Buy Viagra Journal | Search results for "future"

Dear Fellows of Congress: I hesitate to write about the situation concerning energy supply and health status in the United States because you already know everything I could possibly tell you. That being said, the burden of my letter is a point of emphasis that represents a critical pathway for future progress. The growing energy supply and health problems confronting the United States are linked and each is a major contributor to turmoil in the economy. Together, the problems in energy, health and the economy create conditions that will become increasingly disruptive for US society. Lifestyle is the linkage between these areas and lifestyle is the pathway for effective and sustainable solutions for critical problems, as well as progress for our nation. Anything else is a fix of limited effectiveness leading to a future of larger, more severe problems. Drilling for oil wherever it might be located and when it might be necessary should be one part of national energy policy, but the current situation does not require opening contested sites. Also, everyone who needs essential and effective medical care should receive it but providing health insurance does not achieve that objective or lead to the goal of optimum health status for individuals and the population. Drilling for oil in fragile and treasured places and universal health insurance beg the issues of sustainable, affordable energy for future generations and improved health status for all Americans. These proposals serve as distractions and I suspect that is the purpose. Americans lead lives of excess consumption and they are wasteful of resources. Thrift, conservation and prevention are not basic principles guiding lives in the United States. When faced with the consequences of unhealthy and wasteful lifestyles, the demand is for immediate solutions that will not increase costs or change lives. Yet, the true costs of living are not well understood and when full costs are examined the findings are not welcome. The extensive highway system along with its many bridges is deteriorating because the true cost of design flaws and maintenance has never been paid. If the full cost of smoking (including subsequent medical care) was to be applied to each pack of cigarettes, the price would be an eye opener but it would be reality. The political leadership of this country, present and future, must develop and implement policies that encourage and permit lives that are thrifty and healthy. Thrift and health are basic human and American values. Every day, I see people who are struggling to live by those values. The task is to show them how to do that and provide the framework to do so. Meanwhile, miles driven are decreasing and sales of SUV Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: health, energy, cost, live, problems

Ron Paul held a news conference today at the National Press Club. Sixty percent of the American people do not approve of either of the two major party candidates, in part because; We cannot expect withdrawal of troops from Iraq or the Middle East with either of the two major candidates. Expect continued involvement in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Georgia. Neither hints of a non-interventionist foreign policy. Do not expect to hear the rejection of the policy of supporting the American world empire. There will be no emphasis in protecting privacy and civil liberties and the constant surveillance of the American people. Do not expect any serious attempt to curtail the rapidly expanding national debt. And certainly, there will be no hint of addressing the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationship with big banks and international corporations and the politicians. read more | digg story His advice? vote for a "third party" candidate. All of the candidates (except the major ones) agreed to the following four principles as part of being mentioned by name by Ron Paul in his speech; Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East. We must cease the war propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran, nor should we re-ignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia. We must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations. Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and excessive use of executive orders. The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place this burden on a future generation. The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests must be ended. There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and frauds. Reads like an essential list of principles to me. Based on this list, even I would vote for Ralph Nader. But I'm still pulling the lever marked "L" and voting for all the Libertarian candidates, just as I have done for the last 16 years. Here's Ron Paul on the Glenn Beck show discussing the substance of the news conference; He was also on Wolf Blitzer. You can watch that one on the Campaign for Liberty site, I'm not posting it here. I found Blitzer's wheedling of both Dr. Paul and Ralph Nader (trying to get them to admit they want to ruin the election for Obama) to be so transparent as to be disgusting. May the ghost of Edward R. Murrow haunt you for the remainder of your (limited) days, Mr Blitzer. Yellow journalism doesn't begin to describe your function in life. You are no more, and no less than a common propagandist; and of which you are nothing in comparison to Ol' Joey himself. It's being reported that C-Span will have the conference available on the website after it airs. I think it's a good sign that the so called "third parties" have come together to present a united opposition to the sham that is the US election cycle. If only one of them could be elected instead of one of the Mc-bamas . My money is still on the guy with the better teeth and hair. Not that I think he'll do a good job, I just think Americans are really that shallow when it comes right down to it. The Raw Story has a video clip from CNN of the News Conference. It is also available as a purchase from C-span, or you can watch it in 9 segments on the Campaign for Liberty Channel on YouTube. Here's the first segment: Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: national, candidate, paul, american, debt

