How Personally do you take Debates?

[PrincessFiona]

I think you've got something with the comment on the news. I've been focusing on that myself lately. We have so many "facts" out there these days, you can effectively argue anything you want and back it up. You just have to go to the right sources. That certainly makes debates more challenging to interpret when the two sides are operating with completely different data sets. I wish reporting was more objective. It has become entertainment and politics on every front.

I know. It's so disappointing. You really can back up whatever you want. It's hard to get to the real truth anymore because even the 'objective data' is either spun by either side or collected by a 'think tank' (non-objective) from one side or the other. I don't know what the answer is.

You hit the nail on the head though when you talked about european complacency. The wheels of bureaucracy there move painfully slowly...people see a need for change and are critical, but good grief..actually getting there requires a biblical event to occur. For example, there is no Infectious Disease as a specialty in germany. Surgeons actually treat post-surgical infections. (No offense to the surgical spouses out there, but to most ID docs, this is a scarey thought ) Post-surgical infections and complications are actually a real problem there. Thomas has always been very interested in microbiology/infectious disease and during a med school rotation, he dared speak up when a surgeon there was prescribing an innapropriate antibiotic. He came in with the latest literature/data and thought he was going to get an 'attaboy' from the guy. Instead, he failed the rotation for daring to 'go against' his superior. He was absolutely shocked. Fortunately, the med school actually went to bat for him ... They refused to allow him to fail the rotation because...he was right

There is still little acceptance there for specialists because even the internists want to feel like experts in their own fields...as do the generalist surgeons. Hey...I don't need a neurosurg residency, I'm a general surgeon and can do it all. Hey, who needs to do cardiology, I'm an internist and can do it all. Of course, there is specialist training, and people do refer to specialists.....but not as frequently as they do here.

Man....did I just get away from the main topic or what???

kris