[Guest post by DRJ]

New research says conservatives are happier than liberals because they accept life has inequalities:

“Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found. Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person’s tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.

The rationalization measure included statements such as: “It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others,” and “This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are.”

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance. In that way, one’s social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.”

The authors said inequalities take a higher toll on liberals “apparently because liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light.”

Liberals may add this study to their list of examples of heartless conservatives but, if so, that’s unfortunate. It’s impossible to give everyone exactly the same benefits and opportunities. We do our best to treat everyone fairly and we work to improve how people are treated.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ[

Thousands of West Coast dockworkers who load and unload freight at 29 ports are taking the day off today to protest the War in Iraq and “support the troops.”

Color me skeptical.

The shutdown occurs as the dockworkers, represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, near the expiration of their contact with the Pacific Maritime Assn. The Maritime Assn. claims the shutdown is a violation of the dockworkers’ contract, and an arbitrator had already considered the planned shutdown and ordered the union to go to work today.

The ports have shut down before. In 2002, the port shut down for 10 days during a contract dispute between dockworkers and the maritime association. In addition, two years ago on May 1, 2005, the port was closed by truckers who refused to deliver goods as a protest of U.S. immigration policies.

To some, May 1st is known as International Workers Day, a day of solidarity among workers made popular by communists and anarchists. It is a day when the working class uses protests and strikes as “a reminder to the ruling classes that their days are numbered.”

In many Western nations, May Day celebrates the impending arrival of Spring with flowers, baskets, and Maypoles.

Those are two very different May Days.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Houston police shot a 52-year-old man yesterday morning after he fled during a traffic stop, led the police on a high-speed chase for almost an hour, and then made a threatening gesture instead of obeying the officer’s commands after he was stopped.

The mystery is why this happened because it now appears the deceased was an intelligence officer for the US government:

“The victim was identified by friends as Roland Vincent Carnaby, 52, of Houston. But who he really was — or more precisely, what he was — is something police are still trying to piece together.

Carnaby held himself out as a federal intelligence agent but was sometimes cagey about his precise job and employer. At times he mentioned the Central Intelligence Agency or the Department of Homeland Security. He was the president of the local chapter of the Association for Intelligence Officers, a legitimate national organization whose board contains luminaries such as former President George H.W. Bush. Friends said they have seen him in the company socially of local law enforcement officials and high-level CIA bureaucrats.

The CIA told KHOU that Carnaby was not an employee of the intelligence agency.
***
“Most of what he does is so classified that regular homicide (detectives) will come up with a blank page and then a question about why you are asking,” said Fred Platt, the vice president of the local chapter of intelligence agents. “He’s here because of homeland security. The port and the airport. He knows everybody on the command staff of every agency.”

Local law enforcement officials, however, say they don’t know him, including Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas. The local FBI office also claims to have no knowledge of him.”

Platt is mystified by Carnaby’s death:

“That’s the question his friends want answered. They say Carnaby had no reason to run or disobey police. Platt said he had dined with Carnaby both Saturday and Sunday and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Carnaby was engaged to be married, he said, and led a happy life.

“I can’t fathom any reason why he would be running from the police because he is the police,” Platt said. “This doesn’t make any sense. I can’t understand him running or why they opened up on him. This doesn’t smell right.”

It sounds like a movie plot but sometimes life is stranger than fiction.

UPDATE: The article has been updated. It states that Carnaby showed police a card identifying him as a CIA employee when he was initially stopped but the police officer “did not know what federal credentials looked like” and did not know if it was authentic.

In addition, this 5/2/2008 Houston Chronicle article has more information from the police. Carnaby was being detained because the officer thought his CIA identification was fraudulent. Carnaby called acquaintances at the Houston Police Department and the FBI for assistance before and during the 120-mph chase, but he was unable to provide a CIA supervisor’s name or number.

It sounds like Carnaby was living a fantasy life, but it ended.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

It’s getting harder to gain admission to elite colleges, especially this year in which there are a record 3.3 million high school graduates and 60-65% are going to college.

Take the case of Navonil Ghosh, an Austin, Texas, magnet high school senior who scored perfect scores on the SAT and ACT, is 4th in his class, plays the piano, has a black belt in Kung Fu, and has more than 400 hours of volunteer time. Yet his applications were rejected at Stanford, MIT, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and the University of Texas Plan II honors program. Ghosh was waitlisted at Yale and plans to attend either CalTech or Rice, where he was accepted.

