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	<title>optoblog.com &#187; politics</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.optoblog.com/tag/politics/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.optoblog.com</link>
	<description>Personal Opinion Blog of David Langford</description>
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	<copyright>2005-2010 </copyright>
	<managingEditor>editor@optoblog.com (David Langford, O.D.)</managingEditor>
	<webMaster>editor@optoblog.com (David Langford, O.D.)</webMaster>
	<category>Optometry</category>
	<ttl>1440</ttl>
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		<title>optoblog.com &#187; politics</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com</link>
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	<itunes:subtitle>OPTOBLOG&#62;COM is an optometry news blog- info related to optometric research, equipment, products, and practice.</itunes:subtitle>
	<itunes:summary>Optometry News Blog- info related to optometric research, equipment, products, and practice.</itunes:summary>
	<itunes:keywords>Optometrist, Optometry, vision, eye, ophthalmic, ophthalmology, optometric, practice, Walmart</itunes:keywords>
	<itunes:category text="Science &#38; Medicine">
		<itunes:category text="Medicine" />
	</itunes:category>
	<itunes:category text="Health" />
	<itunes:category text="Business">
		<itunes:category text="Management &#38; Marketing" />
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	<itunes:author>David Langford, O.D.</itunes:author>
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		<itunes:name>David Langford, O.D.</itunes:name>
		<itunes:email>editor@optoblog.com</itunes:email>
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		<item>
		<title>Congressmen, VOTE NO on Healthcare Takeover</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2010/03/18/congressmen-vote-no-on-healthcare-takeover/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2010/03/18/congressmen-vote-no-on-healthcare-takeover/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:55:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[off topic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=845</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What Obama and Pelosi and Reid and the democrats are doing with the &#8220;Healthcare Bill&#8221; is not reform, it is a full speed statist takeover. It is so far removed from our U.S. Constitution that it should have gone through the constitutional amendment process instead of an &#8220;up or down vote,&#8221; let alone exploring to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What Obama and Pelosi and Reid and the democrats are doing with the &#8220;Healthcare Bill&#8221; is not reform, it is a full speed statist takeover.  It is so far removed from our U.S. Constitution that it should have gone through the  constitutional amendment process instead of an &#8220;up or down vote,&#8221; let alone exploring to &#8220;deem and pass.&#8221;</p>
<p>We have a bunch of leftists running our country and Americans won&#8217;t tolerate the erroding of their rights any longer.  Congressmen, for those of you who vote Yes on this monstrosity there will be consequences.  There is cause and effect.  You are free to choose, but you are not free to pick the consequence of your choices.  God rewards good for good and bad for evil.  You will be held accountable.</p>
<p>Citizens, vote out of office any congressmen who votes for the healthcare takeover.  Refuse to employ any ousted congressmen who voted yes.  Refuse to support any group or organization that pays those ousted congressmen to speak or write books.  May their names be a hiss and a byword for generations.  May God forgive you because we won&#8217;t.  Anyone who seeks to take away the liberty of our entire nation deserves no respect from Americans.</p>
<p>America, you are beginning to wake up from a hundred year sleep.  While you were sleeping, progressive thought has entrenched itself in every fabric of our government and society.  Our children are being trained to be liberal-by-default in our schools, by our media, and even by ourselves-because we were trained liberal-by-default also.  Today we are a world away from what the Founders implemented and what made our country the greatest in the world.</p>
<p>Pride cometh before the fall.  Please, America.  We must humble ourselves.  We must retrain in correct principles.  We the people must have faith, hope, and charity.</p>
<p>I invite everyone to read: the <a href="http://www.inspiredconstitution.org/jh_cff/appendix_2.html">Declaration of Independence</a>, <a href="http://www.inspiredconstitution.org/jh_cff/appendix_3.html">The Constitution</a>, <a href="http://www.skousen2000.com/political%20products/fivethousand.htm">The 5000 Year Leap</a>, <a href="http://www.skousen2000.com/political%20products/making.htm">The Making of America</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&#038;keywords=1416562850&#038;tag=thmalesh-20&#038;index=blended&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325">Liberty and Tyranny</a>, and the <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/">Scriptures</a>.</p>
<p>I invite everyone to listen to <a href="http://www.glennbeck.com/">Glenn Beck</a>, <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com">Rush Limbaugh</a>, and other liberty-loving commentators.</p>
