If Michaele and Tareq Salahi faked their way into President Obama’s first state dinner at the White House, they join Richard and Mayumi Heene (Balloon Boy’s parents) and Nadya Suleman (Octomom) as massive examples of the vulnerability of our shared reality to manipulation by “reality terrorists.”

“Reality terrorists” are those who seek to explode real news, real-life events, real politicians, real law enforcement officials and real feelings of admiration or panic or disgust and turn them into fabricated, staged entertainment events to pump up their egos or their wallets by becoming TV stars.
 
This is more than a game or a gaffe.  This is a kind of psychological terrorism that assaults our collective ability to trust that dramatic events unfolding around us are serious ones that should indeed command our attention and elicit our genuine concern.  If a state dinner is no more than a dry run for The Real Housewives of D.C.—in which Michaele Salahi hopes to star—then the White House is no better than the set of a sitcom and deserves no special respect or awe.  

If a boy drifting away in a helium balloon, followed by the Colorado Army National Guard, is no more than a family’s pathetic ruse to net a third appearance on Wife Swap, then the Guard is no better than a troop of circus clowns running after a beach ball.  If a sick woman and her reprehensible fertility “doctor” are allowed to turn childbirth and children into a freak show and get paid for it, then our real efforts to cure infertility and love our sons and daughters is just so much filler between commercial interruptions.
 
Make no mistake about it, the convergence of television and the Internet can end up providing devastating weapons to a new breed of homegrown terrorists who value only their own causes (fame and fortune) and hijack our media, our empathy and our cultural/political symbols and icons, turning them upside down and inside out, leaving them as meaningless carcasses for camera crews to step over—like so many crushed Coke cups on the floor of a movie cinema.
 
One inherent problem with this kind of piracy is that it works even better than Somalis grabbing tankers.  The White House Party Crashers, Balloon Boy and Octomom did hit the fame jackpot and may all end up profiting in one way or another, despite their truly despicable acts.  Reality terrorists know that we will fall all over ourselves as a society to watch titillating events, in preference to complex, important ones.  It’s our psychological Achilles’ heel.  We’ll take drama over substance, every time—and pay up for it.
 
Notice the amount of newspaper ink wasted on Tiger Woods lately, when we’re sending 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan.  Did he have sex with another woman?  Was he drinking when he crashed his car?  Did he have a spat with his wife?  Who cares?  Well . . . America does.
 
In a world that worships the lens of a camera and cares not for fact over fiction, in which the President of the United States is happy to joke with any late night TV host who’ll have him and grace the cover of any men’s magazine that can disseminate his image, is it any surprise that an Iranian dictator who might just blow up an entire nation one day is perceived as a petty prankster puffing out his chest?  A silly clown?
 
We’re confused now about what is real and what is fake, and we’re going to pay very, very dearly for it.

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatry correspondent for FOX News Channel and a New York Times bestselling author. His book, “Living the Truth: Transform Your Life through the Power of Insight and Honesty” has launched a new self-help movement including www.livingthetruth.com. Dr. Ablow can be emailed at info@keithablow.com.

I was very happy to learn Tuesday that the last of the Suleman octuplets is finally home  to be with his brothers and sisters. Jonah ― the last to be sent home ― was the smallest of the bunch, weighing just 1 pound 8 ounces when they were born nine weeks early.

Click here to see pictures of Jonah and his siblings.

But now, the real challenge begins. Let us not forget that these infants were premature and that this last baby stayed in the hospital for almost 12 weeks. There is a lot of data that has been published and analyzed looking at some of the hurdles that premature babies must overcome in their early years.

To me ― as a person who delivers babies for a living ― I also have three of my own ― I am aware of the significance of paying attention to the way kids grow and develop, and how important that attention is in preventing some of these children from failing to meet their full potential.

For parents of full-term infants, paying close attention to developmental milestones is sometimes an afterthought. But for parents of premature babies, keeping track of movement, visual, social and developmental milestones could make a world of difference in identifying problems and finding solutions to meet their needs.

Most premature babies meet their milestones and catch up by the age of 2. But depending on how early an infant is born, their development may lag anywhere from 6-8 weeks in development usually during the first year of life.

It’s important to use your child’s adjusted age when tracking his or her development. For example, if your baby is 21 weeks old, but was born five weeks early, his or her adjusted age is 16 weeks (or 4 months).

Now let’s take a look at some of the milestones the American Academy of Pediatrics says parents can look out for around 16 weeks…

Motor:
o Brings hands together, or to mouth
o Lifts head and pushes on arms when on tummy
o Reaches for objects
o Turns or makes crawling movement when on tummy

Language:
o Turns head to follow familiar voices
o Laughs and squeals
o Combines sounds more often (for example, “aaah-oooh”, “gaaa-gooo”)

Activities:
o Grasps more and reaches for objects
o Brings objects to mouth
o Increases activity when sees a toy

Social/Emotional:
o Is increasingly interactive and comfortable with parents and caregivers
o Shows interest in mirrors, smiles and is playful
o Is able to comfort himself

For more guidelines and milestones at different ages, click here.

Remember: Always watch for progress and do not be afraid to ask for help from doctors, teachers or other family members.

Again, I am pleased that all eight of the children have made it home safe ― I just hope that Nadya Suleman pays as much attention to their progress as she has to publicizing their births, because it should always be about the kids.

These are interesting times we’re in ― to say the least. Over the past couple of weeks, we have all been concentrating on “Octomom” from California, and with new developments in the story everyday, it’s easy to see why she’s been the topic of conversation. I was following the story too, calling for an ethical investigation of the fertility clinic from day one, but with the state of our economy and the country experiencing what could be one of the most pivotal moments in American history, I want to move past that story.

I think it’s time the media starts concentrating on the changes that the Obama administration will be proposing in the future and some of the ideas that have already been approved.

Now, let’s look at the facts … The American health care system needs help! Why? Well, because it is filled with inefficiencies and overpriced operational costs.

How did it get like that? Well, it’s possible the American health care system has seen a lot of the same issues as our financial sector ― which we all know by now is quite a mess. Our financial experts have given us many explanations for the current economic crisis: Many blame the banks for recklessly handing out loans and credit, some blame the public for borrowing more money than they could ever repay, then there’s all the greedy Wall Street executives making profits off back of funds that don’t even exist, and who can forget those elaborate Ponzi schemes that went unnoticed by federal agencies for years.

Well, believe it or not, we have a lot of the same things happening in health care. We have some patients that demand every test in the book on the basis of what they’ve read or seen on television, hospitals that have been enamored with demands because of technological advances and profit margins, and doctors that have concentrated on sub-specialty service, rather than primary care and prevention.

So now, we are all looking to President Obama’s stimulus bill to see how he will resolve these problems. Some of his proposed ideas are very interesting. Electronic medical records, for instance, provide us with computerized data entry on patients, a way to track symptoms, disease processes, a way to dramatically decrease the overutilization of certain tests, minimize medical mistakes both by physicians and hospitals. And down the road, it might even decrease costs.

But many critics worry about privacy issues. I totally agree that patient confidentiality should always be protected. I remember when the new HIPPA laws came into effect under President Clinton, I could not even discuss a patient’s medical condition or get a second opinion from a colleague without getting a written consent from the patient.

But I think that before we start throwing good money in to solve the problems bad money got us into, the way previous financial stimulus plans have, we need to really understand how our current health care system is working, and address the issues that got us here in the first place.

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