tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61162291258572671282024-02-08T10:48:12.578-05:00Just Saying . . .Ramblings about Writing, Science, and LawAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.comBlogger439125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-54429792958644184502016-04-25T06:34:00.000-05:002016-04-25T06:34:47.629-05:00An Unexpected Honor<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Without going into specific details, there is a nagging issue that
occupies a large space in my mind. This issue through a variety of experiences
and observations has been present in my thinking since my childhood and has
recently come to the front burner, so to speak, in a way that I could never
have imagined. First, let me describe the honor that has been bestowed upon me
by a small, elite group of people, the Detroit Public Schools Board of
Education, who have been elected by the citizens of Detroit for the purpose of
providing all Detroit schoolchildren the free public education mandated by the
Michigan Constitution. The ‘honor’ is that I have been selected by the Board to
represent the 58,000 children of the school district to restore some semblance
of sanity to a system that has been run aground by our Michigan state officials
and the recent emergency managers since the state took control of the school
district in 1999. In a subsequent blog I will describe what my personal ‘issue’
is as well as the plan to change the downward spiral of the DPS. But first,
there is some extremely important background information that must be presented
to place the current dilemma in appropriate context.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">At the time of the initial takeover, the school district had a
$93 million budgetary surplus, a large chunk remaining of a $1.5 billion bond
approved by Detroit voters in 1994 for providing necessary repairs, renovations
of district schools and new school buildings. There were 178,000 children in
the district at that time and the district was acknowledged to be the
best-performing school district in the country of districts containing over
100,000 students. To make a long story short, the state now manages a school
district of some 58,000 children more or less, that is considered to be the
worst in the country where it counts, i.e., education performance, and has a
half billion-dollar deficit. The damage done to individual children of the
district is the incalculable loss of life opportunities that an adequate education
would and should have been provided. The damage done to Detroit schoolchildren
is the equivalent of the Flint water crisis on steroids.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Who does the Michigan legislature and governor blame for this fiasco?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The local publically-elected school board, of
course. The reality is the school board and local officials bear no responsibility
for this current fiasco. Gov. Snyder’s standard response for Republican-created
disasters, such as the instant situation and the Flint lead-poisoning crisis,
is to lay the blame on someone else, particularly the locals. Politicians find
that when they’re sniffing around for votes, it plays very well in the suburbs
and western Michigan to blame the current on the fine people of Detroit. It’s
all part of the welfare myth that serves as the basic credo of a certain political
party. The rubric goes like this; All black and poor people want welfare so they
don’t have to work while hard-working others have to pay.</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> In actual fact, the welfare
queens of American are big businesses; State and local governments annually award
at least $110 billion in taxpayer subsidies to business, with 3 of every 4
dollars going to fewer than 1,000 big corporations, Add the federal contribution
and the combined cost of these corporate welfare programs is $1.539 trillion
per year. The three main programs needy families depend upon — Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/olab/sec3i_tanf_2014cj.pdf" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; transition: color 0.3s; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">$17.3 billion</span></a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: auto; text-align: start; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">), food stamps (</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/02/26/74-Billion-Food-Stamp-Program-Budget-Crosshairs" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; transition: color 0.3s; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">$74 billion</span></a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: auto; text-align: start; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">), and the Earned Income Tax Credit (</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/09/07/eight-tax-breaks-that-cost-uncle-sam-big-money/" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; transition: color 0.3s; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">$67.2 billion</span></a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: auto; text-align: start; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">) — cost $158.5 billion in total. This means we spend ten
times as much on corporate welfare and handouts than we do on welfare
for working families struggling to make ends meet.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stay
tuned for the next blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just saying . .
.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-31564034306018636722016-01-19T19:51:00.001-05:002016-01-20T06:11:14.974-05:00"Safe Nowhere" - An Exciting New Venture!<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">My latest novel <i>Safe Nowhere</i>, a
fictional account of the clashing of a brilliant and quirky new lawyer, Katie
Hornsby, with a powerful and crooked drug company and its deadly foreign
generic drug, will be released near the
end of February in print and e-book formats on Amazon, I-Books,
Barnes and Noble and other major sellers. The story
line of <i>Safe Nowhere</i> follows the pattern of my previous novels in presenting timely issues
of safety and corporate wrongdoing within the pharmaceutical industry and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">the book specifically addresses the lack of quality and purity of foreign generic drugs that are currently flooding the American marketplace. Katie Hornsby faces obstacle after obstacle in her fight to help her clients. A powerful combination of interests stack the deck against her quest.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">While Safe Nowhere is a work of fiction, it is written within the context of present-day reality. More than 83% of all U.S. prescriptions written in the United States are filled today with generic drugs.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> India’s generic drug industry is the source of more than forty per cent (40%) of our generic drug supply and routinely violates basic quality control standards and knowingly exports sub-par medicines. </span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">The Drug Controller General of India, G N Singh, recently offered an alarming</span></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/to%20be%20added" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">excuse</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span></a><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">for the transgressions of India’s generic makers, “Our society and our economy are different from those in the US. If I have to follow US standards in inspecting facilities supplying to the Indian market, we will have to shut almost all of those. We are not the US, the infrastructure and resources available there are much different from those in our country.” </span></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">If you are taking a generic drug, it is highly probable that you are one of millions of guinea pigs being unknowingly exposed to an ongoing crap-shoot-like experiment on the safety of these foreign products. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">According to the</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/FDA%20website"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">FDA</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">there
are 526 drug manufacturing plants in India making products for the U.S. market.
The agency has 10 investigators, soon to increase to only 19, to cover the
entire country. China, as another example, has 517 drug manufacturing plants making products that
will end up in the U.S. market. At last count there were three investigators
for the entire country.</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> Other
countries have had problems as well.</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">It was recently</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/Bate%20report">reported</a> that,</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> “The US Food and
Drug Administration found that foreign producers of drugs were
increasingly falsifying data about the quality of medicines, and . .
. issued six warning letters to companies in Mexico, Poland, the United Arab
Emirates, India, and Canada about the quality of active pharmaceutical
ingredients, over-the-counter solutions, and injectables.*</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">Under the rubric of “transparency,” the FDA has claimed on its</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/FDA%20website"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">website</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">in the past that “foreign drug manufacturing plants are routinely
inspected for compliance with applicable regulations, including the Current
Good Manufacturing Practices.”</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> and</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">that
the “agency ensured that generic makers adhered to proper manufacturing
standards and ‘the entire generic industry should not be judged by a few
isolated incidents'.”</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">This rose-colored
myopia is not borne out by reality. A more realistic assessment of
the FDA’s current ability to do its job correctly is found buried deep in the
FDA’s latest</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/Global%20Assessmentr%20Report"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">Global Assessment
Program report</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">that
tells the alarming truth; “Because of the vast and growing number of foreign
facilities, FDA does not have—nor will it—the resources to directly
inspect all the higher-priority facilities at desired frequencies.” and
“Inspections still account for only a small fraction of the more than 300,000
foreign facilities manufacturing or processing FDA-regulated products for
the U.S. market."</span></span><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> The danger potential is growing geometrically.</span></span><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; line-height: 150%;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/need%20cite" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">Imports</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref;"></span></a><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">of
foreign-made drugs increased by nearly five-fold from 2007 to 2013 and India
and China, the leaders of the pack, expect more than 400 per cent increases in
their product exports by 2020. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Just saying . . . .</span></div>
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</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-50280998983227894272015-04-05T06:14:00.001-05:002015-04-05T06:14:43.507-05:00Man Up, Republicans!<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Perhaps my wife's dearest mentor as a child was a neighbor who had
spent part of his life in politics.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">One of the favorite expressions that he shared frequently with her was
that 'politicians can smell a vote a mile away." This summarizes what this
entire business of why all these goofy politicians have spent so much time and
effort on anti-gay legislation that flies in the face of constitutional principles
as well as just plain common sense.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Let me digress a moment so that my point can be placed in an
appropriate context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A short video
interview of a florist in Georgia by a Huffington Post reporter is currently
posted on its website. That florist is adamant that she would not provide services
to gay couples for the purpose of having flowers present at a wedding ceremony.
She relies on the Bible and her well-honed religious beliefs that she cannot
condone such sinfulness by others. That would be wrong, she says. In the next
breath, she freely admits that she would willingly provide all of her services
to adulterers. The last time I checked the Ten Commandments which do appear in
the Bible, there is nothing in those commandments preventing LGBT marriages, but
it is pretty clear that "</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Thou
shalt not commit adultery" is front and center. The definition, by the
way, of what constituted adultery early on permitted a married man to have sex
with his slaves and single women, but not another man's wife. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Now, connecting
the dots, it is crystal clear that most of the anti-gay crap is hypocritical in
the extreme, particularly when another one of the Commandments states,
"Love thy neighbor as thyself." (I guess having sex with slaves and
single women came under a hybrid version of 'loving thy neighbor'.) What is also
clear is that those who are fervently opposed to any type of same sex
relationships will vote for any politician who (apparently at least through the
Republican primary season) shares the same beliefs. One of the quirks of the
selection of the Republican presidential candidate is the need to run through
the gauntlet of a series of primaries in which the majority of actual voters
are fundamental Christians opposed to same sex anything. Politicians 'smelling
votes' will say anything that appeals to this group. I submit that what is
needed is a Republican candidate who has the guts to 'man up' and say that such
discrimination against gay and lesbian people is wrong. This position should be stated
during the primary season, not after the nomination has been nailed down and
the winner finds himself in a general election. The majority of Americans are
smart enough to spot phony hypocrisy when they see it, so when the flip-flopping
on the issue occurs after the primary season is over, it will cost the Republican
candidate for president dearly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
amount of Koch brothers or Adelman's money will offset the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Just saying . .</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-29576771066210133982015-01-29T06:52:00.000-05:002015-01-29T06:52:30.008-05:00Sayonara<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Andrew Sullivan, perhaps one of the
most prolific bloggers of our time recently announced that after fifteen years
he is retiring from this activity. In his latest post, he discussed what he
would do next. “I want to read again, slowly, carefully,” he wrote. “I want to
absorb a difficult book and walk around in my own thoughts with it for a while.
