Will wonders ever cease?

Kudos to Chief Justice John Roberts and the other four members of the Supreme Court who voted today to preserve nearly all aspects of the Affordable Healthcare Act. This is a tremendous victory for all Americans, whether they know it (or like it) or not.

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In a nation that espouses “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” nothing does more to preserve life than everyone having access to affordable health care. Now is the time for opponents to start putting patients ahead of politics!

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An epidemic whose cure cannot “weight”

According to a recent article in Live Science which was summarized in the National Center for Bicycling and Walking’s online publication, Centerlines, humanity is 17 million tons overweight. That is the equivalent to 34,000,000,000 pounds or another 242 million people!

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the United States is the most overweight nation on the planet. With all our fast food, fried food, super-sized sodas, lack of exercise, and over all couch-potato attitudes, we deserve to be at the top of the heap.  The research shows that while North America accounts for just six percent of the world’s population, but 34 percent of its human body mass due to obesity. that is a very sorry statistic.

Here are the lists of the top ten heaviest and lightest nations on the planet. It is noteworthy that half of the top 10 heaviest nation are located in the Middle East, while all ten of the lightest nations are from Asia or Africa. It should also be pointed out that for several of the nations included on the lightest 10 list, the opposite problem from obesity is occurring - instead of too much food (or calories) being consumed, they have too little, which is leading to risks associated with starvation.

Heaviest 10 (for nations with more than 100,000 people):

1. United States
2. Kuwait
3. Croatia
4. Qatar
5. Egypt
6. United Arab Emirates
7. Trinidad and Tobago
8. Argentina
9. Greece
10. Bahrain

Lightest 10:

1. North Korea
2. Cambodia
3. Burundi
4. Nepal
5. Democratic Republic of the Congo
6. Bangladesh
7. Sri Lanka
8. Ethiopia
9. Vietnam
10. Eritrea

The research was detailed online Sunday (June 17) in the journal BMC Public Health.

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Scenes from Michigan’s vagina support rally

Here are some of my photos taken last night at the Michigan rally in support of vaginas held at the steps of the State Capitol in downtown Lansing. At least 5,000 people attended in support of Women’s Rights.

Sheroes of the day – Rep. Barbara Byrum and Rep. Lisa Brown

“Vagina Monologues” being presented

Under a beautiful June evening sky.

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Michigan vagina rally

Photo of portion of the crowd in front of the state capitol in Lansing.

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Michigan vagina rally

I am currently attending the Rally for Vaginas at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. This is easily the largest crowd I have seen at a capitol rally with at least 5,000 women and men of all ages attending.

The rally is in response to the overtly prudish and arrogant actions of the conservative, male dominated state house of representatives where the leader censured two female representatives last week. More will be posted tomorrow.

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GOP legislative “house’shit and ‘man’ure (NSFW)

I was totally disgusted yesterday by the puritanical and prudish actions of the male-dominated Michigan House leadership for silencing two female legislators. As the War on Women has been raging for nearly two years, Representative Lisa Brown (no relation) expressed satirical appreciation to all those legislators who were “concerned about her vagina.” She was silenced for that statement.

Representative Brown

Meanwhile, Representative Barb Byrum was silenced for protesting that she was not being allowed to speak on another bill. Once again those stalwarts of liberty and freedom proceeded to silence her as well. My, how Kabul on the Grand River is so delightfully charming and civil in June.

Representative Byrum

I don’t know about you folks, but the actions of these right-wing GOP (a.k.a. Grand Old Pricks) zealots in the Michigan House is getting out of hand.

I am also curious why these women were silenced when earlier this year Representative Rick Jones was not  for using the word “hooker” to describe a female public relations executive. Oops, I forgot. He’s a man, so stupid, idiotic, prudish, puritanical, asinine, and archaic rules written by other egotistical, etc. men do not apply to him.

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The pungent odor of GOP brain farts

Oh, isn’t it quaint how republicans and fiscal conservatives so conveniently forget which party is principally responsible for the national debt. Being an election year, the pungent odor of hot air being expelled by them reeks across he airwaves on a daily basis.