<p>Next week I am participating in a caucus to choose a candidate who will appear in the primary.  Probably very few readers have ever gone to a caucus.  It will be my first time also.  We can no longer afford to let others choose our candidates.  We the people need to seek out those that will adhere to the principles of liberty and the Constitution.  I invite everyone to find out their state&#8217;s election/caucus process (<a href="http://www.utahrising.com">Utahns click here</a>).  We can&#8217;t wait to get involved in the November elections or even during the primary elections.  Now is the time!</p>
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		<title>Answers to Your Search Questions Part 3</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/12/23/answers-to-your-search-questions-part-3/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/12/23/answers-to-your-search-questions-part-3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:27:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Answers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EHR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jokes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optometrist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=631</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In Answers to Your Search Questions Part 1 and Part 2, I improved by search juice and answered the questions that seem to be on everyone&#8217;s mind. Well, I&#8217;ve done it yet again. There seems to be no end to all the inquiring minds out there. Just to review, I know what IP address you [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In Answers to Your Search Questions <a href="http://www.optoblog.com/2009/02/02/answers-to-your-search-questions-%e2%80%93-part-1/">Part 1</a> and <a href="http://www.optoblog.com/2009/02/04/answers-to-your-search-questions-%e2%80%93-part-2/">Part 2</a>, I improved by search juice and answered the questions that seem to be on everyone&#8217;s mind.</p>
<p>Well, I&#8217;ve done it yet again.  There seems to be no end to all the inquiring minds out there.  Just to review, I know what IP address you have and the URL that was in your address bar just before coming to my website.  A search URL contains the search term that you used.</p>
<ol>
<li>&#8220;is Crizal worth the extra expense&#8221; &#8211; That depends.  The original Crizal, Crizal Alize, Crizal Alize&#8217; with ClearGuard, Crizal Avance&#8217; with Scotchgard, or the next one that they come out with 6 months after you buy the one available now.</li>
<li>&#8220;satan&#8217;s plan&#8221; &#8211;  This search term was by someone from Lagos, Nigeria, Africa. (It directed them to <a href="http://www.optoblog.com/2006/02/14/satans-plan-in-utah-state-legislature/">this post</a>.)  Lemme splain.  In pre-earth life, Jesus wanted us to have the freedom to choose to follow Heavenly Father and obtain Eternal life.  Those who don&#8217;t obey God&#8217;s will and never repent would be lost.  Those who disobey (all of us) would need a Savior in order to be worthy enough to enter into God&#8217;s presence again.  Well, the Son of the Morning didn&#8217;t like that.  Satan, wanted us all to be forced to choose God and obey His commands so that none of God&#8217;s children would be lost.  It&#8217;s kind of like liberals vs. conservatives when you think about it.</li>
<li>&#8220;what scanner should you use with officemate&#8221; &#8211; If you are going to scan, go big.  You will not regret buying a fast document scanner like the Fujitsu 6130.  I used to have a slow HP ScanJet N6010.  It lasted two years and died.  I wasted so much time waiting for files to scan.  With my Fujitsu, waiting is a thing of the past.  Let&#8217;s say you get an EOB that you want to scan into OfficeMate.  You pull up the patient&#8217;s file, select the eDocuments tab, and then press scan.  It will scan duplex, then you hit complete, and you&#8217;re done.  Fast, fast, fast.  Plus mine came with Acrobat 9 Standard.</li>
<li>&#8220;nbeo optometry review notes&#8221; &#8211; I just wanted to bring this up because I&#8217;m so glad I&#8217;m done with school and boards.</li>
<li>&#8220;how to recharge pachmate dgh55&#8243; &#8211; I&#8217;m thinking you should read the owners manual.  If you don&#8217;t like keeping dead trees around, then scan it into a pdf with your Fujitsu scanner.</li>
<li>&#8220;stylish medicaid frames&#8221; &#8211; NO SUCH THING</li>
<li>&#8220;screening acute angle glaucoma with mydriasis with pen light in pcp office&#8221; &#8211; Yah, so what I think they want to know is before they dilate somebody, what&#8217;s the likelihood that they give them an angle closure pressure spike.  I believe that should be in the manual for your nifty <a href="http://www.optoblog.com/2005/09/08/diabetics-dont-need-eye-exams/">DigiScope</a>.  Someone in Maryland should just refer to their local optometrist.</li>
<li>&#8220;best way for optometrist to get FDA job&#8221; &#8211; I&#8217;m pretty sure you can get any government job you want by contributing enough money to the DNC.  If you&#8217;re not a trust fund child, then I would spend loads of money to attend optometry school, study hard, work hard, graduate, and join the rest of America in the unemployment line.</li>
<li>&#8220;optometrists are stupid&#8221; &#8211; Someone in Alameda, CA was having a bad day.</li>
