Why Water for Elephants Works

"When two people are meant to be together, they will be together. It's fate." - Jacob Jankowski, Water For Elephants

Tonight I accompanied my friend and dad to see the critically acclaimed Water for Elephants.  The movie reflected my favorite genre, romantic drama set in an historical context.  The film transports you to Depression era America and the world of a struggling circus, where you get a bird's eye view of the complex relationships between the people (and the animals) who inhabit that world.

The film, based on the New York Times' bestselling book by Sara Gruen, who grew up in Ontario, delivered the goods -- keeping me and other moviegoers transfixed. The movie had unforgettable flashes of both inhumanity and humanity, played out by Jacob (played by Rob Pattinson of Twilight fame), a young vet-in-training who flees unspeakable tragedy by hitching a ride on a traveling circus; Marlena, an orphan-turned star performer and circus wife (played by Reese Witherspoon); and of course, Christoph Waltz as the controlling, ruthless and jealous ringmaster August.

It doesn't hurt that the story takes you inside the gritty world of a struggling circus during a time when one in four Americans was jobless.  I found myself asking, "Why does Marlena stay?" and "Why does Jacob?" at times when August's violent outbursts are at their most out of control.

To me, Water for Elephants is storytelling at its best -- with unforgettable (and flawed) characters. It's a story about relationships and the bonds formed by people and animals, and includes a surprising climatic conclusion. Kudos to the filmmakers in crafting the final scenes of the movie using black-and-white old home movie flashbacks.  

Gruen writes in her book, "Life is the most spectacular show on earth."   This movie certainly lives up to that billing.

Check out the movie trailer and a MovieJungle interview with Sara Gruen about her story and its transformation to the big screen.

Roasted Broccoli with Sesame Miso Dressing

Sometime soon I plan to stop talking about this. But until then you'll just have to hear about it.  I mean, I have to tell somebody and everyone else in my life is sick of hearing it.  Guess who got to meet Brandi Carlile this week.

Yep, that would be me.

If you don't know who Brandi Carlile is that has to change right now.  She's an amazing singer/songwriter originally from the Seattle area.  If you haven't heard her music before you need to.  Seriously.  Like right now.  Her new album will also be released on May 3rd and she's performing at a bunch of places around Seattle to celebrate.  Check out her website for more details.    

So here's where I'm going to geek out about this again.  I've been a huge fan of hers for years and have always told people that one day I planned to meet her.  I didn't know how, but I knew it would happen.

The nonprofit organization I used to work for had their annual fundraising event this week and through some of their connections they were able to get Brandi Carlile to perform at their auction.  Their event manager, quite aware of my obsession, texted me as soon as Brandi was confirmed.  Apparently I was the first person to be notified.  I'm just that cool.

And the rest is history.  They had an amazing event and raised over $345,000 to benefit women and girls in the Seattle area.  Brandi gave an awesome performance.  And, at the end of the night, I got to meet her.  And she hugged me.  Twice.  Just sayin.

So, how does roasted broccoli relate to Brandi Carlile?  Quite frankly, it doesn't.  But I figured I had to move on from gushing about her eventually so I might as well follow it with something that you're interested in.

Do you like broccoli?  No?  Hmm, then maybe I should just keep talking about Brandi.

Even if you're not a big broccoli fan, I have a feeling you might like this recipe.  The salty and sweet combination from the miso and agave bring out the best of broccoli's qualities.  Roasting it adds a nice flavor as well, but you could easily steam it instead.  If you wanted, you could even eat the broccoli raw and use the sauce for dipping.

Do you eat your broccoli stalks?  If you don't, you're missing out.  Broccoli florets are great, but I think the stalks are sweeter and even more delicious.  To use them in this recipe, cut the florets from the stalk then simply peel or chop off the outer tough layer of the stalk.  Chop the peeled stalk into pieces and roast with the florets.  They are also delicious raw so I wouldn't blame you if they never even made it to the oven.

Roasted Broccoli with Sesame Miso Sauce
Serves 6

6 cups broccoli florets and stems, chopped
4 Tablespoons white miso paste
2 Tablespoon agave syrup
2 Tablespoon rice vinegar
4 Tablespoons water
3 Tablespoons sesame seeds for topping

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Lay broccoli flat on a sheet pan and roast for 20 minutes, turning at least once.
Mix miso paste, agave, rice vinegar, and water together.  When broccoli has finished roasting, either drizzle or toss dressing with the broccoli.  Top with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

The Oil Company Gusher

By Robert Reich, originally published on his website, April 28, 2011.

Exxon-Mobil’s first quarter earnings of $10.7 billion are up 69 percent from last year. That’s the most profit the company has earned since the third quarter of 2008 — perhaps not coincidentally, around the time when gas prices last reached the lofty $4 a gallon.

This gusher is an embarrassment for an industry seeking to keep its $4 billion annual tax subsidy from the U.S. government, at a time when we’re cutting social programs to reduce the budget deficit.

It’s specially embarrassing when Americans are paying through their noses at the pump.

Exxon-Mobil’s Vice President asks that we look past the “inevitable headlines” and remember the company’s investments in renewable energy.

What investments, exactly? Last time I looked Exxon-Mobil was devoting a smaller percentage of its earnings to renewables than most other oil companies, including the errant BP.

In point of fact, no oil company is investing much in renewables — precisely because they’ve got such money gusher going from oil. Those other oil companies also had a banner first quarter, compounding the industry’s embarrassment about its $4 billion a year welfare check.


American Petroleum Industry CEO Jack Gerard claims the gusher is due to the “growing strength in our economy.”

Baloney. If you hadn’t noticed already, this is one of the most anemic recoveries on record. $4-a-gallon gas is itself slowing the economy’s growth, since most consumers are left with less money to spend on everything else.

Gerard then claims the giant earnings “reflect the size necessary for [American] companies to be globally competitive with national oil companies” around the world.

Let’s get real. The crude oil market is global. Oil companies sell all over the world. The price of crude is established by global supply and demand. In this context, American “competitiveness” is meaningless.
Republicans who have been defending oil’s tax subsidy are also finding themselves in an awkward position. John Boehner temporarily sounded as if he was backing off – until the right-wing-nuts in the GOP began fulminating that the elimination of any special tax windfall is to their minds a tax increase (which means, in effect ,the GOP must now support all tax-subsidized corporate welfare).

Boehner is now trying to pivot off the flip-flop by reverting to the trusty old “drill, drill, drill” for opening more of country to oil drilling and exploration. “If we began to allow more permits for oil and gas production, it would send a signal to the market that America’s serious about moving toward energy independence,” he says.

