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Swine flu vaccine plan in disarray
Monday, 2 November 2009 12:08 A GMT-05
THE Federal Government's plan to immunise the population against swine flu is in chaos because insurers may not cover doctors who administer the jab.
Inadequate testing and the possibility of spreading other infections means there is too high a risk patients will sue, the insurers say.
Despite weeks of crisis talks, the Government has refused to underwrite doctors' liability for the vaccinations and medical groups say the program - due to start as early as mid-September - cannot proceed unless doctors are insured.
Unidentified flue outbreak in Western Ukraine. Photo
Saturday, 31 October 2009 6:27 P GMT-05
Western Ukraine was hit by a severe epidemic of unidentified influenza, tentatively diagnosed by doctors as viral pneumonia. The number of dead has climbed dramatically. Doctors advise Western Ukrainians to stay at home and use preventive medication. The first pedestrians wearing face masks have been seen on Lviv streets.
Obama's H1N1 Emergency Declaration: Is Martial Law Unfolding?
Sunday, 25 October 2009 9:41 P GMT-05
Millions of people are refusing to take the H1N1 vaccine. In the weeks ahead — if Obama’s emergency declaration falls under the above directives — we may witness a move toward martial law, forced vaccination, and internment of those who refuse.
At best, Obama’s declaration is a flimsy attempt to scare people into taking the toxic soft kill vaccination. Let’s hope this is the case.
President Obama declares national emergency over swine flu pandemic; but why?
Sunday, 25 October 2009 2:31 P GMT-05
The declaration of this national emergency seems suspicious from the start. Where's the emergency? The number of people killed by swine flu in the United States is far smaller than the number of people killed each year from seasonal flu, according to CDC statistics. People obviously aren't dropping dead by the millions from H1N1 influenza. Most people are just getting mild flu symptoms and a few days later they're fine.
So where's the emergency?
The only emergency I can see is the emergency fabricated by Big Pharma to sell more vaccines. By declaring a national emergency over the H1N1 pandemic, Obama is playing right into their hands.
I find the timing of all this curious. Two days ago, New York gave up on its efforts to require mandatory vaccinations of health care workers. This was designed to defuse a large number of planned protests from health freedom-conscious people who don't want government-mandated chemicals pumped into their veins.
Obama declares swine flu a national emergency
Saturday, 24 October 2009 4:41 P GMT-05
The White House on Saturday said Obama signed a proclamation that would allow medical officials to bypass certain federal requirements. Officials described the move as similar to a declaration ahead of a hurricane making landfall.
Rape Is a Pre-Existing Condition? The Heartlessness of the Health Insurance Industry Exposed
Thursday, 22 October 2009 10:55 A GMT-05
By taking anti-AIDS medicine after a rape, Christina Turner discovered that she had made herself all but uninsurable.
Swine Flu Brings Big Business for Doctors and Drug Companies
Monday, 19 October 2009 1:21 A GMT-05
Even companies outside of the medical industry are benefiting: the UPS division that delivers vaccines in specially designed containers, for example, has seen a bump in business.
Deaths of 9/11 front-liners renew talk of aid bill NY DAILY NEWS Oct.13th
Saturday, 17 October 2009 9:42 P GMT-05
The deaths of three 9/11 first responders in the past week is enough proof for Mayor Bloomberg that people are getting sick from working at Ground Zero.
"Probably - nobody's sure - but probably contracted during breathing the air down at the World Trade Center site," the mayor said yesterday after the Daily News reported that two cops and a firefighter recently died of cancer.
NYPD Officer Robert Grossman died of cancer Friday at the age of 44. The next day, Firefighter Richard Mannetta, 44, died of cancer. And last Wednesday, 37-year-old Police Officer Cory Diaz also died of cancer. Firefighter John McNamara, 44, died of cancer last month.
US child deaths from swine flu "shoot up": official
Sunday, 11 October 2009 12:33 A GMT-05
Child deaths from swine flu were ’shooting up” in the United States, with 19 deaths from influenza reported in recent days, a US health official said Friday.
“Nineteen more pediatric deaths for influenza were reported to us this week. We’re now up to 76 children having died from the 2009 H1N1 virus,” said Anne Schuchat, a senior official at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Doctor Admits Vaccine is more Deadly Than Swine Flu Itself & Will Not Give It To His Kids
Saturday, 26 September 2009 5:58 P GMT-05
Meet the Press's Idea of a 'Debate'
Wednesday, 9 September 2009 2:24 A GMT-05
On Sunday, Meet the Press hosted a panel discussion to debate two primary issues: (1) foreign policy -- specifically, the war in Afghanistan, and (2) health care. The panel: Rudy Giuliani, Tom Friedman, Harold Ford, Jr., and Tom Brokaw (as Jay Rosen often notes, Meet the Press is doing a fantastic job of fulfilling its pledge to present "fresh voices" in its discussions). With regard to Afghanistan, there is a major debate currently taking place about whether we should stay in that country. A majority of Americans now opposes the war. But there was not a single participant there who shares that view. All of them believe that it is imperative we remain, and put on their little General hats to exchange deeply Serious analyses of how we need to adjust our strategy and tactics for greater mission success. Of course, all of three of those whose views were known about Iraq -- Friedman, Ford and Giuliani -- were vehement supporters of the invasion. As always, not only does support for that war not produce shame or even impair one's credibility and Seriousness, but the opposite is true: having supported it is a prerequisite for being considered credible and Serious, which is why those are the only people -- still -- from whom we hear when it's time to convene Serious discussions of foreign policy. What an odd filtering standard for The Liberal Media to use.
Beginning of Engineered Pandemic? 2,000 Infected with H1N1 at Washington University
Saturday, 5 September 2009 4:58 P GMT-05
The experimental vaccine the government will insist we take — and depending on the severity of the coming pandemic may force us at gunpoint to take — is a documented cocktail of toxins designed to attack the human immunological system. It contains mercury and squalene, the latter used to stimulate the immune system to respond to the vaccine. Squalene is linked to autoimmune illnesses including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The oil-based adjuvant is largely responsible for Gulf War syndrome, a deadly and debilitating disease that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of U.S. service personnel since the conclusion of Bush Senior’s war against Iraq. In the days ahead, there will likely be other H1N1 outbreaks around the country and these will be exploited with much fanfare by the government and the corporate media to push the H1N1 eugenics vaccination.
Circumcision for All; Free Choice for None by Stephanie R. Murphy
Thursday, 3 September 2009 12:55 A GMT-05
OK, you’ve caught me in a rare moment of sarcasm. Maybe I wasn't really that surprised. After all, government bureaucrats attempt to control what types of substances you put into your body, what kind of work you do with your body, and even how you can legally dispose of your body after death; it makes perfect sense that they would also scramble for power over what parts of your body should remain attached. Yes, that’s right. The CDC is now considering a campaign for universal circumcision in the US.
British Medical Journal: Half Of Health Workers Reject H1N1 Vaccine
Thursday, 27 August 2009 1:45 A GMT-05
A study published in the world’s foremost peer-reviewed medical journal has found that around 50% of Hong Kong’s health workers will refuse to be vaccinated against swine flu for fears over the safety of the shot. Research conducted by the University of Hong Kong and made public by the British Medical Journal consistently found that less than half of 8,500 doctors and nurses in public hospitals would accept vaccination against H1N1 influenza.
Polls: Half Of Doctors Will Refuse To Take Swine Flu Shot
Thursday, 27 August 2009 1:37 A GMT-05
Two separate polls of GPs in Britain have revealed that one in two doctors have severe reservations over the safety of the forthcoming H1N1 flu vaccine, raising serious questions over the government’s planned mass vaccination programme.
$1000 Per Day Fine And 30 Days In Jail For Refusing The Swine Flu Vaccine In Massachusetts?
Tuesday, 25 August 2009 2:50 A GMT-05
A new law just passed in Massachusetts imposes fines of up to $1000 per day and up to a 30 day jail sentence for not obeying authorities during a public health emergency. So if you are instructed to take the swine flu vaccine in Massachusetts and you refuse, you could be facing fines that will bankrupt you and a prison sentence on top of that.
Hunger Insurance
Tuesday, 25 August 2009 12:47 A GMT-05
I would like to sell you some hunger insurance. Are you insured against hunger? Perhaps you should be! Without this coverage, you may find it impossible to continue to afford feeding yourself and your family. With this coverage, not only will you be assured of continuing to get at least some food, but so will I. In fact, thanks to this plan, I will get to eat very, very well indeed.
Sicko
Sunday, 23 August 2009 8:44 P GMT-05
Michael Moore's documentary film on the state of the US healthcare. A must-see in this author's humble opinion.
What Soviet Medicine Teaches Us
Saturday, 22 August 2009 2:28 P GMT-05
The system had many decades to work, but widespread apathy and low quality of work paralyzed the healthcare system. In the depths of the socialist experiment, healthcare institutions in Russia were at least a hundred years behind the average US level. Moreover, the filth, odors, cats roaming the halls, drunken medical personnel, and absence of soap and cleaning supplies added to an overall impression of hopelessness and frustration that paralyzed the system. According to official Russian estimates, 78 percent of all AIDS victims in Russia contracted the virus through dirty needles or HIV-tainted blood in the state-run hospitals.
America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (PDF)
Saturday, 8 August 2009 9:29 P GMT-05
The new healthcare bill currently before Congress - BE
House Passes $70 Million for 9/11 Health Care
Thursday, 6 August 2009 10:22 A GMT-05
Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Michael McMahon (D-NY) today applauded the House passage of $70,723,000 in funding for the World Trade Center Health Programs for Fiscal Year 2010. The funding was included in the FY2010 Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill, which passed the House today. The lawmakers, along with Rep. Peter King (R-NY), are sponsors of the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (H.R. 847), which would provide long-term, comprehensive health care and compensation for those sickened or injured in the aftermath of 9/11.
Pfizer to Pay Tens of Millions for Deaths of Nigerian Children in Drug Trial Experiment
Sunday, 26 July 2009 10:01 P GMT-05
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed against it by Nigerian parents who claim the company caused harm to their children by using them as guinea pigs in a nonconsensual, unlicensed drug trial.
Don't Let Obama Put GMO Boosters in Charge of Food Safety!
Sunday, 26 July 2009 10:00 P GMT-05
Now, the Obama Administration is putting two notorious biotech bullies in charge of food safety! Former Monsanto lobbyist Michael Taylor has been appointed as a senior adviser to the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner on food safety. And, rBGH-using dairy farmer and Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff is rumored to be President Obama's choice for Under-Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety. Wolfe spearheaded anti-consumer legislation in Pennsylvania that would have taken away the rights of consumers to know whether their milk and dairy products were contaminated with Monsanto's (now Eli Lilly's) genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH).
Swine Flu Plc: Cashing in on the pandemic
Sunday, 26 July 2009 8:09 P GMT-05
Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, hit the swine flu panic button last week, warning the outbreak is confronting the NHS with its "biggest challenge in a generation". But that didn't mean everyone caught up in the hysteria that has even seen stoical commuters accessorise their work outfits with face masks was panicking. For dozens of companies, including giant multinational corporations and tiny internet quacks, the outbreak of swine flu frenzy has turned into a licence to print money. And plenty of it. The disease's explosive global advance has sent everyone from private citizens to national governments on a mass shopping spree to try to buy cures: catching swine flu might be not funny but anyone working for what increasingly looks like Swine Flu Inc is laughing all the way to the bank.
German progressing after double arm transplant - The Boston Globe
Thursday, 23 July 2009 10:12 A GMT-05
Farmer Karl Merk, 55, who lost his arms just below the shoulder in a 2002 combine harvester accident, demonstrated the progress he has made by scratching the back of his head with his right hand and squeezing rubber discs at a news conference near his home in southern Germany. In July 2008, he underwent a 15-hour surgery at the Munich University Clinic by a team of 40 doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists. His doctors originally thought it would take up to two years before the nerves in his arm would regrow sufficiently to permit movement, but Merk has made more progress than expected through an intensive program of physiotherapy and electric stimulation.
Big Pharma Bribes Doctors to Hook Your Kids on Drugs
Sunday, 19 July 2009 3:23 P GMT-05
The pharmaceutical-industrial complex has virtually annexed the mental health profession, whose all-star opportunist team is captained by Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Biederman, the high-profile doctor most responsible for the explosion of kids on psychiatric drugs, first for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and then for bipolar disorder.
CBS 60 Minutes: 300 death claims from 1976 swine flu vaccine, only one death from flu
Sunday, 19 July 2009 2:48 P GMT-05
This excellent 60 Minutes exposé reveals blatant U.S. government propaganda and fear-mongering in the swine flu outbreak and mass vaccination of 1976. The incisive report states that though only one person died as a result of the swine flu, "4,000 Americans are claiming damages from Uncle Sam amounting to three and a half billion dollars because of what happened when they took that [swine flu] shot."
$575G Reprieve For 9/11 Hospital
Thursday, 18 June 2009 1:36 A GMT-05
The Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences Institute at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick had told its 1,800 patients it wasn't sure it could stay open past next month. Federal funding had been held up over an accounting dispute, but late Tuesday the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said it was sending $575,000 to cover summer expenses. John Feal, founder of the Fealgood Foundation, which pushes for health care for 9/11 workers, said the money isn't enough. Feal said, "$575,000 is like putting a Band-Aid on a machine-gun wound. "Funding for three months is a joke when 9/11 first responders will need treatment for the rest of their lives."
This may well be the most powerful letter to the editor...
Sunday, 7 June 2009 5:49 P GMT-05
Regarding the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the antiabortion zealots would like everyone to think late-term abortions are never performed for a good reason. (The woman's life, health and wellbeing and severe fetal defects are not considered good reasons.) Perhaps a real-life example will help everyone (at least the decent people) understand this issue.
Suspect in shooting death of abortion provider George Tiller may be charged today
Monday, 1 June 2009 7:28 P GMT-05
Today, a 51-year-old Johnson County man could be charged with murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Tiller, who had been shot before by an anti-abortion foe. The crime has drawn condemnation and outrage from the president and stirred strong emotions across the nation. Tiller, 67, was shot once just after 10 a.m. Sunday as he stood in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church, 7601 E. 13th St., where he was serving as an usher. The gunman threatened to shoot two men who tried to apprehend him. Wichita police said that the suspect was arrested without incident on I-35 in Johnson County about three hours after the shooting, following a statewide broadcast describing the suspect and his car. Although Wichita police would not name the suspect, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office identified him as Scott P. Roeder, according to the Associated Press.
300,000 New Yorkers Could Be Headed For 9/11-Related Health Crisis
Friday, 29 May 2009 1:15 A GMT-05
Though we are approaching the eighth anniversary of 9/11, many New Yorkers are still dealing with the events of that day in the form of health problems. Now, it’s believed, as many as 300,000 are living with diseases that could worsen in the years to come. More than 70,000 New Yorkers have registered with the World Trade Center Health Registry, which tracks the health effects caused by the pollutants releases during the attacks. But many more have been excluded because of the limited area included in the survey—just one square mile. So, how many are really sick? “It’s obvious that thousands and thousands of New Yorkers are going to be battling illnesses in the coming years,” says Steve Centore, a federal first responder and Navy veteran who authored One of Them: A First Responder’s Story about his own experiences during and after his times at ground zero, “We’re going to see a major health crisis in the coming years.”
US Doctors' association calls for Moratorium on GMO Foods
Saturday, 23 May 2009 9:58 P GMT-05
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has just issued a call for an immediate moratorium on Genetically Manipulated (GMO) Foods. In a just-released position paper on GMO foods, the AAEM states that ‘GM foods pose a serious health risk’ and calls for a moratorium on GMO foods. Citing several animal studies, the AAEM concludes ‘there is more than a casual association between GMO foods and adverse health effects’ and that ‘GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health.’ The report is a devastating blow to the multibillion dollar international agribusiness industry, most especially to Monsanto Corporation, the world’s leading purveyor of GMO seeds and related herbicides.
Rep. Jim Gerlach Intends "To Support" The James Zadroga 9/11 Health And Compensation Act
Wednesday, 20 May 2009 5:21 A GMT-05
As you may know, H.R. 847 would, if enacted, provide medical treatment and compensation to first responders, construction workers, local residents and others who became ill as a result of exposure to Ground Zero toxins after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The bill would re-open the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) in order to provide compensation to the responders and community members whose illnesses did not manifest until after the VCF deadline. H.R. 847 was introduced by Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York on February 4, 2009 and was referred to the House Committees on Energy and Commerce and the Judiciary. Although I am not a Member of either of these Committees, please know that I intend to support the bill should it come before the full House for a vote.
"This Particular Strain of Flu Got its Genetic Start on U.S. Hog Farms Back in the 1990s. That's According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control"
Sunday, 3 May 2009 7:19 P GMT-05
The theory that industrial hog farms are disease incubators has been officially verified.
Emergency Rooms Fill With Record Numbers, but Many Aren't Ill, Just Afraid
Saturday, 2 May 2009 3:34 P GMT-05
At San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., none of the 188 patients — a daily record — who arrived at the emergency room on Tuesday had symptoms that met the criteria to even be tested, said Jarrod B. McNaughton, the hospital’s vice president. “It’s a major drain on resources,” Mr. McNaughton said.
Oxford research sheds new light on autism
Saturday, 2 May 2009 3:28 P GMT-05
Variations in a gene thought to be involved in the growth and development of nerve cells in the brain could be associated with susceptibility to autism, a new international study suggests. The research is led by Oxford University researchers and has been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. Related papers by US researchers, which are published in the journal Nature at the same time, have identified other candidate genes associated with increased risk of autism spectrum disorders. These genes are also involved in the formation of connections between nerve cells in the brain.
Political Lies and Media Disinformation regarding the Swine Flu Pandemic
Saturday, 2 May 2009 2:23 P GMT-05
Statements of this nature on the "inevitable spread" of the disease, create, quite deliberately, an atmosphere of fear, insecurity and panic. They also serve to distract people's attention from a devastating global economic crisis which is leading the World into mass poverty and unemployment, not to mention the war in the Middle East and the broader issue of US-NATO war crimes. The Real Global Crisis is marked by poverty, economic collapse, ethnic strife, death and destruction, the derogation of civil rights and the demise of State social programs. The EU announcement of the swine flu pandemic inevitably serves to weaken the social protest movement which has spread across Europe. In Mexico, the swine flu emergency measures which have "closed down" entire urban areas, are widely perceived as a pretext of the Felipe Calderon government to curb mounting social dissent against one of the most corrupt administrations in Mexican history. In Mexico, the May 1st Parade, which was directed against the Calderon government, was cancelled.
Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms
Saturday, 2 May 2009 2:16 P GMT-05
Since the dawn of American ‘agribusiness,’ a project initiated with funding by the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1950s to turn farming into a pure profit maximization business, US pig or hog production has been transformed into a highly efficient, mass production industrialized enterprise from birth to slaughter. Pigs are caged in what are called Factory Farms, industrial concentrations which are run with the efficiency of a Dachau or Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They are all conceived by artificial insemination and once born, are regularly injected with antibiotics, not because of illnesses which abound in the hyper-crowded growing pens, but in order to make them grow and add weight faster. Turn around time to slaughter is a profit factor of highest priority. The entire operation is vertically integrated from conception to slaughter to transport distribution to supermarket. Granjas Carroll de Mexico (GCM) happens to be such a Factory Farm concentration facility for hogs. In 2008 they produced almost one million factory hogs, 950,000 according to their own statistics. GCM is a joint venture operation owned 50% by the world’s largest pig producing industrial company, Smithfield Foods of Virginia.5 The pigs are grown in a tiny rural area of Mexico, a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and primarily trucked across the border to supermarkets in the USA, under the Smithfields’ family of labels. Most American consumers have no idea where the meat was raised.
Is Swine Flu A Race-Specific Virus?
Thursday, 30 April 2009 11:07 A GMT-05
First death in U.S. is Mexican toddler, prompting questions about why only hispanics have died despite outbreak spreading to at least ten countries.
