MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'david brooks'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:23:46 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4709191&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHNuexYBc_74%2F By Edward H. CraneBrad Thompson’s excellent new book, Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea, adroitly dissects this pernicious political philosophy.  He has received some criticism for attempting to demonstrate that Leo Strauss, the philosophical godfather of so many neocons, had a certain sympathy with fascism.  Indeed, while stating that he is not saying neoconservatives have fascist designs, Thompson does suggest that their philosophy could pave the way to a kind of “soft fascism.”  Far be it from me to pass judgment on such academic debate, but it is interesting to consider the following from the noted neocon columnist for the New York Times, David Brooks, writing in that paper on March 10: Citizenship, after all, is built on an awareness that we are not all that special bu... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4709191 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:09:54 +0100 4709191 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214073&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5L2v_lHsIBE%2F By Justin LoganWith America in trouble, I’ve been pleased to see some fresh, innovative thinking emanating from Washington.  What can brighten the country’s future? Anne Applebaum proposes that Institutions should do what they are good at. And the expansion of NATO is one of the few true post-Cold-War foreign-policy success stories… We could continue that process. The stakes are lower — 2010 is not 1990, and the countries outside NATO are poorer and more turbulent than even those that have recently joined. Nevertheless, the very existence of a credible Western military alliance remains — yes, really — an encouragement to others on Europe’s borders. This is a uniquely propitious moment. Right now there is a pro-Western government in Moldova; Ukraine&#8217... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214073 Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:42:17 +0100 4214073 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3987040&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHRUzTOLGVtg%2F By Edward H. CraneI hope you missed David Brooks’ New York Times column recently extolling the virtues of excruciating pain.  The op-ed, entitled, “A Case for Mental Courage,” is Brooks at his depressing, neocon worst.  He starts out by describing in way too much detail the agony Fanny Burney, a early 19th century novelist, experienced when she had a mastectomy without anesthesia.  “I then felt the Knife rackling against the breastbone…” and so on.  Thanks for sharing, David, but, really, why?  Well, because it turns out that heroism is to be found “in the ability to face unpleasant thoughts.”  Hmmm.  The underlying major problem that afflicts our nation, says Brooks, is that capitalism has undermined the idea that people are “inherently sinful.”  Our culture &#... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3987040 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:54:09 +0100 3987040 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3723305&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Falcoholics-anonymous%2F2010.07.03 To further emphasize my admiration for superb sci/med/health writing, I wish to add another writer to my growing blog category of “Journalists, Awesome.” Via my drug abuse research colleague, DrugMonkey, my attention was drawn to a new Wired magazine article by Brendan I. Koerner entitled, Secret of AA: After 75 Years, We Don’t Know How It Works. I strongly recommend this long-form article for anyone in the field of substance abuse and dependence research, psychology and general clinical research, students of excellent science writing, alcoholics and their family members, and anyone who thinks that good science writing no longer exists. I don’t want to influence your views any further, other than to say that since I poured my first whiskey and water for my grandmoth... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3723305 Sat, 03 Jul 2010 18:00:01 +0100 3723305 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3552220&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLVlPYQ_3Wxs%2F By Walter Olson Confirmation hearings are a “vapid and hollow charade”, or at least that’s what Elena Kagan wrote fifteen years ago. National Review Online invited me to contribute to a symposium on how Republican senators can keep the coming hearings from becoming such a charade, with results that can be found here. The First Amendment has been among Kagan’s leading scholarly interests, and yesterday in this space Ilya Shapiro raised interesting questions of whether she will make an strong guardian of free speech values. Eugene Volokh looks at her record and guesses that she might wind up adopting a middling position similar to that of Justice Ginsburg. As Radley Balko and Jacob Sullum have noted, the departing John Paul Stevens ran up at best a mixed record on Fir... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3552220 Tue, 11 May 2010 15:28:11 +0100 3552220 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092676&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9vKPzLRzIV4%2F By Justin LoganMatt Yglesias puts down the bloody shirt long enough to make the modest-on-its-face claim that “actions, not words, will clarify Obama’s foreign policy.”  I don’t think that’s quite right. In one sense, of course, it is.  For the bean counters among us, the outcomes are the real metric: whether the United States remains the sole superpower on the planet; whether a diplomatic resolution can be reached with Iran; whether Obama can (assuming he has has any intention to) get our military out of Iraq; whether his spun-like-cotton-candy Afghanistan policy can stabilize that sorry land — these are the things we’ll be looking at. But the more important thing in the short term for Obama is probably to slake the nearly-unquenchable thirst of... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092676 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:32:53 +0100 3092676 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832126&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fkxa7BYDn-mA%2F Would you buy a state-building mission from this man? Today David Brooks (in the role of Teddy Roosevelt) debates George Will (as Edmund Burke) on the subject of Afghanistan without citing him.  This debate marks a high point of conservative politics where neoconservative ideology appears in concrete clarity. First, Brooks makes clear that he is not interested in merely managing the problem of terrorism, but rather in “prevailing” in the war in Afghanistan.  