DemocRats: Party of the rich?!

Say what?!

In a state-by-state, district-by-district comparison of wealth concentrations based on Internal Revenue Service income data, Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, found that the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional jurisdictions were represented by Democrats.

He also found that more than half of the wealthiest households were concentrated in the 18 states where Democrats hold both Senate seats.

The Democrat Party, best politicians money can buy!

The Phantom

Serious Chinese toy issue. Parents, listen up.

A toy made in China has been found to have a lot more wrong with it that
a little lead paint. Check this out.
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071107.wchinatoy1107/BNStory/International/home>

> Australia announced a nationwide ban on Wednesday on a Chinese-made
> toy which investigations showed contained a chemical which metabolizes
> into a "date rape" style drug when swallowed.
>
> The ban across Australia's six states and two territories came after
> three children became severely ill after they swallowed the toy beads
> called Bindeez.
>
> Toy importer Moose Enterprise issued a voluntary recall of Bindeez,
> named Australia's 2007 Toy of the Year, saying some batches of the
> beads did not match the approved formula.
>
This toy is being marketed in Canada and the US as Aquadots. Its on
kid's TV all the time. Here's the poop:
>
> Three Australian children suffered seizures and needed intensive
> hospital care in the past two weeks after eating the plastic beads,
> which scientists discovered contain a chemical that breaks down into a
> potentially fatal recreational drug.
>
> Ms. Burney said an investigation was under way into how the dangerous
> chemical 1,4-butanediol came to replace the safe chemical
> 1,5-pentanediol in the manufacturing process.
>
> "The issue of how a dangerous substance was used in these beads and
> not the non-toxic substance ... that is going to take us a few more
> days to uncover," she said.
>
I think now would be the time to */not/* buy toys that say "Made in
China" on them. A wee bit of lead paint, ok whatever, don't let the kid
eat the ALL the paint off the thing. But this here, this is a whole new
level of Chicoms not giving a shit.

Bottom line, if it's made in China there's a good chance its hinkey.
'Nuff said.

The Phantom (who ain't buying any more Chicom made toys, Mr. Walmart sir.)

A little good news on cancer for a change

Disclaimer first, this is an experimental drug showing good results in mice.  Not humans.

A new study of an estrogen-derived drug shows promise as a treatment for breast cancer and breast cancer metastases to bone.

The study, which was done in mice, appears on the cover of the November issue of Cancer Research.

[snippage]

In studies of other cancers, 2ME2 has been shown to induce cancer cells to self-destruct. Otherwise, tumor cells evade this process allowing them to continually divide and spread throughout the body.

Clinical trials of 2ME2 for breast cancer patients are in progress. These trials are based on an oral version of 2ME2 to treat primary tumors, but this method has limitations as the oral version of 2ME2 is poorly suited to getting into the blood system and reaching tumors. Researchers resolved this problem by delivering 2ME2 by injection and found it was much more effective.

[more snippage]

Researchers described 2ME2 as an “attractive candidate for controlling tumor growth, metastasis to bone and bone disorders,” such as osteolysis caused by the spread of breast cancer.

“This is potentially of very substantial importance because this agent has few of the unpleasant side effects of most chemotherapy drugs and targets both bone resorption and the cancerous tumor cells,” Turner said. “It really is the first agent that has been clearly demonstrated to do that.”

So there you go, some nice hopeful info for you to balance off the land slide of daily bullshit.  If the stuff is in drug trials in one form and it passes, it could end up on the market in the other form as well assuming no deal breaking side effects crop up.  Like extra nose syndrome!  When something shows good results like this they sometimes fast track the hell out of it.

The Bony Phantom