Sugar is related to a lot of health issues and now scientists are saying it's bad for the brain as well. It's something that many of us enjoy so cutting back is not easy, but probably a good idea. As they say, moderation is generally the key.
Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to US scientists who published a study Tuesday showing how a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup sapped lab rats' memories.
Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) fed two groups of rats a solution containing high-fructose corn syrup -- a common ingredient in processed foods -- as drinking water for six weeks.
Sounds like some people I know.
"Our study shows that a high-fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body. This is something new."
High-fructose corn syrup is commonly found in soda, condiments, applesauce, baby food and other processed snacks.
Yes, I think that's called "Do the complete opposite of what George W. Bush did from 2000-2008." For those who don't remember, the Bush administration averaged 20,000 new jobs per month during his term in office. According to mathematicians that would be 111,000 fewer jobs per month than during the Obama administration.
Bush's ability to ignore his own failed economic policies ought to be interesting. Not that he didn't ignore a number of realities during his eight years in Washington, but preaching about economics after the mess he left is really too much.
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Very cool. The folks who run the French Chateau of Versailles, the former palace of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were executed following the French Revolution, have redesigned a few of the regional trains that take passengers from Versailles to Paris. The design mimics various rooms at Versailles, including the king's library and the queen's bedroom. Totally cool. (H/t Buzzeum)
When someone has a net worth of around $10 million, it's no surprise that they have an account with one of the largest banks in the country. In Obama's case, he has a small percentage of his overall assets with the troubled JPMorgan. There are countless reports out today about Obama having this account though it's not clear why it's a big deal. JPMorgan is not running a risk of failing from this $2 billion failed trading position so it's unclear why this matters.
Any president or presidential candidate is likely going to have a similar situation. Hank Paulson had hundreds of millions tied up in Goldman Sachs before joining the Bush administration and when he bailed out Wall Street, he was helping friends and close associates that he worked with for decades.
Mitt Romney probably also has his own money stashed away at multiple US banks as well as his accounts offshore in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland. We're still waiting on Romney's financial history but to date he's stonewalled the process, so we really don't know very much about Romney's holdings.
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This is par for the course with the Catholic church. Why choose Option A when you can choose Option B and hurt someone vulnerable at the same time.
It's the way the Catholic church has mishandled the pedophilia scandal (putting children last), it's the way they're handling compliance with non-discrimination laws in DC, Illinois and Massachusetts (rather than simply not discriminate, the Catholics have chosen to stop helping parentless kids all together), and it's the way the church is handling this latest controversy (even though most Catholics agree with Obama and not the church - who does the church leadership actually represent in America, anyone?).
Oh yeah, and the second golden rule is do whatever you can in an election year to get a Republican elected. It won't be long now until we heard of Catholic parishes refuses to given communion to Democrats. Every four years it starts like clockwork.
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It's climate week here at La Maison. We wrote earlier about the looming global warming deadline — yes folks, "game over" really does mean the game is over. This is just one about six national deadlines we're facing.
In that context, you may find this short conversation interesting. Dr. Michael Mann is one of the originals in the field. He's interviewed here by Thom Hartmann.
Mann is the author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars. (The "hockey stick" is a reference to his graph that shows relatively flat climate over 1000 years or so, then in the modern era, the graph shoots up like the blade of a hockey stick.)
The full show, including all of the conversation with Dr. Mann, is here.
If this subject engages you (it sure has my attention), you can hear more from Michael Mann on Virtually Speaking this evening (Wednesday, May 16, 5pm EST / 2pm PST). Click here for the live show.
You can listen later to the archived show here. Virtually Speaking is also available on iTunes (which is often my source; I've set up an automatic podcast download).
It's been said that the environment and global warming are low on the list of active left concerns. That really needs to change, in my view. I hope this helps change your view as well.
An amazing photo of San Francisco following the great earthquake of 1906. At first, it looks like simply a beautiful panorama of a great city.
Then you zoom in on any part of the photo you want and realize that the resolution is so good you're starting to see buildings torn in half, and entire lots razed to the ground. It reminds me of images of Japan following the recent earthquake and tsunami. Here's one random zoom I did - note the empty lots, the big building in the upper right missing some of its top, the building on the lower left burned out.
Just after 1:00 am Tuesday morning, the GOP-controlled Virginia House of Delegates voted to block the appointment of an openly gay Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney, Tracy Thorne-Begland, to the judgeship of the General District Court in Richmond.
Thorne-Begland's nomination had received bipartisan support and had been approved by the courts committees in both the state House and Senate. Of the more than three dozen judicial nominees considered during the legislative session, Thorne-Begland was the only one not approved.
