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Dirty Hands, Dirty Mouths: Study Finds a Need to Clean the Body Part That Lies
Strong Link Between Diabetes and Air Pollution Found in National U.S. Study
Exercise may lessen fracture risk in women
Blueberries Help Fight Artery Hardening
Plus lots more.
Ian Welsh:
I Trust It Is Now Clear Democrats Hate The Left
Now that virtually everyone of any importance, up to and including the President has told you that they hate you, that you are a bunch of unrealistic ingrates who need to be drug tested, I trust no one still thinks the White House doesn’t hate the left’s guts, and that it comes from the very top, from the President?…
[T]he people who control the Democratic party despise you. Loathe you. They think you’re the sort of frightened sheep who will keep voting for them, keep giving them money and help, as long as they promise to be just a little better than the Republicans.
Truthdig:
Europeans Take to the Streets to Protest Spending Cuts
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of people in Spain, Italy, Greece and other European nations registered their disapproval of their governments’ moves to make them bear the brunt of the financial shenanigans that sent the global economy into a downward spiral two years ago.
Poor Health Habits Linked to Subpar Work Performance
Adding Recess to the Workday Gains Backers
Doctors prescribing exercise for cancer
Heightened suicide risk after weight-loss surgery
Plus lots more.
Obama turns up the volume, claiming it would be “inexcusable” and “irresponsible” for Dems to sit out the midterms, given the stakes.
“If people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place,” the president said.
Translation: We superior beings in the Democratic leadership can do whatever the hell we want to, and you poor slobs have to suck it up and vote for us anyway.
They’re not accountable to anybody.
What will they do when there are no chickens left?
Just as they did in 2000, the Republicans are running this year on an economic platform of tax cuts, especially making the tax cuts permanent for the richest among us. So how did the tax cuts work out? My analysis of the new data, with all figures in 2008 dollars:
Total income was $2.74 trillion less during the eight Bush years than if incomes had stayed at 2000 levels. [Emphasis added.]
That much additional income would have more than made up for the lack of demand that keeps us mired in the Great Recession. That would mean no need for a stimulus, although it would not have affected the last administration’s interfering with market capitalism by bailing out irresponsible Wall Streeters instead of letting the market determine their fortunes.
Chuck Marr, CBPP:
[O]ver the last three decades a stunning shift in income has taken place in this country, from the middle class to those few at the very top of the income scale. Back in 1979, the middle 20 percent of Americans had more than twice as large a share of the nation’s total after-tax income as the top 1 percent. But by 2007, the top 1 percent’s slice of the economic pie had more than doubled and in fact exceeded the middle class’s slice, which had shrunk. [Emphasis added.]
This great income shift means the average middle-income American family had about $9,000 less after-tax income in 2007, and an average household in the top 1 percent had $741,000 more, than they would have had if the 1979 income distribution had remained.
According to research (PDF) carried out by Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely of Duke University…, 92 percent of Americans would choose to live in a society with far less income disparity than the US, choosing Sweden’s model over that of the US. [Emphasis added.]
What’s more, the study’s authors say that this applies to people of all income levels and all political leanings: The poor and the rich, Democrats and Republicans are all equally likely to choose the Swedish model.
For a long time, American politics has been defined by a Left/Right dynamic. It was Liberals versus Conservatives on a variety of issues…
The new dynamic, however, has moved past the old Left Right paradigm. We now live in an era defined by increasing Corporate influence and authority over the individual… Where there is massive concentrations of wealth and influence, there will be abuse of power. The Individual has been supplanted in the political process nearly entirely by corporate money, legislative influence, campaign contributions, even free speech rights.
This may not be a brilliant insight, but it is surely an overlooked one. It is now an Individual vs. Corporate debate – and the Humans are losing. [Emphasis added.]
Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist .hedge fund manager, and Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow:
The corporate elites in this country saw Bush driving the country off a cliff, so they concocted an allegedly “post-racial” moderate Democrat to stabilize the system and obtain Democratic buy-in on issues like perpetual war, and a government as feeding trough, which has facilitated ongoing corporate predation…
[T]here is a … profoundly corrosive social effect at work here. There is a pervasive sense that people who have played according to the rules are being persistently jobbed by this Administration – this has begun to perpetuate a feeling of “they’ve got theirs and now I want mine.” It’s hard to quantify the impact of this growing mentality, but it is the kind of phenomenon often manifests itself via widespread tax evasion and a corresponding loss of political legitimacy on the part of a government in other countries…
For all of his renewed vigor on the campaign trail, Mr. Obama fundamentally fails to understand this phenomenon… His “change” message is no longer a symbol of hope, but has become a source of bitter irony and cynicism. As a result, this President risks turning off an entire generation of new voters who were once genuinely excited by the man’s promise. [Emphasis added.]
You think you’re someone who MATTERS?
“Stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives.” — Vice President Joe Biden
So we’re officially on notice.
The people still without jobs? Quit yer whining.
The ones on food stamps? You, too.
Your house is being foreclosed on? What a buncha pussies. Shut yer piehole!
Those of you living in your cars? Be grateful you still have cars!
Sleeping on your friend’s couch? Beats a cardboard box, don’t it?
You can’t afford to see a doctor? God damn it, you’ll be able to do that in 2014. You can’t wait just four more years?
And they wonder why the base isn’t motivated.
Suicide rates for middle-aged people are edging up — particularly for white men without college degrees — and a combination of poor health and a poor economy may be driving it, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Studies in Britain and Australia have shown that in those countries there are more suicides when conservative governments are in power. And Conservative Truths did an analysis that suggests the same thing happens in the U.S. So what does this information tell us about the Obama administration?
