John Oliver on Trumpcare: "the Ted Cruz of healthcare legislation"

John Oliver has criticized the latest healthcare reform, referring to it as “shitty Obamacare”.

On Last Week Tonight, the comic took apart the American Health Care Act, championed by the House speaker, Paul Ryan, saying: “You may not have wanted it, it looks awful but it’s here anyway” which he likened to “Pirates of the Caribbean 5: The Curse of Johnny Depp Getting Divorced & Needing the Money.”

He then discussed the negative reaction the bill has already encountered, even from many Republicans. “Much like the life behind Melania’s eyes, the AHCA looks dead by the time it was introduced in Washington,” he said.

Oliver called it “shitty Obamacare, the way Old Navy is a shitty version of the Gap” before talking about the mechanics of the plan. Older people will get more money towards their healthcare leading him to joke: “The older you get, the more money you get. Think of it as the exact opposite of being a woman in Hollywood.”

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Despite all of the negativity, Ryan has been doing the publicity circuit, explaining why the bill is so great. Oliver joked during one of his TV calls-ins that “somehow you can almost hear his erection during that”.

He then played the much-criticized clip of congressman Jason Chaffetz recommending that people should reconsider buying an iPhone if they plan to need any form of healthcare.

“It’s frankly a little hard to take a lecture on good choices from a man who presumably entered a barbershop and said give me the wet poodle pubes,” Oliver said.

He then highlighted that the people who will be most affected by the reform will be poorer Americans who voted for Trump. “It’s like if the people in Pompeii voted for the volcano,” he said.

When asking who exactly will benefit from the plan, Oliver showed stats that prove richer Americans will receive major tax cuts as a result. “So this plan is literally taking money from the poor and giving it to the very rich,” he said. “It’s essentially a reverse Bernie Sanders which is also the name of a sex act which consists of very aggressive fingering.”

In discussing the response, Oliver referred to it as “almost universally hated in Washington” and “truly the Ted Cruz of healthcare legislation”.

He also played footage from Sean Spicer’s press briefing where he used two different paper stacks to somehow prove the new bill is better. “That is the most aggressively stupid thing I have ever seen and I just saw Jason Chaffetz suggest paying for health insurance by retroactively not buying an iPhone,” he said.

Trump has spoken this week about how no one knew how difficult and complicated healthcare was until now. “It’s like saying ‘who knew King Tut was dead’ – everybody did!” Oliver said.

The president is also not attaching his name to it or talking about it at great length. “Trump is not clamoring to put his name on this bill and he has put his name on some of the shittiest products in human history,” he said.

Oliver ended by talking about his plan to get a message to Trump about how awful the new plan is: he’s bought ad time on Fox & Friends, a show the president clearly watches. The ad will feature an older actor explain in detail how his life will be harder from now on. It will air in the DC area on Wednesday morning.

John Oliver on Trumpcare: "the Ted Cruz of healthcare legislation"

How to cope with loneliness | Oliver Burkeman

Loneliness is everywhere in the world of psychology these days – the subject of so many studies, articles and talks that you sometimes wish the loneliness researchers would go away, so you could just get some damn time to yourself. Perhaps you knew that loneliness can be lethal: it’s linked to heart disease, insomnia and depression, and is a better predictor than obesity of an early death.

But the new spin on loneliness is that we ought to welcome it, in modest doses. “As long as we then do what we should do – reconnect with people – then loneliness is a good thing,” the German psychologist Maike Luhmann told the US website Vox. “This is a sign from our psychological systems that there’s something off.” It’s a “biological warning system” that evolved over millennia, alerting us to potentially dangerous levels of isolation. True, isolation isn’t so dangerous today: a friendless Londoner is less likely to starve, or be eaten, than a friendless prehistoric hunter-gatherer. But there’s a reason the pang of loneliness hurts so much.

This notion gets greeted with surprise – loneliness, a good thing? – but the surprising thing is that we ever imagined otherwise. Why would we have developed this response to isolation if it didn’t serve some purpose? (As the psychology writer Melissa Dahl points out, the same can be said for boredom, a warning that you need more meaning in your life, and for anxiety, which helps prepare for potential threats.) This becomes obvious if you consider physical pain. A throbbing ache in your abdomen isn’t pleasant, but it’s a “good thing” if it prompts you to head to the doctor’s and address whatever’s causing it. In programming parlance, pain isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.

If we tend to resist thinking about emotions in this way – as warning bells – that’s probably because it sounds like dispensing blame. Telling lonely people they ought to get out more seems to imply it’s their fault they’re lonely. Likewise, some forms of depression are a rational response to a bad situation you need to address: maybe it’s time to leave a relationship, or confront an inner conflict. But we’d rather not hear that; blaming a “chemical imbalance” seems less daunting. We treat depression as the problem, when it’s often better thought of as a symptom.

The nasty twist in this is that loneliness, like depression, can turn chronic. A vicious circle begins. You come to see your surroundings as hostile – they’re making you feel bad, after all – so you respond to others in unfriendly ways, or avoid contact altogether. (That’s your early warning system on the blink: in Paleolithic times, it might have helped a highly isolated person to be hyper-alert to threats, but not any more.) This kind of loneliness demands a skilful response: you need to heed the warning bell, while not heeding the thoughts to which it gives rise, telling you to pull away. Reach out, even if it feels unappealing. Once again, the analogy with physical pain is helpful. Surgery’s rarely appealing, either, but sometimes it’s exactly what you need.

oliver.burkeman@theguardian.com

How to cope with loneliness | Oliver Burkeman

My brother has Down’s syndrome. I wouldn’t change him for the world | Oliver Shone

“Sausage rolls!” I hear him exclaim, sitting in his place at the table while indulging in his favourite ice-cream. His knowledge is limited, his speech is limited, his comprehension of life is limited – but his emotions are heightened. This is my 13-year-old brother, Sebbie; he has Down’s syndrome, a congenital disorder arising from a chromosome defect.

He may not seem as clever as the average child; however, his intelligence, though less apparent, is no less valuable. He is not able to conform to society’s expectations by taking exams and tests to demonstrate his intellect. But Albert Einstein said: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” He is clever, but cannot be part of “our” life because he is not clever in the “normal” way.

He is sitting opposite me at the table eating his pudding, while dancing to a “happy song”; he just has to physically express enjoyment (he loves his vanilla soft scoop). Internal rhythm is often talked about by musicians and is something to which I cannot relate; Sebbie’s rhythm, however, represents his effusive personality. Dancing is one of his greatest passions.

Looking at him from across the table, I think how far he has come, physically and mentally. He has recently learned to swim and is making progress towards adding numbers.

‘He can be tricky, perplexing and sometimes outrageous, but his sense of fun and love outweighs all else.’ Photograph: Oliver and Sebbie Shone

I will never forget the day Sebbie was born; it was my fourth birthday and he arrived so quickly I didn’t even have time to finish my cake before going to see him in the hospital. He was in the special care baby unit, surrounded by wires and lying in a tiny pod. Lots of doctors surrounded him and, young as I was, I realised that he was not a healthy child, but to me he was just my new little brother and was perfect. I did not understand, then, the overwhelming distress and horror that faced my family.

There were many big words flying around that I did not understand. Tetralogy of Fallot … atrial septal defect … open-heart surgery … My parents were alarmed, panicked; I had not seen them like this and I felt afraid too. This was the start of a long and terrifying journey of operations, hopes and fears. But nothing seems to dampen his enthusiasm and his quirky outlook on life.

It is hard to judge “normal” in this world. There is talk of testing for Down’s syndrome, selective abortion and eradicating this condition. While I understand that no disability is ideal, I think it would be desperately sad to lose these precious children and adults who bring so much light into their families’ lives. Gone would be my crazy brother who talks of pizzas, trains and skiing all in the same sentence; gone would be the adoration that he feels for me and gone would be that wonderful dancing and tuneless singing.

