November 22, 2012

Being Born in Winter Can Mess With Your Head

http://www.livescience.com/20237-birth-season-mental-disorders.html


The season in which a baby is born apparently influences the risk of developing mental disorders later in life, suggests a large new study. The season of birth may affect everything from eyesight and eating habits to birth defects and personality later in life. Past research has also hinted the season one is born in might affect mental health, with scientists suggesting a number of reasons for this apparent effect.

"For example, maternal infections — a mother may be more likely to have the flu over the winter. Does this increase risk?" said researcher Sreeram Ramagopalan, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London. "Or diet. Depending on the season, certain foods — fruits, vegetables — are more or less available, and this may impact on the developing baby." "Or another key candidate is vitamin D, which is related to sunshine exposure," Ramagopalan added. "During the winter, with a lack of sunshine, mums tend to be very deficient in vitamin D."

However, this effect appears very small, and since past studies only looked at several thousand people at a time, there was a chance the link between birth month and later mental health might only be a statistical illusion. Also, prior research often pooled data from different nations, complicating analysis, since population trends can vary substantially between countries. To pin down whether or not there was a link between seasons and the mind, Ramagopalan and his colleagues analyzed a very large number of births, all from the same country.

The scientists investigated whether the risk of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and recurrent depression was influenced by month of birth in England. This included nearly 58,000 patients with the disorders and more than 29 million people from the country's general population

snip

November 22, 2012

McCain is a thorn in our side because

Back when he could have ( and should have) been sent to jail for complicity in the Keating Five (real) scandal, we gently brushed the wrist (not even slapped)..and he was allowed to apologize & take a censure..

His POW status made people feel sorry for him, and protected him....as did John Glenn's astronaut status.. Those two skated and others did jail time.

The ones we (our party) "gave a pass to" in scandals, have rarely receded quietly into the background..


Iran Contra laxity gave us GHWB (who was probably a mastermind of the whole mess)..and he gave us 8 long years of SonnyBoy.. A cowed/defeated/indicted GHWB, does not lend any credulity to a run from ANY son...ever...

Letting the culprits off easy or to get away altogether, just pisses them off for the trouble they had, and more determined to carry out their vendetta later on..

Mccain should have been forced to resign from the senate back in the 80's, and should have spent the last 30 years wandering around talking to tumbleweeds & cacti.


http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/mccain/




http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1989-11-29/news/mccain-the-most-reprehensible-of-the-keating-five/

November 20, 2012

TEXAS !

3+ years of aggressive registration "could" turn Texas blue. Demographers already say that by 2020-something it will be a majority Latino state..

I don't think it will take that long..especially if the "number-crunchers" from the Obama team set up shop there NOW, and get busy.

If we could flip Texas, all the "swing" states do not matter...except as icing on the cake

C'mon Texans...you can DO it !!!

November 17, 2012

Romney Is President

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/opinion/sunday/dowd-romney-is-president.html?_r=0


By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: November 10, 2012 403 Comments


IT makes sense that Mitt Romney and his advisers are still gobsmacked by the fact that they’re not commandeering the West Wing. (Though, as the "Daily Show” correspondent John Oliver jested, the White House might have been one of the smaller houses Romney ever lived in.) Team Romney has every reason to be shellshocked. Its candidate, after all, resoundingly won the election of the country he was wooing.

Mitt Romney is the president of white male America.

Maybe the group can retreat to a man cave in a Whiter House, with mahogany paneling, brown leather Chesterfields, a moose head over the fireplace, an elevator for the presidential limo, and one of those men’s club signs on the phone that reads: “Telephone Tips: ‘Just Left,’ 25 cents; ‘On His Way,’ 50 cents; ‘Not here,’ $1; ‘Who?’ $5.”

In its delusional death spiral, the white male patriarchy was so hard core, so redolent of country clubs and Cadillacs, it made little effort not to alienate women. The election had the largest gender gap in the history of the Gallup poll, with Obama winning the vote of single women by 36 percentage points. As W.’s former aide Karen Hughes put it in Politico on Friday, “If another Republican man says anything about rape other than it is a horrific, violent crime, I want to personally cut out his tongue.”

snip

November 16, 2012

Just in case people don't know, or may have forgotten

Businesses are NOT started/maintained/expanded/nurtured because the owners/starters did/do it to "create jobs".

