November 2012 archive

This is a counterpart to the more recent finding of even more abusive use of a worthless screening test for prostate cancer that I have recently posted about.

By Igor Volsky on Nov 23, 2012 at 11:17 am

Routine mammograms have caused more than a million U.S. women to receive “unnecessary and invasive cancer treatments over the last 30 years,” a new study finds, detecting tumors that are harmless. The results come after the government’s Preventive Task Force issued recommendations in 2009 advising primary care physicians against recommending mammograms to women under 40 years of age. Those guidelines stirred political outcry on both sides of the aisle and slowed down work on President Obama’s health care law.

But the study shines new doubt “over the effectiveness of an already controversial cancer screening tool that is aimed at detecting tumors before they spread and become more difficult to treat”:

   Their analysis showed that, since mammograms became standard in the United States, the number of early-stage breast cancers detected has doubled – in recent years, doctors found tumors in 234 women out of 100,000. But in that same period, the rate of women diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer has dropped just eight percent – from 102 to 94 cases out of 100,000…

http://thinkprogress.org/healt…

Igor doesn’t mention, probably because nobody bothered telling Igor, that there are some answers to better diagnosis.  GE, Abbott Laboratories and Quest Diagnostics know all about it but they are saving money for the financial cliff we are throwing grandma off.  Maybe they think it would depress the economy further if all the doctors and hospitals and suppliers, like themselves for instance, were further hurt by advanced testing.

Besides maybe some men think women look better without a breast or two.  Mostly we men make the decisions you know.

Best,  Terry

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

November 25 is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 36 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1999, The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution designating November 25 the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The resolution, which was introduced by the Dominican Republic, marked the anniversary of the death of three sisters, Maria, Teresa, and Minerva Mirabel, who were brutally murdered there in 1960. While women in Latin America and the Caribbean had honored the day since 1981, all UN countries did not formally recognize it until 1999.

Many organizations, including the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), had been pushing for international recognition of the date for some time.

The Mirabal sisters were four Dominican political dissidents who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Three of the sisters were assassinated by persons unknown.

Patria Mercedes Mirabal (February 27, 1924 – November 25, 1960), Belgica Adela “Dede” Mirabal-Reyes (March 1, 1925 – present), Maria Argentina Minerva Mirabal (March 12, 1926 – November 25, 1960) and Antonia Maria Teresa Mirabal (October 15, 1935 – November 25, 1960) were citizens of the Dominican Republic who fervently opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Dede Mirabal was not assassinated and has lived to tell the stories of the death of her sisters. Presently, she lives in Salcedo, Dominican Republic in the house where the sisters were born. She works to preserve her sisters’ memory through the Museo Hermanas Mirabal which is also located in Salcedo and was home to the women for the final ten months of their lives. She published a book Vivas en El Jardin, released on August 25, 2009.

The Mirabal women grew up in an upper class, well-cultured environment. Their father was a successful businessman. All became married family women. When Trujillo came to power, their family lost almost all its fortune. They believed that Trujillo would send their country into economic chaos. Minerva became particularly passionate about ending the dictatorship of Trujillo after talking extensively with an uncle of hers. Influenced by her uncle, Minerva became more involved in the anti-Trujillo movement. She studied law and became a lawyer, but because she declined Trujillo’s romantic advances, he ordered that while she would be issued a degree she was not to receive her practitioner’s license. Her sisters followed suit, and they eventually formed a group of opponents to the Trujillo regime, known as the Movement of the Fourteenth of June. Within that group, they were known as “The Butterflies” (Las Mariposas in Spanish) because that was the underground name that Minerva was given. Two of the sisters, Maria Argentina Minerva Mirabal and Antonia Maria Teresa Mirabal, were incarcerated and tortured on several occasions. While in prison they were repeatedly raped. Three of the sisters’ husbands were incarcerated at La Victoria Penitentiary in Santo Domingo.

Despite these setbacks, they persisted in fighting to end Trujillo’s leadership. After the sisters’ numerous imprisonments, Trujillo was blamed for their murders, but this is now being questioned. During an interview after Trujillo’s assasination, General Pupo Roman claimed to have personal knowledge that they were killed by Luis Amiama Tio, perhaps to create a rise in anti-Trujillo sentiment. On November 25, 1960, he sent men to intercept the three women after they visited their husbands in prison. The unarmed sisters were led into a sugar cane field and executed, they didn’t even have the luxury of being shot, instead they were beaten to death, along with their driver, Rufino de la Cruz. Their car was later thrown off of a mountain known as La Cumbre, between the cities of Santiago and Puerto Plata, in order to make their deaths look like an accident.

This day also marks the beginning of the 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence. The end of the 16 Days is December 10, International Human Rights Day.

Well, last race ever on Speed.  Is this a bad thing?  We’ll see.  I certainly won’t miss News Corp., but there’s no reason to believe Comcast/GE is any better.  Constructors Champion is Red Bull, but McLaren and Scuderia Marlboro duke it out for second place today.  If Vettel finishes worse than 4th there’s a possibility Alonso could sneak by for the Drivers Championship.  This is not as far fetched as it sounds, the Renault engine, especially the alternator, has been looking less reliable the longer it runs; and, much as I hate to admit it, Alonso has shown a true talent for making bad hardware suck less than it otherwise might.

Also, it could rain.

In retrospect all the aerodynamicists agree that it’s the flexibility of the Red Bull front wing (and not the undercarriage diffuser or any of the other hareng rouge (yes, I know the correct translation is diversion) they’ve been chasing for the last 3 years, so they’re going to legislate against it.

Good luck with that.

2013 starts in March and is currently scheduled for 19 races, but subject to change.  Likewise the new Concorde.

Hards and Mediums, Maldonado 10 grid penalty for ignoring a blue inspection flag.  Schumacher says goodbye.

While the races may be boring I hope these pieces have informed you a bit about the miasma of cash and corruption that drives professional sports in general and the particular cesspool of elite international corporate perversion and degeneracy represented by the fossil fueled extinction of dead dinosaur technology that is Formula One.

Interlagos

• Interlagos
• Brazil Grand Prix
• New York Times History
• Interlagos Qualifying

Interactive Track

• Formula One
• The Guardian

Official Sites

• Formula One Official Website
• Speed Racecast

Pretty tables below.  Grey Cup this evening.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Chris Hayes: Joining Chris this morning are Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation magazine; Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and executive director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership; MSNBC contributor Rula Jebreal, also a contributor to Newsweek magazine; Tarek Masoud, associate professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; Reza Aslan, author of “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam,” and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Eli Lake, senior national security reporter for Newsweek and The Daily Beast; and Heather Hurlburt, executive director of the National Security Network, a progressive think tank, and a former speechwriter and member of the policy planning team in the State Department under the Clinton administration.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: Guests on “This Week” are Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL); actor and director Ben Affleck, founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA).

The roundtable guests are ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, TIME Magazine’s Joe Klein, Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, and The New York Times‘ David Sanger, author of “Confront and Conceal.”

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: This Sunday Mr. Schieffer has a conversation with fiction writers “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn; writer of “The Expats,” Chris Pavone; thriller novelist David Baldacci and “Fooling Houdini” writer Alex Stone discuss their books and their craft.

The Chris Matthews Show: This Sunday’s guests are Sam Donaldson, ABC Reporter; Jodi Kantor, New York Times; Katty Kay, BBC Washington Correspondent; and Dan Rather, HDNet Global Correspondent.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: MTP guests on a special panel to discuss Pres. Obama’s 2nd term are Documentary filmmaker and historian Ken Burns; Vice Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Carly Fiorina; MSNBC’s Al Sharpton; New York Times columnist David Brooks; and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

Other guests are Chairman of the Armed Services Committee Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), and Chair of the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King (R-NY).

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are retiring Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) who will reflect on their careers, their accomplishments, and their disappointments; and they offer advice to members of the 113th Congress.

