Today 31 Dec 2009 12.00 is goin to be a big day 4 al of us and night for some…I BEG THAT YOU THINK BEFORE YOU ACT ALWAYS!!!!! “Is what you are doing worth it? WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?(Seriously)” <<<< I wan’t those questions to be BRANDED into your mind. Life is NO GAME TRUST ME, Your life could END before you see 2010, …Wudnt tht be a WASTE!! I AIN’T passing no Judgement Best Believe dat. I am simply WARNING YOU AGAINST THROWING your LIFE AWAY, JUST BECAUSE OF ONE NIGHT, ONE STUPID NIGHT!!!!! “But I won’t Die 2day”-HOW do YOU KNOW DAT? “Its the in thing”-OPEN YOURS EYES, Believe it or NOT Its MIND CONTROL, Hu told u it was ite, wer dd they learn it from, dnt think u to good to be hypotised by tht crap, cos u are if u fall victim to … See Moreit. and Yes Booze, By Drinking it YOU R BECOMING ITS SLAVE(In Jesus You are not a slave to anythin/any1 you are free). Lyk I sed LIFE IS NO GAME, Heaven and Hell exist, wer Do you want to go? DNT JUST SAY Heaven, cos its the appropriate answer, If you are truly a Follower of THE CHRIST(The One who Died For You and Is God in The Flesh) Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Is it too little to ask for Good Behavior…Compare tht Good Behavior To Dying On The Cross For You…Will WE turn our backs on tht, or will EACH ONE OF US, THANK HIM for such Mercy. IT IS UP TO YOU!!! DON’T EVEN THINK OF JUST READING AND SAYING WOW…, I WANT YOU TO READ TO YOU HEART, And READ The WORD OF GOD(I Prefer this version, recent ones have IMPORTANT MISSING INFO: http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Bible/1611_authorized_king_james.htm). Go Down On Your Knees and Pray, Dnt do it cos i sed so, Do It Cos You Love Him…http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/how_to_be_saved.html JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN “I am the way the truth and the life; NO MAN cometh unto the Father BUT BY ME.” — Jesus Christ (John 14:6)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Book Review: ‘The Drug User - Documents 1840-1960’
The Drug User
Printed in 1991, ‘The Drug User: Documents 1840-1960’ is an anthology of drug-related literature that dates from before the beginnings of the psychedelic counterculture movement. Edited by John Strausbaugh and Donald Blaise, with a forward by William S. Burroughs, ‘The Drug User’ is filled with a literary flair so often missing from later psychedelic literature.
The anthology’s editors have amalgamated an extremely impressive collection. It includes both complete pieces and selected passages from larger works. Such diverse writers as Twain, Freud, Baudelaire and Daumal to Ludlow, Michaux and Lee, are presented. With such an eclectic mix of great writers and thinkers there is imbued some wonderful, challenging and, at times, scary perceptions of the drug experience.
One of my favourite passages is taken from ‘Really the Blues’ by “half-cat jazz musician” Mezz Mezzrow. Just before playing a gig Mezz and his compatriots smoked some cannabis:
“The other guys in the band were giggling and making cracks, but I couldn’t talk with my mouthpiece between my lips, so I closed my eyes and drifted out to the audience with my music. The people were going crazy over the subtle changes in our playing; they couldn’t dig what was happening but some kind of electricity was crackling in the air and it made them all glow and jump.”
There are also battles going on in the individuals; especially those writing on using opiates. Burroughs would later write on the topic succinctly in Junky but Antonin Artaud had already begun to surmise the dark power of opiates in his most literary of ways:
“We, whom pain makes journey into our souls in search of a calm place to cling to, in search of stability in evil, as the others search for it in good – we aren’t mad, we’re marvellous doctors, we know the necessary dose for the soul, for sensibility, for the marrow, for thought.”
The anthology challenges the reader to think about an individual’s relationship with drugs, from a time when the social hysteria had yet to emerge and cast its own shadow over the experience. Though, having said that, one can see the seeds for the psychedelic movement during this period in the writings of Aldous Huxley, Albert Hoffman and Gordon Wasson (it was Wasson who first discovered the ancient religious use of psilocybin mushrooms in Mexico.)
For those interested in the drug experience/culture as a literary movement this is an extremely valuable anthology. Not only is it a gateway into other works but it also beautifully contextualizes various perspectives. I’ll leave you with some words by Aldous Huxley, taken from ‘Drugs that shape men’s minds’ and that goes someway to explaining the course that the newly seeded psychedelic movement would pass into post-1960:
“My own belief is that, though they may start by being something of an embarrassment, these new mind changers will tend in the long run to deepen the spiritual life of the communities in which they are available.”
Monday, December 28, 2009
Execution In China
I am of course opposed to the Death Penalty. It is a logical extension of my Catholicism, Christianity…that we should be Life-Enhancing rather than Life Taking. Yet it is not easy to have any kinda sympathy for the drug courier who will possibly be executed in China tomorrow.
Of course he is not photogenic and is of Asian origin, therefore the British tabloids will not rush to his aid. Much better if “he” was a pretty blonde female schoolteacher from the Cotswolds and tearfully protesting that she was duped by her lover.
Sorry……no sympathy………if Britons, Irish, australians, Americans whatever want to take on high risk criminality smuggling drugs in or out of China, Thailand, wherever……then they should face the consequences.
It's a wonder he can walk at all
kid in a candy store 40 years later
(Hugh Laurie as House, M.D.)
He’s got a real sweet tooth
Picture by: dunno source Caption by: Sarah101 via Our LOL Builder
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Monday, December 21, 2009
Brittany Murphy was struggling with poor body image
Since her passing yesterday from cardiac arrest, actress Brittany Murphy’s friends are beginning to speak out about her struggle with a poor body image.
Clueless director Amy Heckerling believes the problem may have originated from the set of their film:
“She seemed to go through a change on Clueless. Maybe she felt like she was not the, like, skinny, pretty girl, you know? And then the next few movies she was, you know, thinner, blonde … going out with Eminem and Ashton Kutcher.”
Another source said:
“A lot of her problems were due to poor self-image. She wore extraordinary amounts of makeup, tons of fake eyelashes, got her teeth capped, dyed her hair blonde, lost weight – she wanted to be a beauty. She didn’t want to be the fat girl from Clueless. She didn’t eat a lot. She would drink copious amounts of coffee.”
32-year-old Murphy was rumored to have troubles with drug abuse and eating disorders. The authorities found several prescription medications in the actress’ home and she had been suffering from flu-like symptoms in the days leading up to her death.
Murphy’s body is currently undergoing an autopsy, against the wishes of her husband Simon Monjack. The autopsy will take four to eight weeks for toxicology results to come back with a final cause of death.
Davao dads to restrict sprouting of container yards in the city
December 16, 2009 1:59 pm
DAVAO CITY, Dec. 16 – The City Council here is set to restrict the sprouting of container yards in the city following the discovery of almost 16 kilos of high-grade cocaine last week.
Majority Floor Leader Danilo Dayanghirang said a possible solution would be the “zonification” of these container yards to contain them all in one area for easier inspection by authorities.
Dayanghirang also said the council must fully investigate the incident to find ways on how to prevent the future smuggling of illegal drugs in the city.
The city council will conduct an inquiry on the discovery of the cocaine inside the container yard once it resumes work after the holidays, he said.
Dayanghirang said aside from identifying zones for the container yards, drug-sniffing dogs must also be used in the yards to ensure that no illegal drugs would enter the Davao market.
Davao City Police Office (DCPO) Director Ramon Apolinario supported Dayanghirang’s call, saying the use of K-9 dogs is essential in any operations against terrorism and illegal drugs.
Dayanghirang said he would ask the committee on public safety headed by Councilor Nilo Abellera to conduct the committee hearing.
On December 9, workers of Maersk discovered white powdery substance inside the reefer machine located at the back of two container vans that came from India and Pakistan.
The next day, another pack of powdery white substance was found in another container van inside the Maersk container yard.
The police confirmed the powdery white substance was high-grade cocaine valued at P110 million. (PNA)
Friday, December 18, 2009
Her eyes are focusing!!!
Now, I know I said I would stop writing about Lindsay Lohan as soon as a picture emerges of her where she doesn’t look like a cracked-out, sex-hungry asylum escapee (or something along those lines)… but now that picture has somewhat appeared I just have to celebrate.
Her face actually looks fairly normal! Her makeup is toned down, both her eyes are looking in the same direction, and she’s cracking that gorgeous smile rather than doing the duckface.
Now all we need to worry about is the worrying clothes, hair and BMI.
I just want to give her a sandwich and a haircut. And a new pair of tights.
Progress Lindsay, progess.
Fear of violence after killing of drug lord in Mexico
As Mexican and US officials have hailed the killing of top drug lord (Marcos) Arturo Beltrán Leyva, many are fearing further violence in the struggle to replace him.
Arturo Beltran Leyva, nicknamed the “boss of bosses,” was killed in a shoot-out with the navy south of Mexico City late on Wednesday, along with six cartel members.
The killing gave a boost to President Felipe Calderon’s controversial three-year military clampdown on drug gangs, which has been accompanied by a spike in violence, leaving some 15,000 dead.
Calderon called the navy raid in which the drug lord was killed “an important achievement for the government and people of Mexico.”
However many have warned that the high-profile killing could provoke further turf wars.
“We can’t rule out the possibility of in-fighting, until a new line of command is defined,” Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez said on Thursday.
