Election

Republican bullies cut money for security, then blame Obama for attacks

ABQJournal Online » Let’s Talk About the Elephant

For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program – well below the $2.15 billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012. (Negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate restored about $88 million of the administration’s request.) Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans’ proposed cuts to her department would be “detrimental to America’s national security” – a charge Republicans rejected.

Ryan, Issa and other House Republicans voted for an amendment in 2009 to cut $1.2 billion from State operations, including funds for 300 more diplomatic security positions. Under Ryan’s budget, nondefense discretionary spending, which includes State Department funding, would be slashed nearly 20 percent in 2014, which would translate to more than $400 million in additional cuts to embassy security.

ABQJournal Online » Let’s Talk About the Elephant

Election

Mitt Romney is a con-man and a robber baron

More than a year ago, I was afraid Republicans would nominate Mitt. He struck me as a moderate candidate. During the primaries, I started to relax as Mitt moved harder to the right. Surely, the country won’t fall for Tea Party bullshit that gives more to fewer. Surely, the country will be put off by a man who contradicts himself solely for votes. Mitt is a professional con-man and a very successful one. His company stripped other companies for parts and profits and stuck them with the bill. He is loathsome. But the devil will wear a pretty face.

Now, I shake my head that “Mitt pivots to the middle” works as a con. This man has no center, no convictions other than his own sainthood. Don’t fall for him. Don’t be intimidated by the bullies who trip you and call you clumsy. Don’t forget that the Republicans got us into this mess and have done everything they can to stop any effort by Democrats to get out of the mess just so they could claim the recovery has failed. Any failure is due to Republican efforts.

The nation deserves better than Mitt and the Party of No, the Party of the Angry White Male. Republicans are a minority. Radical conservatives are an even smaller minority. The only way they win is if Dems don’t vote — and the GOP has worked hard to stop Dems from voting. The only way they win is through the long con.

A century ago, Teddy Roosevelt recognized Republicans had become the party of the robber barons. Don’t let greed, anger, hatred, and ignorance win. Stand up. Vote.

Health

Good news, everybody: The Link Between Chocolate & the Nobel Prize

The Link Between Chocolate & the Nobel Prize

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 10, 2012 — Eat chocolate, win a Nobel Prize?

It may sound far-fetched, but a new study suggests it might not be bad advice.

The results show countries that eat the most chocolate also have the highest number of Nobel laureates per capita.

Researchers say the idea stems from several studies that have shown a group of antioxidants known as flavonoids can improve thinking ability.

Cocoa and chocolate are rich in a subgroup of flavonoids known as flavanols. These antioxidants are also found in green tea and red wine.

Recent studies have suggested that flavanols seem to slow down and even reverse the decline in thinking ability that comes with age.

Some research has also shown that flavonoids can improve blood flow to the brain, which may help it perform better.

The Link Between Chocolate & the Nobel Prize

Health

Not so much gluten-free as wheat-free

I’m persuaded by the book Wheat Belly by Dr Davis and by my own experience that something is wrong with modern wheat and whatever that is affects many of us. Eschewing wheat is more than a low-carbohydrate diet.

Just add water: Instant diabetes reversal | Wheat Belly Blog

Eat the wheat with its gliadin protein and experience incessant, around-the-clock hunger. Eat the wheat with its amylopectin A and experience sky-high blood sugars. Eat the wheat with its gliadin and experience body-wide inflammation that, among many other consequences, causes water retention. Eat the wheat with the gliadin that “unlocks” the normal intestinal barriers, allowing foreign substances into the bloodstream, while also allowing water to leak into the bowel itself and causing bowel urgency and diarrhea.

Hunger, increased appetite for carbohydrates, higher blood sugar and insulin, inflammation, water retention, autoimmunity, diarrhea–all from “healthy whole grains.”

Just add water: Instant diabetes reversal | Wheat Belly Blog

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams