Saturday, July 16th, 2011
MATTHEW PENNEY, - The Asian-Pacific Journal
Stephan: Most of the media has moved on from Fukushima. You don't see much in print, nor is it often mentioned on television. But the obscenely toxic pollution that flows from these sites of Mordor continues to spread out across the earth. We will not not be able to assess the fullness of its impact for probably two decades. Only then will some of the cancers develop. We should see this as a teaching moment, and SR will continue to cover this story, and the trend it represents.
Japan’s leading business journal Toyo Keizai has published an article by Hokkaido Cancer Center director Nishio Masamichi, a radiation treatment specialist. The piece, entitled ‘The Problem of Radiation Exposure Countermeasures for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Concerns for the Present Situation
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Thomas H. Maugh II, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: This is very good news. A close friend of mine is an internationally recognized AIDS/HIV physician and, through his stories, I have been able to get some ground-truth insight into the impact of this disease, the source of so much human misery. This is going to make a tremendous difference.
In what is being hailed as a major advance in the battle against AIDS, two studies in Africa have shown that a daily pill containing either one or two anti-HIV drugs can reduce transmission of the virus by as much as three-quarters among heterosexual couples.
The results were so compelling that one of the studies was halted early and the drugs given to all the participants, researchers said Wednesday.
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In the absence of a vaccine to protect against the virus, the results suggest that this new approach, termed pre-exposure prophylaxis, may represent the best hope for slowing or even halting the spread of the deadly plague throughout the developing world.
A study in gay men reported last November showed that one of the drugs in the new trial could reduce the spread of […]
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Stephan: This is an meta-view of the war on women, a strategy whose tactics include restricting pregnancy termination, and a concerted drive to force pregnancies by restricting access to birth control. I think it is designed to force the creation of 'families.' That's the ideology and theology driving these actions. The fact that it also means increased and untreated STDs, and cancers in women is the measure of the Right's cynicism.
In the first six months of 2011, states enacted 162 new provisions related to reproductive health and rights. Fully 49% of these new laws seek to restrict access to abortion services, a sharp increase from 2010, when 26% of new laws restricted abortion. The 80 abortion restrictions enacted this year are more than double the previous record of 34 abortion restrictions enacted in 2005-and more than triple the 23 enacted in 2010. All of these new provisions were enacted in just 19 states.
Enacted abortion restrictions by year
A Mix of Old and New Strategies to Curb Access to Abortion Care
Counseling and waiting periods. Five states (IN, KS, ND, SD and TX) adopted laws related to abortion counseling and waiting periods in 2011, but a measure adopted by South Dakota at the end of March went significantly farther than those approved in other states. The law expands the pre-abortion waiting period to 72 hours, requires the woman to visit a crisis pregnancy center in the interim and mandates that abortion counseling be provided in-person by the physician who will perform the procedure. The counseling must include information on all known risk factors related to abortion, even when the information is […]
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IAN MILLHISER, - truthout.org
Stephan: The Right doesn't even bother to hide its fascism. It doesn't have to because the Murdoch papers and networks, scholar-for-hire think tanks, and the purchase of the Congress leads them to believe they no longer have to. This is how blatant it gets. It is of a piece with the state level 'Executives' the Right has inflicted on communities, with the power to overrule elected representatives and civil officers.
Speaking on the Senate floor this morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered what may be the most concise summary of conservative constitutionalism ever spoken – America must rewrite the Constitution to force conservative outcomes because we the people consistently elect lawmakers who disagree with McConnell:
The time has come for a balanced budget amendment that forces Washington to balance its books. If these debt negotiations have convinced us of anything, it’s that we can’t leave it to politicians in Washington to make the difficult decisions that they need to get our fiscal house in order. The balanced budget amendment will do that for them. Now is the moment. No more games. No more gimmicks. The Constitution must be amended to keep the government in check. We’ve tried persuasion. We’ve tried negotiations. We’re tried elections. Nothing has worked.
It’s worth noting just what McConnell is asking the American people to choke down. Senate Republicans’ so-called ‘balanced budget amendment
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STEPHEN C. WEBSTER, - The Raw Story
Stephan: This poll is particularly interesting in light of the recent statement by the Obama Administration that medical marijuana had no real medical use. All this should be seen in the context of the administration's parallel attempt to move marijuana into big pharma.
The medical marijuana debate among American voters is over.
Eight in 10 Americans — 81% overall — support allowing doctors to prescribe cannabis, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.
That’s up from just 69% in 1997, the last time the two firms asked that question, and from 75% in 2003, according to Gallup.
The main divide among American voters today is how the medical community should be enabled to dole out the drug. The most recent state to allow medical marijuana — New Jersey — has the most strenuous controls found anywhere in the nation.
Legislators prohibited doctors from prescribing the drug to anyone they think would benefit from it, instead limiting access to patients suffering from a specific list of illnesses. They also limited marijuana production to a series of non-profit facilities, as opposed to the dispensaries popular in California and other states.
A slim majority, 56 percent, support deferring to a doctor’s discretion on who should be prescribed marijuana, according to the poll.
In spite of the apparent national mandate for medical marijuana, just 14 states allow it.
When it comes to outright legalization, the news agencies found that just 46 percent are in favor. Gallup said in October that it had found 44 […]
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