Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Fat pride world wide
From the New York Times comes this article, Fat Pride Community Pushes Back in Health Care Debate.
Marilyn Wann is an author and weight diversity speaker in Northern California who has a message for anyone making judgments about her health based on her large physique. "The only thing anyone can accurately diagnose by looking at a fat person is their own level of stereotype and prejudice about fat," said Ms. Wann, a 43-year-old San Franciscan whose motto in life is also the title of her book: "Fat! So?"
Hers has been an oft-repeated message this summer and fall by members of the "fat pride" community, given that the nation is in the midst of a debate about health care. That debate has, sometimes awkwardly, focused its attention on the growing population of overweight and obese Americans with unambiguous overtones: fat people should lose weight, for the good of us all.
Heavier Americans are pushing back now with newfound vigor in the policy debate, lobbying legislators and trying to move public opinion to recognize their point of view: that thin does not necessarily equal fit, and that people can be healthy at any size.
Extra weight brings with it an increased risk of chronic disease, medical experts say, and heavier people tend to have medical costs that are substantially higher than their leaner counterparts. As a result, Congress is considering proposals in the effort to overhaul health care that would make it easier for employers to use financial rewards or penalties to promote healthy behavior by employees, like weight loss.
Other less-scientific arguments have also gained traction on blogs, chat shows and editorial pages since talk of the overhaul began in earnest, with the overweight cast as lazy or gluttonous liabilities and therefore not entitled to universal health coverage because of poor personal decision-making. As that thinking goes, a healthful eater should not have to pay for the consequences of someone else's greasy burger binges.
Either way, heavy people - characterized as over-consumers of health care or as those who should miss out on discounts because of their size - say they have been maligned throughout the debate.
"I thought, 'Health reform? Yay!' " said Lynn McAfee, the director of medical advocacy for the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, an advocacy group for heavy people. But Ms. McAfee said it was not long before her sentiment changed to the more sober, "Oh no, we're being scapegoated again."
It is an uphill battle. But the health care debate has, unexpectedly, also provided an opportunity for new expressions of what Ms. Wann calls "fat pride," the notion that weight diversity is a good thing and that size discrimination is as offensive as any other kind.
"The stigma is so heavy a burden that it took our community 40 years before it could go to Capitol Hill and lobby for ourselves," said Ms. Wann, a member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, an advocacy group that organized a lobbying trip to Washington for its members this spring. "We're kind of a popular punching bag. You can do incredibly discriminating, hurtful, hateful things to fat people in public and not only get away with it but be seen as some kind of superhero."
On Capitol Hill, the association asked legislators for a public option from which fat people could not be excluded because of weight and for coverage that did not consider excess weight a pre-existing condition.
"Basically," Ms. Wann continued, "we want to be treated with respect the same as everyone else."
Americans are more overweight and obese than they were 10 years ago, or even one year ago, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America's Health, which published a state-by-state study in June.
It showed that the trend is up sharply.
Two-thirds of all Americans are overweight or obese. In four states - Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia - more than 30 percent of adults are obese. In 1991, in contrast, no state had an obesity rate over 20 percent.
And, according to the American Obesity Association, a research organization, poor minority women have the greatest likelihood of being overweight.
Weight is an incendiary issue, experts said, and that may be why it had such staying power as a hot topic of conversation through the health care debate.
"All national health insurance systems are built on the idea that we're all part of a community, we all get sick and die, so we're going to take care of one another," said James Morone, a professor of political science and urban studies at Brown University. "The best philosophical way to stop national health insurance is to say we're not a community, it's 'us vs. them.' "
But what has been different about this particular issue, this year, is that "people are pushing back," Professor Morone said.
Peggy Howell, the public relations director for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said she had been on the phone delivering her group's message and answering more news media calls this year than ever before.
The message is simple, she said: "We believe that fat people can eat healthy food and add movement to their lives and be healthy. And healthy should be the goal, not thin."
That idea is gaining strength and popularity among a segment of the overweight population that feels as though traditional dieting to lose weight does more harm than good, ultimately benefiting the $30 billion weight loss industry, not the public.
"I get so angry when I feel people pushing a weight-loss agenda," said Linda Bacon, a nutrition professor at City College of San Francisco and author of "Health at Every Size," a book published last year whose title has become the rallying cry of the fat pride community. "What we're doing in public health care policy is harmful. We give a direct and clear message that there's something wrong with being fat."
