A recent poll by Harris Interactive surveyed 2,320 adults online between March 1 and 8 on Americans’ negative feeling toward President Obama. The survey found that 40 percent of Americans believe Obama is a socialist, more than 25 percent believe he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a world government, 20 percent think he is doing many of the things that Hitler did, 14 percent believe he may be the anti-Christ, and 13 percent think he wants the terrorists to win. The results between Republicans, Democrats, and education levels varied distinctly. Republicans were the most opposed to Obama (no question received less than a 22 percent agreement among Republicans), while the less education someone had the more they thought Obama wanted to destroy America.
Source: www.Earthtimes.org
Gorillas in the Congo Basin in Central Africa may be extinct by 2020 according to a report released in late March from the United Nations and Interpol. The threat is due to illegal poaching of gorillas for food, habitat encroachment from illegal logging and mining, and the Ebola virus—which some estimates are predicting could kill up to 90 percent of the gorilla population. Since 1997, 190 Virunga National Park rangers have been killed by militia elements due to concern over lost revenue. The report states that unless action is taken to counter poaching and guard the gorillas’ habitat, the dire prediction will be reality.
Source: CNN Tech
Beginning next year, the new federal health-care bill will require all restaurant chains with more than 20 locations to post calorie counts on their menus. One high-calorie example: Wendy’s Baconator Triple containing 1,330 calories, 38 grams saturated fat, and 3,150 milligrams of sodium. Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, said, “It’s been shown over and over again in places where [menu-labeling has] gone into effect, consumers have calorie sticker-shock,” often choosing a lower-calorie option.
Source: Daily Beast
According to a report by Amnesty International, China executed more people in 2009 than the rest of the world combined. In 2008, China executed two-thirds of the people put to death worldwide—1,718 people out of 2,390. Amnesty International claims “thousands” of Chinese executions occurred again in 2009. Currently, the report is incomplete, but Amnesty says at least 2,001 people were executed in 56 countries last year. Following China was Iran with 388 people executed, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States with 52 people—24 executions took place in Texas. Amnesty International says, so far, 95 countries have banned capital punishment. And for the first time since Amnesty started keeping records, there were no executions in Europe.
Source: New York Times
Scientists found that high-calorie, high-fat food such as bacon and cheesecake affect the brain in the same way as cocaine and heroin. The study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, reported that rats fed only junk food developed a pleasure tolerance to the food—needing to consume more to reach the original high obtained. Even given electric shocks when near the fatty foods, the rats persisted and continued eating. In previous studies, rats exhibited similar behavior when given cocaine and heroin. Overeating, like cocaine, caused the dopamine receptor levels in their brains to drop. Dr. Gene-Jack Wang, the chair of the medical department at the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, said, “Processed food is made very similar to cocaine now” by purifying it until it’s delivered more efficiently to the brain. Although the same results may vary in humans, Dr. Wang says if medicines to treat drug addiction are developed they may be used for obesity as well.
Source: CNN Health
With the recent passage of the Health-Care Bill, threats against lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have increased threefold in recent months—42 threats in the first three months of the year, compared with 15 in the last three months of 2009. These are a few of the threats that have occurred since the bill was passed: A gas line was cut at the home of Virginia Democrat Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother after his address was posted online by Tea Party activists, along with a threatening letter. Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) received a fax with a drawing of a noose and an anonymous voice mail saying: “You’re dead. We know where you live. We’ll get you.” Stupak has since announced his retirement. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) claims someone shot a bullet through his Richmond campaign office. A man was arrested by the FBI after posting a death threat against Eric Cantor as well. The FBI also arrested a man in connection to Democratic Senator Patty Murray (WA). Murray received a death threat from the man, who was allowed to carry a concealed weapon. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) received a call using profane language, the caller saying he wished she’d broke her back when she was hit by a car last year and calling her racist because she voted against the bill. On Capitol Hill, a protester spit at Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) and Representative John Lewis (D-GA) was called “nigger” by angry Tea Partiers. In Ottawa, Canada, protests by hundreds of students led organizers to cancel a speech by conservative Ann Coulter at the University of Ottawa. Sarah Palin tweeted “Don’t Retreat, Instead—RELOAD!” and national Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said he wished to see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on “the firing line.” Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-IL) had a newspaper ad placed against him featuring a picture of him with his children in the Cincinatti Inquirer because he voted for the bill. A brick was thrown through the window of the Niagara Falls district office of Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), and someone left her a voice mail suggesting that the children of health-reform supporters would be targeted by snipers.
