$1 Trillion For Wars

On May 30 the United States passed another dubious milestone, having spent over one trillion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One TRILLION dollars?

This money could have given four-year scholarships at state universities to two million freshmen this year and then another two million each year for the next 23 years. Or it could have provided half a million families with affordable housing each year for 17 years.

How else could we have spent this money? We could have hired 15.3 million workers for $50,000 apiece to repair our crumbling roads and bridges. And on top of that, we would still have had a cool $235 billion left over to invest in clean energy, producing 3.9 million green jobs while reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Why are wars so easy to start but so hard to end? As one ex-president so wisely noted, "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is." —Candidate George W. Bush, speaking of the war in Kosovo, April 1999.

U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are described as "nation building." Yet without an exit strategy nation building looks like permanent colonization.

So who benefits from war spending? As Deep Throat said during the Watergate scandal, "Follow the money." Some have said that war is good for the economy, but mostly it makes billionaires of defense contractors.

Let's make democracy work! Take a moment now to let your members of Congress that this out-of-control war spending is NOT worth one more dollar or one more life. And that you vote!

SOURCES: http://antiwar.com/quotes.php
Huffington Post, May 26, "$1 Trillion for Wars Makes No Sense By Any Measure" by Mary Zerkel.

Bill Moyers' Legacy

Bill Moyers Journal, first broadcast in 1971, came to a close on April 30, with Mr. Moyers warning viewers that "plutocracy and democracy don't mix." The end of the Journal is a milestone both for public broadcasting and for Moyers, whose explorations of corporate power versus people power were unlike anything else on broadcast television.

With distrust of the federal government at an historic high and Americans disillusioned with a government run by and for the powerful, Moyers sat down with populist Jim Hightower to look at the history and legacy of people's movements and discuss how ordinary citizens can reclaim political power.

The corrupting power of corporate money on the political system has been a major theme of Moyers's journalism career. As Moyers summarized, "democracy only works when we claim it as our own."

Moyers has long been a controversial figure. In a column in the May 10 issue of The Nation, the media columnist Eric Alterman called Mr. Moyers the "last unapologetic liberal anywhere in broadcast television."

"To our critics," Moyers said on Friday's finale, "I'm glad you paid attention; the second most important thing to journalists is to know we're not being ignored." The only thing more important, he said, is independence.

Moyers' heir apparent is Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, whose widely syndicated weekday newscasts preserve the spirit of populist journalism.

SOURCES: NY Times, "A Breather for Moyers," 5/3/2010.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html.

Invisible Corporate Power

According to former Telluride, Colorado Mayor John Steel, "Large corporations have our country, and us, in a death grip. Some of their bad behavior makes big headlines: the BP oil disaster, Goldman Sachs' financial shenanigans, Enron's book-cooking. However, equally dangerous corporate activity happens every day, far from public view.

"Corporations have seeped almost invisibly into nearly every government agency and too many congressional offices. And they're as poisonous as carbon monoxide. In the last 20 years, protective legislation and regulation, carefully constructed from the days of President Coolidge and vastly strengthened due to the Depression, have seriously deteriorated....

"There has always been tension between good government and free enterprise. It hurts the bottom line to scrub emissions from coal-burning power generators, ensure meat is sanitary, clean up toxic waste, and disclose the full risks of financial products. But once corporations realized that instead of fighting government they could actually buy it through lobbying and political contributions, the base of our democracy eroded.

"So why has the debate on reform dragged on for nearly a year? The public wants Wall Street reined in. So why would any legislator, much less an entire political party, get in the way of financial reform? It can't just be a coincidence that the financial sector happens to be the biggest contributor to 2010 congressional campaigns, with more than $129 million doled out already. Financial firms have also spent well over a half a billion dollars on lobbying since early 2009.

"To reverse this situation we must change who gets elected to Congress. And that is the one thing we can do, and perhaps the only thing, to neutralize corporate control of our government. Only real people have the vote; corporations don't.

"To regain our democracy, we must:

• Identify and make public those elected representatives who owe their jobs to corporate largesse and cast their votes accordingly.
• Insulate the election process from corporate funding.
• Prohibit lawmakers and lobbyists from interacting with each other, except to exchange ideas on legislation, and require them to publish a record of their contacts.

"It may take several election cycles to scrub corporate influence and control from our political system, but once it starts it will gain momentum. And once we've accomplished this feat, appropriate regulation and control will follow."

Critics on the left say John Steel's argument doesn't go far enough, that capitalism is incompatible with democratic values and should be abolished. Critics on the right disagree. They say that government itself is the problem and free enterprise is the answer.

We say, the best protection against either big government or big business is an informed and mobilized public. Noam Chomsky has said that the United States is a "weak democracy" but that your vote can occasionally make a real difference.
Democracy—use it or lose it!

SOURCE: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25681.htm.

Is There More To Business That Profits?

Corporate executives always put profits first. Are they "bad people," or simply people like us trapped in a bad system? As reported by Bloomberg BusinessWeek's John Tozzi, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (aka Ben and Jerry) say they didn't have much choice when they sold their hippie ice cream company to corporate giant Unilever in 2000. Lawyers insisted that they had a duty to seek the highest possible return for shareholders or risk lawsuits.

In the future, however, entrepreneurs who want to put principles before profits might have more options. A new Maryland law creates a new class of company called "benefit corporations" and gives them greater protection from lawsuits filed by shareholders demanding that management put their financial interests first.

Vermont and California are considering similar measures. To qualify as a benefit corporation, a company would have to spell out its nonfinancial goals in its corporate charter and get approval of two-thirds of shareholders.

Like for-profits, benefit corporations can generate a broad range of beneficial products and services that improve quality of life for consumers, create jobs, and contribute to the economy. While some critics say this unnecessarily blurs the line between for-profits and non-profits, others argue that benefit companies may be able to attract investors--and customers--with a specific social agenda.

Green and socially responsible businesspeople, take note.

SOURCE: THE WEEK, May 7, 2010.

Does America Cause Cancer?

As reported by Tom Laskawy for Grist, comedian Bill Maher was on to something when he joked in an interview last year with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that "America causes cancer." A prestigious government panel reports that thousands of industrial chemicals in our environment are indeed making Americans sick, and its findings cannot be easily dismissed. It originates "not from the fringe but from the mission control of mainstream scientific and medical thinking, the President's Cancer Panel," as Times columnist Nick Kristof observes. The four-decades-old panel comprises three distinguished experts who review America's cancer program and report directly to the president.

According to the president's panel, Americans are being "bombarded" with chemicals, gases and radiation that can cause cancer, and the federal government must do far more to protect us. Although as many as two-thirds of cancer cases are caused by lifestyle choices like smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise, the panel said many avoidable cancers were also caused by pollution, radon from the soil and medical imaging scans.

Since so little is known about the possible risks of cell phones, people would be prudent to wear headsets and make calls quickly, the two members of the panel advised.

"The panel was particularly concerned to find that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated," they wrote in the report.

Unfortunately, dangerous chemical exposure is pervasive and unavoidable. "With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are un- or understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread," the report adds.

"The American people — even before they are born — are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures," Kripke and Leffall wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama at top of the report.

"The panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase healthcare costs, cripple our nation's productivity, and devastate American lives."
The proper response to this report is fear and anger, writes reporter Laskawy. But he doubts that government, shot through with corporate influence, has the will to address this in a comprehensive way, although Senator Frank Lautenberg's Kid-safe Chemicals Act would be a good place to start.

Notably, the report specifically recommends that individuals can minimize cancer risk by eating organic food, drinking filtered water and avoiding plastic containers. As Laskawy underscores, a government agency now officially endorses going organic!

SOURCES: www.grist.org, 5/6/2010, "Does America Cause Cancer" by Tom Laskawy.

Let Food Be Your Green Medicine

As reported by "green medicine" advocate Dr. Tom Ballard, RN, ND, "Nutrition outperforms drug treatments for both prevention and treatment of chronic disease. Did you know oatmeal lowers cholesterol as well as statin drugs and without the side effects? Or that four ounces of legumes a week reduces cancer rates 22 percent — better than any drug?

"Good nutrition is perhaps the most powerful medicine we have against chronic disease, yet it's hardly mentioned in debates over health care reform. That's astonishing, given that we're spending a reported $147 billion annually to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the multiple types of cancer that have been linked to the 'Western' diet."

