Comments

1
Republicans claim to be pro-life when in fact their every action brings someone closer to death.
2
What do they do except "ask about..."?

Do they advise about the terrible dangers Golob lists?

Do they reccomend the patient get rid of the terrible evil guns?

Do they?......

Do they ask about homosexual behavior?

How does that affect suicide rates, Doctor?

HIV rates?

AIDS?

(All) other STDs?

Anal Cancer?

Domestic violence rates?

Has 30 years of education lessened the huge public health cost from homosexual behavior?
Or has the danger grown ever greater in the face iof education?

DOCTOR, DO RESPONSIBLE PHYSICIANS WARN THEIR PATIENTS ABOUT THE TERRIBLE TOLL HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR TAKES ON THEIR HEALTH AND LIFE EXPECTANCY?

DO RESPONSIBLE PHYSICIANS WARN THEIR PATIENTS TO ABANDON HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR HEALTH?
3
@2 Troll: I actually do ask about sexuality, including the ever-popular, "do you have sex with men, women or both." That way I can counsel appropriately.

Only in Wyoming and Eastern Washington does this result in death threats.
4
Nicely put Jonathan.
5
We're becoming very tired of being asked by Humanist Liberals to spare their delicate sensibilities from reality.
It's not enough to have (essentially) unrestricted access to school children propogandize a destructive behavior and distort the facts to present it as normal and healthy. No, Humanist Liberals cannot even allow educators to cite scientific evidence.

Doctor, are you aware of proposed laws that would make it a CRIME to give students information that casts homosexuality in a negative light?

Wouldn't it be pleasant ifā€”instead of expecting the rest of us to swallow their bullshit with grins on our faces, to spare their sensitive feelingsā€”Humanist Liberals simply stated what they want, damn the concequences: Unfettered access to school children to indoctrinate them in deviant perverted behavior, despite the proven dangers.

At least spare us the bullshit......

6
Thank you, Jonathan.

One way to conclusively prove that a person is not qualified to own a handgun is the presence of a desire to own a handgun.
7
3

Do you explain to patients who engage in homosexual behavior the greater rates of physical and emotional illnesses that accompany the behavior?

Do you reccomend they abandon homosexual behavior for their health's sake?

Do you explain that it is a deadly lifestyle choice, like smoking or alcohol abuse or drug use?

How do they react to that in San Francisco?

How would that speaking Truth to Power affect your ability to hold a job in public health or get tenure in San Francisco, Doctor?
8
@5, Hahahaha! You live in an alternate fucking reality!
9
@7, Alternate. Fucking. Reality.
10
8
9

yeah.

us and the CDC.....
11
Re: @2, 5, 7: Clearly, the Exodus Crisis Line is closed on Sundays.
12
So I'm not trolling. I may be a little slow on the uptake or just unwilling to detect rhetoric and line up on my regular side.

Assuming the doctor feels some Hippocratic imperative to ask this question and the patient unquestioningly confirms ownership of a hand gun, what is the upshot? An advisory and more paper trail?

This isn't an important friction point for the left or the right. I'm pretty sure you're both fucking crazy on this one.

Anyone who can get out of jury duty has nothing to worry about here. Ask away, Justice Doc.

13
"I'm becoming very tired of being asked by conservatives to spare their delicate sensibilities from reality."

Hear, fucking hear.
14
5280, I know you're scrolling down with the intent to post here. But sadly for you, you just lost The Game. And so did I.
15
11

That is SO witty!

If only snarky "wit" could prevent STDs!.....

Do you dispute the troll's facts?
(actually they are the CDC and other public health orginazations' facts...)

Doctor Golob will explain to you that all the troll says is true.

Won't you, Doctor.....
16
Does this mean a psychiatrist can't ask someone who is suicidal if they own a gun?
17
It's generally beneath me to address an unregistered troll, but among the various lies he writes, are claims that being gay is a lifestyle choice, and that it leads to emotional health consequences. Which is par for the course with homophobes, but he then goes on to righteously claim to be telling the truth, and implies that science is on his side.

Troll: no it isn't. You're losing. We're winning. Suck it up, bitch.
18
Mr. Golob,

Smoking, diet and all the other factors you list aren't constitutionally mandated rights.

