text:
Family Life Cycle
Topic Overview
What is a family life cycle?
The emotional and intellectual stages you pass through from childhood to your retirement years as a member of a family are called the family life cycle. In each stage, you face challenges in your family life that allow you to build or gain new skills. Gaining these skills helps you work through the changes that nearly every family goes through.
Not everyone passes through these stages smoothly. Situations such as severe illness, financial problems, or the death of a loved one can have an effect on how well you pass through the stages. Fortunately, if you miss skills in one stage, you can learn them in later stages.
The stages of the family life cycle are:
- Independence.
- Coupling or marriage.
- Parenting: babies through adolescents.
- Launching adult children.
- Retirement or senior years.
Why is it important to understand the family life cycle?
Mastering the skills and milestones of each stage allows you to successfully move from one stage of development to the next. If you don't master the skills, you may still move on to the next phase of the cycle, but you are more likely to have difficulty with relationships and future transitions. Family life cycle theory suggests that successful transitioning may also help to prevent disease and emotional or stress-related disorders.
Whether you are a parent or child, brother or sister, bonded by blood or love, your experiences through the family life cycle will affect who you are and who you become. The more you understand about the challenges of each stage of the cycle, the more likely you are to successfully move on.
What can disrupt the normal cycle?
The stress of daily living, coping with a chronic medical condition, or other life crises can disrupt the normal life cycle. Ongoing stress or a crisis can delay the transition to the next phase of life. Or you may move on without the skills that you need to easily adapt and transition to the next phase of life.
How can I improve my family life cycle?
Be assured, you can learn missed skills and improve your and your family's quality of life at any stage. Self-examination, education, and perhaps counseling are ways to improve yourself and your family life. These are also actions that can help you manage other issues, too, such as going through a divorce or being a part of a nontraditional family structure.
Independence Stage
Independence is the most critical stage of the family life cycle. As you enter young adulthood, you begin to separate emotionally from your family. During this stage, you strive to become fully able to support yourself emotionally, physically, socially, and financially. You begin to develop unique qualities and characteristics that define your individual identity.
Intimacy is a vital skill to develop during your independent, young adult years. Intimacy is the ability to develop and maintain close relationships that can endure hard times and other challenges. In an intimate relationship, you learn about:
- Commitment.
- Commonality or similarity.
- Compatibility.
- Attachment.
- Dependence on another person who is not in your family.
- Shared emotion in a relationship.
You also learn who you are outside of your identity within your family. Your ability to develop an intimate relationship depends on how successful you were at developing your individual identity earlier in life.
If you are a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered person (LGBT), this stage may include making your sexual orientation known, or "coming out" to your family and friends.
Exploring interests and career goals is part of developing independence. To live successfully away from your family, you must develop financial and emotional independence.
You also begin to be responsible for your own health in this stage. You become responsible for your nutritional, physical, and medical needs. Developing healthy habits at this time—such as good nutrition, regular exercise, and safer sex practices—is important for lifelong good health and happiness.
You learn new aspects of independence throughout your lifetime. Even when you have moved on to another stage of life, such as coupling, you continue to learn independence within the context of that stage.
During the independence stage, you hope to:
- Learn to see yourself as a separate person in relation to your original family—parents, siblings, and extended family members.
- Develop intimate peer relationships outside the family.
- Establish yourself in your work or career.
Other important qualities you develop during this phase include:
- Trust.
- Morals.
- Initiative.
- Work ethic.
- Identity, or who you are in the world.
Coupling Stage
The next stage in the family life cycle may be coupling. Using qualities such as trust that you gained in the independence stage, you can explore your ability to commit to a new family and a new way of life. Although being in an intimate relationship with someone does involve a process of adaptation and relationship building, a marriage or committed union often requires unique skills.
When you join families through a marriage or committed union, you form a new family system. Your family system includes your personal ideas, expectations, and values. These are shaped by the relationships and experiences with your original family. When you marry or form a union, you combine your family system with your spouse's or partner's. This requires reshaping your goals and your partner's goals. In the most functional relationships, partners have the ability to take two different points of view and create an option that neither person had considered. It differs from a compromise in that it is not giving up something. Rather, it is creating a third, better option.
You may find that some of the ideas or expectations that you held in the past are not realistic at this stage. Some common areas of adjustment include:
- Finances.
- Lifestyle.
- Recreational activities or hobbies.
- Relationships with in-laws.
- Sexuality or sexual compatibility.
- Friendships.
- Putting another person's needs before your own.
The ultimate goal at this stage is to achieve interdependence, which occurs when you are able to fully enter into a relationship with another person. Interdependence also requires that you share goals and that you are able to sometimes place the needs of another above your own. But before you can achieve interdependence, you must first have a high degree of independence.
The relationship skills you learn in coupling serve as a foundation for other relationships, such as parent-child, teacher-student, or physician-patient.
Within a couple, you learn:
- Advanced interpersonal communication.
- Problem-solving skills.
- Common spiritual and emotional development goals.
- How to form boundaries in relationships.
- When to place the needs or importance of the other person above your own.
Most research shows that early on, a happy marriage is full of passion and sexual intimacy, which can become less important in later successful marriage. A satisfying marriage at this stage includes a high amount of considerate or kind acts (such as doing something nice for the other person without being asked) and praise.
The life skills you learn in this stage are important in developing true interdependence and the ability to have a cooperative and healthy relationship. Some of the challenges of this stage include:
- Transitioning into the new family system.
- Including your spouse or partner in your relationships with friends and family members.
- Being committed to making your marriage work.
- Putting the needs of another ahead of your own.
You and your partner will have less stress if the transition into a new family system is smooth. Less stress often means better health.
Your specific goals for this stage of the family life cycle are:
- Forming a new family with your partner.
- Realigning your relationships with your family of origin and your friends to now include your spouse.
Parenting: Babies Through Adolescents
Making the decision to have a baby
At some point in your relationship, you and your partner will decide if you want to have a baby. Some couples know going into a relationship that they do not want children. Parenting is one of the most challenging phases of the family life cycle.
The decision to have children is one that affects your individual development, the identity of your family, and your relationship. Children are so time-consuming that skills not learned in previous stages will be difficult to pick up at this stage. Your ability to communicate well, maintain your relationships, and solve problems is often tested during this stage.
Introducing a child into your family results in a major change in roles for you and your partner. Each parent has three distinct and demanding roles: as an individual, a partner, and a parent. As new parents, your individual identities shift along with how you relate to each other and to others. The skills that you learned in the Independence and Coupling stages, such as compromise and commitment, will help you move to the Parenting stage.
Along with the joy that comes from having a child, you may feel a great deal of stress and fear about these changes. A woman might have concerns about being pregnant and going through childbirth. Fathers tend to keep their fears and stress to themselves, which can cause health problems.
Talking about your emotional or physical concerns with your family physician, obstetrician, or counselor can help you deal with these and future challenges.
Parenting young children
Adapting children into other relationships is a key emotional process of this stage. You will take on the parenting role and transition from being a member of a couple to being a parent. While you are still evolving as individuals, you and your partner are also becoming decision-makers for your family. Continuing to express your individuality while working well together as a couple results in a strong marriage.
Your child's healthy development depends on your ability to provide a safe, loving, and organized environment. Children benefit when their parents have a strong relationship.
Caring for young children cuts into the amount of time you might otherwise spend alone or with your partner. If you did not fully develop some skills in previous phases, such as compromise for the good of the family, your relationship may be strained. For example, divorce or affairs may be more likely to occur during the years of raising young children if parents have not developed strong skills from earlier life stages.
But for those who have the proper tools, this can be a very rewarding, happy time, even with all of its challenges. Optimally, you develop as an individual, as a member of a couple, and as a member of a family.
Specific goals when young children join your family are:
- Adjusting your marital system to make space for children.
- Taking on parenting roles.
- Realigning your relationships with your extended family to include parenting and grandparenting roles.
Parenting adolescents
Parenting teenagers can be a rough time for your family and can test your relationship skills. It's also a time for positive growth and creative exploration for your entire family. Families that function best during this period have strong, flexible relationships developed through good communication, problem solving, mutual caring, support, and trust.
