"Just Like the Ones That We Used to Know" by Connie Willis

http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/liketheonesweusedtono.shtml

The snow started at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time just outside of Branford, Connecticut. Noah and Terry Blake, on their way home from a party at the Whittiers' at which Miranda Whittier had said, "I guess you could call this our Christmas Eve Eve party!" at least fifty times, noticed a few stray flakes as they turned onto Canoe Brook Road, and by the time they reached home, the snow was coming down hard.

"Oh, good," Tess said, leaning forward to peer through the windshield, "I've been hoping we'd have a white Christmas this year."

NYT: Report finds early Afghanistan missteps - The New York Times

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34634750/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/

In the fall of 2003, the new commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, decided on a new strategy. Known as counterinsurgency, the approach required coalition forces to work closely with Afghan leaders to stabilize entire regions, rather than simply attacking insurgent cells.

But there was a major drawback, a new unpublished Army history of the war concludes. Because the Pentagon insisted on maintaining a "small footprint" in Afghanistan and because Iraq was drawing away resources, General Barno commanded fewer than 20,000 troops.

As a result, battalions with 800 soldiers were trying to secure provinces the size of Vermont. "Coalition forces remained thinly spread across Afghanistan," the historians write. "Much of the country remained vulnerable to enemy force increasingly willing to reassert their power."

Government to give GMAC another $3.8 billion - Economy at a Crossroads

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34629214/ns/business-economy_at_a_crossroads/

NEW YORK - The government gave GMAC Financial Services another $3.8 billion in cash and took a majority stake in the auto lender, aiming to stabilize the company as it struggles with big losses in its home mortgage unit.

The fresh infusion is on top of $12.5 billion in taxpayer money Detroit-based GMAC has already received from the government. The new aid will boost the federal government's ownership in GMAC to 56 percent, from 35 percent, and means the U.S. now holds a majority stake in three companies that it bailed out with taxpayer funds -- GMAC, General Motors and insurer American International Group Inc. The government also has taken control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Feds Subpoena Bloggers For Posting TSA Security Memo | TPMMuckraker

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/feds_subpoena_bloggers_for_posting_tsa_security_me.php

Federal agents went to the homes of two bloggers Tuesday to issue subpoenas in an effort to find out who leaked them a memo on the Transportation Security Administration's enhanced security procedures in the wake of the failed Christmas Day terror attack. The agents looked through the computer, Blackberry, and iPhone of one of the bloggers, and told him they'd sit outside his house until he gave them the information they wanted, he says.

I'm stupid; and it's your fault

Republicans have some explaining to do (Political Irony)

Republicans have often accused the Obama administration (and Democrats in general) of being soft on terrorism. Former VP Cheney even claimed that Obama’s policies were increasing the probability of a catastrophic nuclear or biological terrorist attack.

A great read (with great links) that saves me the time of writing it. As I have said many, many times here, this President is reaping the whirlwind of his predecessors. What's been a surprise to me (not that it happens but how virulent it is) is how much heat he takes from those predecessors and the should-be-dead Republicans in Congress who had a hand in -- and still have a hand in -- exacerbating the problems.

The BEAST 15 Most Heinous Climate Villains

The BEAST 15 Most Heinous Climate Villains

THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IS PRETTY BASIC: humans dig up fossilized carbon to fuel power plants and internal combustion machines, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. Result: greenhouse effect global heating. Around 50% of all the species on the planet are predicted to become extinct by 2100 in the CO2-as-usual model. Our own species will face drought, famine, rising tides, soaring temperatures, calamity and chaos. Hundreds of millions will become climate refugees. Billions may die from starvation, genocide and war. We have precious little time to mitigate this looming global catastrophe.

Those of us still denying the depressing facts are either tragically stupid or profoundly corrupt -- or both. If there's anyone alive to write the history of corporate funded climate science denial, the following list of 15 Heinous Climate Villains will, by the sheer magnitude of death their lies wrought, make the infamous dictatorial monsters of the 20th century seem like incompetent children. Enjoy!

