News for today's 2018

Guns In America: The Spiritual Opportunity For Grace

4:56 PM Tukiyooo 0

<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">The best way to invest the wave of mass murders we have experienced in recent years would be to repent from social violence. Reasonable regulation of firearms would be the most obvious pragmatic way to back off from our compulsive habit of violence. But gun reform is at once a far, far cry from enough on the one hand, and extraordinarily hard to achieve on the other. I have not read America & Its Guns: A Theological Expose by Jim Atwood and my theological hero Walter Brueggemann. I’ve only read Rick Barber’s review at <a href="http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=10140">http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=10140</a>; but I have just ordered the book and plan to read it soon. If we are going to think and act with wisdom we need to engage violence theologically. Isn’t that what the Cross compels us to do? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">At this initial stage, I am wondering if the very difficulty in even discussing guns rationally might be a point of entry into the theological challenge we must confront if we are going to take repentance deep enough to respond to all the bloodshed – not just Columbine, Virginia Tech, the Gabby Gifford shooting; the Colorado Theater Massacre, and Sandy Hook Elementary – but all the the one at a time killings and the 181 school shootings in America since Columbine. A reform that makes such killings less frequent is not an adequate answer. But maybe that’s where we have to begin.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Let’s start with the anti-gun folks. There is something oddly self-defeating in our way of challenging gun violence. It is as if we are more concerned with expressing a feeling and maintaining a moral stance than we are about saving lives. As part of that puritanical separatist sentiment, we do not take into account the people on the other side. We imagine them all to be dumb and violent. That is simply not true. I know any number of kind, decent folks, progressive on all manner of social issues, but they are pretty attached to their guns. In ways -- perhaps the ways I will discuss momentarily -- they feel violated or fear being violated by those who would deprive them of their weaponry. That feeling may or may not be reasonable, but it is real, and if we want to change our society, we have to start with what’s real – reasonable or not. To disregard the concerns of the gun owners is itself a kind of violence. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">One year my Diocese (not Nevada) devoted our Convention to gun violence. We passed a resolution forbidding Episcopalians from owning handguns and requiring all church members to hand over their guns to their priests. In Georgia! We lost a few members, but to my knowledge never collected a single handgun. What were we smoking?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Here’s what I mean by puritanical separatism: many Abolitionists opposed the Union war effort and all the political efforts of the 1840s and 50s to stop the spread of slavery. They were perfectly content to see the South go its own way. The Abolitionists would have abolished slavery in their nation without freeing a single slave. They would have accomplished nothing but to keep their own skirts clean. That is the kind of spirit among the anti-gun activists that will perpetuate the violence. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">The pro-gun folks are decidedly voicing something deep within the American identity. One pro-gun comment I read this week said, “I am an American. I will not give up the gun in my purse.” Her gun was part and parcel of being an American in her mind. That takes some unpacking. But it must not be dismissed. She is onto something. America has 5% of the world’s population, but we own 50% of the world’s guns. We have lots of guns and we use them. The U S per capita rate of gun deaths is about 20 times the average of other developed nations. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/14/chart-the-u-s-has-far-more-gun-related-killings-than-any-other-developed-country/">http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/14/chart-the-u-s-has-far-more-gun-related-killings-than-any-other-developed-country/</a>. No other developed nation has anything like our rate of gun deaths. Only Chile is even in the ballpark. To be fair, several undeveloped nations are worse. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate</a>. But the woman’s point is still fair. Owning and using lethal weapons is wired into our self-concept. I gather Atwood and Brueggemann help us understand how we came to identify with our guns.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">For now, I think of a line from a song written by a Nevada singer-songwriter. “Something to do with my pride. Something to do with my fear.” Let’s start with fear. Americans are afraid. We are very afraid. Many people carrying guns are afraid of the other people carrying guns. No surprise. Our crime rate is high. So some of that fear just makes sense.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">But I have personally observed that an extraordinary number of people who are not seriously at risk are just as afraid, often more afraid, than are the people who live and work in dangerous neighborhoods or have dangerous jobs. Maybe fear is contagious so we catch it from people who are afraid with good reason. But I am also intrigued by the argument of Lynn Serafinn in 7 Graces of Marketing. <a href="http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/tag/lynn-serafinn/">http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/tag/lynn-serafinn/</a>. She says that marketing strategies for the past several decades have used fear (including fear of scarcity), sex, and a kind of debased humor to sell, sell, sell. Those who are bombarded with this kind of marketing at the rate we Americans are, by her reasoning, are bound to be afraid. If I know Walter Brueggemann, I suspect he’ll make the same connection. We are, in short, afraid. And we have placed our trust not in God or in each other, but in our own access to lethal force. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Speaking of the lethal weapons of his day, the Psalmist wrote: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses; but we trust in the name of the Lord.” (Ps 27). When Judah turned to the death dealing power of Egypt for defense, Isaiah said, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Woe to them that go to Egypt for help, and trust in chariots and stay on horses for they are many; and in horsemen for they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel; nor do they seek the Lord. Because you have said ‘We have made a covenant with death, with Hades we have an agreement, . . . .’ I lay in Zion a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone . . . “ (Is. 28: 14-16) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Our level of fear, though understandable, says something about our faith. Our trust is not in the foundation stone, the tried stone, the precious cornerstone. Instead when we say the answer to “a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” we have made a “covenant with death.” We trust our ability to invoke the death of another to save us from death. “Something to do with our fear.” “<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">But also “something to do with (our) pride.”  What constitutes human worth? What makes a person a hero? How do we establish our status? Is it who we are, what we have, or something we can do? Culture defines the criteria of human worth. In our culture, if a person can amass great wealth, he or she is worthy. Second, best is the ability to kill people. There is an axis of value here. There is a horizontal axis of good versus bad plus a vertical axis as pride versus shame. On the good versus bad axis, it matters who we kill – good to kill Osama bin Laden (not the Christian view – I’m talking about the cultural value), bad to kill innocent children. But on the pride versus shame axis, the thing is to be able to kill – anybody, preferably a lot of people. The strong person may refrain from killing, especially if restraint justifies him or her on the good-bad axis; but the ability to kill is what counts. Unless we are physically very formidable or have terrific martial arts skills, the best way to be lethal is to pack heat. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Where do I get the idea that our capacity to kill is a measure of our worth? What makes us a “great nation?” It isn’t our education system, which we don’t fund. Neither is it the purity of our democracy, which we spend a fortune to corrupt. It’s our ability to inflict shock and awe – impose our will by force. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Who are our movie heroes if not the rugged individuals who can dispatch large numbers of people in just a few minutes of screen time?  The ability to kill carries cred. It gets respect. If we aren’t rich and we can’t kill, what good are we?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">We have lost more people to gun deaths in the United States since 1968 than in all our wars. People in other developed nations, and even many undeveloped nations, think of us as “violent.” Why is that? “Something to do with our pride. Something to do with our fear.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">When puritanical separatism faces off against pride (more specifically its corollary of shame) and fear, there isn’t much space left in the room for reason. Reason would find the right tool for the right job. Because mass shootings account for a statistically insignificant percentage of total gun deaths, restricting the right to own semi-automatic weapons to law enforcement, the military, or others with some legitimate need to kill large numbers of people very fast will not actually have a major impact on the rate of gun deaths. But if we want to stop mass shootings, restricting the right to own semi-automatic weapons would save lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Requiring background checks to prevent criminals, terrorists, and dangerous mentally ill people from buying guns would not necessarily stop a random crazy person from getting a gun and committing mass murder. But it would reduce the number of individual gun deaths each year. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">We don’t have to repeal the 2<sup>nd</sup> amendment or ban all handguns to make a difference that would save lives. But it would take reasoned negotiations taking into account the concerns of both sides. The good thing about needing to come together is that in order to have reasoned negotiation; we must first engage the spiritual issues underlying our puritanical separatism, our pride, and our fear. What if in the course of discussing legislation there were actual conversions of heart? What if we turned to each other in God, found our worth in God’s eyes, entrusted our well-being to God? What if we actually beat our own weapons into plowshares, not because the other side forced us to do so, but because we as a culture redefined the measure of human worth in such a way that the ploughshare carried more respect than the weapon? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">I am not saying we need a change of heart instead of a change of law. But we cannot achieve a change of law without some change of heart; and if that change of heart just kept going, it would achieve more than legislation ever could. It might achieve something worthy of the blood that has been spilled.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

