Breaking News

Column

Past voices of socialism

Senator Bernie Sanders’ call for socialism has resonated among many Americans, particularly young Americans. They’ve fallen prey to the idea of a paradise here on Earth where things are free and there’s little want. But socialists never reveal what turns out to be their true agenda. Let’s look at the kind of statements they used to gain power. You’ll note that all of their slogans before gaining power bore little relation to the facts after they had power. Vladimir Lenin promised, “Under socialism all will govern in turn and will soon become accustomed to no one ...

America doesn’t have a public healthcare system

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and just about the only official in the Trump administration trusted to tell the truth about the coronavirus, said last Thursday: “The system does not, is not really geared to what we need right now. ... It is a failing, let’s admit it.” While we’re at it, let’s admit something more basic. The system would be failing even under a halfway competent president. The dirty little secret, which will soon become apparent to all, is that there is no real public health system in the United ...

Caring for elderly gets more stressful

We who oversee the care of elderly friends or family know what stress is all about — in normal times. It’s a hard job, physically and mentally. Even for those who can hire others to help out, there remains worry about paying good wages to keep good people, and coordinating doctor visits and prescriptions. Intensive caregiving is known to unleash an anxiety and social isolation that can compromise one’s own immune system and its ability to fight off diseases. Now everyone faces the coronavirus threat. But keeping it away from our old people creates new complexities on multiple ...

The virus, media and economy

A friend tweeted from Ireland (in time for St. Patrick’s Day), blaming President Trump for the major decline in the value of stocks. This same friend credited Barack Obama’s economic policies when the Dow Jones Industrial Averages approached 30,000. This — and more — is part of our political, economic and medical divide with mixed messages coming from supposed professionals, amateurs and people who don’t know what they are talking about. According to Dictionary.com, “panic” is “a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical or ...

The ‘Managing Anxiety’ defense

Let’s see a show of hands. Who, among readers of this column, has experienced some anxiety in their lives? Ahhh, as I suspected, there are lots of hands in the air. Everyone has had moments of stress, strain and fear to deal with. The trick is how you handle it. Our 42nd president recently reappeared to tell us that, because he felt such enormous pressure during his tenure as commander in chief, he turned to extramarital sex with a woman half his age as a way of “managing my anxieties.” Speaking to producers of a newly released Hulu documentary about his wife, former ...

We should fear the ‘Coronavirus Effect’

You may have heard of “the butterfly effect.” The late Edward Lorenz, an American mathematician and meteorologist, suggested it some years ago. His illustration focused on how a tiny atmospheric change caused by a butterfly flapping its wings could alter the timing an course of a tornado weeks later. Bottom line: Our world is so interconnected in many complex ways that one small action can have dramatic effects. Well, get ready for the coronavirus effect. A germ so tiny it can’t be viewed with most microscopes is about to wreak major, lasting damage ­– beyond the tragedy of ...