Most teens experiment with different thoughts, beliefs, and styles, which can cause family conflict. Your strengths as an individual and as part of a couple are critical as you deal with the increasing challenges of raising a teenager. Strive for a balanced atmosphere in which your teenager has a sense of support and emotional safety as well as opportunities to try new behaviors. An important skill at this stage is flexibility as you encourage your child to become independent and creative. Establish boundaries for your teenager, but encourage exploration at the same time. Teens may question themselves in many areas, including their sexual orientation and gender identities.
Because of what you learned when you developed your identity in the earlier stages of life, you may feel more prepared and more secure about the changes your child is going through. But if you did not work through these skills at earlier stages of life, you may feel threatened by your child's new developments.
Flexibility in the roles each person plays in the family system is a valuable skill to develop at this stage. Responsibilities such as the demands of a job or caring for someone who is ill may require each person in the family to take on various, and sometimes changing, roles.
This is a time when one or more family members may feel some level of depression or other distress. It may also lead to physical complaints that have no physical cause (somatization disorders such as stomach upsets and some headaches) along with other stress-related disorders.
Nurturing your relationship and your individual growth can sometimes be ignored at this stage. Toward the end of this phase, a parent's focus shifts from the maturing teen to career and relationship. Neglecting your personal development and your relationship can make this shift difficult.
You also may begin thinking about your role in caring for aging parents. Making your own health a priority in this phase is helpful as you enter the next stage of the family life cycle.
Specific goals during the stage of parenting adolescents include:
- Shifting parent-child relationships to allow the child to move in and out of the family system.
- Shifting focus back to your midlife relationship and career issues.
- Beginning a shift toward concern for older generations in your extended family.
Empty Nest: Launching Adult Children
The stage of launching adult children begins when your first child leaves home and ends with the "empty nest." When older children leave home, there are both positive and negative consequences. If your family has developed significant skills through the family life cycle, your children will be ready to leave home, ready to handle life's challenges. Free from the everyday demands of parenting, you may choose to rekindle your own relationship and possibly your career goals.
Developing adult relationships with your children is a key skill in this stage. You may be challenged to accept new members into your family through your children's relationships. You may focus on reprioritizing your life, forgiving those who have wronged you (maybe long ago), and assessing your beliefs about life.
If you struggled with previous life phases, your children may not have learned from you all the skills they need to live well on their own. If you and your partner have not transitioned together, you may no longer feel compatible with each other. But remember that you can still gain the skills you may have missed. Self-examination, education, and counseling can enhance your life and help ensure a healthy transition to the next phase.
This is a time when your health and energy levels may decline. Some people are diagnosed with chronic illnesses. Symptoms of these diseases can limit normal activities and even long-enjoyed pastimes. Health issues related to midlife may begin to occur and can include:
- High blood pressure (hypertension).
- Weight problems.
- Arthritis.
- Menopause.
- Osteoporosis.
- Heart disease (coronary artery disease).
- Depression.
- Stress-related illnesses.
You may also be caring for aging parents in this phase, which can be stressful and affect your own health.
Specific goals to reach at this stage include:
- Refocusing on your relationship without children.
- Developing adult relationships with your grown children.
- Realigning relationships to include in-laws and grandchildren when your children begin their own families.
Retirement or Senior Stage of Life
During the retirement phase of the family life cycle, many changes occur in your life. Welcoming new family members or seeing others leave your family is often a large part of this stage as your children marry or divorce or you become a grandparent.
This stage can be a great adventure where you are free from the responsibilities of raising your children and can simply enjoy the fruits of your life's work. Challenges you may face include being a support to other family members, even as you are still exploring your own interests and activities or focusing on maintaining your relationship. Many people are caring for elderly parents at this time. You may feel challenged by their emotional, financial, and physical needs while trying to help them keep their independence.
You may experience declining physical and mental abilities or changes in your financial or social status. Sometimes you must deal with the death of other family members, including your partner. The quality of your life, in part, depends on how well you adjusted to the changes in earlier stages. It often also depends on how well you have cared for your own health up to this point. Normal aging will affect your body, resulting in wrinkles, aches, pains, and loss of bone density. The chances of having a mental or chronic physical illness increases with age. But aging does not mean you will automatically experience poor health.
Retirement can be a fulfilling and happy time. Becoming a grandparent can bring you great joy without the responsibility of raising a child. But those who are without adequate support systems or not well off financially may have a more difficult time in this phase of life.
Specific goals to reach for at this final stage of your family life cycle include:
- Maintaining your own interests and physical functioning, along with those of your partner, as your body ages.
- Exploring new family and social roles.
- Providing emotional support for your adult children and extended family members.
- Making room in the family system for the wisdom and experience of older adults.
- Providing support for the older generation without doing too much for them.
- Dealing with the loss of a partner, siblings, and other peers, and preparing for your own death.
- Reviewing your life and reflecting on all you have learned and experienced during your life cycle.
Related Information
- Feeling Depressed
- Grief and Grieving
- Elder Abuse
- Alcohol Use Disorder
- Growth and Development, Ages 11 to 14 Years
- Growth and Development, Ages 6 to 10 Years
- Growth and Development, Ages 12 to 24 Months
- Growth and Development, Newborn
- Growth and Development, Ages 1 to 12 Months
- Anxiety
- Growth and Development, Ages 2 to 5 Years
- Growth and Development, Ages 15 to 18 Years
- Menopause and Perimenopause
Other Works Consulted
- McGoldrick M, et al., eds. (2011). The Expanded Family Life Cycle: Individual, Family, and Social Perspectives, 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
- Newman BM, Newman PR (2012). Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach, 11th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
- Rentfro AR (2010). Health promotion and the family. In CL Edelman, CL Mandle, eds., Health Promotion Throughout the Lifespan, 7th ed., pp. 171–199. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.
Current as of: April 7, 2019
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:Anne C. Poinier, MD – Internal Medicine & Kathleen Romito, MD – Family Medicine & Adam Husney, MD – Family Medicine
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated, disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. Learn how we develop our content.


text:
What a great way to open a movie. The posing of this question frames the film with an acknowledgment of the skepticism that has to attend any examination of McNamara -- a man who has been excoriated for years both for his role in the Vietnam War and for his apparent unwillingness to own up to it. And delightfully, this frame is merely the smart, penetrating precursor to many such choices that Morris makes in this film.
Morris comes neither to praise McNamara nor to bury him; instead, he invites the former secretary of defense (whose remarkable life placed him in positions of power during many of the critical events of the 20th Century) to show us how things looked to him as they were happening and how they appear to him now. It is a film, essentially, about the lessons of a single life, albeit a life that influenced the lives of many others. As a result, The Fog of War never falls neatly into any single or obvious camp of opinion; instead, it courts complexity, engaging the difficulties of potentially unanswerable questions with honesty, bravery, and intellectual rigor.
Meanwhile, there is news here. For the first time, McNamara discusses his relationship with Gen. Curtis LeMay, the brutal commander responsible, as a result of McNamara's efficiency data, for firebombing 67 Japanese cities in 1945, killing nearly a million Japanese civilians and burning huge portions of their cities to the ground -- before the atomic bombs were dropped. (On a single night, LeMay's B-29 bombers destroyed 100,000 people in Tokyo.) In its examination of McNamara's role in Vietnam, the film uses recently released tapes of telephone conversations between President Lyndon Johnson and McNamara, tapes that reveal ongoing attempts by McNamara to withdraw the troops and, later, to stop the bombing of North Vietnam. He may not have tipped his hand to the American people (and, the film suggests, he may have betrayed his own beliefs), but in private, as an adviser to the president, McNamara appears to have been less an irredeemable hawk than an earnest and thoughtful Cabinet member determined to serve Johnson with the same loyalty that he had shown to Kennedy.
Alas, he made mistakes. And mistakes, McNamara tells us, are inevitable: "I don't know any military commander who is honest who would say he has not made a mistake." In fact, mistakes are part of the process; you often have to make a few before you get it right. And then? Well, you may still fail, because "rationality will not save us," because "belief and seeing are often wrong," and because "you can't change human nature." These are three of 11 "lessons" that Morris culls from McNamara's discussion of his life, and they are the true revelations of the movie. Some of them are chilling -- "Lesson nine: In order to do good, it is sometimes necessary to do evil" -- and some contradictory; others betray the limits of McNamara's vision.