Guns In America: The Spiritual Opportunity For Grace

The best way to invest the wave of mass murders we have experienced in recent years would be to repent from social violence. Re...

EUROPE AND THE ARAB SPRING THAT NEVER SPRUNG

10:39 AM Tukiyooo 0

<br /> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg25uKx5iM9hC_BufOAClv8b9QSQSJv161oHXP6m2uIWdZTmg_wuVwcwC3nQD35dCVGHBdDpiKdJAu4cqy9iVa6-1sVqFXUiP3a7lmazzYdgl-jfi5UeM33nkbLHcnjP0AumJ2_kbD0Qo9I/s1600/bron3000l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg25uKx5iM9hC_BufOAClv8b9QSQSJv161oHXP6m2uIWdZTmg_wuVwcwC3nQD35dCVGHBdDpiKdJAu4cqy9iVa6-1sVqFXUiP3a7lmazzYdgl-jfi5UeM33nkbLHcnjP0AumJ2_kbD0Qo9I/s400/bron3000l.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> THERE ARE CURRENTLY 22 STATES IN THE WORLD WHICH EARN OVER 60% OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GDP FROM OIL (AND GAS), AND ARE RULED BY NON-DEMOCRATIC, AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By correlating hydrocarbons with the present political and socio-economic landscape, scholar Larry Diamond revealed that there are currently 22 states in the world which earn over 60% of their respective GDP from oil (and gas), and are ruled by non-democratic, authoritarian regimes. All of them are characterized by disparity, steep socio-economic cleavages, sharp political inequalities and lasting exclusions, not to mention poor human rights records. These represent nearly half of the countries considered by the Freedom House’s annual reports as ‘not free’– the very same that are predominantly held accountable by the Western media for domestic and regional insurgences, intl. armed conflicts, famines as well as for harboring and financing terrorists. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">DEMOCRATIC RECESSION: 9 OF THE 11 TOP CRUDE EXPORTERS ARE LABELED AS DICTATORSHIPS</span></b></span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As for the fact that 9 of the 11 top crude exporters are usually labeled as dictatorships, Prof. Diamond calls this a ‘democratic recession.’ This all points to the fact that there is not a single economic or political indicator in the MENA (MIDDLE EAST – NORTH AFRICA) region that suggests any ‘Spring’ has occurred, just a severe and lasting recession.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWXar1eGhmXuA5dHJbt0v-amTfSRBtwtVvUI2PlMr03K4QvtOlItTs6AAch0_MtKuyFQPjsWjqEVpnYMOsWXRvbtuYJ1oINPnA61wJ5_hjmEILSBQnlzkUALo6XG21B_enzioLrmVglIh/s1600/FreedomHouseReport2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWXar1eGhmXuA5dHJbt0v-amTfSRBtwtVvUI2PlMr03K4QvtOlItTs6AAch0_MtKuyFQPjsWjqEVpnYMOsWXRvbtuYJ1oINPnA61wJ5_hjmEILSBQnlzkUALo6XG21B_enzioLrmVglIh/s400/FreedomHouseReport2012.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Indeed, modern history is full of examples where any given crude exporting countries’ development was hindered by huge revenues. Far too often, the petro-cash flow did not assist but delayed or derailed necessary economic diversification and political reform. Conveniently using revenues to buy and otherwise subsidize social peace, these regimes were actually creating a kind of self-entrapment in the form of an ever-stronger psychological and political dependence on hydrocarbons. Therefore, a real ‘Arab Spring,’ for the MIDDLE EAST and the rest of us, will only come after socio-economic decoupling and diversification, socio-political horizontalization; all grounded in a decisive departure from oil-dependence. By no means would it ever come by the purely cosmetic change of who resides in the presidential palace.   </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">SAUDIS ONLY REPRESENT 1.5% OF THE WORLD’S MUSLIMS, BUT FINANCIALLY CONTROL AROUND 90% OF THE ISLAMIC INSTITUTIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST</span><br /></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />Fearing leftist republican pan-arabism and nasserism, the us encouraged saudi arabia to sponsor the large network of madrasahs throughout the middle east – Prof. Cleveland reminds us in his capital work: A History of the Modern MIDDLE EAST. In the last three decades, this tiger became ‘too big to ride’, as Lawrence Wright points out in The Looming Tower. Wright states that while representing only 1.5% of the world’s Muslims, SAUDIS fund and essentially control around 90% of the Islamic institutions from the US to KAZAKHSTAN/Xinjiang and from NORWAY to AUSTRALIA.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4An2QSVMtB_CpZOKEBgn2CzPpKrJV4gzK0BaA5_CxIBvgSBMKzC8JW10rgVvdGYMmHNo4XEIv1N6sDKFZr2K3sMp5GGKiVYTbqkFi0DW2iDXGuVTxE06g9hXY0mYXsU30JxEAFENSa8lz/s1600/saudi1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4An2QSVMtB_CpZOKEBgn2CzPpKrJV4gzK0BaA5_CxIBvgSBMKzC8JW10rgVvdGYMmHNo4XEIv1N6sDKFZr2K3sMp5GGKiVYTbqkFi0DW2iDXGuVTxE06g9hXY0mYXsU30JxEAFENSa8lz/s200/saudi1.jpg" width="198" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By insisting on oversimplified and rigid, sectarian Wahhabi-Salafist interpretations of religious texts, most of these institutions along with their indoctrinated clerics are in fact both corrupting and preventing an important inner debate about Islam and modernity.  Self-detained in denial limbo, they largely (and purposely) keep the Arab and non-Arab Muslim world in a dangerous confrontational course with both itself and the rest of the world.