I want to have an idea and let it slowly take shape, rather than be instantly
blogged.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">When I read his comments, it
reminded me that my postings on “Just Saying . . .” have dwindled
more and more each of the last three years. In 2015, I’ve published two posts, twenty in 2014, thirty-one in 2013, more than sixty in 2012, and a
total of four hundred and sixty four times since my blogging activity began in
2008. The impulse to tell the reason for the decline has been percolating
over the last year, and Sullivan’s announcement has moved me past the ‘I’ll do
it tomorrow” point to this posting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">First of all, I need to digress and
explain my initial venture into blogging. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 2008, I’d spent nearly six years writing most of the novel “Serenity”
but I couldn’t figure out how to end the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was stuck. The common malady is generally called “writer’s
block.” It took four years of maintaining the practice of nearly daily blog writing
before the block disappeared and I was able to finish the story. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a humorous and coincidental aside, every
time I now type the word “blogging” my Auto-correct changes the word to “bogging,” which
neatly depicts the state of my writing and mind when I started blogging, i.e. “bogging”
begat “blogging.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">The purpose of my blogging was to
help me, a retired senior citizen, develop the practice of consistent daily
writing to keep me occupied in a fruitful manner while my golf game, and
various and sundry other activities, declined in what might be viewed as in an “age-related”
fashion. After completing Serenity, I was able to focus more clearly on another
project that, as Mr. Sullivan so aptly characterizes as ”an idea that slowly
takes shape," the net result being the near-completion of another novel which
is now in the final stages of editing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As that project is slowly coming to an end, other ideas have “slowly
taken shape” and I am now at work on another novel, revising my first
book, and writing two screenplays based on Serenity and the new novel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">So, what I am “just saying” is that
my blog posting is coming to an end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thanks so much for having allowed me to present my thoughts, good or
bad, to you this past seven years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-32185930094416543112015-01-28T05:27:00.000-05:002015-01-28T06:13:38.544-05:00Money Talks!<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">An extremely interesting statement
appears in the New York Times this morning (January 29, 2015) in a story about the Koch brothers
900 million dollar plan to grasp control of state and federal governments in
the 1916 elections. The statement “The group’s budget, disclosed by a
conference attendee, reflects the rising ambition and expanded reach of the
Koch operation, which has sought to distinguish itself from other outside
groups by emphasizing the role of donors over consultants and political
operatives.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">” tells all of us and,
hopefully, members of the U.S. Supreme Court that money buys results. The 5-4 Citizens
United decision five years ago danced around the definition of corruption and the
Court reversed its own decisions as well as a legislative history of over 100
years in giving corporations and individuals the unlimited right to donate as
much money as they want in exercising their, ahem, first amendment right to
participate in our rapidly-evolving oligarchic-hybrid form of democracy. This hybrid
has as its motto “Money talks.” This is no equal playing field, folks. The
millions of us who are willing and able to contribute fifty or a hundred
dollars to a favorite candidate are being left in the literal dust as the Koch-types
purchase more and more politicians to advance their own objectives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Under current law, campaign
contributions are illegal if there is an explicit quid pro quo, and legal if
there isn’t. But legal campaign contributions can be as bad as bribes in
creating obligations, the tit-for-tat being the gateway to bribes. In the
current campaign financing system, candidates receive cash and respond by
serving donors’ interests. Politicians spend more than half their time talking
to their funding sources, seeking money and keeping them happy. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">We will undoubtedly hear current Republican members of
Congress campaign the next election cycle parroting what the Koch brothers want.
Statements like “I voted to repeal Obamacare 42 times” will be viewed by the
Kochs as an affirmation of their control over these politicians, because the pols
really don’t give a damn what or how they do things so long as the money
continues to flow. Unlimited spending on these politicians is a poison that has
entered the bloodstream of American democracy. </span><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">This
process is a real threat to our democracy. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">If
left unchecked, the country is going to go to “hell in a hand basket.”</span><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Just saying . . <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-12736146013952609402015-01-19T04:53:00.000-05:002015-01-19T04:53:21.668-05:00News on Serenity<br /><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #283d4b; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 0.67em;">
Interview with writer Tom Bleakley, Novel Winner for SERENITY</h1>
<div class="entry-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">
<span class="posted-on" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/2015/01/18/interview-with-writer-tom-bleakley-novel-winner-for-serenity/" rel="bookmark" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2015-01-18T20:27:40+00:00" style="box-sizing: border-box;">January 18, 2015</time></a></span> <span class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin-right: 10px;"><span class="author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a class="url fn n" href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/author/wildsoundreview/" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">wildsoundreview</a></span></span> <span class="entry-categories" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/category/interview-2/" rel="category tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">Interview</a></span><span class="entry-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/book-winner/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">book winner</a>, <a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/festival/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">festival</a>, <a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/novel-festival/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">novel festival</a>, <a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/novelist/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">novelist</a>, <a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/review/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">review</a>, <a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/serenity/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">serenity</a>, <a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/tom-bleakley/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">tom bleakley</a>, <a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/wildsound/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">wildsound</a>, <a href="http://wildsoundfestivalreview.com/tag/writing/" rel="tag" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">writing</a></span></div>
</header><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">
<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Watch the Novel Reading from SERENITY (Chapter 3) from the Writing Festival:</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><div class="jetpack-video-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span class="embed-youtube" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" data-height="315" data-ratio="0.49606299212598426" data-width="635" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/As-0uNRMm9g?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: 315px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 635px;" type="text/html"></iframe></span></div>
</ul>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Performed by Alissa DeGrazia</div>
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<a href="http://www.wildsoundfestival.com/serenity.html" rel="nofollow" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1185d7; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;">http://www.wildsoundfestival.com/serenity.html</a></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Interview with Writer Tom Bleakley:</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: What is your novel about? </span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: Serenity is a legal thriller, a fictionalized version of a real case. The story revolves around an unfaithful husband headed toward divorce who is prescribed a drug notorious for causing the side effect of unremembered bizarre behavior, including homicide. The husband kills his wife., but claims to remember nothing about the incident The book asks, “Who is to blame?” Is it the husband who kills to preserve his fancy life style, or the avaricious drug company that attempts to hide news of the drug’s terrible effects to keep the billions of dollars of sales from crashing? The husband is tried for murder and he claims that the drug caused him to kill. A jury decides his guilt or innocence — or does it?</em></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: Why should people read this novel?</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: The main reason is to inform the public about risks of prescription drugs in a manner that is interesting and intellectually stimulating. While the work can be described as fiction, great care has been taken to present a story line that closely adheres to an ongoing event occurring with a currently marketed drugs. As a reviewing journalist for a Detroit newspaper wrote “Serenity . . . should be used as a framework for major changes in our pharmaceutical industry and it’s government oversight. I think it should be on every concerned U.S. citizen’s Top 10 reading lists.” </em></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: How long have you been writing stories? </span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: I have been writing in one mode or another since high school</em></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: What movie have you seen the most in your life?</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: “What about Bob?” Anything by Bill Murray. He makes me laugh.</em></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: What artists would you love to work with? </span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper.</em></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: How many stories have you written? </span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: A trial lawyer is, in effect, a story teller. During my legal career, I’ve tried more than seventy major lawsuits against the pharmaceutical industry. If this answer is to be limited to the writing of fiction, I have written eighteen short stores or novels. </em></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years? </span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: I love writing and I want to be sitting at my desk writing for three-four hours every day. </em></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing? </span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: I write early in the morning., generally from 4 A.M. to 8 A.M. I have attempted to write Elmore Leonard-style (without an outline) but find that a carefully developed outline both motivates me and takes me down interesting and, sometimes, unexpected pathways.</em></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about? </span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: My eight grandchildren, music (I play the tuba in several concert bands, trombone, euphonium, piano, guitar and banjo), reading, and a love/hate relationship with the game of golf. I’ve exercised nearly every day for more than sixty years.</em></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Festival? </span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: Putting oneself ‘out there’ to be judged/assessed by others is an excellent way to hold oneself accountable for the quality of writing.</em></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Gentium Basic', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Matthew: Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers? </span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom: Develop the habit of writing on a daily basis. </em></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-29400095309942734292014-12-13T03:42:00.001-05:002014-12-13T03:42:51.953-05:00<div class="MsoNormal">
I Need Some Help on This.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In mid-September 2008, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. In
the ensuing economic collapse, the greedy underbelly of our American banking
system was exposed for what it was, a tremendous crap-shoot involving credit-default
swaps and their ilk purchased by the investments of unknowing regular bank
customers. Successful swaps guaranteed banks and their wealthy owner-investors
millions upon millions dollars of minimally taxed profits with none of the gains