U.S. Election Speeded Move to Codify Policy on Drones

By SCOTT SHANE

Published: November 24, 2012

Facing the possibility that President Obama might not win a second term, his administration accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned drones, so that a new president would inherit clear standards and procedures, according to two administration officials.

The matter may have lost some urgency after Nov. 6. But with more than 300 drone strikes and some 2,500 people killed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the military since Mr. Obama first took office, the administration is still pushing to make the rules formal and resolve internal uncertainty and disagreement about exactly when lethal action is justified.

Don’t drive angry.

This project covers from 6 am to 6 pm.

I did not spend Thanksgiving evening with my wife and my five children. I spent it, instead, handing out turkey sandwiches to workers in Walmart. And showing my support for one brave soul who walked off the job in protest against exploitation…

http://www.onenewspage.us/n/Bu…

I am a little curious how other liberals feel about Alan Grayson, who I regard as something of a modern Huey Long.  

I don’t mean to hint in any way that Alan Grayson is corrupt nor remotely as brazen, uneducated and as ugly talking as Huey Long:

If you can’t take their money, drink their liquor, eat their food and screw their women and then look them in the eye and tell them your agin them, you aren’t man enough to be in the Senate.

– Huey Long

Huey Long’s racist diatribes would have made a George Wallace blanch but the descendants of slaves in Louisiana at the time were apparently intelligent enough to see through the awful noise.  It was reported that Huey Long would undoubtedly have garnered a hefty vote from the descendants of slaves had they been allowed to vote in the old segregationist South.  The Longs as a whole were remarkable for never supporting segregation.

FDR hated Huey Long with a purple passion.  Long’s successful attack on FDR’s draconian cut of veterans pensions was a stinging defeat that FDR never forgave nor forgot.

Huey had a unique and powerful debating style.  A fellow senator standing alongside Huey Long at a urinal in the Senate restroom began telling Huey why he was against a bill of Huey’s.  Huey turned sidewise without saying a word.  I don’t imagine any other senator again chose to debate Huey Long in a public restroom anywhere.

So how does Grayson remotely compare to Huey Long and Long’s Share Our Wealth with Long first to the trough?

– The noise level, the demos, some rough edges that horrify conservative kossacks on the Orange Satan are part of the pattern of an actual progressive.

JMO.

Best,  Terry    

Up with Chris Hayes host Chris Hayes shares all that the is thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Tell us about what tou have learned this week. Open Thread

Collegiate Cow Tipping-

This project covers 6 pm to 6 am.

‘Cannibal cop’ planned to kidnap, eat woman for Thanksgiving: prosecutor

By BRUCE GOLDING, The New York Post

8:48 AM, November 21, 2012

Forget white meat or dark meat – he wanted “girl meat” for Thanksgiving.

Gilberto Valle, the NYPD officer busted by the feds as an alleged cannibal wannabe, saw his alleged holiday hopes dashed yesterday when prosecutors said he’d planned to dine on human flesh tomorrow.

…

Public defender Julia Gatto argued that Valle’s online chats were only “sick, twisted” sexual fantasies he shared on the Web with like-minded fetishists.

Gatto said her own, reluctant investigation into her client’s “subculture” – which she likened to “Star Trek geeks and science-fiction movie guys who dress up and go to conventions” – had apparently uncovered the site Valle frequented.

“All over the Web site, it says: No matter how real this sounds, this is all fantasy,” she insisted.

It is well known we now have the problem relatively under control.

Man pleads not guilty to cooking wife

UPI

Published: Nov. 22, 2012 at 8:51 AM

VISTA, Calif., Nov. 22 (UPI) — A California man pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife, who police found dismembered, with body parts cooking on the stove and her head in the freezer.

…

Police found three pans of “meat” cooking on the stove and realized it was pieces of the victim, Anna Faris, 73, Deputy District Attorney Katherine Flaherty said. They found Faris’ head in a plastic bag inside the freezer and multiple pieces of freshly cut bone throughout the house.

“They also found a work area set up in the bathroom, with saws, a boning knife and other cutting instruments,” Flaherty said.

“There is no evidence of cannibalism at this time,” she added.