This is News?

I guess sometimes you just have to prove the obvious....

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People recovering from alcoholism seem to drink more coffee and have a higher rate of smoking than the average American, a new study shows.

The researchers found that among 289 members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), 88.5 percent regularly drank coffee, often in large amounts. One third of coffee drinkers said they downed more than four cups per day.

In addition, 57 percent of the group said that they smoked -- much higher than the general rate of 27 percent in Nashville, Tennessee, where the study was conducted.

Armed With Staplers

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the office by not using the freeways where road rage is rampant, Reuters reports this..

Anger in the workplace -- employees and employers who are grumpy, insulting, short-tempered or worse -- is shockingly common and likely growing as Americans cope with woes of rising costs, job uncertainty or overwhelming debt, experts say.

This Worries Me

Tis was posted this morning on Salon.com by Juan Cole:

The U.S. Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group. Agents would be permitted to ask "open-ended questions" concerning the activities of Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans. A person's travel and occupation, as well as race or ethnicity, could be grounds for opening a national security investigation.

Fear, worry, nervousness all increase as I read this. Not as some paranoid left-over 60s radical (although there may be some of that) but also as a student of history which isn't all that long past.

First there is World War II and the Japanese Internment Camps. Just because they were of Japanese descent they were deemed dangerous to national security or whatever the words might have been. It didn't matter that they were Japanese-Americans. Can it happen again? Probably not to that extent, but it may already have been happening in ways that the mainstream media cannot even see.

Second, there is the centuries long history of anti-Semitism. No, the concentration camps didn't happen here. (Other than above, of course.) But we have an ethno-religious group that has regularly been "profiled" throughout history. It didn't always mean a yellow star pinned to their coat, but it was there.

Such generalized profiling is dangerous. It is stereotyping when a whole group of individuals is separated out, singled out for extra scrutiny just because they are of a particular group. In that thinking all people may be created equal, but some are just more dangerous to our way of life.

If this happens we will lose some more of the benefits of being a country filled with diversity. We will take a step even further backward than the constitutional tampering that has gone on. We will be disturbing one of the basic principles that we claim our country is founded on- diversity and opportuninty.

News Check

Finally. I've been on the edge of my seat waiting for this one:

GENEVA (AFP) - An international standard for tomatoes has been adopted, ending about seven years of intense debates between countries on what qualifies as a proper tomato.

According to the new standard, tomatoes may come in one of four varieties: round, ribbed, oblong or elongated, or cherry tomatoes and cocktail tomatoes.

They must be whole, clean, free from foreign smell, free of pests and fresh in appearance.

I'm surprised this one isn't from Wisconsin:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence made from a one-tonne block of cheddar cheese glistened on the sidewalk of Times Square in New York on Thursday as an artist's tribute to the Fourth of July.

And I'm on this guy's side. He has a good idea going. (It may be a surprise to many who know me, but in my current job the coat and tie are standard dress.)

MADRID (AFP) - A revolt was brewing in Spain's cabinet Thursday as members refused to wear ties in parliament, aiming to save energy and fight global warming by removing the need for the air conditioning to be turned up.

And finally, this bit of musical news. Actually it shouldn't comes as a surprise. They didn't have showers in those days that do the same thing with our singing today.

Ancient hunters painted the sections of their cave dwellings where singing, humming and music sounded best, a new study suggests.

Analyzing the famous, ochre-splashed cave walls of France, the most densely painted areas were also those with the best acoustics, the scientists found. Humming into some bends in the wall even produced sounds mimicking the animals painted there.

In the News

It's technically not news, but what D. L. Hughley had to say about Barack Obama is worth repeating:

He does look like the dude from 'Mad' magazine. It's so funny because he ain't a cool dude to me. He's like a tall Urkel dude (the bespectacled nerd from the '90s sitcom 'Family Matters'). But for the first black president, I'll take him.
--Yahoo!