Thorne-Begland received only 33 of the 51 necessary "aye" votes in the House of Delegates to confirm him as a judge. 31 legislators, all Republicans, voted against him. Ten more Republicans abstained and another 26 members of the 100-member chamber did not vote. The State Senate did not put Thorne-Begland's appointment up for a vote at all, allowing it to die as the legislative session ended.
There was no question as to Thorne-Begland's qualifications for the judgeship. Following his discharge from the Navy after coming out on Nightline in protest of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", he began a career in law and worked his way up to becoming the Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney.
Having served as a prosecutor for over twelve years he was considered highly qualified to sit on the General District Court. But a movement from the Family Foundation and Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) pushed back, arguing that his sexual orientation should have kept him from even being considered. Said Delegate Marshall:
I don't even think it's proper to put his name forward because of his behavior... I don't know why the folks on the courts committee didn't catch this before, but they didn't. But it's up to us to act as a backstop.
The "folks on the courts committee" didn't "catch" Thorne-Begland's sexual orientation beforehand because being gay doesn't have anything to do with being a good judge; there wasn't anything to "catch." Virginia Republicans' blatant disregard for Thorne-Begland's qualifications and their rejection of him solely on the basis of his sexual orientation is, as FOX News' Shep Smith would say, on the wrong side of history. Hate has no place in our government, and those who voted to block this appointment are creating a dark, embarrassing legacy for themselves.
Endnote: ProgressVA is circulating a petition denouncing homophobia's role in determining qualified judicial nominees which can be found and signed here. Furthermore, a list of those voting "nay" or "abstaining" in Thorne-Begland's appointment vote can be found here and here.
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Campaign for a Fair Settlement, a liberal housing group which formed to pressure state Attorneys General like California's Kamala Harris to not agree to a bad robosigning settlement deal, has released a poll that paints a brutal picture of how voters in swing states view President Obama's handling of the housing crisis.
The poll also shows that voters think the President hasn't done enough to hold banks accountable and that criminal behavior by Wall Street has driven the crisis. The poll surveyed independent likely voters in Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina, all of which are states which have been devastated by the foreclosure crisis.
The percentage of independent likely voters who disapprove of Obama’s handling of the housing and mortgage crisis ranged from 48% in Pennsylvania to 70% in Nevada, while those approving ranged from 21% in both Nevada and Arizona to 34% in North Carolina.
The percentage of independent likely voters who say Obama has not done enough to hold banks accountable for their role in the housing collapse ranged from 60% of respondents in both North Carolina and Florida to 73% in Nevada.
The percentage of independent likely voters who say that the economic crisis results at least in part from criminal actions by Wall Street executives ranged from 64% of independent voters polled in North Carolina to 76% in Pennsylvania.
David Dayen notes that the problem is even more stark when you look at the partisan breakdowns within the poll:
Where this really shows up is in the partisan breakdown. There’s a partisan split in the polling, with Democrats generally supportive of the President and Republicans opposed. But independents are strongly negative on this question, worse than the overall numbers, from a 26-48 split in Pennsylvania, to 34-56 in North Carolina, to 28-49 in Florida, to 29-52 in Arizona, to a whopping 21-70 in Nevada.
The takeaway from this is pretty clear: the housing crisis could be a very big issue in the 2012 presidential election. The voters who will likely swing the swing states identify serious failings by the Obama administration and if they are convinced to vote on these issues, things would be pretty bad for the President.
In the statement, Nish Suvarnakar, campaign manager for Campaign for a Fair Settlement, says, “Obama can help homeowners, his campaign and the overall economy by more aggressively pursuing banks’ criminal acts and supporting meaningful solutions for underwater homeowners.”
The Obama administration hasn't done the work it has needed to do on housing and has ignored pressure from the left to take real policy actions, but perhaps they'll be responsive to political pressure. If voters who care about housing policy and bank accountability exist as a bloc which can swing the election, the Obama campaign would be remiss to ignore them.
Criminal indictments of bank executives for fraud and criminality relating to the foreclosure crisis would be a big step in the direction of showing the administration takes peoples' concerns seriously.
It's unlikely that another milquetoast (or worse) program will convince people he's serious - it's time for the handcuffs to be broken out. Short of that, I'm not sure how the President will convince these swing voters in these key swing states that he should be trusted to better address the housing crisis in the future.
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This is a straight news piece, the fascinating story of what a really thorough investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995 actually turned up.
Unfortunately, that investigation was performed by the authors of a new book on the subject, not by the feds.