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Background Information:</span></u></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/saudi-arabia-origin-of-wahhabism.html"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/saudi-arabia-origin-of-wahhabism.html</span></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/05/turkey-shiite-persians-versus-wahhabi.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/05/turkey-shiite-persians-versus-wahhabi.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">To this end, there is a claim currently circulating the EU, both cynical and misleading: ‘multiculturalism is dead in EUROPE.’ Not entirely surprising, as the EU has silently handed over one of its most important debates – that of EUROPEAN identity – to the right wing-parties. The way to save EUROPE’S domestic cohesion and overall credibility within its strategic neighborhood lies in the reinvigoration of its ‘everything but institutions’ transformative powers, those that were stipulated in the Barcelona process of the EUROPEAN Neighborhood Policy as well as in the EURO-MED partnership (OSCE).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">EUROPE’S GEOPOLITICAL INDECISIVENESS, A HINDERING STONE TO PROSPERITY</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />Why is this the case?<br /><br />Young generations of EUROPEANS are taught in schools about a compact unity (singularity) of an entity called the EU. However, as soon as serious external or inner security challenges emerge, historic EUROPE resurfaces. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEKi8JNpQWcuP1RZC4SRiHfpHNgdCh9ewl6aR6ipj0Duh-u0nemwaKQffGvvTa-4k32QkthraXJasXP7qYK2uKWZ4GYedA15I89BrEDOoVCjUpwipUZR2WAb4QRf-raANGKd-OnIkxem-r/s1600/16042_THUMB_IPAD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEKi8JNpQWcuP1RZC4SRiHfpHNgdCh9ewl6aR6ipj0Duh-u0nemwaKQffGvvTa-4k32QkthraXJasXP7qYK2uKWZ4GYedA15I89BrEDOoVCjUpwipUZR2WAb4QRf-raANGKd-OnIkxem-r/s640/16042_THUMB_IPAD.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Center Right shift in Europe: Center Right Governments of Europe oppose  Multicultural Awareness </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Formerly in ALGERIA, EGYPT and LEBANON, then in IRAQ (with the exception of FRANCE) and now with LIBYA and SYRIA and BOSNIA, Central Europe is hesitant to act, ATLANTIC EUROPE is eager, SCANDINAVIAN EUROPE is absent, EASTERN EUROPE is bandwagoning, and RUSSOPHONE EUROPE is opposing.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/08/bosnia-cursed-by-european-union-eu.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/08/bosnia-cursed-by-european-union-eu.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/07/bosnia-european-unions-stepchild.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/07/bosnia-european-unions-stepchild.html</a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />The 1986 Reagan-led ANGLO-AMERICAN bombing of LIBYA was a one-time, head-hunting punitive action. This time, LIBYA (and currently SYRIA) has been given a different attachment: The considerable presence of CHINA in AFRICA; successful circumventing pipeline deals between RUSSIA and GERMANY (which will deprive EASTERN EUROPE from any transit-related bargaining premium, and will tacitly pose a joint RUSSO-GERMAN pressure on the BALTIC states, POLAND and UKRAINE); the boldness of IRAN; and finally the overthrows of the EU friendly, TUNISIAN, YEMENI and EGYPTIAN regimes –all combined– must have triggered alarm bells across ATLANTIC EUROPE. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Background Information:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/09/chinas-winning-strategy-in-africa.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/09/chinas-winning-strategy-in-africa.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ISLAM THAT THE EU SUPPORTED IN THE MIDDLE EAST YESTERDAY IS THE SORT OF ISLAM THAT EUROPE GETS TODAY</span></b></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Thus, in response to the MENA crisis, the EU failed to keep up a broad, consolidated agenda in regards to its strategic neighborhood, even though it had the institutions, interest and credibility to do so. The only direct involvement of the continent ranged over dialog (instruments) and consensus (institutions).<br />between a diplomatic de-legitimization (by Goebbels-izing the media for it) and punitive military engagement via the ATLANTIC EUROPE-led coalition of the willing. Confrontational nostalgia prevailed again </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />The consequences are striking: The sort of Islam that the EU supported in the MIDDLE EAST yesterday is the sort of Islam that EUROPE gets today<span style="color: red;">. <b> </b></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: red;"><b>Small wonder that Islam in TURKEY (or in KYRGYZSTAN OR INDONESIA) is generally broad, liberal and tolerant while in NORTHERN EUROPE it can be brutally dismissive, narrow and vindictively assertive</b>.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By Anis Bajrektarevic via Geopoliticalmonitor </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

EUROPE AND THE ARAB SPRING THAT NEVER SPRUNG

THERE ARE CURRENTLY 22 STATES IN THE WORLD WHICH EARN OVER 60% OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GDP FROM OIL (AND GAS), AND ARE RULED BY NON-DEMOCRATIC...