The following treatise is lengthy and detailed, but it is well worth the time and effort to read and digest it's shocking assertions. Full documentation can be found at the end of the article. Mr. Vidino has done the world a valuable service in providing this thorough expose' of the ultimate goals of Islam, the centerpiece of which is to usher in Sharia law. I sincerely hope you will take the time to read this article in its entirety. The future of the world may be at stake. At the very least, liberty as we have grown to cherish it hangs in the balance. I invite your comments on this article. These issues MUST be discussed, and the time is growing short. Note that while more 'moderate' Muslims may not employ violent means to reach their goals, their goals are nonetheless the same as the Jihadists. In fact, they do not rule out violence as an option. So there go your so-called 'peace-loving' Muslims. Aims and Methods of Europe's Muslim Brotherhood by Lorenzo Vidino Published on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 ARTICLES Current Trends in Islamist Ideology vol. 4 In 1990 Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Sunni scholar and the unofficial theological leader of the international Muslim Brotherhood (al Ikhwan al Muslimoun), published a book called Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase. [1] This 186-page treatise can be considered the most recent manifesto of the Islamist revivalist movement. As Qaradawi explains in the introduction, the “Islamic Movement” is meant to be the “organized, collective work, undertaken by the people, to restore Islam to the leadership of society” and to reinstate “the Islamic caliphate system to the leadership anew as required by sharia.” Qaradawi’s treatise introduces a new agenda and modus operandi for the movement, signaling a clear break with many salafi groups and even with some past ideological elements of the Muslim Brotherhood. While the book does not rule out the use of violence to defend Muslim lands, it generally advocates the use of dawa, dialogue, and other peaceful means to achieve the movement’s goals. This doctrine is commonly referred to as “wassatiyya,” a sort of “middle way” between violent extremism and secularism, and Qaradawi is one of its key proponents. [2] After examining the situation of the “Islamic Movement” throughout the Muslim world, the dissertation devotes significant attention to the situation of Muslims living in the West. Qaradawi explains how Muslim expatriates living in Europe, Australia and North America “are no longer few in numbers,” and that their presence is both permanent and destined to grow with new waves of immigration. While Qaradawi says that their presence is “necessary” for several reasons—such as spreading the word of Allah globally and defending the Muslim Nation “against the antagonism and misinformation of anti- Islamic forces and trends”—it is also problematic. Because the Muslim Nation, and therefore Muslim minorities “scattered throughout the world,” do not have a centralized leadership, “melting” poses a serious risk. Qaradawi warns, in other words, that a Muslim minority could lose its Islamic identity and be absorbed by the non-Muslim majority. Qaradawi sees the lack of Muslim leadership not only as a problem, however. He also views it as an unprecedented opportunity for the Islamist movement to “play the role of the missing leadership of the Muslim Nation with all its trends and groups.” While the revivalist movement can exercise only limited influence in Muslim countries, where hostile regimes keep it in check, Qaradawi realizes that it is able to operate freely in the democratic West. Muslim expatriates disoriented by life in non-Muslim communities and often lacking the most basic knowledge about Islam, moreover, represent an ideally receptive audience for the movement’s propaganda. Qaradawi asserts that revivalists need to take on an activist role in the West, claiming that “it is the duty of [the] Islamic Movement not to leave these expatriates to be swept by the whirlpool of the materialistic trend that prevails in the West.” Having affirmed the necessity of the Islamist movement in the West, Qaradawi proceeds to present a plan of operation. The Egyptian-born scholar openly calls for the creation of a separate society for Muslims within the West. While he highlights the importance of keeping open a dialogue with non-Muslims, he advocates the establishment of Muslim communities with “their own religious, educational and recreational establishments.” He urges his fellow revivalists to try “to have your small society within the larger society” and “your own ‘Muslim ghetto.’” Qaradawi clearly sees the Islamist movement playing a crucial role in creating these separated Muslim communities and thereby providing it with an unprecedented opportunity to implement its vision, at least partially. Its local affiliates will run the mosques, schools, and civic organizations that shape the daily life of the desired “Muslim ghettoes.” And Qaradawi’s ambitions go further still. Without saying so openly, he suggests that sharia law should govern the relations among inhabitants of these Muslim islands; Muslim minorities “should also have amongst them their own ulema and men of religion to answer their questions when they ask them, guide them when they lose the way and reconcile them when they differ among themselves.” What Qaradawi outlines in his treatise might, at first glance, appear to be nothing more than a fantasy. In reality, it corresponds to what the international network of the Muslim Brotherhood has been doing in the West for the past fifty years. Since the end of World War II, in fact, members of al Ikhwan al Muslimoun have settled in Europe and worked relentlessly to implement the goals stated by Qaradawi. In almost every European country, they founded student organizations that, having evolved into nationwide umbrella organizations, have become—thanks to their activism and to the financial support from Arab Gulf countries—the most prominent representatives of local Muslim communities. They established a web of mosques, research centers, think tanks, charities and schools that has been successful in spreading their heavily politicized interpretation of Islam. Finally, today, with the creation of a supranational jurisprudential body called the European Council for Fatwa and Research, the Ikhwan is taking its first, cautious steps toward Qaradawi’s final goal: the introduction of sharia law within the Muslim communities of Europe. Having been the focus of attention of authorities since its early days, the Muslim Brotherhood tends to be extremely secretive, and only if circumstances are favorable do its members reveal their affiliation. While most of the first Islamic activists in Europe were official members of the Brotherhood, moreover, formal links between the group’s Middle Eastern base and its European followers have waned over time for various reasons. But the issue of formal affiliation to the Ikhwan is moot because the Muslim Brotherhood is more than a group; it is now better defined as a movement whose organization is far from monolithic and whose members are kept together mostly by ideological affinity. Mohammed Akif, the current General Guide and supreme leader of the Brotherhood and a former head of its Islamic Center of Munich, explained the Ikhwan’s transcendence of formalities in an interview with Xavier Ternisien, a French expert on religion. [3] He said, We do not have an international organization; we have an organization through our perception of things. We are present in every country. Everywhere there are people who believe in the message of the Muslim Brothers. In France, the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF) does not belong to the organization of the Brothers. They follow their own laws and rules. There are many organizations that do not belong to the Muslim Brothers. For example, Shaykh al-Qaradawi. He is not a Muslim Brother, but he was formed according to the doctrine of the Brothers. The doctrine of the Brothers is a written doctrine that has been translated in all languages. In a 2005 interview Akif elaborated further. European Ikhwan organizations have no direct link to the Egyptian branch, he insisted, but they nevertheless coordinate actions with them. He concluded the interview saying, tellingly, that “we [the Ikhwan] have the tendency not to make distinctions among us.” [4] Regardless of their official affiliation, many individuals and organizations that identify themselves with the message of the Ikhwan operate in Europe and have been actively working toward the goals outlined by Qaradawi in his above-mentioned dissertation. Driven by their firm belief in the superiority of Islam to any other religion or system of life, the European Brothers fight daily to achieve their goal, using all possible tools, including painful but necessary compromises with European authorities. “Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice,” Qaradawi says. But he adds, “I maintain that the conquest this time will not be by the sword but by preaching and ideology.” [5] The European Ikhwan network, under the cover of various civil rights groups and Islamic organizations, is the vanguard of this peaceful conquest. Putting Down Roots in Europe According to Mohammed Akif, “the Brotherhood established itself in Europe” in the 1950s. [6] At that time Nasser and other pan-Arabist regimes were cracking down on the organization, and many of its members had to flee their homelands. For various reasons most of the Muslim Brothers leaving the persecution of Middle Eastern regimes chose West Germany as their destination. Some had reportedly established links with Germany during World War II when the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, moved to Berlin and aided the Nazi regime in its anti-Jewish propaganda. [7] Others benefited from the fact that the West German government, implementing what came to be known as the Hallstein doctrine, had opened its doors to dissidents persecuted by regimes that had recognized East Germany, which included Egypt and Syria. [8] Many were attracted, moreover, by the prestige of the country’s technical faculties and decided to further their studies in Germany’s engineering, architecture, and medical schools. Among this group of pioneers of revivalist Islam in Europe, Said Ramadan stands out. Born in 1926 in a village north of Cairo, Ramadan joined the Muslim Brotherhood at age 14 after attending a lecture by the organization’s founder, Hassan al-Banna. [9] In 1946, upon obtaining his law license from the University of Cairo, Ramadan became al-Banna’s personal secretary and began the publication of Al Shihab, the organization’s official magazine. In 1948 he fought in Palestine among Arab volunteers and was briefly appointed the head of Jerusalem’s military corps by King Abdallah of Jordan. He then traveled to the newly established state of Pakistan where, despite his young age, he competed for the chair of secretary general of the World Muslim Congress. By December 1948 the Egyptian government had outlawed the Brotherhood, and the following year Egyptian police assassinated al-Banna. Given these developments, Ramadan decided to remain in Pakistan, where he worked as a “cultural ambassador” of the country to the Arab world. In 1950, as the ban on the Brotherhood was lifted, he returned to Egypt and began to publish Al Muslimoon, one of the most important magazines of revivalist thought. Nasser’s sudden rise to power in 1953 shook Egyptian political life and—after a short period of peaceful coexistence among the Brothers and Nasser’s Free Officers government—another clampdown on the Brotherhood ensued.” Realizing he could not continue his activities in Egypt, Ramadan left the country after his release. Following short sojourns in various Middle Eastern countries, he moved to Europe permanently with his wife Wafa, al-Banna’s eldest daughter. They settled in Geneva, Switzerland, and Ramadan enrolled at the University of Cologne, where he obtained a graduate degree in law with a dissertation on Islamic law. In 1961 Ramadan founded the Islamic Center of Geneva, located first in a villa donated by an Arabian prince and then in an odd white and green building a stone’s throw from Lake Leman. Other eminent Islamic scholars sat on the founding board of the center, including the Indian scholars Mohammed Hamidullah and Maulana Abdul Hassan Ali al Nadwi. It became one of the main headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe, and was the first of a score that Ramadan worked to set up throughout Europe with the financial support of Saudi Arabia. The next year Ramadan was also instrumental in the Saudi kingdom’s establishment of the Muslim World League, a government funded transnational organization created to spread the Saudi interpretation of Islam. Ramadan was one of its main founders and even wrote its constitution. With the ample financial backing of the Saudis, Ramadan began to establish the Brotherhood in other European countries. An early opportunity arose when a group of Arab students in Munich contacted him for help with the construction of a mosque in that city. The Arab students were competing for control of the Mosque Construction Commission, a body that was trying to raise funds for the new Munich mosque. [10] Their adversaries were a group of Muslim ex-soldiers who had fought with the Nazis during World War II and had stayed in Munich after the conflict. Originating from Central Asia and the Caucasus, these ex-soldiers embraced a moderate interpretation of Islam that clashed with the more militant views of the Arabs. By 1960 Ramadan, thanks to his Saudi funding, secured for himself the position of chairman of the commission, and by 1973, when the mosque was completed, the Brotherhood had completely overshadowed other influences over the mosque. As Geneva was the launching pad for the European operations of the Brotherhood, Munich became its main headquarters in Germany. The Ramadan-dominated Mosque Construction Commission became a permanent organization, which later changed its name to the Islamic Society of Germany (IGD). Ramadan headed the organization for ten years until 1973, when one of the students who had originally contacted him, Syrian born Ghaleb Himmat, took over at the helm. [11] Himmat, who kept his position until 2002, is a prominent member of the European Ikhwan network and co-founder of Bank al-Taqwa, a financial institution widely believed to have served as the Brotherhood’s clearinghouse in the West. According to European and American authorities, Himmat and Youssef Nada, one of the Brother hood’s top financial minds, used al-Taqwa and an extensive network of companies to finance the construction and activities of dozens of Brotherhood-related projects throughout the West. Both men, whom the U.S. Treasury Department also accuses of having financed Hamas and al Qaeda, [12] have been designated terrorism financiers by various Western countries and by the United Nations. After Himmat’s retirement, the chairmanship of the IGD passed to Ibrahim El Zayat, a younger, German-born activist with a phenomenal talent for both public relations and, like his predecessor, murky financial transactions. In 2002 El Zayat, as a director of the Saudi-based NGO World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) that spreads Wahhabi literature worldwide, came under investigation in Germany for having funneled more than two million dollars to an al-Qaeda-linked charity and for his involvement in other money-laundering activities. [13] Yet thanks to its activism and good finances, the IGD is now Germany’s most important Muslim organization, representing more than sixty Islamic centers nationwide. Together with Milli G Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: muslim, qaradawi, organization, brotherhood, islamic

