Articles: 'I Was Born This Way':
"There is pretty persuasive evidence that what determines sexual orientation, at least for some homosexuals, is environmental.
At a minimum, the evidence of a connection between being sexually abused as a child and homosexual or bisexual orientation as an adult is so widespread that the refusal of the scientific community to seriously consider a causal connection suggests a willful blindness."
.......And the high suicide rate among gay young people is supposed to be because of our homophobic society? Maybe there is another cause -- one that causes high suicide rates among young straight CSA victims, too?
There is a well-known connection between CSA and later aubstance abuse.
There is also a well-known and thoroughly studied connection between homosexuality and substance abuse.
Sunday, June 09, 2013
How they voted: Hunting fees, vehicle sales taxes among issues tackled by Michigan Legislature
How they voted: Hunting fees, vehicle sales taxes among issues tackled by Michigan Legislature | MLive.com: "Hunting and fishing licenses: The Michigan House approved a bill that would raise hunting and fishing license fees in the state. The measure is expected to raise nearly $20 million in additional money to help hire more conservation officers and make other improvements.
House Bill 4668 was approved by a 77-32 vote in the House.
All Republicans voted ‘yes’ in favor of the bill.
House Bill 4668 was approved by a 77-32 vote in the House.
All Republicans voted ‘yes’ in favor of the bill.
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Horrible timing: National Security Agency lists 'Digital Network Exploitation Analyst' internship opening as controversy swirls over digital snooping scandal
Horrible timing: National Security Agency lists 'Digital Network Exploitation Analyst' internship opening as controversy swirls over digital snooping scandal | Mail Online:
"It's either a cruel joke or the world's worst timing:
An internship listing for a 'Digital Network Exploitation Analyst' appeared Thursday on the National Security Agency's job-opening Twitter feed, just as the cyber spy directorate was caught up in an international scandal involving snooping on millions of telephone, email and social networking accounts."
"It's either a cruel joke or the world's worst timing:
An internship listing for a 'Digital Network Exploitation Analyst' appeared Thursday on the National Security Agency's job-opening Twitter feed, just as the cyber spy directorate was caught up in an international scandal involving snooping on millions of telephone, email and social networking accounts."
The All-Seeing State-Mark Steyn
The All-Seeing State | National Review Online:
It took Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina to get to the heart of the matter: “With all due respect, this is not a training issue,” he said. “This cannot be solved with another webinar. . . . We can adopt all the recommendations you can possibly conceive of. I just say it strikes me — and maybe it’s just me — but it strikes me as a cultural, systemic, character, moral issue.”
He’s right.
If you don’t instinctively know it’s wrong to stay in $3,500-a-night hotel rooms at public expense, a revised conference-accommodations-guidelines manual isn’t going to fix the real problem.
So we know the IRS is corrupt.
What happens then when an ambitious government understands it can yoke that corruption to its political needs?
What’s striking as the revelations multiply and metastasize is that at no point does any IRS official appear to have raised objections.
If any of them understood that what they were doing was wrong, they kept it to themselves.
When Nixon tried to sic the IRS on a few powerful political enemies, the IRS told him to take a hike.
When Obama’s courtiers tried to sic the IRS on thousands of ordinary American citizens, the agency went along, and very enthusiastically.
This is a scale of depravity hitherto unknown to the tax authorities of the United States, and for that reason alone they should be disarmed and disbanded — and rebuilt from scratch with far more circumscribed powers.
Top Science Journal Rebukes Harvard's Top Nutritionist
Top Science Journal Rebukes Harvard's Top Nutritionist - Forbes:
"Willett was the co-author of a study published last fall that generated enormous controversy when its dramatic conclusions were retracted at the last minute by the publicity team at Harvard’s teaching hospital, Brigham and Women’s. The study had been promoted to the media as showing a link between aspartame and cancer: “The truth isn’t sweet when it comes to artificial sweeteners,” said the press release. But the truth was that the statistical findings were so weak and confusing that no such claim could be supported, especially given that many systematic reviews of the evidence on aspartame had not found any such link.
At the time, Dr. Steven Nissen, chair of the Cleveland Clinic’s cardiovascular medicine department told NBC News: “Promoting a study that its own authors agree is not definite, not conclusive and not useful for the public is not in the best interests of public health.” As NBC’s Robert Bazell put it, “the situation is a great example of why the public often finds science confusing and frustrating.”
....This is more than merely unsporting: Such a brazen double standard is a warning that what counts as “science” in public health is a mixture of data – good, bad and middling –, methodological limitations, and interpretation. The goal – to save the public either from themselves or external threats – influences what is researched and how that research is interpreted. Given the complexities of the problems and the challenges of measurement (think about how much “evidence” is generated in nutrition from people recalling what they eat), the political need for clear conclusions and recommendations, combined with the academic need for findings to be published in scholarly journals that want positive findings, means that public health messages are often scientifically weaker than they sound."
