Thanks for the reply.

Regarding the karma thing, since the server in these email return addresses is the same url as the websites these spammers want me to visit, I’m pretty sure this isn’t a case of email spoofing as the wikipedia article you mention describes it. Therefore, I’ll stand by my Karma comments.

Again thanks for reading and for your input.

Cheers,

That’s a great name…or un-name, I should say!

When I was in vet school I adopted a puppy from a litter of orphans born at the school. The student who had delivered them was from Cuba and these puppies received their names from her as they were born. The one I adopted was named “Uno.”

He was a great dog.

It’s funny, as a vet I often saw animals die and often had to perform euthanasia. As a result I had become somewhat hardened by the process. I never really thought I’d be affected too much when Uno died. I was wrong.

When he died, I felt like I had lost a beloved family member and I sobbed tremendously. My eyes are actually welling up just a little right now as I write this.

I miss Uno. He was a great dog.

I always like hearing interesting stories about how people name their kids or pets, etc.

Hi Bob,

I couldn’t agree more!

Happy Trails,

Hi Danielle,

I don’t recall seeing those warnings at the gas station, but I suppose that’s another good example.

As far as the cronyism you express concern about, I assume you mean “How would you guard against physicians sitting in a jury finding a fellow physician innocent of malpractice simply because they are buddies?”

Please let me know if you meant something else.

Basically, what it would mostly boil down to is professionalism.

Physicians are professionals. A profession is different than just a job. It is a calling. It is in a physicians professional interest to expose true malpractice and incompetent physicians.

Unfortunately, physicians are also human. Further, the concept of professionalism over all has been significantly eroded in our society, particularly in the past 50 years or so. This erosion has not bypassed the medical profession, though I personally do think it has not penetrated it quite as far yet as it has other professions.

Given the above, your concern is a valid one.

I think probably the best way to guard against this is the same way that it is guarded against in other jury trials, including the military courts martial system, in which a “Jury of ones peers” is not synonymous with a “Jury of ones friends.”

There are almost a million physicians in the U.S.

Simply select a jury pool composed of physicians who are not acquainted with the accused. This would not be hard.

I currently practice on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This is a fairly low population density area where “everybody knows everybody else”, and yet there are hundreds upon hundreds of physicians within 50 miles of me whom I’ve never met or ever had any contact with.

Coming up with a jury composed of 9 or 12 local physicians whom I’ve never met and would share absolutely no sense of cronyism with, even ones in my particular specialty of family medicine, would be a piece of cake. I think it would be even easier in more heavily populated areas.

In extremely rural areas, the trial could simply be moved to another venue.

Alternatively, all trials could be held in the state capital, overseen by the state board of medical examiners, with a jury pool selected from an area of the state that is entirely different from where the accused is in practice.

Being a member of the potential jury pool for such courts could simply be made a condition of licensing for physicians, and during the jury selection phase, legal council for both sides would have the opportunity to question potential jurors to vet out potential conflicts of interest and excuse inappropriate jurors from the trial. Obviously any physician being less than honest during this vetting process (for the purpose of trying to get on the jury so he can practice some cronyism) would be exposing himself to criminal prosecution for perjury, the punishment for which should be extremely severe in my opinion in order to discourage this crime.

These are all just ideas off the top of my head.

In any case, I don’t think cronyism would be a particularly hard thing to guard against.

Hope this answers your question adequately. Let me know if not.

Cheers,

Hi Todd,

Sorry to hear about your problems.

One suggestion I might make (although I don’t think it, or anything else for that matters sounds very likely to solve your problems), is that you first read the entire post you just responded to, as well as the other comments.

Then, ask you wife to do the same.

I said I wasn’t going to do this, but I’ll break my promise here and say this one more time. I’ll even use the annoying caps-lock shouting technique, in case that will help anyone’s reading comprehension.

I DIDN’T SEND THIS FAX TO YOU!!!

I DIDN’T SEND THIS FAX TO ANYONE!!!

SOME ASS-HAT CANADIAN SENT THIS FAX TO THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF FOLKS ALL OVER NORTH AMERICA!!!

I MAY BE AN ASS-HAT, BUT I’M NOT CANADIAN AND I’M NOT THE ASS-HAT WHO SPAMMED FAX MACHINES ACROSS NORTH AMERICA WITH THIS STUPIDITY!!!

I WAS SENT THIS FAX BY THE SAME ASS-HAT AND MY BLOG POST WAS SIMPLY COMMENTING ON THAT FACT!!!

Check your fax machine. The free samples should be coming over in just a little while!

Have fun,