Chris Roubis

Organic food can make you …

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:55:01 +0000

Monika Graff / Getty Images

Vendors offer organically grown produce at the Union Square farmers market in New York City.

Renate Raymond has encountered her fair share of organic food snobs, but a recent trip to a Seattle market left her feeling like she’d stumbled onto the set of “Portlandia.“

“I stopped at a market to get a fruit platter for a movie night with friends but I couldn’t find one so I asked the produce guy,” says the 40-year-old arts administrator from Seattle. “And he was like, ‘If you want fruit platters, go to Safeway. We’re organic.’ I finally bought a small cake and some strawberries and then at the check stand, the guy was like ‘You didn’t bring your own bag? I need to charge you if you didn’t bring your own bag.’ It was like a ‘Portlandia skit.’ They were so snotty and arrogant.”

As it turns out, new research has determined that a judgmental attitude may just go hand in hand with exposure to organic foods. In fact, a new study published this week in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science, has found that organic food may just make people act a bit like jerks.

“There’s a line of research showing that when people can pat themselves on the back for their moral behavior, they can become self-righteous,” says author Kendall Eskine, assistant professor of the department of psychological sciences at Loyola University in New Orleans. “I’ve noticed a lot of organic foods are marketed with moral terminology, like Honest Tea, and wondered if you exposed people to organic food, if it would make them pat themselves on the back for their moral and environmental choices. I wondered if they would be more altruistic or not.”

To find out, Eskine and his team divided 60 people into three groups. One group was shown pictures of clearly labeled organic food, like apples and spinach. Another group was shown comfort foods such as brownies and cookies. And a third group — the controls — were shown non-organic, non-comfort foods like rice, mustard and oatmeal. After viewing the pictures, each person was then asked to read a series of vignettes describing moral transgressions.

“One vignette was about second cousins having sex,” says Eskine. “Another was about a lawyer on the prowl in an ER trying to get people to sue for their injuries. Then the groups made moral judgments on a scale from one to seven.”

In another phase of the study, the three groups were asked to volunteer for a (fictitious) study, with each person writing down the amount of time — from zero to 30 minutes — that they would be willing to volunteer.

The results did not bode well for the organic folks.

“We found that the organic people judged much harder compared to the control or comfort food groups,” says Eskine. “On a scale of 1 to 7, the organic people were like 5.5 while the controls were about a 5 and the comfort food people were like a 4.89.”

When it came to helping out a needy stranger, the organic people also proved to be more selfish, volunteering only 13 minutes as compared to 19 minutes (for controls) and 24 minutes (for comfort food folks).

“There’s something about being exposed to organic food that made them feel better about themselves,” says Eskine. “And that made them kind of jerks a little bit, I guess.”

Why does eating better make us act worse? Eskine says it probably has to do with what he calls “moral licensing.”

“People may feel like they’ve done their good deed,” he says. “That they have permission, or license, to act unethically later on. It’s like when you go to the gym and run a few miles and you feel good about yourself, so you eat a candy bar.”

Eskine says he was surprised by the findings (“You’d think eating organic would make you feel elevated and want to pay it forward,” he says) and hopes to do additional studies that look at conditions that might prompt people to act differently.

Until then, organic eaters may want to rein in those self-righteous stink-eyes.

“At my local grocery, I sometimes catch organic eyes gazing into my grocery cart and scowling,” says Sue Frause, a 61-year-old freelance writer/photographer from Whidbey Island. “So I’ll often toss in really bad foods just to get them even more riled up.”

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800-year-old tree poached

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:55:00 +0000

Wilderness Comittee

Torrance Coste, an activist with the Wilderness Committee on Canada’s Vancouver Island, surveys the stump of an 800-year-old red cedar that poachers cut up and hauled out of Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park.

The death of an ancient cedar tree inside a remote park on Canada’s Vancouver Island is being showcased by an environmental group seeking more protection against illegal loggers.

The 800-year-old tree was attacked by poachers with power saws over time at Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, the Wilderness Committee reported Thursday. Cedar is valuable as material for roofing shingles.

The poachers, still at large, were able to cut through 80 percent of the base of the tree — which had a diameter of nine feet — before park staff finally noticed what was going on, Wilderness Committee campaigner Torrance Coste told msnbc.com. The damage was so severe that park staff had to fell the entire tree for safety reasons.

The park left the fallen tree at the site so that it could decompose, returning nutrients to the soil, Coste said, but since then poachers “have returned at their leisure without fear of consequence and cut up, hauled out, and taken away the tree in sections.

“This has required seriously heavy equipment,” he added. “The area has been trashed, and there are huge steel cables lying around all over the place … sections of the trunk have been removed up until as recently as two weeks ago.”

The Wilderness Committee urged British Columbia, which incorporates Vancouver Island, to beef up funding for park rangers.

Wilderness Committee

The cedar was left by park staff to decompose at the site, but only this section and a few pieces are still there after poachers got to the tree.

“While the poachers themselves have obviously committed a terrible crime, fault for this incident should also lay with the Ministry of Environment and their long-time negligence of our parks,” Coste said.

The controversy has reached British Columbia’s government, with the opposition New Democrat Party criticizing the Liberal Party government, The Canadian Press reported.

“To suggest that anyone is able to protect all of those areas to the level that the member suggests is fiscally irresponsible,” responded Environment Minister Terry Lake.

“I’ll tell you what irresponsible is,” countered New Democrat Scott Fraser, “10 years ago there were 194 park rangers in British Columbia, there’s under 100 now.”

The Wilderness Committee, for its part, also fears illegal logging of cedar might be happening elsewhere on Vancouver Island.

“What we need to know” from the environment ministry “is if cedar poaching is happening anywhere else,” Coste said.

A parks official said investigators have little information to work with.

“We have no eyewitnesses or license plates,” Don Closson told the Canadian Press.

A police officer echoed the lack of evidence, adding that the poachers were likely after the cedar for roofing shingles.

“It’s obviously much more gain than going out and taking a whole pile of firewood,” Sgt. Dave Voller told the Canadian Press. “A logging truck loaded with cedar would be worth thousands and thousands of dollars.”

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Article source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/18/11756204-800-year-old-tree-at-vancouver-island-park-falls-to-illegal-loggers?lite

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NYT: Recanting on gay ‘cure’

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:54:57 +0000

“People with a shared worldview basically came together and created their own set of experts to offer alternative policy views,” said Dr. Jack Drescher, a psychiatrist in New York and co-author of “Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics, and Culture.”

To Dr. Spitzer, the scientific question was at least worth asking: What was the effect of the therapy, if any? Previous studies had been biased and inconclusive. “People at the time did say to me, ‘Bob, you’re messing with your career, don’t do it,’ ” Dr. Spitzer said. “But I just didn’t feel vulnerable.”

He recruited 200 men and women, from the centers that were performing the therapy, including Exodus International, based in Florida, and Narth. He interviewed each in depth over the phone, asking about their sexual urges, feelings and behaviors before and after having the therapy, rating the answers on a scale.

He then compared the scores on this questionnaire, before and after therapy. “The majority of participants gave reports of change from a predominantly or exclusively homosexual orientation before therapy to a predominantly or exclusively heterosexual orientation in the past year,” his paper concluded.

London bans ‘gay cure’ ads from buses

The study — presented at a psychiatry meeting in 2001, before publication — immediately created a sensation, and ex-gay groups seized on it as solid evidence for their case. This was Dr. Spitzer, after all, the man who single-handedly removed homosexuality from the manual of mental disorders. No one could accuse him of bias.

But gay leaders accused him of betrayal, and they had their reasons.

The study had serious problems. It was based on what people remembered feeling years before — an often fuzzy record. It included some ex-gay advocates, who were politically active. And it didn’t test any particular therapy; only half of the participants engaged with a therapist at all, while the others worked with pastoral counselors, or in independent Bible study.

Several colleagues tried to stop the study in its tracks, and urged him not to publish it, Dr. Spitzer said.

Yet, heavily invested after all the work, he turned to a friend and former collaborator, Dr. Kenneth J. Zucker, psychologist in chief at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior, another influential journal.

“I knew Bob and the quality of his work, and I agreed to publish it,” Dr. Zucker said in an interview last week. The paper did not go through the usual peer-review process, in which unnamed experts critique a manuscript before publication. “But I told him I would do it only if I also published commentaries” of response from other scientists to accompany the study, Dr. Zucker said.

Those commentaries, with a few exceptions, were merciless. One cited the Nuremberg Code of ethics to denounce the study as not only flawed but morally wrong. “We fear the repercussions of this study, including an increase in suffering, prejudice, and discrimination,” concluded a group of 15 researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where Dr. Spitzer was affiliated.

Va. lawmakers reject gay judicial nominee

Dr. Spitzer in no way implied in the study that being gay was a choice, or that it was possible for anyone who wanted to change to do so in therapy. But that didn’t stop socially conservative groups from citing the paper in support of just those points, according to Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a nonprofit that fights antigay bias.

On one occasion, a politician in Finland held up the study in Parliament to argue against civil unions, according to Dr. Drescher.

“It needs to be said that when this study was misused for political purposes to say that gays should be cured — as it was, many times — Bob responded immediately, to correct misperceptions,” said Dr. Drescher, who is gay.

But Dr. Spitzer couldn’t control how his study was interpreted by everyone, and he could not erase the biggest scientific flaw of them all, roundly attacked in many of the commentaries: Simply asking people whether they’ve changed is no evidence at all of real change. People lie, to themselves and others. They continually change their stories, to suit their needs and moods.

By almost any measure, in short, the study failed the test of scientific rigor that Dr. Spitzer himself was so instrumental in enforcing for so many years.

“As I read these commentaries, I knew this was a problem, a big problem, and one I couldn’t answer,” Dr. Spitzer said. “How do you know someone has really changed?”

Letting go

It took eleven years for him to admit it publicly.

At first he clung to the idea that the study was exploratory, an attempt to prompt scientists to think twice about dismissing the therapy outright. Then he took refuge in the position that the study was focused less on the effectiveness of the therapy and more on how people engaging in it described changes in sexual orientation.

“Not a very interesting question,” he said. “But for a long time I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to face the bigger problem, about measuring change.”

Obama: Gay marriage ‘doesn’t weaken families, it strengthens families’

After retiring in 2003, he remained active on many fronts, but the reparative study remained a staple of the culture wars and a personal regret that wouldn’t leave him be. The Parkinson’s symptoms have worsened in the past year, exhausting him mentally as well physically, making it still harder to fight back pangs of remorse.

And one day in March, Dr. Spitzer entertained a visitor. Gabriel Arana, a journalist at the magazine The American Prospect, interviewed Dr. Spitzer about the reparative therapy study. This wasn’t just any interview; Mr. Arana went through reparative therapy himself as a teenager, and his therapist had recruited the young man for Dr. Spitzer’s study (Mr. Arana did not participate).

“I asked him about all his critics, and he just came out and said, ‘I think they’re largely correct,’ ” said Mr. Arana, who wrote about his own experience last month. Mr. Arana said that reparative therapy ultimately delayed his self-acceptance and induced thoughts of suicide. “But at the time I was recruited for the Spitzer study, I was referred as a success story. I would have said I was making progress.”

That did it. The study that seemed at the time a mere footnote to a large life was growing into a chapter. And it needed a proper ending — a strong correction, directly from its author, not a journalist or colleague.

A draft of the letter has already leaked online and has been reported.

“You know, it’s the only regret I have; the only professional one,” Dr. Spitzer said of the study, near the end of a long interview. “And I think, in the history of psychiatry, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a scientist write a letter saying that the data were all there but were totally misinterpreted. Who admitted that and who apologized to his readers.”

He looked away and back again, his big eyes blurring with emotion. “That’s something, don’t you think?”

This article, “Leading Psychiatrist Apologizes for Study Supporting Gay ‘Cure,’” first appeared in The New York Times.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47476378/ns/health-mental_health/

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Did Zimmerman just get help?

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:54:56 +0000

State Attorney’s Office via AP

Newly released details about the night Florida teenager Trayvon Martin died at the hands of a volunteer watchman named George Zimmerman are largely consistent with Mr. Zimmerman’s self-defense claims, with one hitch: The shooter could have avoided the fight that led to the Feb. 26 killing in Sanford, Fla.

The trove of evidence, some of which has been redacted to give anonymity to witnesses, sets up the prospect of a difficult trial in which forensic evidence will rub up against questions about Zimmerman’s state of mind, his views on race, and whether the 28-year-old aspiring police officer’s sense of civic duty morphed into reckless malice.

Evidence that Zimmerman was injured after confronting someone he believed to be suspicious, the close proximity of the gun shot to the victim, and eyewitness accounts that had Zimmerman on his back, screaming for help for several seconds before firing, have prompted some critics to suggest that special prosecutor Angela Corey overcharged Zimmerman to quell public unrest over the case – a notion she has denied.

To some legal experts, the new evidence backs up Zimmerman’s original story – that he followed Trayvon, lost him, and was then attacked with “mixed martial arts” blows to a point where he feared for his life. A medical report that was not referenced in the state’s charging affidavit states that Zimmerman sustained a broken nose, two black eyes, and two cuts on the back of his head.

The new forensic facts challenge the second-degree murder charge, which, to stick, requires a jury to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman acted with malicious recklessness in causing Trayvon’s death, says Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor whose criticisms of the prosecution stepped up as the state’s evidence was revealed.

Given the new evidence, “the prosecutor is at least guilty of willful blindness,” says Mr. Dershowitz in a phone interview.

The 200-plus pages of new documents also give more insight into the prosecution’s contention that Zimmerman may have profiled Trayvon in part because of his views of young black men. As one investigator writes, the whole fight could have been avoided if Zimmerman had afforded Trayvon, a fellow citizen who was doing nothing wrong in a place where he had the right to be, some respect.

“The encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement, or conversely if he had identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and initiated dialog in an effort to dispel each party’s concern,” the report said. “There is no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter.”

“The police concluded that none of this would have happened if George Zimmerman hadn’t gotten out of his car,” Martin family attorney Ben Crump told the Associated Press on Thursday. “If George Zimmerman hadn’t gotten out of his car, they say it was completely avoidable. That is the headline.”

An anonymous police tipster, meanwhile, suggested that Zimmerman could be confrontational, especially against black people. Zimmerman, who is part-Hispanic, has been described by family members as a social activist who cared about minorities and the downtrodden.

“I don’t at all know who this kid was or anything else,” the unnamed caller called told police shortly after the shooting. “But I know George, and I know that he does not like black people. He would start something. He’s very confrontational. It’s in his blood. We’ll just say that.”

theGrio: Trayvon Martin shooting: New evidence in case released

Moreover, one woman told police she heard no fighting before the gun shot rang out. At that point, she went outside and saw a man, Zimmerman, standing over Martin’s prone, face-down body. “Just call the police,” Zimmerman said, according to the witness.

Another witness told a different tale. According to the report, “He witnessed a black male, wearing a dark colored ‘hoodie’ on top of a white or Hispanic male who was yelling for help. He elaborated by stating the black male was mounted on the white or Hispanic male and throwing punches ‘MMA [mixed martial arts] style.’ He stated he yelled out to the two individuals that he was going to call the police. He then heard a ‘pop.’ He stated that after hearing the ‘pop,’ he observed the person he had previously observed on top of the other person (the black male wearing the ‘hoodie’) laid out on the grass.”

“Based on this description, it doesn’t appear that Zimmerman ‘executed’ Martin, as some of the inflammatory rhetoric claims,” writes law professor William Jacobson at the Legal Insurrection blog. “It’s legally irrelevant that the encounter could have been avoided.”

Autopsy: Trayvon Martin shot from ‘intermediate range’

After the shooting, Sanford police recommended that Zimmerman be charged with negligent manslaughter, but a state prosecutor instead accepted Zimmerman’s invocation of the state’s Stand Your Ground law, which allows a person to defend himself with deadly force in public areas, if he believes his life is in danger.

The failure to charge Zimmerman led to protests in Sanford and around the country, the stepping down of the local police chief, and allegations of racial injustice, causing Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) to appoint a special prosecutor to take another look at the case.

In April, six weeks after the shooting, that prosecutor, Ms. Corey, reversed the earlier decision, charging Zimmerman with second-degree murder. He’s currently out on a $150,000 bond and in hiding.

Trove of evidence released in Trayvon Martin shooting

While many of the details of the shooting have already been publicized, the evidence released Thursday revealed new details likely to shade the as-yet-unscheduled trial.

Medical examiners found that Trayvon had THC, the euphoria-inducing compound found in marijuana, in his blood – a potentially salient fact given that Zimmerman told a dispatcher he thought the man he had spotted “was on drugs or something.”

Trayvon, who lived in Miami, was in Sanford with his dad to serve out a 10-day school suspension for possessing a baggie with marijuana residue. He was returning from buying an iced tea and some Skittles from a local convenience store when Zimmerman spotted him, called a nonemergency police dispatcher, and then followed him on foot.

Forensics also found that Trayvon was shot at extremely close range with a single shot, which entered his chest and perforated his heart.

The report also revealed the FBI findings from one of the most controversial tenets of the case: whether a voice that can be heard screaming for help during a 911 recording was Trayvon or Zimmerman. The FBI was unable to conclusively determine whom the voice belonged to, and was also unable to corroborate suggestions that, at one point, Zimmerman uttered a racial slur.

According to police, Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s dad, said he didn’t believe the voice crying for help belonged to his son. When asked, Officer Chris Serino wrote: “Mr. Martin, clearly emotionally impacted by the recording, quietly responded ‘no.’ “

The stakes in the case are high. It set off national introspection over so-called Stand Your Ground laws, which critics call “shoot first” laws. Zimmerman is likely to argue his use of that law in a special “mini-trial” to precede a jury trial, in which a judge can dismiss the case outright and shield Zimmerman from civil liability.

George Zimmerman photos released from night of Trayvon Martin shooting

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47476961/ns/us_news-christian_science_monitor/
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Nurses push Wall Street tax

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:54:54 +0000

Tannen Maury / EPA

Members of National Nurses United rally in Daley Plaza on Friday, ahead of the NATO Summit in Chicago.

A coalition of nurses’ unions is calling for a “Robin Hood” tax on Wall Street, which they say could generate up to $350 billion a year, in the first major protest ahead of this weekend’s NATO summit in Chicago.

Their pitch: impose a tax of 50 cents on every $100 of trades of stocks, bonds, dividends and other financial transactions, which are not currently taxed. The U.S. would join more than a dozen other nations that already have a financial transaction tax, according to National Nurses United (NNU).

“I’ve been asked many, many times … ‘What are you doing here as nurses? … What do you have to do with the economy?’” Karen Higgins, a registered nurse and co-president of NNU, said to the crowd in Chicago’s Daley Plaza.

“We’re watching this every day. We’re watching patients suffer,” she said, noting that nurses were seeing people without insurance or others who can’t afford their co-pays, as well as a spike in the number of children with adult diseases due to eating poorly because their parents can’t afford healthy food. “This is serious and in some cases it is actually deadly.”

“We know the solution .. we are watching and seeing Wall Street throwing our money away as we see people suffer and die. It will not continue,” she said. “We pay sales tax. It is time for Wall Street to start paying back what they owe the rest of the country and they need to pay sales tax.”

The nurses’ call echoes last fall’s outcry by the Occupy Wall Street protesters over income equality, corruption and corporate greed. Proceeds from the Wall Street tax would support social services, education and healthcare.

The financial transaction tax is not a new concept. The U.S. had one from 1914 to 1966, and several politicians called for another one after the Wall Street crash in 1987, National Nurses United said.

Supporters include Nobel Laureate economists Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist, and Joseph Stiglitz, the former World Bank chief economist — both of whom have spoken out in favor of such a tax in the past.

A bill introduced last November by two U.S. Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Peter DeFazio, calls for a tax of up to 0.25 percent – or 25 cents on every $100 – on the value of stock trades in addition to taxing transactions in other financial instruments.

Others, however, are against what has been called a “sin” tax on Wall Street.

“Our research shows unambiguously that higher trading costs depress the prices of stocks and bonds,” business school professors Yakov Amihud and Haim Mendelson wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “A transactions tax will end up punishing Main Street, hurting the economy and reducing U.S. Treasury revenues in the next few years. It will thus exacerbate the effects of the financial crisis.”

The nurses are involved because they have seen the impact on health, with a growing number of uninsured and impoverished Americans, Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank, wrote in an op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times.

The tax proposal protesters were initially targeting the G8 summit of global financial leaders that starts today. But when that meeting was moved from Chicago to Camp David in Maryland, they opted to carry on their demonstrations here anyway to take advantage of the large number of protesters converging on the city for the NATO summit.

Mary O’Sullivan, 72, came to the protest with her husband Chris Fogarty, 77. The retired married couple each held a sign, one reading “Honk To Indict Banksters” and the other “Stop Gov’t Crimes.”

“We’re hoping that even at this late date the government will recognize that there is so much pain and suffering amongst the people that they will at least start paying attention,” O’Sullivan said, noting she had recently spoken with a woman at a city mental health care facility that’s being closed down. “She has no idea where she is going to go or how she is going to get there, and in the meantime, we’re spending millions of dollars on drones to kill people.”

Earlier this week, protesters demonstrated against the shuttering of local schools and mental health clinics, the loss of homes through foreclosures, and environmental issues surrounding the controversial “Tar Sands” pipeline, and they stormed the building that houses the headquarters of President Obama’s campaign.

Nam Y. Huh / AP

Demonstrators rally against the Keystone Pipeline and the Alberta Tar Sands outside of the Canadian Consulate in downtown Chicago on Thursday.

The city has assigned 3,100 officers plus hundreds from other cities to guard against the kind of violence that broke out in the streets of Seattle at the World Trade Organization meeting in 1999, NBCChicago.com reported, and officials have warned of massive travel disruptions.

They’ve also imposed limits on how close the protesters, which include dozens of unions and anti-war, environmental, education, healthcare and civil liberties’ groups, can get to the convention center where the summit is being held — within “sight and sound” of it, according to the Chicago Tribune — raising the ire of the demonstrators.

The National Lawyers Guild, which is sending out legal observers to the demonstrations and aiding those who are detained, said late Thursday that at least 20 people have been arrested so far this week. Occupy Chicago said 11 arrests occurred Wednesday night at an area home – though it’s not clear if those 11 were included in the guild’s tally.

Organizers expect the biggest crowds at a rally led by anti-war activists on Sunday, in which a group of 9/11-era veterans plan to return their service medals to protest the “war on terror.”

Todd Gitlin, a former leader of the 1960s-era group Students for a Democratic Society and a Columbia University sociology and journalism professor, said the Wall Street tax was an obvious focus for protesters.

“It’s concrete. It might be winnable. It has global resonance because you’ve got … several national governments in Europe that support it,” he said, noting that it clearly distinguishes between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, and had an “intrinsic fairness” about it. “It’s a reform that rings sensible to large numbers of people but a lot of work has to be done… . Most people right now I think don’t get it.”

{“contentId”:”11757222″,”totalVotes”:”11351″}

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Results with 183 short comments

Why not, every other transaction is taxed.

Odd that poor people paying taxes is OK but billionaires paying taxes is bad? We’re an insane nation.

Of course the “haves” will spin this and shoot it down but people have to keep trying to do something so save our society. Well done!!!

This would be a tax on ordinary people with a 401k – not ‘fat cats’. Change the “carried interest” rules for hedge fund managers instead.

Yes, but make sure it goes to social services and education, not defense. Or payoff SS IOUs.

Yes! Financial planners charge clients a fee to make trades anyway, doesn’t slow anyone down, and brings in healthy revenue.

Without physical proof from Wall Street that there will be a negative impact to the market, their version of the tax does not hold true.

The irony of course being that Robin Hood robbed from a government which was taxing the people unfairly.

It would be a good way to raise revenue and stock trading does not actually have that much effect on prices.

The idea that such a small tax would cripple the economy is absurd. Time for Wall Street to pay it’s share.

Pay off the debt, tax Wall Street!

But I wouldn’t call it a sin tax. Investing is not like smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol

The 1% are uniquely positioned to pay for their dabbling that costs the rest of us.

No because that tax money would just be wasted or more pet projects for Politicians….

Wall Street is not only the 1% anymore. Middle America is heavily invested through 401K’s and IRA’s. Get 1%’s money through income taxes.

They are for it because ultimately it will go towards funding raises for them. They are self serving and digging in the pockets of others.

Read Louis Sullivan’s report of disparity of care
Look at dr Sylvia flacks work regarding the lack of care for the poor and the cost

These tools have gotten away with pillaging the economy for far too long. I’d tax them until their butts bleed!

25 cents on $100 is manageable by anyone and a lot of quarters will add up.

The only thing these people understand is hitting them in their pocketbooks!

Yes. It’s income, so it should be taxed.

Hey…sure…I’m not even in the frickin’ “Con Game” stock market anymore! lol

Do people know how many transactions the mutual funds in the average persons 401K does a year? This hurts the middle more than the rich.

No taxes to my meager 401k. This is all I have for my retirement!!!

0.5% tax is entirely reasonable, and it’s one that won’t hurt the middle and lower classes as much as the other proposals people have made.

Article source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/18/11757222-nurses-yes-nurses-lead-charge-for-wall-street-sin-tax?lite

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What Romney’s new ‘Day One’ ads tell us

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:54:51 +0000

Mitt Romney has outlined a bold agenda to spur economic growth and create jobs. On his first day in office, he will approve the Keystone pipeline, introduce pro-growth tax reforms, and repeal Obamacare.

Forget a president’s first 100 days. Mitt Romney’s first television ad of the general election, “Day One,” comes as close as anything in describing the most urgent priorities of a President Romney upon taking office.

The ad is running in five swing states, and the presumptive GOP nominee’s campaign is putting $1.3 million behind it; a Spanish-language analog is running in North Carolina, with a much smaller ad buy behind it.

Nonetheless, Romney’s ad is meant to drive a three-point plan: 1. Approve the Keystone Pipeline, 2. Introduce tax reform, and 3. Begin dismantling and replacing President Obama’s health care law.

In short, Romney’s message is about jobs, taxes, energy and health care.

So what do we know about the specifics of Romney’s three-point plan?

Keystone -

Republicans, including Romney, have vocally criticized President Obama for rejecting an initial proposal by the TransCanada Corporation to build an oil pipeline through the central United States. The administration rejected the project out of environmental concerns and because it felt Republicans were rushing its approval of the project, at the expense of due diligence. (TransCanada has subsequently re-applied for a permit to build a pipeline along new routes.)

Romney invoking the example is meant to address the issues of jobs and energy.

TransCanada and supporters of the pipeline — who range from Republicans in Congress to the organized labor community — contend the project would create at least 20,000 jobs. The project’s most ardent supporters claim these, in turn, would lead to additional job creation.

As for energy, it’s much more difficult to say what the effect of building the Keystone Pipeline would have on the price of oil. Its mere approval could conceivably diminish speculation that drives up oil prices, but gauging the direct impact is difficult. Moreover, the pipeline would take years to become fully operational and deliver excess supply to gas stations in the U.S.

“Taking advantage of our energy resources is one of my priorities,” Romney said Friday in a conference call with supporters. Among his other plans for his first day in office, Romney said he would also allow expanded permits for oil and gas exploration on federal lands. Romney said, for instance, he would authorize drilling on the East Coast’s Outer Continental Shelf.

Tax reform -

The centerpiece of Romney’s plan would include a permanent, across-the-board reduction of 20 percent for all income tax brackets.

He’s also on the record supporting a number of other tax cuts, including maintaining current tax rates on investment income, eliminating the taxes on estates, cutting the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, and repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, among other reforms.

The impact of these reforms on the rising national debt — something Romney routinely decries — is much more opaque, though.

Romney has said eliminating some tax deductions, combined with economic growth and cuts in spending would make the impact of his tax plan deficit-neutral at a minimum.

“One thing I’m also going to to do is work with Congress to limit the deductions and exemptions and special deals that are in our tax code,” Romney said on the conference call.

But the former Massachusetts governor hasn’t specified the exemptions or deductions he would eliminate beyond a select few (for instance, the mortgage deductions associated with a second home). Romney has previously said that the wealthy might shoulder a greater tax burden under his reforms, though he hasn’t said how. (An analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has suggested that might not be the case.) The Romney campaign also hasn’t provided a detailed enough tax plan in order to subject it to static or dynamic scoring of its impact on the deficit and debt.

As for the spending side, Romney’s website offers some additional details, but not enough to necessarily account for the total impact of his plan — either on jobs, or the deficit.

The “issues” section of Romney’s website includes an additional “Day One” promise: to send Congress a bill slashing non-defense discretionary spending by five percent across-the-board.

Other parts of Romney’s site detail areas he would cut, and the savings associated with each of those cuts. Those savings include the elimination of subsidies to programs like the National Endowment for the Arts, and cuts in subsidies to Amtrak or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“There are items that I like that I will stop funding,” Romney explained during the call.

Health reform -

Romney’s new ad calls for not just the repeal of “ObamaCare,” but its replacement, as well.

If part or all of the law were allowed to stand following the Supreme Court’s ruling next month, Romney would have some options to undo the law on his first day in office, but they would be limited.

The former Massachusetts governor has said his ultimate goal is to return health care decisions to individual states, and create incentives for more efficient health care delivery.

Romney repeated his promise to issue a waiver to states, allowing them to duck some of the requirements of health care reform that conservatives find most onerous. But many other parts of the law would remain in effect, and would require legislative action to both enact a repeal of ObamaCare and a subsequent replacement. That could conceivably pass the House if it were to remain in Republican control, but unless Republicans were to somehow win a 60-seat majority in the Senate this fall, the GOP would need to attract Democratic support for Romney’s alternative.

* * *

There are other things Romney said he would do on his first day, among them labeling China a currency manipulator and putting a hold on regulations enacted by the Obama administration.

Democrats have contested Romney’s ad, with the Obama campaign labeling it as full of “empty promises.”

“We know why Mitt Romney didn’t keep his promises- his business experience wasn’t in strengthening companies and creating jobs for long-term economic growth. It was in reaping quick profits for himself and his investors at the expense of workers and communities,” said Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the president’s re-election. “These are the values that he wants to bring to the White House by giving more budget-busting tax cuts to the wealthy and letting Wall Street write its own rules—the same formula that benefited a few, but crashed our economy and punished the middle class.”

A Democratic super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, also produced a parody ad concluding of Romney’s first-day plans: “We’ll pass.”

Article source: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/18/11757714-romneys-day-one-what-do-we-know-about-his-plan?lite

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What is bad and what is good: an interview with Prof. Roger Crisp

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:54:49 +0000

By Kourosh Ziabari

The humankind has always been busy with answering the questions on what is morally good and what is morally unacceptable since he wanted to adhere to what the members of the society admire and appreciate. People have always been after finding the codes of ethics and the behaviors which are morally justifiable. Although the citizens of liberal societies are less concerned with the issues of morality as they believe that what does not violate the freedom of others and does not molest them is socially acceptable, the fact that morality has historically occupied the mind of human being as a major question of life is undeniable, especially given that moral issues have always had religious implications, as well.
Roger Crisp is a Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Oxford’s St. Anne’s College. His fields of expertise are metaethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. In addition, he is Chairman of the Management Committee of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.
Prof. Crisp is the author of several articles and books on various issues pertaining to morality and ethics.
What follows is the full text of my interview with Prof. Crisp in which we explored some fundamental questions in ethics, morality and religion.

Kourosh Ziabari: Your field of expertise is ethics and you’re of course familiar with the ethical teachings and principles of different religions. Why do some ethicists such as Nietzsche refute and disprove religion altogether while all of the existing religions in the world in general, and the monotheistic religions in particular, emphasize on morality and ethics as their theoretical basis and invite their followers to think and behave morally and ethically?

Roger Crisp: The reasons for this depend on the particular thinker. So some atheists will not be persuaded by the arguments for the existence of God (the ontological argument, the cosmological argument, and so on), and will assume therefore that it is more parsimonious not to assert the existence of God. Nietzsche of course didn’t accept these arguments. But he also had an account, based on human nature and the history of humanity, to explain or debunk belief in God. There’s also a philosophical reason for not basing ethics on religion, which Plato expressed very clearly in his dialogue “Euthyphro”. Consider some moral principle, such as that it is wrong to cause undeserved suffering for amusement. If one believes in God, one has to answer the question: are such actions wrong because God says they are wrong, or does God say they are wrong because they are wrong. Linking morality to religion to the first option here seems to make morality highly contingent. So if God had said that walking clockwise around a tree is wrong, it would be.

KZ: How much do the mass media affect people’s moral and ethical attitudes and behaviors? Can we say that the expansion of new media and the acquaintance of people with other cultures may undermine their moral values? At least in a developing nation such as Iran, parents are extremely worried that the access of their children to internet or foreign TV channels may influence their sense of morality. What’s your viewpoint?

RC: This is a very big question! Think about the invention of printing, which is perhaps the only event analogous in human history to what is now happening with the internet. That changed life hugely; both in the West, with the Reformation, and of course the East in a lot of ways too. What must make the difference is what is available on the internet, and also other sources of ethical education. If children are receiving poor education from their parents or their school, and then watch many violent videos on the internet, we should not be surprised if they turn out to be villains. Myself, I think that it is moral education rather than censorship other than of extreme images, which is important. We should educate our children properly so that they find boring violence and pornography what it is — boring.

KZ: Do you see any relationship between ethics and culture? Can we say that certain cultures are more inclined to moral and ethical values than others? Do the globalization and integration of cultures influence people’s moral behaviors?

RC: A link here is undeniable, but I think the bases of ethics are probably pre-cultural and to some extent genetically transmitted. So as human beings we are predisposed to co-operate and to sympathize with others — to some extent. But the specifics of any particular morality will be determined by culture. And some cultures are certainly more ‘moral’ than others. Consider the famous case of the tribe called ‘the Ik’, discussed by Colin Turnbull. Sure, some of his data is thought dubious. But it seems undeniable that life in that society was much more brutal than in many other societies. My hope would be that globalization might enable greater sympathy of human beings for one another, so that politicians who try to persuade populations to engage in e.g. imperialistic wars might be prevented from doing so by sympathies which in the past could not be engaged. And of course I have the same sort of hope for global poverty, climate change, and so on.

KZ: Some thinkers with a liberal mindset believe that moral and ethical behavior does not exist at all because it cannot be distinguished that what is morally good or bad. As long as a social behavior does not violate the freedom of the other members of the society, it would be acceptable and permissible. As a professor of moral philosophy, what’s your viewpoint about such notions?

RC: My own view is that there are right and wrong ways to act, and that we can determine this using our reason. The position you describe (a kind of relativism) also sounds self-contradictory, since it seems to place a universal value on freedom. Now it is true of course that there is much disagreement about right and wrong. I think the best way to approach the truth here is to discuss these questions as calmly and rationally is possible. They won’t be decided properly by the use of political or military power.

KZ: One of the main questions discussed in the area of meta-ethics is that “what the meaning of moral judgment is.” How is it possible to issue a defensible and strong moral verdict? Is moral judgment contrary to logical judgment? Can we persuade people to accept moral judgments only because they are morally guaranteed? In this turbulent era which we live in, people are less willing to accept a statement or judgment that stems from morality, because they believe that morality is devoid of logic and reason. What’s your take on that?

RC: Moral judgments certainly can be illogical – your previous question seemed to mention one that contradicted itself. But they needn’t be. I believe that many people will converge on certain moral truths — such as the example I gave above. Consider a case in which some sadist inflicts horrible suffering on some child over a long period, just for the sake of his own enjoyment. Surely most people will agree that this is wrong? So there is some basic core for morality, and we have then to engage in discussion to find out what other moral principles there are.

KZ: G. E. Moore once said that goodness is a simple, indefinable, non-natural property. It’s said that the indefinableness of goodness is the central claim of non-naturalism. Can we accept such an explanation of goodness? Does it mean that goodness is intuitive and can not be taught to others? If goodness is indefinable, then how is it possible to convince people to accept it?

RC: Goodness isn’t indefinable, and Moore himself didn’t think it was, though of course you’re right that he “said” this. His real point is that it can be defined only in other evaluative terms such as “valuable”. But this is just to say that evaluative properties are not the same kind of properties as those discussed by natural scientists. Natural science, then, cannot tell us what is good. But return to my previous example. Is it not easy to see that this kind of action is bad?

KZ: Have you personally arrived at a categorical definition for moral goodness? Is it plausible to identify what is morally good? Some say that whatever gives pleasure is morally good, but it’s not always the case and pleasure does not always underpin morality. What’s your explanation?

RC: Actually I do think that pleasure and pain are fundamental to ethics — see my book “Reasons and the Good”.