passed on to those whose money was used for those purchases. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, massive losses resulting
from ill-advised and shady deals using bank customers money were covered by tax
dollars bailouts paid by average Joe Citizens, i.e., the economic equivalent of
the rectal hydration tactics employed by the CIA (as recently reported), administered
to us not just once, but twice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The above is all background information for my plea for your
help for the following reasons. The bipartisan funding bill that just passed Congress
sets aside the protections established to separate regular banking activities
from risky speculation to prevent the 2008 scenario from recurring. In other
words, once the bill is signed, banks will be free to use your money (and mine)
to gamble recklessly again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What follows is a form letter I am sending to the banks
where I keep my accounts. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dear Bank,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is my understanding that the recent funding bill passed
by Congress includes a rider allowing the banking industry to mingle activities
of regular banking activities with risky speculation efforts such as using
regular bank investments in the purchase of credit default swaps. As a result,
as a regular banking customer of yours, I have several questions for you; Are
you going to use monies obtained from normal banking procedures for the purpose
of engaging in such risky financial ventures? If you do engage in risky
speculative efforts with my money, are you planning on sharing any profits
realized from those investments with me? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you lose money on any risky speculative ventures, do you
expect the American taxpayers to restore any lost funds to you with tax money? I
would like responses to these questions as promptly as possible so that I may restructure
my current financial assets in a manner that protects me and my family from a
situation similar to the 2008 crash of the economy. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Very
truly yours,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
Bank Customer</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So this is what I need help on; I think that if the banks of
America receive only one such letter, it will be laughed off as simply coming
from a miserable old crank. However, if we all band together and submit one
million or more such letters, the banks may take the hint that the public is
not as stupid as they think we are. So help me and help yourself. Write letters
to every bank you do any kind of normal banking business with and request information
on their intentions with your money. Feel free to use the form letter above.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Just saying . . .</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-48840203679408772712014-10-30T04:59:00.000-05:002014-10-30T04:59:09.000-05:00The Bushes are Back<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heaven help us all. The Bush family dynasty is rearing its
ugly head again in the form of Jeb Bush ranting against President Obama’s
handling of the Ebola situation, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">an obvious first salvo in a run for the presidency</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Hasn’t this family killed enough Americans
(more than five thousand at last count) in trumped-up unnecessary wars to
sufficiently tarnish whatever grand proclamations any member of that silver spoon-clan
has to say about anything? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hasn’t
this family killed enough foreign citizens (more than 200,000 in Iraq alone) to
lose any credibility about how to handle a potential crisis?</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wait, you might say. Is it fair to
extrapolate the demagoguery and shortcomings of Georgie Junior to the younger
and more intelligent Jeb who can actually speak in full sentences, unlike his
older brother? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have daily
reminders of Junior’s handiwork in the holdings of the Supreme Court’s
far-right activist justices who have </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">equated money with speech in
deciding that elections will go to the highest bidder. The theme "Money Talks, Everyone
Else Walks" is the current electoral trend compliments of Junior-appointed
justices Roberts and Alioto. The Bush family message (and its legacy) has been
received. The government of the United States is for sale to the highest unnamed
bidders. I predict
we will have the opportunity to witness a first-class pandering of Tea Party
types by Jeb-Boy as he systematically moves far enough to the right by
demonstrating his hatred of all things Obama, the only way that he can possibly
be considered a serious candidate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bushes have done enough damage to our country already.
Let’s not go there again. Enough is enough.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just saying . . . </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-27168020035393197422014-10-06T06:33:00.003-05:002014-10-06T06:33:42.479-05:00Marijuana Kills Brain Cells in Teenagers<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A carefully done peer-reviewed study has demonstrated unequivocally that pot smoking in teenagers can result in a significant decline in IQ that appears to be permanent. The neurotoxic effect of cannabis on the adolescent brain highlights the importance of prevention and policy efforts targeting
adolescents. The authors of this study say "<o:p></o:p></span><span style="color: #262626;">Prevention and policy efforts should focus on delivering to the public the message that cannabis use during adolescence can have harmful effects on neuropsychological functioning, delaying the onset of cannabis use at least until adulthood, and encouraging cessation of cannabis use particularly for those who began using cannabis in adolescence."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Their findings suggest that
regular cannabis use before age 18 years of age predicts impairment. In the study,
the most persistent adolescent-onset cannabis users evidenced an average
8-point IQ decline from childhood to adulthood. Cannabis use in adolescence
causes brain changes that result in neuropsychological impairment. "Several
lines of evidence support this possibility (</span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">24</span><span style="color: #0a5193; font-family: "Menlo Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Menlo Regular"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">–</span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">31</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">, </span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">33</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">, </span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">34</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">).
First, puberty is a period of critical brain development, characterized by
neuronal maturation and rearrangement processes (e.g., myelination, synaptic
pruning, dendritic plasticity) and the maturation of neurotransmitter systems
(e.g., the endogenous cannabinoid system), making the pubertal brain vulnerable
to toxic insult (</span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">33</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">). Second, cannabis administration in
animals is associated with structural and functional brain differences,
particularly in hippocampal regions, with structural differences dependent on
age and duration of exposure to cannabinoids (</span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">33</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">).
Third, studies of human adolescents have shown structural and functional brain
differences associated with cannabis use (</span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">26</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">, </span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">29</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">, </span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">35</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">). The
association between persistent cannabis use and neuropsychological decline was
still apparent after controlling for years of education. However, the toxic
effects of cannabis on the brain may result in impaired neuropsychological
functioning, poor academic performance, and subsequent school dropout, which
then results in further neuropsychological decline. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">"Our finding of
neuropsychological difficulties among adolescent-onset former persistent
cannabis users who quit or reduced their use for 1 year or more suggests that
neuropsychological functioning is not fully restored in this time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">"Increasing efforts should be directed toward delaying the
onset of cannabis use by young people, particularly given the recent trend of
younger ages of cannabis-use initiation in the United States and evidence that
fewer adolescents believe that cannabis use is associated with serious health
risk (</span><span style="color: #0a5193; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">42</span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">). Quitting, however, may have beneficial effects,
preventing additional impairment for adolescent-onset users."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Madeline
H. Meier, Avshalom Caspi, Antony Ambler, HonaLee Harrington, Renate Houts,
Richard S. E. Keefe, Kay McDonald, Aimee Ward, Richie Poulton, and Terrie E.
Moffitt<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="color: #032854; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline
from childhood to midlife<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">PNAS 2012 109 (40) E2657–E2664; published ahead of print
August 27, 2012.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Just saying . . .</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-90090049983529891682014-09-27T06:04:00.004-05:002014-09-27T06:04:48.443-05:00Big Deal! So What?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The FBI has released a study which clearly
documents the rise in sporadic mass killins in the United States since the turn
of the century. The NYTimes notes “<span style="color: #262626;">The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/us/25shooters.html?_r=0"><span style="color: #27547e;">bureau’s new survey</span></a> across the past 13 years
concludes that horrific shootings like those in 2012 at the Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and the movie theater in Aurora, Colo.,
are occurring with greater frequency.</span> <span style="color: #262626;">The
average annual number of shooting sprees with multiple casualties was 6.4 from
2000 to 2006. That jumped to 16.4 a year from 2007 to 2013, according to the
study of 160 incidents of gun mayhem since 2000. (In 2000, The Times examined
100 spree killings, all those that the paper’s staff could find going back 50
years.) The F.B.I. report makes the shooters’ terrible effectiveness clear: 486
people were killed — 366 of them in the past seven years — and 557 others were
wounded, many of them gravely incapacitated for years afterward.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #262626;">My
reaction to all of this is ‘big deal.’ Only 486 people dead? So what? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll tell you the number of dead that
really gets my attention; </span>16,651<span style="color: #262626;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the number of people that died
in 2010 from physician-prescribed </span>opioid analgesics,
pain-relieving drugs containing narcotics (Percocet, Oxycontin, etc.). Let me
do the simple math for comparison. 486 dead over seven years is an average of
69.42 people for year killed in mass shooting sprees. I will be generous and
round the number off to 70. Now let’s look at the other example by way of
comparison. If the annual rate of deaths over the past seven years from narcotic
prescription drugs stayed the same, 116,657 people have died, a number that
really gets my attention. <span style="color: #262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that I, perhaps,
have your attention as well, the number of gun deaths each year is in excess of
31,000. This number is the total of annual deaths from all guns including those
guns that are carried legally throughout the United States, some into churches
and bars and college classes and Starbucks and wherever else a gun–toter may
fancy. Let me do some quick math again about that number, a number that really
does get my attention; 31,000 times 7 equals 217,000 people dead over the last
seven years. 486 is only 0.02% of those 217,000 people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Big deal? So what? The ‘big
deal and so what’ to me is that the NRA and its gullible-as-hell minions scream
(and spend millions of dollars lobbying and buying off our hapless politicians)
to protect the specious right to bear arms. The ‘big deal and so what’ to me is
that doctors and Big Pharma scream about unfair lawsuits and restrictions on
their right to kill people for profit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just saying . . .</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-41720158807800637642014-09-20T09:28:00.000-05:002014-09-20T10:13:05.972-05:00Another of Tom’s Stupid Jokes?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">I started out thinking that this blog was going to be a parody
of sorts of the dark humor beyond the circumstances of the various antics of
Jamie Winston, the Florida State star quarterback and last year’s Heisman
Trophy winner. I found it particularly humorous that two years after Mr.