US declares public health emergency for swine flu
Monday, 27 April 2009 12:25 A GMT-05
The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.
Venture capital firm set to reap rewards on swine flu
Sunday, 26 April 2009 4:55 P GMT-05
The swine flu outbreak is likely to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Thomson Reuters Private Equity Week reported on Friday.
Wounded warriors go fishing for recovery
Saturday, 11 April 2009 5:28 P GMT-05
Amidst the tranquility of a fishing trip at the Rose River Farm in Madison County, a wounded warrior says he almost feels "semi-normal again." The amputee is one of about 1,000 servicemen and veterans who have reaped the benefits of the therapeutic art of fly-fishing, with the help of retired Navy Capt. Ed Nicholson.
Ruined by Health Care: My Family Learned that Even with Insurance We Weren't Safe from Financial Ruin
Saturday, 11 April 2009 3:31 P GMT-05
My husband is a retired college professor, and what the teaching profession lacks in salary it often makes up for with generous benefits. His health insurance would cover most of the emergency costs related to the fall -- the surgeries, the hospitalization, the drugs. But in the astronomical sums the cost of medical care often entails, "most" is not a reassuring word. Months later, as his discharge from the hospital drew near, I sat in my living room looking at the bills piling up on the table. The co-pays, uncovered care and other costs had already reached $8,000, and we had virtually nothing left.
Fainting in This Country Can Carry a $10,000 Price Tag
Wednesday, 1 April 2009 9:52 A GMT-05
Of course, I was relieved, if not grateful, to learn that I'm not liable for the whole $10,260, and thus not like guys who faint and don't have emergency coverage. But upon further inspection of my statement I noticed a curious and disturbing thing. BCBS had to pay only $2,582 -- about one-fourth -- of that $10,260. So who paid the balance of my $7,992 in "savings"? I wondered. No one. The $7,992 was all discounted because hospitals let BCBS and other big insurance companies pay lower rates than ordinary, underinsured Americans. Similarly, the statement indicates that BCBS would have gotten a huge discount on, and had to pay only one-fourth of, the $1,409 ambulance bill that St. Paul Fire & Safety Service is now pressuring me to pay in full. I'm responsible for all but $17.65 of it, BCBS says, because the ambulance service was "out of network." BCBS has been kind enough to cover less than half of the $48 worth of oxygen I inhaled during my ambulance ride. Hence the check for $17.65 that BCBS mailed me. Some of the oxygen was "in network," I guess.
China's hi-tech 'death van' where criminals are executed and then their organs are sold on black market
Sunday, 29 March 2009 9:05 P GMT-05
Developed by Jinguan Auto, which also makes bullet-proof limousines for the new rich in this vast country of 1.3 billion people, the vans appear unremarkable. They cost £60,000, can reach top speeds of 80mph and look like a police vehicle on patrol. Inside, however, the 'death vans' look more like operating theatres. Executions are monitored by video to ensure they comply with strict rules, making it possible to describe precisely how Jiang Yong will die. After being sedated at the local prison, he will be loaded into the van and strapped to an electric-powered stretcher. This then glides automatically towards the centre of the van, where doctors will administer three drugs: sodium thiopental to cause unconsciousness; pancuronium bromide to stop breathing and, finally, potassium chloride to stop the heart.
"Accidental" Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible
Saturday, 7 March 2009 9:02 P GMT-05
As health expert Mike Adams points out, “The shocking answer is that this couldn’t have been an accident. Why? Because Baxter International adheres to something called BSL3 (Biosafety Level 3) - a set of laboratory safety protocols that prevent the cross-contamination of materials.”
Baxter admits contaminated seasonal flu product contained live bird flu virus
Monday, 2 March 2009 6:06 A GMT-05
The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany. The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn't die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.
Africa's Good Friend
Monday, 2 March 2009 1:37 A GMT-05
PEPFAR may indeed turn out to be Bush’s major redeeming value as he continues to be criticized at home and abroad for his relentless war-making in Iraq and Afghanistan. The New York Times has argued that PEPFAR could be his “most lasting bipartisan accomplishment.” Says Dr. Alex Coutinho, a top AIDS expert in Uganda, “When I’ve traveled in the U.S., I’m amazed at how little people know about what PEPFAR stands for. Just because it has been done under Bush, it is not something the country should not be proud of.”
Blue Cross CEO's pay rose 26%
Sunday, 1 March 2009 3:28 P GMT-05
The salary and bonus paid to Cleve L. Killingsworth, chairman and chief executive of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, increased 26 percent last year, to $3.5 million, even though the health insurer's membership declined and its net income fell 49 percent.
Health care costs to top $8,000 per person
Tuesday, 24 February 2009 5:57 P GMT-05
Health care costs will top $8,000 per person this year, consuming an ever-bigger slice of a shrinking economic pie, says the report by the Department of Health and Human Services, due out Tuesday. As the recession cuts into tax receipts, Medicare's giant hospital trust fund is running out of cash more rapidly, and could become insolvent as early as 2016, the report said. That's three years sooner than previously forecast.
A Dubious Equality for Women
Sunday, 15 February 2009 4:33 P GMT-05
In the winter of our economic discontent, women now hold more than 49 percent of jobs on the nation’s payrolls. If we cross the 50 percent line—hold the applause—it will be because men are losing their jobs even faster than women. This dubious equality is in large part an ongoing tale of two economies. Men tend to work in manufacturing and construction, areas that were the hardest and first hit. Women tend to work in jobs such as health care and education that haven’t (yet) been as affected. In the past year, eight out of 10 pink slips went to men. The unemployment rate for women is bad enough at 6.2 percent, up 2 percentage points since 2007. But the unemployment rate for men is 7.6 percent, up three points. Add to that the fact that more men stop looking for jobs. You not only have a near-equal number of women in the work force, you have a lot of women in formerly two-earner families who’ve become the breadwinners. Breadwinners? Or should I say crustwinners. The other dubious part of this “equality” for families is that even if women fill half of the payroll jobs, they don’t bring home half the paychecks. They still earn only 78 cents for every male dollar. In two-worker households, husbands earn close to two-thirds of the income and usually hold the job with health insurance.
Study: 9/11 lung problems persist years later
Sunday, 8 February 2009 3:29 P GMT-05
Experts have struggled since the 2001 attacks to find standards to define post-Sept. 11 illness and the time it would take to develop. The city's medical examiner recently added to the official victims' list a man who died in October of cancer and lung disease, citing his exposure to the dust cloud that enveloped the city when the 110-story towers collapsed. Mount Sinai's program has treated more than 26,000 people who were at the site or worked there in the days after Sept. 11. The study's authors noted that participants asked to be enrolled in the program and may have more health problems than others who were exposed but didn't enroll.
Keep Your Job, Lose Your Health Insurance
Saturday, 7 February 2009 2:48 P GMT-05
According to The Washington Post, ten years ago, employers paid about 90 percent of their workers' health costs. That is down to 73 percent.
Nazi angel of death Josef Mengele 'created twin town in Brazil'
Sunday, 25 January 2009 6:33 P GMT-05
In a new book, Mengele: the Angel of Death in South America, the Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa, a specialist in the post-war Nazi flight to South America, has painstakingly pieced together the Nazi doctor's mysterious later years. After speaking to the townspeople of Candido Godoi, he is convinced that Mengele continued his genetic experiments with twins – with startling results.
Selflessness -- Core Of All Major World Religions -- Has Neuropsychological Connection
Sunday, 25 January 2009 2:08 P GMT-05
This study, along with other recent neuroradiological studies of Buddhist meditators and Francescan nuns, suggests that all individuals, regardless of cultural background or religion, experience the same neuropsychological functions during spiritual experiences, such as transcendence. Transcendence, feelings of universal unity and decreased sense of self, is a core tenet of all major religions. Meditation and prayer are the primary vehicles by which such spiritual transcendence is achieved. “The brain functions in a certain way during spiritual experiences,” said Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology in the MU School of Health Professions. “We studied people with brain injury and found that people with injuries to the right parietal lobe of the brain reported higher levels of spiritual experiences, such as transcendence.”
Partners, insurer under scrutiny
Friday, 23 January 2009 10:15 A GMT-05
Attorney General Martha Coakley has launched an investigation into whether the state's largest health insurance company and its largest healthcare provider may have illegally colluded to increase the price of health insurance statewide over the last nine years, according to several legal and government sources.
What's It Going to Take to Lock Up Drug Company Execs?
Saturday, 17 January 2009 3:09 A GMT-05
The New England Journal of Medicine is now warning physicians that medicine's corruption by drug companies has threatened public confidence in their profession. If those physicians who are not drug-company shills want to save their profession, they might want to start taking aggressive actions against their colleagues who are on the take. Perhaps it will help motivate clean physicians to be reminded that history shows that any institution -- no matter how large and powerful -- can arrogantly cross those lines leading to its demise.
In Oft-Invaded Afghanistan, Many Still Admire Alberto Cairo, a Foreigner
Thursday, 25 December 2008 4:05 P GMT-05
Mr. Cairo, 56, arrived long before the vast majority of them, in 1990, after the Soviet occupation. He had transferred from a Red Cross posting in Africa to run the orthopedic rehabilitation program of the organization — a job dedicated to helping Afghans disabled by war injuries to live normally again, by equipping them with artificial legs and arms. What the Red Cross centers have accomplished is visible on the streets of almost every Afghan town and village. Since the Red Cross started the program in 1988, the centers have provided prostheses to nearly 90,000 Afghans, between a third and a quarter of all those thought to have suffered disabling injuries from 30 years of warfare, beginning with the Soviet invasion. Many Red Cross patients were victims of the 10 million mines strewn across the landscape during the Soviet period.
Hospitals shorten the waits in ERs
Wednesday, 24 December 2008 9:00 A GMT-05
Emergency room waits are decreasing at some Massachusetts hospitals as they prepare to comply with a new state rule that, as of New Year's Day, will prohibit swamped ERs from turning away ambulances.
Aspartame, Brain Cancer & the FDA Approval Process
Wednesday, 24 December 2008 1:22 A GMT-05
Aspartame was 'discovered' in 1965 by Searle, a Chicago drug company. The FDA finally approved aspartame in 1981, even though scientific research had clearly shown that aspartame caused brain cancer in lab animals.
How We Got the Worst Health Care System Mountains of Money Can Buy
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 10:11 A GMT-05
Many of the problems of American health care grow out of this history. The system is so complex that even experts -- let alone ordinary people trying to find care for themselves and their loved ones -- are unable to fully understand it. The system spends one-third of its cost on paperwork, waste and profit over and above the cost of actually providing health care. Yet, nearly one-third of Americans are without health insurance over the course of a year. In all other developed countries, more than 85 percent of citizens have health coverage under public programs. The American health care system is full of inequalities: People who work for one company may have high-quality insurance, while those who work for a similar company have none.
Interview With 9/11 Construction Worker Michael Barrett on First Responder Health - Philly 9/11 Truth
Monday, 8 December 2008 11:01 A GMT-05
Michael Barrett 9/11 First Responder details his work during the Ground Zero recovery effort and the subsequent health complications resultant from his service.
Finding words at last for an unspeakable loss
Sunday, 7 December 2008 5:01 P GMT-05
The Lamberts's anguish remains raw from that chilly Friday night when Thibault picked up their children to drive to a sleepover with cousins at her house in Bellingham. Along the way, Thibault crossed the median of I-495, stopped her car in the wrong direction, undressed herself and the two children, and then ran them to their deaths. According to one eyewitness, she was screaming about religion before she was hit. But in the Lamberts's grief, they are searching for whatever clarity they can find and trying to use the information they have begun gathering to prevent the unthinkable from happening to someone else.
The smell of fear is real, claim scientists
Sunday, 7 December 2008 4:35 P GMT-05
The discovery may help to explain why individuals with phobias such as a fear of flying can infect others who normally exhibit no such worries. The study by Stony Brook University in New York found people who are scared give off "pheromones" - hormones - that subconsciously trigger parts of the brain associated with fear.
Cruel and Unusual: Serving a Death Sentence in a Prison Hospital
Friday, 5 December 2008 8:27 A GMT-05
Johnson was convicted of murder in 1999 and sent to death row. In 2003, his sentence was commuted to 40 years, and on Oct. 30, 2008, Gov. Rod Blagojevich commuted his sentence to time served. This means the state of Illinois has no legal basis for keeping him incarcerated. But now he faces a new challenge: the possibility of extradition to California for different charge. For Gloria, who has been fighting for years to bring her son home for the last months of his life, this would be an unthinkable defeat.
Zimbabwe on brink of collapse as outbreak of cholera spreads
Wednesday, 26 November 2008 3:26 P GMT-05
About 6,000 people have contracted cholera in recent weeks, according to the UN, and almost 300 have died. A chronic shortage of medicine has sent hundreds of people south to seek treatment in South Africa. "Unless this root cause of the political absence of a legitimate government is solved, the situation will get worse and may implode and collapse ... It is now an urgent matter, because people are dying," said South Africa's caretaker president, Kgalema Motlanthe.
Mankind's new best friend?
Sunday, 23 November 2008 4:35 P GMT-05
In Mozambique, special squads of raccoon-size rats are sniffing out lethal explosive devices buried across the countryside, remnants of the country's anticolonial and civil wars of the last century. In neighboring Tanzania, teams of rats use their twitchy noses to detect TB bacteria in saliva samples from four clinics serving slum neighborhoods. So far this year, the 25 rats trained for the pilot medical project have identified 300 cases of early-stage TB - infections missed by lab technicians with their microscopes. If not for the rodents, many of these victims would have died and others would have spread the disease.
US right stymie sensitive medical research
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 6:13 P GMT-05
Among 82 researchers polled by Ms Kempner, who had received money from the NIH, almost a quarter had dropped or reframed studies around sexual behaviour they judged to be politically sensitive, and four had made career changes and left academia as a result of the controversy. Half reframed their studies to avoid work on marginalised populations, or dropped studies they thought would be politically sensitive, such as those on sexual orientation, abortion, childhood sexual abuse, and condom use. One interviewee said: “I do not study sex workers, I study ‘women at risk’.” Almost four-fifths believed NIH funding decisions had become more political under President George W. Bush than under his predecessor Bill Clinton, and more than a third believed they were less likely to receive NIH funding as a result of the controversy.
Raped in the Military? You May Have to Pay for Your Own Forensic Exam Kit
Friday, 14 November 2008 4:37 P GMT-05
TRICARE, the United States Department of Defense Military Health System that covers active duty members, will only pay for rape kits if the victim is seen in a military or a VA facility. But the Pentagon acknowledges that 80 percent of military rapes are never reported. And that 80 percent who go off-base to protect their anonymity (and/or their careers) are on their own. If a soldier is on leave, or is five-hours from the nearest VA, or if a soldier is simply delivered to the nearest hospital by the local ambulance driver, their rape kits are not covered under TRICARE. Neither are other forensic exams that might be used in domestic violence situations. Front-line treatment shouldn't be conditional on where a rape occurs or where the nearest treatment is available. This is not only a parity issue, but a further obstacle to treatment and justice.
GM Spends $17 Million Per Year on Viagra
Friday, 14 November 2008 12:33 A GMT-05
Lifestyle drugs -- chiefly Viagra -- are costing General Motors $17 million dollars a year and the cost is passed along to car, truck and SUV consumers. The blue pill is covered under GM's labor agreement with United Auto Workers, as well as benefit plans for salaried employees. GM executives estimate health care adds $1,500 to the price of each vehicle but they do not break out how much of the premium is caused by erectile dysfunction expenses. GM provides health care for 1.1 million employees, retirees and dependents and is the world's largest private purchaser of Viagra.
Palin: 'I Don't Know' If Abortion Clinic Bombers Are Terrorists
Sunday, 26 October 2008 10:04 P GMT-05
Midwest high school copes with HIV scare
Friday, 24 October 2008 3:40 A GMT-05
Students at a suburban St. Louis high school headed to the gymnasium for HIV testing this week after an infected person told health officials as many as 50 teenagers might have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.
California approves nurse-assisted suicide
Sunday, 5 October 2008 3:43 P GMT-05
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has officially approved an assisted-suicide measure allowing nurses to sedate, dehydrate and starve depressed or confused individuals they consider to be "terminally ill." The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Democrat, passed the California Assembly Aug. 28, and the state Senate Aug. 20. It was signed by the governor yesterday. The legislation, called the "Terminal Patients' Right to Know End of Life Options Act," or AB 2747, passed by a 42 to 34 vote. An Aug. 20 Senate vote of 21 to 17 ushered the measure to the governor's desk for signing. Randy Thomasson, chief of the Campaign for Children and Families, said the legislation is dangerous and should have been vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. "AB 2747 pushes suicide through the back door at the hands of non-physicians taking advantage of depressed patients," he said in a statement. "AB 2747 cheapens the value of human life by endorsing suicide as an option."
Dog Calls 911 After Owner Collapses
Sunday, 14 September 2008 5:20 P GMT-05
A dog specially trained to call 911 when his owner suffers seizures grabbed the phone Wednesday morning and whimpered for help when the dispatcher answered, police said.
Doctor: Bubonic plague victim fully recovered
Sunday, 14 September 2008 2:22 P GMT-05
Physicians say a Connecticut Boy Scout who is believed to have caught bubonic plague while visiting Wyoming has fully recovered from the rare, potentially deadly illness. The 18-year-old, whose name and hometown has not been released, recovered after a course of the antibiotic medicine Cipro, according to a doctor who treated him at MidState Medical Center in Meriden.
When the Cure Is Worse Than the Disease by Bill Sardi
Thursday, 28 August 2008 1:46 A GMT-05
All too frequently, drugs substitute one disease for another. For example, most anti-psychotic drugs induce weight gain and diabetes. [11] , [12] This is so typical that many people believe a pudgy body always accompanies mental disorders. Another example of disease substitution is the treatment of high blood pressure with diuretics which can induce a vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency that results in heart failure. One study found a third of patients hospitalized for heart failure, who are often treated with diuretics, were vitamin B1 deficient. [13] Vitamin therapy is uncommon in hospital settings.
Stop the Killer Horse Hormones
Friday, 15 August 2008 11:25 A GMT-05
The FDA admits that it granted Wyeth's request simply because Estriol has not endured the FDA's costly and time consuming approval process. But should the estrogen that naturally flows in a woman's body have to be approved by the FDA? Of course not. Neither then, should Estriol, which is chemically identical to that estrogen! Estriol is human estrogen.
9/11 Truth and the Tuskegee 40 Year Coverup
Saturday, 2 August 2008 4:35 P GMT-05
The Tuskegee “experiment” victimized 399 black men and many suffered and died as a direct result. On 9/11, thousands of people of all colors, including white, were mass murdered, some dying horribly painful deaths. Thousands more will die as a direct result of Christie Todd Whitman and the EPA’s lies (OK’d by Condoleeza Rice) about the air being safe to breathe; if you’re white, your skin color will not save you, and neither will our “representatives”. Given that another massive terror attack- perhaps multiple dirty bombs in US cities- is a possibility and may be the pretext for instituting martial law and completely destroying the US Republic and our Constitution, is it not imperative that the 9/11 events be fully investigated, when what we’ve been told is so obviously not the truth? Given that the neocons keep threatening Americans with another attack and are lusting for war with Iran, can we afford to wait 40 years to find out if the truth about 9/11 is that it was an inside job and it’s being covered up? Should not all those responsible for the success of the attacks be exposed and held accountable? A truth and reconciliation commission may be the best way to reveal all parties who had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks and facilitated their success, as well as institute the reforms that will be necessary to prevent future attacks being enabled by policy makers and elite power brokers. In an environment where whistleblowers and those who turn state’s evidence are the ones who have immunity and protection, instead of corrupt “elites”, it is likely more people will come forward. According to Sibel Edmonds, who has gone on to found the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, many of her colleagues in the field of national security want to testify, but they will not do so unless subpoenaed; if Congress cannot be counted on to be supportive of hearings, if the media cannot be counted on to publish and broadcast the unspun truth, if protection from retaliation is not offered, what incentive do they have to come forward with evidence of corruption and malfeasance by public officials and powerful private interests who can ruin their reputations and careers, even harm them and their families? The least the American People can do to show potential whistleblowers they have our support is with non-violent demands and actions, raising our voices in the streets and online, in support of public hearings, full disclosure and real accountability.
