DIY French Manicure

 

I’m over my Vamp nail polish phase. In retrospect, maybe it did make my fingertips look like a hammer had hit them.  The “bruised” nail polish look wasn’t the best choice for me.

For now, I’ll keep my nails short and natural-looking.  The clean look of a French manicure and drama-free, nude nail polish is something I always come back to. 

Getting a manicure used to be a weekly ritual for me, but that was in another city with a different lifestyle. My Colombian manicurist, Luce would revitalize my Blackberry-fatigued fingertips as she massaged my hands and gave me the best French manicure in town. 

Since then, I’ve gotten rid of my Blackberry and my weekly manicures. My simple flip-top cell phone is easier on my life and my nails.  I’m not as regimented about nail care as I used to be and I’m more accepting of myself.  I’m free from the drudgery of bourgeois “immaculateness.”

I’m not forgoing a professional manicure altogether, but it’s sometimes better to DIY.  I’ve decided to be self-sufficient, when I can, by giving myself manicures. 

O.P.I.’s Coney Island Cotton Candy (peachy pink) and Mimosa’s For Mr. & Mrs. (whitish pink) are my favorite nude colors.  Using a color a few shades lighter than my skin tone gives an appearance of a faux French manicure.  It’s easy to do and gives me a week’s extension on nail maintenance.

But I feel so much more put-together with a real French manicure.  When I found out about YSL’s French manicure kit, I thought I’d give it a try.  For the price of one manicure session, it was worth a shot.  Plus, I’m a sucker for YSL’s gold packaging.  Even though I’m saving, I feel luxurious.

The kit’s duo pens are surprisingly simple to use.  One draws the white tip; the other is for the sheer polish that goes on top.  The felt head makes it easy to paint a white tip, in a straight line, without making a mess.

I was relieved that there were no guides. Like Luce, I’d rather draw it freehand.  At least I’m honing my artistry skills and controlling my white tip (a major pet peeve), which I like skinny.  There’ve been many times that I’ve asked a manicurist for “thin” and found a fat white strip along my nail tip.

The results of my self-administered manicure weren’t bad.  My nails have that “salon-maintained” appearance that I love.  I feel clever and resourceful and no one’s the wiser.  From an arm’s length away, I think even Luce would approve.

The YSL French manicure kit is available at major department -stores for $42.

By Sabrina Azadi

Sabrina Azadi is a writer, columnist and fashion consultant.  Want a fashion makeover?  Got a fashion question?  Just send an email to PersianOrange@gmail.com.

Los Angeles Fashion with Cheyne Jackson

 

 

 

Tongue ‘n’ Chic

By Cheyne Jackson

 

 

 

 

SJOBECK

After their debut show with BOXeight at the Los Angeles Theater (home of the recent BOXeight fashion week), Sjobeck—a group of Malibu locals—took to the runway.  The collection was inspired by the cowboy grandfather of Garrett Gerson, one of Sjobeck’s designers. Gerson, Jessie Ray, Shelly Sjobeck and Lani Lupton did a remarkable job of using Old West inspiration to create modern, youthful silhouettes.  They avoided any pitfalls—except that at the very beginning, when they put a handsome model in an expertly tailored pair of French terry trousers cut to look like five-pocket jeans. While the clothes were fantastic, the model was wearing a giant Native American headdress.  I understand that the designers were setting a Western tone, but they should have trusted their own expertly created clothes. 

They showed lumberjack plaids—ultra-modern but still maintaining a utilitarian ruggedness—and denim jackets in sharp-fitting combed denim from North Carolina. (All their construction and materials are made in the United States.)  There was a great must-have; it’s what I’m calling the sexy prairie dress, beautifully cut and fun for every young girl.  My personal favorite was a feather skirt paired with an organic cotton tank.  The silhouette looked as if Christian Lacroix took the reins at Ralph Lauren—a great novelty skirt. What’s more, nothing in the collection breaks $500.

The collection had something for everyone, whether it was a great dress for dinner in the city or a wrapped-up cozy sweater for grabbing frozen yogurt in the Malibu colony.  It was a very Malibu collection made with pride in the United States.

 

K E V A N   H A L L 

Why would one of the most famous L.A. designers forgo the pre-packaged fashion weeks for a ladies’ luncheon?  The answer: The Colleagues!  

The Colleagues are a massive collection of luminaries, socialites, philanthropists and examples of what it means to be a lady of means.  The well-heeled girls held their Annual Spring Luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills to benefit the Children’s Institute.  

