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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
EU risks upsetting Turkey with threat to call off talks
By Adrian Croft
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is on the verge of scrapping a new round of membership talks with Turkey, a move that would further undermine Ankara's already slim hopes of joining the bloc anytime soon and damage its relations with Brussels.
Germany, the EU's biggest economic power, is blocking efforts to revive Turkey's EU membership bid, partly because of its handling of anti-government protests that have swept the country in the last few weeks, EU sources say.
The Netherlands, too, has voiced reservations about the EU's plan to open talks with Turkey next Wednesday on a new "chapter", or policy area, the sources say.
EU officials had hoped that opening the new chapter, on regional policy, would breathe new life into Turkey's deadlocked EU membership negotiations.
EU ambassadors, who failed to agree last week, were due to discuss the issue for a last time on Monday morning.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who has been more positive on Turkey's accession to the EU than Chancellor Angela Merkel, said he still hoped for an agreement in the coming days.
"We are on a good path," he told the broadcaster ARD, adding that there was still the possibility of a positive outcome, although he did not expect a decision on Monday. "We are working on this," he said.
If there is no last-minute change of heart in Berlin, Ireland, currently holder of the EU presidency, will have to tell Turkey that Wednesday's meeting has been postponed or canceled.
Turkey, already locked in a diplomatic row with Germany after Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was appalled by its crackdown on protesters, has made clear it would respond forcefully to any EU decision to scrap Wednesday's talks.
ALARM
Germany's hardline stance is causing alarm among some European policymakers who think the EU should be engaging more with Turkey to support civil rights rather than moving away.
"It would be a huge mistake to try to block Turkey's EU progress right at this time," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt tweeted on Sunday.
Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal member of the European Parliament, said it would be unwise for the EU to slam the door on Turkey.
"This situation creates ... a chance for the EU to step up efforts to improve the rule of law in Turkey, such as the independence of the judiciary and respect for the fundamental rights of all people in Turkey," she said on her website.
Analysts see electoral considerations as playing a role in Germany's position. Merkel's conservatives oppose Turkish EU membership in their manifesto for September's parliamentary election and delaying talks with Turkey could help them politically.
Amanda Paul, a Turkey expert at the European Policy Centre think tank, said Germany's stance would have an "extremely serious" impact on Turkey's membership negotiations, already virtually blocked for three years.
"I don't see the logic behind what the Germans are doing ... because it is not going to be helpful to either Turkey or the EU. This relationship is an important relationship, it is not one that can just be thrown away," Paul said.
STRATEGIC CASE
Fadi Hakura, a Turkey expert at London's Chatham House think tank, said the Turkish government was in a "very prickly and combative mood" and was likely to respond to an EU snub by suspending political contacts and meetings with EU institutions, and possibly recalling its ambassador.
However, Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, did not see Turkey breaking off accession talks, which began in 2005, 18 years after Turkey first applied to join.
Given Turkey's position adjoining Iran and Syria, the strategic case for Europe having a relationship with Turkey was greater than ever, he said. Turkey is an influential power in the Middle East and a member of the NATO military alliance.
Turkey's negotiations to join the EU have so far advanced at a glacial pace. It has provisionally closed just one of 35 chapters or policy areas.
It has opened a dozen more chapters but most of the rest are blocked due to disputes over the divided island of Cyprus or hostility from some EU members, especially France - though that has eased under President Francois Hollande. It has not opened a new chapter since 2010.
Turkey has been leapfrogged by many other EU applicants. Croatia, which applied for EU membership in 2003, is set to become the EU's 28th member next month. The deadlock means the EU has lost its appeal for many Turks.
France and Germany have always had doubts about allowing a largely Muslim country of 76 million people into the European club, fearing that cultural differences and its size will make it too difficult to integrate.
Ankara's supporters, led by Britain and Sweden, say the EU can benefit from Turkey's growing economic clout and its role as an intermediary in the Middle East, and that Europe needs its cooperation to secure energy supply routes.
(Additional reporting by Sarah Marsh and Thorsten Severin in Berlin; Editing by Anna Willard and Kevin Liffey)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-risks-upsetting-turkey-threat-call-off-talks-190856903.html
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Taliban kill 10 foreign climbers, Pakistani guide
Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
FILE - In this May 4, 2004 file photo, Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world, is seen from Karakorum Highway leading to neighboring China in Pakistan's northern area. Gunmen wearing police uniforms killed 11 foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn Sunday, June 23, 2013 as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan, officials said. (AP Photo/Musaf Zaman Kazmi, File)
Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist, who was killed by Islamic militants, from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death nine foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants, from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Islamic militants disguised as policemen killed 10 foreign climbers and a Pakistani guide in a brazen overnight raid against their campsite at the base of one of the world's tallest mountains in northern Pakistan, officials said.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed it carried out the attack at Nanga Parbat to avenge the death of their deputy leader in a U.S. drone strike last month.
The area has largely been peaceful, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the Taliban's major sanctuaries along the Afghan border. But the militant group, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for years, has shown it has the ability to strike almost anywhere in the country.
The Taliban began their attack by abducting two local guides to take them to the remote base camp in Gilgit-Baltisan, said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. One guide was killed, and the other has been detained for questioning. The attackers disguised themselves by wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scounts, a paramilitary force that patrols the area, Khan said.
Around 15 gunmen attacked the camp at around 11 p.m. Saturday, said the Alpine Club of Pakistan, which spoke with the surviving guide, Sawal Faqir. They began by beating the mountaineers and taking away any mobile and satellite phones they could find, as well as everyone's money, said the club in a statement.
Some climbers and guides were able to run away, but those that weren't were shot dead, said the club. Faqir was able to hide a satellite phone and eventually used it to notify authorities of the attack.