Is the Cure for Cancer Inside You? - NYTimes.com

5:29 AM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:">Claudia Steinman saw her husband's BlackBerry blinking in the dark. It had gone untouched for several days, in a bowl beside his keys, the last thing on anybody's mind. But about an hour before sunrise, she got up to get a glass of water and, while padding toward the kitchen, found an e-mail time-stamped early that morning — "Sent: Monday, Oct. 3, 2011, 5:23 a.m. Subject: Nobel Prize. Message: Dear Dr. Steinman, I have good news for you. The Nobel Assembly has today decided to award you the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2011." Before she finished reading, Claudia was hollering at her daughter to wake up. "Dad got the Nobel!" she cried. Alexis, still half-asleep, told her she was crazy. Her father had been dead for three days.<br><br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWFF7cI1LXyNhFuj0Rr3BQ0i8Ck86EbwlIRQn4qqQneXiiaKdeqguNc0HAcrE7v-jKfUWsIjZEFg5zUvyptD7efVE2d5PIkvWi901uvtUHgoDhxeY5rREsnXx2ood_NY_DZkjQGgnkNE8/s1600/23cancer2-articleInline-v2-788059.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5824761581479189378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWFF7cI1LXyNhFuj0Rr3BQ0i8Ck86EbwlIRQn4qqQneXiiaKdeqguNc0HAcrE7v-jKfUWsIjZEFg5zUvyptD7efVE2d5PIkvWi901uvtUHgoDhxeY5rREsnXx2ood_NY_DZkjQGgnkNE8/s320/23cancer2-articleInline-v2-788059.jpg" /></a><br><br>The Nobel Foundation doesn't allow posthumous awards, so when news of Ralph Steinman's death reached Stockholm a few hours later, a minor intrigue ensued over whether the committee would have to rescind the prize. It would not, in fact; but while newspapers stressed the medal mishap ("Nobel jury left red-faced by death of laureate"), they spent less time on the strange story behind the gaffe. That Steinman's eligibility was even in question, that he'd been dead for just three days instead of, say, three years, was itself a minor miracle.<div><br>In the spring of 2007, Steinman, a 64-year-old senior physician and research immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York, had come home from a ski trip with a bad case of diarrhea, and a few days later he showed up for work with yellow eyes and yellow skin — symptoms of a cancerous mass the size of a kiwi that was growing on the head of his pancreas. Soon he learned that the disease had made its way into nearby lymph nodes. Among patients with his condition, 80 percent are dead within the first year; another 90 percent die the year after that. When he told his children about the tumor over Skype, he said, "Don't Google it."<br><br>But for a man who had spent his life in the laboratory, who brought copies of The New England Journal of Medicine on hiking trips to Vermont and always made sure that family vacations overlapped with scientific symposia, there was only one way to react to such an awful diagnosis — as a scientist. The outlook for pancreatic cancer is so poor, and the established treatments so useless, that any patient who has the disease might as well shoot the moon with new, untested therapies. For Steinman, the prognosis offered the opportunity to run one last experiment.<br><br>In the long struggle that was to come, Steinman would try anything and everything that might extend his life, but he placed his greatest hope in a field he helped create, one based on discoveries for which he would earn his Nobel Prize. He hoped to reprogram his immune cells to defeat his cancer — to concoct a set of treatments from his body's own ingredients, which could take over from his chemotherapy and form a customized, dynamic treatment for his disease. These would be as far from off-the-shelf as medicines can get: vaccines designed for the tumor in his gut, made from the products of his plasma, that could only ever work for him.<br><br>Steinman would be the only patient in this makeshift trial, but the personalized approach for which he would serve as both visionary and guinea pig has implications for the rest of us. It is known as cancer immunotherapy, and its offshoots have just now begun to make their way into the clinic, and treatments have been approved for tumors of the skin and of the prostate. For his last experiment, conducted with no control group, Steinman would try to make his life into a useful anecdote — a test of how the treatments he assembled might be put to work. "Once he got diagnosed with cancer, he really started talking about changing the paradigm of cancer treatment," his daughter Alexis says. "That's all he knew how to do. He knew how to be a scientist."<br><br>First, Steinman needed to see his tumor. Not an M.R.I. or CT scan, but the material itself. The trouble was that most people with his cancer never have surgery. If there's cause to think the tumor has spread — and there usually is — it may not be worth the risk of having it removed, along with the bile duct, the gallbladder, large portions of the stomach and the duodenum. Luckily for Steinman, early scans showed that his tumor was a candidate for resection. On the morning of April 3, 2007, less than two weeks after his diagnosis, he went in for the four-hour procedure at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, just across the avenue from his office at Rockefeller University.<br><br>After two hours on the operating table, his surgeon, Dan Coit, lifted the tumor from his abdomen. It was about two and a half inches long. Coit stitched a short thread across its top and a longer one on the side — an embroidered code to help the pathologists get oriented — and sent the specimen upstairs, wrapped in a towel and nestled in a tray of ice.<br><br>Claudia and Alexis were waiting in the lobby, along with Sarah Schlesinger, a longtime friend and member of Steinman's lab, who is also a board-certified pathologist. It would be her job to manage the disbursement of the tumor to Steinman's colleagues around the world, so its every nuance could be tested and its fragments incorporated into the drugs that would compose his treatment. When she arrived at the lab upstairs and held the tumor, it was still so warm that she could feel the heat through her latex gloves.<br><br>She chopped and sliced the tumor into samples, based on a list that Steinman helped draw up beforehand. A few grams would be placed in screw-top vials filled with a preservative for their RNA. Steinman's administrative assistant would take another piece to Boston on an afternoon train, and some would go to a former student, Kang Liu, so she could sew confetti-sized squares of the tumor into living mice. If there was any left, they would send it to a researcher in Baltimore named Elizabeth Jaffee, who had mastered the art of culturing pancreatic cancer in a dish.<br><br>The mass was big enough that Schlesinger could get through all the items on the list. In the days, weeks and months that followed, Steinman's cancer was sent to labs in Boston and Baltimore, Toronto and Tübingen, Germany, Dallas and Durham, N.C. With help from friends and former students, he would squeeze every bit of data from his cancer that he could.<br><br>Steinman's last experiment would be, in many ways, the culmination of a new trend in cancer research: designing custom treatments for each patient. When he got sick, Steinman knew that the five-year survival rate for his kind of tumor was, at most, 1 in 10, even at Sloan-Kettering, one of the best oncology centers in the world. Typically, patients live six months. But he also knew that his chances might not be as bad as they looked. The means and medians of his disease were drawn from populations and so did not reflect the fact that every tumor is unique. Even tumors that look the same — cancers starting from a common organ, or a common kind of cell — may behave in different ways: some shrink and some expand; some succumb to chemotherapy. Now doctors can scan each tumor for clues about its DNA and use those clues to determine its strengths and weaknesses. Steinman could have his case described right down to the letters of its genome, in hopes of figuring out which therapies might work best for him.<br><br>This "personalized" approach to treating cancer, which subdivides the classic types according to distortions in their genes, has been growing at a rapid pace. In the past few years, laboratories financed by the government have set out to build a comprehensive atlas of the cancer genome — to collect 500 tumors from each of 25 kinds of the disease and then to analyze their DNA and RNA at a cost of more than $100 million a year. The advent of inexpensive genome sequencing has produced a gold rush in the commercial sector, too, with the promise that anyone's tumor can be sliced and processed and analyzed, until its genetic fingerprint is decoded.<br><br></div><div>More ...<br><br><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/magazine/is-the-cure-for-cancer-inside-you.html?hpw&pagewanted=all">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/magazine/is-the-cure-for-cancer-inside-you.html?hpw&pagewanted=all</a><br><br></div>

