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Health / Politics / Sex / Religion / The Ladies Obama Diddles Bishops on Birth Control

Posted by Goldy on Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 9:11 AM

Seeking to calm a manufactured furor over a "new" rule requiring health insurers to provide free birth control to women—even insurance plans offered by church affiliated employers—the Obama administration will reportedly offer an "accommodation" this morning that drops this requirement of employers, and instead shifts the mandate to insurance companies to offer such coverage as a free side benefit to enrollees.

Clever, clever, Mr. Obama.

In the long run, there's no additional cost burden to insurance companies (giving away birth control is far cheaper than paying for pregnancies), yet it essentially achieves the same end as the original rule while removing church affiliated employers from the equation. No doubt the Catholic bishops and other conservative religious organizations will not be satisfied by the accommodation, but it totally shifts the parameters of the debate. What had been a conversation about whether religious organizations should be exempt from providing a service that violates their faith, now becomes a conversation about whether these employers should be allowed to deny their female employees access to affordable birth control. (Which, of course, is what this was always really about anyway.)

Recent polls show that despite the Bishops' objections, 98 percent of Catholics have used birth control, and a majority supported the "new" birth control rule. Which by the way, isn't all that "new." Insurers have long been required to offer birth control. All this new rule does is remove the deductible and co-pay.

UPDATE: US Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a champion of reproductive rights, just issued a statement supporting the proposed rule change: “My highest priority here is ensuring contraceptive access and coverage for all women, and I believe this accommodation meets that goal." Full statement after the jump:

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Health / Chow Americans™, Now with 60 Percent Less Trans Fat!

Posted by Goldy on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 10:06 AM

Great news for health-conscious vampires:

The intense battle that public health advocates have waged against trans fats appears to be working: A new report shows that since 2000, levels of trans fats in Americans’ bloodstreams have plummeted nearly 60 percent.

My God, public policy like sensible food labeling can work to help change behavior for the best! Who knew?

Sure, outright trans fat bans, like that imposed on restaurants in King County and other municipalities, have played a role in lowering Americans' consumption of trans fat. But the biggest change has come at the supermarket, where food manufacturers, embarrassed to list trans fat on their labels, have been steadily replacing them with less unhealthy fats.

That said, this trend has slowed in recent years. So maybe it's time for the FDA to impose the total ban that health advocates have been asking for.

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Health Life Without Modern Toilet Facilities

Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:29 AM

China Daily:

SHANGHAI - As the music from the Customs House clock tower rang out over the Bund and East Nanjing Road at 7:30 am, it was joined by the sound of flushing water in the side lanes near the city's iconic shopping streets.

Gu Yaqin carried a plastic basin containing her family's overnight excrement and walked to a public toilet close to her home in Pentang Lane, one of the narrow alleys near Nanjing Road. She went into a small room separate from the toilet and quickly washed the basin, which has been a daily routine for more than 20 years.

Life without modern toilets is in my mind unimaginable. I simply can't picture it. I have never lived a day without access to a toilet, electricity, and tap water. Where I live, four people share two bathrooms. In the slums of Mumbai, as many as 300 people share a single toilet. “The brain is wider than the sky,” wrote Emily Dickinson in a poem admired by neuroscientists. The brain, however, does not seem wider than the gap between life in rich cities and life in slums. More boggling than that are the gaps within cities:

About 5,600 people live in Gu's neighborhood, which is within walking distance of the luxurious hotels and restaurants on the Bund and only two minutes' walk from the Apple store on Nanjing Road.

The elderly women:

Wu Xiaolin, head of Dongfeng community, told China Daily that 90 percent of its residents have to rely on those facilities.
"Some elderly women have even suffered fractures because the wooden toilet bowls were so heavy that they fell on the public toilet's slippery floor," he said.

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Health / The Ladies What Cancer Is, What Cancer Is Not

Posted by Dan Savage on Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 5:19 PM

This is what a lying sack of shit looks like. Then this is what a brave, truth-telling, ass-kicking cancer survivor looks like:

Damn. (Via Balloon Juice.)

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Health / The Ladies Patty Murray on Komen: "We will remain vigilant that politics does not come into their decisions."

