BAD FOOD

If you'll Google "metabolic syndrome" you'll
discover that it is now epidemic in the U. S.,
and puts one in major risk for diabetes and
heart disease. In fact, you probably have the
syndrome if you have three or more of these
risk factors: abdominal obesity, high triglyce-
rides, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure,
and/or elevated blood sugar.

A book by Gary Taubes, Good Calories, Bad
Calories presents abundant scientific evidence
that the standard American diet (SAD), which
is low-fat and high in carbohydrates feeds and
in fact accelerates the metabolic syndrome, and
with it, obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Those
three killers have, of course, kept increasing
steadily over the past 30 years that our government
and the commercial food giants have been pushing
the low-fat diet to fight heart disease. Taubes is a
science reporter who has spent years studying the
research on this subject. He convincingly challenges
the 40 year-old hypothesis (never proven) that cho-
lesterol itself is the critical component in heart dis-
ease, and cites research implicating triglycerides
and the kinds of molecules known as lipo-proteins
that carry cholesterol through the blood. Both of
these, he writes, are effectively regulated by the
carbohydrate content of the diet, rather than by
saturated fat.

Dr. Atkins (the cardiologist of diet fame) showed
that a low-carb diet can safely ignore saturated fats
and still lower triglycerides while raising HDL, the
healthy cholesterol. Atkins' views on that have now
been confirmed by studies at Duke, Stanford, the
Univ. of Pa., and by sixty four million Frenchmen
who love real butter, cheese and eggs, and cook in
lard. They have the same cholesterol level that we
do, but less than half as much coronary heart disease.
How is that possible, if cholesterol is a main cause
of heart disease? Oh, and it's not just the French:
Austrians, Belgians, and Finns show similar eating
habits with similar health results. And it's not
because the French drink a lot of wine. They do,
and die of liver cirrhosis twice as much as we do,
but the latest research shows that more than two
alcoholic drinks per day don't help your heart; it
hurts it. Incidentally, French consumption of
sugar is less than half the 160 lb.s per person that
we eat each year. Connect the dots!

The Inuits' diet is 60% saturated fat. They have high
cholesterol and zero heart disease until refined carbs
came to them in Cokes and Hershey bars. Now dia-
betes is rampant among them. The Masai (E. Africa)
diet is 90% animal products (an extreme Atkins), they
have the lowest cholesterol found anywhere, and no
heart disease. It's the same with at least thirteen
other preliterate tribal societies all over the world.
Remember our own Plains Indians?

If you'll google the cholesterol controversy, you'll
find there's a sizable time lag between medical
research and medical practice. Always has been.
Anywhere from ten to thirty years. Most research
points to inflammation and free radical damage
(oxidation) as the main causes of heart disease.
Cholesterol doesn't cause either of these, and in-
creasingly is seen by researchers as a marginal
risk factor. And only then when it is the small,
dense particles, and only when oxidized. (At least
seven different kinds of cholesterol have been
identified.) Antioxidants in your blood will prevent
free radical damage to the arterial walls that allows
plaque formation to build up. About 5% of that
plaque is cholesterol. The rest is calcium, lead,
cadmium, and several lipo-proteins, including
triglycerides. Has your doctor ever talked to you
about antioxidants, and which ones are needed,
and why? Mine hasn't. When asked, he said:
"not proven." That research has only been going
on for 60+ years! Still "not proven."

A medical doctor in Sweden named Uffe Ravnskov
(who also has a Ph. D. in bio-chemistry) has spent
his life researching and writing about the supposed
heart disease/cholesterol connection. He doesn't
find any, and has traced what only amounts to a
series of assumptions, back to defective research.
If you'll Google him you'll find his book: The Cho-
lesterol Myths and other writings. More and more
doctors critical of main-stream medicine are finding
the cholesterol scare may be based on bad science
and commercial hype. Lowering cholesterol is a
$30 billion a year take for drug companies, and a
huge source of TV revenue! It has done nothing to
reduce the number of heart attacks or metabolic
syndrome.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net

AMNESIA, OR JUST PLAIN INSANITY?