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Here's a summer warning.

Researchers at Auburn University have found that wearing flip-flops alters the way one walks, changing the gait in subtle ways that can lead to serious sole, heel and ankle problems. ... The Auburn team videotaped 39 flip-flop-wearing volunteers and noticed how they scrunched their toes to keep the flip-flip on the foot while the heel lifted in the air. This motion stretches the plantar fascia, the connective tissue that runs from heel to toe, causing inflammation, pain along the sole, heel spurs and tired feet in general.
--Live Science

I actually know the truth of that story. I didn't wear flip-flops but poorly supportive sandals for a whole summer. It took six months to get rid of the pain from the results.

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Research results were reported this past week that low levels of the "sunshine" vitamin, vitamin D are linked with a greater chance of death by heart disease or other causes. Not that we should spend gobs of time in the sun or taking Vitamin D supplements. Many times we fall into the trap of "If one is good, ten is better, and who knows how much is best." But I for one am going to be sure to get more sun than I have been getting. Within moderation, of course.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Looking at some election-related news, the Southern Poverty Law Center took a survey of white supremacists and found that there some who actually were open to a Barack Obama presidency. Noted racist David Duke explained:

"My bet is that whether Obama wins or loses in November, millions of European Americans will inevitably react with new awareness of their heritage and the need for them to defend and advance it."

That was actually one of the more sane comments. Here are a few others from a hate forum:

“I am gleefully, sadistically looking forward to Obama as president. … It will be a beautiful day when the masses look at the paper and truly realize they have lost their own country. [Another one added] “To the average white man and woman, they could look at Obama and see plain as day that whites are not in control.”

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

On that I will quit. Have a great Saturday.

A No-Comment Post

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday.

Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.

The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.

"Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.

It's About Time

According to new earlier in the week a car was the best selling vehicle in the United State last month. It's about time. The trucks and SUVs and other variations on our gas-guzzling addiction are being challenged. GM is cutting it's truck production.

Gas is at or above $4.00/gallon in most of the United States. We are outraged. Somebody is ripping us off. Or perhaps we are about to realize that it is our own addiction to oil that has ripped us off for so many years. We have insisted on cheap gas and have been given it by, among other things, government subsidies. CNN has listed what gas costs in some other places in the world in US dollars.

Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48
Norway Oslo $6.27
Italy Milan $5.96
Denmark Copenhagen $5.93
Belgium Brussels $5.91
Sweden Stockholm $5.80
United Kingdom London $5.79
Germany Frankfurt $5.57
France Paris $5.54
Portugal Lisbon $5.35
Hungary Budapest $4.94
Luxembourg $4.82
Croatia Zagreb $4.81
Ireland Dublin $4.78
Switzerland Geneva $4.74
Spain Madrid $4.55
Japan Tokyo $4.24
Czech Republic Prague $4.19
Romania Bucharest $4.09
Andorra $4.08

One of our automakers has promised to subsidize the price of gas for buyers of some of its gas guzzlers. Why not promise that to those who buy a hybrid? That's like subsidizing the price of cocaine on the streets so more people will buy it. This idea comes from something Tom Friedman had in his column on 5/28:

I can’t say it better than my friend Tim Shriver, the chairman of Special Olympics, did in a Memorial Day essay in The Washington Post: “So Dodge wants to sell you a car you don’t really want to buy, that is not fuel-efficient, will further damage our environment, and will further subsidize oil states, some of which are on the other side of the wars we’re currently fighting. ... The planet be damned, the troops be forgotten, the economy be ignored: buy a Dodge.”
--NYT

Today some analysts commented on the big jump in oil prices that it must be an investment "bubble" say like the dot com bubble.

Aah, just hold on then. The bubble will burst and gas will be back down where it belongs so we can drive like we like to and think we have a right to. In spite of how much I love to drive and travel, I hope not. Even though I have already had to cancel what was an exciting dream trip for my birthday because of rising prices, I believe it is better for us to be where we are than where we used to be.

