RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://israel21c.org/health/new-solution-kills-hospital-superbugs

New ‘solution’ kills hospital superbugs By Karin Kloosterman
Resistant bacteria are soon to meet their match: a genetically engineered fluid that restores their susceptibility to antibiotics.

Every patient, nurse, doctor and visitor to a hospital knows the drill: hands get a splash of antibacterial fluid found at every bedside, entrance and exit. Keeping hands clean can prevent some infections, but superbugs — those sometimes deadly bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics — can outwit the best hygiene practices.

Hospital-acquired infections are one of the leading causes of preventable death in the developed world today, with 100,000 people in the United States alone dying every year from bugs they catch as patients in the hospital, according to the World Health Organization. The old and very young are at an especially high risk of infection from resistant bacteria that can spread like wildfire.

But now superbugs may have met their match, thanks to a genetically engineered cleaning solution developed in Israeli laboratories.

Costing only a few dollars a quart, the solution is non-toxic to patients and can be spread on hospital surfaces to kill what conventional soaps and antibiotics can’t, report researchers Rotem Edgar from the Tel Aviv Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center and Udi Qimron from Tel Aviv University. They detailed their technology recently in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Weakening the superbugs

The solution uses a laboratory-grown virus called a bacteriophage, which disrupts the DNA of resistant bacteria and renders them susceptible to antibiotics.

“We have genetically engineered the bacteriophages so that once they infect the bacteria, they transfer a dominant gene that confers renewed sensitivity to certain antibiotics,” says Qimron, who believes his solution will one day be part of every hospital’s anti-germ arsenal.

The researchers say that the new spray could be applied on any surface where there is a high concentration of germs, such as door handles, faucets, bedrails and handrails.

The product is now ready to be tested, first on a nasty strain of E. coli that leads to urinary trac

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2711/europe-march-towards-islam

Post-Christian Europe became noticeably more Islamized during 2011.

As the rapidly growing Muslim population makes its presence felt in towns and cities across the continent, Islam is transforming the European way of life in ways unimaginable only a few years ago.

What follows is a brief summary of some of the more outrageous Islam-related controversies that took place in Europe during 2011.

In Austria, an appellate court upheld the politically correct conviction of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, a Viennese housewife and anti-Jihad activist, for “denigrating religious beliefs” after she gave a series of seminars about the dangers of radical Islam. The December 20 ruling showed that while Judaism and Christianity can be disparaged with impunity in postmodern multicultural Austria, speaking the truth about Islam is subject to swift and hefty legal penalties.

Also in Austria, the King Abdullah Center for Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Dialogue was inaugurated at the Albertina Museum in downtown Vienna on October 13. The Saudis say the purpose of the multi-million-dollar initiative is to “foster dialogue” between the world’s major religions in order to “prevent conflict.” But critics say the center is an attempt by Saudi Arabia to establish a permanent “propaganda center” in central Europe from which to spread the conservative Wahhabi sect of Islam

Darfur: Land of The Islamist Power Struggle

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2708/darfur-islamist-power-struggle

On December 23, the Sudanese army killed one of the most influential rebel leaders in Darfur, Khalil Ibrahim. The Washington Post wrote that Ibrahim’s death represents a “major setback to the eight-year-old rebellion in Sudan’s western region, and to the Justice and Equality Movement [JEM], which Ibrahim founded several years ago and developed into the most organized rebel force in Darfur.” Ibrahim’s life story, however, shows how his actions were dictated more by his eagerness for power and by his Islamist agenda rather than by finding a solution to Darfur’s worst humanitarian crisis of this century.

If You Care for the Palestinians, Boycott the Palestinian Authority by Mudar Zahran

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2712/boycott-palestinian-authority

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, went to the UN General Assembly in September, seeking recognition for a Palestinian state — a request that was not only unilateral in breach of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 838. In response, three congressional committees blocked $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, a move the PA described as “collective punishment” — although it is hard to understand why it does not consider firing thousands of rockets at civilians in Israeli villages “collective punishment.”

In November of 2011, 44 lawmakers, all Democrats, wrote to the heads of the House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations subcommittee, claiming that “Maintaining U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority is in the essential strategic interest of Israel and the United States”]. Nonetheless, it might just be in the Palestinians’ best interest if the US, and the world, not only stops financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, but even boycotts it.

When the autonomous PA came into existence through the legal framework of the Oslo Peace Accord, signed between the Israelis and the Palestinian Liberation Organization [PLO] in 1993, the agreement was the most advanced political accomplishment ever by any terrorist organization. The PLO was the first terrorist entity ever to be rewarded with such as internationally-supported agreement as Oslo. This reward for bad behavior doubtless inspired the PLO to continue doing what it has always done best: promoting terrorism.

http://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2011/12/29/americas_big_loser_2011_americans/print

In North Carolina this week, a young man named Mostafa Kamel Hendi hit upon a plan to make ends meet in this rotten economy: He decided to knock over a local gold store. Tape shows this determined and enterprising flower of American youth strolling into the store, hoodie over his head, and then gesturing to the clerk, Derek Mothershead, to shove some money in a plastic bag.

Mothershead, however, not being a member of the liberal effete class who believe that all robbery is a noble redistributionist impulse, had an unexpected reaction. He handed Hendi some money — and then, as Hendi bent to put the money in the bag, Mothershead clocked him with a tremendous left. Hendi went down, bleeding profusely. “There was just an opportunity there where I thought that I could actually do something and justice could be served,” said Mothershead, “and I thought that’s what needed to be done.” This tough Mother then forced Hendi to clean up his own blood with paper towels and cleaning solution. “If he wants money,” Mothershead added, “get a job. Work like everybody else in this world.”

http://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2011/12/29/the_justice_departments_identity_problem/print

Is there, or should there ever be, a point when a state is no longer penalized for its discriminatory past?

Not according to the Department of Justice, which last Friday rejected a South Carolina law that would have required voters show a valid photo ID before casting their ballots.

Justice says the law discriminates against minorities. The Obama administration said, “South Carolina’s law didn’t meet the burden under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory practices preventing blacks from voting.” Why South Carolina? Because, the Justice Department contends, it’s tasked with approving voting changes in states that have failed in the past to protect the rights of blacks.

Are they serious?

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2011/12/29/republican_voters_choices/print

“There are no guarantees, no matter whom the Republicans vote for in the primaries. Why not vote for the candidate who has shown the best track record of accomplishments, both in office and in the debates? That is Newt Gingrich. With all his shortcomings, his record shows that he knows how to get the job done in Washington.”

No one seems to be really happy with this year’s field of Republican candidates for that party’s presidential nomination — except perhaps the Democrats.

The sudden rise, and equally sudden fall, of a succession of Republican front-runners is just one sign of the dissatisfaction of the Republican voters with this field of candidates.

In this, as in many other aspects of life, we can only make our choice among the options actually available. So Republican voters who want to be realistic need to understand that they are going to end up with qualms and nagging doubts about whomever they pick this time.