Rachel’s Musings

I usually just delete emails from authors who contact me with information to add to my website but this book just sounds too great: Princess Bubble. It’s a fairytale where the princess is happily ever after without getting married. Here’s an interview with the author. She wants to encourage her readers to find happiness with or without a man. If you read the book, please let us know how you liked it and if there was any singlism in there. Accidental singlism, rather, because from what it sounds like Princess Bubble did face some stigmatization because she still hadn’t found her prince…

I usually don’t like to post other people’s writing in its entirety but I don’t have time to summarize this, so here it is: Michael Moore’s email on the Bail Out. (Note: The link to phone numbers for members of Congress MM provided does not work all the time, so here are some alternatives: source. You can also find your Senator here and your Rep here. Be patient! These sites are getting a lot of use…)

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies — who must soon vacate the White House — are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday’s New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

“Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

“Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

“At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

“Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions.”

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to “consult” in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this “collapse” is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn’t know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can’t figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this “bailout” package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What’s this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called “collapse” was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people’s home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it’s because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn’t afford. Here’s the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage “crisis” may never have happened.

This bailout’s mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It’s to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It’s to make sure their yachts and mansions and “way of life” go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something — NOW! Here’s what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they’ve made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what’s the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we’ll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say “NO!” If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.

You might also want to read this excellent analysis of the situation. Or this one.

As I have mentioned before, I have hypothyroidism caused by Hashimoto’s Disease. A couple of weeks ago, I finally realized that my lack of energy might have something to do with my thyroid. I had two normal TSH tests earlier this year, so it took me a bit to make that linkage. My TSH levels had increased more than 7-fold. I am now on a higher dosage but am wondering what created that increase in TSH values less than 4 months after a completely normal test. Plus my symptoms are pretty persistent.

One of the things that I keep reading is that the generic drugs aren’t as good as the name brands. That sounds very fishy to me since that’s not the case with any other drug but I figured it’s worth investigating. It looks like there’s indeed something fishy going on there: Research comparing the most popular brand-name drug with another brand-name and two generics was suppressed. The researchers found:

For all nine comparisons, there was no statistically significant difference between the four formulations, indicating that they were bioequivalent, even using a criterion for bioequivalence considerably more stringent than that employed by the FDA for other compounds. The authors concluded that the four generic and brand levothyroxine preparations studied were bioquivalent and interchangeable for most patients taking levothyroxine hormone.

The authors were forced to withdraw the article one day before the JAMA issues was supposed to go to print. Instead the opposite of their findings were published in a little known journal claiming that the brand-name was superior. Although it looks like it was published a year after these issues were raised. Note the small sample size of 22 patients, though. (Also read Public Citizens statement on the efforts of the brand-name manufacturer to keep control of the market).

While trying to find answers and a more reliable treatment, it’s almost inevitable that I come across websites peddling Armour Thyroid, a supposedly natural desiccated thyroid alternative to the synthetic medications that are prescribed. Public Citizen dared to advice against Armour Thyroid. The author of the article, self-proclaimed patient advocate Mary Shomon, then goes on to commit just about every logical fallacy there is while attempting to defend Armour Thyroid. She takes issue with Public Citizen’s reliance on the American Thyroid Association’s statement and then suggests rewriting it as: “There is no evidence in the form of published, peer-reviewed, double-blind studies that desiccated thyroid, a biological preparation, has any advantage over synthetic thyroxine.” Well, that would mean that there is no scientific evidence for desiccated thyroid. Anecdotal evidence doesn’t count, sorry Mary.

Most of Shomon’s arguments take the form of “there’s something wrong with the synthetic thyroid medicine, therefore the desiccated thyroid must be good.” Uhm, no. It could mean that both are bad. It definitely means that we need more research, some of which was suppressed as Shomon pointed out (though, unlike what she’s implying that research did not include desiccated thyroid; plus, as I pointed out above the JAMA did publish the article in 1997, six years before Shomon’s post). And one of her main arguments, that Synthroid isn’t properly FDA approved, was true until 2006: “Synthroid did not have FDA approval, but now all L-thyroxine preparations have FDA approval.” Shomon couldn’t have know that, of course, when she wrote the article in 2003…

Shomon also points to a study that found that “among patients taking thyroid medication, only 60% were within the normal range of TSH.” She writes that this fact “indicates that either vast numbers of doctors do not know how to properly prescribe levothyroxine, or it may not be as effective as its manufacturers and supporters claim.” First, again, that doesn’t mean that the “natural” alternative is any better because they, too, might be exaggerating their claims. And I would not be as quick to dismiss the improper prescription levels by doctors. Both hypothesis seem plausible to me. Though I’d start with checking on the skill of prescribing the right level of hormone replacement, especially given that many doctors are still using an outdated TSH range.

Why does Shomon think Armour Thyroid is still being used? The first reason is price. What a sorry reason! Homeopathic remedies are also pretty cheap but are worthless. Price does not say anything about the quality of something. The second reason is price again, this time hidden behind the claim that synthetic thyroid medication manufacturers are gouging consumers. But again something bad about another thing doesn’t make the alternative good! Third, T4 replacement might not be enough. There’s a study that shows this based on 33 patients, which is hardly conclusive. The authors of that study conclude:

In patients with hypothyroidism, partial substitution of triiodothyronine [T3] for thyroxine [T4] may improve mood and neuropsychological function; this finding suggests a specific effect of the triiodothyronine normally secreted by the thyroid gland.