It is forcing me- and I am sure others- to reevaluate our national and personal lifestyle. It raises important questions for our future. I for one have very few answers. More fuel-efficient cars more readily available is an obvious short-term answer. Beyond that the technological answers are somewhere in development pipelines or in the visions of dreamers.

Until then, like the addicts that we are, we are going to have to go through withdrawal. Take the steps we need to gain control over our addictive behavior. Then look for our own personal answers. Good luck. We will need it.

It's Beginning to Sink In

This is for real. This is not a made-for-TV movie. The front pages of the newspapers proclaimed it loud and clear. His picture was everywhere.

An African-American candidate will presumably be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Democrat, Republican, Independent- Americans. You don't have to like him. You don't have to vote for him. But it is historic.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had this to say:

"It's a country that has overcome many, many, now years, decades of, actually a couple of centuries, of trying to make good on its principles.

"And I think that what we're seeing is, an extraordinary expression of the fact that 'we the people,' is beginning to mean all of us," she added, referring to the opening line of the U.S. Constitution.

It amazes me that there are still people insisting he is Muslim or that "this country's not ready for a Black president." I think this country is ready for a Black or woman or Hispanic for President. It is time as this year's amazing primary season has clearly shown. The excitement, the overwhelming responses to both Obama and Clinton are hopeful signs that something new and unique is happening in these United States.

I thought of a very old quote attributed to the 1st Century Rabbi Hillel as I wrote that. The whole quote is:

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”

If not now, when? Whether he gets elected or not, this is a new time. It began 16 and 17 months ago when both he and Clinton started this process. It is an exciting time to be an American.

So all- remember where you were when he won the nomination.

This land is made for you and me- for you- and you- and you- and yes, you, too.

Wow!

Moon Over the Netherlands

So as not to have anything serious posted today as we await the news later tonight or tomorrow, this one struck me as worthy of a few laughs. It seems like there were these three young gentlemen in Utrecht the Netherlands who were out for a few laughs. Oe of them is now recovering from his adventures.

Here's from Yahoo! News:

the man and two others had run down a street in Utrecht with their pants pulled down in the back "for a joke."

It says that at one point the 21-year-old "pushed his behind against the window of a restaurant" that broke and resulted in "deep wounds to his derriere."

As difficult as this may be to believe, I have nothing worth saying. In fact I can't even think of anything that wouldn't make me look like a bag of gas or, worse, have me make of myself an...

Or perhaps even a politician.

Now for Some News

Having soothed our thoughts with the quotes, I feel safer about moving into the news.

We start in Colorado where two unarmed robbers were photographed by a surveillance camera. They were well disguised wearing women's thongs and putting their loot into a pink backpack. The nose, mouth and chin were covered but the rest of their faces were not hidden at all.

Picture can be found at The Denver Post

Since I hope this is a family-friendly blog I will leave all snide, cynical, or other remarks for the privacy of your own mind. Oh yes, they were fully dressed from the neck down.

Oh, they even have a video of the bandits at work on the same page. Link.

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The following from Yahoo! News makes me wonder if Condi Rice is running for something. She is showing a new side to her.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The Kiss Army fan club has an enthusiastic new recruit: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In a departure from her normally staid diplomatic duties, Rice met the legendary glam rock quartet when they happened to share a hotel in the Swedish capital. Rice was in Stockholm on Thursday for an international conference on Iraq. Kiss had a sold-out gig to play on Friday.

And in case you think this is a Colbert-type story here is a picture from Wired to "prove" it.

--Wired
That is a scary picture, though. Not because of Condi Rice being there, but look at the band. No wonder they have to wear make-up.

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Over in the Middle East the Israeli's may have stirred up something new to worry about. For the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel they decided to name a national bird.

