The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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    Supreme Leader: Enemies annoyed by Iranian nation’s progress

    IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency,) Tehran, March 7, 2013

    Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that the enemies are angry at the Iranian nation’s wonderful breakthroughs after lapse of 34 years.

    Addressing Experts Assembly members, the Supreme Leader added that belief in Islam, firm resolve and maintaining an spirit of hopefulness are the main factors behind the country moving forward, achieving success and removing obstacles [....]

    "The Iranian nation’s dignity in the Islamic world, dominance of religious discourse in the society, scientific and technological progress, political and international influence of the Islamic establishment and justice-related infrastructural measures are among the wonderful instances of progress which were once considered impossible before the victory of the Islamic Revolution,” he said.

    Another sign of progress is the enemies’ anger and embarrassment, the Supreme Leader said, noting that if there had not been any breakthrough, the enemies would have not been so angry as they are now.

    Ayatollah Khamenei described nuclear issue a one of the challenges facing the Islamic establishment and said, “Of course the challenge has not been harmful to us and it will never be.” [....] Sanctions are among other challenges, the Supreme Leader said [....]

    More related @ IRNA--see:

    Leadership Experts Assembly strongly supports Ayatollah Khamene'ie, Tehran, March 7

    People's representatives at 4th Leadership Experts Assembly in their 13th Assembly Communiqué considered Supreme Leader of Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamene'ie as guardian of country's solidarity, axis of unit, and possessor of an exalted status.

    According to IRNA Wednesday night news team, the communiqué of the 13th General Assembly of the 4th Leadership Experts Assembly further emphasizes, 'Based on such facts, paying due attention to the sagacious and wise viewpoints of the Supreme Leader, which are always the last word on every affair, is an absolute duty of the entire officials, in a bid to prove their obedience in practice.' [....]

    And:

    Iran's defensive power based on nation’s support: Commander, Tehran, March 7

    Iran’s defensive power is based on the nation’s support, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said on Thursday.  He made the remarks in a conference titled as 'national and all-out defense' in Tehran.

    'Any time that the country faces outside attack or occupation, Jihad (holy war) will become mandatory for nation based on Islamic teachings; on the contrary with the materialist movements which put their defensive power based on their war equipment, all-out defense in Islamic teachings is based on nation's defensive power.'

    General Firouzabadi underlined that arrogant powers’ war against Iran is an all-out war which have various aspects, including the cultural, political, and economic [.....]

    artappraiser 11 years 10 months ago

    Jon Stewart Stands with Rand Paul

    Yeah!

    Orion 11 years 10 months ago

    UN warns of ‘full-scale disaster’ as Syrian refugees reach one million

    UN News Service, 6 March 2013

    One million Syrians have fled their homeland, the head of the United Nations refugee agency today said, warning that in the absence of a political solution, humanitarian workers need additional funds to help the refugees and support the countries hosting them.

    “With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiralling towards full-scale disaster,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said in a press release.

    “We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched. This tragedy has to be stopped.”

    The number of refugees increased dramatically since the start of the year, with more than 400,000 people fleeing Syria to neighbouring countries – Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, and increasingly to North Africa and Europe [....]

    artappraiser 11 years 10 months ago

    A way out of our budget wars

    ........

    Hope is in short supply right now, but the case for seeing a way out of the current mess rests on knowable facts and plausible assumptions.

    It starts with the significant number of Republicans in the Senate — possibly as many 20 — who think what’s going on is foolish and counterproductive. The White House is betting that enough GOP senators are prepared to make a deal along lines that President Obama has already put forward.

    Obama’s lieutenants argue that, while Republicans are aware that the president is seeking new revenue through tax reform, many did not fully grasp the extent to which he has offered significant long-term spending cuts. These include reductions in Medicare and a willingness (to the consternation of many Democrats) to alter the index that determines Social Security increases. Obama has proposed $930 billion in cuts to get $580 billion in revenues.