Dr. Ballard's prescription for good health is not to abandon Western medicine but to live a lifestyle that requires it only as an emergency backstop. "The truth is, our medical system rates an A for emergency medicine, but suffers attention-deficit when it comes to chronic diseases. 'Breakthrough' drugs and 'cutting edge' surgery are the focus. Meanwhile, basic, proven prevention and treatment options involving nutrition are all but ignored." He adds, "All the diseases that are costing us the most money — diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, asthma, arthritis, cancer, depression, allergies and irritable bowel disease — are linked directly to what we eat."

Dr. Ballard attributes most disease to nutritional imbalances and recommends an organic, whole foods for optimal health. "When you eat whole, organic foods, you're addressing core issues — preventing and treating disease by nurturing vital systems with the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients they require."

If diet is the cause of disease, it can also be the cure. "As destructive to health as poor diets are, the curative power of good food is even more remarkable. In one study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, women treated for cancer had a 50 percent reduction in relapse risk if they ate five vegetables and fruits per day. Several studies have found that eating such nutritious foods as flax seeds, fatty fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables prevent and reduce the growth of prostate and other cancers. Peer-reviewed research in Holland has found that children raised on organic dairy products in the first two years of life are more than a third less likely to suffer from allergies, asthma and eczema.

According to Dr. Ballard, the medical model of disease does not provide adequate healthcare. "A truly reformed health care system would be a coordinated program between agriculture, the food industry, and health care providers trained in nutrition (most M.D. degrees typically do not require even one course in nutrition). We need to ensure that everyone has access to fresh, affordable organic foods."

Dr. Tom Ballard, RN, ND, is the author of "Nutrition-1-2-3: Three diet wisdoms for losing weight, gaining energy and reversing chronic disease."

SOURCE: www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/sc/1002/sc1002-greenmedicine.html

Diet AND Exercise To Lose Weight

Which is better to lose weight, diet or exercise? Most likely you need to do both.

Exercise usually doesn't help you to lose weight unless it's combined with a healthy diet program. "Exercise doesn't give you carte blanche to eat whatever you want," says Timothy Church, MD. "People think an hour on a treadmill burns off a whole chocolate cake. In reality, it's half a slice. Dr. Church is director of preventive research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Baton Rouge and author of an important new study on exercise and weight loss.

However, dieting without exercise isn't the answer, either. The National Weight Control Registry, a group that follows how 6,000 people have lost weight and kept it off, found that the most successful participants work out at least 30 minutes every day.

Experts agree: Combining smart dieting and regular exercise offers the best chance to reach your weight loss goals.

SOURCE: Health, November 2009.

Secret To Increasing Willpower

Do you start the day with firm resolve, only to find your willpower to finish tasks tasks, diet, or exercise drain away as the hours pass? You're not alone.

"When you use self-control, it gets a little more depleted," Says Kathleen Martin Ginis, PhD, professor of kinesiology at McMaster University. And once willpower ebbs, you're less likely to stick to your regimens.

Yet studies conducted by Ginis found that men and women who continued to practice willpower-draining tasks got better at it over time. "It's like a muscle that gets stronger with use," says Ginis.

Another study conducted at the University of Sydney found that people who followed a money management program eventually began eating healthier diets, drinking less alcohol, and even smoking less, too.

Want to increase your own willpower? Practice! Focus on small tasks and build up the "muscle." Practice sitting up straight or not swearing or resist checking your email every few minutes. "It may sound silly," says Ginis, "but it works."

SOURCE: Oprah Magazine, February 2010.

Lose 4 Bad Habits: Gain 12+ Years

Break four common bad habits combined — smoking, drinking too much, inactivity and poor diet — and you could turn your biological clock back 12 years!

The findings are from a study that tracked nearly 5,000 British adults for 20 years, and they highlight yet another reason to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Overall, 314 people studied had all four unhealthy behaviors. Among them, 91 died during the study, or 29 percent. Among the 387 healthiest people with none of the four habits, only 32 died, or about 8 percent.

The risky behaviors were: smoking tobacco; downing more than three alcoholic drinks per day for men and more than two daily for women; getting less than two hours of physical activity per week; and eating fruits and vegetables fewer than three times daily.