"Willett was the co-author of a study published last fall that generated enormous controversy when its dramatic conclusions were retracted at the last minute by the publicity team at Harvard’s teaching hospital, Brigham and Women’s. The study had been promoted to the media as showing a link between aspartame and cancer: “The truth isn’t sweet when it comes to artificial sweeteners,” said the press release. But the truth was that the statistical findings were so weak and confusing that no such claim could be supported, especially given that many systematic reviews of the evidence on aspartame had not found any such link.
At the time, Dr. Steven Nissen, chair of the Cleveland Clinic’s cardiovascular medicine department told NBC News: “Promoting a study that its own authors agree is not definite, not conclusive and not useful for the public is not in the best interests of public health.” As NBC’s Robert Bazell put it, “the situation is a great example of why the public often finds science confusing and frustrating.”
....This is more than merely unsporting: Such a brazen double standard is a warning that what counts as “science” in public health is a mixture of data – good, bad and middling –, methodological limitations, and interpretation. The goal – to save the public either from themselves or external threats – influences what is researched and how that research is interpreted. Given the complexities of the problems and the challenges of measurement (think about how much “evidence” is generated in nutrition from people recalling what they eat), the political need for clear conclusions and recommendations, combined with the academic need for findings to be published in scholarly journals that want positive findings, means that public health messages are often scientifically weaker than they sound."
Friday, June 07, 2013
The Pervasive Myth That GMOs Pose a Threat
The Pervasive Myth That GMOs Pose a Threat | Debate Club | US News Opinion:
"GMOs are nutritionally indistinguishable from their non-GMO counterparts, and in fact, they can be used to enhance nutrition in poorer parts of the world.
(As a side note, anti-GMO activists routinely claim that organic food is healthier, but a systematic review in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which covered more than 30 years of data, concluded that this isn't true.)
"GMOs are nutritionally indistinguishable from their non-GMO counterparts, and in fact, they can be used to enhance nutrition in poorer parts of the world.
(As a side note, anti-GMO activists routinely claim that organic food is healthier, but a systematic review in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which covered more than 30 years of data, concluded that this isn't true.)
Baby Names Reveal Parents' Political Ideology
Baby Names Reveal Parents' Political Ideology | LiveScience:
"The results revealed that overall, the less educated the parent, the more likely they were to give their child either an uncommon name (meaning fewer than 20 children got the same name that year in California), or a unique name (meaning only one child got that name in 2004 in California). When parents had less than a college education, there were no major ideological differences in naming choice.
However, among college-educated whites, politics made a difference. College-educated moms and dads in the most liberal neighborhoods were twice as likely as college-educated parents in the most conservative neighborhoods to give their kids an uncommon name. Educated conservatives were more likely to favor popular names, which were defined as names in the top 100 in California that year."
"The results revealed that overall, the less educated the parent, the more likely they were to give their child either an uncommon name (meaning fewer than 20 children got the same name that year in California), or a unique name (meaning only one child got that name in 2004 in California). When parents had less than a college education, there were no major ideological differences in naming choice.
However, among college-educated whites, politics made a difference. College-educated moms and dads in the most liberal neighborhoods were twice as likely as college-educated parents in the most conservative neighborhoods to give their kids an uncommon name. Educated conservatives were more likely to favor popular names, which were defined as names in the top 100 in California that year."
No Cop/Bad Cop
No Cop/Bad Cop | National Review Online
I was chugging along buying Jack Dunphy’s argument on the NSA business, “A Small Price To Pay“, until I got to this bit:
As for Major Hasan, who needs surveillance? He put “Soldier of Allah” on his business card and gave a PowerPoint presentation to his military colleagues on what he’d like to do to infidels – and nobody said a word, lest they got tied up in sensitivity-training hell for six months.
Jack will forgive me when I say this is less good cop/bad cop than no cop/bad cop. Because the formal, visible state has been neutered by political correctness, the dark, furtive shadow state has to expand massively to make, in secret, the judgment calls that can no longer be made in public. That’s not an arrangement that is likely to end well.
There are people living in the United States right now, many, many of them, who are no less committed to jihad than the Tsarnaev brothers or Nidal Hassan.Well, how’d that happen? How did all these Tsarnaevs-in-waiting wind up living in the United States? They were let in by the Government, and many of them were let in in the years since 9/11, when we were supposedly on permanent “orange alert”. The same bureaucracy that takes the terror threat so seriously that it needs the phone and Internet records of hundreds of millions of law-abiding persons would never dream of doing a little more pre-screening in its immigration system – by, say, according a graduate of a Yemeni madrassah a little more scrutiny than a Slovene or Fijian. The President has unilaterally suspended the immigration laws of the United States, and his Attorney-General prosecutes those states such as Arizona who remain quaintly attached to them. The ID three of the 9/11 hijackers acquired in the 7-Eleven parking lot in Falls Church, Virginia and used to board the plane that day is part of a vast ongoing subversion of American sovereignty with which many states and so-called “sanctuary cities” actively collude.