We often find ourselves laughing round the table at funny remarks and comments of his; he has always had the ability to generate laughter. His sense of humour is infectious; there have been many times that he has diffused a tense situation with his comical asides. It is hard to take life too seriously when Sebbie lifts up his jumper and tells me to “Put your belly away!” His sense of timing is impeccable.

His lack of inhibition means he is more likely than not to join another family at the park or beach while giving us a cheeky wave. He has no sense of embarrassment, shyness or social conventions; this can lead to some embarrassment from me, although most people’s reactions are positive.

I often think of his future and what it holds. Sebbie will never be able to live alone and will need constant care and supervision, which I plan to always be a part of. Although we love him, it is frightening to look ahead to a life that will never be independent. We not only worry about how he will cope in later life, but also the major operation that will probably face him before he is 18.

Sebbie’s current condition (although he is physically more than able) can lead to frustration and difficulty. Even the simplest tasks, such as putting on a coat, socks and shoes, can lead to disputes, especially as he is such a strong character. Growing up with a brother with Down’s syndrome has been a real challenge but I would not change him for the world. He can be tricky, perplexing and sometimes outrageous, but his sense of fun and love outweighs all else. There are adults with the condition who have learned to drive cars, are performing in drama groups and are holding down jobs.

My great uncle had the same condition and he was born exactly 100 years before Sebbie, in 1903. Thankfully times have changed since he was alive – he spent his life in an institution. Now disabled children have huge opportunities open to them and are achieving more than was ever thought possible. With our help I hope that Sebbie will grasp these opportunities. Who knows what he might achieve? I will always be at his side to help him along and I know the rewards I get back from him, in the form of love and friendship will make it worthwhile.

• Oliver originally wrote this piece as part of his GCSE English course last year

My brother has Down’s syndrome. I wouldn’t change him for the world | Oliver Shone

Jamie Oliver says PM"s obesity strategy has let down every UK child

Jamie Oliver has accused Theresa May of letting down young people and parents, in a strongly worded attack on the government’s “travesty” of a plan to tackle childhood obesity.

The chef said he would be “really, really annoying” for the rest of this parliament as a result of Theresa May’s “unforgiveable” failure to introduce strong enough measures.

“Everything about the childhood obesity strategy that’s just come out is a complete stinking herring. It’s a terrible job Theresa May’s done there,” Oliver told the Radio Times.

“She’s completely let every child in Britain down, let parents down, everyone has been let down. The stuff on the shelf with her predecessor [David Cameron] was going to be much more robust.”

The chef has campaigned on children’s nutrition issues since his 2005 Channel 4 series Jamie’s School Dinners. He is scathing about the planned sugar tax being the only element of the childhood obesity “plan of action” published last month that will force food companies to change their practices.

“If you look at the strategy, the only thing that’s mandatory – and I can honestly tell you that I put it there – is the sugary drink tax … Take that out, there’s nothing [else],” he said.

Oliver railed against the government’s decision to step back from using regulation, such as the plan’s failure to limit junk food advertising or ban promotion of sweets at supermarket checkouts.

“It’s the same old bull. And the same old bull hasn’t worked for 20 years. And it was done when they were all on holiday, in August. It just means ‘don’t care, don’t care, don’t care, get it under the radar.’ It’s a travesty,” he added.

He and fellow obesity campaigners intend to “be really, really annoying for the whole [parliamentary] term. But I do think British parents don’t want to hear bad news all the time. People just want stuff to be fixed,” he said.

The Department of Health declined to respond directly to Oliver’s comments. But it maintained that its plan was a world leader in combating obesity. “We are fully committed to reducing childhood obesity and are confident our world-leading plan will make a real difference to help reverse a problem that has been decades in the making. This is the start of a conversation and we haven’t ruled out further measures if we do not see the progress we need,” a spokesman said.

