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By Dominic Lieven
$23.73
By Hannah Arendt
$23
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Dr. Dahlia Wasfi joins Robert Scheer and James Harris to discuss the past, present and future of the Iraq war. Wasfi (pictured), who has twice visited Iraq during the occupation, says it is only a matter of time and casualties before the U.S. leaves: “It’s really simple: You bring the troops home, they stop dying there.” Update: Full transcript now available.
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By Ellen Goodman — With the stem cell debate, scientists once again have to negotiate the political gauntlet, where every breakthrough is met by an ill-informed stump speech.
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The Vatican is urging Catholics not to donate to Amnesty International because, it says, the group selectively promotes abortion. The human rights organization says the church has misrepresented its policy and, in the process, imperiled human rights. The World Health Organization estimates that 70,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions.
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Dr. Dahlia Wasfi joins Robert Scheer and James Harris to discuss the past, present and future of the Iraq war. Wasfi, who has twice visited Iraq during the occupation, says it is only a matter of time and casualties before the U.S. leaves: “It’s really simple: You bring the troops home, they stop dying there.”
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Documentarian Michael Moore takes clips from his latest to Oprah for a discussion of the healthcare crisis and why even Republicans are responding warmly to the film: “I don’t want this to be a political issue. ... When you get sick, you get sick. The illness doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican.”
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Meet the president’s pick for our next surgeon general, Dr. James Holsinger, a man who once wrote that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy: “When the complementarity of the sexes is breached, injuries and diseases may occur.” Injuries? Can’t we just do without a surgeon general for a couple of years?
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How did the third rail of American politics suddenly become the must-have political accessory in the 2008 election? It might have something to do with skyrocketing healthcare costs and the tens of millions of uninsured. Thus Barack Obama has become the latest candidate to call for universal health coverage.
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A new proposal would make New Jersey the first state to require HIV testing for pregnant women and their babies, unless the women decline the test in writing. Currently four states test just mothers, and two others only newborns. The bill is opposed by the D.C.-based Center for Women Policy Studies on the grounds that it limits health rights.
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southofboston.net
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An exhaustive study of the VA health system and its administrators has found a pattern of overstating the quality of care, arguably at the expense of veterans. If Congress is under the impression that VA medical care is top notch, it is less motivated to appropriate resources for much-needed improvements.
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AP Photo / Evan Vucci
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By Chris Hedges — When it comes to abortion, the Christian right presents a false choice between self-condemnation and a life of struggle. Until the impoverished and imperiled, so frequently driven into the arms of demagogues, are truly cared for, the freedom of all women will be at risk.
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Citizens of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and elsewhere, take a breath. Though your air is polluted, your lungs inflamed and your children at risk, you can rest assured that your city is not the most smog-ridden in the country. That dishonor belongs to Los Angeles, which has the worst air quality in the nation, according to the American Lung Association.
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csm.ornl.gov
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Researchers have found a way to trigger a gene that causes the body to burn fat—without exercise. Mice tested with the wonder drug not only lost weight, but kept the pounds off while eating fatty foods. Needless to say, the same effect can be achieved through a healthy lifestyle, but who has the time?
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Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has been rebuked by the state Legislature for ordering Texan girls to be vaccinated against HPV, the leading cause of cervical cancer. Lawmakers passed a bill by a comfortable margin that would block the governor’s order for four years.
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By Ellen Goodman — Justice Kennedy’s opinion that a woman’s right to have an abortion should be limited because, in some cases, that decision is regretted harkens to a more primitive time and the Supreme Court’s sometimes ugly legacy on women’s rights.
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If a Mexican woman has an abortion, she could find herself in jail unless she had been raped, her life was at risk or there was a likelihood of severe birth defects. But that’s about to change in the capital city, home to one-fifth of Mexico’s population, where the legislature has voted by a wide margin to decriminalize abortion.
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By Marie Cocco — Make no mistake, the Supreme Court’s recent abortion ruling stands between a woman, her doctor and the choices that could save her life.
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By Scott Tucker — Australian Prime Minister John Howard is hurting politically, and so he has despicably turned against the vulnerable, arguing recently that Australia should have a blanket ban against HIV-positive immigrants.
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By Ellen Goodman — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected decades of precedent and the rights of women to satisfy an ideological agenda. Is it any wonder that those most eager to legislate the womb are the lawmakers and judges without one?
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On last week’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher took on conservative personality Michael Smerconish to defend John and Elizabeth Edwards’ right to privacy: “Since they announced this last week, so many people have become experts on what you should do when you get sick, when I don’t think it’s really anybody’s business but theirs.”
Posted on Apr 5, 2007
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cancerworld.org
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U.S. trade agreements are endangering public health systems in developing countries by driving up the cost of lifesaving drugs, according to a new study by the British relief agency Oxfam.
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By Marie Cocco — If we are what we eat and we eat what is advertised, then American children are facing death by junk food.
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By Ellen Goodman — The caricature of John Edwards as a preening politico evaporated the day he and Elizabeth publicly faced cancer with the same humanity and sense of mission that have been the hallmarks of his campaign.
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nytimes.com
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Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer is back, in an incurable but treatable form. However, the couple announced Thursday that the campaign would go on. John Edwards called his wife the most unselfish woman he has ever met, and said that when she received the news her first thoughts, after their children, were of John and the American people.
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Sheila Kuehl, former child star, Harvard legal scholar and California’s first openly gay legislator joins Truthdig’s James Harris and Josh Scheer for a discussion on the urgent need for public healthcare, the myths about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan and the details of her own proposal.
