Salami

The results of a massive new study of the health consequences of red meat consumption are making headlines right now. The study shows that those who eat an average of 4 ounces of red meat per day have an increased risk of "dying from all causes, and specifically from cancer or heart disease."

The study goes on to conclude that "The chance of men dying of cardiovascular disease would have decreased 11 per cent - and 21 per cent for women", and that there is a "much greater risk" of cancer deaths in men and women who consume red meat regularly.

The study also showed that those who eat more white meat had a decreased risk of death compared to those who eat more red meat. This lead the researchers to conclude that "people should not shun meat altogether because there are some nutritional benefits and its consumption has played an important role in the evolution of our species."

Why? It has been shown that those on a meatless diet have a 15% decreased rate of mortality compared to those who eat meat occasionally. Why then would the researchers not recommend a meatless diet? I guess maybe they just didn't want to freak everybody out, or draw the ire of the meat industry. I dunno.

But besides the health consequences, meat consumption, especially factory farm produced meat, is clearly not ethical, but the contribution of meat production to global climate change can't be overstated. If everyone stopped eating meat today, it would result in a greater reduction in greenhouse gases than if everyone stopped driving cars today. This fact was glaringly omitted from Gore's Inconvenient Truth.

I guess maybe Al didn't want to freak everybody out.

So far, so good...

I couldn't be more pleased with Obama's first 48 hours. It could be argued that Obama did more in 48 hours to restore America's image in the world than Bush did in 8 years to destroy it.

In a sweeping repudiation of the worst human rights abuses of the Bush administration, Obama issued three executive orders and an executive directive yesterday. These actions accomplish a number of key objectives: 1) close the illegal detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, 2) limit interrogation methods to those described in the Army field manual, effectively banning torture, 3) halt extraordinary renditions of detainees to countries that torture.

Following the signing of the orders, Obama said at a press conference, “I can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will not torture”. This seems to be in accord with his assertion that, “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals”.

What the Bush administration failed to understand is that there are security costs associated with becoming an international pariah by brazenly and rampantly committing the worst kinds of human rights abuses, and that there are security benefits associated with maintaining a legitimate moral standing in the world.

Regardless of how you feel about Obama’s economic policies, etc., the fact that he has so quickly and decisively acted to begin to dismantle the damage done by Bush is more than enough to warrant his election. That America’s moral standing has been so totally diminished was the most pressing issue facing the nation at this point. Obama’s priorities are correctly placed.

This was not an occasion that called for hesitancy. On the contrary, the most effective actions that Obama could take at this point are making a clear, decisive, broad, and immediate condemnation of the illegal practices that have drawn the ire and contempt of the international community. This was not an occasion for bi-partisan decorum.

Obama must now address the Bush administration's domestic Constitutional crimes: the dismantling of domestic civil rights enacted by the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act. Doing so would certainly fall in line with his “False Choice” doctrine.

The sooner the better.

Michelle Obama's dress

just shut the fuck up...

Vindication!

Barack Obama has just selected retired General Eric Shinseki to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, an organization with quite a lot on its plate at this time.

Shinseki is most well-known for clashing with Rumsfeld over the number of troops that would be required to secure the peace in a post-war Iraq. The following is from his address to the Senate Armed Services Committee:

SEN. LEVIN: General Shinseki, could you give us some idea as to the magnitude of the Army's force requirement for an occupation of Iraq following a successful completion of the war?

GEN. SHINSEKI: In specific numbers, I would have to rely on combatant commanders' exact requirements. But I think --

SEN. LEVIN: How about a range?

GEN. SHINSEKI: I would say that what's been mobilized to this point -- something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We're talking about posthostilities control over a piece of geography that's fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground-force presence.

Paul Wolfowitz called this assertion "wildly off the mark", and Rumfeld quietly forced the General from involvement in the Iraq war, eventually precipitating his retirement.

It is now generally accepted by Military officials that Shinseki was right.

Props to Obama for this not-so-subtle nod to Shinseki's Vindication. Let's hope he can do some much-needed good for Veterans.

A Christmas Poem

I haven't attempted poetry in at least 10 years, but I was feeling inspired.



Untitled

It is a day of violence,
of hunger, thirst and chaos.
This is the day that the Lord hath made.
Let us kill and be killed.
Let us erect mountains of shit
and burn them in a blazing sacrifice to Love

The warriors were keeping watch in the fields
and lo, the angels came to them and said
"unto you a beast is born,
and it shall be unto you an abundance of wrath and blood.
And you shall call his name Human"
And they were filled with joy.

And so it was as they had said.
The beast throbbed and writhed
and heaved its raw stinking body on to the hearth of America.

This is the day that the Lord hath made.
Let us commit violence.
Let us eat flesh
and drink blood
and be glad that there is love.

This is the day that the Lord hath made.
Let us poison the ground,
the air and the sky
so the beast will find it to be
a suitable habitat.

I saw the best minds of my generation
consumed by vanity and bloodthirsty greed.

I saw the Christmas tree erupt in maniacal laughter
at the irony of itself

I saw America make wild tortured convulsions
as Chaos was crowned King

Twas the night before Christmas
and the beast was stirring
and waiting
in furious, glorious,
spectacular madness.

As he went once more
to worship at the alter of Love,
Jesus wept.

Bush delivers.

From Charlie Gibson's interview with Dubya last week,

"GIBSON: What were you most unprepared for?

BUSH: Well, I think I was unprepared for war. In other words, I didn't campaign and say, "Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack." In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents -- one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen."

Mind-blowing. I mean, shouldn't war be one of those things that you should definitely be prepared for if you seek the Presidency, kinda like, oh I don't know, natural disasters? What the hell is this sorry-I-screwed-it-up-but-I-never-claimed-I-could-handle-it bullshit? I mean, war is something that happens in some form during almost all Presidencies, right?

Just unbelievable.

And what's up with this implication that the "unexpected" is a "modern" phenomenon? Or that the "unexpected" isn't an intrinsic facet of anything in the entire world? Bush's capacity for inane, vacuous assertions may forever remain unmatched.

One more, "BUSH: ...took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President."

Wow.

It's starting to look good for Al Franken

...by something like .001% of the vote in the recount. It's still far from over, but wow!