Is the Cure for Cancer Inside You? - NYTimes.com

Claudia Steinman saw her husband's BlackBerry blinking in the dark. It had gone untouched for several days, in a bowl beside his keys, t...

Elf

5:27 AM Tukiyooo 0

Elf

Check out this elf that hangs at the top of my tree. I love him, he is so weird looking. He has a little ruler, scissors and hammer tucked i...

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/22/2012

1:30 AM Tukiyooo 0

<ul class="diigo-linkroll">      <li>      <p class="diigo-link">                <a href="http://blog.jamietie.com/lets-kill-technology-journalism">Let’s kill technology journalism | Jamie Kelly</a>      </p>      <p class="diigo-description">Jamie Kelly does a nice job of dissecting much of what is wrong with technology journalism - going for the trending topic instead of saying "this topic is trending because of misinformation" (i.e. Instagram terms of service changes). I think these points are excellent and can also apply to much of what happens in the education circles as well -- if everybody is talking about ___, then everyone is searching about ____, then everyone is writing about ____ so they will be found. Sometimes it is good not to be everybody but to be somebody who is different and more importantly, who goes through the hype to be as accurate as possible.</p>              <p class="diigo-tags">          <span>tags:</span>                      <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/technology">technology</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/journalism">journalism</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing">writing</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/blogging">blogging</a></p>                                        </li>      <li>      <p class="diigo-link">                <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5970345/remains-of-the-day-facebook-may-let-strangers-message-you-for-1?popular=true">Remains of the Day: Facebook May Let Strangers Message You For $1</a>      </p>      <p class="diigo-description">With 7.5 million kids under 13 on Facebook, the idea that they are testing allowing strangers to message you for $1 is a problem. The whole COPPA/ Lie about your age to get on Facebook coupled with location based services on smartphones that don't require disclosure to parents is going to come to a head and if companies continue to pretend that lying on a checkbox absolves them of the responsbility to protect children, they are wrong. </p>              <p class="diigo-tags">          <span>tags:</span>                      <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/facebook">facebook</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/privacy">privacy</a></p>                                        </li>      <li>      <p class="diigo-link">                <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5964285/whats-all-the-fuss-about-evernote-why-do-people-use-it">What's All the Fuss About Evernote? Should I Be Using It?</a>      </p>      <p class="diigo-description">This article from Lifehacker discusses "what's the deal about evernote" so that people can decide if it is for them. I've left and come back to evernote after I had a bad patch upgrade from Evernote that took a while for me to resolve. I think one of the most useful things I use it for is those procedures in PowerSchool that I do infrequently - like what the exact procedures are for how handle Academic Banquet records in Powerschool or checklists for starting the new year in Powerschool - I have quite a few of these checklists and instructions because I never could find my notes and always had to start over. ;-)</p>              <p class="diigo-tags">          <span>tags:</span>                      <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/evernote">evernote</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/productivity">productivity</a></p>                                        </li>      <li>      <p class="diigo-link">                <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5969365/everbot-connects-gmail-and-google-calendar-to-evernote-for-quick-notes">Everbot Connects Gmail and Google Calendar to Evernote for Quick Note Sharing</a>      </p>      <p class="diigo-description">Evernote is one of my favorite apps and I'm constantly looking around the web for great ideas. Everbot is my next tool that I'll use to link evernote with gmail. It also has some google calendaring features, but I'm most excited about the ability to add to and retrieve from evernote into email without a lot of hassle. Evernote, in my opinion, exceeds the ability of other services and notebooks because of its: ubiquity, functionality and the fact is has so many apps for the service including vJournal which I use to take notes daily, and also because of how it can search every kind of text imaginable, including handwritten text. While some use evernote and dropbox interchangeably - there is a dramatic difference. I don't need or want to reference every document but may want to open them up on multiple computers -- thus Dropbox - but I do need my notes on running my life to move with me from computer to computer -- thus Evernote.</p>              <p class="diigo-tags">          <span>tags:</span>                      <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/productivity">productivity</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/evernote">evernote</a>            <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/gmail">gmail</a></p>                                        </li>  </ul><p class="diigo-ps">Posted from <a href='http://www.diigo.com'>Diigo</a>. The rest of my favorite links are <a href='http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher'>here</a>.</p>

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/22/2012

Let’s kill technology journalism | Jamie Kelly Jamie Kelly does a nice job of dissecting much of wha...