Reborn MLB Slugger Josh Hamilton Is One Lucky Former Drug Addict
Monday, 21 July 2008 4:42 A GMT-05
Recent developments in criminal justice indicate the emergence of a national movement in favor of treating, rather than incarcerating people charged with a nonviolent drug possession offense. These developments include drug courts, local policies which favor treatment, and statewide ballot initiatives that divert nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of incarceration. But instead of following this trend, the federal government continues to turn a blind eye toward this movement and steadfastly sticks to zero-tolerance when it comes to illegal drug use. Witness the get-tough policies of ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) under the direction of John P. Walters. In fact, the ONDCP is so hell-bent on controlling the so-called drug plague that their policies have turned from overly intrusive to downright war-like at times. From suspicionless student drug testing to mandatory minimum sentencing laws that dish out extraordinarily long sentences for small amounts of drugs, the drug war continues be the government's national moral obsession. It is one thing to try to shield society from the harms associated with the drugs, but another when its solutions become worse than the original problems.
How Long Will Your Doctor Continue Accepting Private Insurance?
Sunday, 20 July 2008 10:37 P GMT-05
A story in a New Jersey newspaper describes how physicians in Northern Jersey have begun following in the footsteps of "elite Manhattan doctors and are withdrawing from all insurance plans." The article compares fees with and without insurance. On the right, the fees that insurers typically pay for these services; on the left, the fees that Jersey doctors who don't take insurance charge:
WeAreChange confronts Christie Todd Whitman
Sunday, 20 July 2008 8:03 P GMT-05
On September 11, 2001 former NJ governor Christie Todd Whitman was the Environmental Protection Agency Director. The agency issued false statements and declared the air safe to breathe. Here is the former EPA Director's response to critical questions nearly seven years later.
Pioneering US heart surgeon dies
Saturday, 12 July 2008 1:40 P GMT-05
When he underwent surgery two years ago for a damaged aorta, his treatment used a procedure he had developed.
Lifelong illnesses feared for children in Katrina trailers
Wednesday, 28 May 2008 10:56 A GMT-05
"It's tragic that when people most need the protection, they are actually going from one disaster to a health disaster that might be considered worse," said Christopher De Rosa, assistant director for toxicology and risk assessment at the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the CDC. "Given the longer-term implications of exposure that went on for a significant period of time, people should be followed through time for possible effects."
Safety Lapses Raised Risks In Trailers for Katrina Victims
Sunday, 25 May 2008 6:13 P GMT-05
"The most likely source of formaldehyde in the Katrina trailers and in all travel trailers are composite wood products . . . [and] the most likely source for those materials are imported products," primarily from China, said Elizabeth Whalen, director of corporate sustainability for Columbia Forest Products, of Portland, Ore., the association's largest U.S. plywood manufacturer.
The Healing Power of Pets
Monday, 12 May 2008 6:37 P GMT-05
The importance of regular contact with domestic animals has been highlighted by recent research conducted by the University of Minnesota. According to the study, having a cat around the house can cut the risk of having a heart attack or a stroke by almost half. After studying nearly 4,500 adults aged between 30 and 75 for 10 years, it was found that cat owners had a 40 per cent lower risk of suffering a fatal heart attack.
State Says Hundreds Of 9/11 Rescue Workers Now Dead, Admits Undercount
Saturday, 10 May 2008 2:51 P GMT-05
New York State health officials have released statistics indicating that 360 9/11 rescue workers have since died, but have also admitted that there is an overall undercount. The New York Daily News reports that of those deaths 154 have been explained and 80 have died of various forms of cancer, mostly impacting the lungs and digestive system while others were related to blood cancers and heart and circulatory diseases. "It's the tip of the iceberg," said David Worby, who is representing 10,000 workers - 600 with cancer - who say they got sick after working on rescue and recovery efforts. "These statistics bear out how toxic that site was," Worby said.
Military Personnel Account for 20% of U.S. Suicides
Saturday, 12 April 2008 4:18 P GMT-05
Current and former military personnel accounted for about 20 percent of U.S. suicides in 2005, according to a government study.
About 1,821 current or former soldiers committed suicide in 16 states in 2005, the most recent year of available data, according to the report published today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost half were diagnosed with depression and a third left suicide notes.
Drug Makers Near Old Goal: A Legal Shield
Monday, 7 April 2008 2:52 P GMT-05
The Bush administration has argued strongly in favor of the doctrine, which holds that the F.D.A. is the only agency with enough expertise to regulate drug makers and that its decisions should not be second-guessed by courts. The Supreme Court is to rule on a case next term that could make pre-emption a legal standard for drug cases. The court already ruled in February that many suits against the makers of medical devices like pacemakers are pre-empted.
Wal-Mart Says, "Our Brain-Damaged Ex-Employees Whose Children Die in the War Can Go Fuck Themselves"
Wednesday, 2 April 2008 12:44 A GMT-05
Like the now-finally-well-reported story of Deborah Shank, the Wal-Mart employee who dared to get severely injured in an accident between her minivan and a semi. Now covered by CNN and on MSNBC by a righteously outraged Keith Olbermann, you can get up to speed pretty quickly at Walmart Watch. The case involves Wal-Mart suing to recoup its health care costs on Shank after Shank won a small settlement from the trucking company whose vehicle hit her. Her health insurance was, of course, entirely inadequate to cover her expenses. The Rude Pundit's favorite morbid detail in the whole sorrowful story is her Memento-like short-term memory loss, so that every time she asks about her son, a soldier, and she's told he was killed in Iraq, it feels to her like she's hearing it for the first time. Now, here's the thing: the accident was Shank's fault. As her attorney explains, "Mrs. Shank was driving her mini van on a straight and level state highway in clear weather during the day and apparently made the decision to turn around and go back the way she had come. She pulled over and pulled back onto the highway to turn around, and as she did so a transport truck coming down the highway saw her, but did not stop or swerve out of the way. It was our position that the driver had enough time and distance to swerve or stop, but he didn't. He struck her broadside. We established with an accident reconstruction expert that the truck driver had had room enough to stop or swerve even though she had pulled out onto the highway, and also that he had been driving somewhat over the speed limit." Shank's attorney was eventually able to prove some liability on the part of the trucker, but the company had the bare minimum of insurance and was allowed to pay less than what the judgment might have been. What happened in the courtroom was a shame, it was fucked up, but, because Shank had been at least partially in the wrong, that part of the story isn't worth arguing about much. But when, three years later, Wal-Mart decided to sue to recover its health plan's outlay for Shank's care, well, that's the point that this becomes as much about our nation's developmentally disabled health care system (in which we can say that Shank shouldn't have even had to be worried about getting health care), and more about Wal-Mart as the vile meatgrinder of a corporate entity it is, as well as the way in which our court system now bows down to fellate its capitalist masters.
An Army promotion in a cancer ward
Thursday, 20 March 2008 1:34 A GMT-05
Just over two months ago Miller, a 34-year-old military policeman from Newton, N.H., was manning an M240 Bravo machine gun in the turret of a Humvee that patrolled Baghdad’s treacherous streets. But in February, he was diagnosed with a rare and terminal form of colon cancer and told that he had only months to live. His deployment to Iraq was nothing compared to what comes next, Miller said.
THE 'INVISIBLE' WOUNDS OF THE IRAQ WAR
Sunday, 16 March 2008 10:42 P GMT-05
“Rates of mental health problems among new veterans are high and rising,” Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) said in its January 2008 issue paper, “Mental Health Injuries: The Invisible Wounds of War.” With 1.5 million service personnel having served in Iraq or Afghanistan and one in three vets expected to suffer serious psychological problems including depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), IAVA says about 500,000 men and women are coming home with combat-related psychological injuries. In addition, up to 300,000 Iraq vets have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) which may not have outward signs and may be hard to distinguish from psychological injury. The toll on troops and their families is severe. The Army recently released figures showing that about five soldiers attempt suicide each day, up from one per day before the Iraq war started. According to IAVA, one fifth of married soldiers in Iraq say they are planning a divorce, and at least 40,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets have been treated for substance abuse.
7 Insane Conspiracies That Actually Happened
Sunday, 16 March 2008 4:58 P GMT-05
People love a good conspiracy theory. The JFK assassination plot, aliens crash landing at Roswell, the 9/11 truth movement and charges of government surveillance are all an indelible part of our pop culture landscape and are by and large, total bullshit. So where does your average conspiracy buff go to learn about shadowy plots that aren't pure tinfoil hattery? Look no further.
Study finds 1 in 4 US teens has a STD
Thursday, 13 March 2008 11:53 P GMT-05
The teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and genital herpes, 2 percent.
Parents may be jailed over vaccinations
Thursday, 13 March 2008 10:38 A GMT-05
As doctors struggle to eradicate polio worldwide, one of their biggest problems is persuading parents to vaccinate their children. In Belgium, authorities are resorting to an extreme measure: prison sentences. Two sets of parents in Belgium were recently handed five month prison terms for failing to vaccinate their children against polio. Each parent was also fined 4,100 euros ($8,000). "It's a pretty extraordinary case," said Dr. Ross Upshur, director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. "The Belgians have a right to take some action against the parents, given the seriousness of polio, but the question is, is a prison sentence disproportionate?"
Why Torture Made Me Leave the APA
Wednesday, 12 March 2008 2:21 A GMT-05
After two years of working to reform the position of the American Psychological Association, which supports psychologist participation in the interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo, CIA "black site" prisons, and elsewhere, I realized that I had been pursuing a utopian objective. On January 27th, I penned my resignation to APA. The rationale for my choice is outlined in the resignation letter, which is reproduced here.
AP: Water makes US troops in Iraq sick
Tuesday, 11 March 2008 4:34 P GMT-05
Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says. A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.
Gulf War syndrome firmly linked to chemical exposure
Tuesday, 11 March 2008 3:52 P GMT-05
Nearly two decades after veterans of the 1991 Gulf War came home complaining of odd illnesses, enough evidence has been gathered to determine that many of them were sickened by chemical exposure, a study published Monday concluded. And some of the damage was likely caused by pills prescribed to protect against the use of nerve gas and pesticides used to control sand flies, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US
Saturday, 1 March 2008 4:52 P GMT-05
Certain types of mainstream economic behavior are not prudent on a personal level, and are also counterproductive to bridging the Collapse Gap. Any behavior that might result in continued economic growth and prosperity is counterproductive: the higher you jump, the harder you land. It is traumatic to go from having a big retirement fund to having no retirement fund because of a market crash. It is also traumatic to go from a high income to little or no income. If, on top of that, you have kept yourself incredibly busy, and suddenly have nothing to do, then you will really be in rough shape. Economic collapse is about the worst possible time for someone to suffer a nervous breakdown, yet this is what often happens. The people who are most at risk psychologically are successful middle-aged men. When their career is suddenly over, their savings are gone, and their property worthless, much of their sense of self-worth is gone as well. They tend to drink themselves to death and commit suicide in disproportionate numbers. Since they tend to be the most experienced and capable people, this is a staggering loss to society. If the economy, and your place within it, is really important to you, you will be really hurt when it goes away. You can cultivate an attitude of studied indifference, but it has to be more than just a conceit. You have to develop the lifestyle and the habits and the physical stamina to back it up. It takes a lot of creativity and effort to put together a fulfilling existence on the margins of society. After the collapse, these margins may turn out to be some of the best places to live.
BETRAYED AGAIN: How Bush betrays the 9/11 first responders once more.
Friday, 29 February 2008 3:45 A GMT-05
In the name of full disclosure, I am not writing this from some disinterested “good citizen” viewpoint. I have a young nephew, John McNamarra, a heroic fireman who worked as a first responder at that site and who later volunteered for rescue work after Katrina in New Orleans. For the past few years he has been suffering from various cancers resulting from that work for which he is currently under treatment at Sloan Kettering. Last weekend he called me to talk about the government’s new betrayal. As the father of a one year old son, Jack, John is fighting the battle of his life, and there is no godly reason why men such as John have to fight the government as well for proper medical care and compensation. One pill – yes one small pill that reduces the agonizing nausea of his chemotherapy costs as much as a thousand dollars. Okay, I can rail about the greedy drug companies and their obscene profits, but my first concern is our government’s ingratitude and cruelty, something which the congress must address and remedy to help all these men and women. As Representative Carolyn Maloney writes, “It’s shocking that the president would use his final budget to take an axe to 9/11 health care programs.” Ms. Maloney is a wonderful representative but her use of shocking seems naïve. Are you shocked? After Katrina? After Walter Reed? Not me. I recall that first lie told by the federal government about the risk at ground zero to workers, one that came through the Bush mouthpiece, Christie Todd Whitman, then head of the Environmental Protection Agency, now a lobbyist for nuclear power. This former New Jersey governor claimed that anyone in the area of ground zero, meaning not only the workers who worked in the rubble trying to rescue the buried and reclaim body parts, but the residents of the apartments in the area, were safe from the toxic fumes that filled the air for days, sometimes weeks. According to a later report of the New York City Department of Health “The collapse of the Twin Towers brought 200,000 tons of steel, 5,000 tons of asbestos, 12,000 miles of electric cables and 425,000 cubic yards of concrete crashing down into lower Manhattan… The combustion produced a toxic cauldron of concrete, dust, glass fibers, and cancer-causing asbestos, as well as particles of lead, chlorine…24 gallons of jet fuel, and burning plastics released carcinogens including dioxins etc.” As someone who lived more than eighty long city blocks north of ground zero I could smell the bitter, toxic air coming in through my bedroom window for days.
My baby had cancer but social workers falsely accused me of child abuse and took all three of my children
Sunday, 24 February 2008 11:18 P GMT-05
The baby girl - now aged five - has never been returned to this wholly innocent mother who, because she was wrongly accused of harming her baby, also subsequently had two other children taken away from her. This week, though, a High Court revealed there had been a terrible miscarriage of justice, and ordered that Louise must be reunited with all her children. Furthermore, the judge, Mr Justice Gillon - in an age where children are removed from their parents by family courts sitting in secret - took the extremely unusual step of allowing Louise to be named, and for the tragic details of her case to become public. In a statement he said: "The workings of the family justice system in this case are matters of public interest, and do merit public discussion. Public confidence in the process is necessary, and the emergence of the changing circumstances of this case merits an open discussion."
Top Doctors Association Says "YES" to Medical Marijuana in Historic Endorsement
Saturday, 23 February 2008 4:27 P GMT-05
The American College of Physicians (ACP) is the nation's second largest doctors' organization, behind only the American Medical Association. It is made up of some 124,000 internal medicine specialists dealing primarily with adults. The college pointed to strong evidence that marijuana has proven useful in treating AIDS wasting syndrome, glaucoma, and the nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy treatments. The college also noted that there is anecdotal evidence for many other medical uses of marijuana, but that research had been stymied by "a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research grade marijuana, and the debate over legalization." The science of medical marijuana should not be "hindered or obscured" by the controversy over legalizing the plant for personal, non-medical use, the group said. "This is a historic statement by one of the world's most respected physician groups, and shows the growing scientific consensus that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine for some patients, including many battling life-threatening illnesses like cancer and AIDS," said former US Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders in a press release from the Marijuana Policy Project. "Large medical associations move cautiously, and for the American College of Physicians to note 'a clear discord' between scientific opinion and government policy on medical marijuana is a stinging rebuke to our government. It's time for politicians and bureaucrats to get out of the way of good medicine and solid research."
Prozac Mania - The Dark Side of Antidepressants
Sunday, 17 February 2008 7:35 P GMT-05
In the past, Prozac has been tested only on unhealthy (ie depressed) people. But another study by Dr Healy done on HEALTHY people found that between 10 to 20 percent of those taking Prozac can be affected by mania or mental restlessness and may lose inhibition about their reactions. If this study is to be taken at face value, then one can no longer blame a patient's bizarre behavior simply on his or her condition prior to taking the drug. According to Dr Healy "People [on Prozac] don't care about the consequences as you'd normally expect. They're not bothered about contemplating something they would usually be scared of ... We can make healthy volunteers belligerent, fearful, suicidal, and even pose a risk to others."
"I Can Still Be a Mother"
Sunday, 17 February 2008 7:22 P GMT-05
Her limbs gone but her heart strong, Monica Sprague begins the long road back to the life she knew, driven by the desire to be there for the husband who stood by her and the daughters who need her.
WeAreChange interviews First Responder Greg Quibell
Sunday, 17 February 2008 6:21 P GMT-05
Psychotropic Drugs & Gun Free Zones Again The Cocktail For A Killer
Sunday, 17 February 2008 12:26 A GMT-05
As the media prepares to launch another blitz of gun control propaganda in the wake of the Northern Illinois University shootings, it's no surprise to learn that killer Steven Kazmierczak had been taking psychotropic drugs and that the campus was a victim disarmament zone - the two major factors which always breed this kind of tragedy. Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, as well as 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, the Oregon killer who gunned down his parents and classmates, and Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech killer, were all on psychotropic drugs. Scientific studies proving that prozac encourages suicidal tendencies and psychopathic behavior in young people are voluminous and span back nearly a decade. Jeff Weise, the Red Lake High School killer was on prozac, "Unabomber" Ted Kaczinski, Michael McDermott, John Hinckley, Jr., Byran Uyesugi, Mark David Chapman and Charles Carl Roberts IV, the Amish school killer, were all on SSRI psychotropic drugs.
FEMA admits to trailer fumes
Saturday, 16 February 2008 11:19 P GMT-05
After downplaying the risks for months, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday it will rush to move Gulf Coast hurricane victims out of roughly 35,000 government-issued trailers because tests found dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes. FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison said the agency hopes to get everyone out and into hotels, motels, apartments and other temporary housing by the summer, when the heat and stuffy air could worsen the problem inside the trailers. “The real issue is not what it will cost, but how fast we can move people out,” he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fumes from 519 tested trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes. Formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in construction materials, can lead to breathing problems and is also believed to cause cancer.
50,000 First Responders Need Donations, Dignity and True Respect
Saturday, 16 February 2008 11:08 P GMT-05
An estimated 50,000 fire fighters, police, EMTs, national guard, military and other volunteers are suffering from exposure to ground zero-- and stand to be forgotten by the country they aided in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Lung problems, leukemia & other cancers, including asbestosis have caused too many of our heroes to become deathly ill. On top of that, many 9/11 heroes have been too sick to work and have received NO benefits or other help from either local or national government efforts. The FealGoodFoundation.com donated about $100,000 to first responders last year, but it needs even more money this year. WeAreChange.org raised more than $14,000 for responders last year and has spent a lot of time spreading the word about their needs. Police and Fire Fighters, how can your brothers be allowed to slip through the cracks? Americans, how can the heroes who heeded the call on the day of 9/11 be now allowed to be forgotten and forsaken? People of the world, nearly 3,000 unfortunate people perished in the collapse of the Twin Towers, but now 50,000 will die from the fallout and continued aftermath of 9/11-- can we really stand be while so many die from neglect and abandon? Create change... because real change starts with you. Raise awareness, help pay medical bills and save our heroes' lives. Please donate at www.1stResponders1st.com on February 16th. Then spread the word to everyone you know, because surely, their struggle has only begun.