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This week regular panelists James Harris and Josh Scheer are joined by California’s first gay legislator, Sheila Kuehl, for a discussion on the urgent need for public healthcare, the myths about Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan and the details of her own proposal.
Posted on Mar 13, 2007
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By Ellen Goodman — Merck raised suspicions about its cancer-fighting HPV vaccine with a cluelessly aggressive lobbying campaign, but a lifesaving drug is still a lifesaving drug.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Fidel Castro has finally made a public appearance—the first since surgery prompted speculation about his health and rule. Appearing on his buddy Hugo Chavez’s radio show, Castro said, “I feel good and I’m happy.”
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news.bbc.co.uk
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After a brief stint in an Iraqi hospital, President Jalal Talabani was flown to Jordan, where he was again hospitalized. His office said there was no cause for worry, but inconsistent reports on his status have clouded the picture—he’s either suffering from kidney problems or low blood pressure, depending on who is asked.
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wildoats.com
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Natural supermarket giant Whole Foods announced Wednesday it would gobble up smaller rival chain Wild Oats. The marketplace for natural and organic food has grown increasingly competitive, a reality that has plagued Whole Foods in recent months.
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thinkprogress.org
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The president has had two benign growths removed from his temple, the latest of several sun-exposure moles he’s had to deal with. Perhaps if he spent less time clearing brush in Crawford, both Bush’s face and the nation would be in better working order.
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New Mexico’s transportation department has installed 500 talking deodorizers in urinals around the state in an effort to curb drunk driving. The motion-activated device plays a recorded message that encourages the captive listener to phone a friend or a cab if he has “had one too many.”
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news.yahoo.com
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has issued an executive order mandating the use of the HPV vaccine, which can help prevent cervical cancer. The conservative Christian’s decree trumps opposition in the Legislature and elsewhere from opponents who feel the treatment encourages premarital sex. Texas will be the first state to require that schoolgirls receive the vaccine.
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fox.com
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A new study in The Lancet says doctors need to be more aggressive in questioning their patients about sex. According to the authors of the study, sexual problems are often related to serious health risks: “If a man comes in with erectile dysfunction, it can be the tip of the iceberg.”
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pypfirm.com
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When a stroke victim and two-pack-a-day smoker woke up having forgotten his habit, researchers went looking for the damaged part of his brain that seemed to have switched off his cravings. Having found it, scientists are hoping to discover new methods to understand and treat addiction.
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wired.com
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The U.S. military’s evacuation chain that removes wounded soldiers from combat, while effective at saving lives, has helped give rise to an antibiotic-resistant superbug that has spread to civilian hospitals in the U.S. and Europe.
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This disturbing documentary by former “60 Minutes” producer Barry Lando chronicles the horror that 13 years of U.S.-backed sanctions wrought on Iraq, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands—many of them children.
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pbs.org
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has reinvigorated speculation over Fidel Castro’s health after announcing that the Cuban leader is “locked in a battle for his life.” The two leaders are known to be close, and Castro has yet to make a public appearance since undergoing surgery in July.
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bbc.co.uk
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British scientists are developing a chewing gum that could help to regulate the appetites of obesity sufferers. Although the research is promising, the first infomercials are years away.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., whose sudden illness last month briefly threatened the Democrats’ control of the Senate, has been given a medical status upgrade from critical to fair. We wish him well.
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advance.uconn.edu
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Using a combination of genetic engineering and cloning, scientists from the U.S. and Japan have successfully eliminated the protein that causes mad cow disease. So far the cows in the lab have proven immune to the illness, which shreds its victims’ brains, driving them mad.
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Froma Harrop —
When they said a candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long, they couldn’t have been talking about James Brown, whose surprising longevity made fools of the health-conscious.
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washingtonpost.com
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The Food and Drug Administration is set to approve food products derived from cloned animals and their offspring. Though eating beef from a cloned cow may seem incredibly creepy, the FDA has decided the manufactured twin is just as safe as the original animal, and requires no special identification once in the food supply.
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nytimes.com
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A prominent Kansas abortion provider has been charged with 30 misdemeanor violations of state law by the outgoing state attorney general. Dr. George Tiller and his supporters believe that Attorney General Phill Kline (above), who lost the November election and has only three weeks left in office, issued the charges as a farewell act of malice.
Update: A judge dismissed all charges only hours after they were filed (h/t: Frank in comments).
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emctech.com.au
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Researchers from the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology have found that cell phone use does not increase the risk of cancer. The study looked at more than 420,000 cell users, some 56,000 of whom had used a mobile phone for more than 10 years. (h/t: Engadget Mobile)
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news.bbc.co.uk
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A study emerging from Britain claims the IQs of kids who grew up to become vegetarians were an average of five points higher. There was no difference measured between full-blown vegetarians and those who ate chicken or fish (does that even count as vegetarianism?).
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According to officials from the National Institutes of Health, circumcision reduces the risk in men of contracting HIV through heterosexual sex by roughly 50%. The announcement was based on several recent studies conducted in Africa.
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An increasing number of the 46 million Americans without health insurance have begun fleeing to places as far away as India to get lifesaving medical treatments.
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designofsignage.com
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D.C. may be smoke-free, but Congress gets to set its own rules. Unfortunately for nicotine-craving lawmakers (25% of Congress), the Democrats’ victory may lead to change for more than Iraq and the minimum wage—Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi is considering a ban on smoking in the U.S. Capitol.
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Too Soon to Tell: The Case for Hope, Continued
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