Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.

Health experts keep telling us to eat more fish, but fish can be expensive . If you love seafood and you’re trying to eat more of it, this week’s pasta dishes provide a solution. The amount you’ll need is about half what you’d buy if you were serving seafood on its own. Even better, most of these dishes also incorporate vegetables, making for perfect one-dish meals.

And they’re easy: Usually the fish accompaniment takes no more time to make than it takes to boil the pasta water. Most of this week’s recipes call for fresh fish and shellfish, but you can also use canned varieties high in omega-3 fats, like sardines, smoked trout and smoked herring.

Arthritis Doctors Too Often Opt for Drugs, Surgery

Study: Many Osteoarthritis Patients Would Benefit From More Conservative Treatments Such as Weight Loss, Exercise Programs

Jan. 7, 2011 — Many doctors who treat people with osteoarthritis are prescribing medications or choosing surgical options instead of recommending more conservative treatments such as weight loss and exercise programs.

That’s the main conclusion of a new analysis published in the January 2011 issue of Arthritis Care & Research.

Researchers who reviewed standard clinical practices say therapeutic options aimed mostly at reducing pain and improving joint function are still first-line treatments.

But such treatments do little to improve joint structure or point toward long-term improvement of disease symptoms, according to the analysis by David Hunter, MD, of the University of Sydney in Australia.

2 Weeks of Antibiotic Therapy Relieves IBS

Study Shows Rifaximin Helps Ease Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Jan. 5, 2011 — A two-week course of the antibiotic rifaximin (Xifaxan) helps to relieve the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and the relief lasts up to 10 weeks after stopping the medication, according to new research.

”The major finding was that all IBS symptoms improved,” says Mark Pimentel, MD, director of the GI Motility Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, who led the clinical trial of the drug at Cedars.

The study looked only at those IBS patients with the non-constipation form, he tells WebMD. For those with this type of IBS, symptoms can include abdominal pain, bloating, and changes in bowel function such as diarrhea.

 Sex Reversal: Genetic Women Become Adult Men

Female-to-Male Sex Reversal Found in 3 U.K. Family Members

Jan. 5, 2011 — Two adult brothers and a paternal uncle in the U.K. all appear to be normal males — but genetically are women with two X chromosomes.

Both brothers are married to women, and they and their uncle have the sexual anatomy, behavior, growth, and skeletal development of males. All have normal health and intelligence.

However, all three are infertile and unable to produce sperm. When the brothers responded to testosterone replacement with pain, their testes were removed and replaced with cosmetic prostheses.

Genetic tests showed that both they and their uncle lacked a Y chromosome. Instead they had the two X chromosomes characteristic of women (normal men have one X and one Y chromosome).

Study: Implanted Cardiac Defibrillators Overused

Researchers Say Some Patients Who Get ICDs May Not Meet the Criteria in Guidelines

Jan. 4, 2011 — More than 20% of patients who receive implanted devices that help shock the heart out of dangerous rhythms (arrhythmias) get them when clinical guidelines suggest they are unlikely to benefit from the expensive and sometimes painful intervention, a study shows.

What’s more, these patients have a modestly but significantly higher risk of dying in the hospital compared to those who do meet clinical criteria for the devices.

“I thought it was a very important study, particularly because it captures information about 80% of all the defibrillator implants in the United States,” says Alan Kadish, MD, a cardiologist who is president and chief executive officer of Touro College in New York City. “What it shows is that about one-fifth of these implants were performed in people who are not expected to benefit from them.”

Kadish was the co-author of an editorial that accompanies the study, which is published in the Jan. 5 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

New Evidence on Benefits of Colonoscopies

Study Shows Colonoscopy Exam Can Prevent Colorectal Cancer Throughout Colon

Jan. 3, 2011 — It is considered one of the most effective cancer screening and prevention exams, but recent studies have raised concerns that a colonoscopy may not be useful for detecting certain colorectal cancers.

Now a new study from Germany offers strong evidence that the test can prevent colorectal cancers located throughout the colon — not just those easiest to reach with the fiberoptic imaging scope.

Experts say the findings should reassure patients that a colonoscopy saves lives by detecting and removing precancerous polyps throughout the colon before they can become malignant.

The study appears in the Jan. 4 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

CPAP Treatment for Sleep Apnea Fights Fatigue

Study Shows People With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Have More Energy After CPAP Treatment

Jan. 3, 2011 — A common treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may have the added benefits of fighting fatigue and increasing energy as well as helping people sleep better.

A new study shows that use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) decreased fatigue and increased energy in people with the sleep-related breathing disorder after only a few weeks of treatment.

Recall of Albuterol Used in Nebulizers

Mislabeling on Some Single-Dose Vials Could Lead to Possible Overdose

Jan 3, 2011 — The Ritedose Corporation has recalled some single-dose vials of Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution because an incorrect label could lead to a possible overdose.

The recall includes 0.083% Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution, 3 mL (in 25-, 30-, and 60-unit dose vials) because the 2.5 mg/3 mL single-use vials are mislabeled as containing 0.5 mg/3 mL.

The product is a prescription inhalation solution that is administered with a nebulizer to treat acute asthma attacks and exercise-induced asthma in children and adults.

If someone reads the incorrect concentration, he or she may upwardly adjust the volume, resulting in an administered amount that is five times the recommended dose.

Splitting Pills May Have Risks

Study Shows Patients Who Split Pills May End Up With Doses That Are Too High or Too Low

Jan. 7, 2011 — Pill splitting, a common practice among many people who are looking to cut medication costs or dosages, is risky business, according to a study in the January issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Some pills can’t be split 50-50 and there can be a narrow margin between a dose that can help you and one that can hurt you, the researchers report.

“Not all formulations are available for splitting, and even when they are, large dose deviation or weight losses can occur [and] this could have serious clinical consequences for medication with a narrow therapeutic-toxic range,” write researchers who were led by Charlotte Verrue, PharmD, PhD, of Ghent University in Belgium.

BMJ Declares Vaccine-Autism Study ‘an Elaborate Fraud’

1998 Lancet Study Not Bad Science but Deliberate Fraud, Claims Journal

Jan. 6, 2011 — The medical journal BMJ has declared the 1998 Lancet study that implied a link between the MMR vaccine and autism “an elaborate fraud.”

Fiona Godlee, MD, BMJ’s editor in chief, says in a news release, “The MMR scare was based not on bad science but on a deliberate fraud” and that such “clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare.”

Driving Convertibles Can Hurt Hearing

Noise From Wind, Passing Vehicles Pushes Decibels Into the Dangerous Range, Study Finds

Jan. 6, 2011 — Driving a convertible with the top down may seem like fun, but people who go 55 miles per hour or faster may be increasing the risk of hearing loss over time, new research indicates.

