The following article was released on Reuters Health feed today, reviewing a very biased study about the interactions of herbal remedies and modern prescription drugs.

Herbal remedies, heart drugs don’t mix: review | Reuters.

Of course the study found that herbal remedies and prescription drugs “interact.” The breathtaking bias is however in the automatic assumption that the natural herbal remedies must be at fault if there are negative symptoms or complications. When you consider that every pharmaceutical solution to a medical problem (approved by the FDA, mind you) is accompanied by a list of possible side effects that would (should!) frighten any rational, thinking person concerned for their health, this assertion by the reviewers is ludicrous and insulting.

Natural remedies, taken alone and used with the guidance of a naturopath or other trained healer, rarely ever cause the kinds of side effects you see listed on a typical pharmaceutical label. And yet, the study linked above would have you believe that any negative effects caused by taking natural remedies in conjunction with BigPharma medicines are the fault of the herbal supplements. The very wording of the review, the phrases chosen, the bias apparent in the viewpoint is dismaying and frustrating. The health challenges facing everyone in the western world, a fat percentage of which have been caused by BigPharma in the first place, won’t be solved by BigPharma, their lobbyists, or the millions they’re spending to buy your elected representatives.

Before you go in for your next doctor’s appointment, take time to do the research on the medications you’re taking as well as any natural, herbal supplements that might improve your health. Don’t be put off by the scare tactics, don’t be bullied by your doctor or insurance company. If you can’t take decisions about your health into your own hands (and the responsibility for the consequences!), you have no one to blame but yourself for the escalating costs of your health care, and your health insurance premiums.

I don’t even know what to begin to say to this…

From our good friends at ReligionNewsBlog:

Islamic Militants in Somalia Murder Christian Leader.

This has been one of the most under-reported stories this week.

BBC News – Iran ‘executes two over post-election unrest’.

It is difficult to understand how any regime can claim legitimacy while it resorts to stifling dissent with the hangman’s noose. If anyone ever doubted why it is so crucial to have religion separated from governance, they need look no farther than the Islamic Republic of Iran.

From our friends at CNN.com, some very sad news.

‘People’s History’ author Howard Zinn dead at 89 – CNN.com.

Finally, some good prospects for us getting free of our dependence on (dirty, polluting, foreign) oil:

30% Wind Power Feasible, New U.S. Study Finds | Worldwatch Institute.

Sadly, this paragraph denotes some of the real reasons we’re not seeing more wind towers in our landscapes:

States and local organizations, including environmental groups, have opposed large transmission projects due to their location near neighborhoods or natural habitats, even though such projects would facilitate greater renewable energy use. “Everybody loves wind, but nobody likes looking ahead to see a wire,” Corbus said.

We all have to live on this planet. I think I’d rather see a prairie full of wind towers than offshore oil wells and contemplating the ruination of the Alaska wilderness. Let’s think about the world we’re leaving our children, not just the view out of our own backyards.

A good update on the evidenciary proceedings so far in this landmark gay discrimination case.

Prop. 8 challengers highlight religion’s role in campaign – latimes.com.

This article from the BBC is a good layman’s explanation of how research on MRSA has delved into its genetic code — and what that means to us.

BBC News – MRSA superbug strain ‘tracked’ via genome.

Regular readers of this blog will remember Celebrating Rumi, a review of a CD by Shahram Shiva. Shiva is a native of Iran who fled during the Islamist Revolution 30 years ago, and who has devoted the last 20 years of his life to studying and performing works of Rumi.

In email this evening I received an email (mass email, I’m on their mailing list) from the Rumi Network in which Shahram Shiva muses on the contrasts between what happened 30 years ago in Iran, and what is happening (and not happening) now. I repost it here for our readers in its entirety, with this disclaimer:

These are the views of Shahram Shiva, who is not affiliated in any way with Metaphors For Life. We may or may not share his views; they are reposted here for the consideration of our readership, who are intelligent enough to draw their own conclusions from it.

Iran’s New Murmur for Freedom – A Look Back & Personal Journey

The recent outpouring for justice and basic human rights from the streets of Iran, my country of birth, takes me back 30 years ago to the first revolution. The bloody, wild, loud and destructive revolution and regime change that I witnessed first hand and remember very vividly through the eyes of an active 16-year-old teenager.

