Censuring Project Censorship

Every year the Reader Weekly publishes excerpts from Project Censored, “The News That Didn't Make The News”, and every year I gnash my teeth over at least half the items.  I’ve already read about them someplace else.  If they were censored, how did they get published so that I already knew about them?  If they were censored stories, how did the authors of these items get all their information?  And if they were censored, how did they get public coverage through Project Censored?  Wouldn’t the “censors” have closed Project Censored’ offices?

This year I’ll try a bit harder to find out where all of these items did make the news.

Widespread GMO Contamination: Did Monsanto Plant GMOs Before USDA Approval?

I am not surprised.  Monsanto has had widespread objection to its products and practices for years.

I searched for “monsanto gmo contamination 2000”.  A History Commons article gives citations from the Washington Post and others from 1999 and from the New York Times from 2000

Pennsylvania Law Gags Doctors to Protect Big Oil’s “Proprietary Secrets”

The Philadelphia Inquirer apparently didn’t know that this story was censored.  In December and January it ran stories on this law in its Philly.com site. The law is being contested in state courts.  That law is even being opposed by local Republican politicians; one even thought all the state Republicans should be turned out of office in the next election.

The Power of Peaceful Revolution in Iceland

I knew that years ago Icelanders turned out the government that let banks run rampant.  The new government did not bail the banks out.  They let the banks take their own losses rather than  “socialize” the losses as so many other countries did.

Food Riots: The New Normal?

I expected that this could happen given global warming and government corruption impoverishing many countries.  But there could also be a bright side.  Education, cell phones, and local electricity are giving many people the power to better their own lives.  And not all live in areas overrun by militant, religious extremists.

Journalism Under Attack Around the Globe

What’s new?  There have been many reports about attacks on journalists.  Reporters without Borders have been working for years to end violence against reporters.  One of the latest was a German photographer shot point blank in Afghanistan.  And an Italian reporter was killed in Ukraine.

The US Has Left Iraq with an Epidemic of Cancers and Birth Defects

This is not surprising considering the amount of toxic junk left by the military.  I’ve seen many stories about the depleted uranium shells left behind and its dangers.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Threatens a Regime of Corporate Global Governance

This title is ambiguous.  Does TPP threaten an existing “regime of corporate global governance”?  Or does it threaten to bring about a “regime of corporate global governance”?

I’ve seen the latter complaint before, many times.  There are many opposed to TPP who have been vociferous in their condemnation of it.  I’ve read many stories about the requested “fast track” authority and the secrecy about what is in the agreement.  Those voting for TPP ought to consider what happened with the PATRIOT Act.  Most did not read it.  I know of one case in which a Senator read the act and refused to vote for it.

What we probably can know for sure is that the “greatest deliberative body in the world” probably won’t deliberate much.

A Fifth of Americans Go Hungry

This headline is a sweeping generalization of the real problem described afterward.  Going hungry once a year is not the same as always being hungry.  Going hungry through no fault of one’s own is bad enough, but generalizations weaken the case for helping those who do.

Another side is that many unwittingly go hungry even though they have plenty of food.  The “American diet” is filled with food that only increases hunger, food brought to you through the “hard work” and “generosity” of big-ag.

Bank Interests Inflate Global Prices by 35 to 40 Percent

There is a simple explanation; it is called compounding.   Most everything we consume or use is produced by a pyramid of suppliers, each paying interest on its loans and expecting profit. 

Mary sells a widget to John.  John uses Mary’s widget to make a thingamajig.  John sells his thingamajig to Carl.  Carl uses John’s thingamajig to make a whatchamacallit. Carl sells his whatchamacallit to Karen.  Karen uses Carl’s whatchamacallit to make “The Latest Great Thing”.

