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The death toll rises

  I am preparing a Current Events session for our group at MonteCedro on the continuing war in Gaza. We discussed this in the fall of last year when it started but it has become obvious that an update is (sadly) necessary. The death toll in Gaza has passed 32,000 but as the New York Times notes, it is likely much higher than that.   “ Gaza has become a 140-square-mile graveyard, each destroyed building another jagged tomb for those still buried within.” I have read through numerous accounts from a wide variety of news sources. The Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 was unprecedented, barbaric, and horrible: 1143 dead, 250+ hostages taken, rapes and sexual assaults. Israel’s response was predictable but equally horrible in its consequences. Dead: 32,000 and counting. Wounded: many, many thousands more. Gaza became a major humanitarian crisis overnight with forced evacuations from Gaza City to the south followed by an air and land assault of immense size. Famine looms, especially...
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Obesity and Ozempic

  Obesity is increasing in prevalence worldwide. It isn’t only a problem in rich and developed countries but also in poorer and lesser developed countries. For our Current Events program here at MonteCedro, I prepared a presentation on obesity and the newest approach to it – drugs like Ozempic that reduce appetite and increase satiety. Their original use was as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes but the ancillary finding of weight loss during their use has promoted an awful lot of hype. Below the line is a list of references that I used in preparing the talk. I hope to provoke commentary about not only the health effects that surround obesity and these newer medications but also to look at obesity through a comprehensive biopsychosocial lens. Obesity has been labeled a disease by the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association but I wonder if it truly is a disease. Hope the links spur some reading and thought. =========================  Another Ozempic side eff...
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11 Months and Counting

  We are now at less than 11 months until the 2024 elections. The polls indicate that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. President Biden by the polls consistently lags behind Trump and is blamed for the “poor economy”, the war in Gaza, and for being too old. Trump, indicted 91 times in multiple jurisdictions, meanwhile signals strongly that he will take on the mantle of a dictator if he is inaugurated in January 2025. He has vowed to install nothing but vetted loyalists to senior positions in a second administration; to fire thousands of civil servants so that he can do the same al lower levels in the Executive; to curb the media and anyone who criticizes him; and top take vengeance on those he hates personally (because he feels they have humiliated him). If that does not remind you of Germany in the 1930s, you failed history. Robert Kagan’s essay in the 30 November New York Times was a bleak read. The fact that we already have a government of the minority and a flawed ...
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