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 1:53 PM

The Stranger
Patty Murray to Komen: Fear me.

At 2:30 a.m. this morning, Washington's senior Senator and inexhaustible women's health advocate Patty Murray boarded a D.C. plane bound for Seattle, intent on pressing her home court advantage to once again call on the Susan G. Komen Foundation to restore funding for cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood.

But by the time her plane touched down in Seattle, Murray had won her battle. "I found out about Komen's decision to continue funding Planned Parenthood as I stepped off the plane," she explained this morning while standing in front of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest's (PPGN) E. Madison Street headquarters. So instead of censure, her scheduled presser became a well-deserved victory celebration.

"I want to congratulate Susan G. Komen on reversing their decision today," Murray told the crowd of Planned Parenthood volunteers, supporters, and staff. "This is a huge win for men and women... I have stood and will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with so many men and women across the country, with on voice, to fight to ensure that women have vital screenings for breast health."

Planned Parenthood's victory here is twofold: Since Komen's decision to stop breast cancer screenings through Planned Parenthood went public on Tuesday evening, PPGN has raised $50,000 to continue funding breast cancer screenings and education programs, while nationally, Planned Parenthood has raised a staggering $3 million earmarked for breast health. Meanwhile, Komen's reputation has taken a hit and conservative Republicans—who have long attempted to defund and discredit Planned Parenthood—have learned that a nation of men and women stand behind them with their wallets open.

Thanks to the public's generous donations, the 710,000 breast screenings Planned Parenthood conducts annually will continue uninterrupted, as will the 1,000 breast screenings that PPGN offered last year using local Komen funds. "We chose to serve Native American women in ~~Cle Elum~~ Clallum County and refugee women in Boise using Komen grants and we're going to remain focused on that as our top priority," said PPGN's CEO Chris Charbonneau, ensuring that women like 29-year-old Sharona Lindgren will have access to the services they desperately need.

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Health / Politics / The Ladies Did Komen Cave?

Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 9:30 AM

If Komen has reversed course... why do anti-choice Catholic orgs approve?

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Health / The Ladies Abortion Stops a Beating Heart

Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 5:35 AM

You know else does that? One of these babies:

Discount Gun Sales is proud to team up with the Susan B. Koman Foundation to offer the Walther P-22 Hope Edition in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A portion of each P-22 Hope Edition will be donated to the Seattle Branch of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The P-22 Hope Edition has an exclusive DuraCoat Pink slide in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

So... the rightwing douchehags who run Komen for the Cure are cutting off Planned Parenthood—and killing poor women—because they're so dang pro-life it hurts. (But it only hurts poor women, so who gives a shit, right?) But Komen is bringing out a pink breast-cancer-awareness-raising HANDGUN because nothing says LIFE like a product specifically designed to stop a beating heart. But it's a breast-cancer awareness gun so women can also use it to blow away any worrisome lumps they might find in their breasts. (Biopsies are for wimps!)

Terry and I made a $250,000 donation to Planned Parenthood yesterday—no, wait. That was Michael Bloomberg, New York's billionaire Republican mayor. We gave $500 to Planned Parenthood.

Please give what you can.

UPDATE: A detail from this morning's must-read NYT editorial:

In addition to harming women, the foundation has also tarnished, perhaps permanently, its brand, symbolized by the pink ribbon that adorns yogurt cups and running shoes and tote bags and Federal Premium Ammunition’s pink shotgun shells. Companies like Ford Motor, Dell and Yoplait may not find the same value in identifying themselves with the foundation after its sharp departure from political neutrality.

Pro-life shotgun shells?

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Health / 2012 Watch Michelle Obama Do 25 Push-Ups

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 12:26 PM

This is the best thing I've seen all day. I bet Nancy Reagan couldn't do 5 push-ups on the best day of her life:

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Health / The Ladies Her Mom Died From Breast Cancer and She Needed Planned Parenthood for Free Screenings

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 3:07 PM

"Breast cancer has always been a part of my life," says Kate Harmer, a 30-year-old Seattle resident. "My mom was diagnosed when I was nine and passed away from breast cancer when I was 19. I grew up knowing that I could get breast cancer, that my sister could have it, doctors told us that because our mom had breast cancer that we were really at high risk.

"When I graduated high school, I lost my health insurance. All throughout college and graduate school, I was without insurance—yet I had this high risk of breast cancer—and the only place I could get free screenings was Planned Parenthood. For 10 years, I would go to Planned Parenthood for my annual physicals, checkups, and breast exams. They were my primary healthcare provider.

"Without Planned Parenthood, I don't know what I would've done. I'm only insured now because I married someone with health insurance.

"And now, I'm torn," Harmer says, referring to Komen's decision to defund Planned Parenthood breast cancer screenings. "My family tries to participate in Komen's Race for the Cure every year and I try to raise money beyond the standard entrance fee. Race for the Cure is an emotional event for me every year. It is a way I remember and honor my mother. I will still participate for that reason, but I may not try to raise additional funds beyond the entry fee. While I support them, I may try to find ways to funnel more of my money towards supporting Planned Parenthood instead.

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Health / The Ladies More Reasons to Take Your Breasts and Run From Komen

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 11:50 AM

Reality Check has an exhaustive article on Komen, its rabidly pink-ribbon waving, anti-choice staff and board members, and the dirty politics and hypocritical justifications behind the breast-cancer monolith's decision to defund Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screenings. It is an absolute must read:

While anti-choicers including those on Komen's board are spreading lies, Komen's steps will ensure that more women who might have been screened will now lack access to early detection and treatment and may die from breast cancer. This is in keeping with a general and patently insane approach of the anti-choice movement: Decry abortion, for example, but limit funding for contraceptive education and supplies which can prevent the unintended pregnancies that lead to abortion. Decry the plight of minority women, but make their access to care increasingly limited. Cry for the "babies," but defund pre- and post-natal care, nutritional support, and other forms of life and health care for infants and mothers. It is a venal and disgusting strategy that until now I would have thought well beneath the Komen Foundation no matter other issues.

But Komen as an organization now appears so little able to stand the truth that it is deleting comments from its website protesting the policy change. And this is not the first time Komen has come under fire for misinformation or questionable affiliations. Some point to concerns about Komen's influence on a recent Institute of Medicine report playing down environmental factors in breast cancer, and its close affiliation with many companies that manufacture products using cancer-causing agents.

Cancer screening and prevention comprises 17 percent of Planned Parenthood's services; abortion makes up less than three percent. A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, speaking anonymously, says, "We requested meetings with the Komen board and they were not at all responsive... we know that some local Komen affiliates are unhappy with the decision, but this is obviously coming down from the national level, so their hands are tied."

In other news, Daily Kos is running a campaign to tell Komen what sorry sacks of shit they are; join in the fun over here!

And remember, if you love healthy breasts, grab a wadful of cash and DONATE TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD HERE.

Curtsies to Slog tipper Sara.

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Health / 2012 The 2012 Republican Primaries Have Destroyed Paul Constant's Brain

Posted by Grant Brissey on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 4:48 PM

I looked up just now when I noticed a bothersome sound. It was the constant clicking of a mouse (left button). Immediately after, Brendan, who sits between Paul and I, asked Paul if he was "trying to freak himself out." On Paul's monitor was a picture of Newt Gingrich, held in the browser. Paul just kept clicking on it, over and over, enlarging it and then shrinking it with the magnifying glass tool. It was oddly mesmerizing. "I'm thinking," was all he said in response to Brendan's question.

UPDATE: 5:12 pm Paul just lept out of his chair and began jumping up and down, clapping and yelling "HERMAN CAIN, HERMAN CAIN!"

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Health / Life "It Appears You Have Coughed Up Your Cancer. Congratulations."

Posted by David Schmader on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 10:17 AM

So said the UK doctor to the woman whose aggressive throat and mouth cancer was undetectable after a productive coughing fit. From the Daily Mail:

Claire Osborn went on holiday for two weeks with her lorry driver husband Kevin, 53, and when she returned home in November, doctors told she had cancer. "They said the cancer was inoperable and I should be prepared for chemotherapy and radiation therapy."

But then:

Claire was at home with her family in Coventry when she felt a scratching sensation in her throat on October 11 last year. After five minutes coughing she felt 'something dislodge' and fly out of her mouth. She said: 'I put a tissue over my mouth and felt something fleshy come up my throat. It looked like a strip of liver. I didn't really think too much about it and threw it away. The next day I was in the car with my son and the same thing happened again but this time the lump was much bigger, about 2cm long. I knew something was very wrong so I went straight to my GP who sent the tissue sample away for tests."

Turns out something was not very wrong but freakishly right:

Head and Neck surgeon Gary Walton, who treated Claire, said: 'This patient basically coughed up her cancerous tumour. The tissue which she coughed up was tested and there was a malignancy. It was suspected that this could have been part of a tumour elsewhere in the body but scans showed she was clear. It is very uncommon to cough up cancer, but she did it."

Full story here.

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Health Kids Shouldn't Bully Fat Kids

Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 12:13 PM

We need to bring down rates of childhood obesity—but a Georgia (second-highest childhood obesity rates in the nation) PSA campaign that highlights the bullying fat kids suffer and then suggests that the solution to all that anti-fat-kid bullying is for fat kids to stop being fat, well, that blames the victims of bullying and it isn't helpful. More at Fierce Fatties.

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Health / 2012 Big Brother Is Watching You

Posted by Goldy on Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 3:45 PM

Any moment now, I expect a young woman to burst into a room and fling a hammer at the screen.

Goldy | The Stranger
Any moment now, a young woman will burst into the room and fling a hammer at the screen.

It's state attorney general Rob McKenna's turn to address the crowd at the State of Reform conference in Seatac, and he's doing it via a really crappy Skype connection. I can pretty much make out every other word, and the occasional screen freezes make McKenna look even less life-like than usual. The large screen, the dim lights, and the numb, unexpressive look on the faces in the audience, remind me of Apple's famous "1984" commercial. Any moment now, I expect a young woman to burst into the room and fling a hammer at the screen, smashing it into a million pieces.

From what I can tell, McKenna's argument is that the Affordable Care Act amounts to "price controls," which he says never work. Instead, he wants to free up competition and let the Geico gecko sell us health insurance. The free market cures all, I guess. The invisible hand of God, and all that.

I'm hearing a lot of criticism (or at least, every other word of it) of our current health care system, and those ACA reforms McKenna's asking the Supreme Court to toss out. But what I'm not hearing are a lot of policy specifics about what McKenna would do instead.

"We have to ask ourselves hard questions, as a society, about what we can afford and what we cannot afford," says McKenna. True enough. But God forbid McKenna should offer his own list.

UPDATE: In response to a question from the audience, McKenna once again insisted that "the Affordable Care Act is not going to be overturned"... even though that's exactly what his lawsuit is asking the Supreme Court to do. Instead, McKenna says, the individual mandate will be tossed out.

As for how the rest of the provisions would work without the individual mandate, McKenna admits that we'll have to provide "incentives" for people to purchase health insurance, but he doesn't off any alternatives.

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Health / 2012 Jay Inslee: "Do Not Let Anyone Hornswoggle You" on Health Care Reform

Posted by Goldy on Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 2:57 PM

Goldy | The Stranger
Jay Inslee: no "hornswoggling" allowed.

Speaking before lawmakers, lobbyists, and health care industry stakeholders at today's "State of Reform" conference in Seatac, Rep. Jay Inslee was blunt in his assessment of Rob McKenna's claims that popular provisions regarding pre-existing conditions, the medicare donut hole, and adult children buying coverage on their parents' policies, could survive a US Supreme Court dismantling of the individual mandate.

"Do not let anyone hornswoggle you into that falsehood," Inslee warned the crowd during his lunchtime keynote address. McKenna infamously joined a number of other Republican attorneys general in challenging the constitutionality of the mandate, yet refuses to acknowledge that his suit threatens the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA). But McKenna called his opponent's bluff: "You cannot have your cake and eat it too when it comes to health care reform."