Beltran Leyva was one of five brothers who split from the country’s most powerful Sinaloa Cartel several years ago and aligned themselves with previous competitors from other gangs in a bid to counteract their influence.
Many say that the Sinaloa cartel, which has had a firm support base in western Mexico for decades and operates across the world, would gain the most from Beltran Leyva’s death.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
New H1N1 vaccine scandal - government screwed up
U.S. Recalls 800,000 Swine Flu Vaccine
December 12, 2009 by Joanne Silberner
After massive efforts to convince the public that it should get vaccinated against the swine flu virus, the government Tuesday recalled 800,000 doses of vaccine targeted to children. The recall, which was based on potency concerns, may lead to fresh worries that the government rushed to get the product on the market too quickly.
bureaucracy, children, crisis, drugs, gaffe, government, health, health care, marxism, medicine, nanny state, news, oversight, pandering, political correctness, politics, public policy, scandal, socialism
Deadly Popcorn and AOL News: Typos in the Nuwz...I Mean News
Sphere, the new name for AOL News, has published an article about the dangers of diacetyl, a chemical used in artificial butter flavoring that has been linked to the deaths of hundreds, and lung failure in others, who are either exposed to the chemical from working with it or from a microwave popcorn addiction, “Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Make Popcorn“.
I suppose typos could be deadly, but no such instances come to mind. We may question the lethality of typos, but we cannot question their frequent occurrence in news stories:
In a report made public last week, NIOSH [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health] said that investigators found concentrations of butter flavoring agent 2,3-pentanedione in liquid buttermilk flavoring and during production of a bakery mixes.
Delete the letter “a” and you’ve got a respectable paragraph, ladies and gentlemen.
Monday, December 14, 2009
"Seester for saille, only 5 peso": Jarv's best of South America and Africa
Hola,
Today we do South America and Africa in my epic quest to find the best films of the decade. This is a short list (only 5 titles- I like round numbers), because if I’ve even heard of them, let alone seen them, then they’re automatically good, and I hadn’t seen as many as I thought- only about 15- I could have put 10 in, but I don’t think the bottom 3 warrant making a best of list, so there are a few near misses that I’m not mentioning. These are actually the best ones- and I’ve included the only one I outright hate as the Dishonourable Mention. I’ve got a couple more Brazilian Films to watch so I may come back and add to it, so we’ll see. Not to mention that several of them that I thought were 21st Century were actually late 90’s.
Anyhow on with the list.
5) Linha De Passe (2008-Brazil)
I find it difficult to write about this film. I mean, I know objectively it is a good film (I don’t think Sallas has ever made a bad one), but it was billed in this country as a sequel to the simply magnificent Central Station. It isn’t. It doesn’t even cover the same material.
Anyhow, LDP covers the tribulations of a favella dwelling Sao Paulo family. The heavily pregnant mother is a maid for a rich woman, the eldest son dreams of being a footballer, but he’s too old, the second son is a sort of priest in his spare time while holding down a shitty job in a petrol station, the second youngest is an out-and-out scumbag while the youngest is merely a kid. It is a good film, with moments of genuine brilliance (the motorcycle scenes), but at the end of the day it is an unremittingly bleak film and I can’t help but think it’s a tad overrated.
In all honesty, if you feel in the mood to watch a violence free film about poverty in Brazil, then watch Central Station. This is a good film, but that one is a great film.
4) The Devil’s Backbone (2001- Mexico)
Now we’re talking. Before Del Toro made his way to Hollywood to make Comic book films, he was a horror director of some note. This, his sophomore effort, is a genuinely frightening ghost story set in a Spanish orphanage.
It’s a taut little film, but what elevates it head and shoulders above the crowd is the performance of the kids. Creepy, compelling stuff. To be honest, like with all Del Toro’s stuff, I found the non-supernatural elements of the film to be far more interesting than the ghost story. He captures life for the orphans in fascist Spain in a gripping and compelling fashion. A really, really good film.
3) Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001- Mexico)
I said this about Shaun of The Dead, but I think the same applies to this film- everyone forgets how fresh it was on release. Cuaron’s pre Harry Potter film is surprisingly complex, even if you can see the ending coming a mile away.
A cross between a coming of age story and a road movie, YTMT relies heavily on the central performances of the young leads, and luckily for them one of them is Bernal. It’s not a melodrama, as such, but it is a diverting time, and I stick it on every now and again at home if I can’t think of what else to watch.
It was unfairly labeled as soft porn in this country on release, but if you’re looking for wank material then this isn’t it.
You do have to wonder about the 28 year old woman that’s molesting them though.
2)Tsotsi (2005- South Africa)
This makes my best of the decade list, so I’m going to be brief with this as well. It was billed as the South African version of City of God. It isn’t- that’s absolute horseshit.
What it is, is a redemption story of a young township dwelling thug as he has to come to terms with the fact that he’s accidentally kidnapped a baby. It has none of the kinetic energy of City of God, and is not really comparable. Rather, I think this is a touching story, that’s well filmed and although it’s clearly going to end badly for our thug hero, you kind of hope that it won’t.
Stirring, Oscar winning stuff and well worth a couple of hours of anyone’s time.
1)City of God (2003- Brazil)
As is to be expected, this Brazilian masterpiece (based on a true story) also ranks in my top 10 of the decade.
City of God is a kaleidoscope of mayhem and violence charting a young slum dweller, Rocket, as he grows up during the rise and fall of one of Rio de Janeiro’s most notorious gangsters. A fucking monster of a film- and one that is endlessly entertaining, truly gripping and stylistically superb.
Apparently Meirelles next film, Blindness, is a steaming stack of shit, but that doesn’t matter- this is enough of a legacy for anyone.
Dishonourable Mention:
Maria full of Grace (2003-Columbia)
Load of fucking hand wringing nonsense about drugs mules. I’ll give you a clue- fuckheads- this kind of blatantly manipulative shit only works if you give a fuck about any of the characters in the film.
Needless to say, I thought she was an obnoxious cow, and as such I did not even summon up the slightest bit of interest at her plight.
Fuck this noise. It’s also as boring as fuck, but that is a direct consequence of crushing itself to death by being “worthy”. It does, to be fair, ask questions, but half the problem is that it doesn’t even bother trying to answer them.
Rubbish. Pah.
As usual, I’ve more than likely forgotten some, and I will be returning to update this list later (I’m thinking about a few more, that I desperately need to rewatch before putting them in or out)
Ciao
Jarv
I Wear My Sunglasses at Night!
Night driving has always been problematic for me. The headlights from oncoming traffic not only distract me, they actually hurt my eyes.
After being somewhat discouraged yesterday about not feeling anything from the meds, I gradually upped the dose (within the parameters my doctor set for me for incremental increases). This morning I took 5mg. Usually, I am very groggy in the mornings. In college, anything before 11am was a sure bet for a C or less….Though slightly tired from the busy week this week (all three children were in a theatrical production this weekend, and we’ve had rehearsals, etc.), I “woke up” much faster than usual.
Further, I felt more “aware” of my surroundings, not like “zoned out.” For my afternoon dose, I took the remaining half of yesterday’s half-tablet, along with another 5mg. Wow! It was as if the fog lessened at bit. I think I still need to go up to the full 20mg per day total, but driving was finally a treat!
I am usually a terrible driver. I’ve had accidents, ridden over the curb, difficulty gauging parking spaces (as in, depth perception issues, maybe??), lead foot, slamming on the brakes because I didn’t notice the car slowing/stopped in front of me…But none of that happened! And, the oncoming traffic didn’t bother me, either!
Not a huge difference in motivation, but definitely an improvement on a small scale! Though my doctor gave me papers to fill out, I am finding this site much more effective in tracking my progress (and in far more detail).
(Hat tip to ADD Forums for the site recommendation!)
Friday, December 11, 2009
Medication Errors - Do You Know Your Meds?
Hospital patients are unsure of drugs they are taking
A study found 44% of hospital patients believed they were being given a drug when, in fact, it had not been prescribed. Data showed 96% of patients could not remember one or more of the medications prescribed for them during their hospital stay. The lead researcher said communicating with patients can help add a layer of protection against medication errors. Yahoo!/HealthDay News (12/10)
Holidays and Grief
Holidays for grieving parents can be a nightmare. Often times, the anticipation leading up to the event can literally put a fragile parent in a downward spiral, especially the newly bereft. We need to know it’s all right to decline invitations, to decide NOT to celebrate Holidays the usual way, because what has happened to a mourning parent isn’t usual at all.
Friends and family can help make the grief stricken parents survive, by offering alternatives and supporting them in their decision. Some parents find doing the routine of Holidays past can be healing, some set a place at the table for their departed child. Some parents leave town, and go somewhere that they aren’t constantly reminded of their loss, instead of having the traditional family gathering. This helps them get through the painful reminder that their child is no longer with them to celebrate. Other parents do nothing at all.
No matter what your choice, this Holiday season, remember it is your choice and no one has the right to tell you how you should or should not celebrate. Your life is different, now, you are a different person. Learning how to live your life after the death of a child takes time mixed with tears. How much time? How many tears? No one can answer that for you. It has been 10 years since my son, Kelly, died. Each holiday brings me to my knees, but knowing this can happen arms me with the knowledge that it will pass. Anticipation, for me and many others, is always worse than the actual Holiday. Our celebrations aren’t the same as when my son was alive, they are new traditions that include him. I light a candle in front of his picture, I have his Drummer Boy ornament that is placed near the top of the tree every Christmas, the quilt I made from his favorite T-shirts rests on the back of my chair. I sing to him, at the cemetery, as I decorate his crypt for each season, Holiday, Birthday, and Angel Day. I could never forget my child, I carry him with me always.