--Wikipedia
They chose theHoopoe or "Duchifat" in Hebrew. Well, according to Reuters:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The [bird] is listed in the Old Testament as unclean and forbidden food for Jews.

President Shimon Peres declared the pink, black and white-crested bird the winner of a competition timed to coincide with Israel's 60th anniversary. It beat out rivals such as the Yellow-vented Bulbul and the Palestine Sunbird.

Yellow-Vented Bulbul
Palestinian Sunbird

I can see why they chose the Hoopoe. It is a far more interesting looking bird, if nothing else.

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I have a hunch that office pools, or their non-office equivalents have been around a long time. I remember my parents talking about the World Series pool they would participate with friends at a local store. Well, it isn't just the wallet that's affected. It seems we don't like to be wrong in front of our peers so it's more than money at stake.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Office pools betting on who will win "American Idol" or the NCAA basketball tournament can be bad for your health and happiness, according to a new study.

Researchers from Arizona State University carried out four experiments involving about 850 students. They found that betting on the outcome actually reduced people's enjoyment of the event and could make them stressed.

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And finally, a bit of news for those of us approaching some over-the-hill milestone (or have already passed it) here is news that should give us a new example of a Senior Prom:

LiveScience.com

A swingin' social scene staves off memory loss in older people, a new study suggests.

One of the features of aging is memory loss, which can have devastating effects on the quality of life among older people.

Harvard School of Public Health researchers now have found evidence that elderly people in the United States with active social lives may have a slower rate of memory decline.

And the good news is we can do the same thing every time and not get bored.

Well, excuse me. My social life is calling.

Or is that my alarm to remind me to take my medications?

Re-Create What?

From NPR, a report that a group wants to "Re-Create '68" at this year's Democratic National Convention in Denver. What struck me about the report was the feeling that this is seen as less a movement than an event. For example you can, I heard, adopt a Port-A-Potty and decorate it any way you want.

But a couple of the iconic individuals from 1968 were interviewed. One was former Black Panther Bobby Seale. He won't march, he said. He has had a heart attack and has a defibrillator. But the reported pointed out that Seale has a personal interest in the Iraq war issue. His son is army reservist who will be heading to Iraq

Then there's SDS charter member Tom Hayden. He says we shouldn't try to make comparisons between now and 1968. This is not the pressure cooker that it was 40 years ago. He did have one moment of caution. He said that if there is a theft of nomination, there will be protests that he says will be non-violent and massive.

As it is the organizers have no idea whether the turn out will be a few dozen or thousands. It is interesting that the organizers are trying to work with the local police to keep it peaceful as the story tells it. The "protest area" is to be about 15 blocks from the convention site.

Well, as one who is an intrepid survivor of at least the events of 1968 though not at the convention itself, I headed over to the website for R-68 and found first the not un-expected logo of a raised, clenched fist and this:

Welcome to the "Re-create 68" website, your virtual activists' Convergence Center for the Denver Democratic National Convention of 2008. This website was created for all the grassroots people who are tired of being sold out by the Democratic Party.

R-68 agrees with the proposition, POTESTAS IN POPULO, "all power comes from the people." What stands between the people and power are the party machines. The parties were devised as a means to represent the people. Today they represent nobody, not even party members, but only party bureaucracy. The people have been left without appropriate institutions for their representation. We intend to create those institutions!

Join us in the streets of Denver as we resist a two-party system that allows imperialism and racism to continue unrestrained.

Wow! Does that sound like 1968 or what?

Well, I for one do not want to relive 1968's Democratic Convention. I remember the anger and fear I felt while watching it on TV. (More on that in August.) And I remember the aftermath- Richard Nixon winning the election. Another convention and election like that would be a disaster.

So spare me. Do the work in your local communities. Build up the alternatives from the local on up. Protests are expressions of anger. And I fear anger never gets anything but anger in return. And this is coming from one who wanted to protest 40 years ago. Today, even more than then, it is a media circus. The media will swarm all over the protests and find, sadly, the weird, and the extreme, and make it a circus of the freaks and the ones who will draw the ratings.

