The Box
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The Box
| Life, Health, Etc. | American and International Politics | American and Global Economy |
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             And Excerpt From Mika Brzezinski’s “Obsessed” Mika Brzezinski: To the extent that I may currently have that look, I am grateful. So the question is how do I make my point—that absent a fundamental change in the way we consume, prepare, and market food to our children and all citizens, we will never be able to attack the myriad eating disorders that affect millions of Americans today—without coming out and addressing my own internal food issues, despite an external appearance to the contrary? Our Feel Good War On Breast Cancer Peggy Orenstein: I used to believe that a mammogram saved my life. I even wrote that in the pages of this magazine. It was 1996, and I had just turned 35 when my doctor sent me for an initial screening — a relatively common practice at the time — that would serve as a base line when I began annual mammograms at 40. I had no family history of breast cancer, no particular risk factors for the disease. Mindfulness, Meditation, Wellness and Their Connection To Corporate America’s Bottom Line Arianna Huffington: There is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows that these two worlds are, in fact, very much aligned — or at least that they can, and should, be. And that when we treat them as separate, there is a heavy price to pay — both for individuals and companies. The former in terms of health and happiness, and the latter in terms of dollars and cents. What You Don’t Know About Processed Foods Huffington Post: If a food ingredient company wants to introduce a new additive, they — not the FDA — hire some experts or a consulting firm to make the determination about whether this new ingredient is safe. Sometimes you’ll hear that company X has been awarded “GRAS status” for its new ingredient, but the FDA doesn’t award anything. The agency merely has the option to review what companies tell them. Pure Food and Wine: Founder Sarma Melngailis swears the blend soothes a full tummy. Can’t make it to the NYC outpost? Whip up your own Swan Juice with this recipe. Pure Food and Wine: If you’re used to a more conventional diet, then going all raw is a big step and very cleansing. Then, you can take it a step further and go all liquid by having just juices and shakes. Then, just juice. Whatever feels right. But, no matter what, starting every day with a big glass of quality filtered water with juice from a fresh organic lemon squeezed into it is the best. It sets you up right and feels good and helps flush away toxins built up overnight. Six Amazing Foods For Cleansing Your Colon Naturally Natural News: Gastrointestinal problems are prolific in today’s society, and this is largely due to the fact that the modern food supply is greatly lacking in the nutrients required for healthy digestion (not to mention a widespread overload of toxins from vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides). But the good news is that a life of chronic digestive upset does not have to rule the day, as simple dietary changes can help significantly improve and even cure many colonic problems.
One Day: Full text of inaugural poem Richard Blanco: One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores, My Top Seven Sources Of Plant Based Protein Rich Roll/One Green Magazine: As a vegan endurance athlete, I place a high tax on my body. And yet my plant-based diet has fueled me for years without any negative impact on building lean muscle mass or recovery. In fact, at age 45 I continue to improve and am as fit, healthy, and strong as I have ever been. One Green Planet: As a plant-based ultra-endurance athlete, if I had a dollar for every time I fielded this inquiry, I could put my four kids through college. So let’s address the elephant in the room, once and for all. |
Greg Sargent: Mark April 11th, 2013, down on your calendars as the day that the GOP’s fiscal ruse was finally unmasked with total clarity: Republicans don’t actually want entitlement cuts. Or, to put it another way, they say they want entitlement cuts, but they want Dems to own them. A few of us have been pointing this out for some time, but now it’s breaking through to the neutral press, thanks to the ongoing shenanigans between John Boehner and NRCC chair Greg Walden. The Hill: The administration’s spending proposal will represent a “balanced approach” between nearly $2 trillion in deficit-reduction measures coupled with “critical investments” to accelerate job growth among the middle class, the president said Saturday.
The Age Of Reason: Dr. Alice Rivlin BBC: As the World Service marks its 80th anniversary, we ask six octogenarians how the world has changed for women in the last eight decades. In no single arena has the world altered so much and in such myriad ways. House GOP: More Spending Cuts For Debt Ceiling Politico: They might have appeared to stand down from the last clash over the debt ceiling in January. But don’t be fooled: House Republicans are still planning to push for steep spending cuts or budgetary reforms alongside legislation to allow more borrowing.