This argument is as nonsensical now as it was when we last faced $4-a-gallon gas. To repeat: It’s a global oil market. Even if 3 million additional barrels a day could be extruded from lands and seabeds of the United States (the most optimistic figure, after all exploration is done), that sum is tiny compared to 86 million barrels now produced around the world. In other words, even under the best circumstances, the price to American consumers would hardly budge.

Whatever impact such drilling might have would occur far in the future anyway. Oil isn’t just waiting there to be pumped out of the earth. Exploration takes time. Erecting drilling equipment takes time. Getting the oil out takes time. Turning crude into various oil products takes time. According the federal energy agency, if we opening drilling where drilling is now banned, there’d be no significant impact on domestic crude and natural gas production for a decade or more.

Oil companies already hold a significant number of leases on federal lands and offshore seabeds where they are now allowed to drill, and which they have not yet fully explored. Why would they seek more drilling rights? Because ownership of these parcels will pump up their balance sheets even if no oil is actually pumped.

Last but by no means least, as we’ve painfully learned, the environmental risks from such drilling are significant.

Let’s not fool ourselves – or be fooled. There’s no reason to continue to give giant oil companies a $4 billion a year tax windfall. Nor any reason to expand drilling on federal lands or on our seashores.

But there are strong reasons to invest in renewable energy – even in a time of budget austerity. Use the $4 billion this way. And why stop there? Why not a windfall profits tax to the oil companies, to be used for renewable energy?

Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including The Work of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, Supercapitalism, and his most recent book, Aftershock.  He writes a blog at www.robertreich.org.

Letter from a Reader: Wanna Join Us?

Image courtesy of www.shine.yahoo.com

Dear Fashion Pulis,

I am writing you to share a story and get the opinions/reactions of your readers as well. One Saturday night, my friends and I went to this famous dance club in Malate because we haven't been there for a long time. My friends who were with me are mostly VIPs (famous personalities/loyal clients/friends of the shareholders) of this club so they brought me to the VIP lounge on the second floor.

A couple of drinks later, while my friends were dancing and enjoying the good music, I noticed a familiar looking person looking at me in the lounge. A few minutes later, he walked towards me and introduced himself. He went on asking "Who do you think is the hottest guy that you want to have sex with in this room right now?" I was shocked to hear this from him because I noticed that his partner was just a few meters away. I told him politely that I was just there to enjoy the music and have fun with some good friends. Attempting to change the topic, I pointed to his partner and said, "Isn't he your partner? You are the design duo who owns this store in a mall, right?" He immediately called his partner and introduced me to him. After the brief introduction, the partner went back to his friends. When I was left alone with him again, he asked me, "Are you more of a giver or a receiver? Would you like to join us in bed? I am feeling hot right now." I panicked after hearing his questions and I simply said, "I am sorry but I have to go back to my friends now. It was really nice talking to you." 

Call me a hopeless romantic but in my opinion, when a person (guy or girl) is committed to someone, he/she must not enter into casual encounters with others. I just felt weird that he asked me to join him and his partner for a three way. I hope I am not being judgmental and I hope this will not offend your readers. I just need to know what your readers think about having a casual encounter with a couple. 

Sincerely,

M.L.

P.S. Parts of the letter were edited by Fashion PULIS to conceal the identities of the characters.

For doctors: How to start using social media

How to start

My advice for doctors who are interested in using social media for professional purposes is simple:

- Start on Twitter, expand to a blog as natural progression.

- Input your blog posts automatically to a Facebook like/fan page.
- Listen to the leading physicians, nurses and patients' voices on Twitter, and reply.
- Comment on blogs.
- Do not be afraid to share your expertise.
- Comply with HIPAA and common sense.

I posted this on Twitter yesterday: Doctors, when you don't have time to write a blog post, record a video - the orthopedic surgeon @hjluks shows how it's done: http://goo.gl/jL73J


Howard J. Luks, MD

@Doctor_V (Bryan Vartabedian) said, "My blog is my home. Twitter and Facebook are outposts."

I actually disagree a bit. My use of Twitter goes beyond a simple outpost. It's my digital notebook and idea feedback system.

The circle of online information for me is as follows: Google Reader -> Share on Twitter -> Get feedback -> Write a blog post -> Share via RSS and Twitter -> Get feedback, go on.

Here is how to facilitate the Rise of the ePhysican who works hand in hand with the ePatient:

Substance over style

Going back to the video embedded above, I think that @hjluks is the current leader in creating original, honest, tell-it-like-it-is clinical content among physicians. This is an example to follow. The technical execution does not have to be perfect, as you will see from the discussion started on Twitter and summarized below. However, the content must be factually correct and professional.

@yayayarndiva (P. Mimi Poinsett MD) had a few comments about the technical aspects of the video such as "if you are going to do a video - make your background a tad less busy:)"

I actually liked the background - it's "authentic" and gives you something to look at during the 8-minute video.

@hjluks actually polled 100 patients on that. They like the laid back office view.

@yayayarndiva P. (Mimi Poinsett MD) thought that "authentically messy AND 8 min video with a head in bouncing chair - think I would rather read the transcript... I think docs like everyone else can sharpen their presentation skills with video... still good to continue. Video? A talking head doesn't confer authenticity- just a new toy:)... Or you could use Dragon software and dictate your post..."

@ePatientDave (Dave deBronkart) convinced @hjluks to do the transcripts, primarily for Google. "Otherwise, thy pearls of light are hidden under a YouTube bushel. I emphasize it's not just *marketing* SEO - it's for being findable for those in need", said @ePatientDave.

I agree. You need the transcript for SEO and quick info. SEO doesn't just apply to marketing - it's a way for people (real humans) to find you online.

Nothing beats video for authenticity though. I understand the concept of creating technically flawless presentations but if you wait to do a perfect video and you are a busy doctor, you may never do it. The same applies to blog posts - if you are going to write a blog post for 2 months, write a journal article instead.

I had some final encouragement for @hjluks: "You don't have to be pro with video. You are pro as orthopod - who uses video."

I think he liked that.

Do you need a social media policy for your medical practice?

Another good discussion point was brought up by an office manager of a pediatric group in Chicago: Do you need a social media policy for your medical practice? http://goo.gl/7APvI - I think you do.

John Sharp and I worked on a social media policy for Cleveland Clinic back in 2005 when all that was a big unknown in healthcare. It still is for many organizations - in terms of professional involvement and outreach. A social media policy provides some much needed guidance and boundaries.

The number one rule is very simple: comply with HIPAA and do not share any of the 18 identifiers: http://goo.gl/WR5MR

12-Word Social Media Policy by Mayo Clinic: "Don’t Lie, Don’t Pry, Don’t Cheat, Can’t Delete, Don’t Steal, Don’t Reveal" (http://goo.gl/1Jwdo).

