The Sunday Book Review, November 27, 2011: Flyaway

Did Shakespeare love birds? Madame L asks only because he has Portia say to Nerissa, in "The Merchant of Venice":

The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark

When neither is attended, and I think

The nightingale if she should sing by day,

When every goose is cackling, would be thought

No better a musician than the wren.

How many things by season seasoned are

To their right praise and true perfection?

...and has Hamlet say to Horatio, "There is special providence in
the fall of a sparrow..."

Birds are so perfect a creation that God himself notices the fall of every sparrow (Matthew 10:29). 

Does that mean that people who love birds are special? Probably not in the usual sense of the world. Possibly so in the sense of being somewhat crazy, and Madame L says this as a more-than-slightly crazed bird person, herself.

But you don't have to be crazy about birds, pet birds or wild birds, to enjoy "Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings," by Suzie Gilbert. 

The author's five-year work of love as a bird rehabilitator started with a vow not to take babies or fledglings or songbirds of any sort. In the middle, she took in lots of baby birds because she couldn't say no. 

In the middle, she would take baby birds in baskets and reptariums to her children's baseball and soccer games so she could keep up with their every-half-hour feeding schedule. 

By the end, she had two large bird flights in her back yard, cages inside and outside her house, herons in the bathtub, owls and red-tailed hawks in the shed, a freezer just for rodents and fish for the raptors and other predators, two- to eight-hour drives to pick up and deliver wounded and recovering birds, and a deep sorrow for all the birds she couldn't rescue.

This book is available at Amazon.com for $10.40, but Madame L got it from Chinaberry.com for $5.49.

What did the author get out of all her experiences? Her love for wild birds and all wild animals grew, her despair for humans increased but was mitigated by the people who cared for the injured creatures, and her need for a mission was satisfied.

As always, Madame L will gladly share her copy of the book with any of you Good and Faithful Readers who are interested.

Happy Thanksgiving --- and Evacuation Day

Dear Kind and Gentle Readers,

Madame L wishes all of you a very happy Thanksgiving Day. She hopes you're with family and/or friends, and hopes your hearts are full of joy and gratitude.

She hopes you'll also say a prayer on Evacuation Day (Nov. 25, this year the day after Thanksgiving) for the brave American soldiers and sailors who were imprisoned in British prison ships during the Revolutionary War. (Over 10,000 of them died on those ships, more than the combined number of Americans who died in every battle during the Revolutionary War.) Evacuation Day celebrates the day in 1783 that the British finally left.

There's a monument in Fort Green Park, in Brooklyn, to those who died in the ships.

Our nation used to commemorate Evacuation Day with boys climbing up a greased flagpole to tear down the Union Jack. Since Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in 1863, though, we've tended to neglect Evacuation Day in favor of overeating on the fourth Thursday of every November.

Madame L thanks Jon Stewart and his guest historian/comedian Sarah Vowell for bringing this day to her attention in their Nov. 17 discussion of Evacuation Day.

Best wishes to all,

Madame L

The Broccoli Test

Dear Madame L,

I'm worried about the Supreme Court deciding to decide the constitutionality of so-called Obamacare, the law passed by Congress in 2010 that mandates health insurance.

The current court is very conservative, and two members of it have accepted payments to speak to super-conservative groups which are fighting Obamacare. Since they don't have to recuse themselves, as judges in lower courts do, and since they seem to be taking every opportunity to restrict individual rights and increase powers of corporations and those who are already wealthy, what will they do to my health insurance?

Sincerely,

Worried for Future Health Insurance

Dear Worried,

Madame L feels your pain and has no solution to your worry.

Madame L has heard progressives argue that justices Thomas and Scalia should recuse themselves because of conflicts of interest; and conservatives argue that Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself for the same reason. She has read that Republican presidential candidates are crowing over the supposed certainty that the Supreme Court will strike down the legislation. Yet, unlike progressive and conservative pundits and Republican presidential candidates, Madame L has not the power of seeing the future.

However, she's keeping up on the issue and has recently read one opinion piece that she hopes will encourage you: The Broccoli Test, by Harvard law professor Einer Elhauge. He argues that the court will base its decision on the Commerce Clause as well as the fact that people are required to be covered by Medicare. 

Madame L will try to keep you and all her Dear (and Gentle) Readers posted as she becomes aware of more opinions on the court's expected ruling on health care.

By the way, Madame L prefers to call this legislation the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress in 2010 and signed into law by President Obama onMarch 23, 2010, rather than Obamacare.

