Researchers have discovered . . . wait for it . . . that eating vegetables results in more weight-loss than a high meat, high carb diet. The researchers are apparently fully-tenured scientists at the "No Shit" Institute.
Our Pro-Cancer President
Last week, the he U.S. Congress approved a $781 billion increase in the legal borrowing limit for the federal government, raising the debt ceiling to nine trillion dollars (that’s 30,000 for every man, woman, and child in America). All this to accomodate Bush’s psychotic spending, coupled with tax cuts for the wealthy. So where, if anywhere, is the Bush Administration … Read More
Bird Flu Update
Look, I’ve blogged about this subject before, so obviously I’m concerned. But I don’t think we need to instill panic: In a remarkable speech over the weekend, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt recommended that Americans start storing canned tuna and powdered milk under their beds as the prospect of a deadly bird flu outbreak approaches the United … Read More
On Women’s Health
I’m glad that the candidate for my district, Nathan Tabor, claims an interest in women’s health: You may not realize it, but eight women around the world have died after taking the abortion drug RU-486. …While eight fatalities may sound like a low death count, the toll could climb significantly. More than 800 women have experienced potentially life-threatening complications after … Read More
Bird Flu Hits The Americas
I told you, it’s coming. Now, so far, "the Americas" means the Bahamas, and so far, the flu hasn’t leapt to anything other than birds. But it’s not going away.
Can You Buy Them In Bulk?
The FDA approves the world’s first transdermal patch to treat depression: The first skin patch to treat depression won federal approval Tuesday, providing a novel way to administer a drug already used by Parkinson’s disease patients but that belongs to a class of medicines that is rarely a first or second choice anti-depressant. The Food and Drug Administration approved the … Read More
Cat In Germany Has Bird Flu
This menace is getting closer and closer every week it seems: BERLIN – The deadly strain of bird flu has been found in a cat in northern Germany, the first time the virus has been identified in the country in an animal other than a bird, a national lab said Tuesday. The cat was found on the northern island of … Read More
Good Health News
I think this is an underreported story, so I want to highlight it: SAN FRANCISCO – In a surprising discovery, researchers said Friday they had found a virus in some prostate cancer patients, a finding that opens new research avenues in the most common major cancer among men in the United States. The virus, closely related to one previously seen … Read More
Bird Flu Getting Closer
The avian flu has moved from third world countries to second world countries. Specifically, it’s arrived in Germany. Only two swans affected so far, but it’s only a matter of time. I have to run to the ATM machine and stock up on canned goods.
Our Mayor Freaked Out Over Bird Flu
From today’s Winston-Salem Journal: Mayor Allen Joines said that mayors from cities nationwide who attended a conference in Washington are getting sobering information about the threat of a bird-flu pandemic in the United States. "It’s not a question of if it’s going to come, it’s a question of when it will hit," he said. And when it does, it could … Read More
The Fight Against AIDS
Bad policy: President Bush’s $15 billion effort to fight AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use. Award recipients include a Christian relief organization famous for its televised appeals to feed hungry children, a well-known Catholic … Read More
The Incompetent President
Focusing primarily on Bush’s disasterous Medicare program, WaPo’s editorialist Harold Meyerson has a few words to say: Incompetence is not one of the seven deadly sins, and it’s hardly the worst attribute that can be ascribed to George W. Bush. But it is this president’s defining attribute. Historians, looking back at the hash that his administration has made of his … Read More
Why Democrats Should Be Talking Medicare
The Medicare issue is a gift to Democrats. There are so many things wrong with it, that it is a wonder how it got passed. Well, not really. Consider the following: It is the largest entitlement program in 40 years, with virtually no way to pay for it. It is a massive giveaway to private corporate special interests. How? It … Read More
The Fatalities You Don’t Hear About
In my right-hand column, I have a little thingee reporting the current number of U.S. soldiers killed and injured in Iraq to date. Don’t be fooled by the numbers, people. The casualty toll is actually higher. The numbers, for example, don’t take into account people like Specialist Douglas Barber, an Iraqi War veteran who suffered from PTSD. Douglas Barber walked … Read More
Bush To Conduct Another PR Tour Before Handpicked Crowds
The Bush administration’s implementation of its new Medicare prescription drug benefit wasn’t quite a “seamless transition” as Medicare administrator Mark McClellan promised. The Miami Herald has called the implementation of the new program an “unmitigated disaster.” Recall that Bush’s program was passed in 2003 under unusual circumstances that included bribes on the House floor. Before lawmakers agreed to the plan, … Read More