Attaur Rehman, the home secretary in Gilgit-Baltistan, said 10 foreigners and one Pakistani were killed in the attack. The dead foreigners included three Ukrainians, two Slovakians, two Chinese, one Lithuanian, one Nepalese and one Chinese-American, according to Rehman and tour operators who were working with the climbers. Matt Boland, the acting spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed that an American citizen was among the dead, but could not say whether it was a dual Chinese national.
The shooting ? one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in recent years ? occurred in a stunning part of the country that has seen little violence against tourists, although it has experienced attacks by radical Sunni Muslims on minority Shiites in recent years.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their Jundul Hafsa faction carried out the shooting as retaliation for the death of the Taliban's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, in a U.S. drone attack on May 29.
"By killing foreigners, we wanted to give a message to the world to play their role in bringing an end to the drone attacks," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The U.S. insists the CIA strikes primarily kill al-Qaida and other militants who threaten the West as well as efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan. In a recent speech, President Barack Obama outlined tighter restrictions on the highly secretive program.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who wants to pursue peace talks with militants threatening his country, has insisted the U.S. stop the drone strikes, saying they violate Pakistan's sovereignty and are counterproductive because they often kill innocent civilians and stoke anti-U.S. sentiment in this nation of 180 million people.
Sharif responded to the attack on the camp by vowing "such acts of cruelty and inhumanity would not be tolerated and every effort would be made to make Pakistan a safe place for tourists."
Officials expressed fear the attack would deal a serious blow to Pakistan's tourism industry, already struggling because of the high level of violence in the country.
The interior minister promised to take all measures to ensure the safety of tourists as he addressed the National Assembly, which passed a resolution condemning the attack.
"A lot of tourists come to this area in the summer, and our local people work to earn money from these people," said Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan. "This will not only affect our area, but will adversely affect all of Pakistan."
He said the base camp was cordoned off by police and paramilitary soldiers after the attack, and a military helicopter searched the area.
Volodymyr Lakomov, the Ukrainian ambassador to Pakistan, also condemned the attack and said, "We hope Pakistani authorities will do their best to find the culprits of this crime."
Many foreign tourists stay away from Pakistan because of the country's reputation as being a dangerous place. But a relatively small number of intrepid foreigners visit Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer to marvel at the towering peaks in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, including K2, the second-highest mountain in the world.
A few try to climb them. The world's ninth-highest mountain, Nanga Parbat is 8,126 meters (26,660 feet) tall and is notoriously difficult to summit. It is known as the "killer mountain" because of numerous mountaineering deaths in the past.
Pakistan has very close ties with neighboring China and is sensitive to any issue that could harm the relationship. Pakistani officials have reached out to representatives from China and Ukraine to convey their sympathies, the Foreign Ministry said.
The government suspended the chief secretary and top police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan following the attack and ordered an inquiry into the incident, said Khan, the interior minister.
The shooting was one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in the last decade. A suicide attack outside a hotel in the southern city of Karachi killed 11 French engineers in 2002. In 2009, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore, killing six Pakistani policemen, a driver and wounding several players.
___
Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.
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Lilly once-weekly diabetes drug proves superior in late-stage trials
By Bill Berkrot
(Reuters) - A once-weekly drug for type 2 diabetes developed by Eli Lilly and Co worked better at controlling blood sugar than three other widely used medicines, according to data from late- stage clinical trials.
The data, presented on Saturday at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) meeting in Chicago, also showed that the Lilly shot helped patients lose twice as much weight as those taking Merck & Co's $4 billion-a-year drug, Januvia.
The findings from the trio of late-stage studies suggest the treatment known as dulaglutide could be an important new weapon in the fight against type 2 diabetes, whose rapid growth globally has become a crisis affecting more than 300 million people.
"This is a very promising, safe and efficacious agent for the treatment of diabetes," Dr Guillermo Umpierrez, one of the lead investigators of the dulaglutide Phase III trial program, said in an interview.
Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce enough insulin to control levels of blood sugar. It can lead to many serious health complications including heart problems, kidney disease and vision loss.
The results of the new studies showed that an injection of dulaglutide led to sustained reductions in blood sugar and helped more patients reach recommended target levels than those taking generic metformin, Byetta, a drug from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, and Januvia, the studies showed. There were no reported cases of serious hypoglycemia, or dangerously low blood sugar.
Lilly plans to use data from the three trials as a major part of the application seeking U.S. approval for dulaglutide it expects to file later this year.
If approved, dulaglutide would become a direct rival of once-weekly Bydureon, sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca Plc, and Victoza from Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk.
Like those medicines, dulaglutide belongs to a class of injected drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists that work by increasing the release of insulin after meals and by slowing absorption of food in the gastrointestinal tract.
Doctors are still likely to initially reach for oral drugs such as metformin for type 2 patients, but an injectable drug that needs to be taken only once a week could become an important treatment, researchers said, as diabetics often need two or three medicines to properly control blood glucose.
"I believe the use of GLP-1s will continue to increase and this new formulation of a once-a-week administration will be very attractive to patients and physicians," said Umpierrez, a professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta who presented data from one of the trials at the meeting.
SAFETY RISK?
While data from the three studies appears to show a comforting safety profile, dulaglutide will be under intense scrutiny from health regulators. The GLP-1 class, and the DPP-4 inhibitors to which Januvia belongs, have been associated with unconfirmed reports that they may cause serious inflammation of the pancreas and cell changes that can lead to cancer.
Two cases of pancreatic cancer reported among study participants were deemed highly unlikely to be connected to dulaglutide, the company and researchers said.
Lilly said there were similar rates of pancreatitis among patients taking comparator drugs or a placebo.
"There is no concern so far of pancreatitis or pancreatic tumors," Umpierrez said.
One of the studies dubbed Award-1, involving 978 patients over 52 weeks, tested dulaglutide against Byetta, a which is injected twice a day. Subjects in the study were already taking metformin and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co's Actos.
Adding dulaglutide to this mix helped 80 percent of patients reach target blood sugar levels - an A1c of 7 - compared with about 50 percent of those taking Byetta.
Dulaglutide and Byetta patients on average lost 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms), an attractive side benefit as obesity is a leading cause of type 2 diabetes.
In a separate 52-week study called Award-3, researchers tested dulaglutide against metformin - the most commonly used initial treatment for type 2 diabetes - in 807 patients earlier in their disease progression. They began the trial with an average A1c of 7.6 percent, above the ADA target of 7 percent.
People who took a 1.5 mg dose of the Lilly drug saw an average drop in their A1c of 0.8 percent, with 62 percent of patients getting to target blood sugar levels. That compared with a drop of 0.56 percent for metformin with 54 percent getting to goal.
Weight loss with dulaglutide was about 4.4 pounds (2 kg) and 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg) for metformin.
A third trial, dubbed Award-5, was a two-year study that tested dulaglutide against Januvia in more than 1,000 patients who were already taking metformin.
Patients who got dulaglutide had an average A1c reduction of 1.1 percent, with 60 percent of them achieving target levels, versus a reduction of 0.4 percent for Januvia with 30 percent getting to the ADA goal.
Average weight loss with the Lilly drug was 7 pounds (3.2 kg), while Januvia patients lost an average of 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg). The most common side effect reported in the three studies for dulaglutide was nausea, researchers said.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Matthew Lewis)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lilly-once-weekly-diabetes-drug-proves-superior-stage-150601939.html
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94% Room 237
All Critics (119) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (112) | Rotten (7) | DVD (1)
A curious and entertaining documentary.
The human brain is a marvellously suggestible organ.
[A] strange, frustrating, occasionally fascinating doc ...
"Room 237" evolves from an ode to movie love at its most delirious to a wry examination of the crackpot mind at work.
There's enough real evidence supporting the theory that Kubrick was a genius, and that's pretty entertaining all by itself.
It's about the human need for stuff to make sense - especially overpowering emotional experiences - and the tendency for some people to take that sense-making to extremes.
An intellectual exercise, and an entertaining one, especially for those who don't want to label The Shining as just a ghost story.
It has the same entertainment value as listening to a late-night radio host indulge his listeners on Roswell, Area 51 and 9/11. Everything sounds completely crackers, until it all makes crazy sense.
What emerges from Room 237 is not a denigration of conspiracies, but a kind of celebration of our ability to create patterns where (perhaps) none exist.
"Room 237" could become an essential companion piece to "The Shining" from now on. For those who see both, it will be impossible to think about one without the other.
...all about the work of criticism - finding fresh avenues of delight.
Watching it makes you feel like you're attending a really entertaining film class where your classmates confidently let their freak flags fly.
It's an essay about the human need to reject the notion of a random universe and find order and meaning in existence. These people are developing their own creation myths, with Kubrick the mastermind responsible for the Intelligent Design.
Termitic film nerds could chow down for years on the wood chips.
You know when "Room 237? starts getting really scary? When the people in the film start making sense.
Kubrick fans and movie geeks will want to check this film out as soon as possible
Kubrick fans will take 'Shining' to 'Room 237.'
The credibility of these theories ranges from faintly plausible to frankly ridiculous, but Ascher isn't interested in judging them; his movie is more about the joys of deconstruction and the special kind of obsession that movies can inspire.
Some of the interpretations seem more of a stretch than others but all are entertainingly presented by director Rodney Ascher. (The movie) serves as a testament to Stanley Kubrick's cinematic mastery.
As fascinating as it is frustrating
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/room_237_2012/
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
Light and nanoprobes detect early signs of infection
June 20, 2013 ? Duke University biomedical engineers and genome researchers have developed a proof-of-principle approach using light to detect infections before patients show symptoms.
The approach was demonstrated in human samples, and researchers are now developing the technique for placement on a chip, which could provide fast, simple and reliable information about a patient. A diagnostic device based on this chip also could be made portable.
The researchers developed a silver-based nanoparticle that homes in on a specific molecular marker that spills into the bloodstream at the first stages of an infection. When light is aimed at the sample, the nanoparticle attached to a molecular marker will reflect a distinct optical fingerprint.
"We have demonstrated for the first time that the use of these nanoprobes can detect specific genetic materials taken from human samples," said Tuan Vo-Dinh, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke' Pratt School of Engineering and director of The Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics at Duke. He is also a professor of chemistry.
The results of the Duke experiments appear online in the journal Analytica Chimica Acta. Hsin-Neng Wang, a post-doctoral fellow in Vo-Dinh's laboratory, was the first author of the paper.
In this interdisciplinary project, the Vo-Dinh team collaborated closely with scientists at Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) who have developed a method of measuring the host's response to infection through RNA profiling.
The research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Projects Agency, the Department of Defense and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
In the Duke experiments, the nanoprobes are used in conjunction with a phenomenon first described in the 1970s known as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). When light, usually from a laser, is shined on a sample, the target molecule vibrates and scatters back in its own unique light, often referred to as the Raman scatter. However, this Raman response is extremely weak.
"When the target molecule is coupled with a metal nanoparticle or nanostructure, the Raman response is greatly enhanced by the SERS effect -- often by more than a million times," said Vo-Dinh, who has been studying the potential applications of SERS for decades.
"This important proof-of-concept study now paves the way for the development of devices that measure multiple genome-derived markers that will assist with more accurate and rapid diagnosis of infectious disease at the point of care," said Geoffrey Ginsburg, director of genomic medicine at the IGSP, executive director of the Center for Personalized Medicine at Duke Medicine, and a professor of medicine and pathology.
