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Sunday Reads: Rouge no…it’s blush-on

Posted: July 15, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Affordable Care Act (ACA), child sexual abuse, children, Food, Foreign Affairs, health, Health care reform, Hillary Clinton, morning reads, Political Affective Disorder, Women's Healthcare | Tags: , , , |48 Comments »

Good Morning

Funny how sometimes you miss things, little things.

While writing this post I am watching Taxi Driver, I’ve seen it many times, but for some reason I must have missed the director’s cameo. I don’t know maybe I’ve just forgotten that Martin Scorsese was sitting on the steps, watching Cybil Shepard walk by…in that white dress.

(Of course Scorsese has that speaking role in the cab as the crazed husband…but that scene is one I remember.)

Anyway, seeing this film again only makes those later Scorsese films, particularly the ones he did with Leonardo di Caprio even more disappointing.

Strange introduction I know, but I am dieting, and my fuzzy memory may just be the result of my body going through popcorn withdraws. Seriously, you have no idea just what kind of popcorn “freak” I am…and this no-fat Greek yogurt just is not giving me the same kind of satisfaction as those greasy salt covered popped kernels do.

I am so glad to see this week come to an end, my dad is refusing to listen to the doctor’s recommendations…so it is back to the same old story. Damn it’s so frustrating, it’s like living a re-run every six to seven months.   I really don’t mean to ramble on like this, but when you see the paltry selections of links I have for you today, you will see that I am just too tired…and to hungry to write a long post.

On Friday, I posted a bunch of cartoons about the Penn State cover-up. Well, this first story reads like something you would see in one of those cartoons. (Especially the ironic bit about the Blue Ribbon.) You will see what I mean, check it out, emphasis mine.  Artist paints over halo on Joe Paterno mural

An artist has removed a halo from a mural of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno amid the school’s child sex-abuse scandal.

On the left, the original mural depiction of Joe Paterno. On the right, the updated version.

Michael Pilato had put a halo over Paterno’s image after the beloved coach’s death in January, but said he felt he had to remove it Saturday after a report that Paterno, former university president Graham Spanier and others buried allegations of child sex-abuse against ex-assistant Jerry Sandusky. Paterno’s family denies the claim.

Pilato added a large blue ribbon, instead, on Paterno’s lapel symbolizing support for child abuse victims, a cause the artist said Paterno had endorsed.

Pilato earlier removed Sandusky from the downtown mural. He said he hasn’t made a decision on Spanier’s image. Spanier has not been charged. Sandusky has been convicted and is awaiting sentencing.

Paterno wearing a ribbon to support child abuse victims? A cause Paterno supposedly endorsed, it just makes me sick!

Ugh, my guess is that I am not the only one feeling ill after reading that crap. This next link is not as disturbing, it discusses some pathetic statistics about uninsured women…however there is some hope that as the ACA kicks in, many of these women will finally get some coverage. Nearly Half Of American Women Afraid They Can’t Afford To Get Sick

In England, getting sick is a health issue, not an economic one.

Indeed, a full 91 percent of U.K. women are confident they could afford the costs associated with a serious illness. Not so in the United States, where 48 percent of women can’t express such confidence, according to a recently released study by The Commonwealth Fund.

No doubt a lot of that has to do with a lack of insurance. In 2010, roughly 18.7 million women in the United States, or 20 percent, did not have access to health insurance. This amounts to 6 million more women without insurance than just ten years before. (h/t: EurekAlert)

This new report by the commonwealth fund says the number of uninsured has increased since 2010. Now one in four Americans are uninsured.

This is all important because the decision to seek help is tremendously influenced by whether someone has insurance. While only 32 percent of insured women were put off from seeking care because of cost-related issues, that percentage more than doubled among uninsured women, the study found.

The report does estimate that the percentage of women in the United States without access to health insurance will fall to 8 percent upon the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act. In Texas, which today is estimated as having the highest percentage of uninsured women, approximately 11.6 percent of women will remain uninsured after the act’s full implementation.