He argues that “only the full counterinsurgency doctrine offers a chance of success,” but then proceeds to absurdly define population-centric counterinsurgency doctrine as one in which “small groups of American men and women are outside the wire in dangerous places in remote valleys, providing security, ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832126 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:11:52 +0100 2832126 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2788502&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyeCxe6_APHo%2F On the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and D.C., things are going much better than most of us dared hope in the initial aftermath of that horrible day.  We’re still a secure, prosperous, and relatively free country, and the fear-poisoned atmosphere that governed American politics for years after 9/11 has thankfully receded. Not everyone’s thankful, however.  Boisterous cable gabber Glenn Beck laments the return to normalcy. The website for Beck’s “9/12 Project” waxes nostalgic for the day after the worst terrorist attack in American history, a time when “We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the greatest nation ever created.” Beck’s purpose with the Project?  “We want to get everyone thinking like it is September... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2788502 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:07:00 +0100 2788502 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2452395&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtVm3JjDxU_U%2F David Brooks comes in for his share of criticism in these parts, but he has a very astute column today about the ways that government ownership will worsen an already problematic corporate culture at a once-great company: Fifth, G.M.’s executives and unions now have an incentive to see Washington as a prime revenue center. Already, the union has successfully lobbied to move production centers back from overseas. Already, the company has successfully sought to restrict the import of cars that might compete with G.M. brands. In the years ahead, G.M.’s management will have a strong incentive to spend time in Washington, urging the company’s owner, the federal government, to issue laws to help it against Ford and Honda. Sixth, the new plan will create an ever-thickening set of relationsh... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2452395 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:35:01 +0100 2452395 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2447668&cid=t_174006_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F05%2F31%2Fbrooks-on-the-situation-of-judging%2F New York Times columnnist David Brooks had a nice op-ed, “The Empathy Issue,” picking up some of the themes in the recent op-ed by Situationist Contributors Adam Benforado and Jon Hanson.  Here are some excerpts. * * * The American legal system is based on a useful falsehood. It’s based on the falsehood that this is a nation of laws, not men; that in rendering decisions, disembodied, objective judges are able to put aside emotion and unruly passion and issue opinions on the basis of pure reason. * * * Supreme Court justices, like all of us, are emotional intuitionists. They begin their decision-making processes with certain models in their heads. These are models of how the world works and should work, which have been idiosyncratically ingrained by genes, culture, education... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2447668 Sun, 31 May 2009 04:01:46 +0100 2447668 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2364922&cid=t_174006_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkfDZ8RxMauE%2F Cleveland Park, an upscale neighborhood here in the District of Columbia, might be the last place you would expect appeals to the principles of the free market.  It is, after all, the home of what David Brooks once called ”Ward Three Morality,” an outlook that celebrates government control of the economy. But not always. Recently an entrepreneur proposed opening a new wine store in Cleveland Park. He sought the support of the advisory neighborhood commission, a local government board, before making his case for a liquor license to DC’s Alcohol Beverage Control Board.  The most serious opposition to the entrepreneur’s plans seems to have come from an existing wine store nearby. According to its attorney, the existing wine store was “a beloved extension of t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2364922 Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:09:53 +0100 2364922 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1661199&cid=t_174006_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F348791756%2F A few colleagues and I just had an interesting exchange on the recent article at The Atlantic, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, which basically blamed Google for literally rewiring our brains into more stupid brains (not being able to pay attention, read deep books...) based on a number of personal anecdotes and a little research.  My 2 cents: this is a complex topic and we'd first need to clarify the question, before looking for answers to support or refute it. I found the Atlantic article superficial for a meaningful conversation, with its title and main premise making little sense: Google can not makes us stupid, in the same way that guns don't make us violent or pens don't make us good writers. The author of the article complains about having less of a number of cognitive abilities than... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1661199 Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:37:32 +0100 1661199 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1419340&cid=t_174006_109_f&fid=35677&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainBasedBusiness%2F%7E3%2F283357164%2Fbe_wary_of_proustian_memory_bu.html According to New York Times’ columnist David Brooks … the work place is bombarded with “colossal Proustian memory bullies who get 1,800 pages of recollection out of a mere cookie bite.”Have you seen it where you work or socialize?If intelligence consisted of fact storage alone … then these memory bullies win hands down. So why do we question their brainpower?  It's actually quite simple. Research has changed what it means to be clever. We live in a time when knowledge acceleration means more facts to race through more minds in less time. Memory bullies have intimidated others for a long time, though. They’re the colossal extraverts … who ask questions about far-flung facts they’ve studied and … show others up... BrainBasedBusiness blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1419340 Sun, 04 May 2008 16:21:20 +0100 1419340 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1305842&cid=t_174006_99_f&fid=35344&url=http%3A%2F%2Fzackarysholemberger.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F03%2Fmedicosocial-misfits.html I wish David Brooks' column on people with rank-link imbalances (i.e. those with "all of the social skills required to improve their social rank, but none of the social skills that lead to genuine bonding") didn't seem to apply so strongly to a number of people I know in medicine. Unfortunately, success in the profession of medicine requires social rank - but success in the craft of medicine (patient care!) requires genuine bonding. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1305842 Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:23:00 +0100 1305842