Top Twitter Doctors

This is a list of the Top Twitter Doctors arranged by specialty in alphabetical order - feel free to add your own suggestions. The list is open to anybody to edit:

Comments from Twitter and Facebook:

Bryan Vartabedian: "When I present this stuff I recommend doctors find 2-3 role models in their specialty and follow them. Watch and study how they do things. Great place to start."

Related reading

What are the Downsides of Social Media for Doctors? Dr. Wes shares insights from 6 years of blogging

The Royal Wedding Flower Girl

Image courtesy of www.vanityfair.com

The star of the Royal Wedding was this cute three year old flower girl, Grace van Cutsem, the goddaughter of Prince William. She is the daughter of Lady Rose Astor and Hugh van Cutsem and the great-great-great-granddaughter of William Waldorf Astor.

Source: www.vanityfair.com

Bad Form At The Royal Wedding

Far be it from me to put a damper on the royal festivities, but it seems worth pointing out that those who viewed the spectacle as an opportunity to voice dissenting opinions or protests would not to be tolerated. 






Political Policing In Britain

By Guy Aitchison, originally published in openDemocracy, April 28, 2011

If anyone was in any doubt that we have a highly politicized, out-of-control police force in this country with scant regard for basic rights, the build up to the royal wedding will have provided a much-needed corrective. When it comes to our divinely ordained rulers, even the most minimal pretence at neutrality and respect for due process has been dropped and the attitudes and motivations of law enforcement laid bare. There is to be a strict zero tolerance policy towards republican thought crimes. Faced with tomorrow’s pompous medieval extravaganza, we must either wave our plastic Union Jack flags like the serfs that we are, or else keep quiet and hope we aren’t on the Met’s “political” hit-list.

For weeks, senior officers have been boasting that anyone planning to voice dissent at tomorrow’s event will be treated as a criminal with sinister warnings that officers have been ordered to “shoot-to-kill” and the Queen’s Guard empowered to impale any threat with their bayonets. With the memories of Jean Charles de Menezes and Iain Tomlinson still fresh, such warnings sound more than a little ominous. The press have gleefully collaborated with the Met in their intimidation, uncritically reporting plans for “pre-emptive” strikes against anyone suspected of being inclined to violate the “sterile areas” 1.6 kilometres around the Palace of Westminster created under the totalitarian Serious Organised Crime and Police Act introduced by Labour. In all the frenzied reporting, the words “anarchists” and “criminals” are used interchangeably to denote anyone opposed to a hereditary head of state. Ahead of the happy couple’s big day, political opinions alone are enough to get you locked up. As one “police source” chillingly put it “the same faces often reappear at different protests and we will try and take a pre-emptive strike against them."

Now we are seeing this sinister strategy put into effect. Yesterday, several squats were raided in Brighton with arrests made and in the early hours of this morning five squats across London were targeted. Two of the London squats are private residences in Camberwell which want to remain anonymous, whilst the third, Ratstar, also in Camberwell, is being used as a social centre and artistic space in agreement with the landlord. The raid against Ratstar was carried out under a Section 18 warrant to search for stolen goods, yet  the TSG officers at the scene appear to have found no evidence of theft since the 14 arrests made were for the absurd crime of “electricity abstraction”. Twelve hours later, dozens of them were still searching the premises for anything incriminating. Members of Counter Terrorism Command, S015, were present at the eviction making use of spotter cards to try and identify possible suspects from March 26th.

Meanwhile, forty police were sent to raid Transition Heathrow, a community market garden, set up in opposition to the building of a Third Runway. The occupants were dragged out of their beds at 7.15 in the morning and searched. After one and a half hours, all the police could find in the deadly garden was some vegetables, chickens and bees. The fifth squat to be raided was Offmarket, an old bookshop in Hackney being used as a social centre, where one arrest was made in connection with the TUC demonstration, according to the Met. Some of those arrested have now been released with bail conditions specifying they should not enter central London until Monday, by which time the Royal Wedding and May Day will have been and gone – two birds with one stone, in the eyes of the authorities.

The doublespeak used to justify this abuse of police power is astonishing. Despite their earlier warnings in the press and the obviously contrived nature of the arrests and the warrants used, the Met have the audacity to insist that the arrests “are not specifically related to the Royal Wedding but have been brought forward ahead of the event”.

As I write this, it appears that a second wave of arrests are underway. The eccentric ex-professor Chris Knight has apparently been hauled in for breach of the peace along with actor Patrick Macroidan who has been arrested on a charge of conspiracy to cause a breach of the peace – with his executioner’s outfit as main evidence. Charlie Vietch, of the Love Police, who can often be seen at demos cracking jokes through a megaphone, has also been arrested. Presumably others have been scooped up too.

The political intent is quite clear. At vast expense to the taxpayer, the police have gone out of their way to ensure that tomorrow’s event delivers exactly what it says on the tin: a huge display of ostentation and state power used to cement people's loyalty to the establishment at a time when your average citizen - sorry - subject, is getting screwed. Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens nailed the Met’s her colours to the mast when she told The Express “We want to make this a celebration of joy and pageantry.”  If this means silencing the voices of millions of republicans in this country through aggressive acts of intimidation and abuses of human rights, then so be it.

The irony of it all is that no major protests are planned. The only one I know of is this relatively small Facebook event, absurdly dubbed the “Black Bloc” page by Channel 4 News. Most activists have rather sensibly taken the view that they’d prefer not run the risk of getting shot, bayoneted or set upon by a royalist crowd and concentrate their political energies where they can actually have an impact.  Of course, if nothing does happen tomorrow - which it almost certainly won’t - the full cunning of the police’s strategy will become apparent. “Look what we can do with all these draconian powers”, they will say. “Now give us more”

Guy Aitchison is co-editor of openDemocracy's UK blog, OurKingdom, and a PhD student in politics at UCL.  openDemocracy is a great British website that publishes high quality news analysis, debates and blogs about international politics and culture.

New regs could change way food industry markets to children

"The federal government proposed sweeping new guidelines on Thursday that could push the food industry to overhaul how it advertises cereal, soda pop, snacks, restaurant meals and other foods to children," The New York Times' William Neuman reports.

The guidelines, which were released by the Federal Trade Commission, target TV commercials, print ads, websites, product placement in movies, kids meals at fast food restaurants (Getty Images photo by David Paul Morris) and online games that serve to promote a product. "The inclusion of digital media, such as product-based games, represents one of the government's strongest efforts so far to address the extension of children's advertising into the online world," Neuman reports.

"Our proposal really covers all forms of marketing to kids, and the product packaging and the images and themes on the cereal boxes have tremendous appeal to kids," said Michelle K. Rush, a trade commission attorney. "The goal is to encourage children to eat more healthy foods because obesity is a huge health crisis."

