A picture's worth a 1,000 words - and about $8 Trillion

Tracking the Bailout via an image in today's NYT
(Click on image to see the full-sized version)

US Officials Flunk Civic Literacy Test

Amazing - a random sampling of 2500 citizens did better than elected officials (49 vs 44%) on a civic literacy test. Are these the same people that complain about immigrants not being "real Americans"! Food for thought...

Take the test: www.americancivicliteracy.org/res...aspx

US officials flunk test of Amerian history, economics, civics
Thu Nov 20, 2:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics.

Among the questions asked of some 2,500 people who were randomly selected to take the test, including "self-identified elected officials," was one which asked respondents to "name two countries that were our enemies during World War II."

Sixty-nine percent of respondents correctly identified Germany and Japan. Among the incorrect answers were Britain, China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and Spain.

Forty percent of respondents, meanwhile, incorrectly believed that the US president has the power to declare war, while 54 percent correctly answered that that power rests with Congress.

Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to "supervise the first televised presidential debates."

In fact, the system of choosing the US president via an indirect electoral college vote dates back some 220 years, to the US Constitution.

The question that received the fewest correct responses, just 16 percent, tested respondents' basic understanding of economic principles, asking why "free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government's centralized planning?"

Activities that dull Americans' civic knowledge include talking on the phone and watching movies or television -- even news shows and documentaries, ISI said.

Meanwhile, civic knowledge is enhanced by discussing public affairs, taking part in civic activities and reading about current events and history, the group said.

Prop 8 and Civil Rights - majority rule?

Some interesting thoughts for pondering from a radio piece I am listening to:

Gavin Newsom (current Mayor of San Francisco): “If you did a Prop 8 in 1967 for interracial marriage, would that have been right?”
Newsom questioned whether issues like same-sex marriage or interracial marriage should be put to a popular vote. He said that when the US Supreme Court struck down miscegenation laws 40 years ago, 77% of Americans still objected to Blacks and Whites marrying. “I don’t think in the history of the Civil Rights Movement that many rights have been advanced by majority rule. Do any of us look back and say that interracial marriage should still be illegal on the day after Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States?”
…
Polls say that 70% of African Americans who voted in California voted for Prop 8 – the same demographic that turned out in record numbers to vote for Barack Obama was also key in the success of Prop 8, according to Frank Schubert, the head of the “Yes on 8” campaign.
…
Next week, in many pulpits around the state, there will be many sermons about how traditional marriage and religious freedoms have been protected. And on the other side, there will be protests and candlelight vigils to decry the hate and discrimination of Prop 8. Both will use language of the oppressed to express themselves. The question is - will anyone be listening?

For the rest of the story see weekendamerica.publicradio.org/di...up/

SNL Palin skit - most recent

www.nbc.com/Saturday_Nig...-open/704042/

This is hilarious! I cracked up out loud over and over - enjoy (while trying not to be too depressed about the situation)!

Update: Oh, it gets worse. I just watched the actual interview - the SNL "skit" is more like a re-inactment than a spoof - Seriously, see for yourself:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/20...76173.shtml

a more radical solution would be nicer, but...

after thinking about what would be feasible in the near-term, I posted the following comment in response to a recent article on the political mess of the present.

It seems the one thing that we've learned for sure throughout our economic crisis is that both McCain and Obama will change their minds and policy plans about what should be done to improve the economic situation if the change seems likely to bring them votes. Unfortunately, neither candidates' plans are realistic - our economy is in bad shape and we're going to have to pay for it one way or another. We cannot afford big tax breaks, so why promise them? Furthermore, the cost of health care and health insurance in our country is reaching proportions that are becoming unaffordable for many middle class Americans, not to mention those living at or below the poverty line. Neither candidate has proposed an affordable, feasible plan to address this either.

So, when will the candidates tell us what they will do in office instead of telling us what they think we want to hear? I propose a radical idea – what would happen if a candidate decided to take up a conversation with the nation on economic and health issues. I am picturing a table surrounded by the candidate and their advisors as a forum to discuss the realities of these situations – pros and cons, ideas for change, concerns raised by “average Americans” and what we would like to achieve, what we are willing to give up and what we are not willing to back down on. This could be a series of televised sessions, each followed by a feedback gathering from said “average Americans” to see what additional questions and concerns have arisen during the forum and where the opinions of the majority of lie. What would happen if a candidate decided to respect and engage the American public?

I am in the medical field and it seems that some of the features that make a good doctor might inform the candidates about what the public wants in a leader – someone who is a competent, critical thinker; someone who analyzes the pros and cons of each decision but who listens to, and ultimately respects, the choices made by the patient (read: public) once they have been given the proper information and had time to compare their values and the decisions to be made. What happens in the doctor’s office is a good patient-doctor relationship that translates to better care and patient satisfaction. It has been a long time since our economy and health payer systems have been well-managed or resulted in public satisfaction. Maybe this is the change that we’ve been waiting for.

