June 19th - Friday

under-the-radar-1images2Hour One: "Brunch With Bernie" Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joins Thom for his weekly nationwide town hall meeting www.sanders.senate.gov

Hour Two: "News Under the Radar" Christy Harvey with the Center for American Progress stops by www.americanprogress.org

Hour Three: Steve Forbes & Thom mix it up on his new book - "Power, Ambition and Glory"

Comments

Mark (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#1

Pop science, feel-goodisms and “studies” designed to advance a political agenda do not advance our understanding of nature one inch. How about some scientific reality that isn’t politically opportunistic: While unicellular organisms do reproduce initially by way of fission, in order to survive for the long run, non-identical pairs or separate populations “fuse,” which is “sex” in its most basic form. Why? Because like in-breeding in humans, eventually a lack of diversity causes abnormalities and a lack of vitality that causes even unicellular life to fail to regenerate over time. Heterosexual sex between two organisms from seperate gene pools allows for the creation of an organism that can adapt to different environmental circumstances, without which survival is unlikely. So-called “self-fertilization” that some political activists with no scientific knowledge like to point to in lower forms of life does not provide the needed variability (within the confines of the separate species) that cross-fertilization provides for higher life forms. Without variability, adaptation and evolution is impossible.

Quark (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#2

Mark,

Your comment reminds me of how awe-inspiring this universe is. You might as well be talking about quantum physics immediately following "the big bang." Sometimes I imagine the whole thing --- life, the universe, and everything --- is an elaborate series of fractals (either that, or "42.") LOL

Thom,

Is there any way to paste images into this blog? (I feel as though one arm is tied behind my back!)

Frank Feuerbacher (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#3

Oil industry lobbying steps on the gas

Efforts to ward off new taxes, woo Democrats pick up speed as companies boost spending.

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/2009/06...

KMH (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#4

A must see! check out this you tube of Tommy Douglas, leader of the Canadian Health Care System.."After I am gone-" speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf1YAznsnVA

mstaggerlee (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#5

Quark -

I thought the answer was 43!!??

:D

Quark (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#6

mstaggerlee,

LOL

In honor of "anything goes" Friday, was it the Firesign Theatre who had a radio-show caller who said, "Hello. I'm not wearing any pants. I'll hang up and listen!"

That's so silly it always makes family members laugh.

Al (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#7

A modest proposal 2009: If single payer health care is off the table and we also can't get a public option how about a lottery system for health care. Those without health care can spin the wheel at the hospital or doctor's office to see if they'll be one of the lucky ones to get care that day.

B Roll (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#8

Question: What do Barack Obama and John Ensign have in common?

Answer: Problem with flies. Obama killed a fly on camera and Ensign couldn't keep his fly zipped.

AZAFVET (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#9

I can't believe just how disillusioned I am with the Democratic party. Totally owned and controlled just like like the Republicans. I've been a Democrat all my life and now I just don't care any more. http://democratichealthcareturncoats.webs.com/

Lorne (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#10

Much of our medical advances, techniques and technologies are developed through public funding through public universities. We fund this for the public good and I'm happy to pay taxes for the cause. I'm not happy about insurance companies profiting off the use of public paid for medical advancements and the doctors we see who's degrees are publicly funded.

Michael Gregory (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#11

An public education/health care analogy:

Public education is schooling offered to all children by the government and paid for by taxes. Americans invest in public education systems because a democratic society is stronger if people are capable of reading, writing, and doing basic mathematics.

Radical right-wingers argue that teaching these skills is best left to the private sector. However, a system in which people with more money have greater means to education and training is counter intuitive. People with more money will have a distinct advantage thus undermining real competition. So as a compromise, we use (what used to be a progressive) tax that allows everyone the right to at least some decided minimum level of education, while maintaining the right for wealthy people to purchase any additional education they please. Public education encourages growth and is always an investment in the long run.

Like education, public health plays an important role in a democratic society’s strength, well-being, wealth, and happiness. But again, the radical right makes similar arguments toward public health care that they make about public education. Leave it to the private sector, not even a public heath care coverage option should be permitted. Recent history proved this private system only a disaster.
The contrary is true, however, in many other countries that do offer a public option. All of these nations (without exception) spend less then the U.S.’s all private system, and the vast majority of these nations report better health and mortality statistics. The opposition harp on claims of long lines and rationed care, but these minority sentiments are really people defending a more progressive system (not banning public health altogether). Similar to the common U.S. sentiments about public schools using old books and having over-sized classrooms. We do not wish to eliminate public education, rather to fix it. The more we see the parallels between these two debates, the easier it is to see that health is a right not a privilege, and that health care is an investment not an expense.

KMH (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#12

Breaking news, Whitehouse resolution supports the demonstrators, Ayatolla is reacting with a threat and now Whitehouse is putting together a response. Where is Ellen!!!!

Quark (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#13

No, Steve Forbes, Jack Welch created poverty (in this country.)

Quark (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#14

I turn the T.V. off whenever Jack Welch is a guest on MSNBC. Everyone there seems to grovel in his wake. Even tho he was once their "fearless leader" as head of GE, it's too bad they can't be even a little honest about his business "contributions."

KMH (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#15

Daschel, you wimp! Wait until the 27th of June Daschel-[the President's National Day of Service for Health Care Reform. See http://www.barackobama.com/

KMH (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#16

Yea, I heard the Whitehouse told Twitter to keep up when Twitter wanted to shut down.

KMH (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#17

So- we intervene when we transfer them from a democracy to a dictatorship, but not when changing from a dictatorship to a democracy hmmmm..........

beast250 (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#18

We are all machines that transfer energy. Oil has made our labor obsolete. We need to base or economy on the watt and give those who can only supply labor a way to generate a living wage. We can all generator electricity and make, those in power, utilize it. This would wipe out the need for a minimum wage by giving a decent job for anyone that would desire it.

Quark (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#19

beast250,

'Just wondering --- with over 6 billion people in the world, wouldn't there be a supply glut?

Maybe we need to imagine the world of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Money and wars are a thing of the past in the "Federation."

KMH (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#20

If Henry Kissenger is for it, I am against it generally.

Quark (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#21

'Just wanted to share a "guilty pleasure" for the weekend. (You don't need to join or log in to view.)

The Fifth Element

http://www.crackle.com/c/The_Fifth_Element/The_Fifth_Element_feat_Bruce_...

Stan (not verified) 13 years 40 weeks ago
#22

Thom,

The program on Nova re: epigenetics was very enlightening to me.

Here is the Web address:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3411/02.html

Apparently body chemistry and the mix of substances introduced into the body has a great deal to do with epigenetic change. Plastics and hormones ingested can be culprits; some soy products can be heroes, etc.

Maybe from your reading you can recall a Soviet biologist by the name of Lysenko, a favorite of Stalin's. Lysenko thought genetics could be changed by environment. Although completely discredited in the West at the time, Lysenko was at least somewhat right.

Stalin seized on Lysenko's ideas to reinforce his views of behavior modification for Soviet citizens. This gave license to the KGB and other hyper authoritarians in the SU for some crude and horrendous actions.

In these studies there are possible cures for a lot of maladies and further encouragement to improve upon the mix of substances coursing through out veins even through sex and exercise, etc. We do have to be careful of our own KGB types.

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