Gun ownership is.

And so you know- I've never been asked any of these questions, nor do we allow our children to be examined without our presence, so I know the children aren't asked either. And if my regular doctor asked me if I was having sex with men, he knows damn well he'd be courting a bloody nose.

See, death threats (if they exist and aren't the product of your fevered liberal imaginings) may come from insinuating that good parents are abusive, chain smoking drug addicted alcholics who engage in regalar inter-spousal fistfights as much as from insinuations of homosexuality. Thought you should know, Doc.
19
@ 18, so you're a violent asshole? Why do you bother with this fascade of being reasonable?
20
Whoops, that should be "facade."
21
@18:
1. It's Dr. Golob

2. Gun ownership is a 'right'. So is free speech.

3. Questions about gun ownership are a required part of a well-child check--in order to bill. Your doc might be fudging the paperwork, knowing you're a nose-breaking sort regarding reasonable questions. Can't really blame him or her.

4. The highest risk group among MSM are closeted men, or men having sex with men on the down low.

5. The point of all of these questions is not to prescribe behavior, but rather to inform about concequences.

I honestly don't care if you, or anyone owns a gun. My professional duty is to make sure this is an informed choice, and to be sure that people know what actually is safe gun ownership.

To whit, teaching your kids about guns does not make guns in the house safe. Locking up the guns, and locking up the ammo, storing the gun empty and storing the gun and ammo separately does make ownership safer.
22
Matt @19 That's Seattleblues for you, he does a good job of seeming completely reasonable about 80% of the time, and then he goes off on one of his "deviant, animal behaviour" tangents. Can you imagine what a reasonable straight person would say if his doctor asked if he had sex with men? I'm thinking, "No." Right?
23
What if citing accidental gun death statistics were my religion? What if in my religion we pray by saying things like, "Dear Lord, about half of children unintentionally shot are shot in their own homes, with their parents' own gun. Amen."

Because the doctors in my congregation have a Constitutionally protected right to pray as they see fit, gun nuts.

It is a free country you know. And a free market. Take your business to the doctor of your choice. Ron Paul. Rand Paul. The whole family. Tripp Paul. Trigger Paul. Sneezy Paul and Dopey Paul. They're all gun nuts and they're all doctors. Enjoy.
24
@ 22, that's how I would answer.

Seattleblues, how do you react when your children talk back to you?
25
17

You ARE winning the propaganda war.
Congratulations.
You are indoctrinating a generation of gullible children to believe that homosexual behavior is Normal and Natural and Cool.

However you are losing the public health war.

Because Science isn't swayed by Bullshit.
Lady Gaga and MTV can't change the minds of viruses and microbes.

So teenagers sneak laptops under their covers and believe that "It Get's Better! :)" and run off to the Big Gay Friendly City first chance.

And 20% of them (so far...) get HIV.

but not just AIDS-

Dr Golob, tell Matt what percentage of syphilis and gonorrhea cases in urban areas occur in homosexuals....

Yeah. You're "winning".

And a generation of American kids are the losers.

Again, Congratulations.....

(btw, if you read the posts you see that we only address behavior choices.
We don't address the mythical state of "being gay".
Is that a religion?)

26
@21

Or-

My doctor has been seeing me for a decade or more now. Asking questions to which he knows the answers would be kind of stupid. He knows, for instance, that I'd no more smoke a joint or cigarette than skydive without a parachute, so he doesn't ask if I'm smoking. And he knows that I sleep with my wife and only my wife, and doesn't ask questions about sex partners. I have no idea if he's fudging paperwork to do this, and don't care.

Similarly, after seeing our daughter for 6 years, and our son for 8 the pediatrician doesn't ask if they're eating well, or if we abuse them. They know from the general health and history with the kids that neither are the case.

And I apologize. Becoming a medical doctor is rigorous and demanding. After all of that you have to put up with insurance companies, regulatory agencies, irritable or irrational patients and all the other nonsense a practicing physician must accept as part of the job. You've earned the honorific 'Doctor,' whatever I think of your politics.
28
@26: But he asked you such questions about a decade ago, didn't he?
You're overthinking this.
29
@24

Not really any of your business how I discipline specific behaviors in my children. But for what it's worth in 9 years of parenting I haven't used corporal punishment.

