Quote of the Day

Health care companies are making huge profits at taxpayer's expense.
12 billion a month spent on a war to protect "our way of life" yet, gas prices "rising as much as $1.40 per gallon on average since last year". Hello? I think Senator Charles Schumer said it best here:
Bush Presses Congress on Economy - New York Times: "“While the president is standing idly by, proposing irrelevant solutions to a national and international crisis,” he added, “Shell and BP announced record profits for the first quarter in 2008. Whose side is the president on?”"

Genetic Variants and Your Health

I think its safe to say that when getting medical treatment for serious conditions or when undergoing surgery, check that the medical professional has had success treating other people of the same gender and race. Why? Different races, I believe, have biological differences that can mean the difference between life and death. Due to years of racism, much of modern medical science in the U.S. is centered on the health of white people. My mom, for instance, underwent a common histerectomy that went terribly wrong. Her kidneys were damaged in the procedure. She was sent home with poison (urine)leaking in her body and almost died. The white male doctor confessed to my father that she, a Puerto Rican women, of some mixed black, white and indian decent was shaped differently inside. Having a different shape is not surprising to me since when I was pregnant, I was told by a black woman doctor that my uterus was that of a black woman and that different races are shaped differently. Interesting. After several surgies to repair the kidneys, my mom dropped the law suit and she moved out of the area. She didn't want to deal with the stress anymore. Now several years later, I read in Nature Medicine Journal, A GRK5 polymorphism that inhibits -adrenergic receptor signaling is protective in heart failure, . Blacks have a genetic variant in their heart which decreases mortality with heart failure. That's not to say that salty, fatty food won't clog the arteries and inflate blood pressure. But it does say that there is medical evidence that different races cannot be treated with the same measure, medically. See the news report on the finding in the NY Times: Genes Explain Race Disparity in Response to a Heart Drug - New York Times Genes Explain Race Disparity in Response to a Heart Drug - New York Times

Famine & Drought: The Rice Shortage

Why are people around the world rioting? What happens when there is an inbalance in wealth and prosperity? Today there is famine & drought and its been six years in the making. And though what's happening with the draught may be inevitable, (Famines and droughts have happened all through time.) is our reaction inevitable, too? In a flat world can we humans pull together and help each other out? or do we just watch it televised and reported like an afternoon drama? It is proven thoughout human history, that great disparities between rich and poor cause violence, political upheavel and great depressesions. There is anger and repercussions like waves in the ocean eroding the sand. “Why are these riots happening?” asked Arif Husain, senior food security analyst at the World Food Program, which has issued urgent appeals for donations. “The human instinct is to survive, and people are going to do no matter what to survive. And if you’re hungry you get angry quicker.-4/08/08 NY Times, Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger, by KEITH BRADSHER”