As I mentioned up top, I recently started a diet, everyone in my family has. We are trying to eat healthier. I guess keeping a journal will be another way to help to lose the weight. Keep a journal, don’t skip meals to shed weight: study

Want to drop those extra pounds without starving yourself? Keeping a food journal, not skipping meals and eating out less often, particularly for lunch, will help, according to new research released on Friday.

Scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, in a study that looked at the impact of various self-monitoring techniques in older overweight and obese women, showed that simple changes in behavior can make a difference on the scales.

They found that in the year-long study women who kept journals lost six pounds (2.7 kgs) more than those you didn’t, but if they skipped meals they dropped eight pounds (3.6 kgs) less than women who ate regularly.

Ladies who lunched in a restaurant at least weekly lost on average five fewer pounds (2.3 kgs).

Maybe a journal will help keep track of what I eat, but I fear my notes will turn into nothing more than bitch sessions, full of long passionate run-on sentences about the foods I am craving, intertwined with the typical cursing associated with someone whose put off dieting for so long.

Again I go off on a tangent.

Hillary is in the news again, Hillary Clinton most-traveled Secretary of State ever -

Hillary Clinton most-traveled Secretary of State ever

Jul. 14, 2012 – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues on her marathon diplomatic trip around the world in Egypt, marking her 9th country in 13 days. Clinton has traveled to 102 countries as diplomat to the world.

Wow, what a woman!

I will end this post with two clips, the first one is from the movie Taxi Driver, and the scene is one of the most famous in all cinema. You talkin’ to me?

Then we have the same scene, only with a South Park finish…as Mr. Garrison goes shopping for just the right gun. I’ve tried to embed the video on this post, but it may not be working correctly. Anyway, be sure to check it out.

Buying a Gun (Season 1, Episode 2) – Video Clips – South Park Studios

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48 Comments on “Sunday Reads: Rouge no…it’s blush-on”

  1. HT says:
    July 15, 2012 at 6:50 am

    Bon chance with the diet JJ. Take lots of walks – but not in this oppressive heat – and drink lots of water. Walked the wonder dog at 6 this morning and it was trying so hard to rain – but nothing.
    Blue ribbon indeed. Another attempt to reduce the opprobrium that these men justly deserve.

  2. bostonboomer says:
    July 15, 2012 at 7:59 am

    Taxi Driver is probably my favorite movie of all time. It’s brilliant and the cinematography is just gorgeous. From a psychological point of view, it’s a fascinating representation of a person with a serious psychological disorder who manages to disguise his illness (partly through self-medication) within the insane American culture.

    But I still think Goodfellas is a very good movie, and Cape Fear is one of my guilty pleasures. It is also one of the few remakes that I think is nearly as good as the original. The Last Waltz is another Scorcese film that I love.

    But really, the 1970s was the golden decade for movies. There’s no doubt about it.

    • JJ Lopez Minkoff says:
      July 15, 2012 at 10:15 am

      I agree with you on Cape Fear and The Last Waltz, to me Goodfellas is up at the top of the list of my favorite movies.

      • Eric Pleim says:
        July 15, 2012 at 11:00 am

        Try Mean Streets, which is my favorite of all movies. It presages all the great gangster movies of the 70′s, and is the star making film for Deniro and Harvey Keitel. You won’t be disappointed.

  3. bostonboomer says:
    July 15, 2012 at 8:19 am

    US is building criminal cases in rate fixing.

  4. bostonboomer says:
    July 15, 2012 at 8:45 am

    Another contradictory document about Romney’s connection to Bain in 2002:

    A corporate document filed with the state of Massachusetts in December 2002 — a month after Romney was elected governor — lists him as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors, LLC “authorized to execute, acknowledge, deliver and record any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real property, whether to be recorded with a Registry of Deeds or with a District Office of the Land Court.”

    • bostonboomer says:
      July 15, 2012 at 8:51 am

      The mountain of evidence that Romney had a connection to the firm after 1999 leaves him with two possible explanations, neither of them political appealing: Either Romney was officially in charge of the company but took no actual responsibility for it, or he was involved then and is either lying or shading the truth now.

