LBN Examiner 05/22/2022

ONE IN FOUR MEDICARE PATIENTS HARMED IN HOSPITALS, NEARLY HALF PREVENTABLE:

Medicare patients continue to experience harm during hospital stays, even after a decade of intensive efforts to decrease provider-caused adverse events, according to a report from the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG). Among the roughly 1 million Medicare patients who were discharged from hospitals in October 2018, a total of 258,323 experienced an adverse or temporary harm event during their stay. And 12% experienced events that led to longer stays, lifesaving interventions, permanent harm, or death. “This projects to 121,089 Medicare patients having experienced at least one adverse event during the 1-month study period,” the report stated.

Fur-Baby Boom? 7 in 10 Gen Z Adults Would Rather Have Pets Than Kids:

A new poll reveals seven in 10 young adults in Gen Z would rather adopt a pet than have their own children. Gen Z adults aren’t the only ones choosing pets over people; millennials are as well. In a survey of 1,000 pet owners, commissioned by ConsumerAffairs, researchers found that 57% of millennials love their pet more than their own sibling. Half of them said the same thing about their mother and 30% chose a pet over their significant other. Overall, 81% of millennial pet owners say they love their pet more than at least one family member – more than baby boomers (77%) or Generation X respondents (76%). Interestingly, cat owners (85%) were slightly more likely to choose their pet over a relative than dog owners (83%).

Wisconsin Student 13, Accused of Sexual Harassment, Hit with Title IX Complaint for Pronoun Use:

A Wisconsin mom shared her horror after her 13-year-old son was accused of sexual harassment for refusing to refer to a non-binary schoolmate with “they/them” pronouns. Rosemary Rabidoux hit out after her son Bradon became one of three eighth-grade schoolboys at Kiel Middle School subjected to an ongoing probe. It was triggered after they chose not to use the gender neutral pronoun for their unidentified classmate, who they instead referred to using “she” and “her.” Things appear to have escalated quickly with the school district now filing a Title IX complaint against the students, accusing them of sexual harassment for using the “incorrect” pronouns. Bradon’s mother, Rosemary, said that the district had taken things too far by filing such a complaint. The Kiel School District sees the refusal of students using particular pronouns to address their fellow pupils as a form of bullying. “The KASD prohibits all forms of bullying and harassment in accordance with all laws, including Title IX” stressing that it will “continue to support ALL students regardless of sex (including transgender status, change of sex or gender identity).”

Examiner – Lens:

March 7, 2022 – The train station in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Half-cup of Blueberries a Day Could Keep Dementia Away:

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati have found that a half-cup of blueberries can keep middle-aged adults from developing dementia as they get older. Moreover, the study finds adding the fruit to your diet lowers insulin levels and improves metabolic function – making it easier to burn fat for energy. It’s worth noting that the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council of Folsom, California, provided the funding for this research. Although blueberries are fairly similar to other berries and plants like red cabbage, study author Robert Krikorian notes this superfood contains high levels of micronutrients and antioxidants called anthocyanins. These give blueberries their classic color while defending the fruit against excess radiation exposure, plant viruses, and other potential threats.

More than 100,000 People Officially Missing in Mexico:

More than 100,000 people are now listed as missing in violence-wracked Mexico, a grim milestone that the United Nations rights chief called “a tragedy of enormous proportions.” Rights groups appealed for urgent action to tackle disappearances that have skyrocketed during years of spiraling drug-related violence. The National Registry of Missing Persons, which has been tracking disappearances since 1964, said that the whereabouts of 100,099 people were unknown. About 75% are men. The Movement for Our Disappeared warned that the figure was “certainly well below the number” of actual cases, calling for the government to deal with the crisis “in a comprehensive and immediate manner.” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the disappearances represented a “human tragedy of enormous proportions.” “No effort should be spared to put an end to these human rights violations and abuses of extraordinary breadth, and to vindicate victims’ rights to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition,” she added.

Examiner – 20 Years – A Look At 2002

The LBN Examiner was founded on June 1, 2002, an incredible 20 years ago. Let’s take a look back at what was going on in 2002:

** On May 16, “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” opened in movie theaters.

** On May 22, a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicted former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

Examiner – Lens:

Actress Selma Blair has a soft spot for Holocaust books. “I am drawn to the idea of continuing to bear witness to that horrible time,” says the actor, whose new book is Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up.

Examiner – Commentary by Nellie Bowles:

** The American economy is contracting: The economy shrank by 1.4% this past quarter. Causes cited: supply chain issues, rampant inflation, China’s zero-COVID policies, Russia’s invasion, you name it. The Federal Reserve can’t do much since they have to hike interest rates even more to reign in that runaway inflation. (I just paid $20 for two eggs and toast at the Burbank airport.)

** Brief list of things that could get you kicked off Twitter over the past few years: Saying COVID-19 was made in a lab. Saying cloth masks don’t work that well. Saying vaccinated people can spread COVID. Misgendering someone, even in satire. Reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. And my personal favorite: Saying the phrase “learn to code” derisively to someone.

** Crypto in deep trouble: If people thought the crypto markets would operate independently from equity markets, that appears to have been wrong. Various cryptocurrencies (Ethereum and Bitcoin) have plummeted, though the peak for those two was so high that they are still above where they were at the start of 2021. Coinbase, however, looks like it’s in real trouble. Its stock has dropped 77% in a year and the company said it could absorb their users’ investments in the case of bankruptcy.