<li>&#8220;crack officemate&#8221; &#8211; Some web surfer in Indiana needs a crack for Officemate.  Let&#8217;s see, I&#8217;m pretty sure stealing around $6000 for the initial year and ~$1400 per year after that could be considered enough to get you in trouble with the state optometry board.  I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s worth it.  If you can&#8217;t afford it, do yourself a favor and try something else.  Or, like I&#8217;ve said before, if you&#8217;re willing to crack expensive, niche software, then why stop there?  Robbing banks and pimping can &#8220;earn&#8221; you boat loads of tax-free money.</li>
<li>&#8220;average christmas bonus for optometrist&#8221; &#8211; Let&#8217;s see.  Um, try about $0.00</li>
<li>&#8220;pronounce similasan&#8221; &#8211; put the emphasis over the second &#8220;i&#8221; and then say the rest really fast.  sim-IL-uhsahn.  Or call their consumer information line, 1-800-240-9780, and they say it on the recorded message.</li>
<li>&#8220;Biofinity review&#8221; &#8211; This is by far the most searched term by people coming to my website from google and yahoo.  Seriously, why don&#8217;t you just try it for a week or two?  If you don&#8217;t like it, then try something else!  These lenses could work great for you and terrible for someone else- or vice versa.  It&#8217;s like asking other people if a certain brand or size of orthotic shoe insert works good.</li>
</ol>
<p>I&#8217;m here to help.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>I Told You So about InfantSee</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/12/20/i-told-you-so-about-infantsee/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/12/20/i-told-you-so-about-infantsee/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:33:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[InfantSee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Organized Optometry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=624</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[InfantSee: Optometry&#8217;s Contribution to Socialism! InfantSee: The AOA loves BIG GOVERNMENT! InfantSee: Baby Steps towards Communism! Earlier I discussed InfantSee here and here. Now, it turns out the AOA has secured federal tax dollars for InfantSee. I don&#8217;t mind charity, but let me choose the charities to which I desire to give of my property. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>InfantSee: Optometry&#8217;s Contribution to Socialism!<br />
InfantSee: The AOA loves BIG GOVERNMENT!<br />
InfantSee: Baby Steps towards Communism!</p>
<p>Earlier I discussed InfantSee <a href="http://www.optoblog.com/2005/11/01/aoas-infantsee-is-a-big-fat-liberal-plot/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.optoblog.com/2005/06/21/infantseetm-leaves-me-scratching-my-head/">here</a>.</p>
<p>Now, it turns out the AOA has secured <a href="http://newsfromaoa.org/2009/12/18/aoa-secures-new-federal-recognition-and-funding-for-infantsee%C2%AE-program/">federal tax dollars for InfantSee</a>.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t mind charity, but let me choose the charities to which I desire to give of my property.  Giving all my money to the government and letting them redistribute it is the opposite of freedom.  I am not going to participate in InfantSee.  If I were a member of the AOA, I would demand that Optometry’s Charity™ – The AOA Foundation return all tax dollars to the government.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Myopia from 1971 to 2004</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/12/17/myopia-from-1971-to-2004/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/12/17/myopia-from-1971-to-2004/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:51:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[myopia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=607</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So the NIH sponsored a study published in Archives of Ophthalmology about myopia prevalence and severity over about 30 years. Bloomberg tries to pin it on texting and web surfing, quoting the lead author of the study for a reference. And why not blame computers since no one used them back in 1971? But it&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So the NIH sponsored a <a href="http://archopht.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/127/12/1632?home">study published in Archives of Ophthalmology</a> about myopia prevalence and severity over about 30 years.  <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&#038;sid=al6maBDidAb8">Bloomberg</a> tries to pin it on texting and web surfing, quoting the lead author of the study for a reference.  And why not blame computers since no one used them back in 1971?  But it&#8217;s funny how the full text of the study doesn&#8217;t even mention texting or web surfing.</p>
<p>So&#8230;no one thinks that genetics could possibly be a bigger factor than near point stress?  People in the 70s didn&#8217;t read or something?  Isn&#8217;t the prevalence of many diseases increasing since our ability to treat them is increasing, like type 1 diabetes?  Here&#8217;s what struck me from the study:</p>
<blockquote><p>A review [of the literature] concluded that increasing levels of education combined with possible genetic susceptibility are likely to be responsible for the reported increases in the prevalence of myopia.</p></blockquote>
