Biutiful - Immigration with Bardem at the Front

 Link to Trailer

Inarritu's 'Biutiful' opens Mexican film festival

By ISTRA PACHECO, Associated Press Writer,

Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 6:14 p.m.

...The main character, Uxbal, played by Oscar-winning Spanish actor Javier Bardem, lives and works in a Barcelona slum as a middleman for African and Chinese migrants who is dealing with a bipolar ex-wife and trying to make ends meet for his two children.

Though the raw portrait of migrant life and their exploitation is a key secondary theme, the tragedies that unfold are not a commentary on immigration, Inarritu said.

"I'm not trying to make them victims or saints," he said. "I'm just trying to integrate them into a dialogue, show that they're human beings with virtues and flaws, with their needs as parents and children."

Inarritu said Barcelona is just one of many cities around the world grappling with the growing flow of migrants. He acknowledged the phenomenon is heartbreaking, too, in his own country - where 72 migrants from Central and South America were recently massacred, reportedly after refusing to work for a drug gang that kidnapped them on their way to the U.S.

But he said political arguments over migration are for others to make, not his movie...more

Church Can Be An Unfriendly Place for Immigrants & Others

Rosenberg, Texas  1957

When I was five years old I enrolled in a Catholic School two blocks from my house.  I was the only Latino/Mexican child in my class.  There were two other kids like me in the whole school (grades 1-8), but I didn't notice them for a few years.  I was too preoccupied with my own survival.

Its hard to say just how much was my own perception of racism or the real attitudes of the parents and teachers (who were mostly nuns).  What is unquestionable was the Jim Crow situation in the town. It was deeply segregated (see my book Cemeteries of Ambivalent Desire:  Unearthing Deep South Narratives from a Texas Graveyard)

A few months after starting first grade I decided one morning that I wanted to have Holy Communion.  The other kids in my class couldn't do this because they had not made their First Communion yet - in that school it was normally done in second grade.  I know for sure my parents had informed the nuns that I did indeed have my first communion, just after my fifth birthday.  The year before a  a nun named Sister Joachim, from the Mexican Church across town, helped my mother enroll me in the Catholic school "across the tracks."  I was four and very bored at home.  I did great in first grade, was ahead of everyone in my class, and even prepared for the First Communion.

After the school year ended, the priest at the Mexican Church suggested my parents enroll me in the "white" Church, which happened to be only 1 block from my house.  I could even walk to school safely, just crossing a quiet street to get there.

I was supposed to go into second grade, no questions asked.  However, the nuns thought I was way too young at 4 to be with kids who were 6 and 7.  Maybe they were right.  But they should have remembered that I already had my First Communion (the school was very small, only 30 kids in each grade).  The day I decided to walk up to the sanctuary to receive the communion, the nuns experienced selective memory and dragged me away.  I was terrified and sad.  I got in major trouble with them.  I am sure I told them I had every right to be at the railing of the sanctuary, but why would they listen to a five year old?

It was the beginning of a eight year long ambivalent experience.  While I received an excellent education in this Catholic school, I always felt most of the nuns didn't like me.  I was often left out of invitations at birthday parties.  I never forgot about being turned away from Holy Communion.  

Redemption came in 7th grade when a new teacher came in from Rhode Island.  Her name was Ms. Silvia.  She was the first one to take me seriously (besides Mrs. Wappel in 2nd grade).  I flourished with Ms. Silvia and will always appreciate how she showed me different things about the literary and cultural world that I would have never known.  By the second year I had Ms. Silvia for English class I was the top student.  

Ms. Silvia passed away fairly young.  I was never able to thank her for saving my mind.  Maybe being Portuguese (her family name had been Silva) made her more empathic to people who weren't "white."

One last note on Churches and segregation.  Martin Luther King is credited with saying that the most segregated place in America on Sunday mornings is the church...

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Brooklyn Immigrant Congregations Clash

By SAM DOLNICK  -  Published: December 28, 2010 - The New York Times

• The United Methodist church in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, is anything but united.

