In the wake of the shameful surrender to the N.R.A. by cowardly members of what should be the most powerful, courageous and decent legislative institution in the free world, a person who has seen gun violence up-close-and-personal, a person who narrowly survived gun violence and who will probably suffer the consequences for the rest of her life, has spoken up against those cowards.

You must read it here.

This is some of what Gabrielle Giffords has to say:

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

[::]

These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on.

I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.

[::]

[The Senators] will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.

[::]

Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way.

Note: This post has been edited to include the opening paragraph — perhaps the most emotional part –of Gabrielle Giffords’ powerful Op-Ed in today’s New York Times.

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Little attention is being paid to personal responsibility in setting health insurance premiums. While health status and pre-existing conditions have been determinant factors in the past for obtaining individual health insurance and the premium rates for coverage, these differentials will be eliminated as part of the Affordable Care Act. And in obtaining group health insurance, an individual’s health status is usually not a consideration.

Personal responsibility in terms of health status has always been an important factor in deciding the premiums for life insurance. Thus, individuals with high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, elevated blood sugar levels, smokers, drug and alcohol abusers, have to pay more in order for them to obtain life insurance, or may not be able to get insurance at all.

Some companies attempting to lower their costs for employee health insurance are offering incentives to workers for life style changes that lower blood pressure, body mass index, or other parameters, or who partake in wellness programs. (http://goo.gl/dVtMo) Both rewards for the employees such as lower premiums or deductibles may be offered, or penalties may be imposed such as higher premiums or an insurance surcharge.

It may seem odd that companies have to provide financial incentives to employees to prod them to lifestyle changes that will improve their health and longevity. But many individuals refuse to take personal responsibility for their health, with the rates of obesity skyrocketing in the United States over the last few decades, resulting in an increased incidence of diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, strokes, and other disease entities, that will only increase in the future.

This leads us to a moral dilemma. Since health care costs are spread over the population that is insured, or partially paid for by taxpayers in Medicare and Medicaid, should those who are responsible and lead a healthy lifestyle pay more for those who disregard their health and eat and drink with abandon, or smoke, or use drugs, or drive recklessly, and so forth. Many of these people, who will be most in need of care, are poor, or with low educational levels, or with psychiatric problems. But some are quite intelligent, educated, and middle class. How do we get these individuals who are unwilling to assume responsibility for their own health to change their behavior and start acting in a way that will enhance their own health? It would seem to be unethical to refuse them care, even for those conditions that are self-induced. And if their health insurance deductibles for treatment are increased to penalize them, they will be less likely to seek care. In that case, their conditions will worsen and require more intensive treatment in the future.

Perhaps positive incentives can be tried such as lowering their health insurance premiums and/or deductibles for healthy conduct and any improvement that can be measured in the harmful conditions they exhibit. But what if they don’t respond to these inducements and persist in behavior that damages their minds or bodies and will ultimately cost responsible citizens money to care for them? This is unfair to those Americans who are attentive to their health and who will not become a burden to society because of self-destructive conduct.

I don’t know the answer to this quandary. My heart says society must pay for the care of those unfortunate individuals whose actions have resulted in serious illnesses. My brain says it is unfair to expect people who act responsibly in regard to their health to be saddled with the cost of care for individuals who give no thought to how their behavior will subsequently affect their minds and bodies. There appears to be no way to reconcile my heart and my brain over this issue. I am my brother’s keeper, or am I?

Resurrecting Democracy

www.robertlevinebooks.com

Boston is a tough city. It has had to be tough to survive this long. It is one of the few cities in America more than 300 years old and has witnessed calamities, natural and man-made, numerous times over its history. Some of them brought embarrassment and shame. Others brought hope and even revolution. But one catastrophe and the courageous response to it from one man seems especially notable today.

I’m speaking of the small pox outbreak in 1721. One of the greatest and surest killers of the 17th and 18th centuries was the infamous small pox. It nearly wiped out the native inhabitants of the Americas, and it continued to wreck havoc on the European and African populations in the New World. Edward Jenner is generally credited with developing the first smallpox vaccine in 1796. But doctors had experimented with variolation long before that, especially in the Ottoman Empire. The prospect of artificially introducing a form of the virus, for purposes of generating immunity, was deeply controversial to say the least. But some of the African slaves in Boston in the early 1700s had been inoculated by this process, and no less than Cotton Mather took note that some preventable mechanism was at least theoretically available.

Enter Dr. Zabdiel Boylston. Son of an English physician, Zabdiel Boylston grew up in Boston and became one of New England’s most famous surgeons of all. He had already pioneered surgical treatment of breast cancer and gall bladder disease. In 1721, Boston faced a small pox outbreak, which led to panic and despair in the city. At Mather’s urging Dr. Boylston developed a plan to introduce inoculation into the city, which would minimize the outbreak and save countless lives. But few among Boston’s elite medical community agreed, with many expressing violent objection to this untried method. Mobs appeared at his home and he was accused of fomenting mass murder. Some even accused him of interfering with God’s will – that smallpox was the workings of God and had already been used to clear out the land of “heathens” for the new Puritan colony (which had, by 1721, become more defined by Yankee commercialism than religious fervor).

But Dr. Boylston persisted. He applied the inoculation first to his son, and then to two slaves. And then he expanded his experiment to hundreds more. The results were remarkable. Of the larger Boston population untouched by Boylston’s radical experiment, 14% died. Of the 600 men, women and children Boylston inoculated, only 2% died. Despite threats to his life from mobs and from the virus itself, Dr. Boylston bravely persisted and helped usher in a revolution in medical treatment.

His nephew, Ward Nicholas Boylston, would garner more undiluted praise in the city. As a highly successful merchant, the younger Boylston became a philanthropist and major benefactor of Harvard University, and supporter of another of Zabdiel’s nephews – John Adams. Boylston Hall at Harvard would be named for Ward Nicholas Boylston, as would the street that hosts the finish line for the Boston Marathon.

When you hear commentators discuss the horrific bombings and the heroic response to them on Boylston Street, think of the uncle of the man for whom the street was named. A city that has produced more than its share of commercial barons and progressive philanthropists and activists, Boston was as prepared for this disaster as any other. With similar courage, the first responders of the Boston Marathon did what old Dr. Zabdiel Boylston did in 1721 – risked life, limb and reputation to serve his community and humanity.

Hope and courage trumped fear then. It will today as well.

Should the United States apologize to Iraqis and pay their country reparations? Now, ten years after an invasion that was illegal under international law and based on mistaken pretexts, Al-Iraq News columnist Jamal Muhammad Taqi argues that it’s time for America to make amends – but he has little expectation that it will.

For Al-Iraq News, Jamal Muhammad Taqi starts off this way:

To turn the page on the past, the least America and Britain can do for the Iraqi people is apologize and compensate them for the catastrophic material damage inflicted on themselves, their natural environment and their infrastructure. This is damage that will leave its mark for a century. The most practical punishment would be to see the U.S.-British agenda for which the invasion and occupation were carried out – thwarted. That would be the only reasonable punished for a crime unequaled by any in the world.

On the anniversary of the invasion, the above suggestion seems like some kind of dream or small talk between acquaintances, since the people who currently rule Iraq consider the invasion and occupation to have been necessary to liberate the country from those that used to rule! According to them, the Americans and British deserve thanks, gratitude, and sometimes compensation for what they lost in Iraq during the invasion and occupation. This is understandable coming from a group that collaborated from the beginning, and for which the invasion and occupation are the reasons for their hold on power. Naturally they owe everything to the occupiers and will inevitably stand against any of the above-listed demands. In any event, we’re not counting on those appointed to govern by the occupiers, but on all free patriots who are organizing themselves and shifting from armed resistance to political and legal resistance. And thanks to Allah, they are many!

READ ON IN ENGLISH OR ARABIC AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.

by Dr. Kevin Purcell

One of my favorite reads in the last decade has been Don Miguel Ruiz’s “Four Agreements”. I wish I had read it when I was a kid. But it’s never too late, and my young adult kids have benefited.

In the book, Ruiz suggests how to avoid self-limiting train of thought. These easy to understand suggestions are one path to remaining kind and fair to oneself, and the same to others.

An overview of this short but powerful book:

There are hundreds if not thousands of agreements you have made with others and with yourself. The ones made with yourself are most important. They make up your personality. Some of our agreements make us suffer and give us fear. To break them, the author suggests we use four new agreements that will override the old and harmful ones.

1) Be impeccable in your word — never go against yourself. Take responsibility for your actions but do not judge or blame yourself. Have integrity, honesty and be consistent. Your word is the power you have to create. What you feel and what you really are will be shaped by your word — your language. It creates all events in your life.

2) Don’t take anything personally — whatever happens around you, don’t take it personally. You will only take it personally if you agree with what others have said. Nothing other people do is because of you. When you take something personally you are assuming they know what goes on in your world — and you may be trying to impose your world on them. Taking things personally makes you easy prey for predators as you do not want to disappoint them. I know who I am and I don’t have the need to be accepted.

3) Don’t make assumptions — the problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are truth. We swear they are real. We assume we know what others are doing or thinking — we take it personally — then blame them or ourselves with our words. *All the sadness and drama in our lives is rooted in making assumptions and taking things personally. It is always better to ask questions than to make assumptions because assumptions set you up for suffering. Real love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them.

4) Always do your best — this agreement allows the others to be ingrained over time. We will fail in the first three. So we get up and start again; always doing our best — no more, no less. Keep in mind your best will always be different from one day to another. Sometimes your best will be high quality and other times it will not be as good. When you are refreshed and energized from a good night’s sleep your best will be better than if you are tired. Your best will change over time. Your best will become better than it used to be. If you do your best, there is no way anyone can judge you. And if you judge yourself you will never suffer from guilt.

Jim Inhofe, from Oklahoma, a Republican senator, is going to probably have to wear thick makeup to cover his embarrassment at using the grieving souls from the Newtown massacre, as his own personal political fodder.

It is likely ever ill-advised to use freshly grieving parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, fiancee, friends…. to make your political defensiveness/rage known, when NOT demeaning those persons would be entirely avoidable… and easily so. Easy as pie.

But, 14 year ago this month, witnessing first person the many months’ long hearings on the Columbine High School massacre, held by then Colorado District Attorney Ken Salazar– and my being one of the many, many testifiers… I can say, that I saw it then too… those [I'm sorry to say that it was far more one party [R], far more, than the other party, that tried to make their churlish hay based on their fantasies about the motives of the grieving persons’ sincere inputs]….

