Saturday, July 23, 2011

Abominations

150 human animal hybrids grown in UK labs: Embryos have been produced secretively for the past three years

Last updated at 12:42 AM on 23rd July 2011

Scientists have created more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos in British laboratories.

The hybrids have been produced secretively over the past three years by researchers looking into possible cures for a wide range of diseases.

The revelation comes just a day after a committee of scientists warned of a nightmare ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario in which work on human-animal creations goes too far.

Last night a campaigner against the excesses of medical research said he was disgusted that scientists were ‘dabbling in the grotesque’.

Figures seen by the Daily Mail show that 155 ‘admixed’ embryos, containing both human and animal genetic material, have been created since the introduction of the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act.

This legalised the creation of a variety of hybrids, including an animal egg fertilised by a human sperm; ‘cybrids’, in which a human nucleus is implanted into an animal cell; and ‘chimeras’, in which human cells are mixed with animal embryos.

Scientists say the techniques can be used to develop embryonic stem cells which can be used to treat a range of incurable illnesses.

Three labs in the UK – at King’s College London, Newcastle University and Warwick University – were granted licences to carry out the research after the Act came into force.

All have now stopped creating hybrid embryos due to a lack of funding, but scientists believe that there will be more such work in the future.

The figure was revealed to crossbench peer Lord Alton following a Parliamentary question.

Last night he said: ‘I argued in Parliament against the creation of human- animal hybrids as a matter of principle. None of the scientists who appeared before us could give us any justification in terms of treatment.

‘Ethically it can never be justifiable – it discredits us as a country. It is dabbling in the grotesque.

‘At every stage the justification from scientists has been: if only you allow us to do this, we will find cures for every illness known to mankind. This is emotional blackmail.

‘Of the 80 treatments and cures which have come about from stem cells, all have come from adult stem cells – not embryonic ones.
‘On moral and ethical grounds this fails; and on scientific and medical ones too.’

Josephine Quintavalle, of pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: ‘I am aghast that this is going on and we didn’t know anything about it.

‘Why have they kept this a secret? If they are proud of what they are doing, why do we need to ask Parliamentary questions for this to come to light?

‘The problem with many scientists is that they want to do things because they want to experiment. That is not a good enough rationale.’

Earlier this week, a group of leading scientists warned about ‘Planet of the Apes’ experiments. They called for new rules to prevent lab animals being given human attributes, for example by injecting human stem cells into the brains of primates.

But the lead author of their report, Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Medical Research Council’ s National Institute for Medical Research, said the scientists were not concerned about human-animal hybrid embryos because by law these have to be destroyed within 14 days.

He said: ‘The reason for doing these experiments is to understand more about early human development and come up with ways of curing serious diseases, and as a scientist I feel there is a moral imperative to pursue this research.

‘As long as we have sufficient controls – as we do in this country – we should be proud of the research.’

However, he called for stricter controls on another type of embryo research, in which animal embryos are implanted with a small amount of human genetic material.

Human-animal hybrids are also created in other countries, many of which have little or no regulation.

Once a Cop always a Cop

Retired cop just can’t stop solving crimes

Mark brown markbrown@suntimes.com July 23, 2011 12:08AM

You might have seen the reports on television last week about Chicago police inviting the public to inspect and lay claim to more than $150,000 of stolen merchandise — mostly professional landscaping and construction tools — recovered from the West Side basement of a suspected fencing operation.

What you didn’t hear is the back story of what led them to that basement — how a retired police lieutenant and a landscaping contractor teamed up with Chicago police detectives to solve a crime that under normal circumstances might very well have fallen through the cracks.

It has been a year and a half since James Gantz retired from the Chicago Police Department, but he’s still got the bug, the itch, whatever you want to call the excitement that goes with doing good police work.

So when he heard that thieves had dealt a serious blow to his friend Fernando Magana by stealing $8,000 in landscaping equipment from a pair of locked trailers, Gantz wanted to help.

The 60-year-old Gantz, who spent most of his career as a patrolman on the West Side, knew a loss of that amount could knock Magana out of business. And he also knew that investigating his friend’s case wouldn’t be a high priority in a police department that has its hands full these days with violent crime.

But he had some advice for Magana on how he might go about recovering his equipment. Visit all the area flea markets, he suggested, and see what turns up. Gantz surmised someone who would steal such specialized equipment knew what they were doing and probably made a habit of it.

He also told Magana that if he found any of his stuff he should not confront the person in possession of it, nor, surprisingly enough, should he call the police, with whom he had already filed an initial theft report. Gantz didn’t think it would do much good for the Spanish-speaking Magana to bring police cold into a confrontation where it would be difficult to prove who was the rightful owner. Just call me, he recommended.