In particular, McNamara seems to believe in the power of reason as the route to moral clarity even as he constantly, almost desperately acknowledges reason's limits. The fog of war is a phrase that describes the impossibility of seeing clearly in the midst of violent conflict, and McNamara's personal struggles with morality seem equally clouded. "In order to win a war," he asks, "is a nation justified in killing 100,000 civilians in one night? Would it be moral to not burn to death 100,000 Japanese civilians but instead to lose hundreds of thousands of American lives in an invasion of Japan?" Indeed, these are vexed and gruesome moral questions; this blatant proposition throws their brutality into relief. But, one hazards to wonder, does McNamara ever stop to ask how that question came to be? How, exactly, did the choice arrive at hundreds of thousands of deaths on either side?
Early in the film, McNamara asks us to consider whether we want the 21st Century to be characterized by the kind of violence seen in the 20th. Later, he laments that rationality has its limits, all but conceding that there will always be war. So if rationality can't prevent war, one wants to ask, why doesn't he look beyond it? In Vietnam, the U.S. military claimed to want to win the "hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people" (sound familiar?); it was an acknowledgment that feelings matter as much as (if not more than) thoughts. McNamara is not a heartless man; at least three times in the film, he sheds tears, just as he did at his departure from the White House. And his first lesson -- the wisdom he credits with preventing nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis -- is "Empathize with your enemy." Yet in McNamara's fog of reason, the idea that there might be a way of dealing with human nature by paying close attention to emotions, let alone to spirit, seems to elude him.
Meanwhile, the film is superb. As usual, Morris has teamed with composer Philip Glass, whose repetitive, keening score haunts the film with what Morris calls "existential dread." In the interview segments, Robert Chappell's camerawork is impeccable, even breathtaking. For long stretches, he places McNamara in a corner of the shot; then he shifts to a different corner, shooting from slightly above or below. In this way, the camera mirrors our efforts: Like us, it is attempting to locate McNamara, to uncover him, to truly see him. Also like us, the camera is never entirely certain that it can.
In the film's epilogue, McNamara drives away from the interview while Morris plays a segment in a voice-over -- a segment, not incidentally, with questions that McNamara refused to answer. During these evasions, we see McNamara's face reflected in the rearview mirror of his car. Do we see him properly? the shot asks. Can he see himself? And what has looking back accomplished? It's the perfect bookend to the movie's opening gambit, and it's a great question.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Other The Meltdown of Public Health and Personal Freedom FDA Celebrates Hundred Years of Pretense |
THE STATIN SCAM MARCHES ON By Byron J. Richards, CCN December 11, 2007 NewsWithViews.com Considering that tens of millions of Americans now take statins to lower cholesterol, the following headline was conspicuously absent from the major media this month: �Statins Found to Turn On Gene that Causes Muscle Damage.� It�s now a fact of science; a new study shows that taking statins destroys your muscle to a greater or lesser degree. And let�s not forget that the heart is a muscle. Place this study juxtaposed to another rather interesting recent finding: the more fit you are the longer you will live � and the two just don�t add up. How can you destroy muscle and be more fit? You can�t. Sure you can drug your cholesterol number lower, but will you be healthier, fit, and live longer? In the new study researchers found that statins activate a gene signal in muscles called atrogen-1. When this gene activates it targets key muscle proteins for destruction. The activation of this gene drives the process of muscle atrophy and muscle wasting. It is induced in cardiac muscle in failing hearts. Why on earth would any person want this gene activated by a drug? The researchers tested statin-taking humans who were complaining of severe muscle pain. Muscle biopsy found that the atrogen-1 gene was activated, compared to people with severe muscle pain not on statins and controls. They went on to show through various experiments that statins activate the gene. This is extremely bad news for any person taking a statin. Right now doctors ignore the majority of muscle aches and pains caused by statins, and in their mind only consider the problem serious when it is debilitating (rhabdomyolysis), which apparently happens less than 1% of the time. However, at least 5% - 7% of statin users experience significant muscle problems. The number is greater than 10% if a person is taking the now commonly prescribed higher doses. And if a person is trying to be fit and exercise the number jumps to 25%. These numbers are clearly on the low end as it has now been shown that doctors are ignoring their patients, not reporting the side effects of statins to the FDA, and telling them the side effects they are experiencing are not from the drug! This new science shows that as soon as the atrogen-1 gene is activated by statins it starts destroying muscle. This means that even mild aches or pains while taking a statin is a sign that muscle is being destroyed, an entirely new and sobering perspective on the side effects of statins. Statins directly work against being physically fit, as is evidenced by the difficulty statin users have exercising without troubling symptoms. Cardiomyopathy (serious weakening of the heart muscle) is a known adverse and often not reported side effect of statin therapy, previously thought to be the result of a statin-induced coenzyme Q10 deficiency. It is likely that the combination of Q10 deficiency with atrogen-1 activation is behind this problem. Statins � Perversion of Science for Profit The statin industry is a 20-billion-a-year propaganda machine, producing more yearly revenues from one class of drug than all professional U.S. sports combined. Just like any hot-selling drug on the market, negative studies are discouraged to say the least. They are either thrown in the trash can when they don�t work out or critical researchers are often blackmailed, meaning if they publish something negative they will never again get research money from the industry. These well known tactics discourage basic research on drug-related toxicity problems. When statistics are honestly looked at in the case of using statins for many years to prevent a first heart attack, for every life that is saved (1% over 10 years use) statins cause an equal number of adverse deaths due to accidents, infection, suicide, and cancer (1% over 10 years use). This means that as a general public health measure, which is now the lion�s share of current statin use, they are an ineffectual waste of money. It has now been proven that middle-age men would be better off taking an aspirin a day for a tiny fraction of the cost (of course there are many supplement options). Statin-taking for a number of years does not reduce mortality rate. None of these facts phase the statin industry, which keeps churning out positive spin and moving right along regardless of the damage being doing and the money wasted. The fraud of statins inside one�s body centers on the regulation of an enzyme known as HMG CoA reductase. Statins work by reducing the function of this enzyme, the higher the dose the more the enzyme is reduced, and the less cholesterol is made. It is well known that individuals with naturally lower cholesterol (LDL at 130, total less than 200) in their 40s and 50s have fewer cardiovascular problems as they grow older. However, taking a statin to reduce cholesterol to these levels or even lower is not the same thing as natural healthy function. In healthy individuals with lower cholesterol the HMG CoA reductase enzyme is active at a high level as part of health. It is part of a complex communication system within the body that regulates energy, immunity, fat metabolism, leptin, cellular thyroid hormone activity, liver-related synthesis, stress tolerance, adrenal function, sex hormone synthesis, and brain function. This system is core to survival! The high activity of this enzyme is a type of metabolic fitness, similar to the idea of muscle fitness. The enzyme is very active in a healthy state for a variety of important and vital needs. Drugging this enzyme is similar to making a person get around in a wheelchair, whether they need one or not. If you put a person�s metabolism in a statin-induced straightjacket, then maybe Humpty Dumpty won�t fall off the wall so easily. That may be a useful concept for someone in brittle cardiovascular health, but it has little to do with the average person concerned about general cardiovascular well being and maintaining a healthy level of fitness and vitality. Doctors don�t use statins to try and reduce HMG CoA activity a little bit, with the idea of approximating some type of healthy function of the enzyme (the lowest and least toxic dose possible to provide improvement). Doctors actually could care less what healthy function of the enzyme actually is. Rather, the new �gold standard of medical care� is to batter the enzyme into a state of submission so that cholesterol levels are abnormally low. Any apparent benefits of a statin, many of which are falsely touted, is accomplished by poisoning some aspect of health. How long can such a charade be allowed to continue on millions of unsuspecting Americans? Why won�t the FDA demand drug companies include a correct risk profile as part of the labeling? As normal, the FDA continues to sleep on duty. Double the Dose � Rake in the Billions In 2004 the government-funded National Cholesterol Education Program selected a panel of nine �experts� to review statin drug use and make recommendations as to guidelines doctors should follow to reduce cardiovascular disease. They recommended that individuals at high cardiovascular disease risk attain LDL levels < 100 mg/dL and individuals at very high cardiovascular risk attain LDL levels < 70 mg/dL (levels that are abnormal, levels which are seldom ever this low in healthy people with no cardiovascular disease). Their advice was published in the marketing journal of the American Heart Association, Circulation. This �scientific journal� failed to disclose that six of the nine authors had direct financial ties to the makers of statin drugs. Today, in doctor�s offices around the country, these abnormal cholesterol levels are being pushed on anyone over the age of 40, requiring a double or triple dose of statins or combination with some other toxic drug (like fibrates) to achieve these completely unnatural and unhealthy levels of cholesterol. In hindsight we can see that these recommendations boosted yearly statin sales by seven billion dollars. A class-action lawsuit has already been filed against Pfizer for illegal Lipitor promotion. Many others are sure to follow as this fraud becomes better understand by those who are injured and those footing the bill. Further highlighting this fraud is a study appearing in the October 3, 2006, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers reviewed all studies relating to cholesterol-lowering benefits by statin drugs, with a focus on the new abnormally low cholesterol levels promoted by the American Heart Association. Their conclusion, �current clinical evidence does not demonstrate that titrating lipid therapy to achieve proposed low LDL cholesterol levels is beneficial or safe.