– Recently, the Supreme Court expanded the impact that corporations can have on American elections. Now, more than ever, and more than before, big money can buy the political decisions it wants and needs to enhance its profits.
– In honor of this new relationship, we have here an updated photo of our Supreme Court Justices:
True Colors
– Research thanks to Van who knows a twisted thing when he see it.
So, go ask the folks that make any of the zillion chemicals released into the environment over the last 100 years if they think there’s any chance that their particular chemicals might, in some way, harm people or the environment. Go ahead and ask – you know what they’re going to say.
“It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
– Upton Sinclair
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Children exposed in the womb to chemicals in cosmetics and fragrances are more likely to develop behavioral problems commonly found in children with attention deficit disorders, according to a study of New York City school-age children published Thursday.
Scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine reported that mothers who had high levels of phthalates during their pregnancies were more likely to have children with poorer scores in the areas of attention, aggression and conduct.
Children were 2.5 times more likely to have attention problems that were “clinically significant” if their mothers were among those highest exposed to phthalates, the study found. The types of behavior that increased are found in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and other so-called disruptive behavior disorders.
“More phthalates equaled more behavioral problems,” Stephanie Engel, a Mount Sinai associate professor of preventive medicine and lead author of the study, said in an interview Thursday. “For every increase of exposure, we saw an increase in frequency and severity of the symptoms.”
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I’ve written about this sort of thing before here, here, here and here. And it gets sadder to write about it each time.
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Only 350 wild tigers remain in Asia’s Mekong River region, according to a new report from the conservation nonprofit WWF, which says the loss is being driven by trade in tiger parts.
Very little doubt, except among the denialists and those who don’t understand science, that we are seriously losing ground with the climate.
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Jan. 21, 2010
2009 was tied for the second warmest year in the modern record, a new NASA analysis of global surface temperature shows. The analysis, conducted by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, also shows that in the Southern Hemisphere, 2009 was the warmest year since modern records began in 1880.
Although 2008 was the coolest year of the decade, due to strong cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean, 2009 saw a return to near-record global temperatures. The past year was only a fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest year on record, and tied with a cluster of other years — 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007 1998 and 2007 — as the second warmest year since recordkeeping began.
“There’s always an interest in the annual temperature numbers and on a given year’s ranking, but usually that misses the point,” said James Hansen, the director of GISS. “There’s substantial year-to-year variability of global temperature caused by the tropical El Niño-La Niña cycle. But when we average temperature over five or ten years to minimize that variability, we find that global warming is continuing unabated.”
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– Research thanks to John K.
“With the enemy’s approach to Moscow, the Moscovites’ view of their situation did not grow more serious but on the contrary became even more frivolous, as always happens with people who see a great danger approaching.
At the approach of danger there are always two voices that speak with equal power in the human soul: one very reasonably tells a man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of escaping it; the other, still more reasonably, says that it is too depressing and painful to think of the danger, since it is not in man’s power to foresee everything and avert the general course of events, and it is therefore better to disregard what is painful till it comes, and to think about what is pleasant.”
Leo Tolstoy – War and Peace
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To a psychologist, climate change looks as if it was designed to be ignored.
It is a global problem, with no obvious villains and no one-step solutions, whose worst effects seem as if they’ll befall somebody else at some other time. In short, if someone set out to draw up a problem that people would not care about, one expert on human behavior said, it would look exactly like climate change.
– Another American Expatriate, Curtis Owings, here in New Zealand writes (below) about insurance and how it is a different experience from what folks in the U.S. know.
– Wake up Americans.  It doesn’t have to be as bad as it is.
– Here in New Zealand, the government has created the ACC (or Accident Compensation Corporation) to cover all accidents for New Zealand residents or visitors.
– The result of this is that businesses do not require Liability Insurance and Vehicles do not require accident insurance. And, there are NO lawsuits over who was responsible for an accident.
– Nice, eh? These are major simplifications and cost savings to the people living here.
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There is no requirement for “insurance”. In NZ the “insurance” providers only have access to more (and generally faster) elective medical options. But every one legally in the country is entitled/covered by the national health care system. The optional health insurance agencies provide all the same services, but do so from private facilities that have more capacity–so you’re really paying for convenience, not better care. If you need to file an insurance claim then visit http://www.itsaboutjustice.law/, for legal advice.
Some things are not covered by the national system like basic dentistry (check-ups), emergency rescue, and eye glasses. But the things not covered by the system are also *affordable* by comparison to the US. In Wellington we have “free” emergency rescue services by donations and fund-raising drives. These services are not always free in other areas, but again are much more affordable than in the US.
For us, the only difficulty was changing prescriptions from what we had in the US. If you are currently taking something regularly, the odds are pretty high that it will not be the same thing they prescribe here. NZ uses a single system which means that treatment methods are highly standardized across the country. If the treatment is approved and preferred, then everyone will use it. This often does not match up with practices in the US which tend to follow more options (some that work and some that don’t). There may not be 10 drugs for a particular ailment; there may only be two or three.