      The latter has its obvious drawbacks, and the former doesn’t paint Romney as a portrait of stand-up leadership. President Barack Obama over the weekend seized on Romney’s attempt to shed responsibility for the company he officially ran, arguing that a U.S. president doesn’t have the luxury of picking and choosing when he’s responsible for what happens on his watch.

  5. mjames says:
    July 15, 2012 at 8:58 am

    I’ve kept a journal for years and have managed, more or less, to maintain my weight and health. I also work out at the gym almost daily (I love it): elliptical, stair climber, stretching, core work, and weights. I’m like a mini-bodybuilder. (Ha!) Most days, while drinking my morning java, I set up my foods for the day in a big notebook, inserting under the headings: item of food, calories (1500 for me), sodium (1500mg), cholesterol (200mg), fat (40g), saturated fat (14g), and protein (75g at a minimum). Most nights my treat is a Skinny Cow. I don ‘t always keep to what I plan, but overall it really works. I prepare most of my food myself. I love protein, but don’t care for most fruits and vegetables, so I take supplements as well to cover those bases. Also – avoid stress (lol).

    Good luck. Don’t deprive yourself too much. Don’t let yourself get too hungry. You just have to make it a way of life and then forget about it.

    What really bothers me about the Sandusky matter, aside from bringing up so much pain from my childhood, is the ignorance of people as to the enormity of what has happened. IMO, Sandusky has either faulty wiring or he was raped as a child (my bet is the latter, especially at the rec center his father ran). It is impossible for him to stop himself. (That is not an excuse, simply the horrible truth.) So … let’s say he molested (or raped) 100 young boys (since I believe he’s been doing this since the 70s, that is a highly conservative number). Let’s say 50 of those boys become pedophiles, and each of them molests or rapes 100 boys, 50 of each of whom become pedophiles. (These are also highly conservative numbers.) With Sandusky we have 14 years provable. So multiply this by 14. And then acknowledge that the pedophilia caused by Sandusky is still spreading today! And this is not mentioning the other 50 boys in each group, the ones who suffer from substance abuse, petty crime, terrible despair, guilt, and shame, and who live lives of solitary desperation, unable to trust anyone ever again. Thousands upon thousands.

    Then we turn to the enablers, who are the ones who do not have faulty wiring or a history of being abused. These are the true monsters. These are the ONLY ones who could have stopped this. Now the Board of Trustees is turning a blind eye once again. It’s shameful – and I have to wonder what Paterno had on them and what Sandusky had on Paterno. I have to wonder who else is involved. It is common sense and basic humanity to raze the statue, remove Paterno’s name from every building, from anything and everything that has his name on it. Heap shame on him. (Don’t pay him MORE money, as the BOT did.) Paterno did nothing in his life that could in any way offset the magnitude of his crimes. Furthermore, there is no doubt he committed perjury in the grand jury and that he was part of a conspiracy to commit child endangerment. He was first an accessory after the fact and then he became, in reality, an accomplice.

    I believe the football program should be shut down forever, but I would settle for 14 years, the number of years we can prove a cover-up. I cannot stand the folks who say: what about the poor football players today, the ones who did nothing? I don’t care (there is always collateral damage when someone commits a crime), and there are remedies available to them anyway. They can sue Penn State for fraud in the inducement. They can demand that Penn State help them relocate to other schools and pay whatever costs are involved. But it’s still about money for Penn State. Penn plans to go ahead with the fall schedule. They are all the lowest of the low. All of them.

    Now let me put this out of my mind and head over to the gym. Have a nice day everyone.

    • Fannie says:
      July 15, 2012 at 9:30 am

      mjames, good job on changing your life style, not easy to do, but I agree once you are done playing all the games, and cheating about, the best thing to do is forget about it, and move on with the changes, letting them fall into place. I’ve been loosing weight, gradually, and am staying away (occasionally will indulge) from breads, rice, pasta, etc. I have chocolate, and the biggest thing about it all is your “portion” sizes.

      I agree about Penn State, they are the lowest of the low.

      Good Luck JJ – one of the things I did was take up dancing, that was good for me.

