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From: Gregory Brown To: undisclosed-recipients:; Bcc• jeevacation@gmail.com Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 11/10/2013 Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 14:49:59 +0000 Attachments: 15 Ways_The United_Statesis_Thefiest_At_Being_The_Worse_Maxwell_Strachan_Huff POst_10 29j013.docx; I WouldJump_Atitionathan Cohen_New_Republic_November_3,2013.docx; ITow Republicans_Have_TrasheTd_The_Economy_in_l_Chart_Mark_Gongloff_Huff_Post 1154_2013.docx; rtaising_the Medicare Age„A Popular_Idea_With_Shockingly_Few_Benefits_Matthew_O 'Brien The:Atlanticfict. 25, j013.docx; The Definitive_Answerjo_20_Of_Your_Biggest_Health_Questions_BUSINESS_INSIDE R flg_14,203.docx; Bill Moyers_Essay_- 6bamacare,The_Right Wings Alamo_Moyers_&_Company_PBS November 1„2013.d ocx; Bill Maher's New_TI.ules_clichele Bachmann_and_the_Deviljl_11_2013Tdocx; Hany_Chapin_bio.docx Inline-Images: image.png; image(1).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png; image(9).png; image(10).png; image(11).png; image(12).png; image(13).png; image(14).png DEAR FRIEND As many of you know I am a huge fan of Bill D. Moyers (born June 5, 1934), who is an American journalist and liberal public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the Johnson administration from 1965 to 1967. He also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers has been extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs. He has won numerous awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities. He has become well known as a trenchant critic of the U.S. media (particularly modern, corporately structured news media). Since 1990, Moyers has been President of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy. And for the past decade he has hosted a weekly social commentary television show Moyers & Company on PBS. EFTA01141522 He ends each show with an essay and last week (November 1, 2013) the essay was — Obamacare: The Right Wing's Alamo - in which Bill took on the Republican Party for their relentless attempts to kill the Affordable Care Act. Citing that as Republican members of Congress demand apologies and administration officials dutifully offer up mea culpas for the botched Obamacare roll-out, he asked wouldn't it be fair to expect just a morsel of apology from the right as well. The right has been relentless in its battle against the Affordable Care Act — as if it's their version of the Alamo, Bill says. Despite the law's passage and its constitutionality upheld by the Supreme Court, they refuse to give up, even shutting down the government to try to force a delay of funding: "And yet, the darn thing survived, despite the administration's own serious mistakes." What's more, Bill points out, this isn't the first time a major government initiative hasn't gone according to plan. Where are the apologies from the other side for the war in Iraq? "Mission Accomplished" indeed. Web Link: http://billmoyers.cornisegmentibill-moyers-essay-obamacare-the-right-wings-alamoN.UnIzIEUAC04.gmail SHOW ESSAY TRANSCRIPT BILL MOYERS: During the Republican hearings on the meltdown of ObamaCare's website, Representative David McKinley of West Virginia knew what he wanted. REP. DAVID McKINLEY: I haven't heard one of you apologize to the American public. [...] Are apologies not in order? [...] I've just, I've not heard the word, I'm sorry. [...] Apologize. [...] I don't understand why there's not an apology. [...] But, I apologize. I haven't heard that from any one of the four of you. BILL MOYERS: He got it. MARILYN TAVENNER: I want to apologize to you that the website has not worked as well as it should. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: You deserve better. I apologize. BILL MOYERS: Considerate, appropriate, and futile. The apology didn't squelch the partisan tirades or quench the Republican thirst for revenge, their outrage that the Affordable Care Act, that is, ObamaCare, even got this far. But it did provoke some of us to wonder, isn't it fair to also expect at least a tiny bit of remorse, just a morsel of apology, from the Republicans? As NPR's astute health care reporter Julie Rovner reminded us recently. EFTA01141523 JULIE ROVNER: When it became clear that HHS would need more money to build the federal exchange than had been allocated in the original law, Republicans in Congress refused to provide it. BILL MOYERS: So to get it started, officials had to scrape together money from a variety of other offices. This happened back in the thirties after congress passed Social Security but failed to sufficiently fund the board that was supposed to run it. Republican opponents of ObamaCare have gone further. After it passed they stalked it like Jack the ripper. In the states, through the courts, all the way to the Supreme Court, which, uh-oh, ruled it constitutional. In last year's election, when they lost again. But quit? Never. For Republicans, this has become their Alamo. In July, less than three months before scheduled launch, the speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner, drew one more line in the sand. REP. JOHN BOEHNER: ObamaCare is bad for America. We're going to do everything we can to make sure that it never happens. BILL MOYERS: And yet, the darn thing survived, despite the administration's own serious very mistakes. As Rovner reported, Obama's people naively figured Republican states couldn't resist all that cash coming down from the federal government and would decide to create their own insurance exchanges and expand their Medicaid programs. Not so. Republicans, it seems, have their principles, and health care for poor people is not one of them. Ideology trumped money. Republicans aside, ObamaCare had its own built-in problem, born of original sin. And some of us have to resist the temptation to say, "We told you so?' Four years ago we said the public option in health care, a kind of Medicare for all, would be easier to launch and simpler to operate than the Rube Goldberg contraption that came to be known as ObamaCare. Rube Goldberg, for those of you under a certain age, was the fellow who designed machines that made simple tasks much more complicated. Back in 2009, when Obama first became president, polls showed the public option was a popular idea. Lots of Americans were fed up with paying bloated premiums to giant insurance companies that charged us for their plutocratic salaries and excessive profit margins . We wanted an alternative. And once upon a time, so did candidate Barack Obama. SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Now, if I were designing a healthcare system from scratch, I would probably move more in the direction of a single payer plan. BILL MOYERS: But as President, Obama buckled when conservative Senate Democrats, yes, Democrats, threatened to join Republicans in a filibuster if his plan included a public option. SEN. BLANCHE LINCOLN: --that I'm prepared to move against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government run public option is included. EFTA01141524 BILL MOYERS: The biggest pill among those corporate Democrats was industry lapdog Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. At one point Baucus even had advocates thrown out of his hearings: SEN. MAX BAUCUS: I'm sorry. There will be order. Can we have a recess until order can be restored? ADVOCATE: --want a single payer system. Why do you insist on spending more money when the single payer will give it to us at the price we're spending now? BILL MOYERS: Still, ObamaCare made its way through the gauntlet of mercenary senators, predatory lobbyists, and greedy corporations to become law. Rube Goldberg would have been a very happy man. His principle, why do something simple when it can always be made harder, carried the day. And by the time it became law the Affordable Care Act was a monstrosity of complexity. Sure enough, on opening day, what the Republicans couldn't accomplish happened anyway. Screens froze. Error messages flew. Data was corrupted. The system broke down, and ObamaCare stalled at the starting gate. Supporters gaped at the wreckage of their best-laid plans, opponents gloated, and Republicans, of course, called hearings, which any opposition party would have done. But you must note the irony here, the party that had thrown roadblock after roadblock wherever they could and had just shut the government down to stop health care reform, now loudly complained that government wasn't working and people couldn't get, you guessed it, health care reform. REP. DAVID McKINLEY: Apologize. [...] Apologize [...] An apology. BILL MOYERS: Ok, Representative McKinley, you got it. But wouldn't a little humility would be in order here? Democracy is imperfect, and we need to work with what we've got. And what we've got is the Affordable Care Act. We also need to remember that at the outset, big ventures often go awry. Not just in the public sector. Remember when Apple introduced the iPhone4 in June of 2010? STEVE JOBS: We're having a little problem here. BILL MOYERS: Steve Jobs couldn't get it to connect to the internet. Embarrassing, but they worked it out. When Facebook went public last year a "technical error" in NASDAQ's system delayed the start of trading, resulting in a loss to market makers of half a billion dollars. And those of you old enough to know who Rube Goldberg was may recall the roll-out of the Edsel, a Ford motor company automobile so awful its name still is synonymous with a costly flop. And let's not talk about Lehman brothers, Bear Stearns, MG, JPMorgan Chase. The crash of '08. Beside those calamities, ObamaCare's computer problems pale. EFTA01141525 Oh, yes, mistakes are made by big corporations and big government. And although I was for something else, something simpler and easier to manage, I'm betting this will get fixed. As for those strident partisan voices crowing over