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Israel, Sparta and the Law of Large Numbers

Our troubled world needs historical perspectives. Sparta offers a good perspective. The Spartans were ferocious and well-disciplined fighters. Some know that 300 Spartan fighters were the core of a...

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Lies, Delusions, & Hypocrisy- we better get started

We've got a lot of problems. Some are worsening. We can't leave things up to the Prez who says - "We must win in Iraq for the security of Western civilization".  Iraq is a big problem: a. We never...

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Our loss of mythical power and another front porch campaign

Michael Vlahos, no leftist, tells us how much America has lost in the post 9/11 debacle: The world assumed that American power was totipotent- when we projected our shock and awe into Iraq with such...

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Health Care HellHole

My friend AR is 63 years old, divorced and in a hole. Always overweight, like her parents and brother, she had a big stroke 3 years ago, which left one side of her body poorly functional. Her mental...

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The time for talk has passed, Senator Feingold

Senator Russ Feingold, a respected and decent man, wants to censure the President (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/22/1077/74921). Only one President has been censured in 200 plus years and that...

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NANCY B. LOUSY meet Prof. Gen. DAVID BETRAY.US

Words are tools, which may be misused. You can’t run an organization without words. Corporations spend lots of money trying to find convincing mission statements, and so do politicians. The US of A...

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Democratic Candidates I. Some inconvenient truths

Stock markets are crashing around the world. We are in a serious recession. Look at food prices and then look at the Government inflation index. Food prices have been rising like hot air balloons,...

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Tilting against Insurance

Things can go wrong after you get health insurance The doctor-insurer interface is harsh, it wastes time & money Insurers are often penny wise and pound foolish, including public programsI review...

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Pride in our country and earmarks

What American actions are you proud of? What American actions are you ashamed of? Can we hope to get out of this mess without facing up to Congressional corruption? Why aren't the Presidential...

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The Red Phone Ad promotes militarism and McCain

Many diaries have touched on Clinton's red phone ad. The media responded (they are much more interested in ads than discussion of complex issues). It surely influenced some voters. Ads distort reality,...

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Compare and contrast: The Iraq War and the Mass. Health Plan

(As seen from the inside of the healthcare system, a slightly different version will appear at kevinmd.com/blog)Paul Krugman’s health care columns, the archimedes movement and repairing the healthcare...

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The three ring circus of US healthcare reform

The poet Juvenal wrote, “We Romans have forgotten our civic duties; the People who once approved everything, military command, high civic offices, legions, now hold back and anxiously hope for only two...

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Stop, look and listen

We’ve lost our bearings. We snap to attention when the party of steel yanks our chain with reports of Islamic threats or its fresh new face. I mean Gov. Palin, drill, kill and block. Drill everywhere,...

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The plunge protection team and the truth about the "free market"

We humans  are easily seduced by abstract, feel good ideas. The free market is an abstract idea, like the social contract or a personal God. Nobody has ever seen one. We've known for centuries that...

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Gas prices down, gasoline problems up again

Energy policy; we must break the cycles of transient piety Oil prices have bounced from very high to very low. Most Americans are pleased because they now pay less than two dollars a gallon for gas....

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The Daschle Problem and the importance of trust

We have big but not insoluble problems. They can’t be solved in a top down fashion. Will the public cooperate in sacrifice and life style change if they don’t trust the government and the secretary of...

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A Marathon Not a Sprint, compare the opinions about the Geithner plan

These are dangerous times. People are losing their jobs and their homes; a few people have threatened bankers. Kos diarists have taught me a lot, especially Bondad and Jerome a Paris. Each had a recent...

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As California goes, so goes the nation    

I. The politics of fear, distrust and deceptionI live in California; We have problems, but I will stay. California is a failed state; I don’t think that new faces (new governor) can resolve our...

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SHAME ON YOU, Senator Grassley

I Faxed this letter to Grassley's Washington office, 202-224-6020You have said some stupid things lately.1. You claim to be worried about death panels and healthcare reform. You know that’s not true....

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Barack Obama and John Quincy Adams

Which President spoke seven languages and was later called Old Man Eloquent?Like Obama, President JQ Adams was opposed by violent men who put private property above all elseObama resembles John Quincy...

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DOUBTFUL OLD DOC: HOW WILL IT WORK?

My family is comfortable and healthy; my country is angry, uncomfortable and unhealthy.  Constant Healthcare reform gyrations and capitulations left a bad taste. The Senate Bill has good and bad...

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GEORGE LAKOFF IS NOT A CRYPTO-FASCIST

Most of us know Lakoff, the UC Berkeley linguist and Professor of Cognitive Science, author of many books and several Kos diaries, the most recent being The PolicySpeak Disaster for Health Care,...

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FAX to the Presdient, from one who worked hard for him, starting December 2007.

I sent this Fax to the White House today. I like him, I believe that he means well, but this issue of deregulation and corporate welfare is wrecking the country. We can't ignore it. Claims that Salazar...

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The Complex Reality of Generic Drugs: who are the BPs/DeCosters/Ajkai...

"You may be interested in learning more about generic drug concerns. Would you like a copy of the Sankar and Glauser paper?" The attractive drug rep smiled. Who could quarrel with "no substitutions...

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The attractive outsider could not consolidate the beachhead, couldn’t...

The attractive outsider figured out the new primary system better than many old Pols. He put great effort into the Iowa caucuses and won 9 of the first 10 primaries. He was quite a contrast to Nixon...

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Progressives in a fog, we've lost the class and media wars, we must regroup...

Many progressives have lost focus. They worry about celebrities, like Sarah Palin, which progressive might be a primary challenger to Obama, whether to accept or resist TSA stupidity, etc. Those are...

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NPR pushes foreigners into the line of fire

In Phoenix, Foreign-Born Workers Find Jobs Faster    Ted Robbins, NPR morning report 2/17/2011I heard this driving to work: Poor Mareena lost her DHL job. She’d like to make $25 an hour, but will...

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Maybe it's all for show

Huey    What a relief- the government did not shut down! Dewey: I wasn’t planning to visit a national park today. Louie: Maybe things aren’t quite what they seem; maybe the government shutdown crisis...

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Understanding Autism, obesity and toxic sugar, 'Hispanic autism deficit', how...

April was autism awareness month. Autism awareness month existed for decades, but became much more visible this year. I’ll briefly discuss PBS autism coverage, part of the increased media attention to...

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We are eager accessories to the great hoaxes of the Age- space shuttle, debt...

I quote Daniel Boorstin, The Image, 1962, page 37.  Boorstin discussed pseudo-events (contrived events) television and the Graphics Revolution (the multiplication of images and recording techniques,...

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Look behind the veil, the system and the Satan sandwich

Some say don’t criticize our leaders or our system until we have a solution. Some say that there’s a simple answer to every problem…and that it’s always wrong. Some say that Obama had no choice, given...

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How we got Rick Perry into the White House

aka Great and Desperate Cures and their consequencesIt took some work and planning, our man had a tendency to say stupid things, but we used our five advantages: the dismal economy, the discredited...

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What I told KPCC, my NPR station

I've given money to my local NPR station for some years, but I'm increasingly unhappy with their parroting the commercial media, asking how people feel about the ads and scandals rather than going...

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How can violence/murder increase and decrease at the same time?

I'm upset with the Colorado shooting.  The media mislead us with all Monica/James Holmes all the time- lots of smoke and noise but little analysis or illumination. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker's...

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New York Times: Sue those generic makers

Yes, dumb down the American public, a few people keep raising their head! American healthcare has problems, layers of problems. I agree with Mr. Brill's 26,000 word indictment of US healthcare in the...

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Our unbalanced nation, yes, Virginia there is a class war

“I used to blame Bush and the GOP.  Then I blamed the Democrats for not being fill in the blank enough.   Now I hold the so called progressive and so called __ movement responsible because they haven't...

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Syria as Rorschach test

Would bombing Syria help Israel and keep Iran at bay? Depends upon your point of view. David Brooks of the NY Times says smugly that of course Obama’s proposals to discipline Syria have nothing to do...

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Exercise builds us, The Super Bowl builds machismo

The Super Bowl gets more viewers and more ad money than anything on television. Here's a letter that I sent to The Los Angeles Times: Regular exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness, increases...

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Juries, grand juries, bears and chokeholds

I’m an old codger who attended segregated schools in East Texas and was a Vietnam draftee. When asked about Ferguson and Michael Brown, I said, “I don’t know what happened. There are too many...

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Segregated oldster, BLM and American hate

I attended segregated schools in Galveston, TX until graduation in 1955.  Two African-American families lived on my block. We were courteous, friendly and called each other by name, but they never...

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My complaint to PBS about Washington Week

I often watch Washington Week (PBS). This week's show was devoted to the Republican 'debate' at the Reagan Library. The reporters had time to learn that Carly Fiorina had made up a total lie, but chose...

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My response to MoveOn's instant debate response plan

I got a nice letter from MoveOn asking me to participate in a new instant debate response plan. I understand the idea, but I can't see how it will bring about the major political and social changes...

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When will Trump Spin out?

Pundits say that the Presidency is between Trump and HRC. They may be right. Matt Taibbi’s interesting Rolling Stone piece says that American culture makes Trump unstoppable. He stresses Trump’s...

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CALIFORNIA SINGLE PAYER, devils quoting scripture, don't want another belly flop

SB 562 is the California single payer healthcare bill, which passed the State Senate this week. Chances of passing the Assembly look good. The bill provides many goodies; what is the price tag?...

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