"This would guide care decisions that will lead to more effective treatment and improved outcomes of antimicrobial therapy," Ginsburg said. "Point-of-care diagnostics holds great promise to accelerate precision medicine and, more importantly, help patients in limited-resource settings gain access to molecular testing."
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/bB4VZQVAqos/130620162846.htm
WHO: Third of women suffer domestic violence
LONDON (AP) ? About a third of women worldwide have been physically or sexually assaulted by a former or current partner, according to the first major review of violence against women.
In a series of papers released on Thursday by the World Health Organization and others, experts estimated nearly 40 percent of women killed worldwide were slain by an intimate partner and that being assaulted by a partner was the most common kind of violence experienced by women.
"Violence against women is a global health problem of epidemic proportions," WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said in a statement.
WHO defined physical violence as being slapped, pushed, punched, choked or being attacked with a weapon. Sexual violence was defined as being physically forced to have sex, having sex because you were afraid of what your partner might do and being compelled to do something sexual that was humiliating or degrading.
The report also examined rates of sexual violence against women by someone other than a partner and found about 7 percent of women worldwide had previously been a victim.
In conjunction with the report, WHO issued guidelines for authorities to spot problems earlier and said all health workers should be trained to recognize when women may be at risk and how to respond appropriately.
Globally, the WHO review found 30 percent of women are affected by domestic or sexual violence by a partner. The report was based largely on studies from 1983 to 2010. According to the United Nations, more than 600 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not considered a crime.
The rate of domestic violence against women was highest in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where 37 percent of women experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner at some point in their lifetime. The rate was 30 percent in Latin and South America and 23 percent in North America. In Europe and Asia, it was 25 percent.
Some experts said screening for domestic violence should be added to all levels of health care, such as obstetric clinics.
"It's unlikely that someone would walk into an ER and disclose they've been assaulted," said Sheila Sprague of McMaster University in Canada, who has researched domestic violence in women at orthopedic clinics. She was not connected to the WHO report.
"Over time, if women are coming into a fracture clinic or a pre-natal clinic, they may tell you they are suffering abuse if you ask," she said.
For domestic violence figures, scientists analyzed information from 86 countries focusing on women over the age of 15. They also assessed studies from 56 countries on sexual violence by someone other than a partner, though they had no data from the Middle East. WHO experts then used modeling techniques to fill in the gaps and to come up with global estimates for the percentage of women who are victims of violence.
In a related paper published online in the journal Lancet, researchers found more than 38 percent of slain women are killed by a former or current partner, six times higher than the rate of men killed by their partners. Heidi Stoeckl, one of the authors at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the figures were likely to be an underestimate. She and colleagues found that globally, a woman's highest risk of murder was from a current or ex-partner.
In countries like India, Stoeckl said things like "honor killings," where women are sometimes murdered over dowry disputes or perceived offenses like infidelity to protect the family's reputation, adds to the problem.
She also noted that women and men are often slain by their partners for different reasons.
"When a woman kills her male partner, it's usually out of self-defense because she has been abused," she said. "But when a woman is killed, it's often after she has left the relationship and the man is killing her out of jealousy or rage."
Stoeckl said criminal justice authorities should intervene at an earlier stage.
"When a woman is killed by a partner, she has often already had contact with the police," she said.
Stoeckl said more protective measures should be in place for women from their partners, particularly when he or she has a history of violence and owns a gun.
"There are enough signs that we should be watching out for that," she said. "We certainly should know if someone is potentially lethal and be able to do something about it."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/third-women-suffer-domestic-violence-131011699.html
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Finding A Mortgage Broker For Your Business Mortgage | Trade ...
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Source: http://www.tradefinancebank.com/finding-a-mortgage-broker-for-your-business-mortgage/
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Nonprofit launches campaign to reach uninsured
CHICAGO (AP) ? A nonprofit group helping to spread the word about President Barack Obama's health care overhaul launched a campaign Tuesday that will target states with high numbers of uninsured Americans and tackle their skepticism with straightforward messages.
The "Get Covered America" campaign will include door-to-door visits by volunteers, brochures handed out at farmers markets and churches and, possibly, partnerships with sports leagues and celebrities, said Anne Filipic, a former White House official who recently became president of Enroll America, the group sponsoring the campaign.
The group's research shows 78 percent of uninsured adults don't know about opportunities that will be available to them in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act, Filipic said Tuesday during a phone call with reporters. The campaign is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, including a seven-figure media ad buy.
"If they don't know about it, then they won't enroll," Filipic said. "We've done our research. We know people want to know what the law means for them in a 'just the facts' sort of way."
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has drawn criticism from Republicans for making fundraising calls for Enroll America. Earlier this month, Sebelius told members of Congress she made five phone calls for Enroll America, two of which involved actual fundraising solicitations, to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and H&R Block, entities not regulated by HHS.
She also called three health care companies to "suggest that the entities take a look at the organization (Enroll America)" but did not make a fundraising solicitation to those three. They were Johnson & Johnson, Ascension Health and Kaiser Permanente.
Sebelius said the HHS secretary has the legal authority to raise money for initiatives that support government health programs.
The federal government itself will spend millions on marketing and advertising about the health law, but the spending will vary greatly across the nation because some Republican-led states haven't sought federal dollars for ad campaigns.
Enroll America's campaign will start with 50 events in 18 states, Filipic said. The group has staff on the ground in eight states, including Texas and Florida and others where government officials have resisted key parts of Obama's health law such as the expansion of Medicaid.
