Obama losing his Jewish constituents?

Earlier this week, Obama had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, Beyamin Netanyahu, which, I dare say, was a disaster (mostly for Obama). While I do not like their slant on the issue, Times Online provides a good explanation of what happened. Obama was, quite frankly, rude. He simply got up and left during a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister and later uninvited him from dinner. Such behavior to a major political leader can be seen as an insult to said leader's country, or, in this case, even said leader's entire nation (i.e. a large percentage of Jews around the world are upset).

While upsetting Israel is not that big a problem for the U.S., in and of itself, Obama has also upset a large number of his Jewish constituents. Even back in 1974, when many recently-immigrated jewish families had yet to earn large sums of money, Jewish donors gave what amounted to ~75% of donations to the Democratic party*. Even if the number has gone down, pissing off even a few of these huge donors will damage the Democratic party and its ability to fund candidates. Without this funding Democrates will have a harder time winning elections, because, whether we like it or not, money spent on advertising is closely linked to winning elections.

If Obama does not scramble to make up for his insult to Netanyahu, he may well have destroyed his chances at a second term.


*http://www.davidduke.com/general/michael-collins-piper-jews-donating-70-to-80-to-democrats-gop-not-far-behind_1983.html

Stress Overload = strange headache

This weekend I got a very bizarre headache, that has not entirely gone away (it comes and goes, with little corrolation to much of anything). The only cause I can think of that makes any sense is stress overload. Now, why is the headache 'bizarre' and why can stress be the only cause? The headache is bizarre because, for the most part, it is not painful. It is like feeling light-headed and wozy, but, instead of the room spinning, my vision going black, or lossing my hearing, is feels like different parts of my brain are on a variety of little boats on a stormy sea. Yes, it feels like my brain is beginning to feel seasick. Such an unusual headache is generally generated entirely by one's imagination and little else could be the cause, besides stress overload.

My bizarre headache prompted my to think about the mechanisms that probably over-react to cause a negative physical reaction to stress. Are they evolutionarily sound when not exaggerated? Were they once usful, and now remain only because humans have learned how to cope? Or was the negative physical reaction to stress selected itself?

I thought about all that yesterday, but today I was reminded, looking through my readings, that a similar question can be posed about autism? Was autism itself selected for? Were less eccentric versions selected for and autism is the unfortunate extreme? This, in turn, relates to society's view of autism and its 'usefulness'. There appears to be a debate now over whether or not to try to rid the world of autism, to remove the autism gene(s), if it becomes possible. The very fact that there even is a debate shows a shift in attitude towards autism. Before, it was nothing but a horrid disease; now, it could be something highly useful to keep in the gene pool.

More Focused...Finally!

At last, I have a better sense of what I am doing for my Junior Theme (I still hate refering to it as a Junior Theme, it has sucha negative connotation).

Why has society's attitude towards autism changed since the syndrome was first identified?

My research so far has already shown me that America has had a great shift in the last fifty or sixty years; from institutionalizing autistics to the creating of the School Support Program-Autism Spectrum Disorder by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Inclusive classroom).

I would like to try and research possible societal motivators to explain the drastic change over a mere few decades. Perhaps there was some anti-Instituionalization movement that I have yet to read about. Changes never come about without cause.

Junior Theme Blog?

I'm not sure how we are supposed to blog about our Junior Themes, so I guess I'll figure it out as I go.

I am, and have been for a while, very interested in Autism Spectrum Disorder; especially in how people react to it. Let me explain what I mean. I am interested both in trying to understand how an autistic's mind is different from my own, how they cope with being autistic, and how they see themselves and others and in understanding how others, nonautistics, react to those with autism and how they themselves are affected by these autistic people in their lives. Using famous autistics as a focus of my paper seems, to me, to be a good way to be able to fulfill requirements and research what I am interested in.

