Welcome to PalMD!

PalMD has joined Mark and Chris Hoofnagle at denialism blog. For those who were not already fans of the old WhiteCoat Underground blog:

PalMD is a practicing internist in the Midwestern United States. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, which means that some medical school was running short on off-site teaching faculty. Quite often, patients eschew advice based on hard, scientific work, and ask him about the latest miracle cure. This makes him cranky. He aims to change the world, one reader at a time.

I think you will enjoy what PalMD has to say. Go Read.

Offended (Updated)

According to this online dictionary, offended is defined, in part, thusly:

(v. tr.) 1. To cause displeasure, anger, resentment, or wounded feelings in.

I’ve been thinking about the concept of giving / taking offense and/or the state of being offended lately because of a bunch of conversations online which I will not enumerate. Recent features of our US Presidential campaigning, ditto. Some additional scenarios in my real world existence, you betcha. Suffice it to say that I’ve been considering the evidence, such as it is, that has apparently been taken as justification for taking offense in a number of scenarios. I have found it wanting. I have also been considering a scenario or two in which it appears that one of my correspondents feels that I am unjustifiably “taking offense” because I am “too sensitive”. This makes me howl. Because I very rarely find myself in the emotional state that is, to all appearances from others, properly considered the “offended” state. Still, this failure to understand what is apparently a basic feature of human nature makes one step back and consider.
I have come to the conclusion that I have a modest deficit in understanding the concept of “offended”.