<p><em>Possible genetic susceptibility</em>???  Umm, let&#8217;s think about this.  The study acknowledges that myopia is easy to treat.  No one is being selected against because they can&#8217;t see stuff (enemy soldiers, criminals, dangerous obstacles, wild animals) since we correct those who care with glasses, contacts, and LASIK so they don&#8217;t get blindsided by those baddies.  There is no law or even a social mos stopping these myopic people from hooking up with others of their kind and breeding like rabbits. </p>
<p>There&#8217;s no doubt that near point stress contributes to some myopia, but when two myopes marry and have six kids, which plays the more important factor in myopia prevelance from 1970 to 2004?  Especially when today you could theoretically not even know your mate has contacts or LASIK until after you&#8217;re married.  (The glasses they had back in the 70s acted effectively as birth control.)</p>
<blockquote><p>Identifying modifiable risk factors for myopia could lead to the development of cost-effective interventional strategies.</p></blockquote>
<p>If people are really out there ringing their hands because they&#8217;re so fearful of their kid getting more than 1 diopter of myopia, how come more parents aren&#8217;t willing to pay the price for Ortho-K lenses?  Even still, the myopic gene is still there.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll tell you what attitude needs changing: that myopia is bad.  What&#8217;s wrong with it?  Sure, if the global warming Stalinists get their way and we return to human populations as they existed in 3000 B.C., then myopia will become a problem for those Post-Algore-and-John-Holdren survivors trying to muck out an existence without modern conveniences like ophthalmic lenses and iPods.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t need an intervention.  I can marry whomever I choose and not abort any babies.  You can throw away your laptop and iPhone if you want to.  You can keep your kids from going to school.  You can quit your job and become a prison tower guard  (the only career I could think of that has to look far away all day).  All I need are my Ciba Night and Day contacts, and I&#8217;m good.   </p>
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		<title>Optometrists and Labs Need Encrypted E-mail</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/11/21/optometrists-and-labs-need-encrypted-e-mail/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/11/21/optometrists-and-labs-need-encrypted-e-mail/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:15:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[HIPAA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optometrist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[patients]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=568</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[E-mail is awesome because you can send notes, pdf&#8217;s, and other files quickly and easily- except when you are a doctor. Since any script kiddie can sniff your e-mail inbox, doctors can&#8217;t send e-mails of cornea topographies to labs, referrals to colleagues, or special testing results to patients because that would be a breech of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>E-mail is awesome because you can send notes, pdf&#8217;s, and other files quickly and easily- except when you are a doctor.  Since any script kiddie can sniff your e-mail inbox, doctors can&#8217;t send e-mails of cornea topographies to labs, referrals to colleagues, or special testing results to patients because that would be a breech of patient confidentiality and a violation of that one unnecessary, burdensome law. <div id="attachment_598" class="wp-caption right" style="width: 160px"><a href="http://www.optoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Doctor-Dallin.jpg"><img align="middle" src="http://www.optoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Doctor-Dallin-150x150.jpg" alt="I protect patients by encrypting my e-mail!" title="Doctor-Dallin" width="150" height="150" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-598" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">I protect patients by encrypting my e-mail!</p></div> I&#8217;m sure George Q. Public doesn&#8217;t want his K-readings leaked to the press when he decides to run for President someday.</p>
<p>But seriously, sometimes birth dates and stuff are printed on the reports, so if doctors want to use this cool, new thing called &#8220;e-mail,&#8221; we&#8217;ve got to set-up our e-mails to have the capability to send and receive encrypted messages and attachments.  What does it look like? </p>
<blockquote><p>hQEQA+fCUifC1JYBEAALBTMH/14qvUP037oLntVx4WGUXl7b4+6NLQVDGNTD<br />
i6zZejhe2/AzCrNB1tLhUU9HNh70e4Wi1eIAj/08QFZvlTZY+F641HR4XsZd<br />
C6yAdvtsL8BCqcI0wJZQLXY7viioJiMz1cZW0w5fD81ld4acFgAi6Fbh9hUg<br />
J3w42fcoE9JdRSnVbrsNrMtO0mBlvGl2lYWzEQYvHA5uPmYLLETiRwLWxBgS<br />
L+ALi1MyvAK4VOoGQ44dmCOpbaKQ7IBG3SOfdDOR0f1ISF6HLm7J4TupVqcP<br />
a4Up+7XoCK7nAZiCHFr4J/IhQ09Xe/7AlU5lBo2A7BlE7tsu9Ouke5bMuM2T<br />
w7ZT9rukaNNXCXuWUCx9TwF3SRbuYen5+htDPzfl8a3JlYLG9DGvQFdD4jM5<br />
WM9HQHce7BqpkHmEInfbvnYM5OI31N3QEvFk5E1OVn508MB+OM4KGK3PPqTi</p></blockquote>
<p>So your email inbox gets a message that looks like this.  You have an e-mail client plugin that you have set up.  You input your password, and the message magically translates to:</p>