It was clear, those particular legislators, were afraid that ordinary people, suddenly empowered by abject tragedy, were gaining ground, gearing up in significant numbers in order to bring bills before the state legislature that might change what the R legislators did not want changed– not to mention making an end run around their highnesses without highnesses’ permissions…. [many of those legislators were certainly ridiculed as less than hot messes by many for their grotesque and 'macabre' is not too strong a word, fantasies about who was behind whatever in testimonies by the grieving]. The whole of the sudden calling out of the grieving made decent people angry… and many voted accordingly in the next elections.

It is likely true that most of us will give an extra courtesy to listening to the veteran who has been injured over a hale fellow with a life of priviledge. We would listen often more so to a child, to a true heroic person filled with hope and determination, than to a coddled person who is carried around on a silk pillow. In a just world, actually, we would listen to all with equal patience. But sometimes those who have suffered greatly, carry more weight in certain matters of conscience and common sense.

So Jim Inhofe, wants to block votes, and it appears a strong possibility that in hyper-sweating desperation he may have decided that he could not outrun the most powerful group of people with the greatest grief, and those so sad souls having the ear of so many people, could not be defeated unless Jim Inhofe tried to make them seem puppets, only by making them seem misled by ‘someone’ [that 'somebody named, depending since time out of mind, on who were or are a particular legislator's greatest foe[s]– All this having to do with politics as though human voices dont matter, only the voices in Inhofe’s mind that say he wont be re-elected unless he does x. So slash at the grieving in order to remain in office.

Inhofe is 78 years old and keeps pix on his pages looking as though he has met Ponce de Leon after de Leon met his goal looking for the fountain of youth. He served in the army for two years, and took rank just above private first class: specialist 4. He then, according to his bio, became an “insurance executive.” He is originally from Iowa.

He is notable for saying he was ‘outraged’ about the public’s outrage over the treatment of certain prisoners at Abu Ghraib. He was one of only nine senators who voted against a humane treatment act of 2005 that prohibited inhumane treatment of persons in US custody.

Mr Inhofe also claims global warming has been ‘debunked.’ Believes Israel has a right to all lands based on the Bible. Wanted English to be the ‘official’ language. And says he does not hire any gay staff [how would he know, I wonder?] because it would be a conflict of interest for Inhofe as he campaigned for his seat on his motto: God, Guns and Gays. I dont know if he realized that it sounds like he’s really really for all three. He isn’t for gays.

Mr.Inhofe claims in ‘all of recorded history’ in his family, there has never been a divorce or a gay person.

Here’s Mr. Inhofe re the grieving families who came to testify in DC…
[Inhofe] said Tuesday that the gun control debate doesn’t have anything to do with the families of the Newtown, Conn., shooting victims, and that the only reason those families think it does is because President Barack Obama told them it did.

When it was suggested that the families of Newtown victims actually believe the gun debate pertains to them, Inhofe said, “Well, that’s because they’ve been told that by the president.”

ON the other hand, maybe the red face of Inhofe wont be from embarrassment at all, maybe just as Hippocrates pointed out eons ago, that a dead-red complexion comes from a condition of too much bile… anger that the world is not one’s mirror.

See also Joe Gandelman’s article on Inhofe.

Each month of the year has been, nationally or by organizations, declared the “Month of xxxx” to commemorate certain important events or to promote, create awareness or draw attention to certain causes or special interests.

About.com says, “April is one of the few months that does not contain a long list of ridiculous observations,” and mentions, “July is Lasagna Awareness Month” apparently as one of those “ridiculous observations.” (Sorry lasagna lovers)

Some of the events observed in April as “National Month” are:

• African American Women’s Fitness Month
• Alcohol Awareness Month
• Amateur Radio Month
• American Cancer Society Month
• Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month
• Celebrate Diversity Month
• Community Service Month
• Fresh Florida Tomato Month
• Jewish-American Heritage Month
• National Autism Awareness Month
• National Better Hearing and Speech Month
• National Food Month
• National Garden Month
• National Mental Health Month
• National Multiple Birth Awareness Month
• National Occupational Therapy Month
• National Older Americans Month
• National Parkinson’s Awareness Month
• National Pecan Month
• National Soft Pretzel Month
• National Soy Foods Month
• National STDs Education and Awareness Month
• Pets are Wonderful Month
• Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month
• Stress Awareness Month
• Thai Heritage Month
• Women’s Health Care Month

I don’t know about “National Soft Pretzel Month,” but most of the causes listed above are very worthwhile.

Surprisingly absent, however, are “Month of the Military Child” and “National Child Abuse Prevention Month.”

Here is some background on “National Child Abuse Prevention Month”

Increasing public awareness of the need to ensure the safety and welfare of children led to the passage of the first Federal child protection legislation, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), in 1974…

In the early 1980s, Congress made a further commitment to identifying and implementing solutions to end child abuse. Recognizing the alarming rate at which children continued to be abused and neglected and the need for innovative programs to prevent child abuse and assist parents and families affected by maltreatment, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives resolved that the week of June 6-12, 1982, should be designated as the first National Child Abuse Prevention Week…

The following year, in 1983, April was proclaimed the first National Child Abuse Prevention Month. As a result, child abuse and neglect awareness activities are promoted across the country during April of each year…

In 1989, the Blue Ribbon Campaign to Prevent Child Abuse began as a Virginia grandmother’s tribute to her grandson who died as a result of abuse. She tied a blue ribbon to the antenna of her car as a way to remember him and to alert her community to the tragedy of child abuse. The Blue Ribbon Campaign has since expanded across the country; many people wear blue ribbons each April in memory of those who have died as a result of child abuse and in support of efforts to prevent abuse…

In 2003, as part of the 20th anniversary of the original Presidential Proclamation designating April as Child Abuse Prevention Month, OCAN launched the National Child Abuse Prevention Initiative as a year-long effort…

Visit the National Child Abuse Prevention Month website for more information on the most current resources and national efforts.

The military also highlights April as “National Child Abuse Awareness Month,” a time dedicated to child abuse awareness and prevention activities. Read more here.

While it is nice to designate certain months as the time to be aware of this or that, or to celebrate certain causes or events, it is really a shame that we have to designate a month to make people aware of child abuse or, worse, to “prevent child abuse.”

Preventing child abuse should be a yearlong cause, a life-long mission — nothing less

(In the past few years I’ve had many conversations with adults who struggle with dyslexia. So many of these individuals have mentioned dealing with feelings of worthlessness. With this in mind, I thought I’d repost something I wrote a few years back.)

I’m Dyslexic…No Joke!

I don’t enjoy reading. I’ve been told this is the definition of dyslexia. Or at least part of the definition. Dyslexics lose their desire to read, or they never gain a desire, or they can’t seem to maintain a desire to continue along the written page. It seems dyslexia is more than the reversal of letters and words. It’s more than a punch line about atheists who don’t believe in dog. It’s more than erroneous spelling and perpetual i before e confusion.

Dyslexia is an issue of desire. My mind does not desire the written word. No matter the scolding, the guilting, the prodding or pushing, my mind does not enjoy reading.

Fortunately, I was born into a family of language specialists. Their respect for the written word was greater than their respect for my brain’s wishes. Consequently, they spent countless hours forcing my brain to read. They were gentle with me, but ruthless with my mind. Unwilling to let my dyslexia set the parameters of my existence, they became mind drill sergeants.

Reading is a race I’ve never enjoyed running. While others sprinted ahead, I lumbered forward, pausing between words and sentences as if they were high hurdles or steeple chase walls. At every pause, my mom would push my brain forward. “Trace it out Dougie, sound it out, speak it out.” Eventually, I would scale the road block and move forward. By the time I finished the phrase I had forgotten how it began. Reading became a form of necessary conditioning, an unavoidable medicine, a chore I had to finish.

Over time my dyslexia yielded to my parent’s will. With much foot dragging, I slowly learned to read and to comprehend. I even learned to spell, or at least spell check. The more I was able to read or accomplish the task of reading, the more I began to view my dyslexia as defeated, vanquished, or simply gone.

As I grew older, I began to tell people the story about how I used to be dyslexic, about how I grew out of my disability. It sounded right to me and it made me feel special, even though it wasn’t true. Dyslexia doesn’t go away, it doesn’t disappear. Dyslexia is the name we use for people with different brains. For some reason, no one bothered to tell me this. . . or maybe I chose not to hear it. Or maybe I had read it somewhere but failed to comprehend the meaning.

Regardless, I have lived most of my life believing the erroneous fiction that I am no longer dyslexic. Consequently, I have mislabeled just about everything that has caused me struggle.

Instead of seeing my most pervasive struggles as the fruit of a dyslexic brain, I attributed my shortcomings to a lack of character, commitment, or moral integrity. My inability to remember someone’s name became a sign that I was uncaring and egotistical. My inability to remember important dates and events meant I didn’t pay enough attention to important things. My failure to learn a foreign language was blamed on poor study habits and a lack of respect for other cultures.

I blamed my competency failings on everything and anything other than the culprit. Although my life was producing the fruit of dyslexia, I perpetually mislabeled the tree.
At some level, I knew these issues went beyond effort, but I always felt sheepish or embarrassed with my generalized excuse. “I’m sorry, I’ve got a really bad memory. I know who you are, I just really struggle with names.” I’d say these words as if I were the town drunk, apologizing for the liquor on my breath. “Sorry, I just can’t help it. If only I were a better man.”

It has not been until very recently that I’ve discovered the truth of my life and the futility of all my unnecessary guilt and shame. It seems odd to write, but I find it necessary to say these things. I don’t lack character, I’m not a bad student, and I’m no more egotistical than anyone else. I’m just dyslexic!

That’s it, no big inner struggle between my better and lesser virtues. No, I struggle because I’m dyslexic. My dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of, it’s just the brain I’ve been given.

Frankly, I’m just barely beginning to understand my dyslexia. It has only been a couple months since I came to the clear awareness that I have been, and will always be dyslexic.
I host a daily radio show and a few months back I thought it would be nice to do a show about dyslexia. I thought I could help people by sharing my story about how I learned to read and “grow out” of dyslexia.

The only problem with my show idea was I couldn’t find a specialist to perpetuate my fiction. Instead, I found a professor from Yale (I can’t quite remember her name right now) who began to describe my life. But she didn’t us my name, she used the word dyslexic.

In the middle of our interview, I proudly blurted out, “I’m dyslexic!” I said those words as if I’d won a prize or at least found a place to stand without shame.