"We know that most of the uninsured don't know about the new coverage options coming this fall, let alone whether or not their state is expanding Medicaid," Filipic said. "Many of the uninsured are eligible for Medicaid today but have not enrolled, and those who are not eligible for Medicaid may qualify for coverage through the marketplace."
Obama's national health law requires that nearly all Americans have health insurance beginning in 2014 or pay a penalty. New insurance marketplaces are scheduled to be operating in every state by Oct. 1. People who are uninsured will be able to comparison-shop for affordable health plans on these websites and many will qualify for tax credits to help them pay for coverage.
The organization is building a predictive model to determine where to target the uninsured and will track which of its tactics are most effective, Filipic said.
"We're going to be doing a lot of testing to see what works," she said. "What moves someone to attend an event or call a phone number? We'll be doing a lot of work to test and analyze that."
In a parallel effort, a group called Doctors for America plans to host training sessions for doctors and print posters and brochures for medical waiting rooms.
Skepticism about the law's benefits is widespread. Enroll America's January survey of 1,814 adults found that most people are skeptical they'll be able to find affordable health insurance that covers their needs. When presented with a specific premium amount they might pay, less than a third of respondents felt that the premium was in the affordable range.
"Survey results suggest using a specific premium amount may actually turn away just as many people as it might motivate," according to the survey report on Enroll America's website.
Broader statements ? such as "You might be able to get financial help to pay for a health insurance plan" and "If you have a pre-existing condition, insurance plans cannot deny you coverage" ? tested better with the survey group.
Enroll America has staff on ground in Texas, Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. It soon will add staff in Illinois and Georgia.
Kicking off the campaign this week, the Get Covered America team and its community partners plan to host more than 50 events in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.
___
Online:
http://www.getcoveredamerica.org/
___
AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson
___
AP Writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report from Washington.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nonprofit-launches-campaign-reach-uninsured-183729406.html
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Om TO to Host Yoga Fundraiser for Colon Cancer
Om T.O. takes place this Friday, June 21st in the Distillery District, and will feature a full day of free yoga (to celebrate the summer solstice, of course). More importantly, the event has the noble goal of raising some serious funds for colon cancer treatment and research.?
40 minute sessions will be offered to participants of all skill-levels starting at 10 a.m. and finishing at 6 p.m. The event was created by the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Tonic Magazine, along with the folks down at Spynga Inc., a Toronto yoga studio. A suggested donation of $10 (or pay-what-you-can) to Colon Cancer Canada is recommended, which you can of course make at the event itself. For those wishing to make a larger contribution, mats provided by Lululemon can be reserved in advance.?
You can get more info about the event here.
So go get your butt in shape, and shape the shape of butts everywhere. Namaste.
????
Jeremy Schipper is an intern at Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at?@jeromeoschipps.
For more, follow us on Twitter at?@torontostandard, and?subscribe to our?newsletter.?
Source: http://torontostandard.com/article/om-to-puts-on-yoga-fundraiser-for-colon-cancer
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Egypt seen to give nod toward jihadis on Syria
In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi waves as he arrives at a rally called for by hardline Islamists loyal to the Egyptian president to show solidarity with the people of Syria, in a stadium in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 15, 2013. Egypt's Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus' embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a "holy war" against Syria's embattled regime. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi waves as he arrives at a rally called for by hardline Islamists loyal to the Egyptian president to show solidarity with the people of Syria, in a stadium in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 15, 2013. Egypt's Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus' embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a "holy war" against Syria's embattled regime. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi addresses a rally called for by hardline Islamists loyal to the Egyptian president to show solidarity with the people of Syria, in a stadium in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 15, 2013. Egypt's Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus' embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a "holy war" against Syria's embattled regime. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi listens to a speaker at a rally called for by hardline Islamists loyal to the Egyptian president to show solidarity with the people of Syria, in a stadium in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 15, 2013. Egypt's Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus' embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a "holy war" against Syria's embattled regime. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi addresses a rally called for by hardline Islamists loyal to the Egyptian president to show solidarity with the people of Syria, in a stadium in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 15, 2013. Egypt's Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus' embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a "holy war" against Syria's embattled regime. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi addresses a rally called for by hardline Islamists loyal to the Egyptian president to show solidarity with the people of Syria, in a stadium in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 15, 2013. Egypt's Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus' embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a "holy war" against Syria's embattled regime. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
CAIRO (AP) ? Under Hosni Mubarak's rule, Egypt's authorities took a tough line on Egyptians coming home after waging "jihad" in places like Afghanistan, Chechnya or the Balkans, fearing they would bring back extremist ideology, combat experience and a thirst for regime change. In most cases, they were imprisoned and tortured.
But after Mubarak's overthrow and his replacement by an elected Islamist president, jihad has gained a degree of legitimacy in Egypt, and the country has become a source of fighters heading to the war in Syria.
Egyptian militants are known to have been travelling to Syria to fight alongside Sunni rebels for more than year ? but their movements were done quietly. But in recent days, a string of clerics have called for jihad in Syria, with some calling for volunteers to go fight against President Bashar Assad's regime.
On Saturday, Morsi attended a rally by hard-line clerics who have called for jihad and spoke before a cheering crowd at a Cairo stadium, mainly Islamists. Waving a flag of Egypt and the Syrian opposition, he ripped into the Syrian regime, announced Egypt was cutting ties with Damascus and denounced Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah guerrillas for fighting alongside Assad's forces.
Clerics at the rally urged Morsi to back their calls for jihad to support rebels. Morsi did not address their calls and did not mention jihad. But his appearance was seen as in implicit backing of the clerics' message. It came after a senior presidential aide last week said that while Egypt was not encouraging citizens to travel to Syria to help rebels, they were free to do so and the state would take no action against them.
Khalil el-Anani, an Egyptian expert on Islamist groups, called the move "Morsi's endorsement of jihad in Syria" and warned it was "a strategic mistake that will create a new Afghanistan in the Middle East."
