The Mitchell Daily Republic today had a story on advanced Lyme Disease which was scary. More on that later.
There was also an interesting comment on candidate Rounds in the somewhat silly "Hisses and Cheers" editorial. The "hiss" for Rounds involved Rounds inane silly claim that he would try to eliminate the US Department of Education when SD is third on the list of beneficiaries and eliminating such funding would be a disaster for SD finances and education. At least somebody besides bloggers is finally noticing and noting this problem with Rounds "common sense".
Below is the part of Hisses and Cheers critical of Rounds:
HISSES to former governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rounds for repeating, during his Friday night visit to Mitchell, his earlier call to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. The same day we printed his comments about that, we also printed a separate story revealing that South Dakota is third-most dependent among all states on federal government aid for K-12 education, receiving 16.4 percent of its K-12 budget from the feds. A man who governed a state so dependent on federal education money lacks the credibility to claim the federal government should have no role in K-12 education. Change and improve the Department of Education? Fine. But calls to abolish it strike us as unrealistic political pandering.
Source of above at MDR. Note MDR links disappear in a few days behind a pay window.
The story on advanced Lyme disease is scary for several reasons. It indicated the serious physical and emotional damage and pain a bite from a deer tick can generate. It also indicated that the arrogance of doctors who just know there can't be deer ticks in eastern South Dakota (even if there are deer all over) and thus an ailment can't be Lyme disease even if tests show it is. If no doctor believes such a test is valid, it is unlikely Lyme disease would ever be a diagnosis. Sort of self-fulfilling proof of absence even when the disease would be the correct diagnosis.
It is hard to read that story and not believe that a number of doctors should be sued for malpractice and dmages, but then I am neither a doctor nor a lawyer and don't even play either on TV. Source at MDR Note, this will turn into a dead link in a few days. Worth reading while it is available.
Right now, the Opinion pages of the MDR are unavailable. I will check tomorrow to see if a link to the comment is available. Here is CDC page on Lyme Disease.
*** Stay tuned and beware the ticks and mosquitoes,,,and political weasels--Doug Wiken
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