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Undernews For November 19, 2009
Undernews For November 19, 2009
Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it
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GLOBAL TEMPS SET TO RISE OVER TEN DEGREES BY 2100
Independent, UK - The world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C (10.8F) by the end of the century, leading scientists said yesterday. Such a rise - which would be much higher nearer the poles - would have cataclysmic and irreversible consequences for the Earth, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable and threatening the basis of human civilization.
We are headed for it, the scientists said, because the carbon dioxide emissions from industry, transport and deforestation which are responsible for warming the atmosphere have increased dramatically since 2002, in a way which no one anticipated, and are now running at treble the annual rate of the 1990s.
Although the 6C rise and its potential disastrous effects have been speculated upon before, this is the first time that scientists have said that society is now on a path to meet it.
POPULATION GROWTH FINALLY MAKES THE TABLE IN ECO DEBATE
AFP - Braking the rise in Earth's population would be a major help in the fight against global warming, according to an unprecedented UN report that draws a link between demographic pressure and climate change.
"Slower population growth. . . would help build social resilience to climate change's impacts and would contribute to a reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the future," the UN Population Fund says.
Its 104-page document emphasizes that population policies be driven by support for women, access to family planning, reproductive health and other voluntary measures.
"It really is the first time that a United Nations agency has looked hard at the connections between population and climate change," lead researcher Bob Engelman, vice president for programs at the green group Worldwatch Institute, told AFP.
"People are at the root of the problem and at the solution of it, and empowerment of women is the key."
The report, the 2009 State of World Population, paints a grim tableau of the peril of climate change and the likely impact on humans, in terms of floods, drought, storms and homelessness.
But it notably puts distance between a decades-long tradition in the UN arena whereby population growth and its part in environmental destruction were rarely -- if ever -- evoked.
"Fear of appearing supportive of population control has until recently held back any mention of 'population' in the climate debate," the document admits.
Things, though, are starting to change. More than three dozen developing countries have already included population issues in national plans on climate, it says. . .
Today, the world's population stands at around 6.8 billion. By mid-century, it will range between 7.959 billion to 10.461 billion, with a mid-estimate of 9.15 billion, according to UN calculations.
The difference between eight billion and nine billion is between one and two billion tons of carbon per year, according to research cited in the report.
That would be comparable to savings in emissions
by 2050 if all new buildings were constructed to the highest
energy-efficiency standards and if two million one-gigawatt
wind turbines were built to replace today's coal-fired power
plants. . .
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
WHISTLEBLOWER: OFFICIAL ESTIMATES OF OIL UPPED TO PLEASE AMERICANS
Guardian, UK - The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.
The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.
The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organization's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow . . .
In particular they question the prediction in the last World Economic Outlook, believed to be repeated again this year, that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83m barrels a day to 105m barrels. External critics have frequently argued that this cannot be substantiated by firm evidence and say the world has already passed its peak in oil production.
Now the "peak oil" theory is gaining support at the heart of the global energy establishment. "The IEA in 2005 was predicting oil supplies could rise as high as 120m barrels a day by 2030 although it was forced to reduce this gradually to 116m and then 105m last year," said the IEA source, who was unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals inside the industry. "The 120m figure always was nonsense but even today's number is much higher than can be justified and the IEA knows this.
"Many inside the organization believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources," he added.
A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organization was that it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. "We have [already] entered the 'peak oil' zone. I think that the situation is really bad," he added.
MORNING LINE
President
Obama is ahead of all three of his potential major challenger, but only with Palin is his lead consistently in the double digits. Recent polling gives Obama leads like this:
Against Romney: 8-10
Against Palin: 21-30
Against
Huckabee: 7-10
Senate
The Senate line up is not good for the Democrats. They'll probably hold onto their majority but you can forget that "filibuster-proof" stuff. Two Democrats are in serious trouble - Dodd and Harry Reid - and five of the seven states that are unclear currently have Democratic senators.
Governors
The Democrats have
already lost two governorships in this election cycle. At
present, the GOP stands to gain one more with four unclear
(two currently held by Democrats
Details
RECORDING CORPORADOS KILLING LIVE MUSIC
St Cloud Times - When health problems kept Mike Thole from going on the road, the Sunday night workshops at Bo Diddley's became his musical refuge. Thole, who recently turned 60, suffered several complications from a childhood bout with polio, including arthritis in his back and leg and pain from a recent hip replacement. By this summer, the pain was so bad he could no longer tour with his band, Ring of Kerry.
But the local guitar player still had "The Acoustic Project," the weekly get-together at Bo Diddley's that he'd started years earlier. It was something to look forward to; a place for him to teach some of St. Cloud's less-experienced musicians and help them forge their talents in the fires of live performance - even if the artists frequently outnumbered their listeners.
"We were doing something with a high degree of artistry," Thole said. "We weren't playing 'Free Bird' for some drunk in the back of a bar."
So it cut Thole deeply when "The Acoustic Project" was taken away from him this summer, too. This time it had nothing to do with his health. Thole was told that Bo Diddley's was indefinitely suspending its live music - a staple at the restaurant since 1982 - because a national music licensing company was demanding several years worth of licensing fees from the eatery's owners.
Thole was shocked. He realized he might have covered a licensed songwriter's work at some point during the weekly sessions, but it wasn't as though he were trying to get rich off someone else's work. Bo Diddley's never charged any entrance fees and he wasn't getting paid, aside from the occasional free sub sandwich.
"This one really sucked, because I couldn't even play for a fricking sandwich," Thole said. "I could have done the thing at Bo Diddley's. That was something that, physically, I could still do and loved doing."
Bo Diddley's is not the first local venue to cut live music under pressure from licensing companies.
"Fully 50 percent of the clubs that we were gigging at five years ago have shut down their live music," said Dan Preston of local band Preston and Paulzine.
Within the past three years, Bravo Burritos and Grizzly's Wood-Fired Grill (formerly Bear Creek) in Waite Park ended all live performances after receiving letters and phone calls from licensing companies that their ownership said became progressively more aggressive. Brian Lee, co-owner of The White Horse, said his bar is "seriously considering" doing the same.
"The licensing companies think they're God," Bravo Burritos owner Bill Ellenbecker said. "They call you up and threaten you with lawsuits and demands of money."
There are three major live music licensing companies in the U.S. - Broadcast Music Inc., the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and SESAC (formerly the Society of European Stage Actors and Composers). If a performer covers an ASCAP, BMI or SESAC song in a venue that has not purchased a license from that company, the venue owner could be subject to copyright infringement penalties. . .
Barbara Grahn, an attorney who specializes in copyright and trademark law for the Minneapolis firm Oppenheimer, Wolff and Donnelly, said venue owners don't have much legal recourse against the licensing companies. .
Jerry Bailey, director of media relations at BMI, said his company didn't always pursue legal action against smaller venues. . . "We have a responsibility to the 400,000 songwriters and publishers affiliated with us to collect all the income they're entitled to under the law," Bailey said. "We take that very seriously."
But Preston said the licensing companies were benefiting only a small number of well-known artists. Because there's no practical way to track how many times an artist's songs are covered live, the live music royalties that ASCAP, SESAC and BMI dole out are based mostly on radio and TV play. "They're protecting Bruce Springsteen, who doesn't really need a whole lot more money," Preston said. . .
Buzz Flash - Business sections across the country are all abuzz this week over the expected announcement that Comcast Corp. will acquire a controlling share of NBC Universal. . .
The process of the acquisition itself is somewhat complicated, and could take up to a year to complete. . .
This Reuters piece suggests that GE might try to sell its interest in NBC entirely over the next few years, precisely because media is something of an awkward addition to a company profile which includes defense contracting and nuclear power:
In the case of GE, many of its shareholders have urged the conglomerate to offload NBC Universal, whose broadcast and cable networks, movie studio and theme parks are considered misfits among GE's mostly industrial operations. . .
Comcast lists nine channels that it owns as well as one coalition of channels (Comcast Sports Group), bringing you everything from E! to PBS on demand. In addition to phone, Internet and cable, Comcast is diving into the multi-platform market. Possible programming changes at your favorite network aside; this is bad news for media consolidation.
Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, a nonprofit organization working for media reform, likens the problem to what occurred with excessive consolidation in the financial industry that led to the economic crisis:
"This train wreck of a deal will hurt all over. It will mean increased costs for cable television service; currently free online NBC content locked behind a pay wall; less opportunity for the distribution of independent media; even fewer choices and less programming diversity. On average, nearly one quarter of all channels offered to cable subscribers will be owned by the bloated Comcast.". . .
Comcast consistently rates lowest in terms of customer service, when compared to both national companies and cable companies alike. But what's most reprehensible is their distaste for media independence and competition. Comcast's opposition to the FCC's suggestion of pursuing stronger net neutrality regulations is a prime example of this attitude. .
Unfortunately, there's every indication that Comcast might start doing exactly that. Perhaps their opposition comes from the fact that Comcast was the very first U.S. Internet provider to be found guilty of violating existing net neutrality laws. Comcast was blocking and/or slowing access to a peer-to-peer software sharing site call BitTorrent, which happened to compete with Comcast's own video service. . .
AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER WILL CONSIDER INQUIRY INTO SCIENTOLOGISTS
Guardian UK - The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has said he would consider an inquiry into the Church of Scientology after a senator tabled allegations against the organization including forced abortions, assault, torture, imprisonment, covering up sexual abuse, embezzlement of church funds and blackmail.
Senator Nick Xenophon tabled letters from former officials and staff of the Church of Scientology alleging criminal activity, and demanded a review of the organization's tax exempt status.
"Scientology is not a religious organization, it is a criminal organization that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs," he told the senate.
Among the letters tabled was one written by Aaron Saxton, from Perth, who said he engaged in torture and blackmail while working for the church in Australia and at its American headquarters between 1989 and 1996. . .
The letter from Aaron Saxton claimed he had assisted in the forced confinement and torture of a female church member who was kept under house arrest, Xenophon told the Senate. Saxton also said he was involved in coercing female followers to have abortions to keep followers loyal to the organisation and to allow them to keep working for it. . .
The Church of Scientology issued a statement accusing Xenophon of abusing parliamentary privilege. "Senator Xenophon is obviously being pressured by disgruntled former members who use hate speech and distorted accounts," the statement said. "They are about as reliable as former spouses are when talking about their ex-partner."
RECOVERY ACT INTERFERES WITH STATE BUDGETING
Bangor Daily News, ME - State lawmakers grappling with increasing budget shortfalls learned that federal law will greatly limit what cuts they can make to Maine's two largest agencies - Health and Human Services and Education. Combined, the two agencies make up about 80 percent of the state's general fund budget.
"There are clearly restrictions in different areas of federal laws, both normal federal law and the Recovery Act, that will prevent, or slow us down in making substantial reductions in some of those areas," Finance Commissioner Ryan Low said. "It is a challenge we are working through right now."
Under the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, the state will lose federal stimulus money if it allows general purpose aid to education funding to fall below 2006 levels. Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the state has already told local school districts to expect $74 million in cuts over the remainder of the two-year state budget based on a previously projected revenue shortfall of $200 million. The estimated shortfall has since grown to be as high as $400 million.
"We can cut about $15 million more [than the $74 million] and stay within the federal requirements," she said. "Any more than that and we will lose federal funds."
Gendron said the federal law does allow a state to apply for a waiver to allow for deeper cuts, but she is not sure how the request would be received by federal officials. Low said no decision has been made whether to apply for a waiver, but it is an option being discussed.
"There are other agencies that also have similar restrictions on Recovery Act funds," Low said. "We are looking at all of that as we work on the supplemental budget.". . .
Health and Human Services Commissioner Brenda Harvey told members of the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee that her agency is limited by long existing spending requirements to state programs receiving federal funds as well as by the Recovery Act.
"We have been going through all of the programs we provide," she said, "and we are greatly limited in what we can cut because of the federal requirements."
CATHOLIC BIGOTS PUSHING ANTI-GAY "TREATMENT"
Change - Psychologists around the globe have almost universally condemned ex-gay therapy programs -- rogue "treatment" sessions often sponsored by religious groups to try and change one's sexual orientation from LGBT to heterosexual. The American Psychological Association even adopted a resolution this past summer that said ex-gay therapy programs were inadequate and potentially dangerous, especially for the long-term mental health of those victimized by such programs.
It's just too bad that the Catholic Church isn't listening to the global health professional community. Case in point, take the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which through its Office of Marriage and Family Life is supporting a type of ex-gay therapy program that asserts homosexuality is both treatable and preventable.
The program is called Courage, and it "ministers" to people who have same-sex attractions, as well as their loved ones. Part of that ministry includes drilling into peoples' brains that homosexuality is a mental disorder, that people in same-sex relationships will never find peace, and that people attracted to members of the same sex suffer from "sickness."
And the really scary part is that not only is this program alive and well in places like St. Paul and Minneapolis, but there are chapters in roughly 116 cities around the country, and even more worldwide. Sure, it's long been no secret that the Church harshes on same-sex marriage. But their active investment in conversion therapy programs signals a whole new level of homophobia, and a whole other level of ignorance when it comes to psychology and human sexuality.
The U.S. bishops . . . are now prepping a document to be released this month that says gay people threaten the inherent moral dignity of humanity. The Catholic Church has become one of the leading if not the most vocal proponents of ballot initiatives that take away civil rights for LGBT people. And the papacy has taken such a hard-line stance against LGBT people that they recently said they don't want gay folks even visiting the Vatican as tourists.
THE KSM CASE: QUESTIONS THE MEDIA DOESN'T ASK
David Swanson, Brad Blog - We're hearing a very "balanced" debate over whether KSM should be tried in New York City, and whether the most insane objections to that proposal are really insane or not. But what are we not hearing?
We're not hearing that trying criminals for the crime of 9/11 ought to have been what we did years ago, rather than waging wars in response to a crime. We're not discussing the possibility that had alleged 9/11 criminals been tried years ago rather than being imprisoned and tortured together with hundreds of innocents depicted as subhuman monsters, the "war on terror" might have been replaced with simply the wars on Iraqis and Afghans and Pakistanis. What effect might that have had on Americans' willingness to surrender their Bill of Rights? We aren't hearing about that. . .
