Book reviews of Climate Change Denial
? See also: You Don?t Get Friends for Free: SEIU ?Bought? USAS, Sinaltrainal and the Transafrica Forum? See also: Obama Declares War On Medical Innovation Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
There have been several reviews of Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. My co-author Haydn Washington and I quite like our book but thought you'd probably prefer some third party opinion. The first book review was posted by Bryan Walker from the New Zealand blog Hot Topic:
The book is compact and well referenced. It carries an eloquent foreword from Naomi Oreskes. It is lucid and compelling in its discussions. It adds a weighty voice to the summons to face the physical and ethical reality of climate change, to have done with denial and to set about the still achievable task of repair.
Read full review...
Yes, we were quite chuffed that Naomi Oreskes, recently awarded 4C Climate Communicator of the Year, graciously agreed to write the foreword to our book. The second review was Handbook in Denialism by Rasmus Benestad from Real Climate:
It would not surprise me if the denialists would deny the existence of the new book by Haydn Washington and John Cook (skepticalscience.com) ?Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand?. Somehow, I don?t think they will read it ? but they are not target group of this book either. Anyway, denialism is, according to the book, a common human trait ? we should all know somebody who deny one thing thing or another.
?Climate Change Denial? is a useful book and resource for those with an open mind ? for instance journalists. It reads easy and provides a fairly concise picture of the situation many of climate scientists have to live with.
Read full review...
Rasmus' review is very lengthy, pointing out all the things we failed to include in our book. But between Climate Change Denial and Rasmus' review, just about all bases are covered (we'll have to append his review to the second edition :-). Lastly, Robin from UK based Carbon Brief posted New book aims to reclaim scientific skepticism:
Perhaps the strongest part of the book deals with a categorization of the main climate sceptic/denier arguments - separating them into five types: conspiracy theories; fake experts; impossible expectations; misrepresentations and logical fallacies and cherry-picking.
The evidence behind nine of the main skeptic challenges to climate science are then examined - including that "climategate proves conspiracy" (=conspiracy), "climate models are unreliable" (=impossible expectations), "temperature measurements are unreliable" (=cherry-picking) or the reliable standby, "global warming stopped in 1998" (=the ultimate in cherry-picking).
This is Skeptical Science's bread and butter, and Cook and Hadyn's book makes clear the inconsistencies and flaws in these arguments very well. The explanations are accessible and make use of some great metaphors...
...the book has the virtue of thoughtful accessibility, and is an excellent primer for anyone getting interested in this area and looking for a good overview.
Read full review...
I'm loving Carbon Brief at the moment (not just because of the book review). They're the group that did research into Poptech's list of 900+ "skeptic" peer-reviewed papers and found 9 of the 10 most cited authors all had links to organisations funded by ExxonMobil. Digging deeper, they contacted some of the authors on the list who each complained that their climate studies have been misrepresented. Apparently, there is a third post in this series - looking forward to it!
Note for Aussies - an interview by Science Show host Robyn Williams with Haydn and I will air on ABC Radio on Saturday noon (for everyone else, there should be a podcast of the episode down the track). And for those in Sydney and Canberra, hope to meet you in our book launches on Sunday and Monday.
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Update on Food and Farm Freedom Rally May 16th
? See also: Bed Bugs Carrying Superbug MRSA Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
Attraction for Grassfed on the Hill?s Food and Freedom Rally is gaining momentum as the date for the D.C. rally draws near. A new speaker has been added to the event: John Boyd Jr., President of the National Black Farmers Association.
T-Shirt purchase funds will go to support legal defense for Amish dairyman Dan Allgyer, the target of recent aggressive FDA action. A member of Health Freedom?s Alliance will be there to cover the event. More details including more description of the location follow.
The event is expected to bring in hundreds of raw milk and food freedom advocates. Let?s make it thousands ? Hope to see you there!
http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/05/06/rally-for-food-and-farm-freedom-may-16th-protect-raw-milk-clubs/
~Health Freedoms
Updates on Rally
Plans for Rally are coming along! A few updates:
We?ve added a new speaker,?John Boyd Jr., President of the?National Black Farmers Association
You can buy tshirts for the rally online- proceeds go to the legal defense fund- and then pick them up at the rally!?Click here for the selections.
And now, a video of the location where we?ll be rallying in just three days and change:
The organizers say: We took a trip to Upper Senate Park today to check out the Rally space. It?s a huge, well shaded park with beautiful grass for Jersey cow grazing! We took the metro into Union Station and walked straight out the front of Union Station, crossed Mass Ave. via the crosswalk/at light and went straight to the park. Upper Senate Park was about 2 blocks down on the right.
[Video of Park available here]?http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150288190398056&oid=128399667234139&comments
Below is the press release for the rally- pass it along to any media outlets you may know!