Winston was accused of rape by another FSU student followed by a botched
criminal investigation, his arrest for shoplifting at a local Publix grocery
store, and the recent uttering of a swear word on campus, the only punishment
meted out for any misconduct was, until yesterday, suspension for the first
half of today’s football game because he said a bad word. Perhaps, it was more
drastic than simply washing his mouth out with soap, but not much. When the
public outrage clamored for more, the suspension was increased yesterday to a
full game! This is a Tom-like joke. It’s not funny and no one is laughing, (not
even me).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In the alleged rape case, as reported by the New York Times, the
police did not follow the leads that would have quickly identified Mr. Winston
as the suspect and witnesses, one of whom videotaped part of the sexual
encounter. After the accuser identified Mr. Winston as her assailant, the
police made no attempt to interview him for nearly two weeks and never
obtained his DNA. The detective handling the case waited two months to write
his first report and then suspended his inquiry without informing the accuser.
By the time the prosecutor got the case, important evidence had disappeared,
including the video of the sexual act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The detective also told the complainant's attorney that because Tallahassee was a
big football town, her client would be “raked over the coals” if she pursued
the case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In the shoplifting case, Mr. Winston was first arrested and it
was reported as such, then the police department claimed that it was not an
arrest, and he was given a ticket and sentenced to three or four hours of
community service. Publix’s usual policy is to prosecute all shoplifters as a
deterrent, but for some strange reason, it refused to do so in this case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.95pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">This Winston scenario occurred as professional football, colleges
and universities across the country face rising criticism over how they deal
with physical and sexual assaults as well as questions about whether athletes
sometimes receive preferential treatment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.95pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The upshot is that prominence of
football (collegiate and professional) and the celebrity of its star players
are so all-encompassing they tend to overwhelm all other considerations. It’s
been disgusting to see the ways in which the focus on episodes that started
with assaults on young children and women has been turned from these victims to
the impact on powerful men who have hurt them. A lot of time and energy is
spent on what we should do or feel most recently about Jamie Winston, Ray Rice,
Adrian Peterson and even Roger Goodell, the hapless NFL commissioner. Perhaps
the best example of this has been the nearly forgotten </span><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Penn
State episode. Penn State was just restored to active status in collegiate
football after what is referred to as the “Sandusky” thing. To briefly
reiterate, Sandusky, a vital part of the Penn State football program, abused
innocent young boys sexually for more than a decade while others, including the
legendary Joe Paterno, silently ignored the situation because of the damage it
might do to the football program. When it all came out, the student body at Penn State conducted a candlelight vigil outside the Paterno
home in sympathy for his plight, the NFL equivalent of that public reaction
being the women wearing Rice football jerseys in moral support of Rice’s
conduct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.95pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The thing that emerges from all
this is that we now have a clear understanding of the football power brokers’
priorities. NFL officials reacted, as did Paterno, with little more than a
shrug when the video of Rice battering his fiancée or the reports of Peterson
bloodying his little boy first surfaced and only went into action when sponsors
threatened boycotts if the league didn’t act. The public bears responsibility
here as well. The word on the street, I have heard it often, is that blacks do
beat their children and wives and Rice’s and Peterson’s behaviors must be
considered within that broader context.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.95pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To date, the message has been
loud and clear. To paraphrase the current response "Inaction does speak louder than words." In the eyes of college and NFL’s decision-makers and football
fans, it’s no great crime to rape little kids or susceptible college girls, beat up a woman or a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if a player damages the brand,
that’s another matter altogether. Particularly if a player tells the world he
is gay. Just ask Michael Sam. At last report, </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">an anti-gay group is planning to protest
the Dallas Cowboys after the team signed the openly gay football star onto its
practice squad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.95pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Just
saying . . .</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-62991028441857314492014-08-01T04:35:00.002-05:002014-08-01T04:44:28.973-05:00Big Brother is Probably Watching You<br />
<span style="background-color: #fbfbea;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: nyt-franklin, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The revelation of the CIA spying on Congress is not an isolated incident. In trying to explain the damage inflicted by the wrongdoing, the editors of the New York Times in today's paper state "It is all of Congress and, by extension, the American public, which is paying for an intelligence agency that does not seem to understand the most fundamental concept of separation of powers." I submit that it is not just the concept of separation of powers the agency ignores, but the constitution of our United States and its regard for such individual liberties as freedom of speech. The Times editorial discusses the "lawless culture that has festered within the C.I.A. since the moment it was encouraged by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to torture suspects and then lie about it." The current situation is best epitomized by the prosecution and imprisonment of the only one in the entire government who told the truth to an unsuspecting public. His crime? Revealing that the CIA employed torture in interrogating subjects post-9-11. A great number of individuals, including our former president and veep and the CIA sheep that acted under their direction went unpunished for their crimes, while a CIA agent (John Kiriakou) exposed the illegal (and immoral) actions and in now sitting in prison for his heroic efforts. The recently released film,"Silenced," is a must-see for all American citizens to understand that CIA wrongdoing goes well beyond spying on Congress. The Snowden revelation that t</span></span></span><span style="background-color: #fbfbea;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: nyt-franklin, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;">he NSA's routine screening of everything we do or say or write means that we are all at risk of being charged with serious crimes for the simple exercise</span></span> of our basic rights. </span><span style="background-color: #fbfbea; color: #333333; font-family: nyt-franklin, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next question; Will I be paid a visit or put on some secret 'traitor' list simply for writing these words? Wake up America. This is not some delusional, paranoid rant, but a realistic question based on fact, not fantasy. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fbfbea;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: nyt-franklin, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #fbfbea;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: nyt-franklin, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just saying . . .</span></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-41435197585790857752014-06-20T05:18:00.000-05:002014-06-20T05:18:34.621-05:00Shocking News!!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Only 28% of
Americans view Walmart unfavorably. I was shocked when I read this statistic.
Holy Kattootie, I thought to myself. Why would anyone not be critical of the
largest employer in America when the low wages it pays costs taxpayers $900,000
each year in subsidies for the employees at each Walmart superstore? </span><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13pt;">The average “associate” at Walmart makes $8.81 an hour — poverty
wage — according to the market-research firm IBISWorld, as of 2011. These poverty-level
wages force thousands of employees to look to food stamps, Medicaid and other
forms of welfare. The various subsidies cost taxpayers more than five thousand
dollars ($5000) per employee. The huge total cost to taxpayers is staggering as
the 1.4 million hard-working employees of Walmart look for help from the
government just to get by. </span><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13pt;">Walmart made $17 billion in profits last year. Executive
compensation for one man at the top of the food chain was more than $20 million
a year, and the six heirs of the founding Walton family are now worth at least
$150 billion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13pt;">The up-shot; Working at Walmart may not make one poor,
but it certainly keeps one poor — at the expense of the rest of us. Unless your
last name is Walton! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13pt;">Just saying . . .</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">There
is a common thread that runs through various national tragedies such as the
massacre of innocent six year olds at Newtown (Yes, it was a tragedy and not
the expression of a demented citizen simply exercising his second
amendment right to carry assault weapons into an elementary school that the </span><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13pt;">N.R.A.’s lobbying wing, the Institute for Legislative Action,
would have us think</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">). This common thread is that most sane, intelligent, sensitive, and rational
people think that certain limits should be in place to protect innocent people
(defined as men, women and children attempting to go about the day-to-day of
living life free from the fear that some a—hole is going walk into a church,
school, hospital to shoot them because the shooter is mad at his mother,
father, former girl friend, ex-employer, or even worse, no one at all) from
being shot to death.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In a perfect example of the inmates running the institution, </span><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">the Institute did have a lucid moment recently
of demonstrating and supporting the rational thinking that must be brought to
bear on dealing with these increasingly frequent incidents. Recent insane open-carry demonstrations
in Texas, led by the organization Open Carry Texas, provoked a statement on the
Institute's website calling the taking of assault weapons to
lunch at public venues “downright weird” and “downright scary.” That is to say,
we (nearly all of us) took one giant step forward. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think ‘moon landing’ in the realm of public safety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">But, after the “downright
scary and weird” crowd screamed and frothed at the mouth, the Institute removed
the offending statement. Chris W. Cox, the N.R.A.’s chief
lobbyist, explained that the organization “unequivocally” supports open carry
and insisting that it’s “been the leader of open carry efforts across the
country.” The state of Michigan is a good example of these “efforts” which includes
attempts to allow open carry in churches and bars, havens where it is obviously
necessary to demonstrate the size of one’s penis, oops, I mean gun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Two steps back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just saying . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-13478146427352695882014-06-04T06:01:00.000-05:002014-06-04T06:05:42.963-05:00A Purpose On Purpose<div class="MsoNormal">
When I was a kid one of the most often-used expressions we
used was the phrase “on purpose.” If I broke a window in the neighborhood with
a baseball, the real issue broke down to whether or not I did it “on purpose.”
If I emptied the cookie jar and did it ‘on purpose’ (how else does one eat more
than their share of cookies?) I would get punished. As a result, we learned to
say “I didn’t do it on purpose” right upfront when the issue of our behavior in
any situation was likely to be raised.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me switch topics briefly. I have the continuous
privilege of being associated with a wide variety of remarkable people who, as
the younger set likes to say, are “really into music.” As a prime example, in
the Suncoast Concert Band in Sarasota, Florida I sit next to Bill Millner in
the tuba section. From mid-October to the end of April, the band rehearses
three times every two weeks and plays sixteen concerts each season to
sold-out audiences. By way of an additional example, there’s a guy, Jim
something, in the clarinet section of the band who will be 100 years olds in
the near future. Then there's Joe Bruno, an outstanding trumpet player, in his late
eighties, leads an active and fabulous Dixie-land band and has played for years
with the nation’s finest singers and bands. I could go on-and-on about others as well. In Venice, Millner, 86 years of
age, also leads and conducts the Venice Concert Band through a similar season
of rehearsals and sold-out performances. More than a thousand people flock to monthly concerts and 800 season tickets for <i>next year's</i> concerts sold out in less than a day earlier this spring. In addition, Bill gets huge laughs for
telling some really bad jokes during these concerts. I know they’re bad jokes
because when I repeat them to my friends, I just get blank stares,
and I know it can’t be how I tell them. I do think it is important, however, to
always give the punch line of a joke right up front. But I digress. Notwithstanding
the jokes, Bill is a shining example of a man with a purpose whose age is only
an after thought. I should mention that he also plays frequent gigs professionally.