� That is a rather shocking conclusion coming more than two years after the fact. The finding did not phase the statin marketing machine or the prescribing habits of any physician. Make Vitamin E a Scapegoat During the time in 2004 that Big Pharma was plotting its statin bonanza it needed to fire cannonballs at its most widely recognized competition, Vitamin E and other antioxidants. No problem. First, in August 2004, the American Heart Association used its marketing magazine to print a bogus article contradicting hundreds of nutritional studies, stating that antioxidants A, C, and E are not effective for cardiovascular disease risk reduction. Then, in November of 2004, with trumpets blaring at their yearly AHA meeting, they make the brazenly fraudulent claim that vitamin E increases the risk of death by 6%!!! Outside the marketing meeting masquerading as a scientific conference, the chairman, Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was holding a dog and pony show press conference. �I spend all my time trying to tell patients why they should not take vitamin E. Too often in terms of the supplements there's very scant science. In this area, we have the science. Vitamin E doesn't work.� He implored his captive audience of reporters to help him convince patients to stop taking Vitamin E and take the �proven� drugs. The next day, all major media ran the story telling consumers vitamin E was dangerous. Program effective. Damage done. Within weeks the American Heart Association had brainwashed doctors and the American public to actually think vitamin E was dangerous, clearing out the primary competition to statins for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Doctors were telling all their patients to stop taking vitamin E. The anti-vitamin rhetoric spread like wild fire through doctor�s offices around the nation and continues to this day. Within a week the bogus vitamin E information coming from the American Heart Association meeting was debunked. Physician and nutritional expert, Alan Gaby, pointed out all the flaws as well as the safe and effective track record of vitamin E. By April of 2005 the leading antioxidant scientists in the world had published a comprehensive review showing the safety of vitamin E up to doses of 1600 IU per day, again debunking the false vitamin E story and explaining the high degree of safety of antioxidant nutrients. The media was nowhere to be found; the public never heard vitamin E was truly safe and vital for immune function, prevention of cognitive decline, and a wonderful nutrient for cardiovascular support. In July of 2005, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of an amazing vitamin E and heart disease study. After tracking 40,000 women for eight years it was proven that vitamin E lowered the risk of cardiovascular death by 24%! However, JAMA authors, going along with the vitamin E smear campaign, concluded that vitamin E was not worth recommending! Any drug with that kind of statistical evidence would be a billion dollar blockbuster. The media failed to look at the study and reported everywhere that vitamin E was not needed, denying women the true information about a wonderful cardiovascular support nutrient. Likewise, an August 2007 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled cardiovascular study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that natural vitamin E reduced cardiovascular death or serious cardiovascular disease by a statistically significant 13%, the primary end point of the study. Natural vitamin E also showed improvement in secondary end points, including a 22% reduction in heart attacks, a 27% reduction in strokes (31% when combined with vitamin C), and a 9% reduction in cardiovascular death. Once again the study results were hidden deep in the paper, downplayed by the authors, and not correctly reported in the media. And in November the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported the results of another randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled vitamin E study showing that vitamin E was completely safe at doses of 1200 IU per day in patients with existing cardiovascular disease. Once again the media was nowhere to be found. It is hard to calculate how many elderly people have been injured and killed by the proclamation not to take vitamin E and to take statins in super-high doses. Vitamin E is absolutely vital for heart function and healthy immunity in older Americans. When a statin-taking senior dies the physician never notes the deterioration of health that often begins with taking a statin or increasing the statin dose. Rather, the physician simply blames the health of the patient for the death � isn�t that convenient. Thus, statin-induced deaths are hidden and grossly under-reported. A New Statin Fraud Emerges The statin golden pot at the end of the rainbow has recently been threatened due to the fact that several best-selling statin drugs have lost patent protection and are now open to generic competition for pennies on the dollar ((Lipitor sales are off 25%). Newer cholesterol drugs in the pipeline have turned out to be a total bust. In order to get insurers to keep coughing up unnecessary money Big Pharma had to be creative � and dishonest (no surprise there). Merck and Schering-Plough have joined forces to market Zetia (which works in the digestive tract differently than a statin) and Vytorin (which is a combination of Zetia and a statin). By combining a statin in this way generic competition can be avoided. Either Zetia or Vytorin sell for $3 a day, compared to $0.25 for a generic statin. By adding Zetia to any other statin or by taking the combination pill cholesterol can be lowered an additional 15%. This has created a $5 billion dollar share of the statin market for these two drugs. Is lowering cholesterol an extra 15% worth it? That is the billion dollar question. Forbes was the first to blow the lid on what is obviously a rip-off. The Wall Street Journal is also covering the story. Vytorin has never been proven to prevent heart attacks, strokes or deaths any better than a plain generic statin. In 2002 Merck/Schering Plow undertook a study to prove that the combination prevented plaque build up in the arteries better than a statin alone. The study was completed in April of 2006. The drug companies are sitting on the results, and now have announced they are changing the primary outcome of the study after it is done � a scientific farce. It is obvious that the top executives in these companies know the results are not good. They can�t throw the data away as their marketing campaign was built on the expectation of a favorable outcome of these studies. Even doctors are complaining about the stalling tactic. The longer they can stall the longer they can collect their $5 billion in yearly sales, swindling Americans of hard earned money. This is, unfortunately, an example of typical drug company behavior. The FDA is of course snoozing on the job � they should be warning consumers of the dangers of lowering cholesterol excessively. Take Health into Your Own Hands The medical profession has lost almost all credibility. There is no short cut to being healthy. The majority of drugs are best used for a short duration, which is not in the best interest of Big Pharma profits. Some people in poor health need to be managed with drugs. Drugs as a tool for general health and prevention are a travesty. The statin industry is a scam gone wild. Space in this article has only allowed me to define a few of the primary statin side effects. There are many more that are seldom explained, including weakened immunity and cognitive decline. Statins are a slow and insidious poison wherein the side effects gradually get worse the longer a person takes them. This means that people often don�t realize their decline in health is from the statin, until someone points this issue out to them and they look at how their health in general has deteriorated since being on a statin. No, it�s not that the person is simply getting older � it�s the statin! You may read about all the statin side effects for free in my book, Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA�s Betrayal of America (chapters 19-21).
If we want a renaissance in cardiovascular fitness and quality of life in the over 50 crowd then most of the meds need to go in the trash and be replaced with consistent exercise programs, a fresh and organic diet, stress management programs, improved quality of sleep, and appropriate dietary supplements that support fitness and healthy cardiovascular function. Seniors need to have a rightful and respected place in our culture. � 2007 Truth in Wellness, LLC - All Rights Reserved Sign Up For Free E-Mail Alerts E-Mails
are used strictly for NWVs alerts, not for sale Byron J. Richards, Founder/Director of Wellness Resources, is a Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist and nationally-renowned health expert, radio personality, and educator. He is the author of Mastering Leptin, The Leptin Diet, and Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America. Richards encourages individuals to take charge of their health, stand up for their health rights, and not blindly succumb to propaganda from the vested-interests who profit from keeping Americans sick. As founder of Wellness Resources, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN, an independently-owned fine-quality dietary supplement company since 1985, he has personally developed 75 unique nutraceutical-grade nutritional formulas. www.wellnessresources.com FREE Subscription to Byron's Health Newsletter, click here. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com |
Right now doctors ignore the majority of muscle aches and pains caused by statins, and in their mind only consider the problem serious when it is debilitating... |


text:
We have published mockups of Apple's next iPhone—before. But these are the definitive ones, showing what the iPhone 5 or whatever it is called would look like in your hand.