1st Responder Confronts Kucinich on 911 Aid
Saturday, 16 February 2008 6:46 P GMT-05
This video was posted on January 14, 2008 and shot shorty beforehand (unfortunately, the exact date is not specified). The latest news is that David Miller, the WTC first responder addressing Rep. Kucinich, has deteriorated significantly and is very close to death. -BE
WeAreChange First Responders Money Bomb - Feb. 16, 2008
Saturday, 16 February 2008 7:50 A GMT-05
Message from John Feal: 9/11 and it's aftermath has left such a horrible catastrophic trail of human turmoil on yesterday's heroes, one can not comprehend how anyone can afford to survive with mounting medical,prescription,and doctor bills. Let alone the cost of living, utility, rent, mortgage, food, etc..............these brave souls can not even afford gas to go to their doctor appointments. It is our responsibility as Americans to help and assist these heroes at any cost while our federal government sits idle and turns it back on these heroic men and woman.For example just today a 9/11 responder dying of leukemia was told his prescription is $28,000 for just 2 weeks of pills. This is simply amazing, because frankly that is more them most working people make in a single year. With the health care system broken with creed and corruption, it is that much harder for 9/11 responders, those that worked on the pile,around the pile and civilians of Manhattan to get proper medical treatment and benefits they deserved and earned. If we leave behind conflict, and travel towards solutions then so many of these wonderful people would be helped. So many presidential candidates talk about change, well my fellow Americans I am sick to my stomach hearing about their change, because real change comes from the hard working, everyday American like all of you, who make change everyday. So you see change starts at the bottom and works it way up to these full of political rhetoric, hot air clowns who say they stand for change. Lets show Washington together that it us, and has been us for the last 6.5 years that are helping and caring about 9/11 responders. As a team we can help assist in paying some medical bills,some prescription bills,and lets give these heroes so pride and dignity that was taken from them when their government let them down on every level.
John Feal On 2/16/2008 Money Bomb
Sunday, 10 February 2008 11:18 P GMT-05
Saving Monica
Sunday, 10 February 2008 4:46 P GMT-05
She had just given birth and was full of joy. Then a deadly bacteria began ravaging her body, triggering a frantic race to keep her alive. But at what cost?
Key vitamin deficiency linked to tripled risk of dementia: study
Wednesday, 6 February 2008 3:18 A GMT-05
Lack of folate, also called vitamin B-9, may triple the risk of developing dementia in old age, according to a study published Tuesday. Researchers in South Korea measured naturally occurring folate levels in 518 elderly persons, none of whom showed any signs of dementia, and then tracked their development over 2.4 years.
Beer Contains Cancer-Fighting Ingredients Healthy Life Spot
Tuesday, 15 January 2008 11:31 A GMT-05
German scientists discovered that hops that is used in beer production had essential cancer-fighting agents. The results of the study showed that xanthohumol, found in hops contains agents that inhibit enzymes which trigger cancer. Besides, xanthohumol helps in fighting carcinogens.
Tell the dying to go away
Thursday, 27 December 2007 2:28 A GMT-05
I can barely imagine a hospital telling someone that is dying to go away because they refuse to treat them. That doesn't happen in Canada or any other country with universal healthcare. You can't deny someone life-saving surgery, it's unconscionable.
`Do not have children if they won't be healthy!'
Monday, 24 December 2007 2:50 P GMT-05
Castrating the mentally ill, encouraging reproduction among families "numbered among the intelligentsia" and limiting the size of "families of Eastern origin" and "preventing ... lives that are lacking in purpose" - these proposals are not from some program of the Third Reich but rather were brought up by key figures in the Zionist establishment of the Land of Israel during the period of the British Mandate. It turns out there was a great deal of enthusiasm here for the improvement of the hereditary characteristics of a particular race (eugenics). This support, which has been kept under wraps for many years, is revealed in a study that examines the ideological and intellectual roots at the basis of the establishment of the health system in Israel.
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In the Yishuv (pre-state Jewish community) in the 1930s there were "consultation stations" operating on a Viennese model of advice centers for couples that wished to marry and become parents. In Austria, with the Nazis' rise to power, they served for forced treatment. Here the stations were aimed at "giving advice on matters of sex and marriage, especially in the matter of preventing pregnancy in certain cases." They distributed birth-control devices for free to the penniless and at reduced prices to those of limited means. In Tel Aviv the advice stations were opened in centers of immigrant populations: Ajami in Jaffa, the Hatikvah Quarter and Neveh Sha'anan.
Another Shooter With A History Of Anti-depressant Use
Friday, 14 December 2007 9:16 A GMT-05
Robert Hawkins, the 19 year old who killed himself and eight other people with an assault rifle last night in Omaha, Nebraska had a history of treatment with psychiatric drugs for depression and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and was on prozac according to press reports. Of course the headlines will once again focus on how evil and dangerous guns are, how the second amendment should be reevaluated and will once again ignore the fact that this young man was subject to dangerous brain altering chemicals for a number of years prior to this tragic incident.
9/11 Victims' Lawyers Blast Ground Zero Toxic Air Lies In Court
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 7:04 A GMT-05
However, it must be remembered that Whitman and the EPA are accountable to the White House and act under the direct authority of the Bush Administration. It was the 2003 EPA Inspector General's investigation that revealed that it was the White House that had pressured EPA into changing its press releases to add more "reassuring" language. The further memos revealed that Whitman conspired with the White House to falsely reassure New Yorkers that the air was safe.
Nurses: Cheney 'would probably be dead' but for government healthcare
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 6:14 A GMT-05
Campaigning for politicians to address universal healthcare, a nurses' group purchased provocative newspaper ads that warn Vice President Dick Cheney would "probably be dead by now" if he was not part of a single-payer government run healthcare system that keeps his oft-adled heart ticking. The California Nurses Association purchased the eye-catching ads in 10 Iowa newspapers Tuesday, pointing out what the group says is another irony of the heatlhcare crisis -- that politicians receive health coverage from a government-run program, not insurance companies. "Dick Cheney, with his heart trouble, would probably be dead now if he were an ordinary American forced to search for cardiac care in a thicket of mercenary insurers and heartless HMOs," Shum Preston wrote on the Nurses' association blog. "Cheney gets guaranteed healthcare; we get squat."
DOJ: Don't Blame Whitman For 9/11 Speech
Tuesday, 11 December 2007 5:53 A GMT-05
Department of Justice attorney Alisa Klein said that holding Whitman liable will set a dangerous precedent in future disasters: "The consequence would be a default to silence. If you speak, you will be potentially held liable. Then the clear message for government officials is to say nothing." Residents, students and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn filed the lawsuit, saying they were exposed to hazardous dust and debris from the fallen twin towers after Sept. 11. They say Whitman should be forced to pay damages to properly clean homes, schools and businesses and be forced to create a fund for medical monitoring of victims, some of whom claim they suffer from asthma, lung disease and other ailments.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts in Manhattan refused to dismiss Whitman as a defendant, calling the actions of the former New Jersey governor "conscience-shocking."
To the rescue of the rescue dogs
Sunday, 9 December 2007 11:06 P GMT-05
If you find yourself buried under a pile of rubble someday, PeeWee and Chai and Bacco will come looking for you. But right now they need your help, and it's much less strenuous than combing through a disaster scene searching for victims. PeeWee and his friends are among the 12 dogs on the urban search-and-rescue team based at Beverly Airport. They've been to the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, 2001, and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Next Saturday, a dog spa in Beverly will host an event to raise money to buy heart-monitoring devices for the rescue dogs. The portable electrocardiogram machines, designed specially for canines, will be used by the team's veterinarian to monitor the dogs' health during stressful and dangerous rescue operations.
Psychotropic Drug Prescriptions to Children Skyrocket 400 Percent in Ten Years
Sunday, 9 December 2007 7:14 P GMT-05
Prescriptions of psychiatric drugs in the United Kingdom to children under the age of 16 have more than quadrupled since the mid-1990s, according to figures recorded by the government. In the mid-'90s, general practitioners wrote 146,000 such prescriptions, while in the most recent fiscal year they wrote 613,000. In the same time period, however, data indicate that there has been no corresponding increase in the prevalence of mental health disorders among children. According to the British Office of National Statistics, approximately one in 10 children were diagnosed with some kind of mental disorder, whether major or minor, in surveys conducted in 1999 and 2004.
Pentagon Omits 20,000 Vets' Brain Injuries
Monday, 26 November 2007 3:08 A GMT-05
At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.
Wounded Iraq veterans driven out of public pool when told they might scare children
Monday, 26 November 2007 2:58 A GMT-05
Soldiers who suffered appalling injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan were verbally abused as they swam in a public swimming pool. During a weekly rehabilitation class at a council leisure centre, 15 servicemen – including several who have lost limbs or suffered severe burns – were heckled and jeered by members of the public.
Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly
Sunday, 25 November 2007 4:18 P GMT-05
Incredibly, so determined was she that the terrible "mistake" of pregnancy should never happen again, that she begged the doctor who performed the abortion to sterilise her at the same time. He refused, but Toni - who works for an environmental charity - "relentlessly hunted down a doctor who would perform the irreversible surgery.
New life inside the depressed brain
Wednesday, 21 November 2007 3:21 A GMT-05
That preliminary study, presented earlier this month at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference, adds the latest scientific backing to a hot theory of depression that has been gaining momentum - and drawing debate - for several years. It goes like this: Depression, which affects at least 19 million Americans a year, can involve problems not only with chemical messengers such as serotonin, but with the very structure of the brain, with the neurons and their connections. Research suggests that stress and depression can actually shrink parts of the brain and that anything that successfully lifts depression - be it exercise, drugs, or shock therapy - appears to involve a burst of new neurons in key areas.
Wounded warriors face home-front battle with VA
Sunday, 18 November 2007 6:16 P GMT-05
In Ziegel's case, he spent nearly two years recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Once he got out of the hospital, he was unable to hold a job. He anticipated receiving a monthly VA disability check sufficient to cover his small-town lifestyle in Washington, Illinois. Instead, he got a check for far less than expected. After pressing for answers, Ziegel finally received a letter from the VA that rated his injuries: 80 percent for facial disfigurement, 60 percent for left arm amputation, a mere 10 percent for head trauma and nothing for his left lobe brain injury, right eye blindness and jaw fracture.
FEMA Protecting Itself, But Not Evacuees?, CBS News Obtains Emails Indicating Agency Prohibits Its Own Staff From Entering Toxic Trailers
Friday, 9 November 2007 11:54 A GMT-05
CBS News has learned that while telling the residents of its trailers that it is still working on the formaldehyde problem, it appears it prohibits its own staff from even briefly stepping inside trailers once residents have moved out. We obtained these exclusive emails that show the reason why: It is just too dangerous, Keteyian reports.
US soldiers shy from battle in Iraq
Saturday, 27 October 2007 3:21 P GMT-05
According to Aliff, their mission was to help the Iraqi army "stand up" in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad, but in fact his platoon was doing all the fighting without support from the Iraqis they were supposedly preparing to take control of the security situation. "I never heard of an Iraqi unit that was able to operate on their own," said Aliff, who is now a member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). "The only reason we were replaced by an Iraqi army unit was for publicity." Aliff said he participated in roughly 300 patrols. "We were hit by so many roadside bombs we became incredibly demoralized, so we decided the only way we wouldn't be blown up was to avoid driving around all the time." "So we would go find an open field and park, and call our base every hour to tell them we were searching for weapons caches in the fields and doing weapons patrols and everything was going fine," he said, adding, "All our enlisted people became very disenchanted with our chain of command."
Aliff, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), refused to return to Iraq with his unit, which arrived in Kirkuk two weeks ago. "They've already lost a guy, and they are now fostering the sectarian violence by arming the Sunnis while supporting the Shi'ites politically ... classic divide and conquer."
Why Michelle Malkin Ought to Be Caged Like a Rabid Shihtzu (Stalker Edition)
Wednesday, 10 October 2007 10:07 A GMT-05
But the whole thing is total bullshit. It's a distraction that the right is attempting again, just like the MoveOn.org ad stupidity. Talk about the Frosts and you can avoid the issue of uninsured children. Talk about "Petraeus/Betray Us" and you don't have to address a general baldfaced lying to Congress. For Malkin and her ilkin, there's only attack, not rational discussion. Everything has to be reduced to its pornographic essence, fit only for easy consumption and the throes of self-passion and masturbatory yawps of her readership, jacking it hard at Malkin going out and kicking the ass of a twelve year-old.
Veterans Disarmament Act To Bar Vts From Owning Guns
Sunday, 23 September 2007 5:11 P GMT-05
Veterans with PTSD should not be put in a position to seek an expungement. They have not been convicted (after a trial with due process) of doing anything wrong. If a veteran is thought to be a threat to self or others, there should be a real trial, not an opinion (called a diagnosis) by a psychiatrist. If members of Congress do not hear from soldiers (active duty and retired) in large numbers, along with the rest of the public, the Veterans Disarmament Act -- misleadingly titled by Rep. McCarthy as the NICS Improvement Amendments Act -- will send this message to veterans: "No good deed goes unpunished."
Please Help the 70% of 9/11 Rescue Workers Fighting to Survive
Saturday, 22 September 2007 3:10 P GMT-05
Sgt David Miller is a 16 year veteran of the 69th Infantry Battalion of the 42nd Division and the 10th Mountain Division and a first responder on 9/11.Please help Sgt David Miller and other first responders travel to Washington D.C. to demand their dignity. Please email Sgt David Miller at dmiller@theaidsinstitute.org
A Message From 9/11 First Responder, And Kidney Donater, John Feal
Tuesday, 4 September 2007 2:57 A GMT-05
I wish to thank everyone for their support and well wishes. While I got a chance to make a difference in 3 lives last week while risking my own health, I want you all to know I will not stop there. From 9/11 responders to Americans across the board who need help while our federal govt sits idle, I will stress the message of compassion, love and caring for those less fortunate. I will also continue to be a big pain in the ass to those who should be helping and are not. Jon Gold you and the truth movement ROCK, ROCK, ROCK and if anyone needs my other kidney they can have it.
Three Cheers for John Feal!
Friday, 31 August 2007 1:55 A GMT-05
In January, John Feal was ready to give his kidney to a perfect stranger. But they weren't a good match. That bad news led to a series of events that will culminate this morning in a Manhattan hospital and potentially save not one life, but three. The daisy chain started by Feal includes six surgeons who will conduct three simultaneous kidney transplants at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.
American Psychological Association Rejects Blanket Ban on Participation in Interrogation of U.S. Detainees
Wednesday, 22 August 2007 10:59 A GMT-05
The American Psychological Association (APA) has voted to overwhelmingly reject a measure that would have banned its members from participating in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and other US detention centers. While not banning psychologists from participating in interrogations, the council approved a resolution prohibiting involvement in interrogations that use at least 14 specified methods, including sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation and mock executions.
From the grave: "I am the victim of the lies of my government" | 911Blogger.com
Friday, 17 August 2007 4:59 A GMT-05
I strongly believe my cancer is related to exposure to World Trade Center dust and smoke. If the government had said we’re not sure about the safety of the air and it would be prudent for residents to stay away, I don’t think I would have this cancer. Now I will not see my beautiful boys grow up. No high school or college graduations, school trips, summer vacations, no weddings, no grandchildren. Mom won’t be there to cheer at piano recitals or ballgames. Mom won’t be there to comfort them after a hard day or a bad dream. I won’t grow old with my beloved husband, who has cared for all of us with remarkable strength. We have had almost 30 fabulous years together. I was hoping for 50 or 60.
American Hero Suffers For His Bravery
Friday, 17 August 2007 4:23 A GMT-05
Why has so little been said about this true heroes' ailment? Perhaps the situation is so tragic; we don't want to think about it. But every person who knows Valenti's story can no longer turn a blind eye or deaf ear. Valenti dug through the World Trade Center rubble due to his respect for human life...and now, it seems as though nobody in power respects his.
Texan pleads guilty in abortion clinic bomb case
Sunday, 5 August 2007 4:29 P GMT-05
A Texas man pleaded guilty on Friday to attempting to bomb an Austin women's clinic where abortions are performed, U.S. officials said. Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Paul Evans, 27, faces up to 40 years in federal prison for the April 25 crime in which he placed a bomb in front of the clinic, but it did not explode.
Sick 9-11 Workers Sue $1B Insurance Fund
Thursday, 19 July 2007 10:44 A GMT-05
The workers have already filed a class action lawsuit claiming the toxic dust from the World Trade Center site gave them serious, sometimes fatal diseases. On Tuesday, they sought compensation from the WTC Captive Insurance Co., the company in charge of money appropriated by Congress to deal with Sept. 11 health-related claims. "The WTC Captive has consistently refused to pay any of the ground zero workers who have become ill on the work site, including any compensation" for lost salaries, pain and suffering, medical treatment, medical monitoring or burial expenses, according to the lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
A Soldier Speaks: Iraq Comes Home: Soldiers Share the Devastating Tales of War
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 12:40 A GMT-05
So let's put this in perspective now. I got two Iraq tours, multiple kills, I picked up plenty of dead bodies, American bodies, enemy bodies. I killed an 8-year-old girl, which still haunts me to this day. I come back home. My wife finds somebody else. I'm sleeping on my brother's couch while she has the apartment, the kids, the car, everything that we worked on together. I work as a bail bondsman making $432 a week, which all goes to my brother. I have to fight just to see my boys because she's at the point where she thinks I don't deserve to see my kids because I haven't had help for my PTSD. She's scared I might do something stupid. And the VA won't help me out because of my other-than-honorable discharge. What else do you want to know?
FDNY Thyroid Cancer Shock
Tuesday, 10 July 2007 12:28 A GMT-05
At least eight firefighters have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer over the past five years. Another five have undergone partial or full thyroidectomies after their doctors discovered abnormal cell growth that could lead to cancer around the glands. The cluster has sprung up among those who responded to the World Trade Center on 9/11 or helped in recovery and cleanup afterward, firefighters said. The relatively rare illness is known to affect women at three times the rate it hits males. The FDNY cases involve only men.
A woman's best friend, and lifesaver
Wednesday, 4 July 2007 3:49 P GMT-05
Though dogs have long been trained to help disabled people, Harris called dozens of agencies before she found one that had placed a dog with a heart patient. Canine Partners for Life in Pennsylvania met with Harris and her family and spoke with her doctor before deciding to offer her a dog. The nonprofit agency spends $22,000 to obtain, train, and board each dog. It takes two years to socialize and train them to follow commands such as fetching cellphones and wallets, opening doors, pulling cargo, and helping with other tasks. Then, the recipients spend three weeks on campus working with their dog and trainers. The agency asks for a donation -- Harris paid $900 -- to help offset the costs. In a role reversal, it is the heart dog who tells the human what to do: stop, sit, lie down. Adele acts as Harris's early-warning system, perhaps by scent or sound. She knows -- before Harris does -- when Harris is about to faint. Adele's job is to alert her to sit or lie down. The dog will give a signal -- nudging Harris, halting, sitting -- that tells Harris she needs to rest. When Adele senses the danger of fainting has passed, she lets Harris resume her activities.
Christie blasts Rudy on WTC air
Wednesday, 4 July 2007 3:26 P GMT-05
Former Environmental Protection Agency boss Christie Whitman says she urged Ground Zero workers to wear respirators, but then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani blocked her efforts. She also said city officials didn't want EPA workers wearing haz-mat suits because they "didn't want this image of a city falling apart."
9/11 Responders Speak Out on Government Failure to Address Environmental, Health Impact of World Trade Center Collapse
Tuesday, 26 June 2007 10:27 A GMT-05
A powerful 31 minute interview with John Feal was recently posted at Google (Louder than Words produced), which offers readers a personal conversation with John. Please help distribute this information and support the FealGood Foundation -- Jon Gold has been particularly instrumenal in raising funds for the Foundation, through his ongoing efforts at 911blogger.com. And Michael Moore's latest movie, "Sicko" (opening in theaters June 29th), brings worldwide attention to these responders. Recently, activists with Louder ThanWords asked Moore his thoughts about 9/11; Moore replied with surprising candor re. his own questions about the official story. That interview is available here.
Hey Dude, Where's My Vacation?