We Americans are like children: short memories
and an even shorter attention span. Like children,
we want everything NOW. We are not prepared
to hunker down for the long haul, especially if the
final outcome is in doubt, as it very much is in
both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq is now (in reality) a dictatorship, in that the
Maliki gov't (Shiite) we have backed from its be-
ginning refuses to accept the last election and
turn over control to the winning coalition of com-
bined Sunni, Shia, and secular groups.

After years of preaching democracy, we need to
put our money (and troops) where our mouth is
and back the transfer of power in Iraq to the
coalition that won the election. That, of course,
may open old wounds and result in fresh fighting.
That can't be avoided in any case, if the M. gov't
is determined to stay in power, which appears to
be the case. It will have to crush its main oppo-
sition, and is now arresting and holding leaders
in that opposition, and cooking up false charges
of past sins of others to justify harsh measures
in the future. We need to cut off funds to M.
until he recognizes and obeys election results.
We continue to pour a lot of money down that
rat hole, as we have been doing for years.

And speaking of rat holes, we turn now to
(surprise!) Afghanistan. Increasing numbers of
folks here are advocating cut and run there. But
not me! If you'll Google "ethnic map of Afghani-
stan" you may see why it's neither necessary nor
prudent to give up entirely in that country and walk
away as suggested by some.

The non-Pashtun part of that country (the Tajiks,
Uzbeks, Hazara, Turkmen, etc.) that made up the
"Northern Alliance" vs. the Soviets successfully
resisted Taliban rule right up to 9/11, and can do so
again, plus adding Kabul within their perimeter of
protection, with our help. (They like us, and want us
to stay.)

This would not require a large force on our part, as
most of the Afghan army we are training and equip-
ing now are Tajiks and Uzbeks. Nor would it take
a lot more money than we have already invested.
It is probably the best we can realistically hope for
at this point. Besides, our domestic politics won't
allow for us to just walk away and forget it. Too
many of ours have died there, to let it all go now.

Here's an additional ethnic note: Northern Afghan.
was under the Persian Empire for 400 yrs. The
Persians prized education and spread it throughout
their realm. That had lasting results. There are
strong cultural and commercial ties between Iran
and northern Afghan. They speak a common lan-
guage (called Dari in Af.). Education is more wide-
spread in northern Af. than in the south, and more
prized. They are also less religious and more secular
in outlook, and more cosmopolitan. They are com-
fortable with foreigners, and welcome them. India
has strong commercial ties in the north, but is not
welcome in the south.

In fact, the Pashtuns in the south are a whole dif-
ferent story! Mostly rural and very religious (fund-
mentalist, in fact), they are also mostly illiterate.
They are often hostile to foreigners and intolerant
of other religions (including fellow Muslims, such as
Shia and Sufis). They make up half the Afghan
population, and 100% of the Taliban. There are 35
million more of them across the border in Pakistan.
They are fierce fighters, and have never been con-
quered or ruled by outsiders. The Pakistan gov't
respects that and leaves theirs alone. We should
do likewise, in my view.

President Karzai (a Pashtun himself) is probably
correct when he says he doesn't think the Taliban
can be defeated. We can kill huge numbers of them
with "overwhelming firepower" as people like Sen.
Mc Cain advocate, but that will kill large numbers
of civilians as well. That does the opposite of "win
hearts and minds." What's the point? What good
will that accomplish, either there, or internationally?

What is it, exactly, that we're trying to do? Is it
doable at all? There are 3 billion Muslims, remember.
Are we going to kill them all? Or just keep fighting
them forever? Repeating the same behaviour over
and over and expecting a different result is insanity.
Freud said that. I say amen!


What do you say?

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net

SLIM AND NONE

Those are the chances for a just and equitable settlement
of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict anytime soon, or per-
haps ever. Why? The evil axis (U.S.-Israel) doesn't
want a settlement. They just want to keep chipping away
at Palestinian land and people until there's nothing left.
But evil? Yes, we've aided and abetted in these crimes to
the tune of more than $100 billion over the years. That's
money from our taxpayers' pockets that could have gone
to our crumbling infrastructure or universal health care.

Here's Juan Cole (www.juancole.com/) 6/12/2010:
"'Gaza' is an abstraction to most Israelis, including [parti-
sans of Israel like] Sen. Charles Schumer of New York.
A majority of the 1.5 million Gazans is not even from
Gaza. but rather is from what is now Israel. Americans
do not know, and perhaps do not care, that 68% of Ga-
zans are refugees living in 8 refugee camps, who
were ethnically cleansed and violently expelled
from their homes in 1947-48, in what is now
Israel. And no, they were not combatants, just civil-
ians caught up in a civil war of sorts. They lost massive
amounts of property and their homes, which would now
be worth billions, but never received a dime from the
Israelis in reparations or compensation. Then in winter
of 2008-2009, the Israeli military (with our weapons
and help) destroyed one in every eight Palestinian
homes, rendering even more people homeless."

Here's Noam Chomsky: "The most significant acts to
undermine a peaceful settlement are the daily US-backed
actions in the occupied territories, all recognized to be
criminal: taking over valuable land and resources and
constructing what the leading architect of the plan, Ariel
Sharon, called 'Bantustans' for Palestinians -- an unfair
comparison because the Bantustans were far more viable
than the fragments left to Palestinians under Sharon's
conception, now being realized. But the US and Israel
even continue to oppose a political settlement in words,
most recently in December 2008, when the US and
Israel (and a few Pacific islands controlled by the US)
vote against a UN resolution supporting 'the right of the
Palestinian people to self-determination' (passed 173 to
5, US-Israel opposed, with evasive pretexts).

The Israeli party line is that anyone and everyone who
criticizes their behaviour "hates Jews," so should be ig-
nored. And any Jew (like Chomsky) critical of Israel is
a "self-hating Jew," so everything they say is false.
Actually, according to polls in the Israeli press, around
40% or so of Israelis disapprove of what their govern-
ment has done or is doing to the Palestinians. One of
them, who was born and educated there, and is now a
history prof. in the U. K. has written: "When the Zionist
movement started its ethnic cleansing operations in
Palestine, in early Dec. 1947, the country had a "mixed"
population of Palestinians and Jews. The indigenous
Palestinians made up the two thirds majority, down from
90% at the start of the (Br.) Mandate (in 1919)" (From
Ilan Pappe: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.) He
went on to write: "The ethnic cleansing included the
destruction of more than 400 villages, 11 towns and the
expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians. The Israeli state, as
a political entity, has to acknowledge the ethnic cleans-
ing. Until today it has failed to do so, and it should be
made accountable for its deeds and offer compensation
for the people it wronged."

In a recent interview, after discussing the racial discrimi-
nation and segregation experienced daily by Arabs living
in Israel proper, Pappe went on to say: "The situation
in the occupied territories is far worse. House demoli-
tions, expulsions, killings, torturing, land confiscation
and daily harassment at will of the population has been
going on from the first day of the occupation in 1967: it
did not start because of suicide bombs which appeared
for the first time in 1995 as a very belated response for
more than 25 years of occupation." (For the rest of this
last quote, Google Ilan Pappe and look for "A Conver-
sation With Ilan Pappe.)

Here's what some people have written about Pappe's
book: "Ilan Pappe has written an extraordinary book
of profound relevance to the past, present, and future
of Israel/Palestine relations."
--- Richard Falk, Prof. of Int'l Law and Practice,
Princeton University

"This is an extraordinary book -- a dazzling feat of
scholarly synthesis and Biblical moral clarity and
humaneness." -- Walid Khalidi, Former Senior
Research Fellow, Center for Middle Eastern
Studies, Harvard University

"An instant classic. Finally we have the authorita-
tive account of an historic event, which continues to
shape our world today, and drives the conflict in the
Middle East. Pappe is the only historian who could
have told it, and he has done so with supreme com-
mand of the facts, elegance, and compassion. The
publication of this book is a landmark event."
---Karma Nabulsi, research fellow at Nuffield
College, Oxford University

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net

DEAD IN THE WATER

That's the Obama presidency. Whether you are
talking about Afghanistan, or the oil leak, or the
economy. As Bob Herbert observed today in a
NYT op. ed.: "Far more concern is being expressed
for the wildlife threatened by the oil gushing into
the Gulf of Mexico than for the G. I.s being blown
up in the wilds of Afghanistan." He went on to say:
"Ultimately the public is at fault for this catastro-
phe in Afghanistan, where more than 1,000 G. I.s
have now lost their lives."