That’s due in part to the noise of the wind, but also to extreme noise “spikes” heard when passing loud vehicles, such as a bus or motorcycle.

The study used noise level standards of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which says decibel levels greater than 85 are considered excessive.

Antibiotics Not Always Needed for MRSA

New Guidelines Released for the Treatment of Methicillin-Resistant Staphyloccus aureus Infections

Jan. 5, 2011 — The superbug staph infection, MRSA, has become a global health threat for adults and children, but antibiotics aren’t needed to treat all cases, according to new guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus, is a bacterium that is hard to kill with the most commonly used antibiotics. The superbug is responsible for about 60% of all skin infections seen in hospital emergency rooms. If the bacteria invade broken skin, life-threatening lung, blood, bone, joint, or nervous system infections can result.

Chemical in Women’s Tears May Be Sexual Turnoff

Study Shows Men’s Sexual Interest Is Reduced After Sniffing Women’s Tears

Jan. 6, 2011 — Chemicals in the tears of women may give off signals that decrease the testosterone levels of men and reduce their sexual interest, new research indicates.

In a study of 24 men, Israeli researchers had the volunteers sniff either tears collected from women who had watched a sad movie or drops of saline that were trickled down the faces of the same women. They were then asked to view pictures of women’s faces that had emotionally neutral expressions.

Women Give Up Sleep to Care for Others

Study Shows Women More Likely to Get Up From Bed to Take Care of Babies or Sick Parents

Jan. 6, 2011 — Science has some new validation for all the women who have enviously eyed their slumbering husbands as they crawled out of bed in the middle of the night to tend to crying babies, sick elders, or even just to let the family pet outside.

A new study shows that women are more likely than men to give up sleep to take care of others, making gender roles a powerful reason — beyond medical problems like depression or sleep apnea — that women don’t get enough sleep.

“If people have problems sleeping, physicians feel they find the problem and treat it with the right drug, technology, or surgery,” says David Maume, PhD, director of the Kuntz Center for the Study of Work and Family at the University of Cincinnati, who was not involved in the study.

Women With MS More Likely to Have Gene Mutation

Study Could Help Explain Rise in Multiple Sclerosis Cases Among Women

Jan 5, 2011 — New research may help explain why multiple sclerosis rates have risen sharply in the U.S. and some other countries among women, while rates appear stable in men.

The study could also broaden understanding of how environmental influences alter genes to cause a wide range of diseases.

The causes of multiple sclerosis (MS) are not well understood, but experts have long suspected that environmental factors trigger the disease in people who are genetically susceptible.

In the newly published study, researchers found that women with MS were more likely than men with MS to have a specific genetic mutation that has been linked to the disease.

Women were also more likely to pass the mutation to their daughters than their sons and more likely to share the MS-susceptibility gene with more distant female family members.

Exercise Cuts Prostate Cancer Death Risk

3 Hours of Vigorous Activity a Week Associated With a 61% Lower Risk of Prostate Cancer-Specific Death, Researchers Say

Jan. 6, 2011 — Men diagnosed with prostate cancer may be able to reduce their risk of death not just from prostate cancer but from any cause by exercising vigorously for at least three hours per week, new research indicates.

A study performed by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of California-San Francisco examined the records of 2,705 men who had been diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer over an 18-year period in a project known as the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. The men in the study reported the time they spent exercising on a weekly basis. This included running, bicycling, walking, swimming, other sports, and even outdoor work.

Male Circumcision Cuts Women’s Cervical Cancer Risk

Study Shows Circumcision May Help Reduce Spread of HPV

Jan. 6, 2011 — Circumcising men can reduce cervical cancer risk in women, a new study shows.

The study involved more than 1,200 HIV-negative, heterosexual couples living in Uganda, where circumcision of male adults is increasingly encouraged as a means of slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Half the men received the surgical procedure at enrollment and the other half were scheduled for circumcision after their participation in the trial ended.

Two years later, the female partners of the men who remained uncircumcised were more likely than the partners of the circumcised men to be infected with human papilloma virus (HPV) types most often associated with cervical cancer.

In earlier trials, Johns Hopkins University researcher Aaron A.R. Tobian, MD, PhD, and colleagues showed that male circumcision reduces HIV infection, HPV in men, and genital herpes.

Kids’ Lifestyle Changes Bring Later Heart Health

Study Shows Changing Unhealthy Habits of Children Can Help Prevent Heart Disease in Adults

Jan 4, 2011 — Encouraging children to make healthy lifestyle changes before they reach adulthood, including regular exercise and not smoking, can help lower the children’s blood cholesterol levels and potentially reverse their risk of developing heart disease as they age.

Growing numbers of U.S. children have high levels of cholesterol and other blood fats called triglycerides, which are considered major risk factors for heart disease, but these numbers are not set in stone, according to a new study in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Advances Made Toward Alzheimer’s Blood Test

Study Shows Synthetic Molecules May Help Detect Alzheimer’s, MS, and Other Diseases

Jan. 6, 2011 — Molecules developed in the lab to seek out antibodies associated with disease could lead to simple blood tests for Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and a host of other diseases, researchers say.

The new experimental technology relies on thousands of synthetic molecules known as peptoids to search for antibodies that occur in response to disease.

The hope is that the man-made molecules will lead to tests to identify diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer long before symptoms occur, says Thomas Kodadek, PhD, who is a professor of chemistry and cancer biology at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla.

Study: Newer Antipsychotic Drugs Are Overused

Researchers Say Many Doctors Prescribe Drugs Despite Lack of Evidence of Effectiveness

an. 7, 2011 — Many people taking powerful psychiatric medications that increase their risk of weight gain and diabetes are prescribed those drugs when there’s little evidence that they will get any benefit from them, a new study shows.

What’s more, experts say that even when these drugs, which are known as atypical antipsychotics, are prescribed as recommended, they may not be safer or more effective than the less expensive, older medications that they’ve apparently replaced.

“Atypical agents were once thought to be safer and possibly more effective,” says study researcher G. Caleb Alexander, MD, an assistant professor in the department of medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals. “And what we’ve learned over time is that they are not safer, and in the settings where there’s the best scientific evidence, they are no more effective.”

‘Depression Gene’ Linked to Response to Stress

Study Shows Gene Plays Role in the Ways People React to Stressful Events

Jan. 4, 2011 — An analysis of 54 studies suggests that there really is a depression gene that can affect how people respond to stressful life events.

The new study, which appears in the Jan. 3 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, should help resolve controversy regarding the role of this gene.

Mediterranean Diet May Keep Aging Mind Sharp

Study Shows Health Benefits of a Diet Rich in Vegetables, Fish, and Olive Oil

Jan. 7, 2011 — A new study shows following a Mediterranean style diet rich in vegetables, olive oil, and fish may keep the mind sharp and slow age-related cognitive decline.

The diet typified by the Italians, Greeks, and other Mediterranean cultures has already been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. But this and other studies are now suggesting that the diet may also have healthy benefits for the mind.

The Mediterranean diet emphasizes fruits and vegetables, fish, legumes, non-refined cereals, olive oil, and moderate wine consumption, usually at meals.

Green Tea May Help Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease

Study Shows Green Tea May Also Slow Growth of Cancer Cells

Jan. 6, 2011 — Regular consumption of green tea may offer protection against Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and may also slow growth of cancer cells, new research indicates.

Green tea, an ancient Chinese remedy, has been shown to have protective properties in undigested, freshly brewed forms. But a research team at Newcastle University in the U.K. set out to determine whether the protective substances remained active after digestion. And in the study, they did.

Meat Will Get New Nutrition Labels

New Rule Calls for Listing of Calories and Fat on Labels of Meat Products

Jan. 4, 2011 — Important nutritional facts aimed at helping consumers know more about what they’re eating will be required on labels of 40 of the most popular cuts of meat and poultry under a new rule from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The rule, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2012, requires nutritional labels on the meat and poultry packages to list the number of calories, grams of total fat, and saturated fat.

Americans Say Their Diet Is Healthy, but Is It?

Survey Suggests Eating Habits Don’t Match the Belief of Most Americans That Their Diet Is Healthy

Jan. 4, 2011 — Close to 90% of Americans say they eat a healthy diet, but their penchant for sugary foods and drinks suggests otherwise.

A new Consumer Reports Health telephone poll of 1,234 adults showed that 52.6% of respondents said their diet was “somewhat healthy,” 31.5% thought their diet was “very” healthy, and 5.6% said they were “extremely” healthy eaters.

But 43% of said they drank at least one sugary soda or sugar-sweetened coffee or tea drink per day, and  around one-quarter said they limit the amount of sweets and fat they get each day.

These not-so-healthy eating habits may sabotage their diets and their waistlines, says Nancy Metcalf, the senior program editor for Consumer Reports Health in Yonkers, N.Y.

Walking Faster May Lead to a Longer Life

Study Shows a Link Between Walking Speed and Life Span

Jan. 4, 2011 — A swift stride puts you on the path to a longer, healthier life, researchers say.

Scientists reporting in The Journal of the American Medical Association say that older adults who typically walk 1 meter per second or faster live longer than expected. A walking, or gait, speed of 1 meter per second is equal to 3.28 feet per second.

Walking speed can be an important sign of someone’s overall health. A slow walking speed may be due to multiple causes including heart, lung, or nervous system problems, or even joint pain. Several studies have suggested that a person with a walking speed slower than 0.6 meters per second (less than 2 feet per second) may be at increased risk for poor health and function.

Stephanie Studenski, MD, MPH, of the University of Pittsburgh, analyzed the collective results of nine previous studies to determine if walking speed explained survival differences among older adults and whether it could be used to predict longevity.

“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”.

Dylan Ratigan: Free Market Fraud

At first glance, the December jobs report seems to be a step in the right direction. An unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, the lowest level in 19 months. And a president, happy to boast about another 103,000 jobs being created last month.

However, renowned economist Peter Morici points out two important caveats. For one, 260,000 Americans simply dropped out of the labor force in December. They are out of work, yet no longer counted as unemployed by the government. And secondly, 103,000 jobs is nowhere near the number of jobs we need to be adding each month. To bring unemployment down to 6 percent by 2013, businesses need to hire an average of 350,000 new workers each month.

Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who continues to defend his Quantitative Easing (aka money-printing) program, couldn’t ignore the writing on the wall during a Senate hearing Friday morning. “If we continue at this pace”, said Bernanke, “we are not going to see sustained declines to the unemployment rate.”

Daphne Eviatar: Is Proxy Detention the Obama Administration’s Extraordinary Rendition-Lite?

Shortly after taking office, President Obama announced he’d close CIA prisons and end abusive interrogations of terrorism suspects by U.S. officials. But the Obama administration has notably preserved the right to continue “renditions” — the abduction and transfer of suspects to U.S. allies in its “war on terror,” including allies notorious for the use of torture.

Although the Obama administration in 2009 promised to monitor more closely the treatment of suspects it turned over to foreign prisons, the disturbing case of Gulet Mohamed, an American teenager interrogated under torture in Kuwait, casts doubt on the effectiveness of those so-called “diplomatic assurances.” It’s also raised questions about whether the “extraordinary rendition” program conducted by the Bush administration has now been transformed into an equally abusive proxy detention program run by its successor.

Glenn Greenwald: Daley is a reflection, not a cause

Few things interest me less at this point than royal court personnel changes.  I actually agree with the pro-Obama/Democratic-Party-loyal commentators who insist it doesn’t much matter who becomes White House Chief of Staff because it’s Obama who drives administration policy.  Obama didn’t do what he did in the first two years because Rahm Emanuel was his Chief of Staff.  That view has the causation reversed:  he chose Emanuel for that position because that’s who Obama is.  Similarly, installing JP Morgan’s Midwest Chairman, a Boeing director, and a long-time corporatist — Bill Daley — as a powerful underling replacing Emanuel isn’t going to substantively change anything Obama does.  It’s just another reflection of the Obama presidency, its priorities and concerns, and its overarching allegiances.  

There’s a section of my forthcoming book about the rule of law which examines the direct causal line between the vast number of Wall Street officials in key administration positions and the full-scale exemption from accountability which financial elites enjoy even for the most egregious lawbreaking.  When you compile all of those appointments in one place, the absolute stranglehold large-scale corporate interests exert over virtually all realms of government policy is quite striking.  But it’s nothing more than what the economist Nouriel Roubini meant when he told the makers of the 2010 documentary “Inside Job” that Wall Street has “captured the political system” on “the Democratic and the Republican side” alike, or what Simon Johnson describes as “The Quiet Coup”:  “The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against” elite business interests.

Michelle Chen: Flunks Women’s Health

Kids might dread that report card that comes every winter, but a nationwide report card on women’s health doesn’t make officials nearly as anxious as it should.

According to the National Women’s Law Center’s latest report card on state and national health policy, no state got a “satisfactory” (S) grade on the group’s selected health measures, and only Vermont and Massachussetts scored an S-minus. The many “F” states were concentrated in the Southeast, such as Mississippi. The nation as a whole got a big “U” (unsatisfactory), with passing marks in only three key areas:

   the percentage of women age 40 and older across the country getting mammograms regularly, the percentage of women visiting the dentist annually and the percentage of women age 50 and older who receive screenings for colorectal cancer.