And that's about as colorful as Inslee got in a speech that was heavy on the policy-wonky stuff, befitting a roomful of policy wonks, many of them representing health care industry players who stand to have their ox gored a bit should the ACA be fully implemented.

Later today McKenna will address the conference at the closing the keynote, though apparently via video conference—a change of plans I've been assured has absolutely nothing to do with me being in attendance.

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Health Scientist Create Lab-Grown Mouse Sperm

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 11:21 AM

Won't someone's mother be proud:

Scientists in Germany and Israel have successfully grown mouse sperm in a laboratory, opening up the future possibility to grow human sperm from the cells of infertile men.

According to the science journal Nature, researchers were able to grow sperm by using germ cells, which are responsible for sperm reproduction in the testicles.

Researchers decided the best way to replicate sperm grow was to create an environment similar to the testicles.

In other words, Cabo San Lucas.

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Health One More Thing to Worry About

Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 8:40 AM

MicrobeWorld:

Plumbing systems may be a common source of human infections, say researchers studying the prevalence of the fungus Fusarium in bathroom sink drains.

“With about two-thirds of sinks found to harbor Fusarium, it’s clear that those buildings’ inhabitants are exposed to these fungi on a regular basis,” says lead investigator Dylan Short, who recently completed his doctorate in plant pathology. “This strongly supports the hypothesis that plumbing-surface biofilms serve as reservoirs for human pathogenic fusaria.”

And to think we were just celebrating the birth of a man whose father happens to be the creator of this universe—a universe that has nasty things like this toxic, sink-residing fungus.

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Health / Olympia More than 1 Million Washingtonians Have No Health Insurance; McKenna Fights to Force that Number Higher

Posted by Goldy on Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 5:21 PM

WA State Office of the Insurance Commissioner

Yet another story I failed to comment on last week was the report issued by WA state insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler, revealing that our state has surpassed a new health care milestone: More than one million uninsured Washingtonians. Since the office first started tracking the number in 2004, the ranks of the uninsured have swelled from 12 percent of the state population to 14.5 percent, and the cost of uncompensated care (charity care and unpaid bills) has more than doubled, from $500 million annually to nearly $1.2 billion.

And in case you think we're talking about a bunch of deadbeats and ne're-do-wells, the report reveals that nearly half of Washington's uninsured—about 470,000 people—are currently employed either full- or part-time.

“This is a grim milestone for the state," said Kreidler, "and we believe the situation will remain bleak for two more years." And what's supposed to happen in two years to reverse this trend?

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Health Capitalism and Thinness

Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 3:27 PM

True, being thin is healthier than being overweight. But the near universal domination of thin models in American magazines has nothing to do with health and everything to do with the unattainable. The coupling of thinness and the unattainable is only accidental. If the unattainable happened to be fatness, which in earlier societies was certainly the case, then the profit-driven media/fashion complex would be dominated by people in that condition.

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Health Just Like Me

Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 8:45 AM

The story:

The picture above of 20-year-old Lizzie Miller graced page 194 of the September 2009 Glamour magazine. Miller is a size 12-14 and heard from agencies that she was too big to be a plus size model. In the modeling industry, size 8-10 is the “plus size” range, which is crazy when you consider that Miller is an average (or even slightly below-average) sized woman.

After the magazine hit newsstands, the publishers received over 700 emails and comments from women delighted to see a normal-sized model on the pages.

The video:

The analysis:
Two things. One, the culture critic Stanley Crouch was, in the 80s, the only black American intellectual to openly defend Michael Jackson's decision to transform his nose from flat to narrow, from, in essence, African to European. According to Crouch, humans are always changing themselves, always want to be what they are not. We wear clothes, put on makeup, jewelry, perfume—where exactly should the line between our bodies and culture be drawn? Also, the argument against the narrowing of Jackson's nose was based on a problematic idea of what is natural and unnatural. Jackson's flat nose was considered natural (given to him by God), his narrow nose was unnatural (manmade). But what about spectacles? They correct the bad vision given to us by nature. Nature, in short, should not be our final standard. Crouch was correct: Authenticity is not all that.

