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Posts published by “Steve Heilig”

Brautigan’s Rise & Fall

Richard Brautigan once observed that “It’s really something to have fame put its feathery crowbar under your rock and then upward to the light to release you, along with seven grubs and a sow bug.”…

Pain & Pain Medication

A lot of Americans are in physical pain. A lot of Americans are addicted to prescription pain medications. The two populations overlap, but are not the same. And therein lies a huge and growing problem.…

Toxic Sugar Politics

Every morning I put about half a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee. Then I usually do that again. And I love it. That is the single use I have for the stuff, although it…

Two Cheers For ‘Obamacare’

There's an old sad joke in health policy circles: A bigshot policy wonk, who worked his life away trying to get a good universal health coverage plan in place, dies and goes to heaven where,…

A Scientific Hero’s Legacy

When I was a kid in Southern California back in the 1970s, I had a pal up the street whose dad taught chemistry at the local university. That’s all I really knew about the man,…

‘Shepherds Of The Nation’

Despite my better judgment and sometimes sensitive stomach, I caught a bit of the latest Republican candidate debate the other evening. The one benefit was that I finally figured out why an obscure old song…

Contraception

Contraception exploded onto the front pages in February. That might seem strange to most people — what is controversial about contraception at this late date? One headline read “Changes to Contraceptive Coverage Rules Draw Mixed…

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