Health

By Dan Dinello The attempt by some GOP politicians to tie the ebola outbreak to immigration issues is nothing new in American or European history. Immigrants have often been despised, feared and stigmatized by the native-born as harbingers of disease or even death. Conflating disease carriers with foreigners and social outcasts is a practice that […]

Coal

Top 5 Things More Americans will die of than Ebola this Year, including Guns

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The odd hysteria about ebola is being driven more by a media frenzy than the actual public health risks. Ebola is not the sort of disease that is likely to turn into a pandemic, becoming really wide spread. It is too hard to contract (it doesn’t spread by infected persons just breathing […]

Colonialism

WWI: Remembering how Europe Blockaded Lebanese Civilians & Killed 200,000 with Famine

contributors

BBC “Unknown to many, a third of the Lebanese population [then West Syria] died of famine and disease during World War One. BBC Arabic’s Carine Torbey recounts the horrifying story of the Famine of Mount Lebanon.” The famine of Mount Lebanon during WW1 – BBC News Note: Contrary to what Ms. Torbey alleges, the Ottomans […]

Epidemics

Top 4 Things we can learn from War on Terror in “War on Ebola”

contributors

By Karen J. Greenberg via Tomdispatch.com These days, two “wars” are in the headlines: one against the marauding Islamic State and its new caliphate of terror carved out of parts of Iraq and Syria, the other against a marauding disease and potential pandemic, Ebola, spreading across West Africa, with the first cases already reaching the […]

Epidemics

Dear USA: Liberian-Americans don’t Have Ebola

contributors

By Philippa Garson (Follow @PhilippaGarson ) NEW YORK, 17 October 2014 (IRIN) – Africans living in the US from the three Ebola-affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, are under enormous pressure trying to help their families and ravaged communities back home. And they face an additional challenge: stigma. For the residents of “Little […]

Health

Can Marijuana save your Life in a Car Collision?

contributors

TheLipTV “Marijuana users’ brains survive traumatic brain injury at higher rates, according to a study conducted on 446 participants, which showed that those with THC in their systems at the time of an accident had a lower mortality rate than those who did not. We look at the study, in this Lip News clip with […]

Health

Ebola & Immigrants and Muslims, Oh My! Operating the Fear Machine

contributors

by Rebecca Gordon Like many people around the world, four-star Marine General John Kelley is really worried about Ebola. But he’s not worried about the more than 4,000 people who have died of the disease in western Africa. And he’s only tangentially worried about people dying in this country. What is the real threat Ebola […]

Health

Top Five Worst Disease Epidemics (Historical Footage)

contributors

Top 5 Worst Disease Epidemics – British Pathé

Bill of Rights

Why do Politicians spend $9 billion a year to Jail the Mentally Ill?

contributors

Brave New Films “Instead of helping the mentally ill, police often put them behind bars. Watch how one police department is making a positive difference. It’s simple. Diversion programs work better than incarceration – for everyone. In cities like Seattle, San Antonio, and Salt Lake City, we see that successful solutions are a viable option […]