Is Michael Moore trying to make the "Left" look bad?

Moore Says Bring Castro to the Oscars

Michael Moore, the director behind "Sicko" and Roger and me joked that Fidel Castro should be invited to the Sunday night's Academy Awards show.
"I think it would be a "ratings grabber" said Moore.
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Personaly I think he's right, it would get many people to tune in, but perhaps not as many as would tune in to see Moore get carted off to a Cuban jail.

6 Dead at Northern Illinois University

For the forth time in one week, a gunman opened fire at a US school.Today, Thursday, a gunman, identified Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University. according to university President John Peters, "As many as 18 people were injured, then The shooter took his own life.He described the scene aftermath of the incident as terrifying and chaotic."Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," Gaynor, a senior geography student, said outside just minutes after the shooting occurred. "It was like five minutes before class ended too."Witnesses said the young man carried a shotgun and a pistol. Mr. Robinson, another student at the scene commented, "It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot," Robinson said. "He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at."Another student in the hall, Jillian Martinez, described how the gunman came into the hall by the lectern and just started shooting."He just started shooting at all the kids," she said. "He just started shooting at people, and I ran out of there as fast as I could. I ran all the way to the student center; when I got there I could still hear shooting.Thomas Ahern, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said he did not know what his motive might have been.authorities said they found out Two of the weapons — the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun — were purchased legally less than a week ago, on Feb. 9th. Kazmierczak had a valid Firearm Owner's Identification Card, which is required for all Illinois residents who buy or possess firearms.Campus Police Chief Donald Grady told investigators, "He had stopped taking medication and become somewhat erratic in the last couple of weeks,"The shooting was the fourth at a U.S. school within a week. It makes one ask... what is wrong with us as a society?This is an enormous tragedy. As a parent, I can feel for the loss that the families of the victims are experiencing, yet I not truly imagine that level of pain. You work hard, make sacrifices needed to send your child to college, and then in a second, the 're gone. It must feel as if all of the air had been sucked out of your world, that the sun and starts stopped shining, and all that is left is darkness and pain.

In an attempt to understand, I am left with some questions:
Why are these tragedies happening in ever increasing frequency? And why are people with know mental problems able to go out and load up on weapons? What happened to the idea of a 7 day waiting period?

I have great respect for people on all sides of the political fence, but clearly our system is broken. We can not keep allowing mentally unstable people to go out at a moments notice and fill their shopping cart up with guns.
Larry Lubell

Metabolic Syndrome, Are zero calorie sodas making us fat?

As a person that consumes embarrassing amounts of Diet Coke, I have to say that I found the following article quite interesting.After traveling around Europe, it is hard not to notice that their people seem less likely to be consuming “Diet Foods” yet also seem to be less likely to be “Over Weight”. I have never heard an American visit France and not return asking the question, "Why can the people of France eat rich cheese and Chocolate mouse and yet not have the same health issues that we do in the States?" "After all, we are the ones eating “Low Fat” this and “Diet” that."

Maybe this is a big part of the answer.

Metabolic Syndrome Is Tied to Diet Soda
The New York Times
Posted: 2008-02-07 14:01:41
Researchers have found a correlation between drinking diet soda and metabolic syndrome -- the collection of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes that include abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and blood glucose levels -- and elevated blood pressure.

The scientists gathered dietary information on more than 9,500 men and women ages 45 to 64 and tracked their health for nine years.Over all, a Western dietary pattern -- high intakes of refined grains, fried foods and red meat -- was associated with an 18 percent increased risk for metabolic syndrome, while a "prudent" diet dominated by fruits, vegetables, fish and poultry correlated with neither an increased nor a decreased risk.

But the one-third who ate the most fried food increased their risk by 25 percent compared with the one-third who ate the least, and surprisingly, the risk of developing metabolic syndrome was 34 percent higher among those who drank one can of diet soda a day compared with those who drank none."This is interesting," said Lyn M. Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and a co-author of the paper, which was posted online in the journal Circulation on Jan. 22. "Why is it happening? Is it some kind of chemical in the diet soda, or something about the behavior of diet soda drinkers?"

It is naive not to recognize that the role that portion size, exercise and even sleep patterns play in the greater rate of obesity in the United States.
That said, it is getting harder and harder not to look at the liquid portion of our daily consumption. There is a growing chorus of voices singing a worrying tune about both
artificial sweeteners as well as high fructose corn syrup.

To see just how prevalent these ingredients are- go through the drink section of your local supermarket and read the labels.

The question is how look will it take for me to, not just reduce, but stop drinking all that Diet Coke?

By Larry Lubell
UrbanBlog