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Chinese ushers wait to begin their church services as the Rev. Hector Laporta, who leads the Latino congregation, called the Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church, leaves the chapel.

Two pastors preach from the same pulpit and live in the same parsonage next door, but they are barely on speaking terms and openly criticize each other’s approach to the faith.


In the church’s social hall, two camps eye each other suspiciously as one finishes its meal of rice and beans while the other prepares steaming pans of chicken lo mein.


Two very different congregations share the soaring brick building on Fourth Avenue: a small cadre of about 30 Spanish-speaking people who have worshiped there for decades and a fledgling throng of more than 1,000 Chinese immigrants that expands week by week — the fastest-growing Methodist congregation in New York City.


The Latinos say they feel steamrolled and under threat, while their tenants, the Chinese, say they feel stifled and unappreciated. Mediators have been sent in, to little effect. This holiday season, there are even two competing Christmas trees.


“This pastor is very rude to us,” said the Rev. Zhaodeng Peng, who heads the Chinese congregation with his wife.


The Rev. Hector Laporta, leader of the Latino church, responded, “He really has an anger problem.”
The standoff mirrors a tug of war that has played out for generations in New York, where immigrant groups — some established, some newly arrived — jostle on crowded sidewalks and in narrow tenements for space, housing and jobs...more        

UNIVISION: Heavy Weight of TV Networks

Ratings of Steel?  There is political clout in this....  If Spanish-Speaking people are commanding the TV ratings market, then there are other areas that could be influenced.  Think about it...

As I have mentioned before... the best way to show power in a capitalistic society is NOT TO BUY THINGS.

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Company Town - Los Angeles Times

The business behind the show

Univision demonstrates its ratings steel

December 28, 2010 |  4:42 pm

Univision Communications is becoming a potent rival to English-language television networks, which have long dominated prime-time viewership.


The Spanish-language television broadcaster said Tuesday that its program “Soy Tu Dueña” was its most watched telenovela ever, finishing its six-month run with a final episode that drew more than 7.3 million viewers Monday night. 


Since its launch in June, “Soy Tu Dueña,” which Univision translates as “woman of steel,” has pulled in an average of 5.4 million viewers per episode, oftengenerating bigger audiences than programs aired by such formidable English-language TV networks as Fox and NBC. The Univision telenovela, or soap opera, revolves around the travails of a scorned woman, once left at the altar, who vows never to love again until she falls for a man she accidentally shot. A literal translation of the show’s title is “I am your owner.” ...more

In Spanish: Arizona loses money from its anti-immigration stance

Arizona pierde dinero con ley antiinmigrante

Por Juan Mesa

• 28 de diciembre 2010 04:28 PM EST - La Opinion

Al estado de Arizona le saldrá cara la ley antiinmigrante. Al menos es lo que se lee con los primeros resultados del Censo 2010, según el analista Michael P. McDonald, de la Universidad George Mason.


Lo primero que revelaron los primeros detalles del Censo fue un cambio en el mapa electoral. Estados como New York y Ohio perdieron escaños en la Cámara de Representantes, mientras que Texas ganó cuatro debido a los nuevos números. Pero las cifras del Censo también sirven para determinar el dinero que el gobierno federal distribuirá en los estados de la unión americana.


Ese detalle fue el que ignoraron los políticos de Arizona que apoyaron la ley que autorizó a la fuerza pública a detener a las personas indocumentadas o sospechosas de serlo. Según McDonald, los demógrafos del Censo proyectaron que la población del estado sería de 6,668,079 pero el número final fue 6,392,017. Se trata de 276,062 personas menos de las esperadas, el mayor déficit de todo el Censo.


McDonald plantea dos escenarios para explicar el error de cálculo: uno es que la población indocumentada se fue de Arizona, y el otro es que muchos temieron ser contados. Ahora Arizona dejará de recibir $775 millones en fondos federales.


