Children’s Books about Obama & the Presidency

Whether you voted for Barach Obama or someone else, your children will be learning about him as the 44th President of the United States and the opportunities that exist for any natural born citizen of this country.  Most schools featured live TV coverage of the Inauguration for teachers, support staff and students.  Books already are out about Barack Obama.

As youngsters study Obama and the Presidency, you may want to acquire books, too, for your own library or home study program.

A few suggestions:

Barack Obama, President for a New Era (Gateway Biographies) by Marlene Targ Brill

Barack Obama: Our 44th President by Beatrice Gormley

Barack Obama: Out of Many, One (Step Into Reading) by Shana Corey

Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady by David Bergen Brophy

The U. S. Presidency (Our Government) by Muriel L. Dubois

The American Journey of Barack Obama by the Editors of Life Magazine

The Story of Abraham Lincoln by Patricia A. Pingry

Time Line Presidents

Presidents Learning Placemat

Presidents of the USA Floor Puzzle

(Amazon image)

(For more information about these items, check out my Obama & the Presidency Books Page)

Obama & the Presidency Books

So that you and your  youngsters keep abreast of current happenings in our country regarding the Presidency and the 44th President, Barack Obama, I’ve compiled a few here. 

Do you have any to suggest?  Books you find particularly helpful to teach youngsters about the history of the Presidency and our country, along with the ascendancy of the latest President.

Barack Obama, President for a New Era (Gateway Biographies) by Marlene Targ Brill

Barack Obama: Our 44th President by Beatrice Gormley

Barack Obama: Out of Many, One (Step Into Reading) by Shana Corey

Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady by David Bergen Brophy

The U. S. Presidency (Our Government) by Muriel L. Dubois

The American Journey of Barack Obama by the Editors of Life Magazine

The Story of Abraham Lincoln by Patricia A. Pingry

Time Line Presidents

Presidents Learning Placemat

Presidents of the USA Floor Puzzle

(Amazon image)

Recipes for Thanksgiving Leftovers

One of the greatest things about the holidays is the opportunity to experiment in the kitchen. Whether you have traditional standby recipes or you’re feeling more adventurous and are looking to spice things up with some variations on old favorites, it’s fair to assume when you’re done eating…there will be leftovers.

Turkey sandwiches. Turkey soup. Turkey salad. Sure, you’ll be able to use the rest of that bird in no time. But there is an alternative to these predictable dishes (since let’s face it – after a couple of meals like this you’re going to be bored with just the taste of turkey). The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever by Beatrice Ojakangas covers a wide range of casserole dishes for every occasion imaginable – including this tasty sounding recipe I’ll be trying out next week. What better to spice up leftover turkey than potent curry powder. I’m looking forward to putting this recipe to the test next week…that is after I’ve tackled the original Turkey feast on November 27th first.

Turkey and Curried Rice Casserole

• 3 tablespoons butter, divided, plus extra for the dish
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups diced cooked turkey
• 1/2 cup diced cooked ham
• 1 cup crumbled leftover stuffing or toasted and seasoned bread cubes
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• Pinch of dried thyme
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 cup rice
• 2 cups hot turkey or chicken broth

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 2 to 3-quart casserole.

2. In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter and add the onions and mushrooms. Sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are softened.

3. Transfer the onions and mushrooms into the casserole and add the turkey, ham, stuffing, parsley, and thyme, and season with salt and pepper.

4. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in the skillet and add the curry powder and rice, stirring. Add the broth, stir well, and pour over the ingredients in the casserole.

5. Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid.

(c) Beatrice Ojakangas, The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever – with permission from Chronicle Books (2008)

Trying to stay immune to Ana? Just “bea” glad you aren’t a royal…

Okay.  Let’s get our facts straight here.

Princess Beatrice is perhaps one of the least fashion-forward young women in royal circuits.  (Note the butterfly-themed hat she wore to her brother’s wedding – yikes…) 

And she’s a constant club-hopper who hasn’t yet learned how to turn it on for the papparrazzi and give a “good” shot, even if it’s the wee hours of the morning.  (That’s bound to come.) 

But all this doesn’t give the press the right to nag her about her weight.

Recent photos of her romping on the beach in a skimpy bikini aroused the ire of plenty of tabloidites who ridiculed her size 10 body relentlessly.  It made me so ashamed to be living in a society where that sells newspapers… 

Although Beatrice has thus far remained rather undaunted (at least publicly) by all the focus on her weight, what do you want to guess that in the coming years she’ll succumb to some kind of disordered eating practices? 

I really feel terrible for her; some reports have said that the British press is even crueler than the American press when it comes to mocking individuals’ waistlines.  (That’s difficult for me to believe…)

Ironically, you and I both know that if Beatrice lost tons, she’d still be the target of a campaign to pigeonhole her as an anorexic or bulimic. 

I guess if you’re in the spotlight, you just can’t win.

Photo: Newscom

About the Vaccine Court Lawyers

Regular reports are coming in about the vaccine court (here’s Left Brain/Right Brain on some expert witnesses and, if you’re in the mood for some Swiftian “monkey business” about what some proponents of a vaccine-autism link consider newsworthy research, go here). And, courtesy of the National Law Journal, here’s some background about some of the lawyers representing families in “vaccine court.”

The small Boston-based firm of Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan has 1200 cases alleging that vaccines cause autism and some 200 other vaccine-injury cases. The five-lawyer firm has “transformed itself from the products liability firm” that once housed Jan Schlichtmann’s toxic tort case immortalized in the movie “A Civil Action“; Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan has become “a prominent plaintiffs firm in the vaccine bar.”   In 1986 Schlictmann famously represented eight Woburn, Massachusetts families against W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods over contamination of the Woburn City water supply. Schlichtmann left the firm in 1991 but many of the current partners worked for the firm while Schlichtmann was there. No surprise that his former firm is representing families who claim that their child became autistic from—was damaged by—a vaccine.

The fee rules for the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program apparently “make it hard for vaccine lawyers to stay solvent”:

The tax-funded vaccine compensation program, which was designed as a no-fault option for resolving vaccine injury claims, allows lawyers to collect fees for claims made “in good faith” and with “a reasonable basis,” whether they win or lose the case.

Yet because lawyers collect fees at the end of a case, work done in prior years is based on past billing rates that might be devalued by inflation.

“It’s a terrible business model for lawyers,” Conway said.

What’s more, the lawyer’s reimbursement for expert witnesses doesn’t include interest for the delay in payment and is frequently challenged by the government, Conway said.

Conway noted that the firm has yet to collect fees on one 15-year-old case.

Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan represented Michelle Cedillo in “vaccine court” last June. In the current case, Williams Love O’Leary & Powers is representing William Mead (whose father is himself a lawyer) and Jordan King. Lawyer Tom Powers‘ biography notes that he focuses “on toxic tort litigation, including thimerosal and vaccine injuries and asbestos.”

From being called a “lifesaver” and a “giant leap for mankind,” vaccines are now on trial as the new asbestos. That’s some monkey business indeed.

Diary Clue Leads to Wedding 62 Years Later

This news story made me smile today when I came online to read my news alerts. To think just a telephone number noted in a diary led to a couple finally getting back together and marrying after such a long time.

“Then, in 2006, Ivan’s wife passed away and, going through his diary, he found Beatrice’s telephone number.”

It certainly reminds me to include the little details in my journals, even if I doubt my hubby would read mine in the same situation. It’s always handy to be able to look back and find information like that if you include it in your journal or diary.

Heather
Journaling Tools – Go deeper and reach higher with hundreds of journal writing resources.

Life Journal Software

Thoughts From ER Nurse Kim McAllister of Emergiblog

Today at Genetics and Health, I’ve got an interview with ER nurse Kim McAllister of Emergiblog. In the interview, we talked about Beatrice Vance, the woman who died of a heart attack while waiting in her local hospital’s emergency room. Come take a look to see what Kim thinks of the tragic situation.