"He is pushing Egypt into a sectarian war in which we have no interest," he said.
The new tone in Egypt risks fueling the flow of Egyptian jihadi fighters to Syria, where the conflict is already increasingly defined by the sectarian divide, with the mostly Sunni rebels fighting a regime rooted in the minority Alawite sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam, and backed by Shiite Iran and Hezbollah.
The conflict is also becoming more regional after Hezbollah intervened to help Assad defeat rebels in a strategic western town this month. Since then, hard-liners around the region have hiked calls for Sunnis to join the rebels in the fight. There are already believed to be several thousand foreign fighters among the rebel ranks, largely Islamist extremists some with al-Qaida ties.
The United States last week hardened its own position on Assad's regime, agreeing to provide the rebels with lethal weapons.
Damascus on Sunday lashed out at Morsi for his speech a day earlier, saying he "joins a choir of conspiracy and incitement led by the United States and Israel against Syria."
It accused him of endorsing calls by hardline clerics for people to fight in Syria.
Egypt's powerful military also seemed to distance itself from Morsi speech, in which he pledged that Egypt's government and military are behind the struggle of the Syrian people against Assad.
On Sunday, the state news agency quoted an unidentified military official underlining that "the Egyptian army will not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. It will not be dragged or be used in any of the regional struggles."
There are no official figures on how many Egyptians have gone to Syria to fight. Security officials monitoring the movement of militants estimate as many as 2,500 have gone, and their numbers are likely to significantly pick up after Hezbollah's intervention.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Organizations associated with Egypt's ultraconservative Salafi movement are believed to help organize movements for Egyptians to Syria. Islamist websites have reported that up to several dozen Egyptians have been killed while fighting in Syria the past two years, though the number has not been independently confirmed. The conflict, now in its third year, has killed nearly 93,000 people, according to new figures released by the United Nations.
Under Mubarak's 29-year rule, Egypt was a major Mideast bulwark against religious militancy. Mubarak closely cooperated with the United States and other Western nations in the hunt for extremists wanted in connection with terror attacks and dismantling the financial networks for militant groups. His regime was also notorious for rights abuses and torture against militants and other opponents
In the 1990s, militants who gained combat experience fighting the Russians in Afghanistan staged an anti-government insurgency that took the lives of more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians. Mubarak's security forces crushed the insurgency, and in the years that followed the groups involved renounced violence, though they maintained a hard-line ideology.
The fall of Mubarak in early 2011 and Morsi's election nearly a year ago allowed many of the former militants to come in from the cold.
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, gets key backing from one of the main former Islamic militant groups, Gamaa Islamiya, as well as from several political parties of the Salafi movement.
A senior official at the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police and internal security, said the names of at least 3,000 militants have in recent months been removed from the wanted list posted at the country's points of entry over the past two years.
Many of the 3,000 have since Morsi taken office returned to Egypt from exile and are now freely participating in the country's Islamist-dominated politics, said the official.
Those who returned home included individuals tried and convicted in connection to the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat, the attempted assassination against Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995 or militants who have been involved in wars abroad, said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Morsi's turning up the heat on Assad's regime appeared to be a concession to his ultraconservative allies, who have been unhappy with his government's moves to improve ties with Shiite Iran, Assad's main regional backer.
It also strengthens their backing for him ahead of giant anti-Morsi demonstrations planned by his opponents on June 30.
"This is a terrible idea," said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert from the New York-based Century Foundation. "He is refocusing the anger of Egyptians over his policies away toward foreign issues instead of the domestic mess he is presiding over at home."
The security official said there are worries in the security establishment that sanctioning travel to Syria for Egyptians could later embolden jihadi groups to set up their training camps and political parties to create their own militias. Armed militant groups have become increasingly active in lawless parts of the Sinai Peninsula, where there has been a flood of weapons smuggled from Libya.
The change in Egypt's approach has not gone unnoticed in the West.
Last week, Germany's Interior Ministry issued its 2012 report on domestic security in which it noted an increase in the travel to Egypt by suspected Islamic extremists, ostensibly because they wanted to live in Muslim countries or study Arabic but in some specific cases may have been really interested in joining jihadi training camps.
The report doesn't specify where these training camps are located, whether in Egypt or elsewhere in the Middle East, North Africa or South Asia.
___
AP correspondent Robert H. Reid in Berlin contributed to this reports.
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New way to improve antibiotic production
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 17-Jun-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Zoe Dunford
zoe.dunford@jic.ac.uk
07-768-164-185
Norwich BioScience Institutes
Making bacteria make more antibiotics more quickly
An antibiotic has been found to stimulate its own production. The findings, to be published in PNAS, could make it easier to scale up antibiotic production for commercialisation.
Scientists Dr Emma Sherwood and Professor Mervyn Bibb from the John Innes Centre were able to use their discovery of how the antibiotic is naturally produced to markedly increase the level of production.
"We have shown for the first time that an antibiotic with clinical potential can act as signalling molecule to trigger its own synthesis," said Professor Bibb.
The antibiotic called planosporicin is produced by a soil bacterium called Planomonospora alba. When nutrients become limited, a small amount of the antibiotic is produced. The antibiotic is then able to trigger a mechanism which coordinates its own production throughout the bacterial population resulting in high levels.
"A frequent stumbling block in developing a natural product for commercialisation is being able to provide enough material for clinical trials," said Professor Bibb.
"Our work shows with the right understanding it is possible to increase productivity very dramatically in a targeted and knowledge-based manner."
With knowledge of this signalling mechanism in hand, the scientists were able to increase production by overexpressing two positively acting regulatory genes and deleting one that acts negatively. Planosporicin is similar to the antibiotic NAI-107 that is about to enter clinical trials for Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infections. The knowledge gained from this study is being used to increase NAI-107 production.