ObamaCare's first bad round, ask yourself if those weren't some of the same voices cheering on the invasion of Iraq and promising victory would be swift and easy. Ten years. Trillions of dollars. And all those lost and wrecked lives. Have we heard any apology? Need I say anymore? Greg Brown 15 Ways The United States Is The Best (At Being The Worst) We hear it all the time, from every corner of the political sphere: There's no other country on the planet quite like the United States of America. Such pronouncements are typically of the rah-rah variety, and it's indisputably true that this country is exceptional in a large number of ways. But that is not always necessarily a good thing. Here's what we mean: The U.S. joins Lesotho, Swaziland and New Guinea as the only country in the world not to mandate paid leave for mothers of newborns. We are the only advance country that doesn't require companies to give workers paid vacations. And we don't even mandate that workers receive paid sick days. • We spend the most per student on education, but outcomes aren't great. • We spend the more on our military than any other country. • We also export more weapons than any country in the world. • We incarcerate more of our population than any other country in the world. • No other country has nearly as many guns as people. • Americans consume more calories from sweeteners on an average day than anywhere else in the world. • We also consume the most calories — a whopping 3770 on average a day. • The United States spends more on healthcare than any other industrialized country in the world. • Prescription drug costs are just one reason healthcare cost so much. • More babies die the day that they are born in the U.S. than in any industrialize country. • We're the best at creating super-rich people, at the expense of everyone else. • Inequity in the U.S. is the worst in the industrialized world. EFTA01141526 The U.S. is in the top left corner in the above chart -- showing how the country stands out when it comes to income gains by the top 1 percent of earners since 1960. The gains are plotted against changes in marginal income tax rates. The U.S. comes in second (just behind Britain) when it comes to handing these tax breaks out to our highest earners. The next time a Republican tells you government spending is out of control, the chart below is all you need to prove otherwise. The Financial Times had a story on Monday that is not all that surprising to anybody who has been watching Republicans squeeze the life out of the economy for the past four years or so. Still, ifs a story worth telling again and again, and it can be summed up in its opening paragraph: "Public investment in the US has hit its lowest level since demobilisation after the second world war because of Republican success in stymieing President Barack Obama's push for more spending on infrastructure, science and education: write Robin Harding, Richard McGregor and Gabriel Muller. And they have a helpful chart to illustrate this, which I have reproduced here using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (story continues after chart): Gross Government Investment, % Of GDP 0 N DI a aon 00 at a a, N a a 0 ID Lb Tg I 0 0 IN 0 0 ON 00 ON N g§§gg,§§ Government investment is what the government sector spends on buildings and equipment and research and development. It fell in the second quarter of 2013 to 3.6 percent, the lowest level since 1948. This is because, driven by Republicans' newfound religion about deficits, a conversion that miraculously occurred on Inauguration Day 2009, the U.S. government has slashed spending by the largest amount since the end of the Vietnam War, The New York Times reported earlier this year. That is austerity, and it's a big reason -- maybe the big reason -- the recovery has been so sluggish. Yet Republicans still aren't satisfied, wanting another round of cuts, which is why we'll probably have another destructive budget fight all over again early next year. EFTA01141527 Ex Pharmaceutical Sales Rep speaks the truth: - Big Pharma doesn't want to cure you. Activist, Speaker, and Author of: Confessions '1"13cDrug Pusher See the Youtube video on this Weblink: http://www.youtube.corn/watch? feature=player_embedded&v=Ulm8fHxqUAM A 15 year pharmacist and ex-pharmaceutical Representative speaks out about Big Pharma and their real motivations and lack thereof to cure, heal and care for you or your best interests. Only to cure the space in their pockets not yet filled with your cash. Having worked for health care giants including Johnson & Johnson, Syntex Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Laboratories and Forest Laboratories. Gwen offers an insider's knowledge of dangers from the pharmaceutical industry. Her autobiography — Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher is a poignant autobiographical journey through the darkness of mental illness and the catastrophic consequences that lurk in medicine cabinets around the country offers an honest glimpse into alarming statistics and a health care system ranked last among nineteen industrialized nations worldwide. Gwen Olsen brings together the knowledge of an "insider" trained to sell doctors on the merits of pills; the personal experience of having taken psychiatric medications and seen how they altered her life; and the deep grief of having lost her niece—following her treatment with psychiatric medications—to suicide. As a mental health activist, Gwen has testified before the Food and Drug Administration's Psycho-pharmacology committee, as well as many legislative committees, and has led rallies and marches in protest against psychiatric abuse. Gwen's message is a call to action and a plea for each of us to step up and do our part to help create a medical system that serves all and does harm to none! ***** A FRIEND FOUND THIS INTERESTING AND CONCERNING. How much choice does the mainstream US media really offer? The infographic belows lays out the extent of media consolidation in the US, where just six media giants now control go% of all TV, news, radio and film. RMedia Consolidation Infographic How Banks Got Too Big to Fail EFTA01141528 g2,Big Bank Theory 37 banks have merged to become just four — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and CitiGroup in a little over two decades, according to this Federal Reserve map. The nation's to largest financial institutions hold 54% of our total financial assets; in 1990, they held 20%. As MotherJones reports, the number of banks has dropped from more than 12,500 to about 8,000. The numbers are stark, and the charts visualize the mind-bending reality. This is the world we live in. Do you think that this is choice? And is this good for the country? Or its people? As most of you know, New Jersey's brash larger-than-life tough-talking Republican Governor Chris Christie handily won re-election on Tuesday night against Democratic challenger Barbara Buono. Despite being a Republican in a blue state, Christie has enjoyed strong popularity numbers, and delivered a triumphant victory speech. Christie won 60.4% (1,252,100 votes) verses Buono 38.1% (790,245 votes). Grabbing an impressive 57% of the female vote and winning all age groups other than those 18-29. Christie also took a fifth of the African-American vote and half - 51% - of Latinos, a much better performance than most Republicans in recent elections. Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos called Christie's address "an announcement speech." And it will only serve to stir up more speculation that despite his saying that he's seriously considering a run in 2016, his mind is already made up. POLITICO attributes Christie's impressive win to superior ads, his crossover support from unions, and the weakness of his Democratic rival. And that Christie's path to victory — one that his supporters would love to see shatter the record margin for a New Jersey Republican in the historically blue state and propel an all-but-assumed bid for president — started on Oct. 29, 2012 - the day that Hurricane Sandy touched down on the Jersey Shore. Since then his favorability numbers soared above 70 percent. And unlike other Republicans, Christie embraced President Obama touring together with Barrack Obama, which caused many Republicans to brand him as a traitor, but which played well with voters in his own state. High taxes, with state property taxes rising by 2096 in the past four years under Christie, NJ lags behind in unemployment (8.6%), foreclosures (ranking New Jersey higher than Florida in the percentage of homes in foreclosure handled through the courts) and credit ranking (one of the lowest in the country made worse by continual budget battles), even though state fees rose and government spending increased. Poverty has hit a 52-year high under Christie. An astonishing 24.796 of the state's population is categorized as poor. And much like Rudy Giuliani, who used every opportunity possible to mention "9/11", Christie can't stop saying "Sandy"and I am not talking about Richie Haven's 1967 song, "Sandy." And even though Sandy was more than a year ago, Christie never mentions that only a handful o New Jersey families that have received money the $600 million from federal funding for the state's Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation program, which is responsible for distributing money from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development through grants of up to $15o,00. As a result, NJ's middle class shrank in the past four years. He voted against marriage equality and was mostly silent on women's issues even though a majority of most people in NJ supported both. One example of cuts in women's health care; Gov. Christie cut $7.5 million from health clinics that provide physical exams, mammograms, life-saving pap smears, and other vital and basic medical screenings. EFTA01141529 Because of this, family