The other week I happened to drive the local Planned Parenthood office. Since I am new in town I had no idea where it was. Until I saw the lone protester outside. A single individual walking back and forth with a sign saying something anti-abortion. No, such protests don't do much. Yes, I know I noticed but it only made me feel sad for the person who was carrying the sign. It gave the impression of a lost crusade with the survivor standing around.

Only massive numbers with a cause may get some positive attention. It sure doesn't sound like that's what R-68 has in mind. It might be fun naming Port-A-Pottys, but stopping war and ending racism and poverty take a lot more than that. Like perhaps the money that will be spent on these things that might be better utilized some way else.

That's my thought, anyway.

Now for Some News

Let's get the serious news first. This one deserves no funny remarks or snide insights. This one represents one of those left-over 60s paranoid fears of the government and secret plans. I hope it is just idle political gossip. Please, let it be just idle political gossip.

WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday denied a published report in Israel that said President Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term in January. A story in the Jerusalem Post quoted a "senior official" there as saying that Bush plans to attack Iran in the coming months. The story says the unidentified official claimed that a "senior member" of Bush's traveling entourage made the statement about attacking Iran in a closed meeting. Bush was in Israel last week.

The article also says the unnamed Bush official said that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "were of the opinion that military action were called for."

Now that we have sufficiently worried ourselves and given a reason for all those sleepless nights until 01-20-09, on to the normal levels of news that attract my attention.

Someone will call this activist judges at work. Others will shake their heads in dismay. Not being (physically) blind I don't know about the feeling of those who are. So I will let the merits of the case determine the outcome. (Wow. Is it hard not to make bad puns about vision and insight. But fortunately, I am restraining myself.)

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court says paper money discriminates against blind people. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a ruling that could force the U.S. to redesign its money so blind people can distinguish between values. Such changes could include making bills different sizes, including raised markings or printing oversized numbers for people who see poorly.

The next one brings back memories of some trips as a chaperone for my daughter's high school band. The band director, my best friend, always played favorites in his assignment of chaperones to groups of students. (it was a 250+ member band.) Since I am a drug counselor, he gave me the students that might be considered the most likely candidates for my services at some time in the future. I don't know if he figured I would know their secrets and catch them at it or what.

In any case the temptation to find a way to "lock" the students in their rooms is quite strong. But, and here's the problem with the concern of the students, most hotel/motel room doors open inward which means it would be quite difficult to actually duct tape their door closed. That would be a LOT of tape. But, since I wasn't there, I will defer judgment.

MILLBURY, Ohio - Parents have complained to a northwest Ohio school board that a chaperone sealed students in their hotel rooms with duct tape during a high school choir field trip.

At a heated meeting Monday, Michelle Mata told the Lake Local school board in Millbury that the tactic panicked her son during a recent weekend trip to Chicago.
Sylvia Keeler said she may file charges. Her son, Mark Hummel, said he worried he could be trapped during a fire. School board president Timothy Krugh told parents the tape was meant to keep students safe. Schools Superintendent Jim Witt said the tape would show if students violated curfew but wouldn't have kept them from escaping in an emergency.

And the BIG news of the week. American Airlines is NOT, repeat NOT raising fares. The BIGGER news of the week is that you have to pay for the unnecessary convenience of bringing luggage along and having them store it for you in the belly of the plane. What chutzpah for passengers to think they should have the right to bring along changes of clothes. Imagine that.

NEW YORK- Under a plan announced Wednesday by American Airlines, passengers already forced to pay extra for amenities like earphones, meals and even snacks will have to pay $15 to check a basic piece of baggage.

Maybe they should charge people for getting off the plane. Or as the Star-Trib headlined it:

What next? Pay Toilets?

Don't worry. I don't think American Airlines reads this blog so these ideas are safe just among us.