A federally financed study by Ms. Bacon, published in the book, found that there were many people who could be healthy in fat bodies.
Ms. Wann used some of Ms. Bacon's findings as her talking points when she visited legislators with other lobbyists for "fat acceptance" in May.
She said she felt encouraged that the health care bill the House Democratic leaders unveiled on Thursday does not allow changes in insurance pricing based on obesity. But there is still a long way to go before any bill becomes law.
"For me, the takeaway point that was heartening and historic and exhilarating is that it was the first time we started lobbying for a humane health-enhancing system," said Ms. Wann, who is self-employed and, in her own words, fat and uninsurable.
"We're all in this life raft together," she said.
Women Are Overtaking Men in the U.S
From the The Sphere Dot Com comes this article by David Knowles. Women Are Overtaking Men in the U.S.
The United States may have officially entered the age of woman.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this fall, for the first time in U.S. history, women have surpassed men and now make up more than 50 percent of the nation's workforce. In 1967, by comparison, they accounted for just one-third of all workers.
Signs of the changing landscape in gender relations are just about everywhere you look:
• Double the number of single women are now purchasing homes in America than there are single men.
• Four out of every 10 women are are now their family's primary breadwinner, a sharp increase from past decades.
• The New Hampshire State Legislature is now made up of a majority of women, a first for a legislative body in the U.S., and the number of women in government continues to edge up nationwide.
• Women now account for 30 percent of math Ph.D.s, up from just 5 percent in the
1960's.
• On average, women read nine books every year. Men only read four, and women account for 80 percent of the U.S. fiction market.
• The World Bank recently estimated that the global earning power of women will reach an estimated $18 trillion by the year 2014, up $5 trillion today.
"Women really have become the dominant gender," said Guy Garcia, author of "The Decline of Men." "What concerns me is that guys are rapidly falling behind. Women are becoming better educated than men, earning more than men, and, generally speaking, not needing men at all. Meanwhile, as a group, men are losing their way."
That seems especially true during tough economic times. While the economy has shed millions of jobs during the recession of 2008 and 2009, men have been three times more likely to lose theirs than women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Dr. Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, said that in the case of the recession, there really haven't been any winners in the labor force.
"As the economy improves, many of the blue-collar jobs that men hold are likely to return," Shierholz said. "But the longer-term picture is that we're seeing women continue to make relative gains in the workplace. That's not surprising when women are getting good educations and earning solid degrees."
Women now make up more than 50 percent of the U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In fact, a gender education gap, in which women are far outpacing men in terms of educational achievement, has been quietly growing in America over the past few decades. In 2009, for instance, women will earn more degrees in higher education than men in every possible category, from associate level to Ph.D.s, according to the U.S. Department of Education. When it comes to master's-level education, for instance, U.S. women earn 159 degrees for every 100 awarded to men.
"The big reason for the disparity is that women are going back to finish college or get new degrees and training," said Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress and one of the co-authors of The Shriver Report, which considers the implications of shifting gender roles.
"Girls today grow up in a post-feminist environment, being told they can do whatever they want in life," Boushey said. "But then they get out into the workplace and they find that they still make just 77 cents on the dollar compared with men."
That harsh realization, Boushey argued, helps account for why women have flocked to colleges at a time when the country finds itself shifting from a manufacturing-based economy to knowledge-based one.
"It's a huge shift," Boushey said, "when you think that a generation and a half ago our attitudes and expectations for what roles women and men could play in our society were entirely different than they are today."
As for the discrepancy in wages between men and women, that, too, may be soon be a thing of the past. A study of U.S. Census data conducted by Queens College sociologist Andrew Beveridge found that young women in New York and several other big American cities actually earn more than their male counterparts.
Garcia bemoaned what he sees as a "fragmentation of male identity," in which husbands are asked to take on unaccustomed familial roles such as child care and housework, while wives bring in the bigger paychecks.
"There was a division of labor, right or wrong, that men understood," Garcia said. "Now, the trade-offs are murky, and women often get stuck doing both jobs--taking care of kids and playing the primary breadwinner."
Boushey, on the other hand, thinks that now that both men and women are starting to share in the dual burdens of work and home responsibilities, we're more likely to find solutions that benefit both genders.
"It's about finding a mutually beneficial balance," Boushey said.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The World's Most Secretive Tax Havens
CNBC is doing a special on it's website called, The World's Most Secretive Tax Havens.