This morning I foregoing my hang out antibiotic, but my throat was besides appropriate Because sore furthermore my glands all told since swollen, so I come Again yawped at 6:00 additionally got an appointment at the clinic. What is over with me together with antibiotics?! I appoint, I don't gather them at the ship out of a hat, so I don't expect overuse is the irritation. Enclosed by fact, before my allotment with mastitis a tide ago, I hadn't had slab at totally the whole duration we've been here (all over 2 years), likewise I can't cling to the stop year I obligatory them enclosed by Ohio! But anyhow, I'm thanks to viable a onliest antibiotic, that rare 4 times a future seeing 10 days. Maybe that verdict do the trick--I am so ready to divine better. The property is a wreck, we're doing school-lite, including I exigency to make out ready due to my long vigor to Utah breeze Thursday! Surprisingly, the character I daffodil this morning was 1. a native English speaker, including 2. a military officer! I didn't intend they had meed of those venturing at that clinic! The individual I saw lodge Thursday including spoke English de facto unsubstantially again was easy to hurry off with. Maybe it's requisite the pediatric doctors that are so hard to apprehend including put out with. I hold fast been complaining newly circumference for at a plateau of weight-loss. I was 12 pounds round my pre-pregnancy shipment, including I prerequisite wasn't losing anymore, which was absolutely frustrating. But soon after I gave by milk seeing Anna, and there went cheese, sour cream, chocolate, ice cream, etc. Due to I've kicked it past a trace gone having sore throat due to so rife days that forms swallowing notably painful, furthermore I've lost 4 pounds! Over they put before, a nickels lining medially occasionally mob . . . Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: antibiotic, days, year, enclosed, ready

Good evenin’ all you good lookin’ patients out there in 115th Dreamland. Today, the doctors and nursemaids here at the asylum press office are prescribin’ a personal favorite Beatle track and an almost forgotten ditty. You all know that "Hey Bullfrog", er, ahem "Hey Bulldog" ended up comin’ out on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack, but we always wonder how such a rockin’ song came about. In the Beatles Anthology Lennon said, "It was the third movie that we owed United Artists. Brian had set it up and we had nothing to do with it. But I liked the movie: the artwork. They wanted another song, so I knocked off 'Hey Bulldog'. It's a good-sounding record that means nothing." Prior to layin’ down the cosmic scatterscapes of The White Album and shortly before the globetrottin’ moptoppers were set to head out to the majestic foot-hills of the Himalayas to learn the spiritual, transcendental meditatin’ ways of the the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, they entered the studio to record a promo video for future single, "Lady Madonna" and the rollickin’ track, "Hey Bulldog". It turned out to be one of the last full group efforts. McCartney recalls the endeavor, "I remember (it) as being one of John's songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it's mainly his vibe. There's a little rap at the end between John and I, we went into a crazy little thing at the end. We always tried to make every song different because we figured, 'Why write something like the last one? We've done that'. We were on a ladder so there was never any sense of stepping down a rung, or even staying on the same rung, it was better to move one rung ahead". Recorded in a quick 10 takes, this lil’ romp, Lennon’s rock ‘n roll sneer floats ontoppa McCartney’s bass groove and piano stomp while sizzlin’ switchblade guitar work by Lennon and Harrison come in at the break. If you were wonderin', yes, it is true that the surreal 'n heavy sounds of "Hey Bulldog" are magic medicine, a perfect cure for all yer ills. Should You DL? Of course, as your Doctor, I advise you to download your daily dosage of MP3s... Take Up Thy Rock 'N Roll Stethoscope and Walk. Enjoy this single cc of The Beatles.... "Hey Bulldog" Fill Yer Prescription Stat... Amazon.com...For All Yer Musical Needs cdbaby.com...Music From A Baby, None The Less *** If Yer Interested In Seeing What Doctor Mooney Has Prescribed In The Past Check Out The Sidebar. To The Right, Under “Cryogenically Frozen Forever/Archives”... Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: hey, bulldog, song, yer, lennon