I spoke to Mr. Hall the day after the show and discussed his thoughts on showing the collection at this famed luncheon.  “Most [fashion shows] are retail shows for buyers,” Hall said. “But the Colleagues luncheon was the best way for the women to see what’s coming down the pike.” 

Hall’s show was inspired by spies such as  Emma Peel (The Avengers), Honey West and the Bond girls.  He described the woman for this season as “modern and mobile.”  (I would add: lethal and agile.)  Early on, for instance, Hall brought on a femme fatale in a tight, high-collared bodysuit with pistols strapped inside shoulder holsters.  From there, the clothes melted into a sophisticated, modern collection that spoke to the powerful, confident and relevant woman—ladies in command of their feminine wiles, who could handle themselves with the bravado and subtlety of a high-society assassin.  

All I can say to Mr. Hall is: keep doing what you are doing, whether it’s inking a new deal with Paul Stanley to creating better priced career wear or opening your retail atelier on Beverly Boulevard. Your clothes are a beautiful reflection of an aesthetic that few designers can match. 

Well done, sir!

Dawn Christie: April

 

I have been blessed with a tremendous gift.  My purpose here is to help others find their gifts and God-given talents.   

Over the years, I’ve been able to help thousands of people from all over the world and from all walks of life. It is my greatest joy to guide them toward their personal connection with God.

Very recently, I met with a client who had given birth to her second child.  She had been a successful actress for some time, but she suffered from post-partum depression and had been unable to lose her pregnancy weight.  These hurdles can be career enders for an actress.   

When I sat with her and touched her hand, I could feel God’s energy pulling out her depression.  She was shocked and the light in her eyes was beaming.  I knew she needed the treatment called “THE BOOM BLAST”—It works on detoxifying the organs, meridian’s, and lymphatic system.

I perceived that she would attract a new energy from the universe and get a new acting role right away. Within two weeks, she had lost her pregnancy weight and  was able to stop the anti-depressant she had been taking for six months.  After several weeks, she had received two new project offers and had began working again.

I cannot take responsibility for the amazing result this particular client experienced.  I am merely a mediator.  

Troubles, personal and professional, that clients experience are diverse.  But throughout my years helping men and women alike, I have noticed a consistent pattern of distress: their root issue is always a disconnection from God.  My gift allows me to connect individuals to our higher power so that they can live by his will.   

There is so much anxiety in our world right now.  The rapid decline of our global economy has greatly affected each of us.  In most Western societies like ours, finances affect people deeply and on a very profound level—not because people are greedy, but because they need security for them- selves as well as for their loved ones.

In anxious times like these, daily challenges are often multiplied, and previously quite manageable difficulties become overwhelmingly magnified and difficult to find solutions for.  Now more than ever, it is important that we are all able to submit to the powers that be.  Through my gift, I can see just how much is beyond our control. 

My husband, renowned nutrition expert and physical fitness trainer Johnny Christie and I have created a retreat in the hills above Westlake Village, just north of L.A.  From the moment we saw it, we knew that it was the ideal place to build a sanctuary dedicated to healing.  We both take great pride in the life-changing experience we have created in this place for our clients.

When I convey God’s plan for my clients, they are able to achieve anything.

By Dawn Christie

 

Spiritual Retreat & Spa

For A Private Consultation:
805-418-7536

Here They Come…There They Go…

 

Dr. Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), a Washington-based think tank focused on energy security.  He is also co-founder of the Set America Free Coalition, an alliance of environmental, labor, national-security and religious groups promoting ways to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.  He is a board member of the Center for Energy Defence and a member of the Society of Industry Leaders, the Committee on Present Danger and other non-profit groups. Newsweek called him a “tireless and independent advocate of energy security,” and Esquire included him in its 2007 list of America’s best and brightest.

After squandering the $17.4 billion in loans that they received in December, GM and Chrysler asked Washington for further life support.  This time, a bailout—and restructuring plans that include job cuts, factory closures, and plans to eliminate models and dealers—a move that could cost American taxpayers more than $20 billion.  Ford is hoping to turn things round on its own; but the other two face the prospect of tighter and tigher federal control. 

Pumping more money into the ailing auto industry would be a  bad idea unless the money—our money—provides not only a reasonable chance that the automakers will recover, but also assures us that they’ll use the funds to usher in an era of global transportation that is no longer exclusively tied to oil.

While oil prices are low in comparison to last summer’s peak, a glimpse at the recent International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Outlook confirms that we are just enjoying a temporary respite.  Sooner or later, oil prices will rise to their old level.  The IEA report examined the world’s top 800 oil fields and reported an average annual depletion rate of 5.1%, increasing to 8.6% in 2030.  The report stated that in order to meet future demand for oil, the world will need the equivalent of four new Saudi Arabias.  Even if such a gigantic amount of oil exists, using it will require trillions of dollars in new exploration and recovery.

But the current credit crunch and falling oil prices hinder such investment.  Due to low prices and the slowdown in demand, OPEC members have delayed 35 new oil projects. This means that once the world pulls out of its recession and the demand for oil returns to its previous level, an oil crisis of much bigger proportions could ensue.  As a result, additional auto bailouts should require that the auto manufacturers do their part to insulate the global economy from high oil prices by making cars that can handle a choice of fuels.

Hybrids, plug-in hybrids and solely electric vehicles are part of the solution, and the industry is genuinely committed to making them in growing numbers.  But these vehicles are not enough.  Much of the battery-manufacturing chain essential to mass-produce such cars—including 95% of the rare-earth elements and other battery raw materials—is in Asia and out of Detroit’s control, no matter how much money Detroit throws at it.

But the auto industry can deploy one technology that is mature and cheap, and in which the Big Three enjoys an edge against their Asian competitors—flex-fuel vehicles.

For under $200 per car, Detroit can enable every new vehicle to run on any combination of gasoline and alcohol. Alcohol doesn’t mean just ethanol, and ethanol doesn’t mean just corn.  More than 80% of new cars sold in Brazil in 2008 were flex-fuel vehicles, many made by GM and Ford.  After oil prices flew so high in 2008, energy companies in Brazil sold more sugarcane ethanol than gasoline.

An open fuel standard requiring that new cars sold in the U.S. have flex-fuel capability will reward American taxpayers with fuel choices at the pump when gas prices soar.  It will also break oil’s virtual monopoly over transportation fuels, a monopoly that allows corrupt and dictatorial oil exporters to accumulate inordinate power.

True fuel flexibility should require cars to run on methanol as well as ethanol.  Unlike ethanol, which is only made from agricultural feedstock, methanol can be produced from a broad array of feedstocks such as wood waste, municipal solid waste, natural gas (attention, Mr. Pickens), coal, and in the future, carbon dioxide (attention, Mr. Gore).  Methanol compliance will also open  a large market in China (where methanol is emerging as the alternative fuel of choice) for our very own Big Three.

Adding flex-fuel capability to every car made by Detroit would cost the industry a small fraction of the total bailout, and would position the Big Three as leaders among automakers in alternative fuel technologies. Through an open fuel standard, oil’s biggest users could help to bring about the end of the oil era.

By Gal Luft

For more information visit:

Set America Free Coalition: 

www.setamericafree.org

Environment For Humanity

Fellow citizens of the U.S., you can not believe all of the current environmental issues that have been coming to my attention.  It is scary to see just how much environmental pollution is out there.  I don’t know if people realize that while it is wonderful to progress into the future and look for green energy, if we don’t stop to look behind us and learn from history, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes in the future. I am feeling increasing frustration that nothing is being done about all of the problems.  Who knows where the candidates truly stand on the issues?  (Everyone knows that campaign promises must be taken with a grain of salt.)  We will die holding our breath waiting for Industry to do something on it’s own.  Sometimes I wonder if everything is going to be up to us—if we the people are going to have to deal with the issues—hands on.

I’ve been thinking about the amazing feats of Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity—in case you’re not familiar with it—has built and rehabilitated more than 250,000 houses.  According to their website, the organization started out “financed by a revolving Fund for Humanity.  The fund’s money comes from the new homeowners’ house payments, donations and no-interest loans provided by supporters and money earned by fund-raising activities.  The money in the Fund for Humanity is also used to build more houses.” Habitat for Humanity funds housing, and is manned by volunteers, donations and by individuals who do their share to contribute sweat equity to earn their piece of the pie.  And all of this because Clarence Jordon and Millard and Linda Fuller saw the need and a way to do something about it.

Well, I see a need.  We need to clean up the contamination.  And I would like to figure out a way to do something about it.  I have wondered about the possibility of starting a foundation—let’s call it the Environment for Humanity, a self-sustaining foundation that provides support for communities with environmental problems.  Imagine a foundation where people will be able to go when they come face to face with their local pollution issues.  A place that people can band together, and organize with other like- minded volunteers, both individual as well as corporate, all of whom do their share to contribute whatever they can—whether it is organizational talent, cash or sweat equity, all with one purpose in mind: to clean things up.  I would be thrilled if the Habitat for Humanity people would like to get in touch with me and we have the opportunity to talk about putting something together.

