Of Doctors and other matters of IQ

By Joseph Walther

A few months ago, I was channel surfing during the late night—defined by ME as after mid-night but before 4 AM. I came across Larry King Live. His guest was Dr. Jack Kevorkian, recently released after serving 8-years of a 10 to 25-year prison term stemming from his conviction on a multitude of assisted suicides.

This is not about Larry King or Jack Kevorkian, at least not specifically. It’s about something that Larry King said to the infamous Dr. Death! However, in the interest of fairness, I must clarify something first.

Relative to Larry King, I have never been one of his fans. Personally, I think he’s highly overrated and a perfect example of how someone has managed to fool an inordinately large number of people over an interminably long period of time.

But, given his long and successful career, I stand as a member of a relatively small group of critics. Regardless, in my opinion, there is something about Larry King that seems to scream out; “Look at me, everybody; I’m a dumb-ass!”

Relative to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, I ALWAYS agreed with him in principle. I think his intentions were always honorable and sincere in that he believed he was helping people.

Since we seem to abhor letting animals suffer under such horrible conditions, why do we expect humans to suffer so? If their medical conditions are terminal and they are mentally and emotionally competent, why not permit medical doctors to help them die painlessly and with dignity?

All of this aside, though, I think Kevorkian did his cause more harm than good. His methodology appeared callus and dangerous. Taunting law enforcement personnel to “Stop me if you can” by sending audio/video recordings of his actions was both arrogant and stupid.

Okay… Now, back to the interview. In answer to King’s question concerning the outcome of his (Kevorkian’s) efforts, Dr. Jack explained to Mr. King that his “doctor-assisted” suicide mission was over.

“Someone younger will have to take up the cause,” he told King. “Besides,” he added, “the state of Michigan revoked my medical license as a result of my conviction. So I couldn’t continue actively, even if I wanted to.”

Larry King then asked, “So, how do you feel now that you can’t call yourself ‘Doctor’ anymore?” Dr. Kevorkian looked at him and said, “I’m still a doctor because I have a medical degree from an accredited medical school. They can’t take that away. I just can no longer practice medicine.”

This went over Mr. King’s head by at least 5-vertical feet. He was sincerely clueless. Viewers could tell this because of the way he continued to press the point. He seemed determined to spring some sort of “gotcha” on Kevorkian.

It always seems that whenever dumb-asses try explaining what intelligent people have said, they (the dumb-asses), due to sheer cognitive deficiency, subconsciously translate it into something THEY can understand. Larry King seems to substantiate this with alarming frequency.

Actually, it lends much credence to what I said about him a few paragraphs above: that, in my opinion, there seems to be something about Larry King that just SCREAMS, “Look at me, everybody; I’m a dumb-ass!”

Now, if you happen to be a Larry King fan, fine! Don’t be sending me hate email because I’ve picked on him. It’s not personal. And, besides, I’m not alone in this respect. Take consolation in the fact that many other TV/Radio talking heads are just as bad, only a lot younger.

Look, I have to begin my Christmas shopping—I’m not about to let people classify me as a “last minute shopper”—so I’d like to keep this week’s article short. However, I do believe that I’ve stumbled onto a possible reason for Larry King’s long-term celebrity success.

I’m a Comcast broadband ISP subscriber. I found the below headline on Comcast.net Entertainment. Since they tend to remove stuff faster than people can read it, I’ve decided to include the entire article here.

“Cops: 'Mr. Bean' Dings a Car in Aspen”

ASPEN, Colo. — British comedian Rowan Atkinson, known for playing the bumbling television and movie character Mr. Bean, made a mistake of his own when he backed an SUV into an Aspen woman's car.

Atkinson was moving from a metered spot Thursday when he struck the Volkswagen Jetta, police said. "He was backing out of a parking spot and didn't see the car behind him," said police Sgt. Dan Davis. "There was a little bit of damage to the car. He put a ding in it."

Davis said the accident was minor, and no citations were issued.

A phone message left for Atkinson's management in London late Saturday was not immediately returned.

Why is this newsworthy, even though I think Rowan Atkinson is a fine comedic entertainer? The fact is that it isn’t. However, some reporter thought it important enough to call Atkinson and tell us that he did not IMMEDIATELY return the call.

These entertainment reporters must have the IQs of carrots. And, based on some of the stuff I’ve seen on television over the past several years, we readers and viewers may be suffering similarly.

The fact that I’ve actually enjoyed some of this stuff scares the daylights out of me, though. I’ve always thought my own IQ to be in the range of high-grade tree bark.

Even though I told you last week, again, have a great holiday, whatever name you assign to it. I call it Christmas. So Merry Christmas! If this offends some you, I’m sorry, not for offending you, but because you have a carrot-level IQ.

We’ll do it again next Sunday. Stay safe. Don’t drive and drink. Carrots certainly don’t.

Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Copyright laws apply to all material on this site. Send your comments. Just click here.