We're at fault because we are allowing it to continue,
like a losing poker player who keeps raising his bets
and piling in his chips, hoping to bluff his opponent
into folding. The opponent knows we'll run out of
chips before he does: after all, he is holding the best
cards! He lives there and belongs there. We don't.
He is the right religion, we aren't (for that part of the
world.) He speaks the language and understands the
culture. We don't. It's true that the Taliban is hated
by many (if not most) Afghanis, but so are we. He
isn't wiping out wedding parties and funeral crowds
with mistaken drones, or breaking down doors of
people's homes in the middle of the night and dragging
young men out to be imprisoned at Bagram. We are.

President Karzai has read the writing on the wall. He
is quoted in today's NYT as saying he doubts that the
Taliban can be defeated. He should know. He's a
Pashtun, like most, if not all of the Taliban. His half-
bro Walid is a wealthy warlord in Kandihar, the heart
of Taliban country. Wally, who is on our CIA's payroll,
obviously thrives in close association, if not cahoots
with, the Taliban.

Our forces recently captured (and destroyed much of)
Marja, a Pashtun town in Taliban country. We then
brought in government administrators from Kabul
who are Tajiks, from northern Afg. They don't speak
Pashto. (There is no Afg. language.) The Pashtuns
and Tajiks have been enemies from time immemorial.
Tajiks and Uzbeks control the new Afghan. army we
are training, so it doesn't attract many Pashtuns, who
may enroll for the signing bonus and then go AWOL
and sell their rifle to the Taliban! The few who stay
complain of discrimination by the Tajiks. Whose
orders do you suppose the Pashtun soldiers will follow?

One of many major mistakes we made in Viet Nam
was underestimating the determination of that people
to resist at any cost domination by a foreign power,
whether us, the French, or the Chinese. We are re-
peating that mistake in Afgh. The Pashtuns are 40
million strong (more living in Pak. than Afgh.) and
have never been conquored by anyone (Including
Alex. the Gr., the Brits (twice), the Soviets, and
Karzai doesn't believe we have the will or the wit to do
the job either. I'm afraid he may be right. We aren't
making any progress. We may be dead in the water.

(By the way, I've dealt with the ethnic divisions in
Afgh. in earlier blogs. If you need more, I suggest that
you Google them.)

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net

GROUNDLESS BASE FOR ISLAMAPHOBIA

Ignorance and fear of Islam are widespread in this
country, and dangerous, because they lead to tragic
mistakes (like Iraq) that are costly and destructive.
"Islam is an evil religion," said Franklin Graham, the
influential evangelist. He was blaming Islam for the
actions of a few terrorists as typical of that religion.
That is like blaming Christianity for the Crusades, or
the Inquisition, or the Hundred Years War in Europe.

Another leading preacher, Pastor John Hagee of a
16,000 member church in San Antonio, in an interview
with Terry Gross on NPR in 2006, said that all Muslims
are programmed to kill and we can never negotiate with
any of them. TG: "If you use the Bible as the basis for
policy, is there any room for compromise? And if you
use the Bible as the basis for policy, should Muslims use
the Koran as the basis for their policy, and then again,
what possible basis is there for compromise at that point?"
Pastor Hagee: "There is really no room for compromise
between radical Islam --" TG: "I'm not talking about
radical Islam. I'm just talking about Islam in
general." Hagee: "Well Islam in general -- those
who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill
Christians and Jews."

That of course is totally false: there is no such teaching
anywhere in the Koran. Read it for yourself. The Koran
tells us to "live at peace with your neighbor. Do not ini-
tiate hostilities against him. God does not like the aggres-
sor." And "Permission to fight is given only to those who
are oppressed." And "there is no compulsion in religion."

Terrorism violates the fundamental teachings of Islam
just as clearly as the use of torture violates the teachings
of Jesus. Mainstream Islam's leading authorities agree
on this point. In 2005 King Abdullah II of Jordan con-
vened in Amman a conference of 180 of the world's top
Islamic scholars and religious authorities. They repre-
sented all 17 of the different groups, sects, and "schools"
of interpretation in Islam, and together issued a fatwa
summed up by the King: "Muslims from every branch
of Islam can now assert without doubt or hesitation that
a fatwa calling for the killing of innocent civilians -- no
matter what nationality or religion: Muslim or Jew, Arab
or Israeli -- is a basic violation of the most fundamental
principles of Islam."