Media Advisory from Grassfed on the Hill
Contact: Liz Reitzig: liz.reitzig@verizon.net or 301-807-5063
During Budget Crises Feds Use Tax Dollars to Sting and Raid Amish Farm Over Milk
?Consumers Rally Against Misspending of Tax Dollars
Washington DC?May 11. Members of a DC area buying group, Grassfed On the Hill, joined by people across the country, are furious with the aggressive treatment of peaceful Amish dairyman Dan Allgyer and the use of taxpayer money to prosecute him, especially during a budget crisis. Allgyer, who supplies the group with fresh milk and other farm produced foods, has been served by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with notice of a permanent injunction against selling milk into interstate commerce, the result of a year and half long sting operation that included an agent planted in the buying club to collect evidence against Allgyer.
?It is absolutely inexcusable that FDA has spent time, energy and money conducting an undercover sting and armed raid against a farmer over distribution of milk.? says Liz Reitzig, one of the group?s organizers. ?We contract with farmers we know and trust and engage privately with them. The FDA has no jurisdiction here, and it?s time we stand together and demand that they stop treating our honest farmers like hardened criminals.?
Grassfed on the Hill has organized a Capitol Hill rally in protest, where they plan to milk an actual cow and drink the fresh milk.?The rally, planned for 10:00 am May 16th at Upper Senate Park in DC, is expected to draw hundreds of raw milk advocates.
For additional details: http://www.facebook.com/grassfedonthehill or www.grassfedonthehill.com
For additional details on fresh milk see www.realmilk.com
For a list of raids against small farms in recent years http://grassfedonthehill.com/government-overreach/
Speakers include:
Jonathan Emord, Attorney
Sally Fallon, President, Weston A. Price Foundation
David Gumpert, Author and Real Food Blogger
Mark McAfee, Founder and Owner, Organic Pastures Dairy
Baylen Linnekin, Executive Director, Keep Food Legal
John Boyd Jr., President, National Black Farmers Association
Sources:
http://grassfedonthehill.com/2011/05/11/updates-on-rally/
http://www.johnboydjr.com/bio.html
http://www.blackfarmers.org/index.htm
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Bed Bugs Carrying Superbug MRSA
? See also: Update on Food and Farm Freedom Rally May 16th? See also: CA Votes to Label (Not Ban) GM Frankenfish Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
Two of the world?s least favorite forms of pestilence have teamed up, apparently, to form a ?superbug-superbug.? A hospital in downtown Vancouver discovered bedbugs carrying MRSA on patients.
Bedbugs have not been known previously to spread disease and it?s not clear if the MRSA originated with the bedbugs or if they picked it up from infected patients. The concern here is if MRSA gets into the bloodstream, which is possible with excessive scratching.
Let?s hope this isn?t as alarming as it sounds. Otherwise, our future bedtime saying will go, ?Good night. Don?t let the bedbugs bite?or spread methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.?
~Health Freedoms
Alarming combo: Bedbugs with ?superbug? germ found
ATLANTA???Hate insects? Afraid of germs? Researchers are reporting an alarming combination: bedbugs carrying a staph ?superbug.?
Canadian scientists detected drug-resistant staph bacteria in?bedbugs?from three hospital patients from a downtrodden Vancouver neighborhood.
Bedbugs have not been known to spread disease, and there?s no clear evidence that the five bedbugs found on the patients or their belongings had spread the MRSA germ they were carrying or a second less dangerous drug-resistant bacteria.
However, bedbugs can cause itching that can lead to excessive scratching. That can cause breaks in the?skin?that make people more susceptible to these germs, noted Dr. Marc Romney, one of the study?s authors.
The study is small and very preliminary. ?But it?s an intriguing finding? that needs to be further researched, said Romney, medical microbiologist at St. Paul?s Hospital in Vancouver.
The hospital is the closest one to the poor Downtown Eastside neighborhood near the city?s waterfront. Romney said he and his colleagues did the research after seeing a simultaneous boom in bedbugs and MRSA cases from the neighborhood.
Five bedbugs were crushed and analyzed. MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was found on three bugs. MRSA is resistant to several types of common antibiotics and can become deadly if it gets through the skin and into the bloodstream.Two bugs had VRE, or vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, a less dangerous form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Both germs are often seen in hospitals, and experts have been far more worried about nurses and other health care workers spreading the bacteria than insects.
It?s not clear if the bacteria originated with the bedbugs or if the bugs picked it up from already infected people, Romney added.