The word ‘ageless’ comes to mind. Bill and the others represent
the kind of people found in both bands, around sixty really fine musicians
whose lives, in part, are centered around performing good music to appreciative
audiences. And good music it is, for these are pretty darn good musicians. Most
of these band members are retired musicians, or teachers of music: All with the
sense of purpose of maintaining their substantial musical skills for the
pleasure and enjoyment of others. </div>
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<br />
An article in today’s New York Times talks about how
important a sense of purpose is in senior citizens. The article reports: <i><span style="color: #262626;">Patricia Boyle, is a neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s
Disease Center in Chicago. She and her colleagues have been tracking two
cohorts of older people living independently in greater Chicago, assessing them
regularly on a variety of physical, psychological and cognitive measures. What
have the scientists learned? Following almost 1,000 people (age 80, on average)
for up to seven years, Dr. Boyle’s team found that <a href="http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=210648"><span style="color: #27547e;">the ones with high purpose scores were 2.4 times more
likely to remain free of Alzheimer’s than those with low scores</span></a>;
they were also less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, often a
precursor. “It also slowed the rate of cognitive decline by about 30 percent,
which is a lot,” Dr. Boyle added.</span></i><i> “</i><i><span style="color: #262626;">Purposeful people were less
likely to develop disabilities . . . <a href="http://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/2009/06000/Purpose_in_Life_Is_Associated_With_Mortality_Among.13.aspx"><span style="color: #27547e;">those with high purpose had roughly half the mortality
rate</span></a> of those with low purpose. This <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/06/0956797614531799.abstract"><span style="color: #27547e;">protective effect holds through the years</span></a>.
Those with a sense of purpose “want to feel part of something that extends
beyond themselves.” People with purpose “have a sense of their role in the community
and the broader world.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">To tie this all together, these band members all
accomplish this “purpose on purpose.” To me, it’s as much fun as being a kid
again. Yes, I admit it. I do it "on purpose."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Just saying . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-70855830030884522762014-05-18T05:51:00.002-05:002014-05-18T05:51:28.045-05:00My Death Panel<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My
Death Panel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This
blog entry is respectfully dedicated to Sarah Palin who was for ‘Death Panels’
before she was against them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the rush to criticize the efforts of President Obama in his push toward the
passage of the Affordable Care Act, Ms. Palin raged against the inclusion of
coverage of physician-patient contacts for the discussion of how one wanted
his/her death circumstances to be handled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an article in this morning’s New York Times, this very
topic is discussed in detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
follows is an excerpt from that article by John Wasik;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #262626;">“Do your most important planning
early,” said Laurie Siebert, a certified <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/planning/financial-planners/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"><span style="color: #27547e;">financial planner</span></a> with Valley National
Financial Advisors in Bethlehem, Pa. “Complete your estate planning documents,
including a will, power of attorney, advance directives and a living will.
There’s not a lot of control from the grave, but a trust may help, if needed.
Do your planning today.” In the written directions you provide your family, you
may also want to include grave site or mortuary information, funeral directions
and provisions on how you want to pay for your memorial. Do you want specific
music played or pictures displayed? Are there past events or accomplishments
you want your survivors to remember?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most important, Ms. Carlson noted, is to discuss with your family what
you don’t want in your final moments and beyond. Many severely disabled people
do not want to be kept alive if they have experienced extensive loss of control
over their bodies. Death with dignity is also a subject to be aired in family
meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If I’m totally
dependent upon someone else,” Ms. Carlson said, “my sense of self will
evaporate. My time is up at that point. I will be looking forward to the other
side — and coming back.”</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #262626;">Although death planning may be one of the most difficult things
you will do, it is one final act of self-determination. You may not have
control over your last minutes on earth or how you will be remembered, but you
can certainly guide your survivors on how you want to be treated and
memorialized.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #262626;">So
this is how I want it to be for me.
I want the world around me to stop for one minute’s silence while
everyone reflects on all I did or didn’t do. In case one wonders what I did, the answer is ‘not much and
certainly not as much as I wanted to do’
but I always tried to do my best.
I also want each of my eight grandchildren to stand up at my celebration
of my life and tell one of my eight best jokes. (A respected friend has said that if that is done, the room
will be empty by the time the second joke was over, but I want it done anyway.)
Note that I am not giving
any guidance on what particular jokes are to be told, because there are so many
of them it is hard to choose. If
any tears are to be shed at this time, they will be tears of laughter. I want my funeral service to be a
celebration of my life. I want my
wife, Mary Ellen, to be given a standing ovation for her love and devotion to
me, and have her know that, despite my many faults, I loved her (and continue
to love her dearly) with all my heart.
I want my three daughters, Rebecca, Mandy, and Sarah to receive a
standing ovation for their love and understanding that, while I was not a
perfect father, I respected and admired each of them for who they are and the
fine and admirable people they have become and that I have appreciated their
support and understanding as I lived out my imperfect life. I want my grandchildren to know how
much I loved them and how much fun it was to watch them grow and become the
fine people they are. Just as a
small reminder to each of them, please read and not to try to memorize the joke
that you each tell this group because many of my jokes are so complicated, I
would not want you to forget to tell the punch line (like someone else you may
have know might have done!). About that life (i.e. my life), at times
I have played in the wrong key, much as I have actually done in playing my
tuba. In fact, in my life, like my
tuba playing, I have rarely got the music right the first time. Over and over again I have made the
same mistakes only to finally make the adjustments necessary to move on. The exception, of course, is my game of
golf. Life is definitely not a
game of perfect. Finally, I would
like to have a Dixieland band play at my celebration of life. Two songs are mandatory; Amazing Grace
and Just a Closer Walk with Thee.
With the latter song, it would be nice if the words were provided to everyone
so they could stand up and sing along. That will be really nice. Thanks for doing that, a</span><span style="color: #262626;">nd thanks to all of you for being a part of my life. </span></span><!--EndFragment--><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-24641335891598452582014-05-18T04:03:00.003-05:002014-05-18T04:03:52.692-05:00Same Old, Same OldI have just returned to Michigan having spent the winter in Florida. What these two areas have in common for me is the constant razz-a-ma-tazz from my golf colleagues about how terrible Obama is and what a failure he has been as president. Just yesterday, after my first round of golf in Michigan (where I took a few bucks from them), my friends predictably started the refrain. I have discovered that the truth will bring these 'discussions' to a shuddering halt by declaring that Obama will go down in history as one of the best U.S. presidents ever. McCain, Romney, Cheney, Bush (Jr.) or one of their ilk would now have our country at war in Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, some other God-forsaken place or even Detroit, (who knows?) but, insofar as the need for success in foreign policy goes, I am grateful for the careful reluctance of our president in resisting intervening in messes being created by others. It is, indeed, hypocritical to suggest that the U.S. has an obligation to tell other countries how to live their lives when right here at home Republican folly has lowered the opportunities and expectations of citizens to realize the dream and the stated purpose of the Declaration of Independence.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-16711060136145094522014-05-12T08:13:00.000-05:002014-05-12T08:26:15.040-05:00A Quiz; Picking Up After Oneself<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Picture a young couple walking down a street, hand-in–hand,
eating sandwiches wrapped in a layer of paper and covered in tin foil. As the couple finishes their snack,
they discard the paper and the tin foil on someone's lawn adjacent to the side walk. Then,
they start to walk away and the homeowner comes out and tells the couple to pick up their discarded
items. The couple starts screaming at the homeowner.<br />
<br />
Now the quiz: <br />
<br />
Which of these persons is Marxist in the
eyes of Republican conservatives?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Answer: The neighbor who makes the couple clean up
their mess. <br />
<br />
Question: What word is the couple screaming at the homeowner?<br />
<br />
Answer: "Marxist"</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are entering another election cycle where the makeup of
the Senate is at stake. One of the
major issues will be the corporate (i.e., big, really big money) equivalent of this
homely example. Big money gas and
oil companies, financed by the Koch brothers and other extremely wealthy
Republican donors and their bribed politicians, will be trying to convince you
that government attempts to hold mass polluters of our society responsible for
cleaning up their own messes is Marxist-like socialism. While some fanatics are still in denial
about the warming trend of the world and the man-made contribution of
pollutants accelerating that trend, many conservatives (in apparent realization
that 97% of the scientists in the world can’t be wrong) have moved on to the
second part of their plan; i.e., it is Marxism at its very worst in the government
forcing these polluters to clean up after themselves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In other words, they want to leave their own mess for
someone else to clean up and it is Marxist to say otherwise. Keep track of the 'M' word during this election period. Remember that the land and the air these companies are polluting is our land and air.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just saying . . .</div>
<!--EndFragment--><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-16690591971460502842014-04-27T05:56:00.000-05:002014-04-27T05:56:04.039-05:00The Timing Of It All<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In last Tuesday’s decision of the
Supreme Court upholding Michigan’s constitutional ban on race-based affirmative
action, Justice Sotomayor characterized the view of conservative members of the
court as “out of touch with reality.” She chastised the members of the court who “speak
high-mindedly of racial equality even as they write off decades-old precedent
meant to address the lingering effects of centuries of racial discrimination.” The
reality, she wrote, is that “race matters.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2006 Michigan voters approved a
constitutional amendment banning affirmative action on the basis of race in
admissions to public universities and colleges. Since then, the ban has already
resulted in a <a href="http://www.ro.umich.edu/report/10enrolloverview.pdf"><span style="color: #256990;">25 percent drop</span></a> in minority representation in
Michigan’s public universities and colleges, even as the proportion of
college-age African-Americans in the state has gone up.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part of the record before the
Supreme Court ignored in rendering this decision was a finding of the Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals in August 2007, that <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">”</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e;">The record and the district court's factual findings
indicate that the solicitation and procurement of signatures in support of
placing Proposal 2 on the general election ballot was rife with fraud and
deception. [Nothing has been ] submitted <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. . . to rebut this. By all accounts, Proposal 2 found its
way on the ballot through methods that undermine the integrity and fairness of
our democratic processes.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a 2007 opinion, Chief Justice
John Roberts wrote “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to
stop discriminating on the basis of race,” in a case striking down school
integration efforts in Washington and Kentucky. “Things have changed
dramatically” in the 50 years since the Voting Rights Act was passed, he wrote
last year in another case which struck down a provision of that act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within months of that decision, various
states throughout the south passed laws intended to limit the registration of
black voters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Robert’s quotes represent a distorted
