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Articles by Ken Blaker
Tucker Carlson’s smears against Chabad could fuel hate in California
A big swirling bucket of the latest rumors, celebrity news and Hollywood gossip. The premier celebrity gossip app. The only apps that gives you a comprehensive real time celeb news stream. Gossip Bucket aggregates and streams the latest gossip news and headlines from the top sources in one place.
Tucker Carlson’s smears against Chabad could fuel hate in California
In April 2019, a man entered a San Diego County synagogue with a gun and a desire to kill as many Jews as possible. He killed one and wounded several others before fleeing. The day was the conclusion of Passover, commemorating the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea. Unlike last week’s Michigan attacker, the gunman did not choose the largest synagogue, or even the closest.
Tucker Carlson’s smears against Chabad could fuel hate in California
US conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson speaks at the Turning Point Action USA conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, on July 15, 2023. (Photo by GIORGIO VIERA / AFP) (Photo... In April 2019, a man entered a San Diego County synagogue with a gun and a desire to kill as many Jews as possible. He killed one and wounded several others before fleeing. The day was the conclusion of Passover, commemorating the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea.
Treating inflammation provides hope in the fight against Parkinson's
The acceleration of new Parkinson’s disease cases outpaces other age-related conditions, and as a result, the patient population is growing quickly. In 2022 there were about 90,000 new diagnoses in the U.S., versus the previous prevailing estimate of 60,000. While some of the increase can doubtless be attributed to improved diagnostics and improved access to health care, those factors affect the statistics of other diseases and cannot explain why so many more people seem to be getting the disease.
When mandates fail to protect, science can help
On October 28, 1918, a San Francisco horseshoer named James Wisser urged a street corner crowd to throw away their masks in defiance of a local mask mandate issued a few days before. He was shot twice after resisting a local health inspector’s attempt to force compliance. At that time, most of the medical community believed that cotton gauze masks were useful in slowing infection rates, but dissenting voices felt that the masks had no effect.
New Strategies Needed for Healing Long-Term Wildfire Pollution Effects
Shortly after I moved to California, a fire ravaged a hillside near my Irvine home. Evacuated residents were relocated to a makeshift shelter a block away. As I walked there to offer help, the air stung my eyes due to the black soot that snowed down. I didn’t even notice the accompanying smoke in the air, but for weeks afterward, I had a cough. A few years later, that cough returned when I was spending a lot of time under the industrial gray skies of the east coast of China.
heart benefits and detrimental effects
Tons of ink have been expended on the health effects, both positive and negative, of alcohol consumption. Beneficial effects on the heart were discussed in the 1990s based on the “French paradox.” A paper published in 1995 noted that there was less ischemic heart disease in France compared to the U.S., despite higher saturated fat intakes and a higher prevalence of smoking.
Rising longevity and cognitive health: Navigating dementia and treatment
The comedian George Burns once quipped, “By the time you’re eighty years old, you’ve learned everything. You only have to remember it.” With the average life expectancy in the United States up from 54 a century ago to 74 today, the damage that can be done by aging and mental decline is more prevalent than ever. We see evidence of it all too often in our world leaders, families, and communities. My friend Barry is 81 and very active.
It’s Time to Modernize Our Plans to Reduce Avoidable Infections
My 11- and 13-year-olds have been cold and flu incubators since their first days at pre-school. If you have kids, you certainly know the experience of sharing almost every bug that comes to town with all the families in your kids' peer groups. As good citizens we often sacrifice our workdays to accommodate kid sickdays, because we don't want to be the culprit that sends their kid out with a contagious sniffle or cough.
An Alzheimer’s treatment could be closer than you think
June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. That may seem unnecessary since few of us are unaware of Alzheimer’s. The name invokes one of our greatest health fears: the fear of being mentally impaired. And it is common knowledge that Alzheimer’s is an incurable descent into unremitting isolation and confusion. Over 55 million people live with varying forms of dementia, with Alzheimer's being the most common form.
A drug-free Rx for chronic pain: To attack the opioid crisis, we need to change the way we think
Last week, the Senate followed the House, setting aside politics and voting overwhelmingly to ratchet up the fight against the opioid epidemic.
Demand More From Your Doctors When Their Treatment Plan Is Opioids
Here in America we are quick to throw powerful chemicals like opioids at problems without considering the cause, leading many to a road of addiction and risk of death without knowing whether a much more benign treatment like a simple orthotic might cure rather than camouflage the pain. I was experiencing shoulder pain for several days. My primary care physician was too busy to see me and instead told me to go to a local emergency room. The waiting area was packed.
Bandaging Veterans’ Pain With Opioids Is Proving Deadly, Must Stop
In his 1961 novel Joseph Heller coined the term Catch-22 by describing a military rule that placed airmen in a double bind—unable to solve a problem because of the circumstances inherent in a problem. For Veterans in 2017, opioid abuse is the most devastating Catch-22. Military service leads to veterans suffering high rates of chronic pain. The overburdened VA health system is managed and mandated to help these patients, leading to high rates of opioid prescriptions.
Opioid painkillers are killing thousands of Americans -- there are alternatives
President Trump has promised a major announcement and action on the opioid abuse crisis in the coming days – welcome news to deal with a growing and deadly problem. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that almost 2 million Americans abuse or are addicted to opioids and says that “from 1999 to 2015, more than 183,000 people have died in the U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids.” That’s a quadrupling of the death rate from these prescription drugs since 1999.
To Curb Opioid Abuse, Prescription Meds Should Be Doctors’ Last Resort
The California Legislature has designated September as “Opioid, Heroin, Fentanyl, and Prescription Drug Abuse Awareness Month,” in a statement that bemoans the alarming facts about opioids, but fails to offer any actions or suggestions for addressing the abuse epidemic. By contrast, when the Obama administration named a “Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week” last fall, the proclamation came with measures focused on helping people trapped in abuse.
The United Nations Latest Anti-Israeli Salvo Betrays Its Charter
In 1887, a full 80 years before the six-day war, Sir John and Lady Caroline Gray Hill started sharing their time between Jerusalem and Liverpool where Sir John was an eminent lawyer and International Law expert. They bought land on Mount Scopus from Ottoman sellers with a magnificent view of the Old City of Jerusalem.
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