SeniorJunior

A Bunch of Students, Of Course ... More on that in a minute, but who else? Can you name even one legitimate, professional, scientifically credible group in favor of pot for people with painful prognoses? Here are just a few of the wacko ones: The AIDS Action Council, the Alaska Nurses Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Nurses Association, the American Preventive Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, the California Academy of Family Physicians, the California Medical Association, the California Pharmacists Association, the Connecticut Nurses Association, Cure AIDS Now, the Florida Medical Association, the Los Angeles County AIDS Commission, the Lymphoma Foundation of America, the Medical Society of the State of New York, the National Association for Public Health Policy, the National Association of People with AIDS, the National Nurses Society on Addictions, the New England Journal of Medici...

Note to Neighbors Remember I'm a four-cistern guy? Read all about it here . Anyway, here is sort of an update on that "cistern" story written about this time in '06. It's in the form of a "Discussion" entry on a new, trial-balloon neighborhood community website. Big lesson on water usage: We have four sisterns draining our metal roofs on house, garage and dog kennel; two 1600 galloners, one 1200 gals and one 600 gals (the kennel). We drip irrigate two vegetable plots, one 30' X 5' and one 15' X 3'. We water an hour a day during these early-growth days. We use about 150 gallons per watering. We also water our "courtyard" of flowers and trees, fenced off from our herd of big Airedales. About 100 gals a day\ Figger it out. That's about twenty day's worth. We are almost out of water and the Monsoons aren't here yet. I hate to...

Another End Run - This Time by the E.U. We all read about how the progress we made in The Americas has slipped badly during the W. Bush years. Really too bad. So now there is an opportunity to do some fix-up. With Fidel fading in Cuba, we could step in and encourage our island neighbor to move away from their failed communist orthodoxy. We could rejoin our old bonds (not the ones with American gangsters) and build a potential ally, trading partner and, eventually, friend. Heaven knows we need one. If there was ever a chance to open a new chapter in inter-American relations, this is it. But ... Nah, we will keep up our failed policy of an endless embargo, mainly to pander to all those Cuban immigrants (whose property was confiscated and who can never get it back until we have a legal relationship with Cuba. Huh?). Now the European Union is reestablishing a full relationship with Cuba. They will start reaping the benefits and influencing the direction Cuba will go. Of course the...

One Big Plan, Man Bollixed: The Current U.S. Health Care Situation: Our private, mostly unregulated, profit-driven insurance system guarantees by its very nature that millions of citizens, many who are highly productive workers, are either uninsured or under-insured. This situation cannot be improved significantly without eliminating private health insurance as the primary form of healthcare financing. Adding approximately 30% to the cost of healthcare (that's about $300 BILLION A YEAR!) private health insurance is parasitical in that it helps only the owners, stockholders and employees of the insurance companies and does essentially nothing to improve health care. Converting from private health insurance to Single Payer Government Insurance - "Medicare for All" (MFA) faces formidable hurdles, which are addressed in this plan. Hurdles. (I'm talking high hurdles, track fans.) The private health insurance companies are an immense po...

Two Thangs, 1. I am now DEFINITELY for the elimination of private health insurance companies. The good old "American Way" of profit-driven health insurance just ain't working, folks, for anybody but those companies, their executives and stockholders. The rest of us are getting regularly screwed, and the country is way worse off for it. When you hear "single payer," that's what they are talking about. The "single" part is a government insurance program that you purchase for a fair, non-profit price. The "payer" part means the bills actually get paid. No delays, no disqualifications, no cancellations, none of the bs the private insurance companies do every day. Here is a great article (and lots of great responses) on just how bad it really is. 2. Dennis Kucinich continues to be a hero of mine. He's got the guts to keep the impeachment of W on the table. To ignore his persistence is getting harder and harder for the "off ...

Fool Me Once….. [Excerpts from a NYTimes.com article , interspersed with mild mannered commentary .] Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer is preparing to walk into a buzz saw of criticism over American biofuels policy when he meets with world leaders to discuss the global food crisis next week. He’s carrying the Big Bush Talking Point, “Golly, ethanol from corn is only making a tiny difference in the price of food around the world.” See, the ethanol mandates and subsidies are just terrific for BS (Bush Supporters) in Big Ag, like Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Tyson and lots of millionaire big farmers. So the Bushies are going to fight hard against this new awareness that corn is a really bad feedstock for ethanol in terms of cost, climate benefits and unintended consequences. So… Mr. Schafer took the offensive at a press conference on Thursday that discussed the food summit, planned for Rome. He said an analysis by the Agriculture Department had dete...