And, as it turns out, it looks pretty damn good. My favorite is now the black one. I can't really decide.
In black, the new iPhone 2012 is very 1980s, as opposed to the 70s flavor of the current iPhone 4/4S. The two-tone black anodized aluminum is reminiscent of the old AV Sony designs of that decade-like their first CD player.
The white model is not 80s, though. But it is prettier than the black. The aluminum and chrome unibody with the white accents have an oldschool sci-fi feel. Like an object out of Kubrick's 2001. Somewhere in Cupertino there's a HAL computer powered by an array of these things.
Until you put all your greasy fingers over it, that is.
Via: Gizmodo


text:
Introducing the Official Guitar Aficionado Wine Club, which offers the perfect blend of wine and music. Each wine is created as a reflection and interpretation of the timeless music itself, inspired by our legendary artists and the rock and roll mythology behind their classic albums.
Included with initial Wine Club membership is a complimentary 12 issue subscription to Guitar Aficionado's and Guitar World's sister publication, Guitar Player ($14.99 value) and a BONUS issue of Guitar Aficionado. US residents, one per household.
Four times a year, you'll receive three bottles from one of our award-winning rock-inspired wines for $39.95 per shipment, plus shipping and handling. Just like a four-chord guitar riff: It's that simple. No hidden fees, cancel anytime.
To purchase, visit us at guitaraficionadowineclub.com.
For more info, head to the Guitar World Online Store.
Have more questions? Call us toll free at 888-987-4987 and ask for Heather! Or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
We are no longer selling bezels, but we are giving away the model so anyone can use it.
8bitjukie Bezel by Christopher Favreau is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
We are no longer selling bezels, but we are giving away the model so anyone can use it.
8bitjukie Bezel by Christopher Favreau is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
An update to the RPIO library that's available in recent linux distro releases, including the latest release of RetroPie, broke the easy button shutdown script. I have updated the script so it should be working in general.
Check out ETAPrime's new video: NesPi Case Safe Shutdown Reset Button Mod Power Button for the Retro Flag case using a modified version of the 8bitjunkie "easy button" script.
Check out this video by ETA Prime. He uses the "easy button" install script I wrote and includes directions on how to install putty.
Don't want to purchase one of those switched USB power adapters and have to shutdown your Pi from a menu every time? Do you also want an easy way to turn your Pi on? There's a script for that. And you may have already seen it floating around on YouTube but there's a lot of code you have to copy and paste to get it working. So, want a push button that can turn on and safely shutdown your Pi, and an easy way to get the software working? Well, here it is –
You will need to connect a momentary switch from pin 5 (GPIO 3) to pin 6 (GND). Pin 6 tends to be the most convenient ground, but it doesn't actually matter which one you use – pins 6, 9, 14, 20, or 25 will all work. See the pinout if you'd like to use a different ground pin.
You can use pretty much any momentary switch that is normally open. You can even use a reed switch for a magnet activated switch to avoid drilling holes in your case!
On Raspberry Pi 3, you will need to connect pin connectors (Dupont connectors) to the switch wires, or find a switch that already has them (just an example, not a recommendation).
If you need to add pin connectors to your switch, you can solder/splice on female Dupont wires.
Or, (especially if you plan to do multiples), you can crimp your own connectors with a kit like this. While, it is *possible* to crimp those connectors with some regular pliers, it's not really ideal so you'd also want to get a crimping tool.
Once you have your switch connected, you will need to install a bit of software to allow the switch to shut down your Pi (pressing the switch while the Pi is shut down will turn it back on without any software.) Your Pi needs to be connected to the internet to download the install script and packages.
Hat tips to Barry Hubbard who I believe is the originator of the Python script that makes this work, and to ETA Prime for creating an awesome how-to video that's popularized this mod. I used ETA Prime's video to do this initially and realized that the process was more complicated and error prone than it needs to be. So, I created a script that automates the entire software setup.
There are two ways you can run the setup script: using a keyboard plugged into your Pi, or over a network terminal session using your computer. Using your computer over the network was the preferred way to do this using the ETA Prime instructions due to the amount of copying and pasting required. However, it's might be easier to use a keyboard (at least in the UK) for this method unless you're already set up to connect over the network.
curl https://pie.8bitjunkie.net/shutdown/setup-shutdown.sh | bash
That's it! You're done.
Some distros including RetroPie have the keyboard layout set to GB by default, so there's no way to type the | symbol on a US keyboard. So you can do this instead:
curl https://pie.8bitjunkie.net/shutdown/setup-shutdown.sh --output setup-shutdown.sh
sudo chmod +x setup-shutdown.sh
That's it! You're done.
Make sure your Pi is connected to the same network as your computer either via Wifi or Ethernet. For Pi Zero you will need a WiFi dongle.
If you get an error like 'host not found', you may need to use the IP address vs the host name of the Pi. To get the IP address: in RetroPi select the RetroPi channel and select Show IP. Use the IP in place of 'retropie' in the previous instructions.
curl https://pie.8bitjunkie.net/shutdown/setup-shutdown.sh | bash
That's it! You're done.
Now the shutdown script should be installed and set up to run every time the Pi boots. To test it out, press the switch. The Pi should shut down. Press the switch again and the Pi should boot up.
If your Pi didn't shut down, shut it down manually. Press the switch. If your Pi doesn't start up, there's something wrong with your switch/wiring/connection. If it does start up, wait for emulationstation to load and press it again. If it doesn't shut down, there's something wrong with the software setup. A good place to get help at that point would be the RetroPie gaming group on Facebook.
Copyright © 2017 8bitjunkie.net
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.


text:
Professional Networks & User Communities Let Pros Turn to Their Peers for Advice
Special Feature
Nov. 01, 2009
From the Nov. 2009 Issue
Tax and accounting professionals are inundated every year with new and complex
tax laws, rulings and other issues that can affect how they provide client services
and can even pose liability concerns for non-compliance or improper treatments.
While physicians might argue that their profession faces similar complexities
regarding keeping up with the latest treatments, rarely do they face such dramatic
rewritings of their body of knowledge and changes in their core knowledge. Yes,
they face an evolving profession that requires extensive continuing education,
too. And most people would probably agree that the potential consequences of
their actions are more significant: After all, the life and well-being of their
patients is at stake.
But how often are the basics of human physiology reinterpreted? Certainly
not every year, which is what tax and accounting professionals are often faced
with when it comes to federal and state tax laws, the impending move from GAAP
to IFRS, and the increasingly important role that technology plays in the modern
practice. And even these practice-essential technologies change from year to
year, adding to the crunch of information overload.
Even the most seasoned tax and accounting professionals can't learn everything
there is to know about their field, or even memorize all of the obscure parts
of the tax code that may come up during a client engagement. Therefore, one
of the most valuable traits shared by successful practitioners is that they
know what they don't know, and they know where to turn if they need information
on something with which they are unfamiliar.
For taxation issues, professionals generally turn to tax research systems
such as those that will be reviewed in our December 2009 issue. These systems
offer users the ability to quickly search through various primary resources
like the IRS Code, Treasury rulings, legislation, court documents and state
law. Some also provide expert advice, case studies and other insight into tax
But taxation isn't the only area in a professional's life where
they need occasional guidance. This isn't new, of course. Professionals
have been networking with each other for decades, adding specialists to their
staffs to strengthen the overall firm or finding a non-competitive professional
in their area with whom they can exchange strengths. There are also some fortunate
professionals who have a mentor to whom they can turn, while others may partner
with third parties to send clients for specific services.
