VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont to raise health insurance premiums for people who eat meat, and lower the premiums for vegetarians.
PETA Wants Higher Insurance Premiums For Meat Eaters
In a letter sent Monday to Bill Milnes Jr., president of Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Vermont, PETA's Executive Director Tracy Reiman urged Blue Cross to raise rates on meat eaters because -- she claims -- heart disease, diabetes and other leading killer diseases have been conclusively linked to the consumption of meat and other animal products.
"Given the latest news about the effects of E. coli on meat-eaters -- and the mountain of evidence linking meat consumption to some of our nation's deadliest diseases -- this change will benefit Blue Cross Blue Shield's bottom line while also helping to ensure that your policyholders don't flat line," Reiman wrote.
Reiman went on to point to recent reports of an E. coli outbreak in Vermont. In October a Vermont slaughterhouse recalled a ton of ground beef after 10 cases of E. coli were traced to meat from Vermont Livestock Slaughter & Processing in Ferrisburg. The recall was voluntary.
Earlier in the month, three people were diagnosed with E. Coli in Orleans County. Health officials attributed those cases to raw milk as the source.
"As you might know, E. Coli grows in the intestines of many farmed animals. Slaughterhouses are filthy places, and when animals are eviscerated, feces often spray in every direction," Reiman wrote.
She goes on to claim that vegetarians are less prone to heart disease, certain types of cancer, diabetes and obesity. "By giving your policy holders a financial incentive to go vegetarian -- and penalizing those whose meat-based diets fuel our nation's worst health problems -- Blue Cross Blue Shield could save millions of dollars in the long run," Reiman writes.
But it doesn't appear that Blue Cross will be taking PETA's suggestion any time soon.
"Under Vermont law, we would not be allowed to vary rates based on the dietary and nutritional habits of various members," said Kevin Goddard, Blue Cross's vice president of external affairs. He did, however, say that Blue Cross is always looking to have the healthiest members possible, but "we have no information one way or the other if vegetarians are more healthy."
In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk. "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child," a representative for Ben & Jerry's said at the time.
I like how they cite e coli but ignoring that 3 of the last big e coli scares were for spinach, then onions, and then tomatoes and jelopenos.
They really should factor in the number of PETA members who end up becoming domestic terrorists, bomb research labs and facilities at universities, and then proceed to go to jail and get sodomized.
MEXICO CITY (AP) Hiroshi Nohara is on a layover at the Mexico City airport. It has lasted almost three months, and he has no plans to leave.
News photo
Terminal sequel: Hiroshi Nohara (center), who has been in Terminal 1 at Benito Juarez International airport in Mexico City since September, speaks to a translator hired by a television station Thursday as a girl poses in front of him for a photo. AP PHOTO
For reasons he can't explain, the Japanese man has been in Terminal 1 of the Benito Juarez International Airport since Sept. 2, surviving off donations from fast-food restaurants and passengers and sleeping in a chair.
At first, he frightened passengers, and airport authorities asked the Japanese Embassy to investigate why the foul-smelling man refused to leave. Now he's a celebrity of sorts, capturing Mexico's collective imagination with nearly daily television news reports on his life at the food court.
Tourists stop to pose with him for photographs or get an autograph.
The Tokyo native flew to Mexico on a tourist visa and a return ticket home, but he never left the airport. In an interview Thursday alongside the airport McDonald's, he said he had no motive for his extended stay and doesn't know how much longer he'll remain.
"I don't understand why I'm here," he said through a visiting interpreter originally hired by a TV station. "I don't have a reason."
The embassy can't force him to leave, and since Nohara's visa is valid, all Mexican officials can do is wait for it to expire in early March.
During his stay, Nohara's wiry goatee has grown into a scraggly mass. His red-tinted hair is speckled with dust and dandruff, and his cream-colored jacket and fleece blanket are dingy from overuse. He smells like he hasn't had a shower in months.
"He's a calm person, a nice man," said Silvia Navarrete del Toro, an airport janitor. "He just sits here and eats all day."
Stroking his facial hair, Nohara said the 2004 film "The Terminal," starring Tom Hanks as an Eastern European man stuck in a New York City airport, was not his inspiration. But he acknowledged the similarities.
The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York got "Rickrolled" on Thursday.
If you weren't watching the parade live or on TV, you probably saw the mass influx of Twitter messages: '80s pop singer Rick Astley, whose cheesy song "Never Gonna Give You Up" became the center of a corny Internet meme called "Rickrolling,", gave a surprise performance. "Rickrolling" originally started as tricking someone into clicking on a link to the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video by claiming it was something else, like a highly anticipated movie trailer.
From what about a zillion Twitterers said, Astley emerged from a parade float sponsored by cable channel Cartoon Network, and started singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" live. The singer was recently honored at the MTV Europe Awards, but contrary to rumors, he did not perform.
There's a video if you click the link, but for those too lazy, I looked up one on youtube:
(CNN) -- In tests for teacher Tom Farber's high school class, students can demonstrate their mastery of calculus and find out where to get braces or even a haircut.
Squeezed by classroom budget cuts, the Rancho Bernardo High School teacher is selling ads on his exams to cover the costs of printing them.
"It raises money for the teachers and it's amusing for the kids, so it seems like a win-win," said Luke Shaw, 18, a student at the suburban San Diego, California, school.
Parents and administrators also praise Farber, 47, for his creative classroom funding, but he doesn't want it to become the norm.
"My intention is, [selling ads] is a stopgap measure," said Farber. "I don't want to be doing this year after year."
Instead, he says, government must do more to help educators provide what students need.
Farber started letting parents and local businesses sponsor tests this fall after learning budget cuts would limit his in-school printing allowance -- tracked by the school's copy machines -- to $316 for the year. The cost of printing quizzes and tests for his 167 students will easily be more than $500, he said.
That meant Farber, whose courses prepare students for the Advanced Placement exam, would have to give fewer or shorter tests, or find money. Farber, who says 90 percent of his students got a 5 -- the top score -- on AP exams last year, said skimping wasn't an option.
"It has to be a certain quality, or they won't be ready," he said.
So Farber, who says he'd never asked for money from parents in his 18 years of high school teaching, pitched the ad idea to parents at a September back-to-school night. For checks made to the math department -- $10 a quiz, $20 a test or $30 for a final exam -- they could insert an inspirational quote -- their own or someone else's -- or a business advertisement at the bottom of the first page. Watch how teacher came up with ad idea »
Of the seven to run so far -- one per test or quiz -- five were quotes, and two were ads from local businesses connected to the parents or someone close.
"Brace yourself for a great semester! Braces by Henry, Stephen P. Henry D.M.D.," read one of the ads in small type at the bottom of a quiz's first page.
Farber said orders took off after recent media reports. He's collected more than $300, and he believes he'll top $1,000, with some ad buyers paying more than required. All amounts beyond his shortfall will cover colleagues' printing costs, he said.
Farber said students and parents have gotten a kick out of the sponsorships.
Student Scott Robison, 18, said: "I liked it because all the teachers complain about budget cuts, and he did something about it. It hasn't hurt in any way."
Luke Shaw's father, Jay Shaw, said he wants to sponsor a test next semester.
And while Jay Shaw praised Farber's idea, "It's just sad it came to the point where he needs to do that," he said.
Farber said he doesn't want quiz ads "to become the standard."
"What I'm doing now is ... dealing with the economic situation and making sure kids get what they need," Farber said. "Teachers shouldn't have to scrounge for funding. To me, this is what our government is for, to provide necessities, and that's why we pay taxes."
But California's budget crisis has forced Farber's school district, Poway Unified, to cut costs, district Superintendent Don Phillips said.
The California Federation of Teachers says the state cut more than $4 billion in education spending this year. Phillips said that when the district sought to chop $11 million from its $265 million annual budget, it wanted to keep teachers but cut other areas. Among the things to go was 30 percent to 40 percent of Poway schools' materials spending -- including copying.
Phillips praised Farber's ad idea as creative. But he said district officials are weighing whether to set guidelines, especially for business ads.
Farber said he'd prefer to keep ads to local "mom-and-pop" operations. He's accepting one from hair salon Fantastic Sam's, noting that although it's part of a chain, the store that's buying the ad is locally owned.
Farber and Phillips said they don't know of any Poway teachers wanting to replicate the ad idea, but they said educators there have long spent out-of-pocket for supplies.
Susan Carmon of the National Education Association said a 2003 study on the issue found U.S. teachers spent an average of $450 of their own money for school resources.
"You can only imagine -- with tighter school budgets in almost every state this year -- that this number can only get higher," Carmon said.
Fred Glass, the California Federation of Teachers' communications director, said things could get worse for teachers in the state, with California considering $2.5 billion in mid-year education cuts.
Glass said he hopes Farber's ad selling "will underscore for disinterested observers that this [funding shortfall] can't go on."
Glass said he wouldn't like to see any classroom ads. "The student needs not to be distracted by anything on the test. This is not instructionally sound," he said.
But he said he doesn't blame Farber.
"This teacher shouldn't be put in this position," Glass said.
To those who don't like his idea, Farber suggests asking legislators to better fund education or writing a check to a school.
But he said most of the feedback has been positive.
"One person said, 'Too bad you're not a bank, because you might qualify for $700 billion,' " he said. "I thought that was pretty clever."
I don't even see why he needs all his security driving around. All he needs is a plane following him with a low hanging banner that says "Shoot me and Dick Cheney is President of the United States of America." That sentence scares me just typing it.
The secret service shoulda blasted the shoe-thrower. Assaulting the prez isn't something to be taken lightly, even if it's just shoes.
That would have been so bad in terms of worsening Iraqi opinion of America. That guy is considered a hero in so much of the Islamic world, especially in Iraq for his mutual hatred of America and Iran (both feelings that many Iraqis share). Besides, Bush said later said he didn't even feel the least bit threatened by it.
The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.
Muntadar al-Zaidi has allegedly suffered a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.
Mr Zaidi threw his shoes at Mr Bush at a news conference, calling him "a dog".
A spokesperson for the Iraqi military says the journalist is in good health and said the allegations were untrue.
It is unclear whether the reporter may have been injured when he was wrestled to the floor at the news conference, or at a later point.
The head of Iraq's journalists' union has asked the government for clemency towards the journalist who is still in custody.
A spokesman for Iraq's High Judicial Council said that Mr Zaidi, accompanied by defence and prosecution lawyers, had been brought before the investigating judge, Reuters news agency reported.
Abdul Satar Birqadr said Mr Zaidi had been charged with aggression against a president.
"He admits the action he carried out," the news agency quoted Mr Birqadr as saying.
Earlier, Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Baghdad he believed his brother had been taken to a US military hospital in the Iraqi capital.
A second day of rallies in support of Mr Zaidi were held across Iraq, calling for his release.
Meanwhile, offers to buy the shoes he threw are being made around the Arab world, reports say.
Mr Zaidi told our correspondent that despite offers from many lawyers his brother has not been given access to a legal representative since being arrested by forces under the command of Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser.
We hope the government and judiciary consider his release because he has a family and he is still young
The Iraqi authorities have said the 28-year-old will be prosecuted under Iraqi law.
Iraqi lawyers had earlier speculated that the charges could include insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, who was standing next to President Bush during the incident.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
Our correspondent says that the previously little-known journalist from the private Cairo-based al-Baghdadia TV has become a hero to many, not just in Iraq but across the Arab world, for what many saw as a fitting send-off for a deeply unpopular US president.
As he flung the shoes, Mr Zaidi shouted: "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog."
Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC that his brother deliberately bought Iraqi-made shoes, which were dark brown with laces. They were bought from a shop on al-Khyam street, a well-known shopping street in central Baghdad.
However, not everyone in Iraq has been supportive of the journalist's action.
Speaking earlier in Baghdad, Mouyyad al-Lami described Mr Zaidi's action as "strange and unprofessional", but urged Mr Maliki to show compassion.
"Even if he has made a mistake, the government and the judiciary are broad-minded and we hope they consider his release because he has a family and he is still young," he told the Associated Press news agency.
"We hope this case ends before going to court."
Abducted by insurgents
The shoes themselves are said to have attracted bids from around the Arab world.
According to unconfirmed newspaper reports, the former coach of the Iraqi national football team, Adnan Hamad, has offered $100,000 (£65,000) for the shoes, while a Saudi citizen has apparently offered $10m (£6.5m).
The daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Aicha, said her charity would honour the reporter with a medal of courage, saying his action was a "victory for human rights".
The charity called on the media to support Mr Zaidi and put pressure on the Iraqi government to free him.
Mr Zaidi, who lives in Baghdad, has worked for al-Baghdadia for three years.
Muzhir al-Khafaji, programming director for the channel, described him as a "proud Arab and an open-minded man".
He said that Mr Zaidi was a graduate of communications from Baghdad University.
"He has no ties with the former regime. His family was arrested under Saddam's regime," he said.
Mr Zaidi has previously been abducted by insurgents and held twice for questioning by US forces in Iraq.
In November 2007 he was kidnapped by a gang on his way to work in central Baghdad and released three days later without a ransom.
He said at the time that the kidnappers had beaten him until he lost consciousness, and used his necktie to blindfold him.
Mr Zaidi never learned the identity of his kidnappers, who questioned him about his work before letting him go.
The daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Aicha, said her charity would honour the reporter with a medal of courage, saying his action was a "victory for human rights".
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What? I don't see how throwing shoes at someone (and missing) is a victory for anything.
EDIT: I take that back. It's a victory for President Bush. He's got mad skillz.
Comments
I like how they cite e coli but ignoring that 3 of the last big e coli scares were for spinach, then onions, and then tomatoes and jelopenos.
I think in the end the numbers probably even out.
There's a video if you click the link, but for those too lazy, I looked up one on youtube:
All is Forgiven.
Sincerely,
The Taks Man.
it seems more like it went over his shoulder... so his body is lower than dirt?
The secret service shoulda blasted the shoe-thrower. Assaulting the prez isn't something to be taken lightly, even if it's just shoes.
That would have been so bad in terms of worsening Iraqi opinion of America. That guy is considered a hero in so much of the Islamic world, especially in Iraq for his mutual hatred of America and Iran (both feelings that many Iraqis share). Besides, Bush said later said he didn't even feel the least bit threatened by it.
Yeah that's what he must have been doing on August 25th 2005 before he hit the "Call in FEMA to New Orleans" Button.
But really, he's like the Neo of Republican Politics.
...cough
What? I don't see how throwing shoes at someone (and missing) is a victory for anything.
EDIT: I take that back. It's a victory for President Bush. He's got mad skillz.
Wow, I called that one. haha