William Rivers Pitt: This Is Going to Suck

The American people were treated on Thursday to a (mostly) full and complete reading of the Constitution of the United States from the floor of the House of Representatives. The performance was proposed and organized by the new Republican majority in that chamber for the purpose – according to them, anyway – of announcing that America is about to start going back to being America again. There’s an irony in this, insofar as they chose to skip the Constitutional parts about African Americans not really being people. That portion of the document is a vital part of our shared history, so yeah, leave it to the GOP to to snip, redact and edit our founding document, even if it’s just in a bit of political theater.

A friend astutely observed that this reading of the Constitution was an essentially meaningless act without including a recitation of the complementary documents and supporting arguments; i.e. it is akin to reading the owner’s manual of a car, but not knowing how the thing really works once you open up the hood. Within my friend’s opinion, however, lies a hidden solution to what is going to be, in my estimation, a truly messy and dangerous 112th Congressional session: make them read everything, up to and including the Federalist Papers. By the time they get through it all, this congressional session will have run its course, and a great deal of damage will have been averted.

Alexander Cockburn: The American Way of Torture

Just over the edge of 2011 and this fresh new decade, torture is now solidly installed in America’s repressive arsenal. Not in the shadows where it has always lurked, but up front and central, vigorously applauded by prominent politicians. Rituals of coercion and humiliation seep through the culture, to the extent that before Christmas, American travelers began to rebel at the invasive pat-down searches conducted by the TSA’s airport security teams groping around bosoms and crotches. . . . .

The torture system is flourishing, and the boundaries of the American empire marked by overseas torture centers such as Bagram. There are still detainees in Guantanamo — as of November last year, 174 of them. They are supposedly destined for a Supermax in Illinois.

For the past seven months 23-year-old U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, first in an Army prison in Kuwait; now in Quantico, Va., has been held 23 hours out of 24 in solitary confinement in his cell, under constant harassment. He faces months, if not years, of the same. Will he end up like accused Chicagoan Jose Padilla, four years in total isolation and silence before his trial in 2007 (convicted as a terrorist and given 17 years), with his lawyer informed by prison staff that Padilla had become docile and inactive to the point that he resembled “a piece of furniture.”

Johann Hari David Cameron Is Selling Off All England’s Forests — and Starting to Drill, Baby, Drill

Can you hear the silence of the huskies? When he was rebranding the Tory party, David Cameron promised us he would lead “the greenest government ever”, and flew to the Arctic to be photographed hugging the Arctic dogs.

Since he came to power, he has broken every environmental promise he made — and then gone much further. He has opened up the coasts of Britain to the deep-sea drilling that worked so well in the Gulf of Mexico, and put a For Sale sign outside every single remaining forest in England. Yes, as his own environment minister puts it, Cameron is determined to achieve “disposal of public forest” — and the timber companies and holiday-parks are preparing their opening bids.

Michael McCarthy: Nature Studies by Michael McCarthy: Have we learned nothing since ‘Silent Spring’?

Nicotine, found in tobacco, is a deadly substance – and not only for smokers. It has long been known as a powerful natural insecticide, and its presence in the tobacco crop has evolved to deter pests; it is toxic to virtually all of them (except one, the Carolina sphinx moth, whose fat green caterpillar, known in the US as the tobacco hornworm, has evolved a way of dealing with it).

Nicotine is a neurotoxin, that is, it attacks the insect nervous system. In recent years, pesticide companies such as the German giant Bayer have developed a group of compounds which act in a similar way; they have been christened neonicotinoids (“new nicotine-like things”). Neonicotinoids are now among the most widely-used insecticides because they are very effective, and they are effective because they are “systemic”. That means that they do not simply sit on the plant’s surface but are taken up into the plant itself, so that any part of it becomes toxic to the aphid or other troublesome wee beastie attempting to feed upon it.

Unfortunately, when we say “any part”, that is literally true: not only the stem and the leaves are contaminated but so, even at the heart of the plant’s flowers, are its pollen and its nectar. And when pollinating insects come along to gather them, such as honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, moths, butterflies, or hoverflies, which are by no means the “target” species of the insecticide, they get a shot of poison nonetheless. They may get a tiny shot. But each time they buzz to a contaminated flower for more pollen or nectar, they get another one. And another one. And another one.

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.

January 8 is the eighth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 357 days remaining until the end of the year (358 in leap years).

On this day in 1877, Crazy Horse and his warriors–outnumbered, low on ammunition and forced to use outdated weapons to defend themselves–fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.

Six months earlier, in the Battle of Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse and his ally, Chief Sitting Bull, led their combined forces of Sioux and Cheyenne to a stunning victory over Lieutenant Colonel George Custer (1839-76) and his men. The Indians were resisting the U.S. government’s efforts to force them back to their reservations. After Custer and over 200 of his soldiers were killed in the conflict, later dubbed “Custer’s Last Stand,” the American public wanted revenge. As a result, the U.S. Army launched a winter campaign in 1876-77, led by General Nelson Miles (1839-1925), against the remaining hostile Indians on the Northern Plains.

On January 8, 1877, General Miles found Crazy Horse’s camp along Montana’s Tongue River. U.S. soldiers opened fire with their big wagon-mounted guns, driving the Indians from their warm tents out into a raging blizzard. Crazy Horse and his warriors managed to regroup on a ridge and return fire, but most of their ammunition was gone, and they were reduced to fighting with bows and arrows. They managed to hold off the soldiers long enough for the women and children to escape under cover of the blinding blizzard before they turned to follow them.

Though he had escaped decisive defeat, Crazy Horse realized that Miles and his well-equipped cavalry troops would eventually hunt down and destroy his cold, hungry followers. On May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse led approximately 1,100 Indians to the Red Cloud reservation near Nebraska’s Fort Robinson and surrendered. Five months later, a guard fatally stabbed him after he allegedly resisted imprisonment by Indian policemen

 871 – Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.

1297 – Monaco gains its independence.

1499 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany.

1734 – Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel’s Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

1746 – Second Jacobite Rising: Bonnie Prince Charle occupies Stirling.

1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union Address in New York City.

1806 – Cape Colony becomes a British colony.

1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslandes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.

1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.

1835 – The United States national debt is 0 for the only time.

1838 – Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).

1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield

1867 – African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.

1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.

1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’ – his punched card calculator.

1904 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.

1906 – A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, caused by the excavation of clay along the Hudson River, kills 20 people.

1912 – The African National Congress is founded.

1918 – President Woodrow Wilson announces his “Fourteen Points” for the aftermath of World War I.

1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.

1956 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.

1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle’s policies in Algeria.

1962 – The Harmelen train disaster killed 93 people in the Netherlands.

1963 – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a “War on Poverty” in the United States.

1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.

