health care | State of Enlightenment

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Why GMOs and Sugar are Bad For Your Health

Are GMOs and sugar really that bad for you? Humans, after all, are durable creatures. We can binge drink one night and then shake it off the next day with a greasy breakfast (and maybe a mamosa or two), or overindulge on red meat and then balance it out with a fresh salad. We [...]

Is Health Care Constitutional?

With the Supreme Court displaying skepticism during oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama has responded in its defense, bringing the Supreme Court case to an almost unprecedented level of politicization. 26 Republican governors have challenged the health care act, and right now, it looks like the Supreme Court [...]

Rush Limbaugh, Olympia Snowe and the Republican Battle on Women’s Health

Following Rush Limbaugh’s incendiary comments about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke this past week, a full-fledged response from women has begun to engulf the Republican Party. Beyond the public outrage at Limbuagh’s comments (discussed below), the Senate narrowly defeated an anti contraception bill by a vote of 51-48, and the anti-women week was punctuated by [...]

The U.S. Military Budget and the Cost of War

With the budget battle in Washington taking on ever more partisan tones, there is one glaring spot which continues to drain public coffers without accountability: the military. The military budget over the past ten years has spiraled out of control and Washington continues to let it grow unchecked. This, along with generous tax cuts [...]

The Budget Battle, Abortion and Planned Parenthood

“It is my view that no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition. I believe, therefore that we should establish as a national goal the provision of adequate family planning services within the next five years to all those who want them but cannot afford them. [...]

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi and the Health Effects of Radiation

The meltdown crisis that has gripped Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has reached a heightened level, with radioactive water spewing into the Pacific Ocean from the plant’s reactor two, raising new concerns about the health effects of radiation. The radioactive leak is just one in a series of cascading disasters (demonstrating the monumental incompetence [...]

Fighting for Dead Firefighters – 9/11 and the Zadroga Act

Well, I was going to devote some time this week to the Virginia health care decision, but John Stewart has effectively diverted my attention. This week, the Republican party filibustered the 9/11 First Responders bill, aka, James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (named after the former NYPD officer and first responder). [...]