Assuming the value added at each stage was twenty percent and each paid five percent interest on his or her costs, the accumulated interest is 15.5 percent.  The longer the chain of suppliers, the greater the compounding of interest.  And we aren’t including the interest each of these producers is paying for a house, a car, and a credit card.  And all that interest is not going just to banksters.  Many a pension is paid for by interest.  Many colleges, foundations, and charities depend on the interest and dividends paid on invested donations.

Richest Global 1 Percent Hide Trillions in Tax Havens

Many have complained about this.  It seems I see at least one story a week about tax havens.

Bradley Manning and the Failure of Corporate Media

We don’t know the rationale of rejection by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Politico.  These are only three of dozens of corporate media.  This is a sweeping generalization too much like too many other sweeping generalizations of all X do Y.  The Huffington Post did report in 2013 that Manning did reveal he tried to reach these media organizations, but he received no answers.  The real question is did those at the lower echelons who received his messages have any reason to believe his credibility.

Think about it!  How often has your contact with any large corporation gone past the first person you reached?

As far as “corporate media” shunning the story, I can easily find many articles at the time of his trial.  I do know that I got tired of reading about it.

Manning’s sexual orientation was new to me after his trial.

Gogebic Taconite President Bill Williams Faces Environmental Charges in Spain

Wisconsin Public Radio has been publishing stories about the Spanish pollution charges against Bill Williams.  I don’t know how often they have to cover it to have more than “little coverage”.  The Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative has published several stories.  Maybe about 4,000 followers means little coverage, but how many more read these stories without becoming followers?  Other publications reporting these charges include The Daily Press of Ashland, WDIO, Sawyer County Record of Hayward, and Business North (KUWS story),

Police Brutality and Disregard for People’s Rights

These stories are always coming up.  Sadly, these abuses have been going on for a long time.  Joseph Wambaugh, a police officer who became a novelist in the 1970’s, wrote about some of these abuses in his stories.

Protests Everywhere and No One Cares

Who the hell are the Smiley Cyprus and Dustin Peeper mentioned in this section?  I certainly don’t care to read much about their escapades.

I read about the Venezuela protests in the News Tribune or Star Tribune.

Could the Rome protests be about a story in La Repubblica?  La Repubblica reported that the head of the Ukraine Communist Party was accused of being a sniper, beaten, and forced to kiss a cross.  This story appeared in contropiano.org, an online Communist journal.  Contropiano’s story was published March 1, 2014, but La Repubblica ran a correction on February 22 that the party official was not a sniper!

My conclusion

My “censorship” is your “lack of interest” and vice versa.  We would have to spend all day and all night reading all the stories that may have some interest to us.  But we can never keep up with all that others may consider important.

Almost every day I read the Duluth News Tribune, the Star Tribune, and the New York Times.  Do I read everything published in them?  Come on, I would like to do a lot of other things besides read news on a screen, especially news about the doings of Cypress and Beeper.

People are highly selective in what they read.  Some read only the sports; some, the headlines, some, the entertainment, and on and on.  Because you and I take note of economic treaties doesn’t mean everybody else does.

I know this very well! I’ve been beating the drum that Adam Smith has been misinterpreted.  Other than the copy that was in the Reader (“The Invisible Adam Smith”), I doubt if one hundred people have read that article in my blog.  Has my view been censored?  No, it has only been overwhelmed by millions of articles that are more interesting to tens of millions of readers.

Mel is a gullible skeptic.  Sometimes he swallows somebody's line; sometimes he tries to figure out what is really going on.

Published in Reader Weekly, 2014-06-05, http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/06/05/3495_censuring_project_censored

I was right to be positive about a negative

This morning my urologist called me.  He was pleased to tell me that there was no sign of cancer in the biopsies of my prostate.  See "The Impatient Outpatient".  However, he wants to see me again next February and his staff called me back with a specific date.

Where are my get-young pills?

