This is your brain on sugar: UCLA study shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory – UCLA Health and Medicine News

While earlier research has revealed how fructose harms the body through its role in diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, this study is the first to uncover how the sweetener influences the brain.

The UCLA team zeroed in on high-fructose corn syrup, an inexpensive liquid six times sweeter than cane sugar, that is commonly added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food. The average American consumes more than 40 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"We’re not talking about naturally occurring fructose in fruits, which also contain important antioxidants," explained Gomez-Pinilla, who is also a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute and Brain Injury Research Center. "We’re concerned about high-fructose corn syrup that is added to manufactured food products as a sweetener and preservative."

This is your brain on sugar: UCLA study shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory – UCLA Health and Medicine News

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Wiener rejects calls for his resignation | NMPolitics.net

“There’s an election in 37 days and if the people at that time want to pick somebody else to represent them on the county commission, that’s certainly the way a democracy works that we all belong to,” KOB-TV quoted him as saying. “And I’m going to let the voters in my district speak rather than a few elected officials.”

Wiener rejects calls for his resignation | NMPolitics.net

If I agree with Wiener does that make me a dick? is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

Now and then, ugly, stupid, mean, and wrong triumph. I’m tired of the slaughter of decent animals by indecent ones.

Let the mean-spirited wicked bastards win is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

The problem is not a conservative talk show host, but conservatism itself as presently construed. It has become a landfill. Limbaugh is just a seagull circling the top.

Sex, lies and GOP extremism – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

“The problem is not a … talk show host, but conservatism itself … has become a landfill. Limbaugh is just a seagull circling the top.”–Leonard Pitts #qotd is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

This episode joins a long list of elections overturned and social movements derailed by men with guns, as in the shootings of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Huey Long, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, the Kennedy brothers, George Wallace, George Moscone, Harvey Milk, Martin Luther King, Jr. Somehow, people who should never have guns never have trouble getting them. John Kennedy’s assassin, a disaffected former Marine who had once defected to the Soviet Union, bought his by mail order. King’s assassin, a wanted fugitive, bought his over the counter.

Jared Loughner, the man now in jail for the Tucson massacre, was able to legally obtain a gun despite the fact that he was a mentally deranged man who had been rejected by the U.S. Army and kicked out of a community college. Which suggests that, while Loughner may be unbalanced, American gun laws are downright insane.

And they will likely stay insane, so long as our politics remain a hatefully polarized affair where the two “sides” glower at one another like boxers in their respective corners and “compromise” is a dirty word.

After all, the solution here is not rocket science.

We need meaningful background checks on all gun purchases — no loopholes. A mentally unstable man should not have legal access to a gun, period.

We need to ban fully automatic weapons from private use. The hunter who needs a gun that fires hundreds of rounds a minute isn’t much of a hunter.

We need to encourage gun safety classes so that poorly secured firearms stop ending up in the hands of little children.

At the very least, we need to have a serious national dialogue about these and other possible solutions.

But we won’t.

Rep. Giffords’ departure a blow to democracy – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

“American gun laws are downright insane”- Leonard Pitts Jr. [amen] is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

I’m stunned at the stupidity that keeps this dam closed. Will it take 100 years for us to come to our senses and recover a modicum of the freedom we sacrificed? Is there anyone who seriously believes Elephant Butte is a credible target for terrorists? What would it take to destroy that dam? (Uh-oh, now I’m on a watch list.) So, Texas gets its water a little sooner and maybe Mexico gets some it never will otherwise. It’s never going to happen and keeping tourists out is nonsense.

Continuing madness a decade after 9-11 is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

In light of “Occupy,” many New Mexicans switching to credit unions | New Mexico Independent

By Devon Jackson | 10.14.11 | 11:59 am

[T]he Wall Street protest movement hopes to implement a November 5th walkout, the effects of which could have a far greater impact than months of sit-ins and protests. Being billed as Bank Transfer Day, and as of two weeks ago having attracted 14,000 RSVPs via Facebook to the national event, the campaign is urging Americans to close their accounts at large banks and move their money to credit unions.

In light of “Occupy,” many New Mexicans switching to credit unions | New Mexico Independent

Bank Transfer Day, No Shopping Day, No Spending Day: November 5 is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

US Debt Accumulation by President | The Big Picture

US Debt Accumulation by President | The Big Picture

I believe some Tea Partiers were alarmed by the debt under DUHbya. They’re the ones who say he wasn’t “really a conservative.” Yeah, right – but they voted for him the first time, for sure.

Who accumulated the most debt? (The answer is no surprise.) is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

…We didn’t need to “level the playing field.” It was already level for everyone.

Some people got rich, some didn’t. Fair and square.

But now, in this new age of entitlement, the rich are being blamed for everything. How dare they be rich when we’re not? Well, go out and invent Windows if you’re so unhappy.

Of course that would mean actually doing something instead of complaining about it. But why not give the protesters what they want? Let’s have all the rich people take their riches and close up shop.

Yes, the head of General Motors should take his millions, Standard Oil should cash in, the owner of the Journal should close its doors ,as should all their evil rich cronies and retire on their millions to live the life of Riley.

Then Corporate America would dissolve. Unemployment would flourish. And when the protesters sit back smugly saying they’ve “won,” we can all ask the protesters for a job.

Until the liberal left-wingers get it into their thick skulls that it’s the rich people, not the poor people, that sign our paychecks, we are destined for doom.

SHERRY WENZ
Albuquerque

ABQJournal Online » How Dare These Rich People Be, Well, Rich?

Sigh. Such ignorance and anger. Let’s pretend the playing field once was level. It hasn’t been for a long time. Since the Bush Error, only the Rich have prospered and that was directly due to massive tax cuts plus tax-subsidized bailouts: Welfare for the Rich. Hardly “fair and square.”

Now, many people are fed up and have had enough and they are, in fact, doing something: yelling “Enough!” Our society may survive the deep divisions in political viewpoints, but it cannot survive the economic disparity between the Rich and everyone else, especially as the vital Middle Class gets crushed.

In response to Warren Buffett’s suggestion to raise taxes on the Rich, people like Wenz sneer that the Rich can donate whatever money they choose. I’ll borrow that sneer to say the Rich are free to “close up shop and live the life of Riley.” Like the Rich in other nations without a Middle Class and with outrageous disparity between the few Rich and the many poor, they will hire better security and stick to enclaves that exclude “those people.” I wonder which side of that fence Wenz ends up on.

The protestors do not want wreck the economy further. To say otherwise is either very stupid or self-serving. Apparently, Sherry Wenz belongs to whoever signs her paycheck.

Enough! Save the Middle Class. is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

In light of “Occupy,” many New Mexicans switching to credit unions | New Mexico Independent

By Devon Jackson | 10.14.11 | 11:59 am

In three weeks, the Wall Street protest movement hopes to implement a November 5th walkout, the effects of which could have a far greater impact than months of sit-ins and protests. Being billed as Bank Transfer Day, and as of two weeks ago having attracted 14,000 RSVPs via Facebook to the national event, the campaign is urging Americans to close their accounts at large banks and move their money to credit unions.

In light of “Occupy,” many New Mexicans switching to credit unions | New Mexico Independent

Bank Transfer Day is November 5, 2011 is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh