Monotreme

Monotreme

(2526 comments, 243 posts)

Monotreme is an unabashed liberal and dog lover who lives in an almost-square state in the Western U.S. He keeps a second blog related to his work as a scientist and author at 7synapses.com.

Home page: http://www.logarchism.com

Posts by Monotreme

Bedtime for Bowzie

11
11 hours ago
by Monotreme in
Bowzie is found.

Bowzie is found.

It all started with Bar­bara Gar­cia and Bowzie. Gar­cia is an elderly woman from Moore, Okla­homa. She has a but­tery, lovely Okla­Tex accent, the vow­els and cadence of my grand­mother and mother. Gar­cia is describ­ing, on live TV, the com­plete destruc­tion of her home by an EF5 tornado:

When it stopped, I was right there [motions to a kitchen appli­ance atop a pile of lum­ber, bricks, and other rub­ble], that Presto cooker is what I saw. … I hollered for my lit­tle dog, and he didn’t answer, he didn’t come, so I know he’s in here somewhere.

The reporter off­screen is ask­ing her the usual series of point­less after-​​disaster questions.

““What do you think hap­pened here?”

““I know exactly what hap­pened here,” and Ms. Garcia’s tone adds, [you idiot].

The cam­er­a­woman is heard off­screen announc­ing, “the dog!” She pans to a spot in the rub­ble where a black sooty smudge of fur is wriggling.

Bar­bara leans down to lift a piece of a heavy appli­ance, maybe a hunk of fur­nace, unrec­og­niz­able now. It slips from her grasp, and she pleads for help and Megan (pre­sum­ably the reporter) has to be told by the off­screen cam­er­a­woman to pitch in and help. Bowzie, her beloved mini schnau­zer, is safe. She’s lost every­thing except the clothes on her back, and now she thanks God for answer­ing her prayers. (more…)

One Swallow Doesn’t Make an Indictment

5
3 days ago
by Monotreme in
Utah Attorney General John Swallow has some 'splainin' to do. Source: Jeffrey Allred, Deseret News

Utah Attor­ney Gen­eral John Swal­low has some ’splainin’ to do. Source: Jef­frey Allred, Deseret News

Back in Feb­ru­ary, I told you about the woes of newly-​​inaugurated Utah Attor­ney Gen­eral John Swallow.

At the time, he was accused by con­victed swindler Jeremy John­son. In 2010, John­son claims he paid Swal­low, then the Assis­tant AG, money to be used to bribe Sen­ate Major­ity Leader Harry Reid. In return, Reid was sup­posed to get the Fed­eral Trade Com­mis­sion to lay off Johnson’s for­mer Inter­net mar­ket­ing company.

The most incrim­i­nat­ing thing for Swal­low in this whole far­rago of non­sense is his voice on tape appear­ing to humor John­son and even col­lect some money from him, which Swal­low says was a cam­paign donation.

Now, another three months have passed and three more inves­ti­ga­tions of Swal­low are under­way. (more…)

Lara Croft, Cancer Raider

28
1 week ago
by Monotreme in
Just in case you missed them.

Just in case you missed them.

Tues­day, Angelina Jolie, who pos­sesses per­haps the most famous mam­mary glands on the planet, announced in a New York Times Op-​​Ed that her breasts have been pro­phy­lac­ti­cally removed because a gene test for BRCA1 came back pos­i­tive. It’s a well-​​written, pas­sion­ate and thor­oughly researched arti­cle which I strongly rec­om­mend you read.

We don’t gen­er­ally do celebrity news here at Log­a­rchism, but we do dis­cuss the pol­i­tics and eco­nom­ics of health care. Jolie’s story illus­trates some of the chal­lenges fac­ing health care as we move into the Age of Obamacare.

Jolie’s announce­ment comes as the Supreme Court has heard argu­ments, and is cur­rently delib­er­at­ing and prepar­ing a writ­ten opin­ion, in the Asso­ci­a­tion for Mol­e­c­u­lar Pathol­ogy v. Myr­iad Genet­ics, Inc. case. I sum­ma­rized the rel­e­vant facts in an ear­lier arti­cle.

Jolie is no stranger to con­tro­versy, and she (or her pub­li­cist) delves into the deep end of med­ical ethics and pub­lic pol­icy with this bold statement:

Breast can­cer alone kills some 458,000 peo­ple each year, accord­ing to the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, mainly in low– and middle-​​income coun­tries. It has got to be a pri­or­ity to ensure that more women can access gene test­ing and life­sav­ing pre­ven­tive treat­ment, what­ever their means and back­ground, wher­ever they live. The cost of test­ing for BRCA1 and BRCA2, at more than $3,000 in the United States, remains an obsta­cle for many women.