planning clinics saw at least 33,000 fewer patients in 2010 than in 2009, representing a 24 percent drop. The number of clinical breast exams given fell more than 3o percent. Six clinics closed, and others statewide had to cut back on hours or increase waiting periods. This means fewer regular checkups for poor and uninsured women, only creating higher health care costs in the future. Today almost one in ten are still unemployed in New Jersey. During Christie's first term more than a billion dollars was cut from New Jersey's education funding, making as Christie himself describes the state's public schools, "failurefactories." In September 2013, Tom Moran, a columnist for the New Jersey Star-Ledger, noted the oft-made comparison between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and TV's Tony Soprano: both hyper-masculine, Catholic, conservative, loud-mouthed, and enjoying a reputation built upon bravado. "It's his larger- than-life personality that keeps Christie viable both as a governor and a presidential candidate. "At town hall meetings, Christie is relaxed,funny and persuasive. He usually looks to pick afight at the end, like an entertainer singing the crowdfavorite as an encore. It's compelling stuff But it's thin gruel, in the end. Because the substance doesn't remotely measure up to the spin." In electoral politics, rather than the real world of high taxes and rising poverty, that might not really matter. As governor of California in the 1970s, Ronald Reagan raised taxes at least ro times. Yet he still won election as a conservative, tax-cutting, cowboy Republican in 1980. He was to John Wayne what Christie is to Soprano: a couple of stars who rose above the details." Another New Jersey journalist wrote, " many conservatives might be looking at Christie and making a canny calculation: "Here is a Republican candidate who can win a blue state despite having a mixed record and a reputationfor pickingfights. He is someone who middle-class voters seem to identify with and like - and there arefew other national Republicans around like that right now." It's a tempting pitch, but GOP supporters watching Christie's success in New Jersey ought to bear a few things in mind. First, that mixed record in office may come back to haunt the governor and be used against him, much as inmate furloughs were used against Michael Dukakis or policy reversals against Mitt Romney. Second, Christie might find he doesn't convince conservatives at a national level that he is truly one them." Tuesday night in his acceptance speech, Chris Christie played down partisanship, pledging to do whatever he can to as he said, "to get the job done." The result is that a blue state embraced a loudly pragmatist Republican with Presidential ambitions. And no better evidence is his acceptance speech below. I wish that more Republicans had the pragmatic backbone and good sense of Chris Christie, who still will not be receiving my vote should he survive the next Republican Party primaries, because his core conservative principals are not mine. And although he is not an ideologue, even his moderate stance on many issues such as women's rights, social security and government spending is definitely left of my own. As such, should she run, I am definitely voting for Hillary. Still, I urge everyone to enjoy Governor Christie's acceptance speech, especially you Republicans because his message is undeniable attractive to most people — whomever you are and whatever you believe — because the core of his message is a wonderful one. Chris Christie Delivers Election Night Victory Speech EFTA01141530 November 3, 2013 Video Weblink: http4/youtu.be/vFdmrcGpOEc Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I stand here as your governor and I am so proud to be a governor. Born in Newark and raised in Livingston, made my wife from Pennsylvania a real Jersey girl and raised our family, right here in this amazing state that I love just as much as my mother and father raised me to love it. You see what people have never understood about us, I didn't need any introduction to all of you, I know you because I'm one of you. So tonight first and foremost I want to say, thank you New Jersey for making me the luckiest guy in the world and the only honor and privilege better than being a one term governor of New Jersey is being a two term governor of New Jersey. You got to meet my kids tonight and Mary Pat and I are so proud of them, Andrew, Sarah, Pat and Bridget, I love you all. and over the last four years in a specially this year New Jersey got to know what a special first lady that they have, I love you Mary Pat. I spoke to Senator Bouno a while ago, (over partisan jeers from the crowd) no, no she congratulated me it was gracious. She was gracious with her congratulations and I thanked her for spirited campaign and for her 20 years of public service to the state. You know we came to office for years ago and we stood behind a podium like this and said that people were tired of politics as usual, they wanted to get things done and we promise that we were going to go to Trenton and turn it upside down and I think we've done just that. The people of New Jersey four years ago we're downhearted and dispirited, they didn't believe the government could work for them anymore and in fact what they thought, was that government was just did it take from them but not to give to them, not to work with them, not to work for them. Well its four years later and we stand here tonight showing that it is possible to put doing your job first, to put working together first, to fight for what you believe in and still stand for your principles and get something done for the people who EFTA01141531 elected you. The biggest thing that I've learned over the last 4 years about leadership is that leadership is much less the less about talking then it is about listening, about bringing people around the table and listening to each other and showing them respect and doing what needed to be done and to bring people together to achieve what we needed to achieve to move our state forward. Now listen, I know that if we can do this in Trenton New Jersey, maybe the folks in Washington DC should tune in the TVs right now to see how it's done. Listen we are New Jersey we still fight. We still yell but when we fight we fight for those things that really matter in people's lives and while we may not always agree, we show up, we show up everywhere, we just don't show up at the places with people vote for us a lot, we show up and the places that vote for us a little, we just don't show up at the places that we are comfortable we show up at the places where we are uncomfortable because when you lead you need to be there you need to show up, you need to listen and then you need to act and you don't just show up to 6 months before an election. You show up for us before day one. And you just don't take no for an answer the first time no happens, you keep going back and trying more because when I was elected 4 years ago I was elected by the people voted for a for me, I was the governor of all the people and tonight overwhelmingly those people have said, come on-board, its fine here and let's have one people support the governor and now we've had a big big win tonight. What people have told me over the last 4 years more and more they want the truth. You know we don't always agree with each other in New Jersey, some folks don't agree with some of the things that I do and certainly they don't agree with some of the things I say sometimes. What they know, they know that they never have to wonder. When they walked into the voting booth today, they didn't say I wonder who this guy is and what he stands for, what is willing to fight for, what is willing to do when the chips are down. You can agree with me and you can disagree with me, but I will never stop leading the state I love. People across the country have asked me, how we've been able to do what we've achieved and I'm in reminded of a story that Pastor Joe Carter of the New Hope Church told just one week ago today on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, He called what happen in New Jersey last year the Spirit of Sandy. He spoke about people coming together. He said that when the lights went out no one cares what color skin was. He said when you didn't have any food no one kid if it was a Republican or Democrat offering you the food and when you didn't have one place for your family because of what happened in the storm you didn't care if it was someone who thought the government should be big or small, because at that moment the spirit of send the infected all of us. Reverend Carter was right and you prayed that day that's the Spirit a Sandy would stay with us well be on the days that recovery will take. My place to you tonight is that I will govern with Spirit of Sandy. It's true in New Jersey and all the people that live here they are ready to live that way too. As your Governor it has never mattered to me where someone was from, whether they voted for me or not, the color of their skin or the political party. For me being governor has always been about getting the job done first. This doesn't mean that we don't have principles, we have many of them and we have stood and fought every day to cut taxes to reduce the size of government spending, to reform pension and benefits to reform a broken education system and to make sure that we create opportunities again for New Jerseyans. And for the next four years we will fight to make those changes permanent and we will fight to make them bigger. I did not seek a second term to do small things, I saw the second term to finish the job so what we do it. EFTA01141532 I want to think a few people in addition to my family before we go tonight. I want to tell you that over the last year I've had the greatest campaign team than any guy could ask for. And they were in a flawless