“Clarke Canfield” - Heating oil use falls as prices, irritation rise

By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press

March 11, 2011

http://www.salon.com/wires/us/2011/03/11/D9LT61UG0_us_hating_heating_oil/index.html

Home heating oil prices have been rising fast, but heating oil consumption has been going the other way in recent years.

Maine is more reliant than any other state on oil for heat. Heating oil prices have risen 32 percent there in the past four months.

But according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential heating oil sales in Maine plummeted 35 percent from 2004 to 2009. Nationwide sales fell 26 percent.

The cost has led people to turn down the heat, make their homes more energy-efficient, supplement with other methods or simply switch to other fuels.

Jamie Py of the Maine Energy Marketers Association notes that many people have simply decided to wean themselves off oil because they're fed up with the wild swings of the market.



“Anna Sussman” - The squirmy ethics of breast milk ice cream

As the blogs fume and Lady Gaga threatens to sue, we look at why a little scoop is causing such a big roar

By Anna Sussman

March 10, 2011

http://www.salon.com/food/food_psychology/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/03/10/twisted_ethics_of_breast_milk_ice_cream

When London-based ice cream maker Matt O'Connor launched "Baby Gaga," a flavor made with human breast milk, he was hoping to start a conversation.

"I come from a family of Irish dairy farmers," he said. "We used to milk the cows every morning at 5 a.m., and keep impregnating them every five months so they would keep producing milk. That was floating around in my head -- why are human breasts sexualized, rather than being seen as biological feeding instruments?"

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“Robert Reich” - Obama, centrism and the Clinton myth

By Robert Reich

Friday, Mar 11, 2011

http://www.salon.com/news/economics/index.html

In the next week the action moves from Wisconsin to Washington, where the deadline looms for a possible government shutdown over the federal budget. President Obama has to take a more direct and personal role in that budget battle -- both for the economy's sake and for the sake of his reelection. But will he? Don't count on it.

Worried congressional Democrats say the President needs to use his bully pulpit to counter defections in Democatic ranks, such as the ten Democrats and one allied Independent who on Wednesday voted against a Senate leadership plan to cut $6.2 billion from the federal budget over the rest of fiscal year 2011. They want Obama to grab the initiative and push a plan to eliminate tax breaks for oil companies and for companies that move manufacturing facilities out of the country, and a proposal for a surtax on millionaires.

Most importantly, they're worried the President's absence from the debate will result in Republicans winning large budget cuts for the remainder of the fiscal year -- large enough to imperil the fragile recovery.

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In Defense of NPR

Just as public radio struggles against yet another assault from the its long-time nemesis -- the right-wing machine that would thrill if our sole sources of information were Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and ads paid for by the Koch Brothers -- it walks into a trap perpetrated by one of the sleaziest operatives ever to climb out of a sewer.

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Mideast Turmoil Rocks Western Reputations

NMS International has taken to hiding its website behind a password and director Louis Oliver gives a false name when he answers his phone.

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Israel’s “Insecurity”: The Most Dangerous Myth

Sometimes it’s the good guys who do the most harm, because they know not what they do. Take, for example, the New York Times’ foreign affairs columnist Roger Cohen. He has become the U.S. mass media’s most progressive voice on the Israel-Palestine conflict, consistently telling the right-wing Israeli government to make genuine efforts and meaningful compromises for peace. With a name like Cohen, there’s no doubt he’s got the weight of his Jewish identity as well as the prestige of his newspaper behind him. So his call for a just peace carries as much influence as anyone’s in the mainstream political debate, and a lot more than most.

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"Laura Flanders" - New Wave of Protests Fighting Banksters

It was tax day in 2009 that saw the first Tea Party protests, and the FOX-led media firestorm that's followed has made it seem as though the Tea Party's the only game in town if you want to complain about bailouts.

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School Woes Rooted in Boardrooms, Not Classrooms

Champions of public education often claim that student achievement drives the economy. Economic innovation and competitiveness supposedly depend on how much students learn in school. Investing in public education is thus wise policy because it ensures our collective prosperity.

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Saudi Arabia Police Open Fire on Protesters

Police in Saudi Arabia have opened fire to disperse protesters in the eastern city of Qatif, a day before planned countrywide anti-government protests.

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“Dr. Mercola” - Do the Chemicals That Turn Soda Brown Also Cause Cancer?

Posted By Dr. Mercola

March 10 2011

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/03/10/do-the-chemicals-that-turn-soda-brown-also-cause-cancer.aspx

Soda is bad for your health. But it may be even worse than you'd thought. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the "caramel coloring" used in Coke, Pepsi and other sodas is carcinogenic.

The artificial brown coloring is made by reacting corn sugar with ammonia and sulfites under high pressures and at high temperatures. This produces the chemicals 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, which have been found to cause lung, liver and thyroid cancer in lab rats and mice.

Time Magazine reports:

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