In the digital world, many professionals also turn to online networks or user
communities. These groups, many of which originally started in the early days
of the Internet as message boards, are usually offered by companies that offer
technologies to the tax and accounting profession. All of the larger developers
of professional tax and accounting suites offer such options. So for most professionals,
finding a trusted resource should be very simple. Start with what and who you
know: Your vendor.
One of the first of these networks was/is the still popular ARNE community,
which was developed by Creative Solutions in the mid-1990s. Now a part of the
Thomson Reuters family, the network allows users of Thomson Reuters CS Suite
of professional accounting and practice management software to interact with
each other through online forums, blogs, groups and other discussion tools.
Forums are divided into practice areas, such as tax, accounting, business management
and web services, which lets users find answers to questions they might have
regarding program usage or appropriate strategies. Examples of recent topics
include how to treat sole proprietors or partners who are treated as employees
and receive a W-2, how to put reports on client portals, and a professional
seeking advice on adding a partner to his practice.
The other major technology vendors in the tax and accounting space also offer
online communities geared toward helping their users get more from their programs
and collaborate. For QuickBooks users, Intuit offers the QuickBooks Live Community,
a website where professionals interact and discuss program usage, engagement
strategies and business topics in forums that are divided into groups for the
type of user and the program. The Community is accessible from within QuickBooks
Premier Accountant Edition, as well as from Lacerte, ProSeries and Pro-Line,
Intuit's new web-based professional tax compliance system. It allows users
to seek advice and receive answers from other users or support staff while still
working inside the program. Intuit also has the free online tax research website
TaxAlmanac.org, which offers a Wikipedia-style reference and collaboration system
for tax professionals.
CCH Community – CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business
Immediately after the deadline for the print edition of this issue, CCH announced
the creation of its new CCH Community, an online resource for users of CCH's
systems that provides these tax, accounting and audit professionals with resources
and the ability to interact with their peers. Visitors to the CCH User Community
will be able to share problems, solutions and best practices in discussion forums,
receive information and analysis from thought leaders, take advantage of network
capabilities and give feedback and receive updates on CCH products and services.
Sage offers an online community that doesn't require usage of their accounting
products, which can be helpful if a professional is using Peachtree in his or
her own practice or even if they aren't using it but have clients who
use the system and may need some support when it comes to program functions.
The site also provides links to forums for practice areas, blogs and advice
for practitioners and business owners.
Users of Drake Software's tax, practice management, document management
and client write-up systems can access and participate in online forums moderated
by Drake staff. Users frequently share program tips and business strategies,
and can ask questions of support staff or of other users.
While AccountantsWorld offers a suite of web-based and traditionally installed
programs for professional accountants, the vendor's website also offers
a large array of free research, tools, white papers, best practices, tax and
accounting news, and discussion groups divided into categories for various practice
areas. Additional sub-groups allow users to discuss specific issues involving
taxation of various entities, HR, payroll and practice management.
MyATX & TAXWISE TV – CCH SMALL FIRM SERVICES
Online user communities are also offered by CCH Small Firm Services for users
of its ATX and TaxWise professional compliance systems. The sites provide similar
forums for users to get tips and advice from other professionals, along with
access to training and support resources. Through TaxWise TV, professionals
can also watch brief educational videos that cover important taxation issues
and program tips.
The provider of the widely used on-demand (web-based) accounting, CRM and ecommerce
NetSuite offers an online community for its customers, solution providers, developers
and employees. By bringing all of these groups together, the NetSuite User Community
provides them with the ability to interact and share their wealth of deep product
knowledge and extensive technical expertise. Members of the community also share
best practice ideas, discuss third-party solutions and participate in other
networking opportunities. With a worldwide user base, the community also offers
users the ability to connect with potential international partners.
TaxWorks offers a company blog and user forums for its registered users, with
topic-specific forums for general product information as well as support and
message boards for e-filing, document management, training and other topics.
Through the company's blog, TaxWorks staff offer additional tips and product
advice, from data input sheets and generation of financial reports, to invoicing
and using the tax program's built-in scheduler.
In addition to these larger developers of professional tax and accounting suites,
many developers of programs not limited to the profession also offer user communities.
Whether using a program in-house for client services or seeking advice on a
program in order to help a client who uses it, these online resources offer
additional means for a professional to find the answers he or she needs.
Many independent user groups for the above programs and other software have
also found their way online. Generally created by individual users on social
networking websites such as Yahoo! Groups, Facebook and others, these message
board-style groups are unaffiliated with the product vendor, providing users
with potentially more anonymity while discussing programs, treatments and practices.
In addition to these peer-to-peer networks and communities, many of these vendors
also offer programs that provide professionals with free or discounted software,
advanced training and other features. The most notable of these are the Sage
Professional Accountants' Network, the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program and
Microsoft's Professional Accountants' Network. The Sleeter Group
is another option for professionals, providing education, training and support
opportunities for all of the major small business bookkeeping solutions on the
market, as well as many of the third-party "add-on" systems that
enhance those programs.
Professionals are increasingly turning to Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn
and other social media websites for day-to-day interaction with potential clients
and with their peers. Several blogs are also available for professionals, allowing
them to discuss news, software and other topics. Check out www.CPATechViews.com
as a great example.
You know what you know. Hopefully, you also know what you don't know and
have the knowledge to find that information if you need it. Just as tax research
systems are essential in the modern tax and accounting practice, online user
communities are just as vital.
By offering professionals a place to interact, collaborate, learn and help
others on a wide range of topics from using specific features in a program to
specific tax law discussions and business matters, these networks can help strengthen
the capabilities of all professionals who use them by drawing on the collective
knowledge of professionals across the country and the world who've encountered
the same challenges and can offer their own insight and expertise.


text:
Gwen Graham on Government Reform | |
Congressional Summary:
Supporters reasons for voting YEA: (BrennanCenter.org): Too many Americans go to vote on Election Day only to find their names are not on the voter rolls--often, wrongly deleted. The US is on the verge of a new paradigm for registering voters: automatic, permanent registration of eligible voters, which would add up to 50 million eligible voters to the rolls.
Opponents reasons for voting NAY: (Gov. Christie's veto message on the "Democracy Act", Nov. 2015): Christie called a provision establishing automatic voter registration that requires New Jerseyan to opt out a "government-knows-best, backwards approach that would inconvenience citizens and waste government resources for no justifiable reason." Automatic voter registration would have added 1.6 million people to the state's voter rolls.


text:
Reds get 2nd big comeback win of the week
Published 10:57 pm Sunday, July 13, 2014
CINCINNATI (AP) — A Reds team that hadn't pulled off a big comeback all season now has two in one week. And it's been some kind of week.
Two starters got hurt, three infielders went on the disabled list, and the wins kept coming.
Brayan Pena's pinch-hit single in the eighth inning completed another late rally by the Reds, who overcame more injuries on Friday and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 to keep their momentum going toward the All-Star break.
Pena described this one as a "championship effort."
"This is a huge victory for us," he said. "This is the kind of victory that shows what we can do. When we got behind, everybody kept pushing each other."
Down 5-1 after six innings, the Reds scored twice with the help of third baseman Pedro Alvarez's throwing error in the seventh and added three more in the eighth. Cincinnati is 7-2 on its 11-game homestand leading into the break.
Devin Mesoraco homered with two outs off left-hander Tony Watson (5-1) in the eighth, and the Reds put together four more singles, with RBI hits by Ramon Santiago and Pena completing Cincinnati's second big comeback of the week. Cincinnati overcame a five-run deficit to beat the Cubs in the second game of a doubleheader on Tuesday.
Watson came in with a 0.84 ERA having allowed only one homer and four earned runs all season.
"I don't want to say it came out of nowhere, but to come back from two outs and nobody on against a Tony Watson who's throwing missiles, I can't say enough," manager Bryan Price said.
Curtis Partch (1-0), called up earlier in the day, escaped a bases-loaded threat in the eighth.
Aroldis Chapman fanned the side in the ninth for his 20th save in 22 chances. He has at least one strikeout in his last 40 appearances, passing Bruce Sutter for the record by a major league reliever since 1900.