On CNBC's website, they link to an anti-tax haven group's research called The Tax Justice Network. Did someone inadvertently help their enemy? If you would like to see the full list, click here.
Recently, the Tax Justice Network (TJN), an independent organization dealing with the analysis of tax and regulation, released their "Financial Secrecy Index," which ranks the world's most secretive tax havens.
The level of financial secrecy provided by tax havens, which TJN argues is a key component of jurisdictions competing to attract financial flows, is ranked by 12 qualitative measures (opacity score) such as laws, regulations and international treaties as well as quantitative measures (weighted score) which takes into account the amount of cross-border financial services activity of a jurisdiction, or its role in the global financial services to foreigners.
In the report, the opacity score and the weighted score are combined to calculate the Financial Secrecy Index Value, from which countries are ranked. For a full methodology and explanation of what the numbers mean, click here . For larger countries like the US and UK, individual states or municipalities were singled out for comparison; which are the areas within the country to offer the most secretive tax environments for individuals and corporations.
So, what are the world's most secretive tax havens? Click ahead to find out!
By Paul Toscano
Posted 2 Nov 2009
On CNBC's website, they link to an anti-tax haven group's research called The Tax Justice Network. Did someone inadvertently help their enemy? If you would like to see the full list, click here.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Britain's Problem With "Ladette Culture."
Girls just wanna have fun. From the UK's Daily Mail: The streets of no shame: The shocking picture that epitomises Britain's ladette culture. The Urban Dictionary seems to be the only source that has a definition of "ladette culture."
From the article:
From the article:
Maybe she thinks it's the drink that is preventing her from putting one foot in front of the other.
Or perhaps she knows the vulgar truth and is merely trying to impress her friends. Either way, the sight is certainly not an edifying one.
Such scenes are not uncommon, which is why Cardiff - one of the country's worst cities for binge drinking - has just banned boozing on the streets.
The crackdown is aimed at late night revellers, targeting rowdy hen and stag parties and generally trying to make the streets safer after dark. Police can use the new powers to confiscate alcohol or arrest anyone who defies them. The ban has been a success in trials in small areas but will spread across the entire city in time for Christmas and the New Year.
Yesterday it was hailed as a big step towards 'reclaiming the streets' from drunken yobs.
Cardiff Central MP Jenny Willott said: 'Late night alcohol-fuelled crime and anti-social behaviour is a huge problem on the streets.
'People deserve to have a night out without the fear of intimidation or facing violence as a result of excessive alcohol consumption.
'This ban should help the law-abiding and responsible majority to reclaim the streets.' The Designated Public Place Order - a power introduced by the Home Office - does not make drinking in public illegal. But police can order people to stop drinking on the streets and can confiscate their alcohol. Anyone failing to comply will be arrested.
It is believed to be the first time the orders has been brought in to cover an entire city.
The measures follow the revelation that drink was responsible for more than half the violent assaults in the city centre in the past 12 months.
Cardiff Council deputy leader Judith Woodman said: 'It gives police the right to confiscate alcohol where people are behaving in a rowdy and disorderly way and causing problems to residents and those around them.' The move could now be followed by other cities.
It comes as experts warned that British schoolgirls are the worst for binge drinking in Europe. The problem is likely to become worse as it becomes more socially acceptable, a conference heard.
Some 648 children under ten were admitted to hospital due to drink between 2003 and 2008.
Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: 'We are more than double our nearest rivals when it comes to women binge drinking. We stand out like sore thumbs.'
He added that many career women were drinking to 'hold their own' with male colleagues at after-work drinking sessions.
Binge drinking among young women hit the headlines again last week when university students across the country took part in organised marathon pub crawls.
Many familiar scenes of debauchery were seen, including half-naked women collapsing on the street.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Manthropology: The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male
An interesting article that will surely raise a few eyebrows. From Reuters news service come an article by John Mehaffey called, Modern man a wimp says anthropologist.
LONDON (Reuters) - Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.
Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.
Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.
These and other eye-catching claims are detailed in a book by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister entitled "Manthropology" and provocatively sub-titled "The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male."
McAllister sets out his stall in the opening sentence of the prologue.
"If you're reading this then you -- or the male you have bought it for -- are the worst man in history.
"No ifs, no buts -- the worst man, period...As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet."
Delving into a wide range of source material McAllister finds evidence he believes proves that modern man is inferior to his predecessors in, among other fields, the basic Olympic athletics disciplines of running and jumping.