The Children’s Food Campaign, an alliance of health, children’s and education groups, backed Oliver. “Jamie is spot on. Many parents, teachers and health professionals have been in touch with us to express their anger at the weaknesses of the childhood obesity plan,” said its co-ordinator Malcolm Clark.

He added: “The food industry has embarked on a war against the academic evidence and the government’s own public health advice. Sadly, on many aspects – including marketing and price promotions – the government sided with them.”

Jamie Oliver says PM"s obesity strategy has let down every UK child

Be wary of research that website link mental unwell overall health with creativity or a substantial IQ | Dr Oliver Joe Robinson

The thought that extremely imaginative or intelligent folks are specifically vulnerable to psychological unwell well being has been around for a long time. “No great genius has ever existed with no some touch of madness” is attributed to Aristotle in 350BC, and more current examples of inventive types describing their afflictions with fantastic clarity are not challenging to uncover.

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest are each achingly vivid portrayals of psychological unwell health and both make uncomfortable reading through in light of their author’s untimely deaths.

Related: New examine claims to find genetic link among creativity and mental illness

Bipolar disorder, previously referred to as manic depression, is a psychiatric disorder in which people oscillate among periods of mania and depression. It is 1 of the rarer psychiatric problems, affecting less than 1% of the population (assess that with key depressive disorder, which influences closer to 20% of us).

In common culture, the manic phase of bipolar disorder is often portrayed as currently being characterised by elevated mood and creativity. As the psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison puts it in her autobiography about her own experiences of bipolar disorder, An Unquiet Mind: “When you are substantial it is great. The ideas and feelings are quickly and regular like shooting stars, and you comply with them until you find far better and brighter ones.”

A paper published this week in the British Journal of Psychiatry reports that in a sample of 1,881 men and women, these who show the best 10% of “manic features” (measured at age 22-23 by a questionnaire acknowledged as the HCL-32) had IQ scores (measured when they had been eight years outdated) practically 10 points higher than these in the bottom ten% of manic traits. In other words, if you have a increased IQ when young, you may report higher manic traits as an grownup.

It is as a result seductive to speculate, as the write-up does, that “in evolutionary terms … there could be some selective benefit associated with propensity to significant recurrent ailments of mood such as bipolar disorder”. Without a doubt, 1 of the authors is quoted as saying: “One likelihood is that severe issues of mood – such as bipolar disorder – are the cost that human beings have had to pay out for far more adaptive traits such as intelligence, creativity and verbal proficiency.”

While this might hold for some sufferers, some of the time, we must also wonder how beneficial this trope is for the majority of individuals who endure from these problems.

In reality sufferers are as various as the society in which they dwell. That is to say, there are several who suffer from significant mood issues who are not especially creative or pushing the upper reaches of IQ. And even if they were, as a current evaluation in the British Journal of Psychiatry puts it: “By my reckoning if it was possible to remove all bipolar disorder in the population, creativity would only be decreased by .23%.”

We must also be specifically careful extrapolating a comparatively standardised metric this kind of as IQ on to one thing as flighty and ill defined as “creativity”. IQ does not map easily on to better lifestyle outcomes and is topic to cultural distinctions.

Perhaps much more importantly, nevertheless, mania is just as readily connected with disordered considering, irritability, and even psychotic experiences as it is with euphoric highs. As Kay Redfield Jamison puts it, “Somewhere, this changes. The rapidly suggestions are far as well quickly, and there are far also several mind-boggling confusion replaces clarity”, and in the end “you are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable”.

As with all problems of the mind, the reality is never ever genuinely black and white.  It must also be noted that there is a gulf among “manic traits” in wholesome people and a full-blown manic disorder (the paper does not report if any of these people actually meet criteria for a disorder) and, as the authors of the existing study are rapid to level out, high IQ in and of itself does not confer a direct chance for manic traits, but probably in blend with other factors “such as publicity to maternal influenza in the womb or childhood sexual abuse”.