Outside of progressive blogs, we're not hearing that giving a somewhat fair, if less than speedy, trial to those most likely to plead guilty or be convicted, and a less fair military trial to others, and no trial at all to others still, reveals this show of justice to be a sham. If KSM were acquitted, President Obama would order him imprisoned outside the rule of law until he dies. If he is found guilty, as everyone universally expects, he may be officially murdered by the United States, motivating others to take up arms against a nation that wages and funds illegal wars, imprisons people without charge, tortures, kidnaps, renditions, and executes.
If the justice system is bent to ensure that KSM is convicted or permitted little opportunity to speak, will that bending have any permanent repercussions for our justice system? Or, to move in the other direction, having determined that "military justice" is not good enough for alleged mass murders, must we continue to pretend that it is good enough for members of the military? Can we not admit everyone into a single and improved justice system? We're not hearing that discussion.
An improved justice system would require the admission into court of videos of all confessions and interrogations. . . And in KSM's case it might include video of the "interrogation" of his children. Years ago, allegations were made that the United States had tortured his children, including in little-heard-of manners, such as locking a child in a box with a supposedly deadly insect. More recently, secret memos emerged showing the United States to have authorized just those techniques. . .
Other questions might be asked as well, such as why Dick Cheney and his supporters never talk about the two memos anymore. Remember the two memos that Cheney claimed would show that the torture of KSM and others revealed important information that saved lives? The memos are now public and show nothing of the sort. Nor was torture needed in order to prosecute KSM himself. In fact, as Marcy Wheeler has pointed out, the ability of the government to prosecute him without using evidence obtained through torture demonstrates that torture was not needed for that purpose. . .
We are hearing about the need to avoid evidence obtained through torture. But at the same time we are hearing absolutely nothing about the need to prosecute the torturers and the creators of the torture program, at least one of whom, John Yoo, is given a platform as one of the disinterested media commentators in the MSM. This failure is an ideal way to create more KSMs. Why don't we talk about it?
EARLY VOTING OFTEN REDUCES OVERALL TURNOUT
University of Wisconsin - Although states are moving quickly to put in place election procedures that allow for early voting, allowing people to cast ballots ahead of Election Day often results in lower turnout, according to research from a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientists.
However, in states such as Wisconsin, which also allow voters to register at the polls, the effect on turnout is more muted, the research showed.
Although about 30 percent of voters nationally cast ballots before election day in 2008, the buzz that builds around Election Day - the key to bringing less-dedicated voters to the polls - isn't as strong when voting activity is spread out over the last weeks of the campaign, the report from the UW-Madison shows.
"Early and absentee voting siphons activity away from Election Day itself that would have stimulated turnout," says the report
GALLERY
SHOP TALK
Sam Smith - I was a little disappointed that the Review's normally well informed readers could not come up with an explanation for why I was recently suddenly inspired to put butter and maple syrup on my crab cakes.
Jesse Walker, a man of Reason (magazine), writes that "maybe it was divine inspiration. Keep having those visions, ,and you could write the first combination holy book and cookbook.".
Tom Puckett sent the item to a co-worker who lives just over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Stevensville and "who regularly uses his crabbing license to get his daily bushel or whatever it is during the summer." He wrote back that he had never heard of such a thing, but that it "sounds kinda of gross." Puckett gently adds that "there may be a clue for you in the Walter Cunningham Jr. dinner scene in To Kill A Mockingbird." This is described thusly in one synopsis: "Jem invites him over to dinner and Walter thinks that the food is like at home where it tastes awful and tries to drown the flavor with syrup. Scout asks him what he's doing and he feel embarrassed."
In fact, one finds mention on the web of maple syrup as a glaze or cooking ingredient in a number of recipes for fish. My own suspicion is that it has southern roots (because it clearly comes from my childhood in then quite southern DC) or that it was related to the increased use of maple syrup during the World War II when regular sugar was rationed. In any case, it really is good and I plan to keep it on my menu
BIOTECH CROPS CAUSE BIG JUMP IN PESTICIDE USE
Reuters - The rapid adoption by U.S. farmers of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton has promoted increased use of pesticides, an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds and more chemical residues in foods, according to a report issued by health and environmental protection groups.
The groups said research showed that herbicide use grew by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008.
The groups said that while herbicide use has climbed, insecticide use has dropped because of biotech crops. They said adoption of genetically engineered corn and cotton that carry traits resistant to insects has led to a reduction in insecticide use by 64 million pounds since 1996.
Still, that leaves a net overall increase on U.S. farm fields of 318 million pounds of pesticides, which includes insecticides and herbicides, over the first 13 years of commercial use.