Andrew McCutchen and Alvarez homered for a 4-0 lead off Cincinnati's Mat Latos, who left after only five innings because of back spasms. It was the shortest of his six starts since returning from torn knee cartilage and a strained pitching forearm.
Latos ran hard to first to try to beat out a bunt in the second inning. His back started acting up when he went back to the mound.
"When I was bending over to get the sign for the first batter in the third inning, all of a sudden it felt like one of the middle infielders came up and stabbed me in the back," Latos said. "It calmed down a little bit for two more innings."
The Reds have been hit hard by injuries in the past week.
First baseman Joey Votto is on the DL indefinitely with a thigh injury. Second baseman Brandon Phillips tore a ligament in his left thumb and had surgery on Friday. Skip Schumaker was expected to help fill in at second base, but he went on the 7-day concussion list.
Starter Homer Bailey slightly strained his right knee on Thursday, but is expected to make his next turn. Now, it's Latos who is a question.
Billy Hamilton had a sore hamstring on Thursday and was relegated to pinch-hitting during a 6-4, 12-inning loss to the Cubs. He was back in the lineup on Friday and produced a run right away.
He led off with a bunt toward first baseman Gaby Sanchez, pulling up and whirling his arms as he dodged the tag and then lunged for the base, touching it safely with his hand. He scored from first on Zack Cozart's double.
NOTES: Mike Leake (7-7), who has won his last five decisions against the Pirates, faces Charlie Morton (5-9) on Saturday. … Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said RHP Gerrit Cole won't be ready to rejoin the rotation when he's eligible to come off the DL on July 20. Cole has a sore muscle in his right side. … Neil Walker was 0 for 3 with a walk, ending his 12-game hitting streak. … Alvarez's 15 homers rank second behind Cincinnati's Todd Frazier (16) for most by an NL third baseman. … The Reds optioned C Tucker Barnhart to Triple-A Louisville and called up right-handed relievers Carlos Contreras and Partch.
Follow Joe Kay on Twitter: http://twitter.com/apjoekay


text: THE DREAMER IN the grey dim Dawn where the Souls Unborn May look on the Things to Be; A tremulous Shade, a Thing Unmade, Stood Lost by the silent Sea; And shuddering fought the o'erwhelming thought Of Its own Identity. Is the frenzied form that derides the storm A ghost of the days to Be? And the restless wave but the troubled grave Of Its own dread Imagery? Or merely a wraith cast up without faith From the jaws of a Phantom Sea? To his Love Unborn in that grey dim Dawn Did the Shade of the Dreamer flee; Nor marked he the Flood where the Vision had stood Which mocks for Eternity. For the Soul he would wed was the Hope that had fled In the battle with Destiny. ETHEL ARCHER. {208}


text:
Sheep & Goat Vaccination Schedule
Suggested Goat & Sheep Vaccination Schedule
Lambs and Kids: Vaccinate for C, D and T (Clostridium perfringens type C & D plus tetanus) by 8 weeks of age, with a booster dose 4 weeks later. If blackleg is prevalent in your area, Covexin 8 can be used instead, to protect against blackleg as well as overeating disease and tetanus. Vaccinate for pasteurella caused by Mannheimia haemolytica at 8-12 weeks of age, with a booster at 12-16 weeks of age. Elective vaccines to consider based on risk of exposure include those protecting against Caseous lymphadenitis and Sore mouth.
Ewes, Rams, Does and Bucks: Vaccinate for the same diseases mentioned above. If previously vaccinated, booster with one dose annually, preferably 2-4 weeks prior to giving birth so that protection is passed through the colostrum to the newborns. In addition, breeding stock may be vaccinated for reproductive diseases caused by Chlamydia and Campylobacter.


text:
Child-support debtors may not purchase KDWP licenses, permits
Parents who are delinquent on court-ordered child support payments are not eligible to purchase license or permits issued by the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks.
A law approved by the 2007 Kansas Legislature and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (House Bill 2393) requires the state's Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services to maintain a list of individuals in arrears on child support. KDWP receives updated electronic files of those individuals to match against applicants for licenses and permits. The law also outlines procedures by which individuals may be removed from the list of delinquent child support debtors, reinstating their privileges for KDWP licenses and permits.
After comparing the SRS database against KDWP's licensing database, the department's Licensing Section this week sent letters to affected individuals, informing each that they will not be able to purchase licenses and permits until his or her name is removed from the SRS-maintained list. The law also affects lifetime license holders. About 2,800 KDWP customers are affected, and have been sent letters informing them of their status.
KDWP's automated licensing system will prohibit transactions with individuals on the SRS list and, upon denial of the transaction, those individuals will be provided information stating the basis for the action and advising them to contact SRS' Child Support Enforcement staff to discuss.
According to SRS, this new law will keep Kansas in compliance with the Federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, thus preventing the loss of approximately $36 million in federal child support enforcement funds each year.


text:
Twenty-two haute couture dresses are on display at a Vancouver mall as part of a Langara College design program. But you won't find any silks, velvet or tulle.
Instead, students in the college's design formation program were assigned to re-create haute couture gowns out of different forms of paper, such as coffee filters, paper bags, tissue paper, and cupcake liners. And of course, plenty of tape.
"[The assignment] utilizes the students' own historical fashion research, as well as exploration using the design process of iterations and project planning, along side trial and error with the materials and techniques they devise to mimic the original dress," said instructor Kevin Smith.
"This isn't fashion," he added. "This is about design thinking, design process, management as well as the exploration of materials."
The two-year program focuses on the design process and preparing students for fields such as visual merchandising, graphic design and interior design.
"Not only is it figuring out how you're going to emulate the satin, or the velvet, or the pleats, or the embroidery," Smith said. "They have to break all of those things down into components, but they also have to look at their time management and that's huge in project management."
This is the fifth year the program has displayed their paper couture exhibition. It will be on display at the East Galleria of Oakridge Centre in Vancouver until March 27.


text:
America's "highest profile economist" thinks we need more asset bubbles to battle negative real interest rates and persistent secular stagnation.
In a controversial post on his blogsite, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argues that bubbles may be necessary to make up for insufficient demand, high unemployment, and sluggish growth. Here's the clip from his blog "The Conscience of a Liberal":
"We now know that the economic expansion of 2003-2007 was driven by a bubble. You can say the same about the latter part of the 90s expansion; and you can in fact say the same about the later years of the Reagan expansion, which was driven at that point by runaway thrift institutions and a large bubble in commercial real estate…
So how can you reconcile repeated bubbles with an economy showing no sign of inflationary pressures? Summers's answer is that we may be an economy that needs bubbles just to achieve something near full employment – that in the absence of bubbles the economy has a negative natural rate of interest…" ("Secular Stagnation, Coalmines, Bubbles, and Larry Summers", Paul Krugman, New York Times)
So, absent bubbles, there's no credit expansion, no full employment, no strong recovery? That sounds a lot like an excuse for keeping the current policy (QE and zero rates) in place, doesn't it?
But what an audacious claim, and what a sad reflection on the economics profession when its most celebrated spokesmen throws up his hands in despair and says, 'That's the way it is, folks. Deal with it', instead of offering constructive alternatives. Isn't that what economists are supposed to do, figure out how to get us off life-support and back to full employment and growth? Here's another clip from his post:
"…we are an economy in which monetary policy is de facto constrained by the zero lower bound …, and that this corresponds to a situation in which the "natural" rate of interest – the rate at which desired savings and desired investment would be equal at full employment – is negative…..in this situation the normal rules of economic policy don't apply. As I like to put it, virtue becomes vice and prudence becomes folly." (NYT)
Okay. So if the Fed's main policy tool, the Feds Funds Rate, isn't doing the trick and stimulating demand, what do you do? Keep rates locked at zero for 5 or 10 years while the Fed pumps trillions into bank reserves sending stocks into the stratosphere and inflating bubbles in all types of financial assets?
Krugman seems to think so. And so does his buddy, Larry Summers, whose presentation at a recent IMF conference was the catalyst for Krugman's musings.
