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Kevin Pezzi, MD

I developed technology to instantly
stop school shooters and other criminals,
such as rapists, robbers, home invaders,
and shoplifters. I also created ways to block
airborne germ transmission. Read more >

Iconoclastic views on economics, politics, technology, science, and life.

Disagree with something I wrote? So do I! Read more

“To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”

— Elbert Hubbard, American editor, publisher, and writer (1856–1915)

Trivia: He and his wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, the noted feminist and writer, died aboard the RMS Lusitania, which was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915, when they were heading to Europe to cover the war and interview Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

If you disagree with something I wrote, feel free to challenge it. Some of my viewpoints are the antithesis (exact opposite) of what they once were. That isn't flip-flopping; that is changing opinions with scant evidence to support them into convictions with a firmer foundation of facts.

My political philosophy is an amalgamation of libertarian, conservative, and liberal principles. My opinions have changed so significantly that my conservative friends might be horrified by how I strongly believe that liberals are correct on certain issues. I've previously written about some of them, but to make this more fun, I will present others as challenges in which I offer $100,000 to the first person who can refute the logic I used in forming that opinion. Please note that due to my limited time and difficulty using my hands after I broke my neck, I cannot quickly update my previously published opinions. However, now that I am balancing the promptings of head and heart, I strongly disagree with many opinions I expressed in my writings.

I like finding people who make me think, not necessarily those who agree with me. Genius Robert Heinlein said, “I never learned from a man who agreed with me.” If you can educate me, I'm all ears.

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”
— Albert Einstein

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
— Albert Einstein

“What I would like to see more often in this nation is an open and intelligent conversation, not people just casting aspersions at each other … it's unbelievable to me the way people act like third graders. And if somebody doesn't agree with them, they're this and they're that … it comes from both sides. And it's just so infantile.”
— Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon

“The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about and refuse to investigate.”
— Dr. Wayne Dyer

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.”
— General George Patton

“Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes

“A lot of people risk their lives in a brief act of heroism, which is kind of cool, but Jill has what I call slow heroism. She is risking her professional life on something that her own calculations show may not work for a thousand years—may not ever. So I like to support people that are risking their lives.”
— ex-Microsoft billionaire brainiac Nathan Myhrvold speaking about Jill Tarter, who inspired the character played by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact. It takes a brilliant person to see that others who go against the grain of conventional wisdom may be sages although lesser minds often ridicule their ideas.

“I am not young enough to know everything.”
— Oscar Wilde

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
— Winston Churchill

“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.”
— Euripides, Greek tragic dramatist (484 BC - 406 BC)

“It is socially unacceptable to be right too early.”
— Robert Heinlein

“I'd rather stand alone on the truth than with millions on a lie.”

“The most distinctive mark of a cultured mind is the ability to take another's point of view; to put one's self in another's place, and see life and its problems from a point of view different from one's own. To be willing to test a new idea; to be able to live on the edge of difference in all matters intellectually; to examine without heat the burning question of the day; to have imaginative sympathy, openness and flexibility of mind, steadiness and poise of feeling, cool calmness of judgment, is to have culture.”
— Arthur H. R. Fairchild

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
— Abraham Lincoln

This reminds me of something stressed by one of my psychology professors, who said that society imposes rigid boundaries for what behavior is acceptable, and applies tremendous pressure trying to force people to conform to the behavioral expectations. Some of the most brilliant and productive outside-the-box thinkers led unconventional lives. One of the side effects of forcing people to think inside the box is that by lopping off outside-the-box behavior, potentially great outside-the-box ideas are lost, too.

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.”
— Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (1908-1965)

“You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.”
— John Eliot

Meeting the daughter of a Hollywood star

What do you do when a movie star's daughter begins to tell you intimate details about his love life? Well, if you're an ER doctor, and that daughter is your patient, you close the door, then sit and listen. So I did. I generally do not have much time for listening, but this shift was slow, and I was curious to hear what she had to say — and why she wanted to tell me. I'm an ER doc, not a psychiatrist, but listening is (or should be) something that all physicians do.

The daughter, who I'll call Amy, came to the ER for a bladder infection, so this catharsis was unrelated to her presenting complaint (i.e., ostensibly why she came to the ER). Amy's parents are divorced, and she attends a private school far from home. She spent last Christmas with her Dad and his girlfriend Heather, who is scarcely older than Amy. Amy was "creeped out" (her terminology, not mine) by this for the obvious reason, and one not so obvious. You figure out the former; I'll tell you the latter. Amy thought that Heather was the epitome of an airhead, and devoid of common sense when it comes to matters that are better left unsaid. Such as an explanation of why her father was so good in bed, and why Heather's last lover was not. Amy did not know how to respond to such revelations, and she wondered if Heather was high on something. Amy tried changing the subject to more appropriate topics, but Heather demonstrated no apparent interest in discussing music, sports, hobbies, or her family. Just sex.

Amy said that when her father was present, Heather never discussed sex. However, when Heather and Amy were alone, Heather would return to her favorite subject. Amy had enough of this after three days, so she called her mother and asked to spend the remainder of the Christmas vacation with her. When she told her Dad why she was leaving, he looked at Heather in stunned disbelief, blushed, then stormed out of his house. Amy left before he returned, and never mentioned the subject to her mother.

Amy was dreading the next time she would see her Dad, or speak with him. He hadn't called in a month, which is very atypical for him, so she knew that he was avoiding her. She did receive some encouraging news from her mother, who — unaware of Heather's inappropriate Christmastime chitchat — said that Amy's Dad was no longer seeing Heather. That's good, but how to repair the relationship with her Dad? Should she call? What should she say? Or should she continue to wait until her Dad called? Amy was concerned that she might embarrass her father even more if she were to call, and she thought that he would call when his humiliation subsided. However, she wanted my opinion. My opinion as a doctor, or as just another person? Before I had a chance to respond, I was paged to the Trauma Room to treat the survivors of a head-on collision. As I completed their paperwork 90 minutes later, I suddenly remembered Amy. I went to see her again, but she'd already left. She has a history of frequent bladder infections, so I may see her again. By that time, I hope that the discomfiture between Amy and her father will have dissipated. I don't have any brilliant tips for mitigating what is bound to be an awkward conversation.

The views expressed on this page may or may not reflect my current opinions, nor do they necessarily represent my past ones. After reading a slice of what I wrote in my various websites and books, you may conclude that I am a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican. Wrong; there is a better alternative. Just as the primary benefit from debate classes results when students present and defend opinions contrary to their own, I use a similar strategy as a creative writing tool to expand my brainpower—and yours. Mystified? Stay tuned for an explanation. PS: The wheels in your head are already turning a bit faster, aren't they?

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Reference: Imagining dialogue can boost critical thinking: Excerpt: “Examining an issue as a debate or dialogue between two sides helps people apply deeper, more sophisticated reasoning …”

Comments (1)

A guess from a reader

NOTE FROM DR. PEZZI: A reader submitted a comment suggesting that Amy's frequent bladder infections were due to sexual abuse by her father. This reader also presumed that Amy was a pediatric patient. Not true. Amy was legally an adult. In taking the sexual history from her (something physicians routinely do), there was no evidence of sexual abuse. What patients say and HOW they respond provide a wealth of clues to doctors. Finally, Amy's father could not possibly have caused her bladder infection because she had no recent contact with him.