Tuesday Reads
Posted: July 2, 2013 Filed under: Barack Obama, Egypt, Foreign Affairs, morning reads, Russia, U.S. Politics, Violence against women | Tags: Arizona wildfires, Edward Snowden, firefighters, marijuana-schizophrenia connection, Mohammed Morsi, suicide and schizophrenia 73 Comments
Good Morning!!
As the record-breaking heat wave continues in the West, firefighters in Arizona continue to fight the wildfires that killed 19 of their compatriots last night. NBC News reports:
Firefighters battling the Arizona blaze that killed 19 elite colleagues faced a tough task on Tuesday amid an excessive heat warning issued by the National Weather Service. Gusting winds of up to 20 mph threatened to fan the flames near Yarnell, Arizona, and officials were wary about propane tanks known to be in the town of 700 people. The dead firefighters’ colleagues continued to battle the raging blaze that by 9:30 p.m. local time Monday (11:30 p.m. ET) was zero percent contained. More firefighters are expected to join the 500-strong group. As the community began to mourn the loss of the men decribed as “heroes” by President Barack Obama, medical examiners were due to begin carrying out autopsies in the wake of the area’s “largest mass-casualty event in memory.”
The names of the men killed are:
Anthony Rose, 23; Eric Marsh, 43; Robert Caldwell, 23; Clayton Whitted , 28; Scott Norris, 28; Dustin Deford, 24; Sean Misner, 26; Garret Zuppiger, 27; Travis Carter, 31; Grant McKee, 21; Travis Turbyfill, 27; Jesse Steed, 36; Wade Parker, 22; Joe Thurston, 32; William Warneke, 25; and John Percin, 24; Kevin Woyjeck, 21; Chris MacKenzie, 30; and Andrew Ashcraft, 29.
From the Wall Street Journal: Sudden Turn in Flames Doomed Firefighters.
The men, aged between 21 and 43, were members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew who endured grueling training together before being dispatched to battle wildfires nationwide. Based in Prescott, only 34 miles away from Yarnell, they knew the terrain. But late Sunday afternoon, the firefighters radioed from their positions on the ground that they were in trouble. A short time later, a helicopter pilot reported to the Arizona State Forestry’s dispatch center in Phoenix that firefighters were attempting to shelter themselves west of Yarnell under fire-shelter covers, a heat-resistant specialty fabric made of aluminum foil, woven silica, and fiberglass—their last line of defense. Smoky conditions and heat made it difficult to check on the firefighters. “It felt like forever,” said Carrie Dennett, state fire-prevention officer for Arizona State Forestry. What rescuers eventually found was that the men had been caught in a “burn over,” a sudden change in the direction of the fire that overtook them faster than they could get out of the way, according to a spokesman with the Prescott Fire Department.
Heartbreaking.
Edward Snowden’s search for a country that will grant him asylum continues.
This morning the list of countries he had applied to increased to 21, but so far none has offered to shelter him, according to CBS News. Snowden withdrew his request to Russia after Vladimir Putin said Snowden would have to stop leaking information designed to hurt the U.S.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that behind the scenes, the U.S. and Russia have been talking non-stop about how to resolve the Snowden conundrum. President Putin is between a rock and a hard place, explains Palmer; he won’t expel Snowden into U.S. custody, but he hopes to limit the damage to U.S.-Russian relations. With Snowden’s withdrawal of the asylum request to Russia, Palmer says, you could almost hear a sign of relief from the Kremlin. Poland rejected Snowden’s asylum request on Tuesday, and officials in Germany, Norway, Austria, Spain and Switzerland said that he could not apply for asylum from abroad. Many European countries require an asylum request to be made on their soil. Later Tuesday, India’s External Affairs Ministry said it had carefully examined Snowden’s request and decided to turn it down. Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters the government had “concluded that we see no reason to accede to that request.” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, coincidentally wrapping up a long-planned visit to Moscow, said Tuesday that his government had not yet received an official asylum request from Snowden, but that it would be considered if and when received.
The massive protests continue in Egypt.
From The Washington Post: Egypt protesters step up pressures with president facing military deadline and internal rifts.