I got so excited that I wanted to go out and buy the specialist’s book, so I could figure out who I am. But I haven’t done that yet, because I don’t remember her name, and I don’t remember the title of the book, and oh yeah, I almost forgot. . . I don’t enjoy reading. I’m dyslexic!

Doug Bursch blogs at www.fairlyspiritual.org
His twitter handle is @fairlyspiritual
He also hosts a weekday radio talk show that can be heard live at www.kgnw.com from 4-6 pm (PST)

Grapic via shutterstock.com

The youngest son, Matthew, has committed suicide.

The evangelical megachurch called Saddleback Church, announced the death of the 27-year-old today Saturday. The son died Friday night.

Described in the church statement as a good person who “suffered from mental illness that resulted in deep depression and suicidal thoughts…“Despite the best healthcare available, this was an illness that was never fully controlled and the emotional pain resulted in his decision to take his life… “We ask everyone to join us in praying for the entire Warren family and that God’s comfort and peace will be with them as they deal with this difficult situation.”

Founded by Pastor Warren, Saddleback serves the Southern California community with many locations.
Warren is the author of, “The Purpose Driven Life,” which the church said has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Pastor Warren has been prominent in politics, taking a religious conservative viewpoint on social concerns. He was recently on Piers Morgan CNN show speaking about his views of gay marriage.

May, if I can say, this spur on even more research throughout the world that can bring intervening ways that truly help persons who are afflicted with endogenous depression, so they can be and remain productive, have a wide world view without being dogged by pain, be loving, hale, healthy, and alive. For the sake of the person, and also very much so, for the sake of their often weary and frightened families and all those they come into contact with who dearly wish they had a magic wand that could take away all pain, but know they do not.

May Matthew, rest in peace.

Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) opposes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), and vows to block the expansion of Medicaid in his state. At a news conference this past week, Perry, flanked by conservative senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, declared “Texas will not be held hostage by the Obama administration’s attempt to force us into the fool’s errand of adding more than a million Texans to a broken system.” About one-fourth of all Texans do not have health care coverage.

According to an analysis by the Dallas Morning News, if Texas budgeted $15.6 billion over the next decade, it would receive more than $100 billion in federal Medicaid funds, allowing the state to cover about 1.5 million more residents, including about 400,000 children.
Texas isn’t the only state to politicize health care.

Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) says that expanding Medicaid is the “right thing to do,” but the Republican-dominated state legislature doesn’t agree. Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) is having the same problem with his Republican legislature, although participation in Medicaid would save the state about $1.9 billion during the next decade. Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.), one of the nation’s most vigorous opponents of the ACA, surprisingly has spoken in favor of Medicaid expansion to benefit her state’s residents.

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) and the Republican legislature oppose implementing the ACA and Medicaid expansion. Jindal says the expansion would cost Louisiana about $1 billion during the next decade. However, data analysis by the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals reveals that if Louisiana accepted the federal program, which would benefit almost 600,000 residents, the state would actually save almost $400 million over the next decade. About one-fifth of all Louisianans lack health insurance.

Pennsylvania, by population, is a blue state, but it has a Republican governor, and both houses of the Legislature are Republican-controlled. Gov. Tom Corbett says he opposes an expansion of Medicaid because it is “financially unsustainable for Pennsylvania taxpayers” and would require a “large tax increase.” This would be the same governor who believes that extending a $1.65 billion corporate welfare check to the Royal Dutch Shell Corp., a foreign-owned company, is acceptable but protecting Pennsylvanians’ health is not.

Fifteen states, dominated by Republican governorships and legislatures, by declaring they won’t allow Medicaid expansion, are on record as placing political interests before the health of their citizens. Another 10 states are “considering” whether or not to implement additional health care coverage for their citizens. The Republican states, pretending they believe in cost containment, claim they oppose Medicaid expansion because of its cost, even though the entire cost for three years is borne by the federal government, the states would pay only 10 percent of the cost after that. The cost to the states would average only about 2.8 percent, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget office.

If all states agreed to the ACA expansion of Medicaid, 17–21 million low-income individuals would receive better health care. Among those would be about 500,000 veterans who do not have health insurance and whose incomes are low enough to qualify for health care, according to research compiled by the Urban Institute. Veterans don’t automatically qualify for VA benefits. Even those who do qualify for VA assistance may not seek health care because they don’t live close to a VA medical facility, and can’t afford health care coverage closer to home. Spouses of veterans usually don’t qualify for VA benefits.

Under the ACA, Medicaid health care would cover persons whose incomes are no more than 138 percent above the federal poverty line. That would be individuals earning no more than $15,856 a year, only about $800 above minimum wage. Among those covered by Medicaid expansion would be women with breast and cervical cancer, and those with mental or substance abuse problems.

Because they have no health insurance, 6.5 to 40.6 percent of Americans, depending upon the county they live in, delay necessary medical treatment, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The 6.5 percent rate is for Norfolk, Mass.; the 40.6 percent rate is in Hidalgo, Texas. (Most of Pennsylvania falls in the 6.5–13.4 percent rate.) Texas and Florida have the highest rates of residents who delay getting proper medical care because of a lack of adequate insurance.

Low-income individuals who delay getting medical care because of the cost often develop further complications, some of them catastrophic. The medical bill that might be only a few hundred dollars, which would be covered if the recalcitrant states approved Medicaid expansion, could now become a bill in the thousands of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The hospitals would have to absorb those costs or force the patient into bankruptcy, which could impact dozens of other businesses. The Missouri Hospital Association reported if the state refused to accept Medicaid expansion, the state’s health care industry would be forced to accept more than $11 billion in uncompensated costs.

But, let’s assume that the medical condition isn’t catastrophic, but just serious. Low-wage employees, most of whom have limited sick leave, might be forced to come to work so as not to lose the limited income they already earn. If their illness is a cold or flu, or some other contagious illness, they could infect others, both employees and customers. A waitress, fry cook, or day laborer in the agricultural fields with no health insurance could cause massive problems.

Medical problems, such as rheumatoid arthritis, not treated early would also lead to a severe physical disability, forcing the employee into becoming unable to work even a minimum-wage job. This, of course, reduces both income that could be put into the local business economy and a corresponding decrease in amount of taxes paid. That would trigger disability payments, which could raise taxes for those who are not yet disabled.

Research conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that expanding Medicaid coverage would result in a 6 percent reduction of deaths among adults 20 to 64 years old. According to that study, “Mortality reductions were greatest among older adults, nonwhites, and residents of poorer counties.” For Texas, according to the research, expansion of the Medicaid coverage would result in about 2,900 fewer deaths; for Florida, it would be about 2,200 fewer deaths; for Pennsylvania, it would result in about 1,500 fewer deaths.

But, the real reason Republicans may not want Medicaid expansion could be for the same reason they have been pushing oppressive Voter ID laws to correct a problem that doesn’t exist. Those who are most affected are those who generally are the low income wage earners and persons of color, most of whom—at least according to recent elections—don’t vote for Republicans.

[Dr. Brasch’s latest book is Fracking Pennsylvania, which looks at the health, environmental, geological, and economic impact of natural gas horizontal fracturing. He also investigates political collusion between the natural gas industry and politicians.]

In order to put the North Korean nuclear genie back in its bottle, should China protect Pyongyang under its nuclear umbrella while forcing the regime to give up its nuclear program? For China’s state-run Global Times, columnist Zhu Zhangping offers some suggestions that may give Beijing a way out of its unquestioned backing of North Korea, and asserts that whatever benefit Beijing derives from keeping the Kim Jong-un regime in office, the danger of allowing him The Bomb is too great.

For the Global Times, Zhu Zhangping writes in part:

A top priority for China is to ensure the survival of the Kim regime and keep North Korea from collapsing. But should China continue to back North Korea no matter what it does? And even if North Korea’s nuclear development is targeted only at the United States, its nuclear programs bring huge risks to China – not the United States.

The third nuclear test in February was conducted just over 100 kilometers from China’s northeast border. Although Chinese authorities appeased the public by swearing that the mountains on the border would effectively prevent radiation spreading to China, the possibility that nuclear leakage could pollute underground water supplies cannot be ruled out.

Groundwater safety is not only a concern when it comes to Northeast China’s drinking water supply, but for food safety and even food security.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan is the latest lesson. Fukushima Prefecture, where agriculture was a key industry, is highly contaminated and food production has been severely impacted. China cannot afford to risk a repetition of the Fukushima disaster in the Northeast.

What China should do now is offer North Korea protection under its nuclear umbrella, just as the U.S. does for Japan and South Korea, while forcing it to accept China’s advice and abandon its nuclear program. China faces bigger risks than any other country in the event of a fourth nuclear test.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.

Larry Wright, CagleCartoons.com

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With America turning away from its own forces, leaving them like the movie character Rambo to languish after a decade of war, Le Monde columnist Marc-Olivier Bherer writes that the future will increasingly look like a scene from the film Terminator, in which unmanned and autonomous drones hunt their prey – and they won’t all be controlled by Americans in the White House.

For Le Monde, Marc-Olivier Bherer starts off this way:

The invasion of Iraq is ten years old. It led to a profound transformation of the American art of war – a change that raises profound questions.

As the faceless hero of an endless war, the shooter is screwed. This soldier left the army without waiting to receive a pension. Today he is unemployed, without health insurance, and without prospects. And yet, he is the man who liquidated public enemy number one, Osama bin Laden.

The confession of the shooter, whose name is kept secret, is the focus of an article published in the monthly Esquire Magazine. The article oscillates between the suspense of the hunt and the difficulty of returning to civilian life. As might be expected, the greatest fear is of becoming an everyday man again. And it’s no wonder.

Every day, about 22 U.S. veterans commit suicide. In 2010, more soldiers committed suicide than died on the front. Approximately 13 percent of homeless Americans are former military. The unemployment rate of veterans is two points higher than the already-high national average.

The slogan “support our troops,” so omnipresent at the beginning of the war in Iraq a decade ago, was very-conveniently forgotten at the time of withdrawal. “Rambo syndrome” threatens America. Will the boys find their place, or will they become social outcasts, as it was with some Vietnam veterans?

READ ON IN ENGLISH OR FRENCH, OR READ MORE ABOUT THE IRAQ INVASION, AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.