Sunday, 24 June 2007 7:14 P GMT-05
Americans now work more every year, on average, than workers in any other industrialized country (except for a virtual tie with New Zealand). With women working longer hours each year, the average annual work time for a married couple is growing steadily, and family time -- including the crucial bonding experience of vacations -- has suffered. Full-time workers in much of Europe typically take seven to eight weeks of vacation and holidays each year -- that's double the American average for full-time workers. Overall, the average private sector worker in the United States gets about nine paid vacation days and six paid holidays each year. Low-paid, part-time or small-business workers typically get far fewer, sometimes none. The same holds for paid sick leave: 72 percent of the highest-paid quarter of private sector workers get paid sick days compared to only 21 percent of workers in the lowest-paid quarter.
A Hypocritical Oath: Psychologists and Torture
Thursday, 7 June 2007 3:44 A GMT-05
First, do no harm. This tenet of medicine applies equally to psychologists, yet they are increasingly implicated in abusive interrogations, dare we say torture, at U.S. military detention facilities like Guantanamo. While the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association both have passed resolutions prohibiting members from participating in interrogations, the American Psychological Association refuses to, despite the outrage of many of its members. Now, with the declassification of a report by the Pentagon’s inspector general detailing psychologists’ role in military interrogations, the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services announced it will investigate.
Peppini.com Covers 9/11 First Responder Vito Valenti
Monday, 4 June 2007 11:14 P GMT-05
This is a video of Vito Valenti recently made by Sak from www.peppini.com. Because of the fund-raising we've done, and the help we are giving Vito, and the FealGood Foundation, this video is dedicated to the 9/11 Truth Movement.
9/11 First Responder Vito Valenti's Health is Getting Worse - Request for Action
Saturday, 26 May 2007 1:31 P GMT-05
Please help me and Ann and our board members help Vito. This is not about donations or money but getting on the phone, the computer and making noise. Vito's email address is lego372@optonline.net and his number is 516 567 5446. Please show our federal government we will not sit idle, while their lack of compassion and accountability will cause more deaths to heroes.
Tale of last 90 minutes of woman's life
Tuesday, 22 May 2007 10:27 A GMT-05
Parked in the emergency room lobby in a wheelchair after police left, she fell to the floor. She lay on the linoleum, writhing in pain, for 45 minutes, as staffers worked at their desks and numerous patients looked on. Aside from one patient who briefly checked on her condition, no one helped her. A janitor cleaned the floor around her as if she were a piece of furniture. A closed-circuit camera captured everyone's apparent indifference. Arriving to find Rodriguez on the floor, her boyfriend unsuccessfully tried to enlist help from the medical staff and county police — even a 911 dispatcher, who balked at sending rescuers to a hospital. Alerted to the "disturbance" in the lobby, police stepped in — by running Rodriguez's record. They found an outstanding warrant and prepared to take her to jail. She died before she could be put into a squad car.
Medical Marijuana: The Replacement for Very Dangerous Drugs
Saturday, 19 May 2007 5:08 P GMT-05
The Oregon Medical Marijuana Law allows the use of marijuana for Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s rage, Glaucoma, chronic pain, chronic nausea, chronic spasms, Multiple Sclerosis and seizures. As a retired Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, I accepted this with a grain of salt but when I started seeing patients, I was astonished and pleased that indeed the above conditions were “miraculously” alleviated by the use of medical marijuana. I was further astonished when I was told by the patients “marijuana is much better than any prescription I have been given". Further questioning of patients indicated it was better that the morphine-like painkillers, such as Oxycontin, Percodan or Demerol. It was also better than the Valium-like tranquilizers, such as Xanax, and Ambien, etc. and even the anti-depressants, such as Elavil, Trazadone, etc. and the really heavy anti-depressants, such as Prozac, Zoloft, etc.
Christie Todd Whitman Refuses To Testify At Congressional Hearing
Wednesday, 16 May 2007 5:02 P GMT-05
The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency is balking at a request by Rep. Jerrold Nadler that she testify before a congressional hearing on the federal response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Christine Todd Whitman, the EPA administrator at the time, has declined an invitation to appear before a House subcommittee that Mr. Nadler chairs, an aide to the congressman said yesterday. Mr. Nadler, whose district includes ground zero, is expected to ask Ms. Whitman again before considering whether to seek to compel her testimony with a subpoena, the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. Mr. Nadler and Senator Clinton yesterday announced companion hearings to investigate what they say was the government's failure to respond adequately to the environmental crisis in Lower Manhattan that resulted from the attack on the World Trade Center. Mr. Nadler's hearing is scheduled for May 22; Mrs. Clinton's is set for June 20.
'My Brother-in-Law Received a Falun Gong Practitioner's Liver'
Friday, 11 May 2007 12:50 P GMT-05
One week after live organ harvesting was exposed in a hospital in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, the reporter met three people from China in front of the Immigration Bureau in Seoul. After they read materials on the CCP's live organ harvesting, they whispered to the reporter, "We knew this way before you did!" and left in a hurry. A taxi driver in Shenyang City also said the locals all knew about the live organ harvesting and it wasn't anything new.
Cancer Claims 9/11 Cop
Wednesday, 9 May 2007 2:33 P GMT-05
A detective on Mayor Bloomberg's security detail died yesterday of cancer - an illness his family and union officials believe can be traced to his work in the toxic debris at Ground Zero after 9/11. Detective Kevin Hawkins, 42, died at 2 a.m. at the hospice unit of Calvary Hospital in The Bronx, said Vic Cipulla, vice president of the Detectives Endowment Association. He'd been diagnosed with kidney cancer in September. Cipulla said Hawkins and his family had filed a claim that would seek verification that his illness was in the line of duty, making him eligible for a disability pension.
How Low Can Monsanto Go?
Tuesday, 8 May 2007 4:58 A GMT-05
For the record, Fox News never denied that it pressured its reporters to broadcast a false story. Fox's entire defense rested on the premise that the First Amendment grants broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports. I guess it shouldn't be a shock that companies like Monsanto and Fox are in cahoots, conspiring to peddle their tainted products. Birds of a feather. May an avian flu-like pox plague both their houses, and the FDA's, too, if they cave in to this agribiz avarice.
Depression drugs raise suicide fears
Monday, 7 May 2007 3:46 P GMT-05
Young adults face an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior when they first begin taking antidepressants and should be warned about the danger, federal health officials said Wednesday. The Food and Drug Administration asked makers of the drugs to expand its warning labels to include adults age 18-24. The labels already include similar warnings for children and adolescents.
Pentagon Survey Finds US Troops in Iraq Lag in Ethics
Sunday, 6 May 2007 2:37 P GMT-05
More than one-third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq surveyed by the Army said they believe torture should be allowed if it helps gather important information about insurgents, the Pentagon disclosed yesterday. Four in 10 said they approve of such illegal abuse if it would save the life of a fellow soldier. In addition, about two-thirds of Marines and half the Army troops surveyed said they would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian or for destroying civilian property unnecessarily. "Less than half of Soldiers and Marines believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect," the Army report stated. About 10 percent of the 1,767 troops in the official survey - conducted in Iraq last fall - reported that they had mistreated civilians in Iraq, such as kicking them or needlessly damaging their possessions. Army researchers "looked under every rock, and what they found was not always easy to look at," said S. Ward Casscells, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The report noted that the troops' statements are at odds with the "soldier's rules" promulgated by the Army, which forbid the torture of enemy prisoners and state that civilians must be treated humanely.
Records raise questions in death of Mass. inmate
Sunday, 6 May 2007 2:00 P GMT-05
The state's official account of Kelly Jo Griffen's death, four years ago in a prison infirmary, describes a swift eight-minute decline, from the first warning sign to lifelessness. But medical records obtained by the Globe indicate that the medical staff at MCI-Framingham was aware of Griffen's deteriorating condition much earlier that morning of July 23, 2003, and took no action to help her, as she battled the side effects of heroin and alcohol withdrawal. Two hours before a doctor started CPR, a nurse reported that she attempted three times to measure Griffen's blood pressure but could get no reading. She also was unable to detect a pulse.
Contrails or chemtrails and freak weather
Friday, 4 May 2007 5:02 A GMT-05
According to award-winning Canadian journalist William Thomas, back in August 1997, the late Dr. Edward Teller presented a paper prepared by the US government’s National Academy of Sciences to the 22nd International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies in Sicily, in which he suggested that: “Increases in average world-wide temperature of the magnitude currently predicted can be cancelled by preventing about 1% of incoming solar radiation from reaching the Earth. The total cost of such an enhanced scattering operation would probably be at most $1 billion per year.” Dr Teller proposed that aluminium oxide could be added to jet fuel as a “sunscreen,” and it appears that this is what is now being done, because aluminium is a metal that has been found in far higher than normal concentrations in areas that have had a lot of chemtrail activity overhead.
Rosie Hosts Firsts Responders On The View
Friday, 27 April 2007 10:33 P GMT-05
FDA Wants to Eliminate Natural Health Care
Thursday, 26 April 2007 1:41 A GMT-05
The Codex Alimentarius Commission is working to "harmonize" food and supplement rules, pulling our American health care system down to the level of Third World nations. Under Codex rules, even basic vitamins and minerals will require a doctor’s prescription. As Europe moves ever closer to adopting Codex standards, it becomes more likely that the World Trade Organization will attempt to force those standards on the United States. This is yet another example of how the WTO threatens American sovereignty. By cooperating with Codex, the FDA is blatantly ignoring the will of Congress and the American people, hoping to overpower both through their fascistic "partnerships."
Today's Anti-Smoking Purge Is Borrowed From The Nazis
Wednesday, 25 April 2007 8:12 P GMT-05
As I wrote earlier this year, "The regulation of the personal habit of smoking, including new legislative moves in San Francisco to ban cigarettes in private homes, and its enforcement by an eager cadre of state snoops and snitches, represents nothing more than a move on behalf of big brother towards the complete subjugation and shackling of the individual." Read these shocking parallels and compare them to the endless lecturing we are forced to endure today about our personal lifestyle choices by the state and their propaganda arm, the mass media.
9/11 firefighter lung ailments on the rise
Wednesday, 25 April 2007 6:29 P GMT-05
Twenty-six firefighters who toiled at Ground Zero came down with sarcoidosis, an inflammatory illness that often attacks the lungs, in the five years after 9/11 - a significant increase, a new study has found. The study has angered the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which complains that the NYPD has refused to acknowledge that 9/11 caused sarcoidosis in cops. Half the firefighter cases were diagnosed in the first year after 9/11 - a rate six times higher than the average for the Bravest in the 15 years before 9/11, according to a paper to be published in CHEST, a medical journal.
Soldier: I Was Deployed To Iraq With Traumatic Brain Injury
Sunday, 22 April 2007 5:08 P GMT-05
As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.
Shame On The Courts For Not Giving Justice To Our Heroes
Saturday, 21 April 2007 5:49 P GMT-05
It was reported that "the court did not make any factual finding as to the quality of the air, or as to whether the EPA had intentionally misled the public." I have news for the court. Some of us have made "factual findings" as to how our heroes have been treated. The court should be ASHAMED of itself. Here's a message from John Feal about this: "The justice system was served a black eye by our courts. Their ruling to let this woman walk away from any responsibility is a gross mis-conduct of their powers. When our judiciary process lets us down, where else are we to turn? It truely is a sad day to be a proud american and proud responder to 9/11. To the residents of Manhattan, the victims of 9/11, their families, and to the responder community, I apologize for those who feel they dont have to."
FDA Complicit in Pushing Prescription Drugs, Ad Critics Say
Friday, 20 April 2007 8:09 P GMT-05
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does impose some requirements on pharmaceutical advertisements, such as mandatory risk information and supposedly prohibiting "false and misleading" messages. Though drug companies are required to submit their advertisements to the FDA, the agency does not review them before they are released to the public. In fact, it’s not clear whether the FDA reviews most advertisements at all. The agency can direct drug companies to change their advertisements if it finds they violate regulations, but a Government Accountability Office report released last November found that the FDA reviews only a "small portion" of the advertisements it receives, and does not review them using the same, consistent criteria. The report said the GAO could not calculate the percentage of submissions reviewed because the FDA does not keep track of that information.
Virginia Tech Aftermath: Did Legal Drugs Play a Role in the Massacre?
Friday, 20 April 2007 5:28 P GMT-05
Reports that Cho had been taking antidepressants once again turn the spotlight on the uneasy question of what role these powerful medications might have played in yet another campus massacre. It's the same bloody-morning-after question I've been asking since 1998, when we learned 15-year old Oregon school shooter Kip Kinkel, who opened fire in his school cafeteria, had been on Prozac. Nearly ten years -- and numerous school-shooters-on-prescription-meds -- later, we're still waiting for answers. Now let me make it perfectly clear that I am NOT saying that antidepressants are what caused Cho to go off the deep end and kill 32 people and then himself (indeed, school and law enforcement officials haven't yet disclosed what specific meds were found among his effects). And I'm NOT saying that there aren't thousands of people who benefit from such medication. What I AM saying is that it is absurd -- and incredibly irresponsible -- for our leaders, and our culture, not to be fully investigating the correlation between antidepressants and manic/suicidal behavior. Despite disturbing evidence of drug-induced reactions, the number of children being given mood-altering drugs continues to soar. America now has over 8 million kids on such drugs.
Seung-Hui Cho Was a Mind Controlled Assassin
Friday, 20 April 2007 3:57 P GMT-05
Charles Mesloh, Professor of Criminology at Florida Gulf Coast University, told NBC 2 News that he was shocked Cho could have killed 32 people with two handguns absent expert training. Mesloh immediately assumed that Cho must have used a shotgun or an assault rifle. "I'm dumbfounded by the number of people he managed to kill with these weapons," said Mesloh, "The only thing I can figure is that he got close to them and he simply executed them." Mesloh said the killer performed like a trained professional, "He had a 60% fatality rate with handguns - that's unheard of given 9 millimeters don't kill people instantly," said Mesloh, stating that the handguns Cho used were designed for "plinking at cans," not executing human beings.
The Cho Seung-Hui Video Show
Thursday, 19 April 2007 7:38 P GMT-05
Add to this a bevy of “experts” on television this evening declaring Cho Seung-Hui to be obviously paranoid schizophrenic. Excuse me, but paranoid schizophrenics, minus medication, have a difficult time stitching two coherent sentences together, let alone methodically engaging in homicide, managing to escape undetected, and then recording thoughts after the fact and conjuring up the wherewithal to send out a press release. I’m not buying it.
Health freedom action alert: FDA attempting to regulate supplements, herbs and juices as "drugs"
Saturday, 14 April 2007 5:07 P GMT-05
Under these proposed guidelines, FDA "experts" (the same corrupt officials who reapproved Vioxx after it killed over 50,000 Americans) will decide whether herbs, supplements, vitamins or simple devices like massage stones are to be regulated as drugs and medical devices. If the FDA experts, in their infinite wisdom, decide that these things are to be reclassified, they will essentially be outlawed, stripped from the shelves, and regulated out of existence. Anyone who dares to manufacture, promote or sell such products may be branded a criminal and rounded up by armed FDA agents who have a well established history of suppressing natural medicine.
9/11 Responders Urged To Register For Health Funds
Sunday, 8 April 2007 3:30 P GMT-05
Quigley, now 43, would do it again, even though, he said this week, "I feel like my chest is always heavy. I've got a hard time breathing. My lungs are always filled. My doctor tells me I have the lungs of a 70-year-old man."
How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits
Monday, 2 April 2007 1:02 A GMT-05
In the Army's separations manual it's called Regulation 635-200, Chapter 5-13: "Separation Because of Personality Disorder." It's an alluring choice for a cash-strapped military because enacting it is quick and cheap. The Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't have to provide medical care to soldiers dismissed with personality disorder. That's because under Chapter 5-13, personality disorder is a pre-existing condition. The VA is only required to treat wounds sustained during service. Soldiers discharged under 5-13 can't collect disability pay either. To receive those benefits, a soldier must be evaluated by a medical board, which must confirm that he is wounded and that his wounds stem from combat. The process takes several months, in contrast with a 5-13 discharge, which can be wrapped up in a few days.
Bush apologizes for Walter Reed woes
Friday, 30 March 2007 7:49 P GMT-05
Bush toured the main hospital and Abrams Hall, where soldiers were transferred after they were vacated from the facility's Building 18, the site of moldy walls, rodent infestation and other problems that went unchecked until reported by the media. He said his conversations with those who had been in Building 18 left him "disturbed by their accounts." "The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and administrative failures," the president told about 100 medical workers and patients at the hospital. "The system failed you and it failed our troops and we're going to fix it."
Worries grow over mental health of U.S. troops
Friday, 30 March 2007 6:09 P GMT-05
Doctors, families and lawmakers are expressing growing concerns that veterans are not getting the right mental health help. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 12-20% of those who served in Iraq suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Drug war discourages honest discussion or rehabilitation
Friday, 30 March 2007 4:07 P GMT-05
I think it's safe to say the turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would be rather low if alcoholism were a crime pursued with zero-tolerance zeal.
Forget Big Tobacco, Big Food Kills
Thursday, 29 March 2007 3:18 P GMT-05
Just as surely as the tobacco industry tried for years—and succeeded—in hooking young kids on its deadly weed, the food industry is spending billions to advertise products that will make the next generation look and live like its porky parents: overweight, and at great risk of debilitating disease and early deaths linked to obesity.
Two Years Later, Suffolk Soldier At Walter Reed Awaiting Surgery
Tuesday, 27 March 2007 1:18 A GMT-05
Staff Sergeant Shannon's first surgery stabilized his skull after he lost that eye. A second surgery for a skull implant four months later actually came ahead of schedule. But then it took nine months for a third surgery to remove shrapnel from his shoulder. Torrey says that's because the staff at Walter Reed lost her husband's paperwork three times, meaning the Shannons had to start the process over again. "They need more case workers. Desperately. They just added 100 case workers and it's not nearly enough," Torrey said.
18,000 deaths blamed on lack of insurance
Monday, 26 March 2007 11:51 P GMT-05
More than 18,000 adults in the USA die each year because they are uninsured and can't get proper health care, researchers report in a landmark study released Tuesday.
Police Surveillance is the Quickest Way to Take the Fun Out of Puppet Making
Monday, 26 March 2007 10:31 P GMT-05
Another Billionaire, Marco Ceglie, told the Times, “It was a running joke that some of the new faces were 25- to 32-year-old males asking, ‘First name, last name?’ …. Some people didn’t care; it bothered me and a couple of other leaders, but we didn’t want to make a big stink because we didn’t want to look paranoid."
Brockton father pleads not guilty in slayings of wife, daughter
Friday, 23 March 2007 5:56 P GMT-05
Benoit told police after his arrest that he had been depressed, had not been able to get his Prozac prescription, and was worried about not having food in the house. He told police he killed his wife while his daughter slept and then strangled the child.
'Born-Again Virginity' in the Age of Girls Gone Wild
Tuesday, 20 March 2007 6:50 P GMT-05
There is a strong argument to be made on behalf of women -- Christian or not -- taking control of their bodies and making choices that are right for them.
Bloomberg Kills 'Sensitive 9/11 Probe'
Tuesday, 20 March 2007 1:03 A GMT-05
"The Bloomberg administration acted to sweep any potential problems under the rug," said Longshore, who was trapped in a loading dock outside the WTC while both towers collapsed. He later developed sinusitis and throat polyps and sued the city.
You Call Yourself a Progressive -- But You Still Eat Meat?
Monday, 19 March 2007 10:38 P GMT-05
Writes Dr. Singer, "[W]hen nonvegetarians say that 'human problems come first,' I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless exploitation of farm animals." Which is to say: Fine, don't spend any time at all on animal issues, but please don't pay other people to abuse animals, which is what you are doing when you buy chicken, pork or other animal products. And remember: A vegetarian diet is also the best diet for the planet, so eat as though the planet depended on it, since it just might.