Genetics Interview #27: Kim McAllister of Emergiblog

Perfect timing yet again. Kim at Emergiblog is here today. She and I were both included in FOXNews.com’s best health blogs list. But unlike me, she got 30 comments congratulating her! That should tell you what a great person Kim is but this interview should convince you further.

1. A couple of months ago, I posted about Beatrice Vance at my heart disease blog, A Hearty Life. Ms. Vance had died in the waiting room of her local emergency department despite experiencing symptoms of a heart attack. Quite a heated discussion followed in the comments where various nurses weighed in. What’s your take on Beatrice Vance’s death and the way emergency rooms are generally run when patients come through the door?

It is easy for us to sit back and act as “arm chair quarterbacks” when the game is over and discuss what should have been done with all the visual acuity of hindsight.

This one is hard for me because I work in a facility that is well known for its cardiac care at all levels, from the ER on up. Someone comes in with chest pain and no matter what their sex or age, they are placed on a monitor and an EKG is done within five minutes. Every time.

I don’t know how Ms. Vance presented. Whether or not she presented with the “classic” symptoms is immaterial. You have to have a high index of suspicion in women. Was she downgraded in acuity because she was female? We don’t know. But I know for a fact that it happens because I felt that way when presenting with chest pain to my local ER last February. Female, age 48, hypertension and high cholesterol with strong family history for heart disease. The doctor said I had “no risk factors”.

So I know that there are cases where women are not taken as seriously as men when it comes to symptoms of a heart attack. Whether it happened here is hard to tell.

The chilling aspect of this for me is that the death was ruled a homicide. My humble dictionary calls it “the deliberate and unlawful killing of one person by another”. There is no way that this was a homicide. She died of a myocardial infarction. Was her death preventable? Maybe. maybe not. But you can hardly say it was a deliberate killing.

I’m sick that she died, though. And I’m sick that somewhere, somehow the system set up to catch patients such as Ms. Vance allowed her to slip through the cracks. No nurse reading this story feels anything but sorrow. It sure will keep any complacency from creeping into my practice, that’s for sure.

Read more

Misdiagnosing Heart Attacks

After Beatrice Vance died of an undiagnosed heart attack in the waiting room of her local emergency department this past summer, the coroner’s jury ruled her death a homicide. But hers was not an isolated case. USA Today has an in-depth article featuring James Pettry who died of a heart attack the day after being sent home from the emergency room.

An estimated 1 in 50 heart attack victims are not treated appropriately. Not only are the mistakes potentially deadly, they’re also very costly for physicians who are sued in malpractice cases. Dr. Joseph Ornato, professor and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond, advises patients and those who are involved in their care to “push doctors who are not listening.” But you won’t know to push unless you understand what to look for and what to expect.

Read the USA Today article and the accompanying comments at On Deadline to learn more.

Technorati Tags: heart, heart disease. heart attack, misdiagnosis, malpractice, diseases, health, cardiovascular disease, emergency room

Grand Rounds 3(2) at RDoctor Medical

Grand Rounds 3(2), a weekly round-up of health and medicine blogs, is now available at RDoctor Medical. Here are some posts that A Hearty Life readers might find especially interesting:

• CDC: Almost Half of Hospitals Experience Crowded Emergency Departments at GruntDoc. Still not convinced? Learn what happened to Beatrice Vance.
• Thoughts On My Profession at Medpundit. Dr. Sydney discusses the problem of overmedicating patients. You may also want to read my post about drugs for heart disease.
• Fat Malaysia at Parallel Universes and National Survey for Health and Nutrition in Mexico (2006) at Unbounded Medicine both address the global problem of obesity and heart disease. For more on this topic at A Hearty Life, see Heart Disease Kills Everywhere and other posts about World Heart Day.
• That’s Just Brilliant at hospital impact. An interesting take by Nick Jacobs on the use of the word “brilliant” (which I hear a lot in London) and the ban on trans fats at his hospital. Learn more about trans-fats.

Technorati Tags: grand rounds, medicine, health, heart, heart disease, cardiovascular, cvd, diseases, illness, health, emergency departments, obesity, drugs

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