Stephan: Here, in my view is some excellent news. I had dinner tonight with a good friend who developed a kind of radiation poisoning in Afghanistan as a result of being exposed to the depleted uranium rounds fired by the U.S. military during the course of working with an NGO to help displaced Afghans, particularly women. Until Obamacare she could not get health insurance. now she can. And so could millions of other Americans, who now have coverage.
Credit: www.visualphotos.com
WASHINGTON — Underlining a change across the nation, nearly 9 out of 10 adults now say they havehealth insurance, according to an extensive survey released Monday.
As recently as 2013, slightly more than 8 out of 10 had coverage.
Whether the new number from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index turns out to be a high-water mark for President Barack Obama’s health care law, or a milestone on the path toward his goal of getting virtually all U.S. residents covered, remains to be seen.
The law’s future is still up in the air, and will turn on factors ranging from an upcoming Supreme Court decision on consumer subsidies to actions by Republican leaders in states opposed to Medicaid expansion.
The Gallup-Healthways survey found that the share of adults who lack insurance dropped to 11.9 percent for the first three months of this year, the lowest level since that survey began its tracking in 2008. The latest update overlaps with the period when the health law’s second sign-up season was winding down.
Coverage gains from 2014-2015 translate […]
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Tuesday, April 14th, 2015
Zoë Schlanger , - Newsweek
Stephan: You have probably already heard that in the midst of California's drought, Nestlé is making millions bottling and selling California's water in little plastic bottles. It turns out the story is even more startling than that, as this report describes.
The fact that Nestlé has continued its massive water-bottling operation while the state struggles with crippling water shortages has become a sticking point for activists.
Credit: Steven Depolo/Flickr
Last month, California newspaper The Desert Sun published an investigation revealing that Nestlé Water’s permit to transport water across the San Bernardino National Forest for bottling has been expired since 1988. On Friday, the California Forest Service announced it would make it “a priority” to reassess the permit, and that it might impose as-of-yet unspecified “interim conditions” on the bottling operation in light of the severe drought, The Desert Sun reports.
The fact that Nestlé has continued its massive water-bottling operation while the state struggles with crippling water shortages has become a sticking point for activists. A petition demanding Nestlé immediately stop bottling and profiting off […]
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Pew Research Staff, - Pew Research Center
Stephan: Here is real data concerning the future of religion. This is a well designed, well-executed, well analysed study, the best data I have seen on this subject, and I found it fascinating. Just consider this: The number of Christians and Muslims will be nearly equal. From that flows this:
How do you think the Arab-Iranian world will feel about the U.S. in the future? Bear in mind that in the Arab Muslim culture the 12th century Christian crusades are still an open wound. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their Necon troops changed not just some immediate events, but the course of history in long range geo-political terms.
By injecting ourselves into the Muslim reformation struggle between the Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, an historical process in which we should have played no part, we have created a mill that grinds out terrorists and terrorism. We created ISIS, we created the Boston bombers, and the longer these wars go on, the more terror recruits there will be. There are always dangerous people willing to die to make a statement. Bone-headed ignorance and greed suddenly brought them to the fore and this is why the world is so dangerous.
And finally: What will be the cultural consensus in the U.S. when there are more Muslims than Jews, and Christians are declining?
The entire report can, and should, be downloaded and carefully read. Religion or its absence is going to be a powerful factor in determining how the world works. It will affect you, your kids, and their kids.
Why Muslims Are Rising Fastest and the Unaffiliated Are Shrinking as a Share of the World’s Population
The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion. If current trends continue, by 2050 …
- The number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world.
- Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population.
- The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.
- In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.
- India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.
- In the United […]
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