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Iceland has longest-lived men, U.S. scores poorly
Gene scan shows man’s risk for heart attack, cancer
New Approach to Degenerative Disease
Exercise, Weight Control May Keep Fibromyalgia at Bay
Plus lots more.
Canadians Lead Longer, Healthier Lives Than Americans
Communities With Active Participants Demonstrate Lower Levels of Crime and Lower Death Rates
Panel Finds Insufficient Evidence for Alzheimer’s Disease Preventive Measures
Grapes lessened metabolic syndrome in rats
Plus lots more.
Americans losing confidence in healthcare
Early Death by Junk Food?
Mediterranean Diet Helps Protect Aging Brain
Osteoporosis in women — and men?
Plus lots more.
Dean Baker:
Deficit reduction: argument by authority
The deficit hawks are going into high gear with their drive to cut social security and Medicare. President Obama’s deficit commission is having a big public event on Tuesday in which many of the country’s most prominent deficit hawks will tout the need to reduce the budget deficit. The next day, Wall Street investment banker Peter Peterson will be hosting a “summit on fiscal responsibility”, which will feature more luminaries touting the need to get deficits under control.
What will be missing from both of these events is any serious debate on the extent of the deficit problem and its causes. These affairs are not about promoting a real exchange of views on issues like the future of social security, Medicare, and public support for education, research and infrastructure, the purpose of these events is to tell the public that everyone agrees, we have to cut the deficit. And, this means cutting social security and Medicare. This is argument by authority.
Many public debates in the United States take this form. The issue is not what is said, but rather who says it. A few years ago all the authorities said that there was no housing bubble.
They know better than we do what’s best for us. Just ask them.
Four Unhealthy Behaviors Combine to Increase Death Risk
Arteries Age Twice as Fast in Smokers
Nearly Half of U.S. Adults Have Heart Risk Factors
Chokeberry extract found to regulate weight gain, blood glucose and inflammation in rats
Plus lots more.
Want to Age Well? Avoid Midlife Weight Gain
Exercise to get rid of anxiety, and put on a happy face
Better Vitamin D Status Could Mean Better Quality of Life for Seniors
How Accurate Is Healthy-Menu Info?
Plus lots more.
Prevention Is Key To Solving Health Care Crisis
Caring for Hips and Knees to Avoid Artificial Joints
Steps to Take Now to Lower Your Breast Cancer Risk
Omega-3 fatty acids are key to a healthier life
Plus lots more.
Cat Allergy Doesn’t Have to Mean Giving Up Kitty
Med students get hands dirty growing food
Value of B vitamins in cutting heart disease risk challenged
Omega 3s may help cut colon cancer risk
Plus lots more.
Biggest study on cellphone health effects launched
Green tea may help fight glaucoma
Cranberry juice may prevent urinary infection
Eat This Grain for Better Blood Pressure
Plus lots more.
Smell Your Way to a Longer Life?
Levels of Self-Esteem May Fluctuate Over Time
Bottled up anger can be deadly
Why we eat when we’re not hungry
Plus lots more.
Political Wire:
Rubio Under Federal Investigation for Credit Card Use
Federal law enforcement agencies have launched an investigation into the use of American Express cards issued by the Republican Party of Florida to elected officials and staff — including U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio (R), the St. Petersburg Times reports.
“Political parties, which are tax exempt, are allowed to spend money only on political activities, such as fundraising, running campaigns and registering voters. “
The RNC spent more than $340K at a semi-annual meeting in Honolulu in January, The Hotline reports, “the latest example of the party spending lavishly on itself while GOP officials worry they won’t have enough money to take advantage of a promising national landscape this fall.”
The figure does not include airfare for 33 staffers, which could amount to tens of thousands more.
Spending Money to Raise More Money
“Both the national Democratic and Republican party committees spend about two-thirds of the money they take in on the care and comfort of committee staffs and on efforts to raise more funds, with lavish spending on limousines, expensive hotels, meals and tips,” a Washington Post analysis shows.
Monthly reports “illustrate cultures in which vast sums are consumed with limited accountability.”
