James Zogby has recently pointed to the public dispute between Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice as yet another way in which the Iraq war has become “Strange and Troubling”: And so here we are, nearly three years after "mission accomplished," many dead and injured later, Iraq imploding, the US floundering,…
A friend recently gave me a ticket to a hockey game. I couldn’t help but noticing the high cost of tickets; the average ticket costs $50.
Mark Manary, a WUSM pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, is saving the lives of children in Malawi with peanut butter. His revolutionary new method for treating starving children in malnourished regions could become a worldwide standard of care.
My attendance at this game reminded me that numerous people spend substantial dollars to go to sporting events. As I watched the game tonight it occurred to me that whenever 20,000 people each pay $50 to go to one hockey game, the total gate for the event is $1 million. That $1 million is spent solely to distract and entertain the people for a few hours. The money is for pure amusement, of course, even when it’s the “game of the century.”
An average of 20,000 starving children each year enter the so-called Nutritional Rehabilitation Units in hospitals throughout Malawi.
The arena literally filled up with Americans. 60% of Americans are overweight and half are obese. But Americans are largely in denial regarding the extent of this problem.
When Manary first traveled to Malawi a decade ago, he was eager to make a difference. Everyone told him to stay away from the nutrition wards in the large hospital where he worked. It will depress you, they told him.
People want to think of some dollars as “entertainment dollars” and others as “charity dollars.” Most people …
Based on several conversations I’ve recently had with some religious/social conservatives, God is no longer a Trinity. Whether I raise pressing issues about oil, housing or education I hear the same answer: “The free market will take care of it.” They seem to repeat this free market mantra as their…
1) According to Zogby's February 2006 survey, 85% of US troops serving in Iraq believe that the U.S. invasion was mainly “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks.” 2) According to Mr. Bush, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks." 3) More…
Because the people at the top of our government are responsible for making decisions that could cost the lives and ruin the health of millions of citizens, they should be equipped with the best information and the best expertise. Unfortunately, the White House has decided to muzzle experts and choke off critical debate on numerous topics of critical national significance. Why?
The Administration’s political interference with science has led to misleading statements by the President, inaccurate responses to Congress, altered web sites, suppressed agency reports, erroneous international communications, and the gagging of scientists. The subjects involved span a broad range, but they share a common attribute: the beneficiaries of the scientific distortions are important supporters of the President, including social conservatives and powerful industry groups.
http://democrats.reform.house.gov/features/politics_and_science/index.htm
It’s gotten so bad that prominent Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner has called the president’s science adviser a “prostitute”:
The United States has been engulfed by a kind of “science war,” one pitting much of the nation’s scientific community against the current administration. Led by twenty Nobel laureates, the scientists say Bush’s government has systematically distorted and undermined scientific information in pursuit of political objectives. Examples include the suppression and censorship of reports on subjects like climate change and mercury pollution, the stacking of scientific advisory panels, and the suspicious removal of scientific information from government Web sites.
The list goes on and on: