This week straight from Las Vegas: Dennis McCuistion, Host of the McCuistion program, and Terry Brock, business consultant and journalist, are conducting short interviews with luminaries at the 2009 Freedom Fest conference, which reads like a who’s who of economists, CEO’s and thought leaders.

Freedom Fest is an annual festival where “free minds meet” to celebrate “great books, great ideas, and great thinkers” in an open-minded society.  It is independent, non-partisan, and not affiliated with any organization or think tank.

Founded and produced by Mark Skousen, (who’s been a guest on our program, A Conversation with Mark Skousen) Freedom Fest invites the “best and the brightest” from around the world to talk, strategize, socialize, and celebrate liberty. Mark comments,” Freedom Fest is open to all and is purely egalitarian, where speakers, attendees, and exhibitors are treated as equals.”  Freedom Fest has separate forums on philosophy, science and technology, art and entertainment, economics, geo-politics, finance, and literature, among others.  There’s a debate room, where a new hot topic is debated every hour, general sessions with world-renown experts, and a special one-hour time with 6-7 “bright new stars” – up and coming scholars who have something to contribute.

McCuistion and Brock interviewed Steve Forbes, who commented, “Capitalism will save America from the excesses of the Federal Reserve, the Bush Administration’s excesses and the stimulus packages of the Obama Administration. Tea parties and other indications show that we will turn these problems around.”

They spoke with Fred Foldvary who said:  “The Depression of 2008 was laid out in a paper I wrote in 1997 and a booklet published in 2007. A combination of loose Federal Reserve policy combined with real estate speculation caused the problem.”

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Michael Tanner of CATO, “The Obama health care plan will not cut costs or cover all the uninsured or increase quality.  What it will lead to is increased costs, delays in getting care and a massive bureaucracy allocating resources for consumers and healthcare professionals.”

Stay tuned for more comments and upcoming on the spot video interviews, live from Las Vegas.

Thanks for joining us,

Niki McCuistion
Producer- McCuistion TV

The health benefits of a no meat diet is a hot topic among both the layman nutritionist and the professional.  Obviously, we are all aware that the minute anyone says, “vegetarian” or “vegan”, there are instant stereotypes  associated.  Your upbringing, education, worldview and overall exposure to the topic will shape how you view a meatless diet in general. We are going to expound a little bit more on this issue and discuss the pros and cons of the no meat diet.

Often a needed point of clarification: The difference between a vegan and a vegetarian diet is that a vegetarian diet will incorporate animal bi-products such as milk and eggs, whereas a vegan diet will not.

A no meat diet will prevent disease.

Recently, McCuistion TV conducted a two part series with T. Collin Campbell, author of The China Study, discussing the health benefits of a vegan diet. During the series, he expounded on the study and explained that their findings clearly indicated that to have optimized health, animal products should be eliminated and a strict vegan diet is the healthiest way to prevent disease.

A no meat diet will lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The American Dietetic Association has also produced results from their studies that promotes health benefits to a vegetarian diet.

“Winston Craig, professor of nutrition and wellness at Andrews University, and Reed Mangels, nutrition advisor at the Vegetarian Resource Group, Baltimore, conducted the study on behalf of the American Dietetic Association (ADA).

Vegetarian diets are often associated with health advantages, including lower blood cholesterol levels, lower risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure levels and lower risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes.

‘Vegetarian diets tend to be lower in saturated fat and cholesterol and have higher levels of dietary fiber, magnesium and potassium, vitamins C and E, folate, carotenoids, flavonoids,’ the study said.

These nutritional differences may explain some of the health advantages of those following a varied, balanced vegetarian diet, said an ADA release.”

Vitamin B-12 deficiency in a no meat diet.

Although few will dispute the health benefits of eating more vegetables and less red meat, there are concerns that a meatless diet has other health risks.  According to the Ukiah Clinic,

“Vitamin B12 is fittingly known as the energy vitamin, and your body requires it for a number of vital functions. Among them: energy production, blood formation, DNA synthesis, and myelin formation. Myelin is insulation that protects your nerve endings and allows them to communicate with one another…Vitamin B12 deficiency is extremely common in strict vegetarians and vegans. B12 is not readily available in plants, so if you do not eat meat or animal products you are at risk.

The few plant foods that are sources of B12 are actually B12 analogs. An analog is a substance that blocks the uptake of true B12, so your body’s need for the nutrient actually increases…

after about seven years of B12 deficiency, irreversible brain damage can result.

Vitamin B12 is a powerhouse micronutrient for a whole host of reasons. Your body needs B12 for:

• proper digestion, food absorption, iron use, carbohydrate and fat metabolism
• healthy nervous system function
• promotion of normal nerve growth and development
• help with regulation of the formation of red blood cells
• cell formation and longevity
• proper circulation
• adrenal hormone production
• healthy immune system function
• support of female reproductive health and pregnancy
• feelings of well-being and mood regulation
• mental clarity, concentration, memory function
• physical, emotional and mental energy

A meatless diet leads to lower bone mineral density.

According to a recent article on Science Alert.

“Researchers in Australia and Vietnam searched all peer-reviewed literature on the subject, selecting nine studies for analysis. The nine studies compared bone mineral density (BMD) of meat eaters and vegetarians from around the world, including 2749 men and women.

Their results showed that people on vegetarian diets have BMD roughly 5 per cent lower than non-vegetarians.

The study was led by Professor Tuan Nguyen from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Dr Ho-Pham Thuc Lan from the Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Their findings are published online today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition…

‘We conclude that vegetarians as a group have lower BMD than meat eaters as a group, but whether the difference translates into increased fracture risk has yet to be resolved.’”

There are obviously positives and negatives on both sides of the “meat or no meat diet” debate.  We’d be interested to hear your feedback on the subject and any more informational articles you’d like to post in the comments section as well.

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When Jim Lehrer, Executive Editor and PBS’ NewsHour Anchor, visited KERA sometime back, we were lucky to catch him for a full hour of intimate conversation, televised of course.  Jim Lehrer shared some of his local story and how he got his start as PBS’ NewsHour Anchor at the studio where it all started… KERA.

Born in Wichita, Kansas in 1934, Jim received his A.A. from Victoria College, and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri, before joining the Marine Corps. In 1959, he joined the Dallas Morning News as a reporter, where he stayed until 1966. He tells us he wrote a story about the civil defense organization, that the Dallas Morning News wouldn’t run. So without having another job to go to, a young one at home and one on the way, he walked out. “The real hero of the story is Katie, my wife. She said, Honey, you just come on home.” He landed at the Dallas Times Herald where he stayed for several years and in 1968 became the city editor.

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Then in 1970, came KERA… Bob Wilson, then manager of news and public affairs had this idea for nightly news, and experimental program,

“We didn’t know what we were doing. We started PBS’ NewsHour with the Beatles’, ‘Here Comes the Sun,’ and ended with ‘Oh Happy Day’ as our theme songs. Our thinking, with ‘Here Comes the Sun’ is we’d shed light on the deep dark secrets of Dallas. We did news analysis and opinion on local news. We were diverse before anyone else was, and had Afro-American, a Mexican, and a woman as reporters! Plus an environmental reporter! And we became a factor in Dallas journalism. The Editors quit sitting on stories, all little games they’d played for years, because their reporters would send them over to us. All bets were off. It made it possible for Editors to say, ‘Hey we’ve got to run this story because the kooks at Channel 13 will run it.’”

Jim believes that true journalism provides a forum of all the public news. It provides information for people who want it. “Its role in a democratic society is to provide information to the people so they can make informed decisions, when they vote… We are information gatherers and dispensers.”