The study was released Wednesday by Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By?MIKE STOBBE
Sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42991071/
http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/20110511/do-bedbugs-spread-mrsa?src=RSS_PUBLIC
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CA Votes to Label (Not Ban) GM Frankenfish
? See also: Bed Bugs Carrying Superbug MRSA? See also: You Don?t Get Friends for Free: SEIU ?Bought? USAS, Sinaltrainal and the Transafrica Forum Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
Some states like California are trying to head GM food approvals at the pass, by introducing bills that require clear labeling so that consumers have a choice. While GMOs are difficult to outright ban, because of the FDA?s approval and USDA?s expected approval in CA, labeling is the next best action to minimize damage.
The Center for Food Safety and other groups are applauding the CA Health Committee for striving to protect people?s right to know how their food is produced. Assembly member Jared Huffman introduced AB 88 to support consumers, fishing and environmental groups and Indian Tribes who disapprove the introduction of GE Aqua-Bounty salmon, especially if the fish go to market without consumer knowledge. The FDA is ignoring the vast public outcry, and so far, sees no need to require labeling once approved as ?safe.?
This would be the first time, to our knowledge, that a genetically engineered animal was made available for human consumption. More information about the dangerous risks of GMO approval and where you can go to take action follows below.
~Health Freedoms
California votes to label (but not ban) GMO frankenfish
With the USDA expected to approve genetically modified (GMO) salmon in the near future ? without any serious safety research ? it may devolve on the states to try to minimize the potential negative impact.
The California Assembly Health Committee in Sacramento on May 3 approved a bill requiring that all GMO salmon sold in California contain clear and prominent labeling.
Assemblymember Jared Huffman introduced the bill, AB 88, due to widespread dissatisfaction by consumer, fishing and environmental groups and Indian Tribes with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration?s (FDA) current review of the first-ever proposed commercialization of genetically engineered (GE) Aqua-Bounty salmon.
?Knowing whether our salmon is genetically engineered is important for a host of reasons, including risks to our native salmon species, and allowing consumers to make dietary choices consistent with concerns they may have for the environment, food safety, and religiously or ethically based dietary restrictions,? said Assemblymember Huffman, in explaining the reason for introducing the bill.
Keep it real, keep it safe
The Center for Food Safety (CFS), a co-sponsor of the bill, and other groups applauded the Health Committee for protecting the public?s right to know how their food is produced.
?The FDA has indicated that it will not require these GE fish to be labeled once they are approved,? said Rebecca Spector, West Coast Director of the Center for Food Safety. ?As such, it is incumbent on the California State legislature, starting with the Health Committee, to let the people of California make informed choices about the food they eat by requiring the labeling of GE fish sold in California.?AB 88 ?would provide that food is misbranded if the food is a genetically engineered fish or fish product, as defined, and its labeling does not conspicuously identify the fish or fish product as genetically engineered,? according to the bill language.
Coauthors of the bill include Assembly Members Michael Allen (D-Santa Rosa), Tom Ammiano (D-SF), Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata), and Bill Monning (D-Carmel). AB 88 will make a stop in the Appropriations Committee before being taken up by the full Assembly.
The right to knowPublic opinion clearly and consistently calls for food labeling, according to Spector. Recent polls indicate that 95% of the public want labeling of genetically-modified foods, and that nearly 50% of the public would not eat seafood that has been genetically engineered. Consumers sent nearly 400,000 public comments to FDA demanding the agency reject this application and require mandatory labeling of this transgenic salmon should it decide to approve it.
The Center for Food Safety and other organizations throughout the country recently called on the FDA to recognize the immense public outcry for mandatory labeling of untested, unproved transgenic salmon. If approved, the transgenic salmon ? nicknamed ?Frankensalmon? or ?Frankenfish? by many opponents of GMO food ? would be the first genetically engineered animal intended for human consumption.
?Until FDA completes an adequate environmental and human health review of genetically engineered salmon, it is up to individual states to protect consumers and their families,? said Spector. ?California has always been a leader in environmental and food safety laws, and AB 88 continues this tradition by protecting the public from a potentially harmful food technology. More importantly, it gives consumers the right to know what they are eating and gives them a choice in the marketplace.?
Broad coalition
Supporters of the legislation include the California State Grange, Consumers Union, Center for Food Safety, California Coastkeeper Alliance, Clean Water Action California, Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation, Commercial Fishermen?s Organization of Morro Bay, Crab Boat Owners Association, Food & Water Watch, Golden Gate Fishermen?s Association, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations, Sierra Club California, Small Boat Commercial Salmon Fishermen?s Association and South Yuba River Citizens League.
?Although most of Food & Water Watch?s efforts have been focused on national legislation to ban GE salmon such as HR 521 and S 230, rather than to label it, we are campaigning hard for AB 88 because California often sets the precedent for the nation in these sorts of matters,? stated Marie Logan of Food and Water Watch. ?Passing AB 88 will send a strong message to legislators nationwide that consumers in California are concerned about genetic engineering of animals. The owner of the company producing GE fish has even admitted publicly that labeling the fish would be tantamount to banning it ? so our work is cut out for us.?