    ........

     

    AmericanDreamer 11 years 10 months ago

    Afghanistan: The cost of clearing out

    There’s a plan to have most U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but no call yet on what to do with the 750,000 pieces of major military hardware in country – hardware worth $36 billion.

    Planners have three basic options. Leave the equipment—or destroy it—in Afghanistan; move it to other U.S. military locations; or transfer it to another U.S. agency or another country. The estimated cost for the latter two: $5.7 billion.

    [snip]

    Transport is hard in landlocked, mountainous Afghanistan. But leaving it behind intact means the wrong hands could get hold of it. So is it best to torch $36 billion in U.S. assets?

    wabby 11 years 10 months ago

    Lax Policing of Doctor and Pharmacy Conflicts Is Found in Medicare Coverage Decisions

    By Robert Pear, New York Times, March 5/6,2013

    WASHINGTON — Deciding which drugs will be covered by Medicare can influence huge amounts of spending, but government officials do little to police conflict of interest among doctors and pharmacists who make those decisions, federal investigators said Monday.

    In a new report, Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the federal Medicare agency had not clearly defined “conflict of interest” and did not enforce standards meant to prevent such conflicts from influencing coverage decisions by the panels, known as pharmacy and therapeutics committees.

    “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services does not monitor conflicts of interest on pharmacy and therapeutics committees,” Mr. Levinson said. In many cases, he said, the government cannot identify potential conflicts because committee membership lists are unusable — incomplete, inaccurate and full of discrepancies. The panels are appointed by insurers or pharmaceutical benefit managers hired by insurance companies.

    John K. Gorman, a former Medicare official [...] said “Hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars are at stake each year in decisions about whether and how a drug is covered by a Medicare drug plan.”[.....]

    artappraiser 11 years 10 months ago

    Offshore Tax Probe Picks Up

    By Laura Saunders, Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2013

    We're still coming after you.  That is the message from the U.S. government to Americans who evaded federal taxes by stashing money in secret offshore accounts, say lawyers who represent some of those people.

    After getting a guilty plea from Switzerland's oldest private bank, which was ordered Monday to pay a total of $74 million for violating U.S. tax laws, federal investigators have fresh momentum thanks to leads gathered from interviews with confessed tax cheats.

    So far, U.S. officials have clawed back $5.5 billion in unpaid taxes and penalties in the past four years. At least another $5 billion is likely to be collected from continuing cases involving accounts at banks in Switzerland, India, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere, according to estimates from lawyers who are tracking the various probes.  The number of confessions is expected to rise sharply from the current total of 38,000.

    "The government has no intention of letting up in its relentless pursuit of wealthy Americans with secret accounts offshore, and soon it will have even more tools to work with" as a new law goes into effect, said Mark Matthews, a former chief of the Internal Revenue Service's criminal-investigations division [.....]

    artappraiser 11 years 10 months ago

    At GOP outreach dinner, Obama picks up the tab

    By Stephanie Condon & John Nolen, CBS News, March 6, 2013

    As part of his effort to improve relations between the White House and Capitol Hill, President Obama dined with a small group of Republican senators this evening and, according to the White House, he paid for the dinner out of his own pocket.

    Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; John Hoeven, R-N.D.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; Mike Johanns, R-Neb.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Dan Coats, R-Ind., Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; and Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; are among the senators who joined the president for dinner tonight. The group dined at the Jefferson Hotel a few blocks from the White House. [.....]

    Johanns said he felt the president was trying to "start a discussion and kind of break the ice" on how to move forward in dealing with the repeated budget battles that keep cropping up.

    "Most of the meeting was spent on budget and the way forward and his goal is ours," he said. "We want to stop careening from crisis to crisis and solving every problem by meeting the crisis deadline."

    "I think he's very sincere, I think he wants to try to figure something out," Johanns added. [.....]

    artappraiser 11 years 10 months ago

    Hugo Chavez Is Dead!

