Big Gulp Nation: We really are getting dumber and fatter for someone’s profit.

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

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

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

Following 9-11, the road atop the dam that creates Elephant Butte was closed “for security.” Ten years later, the dam was opened for visitors for one day. Many people seized the opportunity to walk across the dam top, as thousands had for decades before.

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.

Hit Wall Street where it hurts: in the wallet.

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