KZ: One of your fields of study is applied ethics in which different subjects such as bioethics, environmental ethics and business ethics are studied and discussed. Some ethicists, however, hold viewpoints which seem to be structurally contrary to the principles of applied ethics. The renowned bio-ethicist Peter Singer, for example, is an ardent proponent of abortion and euthanasia and doesn’t consider these actions immoral. What’s your viewpoint about Singer and his views? Does he, in your view, violate the rules of applied ethics through his statements and viewpoints?

RC: Certainly not. Singer is the most influential analytic philosopher alive today, and he is not only an excellent philosopher but has also done a great deal of good in the world e.g. for non-human animals, and the global poor. Some people don’t agree with his conclusions, and indeed I disagree with some of them. But that is common throughout philosophy.

KZ: And finally, in one of your interviews, you had stated that the relationship between morality and well-being is central to ancient ethics. Does the contemporary philosophy still adhere to such a standpoint? Can we say that morality is a shortcut to well-being? What is the definition of well-being in this context? Does it refer to peace of mind, material prosperity or other similar concepts?

RC: As I see it, the holy grail of ancient moral philosophy — by which I mean ancient western philosophy, but it may well be true of eastern too — was to show that living the virtuous life would be best for the individual. I think analytic philosophy has pretty much given up on that project now, which is a pity (though myself I think it wouldn’t succeed). What can be shown, I think, is that those who live lives in which they are genuinely concerned for the well-being of others – strangers as well as friends and family – are more contented with their lives (on the whole). The results of ‘positive psychology’ in this area are very hard to deny. So one important task is for us to educate people that if they want happiness it will not come through acquiring many possessions, though of course some material possessions are required for happiness, but through human relationships.

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Israel’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:54:41 +0000

by Stephen Lendman

Israel’s long known open secret is its formidable nuclear arsenal. Less is known about its chemical and biological weapons (CBW) capability. More on that below.

In 1986, Dimona nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu revealed documents showing what many long suspected. Israel had been secretly developing, producing and stockpiling nuclear weapons for years.

Experts called his information genuine. They revealed sophisticated technology able to amass a formidable nuclear arsenal. Today it’s more potent than ever.

In his 1991 book titled “The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and America Foreign Policy,” Seymour Hersh discussed its strategy to launch massive nuclear counterattacks in response to serious enough threats.

In his 1997 book titled “Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear and Foreign Policies,” Israel Shahak said Israel won’t hesitate using nuclear or other weapons to advance its “hegemony over the entire Middle East.”

In 2006, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Germany’s Sat. 1 channel:

“Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly, threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel and Russia?”

Later he denied what viewers clearly heard him say. Calls for him to step down followed. So did accusations of ineptitude for acknowledging Israeli nuclear weapons publicly.

Israel always stuck to its nuclear ambiguity position. Olmert later backtracked. Damage control didn’t assuage criticism. Opposition party members called him irresponsible.

Meretz party member Yossi Beilin said:

“The prime minister’s amazing statement regarding nuclear capability indicates a lack of caution bordering on irresponsibility.”

Olmert’s approval rating plunged. Aides tried frantically to limit damage. His spokesman, Miri Eisin, said his comments didn’t mean Israel had or wants nuclear weapons.

Of course, the cat was out of the bag after Mordechai Vanunu revealed it 20 years earlier. Damage control made things worse. Vanunu welcomed Olmert’s admission, accidental or otherwise. He hoped he said it intentionally, saying:

“For 20 years, they tried to deny me and my story, but the policy of cheating and lying didn’t succeed.”

Changes are taking place, he added. He hoped his situation would improve. It didn’t. He still chafes under repressive Israeli policies. Practically under house arrest, he’s harassed. His fundamental rights are denied. He wants his citizenship revoked and permission to leave, but Israel won’t grant either right.

He’s a legend in his own time. He only wants to live free. After what Israel put him through for decades, he deserves that much and more.

Israel refuses to discuss its nuclear capability. Others are less reticent. On May 4, Haaretz headlined “Israel’s atomic arsenal could fall victim to a new US nuclear policy,” saying:

Visiting Hiroshima last February, escorts “drew (Israeli Defense Secretary Ehud Barak’s) attention to a map of the world listing the number of nuclear warheads in the possession of the atomic powers. There is a number next to Israel’s name, too: ’80.’ Barak did not respond.”

Most experts believe Israel has hundreds of warheads and sophisticated long-range delivery systems.

“According to a (late 1990s) secret document of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency….leaked during the period of the George W. Bush administration, Israel had ’60 to 80′ nuclear warheads in 1999.”

The Pentagon updates its data regularly. It keeps close watch on all nuclear powers and suspected ones like North Korea.

Israel never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). In 1969, Nixon and Prime Minister Golda Meir mutually agreed that Israel’s nuclear capability wouldn’t harm relations. In 1998, so did Clinton and Netanyahu. In 2009, Obama continued past policy.

Expect change eventually. Israel’s belligerency over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program may “boomerang” on its military one.

Israel’s Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW)

Israel signed the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), but didn’t ratify it. It never signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). Its policy is CBW ambiguity.

In 1993, the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment WMD proliferation assessment included Israel as a nation having undeclared offensive chemical warfare capabilities. In 1998, former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Bill Richardson said:

“I have no doubt that Israel has worked on both chemical and biological offensive things for a long time. There’s no doubt they’ve had stuff for years.”

Israel tests new weapons in combat. Against Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza during Cast Lead, it used direct energy weapons, chemical and/or biological agents, and others producing injuries and symptoms medical professionals never previously saw.

For example, bodies with dead tissue had no apparent wounds. Corpses were found shrunken. Civilians had heavy lower limb damage requiring amputations. Nonetheless, unstoppable necrosis followed (death of cells and living tissue) followed by death.

Internal wounds had no trace of shrapnel. Corpses were blackened but not burned. Some badly wounded victims didn’t bleed. The Palestinian health ministry said Israel used a new type explosive in Gaza. It contained toxins and radioactive materials. They burned and tore victims’ bodies from the inside. They also left long term deformations.

A Palestinian doctor accused Israel of using chemical ammunition that burns and injures soft tissue, but can’t be traced by X-rays. Severe internal wounds were reported. Unknown gases believed to be nerve agents were used. Those affected lost consciousness for about 24 hours. They experienced high fevers and muscle rigidity. Some needed urgent blood transfusions.

In Gaza, white phosphorous was used. It burns flesh to the bone. Depleted uranium spread radioactive contamination. Close-range explosives caused severe injuries, requiring amputations. Children had legs cut off, abdomens sliced open, or died because nothing could save them.

In June 2011, CounterPunch contributor Saleh El-Naami headlined “Exposing Israel’s Most Dangerous Secret,” saying:

Only authorized personnel have access to the Israeli Institute for Biological Research (IIBR). Israel calls it “a governmental, applied research institute specializing in the fields of biology, medicinal chemistry and environmental sciences.”

Others reveal IIBR is “where Israel develops its biological and chemical weapons and prepares for any eventuality of biological or chemical warfare.” Its facility is Israel’s “most top-secret military installation….”

Official censorship prohibits anything discussed about it. One exception only occurred after long-term employee Avisha Klein sued “for harassment and emotional abuse.”

She was part of a team developing mustard gas protective ointment. During proceedings, more information came out.

IIBR has hundreds of scientists and technicians. Its many departments specialize in chemical and biological weapons research, development and production. One is a poison used for assassinations.

In 1977, Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered Mossad to eliminate Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Wadie Haddad. He was fond of Belgian chocolates. Mossad coated some with “a slow-acting poison, and had them delivered to Haddad….”