    I aint no commie, but I kind of liked the guy.

    Screw the corps, screw American Imperialism.

    He was nuts.

    But he had his reasons!

    Richard Day 11 years 11 months ago

    “As American as Homicide”

    Photo Credit: Rotorhead

    Photo Credit: Rotorhead

    I do not relish armed confrontation. I live a peaceful life. I know that if I ever had to draw a bead on another human being and pull the trigger, my life—not to mention his or hers—and the lives of my family members would be forever altered, and not to the good.

    Still, I am not ashamed to have guns and continue to practice at the range. Although I have enough guns, I still covet a few. I like them, despite whatever that implies about me. I may be a gun nut, but I am not nuts. I am sane, as are many others who own guns. It is my sanity which obliges me to deconstruct myself at times, and to recognize the profound responsibility that comes with my cache of armament.

    Now, more than ever, I am aware that not all people who have guns, or who can get their hands on them, are sane. At times it feels that sanity is a commodity which, for all sorts of complex reasons, is becoming increasingly precious in our country.

    Orion 11 years 11 months ago

    The Inside Story of How the White House Let Diplomacy Fail in Afghanistan

    By Vali Nasr, Foreign Policy, March/April, 2013

    [....] my time in the Obama administration turned out to be a deeply disillusioning experience. The truth is that his administration made it extremely difficult for its own foreign-policy experts to be heard. Both Clinton and Holbrooke, two incredibly dedicated and talented people, had to fight to have their voices count on major foreign-policy initiatives.

    Holbrooke never succeeded. Clinton did -- but it was often a battle. It usually happened only when it finally became clear to a White House that jealously guarded all foreign policymaking -- and then relied heavily on the military and intelligence agencies to guide its decisions -- that these agencies' solutions were no substitute for the type of patient, credible diplomacy that garners the respect and support of allies. Time and again, when things seemed to be falling apart, the administration finally turned to Clinton because it knew she was the only person who could save the situation.

    One could argue that in most administrations, an inevitable imbalance exists between the military-intelligence complex [....], and the foreign-policy establishment [....]. But this administration advertised itself as something different. On the campaign trail, Obama repeatedly stressed that he wanted to get things right in the broader Middle East, reversing the damage that had resulted from the previous administration's reliance on faulty intelligence and its willingness to apply military solutions to problems it barely understood.

    Not only did that not happen, but the president had a truly disturbing habit of funneling major foreign-policy decisions through a small cabal of relatively inexperienced White House advisors whose turf was strictly politics [....]

    artappraiser 11 years 11 months ago

    Think New York Is Costly? In New Delhi, Seedy Goes for 8 Figures

    By Jim Yardley, New York Times, March 2/3, 2013

    NEW DELHI — The fading bungalow at 38 Amrita Shergil Marg does not immediately shout real estate bling.  There is no tennis court, no infinity pool, no Sub-Zero refrigerator or walk-in closet. The paint is chipped, the bathrooms are musty and the ceilings have water stains. The house may ultimately be torn down.

    Yet when it went up for public auction, the winning bid was almost $29 million. And many neighbors consider that a bargain. One block away, a gracious if not quite Rockefeller-ready residence once leased by the Mexican ambassador is now reportedly on the market for more than $100 million. Other nearby houses are going for $40 million to $70 million [....]

    Real estate prices in the heart of New Delhi, especially for the bungalows built nearly a century ago during the British Raj, are among the highest in the world.

    Though India’s economy has cooled, the demand for property in elite areas remains so strong that even finding a house for sale is tricky: [....]

    artappraiser 11 years 11 months ago

    US doctors cure child born with HIV

    By Ian Sample, guardian.co.uk, March 3,2013

    Doctors in the US have made medical history by effectively curing a child born with HIV, the first time such a case has been documented.

    The infant, who is now two and a half, needs no medication for HIV, has a normal life expectancy and is highly unlikely to be infectious to others, doctors believe.