campaign and I sent them for it. and I want to thank my cabinet and senior staff. Who especially over the last year have worked tirelessly with me to help bring back the great state of New Jersey from the second worst natural disaster hit this country. And I want to thank the second one who said yes to me when I ask, New Jersey lieutenant governor Kim Gauadagno. I use to tell folks all the time that I have the greatest job in the world, set for Jersey kids to be elected governor of the state that you were born and raised is the greatest job but you could have been your life and I love it every day. I would get up and know that I had a chance to do something great. I didn't do something great everyday but I had a chance to do something great for people who I would probably never meet and certainly never know. But on October the 29th of last year that job changed. It's no longer job for me, it's a mission. You see a mission is different than a job, ifs a secret trust that was thrust upon me and you on October 29th of last year. And that mission is to make sure that everyone in New Jersey that was affected by Sandy return to normalcy in their life and I want to promise you tonight, I will not let anyone, anything, any political party, any governmental entity or any force get between me and the completion of my mission. You see for those veterans out there tonight you know how sacred mission is, the sacredness a mission of a soldier is that no one ever is left behind. No one is ever left behind on the battlefield and on the battlefield that Sandy turn the state into, New Jersey will never leave any New Jerseyans behind. I am resolved to complete this mission. Not because of me but because of you. For the last year I've had a lot of people asking me for hugs, a lot of people and I can tell you this people ask me for hugs to comfort them. Hugs to make sure that I wouldn't forget them. People ask me for hugs just to know that the leader of the state cared about them. and people came up to me all the time during the aftermath, saying "governor what did you get the energy, day to day to day after day to do this." And I told them, you don't understand those hugs gave more to me than I could ever give back to them. They gave me hope and faith and optimism for our future. The people of New Jersey have given me much more than I could ever hope to give back to them. They have given me hope it give me faith. And they've given me their trust. And it is with that hope. That optimism. That faith. And that trust. That we together can front the next four years of opportunity for our state. I know that tonight a dispirited America, angry with their dysfunctional government in Washington looks to New Jersey to say what I think is happening is really happening? Are people really coming together? Are we really working African Americans and Hispanics, suburbanites and city dwellers, farmers in teachers? Are we really all working together? Let me give the answer to everyone who's watching tonight. Under this government our first job is to get the job done. And as long as I'm Governor that job will always, always be finished. I think tonight most particularly, I know my dad my brother and my sister who are here tonight with me share the same view. I think tonight most particularly about my mother. All of you who have known me over the last four years, know that she was and still is the dominant influence in my life. As I said on the video my mom used to say to me all the time, "Christopher be yourself so tomorrow you won't have to remember who you pretended to be yesterday." Powerful words from a woman who I miss every day. But tonight I know that my mom is looking down on New Jersey and saying to me I can feel it, "Chris the job is not done yet get back to work and finish the job for the people of New Jersey." And that's exactly what I will do. I Love New Jersey and thank you very much. EFTA01141533 As many of you know I am also a huge fan of political satirist Bill Mayer, whose HBO show Real Time With Bill Maher, is one of my television staples, because although Bill sentiments are Progressive like my own, he is willing to call out misgivings by Democrats with the same wit and voracity that he employs when attacking the crazy policies on the hard right. He is a liberal Democrat who personally owns a gun for self-protection and at the same time understands that something is wrong when a 28 year-old man can profile a teenager, stalk, pursue, accost and kill him on a rainy winter night and somehow it is the teenager's fault. He is someone who called Democrats punks when they lose their spine and are rolled by Republicans. And at the same time, he invites Republicans on the show's guest panels to state their case. And whether it is Anthony Weiner sending photos of his private parts or U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia proclaiming that the Devil is real and the only reason why we don't see him now is because he is wilier, he is willing to call both idiots. And there is no better example of this idiocy then when several weeks ago when he ended a show during his New Rules summary, illuminating that Scalia is no different than Michele Bachmann, who equates almost everything that President Obama does as the work of the Devil. Below please find a video web link and transcript, as it is both hilarious while at the same time scary. Bill Maher's New Rules - Michele Bachmann and the Devil Web Link: Intudivoutu.be/oPEM_QXbfXo And, finally, New Rule: [slide of Michele Bachmann] I know we can't establish a religious test for office, but if you believe we're living in the End Times like Michele Bachmann does, we get to take away the car keys. Yes, let Jesus take the wheel. If you think the world is about to end, that's your right. But, you don't get to vote on next year's budget, because it DOESN'T CONCERN YOU! Now, this past Saturday, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann announced that President Obama is sending arms to terrorists, and said, "Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice. Maranatha come Lord Jesus' day is at hand." Of course, if Michele is right, and Jesus is on his way back, he'll be the first man she ever saw coming. But, she's not the only person in Washington who'd be more comfortable on "American Horror Story." In an interview this week, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he believes the Devil is a real person who's running around getting people to not believe in God. What can I say? I started to blush. Blush and laugh, because reasonable people -- you know them — they usually see Michele Bachmann as a total loon, but Scalia as a serious intellectual. When, actually, they're the exact same idiot. Scalia says in the interview that he's puzzled that the Devil is all over the New Testament, but we don't see him around anymore. Oh, yeah, back in the old days, Satan was like Miley Cyrus's tongue: he was EFTA01141534 everywhere. But, you know, this Devil not being anymore thing, it's not something that puzzles me. In fact, usually, when I hear someone talking like this, it's because I'm dropping change in their cup. But, somehow, the lack of Beelzebub sightings positively mystifies the leading legal mind in conservative America. Scalia says: [slide of quote] "In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He's making pigs run off cliffs. He's possessing people, and whatnot. And that doesn't happen very much anymore." I kept waiting for the transcript to say, "Ha-hah! JustPeking with you!" Pigs running off cliffs? Hey, leave the debt ceiling deniers out of this. And, what is Justice Scalia's theory as to why we don't see the Devil anymore? Is it the logical answer that fictions like the Devil are in the Bible because it was written before the age of science, when humans didn't know where the sun went at night, and is obviously a reflection of mankind's thinking in his intellectual infancy? Of course not! That makes sense! What Scalia said about the Devil is, "He used to be all over the New Testament. What happened to him? He got wilier." Motherf"cker. Of course, wilier! He may be evil, but he's always looking to improve himself. Antonin Scalia once said that people like him who adhere to traditional beliefs were, quote, "regarded as simpleminded. We are,"he said, "fools for Christ." You know, whether you're 'foolsfor Christ" or "Cuckoofor Cocao Puffs," I really don't care why someone acts like a fool; just that they do, and that when they do, we keep them away from decision making. It would be one thing if Mr. Scalia sold pizza for a living, but this is a man we go to, to interpret our laws. It's like smelling a gas leak and calling an exorcist. Antonin Scalia put George Bush in the White House, and he believes the Devil went down to Georgia. He gets to decide when life begins, and he thinks "evil" is a person, you know, like a corporation. Here's the problem with believing the Devil exists. It means you see the world divided into teams of good and evil, and suspect the "wiley one" may be on the side of "them." And when you start seeing compromising with your opponents as a compromise with evil, well, there's your Tea Party. THIS WEEK's READINGS EFTA01141535 Early in a coronary artery bypass surgeryduring vein harvesting from the legs (left of image) and the establishment of bypass (placement of the aortic cannula) (bottom of image). The perfusionist and heart-lung machine(HLM) are on the upper right. The patient's head (not seen) is at the bottom. Coronary artery bypass surgery, also coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage') surgery, and colloquially heart bypass or bypass surgery is a surgical procedure performed to relieve angina and reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease. Arteries or veins from elsewhere in the patient's body are grafted to the coronary arteries to bypass atherosclerotic