But the upshot is that there are never any claim forms to deal with, you can never be rejected for “coverage”, you never have to pick a coverage option, the costs do not vary, and how you get treated is consistent regardless of your job/insurance. (Again, insurance as we know it doesn’t exist here.)
~Curtis
– I like to report on how health care works in other countries outside of the U.S.   I do this mostly for my U.S. readers who are constantly besieged by propaganda from vested interests in the U.S. that are attempting to convince them that what they have in the U.S. is the best that can be had.
– Au contraire, mon ami.
– There’s an entire world of amazing health care options outside the insular U.S. In all the other advanced western nations, in fact.
– It is a world wherein people automatically expect that one of the functions of their national government is to provide health care for its citizens. Free.  And, if not free, then certainly easily affordable.
– Recently, in one of the on-line groups I participate in for immigrants (and wanna be immigrants) to New Zealand, a discussion started up about how health care in New Zealand works. One of those who spoke up had just been kidded (in a good natured way) about being a ‘Socialist‘ because she thought that the socialized medicine system here in New Zealand was a good thing.
– Here’s her reply just as she delivered it.  I love it and I think readers in the U.S. should be exposed to more information like this.
– To my friends in the U.S.: You do not live in the best of all worlds with respect to health care. And those who are trying to convince you that you do have serious financial skin in the game. The longer they can keep you convinced that the U.S. system is the best system, the longer their profit making streak runs hot.
– Seriously folks, you’ve got to get out there and smell the roses outside the U.S. borders. At a bare minimum, take a vacation to Canada and talk, seriously, to the Canadians you meet about their health care system – you will be amazed and shocked at how badly you are being treated.
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Hey there – Socialist???
Might take me a second to get use to the idea as I was raised that was a “bad” word. But guess what? If LOVING New Zealand health care makes me a Socialist, then a Socialist I am. I cannot say enough about how GREAT the health care here in Kiwi Land is, and as you know it is one of the main reasons we came here and one of the main reasons we stay here. Not only was all of my IVF treatment completely FREE of charge, all prenatal, birth and post op care (including the Plunket and Karitane nurses) was included. The Lactation Consultant in the hospital charged me $6 for a nipple shield and I had to buy my own toothpaste in the gift shop as I had an unexpected early admission prior to birth. We pay $37 for a visit to our GP. ANYONE can walk in off the street (even a visitor who has just arrived) and pay $50 to see my doctor and get the exact same medical care.
A PRIVATE eye specialist charged my husband $95 for the full and complete 45 minute glaucoma workup-medicine included. He goes yearly as his eyes are not bad enough to qualify for the hospital’s eye clinic but bad enough that we want to keep them from getting worse. And here a 45 minute Doctor consultation means you get to speak WITH the doctor one on one for up to 45 minutes. I could not believe how inclusive and involved the Doctors here are. As an American nurse I am use to docs flying in and out of patient rooms for 6 minutes and billing them for the hour. When I finally did get pregnant, I called up a SPECIALIST OB/GYN as I did not want to trust the delivery of my baby to a Midwife. They said it would be $1200 ALL INCLUSIVE for all prenatal, delivery, and post op care. Lucky for me I developed Diabetes before I could get in to see the specialist, so all of my care was transferred to Endocrine Gynecologists for FREE as public health pays for all complicated pregnancys.  There is a $6 charge for blood draws unless of course you are willing to walk your procedure form over to Med Lab (4 blocks away)-wait 5 minutes, and then it is TOTALLY and completely FREE.
Can’t go on enough and despite everything (both good and bad) that has happened to us over the years – the one consistent and GREAT thing that we have had is PREVENTIVE, low intrusive medical care. Unless you happen to work in the medical insurance business, I think you will find the care here far exceeds anything that I ever worked for or found in the United States. The idea of ever having to go back to an American doctor while in the United States sends chills up my spine. Here, I am a person and we are a family. There, I often felt like a lab rat. Relax – no one in true need of medical care would ever be denied treatment while waiting for a few pieces of paperwork to get sorted. The system is set up so that you would be covered under ACC as a visitor until you were covered.
– I’ve long said that corporations are like junk yard dogs; in their search for unending profits, they will bite anything and everything that looks likely. Here’s a lovely story along that line.
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In late October 2007, as the financial markets were starting to come unglued, a Goldman Sachs trader, Jonathan M. Egol, received very good news. At 37, he was named a managing director at the firm.
In late October 2007, as the financial markets were starting to come unglued, a Goldman Sachs trader, Jonathan M. Egol, received very good news. At 37, he was named a managing director at the firm.
Goldman’s own clients who bought them, however, were less fortunate.
Pension funds and insurance companies lost billions of dollars on securities that they believed were solid investments, according to former Goldman employees with direct knowledge of the deals who asked not to be identified because they have confidentiality agreements with the firm.
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