Si bien los demógrafos del Censo pudieron calcular más de la cuenta, lo que está claro es los que nunca pensaron en las consecuencias de la ley antiinmigrante fueron la gobernadora Jan Brewer y otros políticos de Arizona.

Las opiniones expresadas aquí representan la opinión personal del autor y no representan en modo alguno las normas o los puntos de vista de ImpreMedia o sus propiedades.  link

How Many People "Pass"

Jean Toomer

They say that a number of Thomas Jefferson's children by Sally Hemings were so light-skinned, visitors couldn't tell the difference between them and those by Jefferson's white wife.

For white families living in the U.S. South since the nineteenth century, it is very common to have a Black ancestor.  Of course most won't admit to it.

Lately while I have been doing research for my book on Mexico and the Jews, I have found numerous "mulatos" in the baptismal records of churches in early 18th century northern Mexico.  There are so many in fact, that it is very likely that a large number of families who identify themselves as "white" in Nuevo Leon, have indeed Black ancestors (this was also told to me by a museum curator in Monterrey).

"Passing" is an interesting thing.  If your skin is light enough, your father could be from Zacatecas, but you can say he was from Madison, Wisconsin.  Alter your name a little and you are a completely different person.  In today's xenophobic American society, there are people "passing" everywhere you look.

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December 26, 2010

Scholars Say Chronicler of Black Life Passed for White

By FELICIA R. LEE - New York Times

Renown came to Jean Toomer with his 1923 book “Cane,” which mingled fiction, drama and poetry in a formally audacious effort to portray the complexity of black lives. But the racially mixed Toomer’s confounding efforts to defy being stuck in conventional racial categories and his disaffiliation with black culture made him perhaps the most enigmatic writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance.


Now Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Harvard scholar, and Rudolph P. Byrd, a professor at Emory University, say their research for a new edition of “Cane” documents that Toomer was “a Negro who decided to pass for white.”


They lob this intellectual grenade in their introduction to the book, which W. W. Norton & Company is to publish next month. Their judgment is based on “an analysis of archival evidence previously overlooked by other scholars,” Mr. Byrd and Mr. Gates write, including Toomer’s draft registrations and his and his family’s census records, which they consider alongside his writings and public statements.


Toomer’s racial complexity has long been intriguing to critics and scholars, but Mr. Gates and Mr. Byrd’s assertion about his identity is certain to spark debate. Richard Eldridge, a Toomer biographer, said recently that he had not read the new edition — and will stand corrected if its case is persuasive — but that Toomer never “passed” in the classic sense of pretending to be white. Rather, he said, Toomer (whose appearance was racially indeterminate) sought to transcend standard definitions of race.

“I think he never claimed that he was a white man,” Mr. Eldridge said. “He always claimed that he was a representative of a new, emergent race that was a combination of various races. He averred this virtually throughout his life.” Mr. Eldridge and Cynthia Earl Kerman are the authors of “The Lives of Jean Toomer: A Hunger for Wholeness” published in 1987 by Louisiana State University Press.


Toomer’s life — he was born in 1894 and died in 1967 — traversed many shifts in American racial politics, including times of soul-sapping racial oppression. And while he ended up writing other poetry, essays and drama, “Cane,” published in the Jim Crow era, was a sensation in its time and remains his contribution to the American literary canon...more        

In Spanish: Dudamelmania "Changing Musical History"

El arte importa - [Interview in English with Spanish Subtitles]

..

Un documental sobre Gustavo Dudamel y El Sistema destaca el método de enseñanza musical venezolano

• Yasmín Rincón / EFE |
• 2010-12-26
• |         La Opinión

• Conciertos de Dudamel en cines
• Dudamel hará historia en iTunes

La figura de Gustavo Dudamel, quien a sus 29 años ha cosechado grandes éxitos como músico y director de orquestas, es el hilo conductor del documental dirigido por el cineasta venezolano Alberto Arvelo y en el que se destaca el modelo de enseñanza que busca "devolver a los niños su derecho al arte".
Con el título Dudamel, Let the Children Play, el filme de una hora y 25 minutos de duración, muestra el humilde origen de Dudamel y sus sueños de convertirse en un gran director de orquesta.
Fue un sueño que cristalizó muy joven y con gran éxito, gracias al Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela, —El Sistema—, creado en 1975 por el maestro José Antonio Abreu.
"En Venezuela hay unos 400,000 niños que pertenecen a El Sistema y en el mundo ya ha superado el millón; el documental recorre varios de los países donde se ha instaurado y muestra que no se trata solo de un proyecto de divulgación musical; es un proyecto de transformación social a través de la música, de desarrollo personal y social", dijo el director del filme Alberto Arvelo.
Actualmente El Sistema se desarrolla en más de 40 países y en el 2011 llegará a 10 países más.
Para realizar el filme se escogieron lugares emblemáticos como Bolivia, Corea, Los Ángeles, Berlín, Escocia, Londres, Venezuela y Colombia.
"El documental muestra cómo esa semilla sembrada en Venezuela ha germinado de manera espectacular en nuestro país y alrededor del mundo. Por ello seleccioné un grupo de países simbólicos de lo que está pasando", explicó Arvelo, quien en 2006 hizo una primera película sobre El Sistema titulada Tocar y luchar.
"Hice la película para divulgar lo que estaba ocurriendo en Venezuela, porque lo que estaba ocurriendo se sabía dentro de los círculos de la música, pero la mayoría de la gente no lo conocía. He pretendido despertar a la gente y creo que ha producido un resultado extraordinario", aseguró el cineasta de 44 años.
Tocar y luchar se convirtió en una de las películas venezolanas más vistas, se sigue proyectando alrededor del mundo y se ha doblado a 15 idiomas.
El maestro José Antonio Abreu, creador de El Sistema, ha sido galardonado mundialmente por su labor con premios como el Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes en 2008 y un Grammy honorífico en 2009.
Su tesis fundamental es que la música y el arte son derechos universales.
"El Sistema no critica la estructura oficial establecida de enseñanza formal; yo sí. Se ha descubierto a través de muchos años que a los niños que forman parte de El Sistema les va mejor en los colegios. Propongo en el documental que la educación en el mundo ha quitado a los niños la posibilidad de crecer con valores que hagan que nuestras sociedades sean más sanas", sentenció Arvelo.
"Por lo general nuestros sistemas educativos se basan en la revolución industrial que buscaba hacer hombres productivos, no en hacer hombres felices; mi mensaje lo dejé claro en esta película: tenemos que revisar los modelos educativos, no podemos seguir tomando como dogma un modelo que fue creado hace más de un siglo", dijo.
"Como si no hubiera otra alternativa, hay que escuchar a los niños, y esos niños que están haciendo música extraordinaria alrededor del mundo nos están dando un mensaje", agregó.
El documental se estrenará en Venezuela en abril de 2011 y actualmente está en negociación la posibilidad de proyectarlo en EEUU y Canadá, lo que haría historia para el cine venezolano al lograr que una de sus películas se distribuya a ese nivel.

La figura de Gustavo Dudamel, quien a sus 29 años ha cosechado grandes éxitos como músico y director de orquestas, es el hilo conductor del documental dirigido por el cineasta venezolano Alberto Arvelo y en el que se destaca el modelo de enseñanza que busca "devolver a los niños su derecho al arte".


Con el título Dudamel, Let the Children Play, el filme de una hora y 25 minutos de duración, muestra el humilde origen de Dudamel y sus sueños de convertirse en un gran director de orquesta.