narrowings and improve the blood supply to the coronary circulation supplying the myocardium (heart muscle). This surgery is usually performed with the heart stopped, necessitating the usage of cardiopulmonary bypass; techniques are available to perform CABG on a beating heart, so-called "off-pump" surgery. giFile:Blausen 0466 Heart Bypass Surgery.png Illustration of a typical coronary artery bypass surgery. A vein from the leg is removed and grafted to the coronary artery to bypass a blockage. The first coronary artery bypass surgery was performed in the United States on May 2, 1960, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Bronx Municipal Hospital Center by a team led by Dr. Robert Goetz and the thoracic surgeon, Dr. Michael Rohman with the assistance of Dr. Jordan Haller and Dr. Ronald Dee. In this technique the vessels are held together with circumferential ligatures over an inserted metal ring. The internal mammary artery was used as the donor vessel and was anastomosed to the right coronary artery. The actual anastomosis with the Rosenbach ring took fifteen seconds and did not require cardiopulmonary bypass. The disadvantage of using the internal mammary artery was that, at autopsy nine months later, the anastomosis was open, but an atheromatous plaque had occluded the origin of the internal mammary that was used for the bypass. EFTA01141536 Single Double Triple Quadruple Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Illustration depicting single, double, triple, and quadruple bypass Russian cardiac surgeon, Dr. Vasilii Kolesov, performed the first successful internal mammary artery— coronary artery anastomosis in 1964. However, Goetz's has been cited by others, including Kolesov, as the first successful human coronary artery bypass. Goetz's case has frequently been overlooked. Confusion has persisted for over 4o years and seems to be due to the absence of a full report and to misunderstanding about the type of anastomosis that was created. The anastomosis was intima-to-intima, with the vessels held together with circumferential ligatures over a specially designed metal ring. Kolesov did the first successful coronary bypass using a standard suture technique in 1964, and over the next five years he performed 33 sutured and mechanically stapled anastomoses in St. Petersburg, Russia. Single Double Triple Quadruple Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Three coronary artery bypass grafts, a LIMA to LAD and two saphenous vein grafts — one to the right coronary artery (RCA) system and one to the obtuse marginal (OM) system. EFTA01141537 Dr. Rene Favaloro, an Argentine surgeon, achieved a physiologic approach in the surgical management of coronary artery disease — the bypass grafting procedure — at the Cleveland Clinic in May 1967. His new technique used a saphenous vein autograft to replace a stenotic segment of the right coronary artery. Later, he successfully used the saphenous vein as a bypassing channel, which has become the typical bypass graft technique we know today; in the U.S., this vessel is typically harvested endoscopically, using a technique known as endoscopic vessel harvesting (EVH). Soon Dr. Dudley Johnson extended the bypass to include left coronary arterial systems. In 1968, Doctors Charles Bailey, Teruo Hirose and George Green used the internal mammary artery instead of the saphenous vein for the grafting. Bypass Surgery Might Be History Soon In a ground breaking discovery that may eventually render bypass surgery history, researchers at TelAviv University have shown that an injected protein can regrow blood vessels in the human heart. In heart disease, blood vessels are either dogged or die off, starving the heart of oxygen and leaving it highly susceptible to a cardiac attack. Dr. Britta Hardy of TAM Sadder School of Medicine and her team of researchers have developed a protein-based injection that when delivered straight to muscles in the body, sparks the regrowth of tiny blood vessels. The new vessels in the heart could give millions of people around the world a new lease on life. "The biotechnology behind our human-based protein therapy is very complicated, but the goal is simple and the solution is Straightforward. We intend to inject our drug locally to heal any oxygen-starved tissue. Sofar in animal models, we've seen no side effects and no inflammation following our injection of the drug into the legs. The growth of new blood vessels happens within a few weeks, showing improved blood circulation," said Hardy. The protein solution can also be added as a coating to a stent. Usually, the implantation of a stent is accompanied by a high risk for blood dots, which necessitates the use of blood thinners. "We could coat a stent with our peptide, attracting endothelial stem cells to form a film on the surface of the stent. These endothelial cells on the stent would eliminate the need for taking the blood thinners that prevent blood clots from forming," said Hardy. If investment goals are met, the researchers are hoping that toxicity studies and Phase I trials could be complete within two years. The researchers began the study for preventing leg amputations, positing that proteins from the human body could be used to trigger the growth of new blood vessels. Hardy started by studying a library of peptides and testing them in the laboratory and later confirmed initial results. She then took some of the isolated and synthesized peptides and tested them in diabetic mice whose legs were in the process of dying. Although diabetes is known to decrease blood circulation, Hardy found that her therapy reversed the decrease. "Within a short time we saw the formation of capillaries and tiny blood vessels. After three weeks, they had grown and merged together with the rest of the circulatory system," she said. In mice with limited blood circulation, she was able to completely restore blood vessels and save their legs. EFTA01141538 It was then a short step to studying the applicability of the research to cardiac patients. "It"s pretty obvious if there is regrowth or not. Our technology promises to regrow blood vessels like a net, and a heart that grows more blood vessels becomes stronger. It's now imaginable that, in the distantfuture, peptide injections may be able to replace bypass surgeries," concluded Hardy. The study has been published in Bioche mic al Pharmacology. To delegitimize the Affordable Healthcare Act, opponents of the program and the President first labelled it Obamacare, telling people that it was Socialism run-a-muck that would end in catastrophe eventually destroying the country as we know it. To illustrate their case Jan Crawford of CBS News identified Dianne Barrette, a 57-year-old Florida realtor who was paying $54 a month for a Blue Cross insurance plan and was informed that the plan would not be available after December. And while FloridaBlue offered her a new plan, the company told her the premium would be $591 a month. Barrette, who makes $30,000 a year and could not pay for such a plan, was flabbergasted. An appearance on Fox News followed, as did multiple cameos in press releases from Obamacare critics. For at least a few days, she was the poster child for the Obamacare cancellation story. Unlike CBS and Fox News, journalist Johnathan Cohen took a closer examination of Barrette's current policy and concluded that most polices available to her for next year have higher premiums, with the deference being that they offer real coverage, that her current plan doesn't. Yes, she has insurance but it is junk insurance. The policy Barrette has today is called the Go Blue Plan 91. It is not what most people would consider real insurance. Its coverage of doctor visits and tests, such as MRI scans, consists of paying $50 and then letting Barrette pay the remaining balance. Drug coverage works more or less in the same way, only the plan pays $15 per prescription — which is enough to cover generics, but not many name-brands. And hospitalization? The plan pays nothing at all. As another journalist Erik Wemple of the Washington Post who also examined Barrette's policy put it, "it's a pray-that-you-don't-really-get-sick plan." Barrette doesn't really disagree — but this plan, she says, was all she could afford. "Most everyone I talked to said they were paying thousands more to get hospital coverage," she told me, "so I took my chances with what I have now." EFTA01141539 OK, but what can she get from Obamacare? Using plan data provided to me by the Kaiser Family Foundation, residents of Polk County, Florida have dozens of insurance options from which to choose. The cheapest option for somebody of Barrette's age has premiums of $440 a month, the most expensive goes for $914 a month. But Barrette wouldn't pay those prices. Obamacare offers tax credits to people with incomes of up to four times the poverty line, or about $45,000 for an individual. Given Barrette's income, she'll be getting a tax credit worth nearly $331 a month, according to the Kaiser Foundation's subsidy calculator. And that tax credit works like a discount, upfront. To figure out what she'd pay, you subtract the value of the tax credit from the price of the plan. Accounting for that discount, it looks like the cheapest plan available her would cost about $loo a month — in other words, about $50 a month more than Barrette pays now. Obamacare divides plans into categories based on generosity — with platinum the most generous, bronze the least generous. This is a bronze plan and you can tell by reading the benefit summary. It covers periodic wellness visits for free, like all plans must under the new law. But it doesn't pay for virtually anything else until the beneficiary has paid $6,250 of his or her own money, the maximum out-of-pocket allowed under Obamacare. The plan might protect Barrette from bankruptcy, something her current plan doesn't do, but it would do almost nothing