It is not without much emotional and physical blood spilled that we come to this day when the highest court in our land has agreed to hear a case regarding overthrowing a wall barring fully equal rights for our gay, lesbian, trans-secual and bi-sexual brothers and sisters… and all the unnamed as well. The rainbow colors blend at their edges together too, often as much because of so many tears shed over many decades, as because of pride that despite all pain, hearts are still in full color and singing for parity and peace to live and enjoy, as all others live and enjoy, without confines set by some against others.

A Story of Saint Francis of Assisi from long ago…
In our rural immigrant family, we had an entire gaggle of old women who were devotees of little St Francis of the animals.

They loved him because he spoke to the birds and the creatures. “Like we do.”

They liked Francis because he worked hard outdoors. “Like we do.”

They liked him too because they considered him a village healer. “Like us.”

The old people spoke of Francis’ spiritual wounds and that St. Francis was thereby endlessly hungry to find the next draught of medicine, meaning finding fresh evidence of God’s really, really real presence on earth.

Sometimes, they called him ‘Little Bird-Boy.’
To them St. Francis had clear sight and could understand any creature because he carried the eternal heart of a child.

Thus…

One day a wounded man found his way to St. Francis, saying that he could not find even one person who would treat his suffering. He told story after story of all those who had passed him by, even though they saw he was hurt. Francis gently asked if the man could remain near and not go.

Later, Francis walked into the woods to speak privately with God. Without meaning to, he burst into tears while telling God how he was moved by the hurt man who had come to him, and how he, Francis himself, felt so well and so grateful to the man, after. He thanked God for being allowed to tend to God up close once more, to touch the body of God dearly again, through another soul.

The old women who tell this story in our family, often ended by cackling and nodding at each other in some sublime crone-ish agreement. One or the other of the old ones would always close with the call: If you’re lucky, God will show up for a bath unannounced.

And another old one would give the responsorial: The only miracle medicine we have is each other.

————————————————–
When gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people were considered perverts

When I went to university and then into a post-doc psychoanalytic training program practicing as a clinician, our professors had drilled us on the DSM (the Diagnostic Statistical Manual used nationwide to diagnose mental disorders). At that time, in the very early 1970s, the psychiatric panels that put together the DSM stated unequivocally that homosexuality was to be diagnosed as a perversion.

Should any poor soul in therapy mention such factor to us; they were to be marked down as perverted, as though the higher ups had decided we clinicians were to be in the position of grading human conduct instead of being healers of the human soul.

I refused to diagnose any gay person, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered person under the perversion category because of their simple desire to love and be loved in spirit, mind and body by another age-proper and consenting person.

I might diagnose “adjustment reaction,” even though some of my supervisors back then harshly argued with me that the diagnosis needed to be under the “perversion” category. I would argue back that the person’s issues, in the main, were not caused by a mal-adaptation in the GLBT patients’ souls, psyches, minds or hearts, but by the relentlessly mindless, heartless, scathing culture around them.

What, rather than who, was actually unwell?

In truth? It was clear to many of us who were young students back then, that though we tried to give respect to our professors, we could also see that it was the psychiatric theory that seemed unwell, not the homosexual person.

Many of us had not grown up like some of our most intellectually elegant professors, who though brilliant, had often lived sequestered lives back then, carried from car to house, house to car, very often experiencing only a very narrow slice of society. They traveled amongst others only as tourists and without long-term friendships with non-academic people from different economic classes, religions, ethnic heritages and racial groups. As we used to say it back then, they had no street creds.

Surely we ourselves were a raggle-taggle band of students of no economic significance or much consequence whatsoever. Many of us came from parents who had not been able to finish high school, in my case, not even elementary school. Still I hope we had something useful and evidential to offer back then: hearts and minds educated by direct experience with the humanity of GLBT people rather than theoretical or rote attitudes.

Myth-busting

So there we were, activists, street poets, artists and writers studying psychology, and our GLBT friends did not seem like “other” to us, despite what we were being taught. Nor, were GLBT people untouchable. Nor sinful. Nor busily weaving the hand-baskets we’d all be rowing toward hell in if we did anything other than condemn, complain about, and critique them.

If anything, those we knew who were comadres and copadres, and others who became our patients, were often more alive in heart and soul and creative life than a good many heterosexuals — often by virtue of the broken hearts caused by the over-culture that GLBT persons carried. Their broken-hearted determination to live, love and create right back in the face of all that, both despite it and because of it, was often breathtaking.

As we deepened our knowledge through contact with GLBT persons over the decades, we did not find they were carrying some disorder that was “catching.” Nor perverted. They were not trying to “proselytize” and “convert” children. As trained observers of human behavior, many of us did not find that GLBT persons’ mothers were any more clinging or “grand-mal overbearing” than mothers of a good many heterosexual men.

We did not find that lesbians were tougher than heterosexual women — a warrior is a warrior because of the timber of the soul, regardless of how and who one loves. In fact, if there was a similarity between women, regardless, one might be wounded in youth by being told to teeter around and act “feminine” when in fact striding was built into her body and spirit from conception. Another kind of hobbling might have come to a girl as she was encouraged to “be anything you want,” but to keep it within acceptable limits, just the same.

Born As Treasure

In my 38 years of clinical practice, consulting with hundreds of GLBT persons, I have not yet met one who “chose” one of the most challenging and scorned lifestyles of our times: to be gay. They just are as they are born. Complete. Born as treasure.

Not alien at all. But, in personal sexual attraction, different. Not different however, in heart, spirit and soul. Not different in aspirations, creative drive, imagination, caring, loyalty, inventiveness. It’s an understatement to say that GLBT people are just like us and just like our professors and parents and everyone one else. That is, they are regularly irregular and perfectly imperfect people who glow and flow toward fealty, toward loving and being loved. They were heat sealed from conception with the same hopes and happiness all of us long for and move toward. And they have about the same proportion of neurotic concerns about garden variety matters of life as the rest of us did and do. Except for one thing.

The Only Miracle Medicine We Have Is Each Other.

There has for decades been one huge difference between heterosexual and GLBT people. As a psychoanalyst hearing the night dreams and day thoughts of patients who are unarmored in the consulting room, I know that to be born gay or lesbian, bi-sexual or transgendered carries a far extra rations of being shamed by others, by the culture, and sometimes, most wounding, by one’s family.

Not a one-time wounding. A continuous one. One carried on without cease on television. On radio. In newspapers. In print. In pulpits. Now, online. Daily scorn; assertions that certain people by virtue of being, are intractably unworthy. Speaking and fuming and slandering and misrepresenting innocent people, and treating their psyches and hearts as though each person is an unreliable car being parted out: this one part good, the rest bad/wrong/weak/ and ought be gotten severed and disposed of.

It was and is easy to see why GLBT people often are forced to be intractable when it comes to being insulted (Your being is sinful), patronized (love the person, hate the sin), and being treated as though less than human (Matthew Shepard). It is also easy to see why some GLBT persons carry a certain quickness to duck. And some, to hide. Daily carpet bombing of your heart by the over-culture, makes one that way. You don’t become inured to it. You become either muted or militant.

All these reactions are actually solid and useful psychological adaptations to being assaulted. They provide additional self-protection if the strafing comes from within one’s own family, the one place in the world that is supposed to be safe for the soul. They provide additional self-protection when people of God encourage parents to pound or shun their GLBT children, which is an evil interference in the incontrovertible and ever-reconciling sacred bond between child and parents that no one ought interfere with.

Given all these matters of long standing, these many decades of struggle by GLBT persons, I find it now of note that Senator Barack Obama, a biracial man is speaking with care and legal regard for GLBT persons. It’s one of those moments in time that I am glad I have lived long enough to see the day.

I mention Senator Obama, because I am familiar with the downplay of GLBT persons in various layers of the black community prior to the last fifteen years as well as previous reluctance to publicly discuss AIDS. Though other candidates for president have also given their vision for granting what I’d call a long overdue parity for GLBT persons, that Obama steps right up, knocking over any remaining and unnecessary cultural shibboleths, is brave.

He says he supports civil unions and federal rights for LGBT Couples including the right to assist their loved ones in times of emergency, equal health insurance, employment benefits, property and adoption rights. He’s for repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, authored by former Congressman Bob Barr. (I covered the Libertarian National Convention last week where Barr was elected to the party to run for President. That’ll be another story for another time.)

Have we really finally arrived at a time when we realize that the only miracle medicine we have is each other?
I am encouraged.

A religious point of view with a dash of levity

I know that many disagree with the stance that GLBT persons are beloved by God just as they are. I know that some use the word “abomination,” saying that in their view homosexuality actually, as one minister shouted at me, “literally makes God sick.”

But, about 15 years ago, Amendment Two was passed in Colorado barring GLBT persons from what I understood as equal rights under the law. The statewide referendum was cooked up by several Christian men, saying GLBTs wanted “special rights” rather than just regular rights. To top it off, some folks tried to create a war by telling blacks that GLBT’s were portraying themselves as suffering from the same inequalities blacks had struggled with in decades past.

The ballot was machinated in legalese and the question asked backward, so if you were wanting to vote yes, you had to mark no. If you wanted to vote no, you had to mark yes.

Because the men who had engineered Amendment Two here, had targeted Ohio to be next on their “ban GLBT persons” statewide referendum list, I arranged immediately to go on performance tour to do a fund-raising benefit in Cincinnati for a GLBT bookstore run by women. I was told I’d likely be facing demonstrators from a loud and uncivil religious group there the night of the public performance.

Feeling bright in the Holy Spirit, I’d published a piece defending GLBT persons in Publisher’s Weekly, and amongst other nice pieces of hate mail and hate-faxes that came in afterward, someone had gotten my phone number and called unexpectedly. I picked up the phone and the stranger, a man, on the other end of the line greeted me with, “You fat, Commie lesbian!”

I was startled and the words just jumped out of my mouth: “Listen you, I resent being called fat!” And I slammed the phone down.

I knew from experience in other matters of speaking out that people can sometimes be not very loving, and most bewildering of all — selfsame people sometimes call themselves Christlike.

So, as tensions tightened around the Ohio trip, I called my friend Martin Marty, who has one of the most blessed and beautiful minds in the world. I told him about my forthcoming challenge in Ohio, saying I didn’t want to in any way accidentally encourage my audience to start shouting epithets in retaliation, that I disagreed entirely with calling detractors names like “christo-fascists” and the like.

Martin, bless him, said,

Listen Dr. E, just tell them that out of all the hundreds of pages of the Bible, there are less than six inches devoted to who ought put tab A into slot B or slot C or not.
Tell them that there are pages and pages devoted to laws against divorce, and that the punishment for that is stoning.