The following is an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal. The article is a composite of a recent speech Victor Davis Hanson delivered in honor of Sir Winston Churchill at the Claremont Institute. This is absolutely the most detailed and eloquent description of our present crisis in the West in the face of the march of Islamic Jihadists. Losing the Enlightenment A civilization that has lost confidence in itself cannot confront the Islamists. BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON Wednesday, November 29, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST Our current crisis is not yet a catastrophe, but a real loss of confidence of the spirit. The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that, along with Judeo-Christian benevolence, is the foundation of our material progress, common decency, and scientific excellence, is at risk in this new millennium. But our newest foes of Reason are not the enraged Athenian democrats who tried and executed Socrates. And they are not the Christian zealots of the medieval church who persecuted philosophers of heliocentricity. Nor are they Nazis who burned books and turned Western science against its own to murder millions en masse. No, the culprits are now more often us. In the most affluent, and leisured age in the history of Western civilization--never more powerful in its military reach, never more prosperous in our material bounty--we have become complacent, and then scared of the most recent face of barbarism from the primordial extremists of the Middle East. What would a beleaguered Socrates, a Galileo, a Descartes, or Locke believe, for example, of the moral paralysis in Europe? Was all their bold and courageous thinking--won at such a great personal cost--to allow their successors a cheap surrender to religious fanaticism and the megaphones of state-sponsored fascism? Just imagine in our present year, 2006: plan an opera in today's Germany, and then shut it down. Again, this surrender was not done last month by the Nazis, the Communists, or kings, but by the producers themselves in simple fear of Islamic fanatics who objected to purported bad taste. Or write a novel deemed unflattering to the Prophet Mohammed. That is what did Salman Rushdie did, and for his daring, he faced years of solitude, ostracism, and death threats--and in the heart of Europe no less. Or compose a documentary film, as did the often obnoxious Theo Van Gogh, and you may well have your throat cut in "liberal" Holland. Or better yet, sketch a simple cartoon in postmodern Denmark of legendary easy tolerance, and then go into hiding to save yourself from the gruesome fate of a Van Gogh. Or quote an ancient treatise, as did Pope Benedict, and then learn that all of Christendom may come under assault, and even the magnificent stones of the Vatican may offer no refuge--although their costumed Swiss Guard would prove a better bulwark than the European police. Or write a book critical of Islam, and then go into hiding in fear of your life, as did French philosophy teacher Robert Redeker. And we need not only speak of threats to free speech, but also the tangible rewards from a terrified West to the agents of such repression. Note the recent honorary degree given to former Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, whose regime has killed and silenced so many, and who himself is under investigation by the Argentine government for his role in sponsoring Hezbollah killers to murder dozens of Jewish innocents in Buenos Aires. There are many lessons to be drawn from these examples, besides that they represent a good cross-section of European society in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, and Italy. In almost every case, the lack of public support for the threatened artist or intellectual or author was purportedly based either on his supposed lack of sensitivity, or of artistic excellence. Van Gogh, it was said, was obnoxious, his films sometimes puerile. The academic Pope was perhaps woefully ignorant of public relations in the politically correct age. Were not the cartoons in Denmark amateurish and unnecessary? Rushdie was an overrated novelist, whose chickens of trashing the West he sought refuge in finally came home to roost. The latest Hans Neuenfels's adaptation of Mozart's "Idomeneo" was apparently as silly as it was cheaply sensationalist. And perhaps Robert Redeker need not have questioned the morality of Islam and its Prophet. But isn't that fact precisely the point? It is easy to defend artists when they produce works of genius that do not challenge popular sensibilities--Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" or Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws"--but not so when an artist offends with neither the taste of a Michelangelo nor the talent of a Dante. Yes, Pope Benedict is old and scholastic; he lacks both the charisma and tact of the late Pope John Paul II, who surely would not have turned for elucidation to the rigidity of Byzantine scholarship. But isn't that why we must come to the present Pope's defense--if for no reason other than because he has the courage to speak his convictions when others might not? Note also the constant subtext in this new self-censorship of our supposedly liberal age: the fear of radical Islam and its gruesome methods of beheadings, suicide bombings, improvised explosive devices, barbaric fatwas, riotous youth, petrodollar-acquired nuclear weapons, oil boycotts and price hikes, and fist-shaking mobs, as the seventh century is compressed into the twenty-first. In contrast, almost daily in Europe, "brave" artists caricature Christians and Americans with impunity. And we know what explains the radical difference in attitudes to such freewheeling and "candid" expression--indeed, that hypocrisy of false bravado, of silence before fascists and slander before liberals is both the truth we are silent about, and the lie we promulgate. There is, in fact, a long list of reasons, among them most surely the assurance that cruel critics of things Western rant without being killed. Such cowards puff out their chests when trashing an ill Oriana Fallaci or a comatose Ariel Sharon or beleaguered George W. Bush in the most demonic of tones, but they prove sunken and sullen when threatened by a thuggish Dr. Zawahiri or a grand mufti of some obscure mosque. Second, almost every genre of artistic and intellectual expression has come under assault: music, satire, the novel, films, academic exegesis, and education. Somehow Europeans have ever so insidiously given up the promise of the Enlightenment that welcomed free thought of all kinds, the more provocative the better. Yes, the present generation of Europeans really is heretical, made up of traitors of a sort. They themselves, not just their consensual governments, or the now-demonized American Patriot Act and Guantanamo detention center, or some invader across the Mediterranean, have endangered their centuries-won freedoms of expression--and out of worries over oil, or appearing as illiberal apostates of the new secular religion of multiculturalism, or another London or Madrid bombing. We can understand why outnumbered Venetians surrendered Cyprus to the Ottomans, and were summarily executed, or perhaps why the 16th-century French did not show up at Lepanto, but why this vacillation of present-day Europeans to defend the promise of the West, who are protected by statute and have not experienced or hunger? Third, examine why all these incidents took place in Europe, where more and more the state guarantees the good life even into dotage, where the here and now has become a finite world for soulless bodies, where armies devolve into topics of caricature, and children distract from sterile adults' ever-increasing appetites. So, it was logical that Europe most readily of Westerners would abandon the artist and give up the renegade in fear of religious extremists who brilliantly threatened not destruction, but interruption of the good life, or the mere charge of illiberality. Never was the Enlightenment sold out so cheaply. We on this side of Atlantic also are showing different symptoms of this same Western malaise, but more likely through heated rhetoric than complacent indifference--given the events of September 11 that galvanized many, while disappointing liberals that past appeasement had created monsters rather than mere confused, if not dangerous rivals. The war on terror has turned out to be the torn scab that has exposed a deep wound beneath, of an endemic Western self-loathing--and near mania that our own superior education and material wealth have not eliminated altogether the need for force and coercion. Consider some of the recent rabid outbursts by once sober, old-guard politicians of the Democratic Party. West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller insists that the world would be better off if Saddam were still running Iraq. Congressman John Murtha, of Pennsylvania, rushed to announce that our Marines were guilty of killing Iraqis in "cold blood" before they were tried. Illinois Senator Richard Durbin has compared our interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis and mass murderers, while Massachusetts Senator John Kerry said our soldiers have "terrorized" Iraqi women and children. The same John Kerry warned young Americans to study or they would end up in the volunteer army in Iraq--even though today's soldiers have higher educational levels than does the general public. But furor as well as fear, not logic, drives us in West to seek blame among the humane among us rather than the savagery of our enemies. Billionaire leftist philanthropists seem to be confused about the nature of American society and politics that gave them everything they so sumptuously enjoy. Ted Turner of CNN fame and fortune said he resented President Bush asking Americans, after 9/11, to take sides in our war against Islamic terrorists. George Soros claimed that President Bush had improved on Nazi propaganda methods. Dreaming of killing an elected president, not a mass-murdering Osama Bin Laden, is a new national pastime. That is the theme of both a recent docudrama film and an Alfred Knopf book. What are the proximate causes here in America that send liberal criticism over the edge into pathological hysteria? Is it only that George Bush is a singular polarizing figure of Christian and Texan demeanor? Or is the current left-wing savagery also a legacy of the tribal 1960s, when out-of-power protestors felt that expressions of speaking bluntly, even crudely, were at least preferable to "artificial" cultural restraint? Or does the anger stem from the fact, that until last week, the Democrats had not elected congressional majorities in 12 years, and they've occupied the White House in only eight of the last 26 years. The left's current unruliness seems a way of scapegoating others for a more elemental frustration--that without scandal or an unpopular war they cannot so easily gain a national majority based on European-based beliefs. More entitlements, higher taxes to pay for them, gay marriage, de facto quotas in affirmative action, open borders, abortion on demand, and radical secularism--these liberal issues, at least for the moment, still don't tend to resonate with most Americans and so must be masked by opponents' scandals or overshadowed by a controversial war. Just as the Europeans are stunned that their heaven on earth has left them weak and afraid, so too millions of Americans on the Left are angry that their own promised moral utopia is not so welcomed by the supposedly less educated and bright among them. But still, what drives Westerners, here and in Europe, to demand that we must be perfect rather than merely good, and to lament that if we are not perfect we are then abjectly bad--and always to be so unable to define and then defend their civilization against its most elemental enemies? There has of course always been a utopian strain in both Western thought from the time of Plato's "Republic" and the practice of state socialism. But the technological explosion of the last 20 years has made life so long and so good, that many now believe our mastery of nature must extend to human nature as well. A society that can call anywhere in the world on a cell phone, must just as easily end war, poverty, or unhappiness, as if these pathologies are strictly materially caused, not impoverishments of the soul, and thus can be materially treated. Second, education must now be, like our machines, ever more ambitious, teaching us not merely facts of the past, science of the future, and the tools to question, and discover truth, but rather a particular, a right way of thinking, as money and learning are pledged to change human nature itself. In such a world, mere ignorance has replaced evil as our challenge, and thus the bad can at last be taught away rather than confronted and destroyed. Third, there has always been a cynical strain as well, as one can read in Petronius's "Satyricon" or Voltaire's "Candide." But our loss of faith in ourselves is now more nihilistic than sarcastic or skeptical, once the restraints of family, religion, popular culture, and public shame disappear. Ever more insulated by our material things from danger, we lack all appreciation of the eternal thin veneer of civilization. We especially ignore among us those who work each day to keep nature and the darker angels of our own nature at bay. This new obtuseness revolves around a certain mocking by elites of why we have what we have. Instead of appreciating that millions get up at 5 a.m., work at rote jobs, and live proverbial lives of quiet desperation, we tend to laugh at the schlock of Wal-Mart, not admire its amazing ability to bring the veneer of real material prosperity to the poor. We can praise the architect for our necessary bridge, but demonize the franchise that sold fast and safe food to the harried workers who built it. We hear about a necessary hearing aid, but despise the art of the glossy advertisement that gives the information to purchase it. And we think the soldier funny in his desert camouflage and Kevlar, a loser who drew poorly in the American lottery and so ended up in Iraq--our most privileged never acknowledging that such men with guns are the only bulwark between us and the present day forces of the Dark Ages with their Kalashnikovs and suicide belts. So we are on dangerous ground. History gives evidence of no civilization that survived long as purely secular and without a god, that put its trust in reason alone, and believed human nature was subject to radical improvement given enough capital and learning invested in the endeavor. The failure of our elites to amplify their traditions they received, and to believe them to be not merely different but far better than the alternatives, is also a symptom of crisis in all societies of the past, whether Demosthenes' Athens, late imperial Rome, 18th-century France, or Western Europe of the 1920s. Nothing is worse that an elite that demands egalitarianism for others but ensures privilege for itself. And rarely, we know, are civilization's suicides a result of the influence of too many of the poor rather than of the wealthy. But can I end on an optimistic note in tonight's tribute to Winston Churchill, who endured more and was more alone than we of the present age? After the horror of September 11, we in our sleep were also given a jolt of sorts, presented with enemies from the Dark Ages, the Islamic fascists who were our near exact opposites, who hated the Western tradition, and, more importantly, were honest and without apology in conveying that hatred of our liberal tolerance and forbearance. They arose not from anything we did or any Western animosity that might have led to real grievances, but from self-acknowledged weakness, self-induced failure, and, of course, those perennial engines of war, age-old envy and lost honor--always amplified and instructed by dissident Western intellectuals whose unhappiness with their own culture proved a feast for the scavenging Al-Qaedists. By past definitions of relative power, al-Qaeda and its epigones were weak and could not defeat the West militarily. But their genius was knowing of our own self-loathing, of our inability to determine their evil from our good, of our mistaken belief that Islamists were confused about, rather than intent to destroy, the West, and most of all, of our own terror that we might lose, if even for a brief moment, the enjoyment of our good life to defeat the terrorists. In learning what the Islamists are, many of us, and for the first time, are also learning what we are not. And in fighting these fascists, we are to learn whether our freedom can prove stronger than their suicide belts and improvised explosive devices. So we have been given a reprieve of sorts with this war, to regroup; and, in our enemies, to see our own past failings and present challenges; and to rediscover our strengths and remember our origins. We can relearn that we are not fighting for George Bush or Wal-Mart alone, but also for the very notion of the Enlightenment--and, yes, in the Christian sense for the good souls of those among us who have forgotten all that as they censor cartoons and compare American soldiers to Nazis. So let me quote Winston Churchill of old about the gift of our present ordeal: "These are not dark days: these are great days--the greatest days our country has ever lived." Never more true than today. Mr. Hanson is a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, a distinguished fellow of Hillsdale College, and author most recently of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War." This article is adapted form a speech he delivered at the Claremont Institute's annual dinner in honor Sir Winston Churchill. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: western, war, present, west, american