?It is clear that California consumers want to know where their food comes from, how it?s made, and if it has been genetically engineered,? explained James Ferro, Policy Analyst for Ocean Conservancy?s aquaculture program. ?This bill empowers California consumers to vote with their wallets when it comes to genetically engineered seafood.?
Ferro noted that California is not the only state concerned with the federal government?s potential approval of engineered fish; thirteen other states have introduced similar legislation this year to require labeling of genetically engineered fish or other engineered food.
You can?t keep a lid on it
Recreational and commercial fishermen, consumer advocates, environmental activists and leaders of Indian Tribes are strongly opposed to the Obama administration plans to approve genetically engineered salmon for human consumption. Not only do they pose a great risk to human health, but their?inevitable escape into the wild could prove catastrophic for imperiled Pacific and Atlantic coast salmon populations.
?If they escape into the ocean, they?ll compete with wild salmon for food, contaminate the gene pool and possibly cause extinctions,? said Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. ?This comes at a time when Pacific salmon runs have recorded historically low numbers, and when many, including my tribe, fear they may soon be lost forever. ?AquaBounty? is like coyote building with sticks, and the GE salmon are as shoddily constructed as coyote?s children.
?Thus, we find it ironic that the government is fast-tracking the GE salmon yet skeptical about our own unorthodox but far safer plan to return Chinook salmon to our river, the McCloud,? in reference to the Tribe?s ambitious plan to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud above Shasta Dam.
Jobs, jobs, jobs
The recent collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon populations, due to a combination of increased water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, declining water quality, a poor ocean conditions, spurred the loss of 23,000 jobs in the recreational and commercial salmon fishing industry. While the fall run chinook stocks appear to be on an upswing this year, the ESA-listed winter run and spring run chinook populations of the Sacramento River continue to decline.
?AB 88 is extremely important because consumers in the market place must have the means to be able to distinguish between our natural wild salmon and genetically engineered farmed salmon,? summed up Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations. ?This bill would provide consumers the means to tell the difference ? rather than having them take home Frankenfish and getting a rude surprise.?
Opponents of the legislation include BIO, BIOCOM, California Aquaculture Association, California Chamber of Commerce, California Farm Bureau Federation, California Grain and Feed Association, California League of Food Processors, California Seed Association, Grocery Manufacturers Association and Western Plant Health Association
What you can do:
For information on labeling bills:
- California?s?AB 88 (mandatory labeleling)
- The U.S. Senate:?S. 230 (ban) and?S. 229 (mandatory labeleling)
- The U.S. House:?H.R. 521 (ban) and?H.R. 520 (mandatory labeling)
Dan Bacher
Source:
http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/05/04/california-votes-to-label-but-not-ban-gmo-frankenfish/
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You Don?t Get Friends for Free: SEIU ?Bought? USAS, Sinaltrainal and the Transafrica Forum
? See also: CA Votes to Label (Not Ban) GM Frankenfish? See also: Book reviews of Climate Change Denial Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
So, recently we told you about the files we?d found on SEIU?s financial management. As we said, considering the volume of information present there, it would take us some time to explore everything. Well, it appears that we?ve had time to find some more interesting tidbits of information in that gigantic pile of financial statements.
As you may remember, last year SEIU announced it was launching a campaign against Sodexo. The union?s official position was that, outraged by gross mismanagement and faults at Sodexo, it wanted ?Clean Up Sodexo?. With unabashed statements and brazen declarations about the state of things at Sodexo, the Union meant to stir workers -with mixed results ? into demonstrating against the company and pressuring management for a change.
Of course, behind SEIU?s official reasons for starting its smear-campaign laid several, more or less visible, causes. Causes we?ve repeatedly explored in these pages, as it appeared that SEIU had launched the campaign not so much for its alleged humanitarian motives but rather for capitalistic and strategic intents. The union, historically foreign to the catering services workers? demography wanted to set foot on the market and spur concurring union UNITE-HERE ? with whom it shared a history of bitter rivalry. SEIU wanted to expand, more than that, it needed to expand, maintaining membership growth meant increasing fees collected and, in the end, enriching the union.
In order to give some tangibility to its claims against Sodexo, SEIU needed two things: backup data (however legitimate) and larger support. To accomplish the first of these goals, it ordered the realisation of a report on working conditions at Sodexo. The report?s final draft showed up in October 2010, largely fed with interviews obtained ?on behalf of SEIU? by some unknown actor. Looking at the financial files, it appears that these interviews were the product of local union Sinaltrainal, who received a hefty $20,000 ?organizing? donation from SEIU in October 2010.