What you can (easily) do for the Environment & the controversy between the Locavore Meat-eater & International Vegan

Note: the study that this article is referring to showed that use of dairy products was nearly as big a contributor to global warming as eating beef. Said study also showed that “replacing red meat and dairy with chicken, fish, or eggs for one day per week was like reducing emissions equal to 760 miles per year of driving, and switching to vegetables [vegan diet] one day per week cuts the equivalent of driving 1160 miles per year.” Yes, that means that the grander experiment of switching from a diet that contains some meat daily to a vegetarian diet would be the equivalent of reducing emissions by 5,320 miles of driving per year. Switching from meat to vegan would be like reducing emissions by 8,120 miles per year and from vegetarian to vegan like reducing by 2,800 miles per year. That said, if you’re not up for drastic change, even opting out of meat and/or dairy one day per week will make a difference.

A Reference: pubs.acs.org/subscribe/j...odmiles.html
(link is a summary of findings from CL Weber & Mathews, HS. Food-miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States. Environ. Sci. Technol. Web published April 16, 2008.)
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THE ARTICLE (finally!):

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

Juliette Jowit, environment editor The Observer, Sunday September 7 2008

People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world's leading authority on global warming has told The Observer

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.

His comments are the most controversial advice yet provided by the panel on how individuals can help tackle global warning.

Pachauri, who was re-elected the panel's chairman for a second six-year term last week, said diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems - including habitat destruction - associated with rearing cattle and other animals. It was relatively easy to change eating habits compared to changing means of transport, he said.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. These are generated during the production of animal feeds, for example, while ruminants, particularly cows, emit methane, which is 23 times more effective as a global warming agent than carbon dioxide. The agency has also warned that meat consumption is set to double by the middle of the century.

'In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,' said Pachauri. 'Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there,' said the Indian economist, who is a vegetarian.

However, he also stressed other changes in lifestyle would help to combat climate change. 'That's what I want to emphasise: we really have to bring about reductions in every sector of the economy.'

Pachauri can expect some vociferous responses from the food industry to his advice, though last night he was given unexpected support by Masterchef presenter and restaurateur John Torode, who is about to publish a new book, John Torode's Beef. 'I have a little bit and enjoy it,' said Torode. 'Too much for any person becomes gluttony. But there's a bigger issue here: where [the meat] comes from. If we all bought British and stopped buying imported food we'd save a huge amount of carbon emissions.'

Tomorrow, Pachauri will speak at an event hosted by animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming, which has calculated that if the average UK household halved meat consumption that would cut emissions more than if car use was cut in half.

The group has called for governments to lead campaigns to reduce meat consumption by 60 per cent by 2020. Campaigners have also pointed out the health benefits of eating less meat. The average person in the UK eats 50g of protein from meat a day, equivalent to a chicken breast and a lamb chop - a relatively low level for rich nations but 25-50 per cent more than World Heath Organisation guidelines.

Professor Robert Watson, the chief scientific adviser for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, who will also speak at tomorrow's event in London, said government could help educate people about the benefits of eating less meat, but it should not 'regulate'. 'Eating less meat would help, there's no question about that, but there are other things,' Watson said.

However, Chris Lamb, head of marketing for pig industry group BPEX, said the meat industry had been unfairly targeted and was working hard to find out which activities had the biggest environmental impact and reduce those. Some ideas were contradictory, he said - for example, one solution to emissions from livestock was to keep them indoors, but this would damage animal welfare. 'Climate change is a very young science and our view is there are a lot of simplistic solutions being proposed,' he said.

Last year a major report into the environmental impact of meat eating by the Food Climate Research Network at Surrey University claimed livestock generated 8 per cent of UK emissions - but eating some meat was good for the planet because some habitats benefited from grazing. It also said vegetarian diets that included lots of milk, butter and cheese would probably not noticeably reduce emissions because dairy cows are a major source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas released through flatulence.

