I am old enough to remember the days when cameras were not allowed in most courtrooms. The evening news always had artists renditions of the proceedings. The practice always seemed strange to me.

The last holdout when it comes to cameras in the Supreme Court of the United States(SCOTUS). SCOTUS has resisted requests from C-Span to bring cameras into the highest court in the lands.

Growing up in San Diego County there was always a park nearby. Public basketball courts and baseball fields were available for use and generally in great shape. There were playgrounds everywhere. The local cities also had public beaches that were well maintained.

All of the freeways in Southern California in urban areas had exit ramps and medians that were well maintained. It was not unusual to see workers tending to the landscaping.

During rounds when I was in medical school once the intern started presenting the case with, "The patient is a 67 year old African American female." The staff physician interrupted and asked, "Why does the race matter?" We then had to suffer a 10 minute politically correct speech about how race did not matter.

Lebron James and Chris Bosh will join Dwyane Wade in Miami next year and the hype has been absurd.

King James is an Ohio product and his movement away from the Cleveland Cavaliers is understandable but also distressing. The times are gone when athletes spent their entire career with a team.

Muscular Dystrophy is a group of genetic disorders characterized by degeneration of skeletal muscle tissue. The diagnosis occurs in 1 in 3500 live male births. About one third of those cases represent new mutations.

The disorders represent horrible diseases where many patients are unable to walk by their teenage years. Patients eventually develop respiratory failure and cardiomyopathies and typically die in the third decade of life.

Can you imagine the outrage if two members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)were standing outside a polling place with a nightstick?

So why is it that a couple of Black Panthers can stand outside a voting location with weapons in 2008 and get so little attention?

A federal judge was was on the verge of awarding judgement to the Department of Justice (DOJ) when a lawsuit was filed claiming the New Black Panther Party had violated the Voting Rights Act. The DOJ mysteriously withdrew the charges in May 2009.

There are many nicknames out there for the Anchorage Daily News (ADN). A colleague of mine loves to call it The Daily Worker. Anchorage Daily Lies is another name that gets thrown around town. My favorite has always been Pravda.

There are times when ADN appears to deserve some of the nicknames. There are times when they do not deserve any of them. It is kind of the way I live up to labels at times and not at other times.

A salty old US Army Master Sergeant told me a joke once about officers.

When you make Major they cut your tongue out. When you make Lieutenant Colonel they give you a lobotomy. When you make Colonel they give you your tongue back.

I was a Captain at the time but when I did become a Major and never demonstrated that his joke was true. I did not want to stick around to see if his prediction was right for the next promotion.

The first time I went to pediatrics clinic as a medical student was eye opening. The charts of siblings were kept together under the name of their mother. Most of the mothers were under the age of 25 and most of them had 4-5 children. The shocker for me was it was not uncommon for all of the kids to have different last names.

A few years back I was out pulling some weeds in the yard when I heard thumping. I looked up and a bull moose was running in my general direction. I do not know what spooked him but I am thankful he ended up 3 feet to my left.

There were 112 car accidents involving moose in Anchorage in 2007. That is significantly less than the 247 in the Mat-Su valley and the 648 that occurred statewide. 435 of those accidents happened at night.

Southern California's weather allows for young athletes to play sports like baseball and soccer year round. In fact, soccer is a winter sport opposite basketball.

I had friends who were great soccer players. I kicked the ball around a bit from time to time. There were times where I would even get involved in the indoor game. The closer quarters actually created a game with a lot similarities to basketball.

Many of the conversations I have had with other physicians in the past couple of weeks have been about the cost of medicine.

A colleague of mine was talking about his son getting a physical. He was not happy with the cost which was a few hundred dollars. The only question I had for him is what he thought about it costing $3-4K (combined physician/facility fee) to get a colonoscopy done in town?

Ever wonder how the United States would react if terrorists started firing rockets from British Columbia at Bellingham, WA?

And what if those rockets were being fired from schools and churches?

Let us add a different dimension and put international protesters roaming around with the terrorists when weapons are moved, stored or used.

The world would likely protest if the US invaded Canada and took out a school or two. The screaming might be deafening if a human shield protecting the terrorists were to die.

There were two teachers responsible for teaching United States history in my high school. Both of them had doctorates. One was a stuffy old man and the other was a young woman who a few years earlier had been on The Dating Game.

The biggest thing they had common was their politics. Ronald Reagan was the president at the time and both despised him.

There is a myth going around that preventative medicine saves money. It was front and center in the health care debate.

Part of preventative health care is individual responsibility. Obesity kills. Tobacco kills. Alcohol kills. Sedentary lifestyle kills. There is only so much the system can do about these issues. The rest of it is screening and frequent evaluation to treat chronic or potentially fatal conditions.

I have a Medicare patient lash out against primary care physicians in town periodically. The complain is always that primary care providers should be required to accept Medicare patients.

A more common scenario is the patient who understands why primary care physicians have shed their Medicare patients.

The problem of access is spreading to specialists. Things could get worse.

Every once and a while a simple stomach doctor needs to add some spice to his life. This past Friday it meant cruising over to UAA for the Alaska Press Club conference and specifically the panel discussion on "Uncivil Discourse."

The leader of the panel was Alaska Public Radio's Steve Heimel who within seconds brought up Sarah Palin feeling the discussion would eventually end up there. The room was awash with chuckles and groans.

My parents lived in Temecula, CA when I was in medical school. It was an area growing like crazy and I spent my summers delivering pizzas. There was a lot of construction and agriculture around. And hence there were a lot of illegal immigrants around looking for jobs.

The main story of the summer of 1992 was that of a Border Patrol chase gone tragically wrong. A Chevy Suburban speeding away from agents cut through a sedan as students were showing up at Temecula Valley High School.

It does not matter if it is aspirin or a colonoscopy. The decision to go forward is always based on the risks, benefits and alternatives of a treatment.

There are times when things go horribly wrong. With aspirin that may be a bleeding ulcer. And with a colonoscopy it may be a perforation. Fortunately the complications are usually treatable.

Patients have different medical histories that modify the risk. Older patients are more likely to get into trouble. Chronic medical conditions can change whether a treatment is acceptable.

There was a time in college when I could tie my hair up under my chin. I, at one point, also had a beard that would not grow in fully. It must have been a scary sight seeing me walk around back in those days.

It was a time when Metallica, Anthrax, and Megadeth were the staples of what I wanted to hear. And yet there was a softer side out there. Why? Because women were much more likely to be at Motley Crue shows.

In the late 80s every band that put on make up and played sappy metal anthems and ballads would immediately be signed to a record deal.