Is there a cure for ringing ears? Many medical professionals insist that, while there are things you can do help you cope with buzzing, hissing, ringing, and beeping in your ears, there is no cure. This condition is called tinnitus and it affects almost 60 million people in the US to some degree.
While medical [...]
Can you use juice recipes for weight loss? Yes in the short term but you would not want to rely on juices for the rest of your life.
If you need to lose a few pounds in a hurry going on a juice fast may be the answer. You can lose as much as three [...]
A while ago, the press covered a story on Subway weight loss. Basically a guy lost over 200 pounds by eating subway sandwiches. Like everything you read in the press, that wasn’t actually the whole story.
Seemingly, Jared Fogel admitted that he got very little exercise prior to starting his subway diet but now walks [...]
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The liver is the major detoxifying organ in your body. Its function is to remove toxins we [...]
Weight loss for teenage girls is a hot topic these days as so many teenagers are trying to look like their celebrity idols. What they fail to realize is that most pictures of celebrities have been airbrushed to make the woman look thinner and more beautiful. Add to that the bevy of hairstylists and other [...]
With all the adverse publicity on high protein low carb diet, how do you know what is a healthy diet to follow?
The new diet research says that rather than just limiting the amount of carbohydrates in your diet, you should be looking to eat only those that have a low GI index. The GI [...]
Following a low carb diabetic diet is sometimes recommended to those that suffer from this illness. But is it healthy? Well it really depends on how the individual interprets low carb. The British Dietetic Association and the Food Standards Agency have expressed concern that people following low carb diets may be putting themselves at further [...]
If you are following a low carb vegetarian diet to lose weight, the same principles apply. You need to move more, watch what you eat and eat less. A combination of more exercise and less food will shift those pounds faster than following an exercise or diet program alone.
Following a vegetarian diet can leave [...]
Obama administration Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (pictured at right with what I would guess is her ideal car of the future) shamelessly used Labor Day weekend as an opportunity to score political points.
In a presentation that was more a political stump speech than an informative presentation, Solis recited a litany of alleged accomplishments. Many of them have no relationship to what her department does, while some are also objectively wrong. Second, she set up a host of straw men in the form of "those who would" and "to those who want to" to make her department and the administration where she works appear as if they and they alone are the bulwark against rapacious employers and their political allies.
The YouTube video is present at this DOL page (direct YouTube link here). What follows are selected transcribed excerpts, with specific critiques:
Excerpts:
(3:10 – 4:30) You can be certain that like the president, I will not stop working until every American is back on their feet and we have fulfilled our mission to provide good and safe jobs for everyone.
We’re making important inroads towards that goal. So let me tell you, briefly, what we have done so far to get there.
First and foremost, we have reversed the dangerous trend of job loss in our country. Because, just over a year ago, we were losing almost 700,000 jobs per month. We were on the verge of another Great Depression. We took immediate action to stop the bleeding and create jobs. Now, instead of losing jobs, we’ve actually added them in the private sector every month. We’ve averaged about 90,000 jobs for the last seven months.
But something else too, and this is important, our efforts, most notably the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, saved millions of American jobs in the auto manufacturing industry. [1] These efforts have also kept health care workers in clinics and community hospitals. They’ve kept hundreds of thousands of teachers in classrooms, and police and firefighters on the beat where they should be.
(4:50 – 4:58) Now we are making it possible for American entrepreneurs to create and grow businesses that will put people to work. [2]
(5:10 – 5:50) As a result of our quick and bold actions, millions of people are at work, building and rebuilding America’s roads, bridges, ports, and high-speed rail. [3]
And we’re also investing in a new American foundation, and a whole new American industry and employer, and that’s clean energy.
We look at that investment two ways. Advances in biofuels, wind, and solar power will reduce our dependence on foreign energy, and reenergize American manufacturing. I’ve long believed that green jobs can be great jobs, and jobs that every American can take advantage of.
(6:12) I am pleased that this administration is making student loans more affordable and available.
(6:40) Now, as we’ve done all that, we’ve also strengthened the safety net for American workers. We’ve expanded unemployment insurance programs in nearly 40 states so more people can receive benefits. And after decades of failing to rein in the out-of-control health care system, our reforms will control costs, improve care, minimize fraud, and provide security for millions of American families.
(7:23) In the weeks and months ahead, policymakers will be debating what should come next. There are some who will suggest that, when times are tough, it’s time to get tough on working people. [4] They’ll suggest that we cut back on worker training, to cut back on worker safety, and to cut back on giving workers a voice in their workplace. I totally disagree.