This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday September 07 2008 on p1 of the News section. It was last updated at 09:42 on September 08 2008.

www.guardian.co.uk/environm...ink/print

A (very) Brief Update & Related Post from a Recent WHO Statement

Hi All,
This is a re-post from a daily email that I get from one of the past presidents of Physicians for a National Health Program (website: www.pnhp.org/ ). Many of the board members/affiliates/grassroots people who are working for and are part of the organization are at the hospital that I am doing my 3rd-year clerkship at, the Cambridge Hospital (TCH). TCH is part of the public hospital system in Massachussetts, the Cambridge Health Alliance, which is made up of 22 clinics and 3 hospital. I go between several of the sites, the med school proper, and various other venues for my 3rd-year med school education. As you'll no doubt realize from the post, this community of physicians is very active in promoting health for everyone regardless of financial, educational or legal status. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such a phenomenal group of people. That said, 3rd-year is a LOT OF WORK! It is also a priviledge to be privy to the most trying, precious, heart-wrenching and miraculous parts of human life and death. Days alternate between loving what I'm doing and wanting to run away and live in the woods - such is life. Anyway, I hope you're all well. I think of you all the time, Michelle

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

World Health Organization
August 28, 2008
Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the
Social Determinants of Health

Inequities are killing people on a "grand scale" reports WHO's Commission

"(The) toxic combination of bad policies, economics, and politics is,
in large measure responsible for the fact that a majority of people in
the world do not enjoy the good health that is biologically possible,"
the Commissioners write in Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health
Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health. "Social
injustice is killing people on a grand scale."

Wealth is not necessarily a determinant

Economic growth is raising incomes in many countries but increasing
national wealth alone does not necessarily increase national health.
Without equitable distribution of benefits, national growth can even
exacerbate inequities.

Wealth alone does not have to determine the health of a nation's
population. Some low-income countries such as Cuba, Costa Rica, China,
state of Kerala in India and Sri Lanka have achieved levels of good
health despite relatively low national incomes. But, the Commission
points out, wealth can be wisely used. Nordic countries, for example,
have followed policies that encouraged equality of benefits and
services, full employment, gender equity and low levels of social
exclusion. This, said the Commission, is an outstanding example of
what needs to be done everywhere.

Inequities within countries

In the United States, 886,202 deaths would have been averted between
1991 and 2000 if mortality rates between white and African Americans
were equalized.

Universal Health Care

Access to and utilization of health care is vital to good and
equitable health. The health-care system is itself a social
determinant of health, influenced by and influencing the effect of
other social determinants. Gender, education, occupation, income,
ethnicity, and place of residence are all closely linked to people's
access to, experiences of, and benefits from health care. Leaders in
health care have an important stewardship role across all branches of
society to ensure that policies and actions in other sectors improve
health equity.

The Commission advocates financing the health-care system through
general taxation and/or mandatory universal insurance. Public
health-care spending has been found to be redistributive in country
after country. The evidence is compellingly in favour of a publicly
funded health-care system. In particular, it is vital to minimize
out-of-pocket spending on health care. The policy imposition of user
fees for health care in low- and middle-income countries has led to an
overall reduction in utilization and worsening health outcomes.
Upwards of 100 million people are pushed into poverty each year
through catastrophic household health costs. This is unacceptable.
Health-care systems have better health outcomes when built on Primary
Health Care (PHC) – that is, both the PHC model that emphasizes
locally appropriate action across the range of social determinants,
where prevention and promotion are in balance with investment in
curative interventions, and an emphasis on the primary level of care
with adequate referral to higher levels of care.

Recommendations

Based on this compelling evidence, the Commission makes three
overarching recommendations to tackle the "corrosive effects of
inequality of life chances":

1. Improve daily living conditions, including the circumstances in
which people are born, grow, live, work and age.

2. Tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources –
the structural drivers of those conditions – globally, nationally and
locally.

3. Measure and understand the problem and assess the impact of action.


Press release:
www.who.int/mediacentre/...en/index.html

Executive Summary (40 pages):
whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2008/W....1_eng.pdf

Full report (256 pages):
whqlibdoc.who.int/publicati...03_eng.pdf


Comment: On this Labor Day weekend, a time that we celebrate the
great contributions of American workers, the release of this report
could not be more timely. Hard working Americans are experiencing the
adverse consequences of the increasing inequities in the social
determinants of health, inequities that really only society is
equipped to address. Today, Hurricane Gustav is descending on our Gulf
Coast, testing further whether we as a society can join together to
meet our challenges, or if instead those affected are simply left on
their own.

Please excuse me for a personal moment of introspection. For over ten
years I've been a full-time volunteer for Physicians for a National
Program. I remember well a conversation I had several years ago with
David Himmelstein, a cofounder of PNHP. We observed that, while the
task of achieving health care for everyone in the United States seemed
almost arduous, it was a miniscule problem compared to the needs
throughout the world. Ours was such a tiny task in comparison. We
didn't need more money. We merely needed to fix the way we finance
health care as an essential first step to begin to address these
inequities.

Ten years later one simple number gives us an inkling of the degree of
our success. This report shows that over 800,000 African Americans
have died prematurely in the United States in the past decade merely
because we have failed to address these inequities in the social
determinants of health.

