Month: January 2008

Contributed by: filbert Wednesday, January 23 2008 @ 01:31 PM CST

Peter D. Kramer, writing in Slate[*1] :

Erick Turner, of the Oregon Health and Sciences University, and others examined data on antidepressants submitted to the Food and Drug Administration over a 15-year period. They found that only studies yielding positive results were likely to appear in the medical literature. Thirty-seven of 38 favorable trials had been published. By contrast, of 36 studies with negative or ambiguous findings, 22 were never published, and 11 were published with a deceptively favorable spin[*2] . As a result, 94 percent of the published studies supported the efficacy of antidepressants, even though only about half the total trials had found that the medications help.

via ScienceBlog[*3]

It’s almost as if people have agendas.  Can you believe it?

Contributed by: filbert Tuesday, January 22 2008 @ 09:14 PM CST

Fred! packs it in[*1] .

So does Heath Ledger[*2] , somewhat more permanently.

This just in:  Bush Lied![*3]   This also just in:  saying something that you had every reason to believe was true, only to later find out that it wasn’t true, is a “lie.”  Let’s be careful out there.

Speaking of lying:  In a stunning development, a Democrat publically admits that the Clintons are utterly, totally, 100%, completely full of shit.  Or, as Obama[*4] put it, “not making statements that are factually accurate.”  Strangely enough, Clinton when he was President said on numerous occasions that Saddam’s Iraq had WMD’s.  Quick, somebody do a study!

Oh, yeah, EVERYBODY PANIC[*5] !

In a related story, Bush sits down[*6] with the Congressional leadership, and from all accounts, has a cordial meeting.  EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

Closer to home:
Missouri Governor Matt Blunt says he’s done everything he wanted to do as Governor (riiiiight), so he’s not running for re-election[*7] .  That he’s trailing his Dem. challenger, Attorney General Jay Nixon, has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Even closer to home:
Frances Semler hangs it up[*8] .  The racists, haters and scofflaws win.  Again.

Contributed by: filbert Monday, January 21 2008 @ 03:47 PM CST

Says here[*1] that if you’re making chicken soup to take care of a cold that you or a loved one is suffering from, go heavy on the celery.

In the new study, Kikue Kubota and colleagues note that cooks have long recognized celery’s “remarkable” ability to enchance the complex flavors of soups and broths. Almost magically, celery takes on a sweet-spicy flavor after boiling, helping to give food a thick, full-bodied, satisfying taste. Until now, however, scientists have been unable to track down the roots of celery’s effects.

What the heck.  Toss in some broccoli, too[*2] .

They gave broccoli extract to lab rats for one month and measured its effects on the rats’ heart muscle. Compared to a control group that ate a regular diet, the broccoli-fed animals had improved heart function and less heart muscle damage when deprived of oxygen. Broccoli’s heart-healthy effects are likely due to its high concentrations of certain substances that seem to boost levels of a heart-protective protein called thioredoxin, the researchers note.

It’s good for ya.  Can’t hurt, anyways.

Contributed by: filbert Sunday, January 20 2008 @ 03:35 PM CST

That MLK might very well have plagiarized the “I Have A Dream” speech from one given at the 1952 Republican National Convention by a black Republican-Archibald Carey[*1] :

The plagiarism did not begin or end with the doctoral thesis, so much so that the Collected Papers of Luther King Jr. apparently devotes at least as much time to “uncited sources” as it does to his own work, if that is the correct description. Even the much celebrated “I have a dream” speech of 1963 was plagiarized. By a peculiar turn of events, the source King raided for this was a speech given to the Republican National convention of 1952, by a black preacher named Archibald Carey.

Via Gateway Pundit[*2] .

Does it matter, really?  Not to King, I’m sure.  He still got murdered for what he was saying and what he was doing.  But those of you who think that the “issue” of “civil rights” belongs to one particular political party really need to look at the history.  One party was founded to combat slavery.  The other one was dragged kicking and screaming into the civil rights battle, and now cynically uses it to maintain and extend its power.