But in the meantime, I have been caught up working on the problems in Cameron, Missouri, where there is a cluster of brain tumors; and if you’re following the news, there is also the Hexavalent Chromium problem in Davenport, California.  But that is just a drop in the bucket.  I am constantly inundated with emails from people everywhere who live near industry and have acquired cancers and illness.

Government is absent—and even if it weren’t, it’s all but bankrupt and seems to be an inefficient use of human and financial resources.

We the people have to find some way to clean up the mess.  Maybe we have to create the programs ourselves.  After all, we made this mess.  Our Public Health and Safety might just depend on our stepping in and cleaning it up.

By Erin Brockovich

Tax The Speculators

 

Let’s start with a fairness point.  Why should you pay a 5 to 6 percent sales tax for buying the necessities of life, when tomorrow, some speculator on Wall Street can buy $100 million worth of Exxon derivatives and not pay one penny in sales tax?  Let’s further add a point of common sense.  The basic premise of taxation should be to first tax what society likes the least or dislikes the most, before it taxes honest labor or human needs. 

In that way, revenues can be raised at the same time as the taxes discourage those activities which are least valued, such as the most speculative stock market trades, pollution (a carbon tax), gambling, and the addictive industries that sicken or destroy health and amass large costs.

So, your member of Congress, who is grappling these days with gigantic deficits on the backs of your children at the same time as that deep recession and tax cuts reduce revenues and increase torrents of red ink, should be championing such transaction taxes.

Yet apart from a small number of legislators, most notably Congressman Peter Welch (Dem. VT) and Peter DeFazio (Dem. OR), the biggest revenue producer of all—a tax on stock derivative transactions—essentially bets on bets—and other mystifying gambles by casino capitalism—is at best corridor talk on Capitol Hill.

There are differing estimates of how much such Wall Street transaction taxes can raise each year.  A transaction tax would, however, certainly raise enough to make the Wall Street crooks and gamblers pay for their own Washington bailout.  Lets scan some figures economists put forth.                                          

The most discussed and popular one is a simple sales tax on currency trades across borders.  Called the Tobin Tax after its originator, the late James Tobin, a Nobel laureate economist at Yale University, 10 to 25 cents per hundred dollars of the vast amounts of dollars traded each day across borders would produce from $100 to $300 billion per year.

There are scores of civic, labor, environmental, developmental, poverty and law groups all over the world pressing for such laws in their countries. (see tobintaxcall.free.fr)  According to the University of Massachusetts economist, Robert Pollin, various kinds of securities-trading taxes are on the books in about forty countries, including Japan, the UK and Brazil.

Pollin writes in the current issue of the estimable Boston Review: “A small tax on all financial-market transactions, comparable to a sales tax, would raise the costs on short-term speculative trading while having a negligible effect on people who trade infrequently. It would thus discourage speculation and channel funds toward productive investment.  He adds that after the 1987 stock market crash, securities-trading taxes “or similar measures” were  endorsed by then Senate Minority Leader, Bob Dole and even the first President Bush. Professor Pollin estimates that a one-half of one percent tax would raise about $350 billion a year. That seems conservative. The Wall Street Journal once mentioned about $500 trillion in derivatives trades alone in 2008—the most speculative of transactions.  A one-tenth of one percent tax would raise $500 billion dollars a year, assuming that level of trading.

Economist Dean Baker says a “modest financial transactions tax would be enough to “finance a 10% across-the-board reduction in the income tax on labor.  The stock transaction tax goes back a long way. A version of this helped fund the Civil War and the  Spanish-American War. The famous British economist, John Maynard Keynes extolled in 1936 a securities transaction tax as having the effect of “mitigating the predominance of speculation over enterprise.”  The U.S. had some kind of transaction tax from 1914 to 1966.

The corporate history scholar, (read his excellent book, Unequal Protection) Thom Hartmann turned three-hour-a-day talk-show-host on Air America (airamerica.com/thomvision), had  discussed the long evolution of what he calls a “securities turnover excise tax” to “tamp down toxic speculation, while encouraging healthy  investment.”

So, why don’t we have such a mega-revenue generator and lighten the income tax load on today and tomorrow’s American worker? (It was one of the most popular ideas I campaigned on last year. People got it.) Because American workers need to learn about this proposed tax policy and ram it through Congress. Tell your Senators and Representatives—no ifs, ands or buts.  Otherwise, Wall Street will keep trampling over people’s pensions and mutual fund savings, destabilizing their jobs and handing them the bailout bill, as is occurring now.

A few minutes spent lobbying members of Congress by millions of Americans (call, write or e-mail, visit or picket) will produce one big Change for the better.  Contact your member of Congress. The current financial mess makes this the right time for action. 

By Ralph Nader

Health & Science News: April

Santino, a 30-year-old chimpanzee who has lived in a Swedish zoo most of his life, is the only male in a group of half a dozen females.  He shows displeasure at human observers and flings stones or bits of concrete at them, but quickly finding suitable weapons isn’t an easy task, so the chimp starts his day by scavenging for stones within his confines and getting them ready for when he needs them. In the past, he has thrown stones at visitors in rapid succession, using an underhand technique, and has hit spectators as far as 30 feet away.  And that’s made him quite a celebrity, but Santino has also become “the subject of a scientific paper documenting how an animal can plan an attack,” said Mathias Osvath, director of the primate research station at Lund University and author of the aforementioned paper. 

Migraine sufferers say they don’t need a weatherman to forecast what’s coming; their headaches do the job just fine.  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researchers have studied 7,000 emergency-room visitors over seven-years and have report that headache-related hospital visits went up in the 24 hours after air temperatures rose. A lower barometric pressure 48 to 72 hours before a patient’s arrival showed a higher risk of headache.  For every temperature increase of 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) in 24 hours, there was a 7.5% risk of severe headache. For every 5 millimeters the barometric pressure reading fell over 72 hours, there was a 6 percent risk of headache. Surprisingly, air pollutants did not vary the stats.

There is direct evidence that increasing acidification of the oceans, brought on by rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, affects the ability of small marine organisms to create shells.  Evidence comes from foraminifera, crunchy plankton that float by the untold billions in the ocean.  Andrew D. Moy and William R. Howard of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center in Hobart, Tasmania, found the shells of one modern species in the Southern Ocean lighter than shells of the same species in core samples from the same ocean floor.  Those core shells predate the industrial age, when CO2 levels started rising and acidity of the ocean, caused by the absorption of the gas, began to increase.  Researchers, reporting their work in Nature Geoscience publications, said that the modern shells were 30 to 35 percent lighter than older shells of the same size range. “We think the shells are thinner,” Dr. Howard said.

Research shows that mental work is physically exhausting.   A British study in The Journal of Applied Physiology, asked 10 men and 6 women to perform a computer exercise requiring concentration, memory and reaction speed. Participants then exercised on a stationary bicycle until exhausted.  Bicyclers reported being tired 15 percent more quickly after mental exercise.  Samuele M. Marcora, lead author and a senior lecturer in physiology at Bangor University in Wales said, “If you want to improve fitness at maximum levels, you’re probably better off doing training when you’re not mentally fatigued.”

The crew of the International Space Station hurriedly climbed into a spacecraft lifeboat for 11 minutes while a small but potentially dangerous piece of an old rocket motor whizzed past.

Reports show that online donors, most times, do not fulfill their online promises.  Findings suggest that while the Internet is a valuable fund-raising tool for charities, it does not replace direct mail or other forms of fund-raising.

A report says terminally ill patients who drew comfort from religion sought more aggressive, life-prolonging care before they died than the less religious. 

Flesh-eating maggots may not be as good for open wounds as thought.  Although they clean wounds faster than normal treatments, their presence does not aid the wound in healing more quickly.  Some patients even found the larval therapy more painful, according to the study in the British Medical Journal.  Maggots have a long history in medicine.  Napoleon’s battle surgeon was a maggot enthusiast, and put maggots to work during the American Civil War and World War One.  Medical experts now examine their healing powers and potential to prevent dangerous infections like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Scientists say that electrically stimulating the spinal cords of rodents has reversed some symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.  With a mild current flowing up their spines and into their brains, animals had the ability to scamper around their cages, normally.  The therapy is a potential alternative to direct stimulation, which requires risky and invasive surgery to implant electrodes deep in the brain. Only 30 percent of severely impaired Parkinson’s patients qualify for the operation.  Spinal cord stimulation is less invasive, safer, and would reduce the drugs needed to treat the disease, said the report’s lead author, Duke Neuroscientist, Dr. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis.  The procedure is being tested on monkeys and “if it succeeds, human clinical trials could begin in the next few years.” 

The National Center for Health Statistics has stated that the U.S. recorded more births in 2007 than any other year in American history.  The 4,317,000 births in 2007 barely took the lead from births recorded in 1957, at the height of the baby boom.  The increase is due to women of all ages, including those in their 30s and 40s, and a record share was from unmarried women.  The average woman has 2.1 children.

Reports show that being overweight takes years off your life.  People weighing a third more than their ideal weight may reduce their life by three years on average.  ”Excess weight shortens human life span,” said researcher Gary Whitlock of the Clinical Trial Service Unit at the University of Oxford.  For a lot of people, a third means 50 to 60 pounds of excess weight.  Data from 57 existing studies examined mortality rates for 900,000 adults.  Obesity is considered 30 pounds of additional weight.  Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease; cancer; increase in death from lung disease and other vascular diseases were attributed to being over weight.  Age, sex, and smoking were counted in the research study.  Severe obesity has a similar effect to smoking on mortality rates, but researcher Richard Peto of the Clinical Trial Service Unit at the University of Oxford cautioned that smoking to stay thin is not the answer.

A 7.9 earthquake hit the South Pacific island country of Tonga.  No reports of casualties or damages emerged.  A tsunami alert was issued immediately after the earthquake, but then canceled.  The earthquake center reported sea level readings indicating a tsunami was generated but its waves were determined to be not that much higher than normal sea levels.

Ask Dr. Goodjohn: General & Cosmetic Dentist

 

“More than 34,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year,” says the website of the Oral Cancer Foundation. “It will cause over 8,000 deaths.”

Tannaz Goodjohn helps to fight it.  A graduate of UCLA’s dental school, she is the founder of Dental Boutique, a dental practice with an emphasis in aesthetic, reconstructive and implant dentistry.  Beverly Hills Times recently contacted her about oral cancer.

Beverly Hills Times: Who is at risk for oral cancer?  

Dr. Goodjohn:  Essentially everyone is!  

 

 

The disease is growing fast. In recent years, the American Cancer Society has estimated a 5.5% annual increase in new cases of oral cancer and a 1.5% increase in deaths associated with it.  

BHT:  How would I know if I’ll get it?  

Dr. Goodjohn:  Are you sexually active?  The human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted infection prevalent in young adults, plays a role in more than 20% of oral cancer cases. 

Patients age 40 and up with lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption and/or tobacco use and patients with a family history of oral cancer are at highest risk for developing the disease.  

You may not even know that you have oral cancer.  Twenty-five percent of oral cancers occur in people who do not smoke or have any other lifestyle risk factors.   

BHT:  How can I find out if I’ve got it?

Dr. Goodjohn:  At my office, we make it our standard of care to perform a regular visual oral examination, followed by a Vizilite Plus screening. The Vizilite Plus technology identifies cancerous and precancerous abnormalities.  It takes minutes to do, and no pain is involved.   That’s it!  Recommended by the American Cancer Society, this screening helps detect oral cancer early.

I’m currently offering two specials to make it even easier: An Oral Exam, Healthy mouth cleaning and full mouth radiographs (in the absence of gum disease) for $99, and the Oral Cancer Screening using ViziLite Plus for $49.

And early detection is key.  Oral cancer is one of the most curable diseases if caught early.  More than 90% of treatments for oral cancer are successful.  To say it quite simply, early detection can save your life!

World News: April

In an attempt to address the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against China Pro-Tibet, protesters tried to break through a police line guarding the Chinese embassy.  Approximately 12 activists charged the barrier line during a march from Parliament House in support of Tibetan independence.  During the incident there was a heated argument between demonstrators and an embassy official as he attempted to take pictures of the group.  Police arrested four people for disrupting the peace, including a man who threw his shoes at the building.  Around 150 people converged on Parliament House in a peaceful rally bearing flags and banners and were joined by representatives from Australia’s major political parties.  Greens leader Bob Brown asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to declare Australian support for Tibetan autonomy.

Pope Benedict XVI, while visiting Africa, said a responsible and moral attitude toward sex—and not condoms would help fight the AIDS disease. 

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwean Prime Minister said the car crash that killed his wife Susan was an accident.  His statement helped override speculation among Zimbabweans that political intent motivated the driver in the truck that hit their vehicle.  Mr. Tsvangirai had just returned from Gaborone, Botswana where he received follow-up medical care for injuries to his head and neck sustained in the crash. The driver, Chinoona Mwanda (35) was charged with culpable homicide, but his attorney, Chris Mhike said the accident was caused by poor road conditions.

Three Doctors Without Borders’ aid workers kidnapped in Sudan have been released unharmed.

Iraqi’s famous shoe thrower, who launched a foot attack at President Bush when he visited the country, got sentenced to three years in jail.  The journalist pleaded not guilty, saying that he was overcome by passion.