A sample:

10) Marc Morano, Professional Douchebag

Misdeeds: Morano is possibly the most embarrassing wingnut in all of Denierdom--a dishonor earned as an Inhofe staffer and producer for the Rush Limbaugh Show. Reporting for Cybercast News Service, he was the first source of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth lies about John Kerry in 2004 and John Murtha in 2006. It's no surprise that his blog (climatedepot.com) is primarily a vehicle for lies, smears and character assassination aimed at credible climate scientists.

Corporate teats: Oil and coal companies, usually laundered through think tanks such as Cato, CEI, etc.

Most egregious lie: "We can't afford action against climate change. It would damage our economy."

Comeuppance: Sent to terraform Mars--without sufficient tools, food or oxygen.

Ginkgo biloba study

Study: Ginkgo biloba has no effect on Alzheimer's, dementia (USA Today)

The popular botanical ginkgo biloba does not improve memory nor does it prevent cognitive decline in older people, according to the largest and longest scientific study ever undertaken to look at the supplement.

An extract derived from the ginkgo tree, ginkgo biloba has been touted since the 1970s by the supplement industry and others as an aid to improving memory, cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Ginkgo extract has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 500 years, according to the American Botanical Council.

This article contains a few prevention tips; alz.org discusses them under risk factors sparingly. Touting anything as a preventive measure (particularly supplements) is sensitive -- there's just not enough information.

I'm theoretically at risk for Alzheimer's because of my lifelong battle with depression. I've never taken Ginkgo biloba; I do watch my diet, and take a few things that I hope will help. No way to be sure, but I'd rather not do nothing. With respect to keeping my brain healthy: I keep it active; I take my prescription medications and SAM-e (recommended by a psychiatrist); and I take a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement, flax oil (omega-3), aspirin (conflicting opinions about that), Vitamin E, and now Vitamin D.

And now, as the meds are hitting me, I'll go to bed.

Runaway Vigilance Hormone Linked to Panic Attacks | NIMH

Runaway Vigilance Hormone Linked to Panic Attacks (NIMH)

A study has linked panic disorder to a wayward hormone in a brain circuit that regulates vigilance. While too little of the hormone, called orexin, is known to underlie narcolepsy, the new study suggests that too much of it may lead to panic attacks that afflict 6 million American adults.

Blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah -- and then we die. But at least it wasn't chaotic.

Drug-resistant infections lurk in meat we eat (MSNBC, AP)

Once curable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria are rapidly mutating into aggressive strains that resist drugs. The reason: The misuse of the very drugs that were supposed to save us has built up drug resistance worldwide. Third in a five-part series.



More than 20 percent of all human cases of a deadly drug-resistant staph infection in the Netherlands could be traced to an animal strain, according to a study published online in a CDC journal. Federal food safety studies routinely find drug resistant bacteria in beef, chicken and pork sold in supermarkets, and 20 percent of people who get salmonella have a drug resistant strain, according to the CDC.

Here's how it happens: In the early '90s, farmers in several countries, including the U.S., started feeding animals fluoroquinolones, a family of antibiotics that includes drugs such as ciprofloxacin. In the following years, the once powerful antibiotic Cipro stopped working 80 percent of the time on some of the deadliest human infections it used to wipe out. Twelve years later, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study linking people infected with a Cipro-resistant bacteria to pork they had eaten.

Johns Hopkins University health sciences professor Ellen Silbergeld, who has reviewed every major study on this issue, said there's no doubt drug use in farm animals is a "major driver of antimicrobial resistance worldwide."

"We have data to show it's in wastewaters and it goes to aquaculture and it goes here and there," agreed Dr. Stuart Levy, an expert on antibiotic resistance at Tufts University in Boston. "Antibiotic use in animals impacts everything."



Some U.S. lawmakers are fighting for a new law that would ban farmers like Rowles from feeding antibiotics to their animals unless they are sick.

"If you mixed an antibiotic in your child's cereal, people would think you're crazy," said Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-N.Y.

Renewed pressure is on from Capitol Hill from Slaughter's bill and new rules discussed in regulatory agencies. There is also pressure from trade issues: The European Union and other developed countries have adopted strong limits against antibiotics. Russia recently banned pork imports from two U.S. plants after detecting levels of tetracycline that the USDA said met American standards.