Now, as Thanksgiving looms, I am becoming anxious & sad. I find myself aching for one more hug, one more chance to hear the sound of his infectious laughter. On Thanksgiving Day, I will give thanks for the 28 years we were given. Thanks for being his Mother. Thanks for all the lessons he has taught me both in life and in death.
In loving memory of Kelly Arthur Hubenthal
August 7, 1967 to June 29, 1996
Forever in our hearts, with love.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Frankie Gets Punked by Anthony and Dakota - shortfilmzz123 Youtube
Frankie Gets Punked by Anthony and Dakota – shortfilmzz123 Youtube
The Ultimate revenge, an eye for an eye in this case its hair for a weed.
You’ll understand once you watch the video.
Video was provided by shortfilmzz123 on youtube.
This one made me crack up!
Poor Frankie! 
Lighters Up
Lighters up
like at a Queen concert
if Freddie Mercury were still alive
if you were still alive
singing Bohemian Rhapsody
Mama, just killed a man
a lot like Miss Jones,
I think I just shot her son
I think it just snowed in East Texas
Who knew
memories of you would get me
singing Randy Travis
higher than the pine trees
that grow tall upon the hill
The one in the summer
where we used to smoke pot
I thought, what’s wrong
with this neighborhood?
urban life decay
I look for you everywhere:
In crossword puzzles,
clouds, thin air, Rumble Fish,
katamari damacy, Disneyland,
flour bags, grocery stores,
dreams, nightmares, everywhere
Wouldn’t you?
Lighter’s up
its flame
cathedral champaign
and my bleeding heart
A most beautiful ruby red.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Drugs mad house
last Saturday (5th Dec 2009) we going to clean the 2 houses in norwich which is full of mess everywhere..
When we start cleaning at 196 Kingwood Ave near norwich and in upstars rooms which is full of mess and saw some compost on floors and in the kicthen there some drugs of weed left near the sink!!!
also in 43 barrett road norwich which is there same mess from 196 kingwood ave!!!
what the hell wrong with those people!!!!
Mango Trypping: Chapter II
A cold wind flattened Captain Halloran’s fringe against his forehead. Both his hands were occupied, one holding the loose end of a thick metal cable, and the other wrapped tightly around the rigging. Blinded by his slightly-too-long brown hair, Captain Halloran’s only choice was to flick his head somewhat cinematically. He groaned as he realised how pretentious that would’ve looked to his crew, a good two thirds of which was standing below him, presumably looking up and snickering. Great, he thought. All I need now is a knife held between my teeth and a stirring soundtrack. Regaining composure, the Captain threaded the cable through a winch above his head, then rappelled down the mast, cable trailing behind him. His heavy boots hit the deck and the gathered crew cheered.
“That’s enough!” The Captain shouted over the sarcastic applause. “Enough of that cheek.” He turned, fastened the cable to a hook at the base of the mast, and pushed through the crew toward his quarters.
“And how long did it take you to do your hair this morning, oh Captain my Captain?” asked a slight, blonde, bespectacled observer.
“Shut it, Julian.” Captain Halloran grumbled, but he couldn’t really hide his smile.
Julian Walton was Joe’s library companion. The pair would set up camp in the university library. Joseph would spread himself across a soft lounge chair, boots propped up on the nearest desk. On the floor beside the lounge would lie a stack of dusty books, most picked on whims, subjects like geography, languages, history, sometimes astronomy. Joseph would sit so slouched that he could select a new book from his stack without stretching. Jules would sit straight-backed at a desk further away from the lounge, reading glasses perched on his small, straight nose. Joe could tell when his friend was particularly interested in what he was reading; Jules would lean over his book, rest his cheek on his hand, elbow propped on the desk, and run his other hand through his dark blonde hair. His eyes would widen behind his glasses and sometimes his lips would move as he mouthed what he was reading. Whenever this happened, Joe would rise from his chair, walk unnoticed toward his library companion, and pull whatever book it was that had Jules so fascinated right out from under his nose, usually met with little sounds of annoyance and snatches of mumbled phrases like ‘train of thought’ and ‘you wouldn’t understand it anyway’. Joe never understood what his friend read, heavy textbooks filled with equations and theories attempting to explain the universe.
“You have the brains,” Joe would say, falling back onto the lounge, “but I have the hair.”
Friday, December 4, 2009
Harsh Reality
Ok.. so before I get into this post, let me bring y’all up to speed by saying that I no longer have health insurance because I was laid off in July. Even if I would consider it, I am NOT eligible for state aid because I receive unemployment. I AM eligibile for a private HMO but have to wait through a 7 month “grace” period.
So with that said …
This past Wednesday, The Good Doctor’s husband came into the shop for turkey. Chief explains that he doesn’t have the turkey that The Good Doctor’s husband likes because I’ve been sick as a dog and without me in the shop or doing the running around, everything is on a skeleton.
The Good Doctor’s husband asks what’s wrong.. Chief goes into my litany of symptoms… and the Good Doctor’s husband tells Chief to have me call ASAP and they’ll fit me in.
So Chief calls me and I am SO NOT A HAPPY CAMPER. I don’t like going to doctors. He knows this but OBVIOUSLY is more concerned about my well being then I am. But now I’m in a bind because it’s The Good Doctor. Who is not only a super sweet person but a really good customer and since Chief had to open his big fat mouth and they’ll willing to fit me in.. I have to call.
Fuck.
It was around lunch time so I figured I’d wait an hour before I call. I tell him this.. he seems satisfied and I rolled over and went back to sleep.
Until my cell phone rang.
Until my cell phone rand that The Good Doctor’s name came up on the caller id.
Fuck! He gave them my freakin’ number.
He knows me SO well!
Wind up is is that I couldn’t be seen until Thursday at 11:15am.
I immediately call Chief and chastised him on giving out my cell phone number. But he knew the deal and was just glad that I made the appointment.
He wanted to come with me but since my appointment was at the start of his lunch rush, I told him I could go at it alone. I figured I’d be feeling better by the next day anyway and also, I didn’t want him there when they weighed me.
Trivial girly stuff.. but it is what it is so what can I tell you.
I actually am NOT feeling any better at the time of my appointment. And as I’m sitting in The Good Doctor’s waiting room I am suddenly overcome by the feeling of passing out. I only ALMOST passed out once and it wasn’t a nice feeling. It was so bad that I couldn’t even hold the pen to fill out the paperwork.
So I get all girly and sniffly and call Chief and tell him that I need him. The shop is only a few blocks away and he was there in an instant. And of course, as soon as he got there I started to feel better and told him he could leave. Of course, he looked at me like I was insane but I knew his mind was on the store and missing the lunch rush money and I started to feel guilty that I had even called him in the first place. But he felt that his place was with me so he stayed.
When we finally got called into the exam room and The Good Doctor started to exam me, and based on what I was telling her she says that there is a very real possibility that I contracted the Pig Virus :: H1N1 to all you non-rednecks :: and that if I had come in sooner she could have given me something that would have made me better faster.
Wonderful. What the hell can I tell you.
She then asked if I smoked. If Chief wasn’t there I would have lied and said that I was able to quit xx months ago or get all giddy and excited by telling her I HAVE XX DAYS CLEAN! but I couldn’t because he was there and so when I told her that I did, OMG.. her reaction was SO FREAKIN’ OVER THE TOP.
I mean.. ok. I know smoking is bad for you. Worse then bad. I get it. I really, really do. I know I’m setting myself up for all kinds of horrible things. And I’m NOT justifying it. I swear, I’m not. But she laid into me SO hard and SO fierce that I really just wanted say LOOK BITCH, CAN WE FOCUS ON THE PIG VIRUS HERE?
Seriously.. I felt like I was in one of the Scared Straight movies that they show teenagers about prison life.
She pulls out this paper with information on the patch and the gum and the things you suck on that will help you quit smoking and wouldn’t get off the subject until I agreed to use one of the above to stop. I played along and went with the things you suck on because they had a coffee flavored one.
The worse part of it all… is that when she gave me the inhaler medicine and the nasal spray.. she proceeded to tell me how much they would cost if I had to go to a pharmacy and get them and that it’s just a waste to give them to me if I’m not going to stop smoking. Then she proceeds to tell me that:
- I shouldn’t even be seeing you because you don’t have insurance and it’s a big liability
- If the president’s healthcare goes through, you wouldn’t even get treatment if you had cancer because you smoke.
Now.. ok.. so since when is getting paid in cash for an office visit more of a liability then being paid for an office visit by an insurance company?
I’ve worked both sides of health care for the past 23 years :: until I got laid off :: so I know how everything works .. and trust me, it’s not the way it’s being presented to the masses.
But I’m not getting into that.. I’m too exhausted and spent to go into all that now. Maybe later.
Anyway.. so she gives me the 200.00 a month inhaler and the 150.00 nasal spray :: but come one, they were samples and didn’t cost her anything :: and then writes me a script for 7 antibiotic pills that cost me 108.00.
I know she didn’t mean to make me feel like I was a dredge of society. But she did.. she made me feel like a failure because I didn’t have health insurance. She made me feel like I was just someone who was coping free medicine. She made me feel like I wasn’t up to her standard and the only reason why she lowered herself to treat me is because her husband loves Chief’s turkey.