They do it to MAKE MONEY.

Some people start businesses because they have a good idea or a better way to do a service and if they are lucky, they make that product/service and do become wealthy, but sooner or later (these days) they will probably sell out when a great offer comes along, and MOST do not provide for/care about their employees.

Employees are a "cost of doing business"...just as buying raw materials is a cost..or paying rent on a building or paying utilities .

When labor was less skilled and machines did less "work"...and when unions were not scarce (like now), companies gritted their teeth and paid union wages and gave benefits.

Times have changed (even if we hate it), and business owners/operators are in the drivers' seat.

They are NOT altruists , out to do good by the common man.

Until we revitalize union membership and somehow stop the internal cannibalism of businesses (moves to non-union/right-to-work states/outsourced overseas), we will be in this mess until all/most of the Boomers still in the workforce have breathed their last.

The older Boomers are probably the LAST large-ish group that may still have access to pensions earned/union wages that have crept up over the decades to a higher income.

Businesses are driven to produce, based on DEMAND. When a company is making 500 whatevers a week with 30% of the former workforce..and are selling only 450 of them, why on earth would they want to/need to hire more people to make more whatevers that no one wants/needs?

Businesses will always do whatever they can to increase their in-pocket profit, and if it means reneging on their "promises/obligations" with the assistance of bankruptcy courts, they will do it.

November 15, 2012

Mittens: Clueless in ascendance and even more so in defeat

He is incapable of comprehending what has happened. If he ever had them, tact, compassion, common sense & empathy must have been surgically removed.

Republicans are famous for never retreating in defeat, but Mittens is taking it to a whole new level.

What is different here is that he has no cohorts, no one to commiserate with him.

He's just a pathetic loser, with a bag over his head, swinging wildly at every noise he hears..


Dude.. the pinata is gone..the party is over., now go home and STFU.. Ride your car elevator up and down all day while Ann peruses the latest issue of Horse Fancy..and then go berate the gardeners or something..

November 15, 2012

SIX of the most nefarious voter-screwing states have elections in 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_gubernatorial_elections,_2014

and ALL of them are "do-able" for us. THIS is what we should al be focused on..NOT whether Hillary or whomever plans to run in '16.

Alongside the governorships, taking back the house, so we can have a fighting chance at 2 years of progress is very necessary.

Since we all are scared about what SCOTUS will do the the voting rights law, it's very important that we start worrying asbout who's in charge of the mechanics of voting, at the state level.

The states I see as very possible:

NV, IA, WI, MI, OH, PA, ME, FL, GA, NM & AZ

The GOTV plan used for the election last week, should be used to win back these states and restore some sanity.

If we can hold the ones we have and pick these up, WE would have more D states and a lot more friendly atmosphere for whomever rises to the top in '16.




Light red: Term-limited Republican
Dark red: Incumbent Republican
Light blue: Term-limited or Retiring Democrat
Dark blue: Incumbent Democrat
Green: Incumbent Independent
Dark Gray: Incumbent to be determined
Light Gray: no election

November 15, 2012

A Phoenix newspaper comments on Mccain (1989 article)

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1989-11-29/news/mccain-the-most-reprehensible-of-the-keating-five/


McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five
The story of "the Keating Five" has become a scandal rivaling Teapot Dome and Watergate

By Tom Fitzpatrick Wednesday, Nov 29 1989

You're John McCain, a fallen hero who wanted to become president so desperately that you sold yourself to Charlie Keating, the wealthy con man who bears such an incredible resemblance to The Joker.

Obviously, Keating thought you could make it to the White House, too.
He poured $112,000 into your political campaigns. He became your friend. He threw fund raisers in your honor. He even made a sweet shopping-center investment deal for your wife, Cindy. Your father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was cut in on the deal, too. Nothing was too good for you. Why not? Keating saw you as a prime investment that would pay off in the future.

snip

Since Keating's collapse, you find yourself doing obscene things to save yourself from the Senate Ethics Committee's investigation. As a matter of course, you engage in backbiting behavior that will turn you into an outcast in the Senate if you do survive. They say that if you put five lobsters into a pot and give them a chance to escape, none will be able to do so before you light the fire. Each time a lobster tries to climb over the top, his fellow lobsters will pull him back down. It is the way of lobsters and threatened United States senators.