Fue un sueño que cristalizó muy joven y con gran éxito, gracias al Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela, —El Sistema—, creado en 1975 por el maestro José Antonio Abreu...mas

In Spanish: Julian Assange sells his memoirs to fund WIKILEAKS

Assange vende sus memorias a una editorial para defenderse y "mantener a flote" Wikileaks

El fundador del portal de filtraciones afirma en 'The Sunday Times' que ha firmado un contrato para publicar su autobiografía por 1,2 millones de euros - EL PAÍS - Madrid - 26/12/2010

Julian Assange, fundador del portal de filtraciones Wikileaks, ha firmado un contrato por valor de unos 1,2 millones de euros por su autobiografía, según ha declarado el propio Assange en una entrevista concedida a The Sunday Times [edición digital de pago]. 

El destino de dicho dinero sería mantener el porta y pagar la defensa en el proceso de acusación por agresiones sexuales en el que está inmerso este activista de Internet...mas

Buying Schools

Excuse my sarcasm, but what is the big deal about having Halliburton pay for a new high school auditorium to be built?  This is not a new thing at all.  Universities do it all the time.  Rich donors give and buildings get named after them... Just go to any campus (public or private)  and take a look at the names of the buildings.


There is a big challenge associated with this, especially for public colleges who have less and less coming from state legislatures.


At our university, we have a building glut so to speak, new buildings are going up constantly, while people are getting laid off.  I have to say its not the fault of the administration.  Its the set up regarding funding... there always seems to be money available for buildings (through the sale of public bonds). Unfortunately there are no public bonds for faculty & staff salaries and student scholarships.


So then, should we ask Halliburton to pay for a few things on campus (college or high school?).  What are the strings attached to this arrangement?

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Steve Lopez: Chevron Auditorium? Halliburton High? Corporate sponsors for L.A. schools is bad idea

December 17, 2010 |  8:20 am

I walked my daughter onto her L.A. Unified campus the other day and saw a fresh face being escorted around by a teacher.


"Who's that?" I asked my girl.


"The new janitor," she said.


Part-time janitor, actually, and so it goes in the LAUSD, which is in the midst of yet another juggling act after dumping 1,000 office aides, library assistants and groundskeepers.


And if you heard about the comments made this week by incoming Gov. Jerry Brown, public education is going to keep getting whacked because of gigantic budget deficits.


Which is why the LAUSD board is considering corporate sponsors to help fill the hole. The sponsors would pay up to $500,000, or more in some cases, to have their names branded on auditoriums, scoreboards and athletic fields.
They couldn't sell specific products, but we could end up with the Bank of America Auditorium at my daughter's elementary school, and the money would be shared by all schools.


Good idea?...more

Now that we are eating so much during the holidays

About High Fructose Corn Syrup:


High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels.


Author(s): Bocarsly, Miriam E; Powell, Elyse S; Avena, Nicole M; Hoebel, Bartley G Source: Pharmacol Biochem Behav  Volume: 97    Issue: 1    Pages: 101-6  Published: 2010 Nov    


Rats with 12-h access to HFCS gained significantly more body weight than animals given equal access to 10% sucrose, even though they consumed the same number of total calories, but fewer calories from HFCS than sucrose. In Experiment 2, the long-term effects of HFCS on body weight and obesogenic parameters, as well as gender differences, were explored. Over the course of 6 or 7 months, both male and female rats with access to HFCS gained significantly more body weight than control groups. This increase in body weight with HFCS was accompanied by an increase in adipose fat, notably in the abdominal region, and elevated circulating triglyceride levels. Translated to humans, these results suggest that excessive consumption of HFCS may contribute to the incidence of obesity. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 

In Spanish: La Opinion on Immigration in Mexico

Testifican migrantes sobre presunto plagio en Oaxaca

• |
• 2010-12-24
• | La Opinión

MEXICO/AP - Seis migrantes centroamericanos comenzaron a rendir declaración hoy en la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) sobre el presunto plagio de medio centenar de indocumentados en el sureste del país, informaron autoridades federales.

El vocero de la PGR, Ricardo Nájera, dijo a la AP que otros seis migrantes ya habían testificado la noche del jueves en torno al incidente, inicialmente denunciado por un sacerdote que dirige un albergue para indocumentados y quien ha manifestado temor por vida a raíz de amenazas recibidas por revelar el plagio.

