Free Republic

JACKSON, Miss. -- Authorities said Sunday a new drug that can be bought in stores is circulating the streets of Mississippi. This new drug, known in the streets as "ivory wave" or "scarface," is actually a form of bath salt, authorities said. The director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, Marshall Fisher, said the drug has gained popularity in the coastal and northeast part of the state. It can be snorted, injected or smoked, authorities said. Senate leaders said they have already proposed a bill to get this new street drug off the store shelves. If passed, possession and use...

Now that the first Baby Boomers are turning 65 Medicare, the health benefit program for seniors, is set to feel a mighty strain, according to an analysis by a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. Eugene Steuerle, an Institute fellow and the Richard B. Fisher Chair at the nonpartisan institute, is also a former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury. He says, while Social Security's woes get the most attention, Medicare is actually in much worse shape... This is not an economic problem that leads to a political one, Steuerle says, but a political problem that threatens undesirable economic consequences....

In the December 15th issue of America's most prestigious medical pubication, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Eric Friedman and Eli Adashi write, "In passing The Affordable Care Act, the United States took a giant, if partial, step toward joining nations wherein the right to health constitutes an inalienable moral and legal right." Notice how the authors replace the term health care with just the term health. As a medical doctor, I strongly disagree that health is or should be a human right. First and foremost, as a supporter of individual rights and constitutionally limited government, "the right...

Do federal, state and local governments have a right to intervene in our lives when it comes to choices affecting our health? Recently, San Francisco's board of supervisors voted to forbid restaurants from giving gifts with meals that contain too much fat and sugar, a measure aimed at McDonald's Happy Meals. The reasoning of these tyrants is to prevent McDonald's from using toys to lure children into liking foods the board deems non-nutritious. Fortunately, San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, by no means a libertarian, has threatened to veto the measure saying, "Despite its good intentions, I cannot support this unwise...

If Rep. Joe Barton becomes the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee next year, the Texas Republican vows to make life miserable for Democratic defenders of the health care overhaul law. He'll drag Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Medicare chief Donald Berwick to Capitol Hill for regular grilling. Democrats, he says, essentially have shielded the two key figures from answering tough questions about the new law

In a speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., spoke of the cause of his life: providing decent, quality health care to "every American — north, south, east, west, young, old." In June 2009, Mr. Kennedy reiterated this point in a television commercial for Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who was then preparing to run for re-election. When Sen. Kennedy died of cancer two months later, many Democrats touted President Obama's health-care reform efforts as the final step toward making Mr. Kennedy's dream a reality. Indeed, when the president signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act...

A father-of-two died of cancer the day after a 'breakthrough' drug he had battled for nearly five months to get finally arrived in the post. The family of Stuart Cunningham, 51, were left heartbroken after he succumbed to the disease without getting the chance to try the drug, known as Afinitor. Used to treat kidney cancer, it is an option for patients who have not responded to Sunitinib, the primary drug used to fight the condition. Mr Cunningham's wife, Tracy, said she was 'angry and frustrated' at the NHS, which refused to fund the Afinitor because it was not 'cost-effective'....

Amidst the Obama administration's crusade to consolidate power in Washington at the expense of the very sovereignty of the states and our liberties, we should be encouraged that states are fighting back. Consider just three very recent examples. Have you heard about the administration's propaganda campaign to adorn each federal "stimulus" project with taxpayer-funded signs to remind us that these projects have been bestowed on us by the beneficence of the Obama administration? The signs read, "Project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." In the first place, they're not funded by any act, but by the American taxpayer....

Maricopa County health officials say a relatively new, extremely toxic strain of bacteria has been found in hospitals and other health-care facilities in the Phoenix metro area. The germ is known as Clostridium difficile (klo-STRID'-ee-um dif-uh-SEEL') and has long plagued the medical profession for increasing the amount of illness in patients. But this is the first time a new strain of the germ that carries at least 20 times as much toxin as the original strain is believed to have been linked to patient illness and deaths in Arizona, according to health officials. County officials say at least 10 patients...

The backlash against ObamaCare is moving beyond the Tea Parties and has now arrived in state capitals. In more than 30 states, legislators are proceeding to pass statutes or ballot initiatives that would guarantee the right to choose medical services and insurance. These laws are generally called Health-Care Freedom Acts. If enacted, they will set off a Constitutional 10th Amendment fight over whether there are limitations on the powers of the federal government to regulate health care and override the protections in these state laws. Almost all these measures would make it illegal for the government at any level to...

President Obama's health-care bill is now moving toward final passage. The policy issues may be coming to an end, but the legal issues are certain to continue because key provisions of this dangerous legislation are unconstitutional. Legally speaking, this legislation creates a target-rich environment. We will focus on three of its more glaring constitutional defects.