Two: This business of "normal women" wanting to see in magazines models who look like just like them (and this is an old gripe) sounds an awful like people who want their leaders to think exactly as they do. Wanting to see someone who looks better than you is much like wanting a leader who knows more than you. The problem (to get to the point) is most of us are overweight and need to lose a few pounds. This takes work and time. Calories are not scarce in our society; they are everywhere. These thin women (and in my case, muscular men) remind us of the effort that's needed to improve or transform our unhealthy bodies. This is precisely why we call them models. The most human want is the want to be what we are not.

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Health Check Your Balls

Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 9:58 AM

If you have not seen it, here it is, and it's NSFW:

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Health / Horrors / Booze / City / ??!! / Sex / Life / Nightlife It Is 3:43 pm

Posted by David Schmader on Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 3:43 PM

And it is dusk.

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Health / Death / 2012 If This Doesn't Become Rick Santorum's HPV Vaccine Gaffe...

Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 1:12 PM

...then Michele Bachmann has a point about being treated unfairly by the media. Santorum was challenged by a student at a conservative Christian college today:

It started with a freshman who said he's been studying certain books of the Bible recently, which prompted him to ask about healthcare. "God is very angry toward societies that don't care for the poor," student Ryan Walters began. "If not for our social programs, how can we as a society care for our poor? ... With all due respect Sen. Santorum, I don't think God appreciates the fact that we have 50-100 thousand uninsured Americans dying due to a lack of healthcare every year."

"Dying?" Santorum shot back, seeming genuinely taken aback.

"I believe that is a statistic," Walters said.

"So 50 to 100 thousand Americans are dying due to lack of healthcare?"

"And preventable diseases, yes sir."

"Healthcare and preventable diseases? Where did you get that number?"

The student said he believed it was from "statistical evidence."

Santorum said people "don't get statistical evidence from thin air" and said, "I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance."

That stat wasn't pulled out of thin air:

Research released this week in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that 45,000 deaths per year in the United States are associated with the lack of health insurance. If a person is uninsured, "it means you're at mortal risk," said one of the authors, Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. The researchers examined government health surveys from more than 9,000 people aged 17 to 64, taken from 1986-1994, and then followed up through 2000. They determined that the uninsured have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private health insurance as a result of being unable to obtain necessary medical care. The researchers then extrapolated the results to census data from 2005 and calculated there were 44,789 deaths associated with lack of health insurance.

Hopefully there's a journalist out there who's half as brave as this student—a kid at a conservative Christian college (Santorum initial reaction to this student's line of questioning: "You go to Dordt College and ask me that question?")—who'll ask Santorum some follow up questions about his factually untrue statement. Santorum is entitled to his own opinions, as the saying goes, but not his own facts. Thousands of Americans are dying every year for lack of access to health care and Rick Santorum wants to make sure Americans keep dying for lack of health insurance. Santorum should be forced to make a case for our cruel and un-Christian health care system.

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Occupy / Crime / Health Capsaicin and Pregnancy

Posted by Jonathan Golob on Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 11:37 AM

Capsaicin is considered a class B drug in pregnancy:

Animal reproduction studies have failed to demonstrate a risk to the fetus and there are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women OR Animal studies have shown an adverse effect, but adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women have failed to demonstrate a risk to the fetus in any trimester.

In plain English, the main ingredient in pepper spray has not been proven to be safe, but is generally regarded as safe to use in pregnancy.

With that said, in high quantities, Capsaicin can cause death [pdf]. The mechanism of death is generally respiratory failure—due to the effect the drug has on the respiratory tract.

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Health / Books / Retail Would Ayn Rand Do Yoga?