<blockquote><p>Dude, isn&#8217;t this so cool that not even the government can tell what I&#8217;m writing you?  Unless&#8230;you forward this message to them unencrypted, but I trust you.</p></blockquote>
<p>You can see this in action on my <a href="http://www.visionhealtheye.com/about/">practice website</a>.  To get started and do this you need a few things:</p>
<p>Your practice&#8217;s domain name (usually your <a href="http://www.1and1.com/?affiliate_id=156809">web host</a> will offer e-mail storage)<br />
or<br />
any e-mail address that you can access via the e-mail client Thunderbird. (ie POP3 or gmail)</p>
<p><strong>Download the following:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.gnupg.org/">GnuPG</a>- the free, open source engine that runs encryption.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird">Thunderbird</a>- a free, open source e-mail client.</li>
<li><a href="http://enigmail.mozdev.org/download/index.php">Enigmail</a>- a free plugin for Thunderbird that makes it easy to make your encryption keys, share your public key, store other people&#8217;s public keys, and encrypt/decrypt e-mails.  You should read the <a href="http://enigmail.mozdev.org/documentation/quickstart.php">install instructions</a> for Enigmail.</li>
</ul>
<p>Make sure when you generate your encryption key password that it is extra long and random.  You must assume that anyone could capture it and try to brute force it.  If it is long and random, it would be nearly impossible to crack.  I suggest keeping your random, long password in a <a href="http://pwsafe.org/">password wallet</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Why not do it?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.massmed.org/Content/NavigationMenu2/ContinuingEducationEvents/NewCourses/EmailingPatientsWithoutWorryingAboutLiability/Doctorpatientemailinpractice/DoctorPatientEmail.htm">You are afraid.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/10/doctors-paid-email-patients.html">You don&#8217;t get paid to e-mail patients</a>.</li>
<li>Spam?  Some people think that if they share their public key on a <a href="http://pgp.mit.edu/">key server</a>, spammers will harvest their e-mail address.  I&#8217;ve had mine there for a couple years and that&#8217;s not happening&#8230;to me.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Barriers to entry:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>It doesn&#8217;t do any good for you to have e-mail encryption if the person to whom you want to e-mail the top-secret K-readings doesn&#8217;t have e-mail encryption set up.  They must have a public key that they share.</li>
<li>I&#8217;ve just presented a free way (unless you have a paid practice URL/webhost) to do this, but it does require some tech savvy to download, install, and implement the tools.  This way requires the Thunderbird e-mail client.  If you use Outlook or something, there are paid solutions out there.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Why do it?</strong></p>
<p>If every doctor would just get in gear with e-mail encryption keys, we could send patient referrals with high quality color photos and reports instead of low res, black and white faxes (usually with a few vertical black lines on the page).  We could send the lab a topography.  We could send a patient a report or copy of their Rx.  We could talk about the stupid government and how we all secretly agree with Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter.</p>
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		<title>Algore speaks with LDS (Mormon leaders)?  What? Why?</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/04/03/algore-speaks-with-lds-mormon-leaders-what-why/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/04/03/algore-speaks-with-lds-mormon-leaders-what-why/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:41:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asides]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=489</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[KSL 5 Eyewitness news in SLC, UT reports that Algore visited with Mormon leaders because, &#8220;Since [releasing his movie at Sundance Film Festival in 2006], he often takes the opportunity to meet with civic, corporate and religious leaders around the country talking about the dangers of and solutions to climate change.&#8221; Wow, I guess we [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&#038;sid=6042363">KSL 5 Eyewitness news</a> in SLC, UT reports that Algore visited with Mormon leaders because, &#8220;Since [releasing his movie at Sundance Film Festival in 2006], he often takes the opportunity to meet with civic, corporate and religious leaders around the country talking about the dangers of and solutions to climate change.&#8221;</p>
<p>Wow, I guess we Mormons should be thrilled that it took him three years to visit our leaders.  And what&#8217;s laughable is that the only &#8220;solution&#8221; to &#8220;climate change&#8221; that The Left can come up with is increased taxes and higher energy costs.  Nice.</p>
<p>Mormons as a whole consistently vote conservative.  Personally, I can&#8217;t believe our leaders even granted him an audience, and further I can&#8217;t believe they turned off the lights at Temple Square for Earff Hour!  We stand strong against gay marriage in Kalifornia, but then we appease with leaders of a cloaked fascist movement to take away our God-given rights?  I think someone has some &#8216;splaning to do!!</p>