1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.

1975 – Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.

1977 – Three bombs went off in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.

1978 – Bowing to international pressure, President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison, who had been arrested after declaring the independence of Bangladesh.

1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, “perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time”.

1982 – The break up of AT&T: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.

1989 – Beginning of Japanese Heisei era.

1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.

2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.

2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.

Holidays and observances

   Christian Feast Day

       Abo of Tiflis

       Apollinaris Claudius

       Gudula

       Lucian of Beauvais

       Our Lady of Prompt Succor (Roman Catholic Church)

       Pega

       Severinus of Noricum

       Thorfinn of Hamar

       January 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   Commonwealth Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

   Earliest day on which Children’s Day can fall, while January 15 is the latest; celebrated on the second Saturday in January. (Thailand)

He’s Back And No It’s Not Arnold  



Iraqi cleric urges resistance to U.S., Israel after return from exile

NAJAF, Iraq – A powerful cleric whose fearsome militia once battled Americans urged followers Saturday to resist the United States “with all means” in his first public address in Iraq after four years in exile.

Addressing an adoring crowd of thousands, Muqtada al-Sadr also called on the newly formed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to make sure all U.S. forces leave Iraq by the end of the year as planned.

And he warned that “we have the political means” to reject that governmentif it does not provide security and services to its citizens.

Once Free Now Authoritarian  

 

US tells Twitter to hand over WikiLeaks supporter’s messages

A member of parliamentin Iceland who is also a former WikiLeaks volunteer says the US justice department has ordered Twitter to hand over her private messages.

Birgitta Jonsdottir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, said last night on Twitter that the “USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since november 1st 2009. Do they realize I am a member of parliament in Iceland?”

She said she was starting a legal fight to stop the US getting hold of her messages, after being told by Twitter that a subpoena had been issued. She wrote: “department of justice are requesting twitter to provide the info – I got 10 days to stop it via legal process before twitter hands it over.”

Oh The Joy Of Despair    



Economic gloom and doom drain France of its joie de vivre

Victor Hugo, without recourse to opinion polls, had it about right.

The French really are a nation of Misérables. Now polls in 53 countries show the most pessimistic and most anxious people in the world are not the war-torn Iraqis or Afghans, nor the cuts-threatened British, but the French.

More than 60 per cent of the French people questioned by the BVA polling organisation predicted an economically gloomy and troubled 2011.

From The Mouth Of A Wanted War Criminal    



Omar al-Bashir says South Sudan not ready for split

He told al-Jazeera TV the south did not have the ability to create a stable state or provide for its citizens.

The BBC’s James Copnall in Khartoum says the comments will infuriate the SPLM – ex-rebels who have ruled the south since civil war ended in 2005.

Final rallies have taken place in the south before voting starts on Sunday.

Correspondents expect an overwhelming “yes” vote, which would see the world’s newest country come into being.

The referendum is part of a 2005 deal that ended the two-decade north-south civil war.

We’ll Disappear Those Who Disagree    

 

Tunisia arrests bloggers and rapper

Tunisian authorities have rounded up bloggers, activists and a rap singer in a string of arrests that come in the midst of what is being described as a nationwide uprising.

Two web activists, Slim Amamou and Azyz Amamy, have not been heard from since Thursday, sources in Tunisia told Al Jazeera.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that it had been alerted that at least six bloggers and activists had been arrested or had disappeared in locations across Tunisia, and that there were probably others who had been targeted.

Al Jazeera spoke with Amamy on Wednesday evening, local time, after his email and Facebook accounts were hijacked in an alleged government-led “phishing” campaign. His last tweet was published on Thursday morning, as was Amamou’s.

When The Only Thing The Army Cares About Is India This Happens    



In Pakistan today, ‘anyone could shoot you’

ISLAMABAD – A 60-year-old university administrator in the southern port city of Karachi is wistful as he recalls the more tolerant, freewheeling Pakistan of his youth.

And a new effort by the Obama administration may help bring back those times of youth.

Once, when a teacher suggested no book can be perfect, the boy asked if that included Islam’s holy book, the Quran. That sparked a candid class discussion about religion. But in today’s Pakistan, Muqtida Mansoor said he would never dare to ask the question in public.

After all, “anyone could shoot you.”

You know, what’s really discouraging about political blogging for me is how often you have to repeat yourself about obvious, undeniable facts (as a fer instance pasted over there on the right is Stephen’s take on BillO and whether the tides are explicable by a little something Sir Isaac Newton liked to call THE LAW of Gravity, because it’s not just a suggestion you see).

In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Banks and Securities Holders can no longer claim title to property unless they can produce a mortgage and a statutory chain of transfer for the note.

This not a new concept, Stare Decisis is CARPENTER V. LONGAN, 83 U. S. 271 (1872), which means that it’s not easily appealable.

This exposes the Banks to severe financial losses in the Trillions of dollars.

First of all, there is no reason for someone who owes a mortgage to continue to make payments if clear title can’t be shown.  The value of all that paper those photons and electrons and derivatives is exactly zero.

Secondly, the Banks are going to be forced to honor their contracts with the big Mortgage Backed Securities holders who won’t be rolled as easy as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Barack Obama, and buy back their fraudulent paper for more Trillions.

And finally (for the purposes of this piece at least), there’s the Hundreds of Billions they owe in title transfer fees (tax fraud) and fines.  Smart States are going to start tapping that you betcha, though it really falls in the rounds.

Felix Salmon writes about this and seems disappointed that another financial crisis is inevitable, but it is.

The legal craziness that this decision sets in motion is going to be huge, I’m sure. Anybody who was foreclosed on in Massachusetts should now be phoning up their lawyer and trying to find out if the foreclosure was illegal. If it was – if there was a break in the chain of title somewhere which meant that the bank didn’t own the mortgage in question – then the borrower should be able to get their deed, and their home, back from the bank. This decision is retroactive, and no one has a clue how many thousands of foreclosures it might cover.

…

Going forwards, every homeowner being foreclosed upon will as a matter of course challenge the banks to prove that they own the mortgage in question. If the bank can’t do that, then the foreclosure proceeding will be tossed out of court. This is likely to slow down foreclosures enormously, as banks ensure that all their legal ducks are in a row before they try to foreclose.

This decision won’t be appealed: the state law seems pretty cut-and-dried, every judge who’s looked at it has come to the same decision, and there’s no conceivable grounds for the US Supreme Court to take on the case.

What’s more, courts in the other 49 states are likely to lean heavily on this decision when similar cases come before them. The precedent applies only in Massachusetts for now, but it’s likely to spread, like some kind of bank-eating cancer.

