Sunshine, in moderation...

... can prevent cancer, cutting the risks quite significantly, according to this Canadian article discussing U.S. research that will be announced in June.

The conclusions about the higher rates of cancer in northern industrialized countries is interesting, too.

And if, like me, you have reason to fear skin cancer in particular, there's always vitamin D supplements + a bit more sunshine.

I like excuses to get a bit more sunshine, though.

And if you don't like red wine...

... for the healthful flavanoids or resveratrol, try a fruity cocktail.
Apparently, ethanol boosts the availability of antioxidants in brightly colored fruit like strawberries.
(although I think the two drinks pictured in the photo on the Yahoo news story are a bloody Mary and a classic margarita, but you get the point.)

Well, this explains a bit: Regent Law & the Justice Department

Thanks to The Daily Show for catching this story that fell through the cracks (well, actually the Boston Globe caught it, first ;) but I was surprised to learn just how many graduates of the not exactly competitive fourth-tier Regent University School of Law, formerly known as CBN University School of Law (after Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network) have worked at the Bush Justice Department -- more than 150, including the notorious Ms. Monica Goodling. (Why is it always a Monica?)
I find this very disturbing somehow.

Research suggests intelligence does not predict wealth

Well, that explains things, I guess ;)

from New Scientist

It looks like lifestyle factors, some but not all of which are correlated, trump sheer IQ.

The House Cranky-Pants/Valley Girl Committee hashes over the WH subpoena question

Highlights:

RANKING MEMBER TOM DAVIS (R-VA): In a transparent attempt to give this witch hunt against Secretary Rice some heft, the majority also asks why the State Department doesn't support needle exchange programs -- duh; like, they're against U.S. law; that's why...

*

REP. MARK SOUDER (R-IN) to Chairman Waxman: This is not the way that former Chairman Tom Davis ran the committee, and you shouldn't do it, either.

Contempt for the Bereaved: What Pat Tillman's family's up against

To me, one of the most revolting things about the cover-up surrounding Pat Tillman's death, discussed today in a House hearing, along with the military-hyped inaccuracies re: the Jessica Lynch rescue, were the disgusting atheist-bashing comments made to disparage the Tillman family by Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, which Chairman Waxman suggested should be considered conduct unbecoming an officer.
The comments, made by Kauzlarich during an ESPN interview, are excerpted in this article by Stan Goff.

Casualties of the media-savvy anti-abortion movement's first significant victory...

... first in a long war. And the "fair and balanced" media has often been only too happy to play into the hands of whichever side comes up with the catchiest phrases.

This comment in reply to the article illustrates just one example of the real consequences of the court's decision:

If one of your daughters had the terrible misfortune to have a wanted pregnancy go terribly awry because of profound fetal anomalies that were not compatible with life, I doubt that you, as a good, nurturing, loving mother would want one of her daughters to carry a fetus without a brain, or liver or kidneys, or organs all growing outside his or her body for any more weeks than necessary. She would spend those weeks in the most profound kind of torment and misery knowing that the wanted pregnancy would result in death once the fetus tried to take its first breath.

Before the D&X/D&E procedure was developed, the method used was in utero dismemberment. That procedure ran the considerable multiple risks of uterine perforation and all that it can bring. The D&X/D&E is safer and allows grieving parents to hold their wanted child and at least bury it with some dignity.

Many of these profound fetal anomalies are not able to be determined until very late in a pregnancy.

Not to pile on, but let's just sum up...

... the stellar cast of Bush appointees (from the Washington Post.)

Belatedly, in honor of Kurt Vonnegut, RIP...

... great writer and overall cool person to have had around:

Why My Dog is not a Humanist: Vonnegut's acceptance speech for the American Humanist of the Year Award in 1996.

We already have a law, sort of...

... that would have prevented the massacre at Virginia Tech earlier this week. But there were "loopholes."

A judge's ruling on Cho Seung-Hui's mental health should have barred him from purchasing the handguns he used in the Virginia Tech massacre, according to federal regulations. But it was unclear Thursday whether anybody had an obligation to inform federal authorities about Cho's mental status because of loopholes in the law that governs background checks.

Cho purchased two handguns in February and March, and was subject to federal and state background checks both times. The checks turned up no problems, despite a judge's ruling in December 2005 that Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness."

If we're going to bother to have laws, they need to be enforced, they need to be compatible, and they need to make sense.

After Columbine, and with all the violence that shows up in the news day after day from around the world, I admit that my first reactions to this tragedy were somewhat numbed and detached, until I learned that my second cousin, who works at the college, had actually been on campus at the time of the shootings. Fortunately, she's fine, and was able to make it off campus before the lockdown.

Then I started remembering what it was like to be in college, what a vulnerable time it is, and how completely freaked out those kids must have been, the ones who witnessed it and survived and the ones who didn't.

This incident is bound to start plenty of "dialogue" in this country (i.e. in the media, including NBC News) but I just hope it goes beyond racial/ character profiling and the usual rants (I don't think blaming the parents seems to apply in this case) and begins to touch on some of the deeper issues here, as to why this kind of violence isn't going away. It's a trend we can't afford to tolerate, and there's no quick-fix law or platitude that's going to solve it.

"America at a Crossroads": A Squandered Opportunity?

This Salon article thinks so, when it comes to providing the American public with some historical context for the rage against the West that's existed in the Muslim world, not only for centuries, in one form or another, but very specifically since the close of the First World War. Is it being patriotic or just short-sighted to omit this vital information from the discussion in this country?
I've only seen the first episode so far, but I'm disappointed to hear this assessment and, as I keep watching, I'll keep hoping it's not so, although the article is a bit sobering, especially regarding Michael Pack's crucial role in the series. Viewers who think this is a balanced, much less liberal take on things are very mistaken. There's nothing wrong with conservatives making documentaries and putting them on public television, as long as viewers realize that PBS's image as left wing-dominated is no longer a reality.
The bottom line is that only so many chances exist for understanding between what is increasingly viewed as "us" and "them," and so PBS's possible failure to take this one would be a particularly unfortunate blow to our fading hopes for peace and mutual understanding between America and the Muslim world.

Quote du Jour: former CentCom commander Anthony Zinni

Tim Russert quoted this passage from the new edition of General Zinni's book, The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose, today on Meet the Press.

"We promised to build a new Iraqi state in all aspects and the Iraqi people are still waiting for us to deliver on our promise.

Why?"

We now know the answers to that question: Poor intelligence, lack of planning, faulty political motivation, incompetent or inexperienced people placed in key positions, flawed assumptions, lack of understanding of the Iraqi culture, arrogance, spin, and the list goes on and on."

Now tell us what you really think, General.

Downside to Global Warming # 197: The Canadian-American Water Dispute War of 2073?

Warming could spark N. American water scramble: U.N.

And another one from the Republicans-talking-sense file

Arnold on pumping up the environmentalist movement:

For too long, the environmental movement had been powered by guilt.

But I believe that this is about the switch-over from being powered by guilt to being powered by something much more positive, something much more dynamic, something much more capable of bringing about major change.

You know the kind of guilt I'm talking about: the smoke-stacks belching pollution that are powering our Jacuzzis and our big-screen TVs, and in my case, powering my private airplanes.

(LAUGHTER)

So it is too bad, of course, that we can't all live as simple lives as the Buddhist monks in Tibet.

But you know something? That's not going to happen. So, ladies and gentlemen, I don't think that any movement has ever made it and has ever made much progress based on guilt. Guilt is passive; guilt is inhibiting; and guilt is defensive.

You remember the commercials a number of years ago, the commercials specifically of a Native American who sees what we have done to the environment and then a tear runs down his cheek? You all remember that?

Well, let me tell you something. That approach didn't work because successful movements are built on passion; they're not built on guilt. They're built on passion; they're built on confidence; and they're built on critical mass. And, often, they're built on an element of alarm that galvanizes action.

The environmental movement is, to use a popular term, about the tipping point. It's about to get to the tipping point. There's a tipping point, and I believe the tipping point will be occurring when the environmental movement is no longer seen as a nag or as a scold, but as a positive force in people's lives.

-- from Gov. Schwarzenegger's speech yesterday at a Georgetown University-hosted Conference on Environmental Leadership.

Quote du Jour: Orrin Hatch on Stem Cell Research Opponents

For the life of me -- I've said many times -- how can we justify; how can those who feel the other way about this, and they're very sincere, decent people -- how can they justify the destruction of 7,000 to 20,000 in vitro fertilized eggs a year as hospital waste and not utilize those for the benefit of -- let's just choose one malady -- children with diabetes, virulent diabetes?

They're going to lose their sight, their fingers, their toes and so forth, over time. It seems to me that's a no-brainer. But the fact of the matter is, is that they have never come up with an answer to that particular remark.

How can they justify that?

I don't think they can.

-- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) at a news conference following Wednesday's vote on stem cell legislation

Or maybe this is why America gets a bad rap abroad...

World-Class Violinist Plays a Washington Metro Stop

Debunking the Mommy Wars

Here's an excerpt from E.J. Graff's article in the Columbia Journalism Review which pokes holes in an almost entirely media-created controversy:

By offering a steady diet of common myths and ignoring the relevant facts, newspapers have helped maintain the cultural temperature for what Williams calls “the most family-hostile public policy in the Western world.” On a variety of basic policies—including parental leave, family sick leave, early childhood education, national childcare standards, afterschool programs, and health care that’s not tied to a single all-consuming job—the U.S. lags behind almost every developed nation. How far behind? Out of 168 countries surveyed by Jody Heymann, who teaches at both the Harvard School of Public Health and McGill University, the U.S. is one of only five without mandatory paid maternity leave—along with Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland. And any parent could tell you that it makes no sense to keep running schools on nineteenth century agricultural schedules, taking kids in at 7 a.m. and letting them out at 3 p.m. to milk the cows, when their parents now work until 5 or 6 p.m. Why can’t twenty-first century school schedules match the twenty-first century workday?

In a Democratic Mood...

According to these interesting Pew stats, the country is trending Democratic again in the cultural and political attitudes that tend to influence party identification, and the mood is beginning to resemble the Reagan years. (It's funny, if you look at the graphs, how the country seems to veer away from whichever party is in the White House at a given time)

Sampson in the Lion's Den (there are more mixed allusions where that came from)

from Thursday's all-day Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on prosecutorial independence, or what I'll call the "Let's see if we can get a member of the Justice Department to re-think his position on cruel interrogation techniques via the role-play method, since reasonable debate hasn't had much effect" hearing. By the time everyone else had gone home to supper, the remaining three senators decided to go for a third 10-minute round. If he weren't such a lying weasel (I mean, alleged lying weasel) I would almost feel sorry for the guy.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA): On the issue about the appointment of Mr. Fitzgerald to be special counsel on the Libby matter, I think it ought to be noted that, while Mr. Fitzgerald was appointed in his capacity as an employee of the Department of Justice, by virtue of being United States attorney, that he could have been appointed under the regulations; 28 Code of federal regulations, Section 600.3 says that special counsel shall be selected from outside the United States government, so that terminating him as U.S. attorney would not necessarily have terminated him as the special counsel.

(Sampson had made a little joke/suggestion?, that, oops, made it into the record, that maybe they should go ahead and fire Fitzgerald while they're at it...)

He could have been appointed to carry on the duties in that capacity. I just want to clarify that the alternative procedure here -- and there's no suggestion...

KYLE SAMPSON, SQUIRMY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FALL GUY: Senator, to my knowledge...

SPECTER: There's no question pending for you, Mr. Sampson. You'd be well advised not to answer when you don't have to.

SAMPSON: Thank you.

SPECTER: You might be well advised not to answer when you have to...

SAMPSON: Thank you, sir.

(LAUGHTER)

SPECTER: ... not when you don't have to.

And later, discussing the role of (the lack of) election fraud prosecutions (against Democrats) in the New Mexico attorney firing...

SPECTER: Here's the conclusion I reach. Iglesias began as one of our finest, was considered for promotions, was trained to -- was selected to train others in election fraud, had one of the best border records, and yet was fired for not doing a good enough job, all of a sudden, between October and November of 2006, on facts that were never checked on.

Do you still think David Iglesias deserved to be fired?

SAMPSON: Senator, looking back on all of this, you know, I wish that we could do it over again.

They'd remember to cover their tracks better this time.