CAIRO — With a military deadline for intervention ticking down, protesters seeking the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president sought Tuesday to push the embattled leader further toward the edge with another massive display of people power. Meanwhile, Mohammed Morsi faced fissures from within after a stunning surge of street rage reminiscent of Egypt’s Arab Spring revolution in 2011 that cleared the way for Morsi’s long-suppressed Muslim Brotherhood to win the first open elections in decades. Three government spokesmen were the latest to quit as part of high-level defections that underscored his increasing isolation and fallout from the ultimatum from Egypt’s powerful armed forces to either find a political solution by Wednesday or the generals would seek their own way to end the political chaos. The Cabinet, led by the Morsi-backed Prime Minister Hesham Qandil, was scheduled to meet later Tuesday. But the defense and interior ministers were expected to boycott in a sign of support for the military’s warnings. The police, which are under control of the Interior Ministry, have stood on the sidelines of the protests, refusing even to protect the offices of the Muslim Brotherhood that have been attacked and ransacked.
President Obama weighed in on the Egyptian situation yesterday. From Bloomberg Businessweek:
President Barack Obama told Mursi in a telephone call yesterday that the U.S. “is committed to the democratic process in Egypt and does not support any single party or group,” according to a White House statement. Obama encouraged Mursi “to take steps to show that he is responsive” to the concerns of demonstrators, stressing “that democracy is about more than elections, it is also about ensuring that the voices of all Egyptians are heard and represented by their government.” During the conversation, Obama “underscored his deep concern about violence” and sexual assaults during the demonstrations and urged Mursi “to make clear to his supporters that all forms of violence are unacceptable,” according to the statement.
In other news,
There’s an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal by Samuel T. Wilkinson on the connection between marijuana and schizophrenia. Years ago the boyfriend of one of my closest friends developed schizophrenia after years of heavy daily pot-smoking. At the time I suspected that there was a connection. He probably had a genetic tendency toward the disease that might not have manifested without the marijuana use. Wilkinson writes:
Recent legislation has permitted the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington state. Those who support legalization often tout the lack of serious medical consequences associated with the drug. Most of us know people who used marijuana in high school or college and seem to have suffered no significant medical consequences. As the medical and scientific literature continues to accumulate, however, it is becoming clearer that the claim that marijuana is medically harmless is false. There is a significant and consistent relationship between marijuana use and the development of schizophrenia and related disorders. Schizophrenia is considered by psychiatrists to be the most devastating of mental illnesses. Patients who suffer from it often experience auditory or visual hallucinations, severe social withdrawal and cognitive impairment. Many require frequent and prolonged hospitalization in psychiatric wards. Schizophrenia affects almost three million Americans—more than six times the number of people with multiple sclerosis, two and a half times the number of people with Parkinson’s disease, and more than twice the number of people with HIV/AIDS. Less than one-third of patients with schizophrenia can hold a steady job or live independently. A large portion (about one-third) of homeless people in the U.S. suffer from the disease. Though they receive little attention in the legalization debate, the scientific studies showing an association between marijuana use and schizophrenia and other disorders are alarming. A 2004 article in the highly respected British Journal of Psychiatry reviewed four large studies, all of which showed a significant and consistent association between consumption of marijuana (mostly during teenage years or early 20s) and the later development of schizophrenia. The review concluded that marijuana is a “causal component,” among others, in the development of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
I hope everyone will read this article. I don’t think anything is going to stop the legalization of marijuana at this point, but we need to be aware of the dangers of this drug to young people. Schizophrenia is a very serious illness that develops in early adulthood, usually before age 35. It is partly genetic but is usually triggered by some kind of environmental stress. Marijuana use appears to be one possible trigger. A high percentage of people with schizophrenia end up committing suicide.
A large 5-year World Health Organization study consisting of the follow-up of 1056 patients exhibiting psychotic symptoms found the most common cause of death in those with schizophrenia was suicide (Sartorius et al, 1986). In their review of the subject Caldwell and Gottesman (1990) found that 9-13% of patients with schizophrenia eventually commit suicide. At least 20-40% make suicide attempts (Meltzer & Fatemi, 1995) and 1-2% go on to complete in their attempt within the next 12 months (Meltzer & Okayli 1995). Therefore, suicide in schizophrenia has long been a major area of concern and research efforts.
In Denmark, Mortensen and Juel (1993) used the national case register to retrospectively examine mortality in a sample of 9156 patients following their first admission with schizophrenia, and reported 50% of males and 35% of females went on to commit suicide during the 17-year study period, with the relative risk of suicide increasing by 56% over this time. This suggests that the current level of risk is not stable, and is certainly not improving. The devastation that suicide brings for relatives, as well as the immense personal suffering the victim endures, must surely make this one of the most pressing issues for psychiatry to address. Carers and professionals are often left with feelings of profound ineffectualness and guilt in the face of suicide, and so it is vital for clinicians to feel confident in their understanding of risk assessment and management in this particularly vulnerable group.
