A Prescription at almost 1/10 the price

Lamasil 250 mg made by the pharmaceutical company Novartis is prescribed for internal use to eliminate a type of fungus beneath the nails.

A local Walgreen wanted $450 for a prescription. When I was in Canada they said it would cost $150 (US) but they could not fill my prescription unless it was written by a Canadian doctor.

When I got home I noticed an ad for http://www.magendavidmeds.com/, an Israeli pharmacy, in the Hadassah Magazine (a Jewish Women's Organization). I called, sent in the prescription, and just received the prescription: total cost including shipping was........

$53.15.

Holding PBS Accountable

Saturday night Fox News broadcast the report: Islam vs Islamists. This was originally produced for PBS who refused to broadcast it. The report examines how moderate Muslims are facing the radical Islamic terrorists.

It includes footage of women being stoned to death and moderate Muslims warning our leaders in 1999 what they had heard from radicals and to be on alert for suicide bombers.

Personally I thought that the coverage of courageous Muslims standing up to their theocratic Muslim fascists displayed hope for the future of Islam as a modern civilized religion. Ultimately the solution to Muslim fascism must come from within the Muslim religion.

But the bigger story is why PBS squashed the story, and how they tried to influence the report to confirm their own political bias. They should be ashamed. And the supporters of PBS should be outraged.

It is available on DVD from http://www.islamdocumentary.com/.

Turning Down the Nobel

from http://bostonreview.net/BR26.5/campbell.html

On October 14, 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre read in Le Figaro littéraire that the Swedish Academy had him lined up for that year's prize. In fact, the official announcement was not due to be made until the following week; but however it came about, the prediction proved to be accurate. Sartre declined the honor immediately, and with genuine courtesy. He first wrote personally to the secretary of the Academy—"I cannot and do not want to, not in 1964 or ever, accept this great distinction"—and then dictated a statement to a Swedish journalist, in which he said that he had always turned down "official distinctions" in the past, out of a conviction that "the writer must not allow himself to be transformed by institutions." Sartre had previously declined the highest official accolade his country could bestow on him, the Légion d'honneur (it is a mystery why this committed anti-establishment radical was offered it), as well as a professorial chair at the Collège de France. His refusal of the Nobel, he said, was not "an improvised act," but the result of a thought-out position on honors and awards. Here was idealism in action, surely, of which even Nobel might have approved? Sartre was turning down a fortune, and modestly putting forward a high-minded reason for doing so. He simply wished to remain free. The Swedish Academy could not see things his way, however. It responded through tight lips—"The fact that he is declining does not alter in the least the validity of the nomination"—and went ahead with the prize-giving ceremony.

also

North Vietnamese Le Duc Tho was awarded the Nobel for Peace along with Henry Kissinger for their peace efforts in 1973, but he turned it down "until peace was truly established."

The Next Credit Bubble

In a price update letter from Corey Steel, CEO Paul Darling described abuses in the student loan market.

Student loans comprise an 85 billion dollar market, small compared to the mortgage market. Colleges promote certain lenders for fees and consideration. Students are charged for default insurance in order to "package" the loans to borrowers.

In one case an 11% loan required $650 fee for default insurance, the bank received a $550 marketing fee, the packager took a $1800 fee and the investor who participated in the "package" got a 6% return. This sounds similar to how the subprime mortgage market got out of hand.

Meanwhile tuition climbs and endowments swell. Professionals such as lawyers and doctors have a good chance at sustaining earnings growth to repay the debts, but liberal arts students would be foolish to acquire such debt.

At some point the market will find better delivery systems for a formal education than our current university system, especially in our information age.

what could you learn for $40,000 a year?

Gridlock is Good

The new Congress with its ambitious agenda stalled in futility on the immigration bill and war funding. They have held 600 oversight meetings and 300 investigations, but other than wasted rhetoric and juvenile political games nothing substantial has happened.

This is good and is one reason the market may have been performing so well (at least up until today!)