    • JJ Lopez Minkoff says:
      July 15, 2012 at 10:12 am

      Mjames Thank you for posting your comment on the dieting journal. I want to try and accept my new diet, and move on…but I don’t think I can do it just yet. There is this voice in my mind that keeps saying…popcorn, pasta, ice cream…fuck this carrot stick. I’ve never had a drug or alcohol addiction, but I’ve been addicted to food. (See, like I said, run-on sentences and cussing.)

      Sigh.

      As far as the Penn State, they should be suspended from playing football. I totally agree about that. I saw another article about the artist taking off Paterno’s halo: Artist erases halo over Joe Paterno on Pennsylvania mural | Reuters

      “I think Joe Paterno is an amazing human being. I think he made a major bad decision in his life,” Pilato, 43, told Reuters in a phone interview to explain why he altered his mural titled “Inspiration” that was unveiled 12 years ago.

      A major bad decision? And then this:

      Artist removes Joe Paterno’s halo from Penn State mural – U.S. News

      After removing the halo, Pilato painted a blue ribbon over the chest of the late coach’s image.

      “The last time I saw Joe in his home before he died, he said to me, ‘I wish there were classes taught on sexual abuse,’” Pilato said. “The blue ribbon signifies awareness of the sexual abuse and knowing where Joe’s thoughts were on this, I felt it was appropriate to give him the blue ribbon.”

      What the hell? I am too hungry to put into words what a load of shit this is. And get this…the artist daughter is a victim of rape:

      In December, emboldened by the victims in the Penn State scandal, Pilato’s 16-year-old daughter, Skye, went public with the story of her own abuse — being raped by two men when she was 12, the local Centre Daily Times reported.

      The attitude towards Paterno still has a hero worship tone to it…like I said, my anger is just too strong to put into words what I am feeling about the situation.

      Joe Paterno Got Richer Contract Amid Jerry Sandusky Inquiry – NYTimes.com

      Press Box: Paterno statue will remain standing – Chicago Tribune

      There are a couple of articles/updates on all this. I still think that Mike McQueary got his promotion in return for his silence. They all should rot in hell.

      • Beata says:
        July 15, 2012 at 11:10 am

        JJ, I am probably not the best person to give advice on losing weight ( my problem is trying to gain weight! ) but I hope you are not beating yourself up about the diet thing. It seems like you have a lot of stress in your life right now and maybe a drastic change in diet is too much for you to deal with. Try making a few minor changes and see how that works.

  6. RalphB says:
    July 15, 2012 at 9:42 am

    This sounds about right to me. Robert Parry at consortiumnews:

    The Romney ‘Fact-Checking’ Scandal

    Self-styled “independent fact-checkers” at the Annenberg Center and the neoconservative-dominated Washington Post have positioned themselves as ardent defenders of Mitt Romney’s claims that his Bain Capital tenure ended in 1999 despite questions raised by contradictory information submitted by Romney himself.

    Indeed, the behavior of these “fact-checkers” is rapidly becoming the journalism scandal of Campaign 2012 as the likes of Brooks Jackson at Annenberg’s FactCheck.org and the Post’s Glenn Kessler act more as querulous lawyers protecting Romney than as journalists seeking the actual facts surrounding Romney’s curious business narrative.

    Much as the Post’s Ceci Connolly and the New York Times’ Katharine Seeyle engaged in aggressive – and dishonest – journalism to portray Vice President Al Gore as a serial liar during Campaign 2000, Jackson and Kessler are performing a similar role in portraying President Barack Obama and his campaign officials as liars now.

    • bostonboomer says:
      July 15, 2012 at 10:00 am

      This is hilarious. Ed Gillespie says Romney “retired retroactively” from Bain.

      I guess it was one of those Etch-a-sketch things. He wanted to wipe out his record of outsourcing and putting people out of work, so he just erased it–once he had convinced Massachusetts officials that he was still at Bain in order to be eligible to run for governor, that is.