to insulate her from less extreme medical expenses. But Barrette would have other options. There are bronze plans that provide a little more coverage and there are silver plans that provide substantially more. Metcalf, in her Consumer Reports article, found one such policy: A silver plan from Humana that would cost Barrette about $150 a month (i.e, $loo a month more than Barrette pays now). Here's a summary: For an additional $p or so, Barrette could apparently get the second-cheapest silver plan. It's from FloridaBlue, the same company that provides Barrette with what she has now. Included in that policy: the usual free checkup, free vision care (one exam plus one pair of corrective lenses), free clinical lab work, and a drug plan with prices ranging from free for some generic, mail-order drugs to $250 for some high-end specialty drugs. It would cover primary care physician visits, though with a $75 co-pay per visit. Other coverage — for hospitalizations, specialist office visits, and so on — would kick in after her out-of-pocket expenses reached an annual deductible of $5,750. Her total out of pocket expenses could be no more than $6,250, in accordance with the law's maximum. Cohen: "I've used the term "seems" and "apparently" a lot, because it's hard to know whether there's some quirk to Barrette's situation — or if I'm misreading the plan data. Keep in mind, too, that the policies all come with restrictions: Among other things, coverage would be limited to a network of physicians that is probably pretty narrow. And none of these policies would spare Barrette from financial pressures: If she got sick enough to end up in the hospital, even with these plans she'd likely be out several thousand dollars. Still, she wouldn't owe tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is what a serous illness costs to treat—and what her current plan wouldn't cover. These are the kinds of expenses that can ruin somebody financially." For some, this will seem like a good deal. For others, it will not. As Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Kaiser Foundation, puts it: It's particularly difficult because the face trade-offs some people face are very different than the ones Barrette is weighing. Some of the insured paying more money next year won't be getting better benefits, for example. They will simply owe more because the rules for insurance pricing are changing and the available federal subsidies don't make up for the higher prices. Some of these people will actually be paying more and getting less coverage for it. EFTA01141540 Even so, Barrette's take is a reminder that people can have a longer-view perspective about medical bills than pundits frequently assume. When I gave her a broad description of the plans available, she seemed interested. I noted that she'd be paying $100 or $150 extra a month for policies that still had high cost-sharing, so that she would still be a lot of money out of her own pocket. (Cohen: I also made very clear that I'm not an insurance agent or broker — that, when she finally goes shopping for insurance, she should talk to a real expert for advice.) Here was her response: "With my age, things can happen. I don't want to have bills that could make me bankrupt. I don't want to lose my house." People forget the initial failures of America's space program in the late 195os, as almost all was forgotten the moment that NASA successfully landed a man on the moon a decade later. Or that when Steve Jobs debuted the first iPhone, it didn't work at the initial press conference. Or that the actions of one trader at JP Morgan cost the company more than $6 billion in losses. Despite Florida having no major hurricanes in the last seven years, one-third of the insurance companies that have taken over policies previously held by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in the state have gone belly up — costing taxpayers $400 million. Finally, Governor Deval Patrick admitted last Sunday on one of the morning news shows that it took almost 2 years for Massachusetts to work out all of the glitches in Romneycare, which is the template/model that Obamacare is based.... and today Romneycare is universally accepted as a huge success due to the fact that almost 97% of the people in the state now have access to affordable healthcare. But the truth is that if Republicans had worked as hard to make the Affordable Healthcare Act successful as they have to kill it it would be a much better program with less glitches and fewer problems. And isn't this the real job of government 7 Barrette's situation defies quick and easy description. It's true that she can't keep her current policy — and that most policies available to her for next year have higher premiums. But those plans also offer real coverage, and her current plan does not. Some people might resent government effectively prohibiting her current plan. Barrette doesn't appear to be one of them. Based on conversations we've had over the past few days, she wants more comprehensive insurance and, within reason, she's willing to pay more for it. The media labeled her an Obamacare victim, when confronted with the facts, Dianne Barrette, "I Would Jump At It." ****** EFTA01141541 Acknowledging that America's healthcare system is broken and that we are nowhere close to having the best in the world even though we pay the most there is almost universal agreement that someone has to be done. Further muddling the situation is that Republicans have drawn a line in the sand to do whatever they can to kill the Affordable Healthcare Act ("Obamacare") in their effort to make President Obama a failed Presidency. Besides saying that Obamacare won't work and will bankrupt the country, one of the suggestion that Conservatives make is that the Medicare age should be raised to make to program more solvent. In an article in The Atlantic this week journalist Matthew O'Brien disagrees — Raising the Medicare Age: A Popular Idea With Shockingly Few Benefits and that to make matters worse, would increase overall healthcare spending. It may seem obvious that raising the Medicare age should save money. After all, the projected rise of the long-term debt is mostly about the projected rise of federal health-care spending. If we raise the Medicare age, Washington can wait longer to pay for seniors' health care, which means they'll pay less, overall. Any time there's any chance for any kind of budget bargain, "grand" or otherwise, the discussion inside the Beltway inevitably turns to hiking the Medicare age. (Call it Peterson's Law: As a fiscal debate grows longer, the probability of a CEO proposing a higher Social Security and Medicare age approaches one). Right on cue, this got trial-ballooned during the debt ceiling talks in 2011, and then again during the fiscal cliff talks in 2012. Professional deficit hawks think of raising the Medicare age as a sign of seriousness. It's not so much about the money it saves as the message it supposedly sends markets: that the debt will be fixed. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now estimates that gradually increasing the Medicare age from 65 to 67 would only save the government $19 billion between 2016 and 2023 — or 0.01 percent of GDP over that time. Nor would it save much more over the longer term; just 0.07 percent of GDP by 2038. These estimates are actually much lower than the CBO's already-low ones from last year. Back then, it thought gradually increasing the Medicare age to 67 would save $113 billion by 2023. That's not a lot in the grand scheme of a $16 trillion economy that will be even bigger 10 years from now, but it's a whole lot more than what the CBO thinks now. So what changed? EFTA01141542 The CBO realized that it overestimated how much Medicare spends on typical 65 and 66 year-olds. Its old estimates looked at average Medicare spending for all 65 and 66 year-olds. But some disabled and terminally ill patients get Medicare before they turn 65, and that wouldn't change if we raised the age to 67. So increasing the Medicare age eliminates Medicare benefits for the healthiest 65 and 66 year- olds, but not the sickest ones. And even cutting Medicare benefits isn't the same as cutting government benefits. With Obamacare kicking in, some 65 and 66 year-olds would get Medicaid or exchange subsidies if they couldn't get Medicare. This other federal healthcare spending would offset a big chunk of whatever Medicare savings there were. It's federal cost-shifting, not cost-saving. Now, it is true that Social Security spending would fall a bit too. If they couldn't get Medicare, some 65 and 66 year-olds would postpone retirement to keep their employer-provided healthcare. But not very many. As the CBO points out, most people retire when they want to, not when they can get Medicare. That means increasing the Medicare age wouldn't increase the labor force all that much. Raising Medicare age seems like an obvious idea, because it's mentioned so often. But what exactly is so obvious about its benefits? Before Obamacare, it would have just shifted healthcare costs from the government to the healthiest seniors. That's not just morally questionable. It's also bad economically, since their private insurers would cost more than Medicare. After Obamacare, it would just shift healthcare costs from one part of the government to another — and some seniors would lose coverage altogether. That's worth $19 billion over ten years? President Obama and Democratic leaders have said that they are willing to make cuts in both Social Security and Medicare. And the only thing holding this negotiation from going forward is because that Republicans refuse to raise any taxes including on the richest Americans and the country's most successful companies. More than 40% of people over the age of 65 rely on Social Security for more than 90% of their incomes, which averages a little over $1200 a month, making