Maybe it is a good sign that there is so little going on to complain about that we can consume our time with weeks of mindless pablum about the problems of Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears.

tips to Ken Fisher

A Shallow Gesture

http://www.pinscentral.com/ sells American flag pins for $.48 each in bulk. I just bought 500 to give out. I know it is just a shallow gesture, but it irritated me that a presidential candidate would refuse to wear one for that reason.

The Presidential Cycle

One of the most studied cycles in stock market analysis is the presidential cycle. The stock market is more likely to perform better in the last two years than in the first two years of a presidental term. There are several theories why, such as the first two years the tough bitter economic decisions are made, and the second two years the administration wants a good market and economy to get re-elected.

Ken Fischer, investment mamager and author, noted that the market ends in positive territory 50% of the time in the first year, 60% in the second, 90% in the third and 85% of the time in the fourth.

But the returns are highest in the third. Average returns are 7.2%, 8.7%, 20%, and 13.3 % in years 1-4, respectively.

Ken is bullish, but then the market dropped 366 points today.

Juvenile Politics Raises $4,000,000

The Republicans wanted to embarass the Democrats by making them go on record refusing to condemn the MoveOn.org ad condemning their ad mocking General Patreus. Hillary refused to condemn the ad, and Barak HUSSEIN Obama obstained. Barak said it "was a stunt designed only to score cheap political points."

Trying to one up this tactic the Democrats led by Harry Reid put together a letter condemning Rush Limbaugh for accusing soldiers who condemn the war phony soldiers, although it was obvious by Rush 's actual remarks that he was referring to soldiers who falsely claimed they served in the military when they did not. They were in fact literally "phony" soldiers. Clinton and Obama had no problem signing on to this political stunt along with 37 other Democratic senators.

Rush put the letter on E-bay offering to match whatever it sold for and would contribute all the money to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation ( http://www.mc-lef.org/) , which gives education bonds to the children of Marine and law enforcement officials who die in the line of duty.

The letter fetched $2,100,000 this afternoon. Rush tried to get the Senators to also match the E-Bay amount. No takers so far.

I am not a big Rush fan but he certainly outclassed them on this one.

Promises That Can't Be Kept

I received the following e-mail from several sources:

> A little history lesson: If you don't know the answer make your best guess. Answer all the questions before looking at the answers.

Who said it?
> 1) "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
>
> A. Karl Marx
> B. Adolph Hitler
> C. Joseph Stalin
> D. None of the above
>
> 2) "It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few...and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity."
>
> A. Lenin
> B. Mussolini
> C. Idi Amin
> D. None of the Above
>
> 3) "(We)...can't just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people."
>
> A. Nikita Khrushev
> B. Josef Goebbels
> C. Boris Yeltsin
> D. None of the above
>
> 4) "We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own...in order to create this common ground."
>
> A. Mao Tse Dung
> B. Hugo Chavez
> C. Kim Jong Il
> D. None of the above
>
> 5) "I certainly think the free-market has failed."
>
> A. Karl Marx
> B. Lenin
> C. Molotov
> D. None of the above
>
> 6) "I think it's time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in (the) entire economy that they are being watched."
>
> A. Pinochet
> B. Milosevic
> C. Saddam Hussein
> D. None of the above
>
>
> Answers:
>
> (1) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/29/2004
> (2) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 5/29/2007
> (3) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/4/2007
> (4) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/4/2007
> (5) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/4/2007
> (6) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 9/2/2005

I have also seen quotes on Neal Boortz's site showing Bill Clinton's socialistic tendencies:

Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all." [Nikita Khrushchev , February 25, 1956 20th Congress of the Communist Party]

"All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person, and long ago we were over and done with the business of a hero, and here it comes up again: the glorification of one personality. This is not good at all." [Vladimir Lenin, as quoted in Not by Politics Alone]

"We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society." [Hillary Clinton, 1993]

"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans ..." [President Bill Clinton, 'USA Today' March 11, 1993: Page 2A]

so I went to the Snopes Urban legend web site to check out the authenticity. Check it out :
http://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/marxist.asp

while Snopes contends that some of these quotes are pieced together and out of context, the context they explained does not undermine the socialist tendencies she infers. Every week in her candidacy she announces another giveaway that someone will have to pay for. There is not enough wealth to pay for her programs, unless she taxes the "rich" so high that they cease to exist. She knows this, and is just buying votes with promises that can not be kept.