In 2011, the combined average of premium and out-of-pocket costs for health care coverage for an employee is projected to climb to $4,386, according to an annual study by Hewitt Associates to be released this week. That’s a 12.4 percent increase, or $486, over this year.
Last night I dreamt that there was a huge snake on the loose that was a great danger to many people. I couldn’t do anything about the snake, because I didn’t have the skills to kill it. Those who did have the skill, and guns that could kill the snake, kept holding their fire. I didn’t know why.
I woke up very upset, and couldn’t get back to sleep.
Perhaps the dream is related to a shocker I received in the mail on Saturday—my medigap insurance (the private insurance I carry to make up for the gaps in Medicare coverage) is going up 40%. So I quickly got online to find a better price, and got a comparative listing from the state of Illinois. I found the cheapest one, almost the same rate I’m paying now, and yesterday I spoke with an insurance agent who said oops, that’s the “old” price. The “new” price, of course, is close to the price my current carrier wants to charge me. I definitely will report this “mistake” to the Illinois insurance commissioner.
That same insurance agent believed that we have the best health care system in the world. Not true. He was not aware of the facts that in the United States, we pay more than twice per person for health care than other nations, and have poorer outcomes overall. He said that some Canadians coming here for some aspects of their medical care is proof that our laissez-faire system is better than their 100% government insured and taxpayer paid system. That and other myths about Canada’s health care system are debunked here, here, and here.
It’s a very good thing that I don’t have to live on just my Social Security income—right now. If I ever do have to live on just that, I’m doomed. My health insurance costs (Medicare Part B and medigap) would be close to 17% of my income. And my Social Security income remained static last year and won’t increase this year, either.
I’m also upset that the measures I’ve taken over the last few years to improve my health—lowering my cholesterol and blood pressure, exercising regularly, eating healthy foods, have no impact on the cost of my health care insurance. I even started a health blog, Many Years Young, to encourage myself and others. You’d think they’d want to incentivize healthier lifestyles, but no. It almost seems that nothing can be done on any issue that makes any sense.
Those who were foolish enough to do what we were told was the right thing, saving money, are getting less than 2% return on those savings.
Those who were foolish enough to do what we were told was the American Way, buying a home, are watching the value of those homes continue to decline.
Everything of value in our lives is decreasing, while our costs are increasing exponentially.
The Democrats have the power to kill this snake. It’s what we hired them to do. Why are they not doing it?
Higher health care bills ahead
Belly fat and depression may be linked
Statins Could Prevent More Strokes, Heart Attacks: Analysis
Simple Steps to Weight-Loss Success
Plus lots more.
Poll: Many think health law should do more
Fight ‘The Power’
The Best Walking Pace? Whatever Feels Good
Get Skinnier with These 2 Small Changes
Plus lots more.
Trouble Coping With Stress Under Pressure? Train Your Brain
Mixed Report on Women’s Health Research
A New Name for High-Fructose Corn Syrup
False Claims, Lies Caught on Tape at Farmers’ Markets
Plus lots more.
As Science Unlocks Secrets, Cancer Rates Fall
Moving Closer to Outdoor Recreation Not a Recipe for Being More Physically Active
Magnesium may prevent diabetes
Heart-healthy diet doesn’t have to be costly
Plus lots more.
Presidencies must have plots. They must have narratives that are comprehensible. We must know their themes. Clinton’s theme, after 1994, was: On the job for you. W’s was: Defending the homeland. Reagan’s: Strength and rebirth. Obama’s theme is…what? It seems 20 months in his theme is: I wanted to be President and now I am. The end.
Paul Krugman
Once upon a time, a Latin American political party promised to help motorists save money on gasoline. How? By building highways that ran only downhill.
I’ve always liked that story, but the truth is that the party received hardly any votes. And that means that the joke is really on us. For these days one of America’s two great political parties routinely makes equally nonsensical promises. … And this party has a better than even chance of retaking at least one house of Congress this November.
Banana republic, here we come.
* What to watch for today: Dems punted on extending the middle class tax cuts because they were worried that their failure to also extend the high end ones would allow Republicans to blast them for raising taxes.
Now, in a move as predictable as the roar of media attention that greets every Sarah Palin tweet, Republicans are already blasting the Dem failure to act on the tax cuts as … a tax hike! Here, for instance, is Orrin Hatch: “It’s unfortunate that politics has gotten in the way of making sure the American people’s taxes don’t go up.”
In short: The Dems’ decision to punt has actually given Republicans a tax-hike cudgel to use against them, rather than deprived them of one. Expect lots more of this.
UPI:
U.S. researchers say the “civilizing hormone” oxytocin improves social cognition — but only in the less socially proficient…
“Oxytocin is widely believed to make all people more empathic and understanding of others,” lead author Jennifer Bartz of Mount Sinai says in a statement. “Our study contradicts that. Instead, oxytocin appears to be helpful only for those who are less socially proficient.”
Talking to death: texts, phones kill 16,000: study
Breast Cancer Cases in Canada Drop With Decrease in HRT Use
Anger Amplifies Clinical Pain
Booze Tax Hikes May Reduce Alcohol-Related Problems
Plus lots more.
Top Obama adviser David Axelrod got an earful of the liberal blogosphere’s anger at the White House moments ago, when a blogger on a conference call directly called out Axelrod over White House criticism of the left, accusing Axelrod of “hippie punching.”
“We’re the girl you’ll take under the bleachers but you won’t be seen with in the light of day,” the blogger, Susan Madrak of Crooks and Liars, pointedly told Axelrod on the call, which was organzied for liberal bloggers and progressive media.
So the word is that given a chance to really put the GOP on the spot — the chance to force a vote on extending only the middle-class tax cuts, forcing Republicans to vote no in order to save their beloved tax cuts for the rich — Democrats will … punt.
I guess the Blue Dogs really want to be in the minority.