GREAT THOUGHTS OF DAVID BRODER
David Broder, Washington Post - The more President Obama examines our options in Afghanistan, the less he likes the choices he sees. But, as the old saying goes, to govern is to choose -- and he has stretched the internal debate to the breaking point. It is evident from the length of this deliberative process and from the flood of leaks that have emerged from Kabul and Washington that the perfect course of action does not exist. Given that reality, the urgent necessity is to make a decision -- whether or not it is right.
ADMINISTRATION REPORTS STIMULUS BENEFITS IN NON-EXISTENT PLACES
ABC News - Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.
There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.
And ABC News has found many more entries for projects like this in places that are incorrectly identified.
Late Monday, officials with the Recovery Board created to track the stimulus spending, said the mistakes in crediting nonexistent congressional districts were caused by human error.
"We report what the recipients submit to us," said Ed Pound, Communications Director for the Board.
Pound told ABC News the board receives declarations from the recipients - state governments, federal agencies and universities - of stimulus money about what program is being funded.
"Some recipients clearly don't know what congressional district they live in"
Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc, who chairs the powerful House appropriations Committee, issued a paper statement demanding that the recovery.gov Web site be updated.
"The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the Administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes."
THE SCIENCE OF COUNTING FLU DEATHS
Helen Branswell, Canadian Press - We're told seasonal flu kills between 4,000 to 8,000 Canadians and between 250,000 and 500,000 people worldwide each year. Yet as of late last week, seven months into this outbreak, H1N1 had killed 161 Canadians and an estimated 6,260 people around the globe.
Critics of Canada's pandemic response point to the discrepancy between those sets of numbers and question the full court press.
But the thing is, as tempting as it is to compare those two sets of figures and conclude that H1N1 is much ado about nada, you can't do it. Those two sets of numbers count different things, experts say.
"You might as well compare the number of flu deaths with the number of Subarus sold in Canada," says Jordan Ellenberg, an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin who explained the problem in an article published online in Slate Magazine earlier this year.
"If you want to compare the number of confirmed deaths to seasonal flu to the number of confirmed deaths from H1N1, OK, you can do that," he says in an interview. "But what you can't do is compare the number of certified deaths on one side to the best estimate of the full number of deaths on the other side."
Confirmed H1N1 death tallies capture the blessedly few times someone who caught this bug died from it after testing positive for it. The seasonal flu numbers are estimates, mathematical calculations aimed at capturing all the deaths influenza had a hand in.
The frequent attempts to equate the two are driving Dr. Kumanan Wilson bonkers.
Wilson is an expert in public health policy as well as an internal medicine physician at the Ottawa Health Research Institute. He readily admits he never sees anyone die of seasonal flu - a common claim that drives infectious diseases experts crazy.
Wilson is, however, seeing the destructive power of this strain of influenza.
"Nobody has seen a flu season like this on the ground level," he says. "If you talk to any frontline worker, they've never seen anything like this. And we keep getting told this is nothing."
"Emergs (emergency departments) are filled. All the children's hospitals are filled. Family docs I talk to say 'Oh my God, I've never seen so many flu cases."'
Wilson says it is "disingenuous" to criticize the response to this pandemic by comparing the low death toll to the substantially higher estimates of seasonal flu deaths. "I feel it under plays the significance of this."
RESEARCH CHALLENGES ASSUMPTION THAT ALCOHOLICS ARE HELPLESS TO CONTROL USE
LA Times - Seventy years ago, Bill Wilson -- the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous -- declared his powerlessness over alcohol in a book by the same name. The failed businessman contended that, as an alcoholic, he had to "hit bottom" before changing his life and that sobriety could only be achieved through complete abstention.
For generations, Americans took these tenets to be true for everyone. Top addiction experts are no longer sure.
They now say that many drinkers can evaluate their habits and -- using new knowledge about genetic and behavioral risks of addiction -- change those habits if necessary. Even some people who have what are now termed alcohol-use disorders, they add, can cut back on consumption before it disrupts education, ruins careers and damages health.
In short, say some of the nation's leading scientists studying substance abuse, humans travel a long road before they become powerless over alcohol -- and most never reach that point.
"We're on the cusp of some major advances in how we conceptualize alcoholism," says Dr. Mark Willenbring, director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The institute is the nation's leading authority on alcoholism and the major provider of funds for alcohol research. "The focus now is on the large group of people who are not yet dependent. But they are at risk for developing dependence."
Many of these people need not give up alcohol altogether. The concept of so-called controlled drinking -- that people with alcohol-use disorders could simply curb, or control, their drinking -- has existed for many years. Evidence now exists that such an approach is possible for some people, although abstinence is still considered necessary for those with the most severe disease.
The overall reassessment has been fueled by the groundbreaking National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, the largest and most comprehensive look at alcohol use in America. The project surveyed 43,000 people 18 and older in 2001 and 2002, and again in 2004 and 2005, with the results released in increments beginning in 2006. . .