And Now the Vegan Menace

A reader of the blog by Boing!Boing! found an interesting article in the Twin Cities alternative newspaper, City Pages. Remember that the Republican National Convention will be held there at the end of summer. And they are naturally expecting trouble from those liberal protesters. So, here's the story as posted by Mark Frauenfelder:

[University of Minnesota sophomore Paul] Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for [U of M Police Sgt. Erik] Swanson’s arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.

Link to complete story.

I think I'll pass, too. I actually have nothing to add.

Ted Kennedy- An American Icon

It came as a shock and stroke to the solar plexus when I saw the headline this afternoon that Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. He has been a central part of the American scene and the Democratic Party for 46 years since his first election in 1962.

1962? That was the year of the Cuban missile Crisis; before the Beatles were known; the first Wal-Mart store opened; the first James Bond film opened; Marilyn Monroe died; Nelson Mandela was arrested; and John Glenn orbited the earth. (Yes, Greg, I remember all those things.)

That's how long Ted Kennedy has been in the Senate. He certainly has had some bad years and aborted efforts to run for president. But he has become one of the great historic senators working both sides of the aisle quite well while remaining a standard bearer for the liberal traditions.

An icon is one who stands out in his profession and becomes almost a paradigmatic emblem of what he does. Ted Kennedy has become one of those outstanding persons. Many have disagreed with him, but he has been a steady presence.

Uncalled for Violence

This was in yesterday's New York Times

Zimbabwe’s Rulers Unleash Police on Anglicans
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published in NYT: May 16, 2008

The parishioners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded for the doors, witnesses said.

Nothing short of scary. According to the article the ruling party has targeted groups that they have not been able to control. This includes "the Anglican diocese of Harare, as well as charitable and civic organizations, trade unions, teachers, independent election monitors and the political opposition."

It seems that there is a renegade Anglican bishop who is an ally of the President, Robert Mugabe. Somehow or another Mugabe's ruling party says that only followers of that Bishop are allowed to worship. The Times says,

Over the past three Sundays, the police have interrogated Anglican priests and lay leaders, arrested and beaten parishioners and locked thousands of worshipers out of dozens of churches.

Many American Christians (usually of the right-wing persuasion, feel that Christians in the United States are being persecuted. This story is about persecution. I am grateful that here in America we don't face those things. I pray we will never have to.

But that forces me to pray even more fervently for those who are persecuted for their religious beliefs. I don't care what the religion is, freedom of worship should be a basic human right. There is persecution of many different religions in many different places. It is not, I believe, God's will. No, don't quote the Old Testament to justify it or to counter the thought that freedom of religion is essential. It is not for us to say who can and can't worship. If one is forbidden, any can be forbidden.

Pray that such can be stopped and avoided. I can only believe that this would be God's will.

Please Mr. Bush, Don't Get Involved

Standing in Israel whose existence can be traced, at least in part, to the aftermath of the Nazi's horrific "Final Solution" we now call the Holocaust, Mr. Bush appeared to liken Obama's willingness to talk with Iran to the appeasement policies of Great Britain prior to World War II. It is easy to paste a really negative label on someone in historic terms. Just say they would have been easy on the Nazis.

There is a fine line, of course, between appeasement, which is a giving in to an enemy and expecting them to behave, and talking to your enemies. Bush's statement would have precluded all the behind-the-scenes talks, for example, between Nixon's people and what we then called Red China. They were the big enemy. But then, without warning, Nixon announces a change. We were talking and about to enter into trade with them.

How about detente, the attempt from the late 60s to the early 80s to relax tensions with the Soviet Union? That, too, would be wrong.

Obama has gotten into trouble, not for saying he would talk with Iran, but for getting in the way of continuing to have An Enemy that is bigger than all the rest. We have forgotten Osama bin Laden as he probably roams the caves of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is still real. Are they being sponsored by Iran? Who knows. But the only way to learn what your enemy wants is to talk to him.