A week passed, and the first weekend, Magana didn’t find anything at the flea markets. The second weekend was different.

“He called me all excited,” Gantz said.

Magana and a cousin who works with him had recognized a couple of their smaller pieces of equipment for sale by a vendor at the Swap-O-Rama, 42nd and Ashland. Magana didn’t have the original receipts with him.

Gantz told Magana he would need to take his police work a step further. Act like you want to start your own landscaping business, he suggested, and show an interest in buying the equipment, but tell the seller you don’t have enough money with you. The object: Get a phone number to contact the seller later.

Magana’s cousin tried the ruse, and it worked, coming away with a phone number. They also tailed the man back to his vehicle and got his license plate number.

Now Gantz was ready to bring in the real police. He contacted another retired lieutenant who gave him the name of a supervisor to call at Area 5. In short order, Detective Stanley Colon, a veteran auto-theft specialist, was assigned the case.

Police quickly learned the license plate checked out to the address of a man recently placed on two year’s probation for attempted burglary. Bingo.

The former cop and the veteran cop put their heads together and somebody suggested Magana and his cousin set up a meeting with the suspect, a simple sting operation.

It was arranged for the next day — in the CVS parking lot at Fullerton and Pulaski. Magana’s cousin came. So did the guy with Fernando’s stolen equipment. Detectives Colon and Stephen Murrin were there to arrest him with Sgt. Patrick Crawford supervising. As much as he wanted to be there, Gantz knew it wasn’t his place.

Police say the suspect then gave them permission to search his building at 1058 N. Pulaski. That’s when they found the motherlode — a basement filled floor to ceiling with stolen merchandise.

Not only was all of Magana’s equipment recovered, but another 20 victims were able to reclaim their stolen property as well, said Detective Milorad “Mike” Sofrenovic, who assisted in the follow-up investigation.

“It would have been highly unlikely any of this would have happened without Gantz,” Sofrenovic said.

I learned about this story from one of Gantz’s neighbors in Old Irving Park, where Fernando’s Landscaping does a lot of business. Although he was happy to fill in the details, Gantz was adamant the Area 5 detectives deserved all the credit.

“I’m just glad it worked out. Fernando’s a real good guy. He’s an honest, hardworking guy,” Gantz said.

But if you twist his arm, he’ll admit it was as much fun as he had as a young police officer 35 years ago.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/6656375-418/retired-cop-just-cant-stop-solving-crimes.html

Great job Office...

Friday, July 22, 2011

UnSocialized Chrysler

The Hill

Issa blasts Treasury's exit from Chrysler

By Peter Schroeder - 07/21/11 06:11 PM ET

House Oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has blasted the Treasury for taking a $1.3 billion loss on its exit from the bailout of Chrysler.

On Thursday, the Treasury announced that Italian auto maker Fiat, which is in the process of merging with Chrysler had completed the $560 million purchase of the government's outstanding take in the domestic car company.

In turn, Issa criticized the administration for not recouping all of its $12.5 billion rescue investment in Chrysler -- especially since the deal was made with a foreign company.

"The administration has sold out an American icon to a foreign company using TARP funds underwritten by taxpayers," he said in a statement. "Now they are essentially giving that same company $1.3 billion of taxpayer money.

"At a time when American taxpayers must make tough choices to repay their mortgages—even on houses worth less than they paid—it is unfathomable that Italian automaker Fiat and its subsidiary Chrysler got away with repaying less than the full amount borrowed from the U.S. government," he added.

Although the government only expects to recoup $11.2 billion of the Chrysler bailout, the Treasury touted the speed at which the government exited the rescue effort, which officials said saved a large number of American jobs.

“With today's closing, the US government has exited its investment in Chrysler at least six years earlier than expected,” said the Treasury's assistant secretary for financial stability, Tim Massad. “This is a major accomplishment and further evidence of the success of the Administration’s actions to assist the US auto industry, which helped save a million jobs during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”

Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/172861-issa-blasts-treasurys-exit-from-chrysler

Chrysler has finally been released from it's Socialist yoke but at such a high price to the American Taxpayer. The punishment of the American people by the Obama Administration continues.

Croney Capitalism

General Electric Profit, Revenue Beat Forecasts

EARNINGS, GENERAL ELECTRIC, GE, CNBC.COM, CNBC,

Reuters

| 22 Jul 2011 | 07:59 AM ET

General Electric reported a 21.6 percent rise in profit, topping estimates, boosted by strong demand outside the United States for its heavy equipment including jet engines and electric turbines.

The largest U.S. conglomerate , whose shares were up 2.3 percent in premarket trading, said Friday second-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders came to $3.69 billion, or 35 cents per share, compared with $3.03 billion, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.

Factoring out one-time items, profit was 34 cents per share.

On that basis, analysts had looked for profit of 32 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 3.5 percent to $35.63 billion, from a prior-year $37.44 billion, reflecting the sale of a majority stake in its NBC Universal business to Comcast . Analysts had expected $34.7 billion.

GE is a minority shareholder in CNBC and CNBC.com.

The strongest growth came in the company's railroad locomotive unit, which posted a 74 percent surge in revenue following an extended downturn.

The energy unit stood out as a weak spot, with a 19 percent drop in profit, reflecting slower demand for wind turbines and the cost of integrating recently acquired companies.

"We are optimistic about our growth prospects in the second half and beyond," said Chief Executive Jeff Immelt.

Investors said the results showed the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company's focus on emerging markets was paying off.

"GE's strategy of growth in developing nations and energy and infrastructure and health care and technology is serving it well," said Perry Adams, vice president and senior portfolio manager at Huntington Private Financial Group, in Traverse City, Michigan, which holds GE shares.

GE joins a slew of big U.S. manufacturers reporting second-quarter results this week. Their results have been mixed. Companies that do a lot of business outside the United States, such as United Technologies , have exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

Those with significant exposure to U.S. consumers, including Ingersoll Rand , have fallen short.

GE shares were higher in premarket trading. Get real-time quotes for General Electric here.

As of Thursday's close, GE shares had risen about 26 percent over the past 12 months, ahead of the 23 percent rise of the Dow Jones industrial average.

The industrial side of the business is "a larger and larger percent of the whole business," Jack de Gan, Principal and Senior Advisor at Harbor Advisory, told CNBC.

The capital moves that GE is making "are all things that are very shareholder-friendly," de Gan said, adding that another dividend rise may be in the cards within a year.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43843552

If you want to be a successful company in the US today then follow the business plan above that GE has been using. Become a big contributor to the Progressives and their lackeys and the reap in all the benefits. You can also not worry about paying any taxes just like GE does. Who says that 'croney capitalism' does not work? It does but it unfortunately speeds up the destruction of the rest of the economy.

The 2nd Amendment

Description: cid:2267D6C53D6E4D088782450777D8263D@MlynsPC

The ultimate protector of our Freedoms.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Fall of the American Empire

Click on picture above to enlarge.

Progressive Democrat Party guests from left to right: Tim Geithner, John Kerry, KSM, Oprah, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Axelrod, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Party Crashers #1, Rahm Emanuel, Eric Holder, Party Crashers #2, Harry Reid, John Edwards, Bluto, Andy Stern, Bill Clinton, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Barney Frank, Kevin Jennings
Statues left to right: Che Guevara, Saul Alinsky, Obama, Chairman Mao, Lenin

Things to come with Obamacare.

Study Questions Cost-Effectiveness of MS DrugsDoctors Express Concern About Soaring Prices of Disease-Modifying Drugs for Multiple Sclerosis

By Brenda Goodman

July 20, 2011 -- Drugs that slow progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) offer health gains to some at very high prices, a new study shows.

The study seems likely to reignite the national debate about how best to rein in runaway health care costs. It found that adding an injectable disease-modifying drug to the treatment of MS patients roughly doubles the cost of care, while only providing small population-level improvements in survival and quality of life.

Doctors who were not involved in the study were alarmed by its findings.

"We know, unequivocally, that these drugs slow the progression of the disease and slow the course of the disease," says Karen Blitz-Shabbir, MD, director of multiple sclerosis care center at North Shore-LIJ Glen Cove Hospital in New York.

"When I first started training, people were hospitalized all the time and did much worse than they do now," she says, "So we know for sure these drugs are good."

But the cost of the drugs continues to soar.

Even in the face of new competition from a new pill, pharmaceutical companies recently announced increases of nearly 40% over 2010 prices. Disease-modifying drugs for MS carry wholesale prices of as much as $48,000 a year.

"Will the health care companies, the health care industry, prevent patients from accessing the drugs because of a study like this?" Blitz-Shabbir says. "The real problem is the pharmaceutical cost is out of control."

The study is published in Neurology.

Calculating Cost-Effectiveness of MS Drugs

Using mathematical models developed using data from a large, national patient survey, researchers found that the cost-effectiveness for the disease-modifying drugs Avonex, Betaseron,Copaxone, and Rebif exceeded $800,000 per quality-adjusted life year.