Farmers and drugmakers are battling back. Pharmaceutical companies have spent $135 million lobbying so far this year, and agribusiness companies another $70 million, on a handful of issues including fighting the proposed new limits. Opponents, many from farm states, say Slaughter's law is misguided.

"Chaos will ensue," said Kansas Republican Congressman Jerry Moran. "The cultivation of crops and the production of food animals is an immensely complex endeavor involving a vast range of processes. We raise a multitude of crops and livestock in numerous regions, using various production methods. Imagine if the government is allowed to dictate how all of that is done."



Back in Missouri, farmer Kremer finally found an antibiotic that worked on his leg. After being released from the hospital, Kremer tested his pigs. The results showed they were resistant to all the same drugs he was.

Kremer tossed his hypodermic needles, sacked his buckets of antibiotic-laced feed, slaughtered his herd and started anew.

"I was wearing a syringe, like a holster, like a gun, because my pigs were all sick," he recalled. "I was really getting so sick and aggravated at what I was doing. I said, 'This isn't working.'"

Today, when Kremer steps out of his dusty and dented pickup truck and walks toward the open-air barn in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, the animals come running. They snort and root at his knee-high gum boots. There are no gates corralling the 180 pigs in this barn. He points to a mound of composting manure.

"There's no antibiotics in there," he says proudly.

Kremer sells about 1,200 pigs annually. And a year after "kicking the habit," he says he saved about $16,000 in vet bills, vaccinations and antibiotics.

"I don't know why it took me that long to wake up to the fact that what we were doing, it was not the right thing to do and that there were alternatives," says Kremer, stooping to scratch a pig behind the ear. "We were just basically killing ourselves and society by doing this."

And your little dog, too

The Fannie/Freddie Uncapping: More Important Than The Coalition Questioning It (FDL)

There is something the looks wrong here, or at the very least not transparent, and you can either carp about the way in which people question it, or help to question it yourself.

My son arrived safely and is sleeping after a long day. I should be as well but it's taking me a little time to unwind from the adventure of picking him up at the airport. He came into the smaller one on AirTran and it was a nuisance to find and get back from. OS was with me (thank God) and when I got us lost on the way home and then had to go around the beltway, she took over the driving. I thought I'd be okay, but it was dark and unfamiliar, and when I came around a sweeping turn into a sea of traffic and tall buildings, it was suddenly time for me to pull over. The Garmin had failed us, wanting to take us ridiculous ways, and I just couldn't function without it.

I don't travel; I don't take jobs that require travel; I stay mostly in familiar territory. I am very stable almost all of the time, but the strain of not knowing exactly where I was and being in a stressful situation caused a minor setback. The lit buildings and traffic in the dark night began to make me feel like I was in a science fiction movie. I'd have been OK if I hadn't been driving and circling the airport and getting lost for about two and a half hours. It just happens. The lit skyscraper was the trigger -- I avoided looking at it or anything else while we switched places and until we were well out of the congested area.

Tall buildings alone no longer cause a problem. The first time I visited the Washington Monument in 1976 I was unable to look at it. I kept my gaze down as we approached it and sat on one of the benches looking out on the mall while my companion walked around it. The second time, in 1995, I was able to see it without difficulty from a modest distance. I still didn't look up at it once we got close, but it was a big improvement. No vertigo or beginnings of a panic attack that time.

You're starting to wonder how this relates to the referenced post, so I'll get to it. I should be on disability. I'm not on disability because the process is a nightmare and there are currently, oh, a gazillion people in front of me in line. That's what happens when you throw 20% (at least) of the populace out of work. Don't kid yourself that the current "rate" reflects the actual job loss.

People are suffering. They are really suffering. And in the midst of that, we still can't have a coherent discussion of the facts of a situation without choosing up sides first. The author's point is that the facts of this should be discovered; that all that FDL has been asking for is an investigation. And they're getting hammered by other progressives for it.