Advertised food would have to be made of healthy ingredients, such as whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables, or skim or 1 percent milk. They could not have high amounts of sugar, trans fats, salt or saturated fat. Cereals would only be able to have 8 grams of sugar per serving — they now often contain 12 grams — and salt would be limited to 450 milligrams per serving in packaged foods. A 15-ounce can of Chef Boyardee beef ravioli now has 750 milligrams.

Following the guidelines will be voluntary, but there will be pressure for companies to adopt them, Neuman reports. Those that elect to do so will have five to 10 years to revamp their products and marketing strategy.

A recent study in the American Journal of Public Health found that in 1997 to 2002 the average child saw about 4,000 television commercials advertising food each year. During Saturday morning cartoons, kids saw a food ad about every five minutes. Of that food advertised, about 95 percent of it was of poor nutritional value. In 2006, food companies spent almost $2.3 billion in children's advertising, the Federal Trade Commission found.

In response to the new guidelines, the food industry said it has "already taken significant steps to improve recipes and change the way it advertises to children," Neuman reports. (Read more)

"First Time" Friday

Do you remember how you felt your FIRST TIME?  Were you nervous & scared?

I wanted to share. Let's do First Time Friday shall we? Oh kids, minds out of the gutter. I am NOT talking about THAT first time.  I'm talking about your very first time blogging.

I am hoping that some of you will play along and share your first blog post via comment.  Please leave a link to the very post that you have written, the date of the post, and a few of your thoughts.

I'll start:

XANGA - WHY I'M HERE Posted 10/6/2004 5:45 PM.  I was excited but nervous about what information I put out on the world wide web.  Once you put it out there - It's there. Forever.  I have since closed my first blog but recently reactivated it and left only a handful of posts.  I am a little embarrassed by my first attempts but now I am a much more confident blogger.  It's now more about what I want to do, say, and share.  In the past it was more of a worry that will others like me? Will anyone read my blogs? How do I get better at it?  Then - BAM, I was addicted!  I stopped for a few years but have since returned to my beloved hobby.

Onek's The One

Imagine a District Attorney who wouldn't rely on knee-jerk, overly punitive responses to crime and violence but would instead bring the various stakeholders together and forge strong partnerships with the community as well as law enforcement.

Imagine a District Attorney whose goal was not to put more people behind bars but to find creative ways to to reduce the inflated prisoner population and then reinvest part of the savings into community and law enforcement resources to lower the recidivism rate and make the community safer.

Imagine a District Attorney who understands that the death penalty is a costly, ineffective and arbitrary, and who believes that the misguided Three Strikes Initiative must be reformed because it is a disproportionate punishment that wastes "precious resources to unnecessarily incarcerate minor offenders who pose little threat to society for huge periods of time – and draining resources away from the law enforcement agencies, community organizations and schools that can truly prevent crime and keep us safe."

Imagine a District Attorney who understands and is not afraid to talk about the concept of Restorative Justice, which instead of seeking to punish those who break the law, focuses on those who have been harmed, figuring out their needs and whose obligation it is to meet those needs, and then bringing all the multiple stakeholders together to engage in a reparative process.

David Onek is a candidate for District Attorney of San Francisco.  He is a leading expert on criminal and juvenile justice, with experience in policy-making, academia and government.  He has developed a thoughtful, progressive approach to these issues.  David is currently a Senior Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice.  He is a former San Francisco Police Commissioner and also served in Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Criminal Justice.

Go to his website to learn more about and contribute to David's campaign.

Hey Gov. Brown, Can You Hear Us Now?

By James Clark, originally published at Huffington Post, April 28, 2011.

Imagine you're strolling down the scenic route in downtown Sacramento, wondering "what the hell is California going to do about that whole money thing?" You turn the corner onto J Street, and BAM! The answer is right in front of you: cut the death penalty and save $1 billion without releasing a single prisoner. You're immediately faced with an important question: are you the current governor of California?

IF YES: Immediately convert the sentences of all those awaiting execution to life without the possibility of parole. Congratulations, you have saved California $1 billion over the next five years.

IF NO: Ok, you're not Jerry Brown, but you can ask him to do all of the above! You immediately go online to Change.org and sign the petition asking Jerry Brown to CUT THIS.

Those are the scenarios envisioned by California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who've placed a billboard on J Street with the CUT THIS message. You see, no one can really figure out why Jerry Brown hasn't cut the death penalty already since it's such an obvious budget solution that provides real accountability, real justice, and real savings. I mean, there have been thousands of people from all over the state who've mailed and emailed and faxed telling Jerry to CUT THIS... but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he just never noticed how much of the budget was spent on the death penalty, and maybe he just doesn't check his mailbox and email and fax machine.

But, he's bound to go for a walk once in a while -- the Governor's buddy Sutter is a smart dog, but I doubt he's mastered the human art of indoor plumbing. So with the message plastered across J Street, hopefully the Governor will finally realize that cutting California's death penalty is the best way to provide justice for victims of crime in California and save $1 billion at the same time.

California Crime Victims are sending Jerry the CUT THIS message because they know the death penalty is a hollow promise for those who've lost a loved one to violence. Instead of providing justice for victims' families, death sentences drag them through decades of appeals and hearings during which they never know if the sentence will be imposed (and most of the time in California, it's not). Meanwhile, the families who seek help from California's Victims Compensation Fund are denied help because the fund is nearing bankruptcy.

Jerry Brown said, "It's all on the table." If that's true, why is he prioritizing death row over real help -- like counseling -- for victims' families? Why take the risk of executing an innocent person when the alternative is both safer and cheaper? Yeah, I don't know either... Seriously Governor, these are real questions. Unless you've got real answers, CUT THIS.

And hey, if you don't happen to be the current Governor of California, do the next best thing and send him a message.

Palate Cleanser: Cold War Kids

Hang Me Up To Dry by Cold War Kids

National campaign targets distracted driving

With the aim of raising awareness about the dangers of distracted driving, national public-service campaign "Decide to Drive" kicked off this month.

With former boxer Joe Frazier as spokesman, the campaign features a website, as well as posters, postcards and displays for surgeons to use to educate their patients. "The goal is to get people to think before they do something dangerous behind the wheel, such as using a cellphone, sending a text, eating or even reaching for a child's toy," The Courier-Journal's Darla Carter reports.

The undertaking is funded by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Orthopaedic Trauma Association. Orthopedic surgeons can mend a lot, but "there are some injuries you just can't make normal," said Dr. Marc Zussman, who practices in Rockford, Ill.

In 2009, 5,474 people died nationwide and another 448,000 were hurt in accidents thought to have involved distracted driving. In 2010, more than 54,000 accidents took place in which distracted driving was believed to be a factor. In July, it became illegal to text while driving in Kentucky. Drivers under the age of 18 cannot use cell phones at all while their vehicle is moving. As of January, texting and teen drivers can be stopped and fined for the violations.