Commercial manufacturers of antibiotics may be able to use the results to reduce production times and therefore reduce costs. Bacteria often have to be grown for days and sometimes weeks before they start to make effective amounts of an antibiotic. Sherwood and Bibb were able to trigger production essentially from the beginning of growth.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 17-Jun-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Zoe Dunford
zoe.dunford@jic.ac.uk
07-768-164-185
Norwich BioScience Institutes
Making bacteria make more antibiotics more quickly
An antibiotic has been found to stimulate its own production. The findings, to be published in PNAS, could make it easier to scale up antibiotic production for commercialisation.
Scientists Dr Emma Sherwood and Professor Mervyn Bibb from the John Innes Centre were able to use their discovery of how the antibiotic is naturally produced to markedly increase the level of production.
"We have shown for the first time that an antibiotic with clinical potential can act as signalling molecule to trigger its own synthesis," said Professor Bibb.
The antibiotic called planosporicin is produced by a soil bacterium called Planomonospora alba. When nutrients become limited, a small amount of the antibiotic is produced. The antibiotic is then able to trigger a mechanism which coordinates its own production throughout the bacterial population resulting in high levels.
"A frequent stumbling block in developing a natural product for commercialisation is being able to provide enough material for clinical trials," said Professor Bibb.
"Our work shows with the right understanding it is possible to increase productivity very dramatically in a targeted and knowledge-based manner."
With knowledge of this signalling mechanism in hand, the scientists were able to increase production by overexpressing two positively acting regulatory genes and deleting one that acts negatively. Planosporicin is similar to the antibiotic NAI-107 that is about to enter clinical trials for Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infections. The knowledge gained from this study is being used to increase NAI-107 production.
Commercial manufacturers of antibiotics may be able to use the results to reduce production times and therefore reduce costs. Bacteria often have to be grown for days and sometimes weeks before they start to make effective amounts of an antibiotic. Sherwood and Bibb were able to trigger production essentially from the beginning of growth.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/nbi-nwt061713.php
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Thursday, June 13, 2013
RealtyTrac: Home repossessions rose in May
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Lenders stepped up action last month against homeowners who had fallen behind on their mortgage payments, taking possession of more homes and initiating the foreclosure countdown clock on many others.
Completed foreclosures jumped 11 percent nationally in May from the previous month, with monthly increases taking place in 33 states, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
The monthly pick up reflects a rise in homes entering the foreclosure process last year. Many of those homes wound their way through the often lengthy process and ended up becoming bank-owned properties. Home repossessions, however, were down 29 percent from May last year, reflecting the long-term downward trend.
Banks also started the foreclosure process on more homes last month. Foreclosure starts rose 4 percent from April, but were down 33 percent versus May last year, the firm said.
The increases come as the U.S. housing market continues to gain strength, propelled in part by growing demand for homes at a time when there's a thin supply of available homes for sale in many markets.
That dynamic has helped push home prices higher. They climbed nationally on an annual basis by 12.1 percent in April, the biggest gain since February 2006, according to data provider CoreLogic.
The combination of a tight inventory of homes for sale and rising prices makes for an opportune market for banks.
"Home prices are rising and demand is stronger, so they can recoup more of their losses when selling a bank-owned home, and in most cases should be able to sell relatively quickly," said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac.
The prospect of more bank-owned homes hitting the market also is good news for homebuyers struggling with the short supply of available homes. But not so great for homeowners, Blomquist said.
"For homeowners who are current or own their homes outright, this could slow down the recent rapid rise in home price appreciation, which could mean the value of their home does not go up as quickly in the short term," he said.
That's an unwelcome development, particularly for homeowners who are underwater on their mortgage, or owe more than their home is worth.
As of the end of March, 19.8 percent of all U.S. homes with a mortgage were underwater, according to data provider CoreLogic.
Rising home prices have helped drive that number down from 21.7 percent at the end of last year, and returned roughly 850,000 homes to a state of positive equity in the first three months of this year.
All told, 38,946 homes were taken back by lenders last month. Repossessions increased on a monthly basis in 33 states, including North Carolina, Oregon and Wisconsin.
At the current pace, the nation is on track to finish the year with about a half million completed foreclosures, down from 670,000 last year, Blomquist said.
Foreclosure starts totaled 72,698 homes. They increased on a monthly basis in 26 states and rose on an annual basis in 14 states, including Maryland, Connecticut, Hawaii and Arkansas.
Florida led the nation last month with an overall foreclosure rate nearly three times the national average. Rounding out the top three were Nevada and Ohio.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/realtytrac-home-repossessions-rose-may-041957368.html
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I?m a Gay Man Who Wants to Get Married
Phil Fung and Shawn Klein, partners of 18 years, toast with Champagne on the observation deck of the Empire State Building after their marriage ceremony on the 61st floor in New York on Feb. 14, 2012. Photo by Andrew Burton/Reuters
The other night on Bravo?s reality show Newlyweds: The First Year, the gay couple finally had their wedding. It was an elaborate, highly coiffed affair (what an older gay friend of mine would call ?high fag?) that had been planned over the course of many episodes: Fancy cake samples had been tasted; atrocious dance-pop love songs had been specially written, recorded, and choreographed; and Savannah, Ga., venues had been chosen once deemed sufficiently Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. As a fellow gay, I should have been happy to watch two of my kin do that thing for which we?re all supposed to be fighting, but instead, I experienced a familiar feeling of repulsion mixed with guilt topped off with self-righteous superiority. Confession: There are few things I find more skin-crawly than the pairing of the words ?gay? and ?wedding.?