Perhaps the most remarkable finding of the epidemiologic study was how many Americans experienced an alcohol-use disorder (either abuse or the more severe dependence) at some point -- and how many recovered on their own. About 30% of Americans had experienced a disorder, the research showed, but about 70% of those quit drinking or cut back to safe consumption patterns without treatment after four years or less.
Only 1% of those surveyed fit the stereotypical image of someone with severe, recurring alcohol addiction who has hit the skids.
INTERNET GLEANINGS
HUNGER IN AMERICA HITS NEW LEVEL
Washington Post - The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat. This Story
At a time when rising poverty, widespread unemployment and other effects of the recession have been well documented, the report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides the government's first detailed portrait of the toll that the faltering economy has taken on Americans' access to food.
The magnitude of the increase in food shortages -- and, in some cases, outright hunger -- identified in the report startled even the nation's leading anti-poverty advocates, who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food banks and soup kitchens. The findings also intensify pressure on the White House to fulfill a pledge to stamp out childhood hunger made by President Obama, who called the report "unsettling."
The data show that dependable access to adequate food has especially deteriorated among families with children. In 2008, nearly 17 million children, or 22.5 percent, lived in households in which food at times was scarce -- 4 million children more than the year before. And the number of youngsters who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.
Among Americans of all ages, more than 16 percent -- or 49 million people -- sometimes ran short of nutritious food, compared with about 12 percent the year before. The deterioration in access to food during 2008 among both children and adults far eclipses that of any other single year in the report's history.
Washington Post - The Washington Blade, the weekly newspaper that chronicled the coming-out of the capital's gay community, was born amid the idealism of 1960s street protests. Monday, the paper died, victim of the unforgiving realities of the nation's sagging newspaper industry. . . .
Last month, the Blade celebrated its 40th anniversary at a swanky downtown Washington party. The paper's nearly two-dozen employees arrived at their downtown offices Monday to start a new work week, only to be ordered to clear out their desks by mid-afternoon.
Steven Myers, co-president of the paper's owner, Atlanta-based Window Media, said the company also ceased operations at its other gay-oriented publications, which include the Southern Voice newspaper and David magazine in Atlanta, and the South Florida Blade and 411 magazine in Florida. . .
"It's a shock. I'm almost speechless, really," said Lou Chibbaro Jr., a Blade reporter who has written for the newspaper since 1976, covering the full arc of the country's gay-rights movement, from early marches through the rise of AIDS and on to the latest battles over legalizing same-sex marriage.
The Blade, born in an era when most gays lived in the closet, grew in size and stature as Washington's gay population blossomed and became more politically active and influential. Chibbaro, who wrote his first front-page story for the Blade under a pseudonym at a time when publicly stating one's sexual orientation could be dangerous, felt the change in dramatic fashion this year, when, while covering a presidential news conference on health-care policy, he was directed to a seat in the front row.
The Blade's closing comes at a moment of extraordinary optimism for many gays in Washington. The big story Chibbaro and the paper's other writers have been covering is the bill supported by nearly all of the D.C. Council's members that would legalize same-sex marriage in the city. .
This week's edition of the free weekly, which had a circulation of 23,000, won't be published. The Blade's Web site, which reported about 250,000 visitors a month, went dark Monday morning.
OBAMA NOMINATES U.S. ATTORNEY WHO LED SHOW TRIAL AGAINST IMMIGRANTS
NY Times - Eleventh-hour criticism is arising over President Obama's nomination for United States attorney in northern Iowa of a prosecutor who had a leading role in the criminal cases against hundreds of illegal immigrants arrested in a May 2008 raid at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. . .
Those cases, the broadest use to date of tough criminal charges against immigrants caught working without authorization, were emblems of a crackdown on illegal immigration by the Bush administration.
Some defense and immigration lawyers have said that felony identity-theft charges against the immigrants were excessively harsh, that immigration lawyers were not given adequate access to their clients, and that improper contact took place between prosecutors and one judge. They contend that possible civil rights and ethical violations by prosecutors should have been investigated.
"Does she stand by those tactics?" asked David Leopold, the president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the national immigration bar. "Would she engage again in this type of prosecution of scores of undocumented workers guilty of nothing more than civil immigration violations?"
The immigration lawyers' association has not taken an official position on the nomination.
THINGS WE HADN'T STATED WORRYING ABOUT, YET
Follow Me Here - Today's All Things Considered had a story about the division of opinion over how to refer to the name of next year Which is it, "two thousand ten" or "twenty ten"? One commenter said that "two thousand ten" is proper and polite; I think he went so far as to call it the "adult" thing to say. This gets right to the core debate about whether proper usage is vernacular - as spoken - or normative.