These habits combined substantially increased the risk of death and made people who engaged in them seem 12 years older than people in the healthiest group, said lead researcher Elisabeth Kvaavik of the University of Oslo.

The healthiest group included never-smokers and those who had quit; teetotalers, women who had fewer than two drinks daily and men who had fewer than three; those who got at least two hours of physical activity weekly; and those who ate fruits and vegetables at least three times daily.

"You don't need to be extreme" to be in the healthy category, Kvaavik said. "These behaviors add up, so together it's quite good. It should be possible for most people to manage to do it."

For example, one carrot, one apple and a glass of orange juice would suffice for the fruit and vegetable cutoffs in the study, Kvaavik said, noting that the amounts are pretty modest and less strict than many guidelines.

SOURCE: http://www.archinternmed.com

Empathy Decline: Do You Care???

Today's college students are losing their empathy, a University of Michigan study shows. The study analyzed almost 14,000 college students over the last 30 years.

"We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000," said Sara Konrath, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research. "College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests."

Compared to college students of the late 1970s, the study found, college students today are less likely to agree with statements such as "I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective" and "I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me."

"Many people see the current group of college students — sometimes called 'Generation Me' — as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident and individualistic in recent history," said Konrath, who is also affiliated with the University of Rochester Department of Psychiatry.

Why is empathy declining among young adults? Researchers suggest there could be several reasons, including the explosion of social media, video gaming, and the general increase of nonwork-related information.

"The ease of having 'friends' online might make people more likely to just tune out when they don't feel like responding to others' problems, a behavior that could carry over offline," speculates graduate researcher Edward Obrien. Add in the hypercompetitive atmosphere and inflated expectations of success, borne of celebrity "reality shows," and you have a social environment that works against slowing down, listening to others, and offering sympathy.

OPEN EXCHANGE speculates that there may be even deeper reasons why empathy is waning. Benjamin Barber warns about the increasing hyper-individualism promoted by corporate capitalism, where infants are trained to recognize company logos as early as age two. You probably know Nike and Bank of America's corporate logos, but can you identify the native birds in your own neighborhood?

Our prescription: Unplug the computer, postpone shopping, visit your local park, connect with nature, and maybe regain some of that lost empathy!

SOURCES: ScienceDaily, May 29, 2010.
Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults and Swallow Citizens Whole by Benjamin R. Barber.

INTERESTERIFIED FAT: Don't Eat It!

Interest + terrified = interesterified fat? In an attempt by food scientists to produce oils with "no trans fats," they seem to have produced something even more dangerous.

What they do is hydrogenate the oils fully. The oils become fully saturated and there are no trans fats left. But fully hydrogenated oil is hard and inedible. So the smart aleck scientists mix it with liquid oils and put it through other chemical processes to create a semi-solid grease like margarine and vegetable shortening.

The bottom line is this: Interesterified fat was found by researchers in at Brandeis University, UK, to depress the level of HDL (good cholesterol) more than trans fat.
In addition, interesterified fat raised blood glucose levels and depressed the level of insulin. This strongly suggests that interesterified fat could lead to diabetes.

So be extra careful of products labelled "No Trans Fat" especially when they contain fully hydrogenated oils.

SOURCE:
www.stop-trans-fat.com/interesterified-fat.html

Four Easy Immune Boosters

Get Moving! Moderate exercise, as little as 20 to 30 minutes daily, increases blood flow, speeds nutrients to your cells, and decreases stress hormones, which dampen immune response. According to a study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, regular physical activity lowers upper-respiratory infections.

Sleep! At least seven hours each night boosts immunity, but a single night of sleep deprivation can depress your immune system. According to a 2009 study published in Archives of Internal Medicine, sleep can reduce your chances of catching a cold by up to 300%.

Try Tai Chi! According to researchers at Shanghai University of Sport, middle-aged women who practiced Tai Chi four hours a week saw levels of two different disease-fighting cells increase by nearly 32%.

Meet People! People who are socially active get fewer colds, even when exposed to the virus. Being social and maintaining emotional ties may be the key.

SOURCE: Prevention, December 2009.

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