The substance had “undetectable properties.” Haddad’s health deteriorated. Flown to East Germany for treatment, he was diagnosed with leukemia and died on March 29, 1978. Thirty-two years later, the truth came out. IIBR’s poison killed him.

Other assassinations were conducted the same way. IIBR specializes in toxic substances and protective vaccines. Anthrax research got attention. Israel feared enemies might use it.

IIBR works closely with Israeli military and intelligence operations. They list priorities. IIBR works on them.

“For example, information that has come to light during the coverage of Klein’s suit reveals that many years ago the Israeli military establishment was concerned that Arab states might use such chemical agents as mustard gas in an potential assault against Israel and, therefore, instructed the institute to develop a chemical substance to minimise the effects of the gas.”

Israeli soldiers were used to test vaccines. Some experienced “permanent physical damage.” Lawsuits for damages were filed. Victims want recognition as disabled veterans and appropriate compensation. Pressure got IDF officials to announce experiments on Israeli personnel would end.

The Nuremberg Code prohibits medical experiments without human subjects voluntarily consenting. Recruitment must exclude “coercion, fraud, deceit, and (provide) full disclosure of known risks.”

Experiments are prohibited “where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur.” Those permitted must be expected “to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study….”

In 1948, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ordered European Jewish scientists recruited who could “either increase the capacity to kill masses or to cure masses; both are important.”

Avraham Marcus Klingberg became a chemical and biological weapons (CBW) expert and IIBR deputy director.

Avraham Marcus Klingberg was also recruited. He became the father of Israel’s nuclear weapons program in charge of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC). Ben-Gurion was determined to have a nuclear option and other non-conventional weapons to counter numerical Arab advantage.

In his farewell address to the Israeli Armaments Development Authority (RAFAEL), he defended the strategy saying:

“I am confident, based not only on what I heard today, that our science can provide us with the weapons that are needed to deter our enemies from waging war against us.”

He and Shimon Peres became leading forces behind Israel’s nuclear, biological, and chemicals development program. Strict secrecy was maintained. Staff were forbidden to discuss anything related to their work. Prohibitions remain strict.

Truths eventually leak out. One day much more will be known. Vanunu was harshly punished to deter other whistleblowers. Bradley Manning faces similar treatment. In his case, life in prison may result.

Nonetheless, some who know tell others. Suppressing vital truths everyone needs to know remains hard to do forever. Much is known about Israel’s nuclear program. Perhaps CBW disclosures will expose secrets too important to hide.

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=207377

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Veterans! Here’s your Top 10 News stories of the day compiled from the latest sources

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need

1.    Obama to speak at Vietnam wall on Memorial Day. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the memorial. The president called the event a chance to give Vietnam veterans the recognition many never received.

2.    For wounded servicemembers, a two-wheeled gift of mobility. Army Staff Sgt. Alejandro Jauregui faces a long rehabilitation, a path he will eventually walk on prosthetic legs, but he regained a bit of mobility on Wednesday when he and 25 other wounded warriors received Segways during a ceremony at the Marine Corps War Memorial.

3.    Will justices review how states treat veterans’ disability pay in divorce cases? A disabled veteran has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider anew whether states violate federal law when they allow divorce courts to count a veteran’s disability compensation in calculating spousal support.

4.    Thousands practice leaving Korea in the event of northern aggression. In a country where the U.S. military lives by the motto “ready to fight tonight,” the families of servicemembers in South Korea are asked always to be prepared to take flight at very short notice..

5. Local agency helping vets with medical claims. Springfield News Sun The US Department of Veterans Affairs has added more illnesses to the list of those that may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange. Bill Lackey Randy Ark, a Vietnam veteran who collects disability benefits for diabetes linked to exposure to Agent …

6. Conifer rendezvous aims to help area veterans. Denver Post Rebecca Sawyer Smith, public affairs officer for the US Department of Veterans Affairs at its Denver office, said, “We’re bringing the resources to them.” With VA employees on hand to provide information on veterans benefits, medical eligibility and …

7. Serving Those Who Served. Patch.com A new court designed to specifically serve the needs of military veterans was created Wednesday.

8. Run to remember a special veteran. Illinois Times Gietl, a veterans affairs adviser at LLCC, said after initially speaking with McMillen she knew he would be perfect to be her new student worker. “He immediately impressed me with how open he was about everything, how focused he was about his life and …

9. VA Walks and Rolls to Raise Awareness for Homeless Veterans. Patch.com About 250 Hudson Valley veterans have been helped through the program since 2007. The United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki made ending veteran homelessness a top priority in 2009 with a five-year plan aimed to reach that goal.

10. Lawmaker seeks answers in wake of soldier deaths. Citizens Voice Battlefield burn pits are commonly used to dispose of chemicals, paint, medical and human waste, metal, munitions, petroleum and lubricant products, plastics, rubber and discarded food, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ website.

Have You Heard?

Hiring fair open House and

National Veteran Small Business Conference

Cobo Center, Detroit, MI

Hiring Fair Open House: June 26-28, 2012 – 10:00am – 7:00pm

Small Business Conference: June 26-29, 2012

Detroit’s Cobo Center will be the site of an unprecedented Veteran-focused week of events, set to take place June 26-29, 2012.

The events, hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs, are expected to bring thousands of Veterans, employers, business owners and Veteran advocates to the city.

The week features three key events: a three-day Hiring Fair, a three-day Open House and the annual National Veteran Small Business Conference and Expo.

The three concurrent events will provide one-stop access to benefits, health, business, and employment services for our nation’s heroes. In addition, conference attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a large-scale volunteer project, creating Veteran care kits, to be distributed to VA medical centers.

The Veteran Hiring Fair, which is free to Veterans seeking jobs, will bring together federal and private industry hiring managers, job coaches, and human resource professionals to provide Veterans with everything from job search skills and career counseling, to resume writing workshops, interview coaching, and on-the-spot job interviews. We are asking all veterans to register in advance at: www.VAforVets.VA.gov/Detroit.

The Veteran Open House is free to attendees, and is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for Veterans and their family members to receive individualized help and advice on benefits and services from federal and state agencies as well as local and faith-based organizations. Onsite medical exams will be available for eligible Veterans.

The Small Business Conference and Expo annually attracts thousands of Veterans, business owners, contractors and federal employees, with a focus on promoting partnerships among Veterans, businesses, and government agencies. Veteran small business owners can connect with procurement decision makers from other businesses and federal agencies, expand knowledge through over 200 training and business requirement sessions, and use VetGovPartner to facilitate online and onsite networking, including face-to-face sessions with senior procurement decision makers.

Registration fees and details for the small business conference are at: www.nationalveteransconference.com

More Veteran News

House Panel Supports Shared Role For Veterans’ Medical Records. CQ “Citing concerns over the growing backlog of veterans’ claims for medical benefits, House appropriators on Wednesday advanced a bill that would call on the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to share information essential to reducing the backlog. The House Appropriations Committee reported to the floor draft legislation that would provide $71.7 billion in discretionary funding for veterans’ benefits programs and military construction, matching the fiscal 2012 enacted level.” The legislation “would fence off funding for the so-called DoD-VA integrated health record information technology initiative until the two departments implement recommendations by the Government Accountability Office,” which has “been tasked with determining problems with the joint program.” On Thursday, according to CQ, Senate appropriators are scheduled to make up their version of a 2013 MilCon-VA spending bill.