It doesn’t matter what the original source of the words were–it matters that they are true and noble and words to live by:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Contributed by: filbert Friday, January 18 2008 @ 05:30 PM CST

Martin Luther King’s speech[*1] :

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Contributed by: filbert Thursday, January 17 2008 @ 11:23 AM CST

Statistically proven[*1] , as noted by Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks in the Wall Street Journal:

In the end, we have to face the fact that political intolerance in America — ugly and unfortunate on either side of the political aisle — is to be found more on the left than it is on the right. This may not square with the moral vanity of progressive political stereotypes, but it’s true.

Mr. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Affairs and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of the forthcoming book “Gross National Happiness.”

Here’s the source site, American National Election Studies[*2] –a joint venture of the University of Michigan and Stanford, neither noted as rabidly right-wing entities.

It’s really not too late for those of you on the left to take a step back, a deep breath, stop the shouting matches, and try to re-engage your fellow citizens who disagree with you.

Via Michelle Malkin[*3]

Contributed by: filbert Thursday, January 17 2008 @ 10:07 AM CST

Via Instapundit[*1] , this from Popular Mechanics[*2] :

Nearly three out of four students surveyed in the annual Lemelson-MIT Invention Index[*3] think high-tech inventions can help solve issues such as climate change and natural-resource depletion within the next 10 years—and 64 percent of them think they could come up with the a-ha moment themselves, compared to 38 percent of adults. The problem? A majority of United States teens say their science education is lacking and that they aren’t prepared to pursue careers in engineering and technology.

This is really, really, really bad.  And it’s the fault of the Education Industry…the NEA, the Department of Education, and the rest.

Contributed by: filbert Thursday, January 17 2008 @ 07:18 AM CST

The ’90’s were the “Get Over It” decade.

Perhaps the ’00’s should be the “Suck It Up!” decade.  Or, if we are very unlucky, we’ll have to wait until the ’10’s.

Michelle Malkin[*1] :

I need a man. A man who can say “No.” A man who rejects Big Nanny government. A man who thinks being president doesn’t mean playing Santa Claus. A man who won’t panic in the face of economic pain. A man who won’t succumb to media-driven sob stories.

A man who can look voters, the media, and the Chicken Littles in Congress in the eye and say the three words no one wants to hear in Washington: Suck. It. Up.[*2]

The Michigan primary put economics[*3] at the top of the political radar screen, and the Democrat presidential candidates have been doling out spending proposals, stimulus packages, housing market rescues, and other election-year-goodie pledges like Pez candy dispensers gone haywire. Which leading GOP candidate represents fiscal accountability and limited government? Who will take the side of responsible homeowners and responsible borrowers livid at bipartisan bailout plans for a minority of Americans who bought more house than they should have and took out unwise mortgages they knew they couldn’t repay?

I don’t want to hear Republicans recycling the Blame Predatory Lenders rhetoric[*4] of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Jesse Jackson[*5] . Enough with the victim card. Borrowers are not all saints. There’s nothing compassionate about taking money from prudent, frugal families and using it to aid their reckless neighbors and co-workers who moved into McMansions they couldn’t afford or went crazy tapping their home equity and now find themselves underwater.

How long can we afford to pay the bill for other people’s irresponsibility?  At what point do we start demanding that our fellow citizens get their snouts out of the public till, put their heads down, get to work, and SUCK IT UP?

It’s hard to be “heartless.”  It’s much easier to be an enabler–“oh, you poor thing, here, let me allow you to continue to wallow in self-destructive behavior while fooling yourself that all of your problems are caused by somebody else.  Poor baby.”

You know what?  If you took out one of these sub-prime mortgages to buy a house you couldn’t afford, you’re an idiot.  If you were the ones holding out sub-prime loans to people who couldn’t afford them, you’re a scoundrel.

Scoundrels need idiots almost but not quite as much as idiots need scoundrels.

Suck it up, everyone.  You made your own hole.  Dig yourself out of it.  Quit borrowing money, start living on, as Dave Ramsey says, “beans and rice, rice and beans.”  Take control of your own life, unless you really, really, really want somebody else to control it for you.

Unfortunately, it’s beginning to look like a large segment of the American public wants exactly that.  To which I can only say: be very careful what you wish for.