She literally had me in tears and I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there.
On the way home, I told Chief that I absolutely hated him for making me go through with appointment and it was the kind of hate that would never be forgiven.
He said that was fine, as long as I was around long enough to hate him he didn’t care.
Now here’s the thing.. if you want to discuss it or debate it or whatever you can go right ahead but I’m not going to partake. I’ll just leave my 2 cents here for y’all to mull over:
If healthcare is going to be re-vamped, then it needs to be REVAMPED. You can’t half step this one. It’s so bad.. and so corrupt that it literally has to be restructured as a whole.. not bits and pieces of it.
Health Insurance should only be for long term treatments, surgeries, pregnancies and stuff like that. Everything else should be fee for service. You go to the doctors, you pay the doctor visit. If one doctor charges 50.00 a visit, then go to the one that charges 35. The fact that doctor’s do NOT see uninsured people only puts more strain on emergency rooms. We, as a country, are used to having things FAST. And I think because of that, we’ve forgotten when we really need to see a doctor. I can’t tell you how many people sat in the ER complaining of a sore throat.. or an earache.. or something really, really minor. All that did was tie up the ER and waste resources.
If the government is going to model health care on a foreign country, then they should model Italy’s. And I’m not just saying that because I’m Italian.. I’m saying that because I have relatives in Italy and we’ve had this discussion. No system is perfect. Not everybody’s “needs” will be met but we need to move away from what we think we are entitled to and get back to the way things were before we were indoctrinated with insurance is king.
Kids have all inclusive coverage from birth to age 16 .. the elderly are covered from 67 (I believe) on up.. again .. all inclusive. Or 70. I forget.
But doesn’t that make sense?
And how about this? If the government is SO amped on getting involved in this and instead of baiting and switching or money this or money that.. just open freakin’ clinics so that people who can’t afford private health care and who aren’t eligible for medicaid have a place to go to get care if they need it.
Oh.. and welfare? Yea.. make people work for it. Clean the streets.. scrub graffeti .. do what people who get community service have to do.. board up old houses for Christ sake.. something. Anything.
Benjamin Franklin said it best:
I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed…that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
Okay.. I think the meds are kicking in and I’m getting all scattered over here. My apologies.. I’ll end my rant now!
Moment of Clarity
“Young and stupid”. Many has been the night that I tried to recite this mantra to myself in fits of self-awareness.
“Remember, you are young and stupid,” I’d silently repeat to myself, “so goddamn young.” When I first started saying this to myself, it was almost a personal call to arms. I had grown weary of what I thought to be my ignorant youth, a time spent behind closed doors and impenetrable masks. My trusty coping mechanisms – lies and deceit – which once shielded me from pain and embarrassment, had ended up cutting me off from the world around me. I was now ready and ravenous for new and foreign experiences.
But I left myself far too open, and I became lost in the woods of my own social decadence. It was then that my mantra transformed into a self-pitying whimper, a defeated cry of surrender. I told myself again and again how young and stupid I was, and thus I convinced myself of my own impotence. In a very real sense, I felt that I was finished.
No longer. Tonight I went for a walk. The weather was cool and crisp, my music soft and comforting. The amphetamines in my veins sharpening my mind. The ambience was perfect for reflection.
And so I thought about the last eighteen months, and all the sloppy, horrific wonders that I have come to know. In that time, I lost my virginity to a landlady eight years my senior. I had been punched in the chest by my now brother-in-law. For the first time in my life, I had said the words “I love you” to a girl and meant it. I’d started smoking and quit. I’d slept with two girls in one night. I saw my sister get married.
After reflecting upon all that I had accomplished in such a short span, I came to realize that I finally understood this mantra. It is not a shield to hide behind when plumbing the depths of depravity. It is not an insult to be self-applied when feeling depravity’s doubled edge. And it is certainly not a cliche to be bandied about by those who aspire to be jaded.
“Young and stupid” is simply this: a calm and jubilant realization that there are far more wonders to be seen and lessons to be learned in this life, and that one should be both clever enough to realize this and stupid enough to keep studying.
Sorry to define a cliche with sentimental treacle. It doesn’t make it any less of a goddamn epiphany.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
king of the culchies
The Culchie Wrap (no audio available):
Now being a Culchie is not so tough, you might look funny and a small bit rough, some of us are single and some are dads, but I’ll tell you one thing, we’re the finest lads. Its time to bring my Culchie Wrap to a close, I’ve to go to the jacks and powder my nose. Its great to see the look on all of you’re faces, when I tell ya that us Culchies are going places.
Do culchies really like cocaine? Someone I knew was at a lock in at a pub in a village in Cork. The farmers were playin 45 and doing coke and smoking weed and drinking crates of cider. That was a few years ago so I can only presume they are worse now.
Finally a list of all the things that define being a culchie.
Sadly it is pretty accurate.
Look at what these idiots did to this kid by fooling him at an Aaaaart competition in Aaaaardee by the sounds of it:
Here is Tubridy actually getting a ride:
Pirates Log 117= P-wing Rings jackets+Hulk 17 + Faust apr Radiohead.
These are all of the known colors of the p-wing ring jacket colors that i know of. I love the fade that these jackets get when they show their age.
Pwing ring jackets
And here is the variant cover to hulk 17. Great issue if you get to pick it up.
Hulk 17
and here is another interesting radio head video. see if you can figure out the meaning of the video Faust apr
Monday, November 30, 2009
Leonard's Dope
I know a guy by the name of Leonard Dohr. I’ve know him a real long time actually, over a couple of decades. The first ten years or so that I knew him, it was just casual, a mutual friend. I didn’t know him well. About nine or so years ago, that mutual friend died. I ran into Leonard at the memorial, we smoked a reefer, exchanged numbers, and have kept in touch since.
Nowadays I know Leonard very well. He is a swell guy. Leonard would give the shirt off his back to a total stranger, as long as that stranger met his approval. I know that seems odd but Leonard has his own charities. I know that he takes in many strays at his home. If you know Leonard, if Leonard were your friend, you’ll never have to sleep outside, no matter what you did to get there.
Leonard’s parents have been deceased many years. Leonard was bequeathed a small fortune and was living a life with few struggles. I am not saying that Leonard is rich, he certainly is not. It is just that Leonard doesn’t need to work. Does not seem to concern himself with the little things in life that drive us all nuts, like paying bills, or creating a budget. I kid with Leonard, I tell him that he leads a life of leisure, the American dream. I tell him that if I had his choices, my own life would be considerably easier. That is not, in any way, suggesting I would live Leonard’s life. Hell no!
Leonard is fucking nuts.
Leonard has an unusual philosophy about life. If you didn’t really know him, it would be easy to dismiss his quirks as perhaps a form of dementia, or maybe you’d feel sorry for Leonard.
I know Leonard and I don’t really see it that way.
Leonard is about my age, maybe fifty or so. Like myself, he grew up in the decades following the Manson thing, after the Zodiac, right about the time when young folks started to take their drug experimentation a lot more seriously. Leonard did lots of acid. Leonard would ingest nearly anything that carried the promise of an eternal sense of happiness. I think he neglected to find exactly that, but he continues to try.
I have spent a bit more time lately with Leonard than is usual and I’m reminded how fucking crazy this cat can be. We’ve sat together lately several times, smoking grass and exchanging ideas on how to save humanity or some such thing. Sometimes it was just he and I, sometimes we were joined by others in our little peer group. I absolutely love to sit with other adults and exchange ideas and information, Leonard says it is the key to the evolution of man. Now that I know what he meant, I know he was right.
Leonard’s conversations are often centered around Leonard. I don’t think he’s especially narcissistic, I believe he’s only just discovering himself and is frequently amazed, or frightened, by what he finds. About the time I ran into Leonard at the memorial. He had just gotten his first computer and was planning to look into getting an internet provider and exploring this new technology.
The very next time I ran into Leonard, he was high as a kite and really excited about all the cool stuff he was finding through the magic of the world wide web.
See, Leonard is a strange kind of cat. Leonard is convinced that his drug use, yes street drugs, is not only, not killing him, it’s giving him a better, a more fulfilling life.
Granted, his financial situation is unique, perhaps enviable, and that does make a difference in his perception of the damage.
Anyway, now he kind of stays loaded, busy studying the new world he has found online, and he seems genuinely happy. He does not break the law in any other way. He pays his bills, eats good and shares his bounty with anyone in need. He is a great human being really.
I only find it odd that his choices would certainly raise eyebrows pretty much anywhere, any time, but his life seems quite manageable. In fact, he asked me point blank, the other day while we were discussing it, “Lloyd,” he says, “what would get better if I quit?” “What would be improved so much that I would be better off?”
I really had no clear honest answer.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Customs officials seize $2.6 million worth of bongs
The Los Angeles Times brings us this story that seems appropriate on Black Friday…
Customs officials at the Los Angeles Harbor received a shipment from China listed as Christmas ornaments.
But when they opened the “presents” Tuesday, they found 316,000 bongs and pipes.
“They’re very colorful and big,” said Cristina Gamez, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Some of them are like 2 feet tall.”
Gamez said glass bongs and pipes, contained in nearly 860 boxes of cargo, are worth about $2.6 million.
The package arrived a month ago but was seized Tuesday at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex. The manifest listing the cargo’s contents said Christmas ornaments were inside. They were addressed to someone in L.A. County.
