Kneel
While watching my son at a weekend hockey game last weekend I overheard a conversation an older, wealthy-appearing woman was having with her companion. I pretended to be reading (I ’m the bad dad who only watches the game when his own son is out on a shift) while she orated (in a faux, poorly executed, Mid Atlantic English nasal accent) a story she had heard from “down in Texas” about how arighteous high school coach had kicked two players off his team who had the gall and traitorous audacity to kneel during the pre-game rendering of the national anthem. “Whaaaaaat are they eeeeeven protesting?” th...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 8, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
Iran, Decertification, and the Dangerous Alternatives
Late on Thursday afternoon,the Washington Post reported that President Trump plans to undermine American involvement in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by “decertifying” Iranian compliance with the deal and kicking the issue to congress.This move is hardly unexpected: when he last certified Iranian compliance with the deal 90 days ago, President Trumpreportedly told staff“he wants to be in a place to decertify 90 days from now and it’s their job to put him there.” Yet as that quote suggests, the President’s decision is not based in any reality-based assessment of the deal. Iran is in fact complyi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 5, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Emma Ashford Source Type: blogs
A Self-Determination Fa çade: The Kurdish Referendum
On September 25, 2017,Iraqi Kurds voted in favor ofindependence from Iraq in a historic referendum. Out of the 3.3 million Kurds and non-Kurdswho voted, 92% voted in favor of independence, which is not surprising. The international community ’s reaction is also not surprising:Iraq, Turkey,Iran, Russia, France, and theUnited States were all against the referendum, cautioning the Kurdish leadership about theregional impact from various strategic angles. In its quest to secure more non-Arab allies,Israel is the only country that has backed the referendum. The international community ’s lack of support is seen ashypocriti...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 29, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Sahar Khan Source Type: blogs
Psychologists went to war-torn Northern Iraq to find out why some fighters will sacrifice everything for their cause
This study finds that commitment to a value “can trump group loyalty in willingness to fight”. As such, the researchers hope their findings will help policymakers wrangling with how best to deal with the threat posed by groups like IS. They add that an important subject for further study is why some groups are better able to inspire loyalty to an abstract cause than others.
Emma Young (@EmmaELYoung) is Staff Writer at BPS Research Digest
—The devoted actor’s will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict (Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST)
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - September 28, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Political Race Religion Terrorism Source Type: blogs
New Travel Ban Would Not Have Prevented the Entry of Any Terrorists Since 9/11
President Trump signed anew proclamation this weekend that bans or restricts the travel and immigration of nationals from eight countries. This order drops the pretext of being a temporary measure and includes no end date. Inour amicus brief for the Supreme Court case challenging his prior executive order banning travel from six countries, we criticized the ban as lacking a basis in the evidence regarding terrorism threats and terrorism vetting failures. This new order fares no better. It is even further divorced from threats of terrorism to the United States than the prior order.The new targets are the nationals of the fo...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 25, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: David Bier Source Type: blogs
Cynical Hawks Exploit North Korea Crisis to Torpedo Iran Agreement
Donald Trump ’sspeech to the UN General Assembly underscored his intention to adopt highly confrontational policies toward both North Korea and Iran. He threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in the event of war and re-emphasized Washington’s long-standing determination to compel Pyongyang to renounce its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The president scorned Iran as “an economically depleted rogue state” and described the current multilateral nuclear agreement with Tehran as “an embarrassment” to the United States. If Trump is not merely engaging in bombast, Washington appears to be ginning-u...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 20, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Ted Galen Carpenter Source Type: blogs
In Iraq I saved lives. Now, I can ’t give an allergy shot.
I entered the room to see a face that I recognized. As soon as I looked at my chart, I immediately knew this patient. I saved their life last year. I know this because the patient told me so.
