Z Nightly Commentaries
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Recent Z Nightly Commentaries
Guellec: Assisted suicide and Euthanasia: the illusion and façade
Nov 30, 2000
Why are the long-standing ethics of our health care system suddenly so threatened? Maybe it is all about money, or is it? HMO’s already induce physicians to keep costs low, using a combination of financial rewards or punishments, which create in my opinion an implicit conflict of interest between doctors and some patients. After the Supreme Court decision in 1997 states took it upon themselves to change the terrain re: legalizing physician-assisted suicide. Is it merely coincidence that the first state to approve a program of explicit health care rationing is also the first state to approve physician-assisted suicide? Maybe it is courage and not coincidence, but at the same time, it is interesting to find the first operational assisted suicide law so plainly juxtaposed against “the first openly acknowledged system of health care rationing.†I was talking about Oregon. The physician assisted suicide ballot initiative in Maine was not approved.
Guellec: Assisted suicide and Euthanasia: the illusion and faade
Nov 30, 2000
Why are the long-standing ethics of our health care system suddenly so threatened? Maybe it is all about money, or is it? HMOÕs already induce physicians to keep costs low, using a combination of financial rewards or punishments, which create in my opinio
Glass: Ramallah, West Bank
Nov 24, 2000
Most afternoons, the boys head from their schools down to the edge of town where Israeli tanks and soldiers are standing by to watch unarmed children wage war. A wide road heads from the center of Ramallah downhill towards a hotel, the City Inn, where the
Georgakas: Voting Without Illusion
Nov 06, 2000
Every time there is a major election, some of my closest political friends decide not to vote. The most obvious reason they give, of course, is that there are no candidates worth voting for.
Gonsalves: Selling with Shrink Think
Oct 17, 2000
Life is good. Psychologists are supposed to make it better, or at least help individuals reach a certain level of maturity. Much has been written about psychology and much of that is simply verbose foolishness. I'm especially turned off by those pop psyc
Guellec: Billions Spent Marketing Drugs to Consumers
Oct 16, 2000
In the two years since the FDA began an experiment to let the mass media broadcast the prescription-drug message directly to consumers, the pharmaceutical industry has shelled out a whopping $1.3 billion per year on consumer ads. That dwarfs the $763.6 mi
Guellec: RU puzzled, fed up?
Oct 05, 2000
Last Thursday, September 28,2000, the landscape for abortion really changed. It has been a long time coming. The pill called RU-486 was developed in 1980. and in 1982 the first successful human testing was reported in France. After 10 long years of promis
Glick: On Burnout and Recruitment
Sep 17, 2000
I've been thinking about these two, opposite aspects of an activist's life and work while on vacation in the mountains of western North Carolina. It seemed appropriate that I spend some vacation time, in particular, considering the issue of "burnout."
Guellec: Healthcare according to Ralph Nader
Sep 12, 2000
Ralph Nader is the only candidate who supports Universal Healthcare for all as a human right. Health, not merely illness should be a public concern. We could save at least $36 billion a years if we had a "paperless hospital system." As Business Week repor
Georgakas: Previewing Kosovo
Sep 12, 2000
The only constant in American and NATO policy in the Balkans has been the breakup of a socialist, multi-ethnic state into a series of small, capitalist-oriented states based on narrowly defined religious/ethnic identity. Given that pattern, it is not surp
Glick: Respecting Your Elders?
Aug 28, 2000
Respect for elders is a tradition deeply rooted within most cultures in this world. This is as it should be; older people, generally speaking, have accumulated the wisdom gained from years of experience. Does the progressive movement have any unique or pa
Guellec: Investing in Death Benefits – Exploiting AIDS patients
Aug 27, 2000
Once the domain of the terminally ill, viatical settlements or arrangements – the reassignment of a life insurance policy to a third party in return for a cash settlement – are set to explode in the next decade as the market evolves to include healthy seniors looking to sell their life insurance policies.
Guellec: Investing in Death Benefits Ð Exploiting AIDS patients
Aug 27, 2000
Once the domain of the terminally ill, viatical settlements or arrangements Ð the reassignment of a life insurance policy to a third party in return for a cash settlement Ð are set to explode in the next decade as the market evolves to include healthy sen
Gonsalves: Creating jobs and expanding opportunity
Aug 17, 2000
Ask anyone what was the major event of the post-Civil War period and they'll tell you: the Emancipation Proclamation - the freeing of America's black slaves.
Glick: Leftists and Popular Movements
Aug 04, 2000
There are a number of reasons why some of those who are left of center in the United States have not yet decided to support the Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke Green Party independent Presidential campaign. Some have the usual "lesser of two evils" arguments, w
Guellec: The dark side of the Canadian Healthcare system’s decline
Jul 19, 2000
My wise uncle told me that the real meaning of Globalization “is to make the world safe for the American and other multinational corporations to penetrate and take over as much as the world’s economy, country by country, as possibleâ€. He is right, and this is why the once sacred Canadian healthcare model is in trouble right now.
Guellec: The dark side of the Canadian Healthcare systemÕs decline
Jul 19, 2000
My wise uncle told me that the real meaning of Globalization Òis to make the world safe for the American and other multinational corporations to penetrate and take over as much as the worldÕs economy, country by country, as possibleÓ. He is right, and thi
Glick: The Nader/Laduke Campaign The Nader/LaDuke Movement
Jul 08, 2000
There is no question, absolutely none, that of the four "name recognition" Presidential candidates--Bush, Gore, Nader and Buchanan--Ralph Nader is far and away the most progressive. He will be on the ballot in almost all of the states. As distinct from 19
Guellec: A Single Payer System for the U.S.?
Jun 29, 2000
Americans are not correctly informed about the Canadian system. This may or may not be a conscious media effort, but I want to set the record straight. Healthcare delivery in Canada reflects the countryÕs principles, in particular universal entitlement an
Dec 26, 2000
Drug companies are giving away medications if you know how to ask. This is the best-kept secret because it is not widely known. All of the top 30 pharmaceutical companies make prescriptions available free, and these programs are horribly underutilized. PH