But, more important, the story did not address more vexing questions. First, what nickname will we use for 2010. 2009 was "oh nine"; will we say "one oh" or "oh ten" for short? For example, if you trade in your "oh five honda" for a new car, is it an "oh ten prius" or what?. . .
CELEBRITY MEDIA BUBBLE JOINS THE RECESSION
Nicole LaPorte, Daily Beast - It's hard to believe that it was a little more than a year ago that People magazine made headlines by forking over $14 million-in partnership with the fabloid Hello!-for the first, exclusive photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina's newborn twins, Vivienne and Knox. The sale was more than three times what People paid for the couple's firstborn, Shiloh. . .
More recently, however, the celebrity media bubble has burst-destroyed by the recession, among other factors-leaving hordes of paparazzi, the agencies that employ them, and the magazines and Web sites that showcase their wares, facing a new, very bleak reality.
The Daily Beast recently quantified just how far the paparazzi market has fallen. Taking a basket of photos sold by the paparazzi agency x17 Inc. during the golden years, 2005 to 2007, we created an index that compared the prices those snapshots fetched then with estimates of what they would garner now. All told, a typical celebrity shot sells for 31 percent less than it did in 2007. The drop off has been more dramatic at the high end of the market. Six-figure photographs are down more than 50 percent.
ALTERNATIVE AMERICA
BOOKS
Uranium in Iraq: the Poisonous Legacy of the Iraq Wars
Washtenaw Jail Diary: The Ann Arbor Chronicle is serializing a book by an ex-inmate about jail life and plans to publish it as a book. Looks like a best-seller.
The New Economics - A Bigger Picture' by David Boyle and Andrew Simms: "an excellent guide to concept of the new economics, introducing us to the idea that economics does not have to be stacked against social, environmental and individual well-being."
BREVITAS
Ecology
Tree Hugger - There have been an increasing number of stories coming to light detailing how organized crime syndicates around the world have been getting their dirty little fingers into the green world. The latest: Italian police have arrested two businessmen on fraud charges, linking them with Mafia in wind farm permit fixing schemes; and the government of Madagascar (such as it is) appears to be tied in with what's being called a 'timber mafia', profiting from illegal wood sales largely sent to China.
Reuters - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to "bomb clouds" to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing. Chavez, who has asked Venezuelans to take three-minute showers to save water, said the Cubans had arrived in Venezuela and were preparing to fly specially equipped aircraft above the Orinoco river. "I'm going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I'll zap it so that it rains," Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday with family members of five Cubans convicted of spying in the United States. Many countries have programs aimed at altering weather patterns, commonly known as cloud seeding, although the effectiveness of such techniques is disputed.
Corporados
Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing - The Times Labs blog takes a hard look at the data on music sales and live performances and concludes that while the labels' profits might be falling, artists are taking in more money, thanks to the booming growth of live shows. The Times says that they'd like more granular data about who's making all the money from concerts -- is there a category of act that's a real winner here? -- but the trend seems clear. The 21st century music scene is the best world ever for some musicians and music-industry businesses, and the worst for others. Which raises the question: is it really copyright law's job to make sure that last years winners keep on winning? Or is it enough to ensure that there will always be winners? "Our data make two things clear: one, that the growth in live revenue shows no signs of slowing and two, that live is by far and away the most lucrative section of industry revenue for artists themselves, because they retain such a big percentage of the money from ticket sales."
Obama
Lloyd Grove, Daily Beast - As Jacob Weisberg wrote recently in Slate, "Obama has a healthy disdain for the overrated virtue of political loyalty… If you're useful, you can hang around with him. If you start to look like a liability, enjoy your time with the wolves. . . The president is catlike also in his lack of evident affection for the people who take care of him." . . The Daily Beast Body Count
War Department
BBC - The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has blocked the publication of further images of US soldiers abusing foreign detainees. The US administration filed a request with the Supreme Court late on Friday preventing the release of the photos. The order refers to some 40 images, including some of prisoners being abused in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last month, Congress gave Mr Gates new powers to prevent their release under a law signed by the US president. . . The American Civil Liberties Union had sued for the release of 21 of the images. The group says it will continue to press for the release of the images, arguing they represent "an important part of the historical record".
MORE FUNNY STUFF IN OFFICIAL FT HOOD STORY
A GUIDE TO COUNTRIES WHERE OUR MILITARY IS OPERATING
Police state
Slashdot - Earlier this year, there was much ado about a Ron Paul staffer, Steve Bierfeldt, being detained by the TSA for carrying large sums of money. The ACLU sued on his behalf, and the TSA changed its rules, now stating that its officers can only screen for unsafe materials. With that, the ACLU dropped its suit. [Ben Wizner, a staff lawyer for the ACLU, said] "screeners get a narrow exception to the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches, strictly to keep weapons and explosives off planes, not to help police enforce other laws."
