The Rule of Law is Dead in Medicine

The United States is a nation of laws, not of men's dictates.  The rule of law is what keeps (most) drivers from routinely running red lights, police officers from demanding bribes, and our civil servants and elected officials largely honest.  There of course will be violators of this code, as there are in any society, but nonetheless compared to many other nations in the US most citizens and state officials believe the laws are legitimate, and by and large obey them.  One of the most bitter criticisms of President Trump and proximate cause for his impeachment proceedings is that he is breaking down a critical part of the rule of law.  By using tools of state commonly felt to be apolitical (foreign policy, the justice department) to go after his political opponents; issuing executive orders that seem to punish certain religious or ethnic groups, thereby legitimizing white supremacy; and attacking institutions respected by all such as the FBI, intelligence agencies, and the judicial branch- he is accused of slowly diminishing respect for those institutions and the sense that the institutions of the state serve all citizens fairly and equally.  This then threatens to breakdown the trust that all Americans have in our nation, which is critical to its continued existence.

Governor Northam's Comments about Abortion, Explained, and a Proposal for Compromise

Democrats in Virgina made a massive own goal this week- and that was before Governor Northam, a renowned pediatric neurologist, was possibly found to have done blackface OR dressed up in a KKK outfit 30 years ago at a Halloween party.

Disclosing Conflicts of Interest on Twitter is Security Theater at its Finest

Conflicts of interest (COIs) have been in the news lately, with the resignations and public mea culpas of several prominent figures over undisclosed conflicts of interest in journal articles.  Memorial Sloan Kettering is one of the two top cancer hospitals in the United States: unequaled by anyone other than MD Anderson in it's advanced, cutting edge care. The Chief Medical Officer of that institution spectacularly resigned after failing to note millions of dollars in payments by pharmaceutical companies he had worked with in journal articles which he wrote.

Now I will disclose here that I am a Baylor College of Medicine General Surgery resident who will rotate at MD Anderson.