Programming the Masses

One in four U.S. parents believes that some vaccines cause autism in healthy children, but even many of those worried about vaccine risks still think their children should be vaccinated.

Most parents continue to follow the advice of their children’s doctors, according to a study based on a University of Michigan survey of 1,552 parents.

“Nine out of 10 parents believe that vaccination is a good way to prevent diseases for their children,” said lead author Dr. Gary Freed of the University of Michigan. “Luckily their concerns don’t outweigh their decision to get vaccines. …”

Source/Full Story: StarTribune.com

We can safely remove the “of the people, by the people, for the people” part I think since it’s an entirely notional sentiment.

“…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania  November 19, 1863

A Michigan man has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his constitutional rights were violated when he was ordered to remove a Nativity scene from the median of a public road — a creche that his family has displayed at the location for 63 years.

John Satawa, of Warren, Mich., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Friday in an attempt to be allowed to put back the 8- by 8-foot Nativity scene his late father built in 1945.

After receiving a complaint by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation last December, the Road Commission of Macomb County told Satawa to remove the holiday display, citing incomplete permits. Satawa’s permit application was later denied because it “clearly displays a religious message” and violated “separation of church and state,” Macomb County Highway Engineer Robert Hoepfner wrote.

Satawa says he simply wants to restore the “tradition” on the median between Mound and Chicago Roads outside of St. Anne’s Parish Church.

“The Nativity display has been a tradition not just for my family, but for the whole community for 63 years,” Satawa told Foxnews.com in a statement. “I am disappointed the Road Commission would not stand up for our community and our Constitution and that is why I was compelled to file this lawsuit.”

According to Satawa’s lawsuit, St. Anne’s Parish received a donation of Christmas statues in March 1945 that were too large to house inside the church — so they were moved to the public median outside. Jack Eckstein, president of the village of Warren at the time, granted permission for the move.

“As a result, a Christmas tradition was born,” the lawsuit reads.

The Nativity display has been there every Christmas season since, except for one — 1996 — when there was road construction. The creche returned the following year, according to the lawsuit.

But last year, just 14 days before Christmas, Satawa received a letter from the Macomb County Road Commission instructing him to “immediately remove” the Nativity scene within 30 days. Satawa removed the structure and was denied a permit when he reapplied in January. In March, he received a formal denial of his petition to erect the nativity scene because, according to county officials, it would be a violation of the First Amendment, which prohibits government from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”

“It boils down to maintaining a tradition that’s been going on for six decades and one letter received from an out-of-state radical organization,” attorney Brian Rooney of the Thomas More Law Center told Foxnews.com. “We believe this shows hostility towards Christianity.”

Source/Full Story:  FOXNews.com

Oh really…I say we break the NEA, the Dept. of Education, and any other federal fingers clawing at the eyes and throats of the people…and our children.  And maybe we should get back to a more agrarian lifestyle, permanently.  Has not our recent economic turmoil been enough to prove that?

Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

“Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” the president said earlier this year. “Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.”

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

“Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Source/Full Story: The Associated Press: More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation

Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday.

About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 — 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found.

“Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans,” Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

“Not only are more U.S. residents being treated with antidepressants, but also those who are being treated are receiving more antidepressant prescriptions,” they added.

More than 164 million prescriptions were written in 2008 for antidepressants, totaling $9.6 billion in U.S. sales, according to IMS Health.

Drugs that affect the brain chemical serotonin like GlaxoSmithKline’s <GSK.L> Paxil, known generically as paroxetine, and Eli Lilly and Co’s <LLY.N> Prozac, known generically as fluoxetine, are the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressant. But the study found the effect in all classes of the drugs.

Olfson and Marcus looked at the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys done by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, involving more than 50,000 people in 1996 and 2005.

“During this period, individuals treated with antidepressants became more likely to also receive treatment with antipsychotic medications and less likely to undergo psychotherapy,” they wrote.

Source/Full Story: Reuters

Co-author of:  Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment

Forced abortions. Mass sterilization. A “Planetary Regime” with the power of life and death over American citizens.

The tyrannical fantasies of a madman? Or merely the opinions of the person now in control of science policy in the United States? Or both?

These ideas (among many other equally horrifying recommendations) were put forth by John Holdren, whom Barack Obama has recently appointed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — informally known as the United States’ Science Czar. In a book Holdren co-authored in 1977, the man now firmly in control of science policy in this country wrote that:

• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation’s drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who “contribute to social deterioration” (i.e. undesirables) “can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility” — in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational “Planetary Regime” should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans’ lives — using an armed international police force.

Impossible, you say? That must be an exaggeration or a hoax. No one in their right mind would say such things.