I remember the cries of “god is great” from the rooftops at night, these are the same cries that Iranians are shouting again, although in quieter voices. I remember going to the roof of our building in North of Tehran with my neighbor and best buddy Ali Reza to watch Tehran burn during the height of the protests. I also remember being trapped in my high school, which was very close to Tehran University, with massive military presence outside using tanks, personnel carriers and armed soldiers.

That day we were given a warning to vacate the high school, or they would open fire. No one trusted the voices coming through bullhorns as they hid under the tables and in closets in various rooms in the building, however I and a handful of others nervously but slowly walked out and left that area. I learned the next day that moments after we left they attacked our high school with tear gas, arrested all and seized the building.

My simple gesture of abandoning the holdout on that day, leaving behind the most politically active high school in Tehran was more than an attempt at self-preservation; it was a subconscious mental confirmation of my total disbelieve in that so called “revolution.” I never wanted to be a part of it, actually never asked to be such an active witness either. Even at such young age I knew then that the degenerate mullahs (clerics) where a dark and hypocritical force and supporting them would be a vote for a life of misery. Luckily I left Iran soon after.

My most vivid memory from that time, wasn’t abandoning my high school on that day and never returning, or seeing Tehran on fire, but it was asking a classmate who I thought had more sense why he had joined the protests and he laughed and said, “because it’s so much fun.” Yes, the first revolution was brought up by bored class clowns and those who were brainwashed and turned slaves by the religious fanatics.

Those unaware masses who placed the extremely rich 7000-year heritage of our great land into the hands of the barbaric and hypocritical religious nutcases, promptly, as if through a time portal, regressed our country back a good 1000 years.

However, all that darkness and regression befell Iran though a massive and popular uprising.

Now 30 years later, I know better not to get my hopes up. I have a feeling that the Iranians will fail me once again.

I remember very clearly back in 1978 and 1979 the type of energy, the magnitude of force and the outcry for change that rocked Tehran but today in comparison I see only a marginal display.

What I see is not a shout for freedom but a whimper. I don’t see hundreds of thousands facing the armed guards and overpowering them, I see small batches of enlightened heroes and freedom fighters quickly overcome by basic crowd control tactics.

I don’t see protestors 30,000 strong taking over TV stations, government offices and official residences, I see a small band of warriors fighting the big fight with too few braves to win it.

I’d hope after exactly 30 years our younger generation would have had it with these agents of suppression and hate. I’d hope they would have been so angry to the point that they would be willing to sacrifice themselves en mass for the greater good. But no such luck. Alas, the new generation is too politically correct and self involved to bring about an actual revolution.

Unseat the Mullahs
The clerics only understand brute force. And why shouldn’t they, they have an absolute hold on an extremely oil-rich country. They control all aspects of life in Iran and have amassed a large army of thugs to maintain total domination over the lives of 70 million people. A true revolution in Iran can only happen when the same people who appointed these brutal, heartless, faithless mullahs into power to drag them off of their thrones and unseat them for good.

To yank these mullahs from power will take a massive force. That great punch that knocked out the old regime needs to be duplicated now. The timing is right, the world is totally and wholly supportive of the new march for freedom in Iran. People all over the globe are rooting for those in Iran who are enlightened and courageous enough to want to change their lives for the better. The time is now.

Rumi Would Vote Green
I have lived with Rumi now for over 20 years. In the past two decades as I have shared Rumi with the world, through my books, music, readings and events I have come to a special understanding of him. Rumi was Maverick’s Maverick. A true independent. In his first epic collection, Rumi repeatedly speaks of setting fire to the dogmatic way of life and accepting the essence of Love as the true faith of the enlightened.

Well, Rumi was 1000 years ahead of his time in the 13th Century.

The one who is born into Love,
doesn’t follow any one religion,
be sure of that.
Since in the religion of Love,
there is no irreverence or faith.
For the true Lover, the Ka’ba
and an idol temple are one.

Transform Iran – Transform the World
Iran is a great nation, with rich history, filled with gracious people and it deserves to be governed by a secular and democratic government.

I salute the very courageous Persian men and women who are facing the attack dogs of this brutal regime. I hope to see their numbers multiply every day. A momentum has been created, a crack is formed, now increase the pressure and topple the old bastards and not only transform Iran but shape the whole world. I am rooting for you.

