Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Exactly right. Barack Hussein Obama was our first affirmative-action president. Let's hope there are no more.

After many years of vacillation, I finally subscribed to the Hastings Center Report. Volume 46, number 5 arrived today. My subscription also gives me online access. I like this periodical not only because it keeps me up to date on issues and topics in medicine and biological research, but because it shows that philosophers have a role to play in clarifying concepts, identifying fallacies, and uncovering hidden assumptions. One thing philosophers do not have is evaluative expertise. What I mean by this is that the mere fact that x is a philosopher gives x's values no additional weight (beyond that of any randomly selected person).

If you think this is incorrect and that philosophers, as such, do have evaluative expertise, then please tell me where in my graduate education I was supposed to learn what is valuable and what is not, because I must have missed that course. What I learned in graduate school were technical skills such as conceptual analysis. When you come right down to it, philosophy is just logic. Different philosophers apply their conceptual skills to different areas, such as medicine, law, science, art, and religion. Some philosophers pretend that, in addition to technical skills, they have evaluative expertise. You can see why they would want nonphilosophers to believe this. It gives them power. If people think that philosophers have evaluative expertise, then they (the people) will look to philosophers for guidance about how to behave. I share Peter Winch's view that "philosophy can no more show a man what he should attach importance to than geometry can show a man where he should stand."

To the Editor:

In “The Thin Gene” (Sunday Review, Nov. 27), Pagan Kennedy describes how research on a rare genetic mutation may improve our understanding of obesity: In people with this syndrome, a genetic deficiency of the hormone asprosin leads to low hunger levels, and researchers hope that a drug blocking this hormone, mimicking the genetic deficiency, could help people who are inclined to overeat stop overeating.

While such a drug may help some, people overeat for different reasons. Many hormonal and mechanical signals contribute to hunger and satiety, and physiological hunger signals are just one reason people eat. Psychological and social factors, some worsened by our diet-obsessed culture, also contribute to overeating.

Some people are able to decrease overeating by learning to “listen” for, detect and act on their natural hunger and satiety signals. This process defies the certainties of an effective drug, yet provides lifelong tools for health and self-care.

We must remember that genetics are just one dimension of a multidimensional issue.

KATRINA HOCH

Seattle

The writer is a registered dietitian at an eating disorders treatment facility.

Note from KBJ: Stop medicalizing a moral issue. Fat people eat too much and exercise too little. It's as simple as that.

I just told my wife Katherine that Donald Trump has been named "Person of the Year" by Time magazine. "So was Hitler," she replied. See what I have to live with? Ha!

I have three brothers and no sisters. Our ages are 61, 59, 55, and 50. Each of us has many interests, hobbies, and pastimes, but if I had to pick one main passion of each brother, it would be (from oldest to youngest) gardening, cycling, fishing, and hunting. All of these are outdoor activities, which is probably because we grew up in rural Michigan on 20 acres of wooded land. What's funny is that I'm not the least bit interested (or ever have been) in gardening, fishing, or hunting. How are things with you and your siblings?

Blizzard of Ozz (1980). Randy Rhoads, the guitarist on this album, was born 60 years ago today, on 6 December 1956. He died in an airplane accident just as his career was getting started. Were he alive today, he would be hailed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

Here.

Here.

Which of these 50 drives have you done? I've done the drives in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

To the Editor:

Re “Choice to Lead H.H.S. Is Eager to Cut Its Clout” (news article, Dec. 5):

The last time I heard a politician glibly suggest that citizens “vote with their feet” if they didn’t like how their state was administering federally funded health programs like Medicaid and maternal and child health programs, Ronald Reagan was president and I was Maine’s health and human services commissioner.

Now along comes Representative Tom Price, likely the next Health and Human Services secretary, who is committed to the same Reagan ideology of unbridled market competition, and who also says patients should be able to shop among insurance companies for a better deal. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.

Shopping for insurance is not like shopping for a car. Should health insurance—medical care, really—be left to market pricing set by companies whose goal is to turn a profit? No. Already, even well-informed consumers have trouble navigating the current insurance maze. For others, Mr. Price’s reliance on the private sector would make it even worse.

As commissioner I saw firsthand that it was impossible for many physically and intellectually impaired citizens—bedbound seniors, abandoned children and the severely disabled, including those having no feet—to make life and death choices about their health insurance. No amount of competition will change that reality.

Reagan’s tenure was marked by ideologically driven deep cuts in health and social services that harmed many vulnerable citizens. Mr. Price’s philosophy promises more of the same.

MICHAEL PETIT

Portland, Me.

Note from KBJ: Michael Petit doesn't trust adults to make important decisions for themselves. That's the totalitarian mindset. By the way, why, to leftists, is competition always "unbridled"?