Well, I hate to break the news to you, but it is no hoax, no exaggeration. John Holdren really did say those things, and this report contains the proof. Below you will find photographs, scans, and transcriptions of pages in the book Ecoscience, co-authored in 1977 by John Holdren and his close colleagues Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich. The scans and photos are provided to supply conclusive evidence that the words attributed to Holdren are unaltered and accurately transcribed.

Must read the entire piece at zombietime.com

Hear the sheeple speak?   The reason these people are “not allowed” to take photographs of their children is simple:  The children are not theirs but are property of the State, at least in the eyes of the State itself.

Mrs Ethelston’s Church of England Primary School, in Uplyme, Devon, prohibited photos and video filming, claiming it was due to changes in child protection and images legislation.

It is the first time the school has taken such measures.

Parents criticised the move and said they felt there was no legal reason why they cannot take photos for personal use.

Jane Souter, who has a son at the school and is chair of the Parents Teachers and Friends Association, said: “It is a shame but that is the way it is all going now, you are not allowed to do a lot of things because of rules and regulations.

“A lot of the parents think it is a great shame. There are people who have been there for many, many years and they are upset about it, although they do not blame the school.

“It is sad that you are not allowed to take pictures of your own children.

“It is all to do with the pictures getting into the wrong hands and the school has to follow its own code of conduct. “I am sure the school do not like it just as much as we do.”

Source/Full Story: Telegraph

An 11-year-old Tonawanda Middle School pupil took her grudges to the next level by creating a spreadsheet list with the names of nine other pupils and two teachers she said she wanted to kill, police said.

…

Aside from creating a hit list of names, which included sixth-and seventh-graders, the girl had written a note by one teacher’s name, indicating that she wanted the teacher to be killed “with a very, very, very, very, very sharp knife” and with a gun, Toth said.

…

“I don’t believe she had the means or even the actual foresight to carry this out,” Toth said. “In my opinion, I think it was a young girl who was just venting at the time.”

A fellow classmate reported the girl to a guidance counselor three weeks ago after sitting next to her at the school library computers after school, leaning back and catching a glimpse of her own name on the hit list, Toth said.

School officials retrieved the file and contacted Toth, who has worked with the school district for nearly 10 years in various capacities.

Toth said the case was so unusual that he had to open up the penal code book at his desk to figure out what the sixth-grader should be charged with. While children this age sometimes make off-the-cuff remarks about wanting to kill other pupils, this girl took the extra step of organizing her thoughts in spreadsheet form, he said.

The 11-year-old was ultimately charged with “making a terroristic threat,” a low-level felony regarding the intent to threaten or intimidate a particular population or group of people, he said.

She is scheduled to appear Monday as a juvenile delinquent in Erie County Family Court.

Source/Full Story:   The Buffalo News

The availability of, and the means by which to consume, mind altering pharmaceuticals is called “care.”  Isn’t that fascinating.

Assuming it is fact that more and more people are becoming mentally unhinged in the form of OCD, or ADHD or whatever the diagnosis happens to be, if the system or government or health care industry truly cared they would seek to root out the cause and not be satisfied by simply masking the symptoms with drugs, and calling it “care.”  Bah!  My suspicion is, however, that this will never occur because the cost of doing so is way too high for the system.  It would require change on several fundamental levels, but that’s another story.

I’ve seen it happen.  Let’s say, for example, that an individual experiences certain psycho-social and environmental stressors which they have difficulty coping with, and they seek the assistance of a highly qualified and decorated psychiatrist, someone whom they have never previously had contact with whatsoever but nontheless trust by virtue of his credentials.

The initial visit lasts approximately 15 minutes, in which time the clinician is able to, with the utmost confidence, diagnose this person with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  The patient walks out of the office with prescriptions for Paxil CR, Atavan, and Risperdal, with the understanding that he will be taking these medications for the remainder of his life, no different than “a diabetic who needs insulin.”

At the core of this all is the assumption that the brain chemistry of the individual is simply out of whack, and needs corrected with medication.  Of course no testing was done to confirm this hypothesis, it’s simply understood (by the professional at least) that a great number of people are chemically unbalanced by default.  The medical model sees man as diseased, and it is man that must be modified, either with chemistry or with a blade.  The cause, it seems, is irrelevant.

No real thought is given to the fact that people are burning the candle at both ends, or that their physical, mental and spiritual environments are polluted with all manner of chemicals and toxins.  No.  If you are to become aware of the fact that you are like a rat trapped in a maze, it is your fault for trying to escape!  And the best solution the system has for you is to be brought back into “balance”, ie. to become chemically altered, so that you might enjoy the maze and all that it has to offer.  A Brave New World indeed.

