June 23, 2014

UC Davis study links autism to pesticides.

I'm not entirely sure where to post this, so I'm going with the generic 'health' forum.

In the Fresno Bee, Barbara Anderson writes UC Davis study links autism to pesticides.

The study by the UC Davis MIND Institute found mothers exposed to organophosphates had a two-thirds increased risk of having a child with autism.

And the risk was strongest when exposures occurred during the second and third trimesters of pregnancies, the research showed.

...

Using the pesticide data maps, researchers overlaid addresses of about 1,000 participants in a Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment study — a population-based, case-control study of children ages 2-5 with autism, developmental delay and typical development. The study area primarily was within a two-hour drive of Sacramento.

The whole article is worth reading, and, as always with journalistic interpretations of scientific info, it doesn't hurt to go to the original study - Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Prenatal Residential Proximity to Agricultural Pesticides: The CHARGE Study.

Now obviously, most Americans don't live right around fields sprayed with pesticides, but as we all know, not all pesticides are thoroughly cleaned off of or out of the foods we buy.

June 18, 2014

America Divided Over Hillary Clinton Presidency, NBC/WSJ Poll Finds

America Divided Over Hillary Clinton Presidency, NBC/WSJ Poll Finds

Hillary Clinton remains the overwhelming front-runner among Democrats for the 2016 presidential race, but the American public at large is equally divided about voting for her, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

“It’s not surprising that, as she moves from being secretary of state to being the 2016 candidate, she’s going through a different filter in how she’s being viewed,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the poll along with Democratic pollster Fred Yang and Hart Research Associates. “And how she’s being viewed is through an increasingly partisan lens.”

...

She enjoys overwhelming support from the Democratic base -- with three-quarters of Democrats suggesting they’re likely to check her name on their 2016 ballot. But 70 percent of Republicans and a sizable 40 percent of independents say there’s “no chance” they will vote for her.

June 17, 2014

Question about the use of 'ignore'.

If I put someone on the ignore list, are they still capable of commenting on my posts?

Cause it seems to me if that's the case, that they can troll the heck out of me, and it'll look like I have no good reply to them.

So will ignore stop them from commenting under my comments, or am I better off simply not using ignore?

June 16, 2014

Raspberries coming in nicely, despite the brutal winter.

We had a nice hot sunny day yesterday, so I was able to pick a solid pint of black raspberries today, up from the handful or so I've gotten the last couple of days. We really are looking like we're headed for a bumper crop year with our originally wild cultivar that I used to start a couple of patches around my and the parents' yards. I'm given to understand, though, that many of the commercial patches in the area were hit hard by the winter and won't be producing much this year.

Got my fingers crossed that we'll get maybe 3.5 - 4 gallons this year, up from last year's 3 gallons.

June 11, 2014

Tomato helps heal heart disease - research

Tomato effects on narrowed blood vessels

A daily dose of tomato could significantly improve the functioning of blood vessels in patients with heart disease, research suggests.

...

Participants in the study were given a pill containing a supplement called Ateronon that contains seven milligrams of the tomato ingredient lycopene. Lycopene is 10 times more potent than vitamin E and previous research showed its potency appears to be enhanced when it is consumed pureed, in ketchup or in the presence of olive oil.

...

Of 36 patients with heart disease, those taking the pill every day for two months saw their blood vessels widen by 53 per cent. This was due to improved functioning of the endothelium, the inner wall cell lining of blood vessels, scientists believe.

Sounds pretty good to me...

June 11, 2014

Morning Joke ongoing false equivalency BS on mass shootings

In the neverending stream of false equivalency that is Morning Joe, Mika, Joe, and one of the guests (Joe Heilmann maybe?) spent a few minutes at the end of their talk about the Oregon school shooting blaming the fact that nothing had been done since Newtown on 'the far left and the far right', saying 'everyone goes to their corners', with Democrats pushing gun control, Republicans blaming 'video games, Hollywood, ...'.

The reality, of course, is that the left blocked NOTHING, and the far left, along with 80-90% of the rest of America would have been happy to see even moderate reform on issues such as straw purchases, universal background checks, and maybe, MAYBE bullet limits on clips, drums, etc.

To give him his due, the guest did say it was more a failure of the middle, but he did nothing to push back on the false equivalency and added a little himself.

74 school shootings since Newtown. Anything done? No. Thanks exclusively to the NRA and their wholly owned Congresspeople.

May 8, 2014

Blatant lie in 2014 John Kasich (OH Gov) ad.

