Mount Mosavi in New Guinea where a a large collection of near extinct or never seen bugs, birds and animals were recently discovered. See the Nature Nugget below. From the Guardian.
Today, we have a special report from one of our readers about her visit last week to a town hall meeting north of Pittsburgh. She was actually one of the official speakers. Her description of the event speaks for itself, and it strengthens my hope that we will get meaningful healthcare reform this year. Thank you, Kathleen.
Today I attended a "Congress in the Community Health Care Forum" hosted by Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper (D-3rd District) at Edinboro University. It was the last of 19 forums and community meetings that she has held in this district since Congress went on break in August. Besides Representative Dahlkemper, the 300+ attendees heard from Wendell Potter (a former CIGNA executive who was featured in Bill Moyer's recent "Money Driven Medicine" show on health care) and John Malone (CEO of the Hamot Medical Center in Erie).
Unlike some recent town hall meetings that turned into shouting matches, this forum was downright mannerly. All attendees were given a copy of "George Washington's (and Congresswoman Dahlkemper's) Rules of Civility" upon entering the auditorium. George Washington was quoted as having said: "Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present"--to which Dahlkemper added "It's okay to be passionate about a cause or an ideal, but respect one another...everyone deserves a right to speak." The one attendee who tried to press his point beyond the allotted time was reprimanded by the audience...politely.
Rep. Dahlkemper addressed the health care reform bill that Congress will be considering when it reconvenes next Tuesday. Having studied the bill closely and spoken at length with many of the 600,000 constituents across her district, Kathy is convinced that passage of health care reform with a public option is essential "to provide stability and security in the health care market for all." As a small business owner, Kathy has personally been confronted with skyrocketing premium increases and shrinking services. In fact, she stated that she "doesn't know why every small business owner in the 3rd District isn't CLAMORING for health care reform." A health care survey that she has been distributing (and can be found on her website) has been returning 62% in favor of SOME kind of reform--although she admitted that there was wide variation in HOW people wanted the system reformed.
Mr. Potter spoke passionately about his experiences growing up in rural Tennessee and then climbing the corporate ladder to become a top executive at CIGNA, one of the largest medical insurance companies in the world. For twenty years he represented CIGNA on national health committees and worked to "kill health care reform and the Patients' Bill of Rights." A visit home to Tennessee where he saw his neighbors lined up in the rain for hours to receive free medical care opened his eyes. He became aware that the insurance company's "solution" to rising costs has been to shift costs from the employers to consumers--and that profitability for the company has been won at the cost of people's lives. He left his job and has been speaking out in favor of insurance reform ever since.
Questions from the audience were equally passionate. One Edinboro student told about how her father had lost his insurance after his first heart attack--and his job (and their home) after the second. Now she and her parents are all uninsured and her father struggles to afford medication. Other attendees were concerned about how the reforms would be paid for (Kathy pointed out that the Office of Management & Budget calculates the cost of a bill, but doesn't factor in the savings that reform might engender); one attendee was worried about forcible euthanasia for seniors (it's NOWHERE in the bill, Kathy assured him); another was concerned that the bill required taxpayer dollars to underwrite the cost of abortions (not in the bill, Kathy replied).
Kathy asked me to close the session by telling my story of how even working people who have good health care are just one catastrophic illness away from becoming uninsured--just when medication becomes a matter of life and death. The crowd listened intently (as they had throughout the event) and responded warmly. I had the strong sense that most of the people in attendance were there to learn something this afternoon--and I believe that many of them left the auditorium understanding that health care reform is important and essential. Personally, I couldn't be prouder of my Congresswoman and look forward to helping to reelect her next year.
Kathleen Paul
Kathleen Cowles Paul
Jackson Center, PA
Now, back to our regular nuggets:
Eight Years On: A diplomat's perspective on the post-9/11 world (Ryan Crocker) from Newsweek
"The perceived arrogance and ignorance of overbearing powers can create new narratives of humiliation that will feed calls for vengeance centuries from now. What's needed in dealing with this world is a combination of understanding, persistence, and strategic patience to a degree that Americans, traditionally, have found hard to muster."
To Fight a Necessary War (Editorial) from the Times of India
"A disturbing pressure is building up in the United States against the Afghanistan policy of the Barack Obama administration. It's disconcerting for South Asia, certainly for India, and it should make the world uneasy. But no one can do much about it unless President Obama remains determined to resist that pressure. "
Inside North Korea: Will These People See Change? from the [Toronto] Globe and Mail
"Globe reporter Mark MacKinnon slips behind the closed doors of an isolated regime and discovers that Kim Jong-il's ideological grip on citizens appears to be weakening"
What Torture Never Told Us (Editorial) from New York Times
"PUBLIC bravado aside, the defenders of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques are fast running out of classified documents to hide behind. The three that were released recently by the C.I.A. ... fail to show that the techniques stopped even a single imminent threat of terrorism."
The Other Health Care Story (Ronald Brownstein) from the National Journal
"With much less notice, many key stakeholders in the medical establishment, including several that mobilized against previous efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system, have come together behind reform."
SCIENCE NUGGET!!
Scientists Discover 3 More Genes with Links to Alzheimer's from the Washington Post
"The new genes appear to have at least as big a role as four others discovered in the last 15 years that are known to play a role in Alzheimer's.
"The message here is that genes are important in Alzheimer's disease . . . and there may be multiple ways of reducing the risk that the genes produce," said Julie Williams, a neuroscientist at Cardiff University."
NATURE NUGGET!!
Lost World of Fanged Frogs and Giant Rats Discovered in Papua, New Guinea from the [Manchester] Guardian
A VERY COOL picture gallery goes with this article.
"A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea."
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