Psychiatric disorders are massively, intimidatingly, complex

Psychiatric issues are massively, intimidatingly complicated. As Tom Insel, head of the US National Institute of Mental Well being says: “Mental disorders are amid the most complex issues in medicine, with challenges at each degree from neurons to neighbourhoods. But, we know so small about mechanisms at each and every degree.”

Presently, a diagnosis of most psychiatric issues is based on self-reported signs (related to the questionnaire utilised in this review) but it is turning into more and more recognised that the exact same set of signs may possibly be brought on by myriad underlying mechanisms, all of which could call for fundamentally different treatment options.

Unlike practitioners in most branches of medicine, mental wellness pros have no genuinely aim tools with which to diagnose psychiatric problems. This is maybe unsurprising, given the complex interplay amongst setting, society and underlying biology in provoking psychological unwell overall health.

In the United kingdom, £9.75 is invested in investigation per particular person affected by psychological sickness – more than

100 occasions much less than the quantity spent on cancer study per patient (£1,571), however an urgent want to improve remedy and diagnosis stays. “The sooner we can intervene in bipolar the much better the end result,” the authors of the existing review say. There is minor to disagree with right here. But we are nevertheless a extended way off.

Be wary of research that website link mental unwell overall health with creativity or a substantial IQ | Dr Oliver Joe Robinson

Jamie Oliver calls for crackdown on junk meals being offered close to colleges

Jamie’s School Dinners in 2005 exposed how a lot unhealthy meals pupils had been served at school at lunchtimes. Photograph: Joerg Carstensen/DPA/Corbis

Campaigning chef Jamie Oliver has demanded a crackdown on the “crazy” policy of fast meals premises opening close to schools, as element of a renewed drive to tackle childhood weight problems.

Outlets currently being licensed to commence offering unhealthy items near colleges was completely at odds with the government’s investment in foods schooling and school lunches, Oliver said.

“I do find it entirely crazy that we do all this tough function in a single part of government while at the exact same time you’ve received other parts of government locally and nationally which are still permitting any old junk meals operator to open up inside of spitting distance of a school,” said Oliver. “That, to me, is madness.”

He also urged ministers to draw up a hard new blueprint to reverse the trend of growing weight problems and to appoint a figurehead to drive via changes.

“Optimistic social change is not that far away and I consider it truly is not that difficult but what demands to be done is for about 50 or 60 separate decisions and initiatives to happen at when, all followed by a 5-year strategy. The one particular point that will make a change is tons of changes.”

In an appeal for “leadership and vision” from all political events on what he known as “the shocking rise in diet-connected diseases and weight problems”, Oliver added: “Let’s see if we have one particular pioneer, one particular visionary who’s going to place prevention [of childhood weight problems] at the heart of its campaign”.

Oliver’s Channel four series Jamie’s School Dinners in 2005, which exposed how considerably unhealthy meals pupils have been served at college at lunchtimes, prompted the Labour government to introduce much more nutritious school meals in England.

Jamie Oliver calls for crackdown on junk meals being offered close to colleges

Oliver Pritchett: the 5:two diet plan is not new

The 5:two Diet regime – in which you consume normally for five days a week and hardly at all for two non-consecutive days – is not, right after all, a current fad. We are informed that the very same sort of regime was observed by monks in the Middle Ages. This comes as no surprise to me I feel that our ancestors in individuals times have been tremendous fitness freaks. You can see proof of this in the fantastic gothic architecture of the fantastic medieval gyms, where the monks would go to physical exercise and relax following hrs invested creating their stunning illuminated manuscripts, which presented their exercise programmes.

Some historians even argue that this period is acknowledged as the Middle Ages since of the wonderful national obsession with minimizing waistlines. They even recommend it was really the “take-a-handful of-inches-off-your-middle ages”. An early form of Pilates was practised on village greens on Might Day and references to “five-a-day” can be traced back to the ninth century, but at that time it meant five turnips.

King Henry I was said to have died of “a surfeit of lampreys” and this led to a huge campaign to inspire sensible lamprey consuming. Notices had been nailed to church doors warning parishioners of the perils and they have been all urged to observe a lamprey-totally free January.