His conclusions about the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago are based on a set of footprints, preserved in a fossilized claypan lake bed, of six men chasing prey.
FLEET-FOOTED ABORIGINALS
An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men, dubbed T8, shows he reached speeds of 37 kph on a soft, muddy lake edge. Bolt, by comparison, reached a top speed of 42 kph during his then world 100 meters record of 9.69 seconds at last year's Beijing Olympics.
In an interview in the English university town of Cambridge where he was temporarily resident, McAllister said that, with modern training, spiked shoes and rubberized tracks, aboriginal hunters might have reached speeds of 45 kph.
"We can assume they are running close to their maximum if they are chasing an animal," he said.
"But if they can do that speed of 37 kph on very soft ground I suspect there is a strong chance they would have outdone Usain Bolt if they had all the advantages that he does.
"We can tell that T8 is accelerating toward the end of his tracks."
McAllister said it was probable that any number of T8's contemporaries could have run as fast.
"We have to remember too how incredibly rare these fossilizations are," he said. "What are the odds that you would get the fastest runner in Australia at that particular time in that particular place in such a way that was going to be preserved?"
Turning to the high jump, McAllister said photographs taken by a German anthropologist showed young men jumping heights of up to 2.52 meters in the early years of last century.
STARK DECLINE
"It was an initiation ritual, everybody had to do it. They had to be able to jump their own height to progress to manhood," he said.
"It was something they did all the time and they lived very active lives from a very early age. They developed very phenomenal abilities in jumping. They were jumping from boyhood onwards to prove themselves."
McAllister said a Neanderthal woman had 10 percent more muscle bulk than modern European man. Trained to capacity she would have reached 90 percent of Schwarzenegger's bulk at his peak in the 1970s.
"But because of the quirk of her physiology, with a much shorter lower arm, she would slam him to the table without a problem," he said.
Manthropology abounds with other examples:
* Roman legions completed more than one-and-a-half marathons a day carrying more than half their body weight in equipment.
* Athens employed 30,000 rowers who could all exceed the achievements of modern oarsmen.
* Australian aboriginals threw a hardwood spear 110 meters or more (the current world javelin record is 98.48).
McAllister said it was difficult to equate the ancient spear with the modern javelin but added: "Given other evidence of Aboriginal man's superb athleticism you'd have to wonder whether they couldn't have taken out every modern javelin event they entered."
Why the decline?
"We are so inactive these days and have been since the industrial revolution really kicked into gear," McAllister replied. "These people were much more robust than we were.
"We don't see that because we convert to what things were like about 30 years ago. There's been such a stark improvement in times, technique has improved out of sight, times and heights have all improved vastly since then but if you go back further it's a different story.
"At the start of the industrial revolution there are statistics about how much harder people worked then.
"The human body is very plastic and it responds to stress. We have lost 40 percent of the shafts of our long bones because we have much less of a muscular load placed upon them these days.
"We are simply not exposed to the same loads or challenges that people were in the ancient past and even in the recent past so our bodies haven't developed. Even the level of training that we do, our elite athletes, doesn't come close to replicating that.
"We wouldn't want to go back to the brutality of those days but there are some things we would do well to profit from."
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Walgreens Sells "Illegal Alien" Halloween Costume
Wallgreens and Target have both pulled the items because of complaints. From the Chicago Tribune, Target, Walgreens pull 'illegal alien' costume after complaints.
Some stores have stopped selling an "illegal alien" Halloween costume after complaints from immigrant-rights activists. The costume includes an orange jumpsuit similar to prison garb, with "ILLEGAL ALIEN" stamped across the chest, a "green card" and a space alien mask.
Activists complained when they learned the costume was sold in stores or on Web sites of retailers including Target and Walgreens. It was priced at $27.49 to $39.99.
The costume makes a "mockery of the status of millions of immigrants in need of Immigration reform," said Chicagoan Jorge Mujica of the activist group the March 10th Committee.
Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights urged a boycott of stores. "When a corporation dehumanizes immigrants, the best thing is to stop buying from it," he said.
Target halted sales. "It was never our intent to offend the consumers with the products we offer," Target said in a statement.
Walgreens spokeswoman Vivika Vergara said the costume was never in its stores and was pulled from its Web site. "We received feedback from customers and decided it was best to stop carrying it so it would not be subject to varied interpretation," she said in an e-mail message.
The maker of the costume, Forum Novelties Inc., could not be reached.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
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