** Pro-choice activists accidentally making pro-life propaganda: Pro-choice activists have pulled series of stunts intended to go viral this past week. In one, they are dressed in red like handmaids as they storm a predominantly Latino Catholic church service. While someone must have thought this would be effective, to an outsider it looks like crazy people berating families in the middle of mass.

Examiner – Humankind

** Toronto Blue Jays fan catches Yankees home run ball, gives it to young New York fan in sweet moment. WATCH

** Good Samaritans help a Florida driver suffering a medical episode. WATCH

** A toddler sweetly reacts to seeing his mom as a bride. WATCH

Examiner – Lens:

Stella Moris, the partner of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, is photographed in her Vivienne Westwood designed wedding dress before driving to Belmarsh Prison to marry Julian Assange, at a hotel in London, March 23.

Examiner – (Notable) Remarks:

** On the race question, Jon Stewart has decided to go way past even Robin DiAngelo, in his passionate anti-whiteness. His opening monologue was intoned at times in a somber tone, as if he were delivering hard truths that only bigots could disagree with. He argued that no one in America had been prepared to have an honest discussion about race – until the “reckoning” of 2020. He also suggested that nothing had been done by whites to support African-Americans from 1619 (yes, he went there) … till now. The most obvious solution – reparations – was, he implied, somehow, absurdly, taboo. His montage of “black voices” insisted that African-Americans are still granted only conditional citizenship, are still barred from owning property – “we don’t own anything!” – and ended with Sister Souljah – yes! – explaining that the thing that kills black people are not bullets, but white people. This is the same moral avatar who once said: “If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?” Stewart then hailed Angela Davis – a proud Communist, with a particular fondness for East Germany’s suppression of dissent – and warmly thanked her as “Angela.” But Stewart included not a single black voice of disagreement or nuance. He apparently believes that all black people hold the same view. And all white people just refuse to hear it. —- Andrew Sullivan

** Among the headline-grabbing wildfires, droughts and floods, it is easy to feel disheartened about climate change. I felt this myself when a United Nations panel released the latest major report on global warming. It said that humanity was running out of time to avert some of the worst effects of a warming planet. Another report is coming tomorrow. So I called experts to find out whether my sense of doom was warranted. To my relief, they pushed back against the notion of despair. The world, they argued, has made real progress on climate change and still has time to act. They said that any declaration of inevitable doom would be a barrier to action, alongside the denialism that Republican lawmakers have historically used to stall climate legislation. Such pushback is part of a budding movement: Activists who challenge climate dread recently took off on TikTok, my colleague Cara Buckley reported. “Fear is useful to wake us up and make us pay attention,” Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, told me. “But if we don’t know what to do, it paralyzes us.” —- German Lopez, New York Times

** I believe that children as young as elementary age are being taught to reject our American values. They are told that our Founding Fathers were massively flawed and that it overshadows the nation they built. They hear that our Constitution is “out of date” and needs to be “modernized.” Progressives are rewriting our nation’s history and they are doing it with our youngest and most vulnerable. We cannot let this happen! —- Dr. Ben Carson

Examiner – Lens:

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown poses for a photo on one of the hills on his ranch near Williams, California, March 2, 2022. Brown is living off the grid in retirement, but he’s still deeply connected on two issues that captivated him while in office and now are center stage globally: climate change and the threat of nuclear war.

Examiner – Readers Speak:

Do you believe in life after death?

Examiner readers from all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries have spoken.

Examiner – Lens:

It is a critical truism – and only partially true – that the Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo makes the same movie over and over. His protagonists belong to a particular milieu, which happens to be his: they work in the arts, usually in film, sometimes as novelists or painters. They are maladroit, at times in professional settings, always in personal matters. His plots revolve around romantic anguish and complication. Failures of communication abound. Characters are driven by libidinal urges and petty vanity. Action tends to be displaced to the realm of talk. Awkward conversations unfold over many drinks, alcohol serving as disinhibitor and spur to philosophical rumination. No one ever learns from their mistakes. But to accuse Hong of repeating himself misses the point. Repetition in his films is both subject and structuring device, and, like any artist who works with this formal strategy, Hong finds meaning in the subtlest variations, coaxing compelling moral dramas from prosaic scenarios.

Examiner – Reader Commentary by Theresa Perez of Boston:

“Gotaways,” those who breach our borders without ever being stopped and identified by Border Patrol or other authorities, are now estimated at 30,000 a month. Among these clandestinely crossing our border monthly are cartel members, child molesters, drug traffickers and sex offenders. We don’t know who they are, but we do know where they are. They are now our neighbors inside our homeland.

“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion.”

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Examiner – Cartoon:

Is it a market indicator when the Fed chairman’s buying lottery tickets?

Examiner – Reader Question:

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE DIRECTION OF AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION?

  • Have you heard about “Drag Queen Story Hour” for young children being held in schools and libraries?
  • How do you feel about “sex ed” lessons telling kids they can choose to be a boy or a girl – or something in between?
  • What about kids reading graphically sexual books as part of required school curriculum?

You might think it’s only happening in states like California or New York. That is not the case. Across the country, kids from kindergarten to high school are being exposed to early sexualization. This is often at the taxpayers’ expense in publicly funded schools.

Send your reply to: LBNExaminer@TimeWire.net

Amazon Recommends Business Book Classic “Broken Windows, Broken Business”

Amazon, the world’s largest bookseller, has recommended the revised edition of the business book classic “Broken Windows, Broken Business – The Revolutionary Broken Windows Theory: How the Smallest Remedies Reap the Biggest Rewards.” For more information click here – Broken Windows

Examiner – A Different View:…

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