it difficult to say that they have too much. The facts are that when you look at Social Security, it's gone from being about four percent of our economy in 2000, to about five percent today. It's projected to be about six percent in 20 years. That's because we have an aging population, the baby boomers. We can handle that and that's not a big deal especially even if we did nothing Social Security would not be running a deficit for at least another twenty years and by then we should be about to fix the shortfall. Medicare is a bit different, due to the aging of the Baby Boomers it will run a shortfall if we don't do anything for in the next ten to fifteen years. But this too can be fixed as well. But when you talk about Medicare, it's a totally different story. That's being driven by our healthcare costs. We spend more than twice as much per person as the average for other wealthy countries, we have nothing to show for it in terms of outcomes. We have to fix our healthcare system. So talking about taking this from seniors is totally wrongheaded. And suggesting that keeping Medicare will burden future generations, doesn't take in account that they are inheriting one of the greatest countries on the planet and the older generations helped make this possible. There are a number of real ways to make healthcare more affordable. Canada does it. One way would be to take the middlemen (insurance companies) out and institute a national healthcare or a single- payer system, just like every other industrialized country in the world. Another suggestion is to raise the social security cap, which could bring in whatever money needed to make sure that the program is solvent. And another way to rein in costs, since most people use up sometimes as much as 80% of monies spent on their healthcare in the last several months to a year in their life Sarah Palin's idea EFTA01141543 of "Death Panels." But getting back to premise of O'Brien's article, unless the Medicare age eligibility is raised significantly, let's say to 70 or 75, little savings will be realized. But if you really want to make sure that Medicare is totally solvent, why not raise the eligibility age to 100. The Definitive Answer To 20 Of Your Biggest Health Questions Does olive oil prevent heart disease? Short answer: Yes The health benefits of olive oil come from the presence of polyphenols, antioxidants that reduce the risk of heart diseases and cancers. But to get these healthy compounds, consumers should buy good- quality, fresh "extra-virgin" olive oil, which has the highest polyphenol content. Most commercially available olive oils have low levels of polyphenols associated with poor harvesting methods, improper storage, and heavy processing. Do cough syrups work? Short answer: No In 2006, the nation's chest physicians agreed that the majority of over-the-counter cough medicines don't actually work. These colorful syrups typically contain doses of codeine and dextromethorphan that are too small to be effective. Only cough suppressants that contain older antihistamines seem to relieve coughs. That includes brompheniramine, an active ingredient in Dimetapp. Does sugar cause hyperactivity? Short answer: No Following a review of 23 studies, a 1996 report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that sugar "does not affect the behavior or cognitive performance of children." The age-old myth that kids misbehave when they eat large amounts of candy, cookies, and other junk EFTA01141544 food, could be related to the type of events where these foods are typically served. For example, kids are more wound-up at birthday parties and during Halloween when sweet treats tend to flow freely. Do sugary soft drinks lead to diabetes? Short answer: Yes The majority of health research is stacked against sugar-sweetened soda. A large 2004 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that women who drank one or more sugary drinks per day increased their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 83% compared to those who consumed less than one of these beverages per month. Do I need sunscreen with more than 30 SPF? Short answer: No Sunscreens with an SPF (sun protection factor) of 3o block about 97% of ultraviolet rays, while sunscreens with an SPF of higher than 30 block 97%-98%. It's more important that you choose "broad-spectrum" sunscreen, meaning it protects against both UVB and UVA rays. Sunbathers also need to apply a generous amount of sunscreen in order to get the full benefit of the SPF. Is the MSG in Chinese likely to give you a headache? Short answer: No A review of 4o years of clinical trials, published in the journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in 2006, found that all previous research "failed to identify a consistent relationship between the consumption of MSG and the constellation of symptoms that comprise the syndrome," including headaches and asthma attacks. The misconception spawned from several poorly-done small studies in the 1960s that seemed to connect MSG with a variety of maladies that people experienced after eating at Chinese restaurants. Do nuts make you fat? Short answer: No EFTA01141545 As much as 75% of a nut is fat. But eating fat doesn't necessarily make you fat. The bigger factor leading to weight gain is portion-size. Luckily, nuts are loaded with healthy fats that keep you full. They're also a good source of protein and fiber. One study even found that whole almonds have 2o% less calories than previously thought because a lot of the fat is excreted from the body. Is walking as effective as running? Short answer: Yes Studies have shown that how long you exercise — and thus how many calories you burn — is more important than how hard you exercise. Running is a more efficient form of exercise, but not necessarily better for you. A six-year study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology in April found that walking at a moderate pace and running produced similar health benefits, so long as the same amount of energy was expended. Is drinking fruit juice as good for you as eating fruit? Short answer: No Calorie for calorie, whole fruit provides more nutritional benefits than drinking the pure juice of that fruit. That's because when you liquefy fruit, stripping away the peel and dumping the pulp, many ingredients like fiber, calcium, vitamin C, and other antioxidants are lost. For comparison, a five- ounce glass of orange juice that contains 69 calories has .3 grams of dietary fiber and i6 milligrams of calcium, whereas an orange with the same number of calories packs 3.1 grams of fiber and 6o milligrams of calcium. Are all wheat breads better for you than white bread? Short answer: No Not all wheat breads are created equal. Wheat breads that contain all parts of the grain kernel, including the nutrient-rich germ and fiber-dense bran, must be labeled "whole grain" or "whole wheat." Some wheat breads are just white bread with a little bit of caramel coloring to make the bread appear healthier, according to Reader's Digest. EFTA01141546 Can a hot tub make me sick? Short answer: Yes Hot tubs — especially ones in spas, hotels, and gyms — are perfect breeding grounds for germs. The water is not hot enough to kill bacteria, but is just the right temperature to make microbes grow even faster. Even though hot tubs are treated with chlorine, the heat causes the disinfectant to break down faster than it would in regular pools. The most common hot tub infection is pseudomonas folliculitis, which causes red, itchy bumps. A more dangerous side-effect of soaking in a dirty Jacuzzi is a form of pneumonia known as Legionnaire's disease. This is what reportedly sickened more than 100 people at the Playboy Mansion back in 2011. Does coffee cause cancer? Short answer: No Coffee got a bad rap in the 198os when a study linked drinking coffee to pancreatic cancer. The preliminary report was later debunked. More recently, health studies have swung in favor of the caffeinated beverage. Coffee has been linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, liver cancer, and even suicide. Do eggs raise cholesterol levels? Short answer: No Although egg yolks are a major source of cholesterol — a waxy substance that resembles fat — researchers have learned that saturated fat has more of an impact on cholesterol in your blood than eating foods that contain cholesterol. "Healthy individuals with normal blood cholesterol levels should now feel free to enjoy foods like eggs in their diet every day," the lead researcher from a 25-year University of Arizona study on cholesterol concluded. Is bottled water better for you than tap water? Usually it comes from the same tap, and costs more. Short answer: Yes EFTA01141547 It is very rare for someone to die from drinking too much water, but it can happen. Overhydrating is most common among elite athletes. Drinking an excess of water, called water intoxication, dilutes the concentration of sodium in the blood leading to a condition known as hyponatremia. The symptoms of hyponatremia can range from nausea and confusion to seizures and even death in severe cases. To avoid this, drink fluids with electrolytes during extreme exercise events. Can yogurt ease digestive problems? Short answer: Yes Our digestive tract is filled with microorganisms — some good and some bad. Yogurt contains beneficial bacteria, generically called probiotics, that helps maintain a healthy balance. Probiotics can relieve several gastrointestinal problems, including constipation and diarrhea. Certain brands of yogurts, like Activa by Dannon, are marketed exclusively to treat tummy issues. Do whitening toothpastes whiten teeth more than regular toothpastes? Short answer: No Whitening toothpastes usually contain peroxides and other strong abrasives that might make your teeth appear whiter by removing stains. Unlike at-home whitening strips and gels that contain bleach, these toothpastes