I know, I know?I?m not supposed to say something like that. Sometime in the early 1990s, a committee (probably chaired by Andrew Sullivan) decided that ?marriage equality? was going to be the gay rights issue of the coming decades, with military service a close second. In order to be ?good gays,? all we queens were supposed to get in line, preferably with HRC logos tattooed on our foreheads. I could go on, but let?s just say that the LGBT movement?s rush to assimilate into society?s most conservative institutions at the expense of demanding civil recognition of different ways of loving and being rubs me the wrong way. ?
Still, as much as I resent the oppressiveness of the ?good gay? ethos, I?m actually not radical enough in my personal life to reject the big gay marriage plot wholeheartedly; in fact, my beef really only extends as far as aesthetics. If we?re all going to get ?married,? do we have to do it in the matching seersucker J. Crew suits that seem to be de rigueur? Can?t we gays (you know, the ones who saved Western civilization with our inventiveness) come up with something better than a bland wedding and a milquetoast reception to mark our sad, gradual sink into the mainstream? ?
This is not just an abstract question. My partner Cam and I have been together for over four years (decades in gay time), and we are gingerly circling the marriage question. We are as committed to one another as I imagine two people can be, and, given that we live in a society that weirdly rewards certain kinds of adult relationships more than others, the pragmatist in me can?t imagine not getting married in the legal sense. Assuming the eventual fall of DOMA, you?d better believe we want in on all of the legal and financial swag that the state hooks you up with for saying ?I do.?
What I have trouble getting into, though, is the wedding part itself. This hang-up, I should mention, has caused some amount of friction in my relationship. Though Cam is also wary of the gay-marriage compulsion and sympathetic to my reservations, he is of the opinion that a wedding is simply a big party at which your family and friends have the privilege of showering you with love and, hopefully, some cash as well. Sometimes, after I?ve had a glass of wine and watched a romantic movie, I can see the faint outlines of his point of view?a nice party is really all it needs to be, and I do like the idea of having a table-scape budget. But then I start imagining what the event would actually look like: how we?d have to say something charming and funny, but also deeply meaningful about ourselves up in front of a bunch of people; how we?d, in the end, essentially have to perform the POWER OF OUR LOVE to outsiders, and I get goose bumps (not the good ones). That doesn?t sound like Cam and me; it sounds so?straight.
To be clear, by ?straight? I don?t just mean that weddings are lame or awkward or boring. After all, on that point many straight couples agree with me, which is why we have wacky Halloween-themed productions and elopements and people who pop by City Hall on the way to work. Rather, I?m using straight as a sort of nongendered aesthetic. No matter how unique or quirky a couple is in real life and no matter how relaxed or innovative the ceremony, weddings have the tendency to cast a pall of earnestness over everything. There?s a part of me that can?t help but balk at the straightness of that imperative, a part that wants to say: ?You cannot possibly hope to understand what Cam and I have. You are incredibly presumptuous to demand to have it paraded before you, and you should now leave this place?without your party favor, please.? I realize, of course, that such a response is a little petulant, but there it is. I resent you, Ms. Strawman, for wanting to come to my wedding.
A little more needs to be said about relationship aesthetics. In what has quickly become my Bible of Gayness, David Halperin?s How To Be Gay, the good professor offers an argument about gay relationships that struck me as a stretch at first, but that has grown to seem increasingly insightful over the months since I first read the book. Simply put, Halperin suggests that long-term gay male couples are most successful when they treat their relationships as campy melodramas that ?combine passion with irony.? This does not mean that the couple?s love is somehow false or put-on or even unserious; rather, it merely demonstrates that gay couples, having been spared the psychological naturalization of wedded bliss for so long, cannot (or at least, should not) ignore the inherent theatricality of the institution. The entire arrangement, like the initial ceremony itself, is a massive collage of rituals, tropes, traditions, and assumptions that is really just Too. Much. to take seriously.
And, indeed, one of the reasons Cam and I work is that we intuitively lived this model before Halperin wrote it down. When I insist on buying the flowers myself and fuss over the stove while Cam pours the drinks for our guests at a dinner party, we are both on some level aware of how we are parodying the conventions of straight marriage, just as when we have quotidian arguments, we execute them in a catty, War of the Roses-like gender-bending competitive insult contest?and usually end up falling in love again over the other?s devastating verbal skill. Given that this playfulness, this campy meta-performance of conjugal life, is the truth of our relationship, how in the world could we hope to take something as ?straight? as a wedding seriously? To watch a gay couple soberly deliberate over whether hors d'oeuvres will be light or heavy, to earnestly worry about having bridesmaids or groomsmen, to struggle with writing their own vows vs. using a standard liturgy is for me like watching Mickey Rooney do yellowface in Breakfast at Tiffany?s in 2013. It?s cringe-funny because the lack of self-awareness is literally incredible. I doubt we?d be able to make it through the invocation before dissolving into giggles over how some relative?s makeup evokes Goldie Hawn at the end of Death Becomes Her.
But maybe that?s just how it will have to go down. As much as I?d like to think that Cam and I will be able to come up with something as thrilling as how an Australian newspaper described a spate of secret gay weddings in 1932??ghastly, horrifying spectacles of painted men and primping lads united in a sacrilegious blasphemy that they call the ?bonds of matrimony? ??I have a resigned feeling that we will end up having the nice party that he wants and that I don?t really mind all that much, I guess. No, it will probably not accurately convey, as Augusten Burroughs put it in his recent column about his own gay wedding issues, the ?slightly miraculous and always exciting? campy aesthetic of our relationship, but it will be lovely all the same.
And then we will go home, and Cam will make fun of me for crying during the banal speeches and for making such a fuss about all this to begin with, and I will be irritated but also smile because I will remember that he is the only one who, miraculously, gets it?or needs to?anyway.
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