Bottom line — what we think we know, we don't. The operation was far bigger than anyone realizes, even today, and the investigation "failed" (in the words of the writer).
In the hours after a powerful fertilizer bomb blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people, the U.S. government mounted a massive manhunt—for Islamic terrorists. Three Arabs were supposedly seen fleeing the scene. Cable news shows, fed by tips from a former CIA official, reported that the bombing may have been the work of Saddam Hussein.
The FBI would no doubt have been looking for suspicious Arabs for some time—and likely would have locked up a few—had it not been for a sharp-eyed Oklahoma state trooper named Charlie Hanger. That same day, Hanger pulled over a beat-up Mercury Marquis with no license plates cruising down a highway headed to Kansas. When the driver, a fresh-faced Army vet with a Glock pistol, inexplicably got out of the car, Hanger ordered him to lift his hands and pointed his gun.
"My weapon is loaded," the driver, Timothy McVeigh, told Hanger. "So is mine," shot back the trooper.
The story of the Murrah building bombing receives its most comprehensive accounting yet in Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed-and Why it Still Matters—a new book by journalists Andrew Gumbel and Roger G. Charles. It is a cautionary and at times startling tale, filled with bizarre characters from the outer fringes of American political life, with continuing relevance today.
Gumbel is interviewed for the first half of this show only. The second half is an interview with Allison Kilkenny regarding Occupy, May Day, and the BofA stockholder's meeting. Listen on if you like; it's good.
(Hint: Holding down the right and left arrow keys performs an excellent fast-forward and fast-rewind. Use them for navigation.)
■ The opening gives a good intro to the event itself and to the times — of Branch Davidians and Ruby Ridge, of Clinton fever and Gingrich "revolution." (Seems like forever since then, doesn't it?)
■ [6:15] Note the plot was an attempt to attack federal judges.
■ [8:30] It really was a conspiracy, and not just of three people.
■ Starting [12:40] the author answers a question that lays out the various law enforcement and prosecution players — a who's who in the battle for control of the semi-investigation and shrink-wrapped prosecution that followed.
Note the role of then-FBI director Louis Freeh. He's now this guy, an MF Global corporate retainer. Like many, he moves from one arm of the corporate State to another.
■ [15:30] Much more detail about the claim that "there was more" to the conspiracy than is currently known or understood.
■ At [19:12] Gumbel answers the question: "Why no follow-on investigations?" Great analysis here.
■ The ATF is an interesting player. At one point they shut down an ongoing investigation that could have prevented the bombing. At [20:55] the author discusses that investigation and why it was shut down.
■ [28:55] The inter-agency clusterbomb — agencies behaving badly, with details.
The Allison Kilkenny interview starts at 31:40. (In case you've forgotten, Allison Kilkenny is the person famous for her "blogging knife.")
I'm not sure it's a net plus or minus that the National Security State doesn't always talk to itself. I'll leave those thoughts to you. But I found this fascinating as a data exercise. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and learned a little something as well.
If Ron Paul actively stayed in the race and didn’t win any delegates in Kentucky, he would damage his son’s political stock in a state where, despite being a U.S. senator, Rand Paul is still a political outsider. But if Ron Paul simply dropped out, his delegates would no longer be bound to him, foiling his strategy to gain control of the GOP platform in Tampa.
By “no longer spending resources,” Paul avoids this trap. His name is still on the ballot, he’s still accumulating delegates who will be bound to him in Tampa, but he avoids any responsibility for his electoral performance. If he does well, it’s a sign of the popular appeal of his message. If he doesn’t, well, he wasn’t really trying. Paul can escape blame for poor electoral results while continuing to help his fans take control of the party machinery state by state. The strategy may be passive aggressive, but it just could allow him to obtain the most elusive prize in electoral politics: power without responsibility. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The first meeting of Merde did not produce any fireworks - at least none were reported - though they did discuss alternative financial plans as well as Greece. Publicly they said they want Greece to stay in the eurozone though with the new elections being called, that sounds less likely.
Hollande is departing for the US to meet President Obama and soon after will meet again with Merkel to discuss new solutions for Greece. BBC News:
During his election campaign, Mr Hollande said he wanted to renegotiate the EU's fiscal pact, which will require its signatories to balance their budgets. Mrs Merkel has said the terms of the agreement cannot be changed.
"As president of the [French] republic, I want to renegotiate what was accepted at a certain stage to give it the dimension of growth," he said, standing alongside Mrs Merkel at a news conference in the German capital.
For her part, Mrs Merkel said France and Germany were willing to "study the possibility of additional growth measures in Greece".
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