Here’s to victory over dark, suppressive forces that may reside anywhere in the world,

Shahram Shiva

I found this quote this morning and it seemed to speak aptly to what I would see as core conservative ideology:

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory
future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.
–Robertson Davies

Doesn’t that sound like modern political conservatives? Never look to the future, always seek to cling to the past. “If it was good enough for my father and grandfather, it’s good enough for me — and what’s more, it must be good enough for you too! Never mind that time has moved on and it’s a brand new world out there — that’s not nearly as important as maintaining my personal comfort in reality as I see it!”

Students of politics will recognize the above as a fairly pathological version of what conservatism once was. Among its best virtues are conserving what has been most important about us. They are the keepers of our history, conservators of what has been right and best about us. It’s why, in a balanced society, we need conservatives just as we need moderates and progressives — conservatives remind us what has worked for us, just as progressives seek for the next things that will work for us in a brighter tomorrow.

Unfortunately, this core function of conservatism has become lost in religious hysteria and political paranoia. It has sickened and twisted in the previous eight years during a cultural stagnation so profound it might well be termed calcification. Now an unrecognizable doppleganger of itself, it seems unable to fulfill its basic function in our modern society, acting as a balance to progressive fervor. Thus our whole society sickens; in a desperate search for a cure we fling ourselves to one extreme of the political spectrum, rolling in it like dogs roll in something smelly. Eventually, disillusioned with what could only have been a partial fix at best, we abandon ship like panicked rats and fling ourselves to yet another extreme, so long as it promises us some relief from the ills that plague us.

The extreme metaphors fit the extreme situation in which we as Americans find ourselves. If conservatives cannot get their house in order and return to their basic core functions — those functions which actually make them important and necessary in modern society — it’s probable that they will make themselves irrelevant and disappear from modern political discourse. If they cannot entertain and embrace that they are merely one slice of an entire spectrum of views and learn to function as that, they only continue to propagate what is worst about American politics.

I cannot claim to be politically moderate. I am wholeheartedly progressive in my politics and my religion. Even so, I can look across that gulf and wish my conservative cousins would wake up from their decades-long nightmare, that they would come back to themselves and what’s best about them so we can learn how to govern ourselves in moderation and equality, as our Founding Fathers once envisioned.

Worth considering: Political conservatives reclaiming their integrity, distancing themselves from the religious fundamentalists with whom they’ve been in bed for far too long. Chart a course free of the hysteria and fear-mongering that come with those who cling to belief rather than fact and who refuse to accept that the rest of us choose not to live that way. Political conservatives do themselves no favors by continuing to cater to those who would blur the lines between church and state, and such catering depreciates their credibility with moderate Americans (who mostly wish they’d keep their religious views to themselves).

In other words, conservatives, it truly is not that you were never “conservative enough.” It’s simply that conservatism isn’t THE truth, that conservatism MUST learn how to play well with the other philosophies in the political playground. As Americans we govern best when we govern collectively; in an era when our national boundaries are becoming increasingly meaningless in light of global concerns, “governing well” has never been more critical.

It’s not just us — this euphoric feeling of release, of joy, and of hope is blooming all over the world today:

“It’s kind of nice to feel good about the United States again.” — Armando Díaz, Carcacas, Venezuela

“Your election raises in France, in Europe, and elsewhere in the world, an immense hope.” — Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France and leader of the EU.

“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.” — Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and former president of South Africa

“There is the feeling that for the first time since Kennedy, America has a different kind of leader.” — Alejandro Saks, Argentina

‘’His election can be a lesson for the dictators of the Middle East.” — Badr-al-sadat Mofidi, Iran

“American democracy has just lived through a marvelous moment, one of those major turning points that periodically demonstrates its vitality, its belief in the future and its trust in the values on which it was founded over two centuries.” — Bernard Kouchner, French foreign minister

[Obama's victory] demonstrated the vitality of this great country, and of democracy and the unstoppable force of the ballot to bring about change … I am confident this opens a horizon of promise for relations between the United States and Spain.” — José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister

“We were all hoping that he would win. And the fact that he did with such a large margin is a sign of real change — at least let’s hope so.” — Carla Saggioro, Italy

And, my personal favorite so far:

“They did it. They really did it. So often crudely caricatured by others, the American people yesterday stood in they eye of history and made an emphatic choice for change for themselves and the world.” — The Guardian.