Monthly Archives: August 2009

Palin vs. Obama: Death Panels

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This is another good article from FactCheck.org that traces the origins of the “death squad” term and how it has been argued between Obama and Palin.

Like many disagreements in the digital age, it all started with a post on Facebook. Last Friday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a note to her Facebook page and introduced a new term to the health care debate:
Palin, Aug. 7: The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care.
Unsurprisingly, the phrase “death panel” does not appear in the health care bill that passed House committees last month. And Palin’s post did not make entirely clear what she might interpret as a “death panel.” Nonetheless, the phrase stuck…
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via Palin vs. Obama: Death Panels | FactCheck.org.
It’s amazing how blatant falsehoods are defining the terms of the debate over one of the most important issues of our time.  And virtually no one is talking substantively about the issues.  The arguments are partisan, ad hominem, purely rhetorical, and completely devoid of substance.  Check everything you hear on this issue before you decide on anything.
There are falsehoods and stretches of the truth on both sides, by the way. Check out this excellent article, “Seven Falsehoods About Health Care.” But it has to be said, that it is the opposition to health care that is making the more outrageous claims, tossing around words like “death panels” and “socialism.”

Why Online Schools Are Booming

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Here is a provocative paragraph from a Newsweek article on the growth of online education.

Online offerings these days can sometimes even surpass the classroom experience. Aaron Walsh, a professor at Boston College and a former videogame designer, has pioneered Immersive Education, a method of teaching through virtual worlds. Meeting in Second Life instead of a physical classroom, says Walsh, allows for some feats that gravity renders impossible, like having art-history students fly to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or biology majors to take a Magic Schoolbus–like trip through the human body. Using videos, podcasts, live chats, Webcams, and wikis, educators increasingly see online learning as a way to engage the videogame generation with pedagogy that feels more like entertainment than drudgery. Students in the new homeland-security master’s degree program at the University of Connecticut this fall, for example, will have coursework that resembles Grand Theft Auto: dwelling in a cybercity called San Luis Rey plagued with suicide bombers, biochemical attacks, and other disasters. At Arizona State, students in an Introduction to Parenting class raise a “virtual child.” They have to post the progress of their online charge through all the phases of childhood. “The classes are so much more interactive, and I can log on when I’m most ready to learn,” says Jaquelyn Holleran, a junior majoring in family and human development at ASU. “I like that so much better than having to rush to class or sit through a lecture that’s boring.”

Technology and the distance learning it enables opens up so many possibilities for extending the university, and that is incredibly exciting.  The new methodologies and pedagogies it allows, like those listed above, are also reason for educators to rejoice.  I certainly have no doubt that online offerings these days can surpass the classroom experience.
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It isn’t always an either or proposition, either.  The hybrid course is often the site of the most exciting and innovative teaching.  More on that another day.

Pakistanis See the US as the Biggest Threat

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The Al Jazeera network has commissioned a public opinion survey in Pakistan that has yielded some disturbing and surprising results.  The poll, conducted by Gallup Pakistan, showed that 59% of Pakistani’s believe that the United States is the biggest threat to Pakistan.
That many Pakistanis see the US as a threat is entirely surprising, but the margins are.  Tensions between India and Pakistan are legendary and longstanding and the Taliban is a brutal militant Islamist regime.   Think about that for a moment.  A major source of the resentment seems to be the drone attacks against Taliban and Al Qaeda targets.

(W)hen asked if they support or oppose the US military’s drone attacks against what Washington claims are Taliban and al-Qaeda targets, only nine per cent of respondents reacted favourably.
A massive 67 per cent say they oppose US military operations on Pakistani soil.
Forty-one per cent of Pakistanis say they support the offensive against the Taliban
“This is a fact that the hatred against the US is growing very quickly, mainly because of these drone attacks,” Makhdoom Babar, the editor-in-chief of Pakistan’s The Daily Mail newspaper, said.
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A senior US official told Al Jazeera he was not surprised by the poll’s findings.
The US has a considerable amount of work to do to make itself better understood to the Muslim world, he said.
And it would take not only educational and economic work to win over the Pakistani people but also a concerted effort to help the Pakistani government deal with “extremist elements” that are trying to disrupt security within Pakistan, he added.

via Al Jazeera English – CENTRAL/S. ASIA – Pakistanis see US as biggest threat.
Complete survey results are at this link.