(moment of silence)

Hopefully we'll do better with Gustav than we did with Katrina, having
learned a lesson. But do we really need more lessons on the social
determinants of health before we begin to act? Eight hundred thousand
is far too many painful lessons for me.
_______________________________________________
Quote-of-the-day mailing list
Quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org
two.pairlist.net/mailman/l...of-the-day

Playstation 2, cell phones, and some computers = blood diamonds??

Playstation 2 component incites African war
Console war reaches past the couch and into the Congo, claims report.
By Ben Silverman

Has the video game industry dug up its very own blood diamond?

According to a report by activist site Toward Freedom, for the past decade the search for a rare metal necessary in the manufacturing of Sony's Playstation 2 game console has fueled a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the center of the conflict is the unrefined metallic ore, coltan. After processing, coltan turns into a powder called tantalum, which is used extensively in a wealth of western electronic devices including cell phones, computers and, of course, game consoles.

Allegedly, the demand for coltan prompted Rwandan military groups and western mining companies to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the rare metal, often by forcing prisoners-of-war and even children to work in the country's coltan mines.

"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King.

So where's the connection to Sony? According to Toward Freedom, during the 2000 launch of the PS2, the electronics giant was having trouble meeting consumer demand. To pump out more units, Sony required a significant increase in the production of electric capacitors, which are primarily made with tantalum. This helped drive the world price of the powder from $49/pound to a whopping $275/pound, resulting in the frenzied scouring of the Congolese hills known for being ripe with coltan.

Sony has since sworn off using tantalum acquired from the Congo, claiming that current builds of the PS2, PSP and PS3 consoles are sourced from a variety of mines in several different countries.

But according to researcher David Barouski, they're hardly off the hook.

"SONY's PlayStation 2 launch...was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999," he explained. "SONY and other companies like it, have the benefit of plausible deniability, because the coltan ore trades hands so many times from when it is mined to when SONY gets a processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original coltan ore came from, and frankly don't care to know. But statistical analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that SONY made all its PlayStations without using Congolese coltan."

Currently, the Playstation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all-time, having sold through over 140 million units.

Medical Miracles - "The Former 'Pregnant Man' Debuts His Baby"

It's been three weeks since his blue-eyed baby debuted in this world, but Thomas Beatie – better known around the world as the Pregnant Man – can already say this about his daughter's personality: "She's easygoing and mellow and intelligent."

On June 29 at 8:55 p.m., Beatie, 34, a former female beauty pageant contestant, made cultural history as perhaps the first legally transgender male to give birth, bringing into the world a 9 lbs., 5 oz. baby girl named Susan Juliette.

"She's so precious, I just can't stop staring at her," Thomas tells PEOPLE in his first interview since he and wife Nancy returned with their bundle from Bend, Oregon's St. Charles Medical Center. "Just holding her is the best feeling in the world."

Susan – named after Thomas's mother and conceived through artificial insemination with donor sperm – arrived after 40 hours of labor, with Nancy at Thomas's side acting as his coach.

"When Susan finally came out, it was like in slow motion," says Thomas. "I was full of wonder." Echoes Nancy: "There were tears of joy."

Both father and daughter came through the birth in perfect health. "I weigh two pounds less than I did before I got pregnant," adds Thomas. "And I don't have a single stretch mark!"

At home, the couple is adjusting to their new nightly schedule: Nancy breastfeeding (by induced lactation, a process using hormones and physical stimulation with a breast pump) and Thomas keeping company while watching TV.

Crows Thomas, "Susan is a miracle! And we're finally the family we've been dreaming of."

-- by Champ Clark, People Magazine, July 23, 2008

Thanks for your support

Thanks so much to everyone who has sent kind words and thoughts - they are much appreciated. The following post is as much for my reference later as anything else and gives various perspectives on the flooding. 81 of the 99 counties in Iowa are slated for federal emergency; much is already being bulldozed, it is being refered to as "another Katrina," and will certainly affect the food crisis in the months to come as most of the corn in the US come from this state whose crop has been decimated.

Iowa Floods May Further Deepen Food Crisis
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

9 Feet over Flood Stage, Iowa River Engulfs Campus
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

After the Deluge in Iowa City
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php


Fresh Water a Top Concern in Flooded Iowa
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php
Listen: Iowa Gov. Chet Culver: 'Absolutely Heartbreaking'
Listen: David Schaper: More Flooding Expected
Listen: Farmer George Naylor: Crop Damage and Corn Prices

In Iowa, Worries about Flood Damage, Insurance
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

In Midwest, Rising Waters and Fears of Worse
www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14...idwest.html


Photo Galleries:
NPR: www.npr.org/news/images/...ry/index.html
New York Times: www.nytimes.com/slideshow/...OODS_8.html

Map: www.nytimes.com/imagepages....ready.html