After over a decade of war, most Americans are disconnected from the military because it’s all volunteers and contractors. Veteran Phil Klay reads Andrew Bacevich’s important polemic on how we lost touch with our soldiers-and how that harms the country.

In 2011, President Obama declared that the US soldiers leaving Iraq were doing so ‘with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops.

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American teenagers are eating more vegetables, getting more exercise, watching less television, and eating fewer portions of junk food that’s high in sugar, according to a new study by the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

Researchers collected data on 35,000 children aged 11 to 16 from 2001 to 2009. They found that average Body Mass Index (BMI) for the teens dropped between 2005 and 2009, and that over the course of the total decade, consumption of fruits and vegetables nearly doubled from two to four days per week to five or six days per week. Younger Americans also ate breakfast more times per week over this period, while their weekly sugary drink consumption fell by 20 percent. The number of days they exercised for at least 60 minutes went up significantly from 4.33 days per week to 4.53 days per week.

The study is the latest in a series of encouraging reports suggesting that Americans are beginning to take better care of their physical health. ‘It’s only recently, in the past decade, that some studies have begun to see some leveling off [in behavior that causes obesity],

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Emergency room and inpatient procedures related to firearm injuries cost $629 million in 2010 alone, according to a new study by the Urban Institute. Since a large majority of these injuries afflicted poor males from low-income regions, U.S. taxpayers subsidized over half the costs of the treatments through public insurance programs.

Victims of gun violence are almost exclusively men aged 15 years and older, with American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprising 69 percent of firearm assault injuries. Women constituted just nine percent of gun injuries across all ages.

Researchers found that the average emergency room visit for a gun injury ran $1,126, while an inpatient visit cost $23,497 – $14,000 more than the average cost of all inpatient stays in 2010.

These injuries were also concentrated in low-income regions with high numbers of uninsured Americans and Medicaid beneficiaries. In fact, over half of all the injuries occurred in zip codes in the lowest income quartile, while just seven percent occurred in areas with the highest incomes. That means that many of these hospitalization costs had to be covered by taxpayers through public insurance and assistance to hospitals that serve large numbers of the uninsured.

Earlier research has also found gun […]

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I will update this post as residents send me pictures and video.

We need the national news stations to go cover the environmental disaster that’s happening in Colorado right now.

This picture taken by a resident is from yesterday.

flood in Weld County yesterday Sept 13

From an email.

I see you’ve noticed the underwater wells in Weld County, Colorado. Amazing; we’ve emailed the Denver TV stations, other media, and state and local politicians. We’ve sent pictures that our members have taken. It’s like the media and politicians have been TOLD not to say anything about it. There has been no mention of the gas wells on the Denver newscasts either last night or this evening although all stations have had extensive and extended flood coverage. You can see underwater wells in the background of some of the newscast videos, and yet the reporters say absolutely nothing.

Here’s a picture one of our members took yesterday in Weld County, Colorado. We’ve got tons more on our website. Check it out. The tanks are tipping and, in some cases, have fallen over. They have to be leaking toxins into the flood waters. There have to be hundreds if not […]

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Guns and Abortion, the two most inflammatory issues in American culture, one, centered in religion, a study in government intrusion; the other a study in laissez faire usually discussed with violent passion in Second Amendment terms. Here is incoming National Rifle Association (NRA) president Jim Porter at his investiture:

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