So let's ask the obvious question first: Would Summers be equally enthusiastic about asset bubbles if his rich banker friends had felt the full impact of the last bubble, that is, if the 9 biggest banks in the country had been nationalized, shareholders wiped out, bondholders given haircuts, management replaced, and toxic assets sold off in public auctions to the highest bidder? Or has Summers opinion been shaped by the fact that the banks were bailed out and only the "little people" suffered in terms of lost home equity ($8 trillion), lost jobs (14 million), record foreclosures (6 million), and a decimated US economy?
My guess is that Summers feelings about asset bubbles have nothing to do with economics and everything to do with outcomes. It's all a matter of whose ox is gored. And we all know whose ox took the biggest goring in the financial crisis; ordinary working people.
And, why does Krugman pretend like it just dawned on him that asset bubbles might be a good thing? Here's a quote from his post:
"I'm pretty annoyed with Larry Summers right now. His presentation at the IMF Research Conference is, justifiably, getting a lot of attention. And here's the thing: I've been thinking along the same lines, and have, I think, hinted at this analysis in various writings. But Larry's formulation is much clearer and more forceful, and altogether better, than anything I've done. Curse you, Red Baron Larry Summers! (Paul Krugman, The Conscience of a Liberal", NYT)
Krugman makes it sound like the whole asset bubble thing just occurred to him which is a load of malarkey. Krugman's been a bubble-pusher from the beginning. Here's an excerpt from an article he wrote in 2002 saying that Greenspan should inflate a housing bubble to offset the fallout from the dot.com bust:
"…. the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble." (Dubya's Double Dip?", Paul Krugman, New York Times)
Well, that's pretty clear, isn't it? So if Krugman was a proponent of bubblemaking way back in 2002, why does he act like it never dawned on him until he heard Summer's speech?
Could it be because Krugman is a trusted establishment liberal whose job is to shape public opinion? Is that it? In this case, Krugman is trying to dignify the means by which more wealth is transferred to the Wall Street kleptocrats via asset bubbles. He's also laying the groundwork for keeping the same thieving policies in place for as long as possible, which makes him an ardent defender of the status quo.
Keep in mind, this is the same guy who, for the last 5 years, has been telling us that the only thing we needed to "End this Depression Now" (Krugman's book) is to widen the budget deficits, increase government spending, and launch another round of fiscal stimulus. Now he's done a complete 180 and is pushing a policy that–according to Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith–"depicts asset bubbles as necessary and desirable" That's quite a reversal, don't you think?
Krugman again: "If you take a secular stagnation view seriously, it has some radical implications …. that even improved financial regulation is not necessarily a good thing – that it may discourage irresponsible lending and borrowing at a time when more spending of any kind is good for the economy…."(NYT)
That's the GOP's view of things anyway, isn't it? "What do we need regulations for," they say. "They just put a damper on growth." Krugman's approach is a bit subtler, but it amounts to the same thing. By suggesting that beating stagnation is the highest priority, he implicitly legitimizes everything from mega-leverage at the banks to liar's loans. This is about as close as you'll get to economic malpractice without the Nobel Committee storming to your front door and demanding their statue back.
Krugman again: "Of course, the underlying problem in all of this is simply that real interest rates are too high. But, you say, they're negative – zero nominal rates minus at least some expected inflation. To which the answer is, so? If the market wants a strongly negative real interest rate, we'll have persistent problems until we find a way to deliver such a rate." (NYT)
"Negative real interest rates!" "Persistent secular stagnation!" "Liquidity trap, liquidity trap, liquidity trap"!
Are you scared yet? You should be, after all, that's what all this alarmist BS is all about. It's just more fearmongering. In effect, what Krugman is saying is, 'This is really awful, guys. The world is going to end if we don't deal with negative rates fast!…Don't say I didn't warn you.'
But, wait a minute; wasn't QE supposed to fix the problem? Isn't that why the Fed is loading up on $85 billion in USTs and MBSs per month, because rates are stuck at zero and asset purchases are supposed to push the policy rate into negative territory easing the burden of debt and lowering the price of credit?
Sure, it is, but Krugman's hysterics just underscores the fact that the program is a big, fat fraud that's done nothing except boost reckless speculation while allowing the crooked banks to roll over their massive debtpile at zero-cost to themselves. (A quick look at the Fed's latest credit report shows that credit is only expanding in student loans and ripoff "subprime" auto loans which extend the length of the loan to a whopping 84 months! Another QE success story!)
As far as stagnation, well, it's been around for a long time now, Paul, and precious few economists see asset bubbles as a way out. And while some attribute the problem to demographics,(like Krugman) others think it's more closely connected to wage suppression, crappy wealth distribution, taxes, the rise of financialization, or capitalism itself. According to authors John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff, the rise of financialization in the US was actually a response to stagnation which was causing a steady decline in the rate of accumulation. Check out this blurb in Monthly Review where the authors explain the origins of the phenom and how it paved the way for the oversized financial system we have today:
"It was the reality of economic stagnation beginning in the 1970s, as heterodox economists Riccardo Bellofiore and Joseph Halevi have recently emphasized, that led to the emergence of "the new financialized capitalist regime," a kind of "paradoxical financial Keynesianism" whereby demand in the economy was stimulated primarily "thanks to asset-bubbles." Moreover, it was the leading role of the United States in generating such bubbles—despite… the weakening of capital accumulation proper—together with the dollar's reserve currency status, that made U.S. monopoly-finance capital the "catalyst of world effective demand," beginning in the 1980s.
But such a financialized growth pattern was unable to produce rapid economic advance for any length of time, and was unsustainable, leading to bigger bubbles that periodically burst, bringing stagnation more and more to the surface.
A key element in explaining this whole dynamic is to be found in the falling ratio of wages and salaries as a percentage of national income in the United States. Stagnation in the 1970s led capital to launch an accelerated class war against workers to raise profits by pushing labor costs down. The result was decades of increasing inequality….a sharp decline in the share of wages and salaries in GDP between the late 1960s and the present." ("Financial Implosion and Stagnation", John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff, Monthly Review)
Krugman knows all of this. He's done the research. Like we said earlier, he's just trying to trying to dignify the means by which the plutocrats are ripping us off while preparing us for more of the same for the foreseeable future. That makes him an asset bubble defender in my book.
Krugman's "negative rates-secular stagnation" theory is pure bunkum. The problem is not a liquidity trap at all, but what economist Heiner Flassbeck calls an "income trap", where falling incomes and flat wages have led to droopy demand and weak investment. Here's an excerpt from a recent article by Flassbeck:
"….the US today …. is restricted by demand and demand is restricted by income expectations of private households at very high levels of unemployment….. It is a story of a dysfunctional labour market…….High unemployment depresses wages, depressed wages depress private consumption and depressed consumption does not allow the economy to recover despite enormous profits in the company sector and desperate attempts of monetary policy…..
…..even well-intended policies may lead to questionable results if the underlying analysis is flawed. Abenomics and most of its academic followers like Paul Krugman regard a protracted liquidity trap as the main reason for the Japanese weakness ….The diminished expectations and the uncertainty of Japanese private households concerning their future income and deflation as such prevent private consumption from taking a lead role in a recovery. To call that constellation a liquidity trap is misleading. In fact, the trap is a wage or income trap much more than a liquidity trap." ("Japan: Why Paul Krugman doesn't get it right and Martin Wolf has to move on", Heiner Flassbeck, Flassbeck-Economics)
Bingo. We have a winner!
The problem is not negative rates, secular stagnation, or liquidity traps. It's demand, it's wages, and it's distribution. If you pay people a decent wage, they have more money to spend, activity increases, unemployment drops, sales pick up, businesses recycle their profits into investment, earnings improve, the demand for funds (loans) pushes rates higher, the economy grows and the world is a happy place. But if you keep crushing labor with numbskull austerity, offshoring jobs, perennial high unemployment, regressive free trade agreements, cutbacks to vital safetynet programs, and bogus monetary policies that only serve the rich; then demand weakens, people's expectations for the future dims, and the economy grinds to a halt…which it has.
The good news is, fixing for the economy is within our grasp. US workers just need a raise in pay and a bigger share of productivity gains. Putting money in the hands of the people who will spend it, is the fastest way to strengthen the recovery.
The bad news is, the big money guys who call the shots, like the way things are now. Which means that this stinking near-Depression will probably drag on for a long time to come.
MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at email@example.com.