vision of racial justice. As Justice Sotomayor puts it, “we ought not sit back
and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our
society.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">It is terrible irony that within days of the Michigan decision,
the owner of a nearly all-black professional basketball team<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">asks a woman
friend why she insists on parading her friendships with blacks, and at one
point asks her not to bring “them” to Clippers games. The man chastises her for
taking a photograph with Magic Johnson and asks her not to bring Johnson to any
more games.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, in the same time period there
is Cliven Bundy, a cattle rancher, complaining about blacks while at the same
time receiving more than $1 million in public grazing time without paying a
dime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He claimed that African-Americans
were ruined by government subsidies and might be “better off as slaves, picking
cotton and having a family life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He then explained that his racist remarks were all the “freedom to say
what we want. If I call — if I say ‘negro’ or ‘black boy’ or ‘slave,’ I’m — if
those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offensive, then Martin
Luther King hasn’t got his job done yet.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have written about my personal
experiences with regard to hearing all-too-frequent racist comments from
members of the elite country clubs to which I belong which make me sick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rhetoric has heated up in the past
few days, however, as these various events have coalesced to create an “open
season” on the disparagement of people of color, the descendants of slaves who
were counted as less than 2/3 of personhood by our U.S. constitution less than
160 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Racism is alive and well, and we
are a work in progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately,
the wheels have temporarily come off and the cart is moving backward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That ignorant S.O.B. Cliven Bundy did
get one thing right. Martin Luther King hasn’t got [the] job done yet.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell that to the Supreme Court.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just saying . . .</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-42912365220544845312014-04-20T04:28:00.002-05:002014-04-20T04:28:30.878-05:00Farmer's Words of Wisdom<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">
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<div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /> </span><b style="font-family: helveticaneue, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Life from the seat of a tractor; An old farmer's words of wisdom</span></b><b style="font-family: helveticaneue, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">...</span></b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="font-family: helveticaneue, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">
<div style="font-size: 18pt;">
<div style="font-size: 12pt;">
<div>
<div>
<blockquote style="margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 5pt;">
<div>
<blockquote style="margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5pt;">
<blockquote style="margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 5pt;">
<div>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><img height="325" src="http://mail.aol.com/38507-215/aol-6/en-us/mail/get-attachment.aspx?uid=31608901&folder=NewMail&partId=3" width="420" /></span></div>
<blockquote style="margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 5pt;">
<ul type="disc">
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Keep skunks and bankers at a distance</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Lif</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">e is simpler when you plow around the stump</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Words that soak into your ears are whispered</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">....</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">not yelled</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Meanness don't just happen overnight</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">You cannot unsay a cruel word</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Every path has a few puddles</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The best sermons are lived, not preached</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Most of the stuff people worry about, ain't never gonna happen anyway</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Don't judge folks by their relatives</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Live a good and honorable life, then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't bothering you none</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Timin' has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every mornin'</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Always drink upstream from the herd</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-17862165279315992052014-04-19T04:16:00.000-05:002014-04-19T04:24:57.538-05:00Green Cheese<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;">The moon is made of green cheese.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I repeat, the moon is made of green cheese.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The chances of convincing a substantial portion of the American public that the moon is made of green cheese are very high if only I can find an extremely wealthy financier to give me enough money to bribe, (Oops, the Supreme Court doesn’t like that word), let me substitute ‘influence ‘ politicians that this Dr. Suess idiom is true.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">To do so, I will also need the assistance of Fox TV and a ‘connector’. I would define ‘connector’ as a claim, whether true or not, that President Obama persists in denying that the moon is made of green cheese.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Given these criteria, all the elements will be in place.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Once the idiom is repeated enough times by the blonde news pundits on the various Fox ‘news’ programs, the claim will become an election day issue which will guarantee a large turnout from that group of people (known as Republicans) that, convinced the moon is made of green cheese, will vote, knee-jerk style, against anything Obama stands for.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">If the Koch brothers and ALEC through bribery, (Oops, that word again), can get the green cheese issue on election ballots, Republican dominated states will declare, without a hint of shame, but with the usual righteous indignation, that the moon is, indeed, made of green cheese. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> For anyone who thinks this latter statement is too harsh, I invite you to name one thing, anything at all, that any Republican in the country is in agreement with something Obama has done or said in his six years as the president of our country when the contrary position has had the big-money backing of the Koch brother or Sheldon Adelson, a couple of fat-cats exercising their first amendment right to express themselves by letting their money talk for them </span><span style="font-size: 17px;">rather</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 17px;">actually</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> saying something intelligent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Take the ACA, the Affordable Care Act, for instance. Less than a year after its implementation, the ACA is a demonstrable unqualified success. This week more than 8 million Americans have already signed up to receive its benefits which include, among others, the right to be insured even if one has a pre-existing illness, the right to keep a child 26 and under on a parent’s insurance policy, and as the</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;"> current Congressional Budget Office report estimates, the cost of the law will be $100 billion lower than expected and will significantly shrink the deficit over the next 10 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Now, take a deep breath and repeat after me; the moon is made of green cheese, the moon is made of green cheese. The Koch brothers have sponsored this message that will be prominently advertised 400 times a day until election day and Koch-supported congressmen will vote for the 45<sup>th</sup>? time to repeal the ACA buttressed by </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Paul Ryan’s assertion that covering people with pre-existing conditions is too expensive. (Note to myself: Remember to ask the GOP what do we do for those people).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Oh yeah, and I'm the tooth fairy. Just saying . . .</span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-53799499193611096462014-03-28T04:06:00.000-05:002014-03-29T04:36:45.977-05:00Free Legal Advice!!!<div class="MsoNormal">
I am giving free legal advice in this blog;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Incorporate yourself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why do I recommend this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a cozy time for corporations in the United
States today. Previously, corporations were considered only as persons for tax
purposes, as legal fictions, whose only reason for existence was the making of money,
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, a quantum shift in the status
of corporation-persons has taken place recently. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a gigantic leap of questionable logic, God-given rights
secured by the constitution of the United States for us human-persons have been
deemed to be applicable to corporation-persons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an example, the Republican majority of the Supreme Court has
given the right of corporation-persons to give unlimited money to politicians
in the exercise of their first amendment rights to freedom of speech; i.e., stated
another way, money talks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The upshot
of the recent Citizens United opinion, written by Justice Kennedy, is that
unlimited God-given giving to American politicians is not corrupt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The same behavior by law is deemed criminally
corrupt when companies give money (i.e., bribes) to foreign politicians to
obtain favors.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somewhere there exists
a fine distinction between these acts, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out where
it is. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the Supreme Court is currently deciding the issue of the
religious freedom of corporation-owners to impose their religious beliefs on
their employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stay tuned on
that one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oral arguments were
heard this past week and the swing vote of Justice Kennedy is in play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gist of the arguments was such that
it is clear that the four conservative justices are solidly in favor of
granting religious freedoms to corporation-persons.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Further, if you are a human person (as opposed to a corporation-person)
and receive a government handout, you are a taker, a member of the 47% crowd
that Mitt Romney crowed about in his ‘private’ speech to fat-cat political
contributors. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stated reason
why such handouts are so terrible is they are said to reduce the incentive to do
real work and just live off our (the rest of us) hard-earned money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I quote a Republican senator <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>back a few years ago, who likened the
act of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>human-persons taking government
handouts to ‘sucking the teat’ of society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Terrible stuff, you takers! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, corporation-persons,
big and small, get government handouts to the tune of 80 billion dollars from local governments nationwide annually with nary a peep. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Owners of private planes and yachts receive special tax breaks. The top ten big banks receive more than 83 billion dollars a year from the federal government. Hedge fund and private equity managers' income is treated for tax purposes as capital gains rather than as ordinary income like poor working stiffs. Senator Tom Corburn has characterized these benefits as 'ludicrous handouts to millionaires." </span>According
to the holy grail, these mega-billion dollar handouts for the benefit of corporation-persons, unlike human persons, does not reduce incentives to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These handouts are said to increase the incentive to make money when it
is given to corporation-persons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These huge amounts of tax-payer money are given
to these entities, often at the expense of reduced funding of education, reducing food stamps for the unemployed, etc. The stated purpose of giving corporation-persons this money is to get them to get to do things, like create jobs, which has proven to be of no use or value in the long
run. The trillion-dollars that corporations-persons have stashed off-shore is living testament to this contended folly of job creation. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Now you understand the reasons for my giving free legal advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Incorporate yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make the transformation from a
human-person to a corporation-person because you will be better off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can take all the government money