A quality-adjusted life year is a measure that tries to account for both the length of time a person could expect a treatment to extend life and how good he or she feels during that time.

For example, the study found that on average, patients taking Copaxone for 10 years could expect the drug to add less than one quality-adjusted month to their lives compared to patients who were only getting supportive therapy to control symptoms.

Patients taking Avonex, Betaseron, and Rebif gained about two quality-adjusted months compared to those getting supportive care.

The study also looked at how likely the drugs were to prevent relapses.

Those taking disease-modifying drugs spent on average nearly six out of 10 years with no relapses, compared to five years with no relapses for those who did not take disease-modifying drugs.

However, the effectiveness varied significantly among individuals, with some experiencing double the improvements and being able to live independently and prolong their employment and others not getting any meaningful effect.

Why Cost-Effectiveness Matters

"We were surprised how non-cost-effective they are," says study researcher Katia Noyes, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of health services research at the University of Rochester, N.Y.

Why Cost-Effectiveness Matters continued...

Cost-effectiveness is a metric used by economists to try to gauge the size of the benefit patients appear to get for their health care dollar.

It's become a buzzword as the government and health insurers try to figure out which treatments are worth covering and how to control skyrocketing health care costs.

In the U.S., there is no set threshold that determines cost-effectiveness, but other countries and some health care agencies use a figure around $50,000 per quality-adjusted life year as one cutoff.

The study found disease-modifying drugs for multiple sclerosis are about 16 times more expensive than that.

"When we talk about effectiveness, we're talking about average effectiveness. If we look at the individual person, many of them will have great benefits, and there will be some who have no benefit at all or even negative effects," Noyes says. "So here is a trade-off between national policy or population-based policy and individual patients."

For the study, researchers extracted data on 844 people with MS who were part of a large national patient database. They collected information on things like health care costs, lost work time, disease severity, disease progression, and medications, and they used that information to develop mathematical models.

Over 10 years, the models estimated that the average cost to treat one patient was $267,710 with supportive care, but nearly doubled when researchers added the costs of disease-modifying drugs to the equation.

Overall, health outcomes for patients on the disease-modifying drugs appeared to be only slightly better than for those on supportive care.

Making Improvements in Cost-Effectiveness

Other countries pay far less for the same medications.

Patients in the U.K., for example, get the drug Betaseron for about $12,000 a year, while it costs about $34,000 in the U.S.

Researchers say that if the U.S. were to see prices for these drugs like those paid by patients in the U.K., the treatments could achieve more accepted levels of cost-effectiveness.

The cost-effectiveness also improved when people were started on the drugs early in the course of their disease, when the medications could still prevent permanent nerve damage, perhaps keeping them healthier, longer.

The impact of the study will be "a good deal of discussion concerning where we are in the treatment of MS in terms of cost, obviously, and in terms of where we would like to go in the future," says Nicholas LaRocca, PhD, vice president of health care delivery and policy research at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The organization helped to fund the study.

"I would imagine that some people will look at this study and will feel that it will discourage the availability of treatment, but I don't really see that happening," he says. "We need to do more studies like this."

Other experts pointed out that the high costs are already hitting patients hard.

"Some patients will get a new prescription, but they don't get the prescription filled because it's so costly," says Kathleen A. Smyth, PhD, co-director of the Neurological Outcomes Center and associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

Symth, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study, says she thinks the message of the study isn't that patients shouldn't be treated with the drugs. "It's that we have to get drug prices under control in this country."

http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/news/20110720/study-questions-cost-effectiveness-of-ms-drugs

This is what socialized medicine that Obamacare will bring to the US. It has failed there and will fail here. I better start looking at wheelchairs. You better not get sick.

UPDATE: July 22, 2011

Benefit of MS Drugs Comes at Steep Price, Study Finds

Published July 22, 2011

| Reuters

Drugs used in the hope of slowing multiple sclerosis progression may help some patients, but at a very high cost, according to a study out Wednesday.

The medications in question are the so-called disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) that have been available since the 1990s to treat multiple sclerosis.

The drugs include beta interferons (brand-names like Avonex, Rebif and Betaseron), glatiramer (Copaxone) and natalizumab (Tysabri). They are given by injection or infusion and can help prevent MS symptom flare-ups and delay long-term disability from the disease.

But the price tag is large, with each drug now costing upwards of $3,000 a month in the U.S.
The new study, published in the journal Neurology, estimates that people who use the medications for a decade would get a modest health benefit for the money.