As for Major Hasan, who needs surveillance? He put “Soldier of Allah” on his business card and gave a PowerPoint presentation to his military colleagues on what he’d like to do to infidels – and nobody said a word, lest they got tied up in sensitivity-training hell for six months.
Jack will forgive me when I say this is less good cop/bad cop than no cop/bad cop. Because the formal, visible state has been neutered by political correctness, the dark, furtive shadow state has to expand massively to make, in secret, the judgment calls that can no longer be made in public. That’s not an arrangement that is likely to end well.
20 Completely Ridiculous College Courses Being Offered At U.S. Universities
20 Completely Ridiculous College Courses Being Offered At U.S. Universities | Zero Hedge:
"16. "The Textual Appeal of Tupac Shakur" (University of Washington) - The UW is not the first college with a class dedicated to Shakur -- classes on the rapper have been offered at the University of California Berkeley and Harvard -- but it is the first to relate Shakur's work to literature."
"16. "The Textual Appeal of Tupac Shakur" (University of Washington) - The UW is not the first college with a class dedicated to Shakur -- classes on the rapper have been offered at the University of California Berkeley and Harvard -- but it is the first to relate Shakur's work to literature."
Stealth Edit: The New York Times Has Lost all Credibility
Stealth Edit: The New York Times Has Lost all Credibility:
"But to do it on the sly and not even note that the article has been updated, is dishonest.
And nowhere did the Times note that they had cooled some after learning of their lover's betrayal, and then went back to leave the door open for some sweaty make-up sex.
We are not talking about fixing a typo here, or even finding a better word to clarify a point. In the course of a few hours,
The New York Times went from claiming the administration had lost all credibility -- period -- to something less. That is a huge position shift.
And this is not the first time the Times has been caught backfilling with stealth edits, either."
"But to do it on the sly and not even note that the article has been updated, is dishonest.
And nowhere did the Times note that they had cooled some after learning of their lover's betrayal, and then went back to leave the door open for some sweaty make-up sex.
We are not talking about fixing a typo here, or even finding a better word to clarify a point. In the course of a few hours,
The New York Times went from claiming the administration had lost all credibility -- period -- to something less. That is a huge position shift.
And this is not the first time the Times has been caught backfilling with stealth edits, either."
Dishonor and Disrespect on D-Day
RIGHT SPEAK: Op-ed: Dishonor and Disrespect on D-Day:
"...on a day when our president should have been paying our nation's respect at the D-Day Memorial, we had a president who has NEVER visited that memorial nor made any mention anywhere in the past three years about this most solemn of days.
NO.. yesterday we had a president who jetted off to a photo-op in North Carolina and a fundraiser in California (http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule/complete) for that was more important to him than honoring those who helped saved the world."
"...on a day when our president should have been paying our nation's respect at the D-Day Memorial, we had a president who has NEVER visited that memorial nor made any mention anywhere in the past three years about this most solemn of days.
NO.. yesterday we had a president who jetted off to a photo-op in North Carolina and a fundraiser in California (http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule/complete) for that was more important to him than honoring those who helped saved the world."
Logan's Law would create animal abuser registry
Logan's Law would create animal abuser registry | Lansing State Journal | lansingstatejournal.com:
"That gray and white husky has become the face of a proposed law that would force convicted animal abusers to register for a new database to be used by animal control and humane society shelters in adopting animals.
Under the law, the shelters could not adopt animals to those on the registry for five years.
“They can check this registry to find out if they are giving (the animal) to a monster,” said Falk, of Wales, Mich.
In a room packed with supporters of the proposed “Logan’s Law,” the House Judiciary Committee today began hearing testimony on whether Michigan should become the first state to create such a registry.
Proponents say it would be funded through $250 in annual fees paid by offenders and would prove a valuable resource for shelters and individuals who want to find out whether they are letting a convicted animal abuser adopt a pet."
"That gray and white husky has become the face of a proposed law that would force convicted animal abusers to register for a new database to be used by animal control and humane society shelters in adopting animals.
Under the law, the shelters could not adopt animals to those on the registry for five years.
“They can check this registry to find out if they are giving (the animal) to a monster,” said Falk, of Wales, Mich.
In a room packed with supporters of the proposed “Logan’s Law,” the House Judiciary Committee today began hearing testimony on whether Michigan should become the first state to create such a registry.
Proponents say it would be funded through $250 in annual fees paid by offenders and would prove a valuable resource for shelters and individuals who want to find out whether they are letting a convicted animal abuser adopt a pet."
