cedarford:
I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.
hoads and Raygun:
You don’t trust data from the CONCORD study, but you can trust data from the very same author when he says something positive about the US? You can’t trust the parts of the Commonwealth study that say something bad about the US, but you can trust the little nuggets that say something good? Do you have even the tiniest shred of intellectual dignity? If you have made your intellectual decision that the Commonwealth study and Dr. Verdecchia papers are not to be trusted, then there is nothing left in this thread. To pick and chose what you like and don’t like from the same study or same author and say I do like this result and don’t like that one is the logic of an intellectual imbecile.
This thread uses an article that is titled “U.S. Cancer Care Is Number One.” That article cites a statistic, and gives a quote for it. The reference quoted is not a paper that you even have to look up in a library, but is simply a link you need to click on. You click on it, and the first sentence says: “Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries.” You can go through this process and still defend the intellectual honesty of the author. It’s quite amazing, an the reason I post to blogs like this is to present quandaries like this and watch what insane lengths people will go through to retain their in-group worldview. It’s very amazing, and sad at the same time.
If you don’t think Dr. Verdecchia is a competent researcher or that the Commonwealth study is valid, that’s fine. I am not surprised. But without this info there is nothing left in this thread to beleive either. So pretend like none of this ever happened.