Who Likes Ron?

I was walking yesterday and listening to Neal Boortz. Neal is noted to be a bit Libertarian. An e-mail he read expressed dissapointment that he was not supporting the candidacy of Ron Paul, and was allying with the "Likudniks", a reference to the right wing Israeli party.

Ron Paul has run as a Libertarian and is of course now running as a Republican. He has become the darling candidate of the extreme right wing, anti-semitic groups and white supremecists. This is not to say that Ron Paul is any of those things. In fact I agree on so many of his platform positions, yet I disagree on a few major critical ones.

Personally I believe that the Republicans have lost their way, and sought power in the government rather than the people. They have sacrificed their principles to get votes and ironically have lost support as a result. Ron has done much better than Libertarian candidates have in the past but he will not get the nomination, and he will not beat Hillary. He may likely run as a third party and assure she gets elected.

The loony left will unite around Hillary. The loony right may not unite around the Republican nominee, assuring their defeat.

They are more concerned with who loses than with who wins.

Where Else Would You Hold a Course about YouTube?

A college teaches a course about YouTube. The entire course is taught on YouTube.

check it out: http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/10/youtube-101.html

This site is run by Karl Fisch who produced the popular "Did You Know" video also called "Shift Happens" which has been updated to "Did You Know 2.0" check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U&mode=related&search=

Krugman, Friedman and Steyn on Gore

I hate to sound like a sore loser on this Al Gore Nobel prize issue, so for balance...

Paul Krugman writes on the Gore Derangement Syndrome in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?em&ex=1192593600&en=da7b1a47329aacb0&ei=5087%0A

Which brings us to the biggest reason the right hates Mr. Gore: in his case the smear campaign has failed. He’s taken everything they could throw at him, and emerged more respected, and more credible, than ever. And it drives them crazy.

The Gore accolades are amplifed by Thomas Friedman also in the Times (some shock huh?):
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/opinion/14friedman.html?em&ex=1192680000&en=85814a3003ab7c98&ei=5087%0A

“No matter what happens, sooner or later character in leadership is revealed,” said David Rothkopf, author of the upcoming “Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making.” “Gore lost the election and had to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. He took the initiative to get the country and the world to focus on a common threat — climate change. Bush won the election and for the first year really didn’t know what to do with it. When, on 9/11, we and the world were suddenly faced with a common threat — terrorism and Al Qaeda — the whole world was ready to line up behind him, but time and again he just divided us at home and abroad.”

from hko
or perhaps it is just the difference between being a darling of the media verses being selected as its anti christ

from Mark Steyn in the Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22584694-7583,00.html

One can forgive youthful indiscretions, like his 1988 presidential candidacy, when he became the first and only politician in US history to hire a herd of cows for the launch of his campaign, positioning them attractively around him for the photo op at the supposed Gore "family farm". The contribution to global warming from increased methane from bovine flatulence in the Gore neighbourhood was no doubt "offset" by reduced flatulent emissions from whichever farm he'd hired the cows from: it was, in that sense, a "carbon-neutral" event.

As for the climate, you could take every dollar spent on "global warming" and blow it on internet porn, and the Earth's climate in 2050 will be pretty much what it would be anyway. Meanwhile, Gore is now being urged to jump into the presidential race and save Democrats from the allegedly too-hawkish Hillary Clinton. I doubt he will.

But you'll know he's considering it if he starts slimming down faster than the Antarctic shelf. When Al Gore starts getting carb-neutral, we're really in trouble.