Will that prevent a war? Perhaps. Perhaps not. History is not very positive about the possibilities. That is not appeasement. It is good international relations. Is Iran as bad as the Nazis? Who knows. We kept talking to Stalin even as he was as horrific a leader as Hitler. We even had him on our side for a while.

No politics and foreign policy are not as simple as Mr. Bush tries to make them. I congratulate him on going to the Knesset and celebrating Israel's 60th birthday. But it was not a place for such politically charged rhetoric.

The Way to Go

From Yahoo! News, an item that challenges all of us in this time of high gas prices:

Wis. man won't buy gas for 31 days, maybe longer

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - Brian LaFave couldn't care less how high gasoline prices climb these days — he's parked his pickup truck and is refusing to buy gas for a month, possibly longer.

"The goal is to not use one drop of gas for 31 days," LaFave said, calling it his personal stand against the oil companies.

Now LaFave, 31, is riding his bicycle or walking everywhere he goes. He won't even let friends pick him up unless they already planned on being in the neighborhood.

I do plan on buying a bike to go to and from work. I already don't drive my car very much since my apartment has a shuttle to my work. I am down to an average of less that 400 miles a month, which is also good since my car is at 108,000+ miles.

Anyway, Mr. LaFave, thanks for the challenge.

Lightning and Ash

Reuters

After looking at this picture of the volcanic eruption in Chile, I'm going to stop whining about our weather! Now they say the cloud has partially collapsed with fears of smothering the land and the villages.

Who says nature is always benevolent? The past few weeks have undermined that from the tornadoes in the US to the Cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China. Never underestimate the power of the natural world. Never!

Triage Decisions

The word "triage" entered more common usage thanks to the TV show M*A*S*H of course. It is the difficult decision making process of deciding in a medical setting who to treat first. In that decision making can be a whole range of problems and issues. It may not be generally known that the medical and other communities are in the process of making all kinds of plans for what could happen should we have a MAJOR flu pandemic. Earlier this last week was an article on Yahoo! News that brought the issue to a painful awareness:

CHICAGO - Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die.

Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.

These groups making these plans include Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services. They hope that the guidelines they develop will be a blueprint for hospitals so that they can all be on the same page if or more likely when some major health disaster hits.

The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources — including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses — are used in a uniform, objective way, task force members said.

Their recommendations appear in a report appearing Monday in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.

Local hospitals are sto set up a triage team that will have almost godlike powers to decide who may or may not be given care that could save their life. Of course those least likely to get care are those who have a much higher risk of death or a slim-chance of long term survival.

But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:

_People older than 85.

_Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.

_Severely burned patients older than 60.

_Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.

_Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

Yes, you are right. This could turn into a nightmarish situation, which it will be regardless of these guidelines. But these add to the situation some serious legal not to mention ethical concerns.

Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield."

The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force.

If followed to a tee, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said. While health care rationing will be necessary in a mass disaster, "there are some real ethical concerns here."

Well, it is not surprising to see this, as disturbing as it may be. Is it a doomsday scenario? Is it another Y2K-type of apocalyptic view? Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine. We have often found out that the disaster we plan for is not the one that happens. Such is the nature of chance. Only the survivors will like the decisions being made. I hope that I am not in the position to make those kind of decisions or to help make them.

Here is the abstract for an article about this, part of a series in a professional magazine.

In the twentieth century, rarely have mass casualty events yielded hundreds or thousands of critically ill patients requiring definitive critical care. However, future catastrophic natural disasters, epidemics or pandemics, nuclear device detonations, or large chemical exposures may change usual disaster epidemiology and require a large critical care response. This article reviews the existing state of emergency preparedness for mass critical illness and presents an analysis of limitations to support the suggestions of the Task Force on Mass Casualty Critical Care, which are presented in subsequent articles. Baseline shortages of specialized resources such as critical care staff, medical supplies, and treatment spaces are likely to limit the number of critically ill victims who can receive life-sustaining interventions. The deficiency in critical care surge capacity is exacerbated by lack of a sufficient framework to integrate critical care within the overall institutional response and coordination of critical care across local institutions and broader geographic areas.