    • bostonboomer says:
      July 15, 2012 at 11:06 am

      The Robert Parry piece is excellent! This one is very good also:

      Romney claims he pays all taxes that he legally owes, and his campaign says his overseas assets weren’t used as tax shelters. Okay, perhaps, but a well-reported Vanity Fair piece, “Where the Money Lives” by Nicholas Shaxson, suggests that this is not something we should take on faith. For instance, Romney won’t disclose the details of his Cayman Islands holdings, including as much as $30 million in at least 12 of the 138 Bain Capital funds that are organized there.

      The tax advantages that come with locating a company in the Cayman Islands are so lucrative that 9,000 hedge funds are located there. Foreigners don’t face taxes on income, capital gains or profits. The big loser is the U.S. Treasury.

      Then there’s Bermuda, another known tax haven. Romney created a Bermuda-based entity in 1997, wholly owned it, and transferred it to his wife’s blind trust just before becoming governor of Massachusetts. According to Romney’s 2010 tax return, there weren’t many assets in it, but in prior years it could have sheltered significant assets. There’s no way to know without Romney coming clean. He won’t.

      What gives? If it’s relevant to know how much a presidential candidate pays to cut his hair (see John Edwards), shouldn’t his foreign assets be fair game?

      Romney and his wife have many of their assets in retirement accounts and blind trusts (though Shaxson suggests they may not be so blind). He could have asked their trust managers to avoid tax shelter countries, if for nothing else than to maintain appearances.

  7. bostonboomer says:
    July 15, 2012 at 10:06 am

    Bill Kristol: “Romney should release his tax returns tomorrow.”

    “He should release the tax returns tomorrow. It’s crazy,” Kristol said on “Fox News Sunday.” “You gotta release six, eight, 10 years of back tax returns. Take the hit for a day or two.”

    Kristol also called on Romney to engage in a “serious” debate with President Barack Obama over capitalism and redirect the political conversation back to the president’s record on the economy.

    Drip, drip, drip….

  8. JJ Lopez Minkoff says:
    July 15, 2012 at 10:50 am

    I’ve also got a few links to update you on a few things:

    Syrian Government Denies Attack on Village

    Red Cross: Syrian conflict now a civil war – USATODAY.com

    A victory for Republicans, Florida wins use of federal database to purge voters – CSMonitor.com

    Clinton talks democracy with head of Egypt army | Reuters

    Solar Storm Bombarding Earth Today | Space.com

    Two Classes in America, Divided by ‘I Do’ – NYTimes.com

    Bush Presenting Book of Economic Proposals – NYTimes.com

    • JJ Lopez Minkoff says:
      July 15, 2012 at 10:59 am

      Wow: More than 381,000 infected in Chinese outbreak | The Raw Story

      The Chinese province of Hunan urged parents on Sunday to seek immediate treatment for children showing symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease after official figures showed 112 people died from the illness last month.

      The disease, which children are especially vulnerable to, also infected more than 381,000 people, the Ministry of Health reported last week.

      “The disease incidence rate in June was much higher than that of last June, which has much to do with the high temperatures this summer,” said Liu Fuqiang with the provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

  9. ecocatwoman says:
    July 15, 2012 at 11:07 am

    Just watched Moyers & Company this morning. In the 1st half hour Bill interviewed Sheila Bair (LIBOR, the economy & capitalism). In the 2nd, the amazing Vandana Shiva. What a fantastic show: http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-banking-on-greed/ It’s worth an hour of everyone’s time.

    • Beata says:
      July 15, 2012 at 11:39 am

      I agree, Connie. That was an excellent program. Moyers’ show is television at its best.

      Earlier this month, Moyers had poet Philip Appleman on the show, reading some of his works:

      http://billmoyers.com/content/five-poems-by-philip-appleman/

      • ecocatwoman says:
        July 15, 2012 at 12:06 pm

        Thanks, Beata. I have to catch up on the shows I missed during my “no cable” months. I’m with you on “Moyers’ show is television at its best.” I had no idea who Elizabeth Warren was until I saw her on his show several years ago. She blew me away. Today, I wanted to give Vandana Shiva a standing ovation – she is simply incredible.

