DN Speak

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Pediatricians’ Group Endorses The Birth Control That Hobby Lobby Won’t Cover

As companies move to restrict certain types of birth control, medical experts are trying to expand access to them.The post ... Read more

Watching Fox News Addicts Viewers And Misinforms Them On Climate Change

A new study on how Fox News addicts and misinforms concludes, "governmental inaction on climate change can partially be ... Read more

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Pediatricians endorse IUDs, implants for teen birth control

"MONDAY, Sept. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Long-acting contraceptive devices should be the first choice of birth control for teenage girls, new recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics state..."

http://www.fox19.com/story/26652166/pediatricians-endorse-iuds-implants-for-teen-birth-control\\

CBS, ’60 Minutes,’ reject Ron Reagan’s ‘unabashed atheist’ ad

“It appears that if a public figure makes a simple declarative statement in support of state/church separation, FFRF and atheism, it’s too hot to handle for CBS,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
http://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/21438-cbs-60-minutes-reject-ron-reagan-s-unabashed-atheist-ad

Senate Candidate Runs From Personhood Bill She Supported

"Senator Ernst, I respect your faith," Braley said. "I have my own faith that is very deep and personal to me. But let's be clear: The Cedar Rapids Gazette did a fact-check on the amendment that you introduced that said it would do all the things that I said it would. That it would ban forms of contraception, it would prevent people from getting in vitro fertilization, and you personally said that doctors who performed those procedures under your bill should be prosecuted."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/29/joni-ernst-personhood_n_5902392.html

How the U.S. Concocted a Terror Threat to Justify Syria Strikes, and the Corporate Media Went Along

According to writer Murtaza Hussain, anonymous officials say there was not any plan in the works to attack the United States.

The Latest Scientific Evidence Should Be the Death Blow to Artificial Sweeteners

Messing with the microbes in your digestive process is not the way to go.

Netanyahu says Iran greater threat than ISIL

Israel's prime minister describes Iran, ISIL and Hamas as part of a single team, and compares them to Germany's Nazis. Read more

The Fake Terror Threat Used To Justify Bombing Syria - The Intercept

"As the Obama Administration prepared to bomb Syria without congressional or U.N. authorization, it faced two problems. The first was the difficulty of sustaining public support for a new years-long war against ISIS, a group that clearly posed no imminent threat to the “homeland.” A second was the lack of legal justification for launching a new bombing campaign with no viable claim of self-defense or U.N. approval..."
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/28/u-s-officials-invented-terror-group-justify-bombing-syria/

Monday, September 29, 2014

Soda Companies, Artificial Sweeteners And The Fight Against Obesity (Diane Rehm Show)

It seems we are finally making headway in the fight against obesity. The Centers for Disease Control announced this week that rates of diabetes in the U.S. may be leveling off. Researchers credit the good news in part to a plateau in obesity rates. In other news, the top three soda makers pledged to cut beverage calories in the American diet by one-fifth over the next decade. But consumers turning to diet soda to decrease those calories should consider this: A new study in the journal “Nature” suggests artificial sweeteners may interfere with the way our bodies process sugar. Diane and her guests discuss the latest news in the fight against obesity.

Interview:

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-09-25/soda-companies-artificial-sweeteners-and-fight-against-obesity

End-Of-Life Care Needs An Overhaul (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

The way we die in America can be heartbreaking in itself. Off in the hospital. Not at home. Surrounded by strangers, tubes and beepers. A big report out last week says there has to be, there is, a better way. But that we’ll have to overhaul much of our system for end-of-life care to get there. It calls for a way of American death that is more informed, more humane, and – by the way – less expensive. We’ll hear those findings today, and talk to Rahm Emanuel’s brother Zeke, who says he wants to go at 75. That gets political. This hour On Point: How we die – and maybe, when. / Tom Ashbrook

Interview:
https://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/09/23/end-of-life-care-health-care

Religious Right’s Slow-Motion Suicide

I'm not sure what's come over me and I suppose it'll pass, but at just this moment I'm feeling a little bit sorry for evangelical conservatives. They ... Read more

Radicalized Right-Wing Activists Pledging Allegiance to Dangerous Agenda

America, your religious extremists are already inside the “Homeland,” so what are we going to do about it?

Robert Reich on What's Really Destroying the American Middle Class

This is the first economic upturn in which 90% of Americans are worse off.

River and fall colors near Independence Pass, Colorado [4128x3096] [OC]

Land Of The Lost: Highlights From The Values Voter Summit

"In reality, the Summit, which is sponsored primarily by the Family Research Council along with the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel and others, is little more than a rally designed to scare evangelical Christians and other religious conservatives into voting for political candidates handpicked by the Religious Right’s leadership..."
... Read more

John Oliver on Last Week Tonight Asks, How Is Ayn Rand Still A Thing?

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight takes on the Ayn Rand loving right wing conservatives and wonders why they don't find another hero to worship when the... Read more

John Boehner Thinks We All Have Amnesia And Will Believe His Lies About Jobs

John Boehner actually said Republicans have been laser-focused on jobs.
... Read more

Monty Python's John Cleese: Fox News Fans Are Too Stupid To Know They Are Stupid

Cleese said, "I think the problem with people like this is that they are so stupid that they have no idea how stupid they are."