If a similar decision comes down in California, which is a non-recourse state, the resulting chaos could be massive. People who are current on their mortgage and perfectly capable of paying it could simply make the strategic decision to default, if and when they find out or suspect that the chain of title is broken somewhere. They would take a ding to their credit rating, but millions of people will happily accept a lower credit rating if they get a free house as part of the bargain.

It’s not so much that the law and the facts are against them as that there are so many tables to pound on that they’re starting to look like tobacco lawyers.  If there are similar rulings (and it’s hard to see why not) in Connecticut, New York, and California then we could be looking at an entirely different political and economic landscape.

And one in which Republicans will pay the price, because the Vampire Squid doesn’t care which stone it squeezes to get its blood just as long as it’s red.

Some premiers.  No LoDo (and there was much rejoicing).  No in my time period but also of note is the Series Premier of Young Justice League.  Despite being listed as new, it’s the same one I’ve already seen where they find the Superboy clone at Project Cadmus.

You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

• AMC– Open Range x 2
• Bravo– The Green Mile x 2
• Disney– The Suite Life on Deck, Wizards of Waverly Place, Fish Hooks, Phineas and Ferb short (premiers)
• Discovery– Gold Rush marathon (with premier)
• E!– The Soup (premier)
• ESPN– Hoopies, Rockets @ Magic, Knicks @ Suns
• ESPN2– College Throwball, Division 1a Playoff Final: Delaware v. Eastern Washington
• Food– Outrageous (premier)
• FX– The Happening x 2
• History– Secrets of the Illuminati!
• National Geographic– Dog Whisperer (premier)
• Sci Fi– Merlin (should be the season premier, but Zap2it says 9/11)
• Style– Honey x 2
• TBS– The Wedding Planner
• Turner Classic– The Fastest Gun Alive, State Fair
• TLC– Say Yes to the Dress marathon (2 premiers)
• Toon– Clone Wars (Nightsisters Trilogy premier)
• USA– Inside Man, No Country for Old Men
• VH1– Fight Club

Later-

• FX– Little Man
• TBS– Father of the Bride, Father of the Bride Part II
• Turner Classic– Pinky
• TNT– The Terminal, The Family Man
• USA– Matchstick Men

Dave hosts Regis Philbin, Hannibal Buress, and No Age.  

Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Taliban attack kills 17 at Afghan public bath

by Nasrat Shoaib, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 10:25 am ET

2 UK, Canada reject expulsion of Ivory Coast envoys

by Charles Onians, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 11:11 am ET

3 Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo expels UK, Canada envoys

by Charles Onians, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 5:58 am ET

4 Sombre Christmas for Egypt’s Copts after blast

by Hassen Jouini, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 10:58 am ET

5 Germany closes 4,700 farms as dioxin crisis widens

by Audrey Kauffmann, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 12:59 pm ET

6 Smart US dog learns more than 1,000 words

by Kerry Sheridan, AFP

1 hr 39 mins ago

7 Renault suspects Chinese role in spy case

by Djallal Malti, AFP

2 hrs 44 mins ago

8 Obama names Sperling to top economic job

by Stephen Collinson, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 6:49 am ET

9 England celebrate ‘special’ Ashes win

by Robert Smith, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 4:58 am ET

10 Jobs growth disappoints, but jobless rate falls

By Lucia Mutikani, Reuters

18 mins ago

11 AIG recap deal near; share sale seen in May

By Ben Berkowitz, Reuters

1 hr 5 mins ago

12 Special Report: How Ford became last man standing

By Bernie Woodall and Kevin Krolicki, Reuters

23 mins ago

13 Banks lose key foreclosure ruling in top Massachusetts court

By Jonathan Stempel and Dena Aubin, Reuters

23 mins ago

14 Obama reshapes economic team, taps another Clinton vet

By Alister Bull, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 1:04 pm ET

15 France probes China link in Renault spy scandal

By Helen Massy-Beresford, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 2:20 pm ET

16 U.S. aims to cut defense budget and slash troops

By Andrea Shalal-Esa and Phil Stewart, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 1:05 am ET

17 Model security shows mainstream move of Iraq’s Sadr

By Muhanad Mohammed, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 11:12 am ET

18 Healthcare law repeal clears hurdle in House

By Richard Cowan and Kim Dixon, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 11:56 am ET

19 Starbucks: Kraft interfering with grocery transition

By Lisa Baertlein, Reuters

Fri Jan 7, 12:33 am ET

20 Republicans acknowledge debt limit should rise

By David Lawder, Andy Sullivan and Glen Somerville, Reuters

Thu Jan 6, 7:52 pm ET

21 Pentagon delays F-35, buys more Boeing fighters

By Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters

Thu Jan 6, 7:14 pm ET

22 [Obama sets mission for new team: Accelerate growth http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201…

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press

44 mins ago

23 Slow growth in jobs underscores challenge ahead

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

13 mins ago

24 House takes symbolic step to repeal health law

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

21 mins ago

25 AP EXCLUSIVE: US says too much fluoride in water

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

1 hr 21 mins ago

26 More young people are winding up in nursing homes

By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press

1 hr 22 mins ago

27 Divers: 1811 wreck of Perry ship discovered off RI

By MICHELLE R. SMITH, Associated Press

1 hr 23 mins ago

28 Heil Hound: Nazis dogged by Hitler-mocking mutt

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press

1 hr 7 mins ago

29 Tablets crowd gadget show, chasing iPad’s tail

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer

2 mins ago

30 17 killed in suicide blast in southern Afghanistan

By ELENA BECATOROS and TAREK EL-TABLAWY, Associated Press

2 hrs 4 mins ago

31 Southern Sudanese making ‘Final Walk to Freedom’

By MAGGIE FICK and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press

2 hrs 1 min ago

32 Sudanese to fan out across US for historic vote

By AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press

47 mins ago

33 Bernanke: 4-5 years to reach normal unemployment

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

Fri Jan 7, 12:49 pm ET

34 SEC rule likely to trigger Facebook IPO in 2012

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer

Fri Jan 7, 8:10 am ET

35 NYC overprepares for new snow after blizzard mess

By SARA KUGLER FRAZIER, Associated Press

20 mins ago

36 Gates goes after military health care

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press

7 mins ago

37 Gates tries to improve military ties with China

By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer

2 hrs 42 mins ago

38 Cougar-cub pairings not always easy over long haul

By LEANNE ITALIE, Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 2:08 pm ET

39 Gene Sperling: Obama’s new economic whisperer

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 12:56 pm ET

40 Texas panel re-examines arson execution case

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 12:29 pm ET

41 Daley brings business and political smarts to job

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 12:15 pm ET

42 High prices have US farmers planting more cotton

By JEFF NACHTIGAL, For The Associated Press

Fri Jan 7, 3:41 am ET

43 Meet the new boss: Daley is Obama chief of staff

By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent

Fri Jan 7, 1:44 am ET

44 House Republicans challenge Obama on debt limit

By DAVID ESPO and ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

Thu Jan 6, 11:10 pm ET

45 Ex-CIA officer charged with leak to Times reporter

By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press

Thu Jan 6, 7:23 pm ET

“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”.