Stories like this aren’t that surprising for those familiar with current college admissions. There are so many impressive applicants at elite colleges that schools can afford to be selective. In addition, because colleges emphasize the US News ranking factors such as yield (the percentage of accepted students that actually attend the college), private colleges want to admit only those applicants who are likely to attend.

Not only is demand up but the cost of college tuition is increasing faster than inflation or household income. Steven Pearlstein addressed rising costs last November in an article at the Washington Post:

“Part of the problem is that it’s virtually impossible to have a coherent conversation about an industry that takes in Harvard, East Podunk Community College and everything in between.

It’s also hard to bring economic logic to a market in which the product is usually sold at a loss, competition tends to push prices higher rather than lower, and at many schools, half the customers are forced to subsidize the other half.”

Pearlstein identifies several problems that are contributing to spiraling tuition costs, including the financial assistance race to entice better students and the fact that demand for college is growing faster than supply.

Growing tuition costs have caused some applicants and parents to reconsider the benefits of an elite college education. As a result, lower-cost colleges and state schools may be benefiting from the increased competition and costs at elite colleges, although costs are going up there, too.

Of course, there will always be colleges like the University of Colorado that are attractive to applicants because of the special atmosphere:

“A crowd of about 10,000 people collectively began counting down on the University of Colorado’s Norlin Quadrangle just before 4:20 p.m. Sunday.

Yet the massive puff of pot smoke that hovers over CU’s Boulder campus every April 20 — the date of an annual, internationally recognized celebration of marijuana — began rising over the sea of heads earlier than normal this year.
***
Smoke-out participants — thousands of whom wore green or T-shirts promoting pot — climbed trees, played the bongos, snapped pictures and had miniature picnics. That, of course, after they sparked the weed they had come to smoke.

CU freshman Emily Benson, 19, of Kansas City, said she thinks the decriminalization of marijuana will become a hot topic in the upcoming political season and said she felt part of something bigger than just a smoke-out on Sunday.

“We’re at the starting point of a movement,” she said. “This is a big part of the reason I applied here — for the weed atmosphere.”

I’m sure Emily will have wonderful college stories to tell her children someday.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Two stories today demonstrate how the media is changing. The first is a Pajamas Media story about the unusual way Obama’s “Bittergate” ended up at the Huffington Post:

“It’s one of the great ironies of the campaign. The resolutely pro-Obama Huffington Post, the site Barack Obama chose last month to put out his statement on Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s outrageous comments, this month is the source of one of his biggest campaign crises. Its namesake co-owner, the conservative-turned-liberal commentator profiled recently in the New York Times as “Citizen Huff,” Arianna Huffington, was on David Geffen’s yacht in Tahiti when the deal went down.

I’m referring, of course, to the Huffington Post’s report of the now notorious comments Obama made on April 6th at a private fundraiser in San Francisco. There, the freshman Illinois senator, opining about people in small towns where the jobs have fled, said: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

The other story concerns a much smaller media venture by former NBC and CNN reporter, Mike Boettcher, and his son Carlos who plan a website devoted to military coverage:

“Boettcher, a Ponca City native, and Carlos are going to cover small units and personal stories about the daily lives of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the style of Ernie Pyle, World War II correspondent. Over the years Boettcher has been a correspondent for CNN and NBC.

The two-man team will first be embedded with the Fourth Infantry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. Mike has worked with this unit many times before and is obviously respected by both the military and worldwide media.

“We have been given extraordinary traveling orders from the military,” Boettcher said. This apparently lets them travel with various units and all sorts of transportation which could even mean by aircraft carrier.

“I’ve been working in and out of Iraq since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Desert Storm and for the most recent invasion of Iraq. I’ve been in and out of there since the war began,” Mike said.

The reason Boettcher is launching this unique coverage is because he feels that the major TV news organizations and newspapers have ignored the troops in Iran and Afghanistan.”

Boettcher has YouTube video here.

In a sense, it’s as if we’re returning to Revolutionary days when one person like Tom Paine made a difference in what people thought. Sometimes everything old is new again.

– DRJ

[posted by Justin Levine]

As the world’s foremost authority on the subject [PDF link], I gotta pay my respects to KXOL in Los Angeles for pulling off a good one. [h/t: Franklin Avenue]

They managed to hit the sweet spot between outrageousness and believability that is required for any broadcast hoax - an increasingly difficult feat to pull off when most are on their guard for April Fool’s Day.

- Justin Levine

[Guest post by DRJ]

Nature announced three independent genetic studies suggest some people are more at risk for lung cancer because of their genes:

“Three independent genetic studies have found some of the strongest evidence yet that your genes influence your risk of developing lung cancer.