Then, tell them, the foremost leader of the Southern Baptist Convention got divorced last year, and what happened? He still seems to be alive.

And that, dear reader, is just what I did. And with love I hope.

And if you have need, and you find it of your heart, I hope that you will too.

There’s much more to tend to in concert with our GLBT brothers and sisters. And there are others to lean toward too. Two spiritual medicines we all were born to carry are love-pouring and laughter. There is not need to go find, learn, buy or beg these gifts. Everyone is born with both, not matter to whom one is attracted. When we are world weary and wonder how to find these two gifts, remember little St. Francis of the birds and the animals. There’s the clearest clue, the heart of a child.

CODA

On that Ohio sojourn, is how I unexpectedly came to the honor of being christened an “honorary lesbian,” by the magnificent GLBT crowd overflowing the Ohio theatre that night. In levity, I offered to crown them all honorary heterosexuals in return. If good-hearted laughter is prayer, then we prayed and prayed all evening long.

**A person who is a pedophile is not in any way related to GLBT persons. People who are pedophiles can be heterosexual, or any other sexual configuration. The issue in the latter is sexual intrusion and assault on underage children.

“Not a witch hunt– a treasure hunt: Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgendered People” ©2008, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, All Rights Reserved.

This article was first run in the Catholic newspaper, National Catholic Reporter. And re-run by popular demand there. And now here. We prayerfully await the outcome of the Supremes now March 2013, praying that, as in other cases before the high court which were about self sovereignty of human beings, that such will not be granted– for it is birthright– but that it be affirmed.

by Dr. Kevin Purcell

The picture above is part of a bike ride we did the length of New Zealand’s south island.

In my last article I shared my views about how each of us can improve our health, energy and well-being by focusing on some relatively simple steps. In this piece I will get more specific and share some of those steps relative to nutrition. Simple? Yes, they are simple but not easy for most. Let me explain.

It’s amazing how much better our bodies perform when we fully understand what they need to excel and how to go about making the changes. When I’m with patients/clients in office or at camps or clinics I tell them about the “Big Rocks”–the very few, most important things that must be done to improve health. And I do mean “few.” There really aren’t that many things one must do to turn the corner on health, brain strength and body composition. The key is knowing what the Big Rocks are and incorporating them.

The little rocks, and even the sand particles become increasingly important as the absolute level of health improves. At the highest level, everything is a Big Rock. There’s no room for anything to be done even somewhat haphazardly in our quest for world class health. But it isn’t that way for the rest of us “normal” people.

Most of us overestimate what we can do in three months and underestimate what we can do in three years of top shelf focus on health. I urge you to find your potential. I altered my blood pressure from 165/110 to 110/65 without medicine; my total cholesterol went from 290 to 145 through nutritional choices.

The Big Rocks:

If it grows out the ground or if it swims, flies, or runs, you can eat it. It is essential that you consume plenty of good fats like seeds, some nuts (almonds and walnuts), avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, etc. I also allow myself nonfat dairy like cottage cheese and yogurt (both usually with fruit). Think of your foods as palate of color. You want plentiful colors of all types.

Eating healthfully is not complicated but you’ll need to break some old habits. To the extent you do, you will get healthy and see an improvement in health and body composition. Your goal should be to get as healthy as possible. You shouldn’t rush changes, they will happen in time as you maintain healthy habits.

Avoid focusing on specific calorie deprivation or weight. I never count calories. Eat when you are hungry and stop before you are full. Eat 6-8 small meals a day rather than three large ones.

Avoid holding back too many calories when exercising. The biggest mistake made by people focusing on health and body composition is disrupting the quality of workouts and recovery by depleting calories. If you ever choose to withhold calories and have some back ground noise of hunger, do it by not eating after 6:00pm. KEY: have a larger breakfast and a smaller dinner!

Recall, consistency is KEY in everything we do. Any program that is a bit too aggressive sets you up for self-sabotage. Control, control, control.

What to eat ==> fruits, veggies, lean protein and good fats.

Good fats are olive oil and MCTs. I supplement four tablespoons of Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) each day. MCTs are found in coconut oil and palm kernel oil. These fats are rapidly metabolized in the liver, increase energy expenditure (thermogenic), decrease fat storage and preserve lean body tissue. MCTs are _great_ brain food.

What to avoid ==> processed foods, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, sodas, alcohol, sugars and other high glycemic load foods.

I eat about .7 to 1.0 grams of lean protein per pound of lean body mass per day. Lean protein can be found in fish, chicken, turkey, non-fat cottage cheese, eggs, quinoa and a small piece of red meat every few weeks.

If food comes in a box or wrapper don’t eat it. No fast food.

Drink 64 to 128 ozs of plain water a day. Even slight dehydration is often mistaken as hunger. Cut out sodas and most juices as they are mostly sugar.

Eating mostly fruit, veggies, lean protein and good fats will make you edgy/grumpy for about two to three weeks. Then, you’ll get over your sugar and high glycemic CHO addiction and feel more energy than you have ever had. Not only that, you will become extremely healthy over time. Be prepared to lose some aches and pains, allergies, malaise and brain fatigueas a result of nutritional excellence.

Get some!

Dr. P.

Much has been written, is being written and will be written on this tenth anniversary of the beginning of an unnecessary war that left more than 4,000 of our troops dead, a war that physically and mentally injured tens of thousands more of our troops and killed more than 100,000 Iraqis.

The Huffington Post has an entire section dedicated to this somber anniversary.

During the seven years of the Iraq War, I wrote piece after piece critical of the war, the lies, the conniving and the cabal that got us into that war and, most of all, mourning those brave men and women who sacrificed it all.

So, there is really nothing more for me to say.

But of all that I have written, of all that others have written, I do not believe there is anything more poignant than the words written by a man who was there, who was so severely injured there that he would never walk again, who — because of the injuries he suffered there — “for the next nearly nine years…would suffer a number of medical setbacks that allowed him to survive only with the help of extensive medical procedures and the care of his wife, Claudia,” according to the Huffington Post — by a man who is dying.

“There” is the killing fields of Iraq where, on April 4, 2004, then-24-year-old Tomas Young, just five days into his first tour, was struck by a bullet from an insurgent’s AK-47, a bullet that severed his spine. “Another [bullet] struck his knee.”

While Young has been a vociferous critic of the Iraq War, “he has saved his most powerful criticism for what he claims will be his last. Young says he’ll die soon, but not before writing a letter to Bush and former Vice President Cheney on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War.”

Young’s letter, addressed to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and published here, starts as follows:

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

Young points out that he is also writing the letter “on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries…on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day…on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded.” “I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief,” Young says.

Young continues:

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Young goes on to attack the abuse of authority of the addressees who “sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.”

Young writes that, after 9/11, he joined the Army because he wanted to “strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of [his] fellow citizens,” not “to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States.”

He also refers to the “mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction,” the “implanting” of “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East, and the “rebuilding” of Iraq.

Young says that he would not be writing the letter if he had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11: “I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.”

Young is critical of the care provided by the Veterans Administration to disabled veterans, questions Bush’s Christian credentials and concludes:

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

The Ridgefield Press reports that “in April [Young] intends to stop taking all nourishment and life-extending medications.”

Image: www.shutterstock.com

I am about half way through the ride and turned right from S2 onto route 78 back over the mountains to the Pacific Ocean near La Jolla, CA.

You don’t go out into 100+ degree deserts on a bike for seven hours without being prepared.

I am a lucky man. I love my work. Men and women, ages twenty-something to sixty-something and older, hire me to assist them with that level of preparedness.

I haven’t always been that healthy.

At age forty-three my internist informed me that I would likely have a massive heart attack within five to six years.

I had high blood pressure, bad cholesterol numbers and was overweight.

So I decided to make continual behavioral changes to extend expected life span.

I made an all-out effort to outlive my dad, who had died suddenly of heart attack at forty nine. At that time, I set my sight on a handful of decades beyond that.

Through four years of university education in the medical sciences, another four years of postgraduate study and thirty years of career experience, I have come to understand the diverse aspects of longevity.

I understand how much most of us can influence life span. Folks who say different are released of responsibility and in turn avoid difficult choices.

It’s true that some people have superior longevity genes; but we can close the gap by doing simple things others won’t do. Time may, or may not (!), support my current view; however, I am hoping it takes another forty years to prove my case!

In addition to added concern for my health, I started viewing risk differently. The healthier I became, the happier I found myself and the more value I placed on my life.

Ultimately, I began looking for ways to lower risk separate from health.

Back to health: At age fifty, I went through a series of tests to establish my physiological age. I knew what my chronological age was; what I wanted to know was “how things were working.” I did blood work, cardiac function test, lung capacity testing, complete physical examination, a sigmoidoscopy, and a 64-Slice CT angiography of my heart and was pleased to find out that my internist placed my physiological age at a level that made me smile (thirty something).

My message is that my story can be your story with proper focus. It does not take one hundred mile bike rides.

I am now fifty-seven years old, and over the years I have talked quite a bit with colleagues about quality of life and, by extension, death.

As information began surfacing suggesting I might be around for a while, I thought that I may want to shift focus from ‘not dying,’ to ‘preparing to live longer than I had planned’.

I am reminded by father’s early death that we cannot prepare on our deathbed. No one knows that day or hour. We are mortal, and life is a game of cards being dealt to us, and we are required to play.

Although we can’t control the dealing, we can control how we play the cards we have received.

We can play close to the chest with no risk whatsoever, hoping to avoid loss at all costs, satisfying ourselves as mere observers and missing out on the fun of the game.

Or we can be loose and daring, with all cares tossed to the winds, in which case we are at risk of losing our ante in a hurry.

Or we can play the game intelligently, betting when appropriate and holding when appropriate,

with a reasonable degree of caution spiced with some fancy footwork here and there–

leaving the greatest amount of free room for maneuvering when the risk is acceptable and perhaps even downright enjoyable.

Keep on Truckin’ …

You may have heard many reasons for the repeal of the 18th amendment, the prohibition of alcohol.  The real reason was that the Federal and local governments needed the tax revenue.  Governments are once again experiencing income shortfalls.  Washington and Colorado approved measures to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in 2012.  Oregon voters turned it down but the state legislators need money.
Bill to legalize, tax marijuana scheduled for legislative hearing

SALEM — Marijuana would become legal, and the state would regulate and tax it under a bill under consideration in the Oregon Legislature.