Referred to as the “Swiss gigolo” Helg Sgarbi (44) was deemed a master of his craft by wooing Germany’s richest woman into an illicit affair and talking her out of nearly all her money.  He confessed to defrauding Susanne Klatten, a billionaire whose family controls BMW, and was sentenced to six-years in prison.  In a country where old-money families down play their wealth, Klatten decided to go to the police even though as a rule people of her status keep scandal a secret.  Three other women fell victim to Sgarbi’s charms. Sgarbi extorted millions of pounds out of rich European women using a blackmail plot involving mafia hit men and a mysterious sect.  Klatten’s fortune (she is the 68th wealthiest person in the world) is estimated at $9.6 billion.  Sgarbi told the women he was a secret agent working for the Swiss government in hostage situations. Not quite James Bond, he was instead an accomplished predator.  

The election of Salvadorean President Mauricio Funes of F.M.L.N. is a turning point after two decades of rule by the right wing

Andry Rajoelina, Madagascar’s chief opposition leader came up for air, after hiding for two weeks, and stated that he was taking charge of the Madagascar nation.

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened to expel even more aid groups, diplomats and peacekeepers on his first trip to Darfur since the International Criminal Court ordered his arrest on charges of war crimes.  Sudan had previously expelled 13 of the largest aid groups operating in Darfur in protest to the warrant issued by the court in The Hague.  According to the Sudan Media Center, the Sudanese Army announced that it was mobilizing three-quarters of its troops and preparing for full alert. Waving a sword in defiance, Bashir told thousands of cheering supporters that other foreign groups could also be forced to leave if they (Bashir and his supporters) banned together and got involved in dealing with his war crimes case. 

The Pakistani government agreed to reinstate the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after a weekend of protests to the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif.

The U.S. made a formal protest with the Beijing government after five Chinese ships harassed an American surveillance vessel in international waters, in actions the Pentagon described as illegal, unprofessional and dangerous.  The incident took place off the coast of Hainan Island, south of the Chinese mainland. Pentagon officials have stated that the American vessel, USNS Impeccable, was carrying out a surveillance mission involving towing sonar equipment designed for anti-submarine warfare. Two Chinese ships blocked the Impeccable when it requested safe transit and Chinese sailors dropped pieces of wood in its path and tried to hook the cables towing the sonar equipment.  USNS Impeccable’s crew sprayed some of the Chinese sailors with a fire hose. 

Thousands of American Marines went into South Korea to kick off an annual joint military exercise that the U.S. describes as routine. North Korea disagreed with a statement calling it a preparation to invade.  North Korea plans to send a satellite into orbit, but neighboring governments believe it actually will be testing its Taepodong-2 missile, which theoretically can reach as far as Hawaii and Alaska.  North Korea put a 1.1 million member armed force on standby and cut off a military hotline, the only remaining channel of direct communications between the Koreas. North Korea’s statement reinforced that it might resort to military provocations to vent anger at South Korea, who stopped sending North Korea free food.  North Korean missile and nuclear threats act as the impoverished country’s main tool of extracting foreign aid.

Japan condemned North Korea’s plan to launch a rocket next month, warning that it can legally shoot down a rocket if it falls toward its territory.

Mohammad Khatami, a reformist former president of Iran, withdraw from the presidential race to support a political ally.

A deal between Israel’s conservative Likud Party and the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu Party appointed Avigdor Lieberman as the nation’s foreign minister.

Josef Fritzl received a life sentence for keeping his daughter in a self-built prison beneath his own home in Amstetten, Austria for 24 years.  Reports say he raped her some 3,000 times, fathered her seven children and contributed to the death of one son.  A jury of five women and three men convicted Fritzl of incest, rape, enslavement, coercion and murder by neglect. Fritzl waived his right to appeal saying, “I regret from the bottom of my heart what I have done to my family.” The trial raised questions as to why authorities failed to question Fritzl’s behavior over the years.  Fritzl was a convicted rapist investigated for many other sex crimes, but not questioned when his daughter went missing in August 1984 at the age of 18. He claimed she had joined a sect. Fritzl kept his emotions to himself as the verdict was read.

U.S. News: April

China reported that a U.S. Navy ship was involved in a confrontation with some of its vessels off the southern island of Hainan.  They said the incident  violated international law.  Ma Zhaoxu

Foreign ministry spokesman said that U.S. reports that five Chinese vessels harassed the USNS Impeccable were “totally inaccurate”.  China requested that the U.S. stop these activities immediately.  U.S. reports stated that the Chinese ships moved in dangerously close to an unarmed U.S. navy surveillance vessel during routine operations in international waters 75 miles south of Hainan island.  A Pentagon rep said that Chinese ships “aggressively manoeuvred” around the Impeccable “in an apparent co-ordinates effort to harass the U.S. ocean surveillance ship.”