To combat the issue, "a change in the entire safety culture is needed," as occurred with seat-belt awareness, said Boyd Sigler, director of the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety. (Read more)

Chronic pancreatitis - The Lancet review

There are two forms of chronic pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis is a progressive fibroinflammatory disease that exists in 2 forms:

- large-duct forms (often with intraductal calculi)
- small-duct form

Causes of chronic pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis results from a complex mix of:

- environmental factors - alcohol, cigarettes, and occupational chemicals
- genetic factors - mutation in a trypsin-controlling gene or the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)
- a few patients have hereditary or autoimmune disease

Management of pain

Pain is the main symptom that occurs in two forms:

- recurrent attacks of pancreatitis (representing paralysis of apical exocytosis in acinar cells)
- constant and disabling pain

Management of the pain is mainly empirical, involving:

- potent analgesics
- duct drainage by endoscopic or surgical means
- partial or total pancreatectomy
- steroids rapidly reduce symptoms in patients with autoimmune pancreatitis
- micronutrient therapy to correct electrophilic stress is emerging as a promising treatment

Steatorrhoea, diabetes, local complications, and psychosocial issues associated are additional therapeutic challenges.

References

Chronic pancreatitis. Dr Joan M Braganza DSc a , Stephen H Lee FRCR b, Rory F McCloy FRCS c, Prof Michael J McMahon FRCS d. The Lancet, Volume 377, Issue 9772, Pages 1184 - 1197, 2 April 2011.
Pancreatitis - JAMA Patient Page, 2012.

Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

More county-specific health data are available, painting detailed pictures of your local area's health

Five years' worth of county-specific data are now available for many types of health indicators on the Kentucky Health Facts website. The site features data on demographics, social and behavioral indicators, health outcomes, access to care, and maternal and child health, much of which can be useful to journalists all over Kentucky.

The Health Outcomes category, for example, looks at a county's premature-death rate, motor-vehicle deaths, prevalence of asthma, diabetes prevalence and cancer deaths. The Maternal and Child Health category looks at adequacy of prenatal care, infant mortality rates, teen birth rates and prevalence of youth who smoke cigarettes. It compares that data to the rest of the state and nation.

The data paint a detailed picture of what is happening in a specific area. One interesting nugget in the newly updated data on asthma show that in Warren County (Bowling Green), the percentage of adults with the respiratory condition has nearly doubled from 10 percent in 2003-05 to 19 percent in 2007-09. Here is the county asthma map:

The data come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which is the world's largest ongoing telephone health survey. It has tracked health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States on an annual basis since 1984.

The data can be viewed by going to www.kentuckyhealthfacts.org or by clicking here. Kentucky Health Facts is a service of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

The Price of Defending Bigotry - $520/hour

I want to do a quick follow up on lovechilde's post today on the House Republicans' defense of DOMA. Regardless of what you think about the pressure on King & Spalding to drop the case (and I'm not sure I agree with lovechilde on that point) here is something to get mad about:

Think Progress got their hands on the contract (pdf) the House Republicans signed with Paul Clement, who is still defending DOMA at his new firm (though I'm not sure if the terms are the same). Under the contract, which Democrats have rightly criticized, he is to be paid $520 hour up to a cap of $500,000. The current Federal Rate for attorneys in capital cases, cases in which a human life is on the line, is $178 hour. If you are going to represent the government in defense of the indefensible as budgets for basic human needs, including lawyers for poor people, are slashed it is deeply offensive to get rich doing it.

Crossing The Line Revisited

I should be the last person to chastise any lawyer for representing an unpopular cause or client.  In a piece I wrote back in November, Crossing The Line, I explained that after defending death row inmates for over 20 years, I am particularly sensitive to being criticized for representing a despised group of individuals.  At that time, it was the ACLU and CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights) who were being skewered for representing the interests of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric tied to Al Qaeda, who was allegedly hiding in Yemen and whose killing had been authorized by the Obama Administration.  I strongly disputed Andrew Sullivan's comment that defending what he called an active terrorist "crossed the line," and stated my passionate belief that a lawyer's most important role is to represent people who are hated and feared, and to ensure that the government is following the law. 

But I do think there is a difference between standing up for reviled causes and clients -- which is not only honorable but necessary for our adversary system of justice to work -- and representing those with political power who seek to use laws to discriminate against others.  I am, therefore, not offended that the prestigious law firm of King & Spaulding felt pressure to bow out of representing the Republican-led House of Representatives in defending the Defense Of Marriage Act, the 1996 law which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

What I do find offensive is the litigation strategy of the supporters of Proposition 8, who filed a motion to vacate Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling striking down California's voter-approved ban on gay marriage.  Walker, appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush and recently retired, confirmed this month what was an open secret, that he is in a long-term relationship with a man.  This led Charles Cooper, the conservative attorney representing Protect Marriage, the group defending Prop 8, to seek to toss out Walker's ruling on the ground that he is gay and should have disqualified himself from the case.

As Adam Serwer points out, this argument "relies on the same faulty argument put forth originally in defense of Prop 8:  The qualitative judgment that same-sex relationships are inferior."  Obviously, if a judge in a same-sex relationship cannot be expected to be impartial on whether same-sex marriages are damaging to the institution of marriage, wouldn't the same logic disqualify a straight, married judge?  Serwer explains that "Proposition 8 supporters would never make that argument, of course, because the implication of their argument is that gays and lesbians are incapable of the impartiality expected of judges by their very nature."

David Dayen is exactly right when he says that "this ugly tactic plays to the basest instincts of the human condition, positing LGBT judges as somehow not as committed to fairness in a court of law as their heterosexual counterparts."  Indeed, as the Los Angeles Times editorial states:  "The group's assertion that a gay judge in a relationship is less able than a heterosexual married judge to render a fair decision on a sexual-orientation case says more about the pervasiveness of discrimination against homosexuals than it does about Walker's fitness to hear the matter."

Lawyers should be given exceedingly wide latitude with regard to whom they represent and the methods they employ in the course of their representation.  But I suppose there is such a thing as crossing the line after all.

High gas prices = fewer traffic accidents, including DUI mishaps

There is one benefit to gasoline prices reaching nearly $4 a gallon: The rate of traffic accidents, including drink-driving accidents, goes down as gas prices go up.

These were the findings in a study by Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center, which "analyzed total traffic crashes between April 2004 and December 2008, comparing gas prices to traffic safety statistics," research reporting service Newswise reports. SSRC demographer Guangquing Chi looked at factors including age, gender and race.

