Ah, Those Crafty Devils

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Source: The Nation, June 17, 2009
Rebranding Abstinence Only Center for Media and Democracy

• "Well aware that their cause is in trouble and unpopular, purity proponents are revamping their image to appear more mainstream," reports Jessica Valenti. "Think tanks like the Independent Women's Forum and Concerned Women for America, abstinence-only organizations, religious leaders and legislators" are reacting to the Obama administration's "cutting most abstinence-only education funding from the 2010 budget."
  
• At the National Abstinence Education Association's (NAEA's) "annual lobby day in March, high on the list of priorities was developing a strategy for continuing to receive federal dollars." In April, NAEA director Valerie Huber told a Capitol Hill briefing, "This is not abstinence only, this is a holistic message that prepares and gives students all of the information they need to make healthy decisions."
  
• NAEA -- which hired the PR firm Creative Response Concepts in 2007 -- now calls its programs "abstinence centered," instead of "abstinence only." Huber said that "abstinence education talks about contraception." Valenti counters, "the only time abstinence-only classes will talk about contraception is when they discuss failure rates."
• WhyKnow, "a major provider of abstinence-only education curriculums," hired a public relations firm "to help recast its image," and changed its name to "On Point."
  
• The Medical Institute for Sexual Health, "a hard-core abstinence-only organization," renamed itself the Medical Institute, part of an attempt "to legitimize its message by rebranding itself as science-based."

Boy, we just gotta' watch these suckers every moment, don't we?
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A Summer Glow

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Well, my gentle snowflakes, I have discovered my summer glow.

It comes from a bottle.

The bottle says Zinfandel.

Or maybe Pinot Noir.
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Just One More Time

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David S. Hilzenrath

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 24, 2009; 1:01 PM

• Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released today by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.

And yet, these very health insurance companies are the same ones who claim we should trust them once again to have our best interests at heart. Sure. And a toad is tall.

Just read the opening statement of Wendell Potter, a former executive at Cigna, as made before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday, 24 June 2009.

Those insurance executives must think we are really dumb.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Are we going to be twice a fool?

Hold the Congress's feet to the fire. Urge Congress to go all the way: A single-payer system. Otherwise, Congress members must be willing to trade their government-run health insurance for private coverage.

If the health insurance companies don't want to "play nice," send them home -- with nothing. Because as Michael Moore showed us in "Sicko," none of us really have health insurance - we have the illusion of health insurance.

Did you read not the article about the Senate report? -- BILLIONS --.

Looks to me like that should about cover any cost for this plan. Especially if you add in the salaries of the CEO's -- the top 10 companies paid CEO's close to a billion in compensation in 2008.

A single-payer system. Medicare for All.
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And This Is Why Food Safety Matters

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• WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning people not to eat California Prime Produce- or Orange County Orchards-brand pistachios.
• FDA officials said Orca Distribution West Inc. of Anaheim, Calif., received and repackaged pistachios recalled [emphasis mine] by Setton Pistachios of Terra Bella Inc.
  
• Setton had recalled all of its pistachios because of possible salmonella contamination that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections.
• The products were distributed to retail locations in airports and hotels nationwide in clear 6-ounce flexible plastic Ziploc bags, with "Sell By Dates" of "7/30/09" and "8/30/09."
• The FDA said more than 660 products have been affected by the Setton Pistachio recall.
• A FDA list of all recalled pistachio products is available at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/pistachiorecall/index.cfm.

Did you get that? They repackaged nuts that had been recalled due to salmonella contamination! And then sent them out for sale! GREED!

How can they get away with just simply ignoring the FDA?

Come on, people, put some teeth in those recalls! My God.
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In a Nutshell

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Well, I think the opening paragraph of the new government report on how well the insurance industry is truly "serving" the American public pretty well sums it up.

• In 2008, the average premium for a family plan purchased through an employer was $12,680, nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job.

Medicare for All, a complete discusion, by Eric W. Fonkalsrud, M.D., emeritus professor of surgery and chief of pediatric surgery at UCLA, and Michael D. Intriligator, Ph.D., professor of economics, political science and public policy, UCLA.

