The Largest Minority

June 12th, 2008 by Allison Kilkenny

Despite being one of the most grotesquely overfed populations in recent memory, Americans remain preoccupied only with the quantity, and not the quality of their food. They don’t mind if scientists inject their French fries with High-Fructose Corn Syrup as long as McDonald’s Super-sizes their order for a nickel.

Yet, the attitude toward Vegetarianism is changing in the United States. While it’s difficult to quantify how many vegetarians live within the borders, it’s easier to observe the attitude towards vegetarians. Twenty years ago, “What’re you, a Commie?” was a more typical response to a confession of Veggie brotherhood. Nowadays, despite the occasional stink eye, meat-eaters at least understand that Vegetarianism is healthy, if not a lifestyle particularly suited for them.

Even though the U.S. is more Veggie-friendly these days, it’s still difficult to avoid crappy food even if one chooses to become a vegan (vegetarian, minus the dairy) as I did six years ago. Despite my decision, I found myself projectile vomiting into my toilet last week. Diagnosis: food-poisoning. Suspect: tomatoes. Unfortunately, becoming a vegetarian or a vegan doesn’t ensure healthiness. Sure, vegetarians enjoy many health perks (low rates of: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc.,) but we’re still at the mercy of the meat industry in many ways.

For starters, the meat industry poisons the environment. A 2006 United Nations report described the devastation caused by the meat industry as “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” Aside from global warming, meat production is a large factor in overexploited natural resources, deforestation, wasted land, and air and water contamination.

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April 10th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

A thought-provoking and well-edited video from Goodman Green via Brasscheck TV for your Thursday night.

From Sci-Fi Horrors to Real-Life Horrors, vaccine programs that affect our health, our food supply, and even our reproductive systems are being implemented. Whether it is with reckless abandon or a malevolence of purpose, I will leave that for you to decide. However, with vaccine-caused outbreaks, viruses leaving laboratories on their own accord, and companies willing to overstate the need for their questionable vaccines, Sci-Fi Horror is getting a little too real.

February 19th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Well, it seems Huckabee’s suggestion to quarantine AIDS patients is being somewhat enacted in Egypt. While not specifically referred to in Egypt’s legal code, homosexual acts can be punished under laws covering obscenity, prostitution, and habitual debauchery. With this authority, Egyptian police are targeting suspected homosexuals in a campaign to crack down on HIV.

The crackdown all started when two men were arrested in October of 2007 for being involved in a scuffle. One man confessed to being HIV-positive so the two were taken to the “public morality” police branch where they were beaten for refusing to sign statements and subjected to anal examinations to “prove” that they had engaged in homosexual conduct. Police found the numbers and photos of two more men in the suspects’ wallets and arrested them as well. All four men remain in custody. Further actions have brought the total amount of HIV suspect arrests to 12.

Gasser Abdel-Razek of Human Rights Watch said, “These cases show Egyptian police acting on the dangerous belief that HIV is not a condition to be treated but a crime to be punished.” According to Human Rights Watch, HIV-positive Egyptian males are detained, interrogated about other suspects, undergo physical abuse, chained to hospital beds, and forced to undergo virus related tests. Two of the four newest detainees have tested positive for HIV.

In a joint press release, Amnesty International and HRW warned that Egypt’s actions could do more harm than good if the intention is in fact to prevent the spread of the disease. Rebecca Schleifer of HRW said, “This not only violates the most basic rights of people living with HIV. It also threatens public health, by making it dangerous for anyone to seek information about HIV prevention or treatment.”

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February 10th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Democracy Now! looks at the slight differences between Clinton and Obama on domestic issues such as the economy, the housing crisis, social security, health care, and nuclear power. Discussing their stances are Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect, Max Fraser of The Nation, and Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear.

Notice the disgusting grin on Clinton’s face when she acknowledges that single-payer health care is a system “a lot of people favor, but for many reasons, is difficult to achieve.” Um, the only ones making it difficult is fuckers like you. Out of all the Democratic candidates, it’s simply disgusting that Dennis Kucinich was the only one who endorsed a universal single-payer not-for-profit system.