    Though medical staff and scientists are unclear why the treatment was effective, the surprise success has raised hopes that the therapy might ultimately help doctors eradicate the virus among newborns. [.....]

    Also see:

    For First Time, Baby Is Cured of H.I.V., Doctors Say
    By Andrew Pollack and Donald G. McNeil, Jr., New York Times, March 3, 2013

    [.....] The baby, born in rural Mississippi, was treated with antiretroviral drugs starting around 30 hours after birth, something that is not usually done. [.....]

    The United Nations estimates that 330,000 babies were newly infected in 2011, the most recent year for which there is data, and that more than 3 million children globally are living with H. I. V [.....]

    If the report is confirmed, the child born in Mississippi would be only the second well-documented case of a cure in the world, giving a boost to research aimed at a cure, something that only a few years ago was thought to be virtually impossible.

    The first person cured was Timothy Brown, known as the “Berlin patient,'’ a middle-aged man with leukemia who received a bone-marrow transplant from a donor genetically resistant to H.I.V. infection. [.....]

     

    artappraiser 11 years 11 months ago

    45 dead, over 140 injured in Karachi blast

    The News International, March 3, 2013

    KARACHI: At least 45 people including women and children were killed and over 140 others sustained injuries after a powerful blast ripped through a densely populated area near Abbas Town, Health Department of Sindh said Sunday.

    According to sources, the perpetrators used a remote-detonated improvised explosive device (IED) planted at the entrance of Abbas Town to bomb their targets  [....] The blast left a four-feet deep and ten-feet wide crater, security officials said later  [....]

    "There are many teashops and eateries in the area so we fear the casualties might rise", said police. Police added that the target of the bombing were the worshipers coming out of a nearby mosque.

    The blast left two apartment buildings, dozens of shops, and a couple of nearby bank branches in ruins, sources said. "So powerful was the explosion that the facades of several apartments facing the site of blast were blown off the buildings. Windowpanes of most of the surrounding buildings turned into smithereens. Even some doors came off the hinges", they added [....]

    artappraiser 11 years 11 months ago

    The Dangerous Logic of the Bradley Manning Case

    After 1,000 days in pretrial detention, Private Bradley Manning yesterday offered a modified guilty plea for passing classified materials to WikiLeaks. But his case is far from over—not for Manning, and not for the rest of the country. To understand what is still at stake, consider an exchange that took place in a military courtroom in Maryland in January.

    A Guy Called LULU 11 years 11 months ago

    Conn. grandmother kills two kids, herself in double murder-suicide: police

    ......

    Orion 11 years 11 months ago

    Men: Nature's Second Sex

     

    From time to time one reads an article claiming that men are "tomorrow's second sex" or worrying about the disappearance of manhood. Men are failing at school, these articles claim. Women dominate employment in the sectors that are growing in modern economies, while traditionally male jobs are in decline. Men won't take traditionally female jobs, hence are stuck in joblessness. Men without work don't get married, don't form families, aren't socialized to behave in a responsible fashion, and are a generally a social problem.

    Yet a brief tour of the natural world suggests that, far from being exceptional, social exclusion of males - and accompanying social problems - is perfectly normal. Young male lions, just kicked out of the pride, are the ones who wander into villages, attack farm animals, and cause many lion-human conflicts. Young male baboons are the adventurous ones breaking into houses and stealing food from kitchens. Lone bull elephants are dangerous and potentially deadly.

    EmmaZahn 11 years 11 months ago

    How Skynet really begins.....humans not first to reach Singularity

     

    In an experiment that sounds straight out of a science fiction movie, a Duke neuroscientist has connected the brains of two rats in such a way that when one moves to press a lever, the other one does, too — most of the time. 
     
    The neuroscientist, Miguel Nicolelis, known for successfully demonstrating brain-machine connections, like the one in which a monkey controlled a robotic arm with its thoughts, said this was the first time one animal’s brain had been linked to another.
     