A California stem cell company jumped for joy as did its stock prices after President Obama brought to an end an eight-year limit on federal funding for studies of embryonic stem cells.  The executive order allows federal funding for research on numerous embryonic stem cell lines that did not qualify for federal support under a policy signed by former President George W. Bush in 2001.  That policy limited government-sponsored research to the 21 embryonic stem cell lines created prior to 2001.

Scientists and patient-advocacy groups have lobbied for years to overturn the Bush restrictions in hope that research will offer improved medical treatments for conditions including damaged spinal nerves, reinforce weakened heart muscle and restore a diabetic’s ability to manufacture insulin. 

Statistics show that one in 50 children becomes homeless in the U.S. each year.  The National Center on Family Homelessness researched data from 2005-2006 and discovered there are more than 1.5 million children without homes with numbers expected to rise along with devastating increases in home foreclosures.  States citing the most cases were Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana. Hawaii, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and North Dakota fared better.  Homeless children have poor health, emotional problems and low graduation rates, the study found.

Regarding federally financed human embryonic stem cell research, President Obama hopes to bypass the biggest question pertaining to the subject: should taxpayer dollars be used to experiment on embryos?  White House reps said the president will leave the decision to Congress to determine whether the long-standing legislative ban on federal financing for human embryo experiments is overturned.

A man strolled into a First Baptist church near St. Louis during a meeting and shot to death the pastor and two congregants according to police reports.  Churchgoers wrestled the gunman to the ground as he waved a knife, slashing himself and two other people.  The assailant was not recognized by any of the 150-or-so congregants .

The Supreme Court has ruled that: “Only election districts in which minorities make up at least half of the voting-age population are entitled to the protections of a part of the Voting Rights Act that seeks to ensure and preserve minority voting power”.

North Carolina officials argued that the act required that they maintain black influence at the voting booth by creating a district that included about 39 percent of the black voting-age population.  In effect the theory was that the law protected black voters willing to join white “crossover voters” to elect a candidate of the black voters’ choice.  It was rejected by the court in a 5-to-4 vote.

The Obama administration said it will not use “enemy combatant” in reference to Guantánamo Bay detainees, but asserts the power to detain them.

A healthier Barbara Bush was released from a Houston 9-day hospital stay after heart surgery.

Failure in passport security is higher due to a rising problem in counterfeit documents.  The identities of a dead man and a 5-year-old boy were obtained by a government investigator in a test of security measures.

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s request to use $700 million in federal stimulus cash to pay down his state’s debt was rejected by the Obama administration. White House budget director, Peter R. Orszag, said that the federal stimulus law did not allow President Obama to make an exception for that cash.  The $787 billion stimulus legislation has reportedly set strict rules for the $53.6 billion available to help state budgets. Exactly 82 percent of the money is to be used for public schools and colleges and 18 percent on public safety and other government services.  Congress won’t authorize the executive branch to waive statutory requirements.  

It’s being reported that the U.S. government knew that top Guatemalan officials that the U.S. was supporting with arms and cash were responsible for the disappearance of thousands of people during a 36-year civil war.  The now declassified documents were obtained by a U.S. research institute.

U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. stated that the Justice Department will not prosecute California medical pot dispensaries operating legally under state laws.  Obama administration officials say they hope to take a hands-off approach to the clinics, as they have changed priorities toward the controversial prosecutions.  The Bush administration targeted medical marijuana distributors even in states that had passed laws allowing use of the drug for medicinal purposes by cancer patients, those in chronic pain and other serious ailments.  The administration will target egregious offenders operating in violation of federal and state laws and those that use the clinics as fronts for drug dealers.

A federal judge  blocked a federal rule allowing people to carry concealed, loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. The decision by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly halts a change in regulations issued in the waning days of the Bush administration and orders further review. 

The rule, which took effect in January allows visitors to carry a loaded gun into a park or wildlife refuge as long as the person has a permit for a concealed weapon and the state where the park or refuge was located allowed concealed firearms. Previously, guns in parks had been severely restricted.

More headaches for Congress and the Obama administration when a disclosure showed that 13 financial firms that had received federal bailout money owed around $220 million in unpaid taxes.  Headline making mortgage giant Fannie Mae was ready and willing to pay millions in retention bonuses—the same as AIG did, but the House quickly threw in the measure, that a 90% tax was going to be imposed on anyone receiving bonuses at AIG and other firms that received more than $5 billion in federal bailout funds.

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