Parts 2 and 3 and available below the fold
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January 27th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

An experimental helmet, created by Dr. Gordon Dougal of the research company Virulite, could reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease within weeks. The device, which sends infra-red light through the skull and directly to brain tissue, is to be worn for just ten minutes a day. After just four weeks, symptoms such as memory loss and anxiety are reversed by stimulating the growth of brain cells and encouraging their repair.

“Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay - this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it,” Dr. Dougal said. “The implications of this research at Sunderland are enormous - so much so that in the future we could be able to affect and change the rate at which our bodies age. We age because our cells lose the desire to regenerate and repair themselves.” He continued, “This ultimately results in cell death and decline of the organ functions - for the brain resulting in memory decay and deterioration in general intellectual performance. But what if there was a technology that told the cells to repair themselves and that technology was something as simple as a specific wavelength of light?”

Human trials are due to start this summer using levels of infra-red which occur naturally in sunlight. A study with lab mice found that middle-aged mice exposed to infrared for six minutes per day, through the span of ten days, were able to improve their performance in a maze. An Alzheimer’s Society spokesman said the reversal of Alzheimer’s symptoms could change the lives of countless people, adding that “we look forward to further research to determine whether this technique could help improve cognition in humans.”

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December 22nd, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Below is a video made by Nataline Sarkisyan’s brother, Bedig, just days before she passed away.

Chances are you’re aware of the story of Nataline Sarkisyan, the 17-year-old girl who died Thursday night just after CIGNA reversed their decision not to pay for a liver transplant her doctor’s said she needed. In other words, CIGNA murdered her. If nothing else, perhaps her case can show that the problem with health care in this country isn’t with people being uninsured, but with the insurance companies themselves who make money by denying claims.

Shame on CIGNA and shame on every presidential candidate, with the exception of Gravel and Kucinich, for supporting a system which lets people like Nataline die so the rich can get richer. Profit should have no place in such decisions. It’s infuriating that Kucinich is the only candidate with a plan for a not-for-profit health care system. The “top tier” Democratic candidates want universal insurance instead. They have blood on their hands.

This is another case where corporations have more rights than citizens. We will be mandated to buy insurance, but insurance companies are not mandated to approve of procedures our doctors say we need. Tragedies like this one will continue to occur everyday unless HR 676 is passed. Health care is a basic human right which the richest country in the world has denied its citizens for far too long.

People are dying and it’s not okay. Tell your members of congress to support HR 676, and stop voting for phony fucking liberals. There are only two running. They are your only choices.

December 12th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Obviously, this inmate isn’t Palestinian.

Mordechai Yehudai was awarded $1,000 from a lawsuit against Israel’s prison authority after he complained about his cell having cockroaches. Judge Irit Cohen wrote in her verdict, “The Prisons Service mistreated the plaintiff in a number of ways, including … broken windows, cockroaches as well as incarceration with smokers.”

A spokeswoman said Yehudai’s cell would be cleaned. “Prisoners have the right to sue us whenever they see fit and we comply with the court’s rulings,” she said.

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December 8th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

If you know of just one Republican presidential candidate who isn’t inexcusably ignorant on matters of both religion and science, please do inform me. Mike Huckabee has charmed some of us on the Left into believing that he’s a moderate (as if there is such a thing in either right-leaning party). However, during his 1992 Senate run, Huckabee advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding for a cure, and said that homosexuality would “pose a dangerous public health risk”. To his credit, at least he didn’t suggest that we just kill ‘em all, but I imagine that probably would’ve been the next logical step.

In 1992, Huckabee wrote, “If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague. It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents.”

Huckabee also suggested that it should be Hollywood celebrities who fund AIDS research out of their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies. He wrote, “In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research, it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified. An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor (,) Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research.”

Huckabee now claims that his suggestions were given during a time of crisis when nobody knew how the disease was transmitted. However, it was common knowledge in 1992 that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact. Unscientific ideas regarding transmission were only perpetuated by fear-mongering homophobes during that time. In 1992, Huckabee said, “I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.”

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