you want and nobody will criticize you or call you lazy and shiftless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Claim what the Republicans and our Supreme
Court say are your God-given rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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Just saying . . .</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=364de3e6-66ba-459e-8878-73d03d8554e5"></script>
<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-24088824237808484462014-03-22T02:35:00.000-05:002014-03-22T02:35:25.095-05:00Phthalates and Endocrine Disruption<div class="section">
<div class="section">
I have simply copied the information below<img alt="page1image808" height="15.625000" src="file:///page1image808" width="1.250000" /> about phthalate exposure and its effects on the human being.</div>
<div class="section">
<img alt="page1image1080" height="15.125000" src="file:///page1image1080" width="0.250000" />
</div>
<div class="section">
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">What are some examples of common everyday
exposures to phthalates and tips to avoid exposure?</span><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="page1image2712" height="0.250000" src="file:///page1image2712" width="15.125000" /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="page1image2440" height="0.250000" src="file:///page1image2440" width="15.125000" /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="page1image2168" height="1.250000" src="file:///page1image2168" width="15.625000" /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="page1image1896" height="1.250000" src="file:///page1image1896" width="15.625000" /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="page1image1624" height="15.125000" src="file:///page1image1624" width="0.250000" /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="page1image1352" height="15.625000" src="file:///page1image1352" width="1.250000" /></span></div>
<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Microwaving food using plastic products.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;">Tip: </span><span style="font-family: TheSans; font-style: italic;">Use only “microwave safe” containers and phthalate-free
containers and plastic wrap when microwaving food
and/or drinks. Phthalates can leach from food storage
containers and food wrap into foods (particularly those
foods that are oily or that have a high fat content) on
contact and when heated.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sucking or chewing soft plastic/vinyl products.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;">Tip: </span><span style="font-family: TheSans; font-style: italic;">Use only plastic/vinyl toys and toothbrushes labeled
“phthalate- free.” If unsure, call the manufacturer. In
1998 the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
requested phthalates be removed from soft
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">rattles, pacifiers, bottle nipples, and teethers.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Personal care products and vinyl clothing.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;">Tip: </span><span style="font-family: TheSans; font-style: italic;">Read labels. If unsure, call the manufacturer.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Medical situations.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;">Tip: </span><span style="font-family: TheSans; font-style: italic;">PVC is used in a wide range of medical devices, such as
intravenous (IV) tubing, blood bags, and catheters. Ask
your healthcare provider to use phthalate-free tubing
and medical bags especially for procedures such as blood
transfusions and dialysis.
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">What negative health effects have phthalates been
shown to have in laboratory animals?
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Very few studies have examined the health effects of
phthalates on humans. In lab animals, phthalate exposure
has been found to be associated with numerous reproductive
health and developmental problems such as:
</span></span><br />
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Early onset of puberty.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Interfering with the male reproductive tract
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">development.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Interfering with the natural functioning of the
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">hormone system.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Causing reproductive and genital defects.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lower testosterone levels in adolescent males.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lower sperm count in adult males.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">Phthalates are weak endocrine disruptors and androgen
blocking chemicals. This means that when absorbed into the
body phthalates can either mimic or block female hormones,
or in males, suppress the hormones involved in male sexual
development.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">Phthalates cross the placenta.
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansBold; font-size: large;">Phthalates</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="column">
<span style="font-family: TheSansBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">(THAL-ates)
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansBold; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Everywhere Chemical
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">What are phthalates?
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Phthalates are a family of man-made chemical compounds
developed in the last century to be used in the manufacture of
plastics, solvents, and personal care products. They are colorless,
odorless, oily liquids that do not evaporate easily and do not
chemically bind to the material they are added to.
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">How am I exposed to phthalates?
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ingestion, inhalation, skin absorption, and intravenous
injection are all potential pathways of exposure. The ever-
present use of phthalates as an additive to PVC (polyvinyl
chloride) products to make them flexible and to personal care
products to make fragrances last longer in the past 50 years
has resulted in widespread general population exposure.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Phthalates are readily absorbed into the human body and
are converted quickly to their respective metabolites. Unlike
some chemicals, they tend to pass out of the body quickly in
urine and feces. Phthalates can interact with each other and
increase the exposure effect.
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">How do phthalates enter the environment?
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Phthalates can be released from a product
by heat, agitation, and prolonged storage.
The release can occur during all the stages
of the product lifecycle - from production,
through use, to disposal.
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">Which population of humans is at a greater
health risk to phthalate exposure?
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Children under the age of three are more at risk
from phthalates because of their developing,
smaller body size and ever-present exposure to
children’s products manufactured using multiple
types of phthalate compounds. Young children
use their mouths to explore, and consequently,
can be exposed to higher levels by sucking on
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">products made of phthalate-containing plastics.
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">What can I do to avoid exposure?
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans; font-size: large;">Read labels!</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="page" title="Page 2">
<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is no easy way to tell if a product has added phthalates.
Phthalates can be identified on labels by a three or four letter
acronym that defines their chemical structures. Labels rarely
state “contains phthalates”.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are a multitude of phthalate compounds. Which
phthalate compound is added to a product depends in<br />
part on their molecular weight (MW). Phthalates with a
higher molecular weight (HMW) are very slightly soluble in
water; phthalates with a lower molecular weight (LMW) are
reasonably soluble in water.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: TheSans;">The </span><span style="font-family: TheSansBold;">8 </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">most widely used phthalate compounds and their
</span><span style="font-family: TheSans; font-style: italic;">metabolites </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">are:
</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-size: large;">BBP: butyl benzyl phthalate (LMW) *, **, ***
</span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">MBzP: mono benzyl phthalate
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-size: large;">DBP: di-n-butyl phthalate (LMW) *, **, ***
<span style="font-style: italic;">MBP: mono-n-butyl phthalate<br />
MiBP: mono-isobutyl phthalate
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most common phthalate added to nail polish.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-size: large;">DEHP: di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (HMW) *, **, ***
</span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">MEHP: mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most widely-added phthalate to polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) to make products flexible.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-size: large;">DEP: diethyl phthalate (LMW)
</span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">MEP: monoethyl phthalate
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most common phthalate added to personal
care products to enhance fragrance.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-size: large;">DiDP: di-isodecyl phthalate (HMW) *, **, ***
</span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-size: large;">DiNP: di-isononyll phthalate (HMW) *, **, ***
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most common phthalate added as a softener
in the manufacture of toys and childcare
products, such as bath toys, drinking straws,
and rubber ducks.
</span></span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-size: large;">DnHP: di-n- hexyl phthalate *
</span><br />
</li>
<li style="font-family: TheSans;">
<span style="font-size: large;">DnOP: di-n-octyl phthalate (LMW) **, ***
</span><br />
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">* Listed in California’s Proposition 65 as a reproductive and
developmental toxicant.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">** Listed in California’s AB1108 (Ma and Huffman). The bill, if passed,
will ban use in the manufacture of any toy or childcare article
intended for use by a child under three years of age.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">*** European Union banned as a phthalate softener in the
manufacture of toys and childcare articles.
</span></span><br />
</div>
<div class="column">
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">The most common products using phthalate compounds are:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">PVC Products
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Phthalates are frequently added to PVC (vinyl)
products to soften and make more flexible.<br />
If a plastic product is flexible, it probably
contains phthalates unless the label
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">specifically says it does not.
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Personal Care Products
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Phthalates are often added to personal care products, such
as nail polish, perfumes, deodorants, hair gels, shampoos,
soaps, hair sprays, and body lotions, to help lubricate other
substances in the formula and to carry fragrances. Phthalates
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">must be listed among the ingredients on
product labels, unless they are added as a part
of the “fragrance.” Under current law, they can
then simply be labeled “fragrance,” even though
they may make up 20% or more of the product.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many companies have voluntarily removed phthalates from
their products. A company will usually label its product
“phthalate-free.” If unsure, call the company. If you can’t get
information from the manufacturer, look for alternatives.
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #669933; font-family: TheSansSemiBold; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">How can I recognize plastic toys and
containers containing phthalates?
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: TheSans;">All plastics are not the same. One easy way to recognize
plastic toys, clothing, bottles, food and beverage storage
containers, and/or food wrap that may contain </span><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">phthalate
</span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">compounds is to look for the </span><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">number 3 </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">inside the universal
</span><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">recycling </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">symbol usually molded into the plastic on the
bottom of the product.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">Avoid </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">products </span><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">with </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">the </span><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">number 3 </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">within the arrows and the
letters </span><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">“V” </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">or </span><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">“PVC” </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">below the arrows.