Sources: The Hill, MSNBC.com, FOXNews.com, Daily Beast, CBS News, Washington Post, Dailyprogress.com, and Los Angeles Times
Along with billions of dollars, 900 babies would be saved each year if 90 percent of mothers in the United States fed their babies only breast milk for the first six months of their lives. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, suggests that hundreds of deaths and more costly illnesses are caused each year from health problems that breastfeeding helps prevent, such as stomach viruses, ear infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and childhood leukemia. Breast milk contains antibodies that help fight infections, affect insulin in the blood, and make babies less likely to develop obesity. A 2001 government report had previously said $3.6 billion could be saved each year if 50 percent of mothers breast-fed for six months. Currently, only 12 percent of mothers breast-feed for that long. The government’s new health-care overhaul requires large employers to provide private places for working mothers to pump breast milk, which experts hope will increase that percentage. At many hospitals newborns are offered formula even when their mothers intend to breast-feed.
Source: Associated Press
Three employees at Disneyland Paris have committed suicide since the start of this year, causing the resort to consider taking action to improve working conditions. Guy-Bruno Mboe, leader of a Disneyland union, blamed the latest two deaths on “brutal” working conditions which demand more productivity without increased compensation. On March 26, and 37-year-old father of four hanged himself on the day he was supposed to return to work after holidays and sick leave. Another Disneyland restaurant worker threw himself in front of a train five weeks earlier. In February, an employee committed suicide for what the company called “personal reasons,” and after one man was fired he threatened to kill himself in the theme park.
Source: Sunday Times (UK)
According to a new document, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld covered up the fact that hundreds of innocent men were sent to Guantanamo Bay prison camp because releasing them could have harmed the start of the war in Iraq and the War on Terror. The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, who signed a declaration in support of Adel Hassan, a Sudanese man who was held and tortured at Guantanamo Bay from March 2003 until December 2007—Hassan is filing a damages action against a list of American officials. Wilkerson claims that the former vice-president and defense secretary knew that the majority of the 742 detainees sent to Guantanamo in 2002 were innocent, but they felt if they were released “the detention efforts would be revealed as the incredibly confused operation that they were.” Wilkerson claims that the detainees were as young as 12 and as old as 93 and turned over by Afghans and Pakistanis for cash bounties up to $5,000. Wilkerson claims that Mr. Cheney felt it was acceptable if at least some genuine militants were captured which could prove a link to Saddam Hussein and 9/11 and justify the war.
Source: Times (UK)
Studies are showing that insomnia may alleviate depression. This has been documented in over 1,700 patients in more than 75 published papers during the last 40 years. Sleep deprivation can elevate your mood even if you are not depressed, and can induce euphoria. The results are not well known outside of a small group of sleep researchers because it’s not as convenient as taking a pill. Prolonged sleep deprivation is also not desirable, and can lead to cognitive defects like reduced working memory and impaired decision making. J. Christian Gillin from the University of California at San Diego and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center, found that a small area of the cerebral cortex in the front of the brain was consistently overactive in depressed patients, but it quieted to normal levels when patients were deprived of sleep, relieving depression. Scans suggest that something happens in the sleeping brain that can bring on episodes of depression. Genetic studies have shown families who have extended REM sleep have a greater risk of depression. One major class of antidepressants, tricyclics, blocks REM sleep, which suggests that sleep deprivation may work against depression the same way.
Source: New York Times
There was a worldwide increase in anti-Semitic attacks following Israel’s 2009 incursion into Gaza. According to the Stephen Roth Institute for the study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism, the UK saw 374 violent attacks against Jews compared to 118 in 2008, while France had 195 attacks compared to 50 in 2008. Four percent, or 41 instances, were armed assaults, 15 percent were weaponless assaults, three percent (34 instances) were arson, and 29 percent were threats of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions. The UK and France led the chart primarily because the countries are home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, according to Roni Stauber, a researcher at the institute. For 2009, the institute also recorded 138 violent attacks against Jews in Canada, 116 in the US, 33 in Germany, 28 in Belgium, and 22 in Austria.
Source: Haaretz.com
The US Army will court martial a lieutenant colonel who refused to deploy to Afghanistan, who claimed that orders from President Obama are “illegal.” Army doctor, Lieutenant Colonel Terry Lakin, believes Obama was not born in the United States and so does not meet constitutional requirements to be president and commander-in-chief. “I believe all servicemen and women, and the American people, deserve the truth about President Obama’s constitutional eligibility to the office of the presidency and the commander in chief,” he said in a video statement posted on YouTube on March 30.
Source: MSNBC.com
This article appears in May 2010.
