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THE INSIDE HISTORY OF THE
ISRAEL LOBBY
Former top
CIA analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison give CounterPunchers
the real scoop on the Israel lobby and precisely how powerful
it is. Read
how US presidents from Wilson, through FDR to Truman were manipulated
by the Zionist lobby; how Israel bent LBJ, Reagan and Clinton
to its purpose; how Bush's White House has been the West Wing
of the Israeli government; how Washington's revolving doors send
full-time Israel lobbyists from think-tanks to the National Security
Council and the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. For all who want a
true measure of the Lobby's power, the Christisons' 8-page dossier,
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As the Little League season gets into
full swing for millions of young baseball and softball players
across the country, their health and safety on the playing field
will significantly benefit from an addition in the Little League
rules this year -- a requirement for breakaway bases.
Rule 1.06 of the 2006 Little
League Baseball and Softball rule books states:
"... Beginning with the
2008 season, it will become mandatory that all leagues utilize
bases that disengage their anchor. Leagues are encouraged to
begin the process of implementing these types of base systems
during the current season on all their fields so that the process
is completed by the 2008 season."
Why is this so important?
Baseball and softball at all
ages and skill levels have long been plagued, and continue to
be plagued today, by injuries due to sliding into stationary
bases. Most softball and baseball injuries are base-contact sliding
injuries, and include serious injuries such as ankle fractures,
knee sprains, wrist and shoulder dislocations, and head injuries.
The stationary bases found
all across the country are just that -- fixed, immovable objects
that are bolted to a metal post, sunk into the ground and fixed
in concrete. This can cause a tremendous amount of damage to
a player who slides into a base the wrong way.
Breakaway bases consist of
a rubber mat attached to a post which is inserted into the ground
and a base that snaps onto the rubber mat. Under normal play,
breakaway bases separate during just 3% of slides. In such a
case, the mat from which the base separated is considered the
official base when the umpire is determining if the runner is
safe or out, posing little threat to game quality.
Dr. David Janda, M.D., an orthopedic
surgeon based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has led the fight in the
area of sports injury prevention through his independent, nonprofit
Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine (IPSM). Twenty years
ago, during his residency at the University of Michigan, Dr.
Janda studied the effectiveness of breakaway bases for injury
prevention and has pressed for their use ever since.
In his book, "The Awakening
of a Surgeon," Dr. Janda documents the findings of his two-year
study: "We realized a 96% reduction in injuries.... [and]
experienced a 99% reduction in health care expenditures by switching
from stationary to breakaway bases." In the conclusion of
the study, Janda writes:
"Base-sliding injuries
are the result of many factors, including judgment errors by
the runner, poor technique and inadequate physical conditioning.
But the breakaway base can effectively modify the outcome of
these factors as a form of passive intervention -- in much the
same fashion as an automobile air bag mitigates the outcome of
an accident caused by another driver."
In 1988, the study was published
in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Janda
wrote, "Based on their analysis of our study, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that if all the
[bases on baseball and softball] fields in the United States
were switched from stationary to breakaway bases, it would prevent
approximately 1.7 million injuries a year and save two billion
dollars in associated health care costs a year nationally."
Additionally, Roger Hall --
president of Rogers USA, Inc. in Elizabethtown, PA -- who invented
the breakaway bases tested by Dr. Janda, was awarded a "Chairman's
Commendation" in 1996 by the Consumer Product Safety Commission,
which concluded that breakaway bases could reduce base-contact
sliding injuries in children's organized play.
Breakaway bases still have not been widely adopted and aside
from Little League's recent action, no other organization, including
the major and minor leagues, has mandated their use. This despite
a simple injury prevention measure that would not interfere with
the integrity of the sport but would prevent so many injuries
and save billions of dollars in health care costs.
In a letter I coauthored in
June, 2005 with League of Fans, the breakaway base research was
presented to the Department of Health and Human Services, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Consumer
Product Safety Commission as just one example of the lack of
a coordinated and proactive approach toward sports injury prevention
in this country.
The letter called for "a
proactive national program regarding health and safety in sports,
at all levels and age groups, with the goal of minimizing the
risk of injury to participants in informal and organized sports,
recreation and exercise." The agencies' responses were lukewarm.
Hopefully, Little League's
proactive decision that benefits young 5-18 year-old ballplayers
from its various divisions will influence and push other baseball
and softball associations, organizations from other sports, and
government agencies to make the health and safety of sports participants
a priority.
For more on Little League-approved
breakaway base manufacturers and installation, visit www.littleleague.org/common/equipment/view.asp?id=25.
For more on the work of IPSM and Dr. Janda, including his most
recent book, "The Power of Prevention Handbook," visit
www.ipsm.org.
For more on the efforts of
League of Fans regarding health and safety in sports, visit www.leagueoffans.org.
Now
Available
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The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
CounterPunch
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