VA Should Delay Change In Purchase Process For Prosthetics, Panel Head Says. CQ “A House subcommittee chairwoman said Wednesday that she will try to delay a Department of Veterans Affairs change in purchasing prosthetics, citing concerns that the new process could slow availability of replacement limbs and other devices to wounded veterans. After a hearing by the Veterans’ Affairs Health Subcommittee on care for amputees, Chairwoman Ann Marie Buerkle said she would pursue the issue,” adding that “proposed process ‘heightens the risk fiscal will override clinical’ concerns.” Representatives of VA, however, have “said the change was an effort to bring the department up to federal purchasing standard requirements.”

VA Doctor Finds Similarities In Brains Of Athletes And Vets With Head Injuries. CBS Evening News “In sports — including boxing and football — traumatic brain injury has been linked to a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.” In a new study, researchers found “striking” similarities when comparing the “brains of athletes with known CTE with the brains of four Iraq-Afghan veterans who survived IED explosions or multiple concussions.” The “four veterans all developed typical symptoms of CTE and died prematurely several years later.” CBS News An “‘animal model developed by the researchers will enable a better understanding of the brain pathology involved in blast injuries and ideally lead to new therapies to help service members and veterans with traumatic brain injuries,’” said “Dr. Joel Kupersmith, the chief research and development officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which helped fund the research.” AP “A small study raises more concern about the long-term consequences of brain injuries suffered by thousands of soldiers – suggesting they may be at risk of developing” CTE, a degenerative brain disease that has also been found in “some retired football players.” Dr. Lee Goldstein of Boston University “led the study with Dr. Ann McKee of the VA New England Healthcare System.” Results of the study were reported Wednesday, “in the journal Science Translational Medicine.” Dr. Joel Kupersmith, research chief at VA, said, “This work raises a number of questions for researchers to explore in further studies.” USA Today “A generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans exposed to explosions may be at risk for early-onset dementia, according” to McKee’s study. She and the other scientists who conducted the study “said their work showed evidence of a progressive degenerative brain disorder known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease found in recent years among deceased professional football players who had suffered multiple concussions.” The ramifications of the study, said McKee, are that “hundreds of thousands of military personnel are at risk for this disorder.” “The study findings were based on comparing brain autopsies of four Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with four young athletes, as well as studying mice exposed to a simulated blast.”

Army Reviews Mental Health Cases Going Back To 2001. USA Today The US Army is “launching a servicewide review of mental health cases dating back to 2001 to ensure that soldiers suffering a behavioral health illness were not denied appropriate medical retirement benefits. The move by Army Secretary John McHugh and Gen. Raymond Odierno, Army chief of staff, comes after findings this year that several” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnoses at Madigan Army Medical Center “were wrongfully reduced to lesser illnesses during medical retirement evaluations.” William Keppler, the leader of the psychiatric team that reduced the diagnoses, is now on administrative leave. USA Today adds, “According to an Army investigative document, Keppler was quoted as complaining that PTSD diagnoses pay out $1.5 million in retirement over a veteran’s lifetime and that doctors should be ‘good stewards’ of tax dollars or the Army and Department of Veterans Affair would ‘go broke.’ Washington Post “The Army’s review of 400 cases” at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where Madigan Army Medical Center is located, “has led to more than 100 service members having their PTSD diagnoses restored. The controversy stems from the work of a special forensic psychiatric team that in 2007 began evaluating mental health diagnoses of service members preparing to leave the military. The screening team reversed at least 290 PTSD diagnoses made by the military or the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

VA Helps Allow Paralyzed Woman To Control Robotic Arm With Her Thoughts. ABC World News A paralyzed woman moving a “robotic arm, using only her mind.” ABC added, “A report in the journal ‘Nature’ explains the pioneering technology is making big progress.” The “hope is that eventually computers will enable paralyzed patients to move their arms and legs with only their thoughts.” CBS Evening News “Today researchers are reporting that a woman who is completely paralyzed has used a robotic arm controlled with nothing but her thoughts.” That is according to “study published” on Wednesday “in the journal ‘Nature,’” which said Cathy Hutchinson’s thoughts were relayed to the arm through a computer-wired sensor that was “bolted to her skull.” According to CBS, researchers are now “working on a wireless connection that would eliminate that part that’s bolted to her skull.” AP Wednesday’s study was conducted by “scientists at Brown University, the Providence VA Medical Center in Rhode Island, Harvard Medical School and elsewhere.” Hochberg, a “a researcher with the Providence VA, Brown and Massachusetts General Hospital,” said that when Hutchinson used the robotic arm to drink coffee on her own for the first time in 15 years, the “smile on her face … was just a wonderful thing to see.”

Tours Of Great Lakes National Cemetery Show Veterans A Benefit Of Their Sacrifice. Detroit Free Press Veterans “who served in World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam or Operation Desert Storm toured the Great Lakes National Cemetery on Tuesday as part of an effort to inform them about their military benefits, including free burial at the 544-acre cemetery.” Craig Larsen, a spokesman for VA, discussed the tour, saying, “As much as we try to get the word out through a robust outreach program to educate and inform veterans and their dependents of the benefits” to which “they are entitled, once they go back into the community, they don’t give it much thought.” Rick Anderson, director of the Great Lakes National Cemetery, said tours “can prove extremely beneficial in getting the word out to the public.”

Final Salute Offers Housing To Homeless Female Veterans. Washington Post

Fenway Park Event Honors Sacrifices Of Veterans. Boston Globe

Veteran Housing Plan Stirs Debate. Tampa Bay (FL) Times

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=207497

Article source: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/05/18/top-10-veterans-stories-180/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=top-10-veterans-stories-180

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The History Behind VA Guaranteed Home Loans

Chris Roubis — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:54:23 +0000

The History Behind VA Guaranteed Home Loans

By: Grant Moon

The VA guaranteed home loan is a beneficial program guaranteed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to enable qualifying veterans to obtain a new mortgage or refinance an existing one. Whether it be the purchase of a house or refinance of an existing VA loan, the VA has helped thousands of veterans in fulfilling their housing dreams which otherwise may never have been possible.

The VA loan history goes back to the World War II era, when the Veteran Administration was founded.

This organization was later renamed as the US Department of Veteran Affairs or VA for short. The VA has always catered to the varied needs of the American war heroes. At the time of its inception, the VA mainly provided medical benefits, hospital treatments, rehabilitation facilities, and insurance for service members. It was in the year 1944 that the Servicemen Readjustment Act was passed to provide more benefits to World War II veterans and their families.VA home loans was a major provision of the new bill, along with educational benefits and other financial assistance. The VA guaranteed home loans thus helped thousands of veterans, many of whom left for the war straight after school, to own a house and thus, be on equal terms with their civilian peers.

Today, VA guaranteed home loans have no down payments, no Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), and even an option for a refinance up to 100% of the loan amount. The major break-through was in the year 1970, when seven major changes were implemented which included the waiver on funding fees for post Korean war Veterans, and provision for direct loans to Veterans eligible for Specially Adapted Housing Grant.

VA loans are one of the best benefits offered by the US Department of Veteran Affairs to Service Members, eligible Veterans, Reservists and National Guard members. VA Loan Captain can help you with your VA Loan Mortgage Requirements with the help of their countrywide network of VA approved lenders. To learn more, please visit: www.valoancaptain.com.

Article source: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/05/18/the-history-behind-va-guaranteed-home-loans/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-history-behind-va-guaranteed-home-loans

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Chris Roubis

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The History Behind VA Guaranteed Home Loans

The History Behind VA Guaranteed Home Loans

By: Grant Moon