(CHEST 2008; 133:8S–17S) Definitive Care for the Critically Ill During A Disaster.

In the News - or Not

What else happens in the world while primaries continue? Here is a small sample I found earlier this week. It makes for a good contrast.

First, a sad bit of news. Times change, even when those times represent almost 150 years ago.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - For decades, visitors willing to shell out a few extra dollars at Gettysburg National Military Park could be entertained — or bored — by an electric light display showing troop movements in that pivotal Civil War battle.

With the opening of a new museum and visitor center that offers a bigger "wow" factor for the park's nearly 2 million visitors each year, the National Park Service has decided that its 1960s-era electric battlefield map is obsolete.

I remember that battlefield map from when we went there when I was a kid. I don't know how old I was but it was intriguing to watch. Remember this was in the Dark Ages.

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Now for something even older- and far more mysterious. It isn't as obvious an answer if you are asked who's buried in Schiller's Tomb?

BERLIN - Who is buried in Friedrich Schiller's tomb? Several people, apparently, but none of them the famous poet and playwright, according to new research.

After two years of painstaking DNA research, experts have determined that none of the remains billed as those of Schiller belong to the German writer, who died in Weimar in 1805, Germany's MDR television reported.

My question (without taking the time to look it up) is who wondered in the first place that Schiller wasn't there and why did they even care?

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Still over there in Germany, something that sounds like an old camp idea from our sr high camp.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany's Social Democrats, who has ambitions to be his country's next leader, is thinking about donating his beard to charity, but is not quite sure.

Kurt Beck, who as party leader has a strong claim to lead the SPD into next year's national election, said in a panel discussion in Mainz that he might shave off his beard to raise 1 million euros ($1.5 million) for charity, the newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported.
"It must be serious and not turn into a spectacle," he told the paper. "The event would have to help the really needy."

This, to me, is neither new or news. I did this exactly 10 years ago at our Sr. High Camp. If the camp raised over $3,000 for that year's mission project I would shave my beard. They did it. I did. Then when I got home I find out that my wife never liked it. I had only had it for 18 years!

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Road rage, in reverse.

COPIAGUE, N.Y. (AP) A Long Island man who flipped his finger at a police cruiser and then popped a wheelie on his motorcycle is recovering from injuries after crashing. When the motorcycle turned into a parking lot it crashed into a police car that had joined the chase.

Let's hope it knocked some sense into the cyclist's head.

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This isn't really news, but it shows that what we think is new and different news is just a recycling of the past. Found this quoted in The Daily Dish:

American flag lapel pins had been distributed to members before the president spoke to Congress on April 2, 1917, requesting a declaration of war. It took a certain obdurate courage to refuse to wear the colors; Senator La Follette was among the refusers, as was the Mississippi senator Vardaman.

Good old fighting Bob La Follette. Ninety years later we still fight the same battles.

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And finally, speaking of Wisconsin (Bob La Follette was from there) where only the truly crazy of us go to root for the one and only team in the NFL:

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- David Witthoft finally shunned his Brett Favre jersey for a red shirt for the first time in 1,581 days. The 12-year-old Ridgefield, Conn. boy wore the No. 4 jersey every day since receiving it as a gift for Christmas in 2003.

Actually the story isn't from Wisconsin, only the team is. There are true Green and Gold fans everywhere. Don't tell us there's any other team that's America's Team. We were there first.

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Which reminds me of a joke I heard this week. It's a variation on an oldie but goodie.

Brett Favre has decided that in his retirement he wanted to be far away from professional football.

So he moved to Minneapolis.

By the way that is so old I remember it being told about the Green Bay Packers back in the 80s.