[Dennis Kalma]

First of all, thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it and you have definitely gone up in my esteem (not that it was low, just I respect the effort). I don't want to hijack this thread, but just a couple of comments.

Second, when it comes to debate, I hate email. We just don't get the context and breadth of discussion that one gets face to face. It leads to misunderstandings, much of which can be found in threads such as this.

"My best guess is "Nobody knows as much as Dennis about anything?"

If that's not it then you can ignore the rest of #1.

We don't know each other, it most definitely is not it.....but no amount of text can prove this. We probably just have to let it lie.

What was the sequence leading up to that? I suggested that people hire professionals for their expertise in their profession. For instance, they hire electricians to do electrical work in their house. Your response about an electrician you hired was “….I felt very free to update his understanding and work with him to change it, with a much better result.”. This reads containing a fair bit of condescension IMO.

Specific case was the electrician was going to wire the garage, which I use as a workshop, with the minimum standard wiring, namely one plug per parking space. The updated understanding was that I told him what I did for a hobby, the tools I needed, we discussed where I would be placing the work bench, welder, air compressor and so forth and also how they were going to be used, so we could figure out how to get minimum breaker tripping without having to run 27 miles of wire and 100 breakers. No condescension....just making sure that we both understood the balance and came to the "right answer".

Is this slippery slope argument and sarcasm absent from your own posts?

Amen, I am a sarcastic SOB. Point taken. Also note that my sense of humour is...shall we say....obscure at times.


2. As to the example you cite, about number of individuals who have different opinions than you on IT issues at your work, it is quite incomparable to the patient/physician interaction.

Too long a reply is needed to properly disagree....a small example....one executive came to me and told me that it took him 30 minutes to install Microsoft office at home, why on earth would it take 6 months and 10 manyears of effort to install it on the 2200 PC's in the continent wide network. Needless to say, he didn't understand how large networks work....I could have blown him off but basically took the time to help him understand the challenges the IT department faced...and worked to understand what was frustrating him about it (business effort, cost etc)

Furthermore, this is not a brainstorming problem solving kind of issue. No new ground is being covered in these discussions, it’s a rehash of the same issues.

Amen

3. Physicians are not gods. No one is suggesting they are. However, they are professionals and the premise that they are incompetent, not up on the current literature, and that by doing a few searches anyone will know as much as or more than them is somewhat demeaning.

Fair, but don't assume it was a casual search. In the case of the woman I described, the treatment she pushed through has now become the preferred practice for those suffering from the same disease....it was several years of effort and study on her part. My reaction was frustration with the seeming inability of the medical profession to at least consider there are alternatives (as it was, from the professional medical doctors in Sweden...not alternative practioners)

I could make some dig about the Canadian healthcare and cost containment in the case of your friend, and it might even be true (I’ve seen it in HMO’s south of the border too), but will refrain.

Please do....it has a lot of problems, but so do most systems. Can I chime in?

4. More importantly your (and others) opinion(s) have suggested that it is of negligible benefit to intervene. There has also been a suggestion that high cholesterol is still being debated as a risk.

If that is the conclusion that you and others have drawn from my posts, then I have failed to be clear. My bad.

My repeated attempts to find a drug that works for me are indication that the problem and risk is worth attempting to deal with, but not at any cost. I struggle with some of the doctors who have told me that for me to even consider not taking Lipitor, regardless of the pain, is essentially committing suicide. Or how about the life insurance underwriters who, once their doctors found I had a high cholesterol level wanted to charge me $17,000 per year to continue my life insurance when I left the company I was working at, when challenged, they came back with "essentially you are committing suicide and we really don't want to insure you, even though you are 40 and in other wise good health"

And finally, I am not offended, merely frustrated. I see this as a forum where folks generally are above average in intelligence with some penchant for logic. To see the same discussions rehashed in the same manner....

I understand...