The barons forced King John to put his seal on Magna Carta in 1215 and this document was created to restrict his powers and let his people better freedoms. There was, nonetheless, an essential but minor identified addendum in which the king also promised to undertake a rigorous detox programme.

1 of the fantastic poetic performs of the Middle Ages was, of program, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Handful of people now realise that it was, in truth, an account of a group of regulars at the Tabard inn, in Southwark, agreeing to consider component in a Enjoyable Run to Canterbury, to raise awareness of scrofula.

Oliver Pritchett: the 5:two diet plan is not new

If psychosis underpins comedy, that isn"t going to suggest it truly is in the genes| Oliver James

Julie Walters and Celia Imrie. ‘What is considerable about the BJP research is the hyperlink between personality traits and profession.’ Photograph: PA

The tears of a comic clown are a cliche. But a new examine in the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP) gives hard evidence for them.

In contrast with non-inventive men and women, comics scored significantly greater on four psychotic persona traits, specially introvertive anhedonia (an inability to truly feel pleasure, like an avoidance of intimacy). The researchers level to similarities in what it will take to be funny and the mindsets of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The two need considering outside the box with manic velocity, and producing up unique connections. Actors also scored drastically greater on 3 out of the 4 traits but not on the depressive tendencies of introvertive andhedonia.

This is what I identified in the late 1980s, interviewing comedians for the Tv programme Room 113. Robbie Coltrane had been thumped about by his dad till the day he was big adequate to thump him back. Stephen Fry’s intellect and character had been severely belittled by his father. Ruby Wax had a mother who was so badly affected by hysteria and obsessive compulsive disorder that it virtually drove Wax mad. At the age of 5 Julie Walters came upon her father sitting dead in his armchair. Only Ben Elton had nothing severe to report.

What is important about the BJP research is that it suggests a hyperlink in between a specific persona trait and a certain profession. What is entirely lacking from the evaluation of the results is their wider which means, and that the exact way we are reflects how we have been cared for in childhood. We know that children’s fantasy narratives reflect the specific care they receive: the physically abused make up distinct stories from the sexually abused, who are diverse from the neglected. This connects closely with grownup signs and symptoms.

There are now a total host of research linking particular childhood adversities to grownup psychiatric symptoms. In specific, as a consequence of the under-reported and important operate of psychologists this kind of as Richard Bentall and John Study of Liverpool University, we know that certain varieties of childhood maltreatment are connected to specific adult psychotic symptoms. Bentall, for instance, demonstrates that sexual abuse correlates with auditory hallucinations, whereas erratic and emotionally neglectful care is associated with paranoia.

It is no longer defensible to deem particular personality traits or psychological illnesses as genetically triggered brain disorders. Emotional distress final results from undesirable items currently being done to people. If comics are psychotic or depressive, it is because of the distinct variety of maltreatment they suffered as young children.

Fourteen many years on, the Human Genome Project has been unable to identify distinct genes, or clusters thereof, which clarify the variance in populations in regard to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, intelligence or any other element of human psychology. For illustration, a significant report was published at the finish of 2013 titled No Genetic Influences for Child Behaviour Problems from DNA Analysis. This obtained no media coverage at all.

What did get a good deal of coverage at around the same time was Prof Robert Plomin’s claim that certain genes have been recognized that clarify significant quantities of the difference among siblings in their GCSE exam performances. This was, very basically, with no scientific basis: no such particular genes have been identified explaining important quantities of the variance. There is a review of twins suggesting it, but not a single of certain genes.

The new BJP examine need to be a rallying get in touch with for study bodies to pour some of the £8bn that has been spent studying genes, into exploring how childhood care moulds our uniqueness. It is time to prioritise assisting mothers and fathers to meet the needs of their tiny children to help their future psychological well being.

If psychosis underpins comedy, that isn"t going to suggest it truly is in the genes| Oliver James