Guess what? The national debt skyrocketed during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and ballooned again under ‘ol Dubya’s eight year reign. If the GOP is/was so concerned about budget deficits, then where the hell was their song and dance at those times? Check out this truth-revealing weblink to a chat showing how much each president has contributed to the national debt during their term. A brief summary is provided below.

• Carter: +41%
• Reagan: +189%
• Bush I: +55.6%
• Clinton: +36%
• Bush II: +89%
• Obama: +41%

The clearest and easiest way to reduce the budget deficit is to address the biggest piece of the pie – THE $1.3 TRILLION DEFENSE BUDGET, duh!  But, oh no, we can’t touch that sacred cow, despite the fact that the Defense Secretary does not what some of the programs being proposed by the right-wing.

Political brain farts are nothing new. They just tend to be stinkier and fouler these days due to the blatant flip-flopping and bold-faced lies being told, particularly by the right. Hopefully, the majority of the American public can smell rats when their catch a whiff of their aromatic b.s.

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Inconsistent right to life advocacy

I am really quite tired of those taking pious attitudes and talking in puritanical ways about the right to life for the unborn while bluntly neglecting those who are already populating the planet.

Right to life advocates fight tooth and nail to protect the unborn, but virtually disappear the moment the child arrives. From that point on they turn their backs. Why? If protecting life is their goal, then it should pertain to all life. We can disagree on when “life” begin, but their should be no disagreement on protecting life after birth. Where is their advocacy for the following:

• women’s health
• child nutrition funding
• women-infant-children programs wellchild programs
• elementary and secondary education funding
• adoption programs
• preventing war and social injustice
• homeless assistance
• protection for the abused
• opposition to capital punishment
• care for the poor, needy, and indigent
• care for the elderly

Right to life zealots seem to be only concerned about the unborn. Once you come into this world, their attitude appears to be “tough luck and go fend for yourself.” If that is their idea of protecting life, then it is awfully selective, self-aggrandizing, and woefully inconsistent.

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Using one’s imagination for good vs evil

After I arrived home last night from moving my son out of his dorm room, I was listening to a later broadcast of PBS NewsHour before going to bed. There was a disquieting feature story last night about boutique bioterror that I just had to write a post about.

In the story, it was indicated that as more and more items become wireless, the chance of them being hacked or affected by a virus at some point increases. The scary example cited was pacemakers. Apparently, newer versions receive wireless input and updates on nearly a daily basis. If a hacker was to break into one of these links and begin adjusting the signals, one can only imagine the potential for a tragedy, whether it was intended or not.

Think this is a silly notion? Well, think again my friends. Recently, someone actually had the audacity to hack into the Epilepsy Foundation’s website and create a strobing effect on the webpage. The result could have been catastrophic for those suffering from epilepsy as strobing lights can cause seizures. Even sadder was the reason suspected for doing such a dastardly thing -for the jollies. That’s right, simply for laughs. I don’t know about you, but I find that to be immature, sick, and rather twisted.

Torture people from afar by impacting their health??? Is that what this world is coming to? Why is it that some people with such obvious and marketable talent, choose to use it in such unproductive ways? I wish I knew the answer to that question. To think what great things might be accomplished – cure cancer, solve the energy crisis, bring vision to the blind, save an endangered species. The whole thing only makes me want to shake my head in dismay at the sheer waste of it all.

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See and discuss “The Purity Myth” on May 19th

I had an opportunity to preview the documentary, entitled The Purity Myth last night. It is a powerful film, based on the book of the same name by Jessica Valenti, which documents and critiques the ongoing war against women that is being waged primarily by conservative right-wing male zealots who see women’s rights and feminism as a threat to their puritanical interpretations and how American society should return to a patriarchal order. The film depicts and then clearly dispels the myths that are being perpetuated by both male and female right-wing politicians, religious leaders, personalities, media pundits, and educators.

Here is the trailer for the film:

A screening of The Purity Myth will be shown by the Women’s Rights Task Force of the Peace Education Center on Saturday, May 19, 2012, starting at 2:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing, located at 855 Grove Road in East Lansing. A discussion will follow the film. For more information, please contact the Peace Education Center at 517-515-5634 or peaceedcenter@gmail.com.

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