do not actually change the color of your teeth. Is it safe to microwave food in plastic containers? Short answer: Yes But the plastic container should display the words "microwave safe." This means that the Food and Drug Administration has tested the container to make sure no chemicals used to make the plastic leech into foods during microwaving. If chemicals do seep out into food, the amounts are tiny and not dangerous to our health. As a general guideline, plastic grocery bags as well as most plastic tubs that hold margarine, yogurt, cream cheese, and condiments are not microwave safe. Can watching TV ruin your eyesight? EFTA01141548 Short answer: No Watching TV will not destroy your rods and cones as the outdated myth suggests. Before the 195os, TVs emitted radiation that could increase an individual's risk of eye problems after excessive TV viewing. Modern TVs have special shielding that blocks these harmful emissions. Is red wine better for you than white wine? Short answer: Yes Red wine contains much more resveratrol than white wine, an antioxidant found in the skin of grapes that has been shown to fight off diseases associated with aging. Is bottled water better for you than tap water? Usually it comes from the same tap, and costs more. Short answer: No Bottled water is no safer or purer than tap water, although it is substantially more expensive. A recent study by Glasgow University in the U.K. found that bottled water is actually more likely to be contaminated than water from your faucet because it is less well-regulated. Bottled water and tap water typically come from the same sources — natural springs, lakes, and aquifers. While public water supplies are tested for contaminants every day, makers of bottled water are only required to test for specific contaminants every week, month, or year. EFTA01141549 Hooray On Thursday, President Barack Obama announced his support for legislation introduced by two Democratic senators that, if passed, would mark the first significant increase to the federal minimum wage in more than four years. Obama's statements showed that he's ready to go farther than his February proposal to push the minimum wage to $9, which many criticized as not a significant enough boost. A leap to $10.10, however, could be enough to push a large number of the working poor -- a group defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as those who fall below the poverty line despite working (or searchingfor work) at least 27 weeks per year -- out of poverty. A Sumo minimum wage will push more than half -- 58 percent -- of the nation's to million-plus working poor out of poverty in 2O11, according to a June study by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an advocacy group focusing on the restaurant industry. FIGURE 2 Real Value of the Minimum Wage versus Productivity 250 Productivity ----Real minimum wage 200 1968 = 100 150 100 50 0 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Source: Author's analysis of BLS data. F The federal minimum wage is actually worth $2 less today than it was in 1968, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. It's also been vastly outpaced by worker productivity over the past half-century and would be nearly $22 if it had kept up with us busybodies, according to a March study above. As U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said a week ago Friday. "No one who works afull time job should have to live in poverty." Please feel free to read Maxwell Strachen's Huffington Post article — Obama's $10.10 Minimum Wage Would Fundamentally Change America. I applaud President Obama and everyone else that they do whatever they can to make sure that no one in this great country of ours who works a full-time job lives in poverty. Separate from the above or maybe not that separate, three days after residents in SeaTac, Wash., voted on a ballot measure that would create the highest minimum wage in the nation by far, the results remain too dose to call. Supporters of Proposition No. 1, which calls for a $15 minimum wage, led 51.58 to 48.42 percent after the latest vote tally was finished on Thursday night, according to King EFTA01141550 County Elections. That signals a declining lead for the wage measure's backers, who enjoyed a roughly 8 percentage point lead after the initial count on Tuesday. Due to the high number of mail-in ballots, vote counting is expected to continue for days and the results won't be ratified until Nov. 26, according to the city clerk's office. So far, 4,469 ballots have been counted in a vote that was open to 12,108 registered voters. If supporters manage to cling to their narrow lead, the measure's passage would hand a major victory to labor activists. Proposition 1 would establish a wage floor that's more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25. The $15 benchmark, which would be adjusted each year according to inflation, would apply to an estimated 6,000 airport and hotel workers employed by large businesses in and around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. In addition to the wage-floor hike, Proposition 1 includes a sick-leave mandate, letting workers accrue up to 6.5 sick days a year, as well as a guarantee that tipped workers can keep their gratuities and not be required to share them. Smaller businesses were carved out of the legislation to make it more palatable. Even though it would pertain only to a particular set of workers in a city of 27,00o, the measure has drawn national attention at a time when Congress is considering raising the federal minimum wage and fast-food workers are going on strike over stagnant, sub-$10-per-hour pay. On Tuesday, New Jersey residents voted to raise their minimum wage to $8.25, and on Thursday night President Barack Obama threw his support behind congressional Democrats' proposal to raise the federal level to $io.io and peg it to inflation. With SeaTac held up as a bellwether vote on similar measures, businesses and unions dug in and spent an estimated $2 million -- much of it in out-of-state money -- to sway voters. Among the initiative's largest backers was the Service Employees International Union, which for years has organized workers at airports around the country. Debate fell along the typical battle lines of any minimum wage proposal: The business community argued that the higher wage floor would force concessionaires to raise prices or go out of business, while organized labor and progressive activists said it would improve the lives of thousands of service workers. Many states have their own minimum wages that they set higher than the federal level, including Washington State, which boasts the highest state wage floor in the nation, at $9.19. Certain cities and counties that lean left have decided that the state and federal levels are inadequate and established their own, such as San Francisco, where the minimum wage is $10.55. But so far, no minimum wage -- federal, state or local -- has come close to SeaTac's $15 proposal. One thing for sure is that raising the minimum wage really helps the working poor and many economist believe also helps stimulate the local economies, even more than tax cuts. This has been the experience in San Francisco, Long Beach and other cities, communities and states where the minimum wage has been raised. THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY Next Generation Mobile Phones Nanotechnology EFTA01141551 Weblink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVJtOO7mS3I Also Check Out using the link below: Many common products on the market today already make use of nanotechnology: hnp://www.dailysmanstuff.com/2013/07/top-nanotechnolomproduct-available-in.html THIS WEEK's QUOTE "I think to put it more bluntly, no one is willing to talk about thefact that Social Security and Medicare cuts equal having old people diefaster." YVES SMITH — November 1, 2013 — Moyers & Company THIS WEEK'S MUSIC EFTA01141552 Much like one of his heroes Woody Guthrie a generation before, Harry Chapin spoke to the soul of his generation and as such was truly a troubadour. Harry Foster Chapin (December 7, 1942 — July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter best known for his folk rock songs including "Taxi," "W*O*VD," "Flowers Are Red," and the No. 1 hit "Cat's in the Cradle." Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work. Having been a New York taxi driver in the late 1960s and early 197os to make ends meet while we were growing our film production company, his most poignant song "Taxi" chronicled a cassette moment that many of us experience and to this day it is in the Pantheon of my favorite music. With this, I would like to share this the music of Mr. Harry Chapin whose music and life should be an inspiration to us all Harry Chapin — Taxi & Sequel -- httlUiyoutu.be/aeMXLIfqKuc Harry Chapin — Cats in the Cradle -- httpilyoutu.be/GCpsDoZDfus Harry Chapin — W*O*L yohutu ley/O1luo: be oc1/12 :yU5to_w Harry Chapin — Flowers *D- Are - h Red 6UA Harry Chapin — Sandy - httpilyouSe 03gY i3DQWI Harry Chapin — Dreams Go By -- httpjayoutu.be/iLaLMK7n91 7 Harry Chapin — The Rock -- httpilyoutu.be/vB23moVxClk Harry Chapin — A Better Place to Be -- http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=MNz9MhrzDfo&feature=share&list=PLBFAB4B7$149E8C9F ry pd 3roFutu4 beB.7csoim 4/9w Ea8tcc9 11F ? ivt ar flijovjZaipuinrw - 8Efeartculree;s-hhat treP8r:/1 t = Harry Chapin - Sounds Like America to Me -- http://youtu.be/MVoFziuDlhg Harry Chapin - The day they closed the Factory down -- http://youtu.be/81EPNaezpSo Harry Chapin - It Seems You Only Love Me When It Rains -- http://youtu.be/EHSpE 15Tno Harry Chapin - She Is Always Seventeen -- http://youtu.be/NHtLi8P5s2c I hope that you have enjoyed this week's offerings and wish you all a wonderful and successful week Sincerely, Greg Brown EFTA01141553 Gregory BMWII Chairman & CEO GlobalCast Partners. LLC EFTA01141554