Some helpful tips:

• Doritos will not bring you happiness.  Do not buy them.  You will not, by virtue of purchasing and consuming them, find yourself surrounded by beautiful girls on the beach, tons of friends, and cool music playing in the background, contrary to what the ads might suggest.  Chances are good that you will simply get fat and sick and a few dollars short.  Apply this principle to other things as well.  Detoxify.
• If you are one of those people who run around telling everyone how your family is the most important thing in your life, then start acting like it!  They won’t be around forever, so why not invest your time in them first, rather than your job or hobbies, or some stupid tv show.  Providing children with an endless variety of amusements and distractions is not the same as caring for them.  On the contrary, it’s a great way of seeing to it that they end up even more unbalanced that you are.  Stop it.
• Turn off the TV.  And while you’re at it turn off the radio, and anything else that is “programming” you.  Move away from the synthetic.
• Stop looking to someone else to take responsibility.  All manner of institutions now exist that will accept responsibility for you in some fashion, such as the educational system, the nursing home industry or the Federal Government, but none of them do it well.  Their motivations are based on money, power and control, not you or your well being, or the health and safety of your children or Great Grandma.
• Oh yea.  While I am cognizant of the fact that a certain percentage of people have real organic issues,  for the rest of us I say that anyone who has their children placed on medication really needs to have their head examined!

Source/Full Story:: Reuters

Many more Americans have been using prescription drugs to treat mental illness since 1996, in part because of expanded insurance coverage and greater familiarity with the drugs among primary care doctors, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They said 73 percent more adults and 50 percent more children are using drugs to treat mental illness than in 1996.

Among adults over 65, use of so-called psychotropic drugs — which include antidepressants, antipsychotics and Alzheimer’s medicines — doubled between 1996 and 2006.

“What we generally find is there has been an increase in access to care for all populations,” said Sherry Glied of Columbia University in New York, whose study appears in the journal Health Affairs.

“Mental health has become much more a part of mainstream medical care,” Glied said in a telephone interview.

In 2006, they said 16 percent of adults 65 and older had some form of mental health diagnosis.

The researchers culled data from several large public surveys of health in the United States, including from the National Center for Health Statistics, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Social Security Administration.

Glied said expanded drug coverage under Medicare, the federal insurance program for the elderly, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for poor children, helped make such drugs more affordable.

The study found the number of children diagnosed and treated for mental health conditions by their primary care doctor doubled between 1996 and 2006.

A demonstration against government waste and high taxes outside the White House on Wednesday was halted after a suspicious package was thrown over the White House fence.

U.S. Secret Service officers immediately cleared Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and Lafayette Park just north of the White House shortly after 2 p.m., forcing about 2,000 protesters to the sidewalks north of the park. Journalists at the White House were ordered back inside the press room.

A robot was inspecting the package, which the Associated Press reported appeared to be a box of tea bags.

Source/Full Story@:  Washington Times

So the men who carried out this vicious attack against the poor CHILD RAPIST has no place in “civilized” society,  but apparently the child rapist does: Rosemount Gardens!

The man shot in both legs in a paramilitary-style attack in Londonderry was awaiting sentencing for raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl.

Keith Burnside, 37, from Rosemount Gardens was convicted in March of raping a girl in his car at Sandbank Cottages in 2000.

Two masked men entered his home in Rosemount Gardens at about 2315 BST on Monday and fired a number of shots.

He suffered injuries to both legs, and was taken to hospital for treatment.
…

SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey also condemned the attack. “The people who carried out this shooting have no support from the local community and no place in a civilised society,” he said.

Source: BBC

Office workers face chaos next week with swaths of London in security lockdown for the G20 summit and warnings that bankers will be targeted in a series of protests aimed at causing maximum disruption.

Staff in the City are being advised to dress down and postpone non-essential meetings amid fears that they will be forced to run the gauntlet of protesters. Thousands of G20 Meltdown campaign posters show a mannequin wearing a suit being hanged, while an anarchist website has the slogan: “Burn a banker!”

Details of direct action, gleaned from chatter on anarchist websites and meetings attended by the Observer, include a rumoured plan to block the Blackwall Tunnel and cause a security scare on the London Underground by leaving bags unattended on trains. There is also speculation that protesters will drive a tank to the ExCeL conference centre in London’s Docklands, where the G20 are meeting, and attempt to harass politicians with wake-up calls to their hotels in the middle of the night. None of the organisers of the peaceful demonstrations say they are aware of any such tactics.

There are growing fears for the safety of people making their way to work on 1 and 2 April. A spokesman for the London Chamber of Commerce said: “Businesses might want to consider asking their staff not to dress in a suit and tie as a lot of the protesters say they’re going to target bankers. Staff should check they have their security passes and think about staggering their start and finish times. They might want to postpone for a few days meetings which aren’t absolutely necessary.”

