some money, and try to learn something about people...I never go with any intentions of walking away with winnings, I think of the times I have gone to any casino, I have won perhaps twice and lost many other times. It is an odd experience, I used to play blackjack, get up to the felt, settled in, bet for a while, watch some people come in drunk ravingly happy, most went away broke, drunk and depressed, but a few...perhaps 1 that I recall...won..Its funny I can remember him to this day, a black guy in a sweater, drunk and constantly ordering drinks..winning hand, after hand after hand...who knows perhaps in retrospect everything seems larger than it is..but he won. I on the other hand, am one of the multitude of losers that goes to the casino. Some will say, I go, not to win, but to have fun. Ok, I can understand that. I dont like to lose money at a casino though, even if I get to meet some people and perhaps learn a thing or two about human nature and the nature of behavior and the multitude of experiences that occur.. The other reason I dont like going is because I feel hypocritical being a Christian. So I go at odds with myself, one part of me wanting the experience, the other part not wanting to potentially take away the savings or hope of a desperate individual...
So what does Foxwoods have to do with UFOs and alien beings? I knew you were wondering what the point was and when I would get to it..well to me an alien is anything that is not based in reality, and for me my reality consists of my wife, kids, minivan, soccer practice, local 3000 sq ft restaurants, and work. Foxwoods to me is alien. When I go into Foxwoods I feel I am entering an alien planet. The whole of it feels strange, unreal, vast and unattainable, unsustainable. I imagine the number of toilets, the amount of water, the amount of electricity, the amount of everything..enormous...to serve the need of millions of starving people..starving for entertainment..starving for companionship..for riches...yet the riches are a fantasy..almost as big a fantasy as the casino is, and how the casino morphed into the mammoth enterprise it is today from the seed of those fantasies..
When I was a little lad of the ripe old age of about a decade, I had the chance encounter of a spacecraft. It was quite interesting, myself and my friend at the time, were walking down a dirt street in a campground, on our way back from a dance at the rec center. I remember us both stopping and looking up into the trees above us and then out to the clearing to our left. Scott was mesmerized and he pulled me and had me look. I looked and froze in awe. It was quite a sight, it had a ring of red lights, it was black, it hovered over us, and then immediately accelerated to the distant sky. We ran to tell anyone who listen, which was no one, they would rather play pool, Pac Man, or ironically enough Galatica. That experience, opened my eyes to the mystery we live in..I called my friend Scott some 20 years later, and he had no recollection of the events, but apparently the same night of the UFO encounter; during a game of truth or dare, I was told to dare Scott's buddy to kiss a girl, well Scott informed me that those 2 kids got married and have their own kids. To me that is almost as bizarre as the alien spaceship, that something I did as a 10 year old changed 2 peoples lives in such an amazing way.

annual christmas party

Nita and I had a great time dancing at the Christmas party, it was a good time. Man was that a workout I was sweating bullets