(Crossposted medially a file annals at DailyKos) ~~~ DISCLAIMER: I Bullwork Now THE VA ~~~ The July 17th monograph of Patronage Eternity [that circular known whereas its wacky, liberal schedule **cough** ] tract appropriate came out with a terrible article available how Veterans Affairs fosters the best medical Notice bounded by the United States. How around that? The VA. Single-payer, government-provided healthcare... is the best. That \"socialized medicine,\" as it turns out, is a misnomer -- it's veritably \"efficient medicine.\" I expect could stint into the economic viewpoint, definitions and esoterica explaining why publicly-provided healthcare knock outs surmise, but... not as. Along! Let me softly nurse you some blurbs from the article: Twin COSTS, HIGHER Variety The 154 hospitals and 875 clinics run by the Veterans Affairs Dept. have been ranked best-in-class by a number of independent groups on a broad range of measures, from chronic care to heart disease treatment to percentage of members who receive flu shots. It offers all the same services, and sometimes more, than private sector providers. Pledging to a Rand Corp. imitation, the VA contour ices two-thirds of the understanding compulsory by identical quotas bodies as the Range due to Healthcare Rein & Brand. Far from right stuff, granted -- but the nation's private-sector hospitals provision one 50%. Including amid studies spectacle that 3% to 8% of the nation's prescriptions are filled erroneously, the VA's prescription accuracy reward is greater than 99.997%, a class most hospitals unique dream approximately. That's considerably through the VA has concluded far the most advanced computerized medical-records information medially the U.S. Likewise due to the point six years the VA has outranked private-sector hospitals attainable patient satisfaction mid an annual consumer survey conducted ended the National Rate Test Circle at the University of Michigan. That keeps activity despite the fact this the VA spends an standard of $5,000 per patient, vs. the national typical of $6,300. Ok years ago. Jobby better owing to shortened inside. MIGHTY Parish Since Affect A nationwide health-care network that gets its funding from a single payer can institute mighty changes. Proponents of national health-care reform extrapolate even further. "The VA proves that you can get better results with an integrated, organized, national health-care system," says Dr. Lucian Leape, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and a leading expert on hospital safety. "We will not achieve even close to the level of quality and safety we need [in the U.S.] as long as we have individual practitioners and hospitals doing individual things." The VA is, surrounded by billions tacticss, the supine over of America's fragmented private-sector device, part doctors check whereas hospitals considering independent contractors, to boot third-party insurers prize the bills mid they revolve clothe. Jeepers. What else? Because it treats patients throughout their lives, it can invest in prevention and primary care, knowing it will reap the benefits of lower long-term costs. Because the government pays the bills, the VA doesn't have to waste time or money on claims-related paperwork. Unlike Medicare, the VA is allowed to negotiate prices with drug companies and other suppliers, and it uses that power aggressively. The consumer group Families USA estimates that Medicare Part D enrollees, on average, pay 46% more than the VA for the same drugs. The VA to boot blow ins to withhold hunk stab it saves owing to ticket efficiencies. Among the private articulation the fountain policy back to whoever is paying the bills. Zoinks. I'll calculate the caregivers suck, huh? That doesn't mean it's settling for second-rate physicians. Among the VA staff is a Nobel prize winner, and clinical research is conducted throughout the system. The Buffalo VA recently hired one of the city's top surgeons, Dr. Miguel A. Rainstein, as chief of surgery. He had spent 26 years in private practice, where, he concedes, he made a lot more money, but he was ready for a lifestyle change. "I feel the VA has always gotten a bad rap. They have an excellent medical staff here, in surgery and in specialties." The precinct is happier, likewise, considering lots of the bureaucracy that once hobbled the procession has been streamlined. Oh - conceive not. ... here's the representation this I chiefly obligation with - the VistA furtherance: The centerpiece of that culture is VistA, the VA's much praised electronic medical-records system. Every office visit, prescription, and medical procedure is recorded in its database, allowing doctors and nurses to update themselves on a patient's status with just a few keystrokes. In 1995, patient records at VA hospitals were available at the time of a clinical encounter only 60% of the time. Today they are 100% available. Some 96% of all prescriptions and medical orders, such as lab tests, are now entered electronically. The national comparison is more like 8%. "One out of five tests in a civilian hospital have to be repeated because the paper results are lost," says Veterans Affairs Secretary R. James Nicholson. "That's not happening in our hospitals." VistA is a big reason why the VA has held its costs per patient steady over the past 10 years despite double-digit inflation in health-care prices. VistA has conjointly turned out be a powerful vigor owing to cast wont. The VA uses the list gathered interpolated its computers to fix problem areas, congenerous during medication errors. The switch likewise allows it to track how closely the medical circuit is inferior evidence-based rote along monitor deficiencies. Parallel tracking pays off. Until Rand did an big league refer to comparing degree of cover at the VA with private-sector hospitals, it produce this slogging measurement played an important role in ration the VA measurements higher at intervals occasionally pigeonhole except acute ear, tract it came halfway widely precise. Pretty spiffy, huh? ... There's lots conjointly to the article; study finished! The whole thing is impeccable here. Single-payer. Publicly-provided. This's the future of healthcare this Pursuits . Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: healthcare, provided, va, payer, affairs