Transport could also be paralysed as anti-globalisation and climate change groups stage a coordinated series of demonstrations, gathering at railway stations and marching on the Square Mile for what has been dubbed “Financial Fools Day”, the biggest public show of anger at bankers since the credit crisis began. They have already been undertaking practice runs and “recces” around the City in recent days.

Anti-capitalism groups believe the recession and spiralling unemployment will encourage an uprising not seen since the poll tax riots, causing embarrassment to Gordon Brown as he hosts world leaders. Chris Knight, of the leading protest group Government of the Dead, warned: “The revolution is coming. This is our time, and I honestly believe that the army, the police, will be so intent on keeping the ExCeL centre they will lose the City of London.”

Businesses are braced for losses worth millions of pounds as commuters find themselves unable to reach offices or decide to stay at home. It will be the third major disruption in recent months following the extended Christmas break and the snowfall that wrought havoc.

Source: The Observer

Some U.S. public school districts are turning to mass layoffs of teachers and support staff to ease ballooning deficits in the latest sign of how the recession is hurting ordinary Americans.

The looming layoffs contrast with President Barack Obama’s pledge to improve education in the United States. On Tuesday, Obama proposed lengthening the school year and paying top teachers more. And the $787 billion federal stimulus package includes billions of dollars for schools.

On Friday, the Los Angeles Unified School District — the nation’s second largest — will issue preliminary layoff notices to nearly 9,000 staff members, including teachers.

“The deficit we’re looking at over the next 17 months is just over $700 million, so it’s a significant, devastating cut we need to prepare to balance out this budget,” Megan Reilly, the district’s chief financial officer, said in a telephone interview.

The district’s money woes arise from reduced state funding for local school districts, which rely heavily on California’s general fund for their budgets, she said.

State officials recently closed a $42 billion state budget gap through July 2010 with the help of cuts to education spending from the general fund. California’s revenues have tumbled as the recession and financial crisis worsened.

“We are waiting hopefully and anxiously on federal stimulus dollars,” Reilly said.

An initial $44 billion in federal stimulus money will start flowing to states in 30 to 45 days, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said on Saturday.

Source: Reuters

Money talks and bull….well, you know the rest.

Source:  Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday the United States and China can help pull the world out of economic crisis by working together and made clear this took precedence over U.S. concerns about human rights in China.

Making her first visit to China as secretary of state, Clinton took a softer line on Chinese political and religious freedoms than in a 1995 Beijing speech in which she openly criticized the Chinese government’s human rights record.

Speaking at a news conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Clinton said the two would have “frank discussions on issues where we have disagreements, including human rights, Tibet, religious freedom and freedom of expression.”

However, she suggested their joint efforts to spur growth in the face of the global financial crisis, to curb global climate change and to address security challenges like North Korea’s nuclear weapons program came first.

“World events have given us a full and formidable agenda,” she said, saying she and Yang had wide-ranging talks “that started from a simple premise: it is essential that the United States and China have a positive, cooperative relationship.”

Full Story

Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton, China, human rights

Source:  Times Online

Jon Moulton, the private equity chief, warned a City lunch this week that he feared serious civil unrest. There was, he said, a 25 per cent chance of one of the 15 member countries of the eurozone pulling out of the currency club. That, he said, would be a catastrophic shock leading to a “far greater financial crisis” than the current one.

The mind boggles at a financial crisis far worse than the current one. Is such a thing possible? Even with this one, it may already be too late to prevent social unrest, especially in Britain, which is tipped to be one of the worst-hit countries economically.

The spectacle of bankers continuing to award themselves bonuses while taking taxpayer support is feeding an extraordinary public rage and a fierce sense of injustice. With 40,000 people losing their jobs each month, it is a recipe for trouble, come the traditional rioting months of the summer.

It won’t be bankers being lynched, of course, but small shopkeepers in inner-city areas having their windows smashed and their stock looted. The only surprise is there haven’t already been antibanker demonstrations in Threadneedle Street – secretly cheered on by 99 per cent of Middle England.

The seething sense of unfairness is almost palpable. The view that a small elite not only caused the crisis, but continues to profit at the expense of everyone else, is near universal. Gordon Brown’s promise of no rewards for failure in state-supported banks is looking ever more threadbare. We now know that Peter Cummings, the highest-paid person on the HBOS board, headed a division responsible for £7 billion of losses last year, yet he was still given a reported £660,000 payoff when he left in early January clutching his £6 million pension pot.

The suggestion by Lord Myners, the City minister, that some bankers simply have no sense of the broader society around them is getting harder to refute. To be preparing to pay out billions of pounds in discretionary bonuses over the next few weeks suggests an ignorance of the public mood and a single-mindedness bordering on sociopathic.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: civil unrest