So, yeah. We all know that Obama is trying to push major health care changes through the US Congress and it is, predictably, proving somewhat controversial and moving a bit slowly. I consider this to be a good thing, as I believe that the Founding Fathers deliberately engineered the American federal government to move slowly and actually do very little, if anything, unless it has overwhelming popular support¹.

All-too-predictably, this is leading to a wave of political grandstanding, mis- or dis-information, and loonies coming out of the woodwork (on both sides).

Studies find spinal procedure no more effective than placebo

Short version: A single-blind trial has shown that the effectiveness of a highly-regarded $3000 operation widely used to treat back pain appears to be completely unrelated to the surgical procedure itself.