Not wanting to take the risk of being too directly associated with the report or, most probably, trying to fill its second goal, SEIU decided to have another organization endorse the report. It sent it directly to the Transafrica Forum, a close partner of the union, who received a $45,000 ?organizing? donation in November 2010. The Transafrica Forum diligently took SEIU?s report, changed the title, consistently replaced ?SEIU? by ?Transafrica Forum? throughout the document, added a few cosmetic touch ups and released it as its own in the beginning of 2011.
Meanwhile, SEIU had, strategically, noticed that one of Sodexo?s largest and most vulnerable contracts were those it entertained with universities. Accordingly it set out to find allies in destabilizing the food caterer?s contract with American Universities. The tactic was good, universities are sensitive to reputation matters and students are more prone on demonstrating than workers holding onto their jobs. So the SEIU went with USAS, a student?s organization specialized in large-scale anti-corporate campaigns which had already proven its worth in the past.
In February 2010, SEIU made two $25,000 direct ?contributions? to USAS, totalling a comfy $50,000 to provide it with some material support in its campaign. In March 2010, SEIU renewed those same ?contributions?, again for a nice $50,000 total, bringing the sum USAS received for its year campaigning against Sodexo to $100,000. Something that shakes quite a bit our belief in the ingenuity of USAS? engagement in the campaign.
While SEIU has yet to succeed in its coercive move to force its recognition as a Sodexo union and receive the membership fees it is so ardently yearning for, the union certainly prove it would spare no expenses in this particular campaign. What remains to be known is, if SEIU ever reaches its goal, what is there to be gained for workers?
[Updated: the files are now directly accessible here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/53270593/SEIU-2010-LM-2 ]
Find more at Campains Report!
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Book reviews of Climate Change Denial
? See also: You Don?t Get Friends for Free: SEIU ?Bought? USAS, Sinaltrainal and the Transafrica Forum? See also: Obama Declares War On Medical Innovation Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
There have been several reviews of Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. My co-author Haydn Washington and I quite like our book but thought you'd probably prefer some third party opinion. The first book review was posted by Bryan Walker from the New Zealand blog Hot Topic:
The book is compact and well referenced. It carries an eloquent foreword from Naomi Oreskes. It is lucid and compelling in its discussions. It adds a weighty voice to the summons to face the physical and ethical reality of climate change, to have done with denial and to set about the still achievable task of repair.
Read full review...
Yes, we were quite chuffed that Naomi Oreskes, recently awarded 4C Climate Communicator of the Year, graciously agreed to write the foreword to our book. The second review was Handbook in Denialism by Rasmus Benestad from Real Climate:
It would not surprise me if the denialists would deny the existence of the new book by Haydn Washington and John Cook (skepticalscience.com) ?Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand?. Somehow, I don?t think they will read it ? but they are not target group of this book either. Anyway, denialism is, according to the book, a common human trait ? we should all know somebody who deny one thing thing or another.
?Climate Change Denial? is a useful book and resource for those with an open mind ? for instance journalists. It reads easy and provides a fairly concise picture of the situation many of climate scientists have to live with.
Read full review...
Rasmus' review is very lengthy, pointing out all the things we failed to include in our book. But between Climate Change Denial and Rasmus' review, just about all bases are covered (we'll have to append his review to the second edition :-). Lastly, Robin from UK based Carbon Brief posted New book aims to reclaim scientific skepticism:
Perhaps the strongest part of the book deals with a categorization of the main climate sceptic/denier arguments - separating them into five types: conspiracy theories; fake experts; impossible expectations; misrepresentations and logical fallacies and cherry-picking.
The evidence behind nine of the main skeptic challenges to climate science are then examined - including that "climategate proves conspiracy" (=conspiracy), "climate models are unreliable" (=impossible expectations), "temperature measurements are unreliable" (=cherry-picking) or the reliable standby, "global warming stopped in 1998" (=the ultimate in cherry-picking).
This is Skeptical Science's bread and butter, and Cook and Hadyn's book makes clear the inconsistencies and flaws in these arguments very well. The explanations are accessible and make use of some great metaphors...
...the book has the virtue of thoughtful accessibility, and is an excellent primer for anyone getting interested in this area and looking for a good overview.
Read full review...
I'm loving Carbon Brief at the moment (not just because of the book review). They're the group that did research into Poptech's list of 900+ "skeptic" peer-reviewed papers and found 9 of the 10 most cited authors all had links to organisations funded by ExxonMobil. Digging deeper, they contacted some of the authors on the list who each complained that their climate studies have been misrepresented. Apparently, there is a third post in this series - looking forward to it!
