Why Democrats Lose Elections

According to Drew Westen, Professor of Psychology at Emory University, Democratic candidates continously appeal to voters minds by giving them stastictics and reasoned arguments to vote for them, but Professor Westen claims, in his new book "The Political Brain," that Repulicans do the opposite, they do not appeal to reason but to emotion, as a result, he says, "we have seen only one Democrat re-elected to the White House since Franklin Roosevelt -- Bill Clinton, who, like Roosevelt, understood how to connect with voters emotionally -- and only one Republican fail to do so -- George H.W. Bush, who ran like a Democrat and paid for it."

Read more
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/winning-hearts-and-minds_b_52893.html

The Search

R. Milian

Guatemala City
There were 52 new bodies at the morgue on a recent Monday morning; 52 new chances for Guadalupe Diaz to find her son, Mario Toscano. (New York Times January 1, 2006)


The mother, Guadalupe, says, “He was no angel.”
Her son has been out of sight for four months.
His return is not eminent any time soon. The likelihood of rain, tomorrow, is more probable that his appearance today. According to witnesses, he was kidnapped, but who knows the truth in this tropical land.
Her weekly routine, going to the morgue, searching for bodies, once again, has begun.
Where does she start looking?
Bodies lay on tables like fish at a supermarket.
There is no produce section here, but only red meat shinning brightly in the lights.

She dreams of finding him, finding him in this surrealist Buñuel film.
Bodies strewn about like a Pollock painting with arms and legs serving for his intersecting colorful lines. This is a museum of horrors, or shall we say, an unedited gory film which hasn’t been released yet. Guadalupe searches for her son.
She tries to find a way out of this interminable labyrinth as she proceeds looking at the quiet faces removed of their life. She is a headless horseman finding the truth. Who will give her the answer?

Obesity Policy and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Read Below

Obesity Policy and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Noncitizen Soldiers joining the army

Many immigrants who hold green cards are joining the army with the hope of speeding up their citizenship status. This statement leads one to pose the following question, Are we using Non-Americans to fight our war in Irak? This is an interesting issue, which is further discussed in the article below.

Read Below:

Noncitizen soldiers: the quandaries of foreign-born troops | csmonitor.com

epigenetics

This scientific field may explain how some people get certain diseases while others don't. Read this provocative article.

Twin Data Highlights Genetic Changes:

BOB Woodward's New Book

We all learned last month that Mark Felt, the former FBI agent, outed himself as the infamous Deep Throat. He was the secret that everybody associated with Watergate wanted to know, as well as the public in general. For this reason, when the press reported that Woodward was going to publish a book on this subject, there was excitement in the air about finding new revelations. Unfortunately, Ronald Brownstein, reporter of the Washington Post, says that the new book is below expectations.

Read Below

Bob Woodward fails to dig deeply enough

Canada Legalizes Gay Marriages

Read More

Salon.com | Canada drifts further from the U.S.

Will the Three Branches of Government be in Charge of the Republican Party?

Now that Sandra Day O'Connor will retire from the Supreme Court, the Republican Party senses that for the first time it will control all branches of government, since they already have a Republican President and both Houses of Congress.

Read More
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/02/AR2005070201312.htmlRead more

What is Patriotism?

Richard A. Kaye writes in the Los Angeles Times " But something vital has been lost in this debate — namely, the disturbingly limited way in which many public officials define patriotism. Exactly when and how did patriotic feeling get defined in such reactive, negative terms? Since when does being patriotic require not so much a commitment to positive ideals and actions but, rather, to gestures that encourage an atmosphere of fearful watchfulness, xenophobia and the surrender of our freedoms?

Read more
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-patriotism3jul03,0,4351175.story?track=hppromobox

Benefits of Stem Cell Reserach

The Pew Research Center has published a survey which shows that the public views favorably the benefits of Stem Cell Research.

Read

More See Benefits of Stem Cell Research

Freedom

There is nothing better like summer in Central Park.

Ritalin May Cause Cancer

A study of children who were administered Ritalin at a young age claims that as adult these children may develop cancer. Read more:

Report of Ritalin Risks Prompts a Federal Study - New York Times

American Dream in Mexico

Many Americans ironically are fleeing to Baja California, Mexico in search of their American Dream. According to them, the proprerties are extremely inexpensive and the lifersyte is phenomenal.

Read Below:

CBS News American Dream In Mexico June 26, 2005�10:00:09