Part I

False Analogy
“Modern medicine affords patients a level of care unparalleled by anything this world has ever seen. International epidemics and chronic disease are being fought and resolved with elegantly engineered pharmaceuticals. Artificial prostheses are now more efficient than their natural analogs and their surgical implantation has become safe and routine. Computer-controlled robotics have made their way into the operating room, and French surgeons in Paris can perform procedures requiring minute detail on an American patients in New York with the aid of satellites. All of these impossible, science fiction-esque developments in medicine are actively being expanded and implemented into treatment on a daily basis. Yet millions of Americans today still struggle with the idea of healthcare in terms of the big picture.”
I was a bit carried away with this one. While the “facts” preceding the ultimate statement are related to medicine, they are not really related to the administration of the healthcare industry. I will most likely just drop this entire passage instead of trying to fix it.

Biased Language
“With the failed government subsidies haunting in the past, new looks at how the government’s partial control of the healthcare industry will pan out suggest an uncertain future. Social Security is a powerful example illustrating how similar plans can backfire when controlled by federal policy makers.”
Although the point made in this excerpt is valid, the words “failed” and “haunting” describing previous government subsidies reflect a bias in language. This can be easily edited by either completely removing these adjectives or replacing them with less powerful words.

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Part II

Th only free-standing text my poster is going to feature is the “Preventative Medicine” clause found in HR3590, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This will be located in the upper center of the poster. For each segment, I will create a visual representation of preventative medicine before the current legislation, one of the state of preventative medicine currently, and a proposed depiction of what preventative medicine will be like in the immediate the future following the full implementation of the preventative medicine clause in HR3590. Features will include tables and graphs of preventable disease incidence, CDC pamphlets, and other similar data.

* I completely forgot about this assignment until I glanced at my day-planner just now, I apologize

Putting together the presentation for my research question made me realize that my topic was still too broad and that I needed to narrow down the focus of my paper even further than I had anticipated. As well, the presentation allowed me to organize my thoughts into a more manageable format; this was useful because my research now has more direction and my argument is easier to follow.

The questions asked about my presentation in general helped reinforce the notion that my topic needed to be more focused. The question about the incorporation of “Elmo” in my presentation was helpful because it allowed me to reflect upon the larger implications of a cultural icon seemingly unimportant to my research topic.

Sigmond, Robert M. “Learning From The Ghost Of Healthcare Past.” Healthcare Forum Journal 38.6 (1995): 14-20. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 12 Oct. 2010.

Aruguete, Mara and Tyrene Nixon. “Healthcare Attitudes, Knowledge, And Decision Making.” North American Journal of Psychology 12.2 (2010): 355-364. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 12 Oct. 2010.

Hyman, David. “Follow The Money; Money Matters In Healthcare, Just Like In Everything Else.” American Journal of Law and Medicine 36.2-36.3 (2010): 370-388. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 12 Oct. 2010.

Tumulthy, Karen. “The Five Big Healthcare Dilemmas.” Time 23 (2009): 24-27. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 12 Oct. 2010.

Healy, Bernadine. “Health Reform’s Effect On You.” US News And World Report 146.1 (2009): 24-28. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 12 Oct 2010.

For the research topic of current United States healthcare reform policy and implementation, the above listed sources will serve primarily as accounts of alternative perspectives on the issues addressed in the legislation itself, which will serve as the primary resource for the research.
At this point in time, the most useful source listed above is the article from the American Journal of Law and Medicine, which is an extensive article discussing the primary factor in healthcare today- money.

What Stallybrass means in his declaration, “you are not, nor should you be, the origin of your own thoughts (anymore than the origin of your own voice),” is that thought itself is inherently dependent upon the observation and study of pre-existing ideas and concepts introduced by others. That is to say, no individual idea can be spontaneously generated; there must be a preceding impression.

With respect to a research project, this tidbit holds true in that no thorough research can exist without a strong foundation of precursive evidence or ideas with which to formulate a new thought or perspective.

Research topic;
I am interested in researching current healthcare reform policy and its implementation in the United States because I want to specifically find out what are the strengths and weaknesses of American healthcare; this is important to me because, as a future physician, I will be facing these issues every day and would greatly benefit from a deeper understanding of the pros and cons of the system under which I will be practicing medicine.

Questions to consider;
1. Is the topic of current American healthcare reform policy too broad to be effectively discussed in one paper?

2. To what degree can current changes be studied, given their recent implementation?

3. Is it possible to remain impartial in arguing a case that has been traditionally rooted in political partisanship?

The only solid fact that can be gleaned from the Enola Gay Smithsonian exhibit controversy is that different groups have contradistinctive perspectives with respect to events in the past. As far as the specifics of this particular situation are concerned, both sides of the argument as to how the exhibit should have been portrayed are clearly logical and well developed, yet significantly charged emotionally in their own respects.

To modern day college students, the pathos of the original plan for the exhibit would probably have the most appeal as compared to the “official story” generated by the war veterans and government representatives through the letter correspondences archived in the Air Force Association’s Enola Gay data base. This is not to say, however, that the perspective of the war veterans is “unethical” or “biased”; rather, it suggests that particular experiences shape conceptions of events.

When taking into consideration such a delicate topic as war, conflicting opinions will undoubtedly emerge. In this, it is inherently illogical to allow a partisan group involved with a particular event to essentially dictate the historical context of an exhibit on display in a museum for the general public. The Japanese Times article sums up this idea brilliantly, as it completely ignores the internal controversy involving the exhibit, portraying it as simply “a failed attempt” (to exhibit the effects of the bomb).

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/cto/1948636742.html

The link provided opens a listing for the Washington DC area craigslist web page for classified listings of vehicles for sale.

The official story for this particular car, a 2000 Land Rover Discovery Series II SE7, is that the car is in excellent condition and is under auction from the “fist owner after corporate lease”.

Upon requesting information from the seller through e-mail, I obtained the vehicle’s VIN number and ran a search for accident reports (I also ran a carfax report on the vehicle).

While the owner declared his own official story of the car’s history, I discovered that the car had been involved in two accidents in the past ten years, one of which would have left significant damage to the hood area, resulting in major repairs and mechanical problems. As well, this was the thrid owner.

Essentially, this goes to show that an official story does not necessarily have to come in a particular format.

This particular appointment book of Frederick Douglass reveals much about his daily schedule for the year of 1867 (marked in the upper left corner of the first entry), and also suggests several considerations about his character and behavior in general.

By simply looking at the photograph images of the book’s pages, a lot can be observed about how Douglass scheduled himself and how he managed his time. The planner seems to be organized into two-page increments- the first in series containing dates, places, and sometimes short jottings, and the second containing additional space for lengthier notes.

Perhaps most revealing of his personality is that while the pages containing dates are consistently filled almost entirely with places and events, the supplementary notes pages are completely lacking in information. In fact, many of these pages are left blank.

What this implies about Douglass is that he was able to keep track of the details of his daily schedule and arrangements in his head- which would have been no simple task, given that he travelled for weeks on end with no break.

New questions that could arise from further study of this planner might investigate the nature of this frequent traveling of Douglass and what specifically was accomplished on each trip, as the planner does not specify.