Note for Aussies - an interview by Science Show host Robyn Williams with Haydn and I will air on ABC Radio on Saturday noon (for everyone else, there should be a podcast of the episode down the track). And for those in Sydney and Canberra, hope to meet you in our book launches on Sunday and Monday.
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? See also: Book reviews of Climate Change Denial? See also: 5/12/2011 ? BREAKING NEWS !! NILU ? Norsk Institute = ZARDOZ = radiation @ VERY HIGH levels Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
President Obama recently gave a speech outlining a framework for reducing the federal debt by $4?trillion over the next 12 years. There are many questions about the president?s budget plans.
But the most urgent one is: Why has he declared war on health-care innovation?
The president has made a number of proposals that could stop medical breakthroughs from happening in this country.
For starters, he wants to give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.
Both the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and Medicare?s own actuaries have expressed doubt that the government has the ability to effectively negotiate lower drug prices in the program.
Left alone, Medicare?s prescription drug benefit, called Part D, employs market forces to give seniors more choices and drive down prices.
If the government steps in and starts negotiating, it would likely cause a shrinkage in the treatment options available to patients.
This is why then-senators Tom Daschle and Ted Kennedy drafted the ?non-interference clause? in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, which restricts the government from interfering with drug price negotiations in the private sector.
The Veterans Administration (VA) health-care plan negotiates drug prices directly. Its national formulary covers 59 percent of the 200 most popular drugs in the country. Medicare, meanwhile, covers 85 percent of those drugs, on average.
A study from Columbia University found that just 19 percent of all new drugs approved since 2000 were covered by the VA. And just 38 percent of drugs approved since 1990 were covered.
What?s happening is that VA negotiating tactics are driving out some drug providers from the program, leaving patients with fewer treatment options?and lower quality of care.
The president is also proposing to restrict intellectual property rights on brand name drugs to expedite the development of generics. This move would undermine pharmaceutical innovation.
Pharmaceuticals are a high-risk, high-reward business. For roughly every 10,000 compounds tested, only one actually gets FDA approval and makes it to market. And the average drug costs more than $1?billion to develop.
If the government reduces the window that pharmaceutical companies have to exclusively sell the drugs they development, there will be fewer financial rewards for such development, and firms will tamp down on the investments made toward new research. Ultimately, fewer new drugs will get made and patients will suffer.
Finally, Obama is looking to strengthen the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). Created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, IPAB consists of 15 presidential appointees and is empowered to make cost-cutting recommendations for Medicare. The panel?s recommendations automatically become law without congressional action.
IPAB is basically a group of unelected bureaucrats with an immense amount of power. There?s already a major lawsuit, Coons v. Geithner, challenging the constitutionality of IPAB. Making IPAB stronger puts even more power in the hands of people that largely don?t have to answer to American public. That?s simply dangerous.
IPAB is a stalking horse for bureaucrats to start rationing health care with abandon. And it?s likely going to start by cutting coverage for the most expensive treatments, reducing the financial rewards for the developer and, in turn, lowering the incentives to create new drugs in the first place.
America does need to reduce its staggering debt. But the president?s method of slashing public health-care costs by instituting measures that undermine drug innovation is the wrong approach.
Peter J. Pitts is the president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and director of global health care at public relations firm Porter Novelli. He served as a U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration Associate Commissioner from 2002 to 2004.
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? See also: Obama Declares War On Medical Innovation? See also: Charlie Veitch at Defend the Right to Protest Meeting 2011 Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
5/12/2011 ? BREAKING NEWS !! NILU ? Norsk Institute = ZARDOZ = radiation @ VERY HIGH levels was uploaded by: dutchsinse
save these files NOW.. backup .. mirror and share IMMEDIATELY.. before they take it all down with the rest of the information!!! zardoz.nilu.no what is zardoz? www.youtube.com and here is the information on ZARDOZ .. the post apocolyptic NUCLEAR FALLOUT world where Sean Connery plays a ?mutant? .. and human reproduction is considered bad. en.wikipedia.org high levels of radiation have been released from fukushima! enenews.com prophetic seer will be mirroring the content soon: www.liveleak.com so will mike from patrioticspace: www.youtube.com and I will have copies up over at www.dutchsinse.com this WILL NOT disappear like the last high forecasts showing EXTREMELY HIGH levels of Cesium, Xenon, and Iodine over the USA and Canada. thanks to youtube user JouleNinja www.youtube.com FAIR USE NOTICE: These Videos may contain copyrighted (? ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a ?fair use? of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. For more information go ?