This is not an endorsement of Armour Thyroid simply because that contains both T4 (thyroxine) and T3 (triiodothyronine). There might be other, better alternatives. Also, it seems to me that there might be something else going on: T3 is the active form of T4, the body converts T4 to T3. So, maybe there’s something going wrong with that conversion process that could be treated directly. In their subscription-only article on Armour Thyroid, Public Citizen points out that “Three randomized controlled studies published in late 2003 failed to confirm any benefit of combined T4 and T3 treatment compared to T4 given alone” (one on 46 patients, two on 40 patients, and three on 110 patients).

Why does Public Citizen think that Armour Thyroid is still in the top 200?

Why, after over 25 years of advice to the contrary, is Armour Thyroid in the top 200 most frequently prescribed drugs in the United States? One explanation appears to be that thyroid replacement therapy with natural thyroid appears to have become a niche market for unscrupulous complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners, some of whom are licensed MDs. Some of these CAM practitioners are also promoting natural thyroid hormone as a part of their weight loss programs. This is a dangerous practice, but it is not new.

Incidentally, Public Citizen does not advocate Synthroid, which is what Shomon seems to imply to discredit their whole argument against Armour Thyroid. They are advocating using synthetic levothyroxine in generic form.

I do agree with Mary Shomon on one thing:

The best thyroid drug for each patient is the drug that safely and effectively works the best for each patient. To suggest otherwise displays a lack of knowledge about the current state of thyroid treatment, and an utter disregard for the quality of life, future, health – and pocketbooks – of millions of Americans.

Well, it didn’t sound to me, though, that Shomon was objectively evaluating the available options. She was defending Armour Thyroid, not arguing for more nuanced treatment options, except in this last paragraph. What is need, in my opinion, are more independent studies, like the one that was suppressed, which compare the available options and figure out which work best. Clinging to an outdated medication is not the best option. Patient advocates who so blatantly dismiss the scientific method do not help us thyroid patients. They just add to our confusion.

Living in a rather expensive area of the U.S. – the San Francisco Bay Area – I have thought about how nice it would be to share many of my expenses with someone else. Well, some of us might now have a way to do just that without having to commit to an intimate relationship: CoAbode is offering to match up single mothers for co-housing. What a neat idea! And you don’t have to share your living space either, CoAbode also has a Circle of Friends, which is more community building than house-sharing. I will have to check this out!

Well, I signed up… The SF Bay Area group hasn’t been active since 2006. Ugh. Of course, this might not mean much but it could mean that this is yet another idea that has fallen to the wayside of too much to do… The good news is that there are quite a few newly registered single moms, most of them looking for housing.

Hat-tip to Nancy Polikoff.

A lot of people are invoking the Great Depression these days but few make clear links between what is happening now in the U.S. financial markets and the dismantlement of the regulatory safeguard enacted after the Great Depression. Leave it to some Fools do outline the connections. Taking a historical walk-through, they outline how the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was step by step dismantled to create a similar financial environment as before the Great Depression.

Fools know precisely how this brief experiment with a deregulated financial sector has turned out. Staring into the face of financial ruin, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have responded with all manner of liquidity injections, loans, bailouts, and rule changes. For the second time in history, the brokerage industry has proved a potentially destabilizing speculative force in the financial sector.

With this week’s move to treat Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as banks, it seems we’re headed back toward the troubles that brought us here in the first place. Perhaps the wiser move would be to reinstall some boundaries between lending institutions and underwriting businesses, and maybe even bring back that discarded post-Depression relic called Glass-Steagall. Perhaps then we’d have fewer companies that are “too big to fail.”

Here’s the recipe for disaster: First, allow companies to buy up anybody and everything they want to form super-conglomerates. Second, do business to maximize short-term return without worrying about the long-term health of your company. Third, when you’re in trouble, convince politicians that you’re simply to big to fail.

In addition to reinstating the post-Depression regulations, Congress should also hold people accountable, which they are apparently not planning on doing. There are better options but they wouldn’t allow people to get away with ruining the economy.

Addition on Monday: Here’s another perspective on the “Great Depression” analogy…

There is no plausible scenario under which the no bailout scenario gives us a Great Depression. There is a more plausible scenario (but highly unlikely) that the bailout will give us a Great Depression. There is no way that the failure to do a bailout will lead to more than a very brief failure of the financial system. We will not lose our modern system of payments.

The Canadian 2006 Census uncovered an interesting phenomenon: Only 17% of same-sex couples took advantage of their legal right to marry (compared to 80% of different-sex couples). Jillian Deri analyzes why. The primary reason, as Nancy Polikoff also pointed out, is that same-sex couples in Canada don’t have to marry to get legal rights. So, there’s no need to marry. The same, though, holds true for different-sex couples, so there must be more. Deri stresses that same-sex couples are part of a movement that had to build alternatives to marriage.

Partly out of necessity and partly out of desire, we have built cultures and communities independent of the straight world, developing and adopting our own creative alternatives: chosen families, open relationships, multi-parent families and domestic partnerships, just to name a few.

Many feel that marriage is an assimilation step, which they want to resist, especially because the feminist critique of marriage is alive and well in Canada.      Continue reading this post » » »