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Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Bush Nuts--Are George W. Bush lovers certifiable?
November 23, 2006
By Andy Bromage
A collective “I told you so” will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse’s study gets out.
Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on... a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.
The study used Modified General Assessment Functioning, or MGAF, a 100-point scale that measures the functioning of disabled patients. A second scale, developed by Rakfeldt, was also used. Knowledge of current issues, government and politics were assessed on a 12-item scale devised by the study authors.
“Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry,” the study says.
Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.
Rakfeldt says the study was legitimate, though not intended to show what it did.
“Yes it was a legitimate study but these data were mined after the fact,” Rakfeldt says. “You can ask new questions of the data. I haven’t looked at” Lohse’s conclusions regarding Bush, Rakfeldt says.
“That doesn’t make it illegitimate, it just wasn’t part of the original project.”
For his part, Lohse is a self-described “Reagan revolution fanatic” but said that W. is just “beyond the pale.” ●
abromage@newhavenadvocate.com
By Andy Bromage
A collective “I told you so” will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse’s study gets out.
Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on... a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.
The study used Modified General Assessment Functioning, or MGAF, a 100-point scale that measures the functioning of disabled patients. A second scale, developed by Rakfeldt, was also used. Knowledge of current issues, government and politics were assessed on a 12-item scale devised by the study authors.
“Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry,” the study says.
Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.
Rakfeldt says the study was legitimate, though not intended to show what it did.
“Yes it was a legitimate study but these data were mined after the fact,” Rakfeldt says. “You can ask new questions of the data. I haven’t looked at” Lohse’s conclusions regarding Bush, Rakfeldt says.
“That doesn’t make it illegitimate, it just wasn’t part of the original project.”
For his part, Lohse is a self-described “Reagan revolution fanatic” but said that W. is just “beyond the pale.” ●
abromage@newhavenadvocate.com
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers)
These were taken from actual high school essays and collected by English teachers across the country for their own amusement. Some of these kids may have bright futures as humor writers.
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of... E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of... E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Land of 10,000 Stories: The Art of Compassion
Bad news rolled into Northome, Minnesota on November 17, 2003.
It stopped for directions at the post office, headed east out of town past the high school, and then bad news turned in the driveway of Arland and Karen Panchot.
"I seen those two soldiers there and I knew... what had happened," said Arland.
Arland and Karen both knew. All that was left to learn were the details of how their son Dale had died in Iraq. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle he was riding in was hit by a rocket propelled grenade.
"Our son was the third soldier killed from Minnesota," said Karen.
Now three years later, the same rural roads that carried bad news to Northome, in a sense are bringing Dale Panchot back home.
"It's going to be a surprise when that truck pulls up," said Arland, as he waited anxiously for a morning delivery.
Eyes would be wider still if they could back up the delivery truck two weeks, and somehow see the woman delivering their son.
Kaziah Hancock shares a ranch with 100 goats at the base of a Mountain in Utah. She is an artist and she is as colorful as the palette she paints from.
"Kaziah cooks. She starts cranking, she cooks," the artist says about herself to no one in particular as she attacks the canvas in front of her.
On her easel is a partially finished portrait of Staff Sergeant Dale Panchot.
"What a sweet guy," she said. "I believe he really is a guy that would give the shirt off his back."
Kaziah should know about giving, she is doing plenty of it herself these days.
It started three years ago when a tearful Kaziah painted a portrait of Utah's first deceased soldier, then kept going. Today she's completed nearly 250 portraits of soldiers, airmen and Marines from nearly every state.
"At least it's a way to say, 'Hey I love you kiddo,'" said Kaziah, as she held up another recently finished portrait.
Like the others, it will never be sold or displayed by Kaziah. Each soldier portrait is framed and shipped by Kaziah to surviving family members no cost.
"You get to go home to Mama," said Kaziah, as she closed the shipping carton on one of her recently completed works.
Kaziah can't begin to estimate the income she has forfeited, painting deceased sons and daughters instead of the landscapes and portraits she normally sells for thousands of dollars. Yet all she has to do is read the thank you notes from grateful families, and her inner banker goes on permanent holiday.
"It's not some God damn sacrifice, and it's not pain and misery that I have to go through," said Kaziah.
"I'm not in misery, I'm working for a friend. They're my buddies. We got a good thing going. This is a partnership. This is a team," she said, referring to the subject of her touching portraits.
Long ago a bout with ovarian cancer left Kaziah unable to have children of her own. Minnesota's Dale Panchot, the soldier currently on her easel, is just her latest adopted son.
It's a relationship that will leave her both happier and sad.
"Because he just should have been a daddy, he should have been a husband, until he's 80 years old, I would have so loved not to have painted him."
Kaziah figured out years ago that an artist can do little to stop a war. Her gift would be the deliveries to the people left to battle at home.
Arland and Karen Panchot were both at their rural Northome home when the delivery truck pulled in their driveway.
They ripped off the wrapping on the package, and then Karen hesitated for an instant before opening the box.
"Oh, that is awesome," she said as she and Arland got their first look at the portrait of their son.
Attached to the painting was a hand-written note. It read, "May you feel your son's love everyday. God bless you, Love Kaziah."
The Karen and Arland have never met Kaziah Hancock and probably never will. But two parents who can't take their eyes off the image of their son is proof that a hug can extend from Utah all the way to the Land of 10,000 Stories.
"He's here. And that's important to me," said Karen.