Paul Krugman: The Texas Omen

These are tough times for state governments. Huge deficits loom almost everywhere, from California to New York, from New Jersey to Texas.

Wait – Texas? Wasn’t Texas supposed to be thriving even as the rest of America suffered? Didn’t its governor declare, during his re-election campaign, that “we have billions in surplus”? Yes, it was, and yes, he did. But reality has now intruded, in the form of a deficit expected to run as high as $25 billion over the next two years.

And that reality has implications for the nation as a whole. For Texas is where the modern conservative theory of budgeting – the belief that you should never raise taxes under any circumstances, that you can always balance the budget by cutting wasteful spending – has been implemented most completely. If the theory can’t make it there, it can’t make it anywhere.

Eugene Robinson: In Dallas, defusing a sociological bomb: Wrongful convictions

Race still matters in America, and justice is not completely blind. Anyone who believes otherwise should examine the case of Cornelius Dupree Jr., who was ruled innocent Tuesday after spending 30 years in prison – almost his entire adult life – for a brutal carjacking and rape that he did not commit.

Dupree is just the latest of 21 inmates from the Dallas area, almost all of them black, who have been exonerated since a 2001 Texas law permitted DNA testing of the evidence against them. At least another 20 convicts from other parts of the state have similarly been cleared of their crimes. Imagine the wrongs that could be righted if every state had a law like the one in Texas – and if every jurisdiction saved years-old evidence the way Dallas does.

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Three Little Words: How Bill Daley Can Be Your Next Hero

Here’s a suggestion for Bill Daley, three simple words that could turn everything around for the President and his party: Be Joe Kennedy.

Progressives were appalled when FDR appointed that noted stock market manipulator Joe Kennedy to be the first head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kennedy had a reputation as a ruthless and unscrupulous master of insider trading. He was a master of the reckless and speculative financial instruments of his day, the early 20th Century equivalents of CDOs and mortage-backed securities. But Kennedy took his job seriously, went after the sharks ferociously, and help stabilize the capitalist system so effectively that it remained sound for another seven decades.

William Pfaff: Economic Suicide

Is it a case of murder, or has the Western economy deliberately, if unwittingly, attempted suicide and nearly succeeded?

John Maynard Keynes was not just talking about defunct economists when he wrote that the world is commonly ruled by dead ideas, its leaders the slaves of the past. He said, “Indeed the world is ruled by little else.” If he were alive today, he could name management consultants and business gurus among those responsible for the economic crisis of the present day.

As 2011 begins, people still talk about the crisis of the Western economy as though we have been the victims of a blight from nowhere, like Haitians in a hurricane or blackbirds in Arkansas. No individual is held guilty for anything-certainly none of the leaders of finance or business who insisted that markets know best, or the political leaders who empowered them.

E.J. Dionne, Jr.: The House of Professors

Edmund Burke, one of history’s greatest conservatives, warned that abstractions are the enemy of responsible government.

“I never govern myself, no rational man ever did govern himself, by abstractions and universals,” Burke wrote. “A statesman differs from a professor in a university; the latter has only the general view of society; the former, the statesman, has a number of circumstances to combine with those general ideas.”

Alas for all of us and for American conservatism in particular, the new Republican majority that took control of the House on Wednesday is embarked on an experiment in government by abstractions. Many in its ranks pride themselves on being practical business people, but they behave as professors in thrall to a few thrilling ideas.

Their rhetoric is nearly devoid of talk about solving practical problems-how to improve our health care, education and transportation systems, or how to create more middle-class jobs.

Instead, we hear about things we can’t touch or see or feel, and about highly general principles divorced from their impact on everyday life.

John Nichols: ‘Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Whistleblower?’: White House Targets ‘Insider Threats’ Among Federal Workers

The Obama administration is asking federal agencies to monitor employees with an eye toward identifying “insider threats” who might reveal “classified” information that the government is trying to keep from the American people.

The White House Office of Management and Budget this week circulated a memorandum to senior federal officials that urges them to use psychiatrists and sociologists to assess-among other “signals”- the “grumpiness” of federal employees who have access to classified documents. (After years of battering by conservatives who claim that government workers can do nothing right, and with Obama talking up a pay freeze for federal employees, what government worker isn’t grumpy these days?)

The memo is the latest move by the administration-which has been scrambling to prevent more revelations like those exposed by WikiLeaks-to safeguard classified documents and data.

David Sirota: Ted Williams and the Triumph of American Dream Propaganda

Thanks to near-ubiquitous national media coverage, you probably know by now that Ted Williams was a homeless and jobless man who is now being offered fairly major media jobs because he had the random luck of becoming a YouTube sensation. This is certainly a heartwarming story, and we should all be genuinely happy for Williams. It’s a blessing when anyone is lifted out of such destitution.

However, there’s a dark side to all this. No, not about Williams (who himself rightly acknowledges that this is like “hit[ting] a million dollar lottery” and not typical of anything), but about the phenomenon Williams has inadvertently come to represent. . . . . . .

What’s so galling about this particular instance of American Dream triumphalism is the most famous player now involved: The Cleveland Cavaliers. As Cleveland’s ABC affiliate reports, the NBA team owned by Quicken Loans’ CEO has now “offered Williams full-time voiceover work” and “offered to pay a mortgage on a home” for him. The ABC affiliate — like the rest of the media — hasn’t bothered to point out what The Nation magazine’s Dave Zirin has previously noted: namely, that Quicken Loans has been one of the major banks throwing people out of their homes during the foreclosure crisis. Yes, that’s right: The same company that is bragging about offering a single homeless man a job is the same predatory subprime firm that is making many people homeless — and none of the media covering the story have mentioned that. All we get are stories about how wonderful and generous the Cavs and Quicken Loans are for making their offer to Williams.

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.

January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 358 days remaining until the end of the year (359 in leap years).

On this day in 1789, the first US presidential election is held.  The United States presidential election of 1789 was the first presidential election in the United States of America. The election took place following the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788. In this election, George Washington was elected for the first of his two terms as President of the United States, and John Adams became the first Vice President of the United States.

Before this election, the United States had no chief executive. Under the previous system-the Articles of Confederation-the national government was headed by the Confederation Congress, which had a ceremonial presiding officer and several executive departments, but no independent executive branch.

