June 21, 2016

The Olympic games in Brazil start in about seven weeks.  The state government that includes Rio de Janeiro has declared a “financial disaster,” reportedly enabling the state to funnel funds to the troubled games.  Rio is also at the center of the world’s Zika plague, causing many athletes to refuse to attend.  Russia’s track teams have been banned from competing at the Olympics, due to a previous doping sanction.  Two world boxing federations have forbidden its members from attending the Olympics.  Many of the biggest NBA stars are refusing to compete on another U.S. “dream team.”

Some people are calling for the games be cancelled or postponed.  Do you agree?  Or should we just let it happen, despite the problems, even if that means a less than perfect event? (more…)

May 11, 2016

Budweiser beer will be calling itself “America” this summer, with patriotic slogans plastered all over its cans. Read about it after the jump.

What does this say about Budweiser, America, patriotism, etc.? (more…)

February 24, 2016

The Zika virus is associated with rare birth defect microcephaly, but no causal connection has yet been established and anomalies keep cropping up.  Though much of Latin America is plagued with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, the vast majority of the birth defects are found in Brazil.  And a significant number of microcephaly cases are being found with patients that never had Zika.

A group of Argentinian doctors is arguing that the birth defects are not being caused by Zika at all but by a pesticide put in the water supply of the most affected areas to kill mosquito larva. (more…)

February 19, 2016

Pope Francis told reporters that women threatened with the Zika virus, which causes birth defects, could use contraception.  Abortion, though, he emphasized, is an “absolute evil,” which should never be committed.

This is extraordinary.  It seems to me that if you make this exception, in which the end justifies the means, the whole fabric of the Roman Catholic ethical system and its reading of  natural law, becomes unravelled.

Every time the Pope has said something radical, the Vatican comes back with an explanation that this is not what he really meant.  We’ll see if that happens this time. (more…)

February 8, 2016

Zika is a virus that, in 80% of the cases, produces no symptoms.  But if a pregnant woman is infected, her baby might be born with microcephaly, a birth defect of the child having a very small head and consequent brain damage.  The virus is transmitted primarily by mosquitoes, though it can also be sexually transmitted and has been found in blood and saliva.  

So far the outbreak is mainly in Latin America, especially Brazil, which has gone so far as to recommend that women not get pregnant until the mosquitoes are brought under control.  This summer, though, the world comes to Brazil, with the Olympic games in Rio De Janiero.  The virus may threaten the games.)  And it is now in the United States, with 12 cases in Florida (though the patients picked up the virus elsewhere) and a sexually-transmitted case in Texas.  A case has also been confirmed in Europe

After the jump, I excerpt and link to a very useful site that gives questions and answers about the Zika virus. (more…)

January 5, 2016

An international think tank has released its list of the top risks to global stability in 2016.  The world remains a dangerous place.   The first problem listed:  America’s new weakness and irrelevance in the world. (more…)


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