If the Supreme Court decides in favor of Myr­iad, we can expect this sit­u­a­tion to con­tinue. (more…)

A Tale of Two Pakistanis

12
1 week ago
by Monotreme in
Nawaz Sharif: every legitimate vote counts.

Nawaz Sharif: every legit­i­mate vote counts.

It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of fool­ish­ness, it was the age of fool­ish­ness, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the epoch of incredulity…

One is dead. The other has been res­ur­rected from polit­i­cal death.

Saturday’s Pak­istani elec­tions for the National Assem­bly resulted in a resound­ing win for for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Mus­lim League (PML-​​N). For­mer cricket star Imran Khan’s party, Pak­istan Tehreek-​​e-​​Insaf (PTI), appears to be in oppo­si­tion. The Pak­istan People’s Party (PPP), founded and run by the Bhutto fam­ily, got walloped.

This al Jazeera info­graphic explains the Pak­istani elec­tion process. The May 11 elec­tions were for the National Assem­bly, leav­ing the PPP in charge of the Presidency.

If Sharif can form a gov­ern­ment, and the army can be per­suaded not to over­throw the demo­c­ra­tic process, then it will be the first legal tran­si­tion of power in the 66-​​year his­tory of the coun­try.
(more…)

Nunn Dare Call It Treason

23
2 weeks ago
by Monotreme in
Running a no Nunn sense campaign.

Run­ning a no Nunn sense campaign.

The Jan­u­ary announce­ment of the impend­ing retire­ment of Sen­a­tor Saxby Cham­b­liss (R-​​GA) has set off a scram­ble for his seat in Geor­gia, per­haps the best Class 2 Sen­ate seat pickup oppor­tu­nity for the Democ­rats. (Sen­a­tors are divided into three Classes for elec­tion dates, and the elec­tion of Class 2 Sen­a­tors will take place in Novem­ber 2014.)

You might remem­ber Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John Bar­row (D-​​Augusta, GA) as the only remain­ing Con­gres­sional White Demo­c­rat in the Deep South. Bar­row was reëlected in 2012 after Repub­li­can ger­ry­man­der­ing changed his dis­trict from D+1 cen­tered on Savan­nah to R+10. This rated the redis­trict­ing as #5 on Char­lie Cook’s list of most polit­i­cally adroit ger­ry­man­ders of the 2010 Cen­sus cycle.

(To be fair, Cook calls his list “25 Biggest Redis­trict­ing Swings Against the Incum­bent Party” but I renamed it for empha­sis. Before I hear squawk­ing, notice the ger­ry­man­der of Maryland’s 6th Dis­trict by Democ­rats is #1.)

Bar­row had to leave Savan­nah and move to Augusta to hold his seat, which he did by a wide mar­gin (54–46 per­cent) against a weak Repub­li­can oppo­nent. He report­edly con­sid­ered the Sen­ate run, but has just demurred. (more…)

We’re Going to Plan B

19
2 weeks ago
by Monotreme in
Plan B for Sebelius?

Plan B for Sebelius?

A ker­fuf­fle has bro­ken out over the age at which women will be allowed to have the “morning-​​after” con­tra­cep­tive lev­onorgestrel, com­monly called by its for­mer brand name “Plan B One-​​Step”.

Cur­rently, the drug is avail­able with­out a pre­scrip­tion to women 17 and older but is kept behind the pharmacist’s counter so that a woman’s age can be con­firmed before it is sold. Women under 17 must have a doctor’s pre­scrip­tion to buy the drug.

The Fed­eral Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA), headed by Mar­garet Ham­burg, MD, has report­edly been poised to use the mass of sci­en­tific evi­dence to make the drug freely avail­able to all women of repro­duc­tive age. That move was blocked by Health and Human Ser­vices (HHS) Sec­re­tary Kath­leen Sebe­lius. The order to block FDA action had appar­ently been passed down the chain of com­mand from the Pres­i­dent him­self. At the very least, he pub­licly endorsed the deci­sion after the fact.

The bell rang to start the present fight on April 5 when Fed­eral Dis­trict Court Judge Edward R. Kor­man (East­ern Dis­trict of New York) released his rul­ing in Tum­mino v. Ham­burg, over­turn­ing a ban on sell­ing lev­onorgestrel over the counter to women under 17.  (more…)

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