Just saw a new ad for John Kasich, in which it was claimed he made all sorts of new jobs appear and fixed the budget 'all without raising taxes'. In reality, he raised our state sales tax. It's not an *income tax*, but yes, sales tax is still a tax, and is even more a regressive one.

Link to article showing that Kasich signed sales tax increase into effect as of Sept 1, 2013.

I guess it's still ok to lie in ads in Ohio as long as you're not trashing someone else while you lie.

UPDATE edit: Ok, I just saw it again, and it's maybe NOT a blatant lie, just incredibly misleading. The specific claim is that he 'erased the deficit without raising taxes'. He may well have done this - he slashed all sorts of money that cities were getting from the state in the past. So he could have 'erased the deficit without raising taxes'. But he DID raise sales taxes, to allow him to make sure he had the money to hand out right and left for tax breaks to corporations, since he wasn't doing it specifically to 'erase the deficit'. This, of course, ignores the fact that money is fungible, and it doesn't matter which particular dollar you allocate to buying a soda, you're still spending a dollar on a soda. Or in Kasich's case, raising taxes, even if you say 'this tax increase is totally separate from how I 'erased the deficit''.

May 6, 2014

I was REALLY tempted to ask for a Republican ballot today...

(in Ohio, you get to 'change parties' only at primaries, by changing which ballot you ask for.)

Because John Boehner has a primary challenger, and I would like nothing better than to see the Weeper of the House out of office.

But I resisted the urge... He'll at least have a Dem challenger this fall, which is more than could be said last cycle.

Everybody else get out there and vote this morning?

April 7, 2014

Charles Wheelan, 'The Centrist Manifesto' on Washington Journal

this morning, is calling for a Third-wayish independent party 'in the center between the parties'. Unfortunately, it's the same old same old from the plutocrat toadies who tried to get No Labels off the ground a year or three back. From the left, they happily embrace all of the social issues that won't change the realities of economic inequality. From the right, they embrace 'reforms to entitlement programs', and 'economic opportunities' that end at 'training people' for jobs that the 'job creators' aren't creating.

Now, the country at a whole is already swinging, on its own, to embrace all sorts of more open social policies. The pressure on ALL politicians to start swinging left on social issues is ever growing. But it would be a horrible mistake to embrace RW plutocratic economic views while pretending that you were somehow actually being 'independent' and 'in the middle'.

To be fair, he did briefly open up with some good points on ideology, but then immediately swung back into his own ideology, which simply swings libertarian on social issues.

March 23, 2014

What am I?

Well, apart from not being really well read on socialism per se...

I'm hoping folks here can more precisely identify where I fall on the 'socialist'/'capitalist' spectrum, and suggest readings that might help me refine my rather general notion of the nature of socialism if I throw out some of my ideas.

First, I don't entirely exclude capitalism, just think it should be far more limited in where it arises. Any endeavour that is either explicitly mentioned in the duties of the state or can be seen to be implicitly geared towards the common good should be at least primarily a matter for the state, if not the exclusive purview of the state. No prison should be privately run, and indeed, all trial lawyers should be publicly provided - justice should not be a matter of who can afford the best lawyers. Education should be public, including university level. Private institutions should be allowed to exist, but should not receive any public support.

In healthcare, actual socialized medicine would be best, along with single payer. Licenses to practice issued by the state would require at least some minimal level of time spent working for public patients - no physician could simply decide to work exclusively for those who might pay cash outside the system and still stay licensed, unless they wanted to practice outside the country.

Public dining facilities would exist in any city over a certain size, with anyone able to simply walk in and receive breakfast, lunch and dinner, without direct charge, although such free meals would be off a limited menu of healthy choices. Ditto minimalist public housing, so that no one was forced to stay outside in inclement weather, would be able to sleep securely, and have a bathroom indoors.

Utilities of all sort should be publicly run, and the government should have manufacturing facilities to vertically integrate to minimize costs of the supplies it uses, whether in terms of ammunition, weaponry, or even office supplies.

Capitalism would largely be confined to non-essentials of life - fashion, design, entertainment, but government would be allowed even to compete in these areas, but would be required to compete evenly - it would have to run any of those endeavours as profit generators, unsubsidized by other facets of government.

So there would still be plenty of room for those who wanted go the private sector route, but specific areas related to the public welfare and critical needs of the state would be of a necessity state run.

So where does that put me on the socialist spectrum? Whose writings might I best identify with?