Gamez said no arrests have been made, and an investigation is pending. She said that it is illegal to import, export or sell drug paraphernalia in the United States and that all the items would be destroyed.
Thanksgiving
I can say, without a doubt, that this has been the worst Thanksgiving of my life.
Now don’t get me wrong. Turkey Day 2009 was hardly my first Thanksgiving that didn’t resemble a Norman Rockwell painting. When I was in high school, we spent one festival of gluttony in Mexico as my cousin was getting married; for the rehearsal dinner, we had turkey tacos. Another Thanksgiving was spent in Montreal where my mother witnessed for the first time the full visceral horror of my step-brother’s eating binges. Then once as a child, my elderly jewish grandparents didn’t feel like having turkey for dinner so we had duck instead.
But this time things were different. No family. No turkey. No abundance of dirt cheap champagne. I didn’t even get to spend time with any friends.
Ok, well that last part is only half true, in that I saw a “friend”. The reason for these obnoxious quotation marks is such: this is a person with whom I initially established simply friendly relations, then somehow over the course of the last few months – and to my dismay – I’ve become his best friend and lifeline to sanity.
Now that last bit may sound a bit narcissistic on my part, but there have been signs that my conclusion is sound. For one, he often says that I’m the only person who actually understands his ideas. He’s even called me his translator at times. Second, I was the first person he called a few weeks back after a particularly scary hospital visit. Third, having a certain amount of expertise in the area (extensive personal therapy, family suicide, etc.) I can safely say that he’s displaying all of the signs of a person haunted with suicidal thoughts.
Today, he visited me for a few hours. Since he was doing me a favor anyway (delivering a tiny amount of drugs to me), I made him some french toast.
By the way, I have finally perfected the recipe. For those who want to know, it involves eggs, milk, honey, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.
The point is, I had work to do, and so I couldn’t hang out with him all day. So I kept encouraging him to see if anyone else was available, and of course he had little success. Then, all of a sudden, he left, with tears beading in his eyes. What bugs me, though, is that the tears came from an easily avoidable place. The problem is thus: while he may see me as the only person who actually listens to him, he has yet to listen to me or any voice of reason.
Yet sadly enough, he is probably the closest thing I have to family out here. Yes, the best facsimile of home that I can create involves the regular babysitting of an emotional succubus.
Happy Thanksgiving indeed.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
What type of Drinker are You?
See what type of Drinker you are and if your in Trouble!According to a recent UK Department of Health study, there are several reasons as to why people drink to excess on a regular basis.
They have identified nine main groups or reasons why people drink heavily. Heavy drinking is defined as 35 units per week for women and 50 units per week for men. This is twice the recommended limit.
Although this is obviously just a general guide, where do you think you fit into this? It may be you fit across categories or even have other reasons outside of the nine presented below. However, it is a useful guide to start looking at the causes for your heavy drinking.
Depressed drinker Your life is in a state of crisis, e.g. recently bereaved, divorced or in a financial crisis. Alcohol is a comforter and a form of self-medication to help you cope Destress drinker You have a pressurised job or stressful home-life leading you to have feelings of being out of control and burdened with responsibility. You use alcohol to relax, unwind and calm down and to help with switching between your work and your personal life. Partners often support or reinforce this behaviour by preparing drinks for you. Re-bonding drinker You use alcohol as the ’shared connector’ that unifies your friends and your social circle. You often forget the time and the amount of alcohol you are consuming. Conformist drinker You use going to the pub or bar as what ‘men do’ and it is your second home and you have a sense of belonging and acceptance within this environment. Community drinker You drink in fairly large social friendship groups. You have a sense of community forged through the pub group. Drinking for you provide a sense of safety and security and gives your life meaning and also acts as a social network with your friends. Boredom drinker This is especially true if you are a single mother or recent divorcee with a restricted social life. Drinking is company, making for an absence of people. Drinking marks the end of the day perhaps following the completion of chores. Macho drinker You often feel undervalued, disempowered and frustrated in important areas of your life. You have actively cultivated a strong alpha male identity that revolves around your drinking prowess. Your drinking is driven by a constant need to assert your masculinity and status to yourself and others. Hedonistic drinker You are single, divorced and/or with grown-up children. Drinking excessively is a way for you to visibly express your independence, freedom and ‘youthfulness’ to yourself. You use alcohol to release your inhibitions.Find Out More:
In order to start making changes with your relationship with alcohol please visit the Alcohol Free Social Life website where you will learn specific techniques and examples of how to make changes now:
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE DETAILS
and How to Live A Better Life NOW
Depresia toamna-iarna!
“Lasa-ma domne-n pace!” momentan vegetez cufundata de ganduri idioate incercand sa termin de citit un capitol din enigma don’soarei Otilia, adica citesc pana ma plictisesc de tot, eventual pana mi se acreste de carte si o arunc cat colo in rafturile care bineinteles nu mai sunt sterse de praf de o caruta de timp, à propos de carti, azi cam trebuia sa ma duc pe la Gaumeadus dar am preferat sa stau acasa si sa ma “bucur” de timpul liber pe care-l am…zilele astea am o perioada mai emo asa pentru ca sunt un om semigripat, realmente mort, oricum nu ma vaccinam pentru nicio gripa canina, porcina, aviara, caprina etc.
Am ganduri mari sa-mi tai parul, daaa parul ala lung, saten si ondulat al meu care mi se pare mai mult lana, mi-ar placea sa nu mai fiu nevoita sa-l perii zilnic, sa plang dupa fiecare fir cazut…pur si simplu l-as purta valvoi sau ciufulit in cap, cred ca mi-ar fii mult mai bine…
Nu am mai avut timp sa aberez pe blog tocmai pentru ca am fost prea ocupata cu programul “scoala-teme-movies”. Acum sunt prea nervoasa sa mai scriu ceva frumos cum scriam odata…ma enerveaza sa vad cum se labarteaza falnic un ditamai cosu’ pe faţa mea si ma face sa ma simt mult mai jalnica decat sunt momentan…
Ma enerveaza lumea tocmai pentru ca nu mai e soare, vara si caldura. Acum va e frig si deveniti mai ursuzi, va inchideti intr-o carapace unde hibernati, adunati energie pentru o perioada care este mult prea departe…in fine, ma vindec de EMOnita curand…
Monday, November 23, 2009
"In Mexico it is dangerous to speak the truth. It is even dangerous to know the truth"
In his superb piece on the ‘The Fall of Mexico’, Philip Caputo does an excellent job of demonstrating both the complexity of the situation and the extent to which fear has banished trust, making it increasingly difficult to know the truth, speak the truth, and then to report that truth to others.
He was unable, for example, to determine the exact truth behind competing claims about the army’s motivations – some suspect a slow military coup is taking place, others suggest collusion with drug cartels or a wish to become a cartel themselves. But the absence of truth in one area can lead to truth in another, and what is clear from the accounts compiled by Caputo and human rights groups is that the Mexican military is ruthless, brutal, secretive and completely unaccountable to the people who pay their wages.
He reminds us, too, that it isn’t just the Mexican taxpayer which funds this motley crew; $1.4 billion of American money is funding the militarisation of the war on drugs, and it is going towards an army which has been accused of practicing torture, unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, theft, rape, and murder:
A good example is the case of Javier Rosales, a medical technician who died after he and a friend were captured and tortured by soldiers. Members of his family went to the state justice office and the federal attorney general’s office to file a complaint against the soldiers and demand an investigation. They were turned away because, the officials said, charges of army misconduct fall under military jurisdiction. However, Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the Joint Chihuahuan Operation, told me that the army looks into such allegations only through internal investigations or when formal charges have been filed by state or federal prosecutors. It’s pure catch-22: state or federal authorities will not receive complaints against soldiers, and the army will not investigate unless charges have been filed by state or federal authorities.
Nor was Rosales alone; of over 2,000 complaints made about the military’s conduct, there has been not one prosecution. By abdicating responsibility for conducting the war on drugs, the civilian government lost its ability to regulate the way it’s conducted, so the US is basically funding an institution which is a law unto itself.
Of course, Caputo is also right to ask if the army was suddenly so thoroughly reformed that it became the model of an ethical military, could it overcome the drug cartels? Probably not. “The drug gangs”, Caputo writes, “have acquired a “military capacity” that enables them to confront the army on an almost equal footing.” I don’t know the official definition of a civil war, but this has got to come close.
It’s worth noting that Caputo’s piece is one of a flurry of articles on the situation to have emerged in recent months, and I think there are a number of reasons for this. Obviously, the significant increase in death is highly newsworthy, and the country’s proximity to the United States has made it a growing concern for American media outlets. But I also think there’s a growing understanding that Mexico is reaching a sort of endgame in the war on drugs.
Everything the country has tried up until this point has failed: the responsible police and regional state officials have already been either undermined, corrupted or killed, the media is censoring itself for fear of assassination, and the political class has become discredited, distrusted and enfeebled. With this in mind, the only option Mexico had left if it wanted to sustain the war on drugs was to put everything in the hands of the military and cross their fingers.
It may yet be possible that this approach will work, that the drug cartels will lose a degree of their influence over society and that civic institutions can regain some measure of independence from the forces of coercion & corruption.
But if that approach doesn’t work – and it certainly hasn’t worked yet – that will leave the country with only two options: legalise drugs and let these cartels battle it out in the boardroom rather than in bloody street battles, or adopt a posture of denial, swallow another billion in American aid and watch in dismay as the state loses, with each passing year, more and more of its legitimacy.