Money & work
NNPA - Almost one in five black men 20-years-old or older are without a job, according to figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month. The seasonally-adjusted October unemployment rate for black males is above 17 percent whereas the jobless rate for white adult males and females is under double digits at 9.5 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. At 12.4 percent, joblessness for black women also skews above the national rate, which is currently at 10.2 percent, approaching the
Wall Street Journal - In the past two years, the FDIC has taken over 150 failed banks. In the process, it has seized more than 5,000 houses, subdivisions, buildings, parcels and other foreclosed assets. The current backlog of property stuck on the agency's books, with an appraised value of $1.8 billion, ranges from an $18,700 clapboard home with stained carpets in Birmingham, Ala., to a $1.7 million mountainside lodge with a heated driveway in Steamboat Springs, Colo. .
WHAT WOULD A ROUT OF THE DOLLAR LOOK LIKE?
Freedom & Justice
ACLU - The Supreme Court heard arguments in Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida. In both cases, the petitioners argued that when a child is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, it violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Both Sullivan and Graham committed crimes in which no one was killed: when he was 13, Joe Sullivan raped a woman, and at 16, Terrance Graham committed armed burglary. Sullivan and Graham are sentenced to die in prison. In the United States, approximately 2,570 children are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. Children as young as 13 have been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison without a second chance and an opportunity for release. We are the only country in the world where children are serving such cruel sentences.
Brian Doherty, Hit & Run - An undercover cop enters a bridal shop run by city councilwoman in West Point, Georgia, and nabs her in the act of serving gratis mimosas to her customers, in violation of both city and state law. She is cuffed and taken away in front of her customers, and ultimately gets away with a mere 30-days probation. Crimestoppers textbook: The law-abiding might not know of this controlled substance, "mimosas," often linked to violence, inappropriate toasting, and the street custom of "brunch." It is a mixture of champagne--frequently the cheapest variety available, to pump up the pushers profits--tainted with orange juice, often called "OJ" on the street. (This is the juice of a fruit that might be growing, unbeknownst to you, in your own back yard; check a horticulture guide for how to recognize it.) Parents, please listen to your children and keep a keen ear for this street slang that often signals trouble--"OJ" and "the bubbly" are both danger signs--such as the intent to go into business selling bridal acoutrements.
Palm Beach Post - An overgrown lawn could cost a homeowner $1,000 a day. A plan to quadruple the penalty from the current maximum of $250 per day for a first violation is scheduled for consideration at Tuesday night's town council meeting. A repeat violation by the same person would be boosted to $5,000 a day maximum from $500 per day. If the code enforcement board finds that the violation is irreversible - the unapproved removal of an historic tree, for example - the violator would face a maximum fine of $15,000. The current maximum penalty is $5,000.
Politics
SUPREME COURT CASE COULD AFFECT A HOST OF GOVERNORS' RACES NEXT YEAR
Health
LA Times - Transcendental Meditation has been around for many years and is perhaps the most scientifically tested of all forms of meditation. Two studies presented this week add to the evidence that this form of stress reduction benefits people with heart disease and those at high risk for it. One study, presented on Monday at the American Heart Assn.'s annual meeting, found that heart disease patients who practice TM have almost 50% lower rates of heart attacks, stroke and deaths compared to similar patients who don't practice meditation. . . In the second study, published today in the American Journal of Hypertension, researchers found that TM was an effective tool to reduce blood pressure, anxiety, depression and anger among college students at risk for high blood pressure.
Wired - A study of DNA from ancient and modern Adelie penguins suggests that scientists may have miscalculated the rates at which genetic clocks tick off evolutionary time in other species as well. A team of researchers collected mitochondrial DNA from penguins currently living in rookeries in Antarctica and from bones of penguins that had lived in the same spot as long as 44,000 years ago. Analysis of the DNA reveals that the penguins are evolving on a molecular scale two to six times faster than standard calculations indicated, the team reports in the November Trends in Genetics.
The mix
DCist - The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics rejected an initiative petition on the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia. . . The Board held that such ballot measures do 'not present a proper subject of initiative because it would authorize discrimination prohibited under the Human Rights Act.' The Board's reasoning in today's decision also turns on the existing law established by the Jury and Marriage Amendment Act of 2009, the one that allows the District to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.
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Binoy Kampmark: FIFA’s Cooked Findings - Saudi Arabia’s World Cup Bid
Eugene Doyle: The Demon In The Mirror. Trump Exposes Who We Are
Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Waking From The Nightmare
Ramzy Baroud: The Tectonic Shift - The Gaza Genocide And The Limits Of Israeli Hasbara
Ian Powell: Public Hospital Specialists Increase - Delusional Spit In The Ocean With Sinister Undertone
Gordon Campbell: On Why An AUKUS Led By Trump Is A Scary Prospect