Entries for December 2006

Pope Benedict's Christmas message was one of great import no matter one's spiritual bent. He beseeched 10,000 followers in St. Peter's Square not to allow technology to trump theology. "Mankind, which has reached other planets and unraveled many of nature's secrets, should not presume it can live without God."

I have a theory: Animals bite back. When humans consume animals or use them to create drugs, there is almost always a boomerang-like response. And it's not good for humans.

In the case of meat, for instance, people who eat a lot of red meat are more prone to cholesterol issues, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Likewise, we're now finding women on Premarin are more prone to certain forms of breast cancer.

If ever there were a flashing red sign signaling postmenopausal women to get off HRT, this is one. The medical community is shocked and thrilled by new data showing that breast-cancer rates plummeted an unexpected 7 percent in 2003.

A top issue for Congress next year is healthcare accessibility. But a little-known fact about healthcare is that many Americans who lack healthcare could afford coverage–at least for the most expensive illnesses––and choose not to have it.

Give Obama a rest! If Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the Great White–er, Brown–Hope of the Democratic Party, the party's in bigger trouble than it was when it nominated Al Gore and John Kerry (two inevitable losers) for president in 2000 and 2004.

There's only one way to get the fashion tyrants to stop parading Auschwitz-thin models down runways. That's for young women to reject them as role models. Stop buying the clothes they peddle. Understand that a sales pitch is designed to put the other guy's hand in your pocket and that it's a lead you need not follow. Designers who hire the emaciated would toss them more quickly than last week's garbage were anorexia to lose its tonic as a revenue generator.

Geez! Talk about being stuck in the Wayback Machine. House conservatives must have slept through the November elections and their aftermath. Otherwise, why would they be foisting the carnival-like spectacle of a sure-to-die wedge issue bill on a nation so thoroughly bored with wedge issue politics? Somebody please tell them to keep their codas to themselves.