  10. Fannie says:
    July 15, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Talking Turkey, I see the republicans are out spining Obama’s policy move to eliminate the requirements for Temp. Asst. for Needy Program. In one article titled, Obama to Clinton welfare reform drop dead…………….They are calling this bipartisan efforts via the Daily Caller Blog article. He did so to cut through the red tape.

    With Tucker Carlson, and Ginny Thoms, and Matt Lewis, and Mickey Kaus proving their bipartisan bullschitt.

    Wasn’t it last week the House Farm Bill/House of Agriculture Committee cut SNAP/FOOD STAMPS, and I mean enormous cuts.

    Here we are crippled in a recession, with the highest number of poor, including those who are fire fighters/police whose salaries are being reduced to mimumum wages, wages that have not been raised in years, people with families…………they will not just experience frustration, they will end up with hopeless like the rest of the poor in this country. These are the reasons that numbers are swelling, this is why the GOP is cutting services, such as childcare, and health services to deal with the illnesses they are creating mentally and by increasing malnutrition to all our citizens. If that doesn’t work, they are now refusing to have any part of the government inspect foods, that right there ought to kill off millions. And don’t for a second think the Mormon church will be opening it’s food bank doors. What a hopeless future, just hopeless.

  11. bostonboomer says:
    July 15, 2012 at 11:30 am

    Another good attack line: Dick Durbin says Romney is running from Bain “like a scalded cat.”

    • RalphB says:
      July 15, 2012 at 11:41 am

      Wow, Bain is his reason for becoming president but he had nothing to do with it. How’s that supposed to work? :-)

    • RalphB says:
      July 15, 2012 at 11:46 am

      Ed Gillespie is such a stupid tool. Outsourcing is the result of Obama’s policies? Apparently they retroactively made Obama president for the last 20 years.

      • bostonboomer says:
        July 15, 2012 at 11:52 am

        Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. LOL

      • ecocatwoman says:
        July 15, 2012 at 12:10 pm

        Don’t you remember? Obama was Prez when Lou Dobbs was still at CNN & screaming & setting the sets on fire about outsourcing. Just need to edit those video tapes a bit & it could be true, right?

  12. RalphB says:
    July 15, 2012 at 11:34 am

    Raw Story with video. Rahm isn’t a whiner.

    Rahm Emanuel: If Romney ‘whining’ about Bain, how will he handle China?

    During an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Emanuel pointed out that Romney’s protests made him look less than presidential.

    “Stephanie cited the law and it’s very clear,” Emanuel explained. “Either the filing with the SEC is accurate and his personal financial disclosure is not honest or that’s honest and the SEC [filing] isn’t. Both can’t be accurate.”

    “Give it up about Stephanie,” he continued. “Don’t worry about that. What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something or [Russian President Vladimir] Putin says [something] to you? Are you going to whine as your way? You cannot do that.”

    “As Mitt Romney said once to his own Republican colleagues, stop whining. I give him his own advice: Stop whining.”

    Emanuel added: “If you want to claim Bain Capital as your calling card to the White House then defend what happened to Bain Capital and what happened to those jobs that went overseas, those jobs that were actually cut and eliminated and the companies that went into bankruptcy. And the very companies that went into bankruptcy while Bain was still getting paid, same philosophy that led to him advocating that the auto industry go bankrupt.”

  13. ecocatwoman says:
    July 15, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    Another good line from Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me, speaking about Romney’s speech to the NAACP: “for once he invoked a passionate response from an audience. Granted, it was fear and loathing.”

  14. RalphB says:
    July 15, 2012 at 2:07 pm

    Brad DeLong:

    FLASH: Mitt Romney Hires O.J. Simpson to Find the Real CEO of Bain Capital from 1999-2002

  15. RalphB says:
    July 15, 2012 at 2:25 pm
  16. RalphB says:
    July 15, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    #retroactive is trending on twitter and hilarious :-)

  17. NW Luna says:
    July 15, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    While only 32 percent of insured women were put off from seeking care because of cost-related issues,

    “Only” nearly a third of those with insurance? What an immoral system we have in the US.

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