Nobel Losers

For second rate environmental hysteria (first rate hysteria, second rate science) Gore gets a Nobel prize. A great article in OpinionJournal lists the many candidates who did not- Not Nobel Winners Some nominees for next year. Sunday, October 14, 2007 12:01 a.m. In Olso Friday, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to the Burmese monks whose defiance against, and brutalization at the hands of, the country's military junta in recent weeks captured the attention of the Free World. The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe. Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406. Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country. Or to Colombian President Àlvaro Uribe, who has fought tirelessly to end the violence wrought by left-wing terrorists and drug lords in his country. Or to Garry Kasparov and the several hundred Russians who were arrested in April, and are continually harassed, for resisting

President Vladimir Putin's slide toward authoritarian rule.

for the rest of the article: http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110010732

Why Stop at 100 Years?

this is a satire- GOP Moves to Label Roman Empire Genocidal by Scott Ott · 36 Comments (2007-10-12) — In the midst of a push by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, to pass a resolution labeling the Ottoman (Turk) Empire genocidal for the death of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, House Republicans have introduced a bill condemning the Roman Empire for “the wholesale slaughter and domination of most of the known world from about 41 B.C. to 476 A.D.” Rep. Pelosi, who often refers to her Italian heritage, called the GOP move “nothing short of a hate crime” and “a cynical effort by Republicans to overshadow what could be the first significant accomplishment of the Democrat Congressional majority.” “The resolution to label the Armenians as victims of a Turkish genocide,” Rep. Pelosi said, “is not meant to antagonize one of our few allies in the middle east, and thus hamper U.S. efforts in Iraq, but is a genuine effort to hold accountable the long-dead perpetrators of this crime. We’re simply doing retroactively what the United Nations would have done if it had existed at the time.” The Speaker said if the resolution passes, Democrats plan to push for sanctions against the Ottoman Empire, including a ban on sales of cavalry horses, Sopwith Camel fighter biplanes and Zeppelins. HKO comment- Our current allies, the Saudis, disciminates against women and all other religions but Islam TODAY, there is a genocide in Darfur TODAY, Iran threatens a new genocide TODAY, and denies the worst holocaust TODAY. But our Congress finds it so essential to critize an action 100 years ago against the predecessor government of one of the few Muslim democracies and one of our most important allies in the war on terror that they sacrifice and damage our anti terror efforts. They must enjoy making Ahmenidjad smile as long as they can piss off Bush.

Michael Clayton

A pretty decent legal thriller starring George Clooney. Yes it is a typical "big business and big law firms" are evil hollywood scenario, but the plot is interesting even with a few unlikey twists. Most of the characters have some depth, that mix of uncertainty and compromise that comprises most real people. The soundtrack is subtle and effective. Just enough good and evil in black and white to keep you involved.

Environmental Trade Offs

Cold Water on Consensus
Lomborg debunks.
By Mona Charen

from a review of Bjorn Lomborg’s new book, Cool It: A Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming in National Review Online http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzlhZmJlM2JmMTg2ODYxNWE4YWQ2MmI5MjM1NzFjZDI=

Lomborg’s book focuses on trade-offs. If we’re going to spend a fixed amount of money to improve the world, what makes the most sense? Or to put it another way, which dollar spent produces the greatest benefit? According to a group of economists (including four Nobel Prize winners) who examined this question in 2004, the answer was clear. One dollar spent fighting HIV/AIDS produced $40 in social benefits. One dollar spent on fighting malnutrition yields about $30 in social benefits. Other efforts, like ending agricultural subsidies in the wealthy countries and ensuring worldwide free trade, would net a $15 benefit for a one-dollar cost. Cutting CO2 emissions, by contrast, yields between 2 and 25 cents per dollar invested.

The consensus is wrong on global warming. Wonder when the New York Times will figure it out? In the meanwhile, Lomborg points the way toward clear analysis.

The Value of a Single College

America has 4,000 colleges and universities. The rest of the world combined has 7,768 institutions of higher education. California has 130 colleges and universities. There are only 14 countries with more than that. What is the value of a great college? A study conducted by BankBoston Economics Department surmised that MIT graduates have founded 4,000 companies, created 1.1 million jobs worldwide and generated sales of $232 billion dollars. My question: How does a country like ours with colleges that are the envy of the world manage to perform so poorly comparatively with our secondary school systems? If we need a model of superior education it is already here in our own country. Data from The World is Flat Release 2.0 by Thomas Friedman

Broadband Penetration

I will add that to my list of favorite band names.... South Korea is the most wired country in the world with 24.9 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Canada, Norway, Monaco, Belgium, Tiawan, Israel, and Japan all have a higher rate per 100 population than the United States. In fact the US has dropped to 20th in penetration. http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0607/ While some of this can be explained by our physical size and fragmentation, it indicates a decline in our competitive position. Access to the internet today is comparable to access to transportation and shipping venues in the industrial age. Without it you were doomed to poverty.