• “Medicare Expansion,” would build a national care system by expanding on the existing Medicare program for citizens over the age of 65 years, with a gradual phasing out of the very uneven and underfunded state-administered Medicaid programs³. This restructuring would involve gradual changes in the age of eligibility for the Medicare system, with the most needy becoming eligible first and eventually the entire population covered.
• The first step in the Medicare Expansion program would be to enroll children under 5 years of age, pregnant women and those with lifelong illnesses by the end of 2010. The remainder of the population would be phased in gradually, taking the most needy age groups first, until all persons are covered within five years. In 2011, those between 55 and 65 would be enrolled, and in 2012 those from 5 to 15 and those from 45 to 55 would be included. Those between 15 and 25 as well as those from 40 to 45 would be added in 2013. Finally, by the end of 2014, by adding the remaining population between 25 and 40 the entire U.S. population would be covered: There would be Medicare for all in a single-payer system. There would be no limitations based on pre-existing conditions, as is common in private insurance plans.
• The changes proposed under the Medicare Expansion program would be relatively easy to make from an administrative standpoint since age is easily verified and the basic system is in place and functioning. The Medicare program has established an effective track record during the past 43 years, covering almost 20 percent of the population, primarily the elderly and the disabled, who use medical resources much more than any other age group. Physicians, community hospitals and major academic centers have adjusted to this program and continue to provide high-quality care on a fee-for-service basis.
• Increasingly, both physicians and patients strongly desire a fundamental change in the present system of health care delivery, which involves multiple providers, opaque and diverse policies regarding coverage, and excessive paperwork. Both groups see Medicare as offering easy access and as both cost-effective and successful.
• Medicare permits patients a choice of physicians and hospitals, but places a cap on reimbursement for both, similar to that for private insurance plans. Our proposed phased expansion of Medicare into a system of national health care would be an important basis for rationalizing the allocation of health resources, including greater use of preventive medicine; widespread use of comprehensive electronic records (which are easier to establish in a national program, e.g. VA hospitals, than in diverse community hospitals and are currently used in only 1.5 percent of U.S. hospitals surveyed); more emphasis on primary care; and limits on the treatment of patients who have conditions with a hopeless prognosis⁴. Credentialing of physicians, training programs and hospitals would be facilitated with electronic records. Caution must be taken to maintain vigilant privacy of patient records as mandated by the federal HIPAA legislation.
• The program would utilize existing hospital facilities, with emphasis on more efficient administration. It would eventually lead to a single-payer system, and it would provide for care in rural as well as urban areas. Costs of marketing and middle management would be low as compared with the present system. Only slightly over 3 percent of current health care expenditures for the Medicare program is spent for administrative costs, whereas the figure may be up to 25 percent or even higher for private insurance plans.
• Just shifting many people from private health care plans to Medicare would generate significant immediate savings that could be used to fund the new system. The extensive overhead costs of physician and hospital billing would be reduced markedly, and patients would have a much better understanding of what is and is not included among their health care benefits. Medications provided under the expanded Medicare program should in most cases be generic, with the government negotiating for the lowest price with competing pharmaceutical companies.
• The Medicare program should in most cases encourage the use of hospitals that have more than one patient per room, unless there are specific indications for isolation or intensive care, in order to lower hospital and nursing costs.
• Medicare Expansion thereby has the likelihood of reducing the overall cost of health care, while at the same time providing greater access to care. Caution will be required to maintain equitable reimbursement for physicians and nurses to encourage high-quality care and to encourage bright young people to enter the field. Since the current Medicare program is expected to be bankrupt by 2017, the urgency of extensive health care reform is apparent—reform in which the emphasis is placed on efficient, effective, high-quality, no-frills basic care.
• With an expanded Medicare system, all Americans would be covered regardless of pre-existing conditions, and they would have complete portability of care and medical records throughout the nation. Those people who prefer more extensive coverage for desirable but not essential procedures such as cosmetic surgery, and many other conditions for which very expensive care provides questionable benefit, or self-inflicted disorders, would be placed lower on the list of covered disorders, similar to what Oregon has provided for more than a decade. All citizens would have the option of purchasing supplemental private insurance for these conditions, as now exists in the Medicare program.
• The very erratic and incomplete employer-provided health coverage would be gradually phased out to reduce costs and to make businesses more competitive with those in other nations. Retiree health benefits were first offered in World War II during a period of wage and price controls when many companies had a young work force with few retirees. Today, however, it’s the reverse, particularly in old-line industries. For example, Detroit’s Big Three automakers currently have more than four times as many retirees as active hourly workers.
• The current complex patchwork multiple-payer health insurance programs are much more expensive, regardless of how administered, and do not eliminate the majority of problems. By contrast, Medicare Expansion builds around an efficient and well-established single-payer system, and the incentive-driven but controlled fee-for-service mechanism supplemented by a private partnership for nonbasic and more extensive desired care. Medicare Expansion would thus establish a system of national health care in the United States that would both control costs and provide quality basic health care to all Americans.

So, it was a VERY LARGE nutshell. Bite my squirrel.
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Thanks, George

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No, not that one.

George Carlin has been gone one year.

Carlin was one of my favorite performers because of his great love and respect for the language. And I, my gentle snowflakes, love the precise use of words.

My children will tell you their mother said, "Structure your truth very carefully." George said, “By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.” Yep.

"There's no morality in business. It doesn't have a conscience. It has only the cash register. They'll sell you crappy things that you don't need, that don't work, that they won't stand behind. It's a glorified legal form of criminal behavior." (George Carlin) And that, my gentle snowflakes, is that "greed" of which we spoke the other day.

Google "George Carlin" and read through any list of quotes of his. Illuminating. Inspiring. Thought-provoking. And always one that is good for a chuckle.