"The results suggest that prices have both short-term and intermediate-term effects on reducing traffic crashes," Chi said. The short-term impact involves younger drivers. Intermediate-term impact is related to older drivers and men. Short-term impact "refers to immediate effects, for example how a current month's average gasoline prices affect the same month's traffic crashes. Intermediate-term impact refers to effects over a one-year subsequent time period," Newswise reports. (Read more)

Diabetic youth have medical costs of more than $9,000 a year

Children who have diabetes incur medical costs of more than $9,000 a year, a number that is six times greater than for children who don't have the disease, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found.

Most of the expenses are for prescription drugs and outpatient care. "Most youth with diabetes need insulin to survive and the medical costs for young people on insulin were almost 65 percent higher than for those who did not require insulin to treat their diabetes," said Ann Albright, director of CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation.

Type 1 diabetics cannot produce insulin and so must receive insulin treatment. Type 2 diabetics, whose bodies no longer handle insulin properly and slowly lose the ability to make it, are generally treated with oral medications that control glucose levels in the blood. More than 90 percent of young diabetics are on insulin. Type 2 diabetes is extremely rare in children younger than 10 years of age. It is infrequent in children and teens 10 to 19 years old.

The study looked at medical costs for children and teens less than 20 years of age who were covered by employer-sponsored private health insurance plans in 2007. Estimates were based on administrative claim data from almost 50,000 children, including 8,226 diabetics. (Read more)

More than half of Ky. 18-to-24-year-olds have a weight problem

"More than half of 18-to-24-year-olds in Kentucky are overweight or obese — the highest percentage in the nation," The Courier-Journal's Laura Ungar reports. Their weight is not only bad for their health, but limits their ability to serve effectively in the military. (C-J chart)

These findings come from a report called "Too Fat to Fight," released Wednesday and compiled by Mission: Readiness, whose members are retired generals and other high-ranking military officials concerned about the physical fitness of the services' recruitment pools. The reports shows 51 percent of young adults in Kentucky were either overweight or obese in 2007-9, up from 38 percent in 1997-99. Nationwide, only about 1 on 4 17-to-24-year-olds were too heavy to serve in the military.

Another report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at what is being done to fight the obesity epidemic in each state, by examining behavioral indicators and environmental factors. The report showed nearly 36 percent of Kentucky students, such as those at Bloom Elementary in Louisville (C-J photo by David R. Lutman), drink at least one soft drink a day, compared to 29.2 percent nationwide. More than 68 percent of Kentucky middle and high schools allow the advertising of unhealthy foods, compared to 49 percent nationwide.

Both reports concluded schools can play a key role in helping children lose weight. "Mission: Readiness urges Congress to help upgrade school equipment such as freezers, ovens and salad bars and train cafeteria workers to prepare meals with fresh ingredients," Ungar reports. (Read more)

New network including UK, Ohio State and Marshall joins leading researchers to address health issues in Appalachia

Seven academic centers and community organizations have come together to pool their resources and improve the health of Appalachian residents. They have formed the Appalachian Translational Research Network, which includes experts representing The Ohio State University, the University of Kentucky, Marshall University and the Appalachian Regional Commission.

"The causes of health issues in this region are multifactorial — poverty, education, access to care," said Kelley Kelleher, director of the Community Engagement Program at OSU's Center for Clinical and Translational Science. "A collaborative approach that pairs experts from many different specialties with organizations already working within the Appalachian community will help us reach better solutions faster."

"We are dedicated to seeing this region escape from being one of the sickest parts of America," said Phillip Kern, director of UK's Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Barnstable Brown Diabetes and Obesity Center.

Experts with the ATRN were among those who organized and attended the recent Appalachian Health Summit. It focused on the obesity epidemic, a major chronic health issue in the region. It also featured many research projects related to or complicated by obesity, including one to evaluate web-based smoking cessation programs with teen smokers; one using church communities to address obesity; and one to establish more than 60 diabetes community collaboratives in nine Appalachian states.

Appalachia runs from southern New York to northern Mississippi. With a population of 24.8 million, it stretches across all of West Virginia and part of 12 other states, including 54 Kentucky counties. Residents of many Appalachian counties are three times more likely to die from diabetes than others either living in the same state or in non-Appalachian states, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers show.

Oldham faith-based clinic to reopen under oversight of nonprofit

A clinic that was the only one of its kind in Oldham, Henry, Trimble and Carroll counties will reopen under the oversight of a nonprofit organization. The facility, formerly known as the Community Care Clinic, will be re-christened the Hope Health Clinic. It will serve patients who do not have health insurance. Before it closed due to a $30,000 deficit, the clinic served about 700 people a year. A group of church leaders will form the nonprofit agency, which will be called the Oldham County Ministerial Association, The Courier-Journal's Andrea Uhde Shepherd reports.

The clinic will be in the same space off New Moody Lane, which will be leased to the nonprofit agency by Baptist Hospital Northeast for $1 a year. La Grange Baptist Church Executive Pastor Rick Davidson said he "hopes to run the clinic on donations from residents, churches, civic groups and businesses," Shepherd writes. Most of the staff will be volunteers. The facility will be modeled after Mercy Medical Clinic in Shelbyville, a faith-based facility that serves 2,300 people. (Read more)

Kenton Co. smoking ban yields 15 complaints; citations next?

There have been 15 complaints to the Northern Kentucky Health Department since Kenton County's smoking ban took effect nearly two weeks ago. Because enforcement does not take effect until next week, no one has been cited yet, Cindy Schroeder of the Kentucky Enquirer reports.

The ban went into effect after the outgoing Kenton Fiscal Court approved the ordinance in December. It bans smoking in most workplaces, including "restaurants, churches, factories, offices, bingo halls, bowling alleys and stores," Schroeder reports. It does allow exemptions for bar and private clubs. So far, 65 drinking establishments and five private clubs have applied for exemptions, 62 of which have been approved.

The biggest the challenge to the health department so far has been to inform owners what they need to do to comply with exemption requirements. "Those include having a separate enclosed smoking section with its own air system and its own entrance," Shroeder wrote. "Also, no one under 18 can be employed or admitted." (Read more)

Fewer maternity wards, fewer options for rural Kentucky women

The closing of the maternity ward at Mary Breckinridge Hospital in Hyden last year is part of a larger trend, leading to fewer options for women living in rural areas of the state, contends an op-ed piece in the Daily Yonder, the national online rural journal.

"There's a big dose of irony here," writes Kelli Haywood, a Lamaze certified childbirth educator. "Mary Breckinridge Hospital, located in Appalachian Kentucky, is named for a pioneer in maternal and infant health who brought the nurse midwifery model of care to the United States."

"With the closing of this facility, women of the entire southeastern Kentucky region lost an important and rare option for birth, as well as the expertise of the hospitals' midwives, most of whom either moved to other parts of the state or left Kentucky altogether," Haywood continues.