Duration: 438 seconds long
URL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=haMePBnkJhY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Tags: NILU, Norsk, Institute, ZARDOZ, radiation, at, EMERGENCY, LEVELS, japan, japanese, radioactive, radio, active, plutonium, uranium, cesium, iodine, 131, 133, 137, xenon, xe, ur, pl, ce, jetstream, jet, stream, weather, storm, forecast, usa, united, states, of, america, US, eu, europe, southern, western, west, coast, california, ca, oregon, or, washington, state, wa, midwest, midwestern, current, cloud, clouds, fukushima, earthquake, earth, quake, quakes, earthquakes, nuclear, power, plant, meltdown, melt, down, melts, rod, rods, MOX, fuel
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Charlie Veitch at Defend the Right to Protest Meeting 2011
? See also: 5/12/2011 ? BREAKING NEWS !! NILU ? Norsk Institute = ZARDOZ = radiation @ VERY HIGH levels? See also: AC360 May 11 2011 Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
Charlie Veitch at Defend the Right to Protest Meeting 2011 was uploaded by: cveitch
Incredible solidarity with lots of other political dissidents rounded up by machine. FIlmed 5th may 2011 at Defend the Right to Protest Meeting defendtherighttoprotest.org
Duration: 351 seconds long
URL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9oR6V7YM6w&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Tags: charlie veitch, anarchy, anarchism, anarchist, speech, defend, right, protest, london, police, love, establishment, government, parasite, dissident, politics, nwo
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? See also: Charlie Veitch at Defend the Right to Protest Meeting 2011? See also: FCC ?Process Reform? Should Be About Reducing FCC Power Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
AC360 May 11 2011 was uploaded by: CongressmanRonPaul
Congressman Paul discusses Pakistan and bin Laden?s death with Anderson Cooper
Duration: 276 seconds long
URL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_mBcw4AAAI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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FCC ?Process Reform? Should Be About Reducing FCC Power
? See also: AC360 May 11 2011? See also: Iraqi singer named UN goodwill ambassador Want to destroy fractional reserve currency forever? Prove it. Visit: http://infowarhorse.com/bitcoin
Oh, and making them obey the law.
??
The Barack Obama Administration has at their dictatorial behest a LOT of rogue Agencies, Departments and Commissions.
Wings of the Executive Branch Leviathan that have ? under orders from the President, his Czars and his minions ? spent the last two-plus years illegally imposing Big Government regulations and rules ? without benefit of Congress and in direct opposition to the will of We the People.
And since November?s election ? in which the American populace overwhelmingly demonstrated their desire for smaller, more accountable government ? these agencies have kicked their authoritarian power grabs into overdrive.
The anti-energy Cap & Trade Tax doesn?t pass Congress?? No problem for the Administration ? they?ll just have their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) start unlawfully enforcing it anyway.
The uber pro-union, anti-free market and anti-First Amendment Card Check doesn?t pass Congress?? No problem for the Administration ? they?ll just have their National Labor Relations Board start unlawfully enforcing it anyway.
The autocratic examples are myriad.
And perhaps none of the Administration?s Big Government divisions has since the election been more illegally active than the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The chads from the Less Government 2010 election had barely finished dimpling when the FCC ? on December 21 ? unlawfully voted themselves Internet Overlords so as to then impose the absurd Network Neutrality.
With this vote, the FCC grabbed much more power over the wired Web than they did over wireless.? So on April 7they took their second poisonous bite at the apple ? and illegally inserted themselves into the wireless Internet realm.
They are nothing if not thorough.
And it appears they additionally are putting the illegal cart before the legal horse.
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) exists to force every federal agency to go through its process before a new regulation is imposed.? So as to make the agency evaluate the damage said regulation will do to the free market.
And provide the public an opportunity to challenge the estimates and the regulation ? and thereby perhaps stop it.
But the FCC is regulating first, and obeying to the law later ? adhering to the PRA only after illicitly voting in their new regulations.
Which they did with their December Net Neutrality power grab.
Which they at the time said was SO important, they HAD to vote on it immediately.? Right after the Less Government election, on the eve of Christmas and just before the new Republican-richer Congress convened.
A Congress which could have written a law making what the FCC was going to do actually legal.
After all, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski admitted it wasn?t .
But the Chairman said Net Neutrality was too important to let its illegality get in the way, so we were force fed the vote.
But despite this pre-power grab ?urgency,? five months afterwards the FCC still has not yet published the Net Neutrality order.
What happened to the earnestness?
Well, two companies are waiting to sue the Commission to undo the order ? and they can?t until it?s filed.? And the Commission?s delay is intended to help them duck the D.C. Circuit Court.
Which has already once ruled that the FCC does not have the legal authority to do what they are trying to now again do.
The Commission figures the incessant delay will ? once they do finally file ? land the lawsuits in a different court.
We know the Commission can file timely when they wish ? as it took them less than a month to register their April wireless Internet power grab.
But wait ? there?s even more.
The FCC was before the election already well on their way to dragging out and abusing their merger-approval authority on the Comcast-NBCU deal.? After the election, they really dropped the hammer.