The Climate and Health Council, a collaboration of worldwide health organizations including the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine, believes there is a direct link between climate change and better health. Their controversial plan would see GPs and nurses give out advice to their patients on how to lower their carbon footprint. The Council believes that climate change “threatens to radically undermine the health of all peoples”. It believes health professionals are ideally placed to promote change because “we have ethical responsibility…..as well as the capacity to influence people and our...

Is Congress going through the ordeal of trying to enact health care reform only to have one of the main pillars — requiring individuals to obtain insurance — declared unconstitutional? An interesting debate for a constitutional law seminar. In the real world, not a big worry. "This issue is not serious," says Walter Dellinger, acting solicitor general during the Clinton administration. But it's being taken seriously in some quarters, so it's worth explaining where the Constitution grants Congress the authority to impose an individual mandate. There are two short answers: the power to regulate interstate commerce and the power to...

“You can fool some of the people all of the time,” Abraham Lincoln said, “and all of the people some of the time.” Apparently Congress agrees. Indeed, lawmakers are counting on it: In an effort to fool just enough people for just long enough, they’re engaging in budget tricks to ram through health “reform.” In essence, they’re making promises that won’t be kept. Here’s how. Years ago, lawmakers declared they’d control the rising cost of health care by limiting the amount they paid doctors who treated Medicare patients. They created a formula that linked doctor pay to the overall economic...

The president and his party in Congress are attempting to dig this country so deep into debt that we may not be able to climb out. This is a strong and resilient country, but we wouldn’t be the first great nation to bankrupt ourselves. Four months ago, while the Democrats were hatching their health care behemoths, only policy wonks noticed a report issued by the Social Security and Medicare trustees. It showed that the combined unfunded liability of the two programs has now reached $107 trillion. That’s seven times the size of the U.S. economy, and it could go higher,...

I'm not sure that I've ever posted a chat/vanity, so here goes: I've seen a lot of news articles and posts recently that refer to "socialized" health care. Maybe I've been missing something, but I don't recall hearing this term "socialized" (anything) used too often before. In fact I don't recall hearing the term "socialized" used in any other context except maybe for pet animals. "Socialized" health care? What's that mean? It means nothing, it's an MSM term used to obscure reality. And the reality is that our Socialist President and our Socialist U.S. Congress and their MSM enablers are...

Apparently the American Medical Association has weighed in on the proposed universal health care plan. The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves. The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, and the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve. The Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception. Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted. Pathologists yelled; "Over my dead body!" while the Pediatricians said, 'Oh, Grow up!" The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the radiologists could see right through it. Surgeons decided to wash...

...Obama and Democrats rushed that Stimulus, remember? Told you it was going to save your job. How's that working out for ya?!? They didn't want anyone to debate that, either. They locked 40 percent of your representatives out of deliberations. They didn't want discussion...

The Government has been accused of fixing the outcome of public consultations on health policy after it emerged that reviews were flooded with block votes from groups funded entirely by the taxpayer. Earlier this month the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, announced that the display of cigarettes and tobacco in shops would be banned in England and Wales from 2011. He added that people wanting to buy cigarettes from vending machines would in future have to show proof of age to obtain a token to activate the machine, and machines could be banned altogether in the future. Mr Johnson boasted that...

This is an article filled with good links, that demonstrates Obama's effort to pretend to offer us a choice, but really the supporters of socialized medicine are out of the closet on the destruction of private health care as a whole. It is not about the efficacy of socialized health care, it is about showing how we are not really being offered a choice, and it demonstrates the slipping support for the plan. http://www.examiner.com/x-14881-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m6d25-Obamas-Health-Care-Reform-debacle

A look at the federal government's expansion of SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) and how you can do your part to help the children.

Pierpont's findings suggest that low-frequency noise and vibration generated by wind machines can have an effect on the inner ear, triggering headaches; difficulty sleeping; tinnitus, or ringing in the ears; learning and mood disorders; panic attacks; irritability; disruption of equilibrium, concentration and memory; and childhood behavior problems.

Vitamin warning for liver lovers People should limit eating liver to once a week and be careful about other sources of vitamin A, say food experts. Too much is toxic and increases the risk of bone fractures, according to advisers to the Food Standards Agency. Combining supplements with vitamin A-rich foods such as liver is particularly risky, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition says. Post-menopausal women and older people at highest risk of fractures should not have more than 1.5mg per day, it says. Safe limits The draft recommendations reinforce current advice that pregnant women and women trying to conceive...

Note: As an organic farmer, Mark Purdey resisted the order to spray his cattle with organophosphates for warble fly and went to court for a judicial review; he won and was exempted from using the spray. No cows born in his herd developed BSE (mad cow disease). He has contributed numerous articles on the subject of BSE to scientific journals. He farms in Somerset, UK. This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Spring 2000 As the first snowstorm of winter hit the isolated hill where...