Similar closures are happening in other states as well, including Virginia, Ohio and Alabama, which has "lost 26 options for maternity care since 1980," Kaywood states. The reason for the closures has to do with numbers and reimbursements. Mary Breckinridge Hospital averaged just 12 births monthly, but in order to break even financially needed to attend more than twice that. In some cases, an aging population is leading to fewer births, but some rural areas are still underserved when it comes to maternity care.

The consequences means rural women will have to travel further, and incur related expenses, to receive maternity care. That will put pressure on other rural hospitals, which will in turn have consequences. Studies show medical interventions, such as cesarean sections, are more common in rural hospitals where "care providers are feeling the pressure of a high patient load," Haywood writes. But these procedures carry risks — a Mayo Clinic study showed the risk of death to the mother was four times greater when she delivered via caesearean section rather than vaginally — and are more costly. An uncomplicated vaginal birth costs between $3,000 and $6,000, while a c-section birth can be between $10,000 and $40,000, Haywood contends.

Haywood points to midwifery and free-standing birth centers as possible solutions, but admits there is no easy answer. However, a solution is needed. "In a healthcare system where maternity care providers are facing the highest malpractice premiums of any physicians, and as obstetricians become fewer in number, it is not surprising that we are seeing closures of maternity services in rural hospitals and increases in the rates of medical interventions. Rather than fighting to keep a system that is not benefitting rural women, healthcare providers, or state governments, we need new models of care and ways in which that care can be obtained safely, close to home." (Read more)

The Kept Woman: Reality Star Turned Mistress

Image courtesy of www.susandonovabookerview.co.uk

This actress was an alumna of a prestigious reality television show. When she graduated from the show and eventually joined show business, her superb acting skills immediately caught the attention of many industry critics. She was tagged as one of the most promising talents in her batch and that is why many were shocked when she decided to end her acting stint abruptly. According to her, she left the limelight because she wanted to live a simple normal life.

The irony here is that her life was never really simple after she quit the business. On the contrary, her lifestyle became sophisticated and glamorous. Overnight, she transformed from a simple girl from the North into a posh globe-trotter who only wore designer clothes. How did this happen?

The answer is very simple. Instead of working, she opted to be the kept women of a wealthy controversial public servant who has an ill reputation both in the Philippines and overseas. Together, they had a good run until many new girls started to enter the picture. This gave the reality star an excuse to end her relationship with him. Perhaps, the real reason behind was she has saved enough money that is why she opted to move on. Recently, this actress has been staging a comeback by accepting minor roles in movies and television shows. No one dared to dig up her past because she is being protected by her manager who is rather influential in the industry.

Do you have a clue as to who is this actress? If you want your comments to be posted, I suggest that you observe the Guidelines in Posting Comments. Also, follow micsylim on twitter and you might just get additional information. If you have any stories to share, kindly email them to michaelsylim@gmail.com. Thank you for supporting Fashion PULIS!

With regard to the Vidajewelries Longevity Bangle/ Kanebo Giveaway contest, you still have until April 30, 2011, 11:59 pm, Manila time to email your entries to mikesylim@gmail.com (NOT micsylim@gmail.com). Good luck to all of you.

How Crazy are Republicans - Birther Edition

Still totally, completely crazy. (And, let's be honest, quite thoroughly racist.)

The Wageless Recovery

By Robert Reich, originally published on his website, April 26, 2011.

Fed Chair Ben Bernanke

This week’s biggest economic show occurs [today] when Fed chair Ben Bernanke steps in front of the cameras for the Fed’s first-ever news conference. The question on everyone’s mind: Will the Fed signal it’s now more worried about inflation than recession?

Much of Wall Street thinks inflation is now the biggest threat to the US economy. As has been the case in the past, the Street is dead wrong. The biggest threat is falling into another recession.

The most significant economic news from the first quarter of 2011 is the decline in real wages. That’s unusual in a recovery, to say the least. But it’s easily explained this time around. In order to keep the jobs they have, millions of Americans are accepting shrinking paychecks. If they’ve been fired, the only way they can land a new job is to accept even smaller ones.

The wage squeeze is putting most households in a double bind. Before the recession, they’d been able to pay the bills because they had two paychecks. Now, they’re likely to have one-and-a half, or just one, and it’s shrinking.

Add to this the continuing decline in the value of the biggest asset most people own – their homes – and what do you get? Consumers who won’t and can’t buy enough to keep the economy going. That spells recession.


Why doesn’t Wall Street get it? For one thing, because lenders always worry more about inflation than borrowers – and, in general, the wealthier members of a society tend to lend their money to people who are poorer than they are.

But Wall Street’s inflation fears are also being stoked by several specifics.

First are price upswings in food and energy. The Street doesn’t seem to understand that when most peoples’ wages are dropping, additional dollars they spend on groceries and at the gas pump means fewer dollars they have left to spend in the rest of the economy. Rather than cause inflation, this is likely to lead to more job losses.

The Street is also worried that the Fed’s easy money policies are pushing the dollar down and thereby fueling inflation – as everything we buy abroad becomes more expensive. But if wages are stuck in the mud and everything we buy abroad costs more, Americans have even fewer dollars to spend. This also spells recession, not inflation.

Finally, the Street worries that if Democrats and Republicans fail to agree to a plan to cut the budget deficit, the credit-worthiness of the United States as a whole will be in jeopardy – causing interest rates to rocket and inflation to explode. Standard & Poors, the erstwhile credit-rating agency, has already sounded the alarm.

The Street has it backwards. Over the long term, the deficit does have to be tackled. But not now. When job growth remains tepid, when wages are dropping, and when the value of most households’ major asset is declining, government has to step in to maintain overall demand.

This is the worst possible time to cut public spending or reduce the money supply.

The biggest irony is that the Street is doing wonderfully well right now, in contrast to most Americans. Corporate profits for the first quarter of the year are way up. That’s largely because corporate payrolls are down.

Payrolls are down because big companies have been shifting much of their work abroad where business is booming. The Commerce Department recently reported that over the last decade American multinationals (essentially all large American corporations) eliminated 2.9 million American jobs while adding 2.4 million abroad.

What the Commerce Department didn’t say is the pace is picking up. In 2000, 30 percent of GE’s business was overseas and 46 percent of its employees; now 60 percent of its business is outside the U.S., as are 54 percent of its employees. Over the past five years, Oracle added twice as many workers overseas as in the US; 63 percent of its employees now work abroad.

Corporations are simultaneously finding ways to cut the pay of their remaining U.S. workers – not just threatening job losses if they don’t agree to the cuts, but also automating the work or sending it to non-union states. (The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, an unremittingly reliable barometer of Street thought, argued earlier this week that such states offer workers the freedom to choose whether to join a union – in reality, the freedom to lose even more bargaining power and be forced to accept even lower wages.)