Lung cancer, the most common killer cancer in the world, is largely caused by smoking. Tobacco is thought to be responsible for about 5 million premature deaths every year and smoking is still clearly the largest risk factor. But the new results suggest that, amongst smokers, some people may be as much as 80% more at risk than others thanks to their genes.

People who have never smoked might also have a slightly increased risk of developing lung cancer and similar problems, although the three studies disagree on whether this is actually the case. It is not clear whether the genetic effect occurs independently of smoking, or whether the genes raise the risk of cancer by exacerbating nicotine addiction.”

The suspect area is on chromosome 15, which is apparently linked to the development of cancer in general:

“By scanning the entire genomes of lung-cancer patients and healthy controls, the three research teams all identified a region on chromosome 15 that seems to influence the likelihood of developing cancer. People possessing a certain set of mutations at this genetic location are more likely than others to have the disease.”

Smoking is still considered a significant factor in whether someone develops lung cancer.

I don’t think this is surprising news but it’s good news that scientists are continuing to locate the genes associated with specific diseases.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

I’m in the medical mood tonight. Cardiologists have told us that it’s important to have low levels of LDL cholesterol, known as the “bad” cholesterol. However, a new report from Japan says that people with low levels of LDL have higher overall death rates than those with high levels:

“A health study by Japanese researchers has found that people with low levels of LDL cholesterol — often referred to as “bad cholesterol” — are more likely to die than those with higher levels.

The finding comes as Japan prepares to introduce special health checkups from April, which list high LDL cholesterol as a factor in deciding whether a person has metabolic syndrome. It is likely the results of the survey will stir debate over the designation of LDL cholesterol as “bad.”

Low LDL is still linked with decreased risk of stroke and heart attacks but it’s also linked with an increased risk cancer and respiratory ailments - hence the higher overall death rates. The study’s author suggests:

“… the appropriate LDL cholesterol level for men is between 100 and 180 milligrams per deciliter of blood. He suggests women should have a level of at least 120 milligrams.
***
“Excessively lowering an LDL level that is within an appropriate range is dangerous,” he said. “Cholesterol is needed in the body and immune function drops when it is low, and it is possible that the death rate rises as a result.”

Interesting. In politics and medicine, moderation is often the winner.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

UK’s The Independent reports on a new study that says cell phones double the risk of brain cancer and may be more dangerous than smoking and asbestos:

“Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take “immediate steps” to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.”

The increased risks are estimated due to the larger number of people using cell phones compared to smokers. The study has been criticized as selective, unbalanced, and contrary to the results of other studies. However, it is being received with more seriousness because the author is highly regarded:

“Professor Khurana – a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers – reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.”

I think the jury is still out on cell phones but my guess is they probably do increase users’ risks of cancer. We’ll see how much in future years.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

No wonder newspapers report the economy is in dire shape. It’s dire for them:

“The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years.

According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 — the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950.”

However, online ad revenue showed gains of 31.4% in 2005, 31.4% in 2006, and 18.8% in 2007. Online revenue “now represents 7.5% of total newspaper ad revenue in 2007 compared to 5.7% in 2006.”

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

It’s a little strange to wish everyone Happy Easter, both because not everyone that reads this blog is Christian, and also because, while Easter is a time to rejoice, it is not a festive event.

However, almost everyone remembers Easter as a happy time for candy, Easter egg hunts and the Easter Bunny. So Happy Easter!

And remember, we can all use a few kind words. Even the Easter Bunny has a bad day now and then.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Here’s an amazing article with medical news about the heart that doesn’t involve transplants or stem cells:

“At 28, Salina Gonzales had one month to live. Her heart, swollen to nearly the size of a coconut, could only pump a trickle of blood.

As the schoolteacher from San Antonio lay dying in a Houston hospital in late summer 2006, she worried as much about her toddler’s future as her own. Her best hope, a transplant, didn’t seem practical. What chance was there of finding a new heart in such a short time?

Even that option didn’t offer true salvation, because the average heart transplant patient lives just a decade or so. Gonzales might see her son, Scott — then not even 2 — grow into his teens. But she probably would never watch him walk across the stage for his high school diploma.

So, Gonzales opted for an experimental therapy: She allowed Houston physicians to drill into her heart and implant a propeller-driven pump. Gonzales was young, her doctors said. There was a chance that, if given a breather, her heart might recover on its own.

It did. Eleven days ago, a surgeon at [Houston’s] Texas Heart Institute removed the pump. A few days later, Gonzales walked a mile around hospital corridors — with her own heart, once given up for dead.”

This is a good story for Salina, her family, and hopefully many others like her.

– DRJ