<p>You&#8217;ll notice that he met with our PR dept to give his schpeel.  I&#8217;ll bet the PR department would  meet with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermination_Order">Lilburn Boggs</a> if  they thought it could remotely help with PR.</p>
<p>Algore, go home.  We Mormons already know that we humans, made in God&#8217;s image, are the stewards over the Earff.  No one is out there saying we should pollute rivers, lakes, and streams or cut down every tree in all the forests!  God has provided this earth for our use and enjoyment to further His purposes.  All this &#8220;green&#8221; stuff is a diversion to tax us into communism, and <a href="http://www.skousen2000.com/political%20products/communist.htm">God does not approve of communism</a>.  The whole reason we are here on Earth is to exercise our free agency and have joy.  The Global Warming-err,..Cooling&#8230;I-mean-Climate-Change folks <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_032709/content/01125111.guest.html">seek to destroy both</a>.</p>
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		<title>Do Utah Native Americans Suffer Healthcare Discrimination?</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/03/20/do-utah-native-americans-suffer-healthcare-discrimination/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/03/20/do-utah-native-americans-suffer-healthcare-discrimination/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:52:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indian Health Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=434</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So the Utah Dep. of Health and the Associated Press sound like they are trying to raise funding. KSL reports: SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &#8212; The Utah Department of Health says the state&#8217;s American Indians are disproportionally affected by chronic health problems such as diabetes and asthma. A report released Thursday shows more than 11 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><div class="wp-caption left" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://www.optoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/may-2003-pow-wow-1.jpg"><img class="left" title="may-2003-pow-wow-1" src="http://www.optoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/May-2003-Pow-Wow-1-small.jpg" alt="Uintah and Ouray youth indoor Pow Wow optoblog attended in May 2003" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Uintah and Ouray dancers at an indoor youth pow wow.</p></div>So the Utah Dep. of Health and the Associated Press sound like they are trying to raise funding.  <a href="http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&amp;sid=5900008">KSL reports</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &#8212; The Utah Department of Health says the state&#8217;s American Indians are disproportionally affected by chronic health problems such as diabetes and asthma.</p>
<p>A report released Thursday shows more than 11 percent of the state&#8217;s American Indian population has diabetes. The average for all Utahns is about 6 percent.</p>
<p>Rates of asthma and smoking among American Indians are also above the state average.</p>
<p>The report says Utah&#8217;s American Indian population also has lower rates of health care coverage, prenatal care and physical activity.</p>
<p>American Indians make up about 1.7 percent of the state population.</p>
<p>(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)</p></blockquote>
<p>The AP doesn&#8217;t seem to cite their source, but I think the original report is <a href="http://health.utah.gov/cmh/data/disparitiessummary/AmericanIndianFactSheet.pdf">found here</a> (pdf), and it includes these important bullet points:</p>
<blockquote><ul>
<li>Partner with tribes to obtain grant funding to benefit American Indians;</li>
<li> and Eliminate racial health disparities.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>You would think that an AP reporter investigating this state report might be a little curious <em>why</em> this could be.  Because the AP is liberal, the only answer acceptable to them is that we discriminate against Native Americans and that we aren&#8217;t spending enough money.</p>
<p>The real reason would be to look the Native American population in Utah itself.  The <a href="http://www.utetribe.com/">Uintah and Ouray Reservation</a> has a small population- just over 3000, and about half live within the reservation.  In fact, most Utah tribes are small.  With such a limited gene pool in each community, you are going to get a lot of people with the same health risks.</p>
<p>So you will have to excuse me if I don&#8217;t join the liberal&#8217;s hysterics in a made up outrage.</p>