House Bill 3371 would allow the production, processing and sale of marijuana and marijuana-infused products. Individuals 21 or older would be allowed to keep up to six mature marijuana plants and 24 ounces of marijuana at a time.

The Oregon Health Authority would be charged with licensing marijuana producers, processors, wholesalers and retailers.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission would oversee taxation of marijuana, according to the bill. Marijuana producers would be taxed $35 per ounce. The money would go to a “Cannabis Tax Account,” with 40 percent of proceeds going to schools, 20 percent each to Oregon State Police, the general fund, and mental health, alcoholism and drug services.

The bill is scheduled for an April 2 public hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.

House Bill 3371 would not prevent employers from prohibiting the manufacture, delivery, possession or use of marijuana in the workplace.

Not unlike the repeal of the Prohibition of alcohol in 1933 it’s all about a much needed revenue stream.

Steve Sack, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

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UPDATE: Only 10 years younger than Benedict, an elderly and health challenged man for pope. Having had his share of very troubled Bishops and priests in Argentina. And a veil of accusation made more apparent recently in a court filing in Argentina making allegations of involvement re the complex and potentially life-threatening to some, interweaving of RC hierarchy in Argentina with an alleged corrupt government mission to make desaparacidos out of holy people/ priests and nuns allied with the poor– to ‘disappear them by kidnapping’. More on this allegation story, later.

Bergoglio, a thinker as Jesuits like to say, modern Jesuits being known for being shrewd in business and with trained rhetoric– a rhetoric aimed to not be ‘winning’ but to win, two very different goals.

We shall see when his actions rather than his words, are made apparent in coming months, what this newest pope is made of truly. We know that many priests, bishops, archbishops, monsignors, cardinals just want the door shut on the criminal sexual intrusion cases; wanting it all to just go away without accountability for criminal accessory acts. Others want accounts down to the bone, including release of all of the two previous pope’s actions on the thousands of complaints about sexual intrusion on children.

Many would like the war on nuns to either be done or whipped up, for the nuns own much property in hospitals and such. They’d like to see or continue to hide the actualities of the Vat bank that is out of synch with banking practices worldwide. They’d like to see the criminal and corrupt brought to justice or left alone.

They’d like to see LGBT souls allowed unequivocal welcome, or to not only ban them but to travel to foreign countries to try to influence jail and death sentence legislation against LGBT, say in African nations, for instance.

They’d like to see all divorced RC’s welcome back without opprobrium, giving them back their seat at the table of Eucarist that was wrongfully taken away by men never married. And some want to the opposite, for the church to punish those who divorced, or else pay steep $$$$$ for unmarried clergy to ‘annul’ a marriage in some pro forma kingship deigning.

They’d like to see women be consecrated not only as nuns, but also as priests, or else burnt at the stake colloquially.

They’d like the thinkers and prophets silenced by Ratzinger to be welcomed back in communion, or else set on an ice floe forever.

They’d like for people to be judged by heart of love rather than gender– or for people to continue to be seen as male or female, rather than by heart and charisms.

They’d like for the missions of Christ to be foremost, rather than hanging onto power by mere men with their pet projects that have little to do with gospel of love– or because they derive political or financial gain, to continue the exclusionary fiefdoms of certain clergy.

In the meantime, quite a few note that the pomp of this day in Rome toward a human being as pope-elect, is the exact opposite of what Christ preached. Some have called the temporal public relations the Vatican unleashed on this conclave, The Pope-a-palooza.

But, despite all the roil of tourists and retinue, we shall wait and see. Not now in the midst of such mardi gras. A month from now. When all the applausers go home.

When the pope is as alone as a pope ever is with such many helpers to feed and carry and convey the pope’s will… we will see truly then what he and his angels and his Lord, then convene and call forth.

Many many pray for a new papal bull that breaks into complete love and acceptance of all humans unequivocally and without set-asides for those who are not Roman Catholic. Many pray for a new and in depth form of kindness –and yet acute insight into evil-doing, pandering, sucking up, and criminal careerist clergy and Catholics who support criminality in the Church.

We shall see.

Many are no longer stirred by pretty pope words in bulls or encyclicals. Many have seen and duly noted popes’ split personality of condemnation of peoples while preaching “love.” Of currying favor with those of wealth, whilst ignoring to help the poor in their hard core and brutal realities, while giving the poor gratuitous blessings on their bowed and broken bones, saying their ‘reward is in heaven.’ Basta. As preached to the rich, the dominion of the so very poor is also to enjoy all permitted gain and prosperity on Earth.

For a new pope: Many many hard issues to face head on in honesty, instead of gloss over as previous popes have done. The British, Russian, Spanish, Kahnian, Alexandrian, Reichian, Vatican States, Roman Empires failed because they could not control nor govern all the lands they had ‘conquered’ by murder and mayhem whilst extracting ‘tribute.’ They lost lands, constituents, serfs, armies, and ultimately, their souls.

Of necessity and push back, the conquerers holdings became much smaller, and even then, human nature sometimes tries to corrupt even the smaller.

The pope has a near impossible job to heal hearts left wounded for decades, to be not fair day, but lifetime ally, to unify, to remonstrate the cruel and unaccountable, to tell truth that is temporal [including the Vat's sad state of finances], to reign in the hubris in some of his own ‘helpers’ in the priesthood and nunhood, and advisors, to allow in disinfectant sunlight, to open the dark places, to expand what has been held too tightly, to close off within the church those who have desecrated the mission.

To remind that the sentimental is not religion, regalia and tourism dollars are not religion, fine clothing and fine wine, is not religion. Knowing Senators and cultural crones, is not religion. Cameras are not religion. Press releases and lobbying are not religion that Christ unleashed. News coverage is not religion.

As the Nazarene told us, it is the daily work in the face of so much suffering, the raising up of the soul, the education, medicines, helps to the suffering souls– spiritually and physically, mentally and heart wise, that are the point of religion. Education and understanding about this world, and the next.

May new Holy Father be led by the true Christ and especially the Sermon on the Mount, not by Christ’s many variegated followers and their rhetorics that often veer far from the Nazarene’s loving, teaching nature via some few followers’ dement, hatred and demotion of innocent others.

May el Corazon Sagrado, the preimminant Sacred Heart of Jesús guide and be followed, as it has not been followed for decades.

Yet, Hope springs eternally in many, for Hope is artesian, not manmade.

We shall see.

When I checked Memeorandum around 7 p.m., the headlines (around 40 of them) were all about soda, sugar and “big cups.”

Some were as short as CNN’s “SODA BAN SETBACK,” some as long as the U.K Daily Mail’s “New York City to send out health inspectors armed with 17-ounce cups to make sure eateries aren’t selling oversized sugary beverages,” and everything in between.

Many of the reputable, major news media were talking about how the “Judge Halts New York City Soda Ban”(the Wall Street Journal), how the “Judge Blocks New York City’s Limits on Big Sugary Drinks” (The New York Times) and , how “Judge tosses Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on large sugary sodas one day before it goes into effect.”

Even Reuters was reporting on how “Judge blocks New York City large-soda ban [and] Mayor Bloomberg vows fight.”

Several news organizations and blogs view this soda cup issue as an epic struggle against a “Leviathan” state, as a “Separation of Powers” issue and the Judge’s overturning the soda ban as “One Small Blow for Freedom.”

Perhaps.

But talking about freedom, I wrote over the weekend about our Defense Secretary’s visit to a country where 68,000 of our men and women are still fighting and where many of them are dying, supposedly for that country’s freedom.

During the same weekend, I was angered when I read how the President of that country insulted and accused those same troops, and our country, of colluding with the Taliban to sow fears in order to prolong the presence of international troops in Afghanistan.

This morning I was shocked to read that two more of our service members were killed and 10 wounded in another appalling “green-on-blue” incident in Afghanistan’s Wardak province, when an individual wearing an Afghan national security forces uniform turned a weapon on U.S. and Afghan forces.

According to DOD:

This is the third fatal insider attack this year. A British soldier was killed Jan. 7, and an American contract employee was killed March 8.

These attacks escalated last year, with 62 ISAF service members killed in 46 separate attacks. Insider attacks conducted in 2012 killed 35 Americans.

And later this morning I was saddened to receive in my e-mailbox another one of those dreaded “DOD Identifies Casualty” announcements:

The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Tech. Sgt. Larry D. Bunn, 43, of Bossier City, La., died March 7 as a result of a non-combat incident at an undisclosed base in Southwest Asia. He was assigned to the 307th Maintenance Squadron, Barksdale Air Force Base, La.

If my sources are right, this would make the 2,158th American service member to die in support of “Operation Enduring Freedom,” hopefully in support of freedom and rights above and beyond a l6-oz. cup of soda.

And yes, Memeorandum did cover this.

Way down, at the bottom right hand corner of the blog page, well “below-the-fold,” there was one news item on this other kind of freedom: “2 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan insider attack.”

I want to believe that Americans are interested in what goes on in Afghanistan — some disgusted with our continued involvement there, many angered by the antics of the Afghan leaders, most of us frustrated, but all of us saddened by the latest events there.

And I know that the soda cup issue is just symbolic of what many sincerely believe is a case of government overreach and of infringement upon consumers’ personal liberty — of the “Nanny State syndrome.”

After this weekend’s and this morning’s news from Afghanistan, and considering all the other events in the world, I felt that today we just did not have our priorities straight. But that’s just me.

And, finally, I am very frustrated, too. That’s why I use words such as “hopefully” and “supposedly” when referring to our efforts in support of “freedom” in Afghanistan.

New York City’s planned ban on the sale of large sugary drinks won’t go into effect Tuesday after a state judge blocked the restrictions, calling them “arbitrary and capricious.”
“The court finds that the regulation … is laden with exceptions based on economic and political concerns,” Justice Milton Tingling wrote.

cheduled to begin at midnight, the law would have restricted the sale of sugary drinks to no more than 16 ounces.

The law would have exempted a variety of retailers — including 7-Eleven, seller of the iconic “Big Gulp” drinks, because it is regulated by the state, not the city.

“The effect would be a person is unable to buy a drink larger than 16 ounces at one establishment but may be able to buy it at another establishment that may be located right next door,” Tingling wrote.

The lawsuit was brought by a group of business associations — including the American Beverage Association, the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State and the New York Korean-American Grocers Association.

The opponents argued that the city had overstepped its authority. Among other things, they said, the rules would disproportionately hurt small and minority-owned businesses.