Whichever path is chosen will really depend on how much more heartbreak and bloodshed the country’s public can stomach to sustain a war without end.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Venomous Animals (Deadly Animals With Amazing Cures)
When most people think of venomous animals, their first reaction is to think of snakes. This is an accurate thought process as snakes are indeed venomous animals, infamous for killing individuals in a terrible way. However, snakes are not the only creatures that have evolved a chemical defense like venom. There are venomous birds, frogs, fish, even mollusks! The duck billed platypus contains a venomous barb on its hind paws that it can use for defense. Todays post will deal with one of these venomus animals that should be coming into fame soon. The Geographic Cone Snail.
A handfull of various types of Conidae shells
Conus geographus belongs to a family of snails known as the Conidae. Snails belonging to this family are distinguished by having a cone shaped shell. We often see these for sale on hawaiian necklaces or at shell stores. The geographic cone snail is an amazing beautiful creature but has a deadly venom. This small snail is packed with a potent venom known as Conotoxin. This venom is a classic nicotenic acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. It blocks the reuptake of acetylcholine into the nervous system. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter often responsible for muscle movement. When the inhibitor for acetylcholine is blocked, tons of it builds up in the neuro synapses. This causes the body to convluse and go rigid due to over signaling. Eventually you cannot exhale and you suffocate and die.
A Cone Snail with its harpoon excised
Conotoxin, therefore, is a wonderful weapon for Conus geographus to use to capture prey. This tiny snail can actually eat a fish whole! It has a proboscis which it uses like a nose. It searchers around for food and when it smells it, it injects a harpoon like structure into the skin of the prey. This harpoon pumps the deadly conotoxin into the prey causing it to become paralized. It then devours the food alive.
A molecule of Conotoxin
What is amazing about this compound is that it has pharmaceutical applications. A novel drug has been developed from it. The drug, known as conotropin, is a powerful analgesic, pain killer. Said to be 1,000 times more powerful than morphine with no known side effects, Conotropin, has the potential to help thousands of sufferers of pain wordwide. People with debilitating ailments such as sciatica can now rely on this drug to finally give them relief without destroying their bodies. This drug is still in clinical trials however so look for it in the near future.
Rock & Roll & Rap Videos - Don't Stop Spreading Them
Do NOT Stop Spreading these Videos!
The Salvation of 3 Generations could depend on it!
1. Go to GoodFight Theater! http://www.theater.goodfight.org
Check out the AWESOME exposes and eye-opening clarity of the surprising spiritual motivations of entertainers! You will want to spread the news and the link, and order the dvds… then go to these youtube videos and spread them like a virus! The salvation of your generation depends partly on the LABORERS. We are going to wear satan out with God’s Grace & Truth just like he tries to wear us out with his sin & lies!
2
ICP think they sold their soul to the devil… But Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-_3-YB2XMo
3
MTV and Madonna and Eminem and Method Man and Jimi Hendrix and Garth Brooks and Kid Rock think they sold their soul to the devil… But Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKfGNEuGWMo
4
Dr. Dre, Eminem and others think they sold their soul to the devil… But Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oify6AtKkFs
5
Korn and Ozzy Osbourne and Frank Zappa and Limp Bizkit and Red Hot Chili Peppers think they sold their soul to the devil… But Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRPxkkP-ZGM
6
Do you realize the satanic plan in secular music and in the United Nations is the same plan that God foiled in Genesis 11. Why are these people doing it again? They will fail again!
Pick your team! Kingdom or Babylon!
Go hard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMDF4_zekbM
7
Carlos Santana, David Koresh, Jim Jones, Hitler, have a lot in common… But Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wv9ldtDGds
8
This clip tells the story of Robert Johnson, a Black man who is called ‘THE FATHER OF ROCK & ROLL’ admitted that he sold his soul to satan in the 1950s. The roots of rock in satanism… But Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Aml1RZsxqw
9
Robert Johnston blues star and founder of Rock, actually sold his soul to satan. This is the root of the secular music you listen to. That’s why it does what it does to your soul. satanism… But Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvMfM_87tec
10
Eazy E, Bone Thugs & Harmony, Snoop Dogg, Method Man, Master P, DMX, Three 6 Mafia, and others think they think they sold their soul to the devil… But Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC0WRXRrp2w
11
Wow… this guys testimony is amazing. He actually was writing music for satan when God delivered him! From Elvis to today… Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p0MruAg8wM
12
More mind-blowing footage about Elvis, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, and other stars that masked themselves as harmless. Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yusiv3JDng
13
Singers like Spice Girls and Brittney Spears teach children to reject God’s laws and their parents laws like “Keep your mouth shut Keep your legs shut” Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJCWydWB9tY
15
The Truth about Elvis Presley… he was not a Christian. His bodyguards, the “Memphis Mafia” reveal his demonic forces and deception.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX7FJgtOti8
16
The Truth about Elvis Presley… he was not a Christian. He was deep into occult and actually thought he was a false christ and read from satanist Madame Blavatsky at his concerts! Also notice how SIMILAR Michael Jackson’s life ended the same way Elvis did – with PILLS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8AOzOvXwu4
17
More on Elvis… and Jerry Lewis actually condemns himself to Hell, he thought he sold his soul to satan. I wish he had repented before he died. Same thing with Little Richard. They don’t know how merciful Jesus Christ is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0wHc10VGMw
19
Most rock & roll artists have been influenced by Aliester Crowley… he taught drugs, sex, and “Imma Do Me.” In order to promote satanism and the Anti-Christ. How Timothy Leary and the Beatles helped spread satanism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6vLnAYjK2A
20
How Aliester Crowley sowed seeds of satanic discipleship (Harry Hayes and Dr. Alfred Kinsey) for the sexual revolution and how promotion of homosexuality and the rape of little boys is related to the Anti-Christ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnNkmNPptk0
21
HOw the Beatles promoted satanism under the influence of Aliester Crowley… they brought yoga (yoking yourself to a demon) to America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGy0Sk80amQ
22
“Making Movies is casting spells…” how the Rolling Stones and the Beatle helped promote satanism in 1967…. the end of this is DEEP!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgOzb_1wjig
23
Let’s look at the FRUIT of satanism, idolatry, and rebellion against God, from 1967. NOT Freedom- addictions, broken lives, sexual diseases, suicides, abortions, and broken families
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRcHT14oQr8
25
How drugs are related to witchcraft. Jimi Hendrix testifies to his servanthood to satan. Whoever is taken captive to this, there is still time. Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die.
The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDH9j_f0YPk
26
Demon worship and Jim Morrison of The Doors – the connection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6duGqjEFoVQ
27
satan is a lie. Even thru the greatest entertainers (false prophets) in the world. How the Beach Boys created the culture of southern California and created witchcraft music. Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die. The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKmh1mmjHV0
29
Michael Jackson spread sexual perversion and contacted demon spirits for his music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRf7wM6vLuI
31
Kurt Cobain… 90s grunge satanist, (I think he may have gotten saved before he died… Hallelujah!). Also NIN and U2 are covered in here! Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die. The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdWHjFhIvcs
32
U2 and CREED still has time to repent from their sins and trying to decieve Christians into the New World order. U2 is more blasphemous than Marilyn Manson. CREED signed their record deal in blood. Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die. The Mercy of the Lord endures forever, and His Truth endures to every Generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp26vedLKDM
33
Charles Manson, rock musician and mass murderer, a satanist who worked with the Beatles and Beach Boys and taught his family to kill. Jesus Blood is powerful and can still redeem their soul into life, before they die. The Mercy of the Lord endures forever,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqt2DLXDE7c
34
Anton Lavey and the satan worshippers who love Hitler and the soon coming antichrist, and national socialism. This is CRAZY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXs7Xd4JBXA
35
How the music is leading to anti-christ. Son of Sam was a satanist murderer as well, but I heard that he got saved in prison thanks to the mercy of the Lord. He sold himself to the devil but Jesus brought him back!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd3v4tR0sM8
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Innovation For All
Dateline: Havana
Havana? Yes, I’m blogging from Havana, where I am attending the Global Forum for Health Research Annual Conference. This year’s theme—“Innovating for the Health of All”—is perfectly in line with our goals at BVGH to bring capable innovators and technological know-how to global health research and development. Even more exciting, the Forum’s location in Cuba is drawing attention to Latin America at exactly the right moment.
Why does Latin America deserve all eyes and ears right now?
First, a number of diseases endemic to Latin America and the Caribbean are, at long last, gaining important publicity. The poster child example of this is Chagas disease, which was discovered in 1909 by Carlos Chagas, a medical doctor in Brazil. The disease now affects more than 8 million in Latin America and approximately 300,000 in the United States. For decades, the disease was systematically ignored by researchers and patients were offered little in the way of effective treatment. The only drugs that exist today, nifurtimox and benznidazole, both have high toxicities and long treatment times. There is no point of care diagnostic and no test of cure. However, this neglect is beginning to change. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) have embarked on an advocacy campaign around the issue. DNDi is also building a pipeline of drugs to test against the parasite that causes Chagas disease and to help identify clinical trials capacity for drug trials. BVGH is working behind the scenes to make sure that important compounds make it to the relevant players in drug development. The synergy in the global health community around the need to find new and better drugs and diagnostics for Chagas disease—and to treat those patients already affected—makes now an important time for the global health community to gather in Latin America to focus on the need for innovation.