Matt Said...Jay Said 8 (Maids A Milking)

9:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnOJYrTUD_RzIDWQ5fJtITmJstmQyow_AFlk8Tk__s9f53xHYhQcqhLh6_nfuCHx10bc2dKfLApg3-57SxGV_zlwripgXlXAmSebpEKNNzPMV9oGRKmlrS49UjVRQlksetbgFUQM_QY8/s1600/Sexy+Christmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnOJYrTUD_RzIDWQ5fJtITmJstmQyow_AFlk8Tk__s9f53xHYhQcqhLh6_nfuCHx10bc2dKfLApg3-57SxGV_zlwripgXlXAmSebpEKNNzPMV9oGRKmlrS49UjVRQlksetbgFUQM_QY8/s400/Sexy+Christmas.jpg" width="400" /></a>Matt-Man jingles…Jayman jingles…You rock around the Christmas tree.<br /><br />Jayman:  Jingle Bells.  Jingle Bells.  Jingle all the way…<br />Matt:  That was very heartfelt and seasonally happiness-invoking.<br /><br />Jayman:  Just wanted to cheer you up, what with Schmoop in the hospital and what not.<br />Matt:  You are too kind.<br /><br />Jayman:  I have a great idea…I was thinking that this Saturday, we could do a Christmas Show.<br />Matt:  Excellent idea…No one would see that coming.<br />Jayman:  I know, right?<br />Matt:  You are on clever one mutha-fuc--<br />Jayman:  Shut your mouth!!<br /><br />Matt:  Hey dig it…I asked my son Ryno if he had gotten a present for his Mom.<br />Jayman:  Did he for once?<br />Matt:  Yes!!<br />Jayman:  Wow…At the tender age of 18 he is really maturing.<br />Matt:  I know, and then I asked him if he got a present for me…<br />Jayman:  Oh boy, how did he respond?<br />Matt:  He said, <i>“Of course I did; I bought you a big box of heartache.”</i><br /><br />Jayman:  You know…his attitude is your doing.<br />Matt:  I know, but the road map of his life is set, and I envision me becoming nothing more than but a mere rest stop on his highway of life.<br />Jayman:  What does that even <i>mean</i>?<br />Matt:  I have no idea.<br /><br />Jayman:  So I guess we should talk about Christmas on the show Saturday.<br />Matt:  Yeah I guess.<br />Jayman:  What?  What’s wrong?  Sounds like you don’t want to.<br />Matt:  I do, but…well…<br />Jayman:  Oh the Schmoop thing and she might not be home?<br />Matt:  Yeah, I was hoping to have Pizza Rolls with her on Christmas Day, but well…Probably not gonna happen.<br /><br />Jayman:  You do realize that Christmas goes beyond you and your self-absorption?<br />Matt:  So you say, but okay, a Christmas Show sounds pretty good and I’ll try to be happy.<br /><br />Jayman:  We can talk about the do’s and don’ts, and the fun food to serve.<br />Matt:  What to give…What not to give.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dwW6Wu7gdh1dmytCx0H5XVvEBAxq4aGPDeTBB4YvHVa-lFh8jaaswJsOUTVQDbYdO755xeAh-BSxkCTgpJ_N-XGLgLiVG6hTK2bxFEJmK6G2DBnWY95gUdWYNlAxCFrUGkfR5Lo42jI/s1600/Sexy+Women+at+Christmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dwW6Wu7gdh1dmytCx0H5XVvEBAxq4aGPDeTBB4YvHVa-lFh8jaaswJsOUTVQDbYdO755xeAh-BSxkCTgpJ_N-XGLgLiVG6hTK2bxFEJmK6G2DBnWY95gUdWYNlAxCFrUGkfR5Lo42jI/s400/Sexy+Women+at+Christmas.jpg" width="400" /></a>Jayman:  We can discuss how TIME magazine got their Person of the Year way wrong.<br />Matt:  It should have been us.<br /><br />Jayman:  Sounds good, and I hope a lot of people call in as well.<br />Matt:  Me too, because as good as we are, we like fresh voices.<br />Jayman:  Well okie dokie and Happy Solstice to you.<br />Matt:  And a Merry Sol Invictus to you and yours.<br />Matt and Jay: Let’s Do Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.<br /><br />And you catch our Christmas show LIVE Saturday night at 11 PM EST on Blog Talk Radio by clicking right <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid/2012/12/23/christmas-party-2012" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></i></a>. </div>

Matt Said...Jay Said 8 (Maids A Milking)

Matt-Man jingles…Jayman jingles…You rock around the Christmas tree. Jayman: Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells. Jingle all the way… Matt: That w...

Time to Sweat it Out!

7:34 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKcW0Q0alb4neqMuoNBs77Jb22sF9Dow8D7K_EkYKHEqfpOErqAtlVoZLpkHqkba45SyJ6ZuisKe0bBJSOgcr9Zv59RTENA5FOG3dLK1_ISU9Qw8b8IpNOfIMlyDp_zfgygvofForSPEc/s1600/rockin+it+old+navy+style.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKcW0Q0alb4neqMuoNBs77Jb22sF9Dow8D7K_EkYKHEqfpOErqAtlVoZLpkHqkba45SyJ6ZuisKe0bBJSOgcr9Zv59RTENA5FOG3dLK1_ISU9Qw8b8IpNOfIMlyDp_zfgygvofForSPEc/s320/rockin+it+old+navy+style.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Time to Sweat it out in Style with my new active wear jacket from Old Navy thanks to Crowdtap!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">So excited to have received this coupon for some free active wear for a friend and I.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Feels so comfortable and love the color.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Losing weight feels great, especially when I can buy great clothing that looks nice and is affordable!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAFzIWTvjaJLPAYcGmPSrPRiVzZKB6hWvgSqu-G981UYdDTZiUMXL9Om1_5llkpqxOtJhboQzdTy4Uziq6AXrvHghGZlhhbVA_NzC9xiH6Y-LWedqyEdGc3g3VBveq7Ell5Bz59EnPjn0/s1600/so+comfortable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAFzIWTvjaJLPAYcGmPSrPRiVzZKB6hWvgSqu-G981UYdDTZiUMXL9Om1_5llkpqxOtJhboQzdTy4Uziq6AXrvHghGZlhhbVA_NzC9xiH6Y-LWedqyEdGc3g3VBveq7Ell5Bz59EnPjn0/s320/so+comfortable.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I know it stated Active Wear but when I saw this hooded sweatshirt I couldn't pass it up. Not for only $8!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I love the color and how comfortable it is!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Upon being over weight I was limited to clothing sizes and they just didn't feel right or look right.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Most importantly that has changed!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Never did I ever think I would be down to a size that I am in now.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Still have more to go but it takes time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Whoa anyways, trying on clothes now is great and I've found clothing that I look fabulous in.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRmpFCzkJpB_xOK2KOEaybGejbewXL29wwkYein_tZzYV4nGuYAKsLQ9WRpcJLizD_9YD-SmTS1FNrcq4lCoK7vdqQnEXU_CDWph2bvoAfOQBPpavIVpLTt9uUauhA7Rfi_ll8Za2oQrE/s1600/old+navy+wear+in+blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRmpFCzkJpB_xOK2KOEaybGejbewXL29wwkYein_tZzYV4nGuYAKsLQ9WRpcJLizD_9YD-SmTS1FNrcq4lCoK7vdqQnEXU_CDWph2bvoAfOQBPpavIVpLTt9uUauhA7Rfi_ll8Za2oQrE/s320/old+navy+wear+in+blue.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br />

Time to Sweat it Out!