Besides penetration our quality is also lagging. We consider 200 Kbps to be broadband service. In Japan for $10 a month you can get service forty times faster.

The rest of the world is getting cheaper and faster service. They are also getting more American service jobs. Do you think there is a correlation?

somewhat summarized from The World is Flat Release 2.0 by Thomas Friedman

Election Observations

My favorite source of election predictions is Intrade.com, even when I do not like what I observe, which is definitely the case now. check out the predictions at http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/contractSearch/ The current snapshot today: 39% odds Giuliani wins the Republican nomination 25% Romney wins 18% Thomson wins Since the top two are pro choice and a Mormon, they stand to lose the Christian Right, many preferring to either sit out and let Hillary win rather than support a platform issue that they can not compromise. Add a third party attempt from Ron Paul (who actually ranks higher than McCain at this site) and you have a disaster for the Republicans. 66% odds show Clinton winning the Democratic nomination 12.5 % odds show AL GORE wining, who is not yet even running, and he even beats the 11.4% odds that Barak HUSSEIN Obama wins 46.2% odds that Hillary Wins the Presidential election, seconded by 15.3% odds that Giuliani wins yet this is the interesting diversion 62.6% odds that the Winner will be a Democrat, (but only 46.2 % odds that it will be Hillary?) 86% odds that the Senate remains in control by Democrats 81% odds that the House remains in Democrat hands Yes this is only a snapshot and the final elections are far away and it will be interesting to see how this will change in the coming year. There is a lot of time for major trend saving blunders that can mortally wound either side. Bush I seemed invincible after Desert Storm with nearly a 90% approval rating. Then he lost to Bill Clinton.

Democrats, Republicans and Socialists

Hillary wants to give every newborn American $5,000 at birth. No, she corrected, that was just an idea, not a policy suggestiion.

Now she wants to fund a $1,000 401k matching contribution from the federal government to be paid for by taxing estates greater than $7 million dollars. She claimed that the taxes on a single estate would pay for 5,000 matching contributions. Let's do the math.

5,000 contributions times $1,000 is $5 million dollars. That would be quite a bite out of a $7,000,000 estate or any estate for that matter. Trusts will be set up to avoid the tax and big estates would choose another country to live in. Bill and Hillary already have trusts set up to hold their book earnings.

This is socialism at its purest. This is Hillary's arrogance at its worst. At best it is pandering to the "government's purpose is to give me something for nothing in the name of fairness" crowd. The only thing more disturbing than her history of flauting the law during her period in the White House and on her campaign is the policies she overtly proposes to enact.

It is hard to believe she can not be defeated.

tips to Blond Sagacity- see links on the left of the blog

Joe Bonamassa

I am a passionate fan of blues guitar greats and one of the greatest is Joe Bonamassa. A young guy playing since age 6, he has the dexterity of a Joe Satriani and the gut soul of Stevie Ray Vaughn. There are lots of great videos of the guy on YouTube, especially his concert from the Rockplast in Europe.

This video shows his stuff with just a bass player behind him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcEnoEKtdNI&mode=related&search=

Hamster Jet Lag, Vanilla Cow Dung and a Self Refilling Bowl of Soup

The Ig Noble Prize awards people for scientific inventions that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."

Some Winners for the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize

Linguistics: Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Nuria Sebastian-Galles, for determining that rats sometimes can't distinguish between Japanese, played backward, and Dutch, played backward.

Aviation: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek, for discovering that hamsters recover from jetlag more quickly when given Viagra.

Chemistry: Mayu Yamamoto for extracting vanilla flavor from cow dung.

Nutrition: Brian Wansink, for investigating people's appetites by secretly feeding them a self-refilling bowl of soup.

Physics: L. Mahadevan and Enrique Cerda Villablanca for their theoretical study of how sheets become wrinkled.

From Don't Ask, Don't Tell to This?

Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build A 'Gay Bomb'

Hank PlanteReporting, 6.8.07 cbs5.com

(CBS 5) BERKELEY A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb."

Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

"The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviewing the documents."The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay," explained Hammond.

The Pentagon told CBS 5 that the proposal was made by the Air Force in 1994.

Tips Again to the Grand Poobah

A Cure for Hiccups Sure to be a Hit at Your Next Party

Fesmire, a specialist in emergency medicine and cardiology, probably did not have a real Nobel in mind when he published "Termination of intractable hiccups with digital rectal massage" in Annals of Emergency Medicine (vol 17, p 872).

He was, it transpires, attempting to help a man who walked into the emergency room after hiccuping for 72 hours at up to 30 times a minute.

Runaway electrical impulses in the vagus nerve cause intractable hiccups, so Fesmire attempted to block them by stimulating the nerve. Gagging, tongue pulling, sinus massage and pressing the eyeball to stimulate the vagus all failed to stop the hiccups. Then he remembered reading about a case in which digital rectal massage – inserting a finger into a patient’s anus – had slowed a racing heartbeat, an effect similar to runaway hiccups.

"It worked, and the rest is history," he says. He has not needed to go that far again for other patients, but Majed Odeh of Bnai Zion Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, did a few years later and wrote a paper with the same title that earned him a share of the Ig Nobel.

However, Fesmire will not be trying it again. In researching his Ig Nobel acceptance speech, he told New Scientist that he found a treatment sure to be more popular with hiccup patients. "An orgasm results in incredible stimulation of the vagus nerve. From now on, I will be recommending sex – culminating with orgasm – as the cure-all for intractable hiccups."

Big Tip to Dr. Doug Ott for this story. And I was afraid of running out of stuff to blog about.

Marcel Marceau's Last Words

from CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/23/entertainment/main3289048.shtml?source=mostpop_story

AP) Marcel Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, has died, French media reported Sunday. He was 84. France-Info radio and LCI television said the family had announced the death of Marceau. No other details were released. Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, the world-famous Marceau played the entire range of human emotions onstage for more than 50 years, never uttering a word.

A French Jew, Marceau survived the Holocaust - and also worked with the French Resistance to protect Jewish children. His biggest inspiration was Charlie Chaplin. Marceau, in turn, inspired countless young performers - Michael Jackson borrowed his famous "moonwalk" from a Marceau sketch, "Walking Against the Wind."

from HKO

2 Great Marcel Marceau quotes:

Never get a mime talking. He won't stop.

It's good to shut up sometimes.

My Favorite Marcel Marceau moment: He was the only actor with a talking part in the Mel Brooks Movie, "Silent Movie".

One Week. Fifty Four Years Ago

A Book Review

All The Shah's Men
by Stephen Kinzer

In 1953 the United States made a momentous decision. Partially out of legitimate fear of a possible Russian takeover of the valuable Iranian Oil field, and partly as a result of incitement by British interests who sought to stubbornly maintain their imperialistic power structure, the CIA led a sinister and clandestine coup that removed the most beloved and democratic leader Iran has had in a century; Mohammend Mossadegh.

Mossadegh was replaced by a new Prime Minister, loyal and subservient to the Shah Pahlavi who became so hated that a Muslim fanatical mob overthrew him in 1979. The new theocracy, well remembering the American led coup, feared that the CIA would attempt it again. As insurance they attacked the US embassy and took 52 American hostages.

This act so infuriated the Americans that they supported Saddam Hussein’s horrific war against Iran. This led to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan, the rise of the Muslim fanatics who created the Hezbollah and Taliban, the empowerment of Saddam, the invasion of Kuwait, the attacks on the US in Beruit, Somalia, 911, and of course our current clumsy missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

While America’s awkward foreign policy proved disastrous in hindsight, the fear of communist control of Middle Eastern oil was a driving force in the 1950’s. Blame must be shared with the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company for their greed, the British for treating the Iranians so poorly, for the Iranian Shahs who sold Iran’s concessions to fund their lavish life, and for even Mossadegh himself for becoming so blind in his justified hatred for the British that he refused any compromise offered.