MacBreakz: I'd Swear by this Program!

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MacBreakz Screenshot

MacBreakz Screenshot

As someone who endures the effects of a poor ergonomic setup and a failure to take regular breaks when I get wrapped up in a project, I strongly recommend that if you, too, have this problem you set up something to remind you on your computer. There are several ways to do this. Many calendaring programs can send regular reminders.
If you own an Apple computer, however, I can recommend an excellent program. Go to this page http://www.publicspace.net/MacBreakZ/ and download a trial of MacBreakz. MacBreakz is a wonderful program that allows you to program the length of time you want between breaks, can provide you recommended stretches, can force you to take breaks by locking the screen, etc. But only if you enable it.
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It’s only available for Mac OS, but there are simial PC programs, but I hesitate to recommend one, not knowing them well.

Old Lady Impersonates Obama for Unknown Reasons. Tiny Dog Not Fooled

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An online guide to following the health care legislation

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“Health Care Reform: An Online Guide” by Timothy Noah, is a very useful, regularly updated to a continually unfolding story.

The legislative effort to reform America’s health care system is a story that is unfolding online. Newspapers are playing catch-up, sometimes with their own Web sites. What follows is a guide to the best online information sources for anyone who wants to follow this If you are also experiencing the same and applied the chemical remedies when he started to notice this hair loss issue. sildenafil online Experts have found that the problem of ED and the shame and stigma accompanying it make it a priority to buy canada viagra no prescription as many packets of dates as their luggage can allow, owing to the rich taste and nutritional value. Sinrex has been proven to actually improve your overall sexual health and lowers your desire buy cialis pill click content of having sex with your partner. It exactly leads to thrash down the male reproductive organ that is essential for a sexual art. purchase generic levitra This site story as it happens. Because valuable new links are appearing on an almost-daily basis, I have been adding to and updating this portal with some frequency.

There are links to the relevant Congressional committees, bloggers and media resources, lobbying groups, academic groups and think tanks and other sources.  It should help sort through some of the hyperbolic fear-mongering and unwarranted attacks from both sides.

Cities Go Blue for Colon Cancer New National Awareness Campaign Launched

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This is the first part of a press release announcing a new initiative form the Colon Cancer Alliance which reports on its site that

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the US.

But perhaps because it is one of those cancers that we don’t like to talk about, it doesn’t get much attention.  It certainly got my attention by coming into my family, though.  Here is the announcement.  Full text at this link.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 10, 2009) – The Colon Cancer Alliance (CCA) today announced the launch of its national awareness campaign, Cities Go Blue for Colon Cancer.  Philadelphia, PA has been selected as the inaugural host city with events kicking off on September 26-27, 2009.
“The purpose of the nationwide Cities Go Blue for Colon Cancer campaign is to promote awareness about colorectal cancer, by encouraging people to get screened and providing information and support to survivors and caregivers,” said Andrew Spiegel, CEO of the Colon Cancer Alliance.  “Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in the country and we need to make sure that everyone who should be screened is getting screened and those living with the disease have the information and support they need to improve their quality of life. Philadelphia has been selected as our kick-off city and we’re excited to work with community partners on a series of informative and fun events geared toward increasing knowledge of colon cancer and saving lives in the process.”

via Colon Cancer Alliance.