Amazingly, as consumers struggle, U.S. corporations are staging a nearly unprecedented comeback that’s largely escaping notice. The gargantuan, dispiriting job cuts that seem to dominate the news have also been the spur for an epic resurgence in profits.
If true, what that means is that the job cuts were unnecessary. All that pain, all that suffering … unnecessary.
By Norman Solomon
This is a grim story about the care and feeding of a Blue Dog.
Right now, Congresswoman Jane Harman is facing a serious primary challenge from a genuine progressive, Marcy Winograd, in Southern California’s 36th congressional district.
Last Saturday afternoon (April 17), I sat on stage with both candidates and other panelists at a forum during the California Democratic Party convention in Los Angeles. The room was filled with several hundred progressive delegates.
Harman has been refusing to debate her opponent, but she couldn’t stay away from the forum that afternoon. The entire convention would be voting the next day on whether to withhold endorsement of her for re-election.
The incumbent is a member of the center-right caucus of House Democrats known as the Blue Dog Coalition. In sharp contrast, she chose not to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus. When I asked why, Harman dodged the question.
Winograd promptly brought their differences into focus. She called for the government “to invest in housing, education, healthcare, transportation — not to perpetuate a war economy that is draining us, robbing us of money that we desperately need.” And she added: “I challenge my opponent to stop voting for this war machine.”
Being Nice May Boost Willpower, Physical Endurance
‘Brain Games’ Do Not Make You Smarter
Fitness Census: Adults, kids, pets fatter
Remarkable Effects of Fat Loss on the Immune System
Plus lots more.
Earthquake election
By Brent Budowsky
The fraud charges filed against Goldman Sachs are the first of many charges that will be brought against multiple firms in a coming red-hot summer of financial scandal.
I offer no legal opinion of the Goldman case in this indictment of an epic and almost biblical scandal that imposes savage pain on patriotic Americans who will pay for this scandal for a generation.
Outrage against Washington and Wall Street will intensify with every new charge as the jobless rate hovers at sadistic heights and the foreclosure rate continues at cruel and record levels.
Republicans are in denial if they believe the road to victory is to parrot spin written for them by consultant Frank Luntz that sounds like support for corruption by firms that received massive bailouts initiated by a Republican president…
Democrats are in denial if they do not understand that they control the presidency and Congress and a majority of voters are deeply dissatisfied with what they have gotten for their votes…
Tea Party leaders may soon be revealed as frauds if they refuse to oppose bonuses at bailed-out banks and act like lobbyists for bankers and operatives for Republicans who began the bailouts they attack…
This moral tragedy turns Americanism on its head. Some claim it is moral hazard to help working stiffs whose jobs are outsourced to slave-wage nations and whose homes are taken by bankers. But when those bankers receive gigantic bonuses to reward their failures, they so falsely call this capitalism and so shamefully call this Americanism…
Incumbents of both parties should be trembling.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net .
A coalition of former regulators, left-leaning economists and Democratic insiders have slammed the Senate’s version of regulatory reform in a letter to the parties’ two leaders, warning that the current bill won’t prevent a future financial crisis.
It’s the only kind of reform Democratic leaders know: Pretend reform that doesn’t do anything at all.
Obesity Gene, Carried by More Than a Third of the US Population, Leads to Brain Tissue Loss
Genetic Basis for Health Benefits of Olive Oil
Potential Benefit of Dark Chocolate for Liver Disease Patients
Tips to Help Lower Your Cancer Risk
Plus lots more.
How much activity is needed to improve health?
Smart Fitness for Grown-Ups
Grab Your Foot When You Feel Stressed
The Coffee Hour That’s Best for Blood Sugar
Plus lots more.
DandyTiger at The Confluence:
It may turn out that the Donner Party (or Dinner Party for those comedians out there) may not have gone as far as cannibalism:…
“The legend of the Donner party was primarily created by print journalists, who embellished the tales based on their own Victorian macabre sensibilities and their desire to sell more newspapers.”
Nothing at all like that could happen today.
It would just be impossible.