Yet while the Iranians despise the US for our intrusions into their affairs and the suffering it has caused, they still honor the American institutions of freedom and democracy. These values are suppressed by the current theocracy.

Kinzer’s well researched story reads like a first class spy novel. He avoids cynicism and anti American tirades and presents the story in a balanced light. While he does not avoid detailing the disaster we unleashed he also did not avoid the context of the anti Communist fears shared by many Americans in the 1950s.

He will make you think different about the current events in the Middle East.

Democratic Tradition in Iran

We conservative types tend to blame Jimmy Carter for the fall of Iran into Islamo Fascist Hands. We are wrong.

Iran, unlike the many of her neighbors who were created by European colonialists and justified with outrageous myths, has a rich history and culture that is steeped in American like democratic traditions. Early Shahs sold concessions to Britain and others to support their lifestyles. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company exploited the oil concession and built one of the biggest refineries in the world making huge profits while the Iranian workers lived in dire poverty.

Mohammad Mossadegh helped to create a Parliament that represented the people while the Shah remained in a royalty position, similar to Great Britain. When the British tried to monopolize all facets of the tobacco trade the Iranians engaged in a Tabacco Revolt, much like out Boston Tea Party, refusing to use or participate in the British Tobacco Trade. Mossadegh struggled to bring a better deal to the Iranian people and eventually nationalized the oil company. Britain was outraged and sought to overthrow Mossadegh. Mossadegh was extremely popular among the Iranians and was the 1951 Time Magazine Man of the Year.

Harry Truman would have no part of Britain's interference and held them at least equally accountable for the mess. Truman sought to encourage nationalistic movements and independent free countries. This kept Britain from taking action... until Eisenhower came into office. The British painted a picture of economic collapse as a result of Iran's loss of oil revenues largely stemming from England's effective blockade of shipping and use of diplomatic might to keep anyone who could help the Iranians run the oil business away, and to intimidate customers from buying any of the the nationalized company's product.

John and Allen Dulles feared a Soviet entry and in the height of the cold war that would allow the Soviets to dominate the valued oil fields of Iran. This was an unacceptable security risk.

Mossadegh suspected a British attempt to everthrow him and evicted the British. The British plan, however, was executed by the CIA under the clandestine leadership of Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of Teddy.

Mossadegh was overthown and imprisoned and the CIA and the Shah placed their pawn in his place. The Shah ruled poorly and brutally for two decades, largely supported by American largesse. The Ayatollah rose up against him in 1979, promising a return of the democratic reforms championed by Mossadegh. But after Khomeini secured power such democratic reforms dissappeared.

The people of Iran still respect Mossadegh and his democratic reforms. There is a democratic tradition there that is still suppressed. While we contemplate military action to stop their nuclear capability we may find that the current regime is very unpopular with its citizens. We may find that we have more in common with Iran than any other Muslim country in the Middle East.

summarized from All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer.

The Prime Minister of Canada

is Stephen Harper. I was just in Canada and I thought every one of us ought to know that.

Reality for People Who Can't Handle Drugs

At a meeting of our captive insurance company in Ottawa, we were addressed by Bob Stutman, retired special agent of the USDEA- who is now devoting his speaking career to addressing kids and parents about the current drug problem. Among some of his data:

1. Heroin is back in a big way, from Afghanistan warlords often protected and facilitated by the protection of our own troops.

2. 25% of College students are either full blown drug addicts or alcoholics.

3. 78% of drug abuse in high school is in found in up scale white students

4. Oxycontin in one of the most dangerous. The capsules are crushed giving the time released dosage in a sudden blast.

5. In high school the kids' supplier of choice is their parent's medicine cabinet. They especially like the ones with the warning label warning you not to operate heavy equipment.

6. A fruit salad party is when the kids bring all their prescription drugs (Oxycontin, Ritilin, Adderal, etc) and mix them in a bowl - then everyone takes a random assortment and to see how wasted they can get.

7. Those of us from the sixties and seventies who think we know what is going on- we don't have a freaking clue.

The Value of Central Park

$528,778,523,156

according to an article in the September 2007 issue of Delta Sky Magazine.