Time to Sweat it out in Style with my new active wear jacket from Old Navy thanks to Crowdtap! So excited to have received this coupon for s...

Winter Adventures to Come

11:54 AM Tukiyooo 0

<em><span style="font-size: large;">Another blog entry by our Outdoor Education Intern, Hannah George, about the many winter activities available across Ohio.  Enjoy! </span></em><br /><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">                Well, it is officially the first day of winter and, since the world hasn’t come to an end, it is time to start thinking about what fun things you can do now that the weather has turned a bit cooler. While the normal happenings of winter consist of mostly indoor activities, there are still many opportunities to enjoy nature and all it has to offer. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody><span style="font-size: large;"></span><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqU0h3BkWNt6bJKq6uDR7TuRi3TCdlKZZitkmHzZP2BdZOOJQFWwLuuXhRJQfSiDo6YkWR_OnAYKbcomBks0puydFVGhH56fAqODH5RNXNQDbVto1H3kjU6DMTixshfPK1aF3ZPhdlo2kV/s1600/images1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqU0h3BkWNt6bJKq6uDR7TuRi3TCdlKZZitkmHzZP2BdZOOJQFWwLuuXhRJQfSiDo6YkWR_OnAYKbcomBks0puydFVGhH56fAqODH5RNXNQDbVto1H3kjU6DMTixshfPK1aF3ZPhdlo2kV/s320/images1.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></td></tr><span style="font-size: large;"></span><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bobcat</span></td></tr><span style="font-size: large;"></span></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">One of my favorite things to do during the winter is to go for a hike at one of Ohio’s many wonderful state parks. There are so many great things to see during the winter, especially when there is snow on the ground. Animal tracks are much easier to spot, as is wildlife in general… well, the ones that aren’t hibernating anyway. I  think the snow-covered trees and shrubs are some of the prettiest sights to see, and they photograph very well. Waterfalls, which are great places to visit during the summer months, can also be amazing destinations during the winter. Some will even freeze solid, which is an impressive sight! Just make sure you dress for the weather with plenty of layers and wear a warm coat, hat, boots and gloves. You can always take off layers if you get too warm.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><span style="font-size: large;"></span><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Oye9mHN1FBJTsQwYbRm6kMWQLAgPgjmL3GC0W43aC7rse0BXpxlDpwsfMRk3WfaqXTvnBXfzHthYGB2cWiVjN2Ul0lmWMfQqw1s7smtugT9GCneTvYMeii094Jvw8m_dC_WUkxSntLg2/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Oye9mHN1FBJTsQwYbRm6kMWQLAgPgjmL3GC0W43aC7rse0BXpxlDpwsfMRk3WfaqXTvnBXfzHthYGB2cWiVjN2Ul0lmWMfQqw1s7smtugT9GCneTvYMeii094Jvw8m_dC_WUkxSntLg2/s320/images.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><span style="font-size: large;"></span><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Northern cardinal</span></td></tr><span style="font-size: large;"></span></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">If wildlife is what you’re interested in, I would suggest visiting a park with a water source, like a lake or large river, that is not frozen over. These locations are magnets for birds, including waterfowl, as well as mammals. During the winter, water is often harder to find then food, especially for birds. (This is also a helpful hint for attracting birds to your own backyard during the winter. Try a heated bird bath this year and see the difference it makes.)</span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">            If you are looking for some fun, free events for your kids, I would strongly suggest the <u>Kids Christmas Bird Count</u> on January 12<sup>th</sup> at Magee Marsh in Northwest Ohio. This is a great opportunity for kids aged 8-12 to get outside and look for birds with an experienced birder. A lunch is provided, but make sure you </span><a href="http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/wild_resourcessubhomepage/StatewideCalendar/tabid/18565/ModuleID/20758/ItemID/1424/mctl/EventDetails/Default.aspx?selecteddate=1/12/2013" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">pre-register</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">           Another fun activity just for kids is the <u><a href="http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/wild_resourcessubhomepage/StatewideCalendar/tabid/18565/ModuleID/20758/ItemID/1569/mctl/EventDetails/Default.aspx?selecteddate=1/13/2013" target="_blank">Kids in the Snow</a></u> event at the Great Blue Heron Lodge in Northeast Ohio on January 13<sup>th</sup>. This is a free event for kids where they will build Wood duck nest boxes to be placed in the preserved wetland areas. After building the nest boxes, the kids go on a hike to learn how to track different animals in the woods. Cookies and hot chocolate will be provided at the end to wrap up a very fun day.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">          For additional information about the above listed events and for a full list of outdoor-related events, visit the </span><a href="http://www.wildohio.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">ODNR Division of Wildlife web page</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> and click on the “Calendar of Events” link at the bottom of the page.  </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">To see a list of additional events at specific parks in Ohio, visit the </span><a href="http://ohiodnr.com/parks/tabid/80/Default.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">ODNR Parks web page</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> and click on the “What’s Going On” link on the right-hand side of the page. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">         Hopefully you have a few fun ideas for outdoor winter activities this year and, if you don’t find something that interests you here, there are plenty of other activities to be found on either the Parks or Wildlife web pages. Lastly, I just want to wish you all safe, Happy Holidays this year! Have a great time with family and friends and enjoy the beautiful outdoors! <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Best Wishes!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hannah<o:p></o:p></span></span>

Winter Adventures to Come

Another blog entry by our Outdoor Education Intern, Hannah George, about the many winter activities available across Ohio. Enjoy! ...