As always, you can find more information on Wikipedia about this program than Madame L can ever provide.

Best wishes,

Madame L

Why Madame L Reads Paul Krugman's Column

Dear Madame L,

With the deadline for the so-called Super Committee coming up and the committee's apparent inability to make a decision on some combination of budget cuts and revenue increases, I keep reading conflicting stories and opinions.

I've been reading a lot of attacks on Pres. Obama and the Democratic Party in general for not going along with the Republicans' demands to cut Medicare and Medicaid spending while not raising taxes on the 1-percent of people who are wealthy. And then of course the Democrats spin the story the other way.

I don't know what to believe. Can you help?

Sincerely,

Puzzled

Dear Puzzled,

There are lots of ways to deal with the confusion our country is currently cursed with, as pundits on both sides of every issue pick and choose the facts they lay out to support their opinions, with apparently little or no regard for the truth.

But life is short, and not even Madame L can read every newspaper and watch every TV news broadcast every day. So she has only one suggestion for you, and that is to read Paul Krugman's column in the New York Times.

Krugman, who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, gets right to the point of every issue, and, refreshingly, calls out those pundits who lie or misstate the facts. (Madame L thanks Salon.com columnist Alex Pareene for providing the specific examples mentioned below.)

For example, without mentioning the pundits' names, he recently pointed out that those who are claiming that Pres. Obama isn't providing clear leadership on the budget and revenue issues are lying: 

After another Times columnist wrote that President Obama's politics on the issue of the supercommittee's tax and budget decisions is "a bowl of poll-tested mush," Krugman wrote a few days later:

Oh, and let me give a special shout-out to “centrist” pundits who won’t admit that President Obama has already given them what they want. The dialogue seems to go like this. Pundit: “Why won’t the president come out for a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes?” Mr. Obama: “I support a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes.” Pundit: “Why won’t the president come out for a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes?”

After another columnist wrote that there really isn't any economic inequality between the American 1% and the rest of us, Krugman wrote a few days later:

Anyone who has tracked this issue over time knows what I mean. Whenever growing income disparities threaten to come into focus, a reliable set of defenders tries to bring back the blur. Think tanks put out reports claiming that inequality isn’t really rising, or that it doesn’t matter. Pundits try to put a more benign face on the phenomenon, claiming that it’s not really the wealthy few versus the rest, it’s the educated versus the less educated.

So what you need to know is that all of these claims are basically attempts to obscure the stark reality: We have a society in which money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people, and in which that concentration of income and wealth threatens to make us a democracy in name only.

These are just a few examples. Krugman makes his point this succinctly, this clearly, every time. Madame L recommends that you read his columns to get an unbiased and accurate explanation of the issues.

Sincerely,

Madame L

The Sunday Book Review, November 20, 2011: The DASH Diet for Hypertension

Madame L thanks Ellen for this comment/question:

What "other way" do you think the doctor will recommend to take care of high blood pressure? It should be remembered that lowering salt intake is only one way that is recommended to help control high blood pressure. Other aspects of the diet, such as eating lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains, along with plenty of exercise, stress-relief, and possibly even weight loss, should also be considered. When those things are not enough, or when the patient is not motivated enough to do those things, the next thing a doctor will consider (at least, in my experience) is medications. Personally, I've always believed that if it can be resolved without medication and all the side effects that go along with the meds, so much the better.

I have a friend who, with her husband, served a mission to Africa. While there she lost weight and her blood pressure went down to normal levels. She attributed it to the change in her diet, although I'm sure the increased walking must have helped as well.

Low sodium diet, healthy diet, exercise, stress relief, and, when needed, medication. I bet that's what the doctor will order.

 Dear Ellen,

Thanks for commenting extensively on high blood pressure and its likely causes and possible treatments.

You have confirmed again Madame L's original statement that "other causes, including genetics, obesity, lack of exercise, and other dietary factors" can all contribute to high blood pressure. 

Madame L's personal and family experience with high blood pressure led her to read and follow the advice given in "The DASH Diet for Hypertension," by Thomas Moore and Marc Jenkins (available in new paperback at Amazon.com for $10.20).

 

This book is "prescribed" by many doctors for their patients with hypertension, and it recommends the same actions you list: a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat milk products and low in beef and pork; plenty of exercise; stress relief; and weight loss.

 

The book includes recipes and menu plans as well as the scientific and medical background one needs to appreciate the seriousness of hypertension. It beats all the other "diet" books Madame L has ever read (which is more than a few). 