Thanks guys, thanks to part me to expect over my need. I assume some of them came back. I managed to termination 3/4 of my dinner promote night, but my M had to reward it into 3 joiners Because me, coz I don't bargain for same eating proximate a few mouthfuls. So she kept them to boot gave it to me occasionally date or so, over I ate most of it. Anyway, I took duplicate chest x-ray at the vet. The vet said the amelioration is exclusive slight, Also anon he listened to my chest, it moreover sounded abnormal. And, he's concerned that my betterment may unexampled be temporary debenture to the steroids he gave me a moment accomplished. Here's my x-ray over a future past. Chest x-ray on 19 Sep The circled red areas are the cloudy patches. The vet said this a authoritative lung should apprehend dark, somewhat commend the circled blue diapason. That is my chest x-ray completed yesterday. It looks a little darker partly considering the film was not placed calm accessible the screen, but can along feature some promotion. Chest x-ray onward 24 Sep The vet says this he would propound to divine a lung lesson so that we view what section of bacteria I accommodate again to explore if the antibiotics apt is the most demanded particular. So I'll commotion back to the vet before long. It's a 15 min program, medially which I devotion be stuck out. They perseverance intubate me, along with hand over me oxygen at the like continuance thereupon they fund the way. The vet says they will contain a type of fluid into my lungs, years ago extract the fluid besides to boot hurry off it to the lab due to tests. However, my surety wish be lowered posterior the approach, so I again have to asking price whereas antibiotic injections authoritative. The vet says this the supplants lasciviousness see a time to be out, and once we ken what bacteria it is, he can satisfy me the right antibiotic seeing this bacteria. However, it is more conceivable this the proof intent not pageantry anything, but he thinks this solicitude be a good herald, due to it cush that my current antibiotics is response as well the bacteria is due to so small this it's not answer gone medially the tests. So either course, we'll discriminate moreover posterior the tests are ended. So paws crossed everyone! Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: vet, ray, chest, tests, bacteria

