INTERESTING TIMES

And here I thought BLM was for the Bureau of Livestock and Mining.  There is so much noise today, every day, about racism and rump. I've heard there are apps out there that will filter out all mentions of the name of our president.   Not a bad idea.

People with African noses and brown skin have legitimate grievances from slavery, Jim Crow, policing and harsh inequalities in economic and incarceration statistics. So do many others. Japanese were in carcerated en mass and suffer under rediculous stereotypes.  Hispanics in Arizona were terrorized by Arapaio and he got pardoned today. Jews that live all around me here in Portland are terrified at the resurgence of Nazi-ism. The natives of this continent were actively exterminated by our government and settlers, and they have a right to be mad about it. And in the midst of all this the white skinned middle-aged dudes are committing suicide both actively and passively at astounding rates.

There's plenty wrong, no doubt about that.

When I walk around the park that is in front of my house, I feel racial tension. There are blacks and hispanics walking there, but they are either in the company of a white person, or they are walking as families. Today the Latinas were in conversation and tending to the children, but the men are watching for trouble. When they see me coming, a big white woman moving fast, and they look hard.  They don't nod in return.  I saw a Middle Eastern family too.  The women were similarly dedicated to their kids, and one man swung his keys on the end of a lanyard as if to say fuck with me and I'll take your face off with my keys.

I wish we could all just chill out.  I don't think the tension will reduce until the next changing of the guard, and I hope it comes soon.

The use of combat drones overseas divides Congress, but not in the usual partisan way.

Supporters of the “war on terror” in both parties tend to support the use of unmanned aircraft that often try to assassinate terrorism suspects. But libertarian Republicans have teamed up with civil liberties-backing Democrats to oppose the drones.

Now, the partisan trenches have been crossed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D – Ohio, and Rep. Ron Paul, R – Texas, in order to force the administration to release its legal justification.

The two mavericks who are leaving Congress at year’s end have introduced a resolution of inquiry — legislation that is used to compel specific documents from the administration, and must be considered by the committee of jurisdiction, or on the House floor, within 14 legislative days.

Since the legislation was introduced on November 28, it could come before the House this year, which means that the administration will be forced to turn over the legal justification it uses for the strikes, including any memos from the Office of Legal Counsel.

SOURCE
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=159916

While a resident at Walter Reed Medical Center, Hasan, a Muslim born in the United States to Palestinian parents, reportedly told colleagues he believed the United States was waging war on Muslims. He said Muslim soldiers shouldn't be asked to kill fellow Muslims.

In case you missed it, Hasan is the psychiatrist who shot 43 people at a military medical center. According to several docs on Medscape, he's not looking all that crazy in court, but rather highly effective as a terrorist. Plenty of evidence of careful premeditation has been presented. Like this:

The entire sale was odd, the gun salesman recalled, because Hasan took out his cell phone and videotaped the manager's demonstration of how to load the new pistol, remove its magazine and break down the weapon. Brannon told the court he'd never seen anyone make such a videotape. Hasan said that "he wanted to review it later."

Medscape is free but you have to create a sign-in to access the articles.

The explosions are constant now and the sirens are temporarily silenced. The pets are in hiding. The show is amazing, terrific, colorful, people are applauding within a block of here. I am tired, and headed for bed soon. The noise will not keep me up.

I remember hearing about that day--7/4/1776--that the representatives of America's 13 original colonies announced to the world that they were free, and that they would no longer accept outside rule. The gall of them. Just saying HEY man you can't boss me around anymore. Anymore if an American patriot acts with such independence, he finds himself listed as a terrorist on some government watchlist.

Text of old document behind cut.
( we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor )

The CNN headline reads "Measles outbreaks may be linked to vaccine fears". It sounds like there's a correlation between children being home-schooled and un-vaccinated. Public schools require some vaccinations, but there are "pockets" of children who are home-schooled, un-vaccinated, and thus at risk. In one pocket some 30 people were infected with measles when one of their number traveled to Italy.

The MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine is one of the few that I would actually recommend that parents get for their children...and there are a few more. Not everyone needs every vaccine... but vaccines have changed human health drastically for the better in the last century. How soon we forget.

Managing public health is a process of lowering risk for the entire "herd". Vaccination is an easy way to do that. For the more risky diseases, like the ones that cause birth defects, suffering in old age, and death, the risk of the vaccine might be worth it. Yes, the ingredients in vaccines are suspect. As this article says, people are avoiding vaccines these days because they think they could cause autism. Well, maybe they do contribute. There are lots of other things that contribute to autism. If all you do for your kid is avoid vaccines, you might as well give them a gun to play with. There are lots of ways that parents can protect and teach their children that are not being addressed. Whooping cough can kill, but so can soda pop.

Some diseases, like smallpox, are said to have been eradicated using vaccines. But most (or maybe all) diseases still exist somewhere in the world. There is even the threat that smallpox might still be used as a weapon. If we stop vaccinating our population, we will soon have them endemic here too. So where is the line between individual desires to avoid the risk of an injection, with group desires to live in a population that has less disease in general? The line is shifting.

The role of a doctor in my view is to help people find where that line is for them and their family, not to support the pharmaceuticals in saying that everybody needs all the shots all the time. Heck, I don't believe your dog needs a rabies shot every year either. It's up to you, and a little education goes a long way.
( the text of the CNN article )

With all the media squabble about Obama's attempts to distance himself from his preacher of 20 years, I can't help but to think this all sounds too familiar. It reminds me of Kerry's campaign, when he made the mistake of saying that less-educated American youths end up "stuck in Iraq". It was true, but he backpedalled his ass off trying to shed the implication that he was "anti-troop" or some such BS. Now it has come to light that Obama's preacher calls America's actions in the world "terrorism" and even though it is true, it is completely unacceptable to say so. So Obama is trying with all his might to avoid the implication that he also believes that our actions in the world are unrepentantly aggressive and self-serving. But I believe he does. And I also believe that he was correct in his assessment that many voters are "bitter" and "cling" to various schools of thought to shelter themselves from the storm of BS that they get from the media.

The shame of it is that to be a "successful" politician one absolutely must avoid the naked truth. To speak or be associated with the truth is "political suicide". This is proof to me of the cynical saying that politicians are like diapers and must be changed regularly for the same reasons. The only person now running for president who speaks the truth, consistently and without regard for media condemnation, is Ron Paul. I pray that enough "bitter" and less educated voters recognize the truth in "stuck in Iraq" and "American terrorism" to discredit the constant barrage of spin against the truth.

I wish that Obama had thrown his arms around Wright (his preacher) and said "YES this man speaks the same truth that I understand. LISTEN to him, and decide for yourself." Obama has declined several notches in the esteem of both sides; those who see the truth of our situation, and those who pretend that it is other than what it is.

One kind of food poisoning and anthrax are caused by bacterium in the genus Bacillus. They are gram positive rods that make spores and have exotoxins. In lecture there was mention of its marshmallowy capsule containing d-glutamate and that being unusual. The capsule and the exotoxin are plasmid encoded, and this organism is also unique in that it has two plamids.

Bacilli are facultative aerobes--meaning they use oxygen as the final electron acceptor in their electron transport chain, and have catalase and superoxide dismutase. But they can grow in the absence of oxygen by fermenting for energy. The two medically important species of Baccilus are cereus and anthrasis.

B. cereus is ubiquitous in the soil and commonly found in low levels in raw, dried and processed foods. It takes four or more hours in food held at the wrong temperature (warm) to grow enough to make you sick. Beware of steam trays! The food poisoning it causes is similar to that caused by Staphylococcus aureus---watery nonbloody diarrhea 6-18 hours after ingesting the poison, or a faster boot out the top end, or both. Bacillus cereus likes growing in cooked white rice.
( How are bacteria unlike eukaryotes? Answer behind cut: )

Awesome post:
http://genoochy.livejournal.com/42553.html
( the text )