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">33
</span><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">V PVC
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">Choose </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">products with the numbers </span><span style="font-family: TheSansSemiBold;">1,2, 4 and 5 </span><span style="font-family: TheSans;">within the
</span><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">1245
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<span style="font-family: TheSans;"><span style="font-size: large;">arrows. </span></span></div>
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<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-80939297417776782012014-03-13T16:20:00.004-05:002014-03-13T16:20:58.269-05:00Emergency Manager of DPS: Unmitigated Disaster<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">
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I have deferred to Dr. Thomas Pedroni in the past for his remarkable insights on what is happening to Michigan, particularly Detroit, schoolchildren. What follows is an update:<hr style="background-image: url(https://ssl.gstatic.com/sites/p/b862c6/system/app/themes/solitudenavy/bg_mast.gif); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; height: 3px;" />
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<a href="" name="TOC-ANOTHER-LOST-YEAR:-CHILDREN-IN-STATE-MANAGED-DETROIT-SCHOOLS-LOSE-EVEN-MORE-GROUND-TO-STATE-PEERSWHEN-WILL-GOVERNOR-SNYDER-AND-HIS-IMPOSED-SCHOOL-MANAGERS-BE-HELD-ACCOUNTABLE-FOR-HARM-TO-OUR-CHILDREN-" style="background-image: url(https://ssl.gstatic.com/sites/p/b862c6/system/app/themes/solitudenavy/bg_link.gif); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px; text-decoration: underline;"></a><b><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 13.5pt;">ANOTHER LOST YEAR: CHILDREN IN STATE-MANAGED DETROIT SCHOOLS LOSE EVEN MORE GROUND TO STATE PEERS</span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 16.65pt;">WHEN WILL GOVERNOR SNYDER AND HIS IMPOSED SCHOOL MANAGERS BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HARM TO OUR CHILDREN?</span></h2>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: normal;">By <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/thomascharlespedroni/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: url(https://ssl.gstatic.com/sites/p/b862c6/system/app/themes/solitudenavy/bg_link.gif); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px;">Dr. Thomas C. Pedroni</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: normal;">March 3, 2014</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">One year ago this month I watched in disbelief as the Emergency Manager of the moment, Roy Roberts, declared on NBC’s nationally broadcast Education Nation Detroit Summit that Detroit Public Schools had surpassed the Michigan average in 14 of 18 MEAP categories. At the time I suspected that Snyder's appointee, a former auto executive with no education background, had simply misspoken or just didn’t quite have his facts straight. What bothered me more was that none of his carefully selected co-panelists—including EAA Chancellor John Covington and Detroit Parent Network President/CEO Sharlonda Buckman—batted as much as an eye over Roberts’ jubilant mispronouncement. A clearly impressed Chelsea Clinton declared that when the day came she would gladly enroll her own children in the public schools of Detroit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">As I dug through the MEAP results on the Michigan Department of Education’s website that day—confirming that DPS students had scored behind the state average in all 18 tested categories, typically by 20 percentage points or more—I made a discovery I had not anticipated: in most categories, children in Detroit’s public elementary and middle schools had fallen even farther behind their state peers since 2009. That year (2009) was the year that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared Detroit “ground zero” for education reform, and the State once again took away local democratic control of Detroit’s schools. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">I was particularly troubled that, since 2009, the youngest children taking the test—3<sup>rd</sup>, 4<sup>th</sup>, and 5<sup>th</sup> graders—had declined the most. Although already so far behind their statewide peers, Detroit's youngest test-takers had somehow lost even more ground.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">I wrote my findings in a column submitted to the <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, which the paper accepted for publication. Hours later the paper changed its mind. In a bizarre sequence of events, the paper’s editorial staff accepted and rejected the column two more times, finally telling me I was free to take it elsewhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">I published <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/detroitdataanddemocracyproject/education-nation-detroit" style="background-image: url(https://ssl.gstatic.com/sites/p/b862c6/system/app/themes/solitudenavy/bg_link.gif); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px;" target="_blank">the column</a> here, at the <i>Detroit Data and Democracy Project, </i>instead, and posted a link on Facebook. While this site typically receives only 2 to 4 hits a day, within a few hours the piece had accumulated thousands of hits. In the ensuing days I was interviewed on four radio programs, Rachel Maddow tweeted a link to the column, and <i>The Huffington Post, Truthout, </i>and <i>The Michigan Citizen </i>all asked to reprint it.<i> </i>Apparently there was a hunger for educational fact sharing and analysis beyond what was available at NBC and in the local dailies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">A year has passed since my original column. Has state-imposed emergency management now finally turned the corner with Detroit’s public schools? Five years after the State concluded that the main thing holding Detroit’s schoolchildren back was the ability of their parents to choose their school board, are we finally receiving the long overdue dividends of electoral disenfranchisement?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">Sadly, grievously—the new MEAP data, released February 28, reveal the further deepening of a devastating pattern. In both reading and math, Detroit’s children have fallen <i>even further behind</i> their state peers. Somehow, in 10 of the 12 grade-level math and reading MEAP tests, Detroit’s children under state control in DPS and the EAA have lost even more ground this past year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">Fourth graders in Detroit's state-managed schools actually progressed marginally in reading relative to their Michigan peers, bringing the proficiency gap down by 0.8 points to 29.5 percentage points. But in every other tested grade-- third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth-- they fell even further behind in reading. In math, Detroit’s sixth grade students in state-managed schools gained marginally on their Michigan peers (by 0.3 points) and are now only 27.7 percentage points behind. But they lost even more ground to their statewide peers in all the other tested grades-- third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth (see Figure I).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure I. <span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 16.666667938232422px;">Proficiency gap between DPS/EAA students and their Michigan peers.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/detroitdataanddemocracyproject/ANOTHER-LOST-YEAR/Proficiency%20Gap.png?attredirects=0" imageanchor="1" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://sites.google.com/site/detroitdataanddemocracyproject/_/rsrc/1394462525151/ANOTHER-LOST-YEAR/Proficiency%20Gap.png?height=213&width=400" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 1.5;">Click to enlarge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">Cumulatively, since Detroit became ground zero in 2009, students in DPS and EAA schools taken over by the state have declined precipitously relative to their state peers in every tested grade in reading, 3rd through 8th. In third grade reading, the proficiency gap has widened by 7.3 points to 28.2. The reading proficiency gap also widened by 2.1 points in fourth grade, 1.7 points in fifth grade, 3.2 points in sixth grade, 3.8 points in seventh grade, and 4.7 in eighth grade. In math, although students gained marginally on their state peers in sixth through eighth grades (sixth, proficiency gap decreased 0.5 points to 27.7; seventh, 0.5 points to 28.5; and eighth, 0.1 points to 23.2), students plummeted relative to their state peers in third, fourth, and fifth grade. In third grade, the math proficiency gap increased by 5.2 points to 26.6; in fourth grade it increased by 6.8 points to 29.2; and in 5th grade it increased by 8.0 points to 30.9 (see Figure II).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure II. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.666667938232422px;">Proficiency Gap, Year by Year, and Comparatively 2009-12, 2012-13, and 2009-13.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/detroitdataanddemocracyproject/ANOTHER-LOST-YEAR/table%20proficiency%20gap.png?attredirects=0" imageanchor="1" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px;"><img border="0" height="69" src="https://sites.google.com/site/detroitdataanddemocracyproject/_/rsrc/1394462525151/ANOTHER-LOST-YEAR/table%20proficiency%20gap.png?height=69&width=400" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Click to enlarge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: medium;">For DPS and EAA students under state control, another year of educational possibility has been stolen. The long saga of state control of Detroit's public schools, characterized by this unconscionable erosion of our children's educational futures, drags on. <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/detroitdataanddemocracyproject/MEAP-Cohort-Data-Reveal-Stagnation-and-Decline-in-EAA-Achievement" style="background-image: url(https://ssl.gstatic.com/sites/p/b862c6/system/app/themes/solitudenavy/bg_link.gif); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px;" target="_blank">As we saw last week</a>, Snyder's experiment on Black children in Detroit, the EAA, notwithstanding the rosy and self-serving pronouncements of its high-paid leadership, has been an unmitigated disaster. Now we have an even clearer portrait of the educational failure of state takeover across both state-controlled Detroit education sectors-- the EAA and DPS under emergency management. For Snyder's theft of Detroit's children's future, will a moment of accountability ever come? </span></div>
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<div id="inform-wrapper"><a href="http://widget.inform.com/Birth Defects,Medicine">Birth Defects, Medicine News</a><script src="http://widget.inform.com/widget/Birth Defects,Medicine" type="text/javascript"></script></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15413619740110381141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116229125857267128.post-36578840603378549922014-01-27T04:57:00.000-05:002014-01-27T04:57:06.282-05:00Women: Control Yourselves!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;">While states throughout the land
continue to enact new abortion restrictions that limit decision-making and
choices of women who seek to determine the course of their own lives, there are
several things that should be kept in mind.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;">First (and most obvious) is that pregnancy is a status that
can be experienced only by women. In states dominated by Republicans. the old
guys in charge of that party disregard that fact and continue to inject their so-called values on pregnant
women </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;">with the intent of making
life decisions for them.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;">In doing
so, their reasoning is based apparently on male locker room-type discussions like
“I didn’t forcibly rape her, I just raped her” or “The fact that she got
pregnant after I raped her means that she wanted me to get her pregnant.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Last week, the old guy Republicans
started on a new tack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mike Huckabee, the former governor of
Arkansas, told the Republican National Committee that Democrats favor universal
access to free contraception because they think women “cannot control their
libido” without the help of “Uncle Sugar.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So apparently the Republican Party is heading toward a
campaign to recapture the votes of women based on this theme; “Women control
yourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because if you can’t,
then we will make sure that you are punished for the results of an unwanted
pregnancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, keep your
stinking hands off our right to obtain free Viagra paid for by you-know-who.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;">Just saying . . .</span></div>
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