And where I grew up, saying another guy was homosexual (gay, fag or whatever) was certain to get you into a fight. This may have changed now, but a good doctor understands his patient. He doesn't expect him or her to be 20 years younger, or brainwashed into thinking homosexuality a normal or healthy behavior choice.
31
@ 29, you still had a visceral reaction to the very idea of being asked if you're gay, though, didn't you? Which is okay; but then you WROTE (meaning you had time to think it through) that you would slug your doctor if he asked you that question. Explain it away as "how things are where you grew up," if you wish; it used to just be how things were in certain states, when black men who dared ask out white women were murdered for doing so.

I didn't ask how you discipline your children; I asked how you react to being talked back to. It's a pretty specific question about your emotional response to that situation.
32
Thank you for another well reasoned, cogent post on the honorable practice of medicine, Dr. Golob.
33
@29

Ah. Now I'm a racist as a well?

Whatever kiddo.
34
@33, This has been a well established fact for quite some time. It's quite clear whenever you start talking about history.
35
The main point here is that members of the so called party of smaller government are trying to make new laws that restrict freedom of speech. If a barber, grocer, or medical doctor want to ask if you own a gun it should be their right. If you don't want to answer that's your right, if you don't like that they asked go to someone else. God knows, my diabetic mother was able to find a Doctor who wouldn't ask her about her diet, finding a Doctor who won't ask about gun ownership should be easy.

Fortunately this law will never pass constitutional muster, the tax payers of Florida will spend a lot of money on another right wing looney cause and that will be the end of it.
36
Seattleblues is probably the most successful troll Slog has.

He is a treasure to be smiled at upon appearance. (Just not fed.)
37
334

My wife is from Ethiopia, of a decidedly dark skin color. If I'm a racist I must also be an emotional massochist. Darn good thing I'm neither!
38
I think you meant "@ 31," when you wrote "@ 29." Anyway, where did I call you racist? All I did was draw a comparison.
39
You're an emotional masochist. But not because you pretend on the Internet to be married.
40
Apparently, being gay is the opposite of being a gun owner? I guess? It's either one or the other, and that's why we're arguing about it? Hell, I don't know, someone ask the trolls how that works.
42
@37, Ah, the old "some of my best friends are black" argument. If you weren't an American Exceptionalist and historical denialist, the idea that you aren't a racist would be a little easier to believe. A different argument for a different time, however.
43
I wonder what these dumbfucks think happened before DADT when they asked every recruit in the military if they were gay or not. Did they all get gay panic and flip out and try to hit somebody? It must have been pandemonium with a million plus recruits every year punching out their doctors and processing clerks.

I didn't mind when they asked me if I was a homosexual but I headbutted the guy when he got to the checkbox on the form where it asked if I was a Communist.
44
3

Dr Golob,

Do you explain to patients who engage in homosexual behavior the greater rates of physical and emotional illnesses that accompany the behavior?

Do you reccomend they abandon homosexual behavior for their health's sake?

Do you explain that it is a deadly lifestyle choice, like smoking or alcohol abuse or drug use?

How do they react to that in San Francisco?

How would that speaking Truth to Power affect your ability to hold a job in public health or get tenure in San Francisco, Doctor?
45
I'm a little confused by this. Every year at my annual girlie check up, the list of questions is as follows:
-Do you feel safe in your domestic arrangements?
-Are there firearms present in the home?
-Are you sexually active? With how many partners?

OK, so that was the Minnesota version of the checklist. I haven't had a physical in Colorado yet.

But still, as the physician to whom I have entrusted my physical health and wellbeing, I would expect the Dr to ask these questions. It's about the whole patient in terms of health, and these questions are directly relevant. The fine state of Florida has no business getting involved in the Dr/Patient transaction. And those who scoff that their Dr of however many years should think to ask such questions aparently does not have a Dr that is interested in their well being. Circumstances change, just like the nasty ass mole on your shoulder that you never think about. Ignoring either has far reaching consequences.
46
@44: My female cousin is in a loving, committed relationship with another woman. They have two young sons and have taken to motherhood like fish to water.
Explain how they are engaging in self-destructive behavior.
47
I wish people on slog would stop responding to homophobic trolls that can't even bother to register.