... Read more

Rick Santorum Suggests That Only Muslims Are Violent

"You don't have any Baptist ministers going on jihad," Rick Santorum said.The post Rick Santorum Suggests That Only Muslims Are ... Read more

Koch-Funded Advocacy Group Under Investigation For Misleading Voters

This is not the first time Americans For Prosperity has sent out misleading or blatantly inaccurate correspondence regarding ... Read more

National Science Foundation: Record California Drought Directly Linked To Climate Change

A Stanford study funded by the National Science Foundation confirms a growing body of research that finds "the atmospheric ... Read more

Pro-Choice Group Calls Out Governors For Being ‘Obsessed’ With Abortion

The trio of gubernatorial lawmakers has strongly opposed laws that protect a woman's right to choose if she wants an ... Read more

Sen. Franken at Judiciary hearing on Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable

In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)—one of the leading opponents of Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable—stood up for the millions of people in Minnesota and across the country who are facing rising cable and Internet costs. He called the deal bad for consumers, saying it would stifle competition and likely lead to higher costs for Minnesotans who are already being squeezed financially.

http://youtu.be/LUc24n1v7xI

Bank's 'repeated failures' led to 2,000 foreclosures, feds say

"While borrowers were trying to save their homes from foreclosure, Flagstar Bank sat on important documents and "drove borrowers into foreclosure," authorities said Monday..."
Read more

More Americans Killed By Police Than By Terrorists: With Crime Down, Why Is Police Aggression Up?

We're safer than ever. So why are we seeing an ever increasing militarization of policing?

American Corporations Too Busy Cheating Taxpayers to Actually Produce Good Products

In the "gimmick economy," it's not about good products or labor, but something far more scary.

How the Christian Right Is Getting Beat at Its Own Game, By Satanists of All People

A few recent stunts by Satanists have done a great job exposing Christian hypocrisy.

The Week in Religion: How Science, Taxes and Tolerance Are Becoming Dirty Words for Zealots

A Baptist breakup, FSU's new president flunks science, and Duck Dynasty goes to Washington.

6 Idiotic Right-Wing Statements This Week: O'Reilly Goes Off the Deep End Edition

Even his fellow Fox Newsians can't take the stupidity anymore.

10 Ways Conservatives Sell Their Failed Policies

"A big problem for modern-day Republicans and the Tea Party is that when they are too forthcoming with their ideas—handing social security over to Wall Street oligarchs, outlawing abortion for rape victims, wiping out what’s left of the New Deal, turning the United States into a Christian fundamentalist theocracy—they risk alienating swing voters. So wingnuts often use warm, fuzzy language to make negative things sound positive. Terrible working conditions are sold as “right to work” laws. Being abused by health insurance companies is called “self-determination,” butchering the social safety net is sold as “self-reliance.” ... Read more

6 Excellent New Reasons to Cut Down on Meat

It hardly seems possible, but factory farming is getting even worse.

5 Surprising Reasons to Finally Give Up Soda

For one thing, it'll make you age faster.

Faith and Science, Heart and Brain: An Interview With Katharine Hayhoe

"... How do you as a religious person understand people who knowingly misinform others about climate change realities - as today's news story about Congressman Larry Bucshon (R-Indiana) - who is also a physician! - said climate scientists shouldn't be trusted because, essentially, they're in it for the money? What do you see motivating them?..."

http://truth-out.org/news/item/26432-faith-and-science-heart-and-brain-an-interview-with-katharine-hayhoe

Science & Religion: A Christian-oriented biology textbook’s omissions and inaccuracies leave students at a disadvantage

"In a recent North Carolina court decision about the constitutionality of state-funded private school vouchers, Judge Robert Hobgood ruled that it is unconstitutional to use state money to support schools in which the curricula are not subject to any requirements or standards. A clear implication is that in the absence of review by a state educational agency, state money might be inappropriately directed to the teaching of subject matter that is not clearly presented, not up to date or even incorrect..."

http://www.news-record.com/opinion/columns/science-religion-a-christian-oriented-biology-textbook-s-omissions-and/article_41f9e39c-44d3-11e4-acd2-001a4bcf6878.html

Focus On The Family Advises Parents To Teach Children That Being Gay Is Sin

"Camille Beredjick notes at the FriendlyAtheist blog: “Children whose parents abide by this guide will learn literally nothing. It's a grab-bag of mixed messages, hate speech, and general inanity that teaches kids to hate before they know what hate means.”

http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=19548&MediaType=1&Category=26

Defeating Clinton in 2016 unites religious conservatives

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton is the one figure uniting religious conservatives frustrated by a leaderless Republican Party that’s divided over foreign policy, immigration and social issues.

http://www.news-journal.com/news/nation/defeating-clinton-in-unites-religious-conservatives/article_27e8474b-70d7-5dde-ac41-6b192b3c0f9d.html

Republicans rallying behind religious liberty

WASHINGTON (AP) - Fighting to improve their brand, leading Republicans rallied behind religious liberty at a Friday gathering of evangelical conservatives, rebuking an unpopular President Barack Obama while skirting divisive social issues..."

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/republicans-rallying-behind-religious-liberty_27634036

Russia at UN says USA bosses the world around

"Washington has openly declared its right to unilateral use of force anywhere to uphold its own interests..."Read more

TIL that the mitochondria in our cells, which generate energy, are...

...ancient bacteria that had a symbiotic relationship with other single cell organisms and developed around 1.5 billion years ago. Read more

Andean flamingo mating dance | NATURE | "Andes: The Dragon's Back"

The (unintentionally hilarious) mating dance of the Andean flamingo (Phoenicopterus andinus). These guys are puttering around an extremely caustic salt lake in Chile, high on the Altiplano in the Andes mountains in South America.

http://youtu.be/KW8GX2n4qbY

New Rule: Income Inequality In America (Real Time with Bill Maher - 2/28/14)

"New Rule: What's with this new trend of people who have all the power acting like they're the oppressed ones."

In his best New Rule in quite some time, Bill brilliantly addresses income inequality in America and why the 1% have become demonized by so many.

"I should write a book on how to get by on $500,000,000, because apparently there are a lot of people that don't know how to do it." - Warren Buffett

http://youtu.be/pcKMd49wDRk