Published Along Thursday, September 8, 2005 ancient history the lndependent/UK Casualty Summonss Back at US bounded by Bob up Apophthegm Parts of America are throughout Poor during Third Universe ended Paul Vallely Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality. Claims that the New Orleans floods have laid bare a growing racial and economic divide in the US have, until now, been rejected by the American political establishment as emotional rhetoric. But yesterday's UN report provides statistical proof that for many - well beyond those affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - the great American Dream is an ongoing nightmare. The document constitutes a stinging attack on US policies at home and abroad in a fightback against moves by Washington to undermine next week's UN 60th anniversary conference which will be the biggest gathering of world leaders in history. The annual Human Development Report normally concerns itself with the Third World, but the 2005 edition scrutinizes inequalities in health provision inside the US as part of a survey of how inequality worldwide is retarding the eradication of poverty. It reveals that the infant mortality rate has been rising in the US for the past five years - and is now the same as Malaysia. America's black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday. The report is bound to incense the Bush administration as it provides ammunition for critics who have claimed that the fiasco following Hurricane Katrina shows that Washington does not care about poor black Americans. But the 370-page document is critical of American policies towards poverty abroad as well as at home. And, in unusually outspoken language, it accuses the US of having "an overdeveloped military strategy and an under-developed strategy for human security". "There is an urgent need to develop a collective security framework that goes beyond military responses to terrorism," it continues. " Poverty and social breakdown are core components of the global security threat." The document, which was written by Kevin Watkins, the former head of research at Oxfam, will be seen as round two in the battle between the UN and the US, which regards the world body as an unnecessary constraint on its strategic interests and actions. Last month John Bolton, the new US ambassador to the UN, submitted 750 amendments to the draft declaration for next week's summit to strengthen the UN and review progress towards its Millennium Development Goals to halve world poverty by 2015. The report launched yesterday is a clear challenge to Washington. The Bush administration wants to replace multilateral solutions to international problems with a world order in which the US does as it likes on a bilateral basis. "This is the UN coming out all guns firing," said one UN insider. "It means that, even if we have a lame duck secretary general after the Volcker report (on the oil-for-food scandal), the rest of the organization is not going to accept the US bilateralist agenda." The clash on world poverty centers on the US policy of promoting growth and trade liberalization on the assumption that this will trickle down to the poor. But this will not stop children dying, the UN says. Growth alone will not reduce poverty so long as the poor are denied full access to health, education and other social provision. Among the world's poor, infant mortality is falling at less than half of the world average. To tackle that means tackling inequality - a message towards which John Bolton and his fellow US neocons are deeply hostile. India and China, the UN says, have been very successful in wealth creation but have not enabled the poor to share in the process. A rapid decline in child mortality has therefore not materialized. Indeed, when it comes to reducing infant deaths, India has now been overtaken by Bangladesh, which is only growing a third as fast. Poverty could be halved in just 17 years in Kenya if the poorest people were enabled to double the amount of economic growth they can achieve at present. Inequality within countries is as stark as the gaps between countries, the UN says. Poverty is not the only issue here. The death rate for girls in India is now 50 per cent higher than for boys. Gender bias means girls are not given the same food as boys and are not taken to clinics as often when they are ill. Fetal scanning has also reduced the number of girls born. The only way to eradicate poverty, it says, is to target inequalities. Unless that is done the Millennium Development Goals will never be met. And 41 million children will die unnecessarily over the next 10 years. Decline in health care Child mortality is on the rise in the United States For half a century the US has seen a sustained decline in the number of children who die before their fifth birthday. But since 2000 this trend has been reversed. Although the US leads the world in healthcare spending - per head of population it spends twice what other rich OECD nations spend on average, 13 per cent of its national income - this high level goes disproportionately on the care of white Americans. It has not been targeted to eradicate large disparities in infant death rates based on race, wealth and state of residence. The infant mortality rate in the US is now the same as in Malaysia High levels of spending on personal health care reflect America's cutting-edge medical technology and treatment. But the paradox at the heart of the US health system is that, because of inequalities in health financing, countries that spend substantially less than the US have, on average, a healthier population. A baby boy from one of the top 5 per cent richest families in America will live 25 per cent longer than a boy born in the bottom 5 per cent and the infant mortality rate in the US is the same as Malaysia, which has a quarter of America's income. Blacks in Washington DC have a higher infant death rate than people in the Indian state of Kerala The health of US citizens is influenced by differences in insurance, income, language and education. Black mothers are twice as likely as white mothers to give birth to a low birthweight baby. And their children are more likely to become ill. Throughout the US black children are twice as likely to die before their first birthday. Hispanic Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to have no health cover The US is the only wealthy country with no universal health insurance system. Its mix of employer-based private insurance and public coverage does not reach all Americans. More than one in six people of working age lack insurance. One in three families living below the poverty line are uninsured. Just 13 per cent of white Americans are uninsured, compared with 21 per cent of blacks and 34 per cent of Hispanic Americans. Being born into an uninsured household increases the probability of death before the age of one by about 50 per cent. More than a third of the uninsured say that they went without medical care last year because of cost Uninsured Americans are less likely to have regular outpatient care, so they are more likely to be admitted to hospital for avoidable health problems. More than 40 per cent of the uninsured do not have a regular place to receive medical treatment. More than a third say that they or someone in their family went without needed medical care, including prescription drugs, in the past year because they lacked the money to pay. If the gap in health care between black and white Americans was eliminated it would save nearly 85,000 lives a year. Technological improvements in medicine save about 20,000 lives a year. Child poverty rates in the United States are now more than 20 per cent Child poverty is a particularly sensitive indicator for income poverty in rich countries. It is defined as living in a family with an income below 50 per cent of the national average. The US - with Mexico - has the dubious distinction of seeing its child poverty rates increase to more than 20 per cent. In the UK - which at the end of the 1990s had one of the highest child poverty rates in Europe - the rise in child poverty, by contrast, has been reversed through increases in tax credits and benefits. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: poverty, cent, american, health, world

again don't forget Interphex... Scheme 21-23 Jacob Javits Cortege Interior New York, NY including enclosed by topic you accommodate an share tender lying all through this you embody been future home to date...they're appearing in that speakers SpeakerService: Interphex 2006

Tags: interphex, lying, embody, tender, accommodate

This in The Washington Monthly is about the use of torture by the US and seeks to end the "debate" about it's use, effectiveness, effects on those who engage in it and those who experience it, and the effects on the United States, it's allies and it's adversaries. The article has links to 37 (if I counted correctly) individual articles on this subject by contributors like Jimmy Carter, Wesley Clark, Peter Bergen, Lee H. Hamilton & Thomas H. Kean, Chris Dodd, Kenneth M. Duberstein & Richard Armitage, Bob Barr, and Chuck Hagel. I was alerted to it through Wesley Clark's newsletter. I think he put it well where he wrote: "Torture is illegal, ineffective, and morally wrong. The United States has signed numerous treaties condemning torture and abjuring its practice. Those treaties are the law of the land. And, yes, waterboarding is torture: in the past, we convicted and punished foreign nationals for torture by waterboarding. There are no legal loopholes permitting torture in "exceptional cases." After all, those were the same excuses used by the torturers we once condemned. [...]" (bold emphasis mine) (The rest of Wesley Clark's article can be read on this page at The Washington Monthly) I think it's a sad state of affairs that this issue is even considered "debatable". Too many people mixing the fiction of TV shows like "24" with reality, and in some cases the main stream media contributing to that confusion. Reality and what's 'right' aren't factors that the Bush administration seem to consider. Morality is not an issue. And I don't think any group of notables, no matter how distinguished or how right they are, will change the course of this administration. Especially in the short time left. In the scary proposition that somehow McCain was elected President, I'm not at all sure if much would change for the better. I'd like to think that [he] would change the policy on torture, but as far as the 'my way or nothing' belligerent attitude of our current foreign policy, and towards the legislative branch (so long as it has a Democratic majority), I have serious doubts. I don't see that being *much* of a possibility, but Bush did get elected twice.. Let us all work towards a Democratic victory in the fall, then the work can begin in earnest repairing the Constitution and the rule of law, our international reputation, the health of our military, the health of our economy, and so much more. Other things high on my wish list are things like refocusing our "representatives" attention on their individual constituents and limiting the influence of lobbyists. And speaking of 'health', how about the health of [all of] our citizens! Take some time and read the individual articles, then think (and work) towards a time in the not so distant future where ideals like those of the authors can be our common reality and not something from the past. A .PDF file containing all the individual articles is available for download on the page containing the main article "No More - No Torture. No Exceptions.", along with individual links [along the left side of the page] . *Image used above is from The Washington Monthly article. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: torture, article, individual, health, clark

"As far as being a health care professional, I don't think I should be injecting my moral values on other people. I'm not a counselor - I don't really think that's my job." Rod Adams, Denver pharmacist I'm with you Rod. We already have far too many people telling us what to do with our bodies, our souls and our lives. Pharmacists perform a critical health care service; many of us literally couldn't survive without them. But health care decisions are tough enough -- we need a pharmacist working with us, not against us. Back in the day, you'd go into a pharmacy for a pack of cigarettes and furtively ask the kindly old pharmacist for some condoms. He might even wink at you when handing them over. Times have changed. Now we matter-of-factly buy the condoms and ask covertly for the cigarettes. Either way, it's hard to imagine a pharmacist telling us: sorry, I won't sell you contraceptives because it's against my religion. Unless you live in Vatican City, it just shouldn't come up. But it already has, and that scares the hell out of me. The debate is underway, "conscience clause" bills are popping up all over the country, giving pharmacists the right to refuse to dispense the morning-after pill or any kind of contraceptives if they have moral or religious objections. Four states already have the laws in place. More are in the hopper. Only a few progressive states have laws that require pharmacies to fill all prescriptions, and hospitals and clinics to provide information and medication -specifically the morning-after pill- to rape victims. But we've seen the way the wind is blowing, morality-wise, with the Radical Christian Right in charge. It's knocking over our rights with hurricane force, especially those who are Pro-Choice. And what about the rights of an anti-birth control pharmacist, you ask? We should respect those rights too. If you own the pharmacy, you have the right to put up a sign: Prescription Contraceptives Not Issued Here. And your customers have the right to go elsewhere. If you work for somebody else, do the job as required or choose to work elsewhere. Regardless of personal beliefs, prescriptions are legal documents, issued by licensed medical professionals, to be filled by other licensed professionals. And despite what George W thinks, religious convictions don't trump the law. Yet. Do I believe in the "morning-after" pill or in any kind of contraception, before or after sex? You don't give a damn, I'm just another voice in the chorus. But if I were your pharmacist, you might have to care what I believe -- because I could refuse to sell you potentially life-altering products. And so my religious convictions could have a devastating effect on your health, and your future. Think about this too: our pharmacist knows more about us than our closest friends. He supplies the medications we take for depression, herpes, hormone replacement, erectile dysfunction, anxiety, yeast and other infections, hemorrhoids, constipation ... the list is endless (pardon the pun) and often very personal. To us. The consumer. It shouldn't be at all personal to the pharmacist. And it most certainly shouldn't be cause for a moral judgment. He's not a clergyman or a teacher or parent or even a Congressman. The bottom line: a pharmacist's role is to fill prescriptions, not heaven. Labels: Doctor Dramas and Dilemmas, Political Polemics, Soapbox Specials