<p><div class="wp-caption left" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://www.optoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/may-2003-pow-wow-2.jpg"><img class="left" title="may-2003-pow-wow-2" src="http://www.optoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/May-2003-Pow-Wow-2-small.jpg" alt="Uintah and Ouray youth indoor Pow Wow optoblog attended in May 2003" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Me (far right) at the May 2003 indoor youth pow wow in Fort Duchesne, UT.</p></div>I would suggest that if you would like to increase the health of Native Americans, try letting them transfer their health benefits to anywhere they want to live.  If a Native American wants to move and marry someone from off their home reservation, they are denied their treaty-established healthcare at any other reservation.  I&#8217;ve seen patients that lived in another state come back to their home reservation for a few months to re-establish residency in order to have an expensive operation paid for by their benefit.  Not everyone is in the position to do this, so healthcare is probably under utilized by the many Indians living off their home reservation; however, if all the sudden you allowed healthcare portability for Native Americans, you would need to significantly increase the Indian Health Service budget.</p>
<p>To a degree, I think this happens already since Native Americans are encouraged to get on Medicaid/Medicare if they qualify. The IHS budget is so low that they depend heavily on income from Medicare/Medicaid.  Of course, I would argue the IHS budget is low <em>because</em> of the <a href="Indian Health Care Improvement Act in 1976">Indian Health Care Improvement Act of 1976</a> that allowed one government healthcare agency (IHS) to bill another (CMS).)</p>
<p>Anyway, I just wanted to highlight this liberal tactic promoted by the Drive-by Media that calls attention to some pretended outrage and lays the blame on discrimination and not enough government spending when the real problem is neither.  The facts are that the smaller the genetic variation, the more probable that certain health conditions will occur among that population. </p>
<p>For fun, here is a video of my boy dancing to the beat at an indoor pow wow on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation back in May 2003.<br />
<object width="320" height="240" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/LtMErax48Io" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LtMErax48Io" /></object></p>
<p>Here is another angle (he&#8217;s soo cute!):</p>
<p><object width="320" height="240" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/SpdZpfZPrZg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SpdZpfZPrZg" /></object></p>
<p>By the way, for those of you not interested in reading the rest of my website, I lived in or next door to an American Indian reservation for over 20 years.  I worked as a Public Health Service optometrist at the Blackfeet Community Hospital in Browning, MT for two years.  Everybody admits that there are problems on the reservation, but throwing more tax payer dollars at it will never help.  Seriously, if that were the answer, wouldn&#8217;t we have a utopia by now?  LBJ started the War on Poverty in 1964, and it has been a 45 year quagmire.  Let&#8217;s try conservative solutions for a change!  Policy makers need to listen to the voices of conservatives, like <a href="http://www.badeagle.com/2006/11/08/the-indian-state-of-the-union/">David Yeagley</a>, a descendant of Bad Eagle.  And Rush, Sean, Glenn, and Ann.</p>
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		<title>Retail Medical Clinics Dead?</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/03/11/retail-medical-clinics-dead/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/03/11/retail-medical-clinics-dead/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:30:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commercial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Income]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optometrist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optometry school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=431</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kevin, M.D. says that The retail clinic era is over, and &#8230; pharmacy-based clinics are doomed to fail. Corporations are finding out what primary care doctors already know: it&#8217;s hard to make money only doing office visits. Ophthalmologists make bank doing procedures. I guess the problem with the retail medical clinic is that the doctor [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/03/retail-clinic-era-is-over-and-why.html">Kevin, M.D.</a> says that </p>
<blockquote><p>The retail clinic era is over, and &#8230; pharmacy-based clinics are doomed to fail.<br />
Corporations are finding out what primary care doctors already know: it&#8217;s hard to make money only doing office visits.</p></blockquote>
<p>Ophthalmologists make bank doing procedures.  I guess the problem with the retail medical clinic is that the doctor is paid so much.  I guess optical shops are lucky that optometrists aren&#8217;t as high up on the whole pay scale totem pole.</p>
<p>I have to wonder about the optometric profession, though.  The student loan debt percentage delta outpaces optometrist&#8217;s pre-tax net percentage delta.  How much longer will anybody want to apply for optometry school?</p>
<p>I guess we need Obama to bailout the optometry schools.  Socialized medicine, here we come.  Thanks for reading, comrades.</p>
