Apropos of this post, this:

(h/t: Mutt)

Heh. Process ID 420. Event: hang.

What’s not to love?

No, I’m not talking about Obama’s “death panels” or any other such right-wing bullhockey. I’m talking about preventable medical errors and in-hospital infections, which continue to kill 200,000 Americans every year.

It’s nice to see the San Francisco Chronicle calling much-needed attention to the lack of progress in reducing the rate of preventable medical errors. Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine released a report (To Err Is Human) condemning the frequency of fatal medical errors and calling for reform. Predictably, the AMA and the national hospital associations screamed and yelled and cried, and reform efforts evaporated. Now, in 2009, the problem is worse than ever.

As alert readers of this blog will recall, the alarming rate of death due to medical errors was mentioned back in May during the height of the SWINE FLU! PANIC!!

Speaking of which, it’s time to check in on that terrifying killer disease: as of July 31, it has killed 1,154 people worldwide. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the more than 4,000 CHILDREN who die EVERY DAY due to diarrhea. Of course, those children are basically dying because they’re poor and living without access to basic sanitation, clean water, and health care… why would CNN give a shit about that?

Barbara Ehrenrich writes an op-ed for the New York Times that tries very hard to wake up the paper’s elite readers to the desperate reality of poverty in America:

Al Szekely… A grizzled 62-year-old, he inhabits a wheelchair and is often found on G Street in Washington — the city that is ultimately responsible for the bullet he took in the spine in Fu Bai, Vietnam, in 1972. He had been enjoying the luxury of an indoor bed until last December, when the police swept through the shelter in the middle of the night looking for men with outstanding warrants.

It turned out that Mr. Szekely, who is an ordained minister and does not drink, do drugs or curse in front of ladies, did indeed have a warrant — for not appearing in court to face a charge of “criminal trespassing” (for sleeping on a sidewalk in a Washington suburb). So he was dragged out of the shelter and put in jail. “Can you imagine?” asked Eric Sheptock, the homeless advocate (himself a shelter resident) who introduced me to Mr. Szekely. “They arrested a homeless man in a shelter for being homeless.”

The viciousness of the official animus toward the indigent can be breathtaking. A few years ago, a group called Food Not Bombs started handing out free vegan food to hungry people in public parks around the nation. A number of cities, led by Las Vegas, passed ordinances forbidding the sharing of food with the indigent in public places, and several members of the group were arrested. A federal judge just overturned the anti-sharing law in Orlando, Fla., but the city is appealing. And now Middletown, Conn., is cracking down on food sharing.

Of course, Michael Franti had this beat well-covered back in 1994:

Enjoy the artwork of Mark Weaver.

Enjoy the beautiful design and music at ISO50.

Enjoy the generative art of Robert Hodgin at Flight 404.

Enjoy the inspirations and artwork of James White at Signalnoise.com, who compiled this collection of design inspirations from the 70’s and 80’s:

This from today’s NYT:

Having Children Brings High Carbon Impact

Having children is the surest way to send your carbon footprint soaring, according to a new study from statisticians at Oregon State University.

The study found that having a child has an impact that far outweighs that of other energy-saving behaviors.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/having-children-brings-high-carbon-impact/?hp

Keep your eye on South America, folks, particularly Venezuela and Colombia. Colombia is ruled by the rightist government of Álvaro Uribe, and is engaged in a long-standing battle against leftist rebels known as the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). In addition to being a center of cocaine production and trafficking, Colombia has one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere. Not coincidentally, Colombia is also by far the largest recipient of US military aid in the Western Hemisphere.

This week, the New York Times ran an article by Andrean bureau chief Simon Romero that opened with this lede:

Despite repeated denials by President Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan officials have continued to assist commanders of Colombia’s largest rebel group, helping them arrange weapons deals in Venezuela and even obtain identity cards to move with ease on Venezuelan soil, according to computer material captured from the rebels in recent months and under review by Western intelligence agencies.

Once again, we see America’s leading “newspaper of record” simply recycling the anonymous propaganda being disseminated by “Western intelligence agencies.” All of the information in the article is based upon materials which the Times’s anonymous intelligence source claims were found on computers seized by Colombian troops during a raid on a FARC compound in Ecuador in 2008. The article states, “The New York Times obtained a copy of the computer material from an intelligence agency that is analyzing it.”

Simon Romero has a well-documented history of running anti-Chávez/anti-Leftist stories that range from the merely misleading to the outright false. As a mouthpiece for the oligarchies of Latin America, Romero is indispensable.

Romero’s employer, by the way, is the same New York Times which published an editorial on April 18, 2002 supporting the previous day’s coup d’etat against the Venezuelan president:

With yesterday’s resignation of President Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator. Mr. Chávez, a ruinous demagogue, stepped down after the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader, Pedro Carmona.

[…]

Washington has a strong stake in Venezuela’s recovery. Caracas now provides 15 percent of American oil imports, and with sounder policies could provide more. A stable, democratic Venezuela could help anchor a troubled region where Colombia faces expanded guerrilla warfare, Peru is seeing a rebirth of terrorism and Argentina struggles with a devastating economic crisis.

Yes, the military ousted the elected leader of Venezuela, and the Times’s editorial board welcomed the “resignation” of President Chávez. Nice. I’m sure they’ve improved since then, though!

Just yesterday, AFP reported on concerns being raised by officials in Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, and Venezuela about Colombian plans to allow US access to seven of its nation’s military facilities:

US President Barack Obama’s national security advisor said Tuesday Washington will give a “good explanation” for plans to deploy US military units to bases in Colombia, after unease expressed in Latin America.

When you see the US government pouring billions of dollars in military aid into a country, you can be sure nothing good will come of it.

Keep an eye on the Venezuela-Colombia border – that’s where Obama will get a war he can truly call his own.

It just keeps getting better and better.

A 55-year-old grandfather and Sunday School teacher gets hit three times with a Taser. Why? He was accused of “public intoxication” and “resisting arrest.” (Can you be guilty of “public” intoxication in your own back yard?)

Why was he being arrested? The Prince William County (VA) police were called to his house by a neighbor complaining about a noisy party. The party? A baptism celebration for his twin godchildren. The police report claims he was drunken and uncooperative. The family claims he had given his ID to police when they hit him with the Taser and pushed him to the ground.

While he was on the ground, friends rushed to his aid. One of those friends – 25-year old Leticia Elias, described in media reports as the pregnant mother of the recently baptized boys – was also hit with a Taser, arrested, and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer. She’s now being held while Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigates her immigration status, while the grandfather has been released on $2,500 bond.

What. The. FUCK!

You can read the story or just watch the video below:

[flvplayer http://www.noiselabs.com/blog/images/tasers.flv 400 300]

“Joester5” shares his method of eliminating Google’s sidebar ads in your emails. Just include a few “catastrophic” words like “9/11” or “suicide” and the ad space will remain blank.

Of course I am already blocking all Gmail ads (at least in Firefox) using WebMail Ad Blocker, but this method allows you to explore your darker side.

via BoingBoing