Dems Not Sold On A Grand Bargain Kate Nocera: The talk of any deal with congressional Republicans — and for now, it’s just that: talk — has liberals worried the White House will give in to changes to safety net programs including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security In Search Of A Debt Deal, Obama Walks A Narrow Path NY Times: Some former members of Mr. Obama’s economic team said the White House could have gotten more. Jared Bernstein, a former adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., faulted the administration for agreeing to extend the bulk of the Bush-era tax cuts rather than raising more tax revenue that could be used to pay for other priorities. Peter R. Orszag, who was Mr. Obama’s first budget director, said, “By making the middle-class tax cuts permanent, we’ve unfortunately locked into a revenue base that is inadequate.” This Is Why Obama’s Having Dinner With Republicans Ezra Klein: The White House’s much-discussed “charm offensive” is also an information offensive. A lot of congressional Republicans have an idea of who Obama is and what he’s willing to do that’s quite distant from who Obama thinks he is and what he’s said he’s willing to do. And the Obama they believe they’re negotiating with and arguing with is a highly partisan, extremely unreasonable figure — a figure whose actions and positions justify the GOP’s radical intransigence. Rand Paul’s Moment and the End of Obama Envy Philip Klein: Ever since losing the presidential election, the right has been consumed by envy of President Obama — of his mobilization of key voters, his digital strategy, his ability to successfully shift blame to Republicans and the way he is able to seemingly exploit every crisis for his political advantage.
Dems Settle In For A War Of Attrition Against GOP Greg Sargent: Dems had initially hoped the sequester would force concessions, and when that failed, had begun to eye the threat of a shutdown as the next major point around which to try to force Republicans to deal. But signs are that Dems will end up agreeing with some version of the GOP approach of funding the government at sequester levels through September. It’s true, as Brian Beutler has reported, that House Dems will withhold support for the GOP bill to force Republicans to pass it on their own and that Senate Dems are pressing for some changes to mitigate the sequester’s impact on non defense spending. These things could lead to a shutdown. But Dems are looking beyond the shutdown deadline and are now shaping their strategy around the belief that they’re in for a much longer, drawn out war than they’d previously expected. Frank Rich: A less cheesy rebranding regimen is being whipped up by moderate conservative pundits like Josh Barro of Bloomberg View, Ross Douthat of the Times, and Ramesh Ponnuru ofNational Review, who want to reinvent actual Republican policy so that it will focus on the needs of the same middle-class Americans apotheosized by Obama. George Will, among others on the right, has gone so far as to call for breaking up the big banks. “The perception that the Republican Party serves the interests only of the rich underlies all the demographic weaknesses that get discussed in narrower terms,” is Ponnuru crystallized the problem. |
Seven Myths About Keynsian Economics Fiscal Times: Harvard Historian Niall Ferguson has apologized for suggesting that John Maynard Keynes’ sexual orientation and lack of children made him indifferent to long-run economic issues. However, leaving the references to sexual orientation aside, it is commonly asserted, “Keynesian economists often dismiss … long-run concerns when the economy has short-run problems.” The claim that Keynesians are indifferent to the long-run is one of many myths about Keynesian economics: Meet the 28 Year Old Grad Student Who Just Shook The Global Austerity Movement New York Magazine: Herndon became instantly famous in nerdy economics circles this week as the lead author of a recent paper, “Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogoff,” that took aim at a massively influential study by two Harvard professors named Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. Five Takeaways From Fed Decision Wall Street Journal: Here are some quick takeaways from the Federal Reserve’s latest decision to keep its policies in place. Dropping the GOP’s Green Eyeshades James Pethokoukis: But balancing the budget in ten years is a dubious fiscal goal. It isn’t necessary to rush to balance so soon in order to reduce the nation’s debt-to-GDP ratio steadily. Further, the U.S. almost certainly isn’t on the verge of an EU-like debt crisis. Unemployment At Four Year Low As US Economy Gains Steam NY Times: Even as analysts hailed a better-than-expected jobs report on Friday that pointed to an acceleration in growth, they warned that stronger employment gains are being put at risk by sequestration, the automatic spending cuts being imposed by the federal government. Fed’s Yellen Says Forceful Stimulus Still Needed Reuters: Yellen, seen as a potential successor to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is expected to step down early next year, reiterated Fed officials’ intention to keep their foot on the accelerator even as the economy recovers. Robert M. Solow: I want to present a calmer view, by emphasizing six facts about the debt that many Americans may not be aware of. New York Times: Federal government spending often falls after recessions and wars, but the current round of cuts in investment and spending on goods and services is unusually deep. Combined with cuts by state and local governments, the drop in government’s contribution to economic growth is the largest in more than 50 years. The Bad Economic Policy In America’s Next Set Of Automatic Spending Cuts Quartz: The reason the US has fiscal problems isn’t because it spends too much on education or research but because its health-care costs are rising out of control and its population is getting older. But Congress isn’t focusing on those issues, nor on investments that would make the economy grow faster than the national debt. E.J. Dionne: Let’s call a halt to this madness. If we don’t move the economy to a better place, none of the fiscal projections will matter. The economic downturn ballooned the deficit. Growth will move the numbers in the right direction. |