To those who say we can no longer afford to train, retool and educate our workforce, I say we can’t afford not to. To those who want to cut corners and disregard safety in the workplace, I say keeping workers safe matters far more than saving a few cents.
And to those who want to deny workers a voice in the workplace, let me be clear: This Secretary of Labor recognizes, respects, and celebrates a worker’s right to organize and bargain collectively.
As individuals and as a nation, we have very important choices to make. And each one merits careful and informed discussion. So in the weeks and months ahead, I hope we can continue this conversation. Each and every one of us has something at stake. And we simply cannot afford to make the wrong choices.
Here are three obvious errors in Solis’s presentation:
Yes, Bush administration Labor Secretary Elaine Chao did give Labor Day addresses such as this one in 2002. But if she had created something as blatant as this video, the press would have been all over her for playing politics during the entire Labor Day weekend. As it is, I doubt we’ll see much if any criticism of Solis from the establishment press.
In a separate action, DOL removed the following opening paragraph from a web page on the history of Labor Day (original preserved at archive.org; revised) that had contained the same text for at least eight years:
“Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country,” said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. “All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day…is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.”
More on why I believe that removal of Gompers’s statement occurred can be found here.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
In a post at National Review Online’s Battle ‘10 blog last night, Mytheos Holt commented on a report seen at the Huffington Post:
HuffPo Panics about GOP Sweep of Ohio
Looks like the Huffington Post is buying into the “As Ohio goes, so goes the nation” meme this election cycle, based on a story out today.
The HuffPo item is by Liz Sidoti. But Sidoti is a national politics writer for the Associated Press, and what Holt really read was what AP would like us to believe is a supposedly "objective" analysis of the electoral situation in Ohio right off the wire. Word for word, the item at HuffPo is the same dispatch as found at the AP’s main site. The only clue as to its origin, which Holt missed (and it’s easy to see how), is the teeny-tiny AP logo where Sidoti’s byline appears.
In other words, Sidoti’s stridency and Democrat-sympathetic viewpoint are so obvious that she passes the HuffPo zealotry test.
Here are some examples of how Sidoti "successfully" came off as a budding HuffPo pundit:
Dems’ prospects threatened by economic woes
Frustrated, discouraged and just plain mad, a lot of people who have lost jobs – or know someone who has – now want to see the names of Democrats on pink slips. And that’s jeopardizing the party’s chances in Ohio and all across the country in November’s elections.
In this big swing-voting state alone, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is in a dogfight for re-election. Senate candidate Lee Fisher may be even worse off. As many as six House Democrats could lose their jobs this fall. Recession-fueled animosity is dominating every race, giving Republicans hope of huge victories.
… In Ohio, like almost everywhere else, voters don’t much care for Washington, Wall Street or anything resembling the establishment. They grouse about every politician, including President Barack Obama, whom Ohioans played a critical role in electing. They fume over the nation’s teetering finances.
… Republicans are hoping to capitalize on voters’ economic disillusionment, frustration with Obama and tea party-generated enthusiasm.
Democrats are relying on a financial advantage, a robust get-out-the-vote operation and, mostly, the ghost of George W. Bush to curb an expected Nov. 2 shellacking.
… at Suzzie’s Beechwold Diner, Steve Reither epitomizes the Democrats’ other big challenge: a fired-up electorate tilting toward the GOP.
A Republican-turned-independent, Reither is sick of both parties and says: "They all talk about change and nothing changes." But he saves his harshest words for Obama, whom he calls a socialist and a liar. This year, he says he’ll probably vote largely with the GOP in November – "I’ll hold my nose" – simply to fire Democrats.
"This administration and his cronies are running this country into the ground," Reither, 55, says as he finishes his breakfast. The owner of a small auto restoration business, he says he’s been struggling for the past two years, and he blames Obama’s policies that "hurt the little guy."
Democrats at all levels are sounding a populist tone, casting their races as helping voters on Main Street vs. Republican policies intended to help Wall Street. Republicans, in turn, argue that Democrats – led by Obama – are making a tough economic situation worse with a free-spending, big-government agenda.
Of course Sidoti’s work looks like HuffPo punditry, as it’s all from the Democrats’ "woe is us, these terrible things are happening" perspective. Republicans are seen as the unworthies upsetting the apple cart. And voters? Well, they’re just "mad" and full of "animosity."
It’s quite instructive to see how an AP report is correctly interpreted as left-leaning output. And sad to say, Liz Sidoti isn’t anywhere near the wire service’s worst offender.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