The Women's War
Monday, 19 March 2007 6:03 P GMT-05
There have been few large-scale studies done on the particular psychiatric effects of combat on female soldiers in the United States, mostly because the sample size has heretofore been small. More than one-quarter of female veterans of Vietnam developed PTSD at some point in their lives, according to the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Survey conducted in the mid-'80s, which included 432 women, most of whom were nurses. (The PTSD rate for women was 4 percent below that of the men.) Two years after deployment to the gulf war, where combat exposure was relatively low, Army data showed that 16 percent of a sample of female soldiers studied met diagnostic criteria for PTSD, as opposed to 8 percent of their male counterparts. The data reflect a larger finding, supported by other research, that women are more likely to be given diagnoses of PTSD, in some cases at twice the rate of men.
The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq
Tuesday, 13 March 2007 3:20 P GMT-05
The 3,900-strong 3rd Brigade is now leaving for Iraq for a third time in a steady stream. In fact, some of the troops with medical conditions interviewed by Salon last week are already gone. Others are slated to fly out within a week, but are fighting against their chain of command, holding out hope that because of their ills they will ultimately not be forced to go. Jenkins, who is still in Georgia, thinks doctors are helping to send hurt soldiers like him to Iraq to make units going there appear to be at full strength. "This is about the numbers," he said flatly.
Feds tried to cut aid
Sunday, 11 March 2007 5:59 P GMT-05
Federal officials secretly schemed to limit payouts for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers, including thousands from the Rocky Flats plant outside Denver, newly released documents show. The officials responsible for helping those workers went behind their boss's back, called on White House officials for help and tried to hide their efforts, according to internal e-mails and memos obtained by a congressional committee and posted on its Web site. They also wanted to get the White House to override scientific decisions granting compensation and pack the program's advisory board with members less sympathetic to workers.
Lift the Curtain
Sunday, 11 March 2007 4:54 P GMT-05
It's not just the indifference and incompetence of the administration that are causing the troops so much unnecessary suffering. The simple truth is that the Bush crowd, busy trying to hide the costs of the president's $2 trillion tragedy in Iraq, can't find the money to pay for all the care that's needed by the legions of wounded and mentally disabled troops who are coming home. The outpatient fiasco at Walter Reed is just one aspect of a vast superstructure of suffering.
Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Sunday, 11 March 2007 4:13 P GMT-05
University of Virginia student Abigail Burroughs died of head and neck cancer at age 21 on June 9, 2001. She died while fighting to gain access to promising experimental anti-cancer drugs recommended by her oncologist at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Her father, Frank Burroughs, founded the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs and sued the Food and Drug Administration, arguing that terminal cancer patients have a constitutional right to try to gain access to developmental medicines that the agency has not yet approved. In May 2006, the Alliance won its case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia which ruled that "barring a terminally ill patient from the use of a potentially lifesaving treatment impinges on this right of self-preservation." The Appeals Court sent the case back to District Court to consider if the protected liberty interests of terminally patients outweigh the FDA's interest in insuring the provision of safe and effective drugs. Yesterday, March 1, the full Appeals Court reheard the case at the request of the FDA.
War Veterans, Treatment and Care
Sunday, 11 March 2007 3:30 P GMT-05
Marine Pvt. Jonathan Schulze served in Iraq and earned two Purple Hearts, but was turned away for mental health treatment at the VA. Four days later he took his own life.
The Scandal at Walter Reed
Friday, 9 March 2007 6:34 P GMT-05
Interventionism symbolizes an attitude of looking outward, toward empire, while diminishing the importance of maintaining a constitutional republic. We close bases here at home-- some want to close Walter Reed-- while building bases in Arab and Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia. We worry about foreign borders while ignoring our own. We build permanent outposts in Muslim holy lands, occupy territory, and prop up puppet governments. This motivates suicide terrorism against us. Our policies naturally lead to resentment, which in turn leads to prolonged wars and increased casualties. We spend billions in Iraq, while bases like Walter Reed fall into disrepair. This undermines our ability to care for the thousands of wounded soldiers we should have anticipated, despite the rosy predictions that we would be greeted as liberators in Iraq. Now comes the outrage.
Without Health Benefits, a Good Life Turns Fragile
Wednesday, 7 March 2007 7:43 P GMT-05
Ms. Readling, a 50-year-old real estate agent, is one of nearly 47 million people in America with no health insurance. Increasingly, the problem affects middle-class people like Ms. Readling, who said she made about $60,000 last year. As an independent contractor, like many real estate agents, Ms. Readling does not receive health benefits from an employer. She tried to buy a policy in the individual insurance market, but — having had cancer — could not obtain coverage, except at a price exceeding $27,000 a year, which was more than she could pay. “I don’t know which was worse, being told that I had cancer or finding that I could not get insurance,” Ms. Readling (pronounced RED-ling) said in an interview in her office, near the tree-lined streets and stately old homes of this city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. It is well known that the ranks of the uninsured have been swelling; federal figures show an increase of 6.8 million since 2000. But the surprise is that the uninsured are not necessarily the poor, the unemployed and the undocumented. Solidly middle-class people like Ms. Readling are one of the fastest growing subgroups.
Senators question Walter Reed conditions
Tuesday, 6 March 2007 9:56 P GMT-05
Senators vowed Tuesday to consider all options to fix a broken system of caring for wounded troops as
President Bush said former Sen. Bob Dole and former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala will lead the administration's investigation into problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Killing To Make A Sale
Tuesday, 6 March 2007 5:56 P GMT-05
On Jan. 10, a neurosurgeon from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio "induced a brain aneurysm in a dog to demonstrate a medical device ... to a group of 20 to 25 salespeople," according to the Associated Press. The dog was later euthanized. This was non-research, purely commercial activity, intended to help eager salespeople pitch their wares, and banned by the clinic's own rules. The incident outraged animal activists, who on Feb. 17 picketed the San Jose, Calif. headquarters of Micrus Endovascular Corp., which arranged the training.
Marijuana Gains Wonder Drug Status
Monday, 5 March 2007 7:27 P GMT-05
The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found smoked marijuana to be effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy. It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage to nerves afflicts people with many other illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Neuropathic pain is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs. Even powerful and addictive narcotics like morphine and OxyContin often provide little relief. This study leaves no doubt that marijuana can safely ease this type of pain.
The Department of Self-Defense
Monday, 5 March 2007 6:08 P GMT-05
There is nothing institutionally unique about the Walter Reed snafu. When it comes to the military – any military – snafu and fubar are how things mostly are.
What was unique about this scandal is the incomparable foolishness of Weightman to let a camera crew into Building 18. That revealed his utter incompetence. No bureaucrat is allowed a second chance when he violates the bureaucratic code of self-defense on a scale like that. Make no mistake about it. This was why he was relieved of command.
A Marine's Progress
Saturday, 3 March 2007 5:17 A GMT-05
But medical complications and disputes with the VA have left Landay without any therapy in the last six months. His mother is helping him study words with flash cards, but she said it's been frustrating to see him go without rehab. "He was supposed to be in therapy by December, but it didn't happen," she said. "I'm just trying to keep him going, but we've been very frustrated trying to get him into rehab."
Pregnant 14-Year-Old Says Having a Child Is the Newest Fashion Among Teens
Thursday, 1 March 2007 2:19 P GMT-05
The newest fashion among schoolgirls is getting knocked up, according to one pregnant 14-year-old whose four friends are also expecting.
George Soros Funds Healthcare for 9/11 First Responders
Tuesday, 27 February 2007 6:51 P GMT-05
George Soros, chairman and founder of the Open Society Institute, along with five other philanthropies joined forces today to help The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund create a 9/11 Neediest Medical campaign. Contributions to the campaign, which begins with more than $4 million, will provide treatment for uninsured workers and residents who have developed life-threatening diseases since the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. This special campaign is being launched by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund with a $1 million grant from its endowment to a clinical consortium headed by the Mount Sinai Medical Center. The funds will be used to treat uninsured responders who performed Sept. 11 rescue, recovery, and cleanup work. The New York Community Trust, in a parallel effort, plans to contribute $1 million for screening and treatment to Bellevue Hospital Center, principally for uninsured clean-up workers and Lower Manhattan residents.
Employers Asked to Cough Up Paid Sick Days
Thursday, 22 February 2007 5:55 P GMT-05
About 59 million workers nationwide do not have paid sick days, according to a 2004 analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. That means that like Wolfram, they go to work sick, coughing, nauseous and miserable – and often contagious. Eighty-six million workers cannot take a paid day off to care for a sick child or other family member, and must scramble to find friends or relatives to step in. Some people are simply forced to take off work without pay and risk being disciplined or losing their jobs.
Natural contraception 'effective'
Thursday, 22 February 2007 5:12 P GMT-05
Lead researcher Dr Petra Frank-Herrmann said: "We maintain that the effectiveness of STM is comparable to the effectiveness of modern contraceptive methods such as oral contraceptives, and is an effective and acceptable method of family planning."
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
Tuesday, 20 February 2007 8:36 P GMT-05
"We've done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it," said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months. "We don't know what to do. The people who are supposed to know don't have the answers. It's a nonstop process of stalling."
Corporate Globalization Kills
Tuesday, 20 February 2007 8:25 P GMT-05
Globalization is a battering ram for Western corporations. And even when the consequences are literally life or death, companies are eager to utilize the World Trade Organization for their limitless hunger for profits. Take a pending court case in India. It has the potential to adversely affect the health of not only the more than 1 billion Indian citizens but of patients throughout the developing world.
Lou Dobbs On The War On (Some) Drugs
Monday, 19 February 2007 4:23 P GMT-05
Addiction, however, is different issue. It’s a medical, or psychological, problem that can only be dealt with through treatment and counseling. And, think of it this way, isn’t it likely that people who are addicted to illegal drugs resist getting treatment because they’re afraid of getting caught ? These people would be addicts whether drugs were legal or not, and the addiction “problem” has no bearing on the issue of when we are going to end the monstrous failure that is the War On Drugs.
9/11 First Responders: 'We're Dead Men Walking'
Sunday, 18 February 2007 5:57 P GMT-05
First responders charged toward ground zero on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, united in their mission... Today, seven out of every 10 suffer from respiratory disease.
Who Will Protect and Defend Our Military From the Bush Administration?
Sunday, 18 February 2007 5:55 P GMT-05
Here's the real deal. George Bush sends American troops into the bowels of Iraq from his "beautiful White House." And each time he does, he is sentencing them to death. If not death of the body, then degrees of death of the spirit. If they do manage to survive, in whole or partial bodies, there is no bridge long enough to close the emotional chasm between the Iraqi war zone and home. Upon discharge, troops are required to answer (then and there) such questions as: Do you have PTSD? Do you have thoughts of suicide? Do you have thoughts of murder? etc., etc., etc.
Give me a break. Who can possibly answer questions like that with any degree of accuracy until there is some distance from war? And even if they can, admission that they may be experiencing some stress/distress means they will be held by the military for some indeterminate period of time and won't get to go home. What would you choose after six months, a year, two years in Iraq?
Rejoinder to Prof. Perlstein on Legalizing Drugs in New Orleans
Saturday, 17 February 2007 8:44 P GMT-05
It was once said of Israel that there was a perfect match between a people without land, and a land without people. To discuss that point would take us way too far afield. But no words could more accurately describe addicts in the U.S., and indeed in the entire world, on the one hand, and the territory of what used to be New Orleans. Perlstein may not appreciate this, but there are acres and acres, no, square mile after square mile, of empty abandoned houses just waiting for people to repair and occupy them. We are in desperate need of new occupants, who would be willing to work, and this describes to a "T" drug addicts no longer in thrall to exorbitant black market drug prices.
Lawmakers Move Against Over-use of Antibiotics on Farms
Friday, 16 February 2007 5:14 P GMT-05
Scientists are warning of a "post-antibiotic era," in which antibiotics are no longer able to fight disease. Experts say the potency of some antibiotics has already begun to wane. Antibiotic over-use in humans is considered the most significant contributor to resistance. But a growing list of scientific organizations – including the National Academy of Sciences and the World Health Organization – says the agriculture industry should limit the use of antibiotics in animal feed to help stave off the public-health threat.
U.S. one of worst places for kids
Thursday, 15 February 2007 4:33 P GMT-05
The United States and Britain ranked at the bottom of a UN survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy countries that assessed everything from infant mortality to whether children ate dinner with their parents. The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top; the United States was 20th, and Britain was 21st, the report released Wednesday by UNICEF said.
Media Exalts Strawman to Discredit 9/11 Toxic Dust Victims
Tuesday, 13 February 2007 7:35 P GMT-05
The Tuesday article concludes: "Finally, Ceasar Borja, after having absorbed the implications of his father’s records, said he was no less proud. 'I’m actually happy to know he wasn’t on the pile,' he said, adding that those who were must be in even graver shape. He concluded: 'I don’t believe my father to be any less heroic than I previously thought, any less valiant than the other papers previously misreported on.'”
Paraplegic allegedly 'dumped' on skid row
Saturday, 10 February 2007 5:15 P GMT-05
"I can't think of anything colder than that," said LAPD Det. Russ Long, who called the case the most egregious of its kind that he has seen in his career. "There was no mission around, no services. It's the worst area of skid row."
Hiroshima, the pictures they didn't want us to see
Wednesday, 7 February 2007 2:25 P GMT-05
The American occupation forces imposed strict censorship on Japan, prohibiting anything "that might, directly or by inference, disturb public tranquility" and used it to prohibit all pictures of the bombed cities. The pictures remained classified 'top secret' for many years. Some of the images have been published later by different means, but it's not usual to see them all together. This is the horror they didn't want us to see, and that we must NEVER forget.
Scientists expose body toxin risks
Tuesday, 6 February 2007 5:30 P GMT-05
The science of endocrine disruptors is still controversial. The effects in humans are uncertain. Government panels assessing the evidence for many compounds repeatedly have found no need for concern. But scientists say disturbing gaps remain in our knowledge.
US immigration cavity search ends in agony
Tuesday, 6 February 2007 5:18 P GMT-05
US immigration officials insisted the sufferer of an anal infection remove a small piece of medical thread which was being used by doctors to treat the condition. The man required treatment under general anaesthetic as a result.
New York Stories: 9/11 First Responders
Sunday, 4 February 2007 7:07 A GMT-05
We knew we had to have an event dedicated to calling attention to the cause of responders, survivors, and also downtown residents who were all told by the EPA, the air was safe to breath. However, 14 rescue dogs died and nearly 5 years later many responders have died, thousands are very sick, can't work, and are in dire straits financially. Adding insult to injury, 1 billion dollars of federal funds are sitting in an offshore bank account and many have had to fight to get workers comp due to incredibly slick maneuvering by government agencies. Our event began with comments from Father Frank Morales who served as chaplain at Ground Zero in the early weeks after the attacks. He shared an essay about his experience which was deeply moving. He also paid homage to Tim Keller, an EMT who died from toxic exposure exactly 1 year ago.
Russian shock at 'gagged' babies
Friday, 2 February 2007 6:39 P GMT-05
Russian prosecutors are investigating allegations that hospital staff in Yekaterinburg gagged babies because they did not want to hear them crying.
An Absolute Good
Friday, 2 February 2007 5:19 P GMT-05
I want to personally thank everyone who helped to make this happen. To those who contributed, and to those who helped spread the word about this fund-raiser, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. The reasoning for this fund-raiser is twofold. First, obviously, we want to help them as best as we can. The same Government that let them get sick, is the same Government that is neglecting them, and both are unacceptable. The second reason, at least to me, is to show our heroes that they are not forgotten.
Big, Big Government
Friday, 2 February 2007 4:47 P GMT-05
According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 11 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have eliminated the penalties for physician-approved possession of marijuana by seriously ill patients. In those states people with AIDS and other catastrophic diseases may either grow their own marijuana or get it from registered dispensaries. But the U.S. government says its drug laws trump the states' laws, and in 2005, the Supreme Court agreed.
Binge eating is the most common eating disorder, McLean study shows
Thursday, 1 February 2007 4:53 P GMT-05
Binge eating disorder affects more American adults than anorexia and bulimia combined, a study from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School finds, making it a "major public health problem."
A Clarion Call for Health Independence
Thursday, 1 February 2007 3:53 P GMT-05
Alone and racing against death, the Odones persist for three years before finding the clue that leads them not to a cure but to a treatment; oleic acid can destroy the fatty acids that are destroying Lorenzo’s brain. Augusto develops a formula he calls “Lorenzo’s Oil” — a combination of two fats extracted from olive oil and rapeseed oil. The formula proves remarkably effective in presymptomatic boys with the ALD gene because of its ability to halt the body’s production of the specific acids that attack the myelin sheaths.
Bush adds limited funding for 9/11 victims to federal budget
Wednesday, 31 January 2007 8:23 P GMT-05
New York Rep. Vito Fossella, a Republican, said the administration next week will propose spending at least $25 million more to fund a Sept. 11-related health care program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan and a related effort for New York firefighters. "It's a breakthrough," said Fossella. "For the first time in the federal budget there will be a down payment to provide for funding for continued treatment and monitoring for 9/11 responders who need our help."
Police jail rape victim for two days
Wednesday, 31 January 2007 6:24 P GMT-05
Attorney Virlyn "Vic" Moore III of Venice said his client was seated in the front seat of the police cruiser, on her way to the scene of her attack when the officer learned of the warrant, cuffed her and placed her in the back seat. "To stop the rape investigation and instead victimize her again," Moore said. "I'm aghast, astonished and outraged. I have never, ever heard of this happening." The officer arrested the woman at a sergeant's instruction, McElroy said. The student had failed to pay $4,585 restitution after a 2003 juvenile arrest, McElroy said. Moore said his client is convinced that she paid the fine and that the warrant was probably the result of a clerical error.
Smoking Is Healthier Than Fascism
Tuesday, 30 January 2007 5:26 P GMT-05
The regulation of the personal habit of smoking, including new legislative moves in San Francisco to ban cigarettes in private homes, and its enforcement by an eager cadre of state snoops and snitches, represents nothing more than a move on behalf of big brother towards the complete subjugation and shackling of the individual. To this end, smoking is healthier than fascism.
'I'VE JUST KILLED 4 MEMBERS OF MY FAMILY'
Tuesday, 30 January 2007 5:21 P GMT-05
A GULF War veteran calmly walked into a police station, put a self-loading pistol on the counter and announced: "I have just killed four members of my family."
How Many Were Killed On 9/11? 2,973? More Like 3,073
Monday, 29 January 2007 7:12 A GMT-05
"We want to know about every death, so we can evaluate any patterns with fatalities," said Kitty Gelber, chief epidemiologist with the state Bureau of Occupational Health. "People need to let us know who was there and who died." So far, the study has listed "over 100 deaths," Gelber said. The names were culled from the city's WTC health registry, labor unions and news reports, she said. The study is now seeking data from the WTC medical monitoring program at Mount Sinai Hospital, the FDNY, medical examiners, and a class-action lawsuit for 9,000 Ground Zero workers.
Childhood poverty comes at great cost to U.S. economy
Saturday, 27 January 2007 7:52 P GMT-05
Children who grow up poor in the United States cost the economy $500 billion a year because they are less productive, earn less money, commit more crimes and have more health-related expenses, according to a new study.
Girl, 6, Embodies Cambodia's Sex Industry
Saturday, 27 January 2007 11:09 A GMT-05
The precise scale of Cambodia's sex trade is difficult to quantify. International organizations - such as UNICEF, ECPAT and Save the Children - say that anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 women and children are involved. An estimated 30 percent of the sex workers in Phnom Penh are under the age of 18, according to the United Nations. The actual figure may be much higher, activists say.
6-figure pay for care plan overseers
Saturday, 27 January 2007 11:06 A GMT-05
The Connector's executive director, Jon Kingsdale, who earns $225,000 a year, determined the compensation for other employees. The second-highest paid, deputy director Rosemarie Day, was hired at $195,000 a year, but her salary was reduced to $175,500 when she opted for a four-day week.
Dineyland for sociopaths
Saturday, 27 January 2007 4:23 A GMT-05
A bigger problem is that vast numbers of people are being gravely injured and have no idea what is happening to them. For instance, there are "insurance" contracts that prevent physicians from even informing their patients of needed treatments that their "insurance companies" (a euphemism for health extortion racket) don't want them to know about.