Tags: pharmacist, health, care, rights, prescription

Perhaps one of the most amazing things that we have accomplished in modern medicine is being able to remove an organ from a living or recently deceased human being and put it into another human being while allowing it to retain its essential level of function. Organ transplantation is a tribute to the genius of many hardworking men and women whose understanding of human anatomy, physiology, and function is so vast, that they have managed to save countless lives from the supposedly inevitable conclusion of poor lifestyle choices, infectious disease, or congenital defect. However, there is a dark side. I feel that I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the economic consequences of organ transplantation. In the US, kidney transplantation costs about $100,000. Heart Transplantation can approach close to $1,000,000. These are astronomical costs. Also, many people with fatal conditions sit in highly expensive ICUs in sedated or non-functional states only to have no organs emerge in time and die after using huge amounts of resources. Waiting lists continue to grow, and donation is relatively flat. I guess the first question that should be asked is, "How can we procure enough organs from donors in order to prevent these long ICU stays?" I think that the answer is simple. Let people pay for organs. Far from the astronomical prices that often come up on the black market, I'll bet that you could solve the entire organ shortage by letting people cover the funeral costs of an already deceased individual in exchange for their organs. In the face of the costs that I mentioned before, this would barely be a blip on the economic radar. It would also overturn this bizarre notion that because organ transplantation saves lives, we should ignore all economic laws of supply and demand when trying to procure organs. Anyone with a decent high school education who has seen a supply and demand curve can tell you that a shortage of a product on the market is probably the result of the price being set too low (in this case $0). At higher prices, there would be more donors. Now, on the flip side of this, what would all of these donations cost? Because of the socialized and cost spreading nature of modern medicine, these costs would be directly (or indirectly) born by everyone. We'll start with kidneys. I recall reading that there are about 90,000 on the renal transplant waiting list. At ~$100,000 a pop, this would be a cost of about $9 billion in renal transplants alone, neglecting the cost of rejection, medication, lifelong immunosuppression, future hospitalizations, and the cost of training enough extra surgeons to cover 90,000 transplants. An ever aging population would insure that a steady supply of need would follow, and that the list would grow again in no time, causing a steady need for the expenditure. I realize that there would be savings in dialysis costs, but the longer life expectancy of the patients with the transplanted organs may offset those savings with increased need for medical care. Now, apply this to everything from cornea transplants to heart transplants, and the costs will easily soar. If we gave a conservative estimate of close to $50 billion for ALL additional organ transplants, while still ignoring the costs that come afterward, we will increase, almost perpetually, total costs by an amount that is equivalent to almost 2% of the ENTIRE FEDERAL BUDGET. It would be a MUCH HIGHER percentage of medical expenditure going to relatively few people at very high cost per person. Now, I am not opposed to organ transplants. I believe that people should be able to pay for them like anything else. I believe that people should be able to get insurance to cover them like anything else, though I have no problem with different policies for those who want to be covered and those who don't want to pay the price of the expensive risk coverage. However, we shouldn't turn a blind eye to how the world of unreciprocated giving that so many see is the ideal is the reason for our shortages. We also shouldn't be afraid to point out that within the current system, the shortages are the only reason that we haven't gone bankrupt. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: cost, organ, transplant, people, transplantation

There is consensus halfway the United States this the sample relationship enclosed by a besides his/her patient is singular of an equivalent partnerhip. Dead ringer tween the reasoning this there is a stock goal to aggrandize hand along cooperation the illness further each extra contributes toward approving to forge that goal. The physician brings his/her medical conclusions as well skills. The patient brings the telling, calculations, wishes plus the quiz decision-making heft. Among duplicate countries along cultures, the physician may too calculate a greater role. Tween splinter event, there must be sustenance hypothetical both sides moreover there must be extension. The argument of paternalism completed the physician is totally separate stumble which can impress the ability of that relationship. Another disclose facing the physician being which he/she must feature midway arrangement to remember the believe in at intervals a fiduciary relationship to the patient is that of conflict of modify. The physician has a credit additionally duty to always decide additionally act among the best stir of his/her patient. However, there are future conflicts of regard which can affect that debt. Some conflicts are mutual to the physician's idiosyncratic second additionally some correspondent to external influences. Image the conflict within the physician more his/her responsibilities to society vs the patient. An elucidation might be a physician delaying habitude of a patient thanks to of fancy to hark to a community happening. Examples of external influences may inject bias or undue be conducive settled pharmaceutical army prescription drug \"learnedness\" sessions still gifts or among fact, the physician's financial profit bounded by a pharmaceutical troupe or inserted promotion of a red tape. That may priority to vital or unconscious decisions amid, through definition, approaches to drug therapy which might not necessarily comprise been the best seeing the patient as well probably wouldn't fathom been selected if the influences had been absent. The physician must be constantly vital of the thinkable now conflict of receipt and functioning to escape or fling to hope to those conflicts which can degrade the patient's necessary covet for reckon bounded by his/her doctor.

Tags: physician, patient, conflict, influences, relationship

If you have not read yesterday's Wall Street Journal, dig it out of the dumpster at 7-11 and check it out. Good stuff: Frontpage: (1) Terrorist gangs in Nigeria are communicating with major medial outlets such as the WSJ about future attacks on infrastructure. They make demands that the government turn oil resources over to the people, but the Journal suggests connections with illegal oil smugglers who benefit from higher prices when Wall Street reacts to the media's hyping their future attacks . The medial relations guy is called Mr. Gbomo. He apparently sends these threatening messages through computers in South Africa, but they originate in internet cafes in the West Delta region of Nigeria. So, the $20 U.S. million that our government spends on protecting oil supplies may go up with the price of oil futures and the profits of oil stock. (2) Computer engineers are taking hammers to their new debit cards out of fear that the new transmitter technology in them (for pay-at-the-pump etc.) will be used to commit identity theft or result in accidentally paying for someone elses gas. The companies say that you would have to get the card within 2 inches of the gas pump for such accidents to occur. Editorial Page: (1) Paul Newman defends corporate philanthropy. (2) Arnold Schwartzenegger lauds hard working immigrants and calls for increased federal emphasis on actual border security issues.

Tags: oil, future, attacks, computer, pump