My friend never recovered significantly; and the last I heard, he continued to have delusions and cognitive distortions. I doubt if he stayed on anti-psychotic medications–that wasn’t his style. He was employed at times and managed to stay in touch with some friends. But he was a completely different person than before he developed the disease. Before, he was a talented musician and earned a living playing in an Irish folk group. He was gregarious and had a many friends. For those of us who knew him, it was as if that person died and someone else took his place.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I see WordPress has changed the comment box. I don’t like it much. Anyway, have a great day everyone!
The format is strange – right under this post is Saturday’s “Caturday” post. The others aren’t showing. I’m on Safari; perhaps it will show up correctly in Firefox.
No, there’s something wrong with WordPress. The sidebars are completely gone. I e-mailed the admins. I’ll call Dak if I don’t hear anything in a bit. I can’t figure out how to fix it.
Hey I just go the message about the blog.
it was wild divs in the morning post
Oh I hate those damn divs!
Firefox shows the same weird format.
I solved the sidebar and comment box issues, but Dak is still having problem seeing the banner on Firefox. If that happens to anyone else or you see anything else strange about the blog format will you please let me know? I downloaded Firefox and it’s working OK for me. I normally use Chrome.
It looks fine on Safari and Firefox for me.
Thanks! I was hoping you’d come back.
I reinstalled Firefox. It’s okay now.
That’s good.
I messed with your pic and good morning format too to see if that helped. You can put it back if you want. I am now cranky at firefox.
Glenn Greenwald on Fox and Friends.
He says there are a lot more vast NSA programs to be revealed that Americans will be shocked about.
I think I’ve gotten over being shocked by about anything by now.
Me too. So far nothing has come out that I hadn’t read about before.
Next shocker may be that we tried to wiretap Hugo Chavez. That would probably upset Greenwald but no one else. 🙂
When he was 17, Aaron Hernandez punched a waiter so hard in the side of the head that his eardrum burst. Police recommended he be charged w/ felony battery, but he never was arrested.
More of our culture of sports figures get away with anything.
http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228
Oh crap. What a waste.
That couldn’t be true for MA I don’t think. I didn’t look at the list yet.
It’s a med school chancellor.
That’s creepy. Even true for Connecticut and RI.
He’s a bad apple to say the least, and the thing is he has never been convicted, not during the 4 years in Florida either. He’s bad, and gotta get rid of him.
His gun shot a guy in the eye and left his right arm useless — I only say it was “his” gun since there’s no evidence he pulled the trigger. The case is still in civil litigation — looks like Mr. Hernandez will be judgment proof for this lifetime at least.
I just read that Tim Tebow was also at that incident when Hernadez was 17 and tried to stop him from hurting the waiter.
http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/9445800/tim-tebow-intervened-aaron-hernandez-bar-fight-florida
Thanks for posting the item on cannabis and schizophrenia, BB. Any psychoactive substance has risks and benefits. There’s fair evidence marijuana can worsen anxiety and depression, lower cognitive ability, and increase risk of testicular cancer. Yes, it usually helps pain, especially neuropathic pain, and nausea. Most of the research has been done in Europe, for obvious reasons. We still need a lot more information. With the increases in state legalization I hope we’ll see more research and also neutral 3rd-party quality control.
The thing is alcohol has far worse effects than pretty much any illegal drug, so it’s hard to argue that pot should be kept illegal. Most people know if they have a family history of schizophrenia, in which case they should avoid smoking pot. A certain percentage of pot smokers can also become physically addicted.
In the case of alcohol, a small percentage of the population–about 10% has genetic characteristics that can trigger alcoholism. But alcohol is still harmful to social drinkers. It affects every organ in the body. However, people can recover from alcoholism. If you develop schizophrenia, the most likely result is continued deterioration.
BB do you have a link to that WSJ article?
Sorry JJ. I just added the link to the post. Here it is.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324637504578566094217815994.html
I guess the question is really whether the link is causal – something that’s very hard to prove in a case like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a similar correlation between youthful alcohol use and schizophrenia, either, but is that due to damage done by the drug or are incipient schizophrenics just more likely to take psychoactive substances?
Yeah BB thank you very much for that information!
Burnt Orange Report has good coverage of the TX abortion battles. Though today should be quiet with only testimony before a House committee beginning at 3:30 pm and going to midnight.