And, of course, that's the way it is with the Keating Five. You are all battling to save your own hides. So you, McCain, leak to reporters about who did Keating's bidding in pressuring federal regulators to change the rules for Lincoln Savings and Loan. When the reporters fail to print your tips quickly enough--as in the case of your tip on Michigan Senator Donald Riegle--you call them back and remind them how important it is to get that information in the newspapers


snip for more delicious reverie

November 15, 2012

McCain is the LAST person who should ask for "Watergate-style" hearings..Perhaps a KEATING-5 hearing

There's a whole generation who don't know how he had to GROVEL to hold onto his job & avoid jail..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_nf=3&gs_mss=McCain%20Keati&tok=mA035XAjodEploSUCWR7MQ&cp=16&gs_id=70&xhr=t&q=McCain%20Keating%205&pf=p&newwindow=1&tbo=d&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=McCain+Keating+5&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=97301e76c1e40a6c&bpcl=38625945&biw=748&bih=409


Keating 5 ring a bell? - latimes.com
www.latimes.com/.../la-oe-brooks25-2008sep25,0,7022889.column
Sep 25, 2008 – Keating went to prison, and McCain's Senate career almost ended. Together with the rest of the so-called Keating Five -- Sens. Alan Cranston ...
McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five - Page 1 ...
www.phoenixnewtimes.com/.../mccain-the-most-reprehensible-of-the...

Nov 29, 1989 – You're John McCain, a fallen hero who wanted to become president so desperately that you sold yourself to Charlie Keating, the wealthy con ...
Politics | Revisiting McCain's Keating 5 history | Seattle Times ...
seattletimes.com/html/politics/2008157607_mckeating04.html

Sep 4, 2008 – At one time, John McCain said the worst thing that ever happened to him, Vietnam included, was the so-called Keating 5 scandal.

44 - McCain Lawyers Push Back on Obama Keating Five Charges
voices.washingtonpost.com/.../mccain_lawyers_push_back_on_ob.ht...
Oct 6, 2008 – In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, John Dowd, the Washington lawyer who represented McCain during the Senate investigation, ...
McCain's "Keating 5" Scandal Involvement To Be Highlighted By ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../mccains-keating-5-scandal_n_132103.h...

Oct 5, 2008 – Update 12:30pm Monday, October 6:The Obama campaign has released the full video of "Keating Economics: John McCain and The Making of ...
McCain Comments On Involvement In Keating Five: 'It Was A Very ...
thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/09/24/.../mccain-keating-5-comment/
Sep 24, 2008 –

During the savings and loan scandal in the late 1980s, Charles Keating — a wealthy Arizona businessman and chairman of the failed Lincoln ...
Campaign Now Claims McCain's Admitted Keating Five Wrongdoing ...
crooksandliars.com › Blogs › Jon Perr's blog

Oct 6, 2008 – Back in 1999, John McCain acknowledged his role in the 1980's Keating Five savings and loan scandal that rightly stained his career. "The fact ...
Hayworth to McCain: If you bring up Abramoff, I will talk about - The Hill
thehill.com/.../81059-hayworth-to-mccain-if-you-bring-up-abramoff...

Feb 14, 2010 – J.D. Hayworth has a warning for John McCain: Bring up Jack Abramoff and I'll rehash the Keating Five scandal. The former six-term ...

November 10, 2012

Oops, Chris Christie may have mis-spoken

I just heard him say on CNN that New Jersey expected to be treated "just like people in New Orleans, Alabama, & Mississippi were treated during Katrina"..I would NOT want that kind of treatment...at all..

Apparently the state owned power company cannot seem to get power restored to too many poor people.

Looking at the devastation, I don't see HOW power can be restored to rubble..
Those people need to be MOVED..Living in rubble and waiting to have power restored seems to be a futile effort..