Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012
DAVID EDWARDS, - The Raw Story
Stephan: At a time when our world is falling apart and, maybe, because we are in such a time our Presidential contest instead of debating climate change, sea rise, drought, financial collapse, insane wars from military to marijuana, the great issues of our day, has instead expended all its energy in a struggle over suppressing and controlling the sexuality and bodies of women. From an historian's point of view this is one of the most extraordinary public spectacles in the American narrative.
The Republican Party is set to adopt an official platform that calls for ‘a human life amendment
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Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012
JOSHUA HOLLAND, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: One of the things I find most notable about this campaign era is the mediocrity of the press. Rachel Maddow who has a doctorate, and was a Rhodes Scholar, seems to be the only person who both understands data and knows how to see the patterns it creates. Fox News, in contrast, lives in an almost fact free world. I keep lists of lies and errors every time I view them. It's amazing. Even Maddow's show has it agendas. As a rule though the coverage of the significant issues is appalling. This is the era of the sensoid.
A sensoid is a unit of attention-grabbing information, whether pictures, sounds, or words. It is different than a datum, a unit of information designed to educate and enlighten. Data drive science. Sensoids drive media. A sensoid is designed to produce an emotional reaction in the person who sees it or reads it, and it is the reaction that gives it its value.
See http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307%2806%2900350-8/fulltext.
It’s hard to imagine a greater irony than our political press, obsessed as it is with process stories, dubiously sourced rumors and trivial fluff, lamenting the fact that we can’t have a ‘serious national debate.
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Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012
MAKIKO KITAMURA, - Bloomberg
Stephan: Backroom abortions are coming back to the U.S. Abortion is already more prevalent in Red Value states. If Republicans prevail and abortion is outlawed, illegal abortions will go up. It is inevitable.
I am old enough to remember life before the pill, and Roe v Wade. I lost one friend to such an abortion, and remember to this day the last time I saw her. And almost lost another, watching both times what it did to all the families involved.
Here is the research study that spells out where we are headed if Romney and Ryan win. That is not a partisan statement. If you have read SR for a while you know I don't care about politics in that way. I care about data, and social outcomes, and wellness from individual to planetary.
This obsession is driven I think by a kind of racism -- we need more white babies -- and a desire to return to a world where women are subordiinate, and accept this. Take a look at QuiverFull.com. Go into the SR archives and read the piece on the Saudis creating all women cities, and the piece on ultra-orthodox Jews buying eyeglasses that limit their vision so they will not have to look at women. The perversion of sexuality in the service of theology or ideology is a powerful force in the world.
Countries restricting abortions, particularly in Africa and Latin America, have higher rates of unsafe abortion than those that allow the procedure, according to a study published today in The Lancet journal.
The rate of unsafe abortion in Africa was 28 per 1,000 women of childbearing age and 31 per 1,000 in Latin America, regions where abortion is highly restricted in almost all countries, according to the study led by Gilda Sedgh at the Guttmacher Institute in New York, using the most recent data gathered in 2008. That compares with less than 0.5 per 1,000 in western Europe and North America.
The World Health Organization defines unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating a pregnancy that is performed by an individual lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that doesn’t conform to minimal standards. Legally restricting abortions leads to unsafe procedures as women have more difficulty locating practitioners and the ones they do find are less likely to be adequately trained, Sedgh said.
‘The data continue to confirm what we have known for decades: that women who wish to terminate unwanted pregnancies will seek abortion at any cost, even when it is illegal or involves risks to their own lives,
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Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012
, - Science Daily/University of Missouri
Stephan: There is a very big difference between being spiritual and being religious. Sometimes they are one, but it is quite possible to be very religious and completely non-spiritual. Much of the bloodshed that drenches human history stands witness for this truth. I would describe myself as spiritual but not religious, perhaps you do as well. In any case like all life-affirming processes it is healthier. Seeing all life as interconnected and interdependent, and connected at the nonlocal 'spiritual' level changes the choices one makes.
SOUCE: The paper, 'Relationships among Spirituality, Religious Practices, Personality Factors, and Health for Five Different Faiths' was published in the Journal of Religion and Health. The lead author was Brick Johnstone of the MU Department of Health Psychology. The paper's other authors were Dong Yoon of the MU School of Social Work, Laura Schopp of the MU Department of Health Psychology, Guy McCormack now at Samuel Merritt University, Marian L. Smith now of Via Cristi Hospital, and James Campbell of the MU School of Medicine.
Despite differences in rituals and beliefs among the world’s major religions, spirituality often enhances health regardless of a person’s faith, according to University of Missouri researchers. The MU researchers believe that health care providers could take advantage of this correlation between health — particularly mental health — and spirituality by tailoring treatments and rehabilitation programs to accommodate an individual’s spiritual inclinations.
‘In many ways, the results of our study support the idea that spirituality functions as a personality trait,’ said Dan Cohen, assistant teaching professor of religious studies at MU and one of the co-authors of the study. ‘With increased spirituality people reduce their sense of self and feel a greater sense of oneness and connectedness with the rest of the universe. What was interesting was that frequency of participation in religious activities or the perceived degree of congregational support was not found to be significant in the relationships between personality, spirituality, religion and health.’
The MU study used the results of three surveys to determine if correlations existed among participants’ self-reported mental and physical health, personality factors, and spirituality in Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Protestants. Across all five faiths, a greater degree of spirituality was related to better mental health, […]
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Tuesday, August 21st, 2012
SARAH KNOPP and JEFF BALE, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: We are beginning to get evidence of what charter schools actually produce. Like most privatization schemes the outcomes are not good.
Back-to-school’ sales seem to start earlier every year. These days, more than binders and backpacks are on offer. Now, public schools themselves are for sale.
In July, Muskegon Heights, Michigan became the first American city to hand its entire school district over to a charter-school operator [4].
More than 1.6 million American kids attend charter schools, which emerged in the early 1990s. Whatever their original intent, charters are fundamentally restructuring the school system by placing it in private – often for-profit – hands. They’re making teachers and staff work harder and longer for less pay, usually without union benefits or protection.
In May, Philadelphia’s schools announced a plan [5] to close 64 schools and outsource 25 more to so-called ‘achievement networks’ run by charter operators. The goal: that 40 percent of Philadelphia’s children attend charters by 2017. Detroit’s plans [6] are similar.
Restructuring may seem the best option. Urban school districts have long struggled to serve their students. And many of us know firsthand – as former students, teachers, administrators, or parents – that many of America’s public schools require radical change.
Charter proponents claim that their schools are less bureaucratic and more efficient, and thus save taxpayer money. Yet evidence is mounting to show […]
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