Anyone that denies guns can be dangerous is stupid, but I don't think doctors need to ask about it any more than they ask if you have a car (32,000+ deaths last year). Most people on slog will deny it, but it is possible to be a responsible gun owner. It's even possible to own guns without being a right-wing stereotype. Doctors lecturing patients about the obvious hazards of being irresponsible with guns is like doctors lecturing patients about the biological attributes of a fetus before an abortion. It doesn't really serve a real public health function, but it does serve an ideological one.
48
Dang, SeattleBlues. I just lost the last scrap of respect I had for you. You'd really punch your doctor for asking you that? You have real problems. Seek help.

I'm also a little surprised that a get-the-government-out-of-my-way sort like you would support this law. If you were a psychiatrist with a suicidal patient, I'd like to believe that you'd view the threat of jail time for asking if he had a gun as a government intrusion on your practice.

But, hey - dogma blinds the best of us from time to time.
49
#47:
in addition to the questions cited by #45, my Doc also asks about seat-belt use, alcohol consumption habits, and if I wear a helmet when I ride my bike - all in an effort to educate me about risk levels of different behaviors.

sensitive, intelligent, evidence-based, proactive healthcare at its best.
50
@49 Mine, too. She always asks if I still ride my bike and if I still wear a helmet. I do not feel threatened by this, as any sane human being wouldn't.
51
@45, 49 and 50

And yet- I'd wager that I'm as healthy as you. I'd wager that my children will grow up as healthy as yours. I'd bet that my wife recieves the quality care she needs. All without a lot of stupid questions which accomplish nothing except gratifying a physicians power trip.

I've ridden my bike and been skiing without a helmet for years and refuse to wear one to spoil either activity. Being faithful to my wife and she to me, the risks people like Savage want increased by conscious marital infidelity and promiscuity don't apply. I eat well and exercise regularly, don't smoke and enjoy alchohol temperately. I work hard when working and rest well when resting. And somehow I manage to do all of this without pompous lectures from my MD.

Point is, no-one has yet demonstrated that such questions have a single effect on the health of the patient long or short term. Even someone like Dr. Golob admits the questions are part of a paperwork routine, not his die-hard conviction that he's serving the best interests of his patients.

The fundamental pessimism liberals have about people is clearly displayed here. Without a nanny to tell you how to live a person simply can't make it, in your views.
52
@42

My best friend is white, like me. Known him since we were kids in Yakima. Other friends are whatever they are, since I don't actually choose to seek friendships based on skin color, or political affiliation or faith traditions. I value things like integrity, fidelity, discipline at acquiring a skill, intellectual honesty and other content of character issues more than who their grandfather was, or what church they worship in or disavow or whether they mistakenly vote Democrat or wisely vote Republican.

My wife is black, which means diddly squat to me or to her. She is the woman I wanted to marry for what mattered, not the genetic insignificance of her skin color. By the grace of God she strangely enough wanted to marry me. Hard luck for her it's true, but I try to make it up to her as best I can.

America is the best thing to ever happen to this planet politically. I love being an American, our form of government, our people and the very land itself. Yes, we do things ill advisedly on occasion. Sure, we could improve our government or health care systems or uses of energy or any of a hundred other areas. But if I'm an 'American Exceptionalist' it's because America is a pretty damn exceptional place.

53
@SB, The America you place on a pedestal is very much the rich white man's America. If saying this means I hate America, fine, but it makes you no less of racist. We have committed genocide, we had to fight a civil war over slavery, we are shameless imperialists, our citizens don't have equal rights, the voice of a wealthy few is valued over that of the rest. What is so "damn exceptional" about that? I'm all for applauding our successes, they are proof we can do great things. But we can't write off our egregious failures as ill-advised tangents - we need them to remind us that we have debts to the world, and as the impetus to do better. We have done some really shitty things disproportionately to people who happen not to be white, and to deny them or downplay their significance is racist. To deny them or downplay them lacks integrity and intellectual honesty.