 

Madame L recommends the DASH diet for anyone, not just those who have high blood pressure. Following the advice in this book will make you feel better in every way.

 

As always, Madame L will be happy to loan her own copy of the book to anyone who requests it. Just email her at [ellemadame (at) gmail.com]. 

Best wishes,

Madame L 

Age of Aquarius Arrives

Dear Madame L,

I'm very disappointed in you. The Age of Aquarium officially arrived one week ago (Nov. 11, 2011), and you didn't even mention it.

Shame on you,

Old and Faithful Reader

Dear Old Faithful,

Madame L wonders how seriously you're really taking this, especially since you called it the "Age of Aquarium."

Madame L has tried to make clear that her interest in astrological nonsense is strictly as an amused observer. 

However, for you and other easily amused Dear Readers, Madame L has Googled "Age of Aquarius" and has found that a great many people appear to be taking this seriously, which just goes to show... nothing, probably.

The Aquarian Times quotes Yogi  Bhajan:

“We are entering the Age of Aquarius on November 11, 2011. It will be a new time. The entire psyche is changing. You must purify the mind, body and soul to be real, innocent, and sattvic (pure). Elevate yourself to be angelic. This age which you will serve is an age of awareness and experience.” This online magazine goes on to promise: "As we get closer and closer to November 11, 2011, which marks the official arrival of the Age of Aquarius, the collective consciousness of our planet is being impacted with profound changes. Aquarian Times provides tools for you to handle these changes and to become guiding lights for others as they, too, meet the challenges of the Aquarian Age."

Madame L hopes you will also be edified by this video, in which a very spiritual person points out that we are all individual bits of water, yet all unified in the same large ocean; and that this is a "super cool time to be alive," among other things.

Watch the whole thing for fascinating tidbits about the attack on New York, spies on the Internet, and other such revelations. 

Also, be aware that Yogi Bhajan's own estimation of the arrival of the Age of Aquarius has varied; at one point he said it happened ten years ago.  

Whenever it arrived, Yogi Bhajan has this message for all of us: 

"This will be the age of experience, expertise, and expansion. Prosperity shall be the key factor, and the prosperity message is: Prosperity, prosperity, prosperity, is perpetual with people who prefer to be penetrating, prepared and purposeful." (Don't you love a man with alliteration? No?)

But then, since Madame L has amused herself out for now, feel free to make your own Google search, and please feel free to share your results with Madame L and your fellow Dear and Gentle (and Old and Faithful) Readers.

Best of luck,

Madame L 

Rep. Coburn (R-OK) Report on Millionaires

Dear Readers,

As a follow-up to yesterday's answer to a question about representative goverment, Madame L presents this interesting report released on Sunday (Nov. 13) by the office Rep. Coburn (R-OK), showing that billions of dollars are being given by US, the PEOPLE of the United States, to people who are already millionaires.

The report, “Subsidies of the Rich and Famous,” shows how, under the current tax code, the federal government is giving billions of dollars to individuals with an Annual Gross Income (AGI) of at least $1 million, subsidizing their lavish lifestyles with the taxes of the less fortunate, according to this press release from Coburn's office.  Quoting further from the press release:

“'All Americans are facing tough times, with many working two jobs just to make ends meet and more families turning to the government for financial assistance. From tax write-offs for gambling losses, vacation homes, and luxury yachts to subsidies for their ranches and estates, the government is subsidizing the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Multi-millionaires are even receiving government checks for not working.

“'This welfare for the well-off – costing billions of dollars a year – is being paid for with the taxes of the less fortunate, many who are working two jobs just to make ends meet, and IOUs to be paid off by future generations. We should never demonize those who are successful. Nor should we pamper them with unnecessary welfare to create an appearance everyone is benefiting from federal programs,' Dr. Coburn said.

"These billions of dollars for millionaires include $74 million of unemployment checks, $316 million in farm subsidies, $89 million for preservation of ranches and estates, $9 billion of retirement checks, $75.6 million in residential energy tax credits, and $7.5 million to compensate for damages caused by emergencies to property that should have been insured.

"All and all, over $9.5 billion in government benefits have been paid to millionaires since 2003. Additionally, millionaires borrowed $16 million in government backed education loans to attend college.

"On average, each year, this report found that millionaires enjoy benefits from tax giveaways and federal grant programs totaling $30 billion. As a result, almost 1,500 millionaires paid no federal income tax in 2009.

The full report is available online.

Are you outraged? If so, let your government represenatives hear from you!

Sincerely,

Madame L