“The court ruling provides a sigh of relief to New Yorkers and thousands of small businesses in New York City that would have been harmed by this arbitrary and unpopular ban,” the American Beverage Association said in a statement.

Of course, the Mayor’s office says it will appeal. But you have to wonder how this will fare at higher levels as well.

Follow more blog comment here.

Scoff if you will, but there is a growing number of world leaders who believe that the CIA, frustrated by its inability to topple him, killed Hugo Chavez by infecting him with whatever killed him. We are told Chavez died of cancer – not usually considered a method of assassination. But according to oncologists – possible.

First up, from Venezuela’s El Nacional, in an article headlined Maduro Asserts: U.S. ‘Infected’ Hugo Chavez with Deadly Illness, reporter Cesar lira recounts comments made by now-interim President Nicolas Maduro immediately after the death of Chavez:

At the political level, there has been an ongoing campaign of lies and rumor. We have no doubt – the time will come for a medical board to be formed to prove that he (Chavez) was attacked with this disease. He publicly expressed this point of view. And we have no doubt that the historic enemies of the country sought a way to damage the health of our commander. .. There have been several cases like this – the last and most notorious being that of Yasser Arafat, the leader of Palestine.

Then, in a news item from Bolivia’s La Razon headlined, President Morales Says Empire Has All the Tools’ to Have Poisoned Chavez, Morales is quoted as saying:

(Nicolas) Maduro and our Venezuelan brothers and other authorities will do a thorough investigation, but I am nearly convinced that comrade Chavez was poisoned … The president also noted that the ‘empire has all the tools’ necessary to conduct operations to defeat governments, leaders and social movements that oppose capitalism, “but when it fails to overcome them, it takes up the task of ending the life of a leader.

Finally on this – for the moment – from Russia’s Novosti in an article headlined With Chavez’ Death, Communist Chief Sees a U.S. ‘Cancer’ Plot, Communist Party Chief Gennady Zyuganov is quotes as saying:

How did it happen that six leaders of Latin American countries which had criticized US policies and tried to create an influential alliance in order to be independent and sovereign states, fell ill simultaneously with the same disease? … In my view, this was far from a coincidence.

READ MORE ABOUT THE DEATH OF HUGO CHAVEZ AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.

by Dr. Kevin Purcell

Over the years, my mom has changed in my eyes; from being the best mom ever, to being one of the most amazing women I have ever met. In the picture above she is eighty.

Today I would invite you to take a moment and think about our families and friends as we age. It is something we all experience and share.

How we deliver a message greatly affects the level of cooperation we can expect from them; anyone.

Judith Graham from the Chicago Tribune, wrote, “Videotapes of elderly men and women showed aides helping patients bathe, brush their teeth, dress, eat and take medicines, among other things.

A frame by frame analysis of the tapes found that when nurses or aides communicated by using language that assumed a state of dependence, patients were twice as likely to resist their efforts to help. The older men and women would turn or look away, grimace, clench their teeth, groan, grab onto something, or say no. These behaviors might be viewed as indications of distress at being patronized.”

Let’s consider older people who do not suffer from dementia or physical disability. What is it like for the older men and women who work to stay healthy through diet and exercise? Too often, they feel those around them are not supportive. Some are even told these activities are negative or harmful.

During my swim this morning I was thinking about dementia and heart disease and many other physical and mental maladies that we or our families will face. It is important that we encourage older men and women to explore limits by remaining active.

We know for a fact that mental stimulation maintains plasticity in the brain. We know that learning new skills or a new language will lay down new neuropath ways. Physical activity is a proven method for keeping the brain young and even reversing signs of aging.

We know that a positive mental outlook is one of the driving forces behind maintaining overall health; especially as we age. In some cases, it appears that the loss of choice and a sense of powerlessness risks setting in motion physical decline. Confidence adds to a sense of well-being. We should be asking, “How can we encourage older men and women to stay active?”

Some people see an older athlete with degenerative joint disease and assume it is from a lifetime of running but fail to consider that the arthritis might have been present whether the athlete ran or not.

In fact, it is my opinion that a lifetime of exercise often lowers complications of the disease. Some medical experts are of the opinion that activities such as running and biking actually stimulate growth of new cartilage in those areas that are wearing out.

What does give us a peek into the future (beyond family history) is a patients past history of acute injury and subsequent rehabilitation. Trauma can lead to adhesions, inflexible scar tissue, decreased blood flow, ligament damage and aberrant motion.

Loss of normal motion and optimal circulation do seem to be predictors of wear and tear. In other words, maintaining motion and restoring normal motion and function is the key to recovery following injury/trauma and as prevention.

There is a need to have increased discussion among older adults and health care providers that explores the benefits of regular exercises (both mental and physical) as a way to maintain long term quality of life. In the last year I have witnessed the rehab of family members who are the victims of stroke or traumatic brain injury.

Once stabilized, a common variable when it comes to recovery among this community is focused exercise (mental and physical). Each of us should strongly encourage elderly family members to adopt that focus before a critical event.

Health is our most valuable asset. If we need confirmation of that, we only need just ask anyone who has lost their health.

But hey. There’s the Second Amendment. Right

But if you’re gonna do a Second Amendment number that envisions arming teachers to defend their classrooms, doesn’t it make even more sense to arm the students in these classrooms as well? You know. In case there’s more than one crazed killer coming in to do a shoot-em-up. You don’t want an outnumbered teacher standing alone defending her charges with a single AK-47, when youngsters armed with their own pistols can join in the defense. (NOTE: Students shouldn’t have bigger guns than their teachers, it might undermine classroom discipline).

Well, gotta run. Gotta get back to my VCR and another viewing (the 121st I think) of my favorite Second Amendment movie.

No, not “Red Dawn.” That was a good one, and darn realistic, too. A bunch of American teens armed to the teeth defeating Russian parachutists led by an evil Cuban seeking to occupy America and seize our womenfolk to sate their unspeakable foreign lusts. No, my favorite Second Amendment flick is “Tremors.”

There’s that wonderful scene in “Tremors” where a monstrous critter (possibly spawned by Mexican scientists, though this is never actually stated) tries to break into an American couple’s rec room through its wall, not realizing the rec room’s American occupants are well armed with every caliber firearm, small and large, up to and including an elephant gun that finally sends the critter back to its liberal hell.

Maybe we should make “Tremors” part of the national school curriculum. Along with reading, writing, pledging allegiance to the flag, and teachings Judeo-Christian theology. Just an idea. Premature, maybe. But if we manage somehow to get it before the Scalia court…

(See a parrot, a French bulldog and two baby boomers save the world in Kay Wood’s wry and funny graphic novel, The Big Belch. It’s a Kickstarter project that really, really deserves your support!)

by Walter Brasch

I received a letter from a friend this past week.

It was a letter he should never have had to write, yet did so out of desperation.

He is 80 years old, living off occasional writings and Social Security.

He has Medicare, but no dental insurance, and that’s the problem. He needs dental work. A lot of dental work. $10,000 worth of dental work.

Many dental insurance plans for individuals are so expensive, and give relatively few benefits, that many dentists suggest the premiums just aren’t worth it.

Without the dental work, my friend, like many people in the country, will suffer significant additional problems. Infection is one. Poor nutrition is another. There are even links to diabetes and thickening arteries.

So, my friend sent a letter to his friends asking for help. Not a lot of help. Maybe $100 from each of us.

Paul Krassner, my friend and colleague, is a giant in the world of social activism and journalism, praised by Groucho Marx and George Carlin, despised by the Nixonian establishment. He was a proud member of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters; with Abbie and Anita Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Nancy Kurshan, he was a co-founder of the Youth International Party, better known as the Yippies. For almost five decades, he has been one of the nation’s most influential editors, satirists, and columnists, his writings appearing in major newspapers and magazines.

Recently, two of those magazines that ran his column decided they could no longer run it. One editor said the column was spiked because the magazine was “shifting to a more business/retail-oriented editorial content.” The editor of the other magazine, which had published his column for decades, said he had “great admiration for you and your writing,” but decided another writer would now take over that column. That’s just the way it is in journalism.

And so my friend has found his income not just slipping but in free-fall.

If he—the great writer, reporter, and editor—was the only one with this kind of problem, it still might be a story. But he isn’t the only one. And that’s why this story is so important.

Millions of Americans—most who have worked hard their entire lives, and now live on not a lot of money—can’t afford dental bills. So, they don’t see the dentist.

More than 45 million American adults don’t have dental insurance, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control. Medicare doesn’t cover dental procedures; Medicaid, primarily for low-income individuals, only covers dental care for those under the age of 21. However, about one-fourth of all children have untreated tooth decay, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Our system of providing oral health care, particularly for children in this country, is ineffective, inefficient and it’s extremely expensive and it really deprives children of decent care,” says Dr. David Nash, professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Kentucky.

Among adults, according to the Foundation, lack of access to adequate dental care impacts low-income families, the elderly, and minorities more than the general population. Want to know why so many people in those categories don’t have teeth? It’s because the cost to extract a tooth is significantly less expensive than the cost to do a root canal to save it.

Many dentists allow payment plans, or will lower their fees for certain patients; many will not, and demand payment up front. Many dentists participate in an American Dental Association (ADA) program to provide low-cost or free dental care to children; but, dental and medical societies, unlike the American Bar Association, don’t require pro bono community service work to maintain membership.

A number of community non-profit health programs exist, but there are far too few, with far too few financial resources. Patients can go to dental schools and have students, supervised by licensed dentists, work on their teeth. But, there are only 64 dental schools in 36 states, and many patients with dental problems can’t afford the time or gas money to drive more than three or four hours to an appointment.

The new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which goes into effect next year, moved the United States closer to universal health care, already enjoyed by the citizens of 28 industrialized countries. But, it doesn’t cover dental care.

In a nation that doesn’t object to star athletes and Wall Street maggots making a few million dollars a year, or a strange pre-teen named Honey Boo Boo becoming a TV star, we neglect one of the most basic of all human needs. It is the need to assure that every American, no matter who, no matter what social class, has proper health and dental care.

[Dr. Brasch’s latest book is Fracking Pennsylvania, an overview of the health and environmental problems from horizontal hydraulic fracturing by the natural gas industry, and the relationship between Big Energy and politicians that allowed the practice.]

When I was a kid Hostess Cupcakes used to be advertised as the cupcake with a “surprise inside.” IKEA is getting the reputation of offering foods that have surprises, too, but not yummy whipped cream. First, a few weeks ago, there was an uproar over horsemeat in its meatballs sold in Europe so the company assured Americans there was no filet of filly in the meatballs here.

