{"id":3430,"date":"2010-06-15T00:13:04","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T00:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/?p=3430"},"modified":"2010-06-15T00:13:04","modified_gmt":"2010-06-15T00:13:04","slug":"the-problem-with-the-news-the-pea-under-the-thimble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/?p=3430","title":{"rendered":"The Problem With The News &#8211; The Pea Under The Thimble."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"The%20Problem%20With%20The%20News%20-%20The%20Pea%20Under%20The%20Thimble.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>There is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/37693720\/ns\/politics-decision_2010\/\">news<\/a> concerning Rand Paul and his lack of membership in the American Board of Ophthalmology. The article opens like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rand Paul, who touts his career as a Kentucky eye doctor as part of his outsider  credentials in his campaign for U.S. Senate, isn&#8217;t certified by his  profession&#8217;s leading group.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>After being a member for about ten years, disagreements with aspects of ABO re-certification policy led him to walk away from that organization and form a rival group, the National Board of Ophthalmology. His actions, as described in the article, sound well within a libertarian character; that would be something an independent libertarian might do. Note there is no hint in the article that there is any question concerning his competence as a surgeon. The thing that is interesting is that neither group, the ABO and the NBO have nothing to do with state certification.:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Neither group has anything to do with medical licensure, which is  handled by state boards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, what is this story about, and why is it so important to be a member of this group? From the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abop.org\/about\/index.asp\">ABO homepage<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Founded in 1916, the American Board of Ophthalmology is an independent, nonprofit organization responsible for certifying         ophthalmologists (eye physicians and surgeons) in the United States&#8230;  &#8230;The mission of the American Board of Ophthalmology is to serve the public by improving the quality of ophthalmic practice through a certification and maintenance of certification process that fosters excellence and encourages continual learning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But it also notes this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is not the purpose of the Board to define the requirements for membership to hospital staffs or to gain special recognition or privileges for its diplomates in the practice of ophthalmology. <strong>Neither is its purpose to state who may or may not practice ophthalmology, nor to define the scope of ophthalmic practice.<\/strong> The Board does not seek to obtain special privileges for its diplomates over other qualified physicians. <strong>The certificate of the Board does not confer any academic degree, legal qualifications, privilege, or license to practice ophthalmology<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And according to the FAQ page, they don&#8217;t have any investigatory  responsibilities either. So what is the function of the organization? It appears to be something like a union. I&#8217;m not knocking the organization at all. They do perform a very useful function in the medical community&#8230; for those who wish to participate. But membership to this organization is not mandatory, and I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if Paul&#8217;s NBO membership get&#8217;s a nice boost due to this publicity.<\/p>\n<p>PS. The granddaddy of them all, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ama-assn.org\/\">AMA<\/a>, also falls into this type of medical union-ish club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"The%20Problem%20With%20The%20News%20-%20The%20Pea%20Under%20The%20Thimble.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>There is news concerning Rand Paul and his lack of membership in the American Board of Ophthalmology. The article opens like this: Rand Paul, who touts his career as a Kentucky eye doctor as part of his outsider credentials in his campaign for U.S. Senate, isn&#8217;t certified by his profession&#8217;s leading group. After being a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3431,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions\/3431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}