The Commission elicited from the parties pages and PAGES of at-the-point-of-a-gun ?voluntary? capitulations.
Including a seven-year Net Neutrality mandate ? to which they must adhere regardless of the Net Neutrality order?s almost inevitable overturn.
The FCC has forced them to obey something that is blatantly illegal, destined to again be ruled so by the courts and which the American people do not want anything to do with.
And which will, by the way, precipitously stifle job-creating investment and innovation ? and raise the price and diminish the Internet experience for every user.
And we are about to witness a similar FCC abuse of the process on the pending AT&T/T-Mobile merger.? They too will most likely be forced at gunpoint to sign a similar Net Neutrality (dis)?agreement.?
??
Friday morning the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will convene a hearing entitled ?FCC Process Reform.?
The Obama Administration FCC?s process has been a lawless, authoritarian, the-Leftist-ends-justify-any-means-necessary Big Government mess.
Which is screaming out loud for reform.
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Iraqi singer named UN goodwill ambassador was uploaded by: AlJazeeraEnglish
Middle East Iraqi singer named UN goodwill ambassador The United Nations Children?s Fund or UNICEF, has named a new goodwill ambassador for Iraq. He is the Iraqi-born singer Kathem al-Saher and he is to help raise awareness of the problems children in the war-torn country face. Saher, one of the biggest-selling Arab artists, made his first trip back to the country in 14 years where he met Al Jazeera?s Jane Arraf.
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?Nazi guard? found guilty of murder was uploaded by: AlJazeeraEnglish
A former guard at a Nazi concentration camp has been found guilty of playing a part in the killing of thousands of people. John Demjanjuk has lived in the legal system for decades. Extradited from the US, tried in Israel and now convicted in Germany. He has now been found guilty of accesory to murder ? on 28060 people at Sobibor concentration camp. Al Jazeera?s Tim Friend reports.
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Interview: Sabah al-Mukhtar discusses Bahrain was uploaded by: AlJazeeraEnglish
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101 East ? Toxic profits? was uploaded by: AlJazeeraEnglish
A new rare earth refinery in Malaysia will generate billions of dollars, but could it cause an environmental disaster?
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There are worrying developments at Japan?s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. It is being reported that the fuel rod in Reactor Number One has melted. This comes as the government confirmed a new leak of contaminated water from Reactor Number Three.
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Irish Times
The Department of Finance has confirmed that some high earners may escape the new pensions levy announced by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.
Mr Noonan said on Tuesday that the levy would be imposed on private pension schemes but public sector pensions will not be affected.
In a statement this morning the Department of Finance said people holding approved retirement funds (ARFs) will escape the levy.
An ARF is a fund to which certain people can transfer pension assets on retirement rather than buying an annuity that pays a set annual pension. They were initially tailored to wealthier, more financially sophisticated pensioners.
A key advantage is that the fund remains invested until the money is needed. Another major advantage is that the assets of the fund are passed on as part of the estate following a person?s death.
?Approved retirement funds are not covered by the levy as they are not pension funds,? a department spokesman said in a statement this morning. ?They are closest in nature (and are an alternative) to an annuity.?
Until this year, the only people eligible to hold such funds were directors who owned at least 5 per cent of their company, members of highly flexible small self-administered pension schemes with no more than 12 members, the self-employed or people with significant additional voluntary contributions.
Read More : Irish Times
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Could Ireland really cut ?15bn out of the books in one year? Economist and guest blogger Stephen Kinsella examines Morgan Kelly?s controversial plan
The Guardian
Morgan Kelly?s now notorious polemic has reignited the debate about Ireland?s debt levels, prompting the Taoiseach Enda Kenny last night to warn his solution would deliver a ?lethal injection? to the country.
Kelly argues that Ireland should walk away from the IMF/EU bailout, claiming it condemns us to bankruptcy in two years? time.
His ?big bang? fix, explored in his Irish Times piece, involved an immediate balancing of the books ? instead of eliminating our multi-billion budget deficit over four or five years as the government currently plans, we would do so immediately.
I want to explore what that would mean in detail and ask whether Kelly can fix it?
Essentially, we?d have to get taxes to meet expenditure without any external help. We?d get no external help because we?d have given two fingers to the European Central Bank and handed them our zombie banks. They would stop funding the government, because the government would have broken the bailout memorandum of understanding.
The fiscal problem is pretty clear. There is a big gap between what Ireland spends, and what she makes. Including promissory notes, the Irish government has been taking in roughly ?53.3bn and spending close to ?72.4bn with the difference of ?19.1bn coming from borrowing, first from the international markets, and then from the EU, IMF, the UK, and Sweden.
Read more The Guardian
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