In Switzerland, Marijuana Use Helps Keep Prisons Calm and Safe | Alternet

In Switzerland, Marijuana Use Helps Keep Prisons Calm and Safe | Alternet

There are no rights.  There are no such things as human rights.  No one has any rights.  This is reality.

For every "right" there is an associated responsibility.  If I have a right to healthcare, who is responsible for giving it to me?  If I have a right to good food, whose responsibility is it to see that I get it?  If I have a right to education, whose responsibility is it to give it to me?  No one.  Period.

There is no thing any where that makes anyone give me good food or education or health insurance or anything.  That is not the reality of life here on this planet.  There are no human rights.  Understand the reality of things and you will be better off.

Goals of society and civilization are another subject.

Conservatism Is Bad for Your Health: “Red” States Sicker than “Blue”

Posted by Joshua Holland at 9:24 am
August 3, 2010 10 COMMENTS

Conservatism Is Bad for Your Health: “Red” States Sicker than “Blue”

Blue Texan over at Instaputz pointed to a couple of data sets, where I found an interesting correlation.

The first is Gallup’s ranking of states by ideology, according to the share of residents who self-identify as liberal or conservative. The second is this United Health Foundation ranking of states by the health of their citizens, according to a combination of 22 different metrics.

The ten least healthy states are all among the “red” states*. Five of the least healthy states are among the ten most conservative.

Nine of the ten healthiest states are among the “blue” states. Five of the healthiest states are among the ten most liberal.

Gallup tells us that in the United States,  self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals by 22 points. In the ten unhealthiest states, they hold a 27-point advantage; in the ten healthiest states the gap averages less than 9.9 points.

You might be able to guess the one conservative state that has a healthy population: Utah! Mormons — 60 percent of the population — don’t drink alcohol or smoke tobacco. Utah also has the youngest population of any state, and, according to the CDC, Utahans are more likely to exercise than the residents 46 states.

Anyway, snappy headlines notwithstanding, there are obviously multiple factors in play — it’s not a causal relationship. There are demographic and cultural differences between the healthiest and least healthy states.

Having said that, there are certainly public policy components to this trend. “Blue” states have higher average incomes than “Red.” More conservative states tend to have higher rates of uninsured. Both are connected to their lower unionization rates — they’re “right to work” states. They tend to spend fewer dollars per citizen on healthcare overall, and more liberal states also tend to set eligibility for public health insurance for children at a higher point. Pregnant women in more liberal states tend to have more prenatal care. Studies show that prenatal and early childhood care has a lifelong impact on one’s health.

*I didn’t use the electoral map; I just split the 50 states down the middle and am calling the 25 that leaned furthest to the right “red.”

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer with AlterNet.

Invictus

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

A Larger Perspective

A Larger Perspective

I must remember that the jerk who just cut me off in traffic is a single mother who just finished a nine hour shift and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

I must remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man with droopy drawers who can’t seem to make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

I must remember that the scary looking bum (who really ought to get a job!), begging for money in the same spot every day is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

I must remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking my shopping progress is savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

Kindly remember that every person you see, no matter what you may think of them, sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies.

I am not LGBT

Remember this?

They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.

I am not a lesbian, nor gay, nor bisexual, nor transgendered. I am however, an American, and so far as I can tell, all the LGBT's who are being talked about these days are Americans too. In a melting pot, variety is the spice.

Any group of people who advocates sameness, or any supposed "purity" is signing it's own death warrant. You simply cannot cut yourself off from the rest of the world. History teaches that isolation brings vulnerability. In my solitude I can develop my skills. In my life with others I am forced develop my character. In this life "the same" never happens. In this life, you either grow or you die. I know it's not always easy, nor in your personal opinion may it even be preferred, yet, none the less, it is the case that life is a challenge and your choice is simply to either accept it or fight it and if you choose to fight life and it's progress, you will loose.

There are two groups of people in this country. There are those who love this country and believe that community involvement is a good thing. There are those who would take us back to some imagined past they think was a better time than we experience now. Abraham Lincoln said "A house divided cannot stand" and I think he's right about that. I vote for the country and my fellow citizens.

Mortal Ignorance

I love it when mortals claim they know anything about any supposed immortal beings let alone any further supposed "Supreme Being". It's so entertaining. It makes it so easy to pick out the truly self-deceived. The voices in your head come from yourself only. It's a self-created fantasy-feedback loop.

To even know this world you must firstly know yourself, an impossibility when you're so busy making up delusional visions of things unreal.

Your communications with Eternity are a complete fantasy. You are certifiable, pathological, and a danger to yourself and others. You have abandon reason and are incapable of perceiving any reality. You need serious professional help.