Retiree benefits and ObamaCare collide
Retiree benefits and ObamaCare collide: Column:
" Then there's the very real uncertainty surrounding the ACA's ultimate cost — illustrated by the impact of Medicare alone, which the Office of the Chief Actuary of Medicare estimates could cost cost $10 trillion more than claimed."
" Then there's the very real uncertainty surrounding the ACA's ultimate cost — illustrated by the impact of Medicare alone, which the Office of the Chief Actuary of Medicare estimates could cost cost $10 trillion more than claimed."
States that offer extremely generous health benefits for government retirees, and which have little to no pre-funding for those benefits, could choose to move their retirees into the Affordable Care Act's new exchanges.
.......The impact doesn't end with a collection of states relieved to have better balance sheets and financial positions. What does it mean for taxpayers?
It's not as if taxpayers in those states will suddenly be free of the financial burden of providing retiree health care benefits. A significant portion of the tab would be passed on to the federal government. But the overall tax burden will shift, and in ways that Americans in other more fiscally responsible states may not appreciate. Since the exchanges are federally sponsored, much of their cost will ultimately be shared among all the nation's taxpayers. So residents in those states who push retirees onto the exchanges will get to off-load some of their financial burden to the rest of us.
....So the impact of the insurance exchanges could be good news for some state and local governments and residents, while not so good news for the rest of us.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
Greece Slides Into The "Fourth World" - The Full Photo Album
Greece Slides Into The "Fourth World" - The Full Photo Album | Zero Hedge:
"With Greek government bonds at multi-year highs (up 300% in the last year), the Athens Stock Index still up 100% in the last year, and leaders all over the Euro-zone proclaiming the crisis is over (and that Greece has "made big strides"); we thought it perhaps useful to look at the reality behind the propagandized talk and manipulation.
The sad truth is Greece is rapidly dissolving into a 'fourth world' nation with unemployment rates (broad and youth) at unprecedented levels, poverty widespread, and homelessness rife.
Perhaps, as Germany today stated that there will be no more debt reduction for Greece, it is 'math' in the first image that the TROIKA and the Greek representatives should pay special attention to..."
"With Greek government bonds at multi-year highs (up 300% in the last year), the Athens Stock Index still up 100% in the last year, and leaders all over the Euro-zone proclaiming the crisis is over (and that Greece has "made big strides"); we thought it perhaps useful to look at the reality behind the propagandized talk and manipulation.
The sad truth is Greece is rapidly dissolving into a 'fourth world' nation with unemployment rates (broad and youth) at unprecedented levels, poverty widespread, and homelessness rife.
Perhaps, as Germany today stated that there will be no more debt reduction for Greece, it is 'math' in the first image that the TROIKA and the Greek representatives should pay special attention to..."
Online 'Fairness' Tax Could Hit Your 401(k)
Online 'Fairness' Tax Could Hit Your 401(k) - Investors.com:
Additional concerns include the indirect impact on middle-class investors — the tax would hit trades done by mutual funds and retirement plans such as 401(k) accounts — and the competitive effects on particular jurisdictions, as the tax creates incentives for such transactions to move across borders.
Given these concerns, one would think that the U.S. Congress would carefully debate the merits of a financial transaction tax, not rush to approve it. Yet the U.S. Senate just passed a bill that may enable states to impose their own financial transaction taxes — a recipe for increasing economic uncertainty.
Supporters of the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), which the U.S. Senate passed on May 6 on a 69-27 vote, claim that online retailers enjoy an unfair advantage over their brick-and-mortar competitors. The bill, they maintain, addresses this imbalance by allowing states and localities to require "remote sellers" to collect taxes for "sales" to their residents.
However, the bill is silent on the particular products and services of "sellers" and "sales" it covers. Thus, it could open the door for state and local governments to tax financial transactions they deem as "sales" on businesses throughout the country.
County plans 60-day stop-work order on Detroit jail project
County plans 60-day stop-work order on Detroit jail project | Crain's Detroit Business:
"The highest "worst estimates" for the jail's final price tag were $391 million, Lee said, almost double the original estimated price of $220 million. "
"The highest "worst estimates" for the jail's final price tag were $391 million, Lee said, almost double the original estimated price of $220 million. "
Spanish Sub Too Heavy Thanks to Math Mistake
Spanish Sub Too Heavy Thanks to Math Mistake | TheLedger.com:
"A new, Spanish-designed submarine has a weighty problem:
The vessel is more than 70 tons too heavy, and officials fear if it goes out to sea, it will not be able to surface.
And a former Spanish official says the problem can be traced to a miscalculation — someone apparently put a decimal point in the wrong place."
"A new, Spanish-designed submarine has a weighty problem:
The vessel is more than 70 tons too heavy, and officials fear if it goes out to sea, it will not be able to surface.
And a former Spanish official says the problem can be traced to a miscalculation — someone apparently put a decimal point in the wrong place."
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