Scientist Says Chemtrails, Shuttle Launches Endangering Earth
Saturday, 27 January 2007 3:42 A GMT-05
This wasn’t entirely news. Ken Caldeira, the scientist at the Lawrence Livermore atom bomb laboratories who had run Edward Teller’s computer simulations for an atmospheric “sunscreen” had earlier told me that a program involving the spraying of millions of tons of sunlight-reflecting chemicals high in the stratosphere could “destroy the ozone layer.” What was news was an atmospheric scientists expressing concern over chemtrails.
Obama calls for universal health care
Thursday, 25 January 2007 6:06 P GMT-05
"I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country," the Illinois senator said.
Help Raise Money for Disabled 9/11 First Responders
Thursday, 25 January 2007 4:35 P GMT-05
So far we have raised just over $1,400 of the $5,000 goal. With the help of the community we can most assuredly meet, and then beat, this goal by the February 3rd deadline. I am asking for the help of everyone in the community in spreading this donation drive across the web, through workplaces, and onto the street - we all should agree that those disabled and unable to work from 9/11 deserve our help.
What it Meant When Abortion Was Illegal
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 8:43 P GMT-05
My father was a complex person who was difficult to know. He didn't become my hero until several years after his death in 1992, and for me, that carries all of the regrets that go with insight coming too late. He was muscular and strong, an outdoorsman and a hunter -- a man's man. The one and only time I saw him cry, I was a sophomore in high school. His lack of control was both a shock to me and a life-altering experience where my feelings for him changed in an instant. He became human. Dad was just home following his efforts to save a 16-year-old girl who had developed a raging infection from a "botched abortion." She was a student at the neighboring school so I didn't know her, but he knew her well.
DA: Young mother botched abortion with ulcer medication
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 8:36 P GMT-05
Instead of aborting the 24 to 25 week-old fetus, however, Amber Abreu gave birth to 1 1/4-pound baby girl. The infant, who was named Ashley, died four days later, prosecutors allege. Abreu pleaded not guilty today in Lawrence District Court to "procuring an improper miscarriage," a charge that could carry up to seven years in state prison. She was ordered held on $15,000 cash bail.
Depleted Uranium Poison Explosions Target US Citizens
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 8:27 P GMT-05
Only a few miles away from them on a federally owned 7,000 acre parcel of land in the Altamont Hills at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in San Joaquin and Alameda Counties, California, radioactive explosives containing Depleted Uranium are being shot out into the open air at a location called Site 300. Yes, Depleted Uranium is being exploded across the street from a motorbike recreational area. Site 300 is only a few miles away from where people live.
U.S. Prisoners Exposed to Deadly Chemicals in Toxic Sweatshops
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 7:24 P GMT-05
A single computer contains hundreds of chemicals -- including up to eight pounds of lead -- that are known to cause cancer, respiratory illness and reproductive problems, says the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Prisoners interviewed for the report cite health issues, including slow-healing wounds, sinus problems, headaches, fatigue, and burning skin, eyes, noses and throats. Since no one on the recycling floor was issued proper protective gear, the guards and other personnel who supervised the inmates fared little better.
Letter from Ron Paul on Medical Marijuana
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 6:24 P GMT-05
I think it is important to emphasize that the federal government has no constitutional authority to intervene in or regulate the medical or drug industries. Moreover, the federal government is prohibited by the Constitution (via the ninth and tenth amendments) from meddling in doctor/patient relationships. With that understanding, I can certainly agree that medical marijuana researchers and drug companies alike should receive "equal and fair treatment" from the federal government. Additionally, I would agree that there should be no federal ban on medical studies. This is why I am an original cosponsor of the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, which restores the ability to make decisions about medical marijuana to the states. I have also cosponsored and voted for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment to the Commerce, Justice, and State Appropriations Act that would defund federal prosecutions that violate the medical marijuana laws that states have enacted.
9/11 Cop Dies Just As His Son, Clinton's Guest, Faces Bush
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 5:37 P GMT-05
A former New York policeman died late Tuesday in a Manhattan hospital, just as his 21-year-old son prepared to appear at the State of the Union speech to symbolize the desperate health problems of his father and other sick Sept. 11 workers. The former officer, Cesar Borja, 52, had been in intensive care, breathing through a tube, at Mount Sinai Medical Center, awaiting a lung transplant. Hospital spokeswoman Lauren Woods confirmed the death late Tuesday.
If You’re Functioning, You’re Not An Alcoholic
Monday, 22 January 2007 9:34 P GMT-05
Only in America. Only in America do we have to label every vice a ‘disease.’ Only in America are all our hobbies suspiciously probed until we can figure out a way to classify them as an ‘affliction.’ Are Americans so reluctant to admit to any sort of personal responsibility or decision making capability that they can’t even enjoy a glass a wine with dinner without wondering if they should seek treatment? The whole goddamn concept of functioning alcoholism is bullshit. Functioning alcoholic equals NOT A FUCKING ALCHOLIC.
Exposing the 9-11 Dust and Deceit
Sunday, 21 January 2007 9:15 A GMT-05
In fact, the 9-11 dust was extremely caustic and in August of 2003, the EPA issued a report documenting changes made by the Bush administration to the EPA's initial cautionary statements, which were originally worded to warn the public of the dangers in the dust. These warnings were changed to reassurances and the public never heard the truth. These lies have resulted in at least 70,000 people getting sick from breathing the toxic dust, and now, over five years later, they are dying. If you think our own government isn't capable of deliberately allowing its own citizens to become sickened and die, think again.
Spice Healer
Friday, 19 January 2007 2:28 A GMT-05
A chapter in a forthcoming book, for instance, describes the biologically active components of turmeric--curcumin and related compounds called curcuminoids--as having antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties, with potential activity against cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease and other chronic maladies. And in 2005 nearly 300 scientific and technical papers referenced curcumin in the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database, compared with about 100 just five years earlier.
New Orleans Feels Pain of Mental Health Crisis
Friday, 19 January 2007 2:15 A GMT-05
Sixteen months after Hurricane Katrina tore this city apart, a hidden sort of damage is emerging. Local officials see it in reports of suicides, strokes and stress-related deaths. They see it in the police calls for fights and domestic violence. They see it in the long waiting lists for psychiatric care that they have no way to provide. These days, life in the Big Easy isn't easy at all. Everyone from the mayor to the people staffing the public health clinics sees it: New Orleans is facing an unprecedented mental health crisis - and the city has no way to deal with it.
Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers
Thursday, 18 January 2007 10:13 P GMT-05
Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks.
DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar.
Terror suspect was terrorized in a Navy brig
Wednesday, 17 January 2007 4:07 P GMT-05
``It is my opinion that as the result of his experiences during his detention and interrogation, Mr. Padilla does not appreciate the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him, is unable to render assistance to counsel, and has impairments in reasoning as the result of a mental illness, i.e., post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated by the neuropsychiatric effects of prolonged isolation.'' On Friday, the federal judge postponed Padilla's trial from Jan. 22 to April 16 to allow the prosecution time to arrange its own examination of Padilla's mental state.
Medicare for All: The Only Sound Solution to Our Healthcare Crisis
Tuesday, 16 January 2007 6:17 P GMT-05
To add substance to these observations, consider the following: Not only are 47 million Americans uninsured (approximately 18.5 percent of the insurable market), 41 percent of Americans with incomes of $20,000 to $40,000 did not have health insurance for at least part of 2005, up from 28 percent in 2001; 53 percent with incomes under $20,000 lack health insurance. The number of people without health insurance rose 16.6 percent from 2001 to 2005; average health insurance premiums for a family of four are $10,880, which exceeds the annual gross income of $10,712 for a full-time, minimum-wage worker; lack of insurance causes 18,000 excess deaths a year; people without health insurance have 25 percent higher mortality rates; and, 59 percent of uninsured people with chronic conditions such as asthma or diabetes skip medicine or go without care.
First womb transplant in US planned
Tuesday, 16 January 2007 3:49 P GMT-05
But the planned operation, which Del Priore and his colleagues could attempt later this year, is stirring objections among some transplant and fertility specialists as well as medical ethicists. They question whether the procedure has been tested enough on animals and whether the benefit of being able to carry a pregnancy outweighs the risks for the woman and fetus.
If You Want Something Done Right...
Tuesday, 16 January 2007 3:33 P GMT-05
As I said, this movement has always supported the sick and the dying from the environmental disaster that was 9/11. It is time to dig deep, and give them the kind of support they need.
Rare brain worms latest border disease
Monday, 15 January 2007 9:02 P GMT-05
According to the Center for Disease Control, cysticercosis is an infection caused by the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium. Infection occurs when the tapeworm larvae are ingested, pass through the intestinal wall and enter the body to form cysticerci, or cysts. The cysts migrate throughout the body, resulting in symptoms that vary depending on whether they lodge in the muscles, the eyes, the brain or spinal cord.
Pentagon: Troops Fatter, Drinking More
Saturday, 13 January 2007 4:35 P GMT-05
U.S. troops were fatter and drank harder in 2005 than before the Iraq war started, according a Pentagon survey of more than 16,000 service members released on Friday.
Lies and Myths about Opiates
Friday, 12 January 2007 3:55 P GMT-05
In this short book, Dalrymple effectively deploys the authority of his personal experience together with analysis of the literature and some medical references, to make his case for the above. In doing so, he manages to place responsibility for the consequences of heroin use squarely where it properly belongs — on the shoulders of the user himself — without losing his underlying human sympathy for the person concerned. Referring to an addict who hospitalized himself after overdosing following his release from prison, despite having been warned by Dalrymple that his tolerance would be reduced, Dalrymple writes, “All of us know what it is like to give in to temptation, and to that extent the man was deserving of our compassion.” He also quotes one Dr. Chambard approvingly, suggesting that he “sympathizes with the predicament of people who poison their intelligence, without thereby absolving them from their responsibility for doing so, and without accepting uncritically their views of themselves.”
Sen. Johnson able to talk, begins therapy
Thursday, 11 January 2007 9:55 P GMT-05
"The fact that Tim is beginning to use words is remarkable, as is his strength and determination," his wife, Barb Johnson, said in a statement. "He even maintains his sense of humor when I share e-mails about his grandsons' adventures."
Three bacterial meningitis cases reported in Mass
Thursday, 11 January 2007 6:58 P GMT-05
Three young Massachusetts children are recovering from bouts of bacterial meningitis, and disease specialists are investigating whether a fourth child is stricken with the potentially lethal illness, state health authorities said this morning.
Victim owed compensation in CIA case, judge told
Thursday, 11 January 2007 5:51 P GMT-05
Dr. Cameron pioneered "psychic driving," by which he believed he could erase the memories of patients and rebuild their psyches without psychiatric defect. The idea intrigued the CIA, which recruited Dr. Cameron to experiment with mind-control techniques beginning in 1950. The experiments carried out at the Allan Memorial Institute at McGill University were jointly funded by the CIA and the Canadian government. They were part of a larger CIA program called MK-ULTRA, which also saw LSD administered to U.S. prison inmates and patrons of brothels without their knowledge, according to testimony before a 1977 U.S. Senate committee.
Filling up on Sweetened Research
Wednesday, 10 January 2007 9:19 P GMT-05
In his 1996 book "Smokescreen," former New York Times science reporter Philip Hilts wrote about how the tobacco industry manipulated research and attacked scientific data linking cigarettes to cancer. "We know perfectly well that company executives are not making actual scientific arguments about tobacco and disease," Hilts wrote. "They are simply making any arguments that might raise any doubt possible " to guarantee "a lack of broad urgency on the topic." A decade later, obesity is on the road to catching up with smoking as a leading cause of death in the United States. Today's children may face a lower life expectancy than their parents. There is fresh evidence that an industry linked to the crisis, the beverage industry, is engaging in tobacco tactics. It clearly hopes to maintain a lack of broad urgency.
Tortured in the death chamber
Monday, 8 January 2007 8:43 P GMT-05
LETHAL INJECTION was introduced following the reinstatement of capital punishment three decades ago by a state medical examiner in Oklahoma who had no experience in pharmacology or anesthesia, nor did any research on the subject. Despite this, 37 out of 38 states that use the death penalty adopted the untested procedure, claiming that it was a more “humane” way to put someone to death. A recently released Human Rights Watch study “found no evidence that any state seriously investigated whether other drugs or administration methods would be ‘more humane’ than the protocol it adopted.” As a coauthor of the study commented, prison officials “are more concerned with appearances than with the reality.”
Calif. gov calls for universal coverage
Monday, 8 January 2007 8:33 P GMT-05
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed to extend health coverage to nearly all of California's 6.5 million uninsured people, promising to spread the cost among businesses, individuals, hospitals, doctors, insurers and government.
Bird deaths shut down downtown Austin
Monday, 8 January 2007 8:21 P GMT-05
Police shut down 10 blocks of businesses in the heart of downtown Monday morning after dozens of birds were found dead in the streets, but officials said preliminary tests showed no air quality problems and the area reopened around 1 p.m.
Dangerous delays to see skin doctors
Sunday, 7 January 2007 7:15 P GMT-05
In a recent study, researchers posing as patients called 851 dermatologists in 12 cities, including Boston, to request an appointment for a "changing mole" -- a possible sign of skin cancer. The average wait was more than a month overall. Boston had the longest average wait -- 73 days -- though the city had the highest concentration of dermatologists, 4.3 per 100,000 residents.
What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses
Sunday, 7 January 2007 5:30 P GMT-05
Perhaps most worrisome is the medicalization of childhood. If children cough after exercising, they have asthma; if they have trouble reading, they are dyslexic; if they are unhappy, they are depressed; and if they alternate between unhappiness and liveliness, they have bipolar disorder. While these diagnoses may benefit the few with severe symptoms, one has to wonder about the effect on the many whose symptoms are mild, intermittent or transient.
Iraq Vets Left in Physical and Mental Agony
Saturday, 6 January 2007 5:05 P GMT-05
According to documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, 25 percent of veterans of the "global war on terror" have filed disability compensation and pension benefit claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration. One is a Jul. 20, 2006, document titled "Compensation and Pension Benefit Activity Among Veterans of the Global War on Terrorism," which shows that 152,669 veterans filed disability claims after fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. Of the more than 100,000 claims granted, Veterans Administration records show at least 1,502 veterans have been compensated as 100 percent disabled.
The 9-11 Dust, part III on Visibility 9-11
Saturday, 6 January 2007 12:32 P GMT-05
Soon after 9/11, our guest John Feal (a US Army veteran) started experiencing serious respiratory problems, a condition they now call "The World Trade Center Cough." He spent two months in the hospital while he battled with a host of health problems. Because of an arbitrary exclusion in the law, Feal, like many search and rescue workers who were injured during a two-week window at Ground Zero did not qualify for the 9/11 relief fund. Like thousands of others, John risked his own life to save others, but when he became sick and injured, he was abandoned and forgotten.
To Our U.S. Senators: Show Me the Money
Friday, 5 January 2007 8:44 P GMT-05
I am a true Public Servant. Everything I do goes directly to the health and safety of the Citizens of Lansing. I'm a good steward. I cut costs wherever I can, and attempt to maintain the funding to provide the same high level of service to our public. My staff spends absolutely no money that isn't absolutely necessary, and they work their tails off. Due to staff cuts I've got one employee who is doing three people's jobs. She's a single mother with three children at home. Yet she never complains, or shows frustration to the citizens she serves. She is a true public servant. I am commited to the concept that the citizens are my employer, and I owe them the best possible job I can do. I'm even willing to take a pay cut to accomplish it. How about all of you in Washington? Are you public servants, or political servants? I'm hoping for the former, but I fear it's the latter.
If You Want Something Done Right...
Friday, 5 January 2007 7:01 P GMT-05
As I said, this movement has always supported the sick and the dying from the environmental disaster that was 9/11. It is time to dig deep, and give them the kind of support they need. There are currently first responders who are having problems getting by month to month. We have people like David Miller who walks around with a mobile respirator, and Craig Bartmer going to places like the PSU to inform people of what's going on, but are too proud to ask for money... It's time for us to the right thing again. Please give what you can, and thank you.
Mother Wonders If Psychosis Drug Helped Kill Son
Friday, 5 January 2007 4:28 P GMT-05
At first, the psychiatric drug Zyprexa may have saved John Eric Kauffman's life, rescuing him from his hallucinations and other symptoms of acute psychosis. But while taking Zyprexa for five years, Mr. Kauffman, who had been a soccer player in high school and had maintained a normal weight into his mid-30s, gained about 80 pounds. He was found dead on March 27 at his apartment in Decatur, Ga., just outside Atlanta.
The hidden history of CIA torture
Thursday, 4 January 2007 2:47 A GMT-05
In battling communism, the United States adopted some of its most objectionable practices -- subversion abroad, repression at home and, most significantly, torture itself. From 1950 to 1962, the CIA conducted massive, secret research into coercion and the malleability of human consciousness, which, by the late 1950s, was costing $1 billion a year. Many Americans have heard about the most outlandish and least successful aspect of this research -- the testing of LSD on unsuspecting subjects.
The Top Ten Stories You Missed in 2006
Wednesday, 3 January 2007 4:59 A GMT-05
The Most Merciful Death is Baby Death
Tuesday, 2 January 2007 4:35 P GMT-05
You can point the finger at many, many people for the tragedy that was Alyssa’s life. But you want to know who I blame? That fucking pro-lifer nurse.
Michael Wolsey Interviews Penny Little - Audio Inside
Monday, 1 January 2007 6:36 P GMT-05
In this the 2nd of a 3 or 4 part series on the 9-11 Dust, Visibility 9-11 welcomes to the program Penny Little, producer of the new 9-11 documentary, 911 Dust and Deceit. One week after September 11th, Christie Todd Whitman stated that, "Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington D.C., that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.", even as the EPA had information to the contrary. In fact, the 9-11 dust was extremely caustic and in August of 2003, the EPA issued a report showing the changes the Bush administration made to the intial cautionary statements which were originally meant to warn the public of the dangers in the dust. These warnings were changed to reasurances and the public never heard the truth. These lies have resulted in thousands of people getting sick from breathing the toxic dust, and now, over 5 years later, they are dying. If you think our own government isn't capable of deliberately killing its' own citizens, think again.
What Have We Learned from the War on Drugs?
Monday, 1 January 2007 4:29 P GMT-05
Americans have curiously mixed attitudes about drug crimes. On the one hand, we blithely elect people to high office who did things that, had they been caught, might have earned them prison time. (In 2000, remember, George W. Bush was careful not to deny ever using cocaine.) On the other, we tend to see the stiff sentences given to those who were caught as fitting punishment for their contemptible behavior. In this realm, ideology has a way of overriding mere facts. We have learned, for example, that marijuana is a comparatively benign drug that has few risks and some apparent benefits. In 1999, a National Academy of Sciences panel said pot has "potential therapeutic value" for "pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation." The New England Journal of Medicine has endorsed medical marijuana. Eleven states have also approved the idea. Yet the Bush administration, like the Clinton administration before it, has spurned the idea. Not only has it actively fought state initiatives to let sick people get relief from cannabis, it has obstructed research to help patients.
Doctor and invention outlast jeers and threats
Sunday, 31 December 2006 7:31 P GMT-05
A Viennese physician first described the disorder in 1921. Decades later, nobody had nailed down the cause or devised a satisfactory treatment.
To Epley, it was a challenge ripe for picking.
By nature, the Klamath Falls native was a hands-on problem-solver. In college, he tinkered in the physics laboratories at the University of Oregon. His zeal for experimentation continued after he earned a medical degree from the school now called Oregon Health & Science University. During his surgical residency at Stanford University Medical Center, he helped develop an early cochlear implant to restore hearing. He opened a solo practice across the street from Providence Portland Medical Center in 1965.
Memos: NYC told Ground Zero air was unsafe
Friday, 29 December 2006 2:07 A GMT-05
The city allowed people to return to Manhattan after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers even though officials were told the air was not yet safe, according to an internal memo from a New York City Health Department official. The October 6, 2001, memo states that the city Office of Emergency Management -- called OEM -- and the Department of Environmental Protection -- referred to as DEP -- disagreed over the air quality following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. But it suggests commercial interests trumped safety concerns.