America’s jobless recovery is becoming a wageless recovery. That puts the odds of another recession greater than the risk of inflation. Wall Street and its representatives in Washington don’t understand – or don’t want to.

Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including The Work of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, Supercapitalism, and his most recent book, Aftershock.  He writes a blog at www.robertreich.org. 

And the media wakes up

In a post yesterday I questioned if the Republicans were taking less heat for the Ryan plan than the Democrats had for Obama's health care plan or if the media was just under covering it. Now the media suddenly appears to have noticed that the Republicans are having some town-hall trouble with the Ryan plan, especially the destruction of Medicare. Coincidence? I'll continue to keep an eye on the coverage and feel free to highlight stories you see in the comments.

The Normalizing of Political Lies

The embarrassing spectacle of a sitting president having to issue his long-form birth certificate in what promises to be a futile effort to satisfy conspiracy theorists perfectly illustrates Rick Perlstein's thesis about how right wing liars are enabled by the mainstream media.

Last November, Perlstein wrote about President Obama's refusal to challenge the outright falsehoods perpetrated by the opposition prior to the mid-term elections.  ("How Obama Enables Rush.")  Perlstein lamented that "we live in a mendocracy," i.e. rule by liars.  A prime example was that "Republican politicians, and conservative commentators" lied that "Barack Obama was a tax-mad lunatic," and because neither the mainstream media nor the White House corrected them, people believed it:  "When one side breaks the social contract, and the other side makes a virtue of never calling them out on it, the liar always wins. When it becomes 'uncivil' to call out liars, lying becomes free."

Perlstein, whose research has focused on the birth of the modern conservative movement around the Barry Goldwater campaign and the Nixon Era (See Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America and Before The Storm:  Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of America), is perfectly positioned to more broadly explain the historical factors that have shaped the "the modern political lie," which he does in a must-read article, Inside the GOP's Fact-Free Nation, just published in Mother Jones. (As Rick says, you can read it on line, but buy it anyway.)

It takes two things to make a political lie work: a powerful person or institution willing to utter it, and another set of powerful institutions to amplify it. The former has always been with us: Kings, corporate executives, politicians, and ideologues from both sides of the aisle have been entirely willing to bend the truth when they felt it necessary or convenient. So why does it seem as if we're living in a time of overwhelmingly brazen deception? What's changed.
Today's marquee fibs almost always evolve the same way: A tree falls in the forest—say, the claim that Saddam Hussein has "weapons of mass destruction," or that Barack Obama has an infernal scheme to parade our nation's senior citizens before death panels. But then a network of media enablers helps it to make a sound—until enough people believe the untruth to make the lie an operative part of our political discourse.

Perlstein takes us from the sinking of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba in 1899 to the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 to the 1970s, when thanks to the examples of courageous truth-telling by Walter Cronkite and Daniel Ellsberg, "all sorts of American institutions—Congress, municipal governments, even the intelligence community . . . launched searching reconstructions of their normal ways of doing business."  One "keynote of 1970s culture" was "a willingness to acknowledge that America might no longer be invincible, and that any realistic assessment of how we could prosper and thrive in the future had to reckon with that hard-won lesson."  But then, as Perlstein writes, "along came Reagan."

Ronald Reagan explicitly built his appeal around the notion that it was time to stop challenging the powerful. A new sort of lie took over: that the villains were not those deceiving the nation, but those exposing the deceit—those, as Reagan put it in his 1980 acceptance speech, who "say that the United States has had its day in the sun, that our nation has passed its zenith." 

While as Perlstein writes, Reagan "ushered in the 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' era of political lying, . . . it took a deeper trend to accelerate the cultural shift away from truth-telling-as-patriotism to a full-scale epistemological implosion."  What had been building since "at least the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when many viewers complained about the media images of police beating protesters," became fully apparent by the 1980s -- "news became fluffier, hosts became airier—less assured of their own moral authority."

And what evolved was "a new media definition of civility that privileged 'balance' over truth-telling—even when one side was lying."  As a result, "right-wing ideologues" are able to lie successfully and without consequence because they "are amplified by 'balanced' outlets that frame each smear as just another he-said-she-said 'controversy.'"

And, here, as Perlstein explains, is the "the difference between the untruths told by William Randolph Hearst and Lyndon Baines Johnson, and the ones inundating us now:

Today, it's not just the most powerful men who can lie and get away with it. It's just about anyone—a congressional back-bencher, an ideology-driven hack, a guy with a video camera—who can inject deception into the news cycle and the political discourse on a grand scale.

Sure, there will always be liars in positions of influence—that's stipulated, as the lawyers say. And the media, God knows, have never been ideal watchdogs—the battleships that crossed the seas to avenge the sinking of the Maine attest to that. What's new is the way the liars and their enablers now work hand in glove. That I call a mendocracy, and it is the regime that governs us now.

[Related posts:  Odor of Mendacity]

Wilco Wednesdays: How To Fight Loneliness

How To Fight Loneliness by Wilco. (The only quality video of the song I could find is this clip from the movie Girl Interrupted, which used the song on its soundtrack.)

U-shaped link between Internet use and children health - beware of heavy use or very little/none

Study participants were categorized into 4 groups according to their intensity of Internet use:

- heavy Internet users (HIUs; >2 hours/day)

- regular Internet users (RIUs; several days per week and 2 hours/day)

- occasional users (1 hour/week)

- and non-Internet users (NIUs; no use in the previous month)

Health factors examined were:

- perceived health

- depression

- overweight

- headaches

- back pain

- insufficient sleep

U-shaped link

Heavy Internet users of both genders were more likely to report higher depressive scores.

Only male users were found at increased risk of overweight and female users at increased risk of insufficient sleep.

Non-Internet users (NIUs) and occasional users also were found at increased risk of higher depressive scores.

Back-pain complaints were found predominantly among male non-Internet users.

There was a U-shaped relationship between intensity of Internet use and poorer mental health of adolescents. Heavy Internet users were confirmed at increased risk for somatic health problems.

Regular Internet use (up to 2 hours per day) is OK

Health professionals should be on the alert when caring for adolescents who report either heavy Internet use or very little/none. Regular Internet use as a normative behavior without major health consequences.

Take home point

Whatever the intensity of your Internet use is (if you are reading this, my guess is that the "intensity" of you sedentary lifestyle is high), don't forget the benefits of regular exercise:


"Health Promotion" video: Benefits of exercise.

References:
A U-Shaped Association Between Intensity of Internet Use and Adolescent Health. PEDIATRICS Vol. 127 No. 2 February 2011, pp. e330-e335 (doi:10.1542/peds.2010-1235)

Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.