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		<title>Obama is Going to Fail</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/03/04/obama-is-going-to-fail/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/03/04/obama-is-going-to-fail/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:28:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asides]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=421</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The mainstream media and the White House are trying to alienate Rush Limbaugh because of his comment, now a meme, &#8220;I want Obama to fail.&#8221; Rush is always right. I would have said, &#8220;Obama is going to fail, and I want everyone to see that he fails because he is a liberal and so are [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The mainstream media and the White House are trying to alienate Rush Limbaugh <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=44352">because of his comment</a>, now a meme, &#8220;I want Obama to fail.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rush is always right.  I would have said, &#8220;Obama is going to fail, and I want everyone to see that he fails because he is a liberal and so are his policies; therefore, stop voting for democrats!&#8221;</p>
<p>But Rush is more succinct and combined those three phrases into one simple sentence.</p>
<p>Ronald Reagan said, &#8220;Government is not the answer to your problems, government is the problem!”  The Obama administration and current liberal controlled Senate and House are speedily trying to turn America into a socialist/communist nation.  We hear the Big Media incredulously ask, &#8220;So, you <em>want</em> Obama to fail, and you want the economy to collapse?&#8221;</p>
<p>Um&#8230;Obama will fail, and I want everyone to see that it&#8217;s because of his policies that the economy is collapsing.  Capitalism and freedom, as set up by the Founding Fathers of our nation, is what drove the U.S.A. to be a super power.</p>
<p>Our nation&#8217;s big government/social agenda problems started out because of two things:</p>
<ol>
<li>Originally, the founding fathers only wanted <a href="http://yedda.com/questions/Founding_Fathers_Wanted_Qualified_1868172757412/">land owners to vote</a>.  They knew government decisions would directly effect people with &#8220;skin in the game.&#8221;  Now every bum on the street can cast their vote for who ever will promise government handouts.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am17">17th Amendment</a>.  Why do we have our House congressmen voted in by people of each state <em>and</em> the Senators <em>also</em> voted by the people of each state.  The founding Fathers meant for the Senators to be elected only by each State&#8217;s legislature.  This would truly insulate them from public opinion polls.</li>
</ol>
<p>These two factors in combination have lead to elected officials promising tax dollars, <em>our money</em>, for causes that we wouldn&#8217;t support on our own.  I would never fund abortions.  I would never pay for some other person&#8217;s health care- they can pay for their own!  I would never pay people not to work.  I would never loan money to people who have no hope of repaying it.  Yet, here we have it.</p>
<p>And it&#8217;s only going to get worse, comrades.</p>
<p>By the way, stop voting for democrats and start electing conservatives who will dismantle big government so that we can keep our money.  The more money we have, the more money we can donate to <em>our</em> charities which can provide soup and a cot to homeless people- temporarily.  So called &#8220;trickle down economics&#8221; rewards those who are willing to work harder and smarter.  It also works better than Soviet Union economics.</p>
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		<title>Government Will Take Insurance Money</title>
		<link>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/02/09/government-will-take-insurance-money/</link>
		<comments>http://www.optoblog.com/2009/02/09/government-will-take-insurance-money/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:21:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Langford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.optoblog.com/?p=396</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I had misplaced a BlueCross insurance payment check at the bottom of a pile of papers. By the time I found it, I had missed the 90 day deadline to cash it. The other day I got a letter in the mail. They were wondering if I needed it reissued. What was very interesting to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I had misplaced a BlueCross insurance payment check at the bottom of a pile of papers.  By the time I found it, I had missed the 90 day deadline to cash it.<br />
<a href="http://www.optoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/bcbs-check-letter.jpg"><img align="right" src="http://www.optoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/bcbs-check-letter-150x150.jpg" alt="Click here to see actual letter from BCBS" title="BCBS-check-letter" width="150" height="150" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-397" /></a><br />
The other day I got a letter in the mail.  They were wondering if I needed it reissued.  What was very interesting to me is that if I didn&#8217;t respond, the law required BlueCross to pay the money to the state of Utah!</p>
<p>So, I wonder if patients should be forced to do the same thing?  Or what about doctors who owe patients an overpayment refund?  Should we be forced to pay the government if they never cash the check?  I guess it won&#8217;t matter soon anyway because the way things are heading we&#8217;ll all be working for the government.  Thanks for reading, comrade.</p>
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