In this election, the enormously popular Washington essentially ran unopposed. The only real issue to be decided was who would be chosen as vice president. Under the system then in place, each elector cast two votes; if a person received a vote from a majority of the electors, that person became president, and the runner-up became vice president. All 69 electors cast one vote each for Washington. Their other votes were divided among eleven other candidates; John Adams received the most, becoming vice president. The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, would change this procedure, requiring each elector to cast distinct votes for president and vice president.

In the absence of conventions, there was no formal nomination process. The framers of the Constitution had presumed that Washington would be the first president, and once he agreed to come out of retirement to accept the office, there was no opposition to him. Individual states chose their electors, who voted all together for Washington when they met.

Electors used their second vote to cast a scattering of votes, many voting for someone besides Adams with Alexander Hamilton less out of opposition to him than to prevent Adams from matching Washington’s total.

Only ten states out of the original thirteen cast electoral votes in this election. North Carolina and Rhode Island were ineligible to participate as they had not yet ratified the United States Constitution. New York failed to appoint its allotment of eight electors because of a deadlock in the state legislature.

 1325 – Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.

1558 – France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.

1598 – Boris Godunov becomes Tsar of Russia.

1608 – Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.

1610 – Galileo Galilei observes three of the four largest moons of Jupiter for the first time. He named them, and in turn the four are called the Galilean moons. Ganymede not discovered by him until January 13.

1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.

1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.

1797 – The modern Italian flag is first used.

1835 – HMS Beagle drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.

1894 – W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

1904 – The distress signal “CQD” is established only to be replaced two years later by “SOS”.

1919 – Montenegrin guerrilla fighters rebel against the planned annexation of Montenegro by Serbia, but fail.

1920 – The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.

1922 – Dail Eireann ratifies the

Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64-57 vote.

1927 – The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York City to London.

1931 – Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand’s west coast.

1935 – Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco-Italian Agreement.

1942 – World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.

1945 – World War II: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.

1948 – Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.

1950 – A fire at the Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa, kills 41 people.

1952 – President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb.

1954 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.

1959 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

1960 – The Polaris missile is test launched.

1968 – Surveyor Program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.

1972 – Iberia Airlines Caravelle 6-R crashes into Mont San Jose on approach to Ibiza Airport killing all 104 on board.

1973 – Mark Essex fatally shoots 10 people and wounds 13 others at Howard Johnson’s Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana before being shot to death by police officers.

1979 – Third Indochina War – Cambodian-Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

1980 – President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

1984 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

1985 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan’s first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.

1990 – The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns.

1991 – Roger Lafontant, former leader of the Tonton Macoutes in Haiti under Francois Duvalier, attempts a coup d’etat, which ends in his arrest.

1993 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as President.

1999 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins. He had been impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19.

Holidays and observances

   Christian Feast Day:

       Canute Lavard

       Charles of Sezze

       Lucian of Antioch

       Raymond of Penafort

       January 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   

Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian Calendar)

   Distaff Day (medieval Europe)

   Festival of Seven Herbs or Nanakusa no sekku (Japan)

   Synaxis of John the Forerunner & Baptist (Julian Calendar)

   Tricolour day or Festa del Tricolore (Italy)

   Victory from Genocide Day (Cambodia)

Spies Like Us: Please Speak Into The Pen Wait Not Working Try The Flower  



US woman arrested in Iran as spy: Why the story may not have teeth

Istanbul, Turkey

James Bond couldn’t have done it better. Which is why an unconfirmed 007-style story about Iran arresting an American woman with a microphone hidden in her teeth is grabbing headlines.

The report first emerged this week in the state-owned newspaper, Iran, which does not have a history of publishing truth-telling facts when it comes to alleged enemy spies.

Then on Thursday Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency, which is tied to the Revolutionary Guard, weighed in with its own unsubstantiated report: “Iranian authorities announced” the detention one week ago of 55-year-old Hal Talayan, it claimed. The story was titled: “Iran arrests US spy.”

Legacy  Of The Vietnam War

 

Vang Pao, Hmong guerrilla leader, dies in US

Vang Pao, a revered former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led thousands of Hmong guerrillas in a CIA-backed secret army during the Vietnam War, has died. He was 81.

After immigrating to the United States once the communists seized power in Laos in 1975, Vang Pao was venerated as a leader and a father figure by the large Hmong refugee populations who resettled in California’s Central Valley, Minneapolis and cities throughout Wisconsin.

A New Nation Or Humanitarian Crisis?  

As South Sudan heads for independence, Daniel Howden discovers a disturbing disparity between hope and reality

A failed state before it’s born? Inside the capital of the world’s next nation

Juba’s main landmarkis making itself redundant. A digital clocktower that sprouts from the city’s central roundabout counts down the remaining days, minutes and hours of the five years from the peace deal that ended the civil war to the referendum on secession. On Sunday the display will reach zero and the south of Sudan will begin voting in a process expected to create a new country and put the defunct clock at the centre of the world’s newest capital city.

There is little doubt that the result will be an overwhelming vote in favour of splitting Africa’s largest country in two.

Hungry’s Media Laws In Line With Eurasia    



Orban says Hungary’s media laws in line with EU norms

PRIME minister Viktor Orban has pledged to amend Hungary’s controversial new media law if the European Union demands it and countries with similar legislation change theirs.

But Mr Orban insisted that the tough media rules were perfectly in line with EU norms, as Hungary weathers criticism from the likes of Germany and France during the first week of its six-month presidency of the bloc.

Critics say the legislation gives too much power to a council staffed entirely by government loyalists, which has the power to levy large fines on publications, websites and broadcasters whose coverage is deemed “unbalanced” or insulting to “human dignity” or “public morality” – terms so vague that many media outlets fear the law will be used to muzzle critical reporting.

Living In Fear Of a Red Star Over China    

 

Chinese expansion fears revealed

AUSTRALIA’S intelligence agencies believe China is hiding the extent of a huge military build-up that goes beyond national defence and poses a serious threat to regional stability.

A strategic assessment by the agencies found China’s military spending for 2006 was $90 billion – double the $45 billion announced publicly by Beijing.

Australia’s peak intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, as well as the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Defence and Foreign Affairs departments concluded that China was building a military capability well beyond its priorities of self-defence and preventing Taiwan’s independence.

Love Thy Neighbor As Long As They Are Just Like You    



Copts celebrate amid tight security

Thousands of Coptic Christians have packed churches across Europe and the Middle East to celebrate Christmas Eve mass amid security fears following a recent deadly bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt.

Security was stepped up across Egypt as threats against specific churches were posted on the internet, days after the New Year’s Day bombing of the al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria that killed 23 people.

Tensions remained high in the country ahead of the Coptic Christmas on Friday as Copts gathered for mass, and the mood was somber outside St Mark’s Cathedral in the capital, Cairo.

Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from outside the church, said Egyptian authorities are still trying to identify the attackers.