Politics & Society

Guilt by Proximity

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It’s amazing how insensitive some people can be. There are at least six theaters within a few blocks of Ford’s Theater, Ground Zero in Washington DC where Abraham Lincoln was shot. One would think that any self-respecting actor would have the sensitivity to realize that Americans don’t want to be constantly reminded of that other actor John Wilkes Booth who assassinated a President. And what religious insensitivity would result in a Buddhist Temple less than 1 mile from Ground Zero at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (ignore the fact that it has been there since 1902)? Human decency would have dictated that the place should have been closed down and moved to a new location after 12/7/1941.

Environment

Imagining a Time When the Eco-Crisis is Over: A Response

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I’ve decided to take Dave Belden up on his challenge Imagine a Time When the Eco-Crisis is Over: Then Tell Us How We Got There? and address one aspect of how necessary behavioral change was achieved. Imagine if we got to a point where the realized threat of climate change to our own personal health and well-being and the health and well-being of our children was so ingrained in us that we would even consider a carbon footprint tax as a realistic revenue source for California? What if we got to a place that our understanding of ecology was such a given that a carbon footprint tax would even be popular and acceptable to the bipartisan leadership of this country with almost 1/2 of the Republicans supporting it? Imagine an editorial in the Los Angeles Times that reads:
“Raising taxes in California these days is extraordinarily difficult. In fact, in their effort to eliminate a $x-billion budget shortfall, the state’s politicians are discussing dismantling California’s main welfare program, eliminating the health insurance program for poor children and decimating education without any apparent debate on raising the income or sales tax.

Culture

Turning Boys Into Monsters

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Friend and colleague, Amy Jussel wrote a wonderful article titled “Turning Boys Into Monsters: Energy Drink Leaves A Foul Taste (Again)” today on her blog ShapingYouth.org. Amy writes, “With everything from motocross and macho madness to the thumping, screaming, over the top rebel yell, Monster ‘packs a vicious punch’ by creating lil’ monsters out of the male middle-school set without a clue (or a care) as to the impact of the jolt and crash ‘kick ass flavor’ to their adolescent bods. Wow. I feel like I got a testosterone infusion just reading the freakin’ label…” Besides writing about the obvious health implications of energy drinks on developing adolescent or even adult bodies, the article primarily focuses on the hype and specifically male gender-targeted marketing and messaging that is being used.

General News

The US Wealthiest Are Not As Wealthy This Year

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The Forbes 400 list of the richest people in the United States just came out for 2009. No real surprises. The Waltons are still comfortably in the top 10 but George Soros made it into the top 20 this year, mostly because a number of folks fell off the list. In fact, the total worth of the 400 wealthiest in the United States fell by $300 billion to $1.27 trillion and the worth of the top 20 dropped by nearly 14%. But before you shed too many tears over this, I correlated a list of the top 20 wealthiest in the United States to countries with the closest GDP as I had also done in 2008.

General News

Watch the Number of US Healthcare Casualties Grow Here

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“Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year — one every 12 minutes — in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.” — Reuters, September 17th, 2009
At this rate,  from the beginning of 2009 to the moment you are reading this article,
[hcdeaths] people in the US have died for lack of health insurance.

War & Peace

Remembering September 11th and September 14th

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As we rightfully remember September 11th, 2001 and the tragedies of that day for the United States, my thoughts also move forward to September 14th of that same year and a courageous but lone vote made by Rep. Barbara Lee to oppose the use of violent force in retaliation. In explanation Lee said, “There must be some of us who say, let’s step back for a moment and think through the implications of our actions today — let us more fully understand its consequences… Far too many innocent people have already died.” This voice of reason was drowned out by a country ready to proceed with the fervor of a Holy War. The voice was outnumbered 420 to 1.

General News

Stop Scaring the Children!

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Apparently an anonymous East Coast donor has funded “Recession 101” billboard signs that have been popping up all over Rhode Island to reduce our anxiety over the current state of the economy ( http://tinyurl.com/recess101 ). One such sign suggests, “Stop obsessing about the economy, you’re scaring the children.” It’s got me thinking whether this might have application in other areas that seem to be currently troubling us as a nation. So I’d like to try using this sign as a template. Maybe you’d like to add to the list.