We Are Smarter Than That! A friend sent me a fascinating PowerPoint presentation on how gas will probably hit $11 a gallon before too long. (It's from Mathew Simmons' Energy Investment Bank. ) I like it! Plus I'm dreadfully afraid it's true. So then after gasoline hits $11/gallon and natural gas $25 per MMBTU, water will go up, food following in lockstep. Minimum basic food will be entirely too expensive for a billion people to buy. So they will starve. Seriously, starve to death. Billion; that's a thousand millions. Puts earthquakes and Cyclones to shame. I liked the PowerPoint presentation, and I think that Simmons Energy is right. They point out that this is not all bad. The good side effect is declining hydrocarbon use - good for the climate. Still it's a painful way to get there. Well designed, fairly enforced government incentive programs for lower energy use might do the same thing without driving so many individuals and companies to ruin - ...

... Or "Who's more important, corn farmers or the rest of us?" Now that it is perfectly clear that using food (corn in our case) to make fuel doesn't do anything good it was supposed to do, you would think Congress would hustle to undo the damage it is doing. Do you suppose? It's not helping the environment, it is hurting it. It's not freeing us from our dependence on foreign oil. It is contributing to the scarcity of and the rising prices for food. It is making big, rich agribiz companies even richer and making small farmers even poorer . It's forcing people with reservations about genetically modified food to throw in the towel because of desperate hunger . It is eating up tax dollars that could be doing a lot more good elsewhere. Well, Congress (no use even talking to the Bushies ), there you have it. Time to undo the damage done by wrong assumptions and too-quick response to lobbyists, no? Kill those ethano...

Not the NYTimes or the LATimes, THE times... The whole world is upset about the rising cost of food. And part of the problem is definitely diverting some food into fuel. As in ethanol. Brazilians turn sugar cane into ethanol. Americans turn corn into it. [Ok, it's sort of self serving, but...] This blogster has been grumping about this nonsense for nearly two years. So why didn't Congress, the Department of Agriculture and Keith Olberman jump right on this when they had the chance... TWO YEARS AGO? I try, I try... Lord knows I try. For your reminiscing pleasure: " Ethanol, Schmethanol " June '06 " Starvation " April '07 " Food Prices Rocket " June '07 " Another Shot at Ethanol " July '07 " Deadly Brew " January '08 "Will starve for Ethanol" January '08 When the tortillas went out of reach for Mexicans, we should have known that corn ethanol was a really stupid idea. This stuff is to EAT!

Such a Simple Solution (Attn: Howard Dean) Barrack and Hillary, listen up. Here's the plan. Each of you start ignoring the other - in your speeches, your ads and the comments from your "aids." Each of you focus your attention strictly on McCain . Oh, and the calamities of the W administration. At the end of every day, all of us Dems will score you in our minds about how effectively you are at running the General Election Race. Perhaps some pollsters will start asking how our scores are going. Not only is the vicious infighting abandoned, the primary battle becomes the dress rehearsal for the General and all the firepower is aimed at the Republicans instead of at other Democrats. What a concept! The final benefit is that whoever loses this titanic battle for the Democratic nomination has a totally face-saving way to back down, wreathed in honor and humility - all for the greater good and with enough good will in the party left over to run again another day.

In this greatest of nations, how about this? In Michigan, one in eight residents now receives food stamps. Imagine. 13% of Michiganders on food stamps . Now that is pitiful. Good job, Bushie.

DARN IT (With an apology for my inconsistent adds and updates to this thang - for all those regular readers, of course!) Mostly I have been moved by ... what? Incredulity - outrage - at stupidity, irresponsibility, greed and the whole corrupting influence of unbridled partisanship ... to write something. Not always, of course, but mostly. The last couple of months have had so MUCH of that bad stuff, that I guess I have been sort of strangled as to what to grouse about. But here goes again. The Good Old NEW YORK TIMES editorial this Sunday morning reminded me of just how stupid, counterproductive and downright crappy the GWB Administration is. Stubborn George continues to insist that his torture-justifying lawyer pal Steven Bradbury be his appointee to run the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. (As I'm sure you know) Bradbury wrote all those "Torture's legal. It's OK," then "It's OK to ignore the law that makes it illegal" memos. He has abs...