Ah, this is a good place to stick in my notes about Ponce de León and the Fountain of Youth.  Ponce did not discover Florida.  "By 1513, when Ponce de Léon first arrived, so many Europeans had visited Florida that some Indians greeted him in Spanish."  The fountain of youth at St. Augustine was concocted by Washington Irving over 300 years later.  See "Ponce de León, Exposed", T. Allman, New York Times, 2013-04-01.

About the only Fountains of Youth are to pick long-lived grandparents, don't smoke, drink moderately, eat your vegetables, and exercise regularly.  I've failed at some time or another on all five, but I have followed the second for over 30 years and I try to follow the last three every day.  Plus I have Magree's push-up rule of longevity - you'll live as many years more as you can do pushups.  I have been doing between 22 and 26 most mornings.  See "The Magree Inexpensive Heart Stress Test".

The Impatient Outpatient

In mid-January I visited my primary physician for my annual physical.  Because my PSA shot up above 7, he recommended I see a urologist.   I had to wait until early March to see the urologist I've seen before.

When I saw him, he decided he wanted to take 20 biopsy samples, which means it would be done with anesthesia in a hospital rather than in his office.  So, that was scheduled in late March, at 5:45 in the morning.  But then he wanted me to see my primary physician for a pre-op.  I scheduled that for a few days before the biopsy surgery.  When I saw my primary physician, he didn't think there would be any problem.

But then he thought about it and because I have a heart valve blockage he thought I should see a cardiologist.  This was about two days before the scheduled surgery.  I couldn't see my cardiologist until the following week.  I notified the urologist's scheduler and she supposedly notified the hospital.

I think the hospital called a day or two before the surgery and I informed them of the delay.  At 6:15 of the morning of the original scheduled surgery, the hospital called asking why I wasn't there!

I saw the cardiologist the following Thursday.  He didn't see any reason I couldn't have the biopsy.  The risk of surgery to open my artery was greater than the risk of the biopsy.

I called urology scheduling and she "penciled" me in for April 10th.  At least this time I wouldn't miss a class. "Penciled" probably means entered in the computer system with a provisional note.  Surgery called me back a few days later and said I was scheduled for 8 in the morning.  A much more civilized time.

So no alcohol 24 hours before and 24 hours after.  I like my wine but I could give it up for a couple of days.  No breakfast on the day of surgery.  Now, that is hard to give up.  Only coffee, water, and clear juice.  At least I get a jolt of glucose with clear apple juice.

Off we go on Wednesday morning with my wife to keep me company and drive me home.

We get whisked into a small room with a hospital bed and a woman working on a computer in the other half of the room.  Hm!  Are they getting crowded for office space?  I'm given a gown, a robe, support hose, and cloth socks with sticky bottoms.  My wife looked at the last and said she should have brought those $125 socks from home; that's what was on the bill for her surgery a couple of years ago.

So, I'm just about ready to be trundled off to surgery.  We sit and wait.  My wife has a book, but I can't get into reading much.  I just sit quietly on the edge of the bed (gurney).  And we wait.  It's nine o'clock.  We hear there has been an emergency surgery.  That's certainly more important than my biopsy.  And we wait.

A guy is brought in on a gurney to recover from his surgery.  The woman working on a computer is his girl friend trying to catch up on work while waiting.

I play with words in my head and come up with "The impatient outpatient".  I tell it to a nurse and she just about cracks up.  She was my best audience; others smiled or shrugged.  Maybe they took it as a serious criticism.

Finally about ten o'clock I'm trundled out of the room in my bed.  I watch the ceiling lights flash by and chat with the nurse pushing me.  She places me in a curtained alcove.  The urologist comes by to check on me; his beaming face is a relaxant.  The anesthesiologist comes by and I ask him his name.  It's Muzzi.  "Parlai italiano?"  Boy, does he!  Not exactly like a native, but better conversation than I could make.  And he spoke slowly enough that we understood every word.  He learned it from his "nonna" (grandmother).  Next comes an anesthesiology nurse who heard some of the previous conversation and said he was "German" and asked me to use some German phrases.  In the course of these comings and goings, I rattled off a few phrases in other languages.  Was I entertaining the staff or were they distracting me?  While this last conversation is going on, the nurse puts an I.V. in me and starts a saline drip.  No big deal except the tube irritates the crook of my elbow a few times.