    The question, he said, was: “Could we fool the brain? Could we make the brain process signals from another body?” The answer, he said, was yes.
    EmmaZahn 11 years 11 months ago

    Italy Leads The Way As World’s Leaders Fail

    A melancholy musing comparing world leaders today to those immediately preceding WWI.

    The assumption that the people guiding the destinies of the world’s major powers know what they are doing is a comforting one, but there’s not a lot of evidence to support it. 

    EmmaZahn 11 years 11 months ago

    WATCH: Bob Woodward Speaks Out in Exclusive ‘Hannity’ Interview

    In an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity, veteran journalist Bob Woodward detailed the threat he received from White House aide Gene Sperling.

    Emphasis added.

    A Guy Called LULU 11 years 11 months ago

    Dennis Rodman is North Korean leader's 'friend for life'

    CNN, Feb. 28, 2013

    Former NBA star Dennis Rodman declared his eternal friendship with North Korea's supreme leader Thursday. "You have a friend for life," Rodman told Kim Jong Un after the two men sat next to each other watching an unusual basketball exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea [.....]

    We don't need no stinkin' State departments? One man's insanity is another man's genius?  Next step, Dr. Drew group therapy show with Al-Assad, Obiang and Mugabe? Words fail....

    artappraiser 11 years 11 months ago

    Same Genetic Basis Is Found in 5 Types of Mental Illness

    By Gina Kolata, New York Times, Feb. 28/March 1, 2013

    The psychiatric illnesses seem very different -- schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, major depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Yet they share several genetic glitches that can nudge the brain along a path to mental illness, researchers report. Which disease, if any, develops is thought to depend on other genetic or environmental factors.

    Their study, published online Wednesday in the Lancet, was based on an examination of genetic data from more than 60,000 people world-wide. Its authors say it is the largest genetic study yet of psychiatric disorders. The findings strengthen an emerging view of mental illness that aims to make diagnoses based on the genetic aberrations underlying diseases instead of on the disease symptoms [.....]

    artappraiser 11 years 11 months ago

    Bradley Manning Admits Giving Military Files to WikiLeaks

    By Charlie Savage, New York Times, Feb. 28/March 1, 2013

    FORT MEADE, Md. — Pfc. Bradley Manning on Thursday confessed in open court to providing vast archives of military and diplomatic files to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks, saying that he wanted the information to become public “to make the world a better place.” [....]

    “No one associated with WLO” — an abbreviation he used to refer to the WikiLeaks organization — “pressured me into sending any more information,” Private Manning said. “I take full responsibility.”

    Before reading the statement, Private Manning pleaded guilty to 10 criminal counts in connection with the huge leak [....]

    artappraiser 11 years 11 months ago

    I thought I understood health care. Then my Mom went into the ICU.

    By Charles Ornstein, Washington Post Op-Ed, Feb. 28, 2013

    [....] You can know somebody’s wishes and still be confused about the appropriate thing to do. The past few weeks have been the most difficult of my life. I hope what I learned will make me a better, more compassionate journalist [....]

    [Charles Ornstein is a senior reporter for ProPublica and the board president of the Association of Health Care Journalists.]

    My comment: I trust health care analysts who have had a personal I.C.U. hell experience more than any other kind. I will be following Mr. Ornstein's writing from now on.

    artappraiser 11 years 11 months ago

    Prehistoric Man Had Much Healthier Teeth and Gums than Modern Humans

    Our modern stereotype is that – until recently – people were plagued with rotting teeth, cavities and gum disease. But the truth is that prehistoric people had much better oral health than we do today. Also, a healthy microbiome is important for mental health:

    “Without overstating things, this does open up the concept that we could develop therapies that can treat psychiatric disorders by targeting the gut,”

     

    A Guy Called LULU 11 years 11 months ago

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