In part one of this segment we show clips of an earlier program we produced, Is There Bias in the Media that featured interviews with Jim Lehrer, Bob Schieffer, Dan Rather and Bill Moyers. Dennis McCuistion asked:

What is the most important responsibility of the journalist?

Bob Schieffer answered: To find out the truth. To provide a forum that makes it possible to examine all public issues… To provide information.

Dan Rather: To be accurate and to be fair. The competition right now is unmerciful. It’s tough to survive in difficult times and we have to be accurate.

Bill Moyers: To connect the dots from A to B to C. on what’s on the surface and under the surface.

Jim Lehrer tells us:

“In journalism we go where people can’t go on their own so we can report back to people. … There’s a slippery slope going on, especially in commercial news networks. The competition is so fierce… there’s a ‘we have to have an edge, we have to have an edge.’ Down that road is loss of credibility. The news- is to give information, provide analysis and provide opinion. And the same person cannot do all three. We have to remember what Thomas Jefferson said, ‘If democratic society is going to function you have to have an informed electorate.’ That’s what journalism was created to do, inform the electorate. Simple”

Dennis asks if we are losing an informed electorate. And he asks if he, Lehrer, has been pressured by PBS to dumb down content?

“No, No, No,” answers Lehrer. The program goes on to discuss the ethics of journalism and Neil Postman’s work, Amusing Ourselves to Death, whose premise that we’ve lost putting issues in context, and that because of television we have taken issues and tried to put them into sound bites. So we are amusing ourselves to death. Says Lehrer, “if you have to be entertained, go to the circus. We’re not here to entertain.”

Jim Lehrer has been honored with numerous awards for journalism, including the 1999 National Humanities Medal. He and McNeill were inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, and into the Washington D.C. chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Science. He has won two Emmys and a Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, among others. Mr. Lehrer has served as a moderator for eleven of the nationally televised debates in the last six Presidential elections. He comments, “it is the most difficult, scary, satisfying and exhilarating honor. It’s not a TV show. This is about who’s going to be the next President of the United States and I do not want any voter, any American to say so and so was treated unfairly by Jim Lehrer. It’s not the function of journalism to do a Presidential debate. My job is that of facilitator.”

Tune in… for the rest of the story in this two part series with PBS’ NewsHour Anchor, Jim Lehrer.

Niki Nicastro McCuistion…  Producer

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1511 – 07.05.09

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Why do countries around the world now seem to outstrip the United States in terms of free market philosophies as well as tax issues, from the flat tax to social security? Can the US catch up?  During this installment of McCuistion Television, focusing on freedom in America, Dennis McCuistion is joined by three panelists on location at FreedomFest.  Discussing the state of freedom in America, Dennis McCuistion is joined by:

• Daniel Mitchell – Senior Fellow at the CATO Institute
• Michelle Muccio – Washington D.C. Representative and Production Associate at The Acton Institute
• Larry Abraham – The late Larry Abraham was the co-founder of PanAmerica Capital Group, Inc. and long-time author and editor of the Insider Report, an international geopolitical investment newsletter with over 10,000 private subscribers, worldwide.

The last twenty-five years of United States history have been successful in leading America towards a smaller government.  However, many economists and futurists look with question to the next twenty-five years to determine if, in fact, the trend will continue. There is a rising concern that socialist reforms will begin to take a hold on the free market system that has defined America for centuries.

Panelists discuss the free market system and how the opposing view of making the strong weaker by promoting economic equality is a dangerous approach.  History and current affairs have produced clear evidence that the idea of “fair” doesn’t work. Larry Abraham, with his extensive international exposure, expounds on this viewpoint by explaining the international view of America right now.

Wrapping up the conversation on freedom in America, Panelists also discuss  the flat tax, social security reform and some of the empirical evidence that supports both.  The panelists close the episode on “The State of Freedom in America” with FRTV’s Dennis McCuistion by offering suggestions for viewers to make a difference in these issues today.

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1704 – 07.02.09

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