La PGR abrió formalmente una investigación por secuestro y delincuencia organizada.

Los 12 migrantes supuestamente presenciaron el plagio el 16 de diciembre en una comunidad del estado sureño de Oaxaca, en un caso que ha movilizado a los gobiernos de El Salvador, Honduras y Guatemala para pedir a México una investigación que permita dar con el paradero de los indocumentados.

El Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) ha informado que en total tiene bajo resguardo a 13 centroamericanos, aunque el vocero de la PGR señaló que sólo les habían puesto a disposición en calidad de testigos a 12.

El presunto secuestro de unos 50 indocumentados habría ocurrido el 16 de diciembre en la comunidad de Chahuites, cuando hombres armados detuvieron un tren de carga en el que viajaban los migrantes por Oaxaca.

El gobierno salvadoreño ha dicho que con base en testimonios recabados por su consulado, los plagiarios se llevaron a unas 15 mujeres, cinco menores de edad y unos 30 hombres.

Las víctimas habían evadido minutos antes un operativo del personal de migración, ejército y policía federal mexicana en la que se registró la detención de 92 indocumentados.

El gobierno federal mexicano ha dicho que pedirán a los gobiernos de Centroamérica toda la información sobre el caso con que cuenten.

El cura Alejandro Solalinde, responsable del albergue "Hermanos en el Camino" en Oaxaca, dijo ayer a la AP que los presuntos secuestradores contactaron en Estados Unidos a los familiares de un indocumentado que presenció el supuesto plagio, pero que logró huir.

Solalinde dijo que ha recibido amenazas y que temía por su vida.

"Nunca como ahora he visto tan cerca la muerte", comentó.

El cura dijo que han recibido información de que los presuntos plagiarios estarían vinculados con el cartel de Los Zetas.

El 24 de agosto fueron encontrados asesinados 72 migrantes centro y sudamericanos que aparentemente cayeron secuestrados por Los Zetas en el estado norteño de Tamaulipas.
----


La JORNADA

Abre PGR investigación por secuestro en Oaxaca

Con las declaraciones de seis migrantes se dio inicio a una averiguación previa por plagio y delincuencia organizada en agravio de inmigrantes de CA en ese estado. En las próximas horas darán su testimonio seis indocumentados...MAS

 

 

A new GAME for High Fructose Corn Syrup

The name change is requested because HFCS is now seen as poison.  Funny thing, you look it up on the Mayo Clinic web page and they say its ok.... no conclusive evidence....

And, you can wonder where the NYT stands on this since they post an advertisement from the Corn Refiners Association - labeled as Sweet Surprise - that is telling everybody HFCS is just fine for your health, even though so many Americans are heading towards heaven via Obesity, Diabetes, and Heart Disease - sped along by drinking and eating so much stuff that contains HFCS.


September 14, 2010, 11:44 am

A New Name for High-Fructose Corn Syrup

By TARA PARKER-POPE - New York Times

...Would high-fructose corn syrup, by any other name, have sweeter appeal?
The Corn Refiners Association, which represents firms that make the syrup, has been trying to improve the image of the much maligned sweetener with ad campaigns promoting it as a natural ingredient made from corn. Now, the group has petitioned the United States Food and Drug Administration to start calling the ingredient “corn sugar,” arguing that a name change is the only way to clear up consumer confusion about the product...more

and a few responses to this article:

Calling HFCS “corn sugar” will be misleading. Sugar in sugar cane and beets are in their natural sugar form (which is sucrose — a disaccharide of fructose and glucose) and needs to be extracted, concentrated and dried — no chemical or biochemical chages are necessary. HFCS on the other hand is obtained by enzymatically transforming corn starch into monosaccahrides of glucose and fructose. Sugar is naturally 50% fructose and 50% glucose. HFCS can have differnt percentages of fructose and glucose by differnt blending. The two common are HFCS -55 (55% Fructose) and HFCS- 42 and a less common third one HFCS-90. How will these be distinguished by the term “corn sugar”. Although no studies have identified any health negatives of HFCS over sugar, more research is needed to say they are the same.

