Creative Aging With the Raging Grannies

The Raging Grannies "bared all" at the Creative Aging Symposium held in San Francisco, June 15, 2009.
Posing as the scheduled entertainment for the symposium, they took the stage and made the case for Single Payer Health Care Reform.

The Symposium was sponsored, in part, by an insurance company, and also gets funds from AARP which acts very much like a corporate insurance company and is against any health care reform that would eliminate insurance companies.

IN THE VIDEO: Some members of the crowd look suspicious, others sing along with the Grannies who croon, "We won't feed CEO's anymore!" to the tune of This Little Light of Mine.
Eight-minute QuickTime movie. 36MB at Link


Do you have the right stuff to be a Raging Granny?
Raging Grannies Net - with Song Lyrics
Some Raging Granny Songs
Raging Grannies Official Site
Raging Grannies Film Launch
Link to buy Raging Grannies CD
Link to buy Raging Grannies book

Bill Moyers & Michael Winship: Some Choice Words For "The Select Few"

Image from TRUTHOUT


From Bill Moyers' site:

"If you want to know what really matters in Washington, don't go to Capitol Hill for one of those hearings, or pay attention to those staged White House "town meetings.” They’re just for show. What really happens – the serious business of Washington – happens in the shadows, out of sight, off the record. Only occasionally – and usually only because someone high up stumbles -- do we get a glimpse of just how pervasive the corruption has become.

Case in point: Katharine Weymouth, the publisher of THE WASHINGTON POST – one of the most powerful people in DC – invited top officials from the White House, the Cabinet and Congress to her home for an intimate, off-the-record dinner to discuss health care reform with some of her reporters and editors covering the story.

But CEO’s and lobbyists from the health care industry were invited, too, provided they forked over $25,000 a head – or up to a quarter of a million if they want to sponsor a whole series of these cozy get-togethers. And what is the inducement offered? Nothing less, the invitation read, than “an exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will get it done.”

The invitation reminds the CEO’s and lobbyists that they will be buying access to “those powerful few in business and policy making who are forwarding, legislating and reporting on the issues…

"Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No." The invitation promises this private, intimate and off-the-record dinner is an extension “of THE WASHINGTON POST brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard.”

Let that sink in. In this case, the “stakeholders” in health care reform do not include the rabble – the folks across the country who actually need quality health care but can’t afford it. If any of them showed up at the kitchen door on the night of this little soiree, the bouncer would drop kick them beyond the Beltway.

No, before you can cross the threshold to reach “the select few who will actually get it done,” you must first cross the palm of some outstretched hand."

Link

Update: Moyers reveals insurance industry's secret plan to attack Michael Moore and "Sicko".

Is chronic illness at the heart of our economic crisis?

Image: Summer, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1573

Simple, eloquent, true.

"We can virtually match the exponential climb in chronic illness with an exponential climb in all-things-industrialized! Our innate genetic requirements for health require purity and sufficiency in the way we eat, move and think, with minimal toxicity and deficiency. How are we doing in these areas in the past 50 years?

We have more toxins in our food and agricultural industry, nutritionally deficient foods, toxic water supply, more fake and processed foods, we move less as a society than ever before, we're fatter than ever, we take far more drugs than ever, we sit in traffic more than ever, we have rampant pollution, we're inundated with an overwhelming amount of stimuli like no other time in our history, we're financially stressed, we spend more time indoors in artificial lighting and temperatures, we use more toxic chemicals on our bodies, on our lawns and in our homes, our relationships are stressed, we've lost a sense of community, we're more rushed... and on and on.

As a culture, we've moved away from what we know creates health and happiness."

Link

Drug Safety and Health Canada Going, Going… Gone?

Health Canada’s drug safety procedures lacking, says study
April 20, 2009 | National Office | Topic(s): Health, health care system, pharmacare | Publication Type: Press Release

OTTAWA—Health Canada’s drug safety procedures leave a lot to be desired, says a new study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Drug Safety and Health Canada: Going, Going… Gone? by Dr. Joel Lexchin says Health Canada’s priorities are skewed in favour of rapid approval of new drugs at the expense of the post-marketing pharmaco-surveillance system.

“In Canada 3-4% of drugs approved will eventually be withdrawn from the market because of safety issues and the number of people exposed to these drugs is increasing because of aggressive marketing tactics by the pharmaceutical industry,” says Dr. Lexchin.

According to the study, there are significant limitations to The Food and Drugs Act.

“Health Canada cannot force a drug company to recall drugs deemed harmful from pharmacy shelves,” says Dr. Lexchin. “Nor can they directly compel a company to revise product labels to reflect new safety information.”

In order to improve drug safety, the study makes several recommendations for Health Canada, including:

Stop the treatment safety information as confidential and make it public available promptly after approving a new drug;
Decrease dependence on industry for safety information by using progressive licensing and ensuring post-market studies are undertaken, analyzed, and reported on, independent of industry;
Reorient priorities so that post-marketing pharmaco-surveillance is on equal footing with the approval of new drugs; and
Undertake a systematic study to examine whether faster drug approvals lead to more post-marketing safety issues.
–30–

Drug Safety and Health Canada: Going, Going… Gone? is available from the CCPA website at http://www.policyalternatives.ca http://www.policyalternatives.ca

For more information contact Kerri-Anne Finn, CCPA Senior Communications Officer, at 613-563-1341 x306.


Link