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 11:36 AM

Slog tipper Ziggity sent this along: At the beginning of November, yoga sidelines manufacturer Lululemon has started printing "Who is John Galt?" on their shopping bags. Yes, because there wasn't enough Atlas Shrugged in your yoga life, Lululemon is bringing the virtue of selfishness to your mat. A Lululemon blog post explains that " lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, first read [Atlas Shrugged] when he was eighteen years old working away from home. Only later, looking back, did he realize the impact the book’s ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not coincidental that this is lululemon’s company vision)." In his defense, I think guys named Chip are forcibly issued Ayn Rand's collected works when they turn 18. It goes on:

Many of us choose mediocrity without even realizing it. We think we “have” to do things or “aren’t able” to do what we want. We create rules and experience fear when we dream of a life we love. Why do we do this? Because our society encourages mediocrity. It is easier to be mediocre than to be great.
...
Our bags are visual reminders for ourselves to live a life we love and conquer the epidemic of mediocrity. We all have a John Galt inside of us, cheering us on. How are we going to live lives we love?

The comment section is feisty, with claims that liberals "drool over Marx books." But Ziggity puts it best: "Yes, Bellevue moms, the sweat of your brow belongs to you alone! (Unless you're a 12-year-old Chinese girl with good stitching skills.)"

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Health / 2012 Supreme Court to Hear Anti-Health Care Lawsuit

Posted by Goldy on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 8:03 AM

In an unsigned order this morning, the US Supreme Court announced that it would hear a lawsuit brought by Republican Rob McKenna and other attorneys general challenging 2010's historic Affordable Care Act.

With various lower courts issuing contradictory opinions, the suit had been long expected to find its way to the highest court, but what is news is the schedule: Oral arguments will be held in March with a decision to come in late June, right in the heart of the 2012 election season. This guarantees that access to affordable health care will be a major issue in both the presidential election and in the gubernatorial race here in Washington state. And it's hard to see how that's ultimately a good issue for WA Republicans, considering that they're the ones fighting to deny it.

For McKenna himself, there can be only one of two outcomes. Either the Supremes rule in his favor, tossing out the entire health care law (either explicitly or implicitly) including provisions like those that guarantee insurance for people with preexisting conditions, or that allow young adults to stay on their parents health insurance plans. Or the Supremes rule against McKenna, once again proving what a crappy lawyer he is. No doubt the individual mandate doesn't poll well (what sort of government imposed "mandate" does?), but this sure does look like a great opportunity for Democratic opponent Jay Inslee and his surrogates to pound McKenna with all the popular provisions the Republican fought to repeal.

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Health The Face of a Testicular Tumor

Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 8:23 AM

CNN reports:

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Health What's Worse Than the Black Keys?

Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 9:31 AM

A discussion.

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Health / Religion / LGBTQITSLFA Religious Bigot to Straight Parents: Ask Hospitals to Keep LGBT Staff Away From Your Children

Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 7:18 AM

Rightwing lunabigot Linda Harvey of Mission America is advising parents to "communicate" to hospitals that they do not want "open homosexuals"—a.k.a. members of a hospital's LGBT employee organization—to care for their children lest the gay rub off:

Do you think these folks provide good role modeling at a time when your child is very vulnerable? [Let’s] say your eleven year-old has broken her leg rather badly and needs to be in the hospital a few days, which would you prefer: a nurse who’s proud of her lesbianism, who has rainbow identifiers on her work clothing, or a nurse who does not?

I would like to suggest that parents think long and hard about this. If you want your children to admire people who proclaim a homosexual lifestyle, they’re involvement with your child during a hospital stay is sure to be an influence. And let me be clear that folks involved in these behaviors can be certainly competent workers but they are tacking on to their workplace identity one that is highly offensive to many people and can be erroneously influential to children who won’t, or shouldn’t, see the whole picture of how this behavior really manifests itself.

Harvey suggests that parents write "a letter that you file with your pediatrician that should your child ever be hospitalized, you do not want your child to be treated or cared for" by a gay. But first a parent needs to "select [a] pediatrician very carefully," Harvey warns, because secretly gay pediatricians might ignore your advance hate directive... or they might whistle show tunes during office hours or invite your kids to brunch or something else that's gay and terrible!

Harvey notes that straight parents should clearly communicate that it's okay for gay and lesbian doctors and nurses to treat their children in "emergency situations," which can be seen as either tremendously gracious on Harvey's part—"Well, okay, that lesbian nurse can save my daughter's life"—or as the kind of wishy-washy moral relativism that is destroying the moral fabric of this great nation.

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