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Psychological Treatment and Understanding Depression and Anxiety
An inhabitant of the variegated landscape of experience is pain. Within this landscape, physical pain has location, distribution, coloration, brightness, sharpness, intensity, duration, and slope. Physical pain has texture and flavor. Pain signals injury, damage, threat, imbalance, dysfunction. Pain informs attention and correction of the cause of pain through feedback. The mitigation of pain guides…
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What’s next with Covid-19?
My prognostication that Covid-19 infections would abate by early November was wrong. The prediction assumed that herd immunity required 40 to 60 percent of the population to be immune for the virus to find fewer hosts and trail off. The estimate assumed that some groups would be affected less than others due to self-quarantine and…
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Fixing the Broken Branch
The Legislative branch represents the voice of the people and the states. Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution vests all legislative powers in Congress. Neither the President nor the Supreme Court possess legislative authority. This is a central tenet of the separation of powers between the departments of the federal government. To fulfill its…
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Light at the End of the Covid-19 Tunnel
The US Covid-19 pandemic may soon abate. A typical pattern of deaths from Covid-19 within a confined geographic/demographic boundary is characterized by rapid increase of deaths during a 4 to 6-week period followed by gradual decline during a 12 to 14-week period to near baseline. Deaths follow infections from 2.5 to 4-weeks, so rising infections…
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The Covid-19 Debate
Americans are divided over the distribution and severity of the Covid-19 virus. A wide swath of Americans view the virus as a variant of flu with its dire effects greatly overstated. On the other hand, mainstream public health officials and establishment media emphasize the dangers and risks of the virus and its threat to health…
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Covid-19 Present and Future Prospects
Public health recommendations to limit the spread of Covid-19 are social distancing, avoiding crowds, reducing exposure to closed spaces with recirculation, hand washing, and wearing masks. These are all good. However, often absent in recommendations is an important variable that bears upon the importance of these measures. The variable is the frequency of current infections…
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Some Survival Guidelines for Covid-19
Recent Covid-19 research and news has been mixed. The US Covid-19 death rate has fallen to roughly one percent from the previous 2 to 3 percent due to better treatments, increased testing, and a younger population. That’s good news. However, follow-up of recovered persons reveals about half with long-term damage to lungs, heart, kidneys, blood…
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Streamlining the Executive Branch of the United States
The US Constitution is brilliant for its simplicity and eloquence: The Legislative branch makes laws expressing the will of the people that embody different geographies, industries, and demographics; the Executive branch executes the will of the Legislature as defined by law; and the Judicial branch hears grievances about conflicts that arise from the constitutionality, legitimacy,…
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George Floyd and America’s Collective Unconscious
The protests centered upon the death of George Floyd are fed by a deeper stream of discontent. The discontent is not specific to any one issue, but by multiple inconsistencies with democracy and touted American values. Fundamental premises that underlie the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator…
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Karma, Fate, & God’s Will
The Hindus and Buddhists seem to believe that the universe is essentially an orderly place, and that in the human condition, the person’s initial social position, temperament, dispositions, abilities, and net positive and negative circumstances derive from past actions. So far so good, but because the universe is not only orderly, but also fair, the…
Inquiry & Opinion