Sun Tzu in THE ART OF WAR warns us: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will […]
Author: Dr. John Livingston
Where’s the Beef?
Every night I read the EYE ON BOISE review post edited by award winning journalist Betsy Russell. I am amazed at how many bills are brought up before legislative committees that remind me of the famous Wendy’s add from the early 80’s. A little old lady gets a burger from a drive in and bites […]
Asymmetry
The political and moral courage of the conservatives running for governor in Idaho is to be applauded. Janice McGeachin has suffered the slings and arrows of misogynistic abuse from members of her own party and continued to fight for the principles she believes in. Many of the wounds that she bears are self-inflicted and come […]
Help
I am really tired of politicians putting their fingers up to the wind and trying to figure out what their constituents want and what to promise to be re-elected. How about just telling the people what you believe and if you win fine and if the people want someone else with different ideas, then fine. […]
The Great Awakening
Theologians and historians identify several great awakenings that have occurred in our country prior to and after our founding. The unique time in history when the ideas of the Enlightenment merged with a sharp increase in religious piety of the people, and with a sense of humble reverence and a belief in God was the […]
The Medical Industrial Complex
I have spent an hour as often as possible watching the Idaho Joint Finance Appropriations Committee (JFAC) proceedings. Without making comments about the process of setting a budget, the absolute disconnect between economic reality and public policy is astonishing. During the course of the political pandemic all fifty States have seen a surplus in their […]
Corruption
As we are very quickly approaching the primary elections in May and then the general elections in November the single most important issue that needs to be addressed by Idahoans is corruption at all levels in our state government. Corruption doesn’t have to be illegal to be devastating, but often it is both. Corruption is […]
Gone With the Wind
“Esto Perpetua” Every month or so my wife and I venture to Seattle to visit my son Andy and his family. They live in the Madison Park section along Lake Washington. As we make the trek from SEATAC to downtown and then to Madison Park, we see hundreds—maybe thousands of homeless people living if they […]
Hospitals Have Lost Their Way
In this weekend’s Wall Street Journal Al Hubbard and Brian Blasé have written an article about the high prices charged by major hospitals in the State of Indiana. The article starts out by stating “When most people hear the word non-profit, they think of a benevolent organization driven by the desire to serve their communities”. […]
No Black Swan
As we reach an asymptote on the Covid-19 graph it is worthwhile to look back and see what was done well and what went wrong. First, many great doctors and nurses stepped up to the plate and served their patients and communities exactly in the same way that they did prior to the pandemic. They […]
No Margin—No Mission
There are many organizations and individuals sitting at the top of the medical industrial complex food chain who are cashing in on the political narrative that has driven our Covid-19 strategies. At the top of the list are pharmaceutical companies and health care provider networks who have created utility and demand for “Cost Free” Covid […]
It is time for Idaho hospitals that fired health care workers —mostly nurses but many doctors, who had acquired natural immunity from Covid-19 and who refused to be vaccinated, to return these brave people back to their jobs. Most took care of sick patients on the wards and in ICUs before there were any vaccines […]