---

The reason that Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, says these things is because she is paid a lot of money to do so. Doesn’t she make an enormous salary at that job?

A lot of people would say those things too, if you paid them that much money.

But beyond this obvious fact, I’m disappointed that Tara Parker-Pope didn’t write about the other legitimate scientific and medical issues regarding High Fructose Corn Syrup. George Jackson, (comment #3) mentions some of these and there are more.

For instance, High Fructose Corn Syrup puts greater stress on the pancreas than regular sugars. Many scientists feel this could be a contributing factor to the explosion of Type 2 diabetes we’ve seen over the past thirty years.

I would urge Ms. Parker-Pope to do more research in the area of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Look at more than the simple fact that it appears to be chemically the same as sugar. Corn industry critics should be given the same amount of space in the next piece, as the corporate lackeys were given in this one.

---
hi-Tang Ho et al. found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control, and claimed that sucrose does not have the same tendency to produce these compounds. Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage.
---

the over saturation of genetically altered corn into this country’s food chain, and the government’s historic subsidation of it all is a great big elephant in the room
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Thank you OROWEAT

OROWEAT BREADS has given us a great Christmas present.  They no longer put High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in their 100% Whole Wheat Bread.  This is great, because in the past, the whole wheat bread pretended to be healthy while still packing the eventually lethal HFCS.

Info on High Fructose Corn Syrup (now being called "Corn Syrup") from Wikipedia:

"Metabolic Syndrome
According to the American Heart Association, metabolic syndrome is defined as the manifestation of numerous metabolic risk factors in one individual. These risk factors include high blood pressure, abdominal fat, high blood triglyceride levels, high uric acid levels, insulin resistance and a state of chronic inflammation. Individuals with metabolic syndrome are at a high risk for developing other related health issues such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. ^[54] Metabolic syndrome is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States, it is estimated that over 50 million Americans have this condition. Due to the increased prevalence of this condition in recent years it is hypothesized that metabolic syndrome is linked to over consumption of high-fructose corn syrup. ^[55]

Similar to the research cited for obesity, the research that speaks to metabolic syndrome focuses mostly on the fructose aspect of high-fructose corn syrup. According to Nseir, Nassar and Assy (2010), the onset of metabolic syndrome is triggered by visceral adipose tissue which is linked to the consumption of fructose. Fructose is related to adiposity through the increase in blood triglyceride levels caused by the consumption of this monosaccharide. This increased adiposity leads to both obesity and metabolic syndrome. ^[55] According to Ferder, Ferder and Inserra (2010), a high-fructose diet induces inflammation and metabolic syndrome. In a study they performed on rats, the addition of 10% wt/volume fructose solution to the rat’s diet increased the inflammatory response in rats as well as the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the experimental groups. Although this research has not been performed on human subjects, the researchers believe that this study is a good indicator of relevance of the hypothesis that increased fructose intake leads to metabolic syndrome. ^[39] Forshee et al. (2007), states that although this research is valid for fructose consumption, it is not a good representation of the effects of HFCS as related to metabolic syndrome. This condition is closely linked with obesity, and both conditions cannot be correlated with the intake of high-fructose corn syrup without further research.^[40]"

• Requiem for a Dream

• New York Times - December 23, 2010
The defeat of the Dream Act in the lame-duck session slams the lid for this Congress on any meaningful repair of the immigration system, ...

Immigration Stories

Julia Preston tells six stories recounting struggles with the United States immigration system and asks readers to share their own immigration stories.

Washington Post's Focus on the DREAM Act - After the Fact

Note:  to read WAPO stories you may have to register (its free)

Can the next Congress match the lame-duck session's bipartisanship?

