Things you find in a closet

Farewell, Bill Moyers. Happy Retirement!

Bill Moyers sadly signed off for the last time at The Journal this past Friday. This quote is from that show:

Ed Murrow told his generation of journalists bias is okay as long as you don't try to hide it. So here, one more time, is mine: plutocracy and democracy don't mix. Plutocracy, the rule of the rich, political power controlled by the wealthy.

Plutocracy is not an American word but it's become an American phenomenon. - Bill Moyers, from his final broadcast at The Journal

Thank you, Mr. Moyers. Farewell!

Cure for PTSD - Good or Bad?

With nothing more than a little prick in the neck, post-traumatic stress disorder can be mostly cured, making it possible for soldiers to endure the horrors of combat without any of the lasting side-effects that should - ya know, in an ideal world - help to prevent such horrors from ever taking place.

But a small new study out of Walter Reed Army Medical Center might offer more than temporary relief — with nothing more than a quick jab to the neck.

It’s a procedure called stellate ganglion block (STB), and involves injecting local anesthetic into a bundle of nerves located in the neck. The bundle are a locus for the sympathetic nervous system, which regulates the body’s “fight-or-flight” stress response.

I'm all for helping soldiers ease their suffering, but this seems like a panacea to the Pentagon, one that could make them more likely to send soldiers into harms way since they don't have to worry about any lingering post-combat side-effects.