They would gain an extra two months or less of good health over 10 years, the researchers say, compared with using only therapies that help ease MS symptoms — like medications for pain, fatigue and muscle spasms.

Overall, the study estimated, DMDs cost close to $1 million for each year of relatively healthy life a person with MS could expect to gain with 10 years of use.

In contrast, common thresholds used to define a "cost-effective" treatment range between $50,000 and $150,000 for each good-quality year of life gained.

The figure for DMDs is an "order of magnitude higher," said Katia Noyes, a researcher at the University of Rochester in New York who led the study.

However, she stressed that the findings do not mean that people with MS shouldn't take the drugs.

"This study was not designed to try to deprive people with MS of any therapy," Noyes said in an interview. It was not intended, she said, to tell doctors what to prescribe or insurance companies what to pay for.

But, Noyes added, in the age of healthcare reform, studies need to look at the value of different medical therapies, and what factors seem to affect their cost-effectiveness for patients overall.

In the case of DMDs for MS, she said, starting earlier in the course of the disease appears to be better.

The researchers estimate that starting the drugs before any noticeable disability makes the medications more cost-effective — though they still hover above $700,000 for each good-quality year of life gained.

Part of the issue is the nature of MS and how DMDs work. In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks nerve fibers in the body, causing symptoms like muscle weakness, numbness, vision problems and difficulty with coordination and balance. In most cases, those symptoms wax and wane — worsening for a period of time, followed by a period of milder symptoms or none at all. Eventually, the cycle often leads to physical disability.

Early on, DMDs can reduce the number of symptom flare-ups. But their central effect on quality of life would be in stalling disability, Noyes noted.

"The main benefit of these drugs is in the long-term," she said. "That may be 10 or 20 years down the road."

Noyes also pointed out that MS is "not unique" in having therapies with a high price for the benefit.

Other examples include implanted defibrillators for people at high risk of cardiac arrest, many cancer treatments and some arthritis therapies. And there are many medical interventions, Noyes said, whose cost-effectiveness has never been studied.

"The good news from this study is that these drugs do seem to be effective, on average," said Kathleen A. Smyth, a researcher at the Neurological Outcomes Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

"The bad news is, these positive outcomes come at a very high price," said Smyth, who wrote an editorial published with the study.

People already on the MS drugs know well the high costs, she noted in an interview, but the price tag might come as a shock to new patients.

However, Smyth said, people with MS need to make treatment decisions on an individual basis, after discussions with their doctor — and not based on cost alone.

Like Noyes, she pointed out that earlier treatment appeared more effective in this study. So while it may ultimately cost more, starting a DMD earlier may benefit patients more.

"I don't think there's anything in this study that should stop people from getting an early diagnosis or starting treatment," Smyth said.

She also noted that the picture may change in the future. When individual DMDs' patents eventually expire, for example, the cost of some could well come down. And then certain medications may become preferred by insurance companies.

Both Noyes and Smyth said the findings highlight a wider issue: the high price Americans pay for prescription drugs.

Avonex, for example, cost Americans with MS about $34,000 for the year in 2010. The price in the UK was equivalent to about $12,000 — because that's all the National Health Service will pay for the drug.

And costs are only going up. Makers of the DMDs have raised their prices since last year, in response to the approval of the first oral MS drug — Gilenya, made by Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG.

The annual cost of that medication in the U.S. will be about $48,000. But since it's a pill, the medication is expected to cut significantly into sales of the other DMDs.

As it stands, Smyth said, no particular DMD stands out as a "best buy" for Americans.

Manufacturers of the DMD drugs did not respond in time to Reuters Health requests for comment on the new study, however a spokesman for Biogen Idec, maker of Avonex, did offer a written statement on the question of drug costs:

"The overall cost of disease management for a chronic disease like MS is expensive and includes much more than medication," wrote Jeff Boyle. "Avonex is approved for the treatment of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and we believe the pricing is consistent with the real world value it delivers to patients with MS. Avonex remains the least expensive option for those looking to slow the progression of their MS and is the only once-a-week treatment for RRMS that is proven to reduce relapses, start working after the first attack and delay physical disability progression, helping patients stay active longer."

Dim Bulb - Contessa Brewer

This is the newest dim bulb, Contessa Brewer. This is a shining example of a Progressive shill working at MSNBC, a propaganda outlet for the Democrat Party. She is seen above, after kissing so much Progressive @ss!!!

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/20/msnbc_to_gop_congressman_do_you_have_a_degree_in_economics.html

All American Conservative