Fake Billboards, Stupid Doctors, and Overheard Conversations

I have nothing to report today. It was a day of mindless monotony followed by pointless drudgery. But one side benefit of having an office job where no one can see your computer is the ability to surf the web whenever I want. Here are some of the interesting things I found today.

First item is this:

On the surface, it appears to be one of the ultimate revenges a woman can pull on a scumbag husband. Combined with the blog, it seems pretty convincing. However, it seems that the billboard appeared in both LA and New York. Unless this Emily and her husband have a much bigger joint bank account than I thought, its unlikely all is on the up and up. Turns out, it’s probably a viral marketing scam, most likely for a CourtTV show. I'm pretty disappointed, especially as I wasted 20 precious minutes of my life reading that blog.

Second Item is an article the Washington Post about medical professionals refusing to give care, based on their religious beliefs. My personal possession is that you have the right to not provide care, but then you're employers have the right not to employ you. Shouting religious discrimination doesn't give you an excuse for refusing to give a rape victim the morning after pill. My favorite quote is this. The good doctor is saying how he shouldn't even have to refer those he won't treat to a doctor who will give the treatment.

"Think about slavery," said physician William Toffler of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. "I am a blacksmith and a slave owner asks me to repair the shackles of a slave. Should I have to say, 'I can't do it but there's a blacksmith down the road who will?' "

Comparing anything to slavery is like comparing someone to a Nazi. It means you automatically lose. This of course does not include if something actually is slavery.

A few weeks ago, I was at Starbucks with Alice, who just got into med school. She told me about her visit to a forum for new medical students. One forum was asking for people who wanted to be gynecologists, and why they wanted to do that. It seems that a great majority of the people who responded wanted to get into the field to educate women about why they shouldn't take birth control. And then I shuddered.

There's no doubt that it takes a special person to be a gynecologist. I certainly couldn't do it. So they must have to be pretty driven to get into that field. But if that's your motivation, do me a favor: Don't be a doctor. Religious fervor is well in some instances (like a crusade), but when you start preventing people from having in vitro fertilization procedures because they're gay, or don't give women a drug so they can complete their miscarriage because you think they're trying to have an abortion, you should seriously reconsider the field of work you're in.

Sorry for that rant.

Finally, there's the fallout over Bush's use of the word shit. The sad thing is that the media is focusing more on the use of the word rather than what was actually said. There are a lot of analysis going around about this overheard conversation. Two of the best I've found are at Slate and Juan Cole's blog. What I find really worrying is that while one is supportive of what Bush said and the other is very critical, I find myself agreeing with both.