I have already read a long article on the "do vaccines cause autism?" controversy and the last chapter of Oliver Sacks's An Anthropologist on Mars, which focuses on Temple Grandin, a high-functioning autistic woman who is famous in her own fields. perhaps the most interesting thing I have learned through my reading so far is that it is quite likely that the majority of people with autism have far more visual thinking than a nonautistic does. As of yet, I am not entirely sure what this means for one's thought processes, but it sounds fascinating.

The Power of Words

As I looked through the comments on Doc Oc's most recent blogpost, This Just In: Texas Rewrites U.S. History, I was reminded of our class's  apparent fear of the phrase "Junior Theme". We insist on not speaking of it, or calling it by a different name and this seems quite similar to Texas's treatment of "capitalism". Both terms, "Junior Theme" and "capitalism" gain a more forceful and frightening negative connotation as we refuse to use them in ordinary speech. (Rather reminiscent of You-Know-Who, a.k.a. Voldemort, isn't it?) I find this Power by Disuse utterly fascinating because words also gain Power by Overuse. We call our country the United States of America, as if we are speaking of an entire two continents, rather than a portion of one continent. By repetition, it is often accepted without question. For a few years, the previous administration of the U.S. government had the general population convinced that Saddam Houssein had Weapons of Mass Destruction, as another example. To my final point, I am simply frightened by the sheer Power of Words. Maybe words are the reason humans are the dominant species, hmm?

What other example can you think of for the Power of Words? Any other modes words have of gaining power?

Health Care Reform, for better or for worse

The long awaited health care reform is currently in the compromise stage between the Senate and the House. It is now over 2000 pages long and it appears that part of it contains a limitation on an individual's ability/right to contract with a doctor. To clarify, to my understanding, this means that an individual would no longer be allowed to see any doctor they want and would no longer be allowed to pay out of pocket. Such a system is likely to create "areas of service" for doctors, where only patients in a certain area, or with a particular health insurance provider, can come to see them, and where the patients can only see the doctors in their area, or that their health insurance is willing to work with. This system is reminiscent of Canada's health care system, where doctors only get paid for a certain number of procedures, meaning that their monetary incentive to do more, and help more patients, is gone. And we must remember, many Canadians cross the border to the U.S. to see doctors.

A poll I found, by Fox, who I admit are skewed against the current plan anyway and, therefore, I take it with a grain of salt, said that 50% of the people polled were against the health care bill as it is now, 20% are confused and 30% are for it. As I said, the poll was by Fox, so I suspect (and estimate) that a more accurate poll of the country right now would show between 30-40% against, the same precent for, and between 20-40% confused as to what exactly the bill is changing, adding, removing, etc.

What do you think of the current reform? Is my comparison with the Canadian system accurate? Do you agree with my estimate percentages? If not, how do you think the country can be broken down?

To Cancel or Not to Cancel

By now we have probably all heard about Constance McMillen and how her high school cancelled prom. Whie I think that the school did the wrong thing by cancelling prom, I feel that they were fully in their rights.

First of all, as the article linked above says, the school cancelled prom a week after receiving a letter from the ACLU. While barring McMillen from coming to prom in a tux with her girlfriend is discriminatory, cancelling prom punishes everyone equally. I believe that this particular action was taken out of fear of a lawsuit, not discrimination. Second, while, and I will say this again, I think the school was wrong to ban McMillen from attending prom as she wished, it is fully possible they were trying to avoid scandal and angry parents; we have to remember that this high school is in Mississippi, not Chicago. If McMillen and her girlfriend had gone to prom together, it would probably have at least been local news for a while and could have caused trouble for the school's administration.

I feel we also need to remember that while the ACLU is arguing  on a basis of equality laws and freedom of expression, institutions, such as schools, do have the right to have dress codes and other rules of conduct. At the very least, not allowing McMillen to go to prom in a tux was fully within the school's rights. Also, the school is under no obligation to host prom. I believe they should just pay back any students that have already bought tickets, end of story; no more arguing, no more chaos.

Now that you have heard my view of this, how do you think should win the case? Should McMillen's lawsuit succeed? Or should the school be allowed to function as usual?