Kindness is a virtue. But on a ranch in Utah compassion is an art.
For more information on Kaziah and the other artists who have joined her to form 'Project Compassion' visit the following Web site: Click here
By Boyd Huppert, KARE 11 News
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
FDA to parents: Watch for 'abnormal behavior' onTamiflu
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 100 recent cases of delirium, hallucinations and other unusual psychiatric behavior in Japanese patients treated with Tamiflu should have parents watching for similar reactions when treating their children with the flu drug.
That's the new advice from.... the Food and Drug Administration in adding a new precaution to the label of the influenza drug, prescribed about 2 million times a year in the United States.
The FDA updated the label after receiving the 103 reports of abnormal behavior, most of which involved children in Japan. Japan uses more Tamiflu than any other country in the world, with more than 30 million prescriptions since 2001. It's been prescribed about 8 million times in the United States since 1999. (Watch what side effects have been reported -- 1:29 Video)
The FDA said that a relationship between the drug and the behavior had not been established and that the updated label was "intended to mitigate a potential risk associated with Tamiflu." It recommends that close monitoring of patients begin immediately after starting treatment with the drug.
The changes bring the U.S. label more in line with the Japanese one, which already warned that such abnormal behavior could occur. The previous FDA-approved label mentioned only that "seizure and confusion" had been seen in some patients.
Tamiflu is made by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG. Roche spokesman Terence Hurley said there was no evidence the drug caused the rarely occurring adverse events.
Both Roche and the FDA also said that severe cases of the flu can spark the abnormal behavior flagged in the updated label.
Furthermore, the FDA acknowledged that stopping treatment with Tamiflu could actually harm influenza patients if the virus is the cause of delirium, hallucinations and other abnormal behavior, such as aggression and suicidal thoughts.
Health officials have been sensitive about taking any action that might dissuade people from taking Tamiflu, since the drug could play an important role in an outbreak of bird flu. The drug doesn't prevent flu but can reduce the length and severity of its symptoms.
Previously, Roche has cited studies from the United States and Canada that show the death rate of influenza patients who took Tamiflu was far below those who did not.
Still, the number of reports of bizarre behavior is increasing.
The 103 new cases occurred between Aug. 29, 2005, and July 6, 2006. The tally marks a sharp increase when compared with the 126 similar cases logged over more than five years between the drug's approval in 1999 and August 2005, the FDA said.
Even though severe cases of the flu can spark abnormal behavior, the number and nature of the newly reported cases -- along with comments from doctors who believe the behavior was associated with the drug -- keep the FDA from ruling out Tamiflu as the cause, the agency said.
Tamiflu is one of the few drugs believed effective in treating bird flu, which health officials fear could spark a pandemic should it mutate into a form easily passed from human to human.
According to the label, Tamiflu is for the treatment of uncomplicated acute illness due to flu in patients 1 year and older who have shown symptoms for no more than two days.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
That's the new advice from.... the Food and Drug Administration in adding a new precaution to the label of the influenza drug, prescribed about 2 million times a year in the United States.
The FDA updated the label after receiving the 103 reports of abnormal behavior, most of which involved children in Japan. Japan uses more Tamiflu than any other country in the world, with more than 30 million prescriptions since 2001. It's been prescribed about 8 million times in the United States since 1999. (Watch what side effects have been reported -- 1:29 Video)
The FDA said that a relationship between the drug and the behavior had not been established and that the updated label was "intended to mitigate a potential risk associated with Tamiflu." It recommends that close monitoring of patients begin immediately after starting treatment with the drug.
The changes bring the U.S. label more in line with the Japanese one, which already warned that such abnormal behavior could occur. The previous FDA-approved label mentioned only that "seizure and confusion" had been seen in some patients.
Tamiflu is made by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG. Roche spokesman Terence Hurley said there was no evidence the drug caused the rarely occurring adverse events.
Both Roche and the FDA also said that severe cases of the flu can spark the abnormal behavior flagged in the updated label.
Furthermore, the FDA acknowledged that stopping treatment with Tamiflu could actually harm influenza patients if the virus is the cause of delirium, hallucinations and other abnormal behavior, such as aggression and suicidal thoughts.
Health officials have been sensitive about taking any action that might dissuade people from taking Tamiflu, since the drug could play an important role in an outbreak of bird flu. The drug doesn't prevent flu but can reduce the length and severity of its symptoms.
Previously, Roche has cited studies from the United States and Canada that show the death rate of influenza patients who took Tamiflu was far below those who did not.
Still, the number of reports of bizarre behavior is increasing.
The 103 new cases occurred between Aug. 29, 2005, and July 6, 2006. The tally marks a sharp increase when compared with the 126 similar cases logged over more than five years between the drug's approval in 1999 and August 2005, the FDA said.
Even though severe cases of the flu can spark abnormal behavior, the number and nature of the newly reported cases -- along with comments from doctors who believe the behavior was associated with the drug -- keep the FDA from ruling out Tamiflu as the cause, the agency said.
Tamiflu is one of the few drugs believed effective in treating bird flu, which health officials fear could spark a pandemic should it mutate into a form easily passed from human to human.
According to the label, Tamiflu is for the treatment of uncomplicated acute illness due to flu in patients 1 year and older who have shown symptoms for no more than two days.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Minnesota Roller Girls
The half time show was a polka band. The band's finale was The Ventures 1963 timeless hit "Wipe Out" on an Alpine Horn. Awesome!
Check it out here
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