For a brilliant discussion of the Koran, its origin and
interpretation, and the history and teachings of Islam,
see No god but God, by Reza Aslan. He is an American
Muslim born in Iran and educated in the U. S., and a
professor of religious studies at Univ. of California at
Riverside. His book has been translated into thirteen
languages, and has been recognized by many experts
as the definitive work in English on these matters. He
points out that Muslims are often confused themselves
about what is in the Koran, and what it means, just as
many Christians don't know what the Bible actually says.

In the case of Islam, the hadith (oral sayings and tra-
dition) remembered from speeches and conversations
of Muhammud and written down later, are often mis-
takingly attributed to the Koran. Professor Aslan says
this about that: "The hadith, insofar as they addressed
issues not dealt with in the Quran, would become an
indispensable tool in the formation of Islamic law. How-
ever, in their earlier stages, the hadith were muddled
and totally unregulated, making their authenticaton
almost impossible . . . in less than two centuries after
Muhammed's death, there were already some seven
hundred thousand hadith (emphasis mine) being circu-
lated throughout Muslim lands." He adds that most of
these were fabricated by people who wanted to legiti-
mize their own particular belief or practice. It is easy to
see how almost anything can be advocated or justified
by finding a suitable quote from the "sayings" of the
Prophet.

(To be continued)

NONSENSE ABOUT HEALTH INSURANCE

Here is a letter I wrote recently to the local paper:

Jenni West writes (Mailbag, 3/25/10) that some
San Francisco restaurants add a surchare to custo-
mers' bills to cover health insurance costs for their
help. She forgot to mention that San Franciso is the
only city in the U. S. that has real universal health
care for every single citizen, and has had it since 2007.
Obamacare will now help those restaurants (and all
small business) with substantial tax relief and other
help in providing insurance for their employees. So
they won't need a surcharge to do it! Jenni's fears
that our local supermarkets will start adding a sur-
charge, even though most of them have covered their
employees for years, are probably unfounded (and
alarmist.)

In the same Mailbag, Chuck Mills "was overcome with
grief at such a major step (in health insurance) in giving
up personal freedom as well as the workings of the free
enterprise system." (Sounds like Rush or Glenn, doesn't
it? Don't feel so sad, Chuck: That mean free enterpise
system was bankrupting millions of people with way
over-priced inferior coverage and leaving millions more
unprotected. So something had to change. Was it the
right change? Beats the hell out of me! But as the edi-
torial (same day) said, we'll have to see.

As for the freedom you lost, which one specifically was
that? Was it the freedom to be turned down or can-
celled because of a pre-existing condition? Or maybe
the elimination of the life-time cap on coverage? Was
it the tendency of insurance companies to cancel poli-
cies when a serious illness shows up? Most of us are
happy to see these gone, along with vanquishing bank-
ruptcies due to illness.

I know Fox Noise has been telling you this is govern-
ment takeover of health care. That's hogwash of course,
like most of the nonsense they peddle. The insurance
companies are still in control, siphoning off $billions in
profits as always. It wouldn't be much different if the
government did run health care, becasue --hello! -- the
banks and insurance companies run the government!
This couldn't have happened without their okay. They
knew something (or someone) had to give. We all knew
that would be us! We also know that power corrupts
and great power corrupts greatly. Deal with it.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net

BANGING ON KARZAI

The President has been in Afghanistan recently,
urging and warning that country's president to
clean up the corruption there. Obama is wasting
his time. What he is doing is like beating a dead
horse: any power K. has is derivative and extremely
limited. Karzai serves only with the permission and
backing of the warlords, and because he is the conduit
of money from the U. S. to said warlords. One of
them is his own brother, who is also on the U. S.
payroll and enrolled in the booming herion trade
as well. He is reputed to own a high-rise office
building in Dubai. Corruption is the way of life (and
death) in Afghanistan -- part of the air they breathe.
Karzai, although not known to be personally corrupt,
rides the wave of corruption there, and is helpless to
stop it. We are carrying our precious water there in an
extremely leaky bucket over a very long road indeed!