Thank you, George. We miss you.
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No Rant Today

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I realize, my gentle snowflakes, that each and every one of you has been waiting with baited breath for me to climb up on my soap box and start another rant on the health care reform mess. You know, "Medicare for All*" or something like that. [*A really good, clear discussion, of Medicare expansion comes about paragraph 6 at the previous link.]

Well, you must wait some more. I do not know whether or not I will ever be able to gain the momentum to rant again on this particular subject.

You see, I am almost catatonic with disappointment. Everyday the single payer option is chipped and chipped and chipped. I fear for it's fate.

Although there is a "public option" in the House bill, there is none in the Senate version. And there is no mention of single-payer in either. That does not bode well for the single-payer plan when the conference committee meets to try to mash the 2 different bills into something everyone thinks will pass in both houses.

Once again, we the American people are about to be screwed by Congress.

Then next election, we will vote 'em back in again--the very same a-holes that sold us down the river will once more sit in "those hallowed halls." They will be free to take their obscene "contributions" (i.e., PAYOFFS) from big Pharma, insurance companies, AMA, etc.

No wonder they laugh at us and refuse to do what we elected them to do.

Apparently, the average American voter has the memory span of a gerbil. And apparently there just aren't enough of the rest of us to make a difference.

Maybe, in a final effort to get their attention, we should require that members of Congress buy the same coverage they want us to use via this "reform."

I reiterate, I am almost catatonic with disappointment.
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I’ve Become Nostalgic for an Occasional Bug in My Salad

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So, this must be our next great fight. (Is there no end? Why is there always another battle?)

• ...factory-produced meat and vegetables — cheap, predictable food — [has] resulted in a profoundly unhealthy American diet.
• ...one in three Americans born after 2000 is expected to develop diabetes.
• ...particularly unnerving ... leftover animal bits washed over with ammonia and ground into “hamburger filler.”
• Agribusiness companies exercise huge political influence, and industry leaders often fill regulatory posts. The Food and Drug Administration consequently dozed, and the number of food safety inspections plunged.
• Nicholas Kristof in the NY Times

Children die. Many others sicken. Why? Big, really BIG greed.

Am I the only one who has noticed lately that many, many, many of the current crop of troubles have to do with greed--shear, unadulterated greed? And also even more greed?

Anyway, if you didn't plant your veggies earlier, at least get in what you can for the fall.

Ask your local (as in not-associated-with-any-chain) nursery owner/manager, your local county extension agent, your grand-dad/grandma (or your Uncle Ed), any seller at the local farmers' market (or at least shop there continuously and consistently). Know the source of your food. Cook from scratch so you know what is in that pot pie you are eating.

People, people, people, we must start to eat more locally. Slow food. Raise your own. Buy from the farmer. Encourage the gardeners. Become one yourself.

Otherwise, "they" will continue to kill us for fun and profit.
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Even Cookie Dough ?

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Nestle recalls Toll House cookie dough:

• NEW YORK (AP) — Federal authorities are investigating a new national outbreak of a bacteria-triggered illness, this time related to a sweet treat treasured by the heartbroken and children-at-heart — packaged raw cookie dough.
• The federal Centers for Disease Control said its preliminary investigation shows "a strong association" between eating raw refrigerated cookie dough made by Nestle and the illnesses of 65 people in 29 states whose lab results have turned up E. coli bacteria since March.

Is nothing sacred?

Is nothing safe?

Are all processed foods poisonous?

Seems we had all better start hitting the cooking/recipe sites.

It is apparently going to become necessary to eat only what you or someone you know and trust has prepared from start to finish--with only the freshest ingredients available.

Great legacy you left us George W. Bush!
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This Is Why Food Safety Matters

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Joseph Coning died yesterday morning at the age of 8.

His kidneys failed and then his heart gave out after contracting E. Coli. The source of the E. Coli is unknown at this time.

From: GastroNomalies
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Health Care "Reform" & the Republicans

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love

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If you don't know how to love around your differences,

.........then you don't really know how to love.
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REMEMBER

Twenty years ago.

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The Dr Tiller Murder

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For many, many years, it has seemed to me that those who are part of the "pro-life" (I prefer to call it anti-abortion) movement must have a tiny, little screw loose someplace.

They say they are Christians. You remember Christians? The followers of Jesus Christ? The Prince of Peace? The man who hated no one? The man whose only act of violence was against the money-changers? The man who said to love one another? Yeah, that Jesus Christ.

Yet these so-called Christians (the Taliban West) are the only people on either side of this who use violence to impose their will & view on everyone else. Bomb. Harass. Vandalize. Terrorize. Shoot. Murder. These actions are their stock in trade.

We who espouse choice are the only ones at the table who must fear for our lives.

Doubt not, anti-abortion is all about the subjugation of women.
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Ironies of Life

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To consider life's ironies,

-- just think about the New Year's resolutions you made 6 short months ago!

How important are they now?

Have you kept any of them?

I ask not to cause you pain, but to urge you to choose better resolutions.

So, let's all make some good, achievable goals. Then put verbs in our sentences--define steps to reach those goals.

Good luck.
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