The surgery space becomes available and I'm moved two or three curtained spaces.  Daphne, another anesthesiology nurse, starts the drip of Propofol.  Hoo boy!  My arm feels like somebody is squeezing it everywhere.  Then somebody says, "Melvyn, wake up!"

I feel really tense and stretch everything I can.  But otherwise I am content to just lie there.  After a few minutes I again watch the lights flash overhead but I don't chat as much.  Back in the room.  Goodness, it's two o'clock.

I'm offered beverages and I choose water and apple juice, the latter again for the energy.  I feel better and better.  My bladder says its time to go down the hall.  I manage mostly on my own, but slowly and with a nurse at my elbow.

At about three I get permission to get dressed and go home.  The staff gives my wife time to bring our car to the front door and escorts me out.  Home we go and life returns to normal, sort of.

I was told I would learn the results in a couple of days.  Well, those couple of days were thrown into turmoil by the weather.  Duluth was hit by a heavy, wet snow fall and many activities were cancelled.  As of Sunday I have not been given a result.   My attitude is that I'm positive the results are negative.

Meanwhile, I've moved a lot of snow and slept well.  The worst side effect was a sore throat from the breathing tube that was put in my throat so I could breathe properly.  Today I feel I have some of my singing ability (whatever that means) back.

For the follow-up, see "I was right to be positive about a negative".

Cancer, diet, exercise, and hoaxes

A relative posted an article on Facebook supposedly from Johns Hopkins saying that diet is better than chemotherapy and surgery for countering cancer.  I do believe that diet and exercise are important parts of preventing cancer or recovering from it, but this sounded "too good to be true".

Sure enough, a search for "Johns Hopkins", cancer, diet, and radiation turned up "Cancer Update Email -- It's a Hoax" from The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center of Johns Hopkins Medicine rebutting much of what it was in the email.

Emails such as this are a cancer themselves.  The Johns Hopkins article was last updated April 2009!! But the cancer of false information lives on.

Can Gov. Chris Christie change the Republican Party?

I had my Jon Stewart dose of the day.  In http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-6-2012/exclusive---chris-christie-extended-interview-pt--2, Stewart tries to pin down Christie on why Republicans thinks it's alright for the Federal Government to pay for the aftermath of natural disasters but its wrong for any government to pay for health insurance.  For example, Stewart asks if having cancer and no health insurance is a natural disaster.

Christie spoke about how he tries to work with those with different philosophical ideas to come to some agreement.  I understood his meaning to be that one cannot take a rigid stand.

Will other Republicans follow his lead or will they consider him a RINO (Republican in Name Only)?

Free enterprise: Free to do what, kill us?

In the name of short-term profits, is free enterprise free to kill us long term?

One of the complaints of "free marketers" is government interference.  But who else but government is going to protect us from the carcinogens that free enterprise dumps into our environment?

For a summary, watch the trailer of "Living Downstream" based on Sandra Steingraber's book "Living Downstream: An Ecologists Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment".

It's a sad day in the funnies

The comic section of newspapers has come a long way from depicting the foibles of adults, kids, and animals and the feats of heros and super-heros. Nowadays we see more political satire such as "Doonesbury" and "Mallard Fillmore" and more real-life stories such as "For better or for worse" and "Funky Winkerbean". Now we get involved in the trials and tribulations of characters who seem to be part of our daily lives.

People have died before in the funnies, for example, Ellie Patterson's mother died some years ago. But today we get two signals that death has happened. Ellie's father's second wife finds him immobile and Lisa Moore's dream has a masked tuxedoed man coming to escort her elsewhere. It was hard to get up from the breakfast table without a lump in the throat or a tear in the eye.