After years of attacking Democrats with relative impunity for their supposed moral failings, Evangelical leader James Dobson surely didn’t expect to suffer much of a backlash when he trained his sights on Barack Obama. Over the years, the party had practically cowered in fear and gone into radio silence when the head of Focus on the Family targeted one of its standard-bearers. So in a campaign that has already proved to be anything but predictable, the counterattack on Dobson this week epitomized the new, fraught political climate that Christian Right leaders like himself face. Earlier this week, Dobson used his popular Christian radio program to denounce a 2006 speech the Illinois Senator gave about the place of religion in public life. He took personal offense at the fact that Obama had referred to him by name in the same breath as Al Sharpton, using the two to illustrate the range of differences that exist within Christianity. But he also expressed outrage at Obama’s assertion that individuals can be moral without being religious. ‘He oughta read the Bible,’ said Dobson. Obama, he charged, was ‘deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview.’ But less […]
LOS ANGELES — ‘Flabbergasted’ NASA scientists said on Thursday that Martian soil appeared to contain the requirements to support life, although more work would be needed to prove it. Scientists working on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, which has already found ice on the planet, said preliminary analysis by the lander’s instruments on a sample of soil scooped up by the spacecraft’s robotic arm had shown it to be much more alkaline than expected. ‘We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past present or future,’ Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for the wet chemistry laboratory on Phoenix, told journalists. ‘It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. … It is very exciting for us.’ The 1 cubic centimeter (0.06 cubic inch) of soil was taken from about 1 inch below the surface of Mars and had a pH, or alkaline, level of 8 or 9. ‘We were all flabbergasted at the data we got back,’ Kounaves said. Pressed on whether there was still any doubt that […]
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Neuralieve, a medical technology company pioneering a new approach to treat migraine headache, today reported completion of its clinical trial. The results will be presented June 27 during the annual American Headache Society (AHS) scientific meeting in Boston by Dr. Richard B. Lipton, Professor and Vice Chair of Neurology and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, sham-controlled clinical study at 16 centers studied the use of Neuralieve’s portable transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device for treating migraine with aura. The study demonstrated that for migraine with aura, treatment with Neuralieve’s non-drug, non-invasive TMS treatment system is superior to sham treatment, and led to patients being pain-free at 2 hours, 24 hours and 48 hours. The trial also confirmed that use of the Neuralieve TMS device, which delivers single pulse TMS treatment, is extremely safe. As a result, Neuralieve is in the process of submitting pre-market notification to the FDA. Neuralieve is also actively planning additional studies to further demonstrate that its TMS treatment can clinically benefit more people. Used for years, TMS is a proven, safe method of studying the brain. It […]
WASHINGTON — The price of retail gasoline could fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday. Testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management said that the price of oil would quickly drop closer to its marginal cost of around $65 to $75 a barrel, about half the current $135. Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., Edward Krapels of Energy Security Analysis and Roger Diwan of PFC Energy Consultants agreed with Masters’ assessment at a hearing on proposed legislation to limit speculation in futures markets. Krapels said that it wouldn’t even take 30 days to drive prices lower, as fund managers quickly liquidated their positions in futures markets. ‘Record oil prices are inflated by speculation and not justified by market fundamentals,’ according to Gheit. ‘Based on supply and demand fundamentals, crude-oil prices should not be above $60 per barrel.’ Futures trading in London has not been a major factor in rising oil prices, testified Sir Bob Reid, chairman of the Chairman of London-based ICE Futures Europe. Rising prices are […]
SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government is subjecting veterans to long delays in obtaining mental health care and medical benefits, but the power to change the system rests with officials and Congress, not the courts, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday in dismissing a lawsuit by veterans’ advocates. U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti said veterans’ groups had failed to show a ‘systemwide crisis’ in mental health care that would justify the courts intervening in the workings of the Department of Veterans Affairs. And he said courts lack authority to order the sweeping changes the plaintiffs seek, such as forcing the VA to make quick decisions on whether veterans are eligible for care and ordering the agency to promptly improve suicide prevention programs and mental health care. Conti conceded that evidence presented during a two-week nonjury trial in April showed that veterans had high rates of suicide and post-traumatic stress disorder, and that in some cases were being forced to endure long waits for medical referrals and care. The VA is understaffed and takes an average of nearly 4 1/2 years to hear veterans’ appeals of benefit denials, and a long-range improvement plan the agency adopted […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