"..the president described as the "heartbreaking" inability of the Senate to amass the necessary votes to pass the Dream Act, despite the moral imperative of helping promising young people who find themselves consigned to life in the shadows through no fault of their own - and the long-term political incentive for Republicans to stop alienating a growing segment of the electorate." 

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12/23/2010

The defeat of the Dream Act and our lost decade on immigration reform

Roberto Suro             

N

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12/23/2010

Passing of DREAM Act is very unlikely in next Congress, Republicans say   

Shankar Vedantam 

Analyzing the Politics Behind the Fall of the DREAM Act in 2010

Democracy Now, December 23, 2010
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• 3 Undocumented Immigrants Risk Deportation in Protest for Passage of DREAM Act
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• Student, Prisoner Advocate Tam Phan Faces Deportation Order to Vietnam
• As New York Debates Secure Communities Program, Study Challenges Controversial Policy to Deport Immigrant Prisoners
• "Children of the Exodus:" Surge of Deportations Endangers Migrant Youth Abandoned in Mexico

Good King Obama, What are you doing?

Haitians in U.S. Brace for Deportations to Resume

By KIRK SEMPLE

Published: December 19, 2010 - New York Times

The Obama administration has been quietly moving to resume deportations of Haitians for the first time since the earthquake last January. But in New York’s Haitian diaspora, the reaction has been far from muted, including frustration and fear among immigrants and anger from their advocates, who say that an influx of deportees will only add to the country’s woes...        

... in recent weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, has begun rounding up Haitian immigrants again, including some who had been released earlier this year, immigration lawyers said. On Dec. 10, the agency disclosed, in response to questions from The Associated Press, that it would resume deportations by mid-January...more        

Who Voted For & Against the DREAM Act

Drew Angerer/NYT

How the Senate Voted -

NO Votes for the DREAM Act

Member	Party	State
Lamar Alexander	R	TN
John Barrasso	R	WY
Max Baucus	D	MT
Christopher S. Bond	R	MO
Scott Brown	R	MA
Sam Brownback	R	KS
Richard M. Burr	R	NC
Saxby Chambliss	R	GA
Tom Coburn	R	OK
Thad Cochran	R	MS
Susan Collins	R	ME
Bob Corker	R	TN
John Cornyn	R	TX
Michael D. Crapo	R	ID
Jim DeMint	R	SC
John Ensign	R	NV
Michael B. Enzi	R	WY
Lindsey Graham	R	SC
Charles E. Grassley	R	IA
Kay Hagan	D	NC
Kay Bailey Hutchison	R	TX
James M. Inhofe	R	OK
Johnny Isakson	R	GA
Mike Johanns	R	NE
Mark Steven Kirk	R	IL
Jon Kyl	R	AZ
George S. LeMieux	R	FL
John McCain	R	AZ
Mitch McConnell	R	KY
Ben Nelson	D	NE
Mark Pryor	D	AR
Jim Risch	R	ID
Pat Roberts	R	KS
Jeff Sessions	R	AL
Richard C. Shelby	R	AL
Olympia J. Snowe	R	ME
Jon Tester	D	MT
John Thune	R	SD
David Vitter	R	LA
George V. Voinovich	R	OH
Roger Wicker	R	MS

IImmigration Vote Leaves Obama’s Policy in Disarray

By JULIA PRESTON

Published: December 18, 2010 - NEW YORK TIMES

The vote by the Senate on Saturday to block a bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students was a painful setback to an emerging movement of immigrants and also appeared to leave the immigration policy of the Obama administration, which has supported the bill and the movement, in disarray.

Related

• Senate Blocks Bill for Young Illegal Immigrants (December 19, 2010)

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• FiveThirtyEight: Nate Silver's Political Calculus
• More Politics News

The bill, known as the Dream Act, gained 55 votes in favor with 41 against, a tally short of the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor for debate. Five Democrats broke ranks to vote against the bill, while only three Republicans voted for it. The defeat in the Senate came after the House of Representatives passed the bill last week...more