Stuff I've been meaning to mention:
Xenophobia is alive and well in Congress. Rep. J. Gresham Barrett (R-SC) first introduced his Stop Terrorists Entry Program Act (STEP) in 2003. Apparently the earlier version would bar persons from countries "determined to be state sponsors of terrorism" from entering the US. His new, improved version would
"bar citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Syria from entry into the United States. It would further require citizens of those nations who are legally visiting or residing in the United States to be deported within 60 days."
The National Iranian American Council is particularly outraged by this bill.There are something like a million or so Iranians living here in the US, quite peaceably.
I'm sure you recall that the last two incidents of terrorism involved an American at Fort Hood who killed 12 fellow soldiers and a Nigerian who attempted to blow up a plane.
Will 2010 be the year when the world sees widespread famine? Some people think so, pointing out that harvests--despite the USDA's insistence that US harvests were at record highs last year--could not have been, given the number of counties, especially in the Midwest, that were declared disaster areas. When harvests suffer a 30% loss of the value of at least one crop, that county can be designated a disaster area.
With food reserves worldwide at a low, some experts are fearful of food shortages and hellacious inflation in food prices. A little thought shows that if severe food shortages come about, the effect on the worldwide economic system could be devastating. Go and read the whole thing. I hope there are other explanations for the apparent gap between the USDA's predictions of record harvests and the fact that so many agricultural areas in the US were declared disaster areas. And I haven't even gotten into the situation globally, where drought and other natural phenomena have taken a serious toll.
Study claims that three of Monsanto's GMOs can cause organ damage in rats. The study was published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences; it found that the major organs affected were the liver and kidneys. Of course Monsanto immediately responded with an angry statement defending its products and accusing the researchers of faulty methods. Would we have expected anything else? Also not surprising: the Wall Street Journal named Monsanto its Corporation of the Year.
How often do the doctors and nurses in your local hospitals wash their hands? A study of 163 doctors in a large university hospital in Switzerland found only 57% compliance with rules for handwashing, which usually require handwashing on entering and exiting a patient's room. While the study is an old one conducted in 2004, the problem is ongoing--so much so that in the state of Maryland, hospital teams made up of staff members will now be monitoring the handwashing practices of health care workers.
With the problem of hospital-acquired infections, this seems quite reasonable to me. Iatrogenic infections take a large toll on hospital patients. I myself had a friend whose 22-year-old brother went in for some kind of elective surgery and ultimately died of an infection he contracted in the hospital. Is it too much to ask that in a setting full of sick people that doctors, nurses, and other health care workers abide by the common-sense rule "wash your hands"?
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