More importantly, Latin America now has a thriving biopharmaceutical sector. Brazil’s well-known generics industry has a long history of success, and public sector research institutions, such as Fiocruz, have strong vaccine capabilities. Fiocruz is building a new translational research facility, and already has an alliance with Genzyme on Chagas disease. In addition, Brazilian President Lula has made innovation a pillar of public policy during his term as president. While Brazil has long been recognized for its growing technological capabilities, other countries in Latin America stand out as well. Mexico is among one of the top ten drug producers in the world, and remains the largest drug exporter in Latin America ($1.5 billion in exports in 2007). In both Brazil and Mexico, there is a growing interesting in innovative pharmaceuticals.
Sadly, less than USD 1 million was spent last year on research and development (R&D) for new drugs for Chagas. But there is a real opportunity here for capable innovators with compounds that could be tested for activity against Chagas to join in the movement that will only grow. These large, mid-size, or small companies could, in partnership, reduce their risks of development. An R&D incentive would also certainly help to fill up the pipeline quickly with a newer generation of drugs. The innovation process that creates novel compounds from good research ideas is still largely not found in the developing world, as was discussed in a very interesting forum held Monday by the Pan American Health Organization. The space is open for drug hunting companies and diagnostic companies to step into. Our Board chair Carl Feldbaum, our VP of Business Development David Cook, former BVGH CEO Chris Earl, and I spent a fair amount of time discussing the value that BVGH could add to solving the problem of Chagas, which causes so much suffering in Latin America. Fueled by cigar smoke (Yes—I did!) we see the opportunity. If you want to see it too—please be in touch with us.
–Melinda Moree is the interim CEO of BVGH
You can contact BVGH by emailing info@bvgh.org, or by calling 202-312-9260.
The De-evolution of Man
The goal of a horror film is to strike fear in the heart of the watcher. Audiences react in horror to a grotesque scene or a surprise jump in a dark hallway. These fears only last as long as it takes for you to get your scream out. (or jump or whatever you do) However, there is something about zombie movies that comment on the human existence. The zombie is man stripped of whatever makes him human. All that was of value is lost and only the drive to eat remains. While this is make believe, in real life people are afraid of losing themselves. Certain proclivities that a man allows have the potential to overtake him. Man becomes a slave to addiction. (drugs, alcohol, porn, etc.) In pursuit of that one thing families are destroyed, futures are destroyed, children are hurt, and jobs are lost. Everything that was once loved and cared for is gone. The man himself loses who he is. After a while he might come to his senses, but the pieces of his life that formed a coherent whole are lost. He must now pick up what is left and form a new whole.
A good example of this is Jack Torrance in the movie The Shining. His addiction was alcohol. When he drank he became a different person and his anger poured out of him destroying everything around him. He tried as hard as he could to control himself. He stopped drinking and got help. But after taking a job as a caretaker for a huge hotel in the off season, Jack withdraws into his own world in which his family turns against him. In reality they love him, but he sees them as if looking through a tainted window full of betrayal and deceit. Soon he turns against them. Somehow he finds alcohol in the abandoned hotel and acts on every fear within him. His wife and child barely escape with their lives. As they leave, he comes to himself just for a moment, enough to see that any vestige of life that remained within him is hopelessly lost, and he dies in the fruition of his addictions.
The potential of this degeneration lives inside of every man. Like fighting an enemy, we try to keep the evil at bay. Time goes by and weary we give up the fight. Evil then takes what we care for the most and dashes it upon the jagged edges of addictive behavior. Broken, we look at all we lost wishing to God we had kept up the fight when we had the chance.
Monday, November 16, 2009
crank & glass.
every once in awhile you get a ’sick day’ that is actually pleasurable.
i had one of those days today.
i have lost my voice completely… i can whisper and make weird trumpeter swan noises – but that is about it.
an annoyance – yes.
an excuse to say in bed and read all day – definitely.
i started reading ellen hopkin’s series backwards.
i bought her latest novel ‘tricks’ well on a trip with my roommates to the pharmacy.
i was instantly drawn to ‘tricks’ because of it’s unique cover art.
after reading the book in two nights i suggested it to my sister who already had the previous five books in the series.
tricks is about five different people in five different situations and the trials and tribulations that they go through in their life. the commonality between the characters and their stories is child prostitution.
this book really opened up my eyes to the detrimental situations that teenagers find themselves in and the lengths they will go to survive.
in the author’s note at the end of the book ellen writes; “i am often asked how i decide to write about a certain topic. this one was inspired by a statistic i came across. did you know that the average age of a female prostitute in the united states is twelve years old?”
this statistic floored me, but it didn’t surprise me – especially after reading her book.
i then proceeded onto reading crank & glass (her first two books, glass being the continuation of crank). on various occasions ellen has admitted that these two books are based loosely on her daughter’s experience with the monster (crystal meth). the draw to someone my age may not be there, as the main character is in her mid-teens. the content; however, focuses on the trials and tribulations of a young girl and the horrific encounters she has while doing drugs (rape, pregnancy, being kicked out, withdrawl etc.)
it’s almost fascinating, for someone who has never done the drug, to read about the lifestyles that meth addicts lead. it is by no means glamorous.
not only does ellen draw on the drug issue, she also writes about the insecurities taking place within the main character kristina.
kristina merely wants to be loved, whether that’s love from her degenerate father (who is also a meth addict), or love from the guys she encounters during her drug renegades. it’s easy for the reader to see that she is looking for love in all the wrong places.
after visiting her father and falling in love with adam her second personality develops and the reader meets ‘bree’. bree is the complete opposite of kristina in various ways; she’s a bad ass that kristina finds extremely difficult to ignore. bree becomes kristina’s alter ego when she’s using.. it’s unfortunately because the majority of the issues that kristina encounters are a direct result of bree and ‘the monster’. she ends up getting pregnant (she gets raped while doing meth) and decides to keep the baby; even though it means having to look her rapist in the face every time she looks at her beloved baby. at the end of crank kristina is pulling her life together and off of drugs.. or so it seems.
at the beginning of glass kristina seems to be pulling her life around.. she’s been clean (mostly for the sake of her baby, not so much for personal benefit) for awhile and studying to get her GED. when life starts to get tough she begins using again, but this time she thinks she can control it.
wrong.
the monster takes over her life and kristina’s parents put their foot down and kick her out of the house. with no-one else left to go she takes up residence at her ‘boyfriends’ cousins house (who also happens to be a dealer). she becomes his live in nanny (because his wife left him) and takes care of his two beautiful daughters. she begins using heavily and her life takes a spin for the worse. she ditches her car, loses her son, and eventually gets kicked out of her surrogate home. ‘glass’ follows kristina’s ascent back into hell and demonstrates to readers how truly brutal and detrimental drugs are to ones life.
like i said before the books are an extreme eye-opener, especially to those readers (like myself) who have never ventured into the world of hard drugs.
i’ve started reading ‘impulse’ the next book in ellen’s series.. in total there are six books in the series: crank, glass, burned, impulse, identical and tricks. i suggest these books to anyone who enjoys reading series and love stories that’re extremely unpredictable, dramatic and even somewhat relateable.
check out the books and ellen at www.ellenhopkins.com
Changing Behavior Helps Patients Take Medication as Prescribed
Taking medication as the doctor prescribes is crucial to improving health. However, 26 to 59 percent of older adults do not adhere to instructions, according to a 2003 study published in Drugs and Aging.
“It is very important for physicians and nurses to move past educating patients about the need for medication and focus on teaching behavior strategies,” said Vicki Conn, associate dean of research and Potter-Brinton professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing. “Implementing these strategies can help older adults take their medications, resulting in better health and well-being.”
The University of Missouri researchers found that behavior-changing strategies have a greater impact on medication adherence than reinforcing the importance of taking medication to patients. Effective strategies include reducing the number of doses taken daily, prescribing medications so they can be taken at the same time as other medications and encouraging the use of pill boxes. Giving patients clear, easy-to-read instructions for the medications also proved to be effective.
There are many reasons older adults have difficulties with medications, Conn said. Vision changes can interfere with reading medication bottles, and arthritis can make it difficult to handle pills and containers. However, the majority of adherence problems are not related to physical health. For example, many people simply forget to take their medications.
“There are approaches to overcome almost all problems,” said David Mehr, co-author of the study. “It makes a huge difference in patients’ adherence and health if they have some type of organized system for taking medication.”
Failure to take prescribed medications can result in costly health interventions, including expensive tests and unnecessary additional prescriptions, Conn said.
Home Instead Senior Care’s medication reminder service can play an important role in helping clients organize their medications.
Home Instead Senior Care will provide outstanding caregivers to help your loved one with personal care, incidental travel, companionship, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and even meal preparation. To learn more, call 248-203-2273 or visit www.homeinstead.com. Home Instead Senior Care is the world’s trusted source of in-home non-commercial personal care and companionship for seniors. Each franchise is independently owned and operated. And remember, to us, it’s personal.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Virtually legal
Drugs
In many countries, full jails, stretched budgets and a general weariness with the war on drugs have made prohibition harder to enforce
THE Green Relief “natural health clinic” in a bohemian part of San Francisco doesn’t sound like an ordinary doctor’s surgery. For those who wonder about the sort of relief provided, its logo—a cannabis leaf—is a clue. Inside, in under an hour and for $99, patients can get a doctor’s letter allowing them to smoke marijuana in California with no fear of prosecution. In a state that pioneered bans on smoking tobacco, smoking cannabis is now easier than almost anywhere in the world.