Obese may be denied priority NHS care
Thursday, 28 December 2006 10:38 P GMT-05
Smokers, people with alcohol problems and the obese could be denied priority treatment on the NHS if they do not try to change their lifestyle.
The Cabinet is discussing the controversial idea as part of a drive by Tony Blair to secure his domestic political legacy by pushing through a final round of public service reforms before he departs next year.
More Dangerous Than Smoking? Death by Soda
Thursday, 28 December 2006 5:25 P GMT-05
Fortunately there is a growing movement across the country to ban sodas from schools. Indeed the feisty Killer Coke campaign, which focuses on the company's labor abuses and not Coke's negative health implications, has been successful is banning the product from over 10 major universities in the United States. But it would be wise to not just focus on the company's alleged murders in Colombia, and instead broaden the struggle against the soda industry by pointing out their complicity in the obesity epidemic worldwide. Because death truly is the "real thing."
What will they ban next week?
Wednesday, 27 December 2006 4:32 P GMT-05
The food prohibitionists don't understand that there are ways to influence people's behavior without resorting to coercion -- remember, coercion is the essence of government. The public fuss about harm from trans fats has already induced many food makers to remove them. It's suddenly become a competitive advantage to boast that your products are trans-fat-free. Such voluntary action is the best way to move toward healthier food. Why isn't that good enough for the prohibitionists? Why must they enlist the iron hand of government?
Large families 'bad for parents'
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 5:50 P GMT-05
The data showed that the more children a couple produced, the higher their risk of early death. The situation was worst for women, because they were affected by the physical costs of bearing the children. Fathers' mortality risk increased the more children they had, but never exceeded that of mothers.
Death by Dust: The frightening link between the 9-11 toxic cloud and cancer
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 4:15 P GMT-05
And that was before anyone knew of the apparent cancer link, first reported in the New York news media in the spring of 2004. Even more shocking is the incidence of cancer and other life-threatening illnesses that have developed among those participating in the recovery workers' lawsuits. Given the fact that some cancers are slower to develop than others, it seems likely to several doctors and epidemiologists that many more reports of cancer and serious lung illnesses will surface in the months and years to come. The fact that 8,500 recovery workers have already banded together to sue, only five years later--with 400 total cancer patients among their number--leads many experts to predict that these figures are likely to grow, meaning a possible death toll in the thousands. In many ways, these illnesses suggest the slow but deteriorating health issues that faced the atomic-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where thousands died in the years and decades that followed the United States' use of nuclear weapons. And that similarity has not been lost on David Worby, the 53-year-old attorney leading the joint-action suits on behalf of those workers who are already sick, and even dying. "In the end," Worby declares, "our officials might be responsible for more deaths than Osama bin Laden on 9-11."
Charges against Kan. abortion doc dumped
Sunday, 24 December 2006 6:01 P GMT-05
Most of the 30 misdemeanor counts Kline filed against Tiller involve abortions performed on patients 17 or younger, including a 10-year-old, according to the criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Sedgwick County District Court. Tiller's clinic, known for being one of the few in the country to perform late-term abortions, has been a high-profile target of anti-abortion protesters for decades. The clinic was bombed in 1985, and Tiller was shot in both arms by a protester in 1993. Kline has been investigating whether Tiller and other abortion providers performed illegal late-term abortions in Kansas or failed to report suspected child abuse as required by law.
Contraception Saves Money and Marriages
Sunday, 24 December 2006 4:07 A GMT-05
Studies conducted in 1948 and 1953, found that 26 percent of women and a whopping 50 percent of men had an extramarital sexual experience. But today, in our sex- and sin-saturated culture, the number of married people who have had an extramarital affair has plummeted to 6 percent of women and 10 percent of men, according to (conservative) Ben Wattenberg in his book The First Measured Century. (Editor's note: Statistics show a wide variation in the percentage of extramarital affairs, as high as 55 percent of women and 60 percent of men.)
Iraq Vets Falling Through Health-Care Cracks
Friday, 22 December 2006 12:18 A GMT-05
Pepper and Emme are among some 22,600 U.S. soldiers who have been wounded in the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations, most commonly by blasts. Fifty-nine percent of those injured by blasts have been found to have a TBI, which has been called the signature wound of this war. This and other features of the conflicts may be overwhelming the veterans' health-care system. "There are probably more people like these two guys who have a combination of PTSD and TBI, and that's probably something the VA has not seen in such numbers before," Okie said. "Because of the body armor, there is a higher survivor rate of those with multiple wounds, so a bigger influx of those with severe injuries and maybe head injury as well as amputations or wounds to the limbs. The VA's obviously got a big burden of people recovering from severe injuries, more than in previous conflicts."
'Red tape' delays money to ill 9/11 responder
Tuesday, 19 December 2006 7:07 P GMT-05
Joe Piccuro, who now suffers from chronic bronchitis among other ailments, was among the many who arrived to help at the World Trade Center on September 11. His is not the first complaint about how the workers' compensation system is not supporting Ground Zero workers who became sick after 9/11. A court hearing determined that New York State Insurance Corporation was required to pay for the 9/11 worker's illness. Piccuro tells Cavuto that the insurance company is stalling, hoping he will die soon.
More Deaths by Government
Wednesday, 13 December 2006 7:04 P GMT-05
The present article is dedicated to further expanding this critique of Rummel and Courtois. Here, we go beyond the War to Prevent Southern Secession (1861-1865), and roadway fatalities, to consider a whole host of other governmental causes of death of innocent people.
"60 Percent Of Ground Zero Workers Sick" PBS News
Wednesday, 13 December 2006 8:27 A GMT-05
Multinationals are Selling the Country Short
Friday, 8 December 2006 8:58 P GMT-05
So what's going on here, how have multinational drug companies been able to gouge us for years selling expensive drugs and then avoid paying tax on their astronomical profits? The answer is simple. For companies in certain businesses, such as pharmaceuticals, it is very easy to simply "invent" the price a company charges their U.S.business for buying the company's product which they manufacture in another country. And if they charge enough, poof; all the profit vanishes from the US, or Canada, or any other regular jurisdiction and end up in a corporate tax-haven. And that means American and Canadian tax payers don't get their fair share. Many multinational corporations essentially have two sets of bookkeeping. One set, with artificially inflated transfer prices is what they use to prepare local tax returns, and show auditors in high-tax jurisdictions, and another set of books, in which management can see the true profit and lost statement, based on real cost of goods, are used for the executives to determine the actual performance of their various operations.
SPEAKING OUT - An interview with Craig Bartmer
Thursday, 7 December 2006 7:58 P GMT-05
Former NYPD Officer Craig Bartmer was a 9/11 First Responder and a committed worker at Ground Zero. He, like many others who worked to clean Ground Zero, has developed respiratory illnesses as a result of the toxic dust inhaled at the site. Also like many others who were physically affected by the attacks, Craig Bartmer is now combating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In this interview he details his eyewitness account of the collapse of World Trade Centre Building 7. He also speaks out against the official 9/11 story, the lies told by the EPA about the air quality at Ground Zero and the critical need for a fresh independent investigation into the 9/11 attacks.
9/11 responders speak at PSU
Thursday, 7 December 2006 7:51 P GMT-05
David Miller and Craig Bartmer both responded to the World Trade Center attacks. Miller and Bartmer made the trip to Pittsburg Wednesday night to speak at Pittsburg State University about the health problems both are facing, which occurred after their involvement with the 9/11 rescue attempts. "My personal message is that first responders are sick," Bartmer said. "I'm watching my friend David die. There are 8,500 people on one lawsuit alone, 400 which have rare cancers. But we have the city (New York City) and EPA saying it's not related. We're trying to rally support. We are trying to start a charity called 9/11 Care charity."
The Overstated Addiction
Saturday, 2 December 2006 1:07 A GMT-05
The truth about methamphetamine is that its use is not growing exponentially, that addiction is treatable, and that the risks it poses to public health can be mitigated.
Arizona County Appeals Inmates’ Abortion Rights
Thursday, 30 November 2006 11:54 P GMT-05
Maricopa County enacted the unwritten policy restricting access to elective medical procedures in 1990. Transporting inmates for abortion services, county officials argue, takes corrections officers away from securing prison facilities and increases the chances of prisoner escapes.
Bill calls for 9/11 sickness funding
Monday, 27 November 2006 4:57 P GMT-05
As the White House prepares an FY2008 budget proposal to be released early next year, 27 bipartisan Members of Congress are asking President Bush to include robust funding for comprehensive medical monitoring and treatment of those made sick by the toxic air around Ground Zero (letter to Bush). The group, led by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Vito Fossella (R-NY), also urged the president to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a plan for the federal response to the 9/11 Health Crisis.
California Legislature Votes to Kill the Health Insurance Industry....
Sunday, 26 November 2006 7:14 P GMT-05
The bureauracracy that regulates health care in the US is shameful. There is no arguing for the system. It has turned against America, and is operating not to regulate the industry, but to protect it from competition and change.
Chinese Government Admits Executed Prisoners Organ Trade
Friday, 17 November 2006 5:22 P GMT-05
China has acknowledged for the first time the scale of "transplant tourism" — in which the organs of executed prisoners are sold to foreigners — and are to force doctors to pledge to stop the practice. The announcement is the government's most serious response yet to allegations that hospitals are conducting a lucrative and expanding trade in selling organs to foreigners arriving on tourist visas.
Chinese residents riot, attack hospital
Sunday, 12 November 2006 7:30 P GMT-05
The boy, who was about 3 years old, became sick after inadvertantly swallowing farm chemicals, but doctors at the facility in Sichuan province told his grandfather to raise more money for his treatment, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a faxed statement. When the grandfather returned to the Guang'an City No. 2 People's Hospital, the boy had died, the center said. It was not immediately clear if any effort was made to treat the child.
"Highway Howie" Blasts Drug War
Monday, 6 November 2006 5:50 P GMT-05
Howard Wooldridge is a member of LEAP – Law Enforcement Against Prohibition – one of more than 500 members of all branches of law enforcement, from cops on the beat to chiefs of police to federal judges and a governor, mostly retired. He contradicted the common wisdom that the war on drugs is a war to protect America's children. He spoke at Lincoln-Bassett School Thursday night at a forum sponsored by People Against Injustice. After his talk, an audience member said she was concerned that legalizing drugs would be approving drug use. He disagreed.
Hell And Back
Monday, 23 October 2006 3:45 P GMT-05
I pressed my doctor: What is the difference between sad and depressed? How do you know when you've crossed over? "Post-traumatic stress disorder is bandied about as a common diagnosis in this community, but I think that's probably not the case," he told me. "What people are suffering from here is what I call Katrina Syndrome -- marked by sleep disturbance, recent memory impairment and increased irritability. "Much of this is totally normal. Sadness is normal. The people around here who are bouncing around and giddy, saying that everything is all right -- they have more of a mental illness than someone who says, 'I'm pretty washed out.' "But when you have the thousand-yard stare, when your ability to function is impaired, then you have gone from 'discomfort' to 'pathologic.' If you don't feel like you can go anywhere or do anything -- or sometimes, even move -- then you are sick." And that was me.
Morality clauses, EC, and broken condoms
Saturday, 21 October 2006 6:59 P GMT-05
I have been asked about my sexual practices. Whether I'm 'monogamous' or 'in a relationship' if I'm married, if I have kids, how many kids I have, if I was raped or 'traumatized' but there wasn’t' ONE question about my health. Not one. The few places that said that they had a doctor who would occasionally write prescriptions for EC told me that I had to ask for that doctor specifically and then they proceeded to tell me that I would be 'interviewed' to see if I meet that doctors 'criteria' and then they proceeded to ask me all the above questions before telling me that I should 'try anyway' and I 'might be able to talk him into it'.
Medics beg for help as Iraqis die needlessly
Saturday, 21 October 2006 5:51 P GMT-05
The disintegration of Iraq's health service is leaving its civilians defenceless in the continuing violence that is rocking the country, Iraqi doctors warn today. As many as half of the civilian deaths, calculated at 655,000 since the 2003 invasion, might have been avoided if proper medical care had been provided to the victims, they say.
Judge Allows 9/11 Lawsuits to Go Forward
Friday, 20 October 2006 1:28 P GMT-05
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein dismissed claims against Consolidated Edison Co. and companies controlled by developer Larry Silverstein, saying they did not have legal control over the area and therefore were not liable for damages. But Hellerstein said the city, its contractors, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were only partially immune from lawsuits, with the precise scope and extent of the immunity varying according to date, place and activity. Andrew J. Carboy, a lawyer for plaintiffs, called the judge's decision "a first step forward in the legal system for these other victims of 9-11." Carboy, who represents 210 clients, mostly firefighters, said Hellerstein's decision comes as the number of people making claims climbs as high as 8,000.
350G Paycheck For City's 9/11 Scrooge
Tuesday, 17 October 2006 4:17 A GMT-05
The Post has reported that Captive, a self-insurance fund set up by the city in 2004 to cover claims from the WTC cleanup, had spent more than $40 million as of four months ago on overhead and lawyers. The company has refused to pay a single ill Ground Zero responder.
The terrorists who aren't in the news
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 5:28 P GMT-05
Had the criminal, David McMenemy, been Arab or Muslim, this would have been headline news for weeks. But since his target was the Edgerton Women's Health Center, rather than, say, a bank or a police station, media have not called this terrorism - even after three decades of extreme violence by anti-abortion fanatics, mostly fundamentalist Christians who believe they're fighting a holy war.
China's Execution Buses
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 5:46 A GMT-05
A Rush to Medicate Young Minds
Sunday, 8 October 2006 5:05 P GMT-05
I have been treating, educating and caring for children for more than 30 years, half of that time as a child psychiatrist, and the changes I have seen in the practice of child psychiatry are shocking. Psychiatrists are now misdiagnosing and overmedicating children for ordinary defiance and misbehavior. The temper tantrums of belligerent children are increasingly being characterized as psychiatric illnesses.
If America's So Great, Where's Our Health Care?
Sunday, 24 September 2006 3:54 P GMT-05
Among politicians and pundits, a universal, publicly funded system is off the table. But Americans in increasing numbers know what their leaders seem not to -- that the United States is the only industrialized nation where such stories as Joel's and Kiki's can happen.
And most Americans know why: the United States leaves the health of its citizens at the mercy of an expensive, patchwork system where some get great care while others get none at all.
The overwhelming majority -- 75 percent, according to an October 2005 Harris Poll -- want what people in other wealthy countries have: the peace of mind of universal health insurance.
More War Veterans Suffering From Stress
Saturday, 23 September 2006 2:45 P GMT-05
Nearly 64,000 of the more than 184,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have sought VA health care were diagnosed with potential symptoms of post-traumatic stress, drug abuse or other mental disorders as of the end of June, according to the latest report by the Veterans Health Administration. Of those, close to 30,000 had possible post-traumatic stress disorder, said the report.
Insurance Horror Stories
Friday, 22 September 2006 3:23 P GMT-05
Between 2000 and 2005, the number of Americans with private health insurance coverage fell by 1 percent. But over the same period, employment at health insurance companies rose a remarkable 32 percent. What are all those extra employees doing?
Now we know at least part of the answer: they’re working harder than ever at identifying people who really need medical care, and ensuring that they don’t get it. In the past, they mainly concentrated on screening out applicants likely to get sick. Now, it seems, they’re also devoting a lot of effort to finding pretexts for revoking insurance after they’ve already granted it.
Pentagon Guantanamo ‘Fact’ Sheet Highlights High-Tops And Harry Potter, Distorts Real Issues
Sunday, 17 September 2006 5:11 P GMT-05
This week, the Department of Defense (DoD) released a document entitled “Ten Facts About Guantanamo.” The document contains relatively insignificant facts — all detainees receive a pair of “high-top sneakers” — and ignores the facility’s real problems.
Sick but Insured? Think Again
Sunday, 17 September 2006 4:07 P GMT-05
When Steve and Leslie Shaeffer's daughter, Selah, was diagnosed at age 4 with a potentially fatal tumor in her jaw, they figured their health insurance would cover the bulk of her treatment costs. Instead, almost two years later, the Murrieta, Calif., couple face more than $60,000 in medical bills and fear the loss of their dream home. They struggle to stave off creditors as they try to figure out how Selah can keep seeing the physician they credit with saving her life.
No 2B$ For First Responders
Friday, 15 September 2006 3:48 P GMT-05
Senate Republicans killed a bid for nearly $2 billion to help sick 9/11 responders yesterday - blocking the measure without letting it come up for a vote.
Iraq war's signature wound: Brain injury
Friday, 15 September 2006 1:10 P GMT-05
So far, about 1,000 patients have been treated for the symptoms, which include slowed thinking, severe memory loss and problems with coordination and impulse control. Some doctors fear there may be thousands more active duty and discharged troops who are suffering undiagnosed.
Democrats ask for investigation of former EPA director on 9/11 health issues
Thursday, 14 September 2006 5:11 P GMT-05
At hearings last week in New York, Whitman was the most frequent target of lawmakers who charged that ground zero workers were not protected as they worked to clear the pile of toxic debris. Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, declared in the days after Sept. 11 that the air in lower Manhattan was safe for workers and residents. But she has said she and the EPA always differentiated between the air quality in lower Manhattan and at ground zero.
70% of Ground Zero workers have major health problems
Thursday, 7 September 2006 1:15 A GMT-05
I'm in a truly foul mood. In this "all 9/11 propaganda all the time" world we are in now, especially as we are coming up on the 5th anniversary of the attacks, a major study to be released tomorrow by The Mount Sinai Medical Center will provide more proof that politics, warmongering, lies, propaganda, photo ops and flat out negligence by the Bush Administration, as well as NYC Mayor Bloomberg are more important than the extremely brave people who worked tirelessly at Ground Zero in the days and weeks after the attacks.
Ten months after Katrina: Gutting New Orleans
Monday, 28 August 2006 9:48 P GMT-05
Not a single dollar of federal housing repair or home reconstruction money has made it to New Orleans yet. Tens of thousands are waiting. Many wait because a full third of homeowners in the New Orleans area had no flood insurance. Others wait because the levees surrounding New Orleans are not yet as strong as they were before Katrina and fear re-building until flood protection is more likely. Fights over the federal housing money still loom because Louisiana refuses to clearly state a commitment to direct 50 percent of the billions to low and moderate income families.
Experts: Let's go back to using prisoners as guinea pigs
Sunday, 27 August 2006 3:33 P GMT-05
"It strikes me as pretty ridiculous to start talking about prisoners' getting access to cutting-edge research and medications when they can't even get penicillin and high-blood-pressure pills," said Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News, an independent monthly review. "I have to imagine there are larger financial motivations here."
Get Sick, Go Broke
Sunday, 27 August 2006 2:03 P GMT-05
We reported that about half of all bankruptcies occurred in the financial aftermath of a medical problem. What really chapped the insurance industry, however, was our finding that about three-quarters of these families had some form of health insurance at the onset of their illnesses or accidents. We concluded that not even the insured were safe in America.
‘Morning After Pill’ Goes ‘Over the Counter’, Sort Of
Friday, 25 August 2006 7:30 P GMT-05
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced it had approved an emergency contraceptive for over-the-counter sale to men and women age 18 and older. The decision was years in the making and fraught with accusations of political interference.
9/11 Rescue Workers denied medical benefits/leaves
Sunday, 30 July 2006 5:01 P GMT-05
They feel betrayed by a government that said the air was safe and cast aside by officials who failed to address the sweeping nature of the resulting epidemic. Above all, these personal accounts stand as an indictment of a neglectful city and country, which must now right the terrible wrong of forgetting those who did the extraordinary at great personal cost.
Autism, mercury, and politics
Saturday, 8 July 2006 5:06 P GMT-05
MOUNTING EVIDENCE suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays, and other childhood neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.