Y’all look downright civilized compared to what happened in Ohio though. I watched the details on Rachel last night and I’m more mad than I was when I wrote the post about it yesterday.
Yes, it’s really bad.
Sadly, the bill is ultimately almost sure to pass. The question is how much political damage we can do to the republicans because of it.
I just saw this tweet:
Jenn Diaz @JenMeanIt 6m
Sounds like fuckery in Austin. #HB2
that about sums it up…this session is going as planned for the GOP dickwads….
heather @LadySnarksalot 23m
Re: #HB2 meeting MT @scATX: went in a “random” order due to a “computer glitch” and all of their ppl spoke, lots of pro-choice didn’t.
Testimony isn’t supposed to end until midnight tonight.
There is no hearing set for SB 1, like there is for HB 2, and the Senate does not come back until July 9th, next Tuesday.
These will be the two bills to watch, and these two bills are essentially identical to SB 5.
The only thing that HB 2 changes is the recommended dosage for the “abortion-inducing drug” (one of Senator Van de Putte’s concerns). It also creates an exemption of the 20-week abortion ban for severe fetal abnormalities as defined in statute (note not for victims of rape or incest).
House Cmte livestream at http://www.texastribune.org/
1600+ people registered to testify 🙂
So far this is pretty sick(en)ing testimony.
You must have missed the earlier “against” testimony by the Texas Hospital Association and the American College of OB/GYN. They were very good!
“The Texas bills are a compilation of over-reaching measures to control when, where, and how a woman has an abortion,” said ACOG Texas District Chair Lisa M. Hollier, MD, MPH. “The bills are not based on sound science, despite our efforts to provide the legislature with the best available medical knowledge. The bills would erode women’s health by denying the women of Texas the benefits of well-researched, safe, and proven protocols.”
https://twitter.com/benjiwake/statuses/352189575407480833
Mori’s chances of staying in power get slimmer all the rime.
Egyptian President Morsi Rejects Military Ultimatum
Big dump: Huge document dump shows how Church protected abusers – Salon.com 6,000 pages!
Slate: Wendy Davis Was a Brunette. Feminism Is a Lie.
Oh noes, we’ve been found out.
The story at The Real Wendy Davis site is stupid and there are now 118 comments ripping the place apart. Hilarious.
Parents urge #lalege to restore disability funding http://www.americanpress.com/news/local/Parents-urge-lawmakers-to-hold-veto-session-to-restore-disability-funding … #OverridetheVeto
More evidence that when children are alive and disabled that republicans could care less.
If my Vagina shot bullets, could I conceal it from Rick Perry and John Kasich? http://wp.me/p5xSC-15p via @HelenPhilpot
Allow me to sum up the anti-choice testimony in favor of this bill so far: Something something abortions are home invasions, something something prescription medications for dogs something something Notre Dame.
Wonder why all the women witnesses for hb2 give their testify in hysterical. crying voices through tears. It seems totally overwrought and frankly freaky.
Agreed.
There seems to be a ton of guilt on those women. Maybe counseling would help? Lots and lots of counseling.
The abortion nurse forced her down against her will, injected her and performed an abortion? Tweets are right where is the police report on this?
I don’t believe a fucking word of her testimony. Now this other idiot is quoting Michael Burgess of fetal masturbation infamy. What a moron!
Agreed, so far this is mostly a litney of crazy assed women who don’t want to grow up and be responsible for life dicisions.
Rape kit malarky getting discussed yay
That former chief of staff was really good. Now another pain fetishist and guilt monger.
Yep. Gayle Sayers=representing herself and God!
Yep. Gayle Sayers=representing herself and God!
Gawd loves clumps of cells. 🙂
Sorry about the dup. It’s a problem with responding to the top screen cloud notification.
we should go to the bottom of thread for more space.
https://twitter.com/scATX/status/352204413571571713
Bolivia leader in Vienna, but not Snowden: Austria
Ralph,
Are you watching a live feed? Do you have a link? I could put up a live blog.
http://www.texastribune.org/
live feed there
Thanks. I’ll add that. I found a link on Youtube. I put up a quick live blog.
Lost my computer, but I’m back. Oh good here’s a woman who wanted to close clinics in order to have better care. It’s hard to hear what a return to the 3 Rs have done for the loss of critical thinking.
Notice that when challenged they just answer the same only louder. Must be a strategy cause they all do it.
Pro life candy asser, I LIVE IN THE US AND EVERYONE IS ABLE TO GET THE BEST MEDICAL CARE.
live blog up