But now in China the question may be raised: is your chocolate cake tasting strangely lately? Does it taste crappy? The reason: Chinese officials pulled some cakes from Sweden that tested high with a bateria that often comes from fecal matter. Although these cakes comprise a truly organic pooh-pooh platter, IKEA recalled the cakes in Europe as well:

Ikea has recalled thousands of cakes from its stores in 23 countries after Chinese authorities identified high levels of bacteria normally found in human and animal waste.

The furniture giant admitted on Tuesday that coliform bacteria had been found in two batches of almond cake from a supplier in Sweden.
It comes after Chinese customs officials announced that they had destroyed a batch of 1,800 cakes after finding it contained high levels of coliforms which failed to meet hygiene standards.

Coliforms, common bacteria which are found in faeces as well as soil and water, do not normally cause serious illness but are a sign of contamination which can indicate the presence of more harmful bacteria such as E.coli.

It comes after Ikea recalled meatballs and sausages from 24 countries due to fears they could have been contaminated with horse meat.
Ikea said batches of the cakes sold in all countries had been tested, but no evidence of contamination was found in those sold in the UK and Ireland.

The affected batches of almond cake with chocolate and butterscotch all came from the same Swedish supplier which exports to stores across the world, the retailer said.

Company bigwigs insist there was no health risk. Consumers long felt IKEA’s meatballs and cake were of number one quality but they may now balk at buying with food products that may have a number two surprise inside.

graphic via shutterstock.com

UPDATE II:

Reacting to the New York Times article discussed below on women who have been sexually assaulted while in the military and who are now the victims of another injustice: homelessness — sometimes as a consequence of the assaults and trauma they endured while in service — and sometimes also fall into the drug and alcohol abuse trap, Heather Mac Donald at the conservative National Review Online suggests:

Some of these women come from environments that made their descent into street life overdetermined, whether or not they experienced alleged sexual assault in the military. To blame alleged sexual assault for their fate rather than their own bad decision-making is ideologically satisfying, but mystifying. Having children out of wedlock, as a huge proportion of them do, also does not help in avoiding poverty and homelessness.

Read the rest of Mac Donald’s hypotheses on what women in combat should or shouldn’t expect — “Isn’t there a contradiction in expecting the military to ‘protect’ you while it also sends you out to face mortal risk?” — and on Military Sexual Trauma (M.S.T.) here.

===

UPDATE I:

There have been several skeptical responses to the quality, timeliness and amount of support the VA, HUD and other government agencies provide to veterans in general and to homeless veterans — especially homeless female veterans and their children and those with PTSD claims related to sexual trauma while on active duty.

Diane Nilan at the Huffington Post commented:

Thank you for calling attention to this tragic, inexcusable crisis. I’d like to point out a little known reality–that most homeless persons are not even counted in HUD’s point-in-time census. For veterans, non-military women or men, as well as millions of children, they do not count. HUD doesn’t include those who have lost housing and are now staying with others, in motels, in cars, campgrounds or other places of refuge. Congress gets a “rosy” picture, free to spend money elsewhere, and traumatized women veterans, and countless others, suffer even more, invisibly. To make it even worse, many communities have no shelters, or shelters are turning record numbers of people away. This doesn’t even touch the essential issue of affordable housing. Shame.

Diane Nilan is the founder and president of a unique, national, non-profit organization dedicated to “giving voice and visibility to homeless children and youth.” The organization is called HEAR US and you can read more about its mission and efforts and about Ms. Nilan here.

The reader will learn how, in 2005, Nilan sold her house and most of her possessions, purchased an RV and set out on an extraordinary venture “to create a documentary featuring kids talking about their homelessness.” Since then, Nilan and others have been hitting America’s roads and have been traveling throughout the country in “EPIC Journeys,” (Everyday People In Crisis) such as “Southern Discomfort” and “Babes of Wrath.”

Another critic of VA’s performance has been the advocacy organization, the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN).

In an editorial in The Times last Sunday welcoming the introduction of the Ruth Moore Act, “a bill in Congress to make it easier for veterans to collect disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual assaults they suffered in the military,” The Times cited the organization’s claims that, from 2008 to 2010, the VA “approved only 32 percent of PTSD claims related to sexual trauma, compared with 53 percent of all other PTSD claims.”

For the VA’s reaction and SWAN’s counterclaim, please read here.

If there is sufficient interest at TMV, the author will continue to explore the shameful state of affairs of our homeless veterans in general, and that of our female veterans who not only endure homelessness but also PTSD/ M.S.T., in particular.

Note:

Another worthy organization working hard to “develop and implement cost-effective, holistic programs that meet the needs of a diverse population working to break the cycles of homelessness, addiction, and criminal recidivism,” is The Doe Fund. Read more about it here

===

Original Post:

In his foreword to the “2011 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress,” released in November 2012, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan writes:

The report shows that our collective efforts to address homelessness are making a difference. Since 2010, the number of people in shelter decreased by nearly six percent, and the decline was felt by people who experience homelessness alone, by families with children, by our nation’s veterans, and by people who experience chronic homelessness.

(emphasis mine)

I had not read that report at the time, but I did read a brief Department of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report a month later — in December 2012 — which announced that homelessness among veterans had been reduced by approximately 7 percent between January 2011 and January 2012.

Having lamented the state of homelessness among our veterans only five months before that report, I was naturally buoyed by such news and quoted the VA report:

The 2012 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, prepared by HUD, estimates there were 62,619 homeless Veterans on a single night in January in the United States, a 7.2 percent decline since 2011 and a 17.2 percent decline since 2009. The AHAR reports on the extent and nature of homelessness in America. Included in the report is the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count, which measures the number of homeless persons in the U.S. on a single night in January 2012, including the number of homeless veterans.

Had I read the November 2012 HUD report, I would not have been so upbeat about the VA announcement nor would I have taken the title, “Report Reveals Further Reduction in Veterans Homelessness,” at face value.

You see, buried in page 52 of the November 2012 HUD report, under “Characteristics of All Sheltered Veterans: Gender and Age,” is the following ominous statistic:

The percentage of women among sheltered veterans increased by 1.8 percentage points between 2010 and 2011 and by 2.3 percentage points since 2009. The higher risk of homelessness among female veterans was highlighted in past AHAR Veteran reports and appears to be confirmed by the 2011 estimates.

In an excellent column this morning at the New York Times, Patricia Leigh Brown highlights this disturbing trend:

Of 141,000 veterans nationwide who spent at least one night in a shelter in 2011, nearly 10 percent were women, according to the latest figures available from the Department, up from 7.5 percent in 2009. In part it is a reflection of the changing nature of the American military, where women now constitute 14 percent of active-duty forces and 18 percent of the Army National Guard and the Reserves.

Regardless of the growing percentage of women in the military, this is an extremely troubling trend, especially when viewed alongside another growing problem, that of sexual assault on women in the military.

More tragically, some of the women who have been sexually assaulted while in the military are now the victims of another injustice: homelessness — sometimes as a consequence of the assaults and trauma they endured while in service.

Again, Patricia Leigh Brown:

Even as the Pentagon lifts the ban on women in combat roles, returning servicewomen are facing a battlefield of a different kind: they are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, an often-invisible group bouncing between sofa and air mattress, overnighting in public storage lockers, living in cars and learning to park inconspicuously on the outskirts of shopping centers to avoid the violence of the streets.

While male returnees become homeless largely because of substance abuse and mental illness, experts say that female veterans face those problems and more, including the search for family housing and an even harder time finding well-paying jobs. But a common pathway to homelessness for women, researchers and psychologists said, is military sexual trauma, or M.S.T., from assaults or harassment during their service, which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Brown focuses on one such sad story, representative of what has been called “a double betrayal of trust”* and that is part of “the 53 percent of homeless female veterans who had experienced military sexual trauma.”

It is the story of Tiffani Jackson, a female veteran who “In the caverns of her memory…recalls the job she held, fleetingly, after leaving the military, when she still wore stylish flats and blouses with butterfly collars and worked in a high-rise with a million-dollar view…” — a veteran who has now experienced it all.

But it is also the story of how female veterans face a complex “web of vulnerability,” as the Times quotes Dr. Donna L. Washington, who has studied the ways the women become homeless, including poverty and military sexual trauma.

Some of the “threads” in the web, as described in Brown’s column:

Female veterans are far more likely to be single parents than men are. Yet more than 60 percent of transitional housing programs receiving grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs did not accept children, or restricted their age and number, according to a 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office.

The lack of jobs for female veterans is also contributing to homelessness.

Again, the “double betrayal of trust.” Being sexually assaulted while serving their country which often sets off “a downward spiral for women into alcohol and substance abuse, depression and domestic violence,” according to Lori S. Katz.*

Add to this “web of vulnerability” the fact that “Returning veterans face a Catch-22: Congress authorized the V.A. to take care of them, but not their families. Women wait an average of four months to secure stable housing, leaving those with children at higher risk for homelessness,” according to Brown.

Hopefully there is help on the way. According to the Times:

Pledging to end veteran homelessness by 2015, the government is pouring millions of dollars into permanent voucher programs, like HUD-Vash, for the most chronically homeless veterans. Thirteen percent of those receiving vouchers are women, nearly a third of them with children, Dr. Angell said.

A newer V.A. program, with $300 million allocated by Congress, is aimed at prevention, providing short-term emergency money to help with down payments, utility bills and other issues. The government’s motivation is financial as well as patriotic: the V.A. estimates that the cost of care for a homeless veteran, including hospitalizations and reimbursement for community-based shelters, is three times greater than for a housed veteran. A pilot project providing free drop-in child care is under way at three V.A. medical centers.

And, “Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, recently introduced legislation that would reimburse for child care in transitional housing for the first time.”

Please read more about this “Double Betrayal of Trust” in “Honor Betrayed — Trauma Sets Female Veterans Adrift Back Home” and watch the moving video of women who have just completed an intensive therapy program for veterans in Long Beach, Calif. and who share their experiences of sexual trauma in the military, which led to homelessness for some, here

*The Times: “For those hoping to better their lives, being sexually assaulted while serving their country is ‘a double betrayal of trust,’ said Lori S. Katz, director of the Women’s Health Clinic at the V.A. Long Beach Healthcare System and co-founder of Renew, an innovative treatment program for female veterans with M.S.T.”

Photo: DOD