Lincoln (2012) Movie Review- Boston Globe

Review Excerpt:
More to the point, “Lincoln” is about the petty yet profoundly necessary task of forging consensus — of getting small-minded humans to look beyond their immediate concerns to their larger duty. It’s about our flaws, civic and personal, then as now, and what a genuine leader has to do to advance us beyond them, as a people and as a country, if not as individuals.

It’s also about the power of reason, and the power of words to give body and urgency to reason. So, yes, “Lincoln” has a lot of talk, moving and fatuous, florid and brutally concise. This may sound like an ordeal in our era of partisan bloviation, but Spielberg and Kushner rescue language as a holy weapon of persuasion and the only real antidote to killing one another on the battlefield.

It’s possible you may think “Lincoln” is too talky — too full of characters and ideas, too taxing to our Twitter-pated attention spans. Consider, then, that it may not be the movie that’s unworthy of your time.

You may not be worthy of it.

Review by Ty Burr  11-08-12

bloviation: To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner

Afghanistan Vets' Silent Killer: Fungus in Soil

By Kevin Spak, 

Posted Nov 15, 2012 3:23 PM CST

Newser – (Military) doctors are struggling to deal with a fungal infection that's complicating the recovery of some of the most severely wounded US veterans. The fungus is thought to exist in the Afghan soil and to infect troops when they're wounded by IEDs, USA Today explains. Often, such explosions result in amputations, but because the fungus is undetectable at first, doctors tend to stop short of removing infected—but seemingly healthy—bits of flesh and bone.

New guidelines published this month urge combat doctors to soak wounds in a World War I-era diluted bleach product called Dakins to kill potential fungus.

http://www.newser.com/story/157646/iraqi-vets-silent-killer-fungus-in-soil.html

Sigh, more fungal infections to worry about.  Some fungus is beneficial such as penicillin, so it's all a matter of degree, or dosages as RN's would say...

A sampling of botanical remedies, an important aspect of Native American healing

Source: University of the Rockies

Native American healing is also a realm of culture in which the natural world is intrinsic. Native American medicine often does not differentiate between the ideas of healing and cure. These practices focused on individualized attention and emphasized the importance of reaching a natural balance, often with nutritional medicine and botanical remedies.

Recently, western culture has gained greater awareness of a need for a more congruent relationship with the natural world. This need is evidenced by our interest in renewable resources, our appreciation of the wonders of nature, and our newfound devotion to the preservation and protection of our planet.

http://rockies.edu/resources/PEAK-november-2011.htm

Traditional Native American Medicine-Treatment of Chronic Illness

By   Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D.

 

Summary :

 

Increasingly, traditional Native American healing practices are being requested by Native Americans and non-Natives alike. A series of meetings among traditional Native American healers and the author resulted in a dialogue between the Native American world view and that of biomedicine. Recommendations arose for how treatment should proceed in the modern world and how best to introduce interested non-Natives to Native American healing practices. An approach was developed for bridging cultures to facilitate the interaction of non-Natives with traditional healers.

One hundred sixteen patients were treated in this manner by the author in conjunction with traditional Native American healers. More than 80% of patients showed significant, persisting benefits of a time-intensive treatment program. A comparison group of patients derived from the author's emergency room patients showed significantly lower rates of improvement. The author suggests that an intensive treatment experience (inspired by Native American Medicine practices) over 7-10 days for treating chronic physical illness achieves both health benefits and improved cost utility.

 http://www.healing-arts.org/mehl-madrona/mmtraditionalpaper.htm

Leo Tolstoy

There is something in the human spirit which will survive and prevail, there is a tiny and brilliant light in the heart of a man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes.

Darwin gets 4,000 write-in votes, creationist unopposed.

How does a knuckle-dragging mouth-breather like this run UNOPPOSED?!?!?!!? The Democratic committee that monitors democratic presence in ALL elections could not get somebody with a pulse in there?   We just sat on our asses and did nothing while this disgrace to Georgia and national embarrassment was allowed to walk into political power with no effort whatsoever???   WE SUCK.

-OooShiny

http://www.newser.com/story/157266/darwin-gets-4k-write-ins-vs-creationist-lawmaker.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united&utm_campaign=rss_3_2

Slide of fungus: source Reuters/Fox News