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics in the Health Care Debate

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I strongly recommend that everyone who is interested in the current debate over health care, and let’s face it, all of us ought to be, regularly check out the site FactCheck.org. This project of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy checks claims of politicians, political campaigns, lobbying organizations, etc. against the facts.
And guess what, FactCheck.org has found that proponents of a government administered option for health care are lying to you. This time it is about the record breaking profits of the insurance industry. In four ads from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) targeting specific lawmakers

the narrator says that the targeted lawmaker has received many thousands of dollars in campaign contributions “from the insurance industry.” What do the insurance companies get, the narrator asks? “Record profits.”
We asked the DCCC for back-up on the “record profits” claim. A spokesman sent us citations of several articles, none of which prove the claim. One notes that UnitedHealth Group moved up in the Fortune 500 rankings of corporations, but even that article says the company reaped lower profits in 2008 than in 2007. It’s true that UnitedHealth’s numbers for the second quarter of 2009 beat analysts’ expectations, as we noted last week, but the company posted higher profits in, say, the first quarter of 2008.

via FactCheck.org, Broken Record on Record Profits

And guess what else, opponents of a publicly administered option are lying to, on a lot of things. They are lying about the “death panels.”
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In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention.

There is a tv ad in which a senior citizen implies that Medicare coverage will be cut back under a government plan, but that abortion will be provided on demand. This, too, is not true.

In fact, none of the health care overhaul measures that have made it through the committee level in Congress say that abortion will be covered, and one of them explicitly says that no public funds will be used to finance the procedure. Furthermore, none of the bills call explicitly for cuts in Medicare coverage, much less rationing, under a public plan.

via FactCheck.org, Surgery for Seniors vs. Abortions?
There are articles analyzing the claims Obama made in his press conference, those frightening tv commercials from Conservatives for Patient Rights, etc. Check out the site.
This issue is too important for sides to be making false claims or stretching the truth, but sometimes they, themselves, have wrong information. So it is our responsibility to check the facts.

Are liberals seceding from sanity?

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Check out this paragraph from a piece I just read.

Blacks and Latinos, it appears, are allowed to hold conventionally conservative social views about gay rights, abortion and (in the case of blacks) immigration without being mocked and denounced by elite white liberals in the pages of the Washington Post and Mother Jones, as long as they vote for the Democratic Party on the basis of other issues. This strategic logic should lead liberals to seek out and welcome the vote of white social conservatives in the South and elsewhere, as long as they vote for Democrats for reasons other than the social issues. Indeed, socially conservative white voters helped to create and to maintain the new Democratic majority in Congress. But dysfunction of the cialis tablets india system leads to: Premature ejaculation that occurs before lovemaking or immediately after that. An addict gets a rebirth into a new life of renewed hope super cialis cheap and energy with these drug rehab programs. Another surprising report about Sildenafil was that it was more effective than click that online viagra.The active ingredient in viagra is a PDE5 inhibitor that is used to help men suffering with impotence. Before you get involved in the disorder, is it not amazing? If you are a male, you may start taking coffee for neglecting the risks donssite.com cipla levitra of erectile dysfunction. But many liberals, it would appear, would rather have a smaller Democratic Party than one that includes more white Southerners with typically “black” or “Latino” views about sex and reproduction.

via Are liberals seceding from sanity? | Salon.
It’s a provocative but perceptive quote from a very interesting article on Salon.com by Michael Lind.  If you want to know what he means by “black” or “Latino” views you have to read the article.  It’s worth it. Lind is spot on, however.  I find that a lot of New Englanders understand the American South only slightly better than many Moroccans I met understood what life was like in Europe. This is a sad state of affairs. 

SAR Academic Freedom Media Review

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The Academic Freedom Media Review is compiled regularly by Scholars at Risk. Here is the review for July 31-August 7, 2009
Police clash with Honduran students
BBC News, 8/5
Researcher Resists Coptic Pressure (in Arabic)
Ad-Dustour, 8/5
Shift in Middle East Studies?
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 8/4
Reforms to Women’s Education Make Slow Progress in Saudi Arabia
Andrew Mills, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/3
Scandals Lead to Promises of Reform in Australian International Education
Shailaja Neelakantan, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/3
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Jonathan Travis, University World News, 8/2
Barriers to Religious School Graduates lifted
Brendan O’Malley, University World News, 8/2
NIGERIA: Supreme court reinstates sacked academics
Tunde Fatunde, University World News, 8/2
Professor Speaks on UN Arab Human Development Report 2009 (in Arabic)
Al-Fayhaa, 7/31
Note: For more about the United Nations Human Development Reports, see the UNDP site.