Bean Fields Chips

10:35 AM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6RyPESC1iRcJ8I7OrmsvEFbtDigo_e0gTV30OxjjXWuMOvSkK2jLa4NDwSRzkSjo5n6pOXWdgm9S_L3wlacOvaUn2UxFCQpAMZ9d5ROAPO-vYQlnTkno5JDblwy6R_JcC2dEw_pdY1U/s1600/Beanfields.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6RyPESC1iRcJ8I7OrmsvEFbtDigo_e0gTV30OxjjXWuMOvSkK2jLa4NDwSRzkSjo5n6pOXWdgm9S_L3wlacOvaUn2UxFCQpAMZ9d5ROAPO-vYQlnTkno5JDblwy6R_JcC2dEw_pdY1U/s1600/Beanfields.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Chips made with navy and black beans.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are chips you don't have to feel bad about eating!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They are all natural, vegan free and gluten free as well!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They are made from beans and taste oh so delicious!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They taste just like any other chips.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't miss real chips at all!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They come in many flavors from Nacho Cheese to Sea Salt.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nacho Cheese-</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The flavor was phenomenal and tasted just like nachos!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cheese taste was so delicious!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not too salty at all.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Loved the crunchiness of the chips. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pico De Gallo-</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Loved the taste.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Little sweet and spicy just the way I like it!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unsalted-</span></u></b><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b>Great flavor and crunch.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Needed a little extra flavor like salsa or some cheese though.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sea Salt</span></u></b><br /><b><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liked the flavor.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not too salty.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Crispy and great for nachos!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>Salt and Pepper</u></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Great taste, a little too peppery but works great with a little bit of melted cheese on top!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So yummy!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>

Bean Fields Chips

Chips made with navy and black beans. These are chips you don't have to feel bad about eating! They are all natural, vegan free and glut...

Where Have All the Primary Care Doctors Gone? - NYTimes.com

5:07 AM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div id="well" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div align="left"><div class="entry-content"><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">More and more, my family and friends are asking for my help in finding a primary care doctor. That they would be having trouble finding one doesn't surprise me. We've all been reading <a href="https://www.aamc.org/download/100598/data/recentworkforcestudies.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">warnings about an impending doctor shortage</a> for several years now.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">What is alarming to me is that there are no sure-fire solutions in place that will bail us all out in time.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">In the United States, <a href="https://www.aamc.org/download/158076/data/updated_projections_through_2025.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">we are now short</a> approximately 9,000 primary care doctors. These are the general internists, family doctors, geriatricians and general pediatricians, the doctors responsible for diagnosing new illnesses, managing chronic ones, advocating preventive care and protecting wellness. And health care leaders predict that that deficit will <a href="https://www.aamc.org/download/158076/data/updated_projections_through_2025.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">worsen dramatically in the next 15 years</a>. Specialties like general surgery, neurosurgery and emergency medicine will also become <a href="https://www.aamc.org/download/100598/data/recentworkforcestudies.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">critically understaffed</a>; but primary care will be hardest hit, with a <a href="https://www.aamc.org/download/158076/data/updated_projections_through_2025.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">shortfall of more than 65,000 doctors</a>.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">While the demands from a growing and aging population and an influx of 40 million patients newly covered by insurance are considered the main drivers of this crisis, there is no shortage of issues on the physician supply side.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">For starters, only 2 percent of all medical students <a href="http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=227186" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">in a recent study</a> expressed interest in practicing primary care as a general internist. Most continue to <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp068155" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">flock to subspecialty fields</a> like dermatology, anesthesiology, radiology and ophthalmology.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">And once trained, primary care practitioners are <a href="http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1351351" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">particularly vulnerable to burnout</a> and more likely to leave clinical practice than doctors in <a href="http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=719225" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">subspecialties like cardiology or gastroenterology</a>.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">It's like the patient is bleeding faster than we can transfuse.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Experts have proposed several solutions to the doctor shortage. But for many worried patients and doctors, the best answer is seemingly the most obvious one: churn out more young doctors and funnel them into <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/08/07/158370069/the-prognosis-for-the-shortage-in-primary-care" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">residency programs that train for primary care</a>.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Unfortunately, according to a <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1475191" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association</a>, it's not that obvious.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Researchers asked more than 50,000 doctors training in internal medicine about their career plans. As expected, the majority of these young doctors planned on becoming subspecialists.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">What the researchers discovered, however, was that over the course of their training, almost half the young doctors who began wanting to become primary care doctors changed their minds, most deciding to pursue a subspecialty career instead. And by the time the three-year residency was finished, those numbers dwindled even further, with only one out of five indicating that they wanted to become primary care physicians.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Some of the young doctors surveyed were enrolled in a traditional training "track," which centers on inpatient and subspecialty care. But even a majority of those who pursued a primary care track, developed in the 1970s to encourage more doctors to choose primary care and which concentrates on medical work done in outpatient clinics, doctors' offices and other ambulatory settings, were planning to become subspecialists by the end of their training.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">"The environment is such that even the primary care track training programs don't have a fighting chance," said lead author Dr. Colin P. West, an associate professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and associate program director of the internal medicine residency training program.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Much of the problem lies in what general practitioners have to look forward to. General practitioners <a href="http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1105820" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">work as many hours as, or more</a>, than their subspecialty colleagues. Yet they have among the<a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0903460" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">lowest reimbursement rates</a>. They also shoulder <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/4/w533.full" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">disproportionate responsibility</a> for the <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMon0910793" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">bureaucratic aspects</a> of patient care, spending more time and money obtaining treatment authorization from insurance companies, navigating insurers' ever changing drug formularies and filling out health and disability forms. "All the paperwork," Dr. West said, "interferes with the patient-doctor relationship that drew them to general medicine in the first place and pushes trainees away from primary care unless they are remarkably committed to its goals."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">But it is this subset of committed young doctors -- the one in five who still planned on a career in general medicine at the completion of their training -- that may help to provide the answer to the current primary care shortage. In this study, most were female, enrolled in primary care track programs and graduates of American.medical schools. Dr. West believes that understanding more about what attracted them to primary care, and why they remained committed, could help "make the entire field more attractive to more young doctors," he said.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">"If we go with the simplistic view that opening more medical schools and more training slots will give us more primary care doctors, we may get a few more, but we're mostly going to end up with more subspecialists," Dr. West said. "And even the few additional primary care internal medicine doctors will not do much to address the shortage."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">"The residents are voting with their feet," he added. "And they are telling us something really important."</div></div></div></div></div><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/where-have-all-the-primary-care-doctors-gone/?pagewanted=print">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/where-have-all-the-primary-care-doctors-gone/?pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Where Have All the Primary Care Doctors Gone? - NYTimes.com

More and more, my family and friends are asking for my help in finding a primary care doctor. That they would be having trouble finding one ...