No, you aren't a racist in the sense that you believe in any nonsense about a hierarchy of races or worry about the "purity" of your bloodline. Your racism is more passive, easier to overlook. It's systematic, bound up with the beliefs you espouse and the history you champion. At the end of the the 19th century and in the early 20th century, the idea of the 'Primitive' surrounding non-Western cultures was very popular. Bound up with the 'Primitive' were a whole host of denigrating racist assumptions. The imperial powers embraced the 'Primitive' as justification for enslaving millions of people. As a show of resistance and solidarity with colonized peoples, many believers in Left-wing ideologies decided to identify with the 'Primitive' with all its overtly racist assumptions left intact, and in so doing perpetuated racism. You are like those anarchists and socialists a century ago. You may mean well, but racism is built into your beliefs.
54
To add to what samktg said, American exceptionalism should not be something to congratulate ourselves about; rather, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard because of it.

@51: Not wearing a helmet while biking or skiing is like engaging in irresponsible promiscuity; sure, you may get away with it just fine, but there are risks you could easily avoid. And it's your doctor's place to inform you of the risks you're taking. Whether you follow his advice or not is up to you.
The one time I seriously fell off my bike, my helmet didn't protect me at all; I landed on my chin, which required seven stitches. I'm still going to wear my helmet, though, because there's that chance it might stop me from denting my head. And if you think that wearing a helmet will ruin cycling or skiing, you're a huge pussy. Frankly, I find that a helmet makes cycling more enjoyable by keeping my hair out of my face.
55
Seattleblues is the reason why Dr. House just breaks into people's homes to get information on them rather than waste his time asking them questions they'll either lie about or become enraged for being asked.
56


The American government has never comitted genocide. While it is tragically likely that around 90% of native populations of North and South America were killed by infectious disease after European contact, tragic is what it was. Not murder.

America has never had an empire. You must be confusing us with Brittain.

We have some work to do on equality, but come a great deal closer than anywhere else on the planet. And the wealthy have a voice disproportionate to their numbers, as they do in any society in the world now or in the past. Human nature, I'm afraid. But we do better than anywhere else to assure that those less fortunate have a voice too, if they choose to use it within the same Constitutional framework the wealthy do.

The Civil War was fought over slavery, but only as the emotional catalyst provoking an inevitable showdown between the Federal and State governments. The real test was whether we would be a confederation of semi-independent states, or a group of states with the power coming from the central federal government. The latter won when the South lost.

I guess I'm a racist for believing the Etruscans were doomed as a dominant people when they came into conflict with what would become the Romans. I guess I'm similarly racist for thinking that the French retaking of Normandy from the British was more or less inevitable given geographic realities in the 14th century. The native populations of the Americas lost because of massive depopulation caused by European diseases. They lost because they lacked the technological advances Europeans had militarily. And yes, they lost because they were more primitive peoples. These are facts, and if that makes me racist, so be it. But it doesn't, thankfully.

And I don't think you or most other liberals hate America, tempting as the thought may be. I just think you're wrong about it, economics, and human nature. In your love for this country, you'd like to see us be better, as we certainly could be. But to forget what we are in hoping for better serves no-one.
57
Oy vei, Seattleblues, you hit that word primitive, and plant your face in the pavement. Your use of the word proves my point. You aren't actively racist, but if you had any idea what the word 'primitive' means, you would know the only appropriate time to use that word in a historical context is when discussing dead cultures like the Etruscans. Without necessarily being conscious of it, the language you use assigns cultures to a hierarchy with Western cultures at the top. The word 'primitive' is value-loaded, it's not just about technology, but about the concept of civilization and modernity. To apply it to living cultures is offensive. Use it seriously in an academic setting, and prepare to be censured by everyone. Combine such language with this "history" of yours divorced from the reality of Manifest Destiny and The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, and what you are left with is racism. Not the flagrant "throw the Jews in the ovens" kind of racism, but a more subtle structural racism.

If I am guilty of forgetting who we are as Americans in hoping for better, at least it is no disservice. But to forget who we were, what we have been, what we have done, so we can say "this is the greatest nation on earth", that is certain doom.
58
I hate this motherlovin' state sometimes.
59
@55 - Dr. House....really???
60
it was a joke, dude.
61
admittedly not a good one.
62
Man, now I feel bad for all the poor lesbians who don't realize what a terrible risk they're at for HIV and anal cancer!

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