Well, speaking as someone who is living on the fringe and who is utterly without hope that even mechanisms of support that exist will ever be there to support her; as someone who has been unemployed for two years and assumes that condition is more or less permanent; as someone who has had to watch billions of dollars being given away to people who caused these problems to begin with; as someone who is weary of fighting about fighting instead of fighting for what's right; well, it would be nice if someone gave a fuck about the rest of us.

Tylenol® Arthritis Pain 100 Count with Ez-Open Cap recall

Mcneil Consumer Healthcare Announces A Voluntary Nationwide Recall Of All Lots Of Tylenol® Arthritis Pain 100 Count With Ez-Open Cap (FDA)

In consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc., is expanding its voluntary recall to include all available product lots of TYLENOL® Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count bottles, with the distinctive red EZ-OPEN CAP (Full list of lot numbers provided at the link). In November 2009, 5 lots of this product were recalled due to consumer reports of an unusual moldy, musty, or mildew-like odor that was associated with nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The recall is being expanded, as a precaution, to include all TYLENOL® Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count bottles with the distinctive red EZ-OPEN CAP.

The uncharacteristic smell is caused by the presence of trace amounts of a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole. The source of 2,4,6-tribromoanisole is believed to be the breakdown of a chemical used to treat wooden pallets that transport and store packaging materials. The health effects of this compound have not been well studied, and to date all of the observed events reported to McNeil were temporary and non-serious.

Health Tips: LDL, Metabolic Syndrome

Neutralize LDL with This Party Snack (RealAge.com)

Turns out almonds not only improve cholesterol levels but also help make LDL -- the bad cholesterol -- less likely to oxidize. Which is great, because LDL can do scary things when it's oxidized, like block arteries and cut blood flow to the heart.

Because oxidized LDL is even more likely to gunk-up your arteries than the unoxidized kind, recent study results on almonds and LDL oxidation helped secure the nut's position in a heart-healthy diet. When older adults with high cholesterol ate a daily handful of almonds as part of a 4-week cholesterol-friendly diet, not only did the nut eaters suffer less bad-for-the-arteries LDL oxidation, but their LDL levels took a nosedive as well.

The Fruit That Fights Metabolic Syndrome (RealAge.com)

There's a tart and juicy breakfast fruit that might help keep metabolic syndrome in check. We're talking about grapefruit.

In a study, obese people who ate half a fresh grapefruit before meals showed improvements in two important measures related to the syndrome -- weight, and insulin response. Not only did the grapefruit eaters shed pounds, but their insulin resistance improved, too.

Don't skip the link about conflicts between grapefruit and medications. As a general rule, no one taking medication should eat grapefruit without checking for interactions first, and everyone on blood thinners should be very aware of how diet and lifestyle interact with them.

Dawn Johnsen, come on down -- oops, no wait

Why Did Obama Kill The Dawn Johnsen Nomination? (FDL)

In the end, it is likely Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel and the servants of the status quo simply did not really want a true advocate for governmental transparency, a critic who excoriated Bush/Cheney policies on warrantless wiretapping, torture, indefinite detention, ignoring international treaties and conventions, and concentration of power in a unitary executive; all policies the Obama Administration has substantially co-opted as its own.

"Like the soothing, ambiguous language of the Super Corporate State, it sounds as if it means something."

A Yard Sale in Chernobyl (Joe Bageant for The Beast)

But seldom to never do we get news and information as to the global scale of the genuine emergency facing humankind. Bad news is bad for business, therefore said to be bad for you and me. We all accept that consumer confidence is the foundation of the whole shebang, the confidence game that is capitalism. Thus confidence and cheery optimism is mandatory among the citizen consumer-producer marks. Willingly we self-police our behavior, shunning, criticizing or mocking what we perceive as "negative people." We drive past the empty parking lots, abandoned housing developments, through networks of cameras and cops with radar guns, stun guns and real guns every few blocks, numb to it all, listening to government commercial propaganda officialized by Katie Couric and Ben Bernanke.

A great read. The reader is cautioned about challenging prose and concepts and language that might offend.

Doggie want a biscuit?

Cartoons: Daryl Cagle looks back at 2009 (MSNBC slideshow)