The teachers and mentors that I was privileged to learn from and train with 25 years ago emphasized the essential principle of osteopathic medicine — we make physical contact with our patients. Some of this is in the form of manual medicine skills to help balance the musculoskeletal, respiratory, lymphatic and digestive systems, and some of this contact is in the form of a thorough, focused physical exam. Some of the contact occurs ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 18, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/todd-fredricks" rel="tag" > Todd Fredricks, DO < /a > Tags: Physician Allergies & Immunology Primary Care Public Health Policy Source Type: blogs
Homeland Security
Michael T. Klare makes a point about climate change that hasn ' t occurred to most people. While the Resident has stacked his administration from top to bottom with climate change deniers, the one federal department that still accepts reality is the military. And the military is tasked with responding to the consequences. In fact, as Klare describes, the response to hurricanes Harvey and Irma was the equivalent of a war. For example:The military ’s response to Harvey began with front-line troops: the National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, and units of theU.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), the joint-service force responsi...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 18, 2017 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Will Senate Debate AUMF This Year? Sen. Flake Thinks So
Earlier this week, Sen. Rand Paul put forthan amendment that would sunset the 2001 AUMF and 2002 Iraq AUMF after 6-months. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the amendment was defeated as nearly all Senate Republicans (and a handful of Democrats) voted tostrike it down. As I looked through the roll call, however, I was surprised by the vote of one Senator in particular: Jeff Flake. In 2015 and again this year, Flake, along with Tim Kaine of Virginia,introduced legislation for a new AUMF. Yet, Flake voted to table (i.e. kill) Paul’s amendment. Why would a Senator who clearly wants a new AUMF vote against this measure?I would...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 15, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Christopher A. Preble Source Type: blogs
Three Problems with Trump ’s Afghanistan Strategy
Last month, President Trump outlined hisnew strategy for Afghanistan that calls for increasing troops on the ground, a reverse of the Obama administration ’s policy of gradual withdrawal. The President also reprimanded Pakistan for continuing to harbor militants while urging India to assist the United States in developing Afghanistan’s economy.The long awaited strategy has three fundamental faults that if ignored will create an even more dire situation in Afghanistan and more fissures in the already fragile U.S. –Pakistan relationship, all the while further undermining U.S. interests.First, the strategy is not new. I...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 13, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Sahar Khan Source Type: blogs
Fibbing Troop Levels and the Need for Transparency
An article inPolitico today reports on a persistent problem with the Pentagon providing inaccurate numbers of U.S. troops deployed in foreign countries, particularly war zones like Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.The Defense Department has long been amongthe worst federal offenders in terms of lack of transparency in public reporting on everything from where Americans are deployed to how tax dollars are spent. Specifically, though, Pentagon officials have recently resorted to some clever accounting tricks in order to make total troop levels appear lower than they actually are.At least a few factors are motivating this “conc...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 28, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: John Glaser Source Type: blogs
Anti-Paper Prophet: Comments on The Curse of Cash
ConclusionRogoff raises many other interesting issues in his response, and trying to cover them all would make this article much too lengthy. His arguments are generally sophisticated and sometimes challenging, even when I disagree with him or believe he hasn’t adequately addressed my concerns. Our most fundamental difference remains our analysis of the State. Rogoff unreflectively adopts what Harold Demsetz characte rizes as the“nirvana” approach to public policy. This makes him far more optimistic than is justified about the overall benevolence and competence of governments, particularly in developed countries. H...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 15, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey Rogers Hummel Source Type: blogs
Crispy Critters
That would be millions of us Homo sapiensas much of the Middle East and Europe bake in unprecedented heat. Yes, Iraq is normally hot in the summer, but not it is close to uninhabitable:As temperatures rose towards 51C on Thursday, Iraq ’s government declared a mandatory holiday, allowing civic servants to shelter at home. So far this month in the Iraqi capital, every day but one has reached 48C or higher, and the forecast is for the high temperatures to continue for the next week. July was little different, in Iraq and inSyria, where the capital, Damascus, has also been several degrees hotter than usual nearly every day ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 10, 2017 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
America versus North Korea: Which President is More Dangerous?
I never expected to have trouble distinguishing the rhetoric of America ’s president and North Korea’s leader. Nor did I ever imagine it would be unclear which official was more impulsive, emotional, blustering, and reckless. But these are not normal times.For anyone contemplating the odds in a war between the U.S. and the Democratic People ’s Republic of Korea, a few numbers are instructive. Last year the U.S. had a GDP of almost $19 trillion, roughly650 times the GDP of the Democratic People ’s Republic of Korea. The latter is equivalent to the economy of Portland, Maine or Anchorage, Alaska. America’s populati...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 10, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Doug Bandow Source Type: blogs
Will Public Aversion to Casualties Constrain Trump ’s War-Making Instincts?
North Korea ’s Kim Jong Un is doing everything in his power to ensure that he remains atop the United States’ enemies list. For months, his government has been test-launching missiles and issuing threats. This week the rhetoric got even hotter. President Trump pledged to rain“fire and fury like the world has never seen” on North Korea. The North Koreans responded with apromise to attack the U.S. base at Guam.Notwithstanding Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ’s statements last week andin April that the United States does not seek regime change in Pyongyang, other tin-pot dictators have heard similar assurances bef...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 10, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Christopher A. Preble Source Type: blogs