California, with its network of pot-friendly physicians, offers the most visible evidence of a tentative worldwide shift towards a more liberal policy on drugs. Although most countries remain bound by a trio of United Nations conventions that prohibit the sale and possession of narcotics, laws are increasingly being bent or ignored. That is true even in the United States, where the Obama administration has announced that registered cannabis dispensaries will no longer be raided by federal authorities.
From heroin “shooting galleries” in Vancouver to Mexico’s decriminalisation of personal possession of drugs, the Americas are suddenly looking more permissive. Meanwhile in Europe, where drugs policy is generally less stringent, seven countries have decriminalised drug possession, and the rest are increasingly ignoring their supposedly harsh regimes. Is the “war on drugs” becoming a fiction?
Reformers are in a bold mood. Earlier this year a report by ex-presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico called for alternatives to prohibition. On November 12th a British think-tank, Transform, launched a report* setting out ideas on how drugs could be legally regulated. For every substance from cannabis to crack, it suggests a form of regulation, via doctors’ prescriptions, pharmacy sales or consumption on licensed premises.
That world is still some way off. But a debate about regulation is increasingly drowning out the one about enforcement. Take America, where 13 states let people smoke marijuana for medical reasons. Most set somewhat stricter terms than California—where insomnia, migraines and post-traumatic stress can all be reasons for a spliff, if you see the right doctor. “There’s never been a person born who couldn’t qualify,” says Keith Stroup, the founder of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a lobby group that has been around since 1970. “In California, the system of medical use they have adopted is in fact a version of legalisation.”
Elsewhere in the United States, there are many signs of prohibition ebbing away. Some 14 states have decriminalised the possession of marijuana for personal use (medical or otherwise), though most keep the option of a $100 civil penalty. Three states—New Mexico, Rhode Island and Massachusetts—license non-profit corporations to grow medical marijuana. Most radically, some states are considering legalising the drug completely. California and Massachusetts are holding committee hearings on bills to legalise pot outright; Oregon is expected to introduce such a bill within the next couple of weeks.
One reason for the sudden popularity of cannabis is financial. Tom Ammiano, the California assemblyman who introduced the bill to legalise marijuana earlier this year, points out that were it taxed it could raise some $1.3 billion a year for state coffers, based on a $50 per ounce levy on sales. As an added benefit to the public purse, lots of police time and prison space would be freed up. California’s jails heave with 170,000 inmates, almost a fifth of them inside for drug-related crimes, albeit mostly worse than just possessing a spliff.
In Europe, the authorities face similar pressures: the difficulty of enforcement, and bursting courts and prisons. So the tough sentences recommended in the laws of many European countries are seldom handed out. London’s police chief said last week that law-breakers of all kinds were escaping with cautions or on-the-spot fines, because of pressure on the courts.
Though many European countries still have prison as an option for convicted drug users, in reality only a fraction end up in jail, according to new research from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the EU’s drug agency (see chart). What is more, the sentences are shorter in reality than politicians like to pretend. In Denmark the top sentence for a standard drug offence was recently raised from six to ten years, but the average time actually served is 20 months. More startling is Britain, where possession of cannabis can, in theory, result in a five-year prison term. In fact just 0.2% of people found in possession of pot go to jail; most of the rest get off with a warning. The few who go behind bars—usually serial offenders, or suspected dealers—do an average of three months.
Europe’s lenient lands
Elsewhere in Europe, the law itself is softer. Personal possession of any drug—even the hardest—is not a crime in Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic or the Baltic states. Some German states and Swiss cantons take the same line. Portugal is especially liberal: rather than fining users or punishing them in other ways (such as removing their driving licences), it usually just impounds their stash and sends them on a course of treatment and dissuasion. Since it began in 2001, the policy has led to a rise in the number of people seeking treatment but no apparent increase in use.
Experiments like these seem to have been noted in the White House. Barack Obama’s drug tsar, Gil Kerlikowske, has been at pains to distance himself from talk of legalisation of cannabis, or any other drug. (Legalising pot is a “non-starter”, he said on October 23rd.) But it is clear that the election of Mr Obama, who in the past has called the war on drugs an “utter failure”, has affected policy both in the United States and elsewhere in the Americas.
Under the Bush administration, cannabis dispensaries were shut down, regardless of the laws of the state in which they operated. The new political climate in Washington, DC, has made it easier for Canada to take a more liberal line on cannabis. In British Columbia, harder drugs are treated in innovative ways too: heroin addicts can get their doses on prescription, and take them in supervised conditions.
Farther south, the results of Mr Obama’s election seem dramatic. In August, Mexico decriminalised the possession of small amounts of any drug—from cannabis to crack—in a bid to free its federal agents to focus on bringing traffickers to justice. It had tried to do so in 2006, but howls of protest from the Bush administration halted the move at the eleventh hour. In August, Argentina’s supreme court said it was unconstitutional to prosecute people for drug possession. The following month, Colombia’s supreme court issued a similar ruling. Now, Brazil and Ecuador are said to be mulling decriminalisation.
It remains to be seen whether these moves will help stem the bloodshed that has engulfed the region. In Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican border town ravaged by trafficking wars, some 2,000 people have been murdered this year, making it one of the riskiest places on earth.
Decriminalising personal possession, though helpful in other ways, won’t do much to tackle organised crime, which retains its grip on the market. But America’s tentative moves in the direction of legalising the supply of drugs, rather than just going easy on users, could start to change things. Sanho Tree, of the Institute for Policy Studies, an American think-tank, notes that Mexico’s cartels are thought to get about 70% of their income from sending marijuana north. The higher the legal production, the harder that will be.
If California’s hippies long for legalisation, the bullet-weary citizens of Mexico’s poorest barrios are even keener.
* “After The War On Drugs: Blueprint For Regulation”, from Transform Drugs Policy Foundation.___________
Full article and photos: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14845095&source=hptextfeature
Thursday, November 12, 2009
whoa
I’m pretty impressed with the depth that this article goes into regarding prostate and breast cancer prevention. I’m particularly impressed with the part about the drug industry seeing that it was not economically profitable to work on prevention drugs as opposed to treatment drugs.
I liked the quoting at the end of the 2nd page and beginning of the 3rd page. Mr. Schardt made a few comments about how Bayer was engaging in false advertising of it’s vitamins. Then the reporter gave Tricia McKernan, a Bayer spokeswoman, the chance to respond with a comment defending/explaining Bayer’s position on the subject. This stacking of quotes is very important because with such a charged subject it is necessary to allow all parties to speak. Otherwise, the article is too one-sided.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Veteran's Day 11/11/09
Veteran’s Day is a day when we honor our fellow citizens that served to
protect our country. Many have died and for those we lay wreaths and
fly flags. Remembering our service-members that gave their lives makes
us shed a tear. I have known families who plant trees in honor of a
beloved soldier. The air force will fly in a missing formation. Troops
in full dress will fire 21 gun salute. The military will pay homage, in
all branches.
As those who have been served, we tell a vet “Thank you”. However; this
year consider how to say those words. Say it with wisdom and knowledge,
arm yourself to really mean what you say.
Most vets are just normal Americans that did their part to give back
and after serving tried returning to normal life, so most don’t even get the
day off, if they have a job.
There are 529,000 and 840,000 veterans who are homeless at some point
during the year. Less than 4% of the veterans in this country eat 3
nourishing meals a day. Researchers say divorce rates are 14% higher
among vets.
The national unemployment rate is 10.2% for
vets it is over 11.2%. A vast many veterans, hundreds of thousands,
live a life of poverty.
89% of all who served self medicate with drugs and alcohol; and the
most recent data says suicide is an epidemic among veterans.
Our veterans are the best of us, they have to be or they could not
serve. They are the intelligent, caring, strong innovative leaders of our
society.
Now that you know some facts, maybe we should tell our veterans “thank
you” in a better way. Maybe we should learn what it is to truly honor
those that served. “Thank you” is something but it is just not enough,
when we consider all they have given. It is time we stood up so they
can stand down.
Premiums for Medicare Stand-Alone Drug Plans
Premiums in Medicare Stand-Alone Prescription Drug Plans with Highest 2009 Enrollment, 2006-2010
Name of PDP 2009 Enrollment (of 16.5 million)* Weight Average Monthly Premium** % Change Number % of Total 2006 2009 2010 2009-2010 2006-2010 AARP MedicareRx Preferred 2,947,804 17.8% $26.31 $37.03 $39.39 6% 50% Humana PDP Enhanced 1,588,037 9.6% $14.73 $38.21 $41.53 9% 182% AARP MedicareRx Saver*** 1,162,808 7.0% $14.43 $28.69 $30.68 7% 113% CCRx Basic 1,111,392 6.7% $30.94 $30.18 $29.17 -3% -6% Silverscript Value 896,128 5.4% $28.32 $27.86 $33.91 22% 20%
Data Source: Georgetown/NORC analysis of CMS PDP Landscape Source Files, 2006-2010, for the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Note: *2009 enrollment estimates combine actual enrollment in 2009 with expected gains due to plan consolidations and renewals for 2010. **Average premiums are weighted by enrollment in each region for each year (2009 enrollment used for 2010 weighting). ***Plan not offered in 2006; premium amount shown in 2006 column is for 2007, change is from 2007-2010.
Publication: Kaiser Family Foundation. “Medicare Part D Spotlight: Part D Plan Availability in 2010 and Key Changes Since 2006.” November 2009. http://www.kff.org/medicare/upload/7986.pdf